Orecchiette with anchovy and broccoli

A southern Italian (Apulian) classic: "little ear" pasta with a sauce of anchovy, olive oil, chili, and broccoli. Topped with pecorino sardo. Fantastic flavor, next time I think I'll add some broccoli rabe for some added complexity. I love the mustardy flavor of rabe, it goes well with the chili and the anchovy.

Sausage and St. André rigatoni

Pizza and pasta are so similar I occasionally use a typical pizza combination to influence my pasta, and vice versa. See my carbonara pizza for an example. So I had some sausage in my fridge, and thought of making a pasta that played off the typical sasuage and onion pizza you find in Italy - with a tweak that likely no Italian would make (although perhaps a French cook would).

I julienned some onion (they are always julienned and not chopped on Italian pizzas), sauteed it with garlic, then added tomato, a lot of red pepper flakes, black pepper, and the sausage (sweet Italian pork from the Whole Foods butcher). Pretty standard stuff. Inspiration struck, and I added about a tablespoon of St. André cheese (the soft French stuff) to the sautee and let it melt and disappear into the sauce. This all went onto some rigatoni and topped with parmigiano reggiano.

The result was fantastic. Had a good deal of spice from the pepper and garlic, the sausage sweetened the sauce, and the St. André added a slight background creaminess along with just a hint of its brine and funk. Think of it as a more interesting option to simple cream, an ingredient I tend to hate in pasta as it drowns out flavors. The idea is to add just enough to get a touch of creaminess but not enough that it or the cheese flavor stands out on its own.

Here's a pic. The misshappen chunks of sausage don't look appealing I know, but the taste was heaven.

Gnocchi alla gorgonzola with broccoli rabe

This dish is a tale of two Italys. On the left, broccoli rabe sauteed with anchovy, garlic, red pepper, and lemon. On the right, gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce. One would be well at home in Naples, the other Turin. This dish demonstrates how both the north and south of Italy have forceful, intense flavors at hand. The rabe is briney and fiery. The gnocchi is pungent and sharp.

Broccoli rabe Naples style
1. Sautee anchovy fillets in olive oil until tender, then mash with back of fork and mix into the oil until it forms a paste.
2. Add garlic, some more olive oil, and sautee till golden.
3. Add red chili pepper flakes, let sautee in the oil for 30 seconds.
4. Add broccoli rabe, sautee on medium heat until wilted. Coat well with the rest of the ingredients.
5. When plating the rabe, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the top.

Gnocchi alla gorgonzola
Very simple. Take a tablespoon of butter and a tbsp of olive oil, melt together in a sautee pan on medium-low heat. Add hunks of gorgonzola (I used total around 3 oz, adjust to taste) and let melt. Do not let simmer too rapidly. In a separate pot, boil gnocchi till they float to surface. Remove quickly and place immediately in the gorgonzola sauce. Combine and serve with fresh black pepper.

Eggplant and tomato pasta

Step 1: chop eggplant, fry in olive oil. Good olive oil here helps the overall flavor considerably. I prefer to slice the eggplant into discs, then chop into fourths.
Step 2: add fried eggplant to blender along with some tomato puree.
Step 3: blend to a puree.
Step 4: add garlic to sautee pan, sautee in olive oil until fragrant (do not brown), add eggplant-tomato puree, tomatoes (canned best), rosemary, red chili pepper. Sautee 15-20 minutes.
Step 5: in another sautee pan, fry some more chopped eggplant.
Step 6: combine the sauce and the eggplant, grate some pecorino cheese over the top (I used pecorino sardo here).
Step 7: add to your favorite pasta, it went well with rigatoni.

Coppa and fontina antipasto

Sunday comfort food - an improvised appetizer dish featuring coppa, a delicious fontina, olive oil (Nuñez de Prado, good for dipping), and potato and thyme bread from Hungry Ghost. One day I'll do a writeup on Hungry Ghost, a place Northampton is maad lucky to have. Their bread + good olive oil = good.

As to the fontina, Whole Foods has it in two varieties. One is a whitish color, about $10/pound, the other is more yellowy and is $16/pound. The former is a pretty boring cheese, tasting creamy but little else. The latter is real fontina - complex, rich, nutty, pungent - flavors brought out by ageing. The former isn't worth its price, but the latter is.

There might be some places in Springfield where you can get coppa, something I plan to investigate.

Cappuccino via the Bialetti Brikka

Here's a quick ode to my new coffeemaker, the Bialetti Brikka. Bialetti's coffee machines seem to be one of the few areas of contemporary Italian innovation. This machine has only been on the market for a few years, and is an upgrade to the venerable Bialetti Moka pot. I say upgrade as its larger base and new spout enables the machine to build more pressure than the moka, resulting in coffee with more body and richness. In addition, it creates a crema that matches an espresso in terms of appearance if not in taste. The end result is not quite espresso, it lacks the complexity and depth of a good espresso, but it's as close as you'll get without buying an espresso machine. With a little hot milk it makes a very nice cappuccino.

A very good investment for $45 (at Amazon), along with ACF cups, and beans from Northampton Coffee it generates morning happiness.....

Lasagna bolognese and baked beets with brie

Lasagna bolognese and baked beets topped with an amazing brie from Liuzzi's Cheese Shop in North Haven, CT.

Fagioli all'uccelletto

Tuscany loves beans, I love beans, and I love Tuscany. So imagine how much I like Tuscan beans. Fagioli all'uccelletto means literally "little bird beans" and supposedly it's to reflect the garlic and sage in the dish, which is also typically used on small game birds.

In a nutshell this is Italian pork and beans. Cannellini beans, garlic, sage, pork sausage (no fennel!), tomatoes. The sausage is optional, I think it typically does not use sausage, but I wanted this as a main rather than a side. It's best to start with dry beans for their toothy texture, soak them overnight to prep. Once soaked (8 hr minimum), boil them till al dente. In a sautee pan, brown the sausage in olive oil. Once browned, add the garlic and sage. Only let the garlic get to golden, then add tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes. Add the beans. Cook for another 10-20 minutes, depending on doneness of beans desired. You may add water here to cook the beans further if necessary.

Bucatini alla carbonara

One of my favorite mainstays, pasta alla carbonara (this time its bucatini, probably one of the most underappreciated pastas this side of the Atlantic). It's simple, comfort food, and goddamn delicious.

No cream! Every single time I've seen this dish in a restaurant there is always cream in the sauce. Unnecessary and it kills the taste. Carbonara is simply pancetta, pecorino romano, pepper, and egg. I add a bit of garlic, dry white wine, and red pepper. Do what you want with it, just don't add cream. You can't really get pancetta around here, I always pick some up when I'm in a coastal city (bought some in New Haven recently). Bacon is a substitute, definitely a second best though. Make sure you get some good slab bacon if you do.

Here's how I do it: first, whisk your eggs. 1 egg per portion. Grate some pecorino romano, a small handful per portion. Add this to the whisked eggs and mix together. Start your pasta. Along the way, temper your eggs with some of the water from the pot.

In a sautee pan: depending on the fattiness of your pancetta, add more or less olive oil. The stuff I got last is pretty lean, so I add a couple tablespoons of oil. Sautee pancetta on low heat until it renders most of its fat, then add the optional garlic and sautee till you smell its aroma (do not let it brown). Add the wine, and simmer it all on medium for a couple minutes. Add your pasta and combine in the pan. You want the pasta to get fully coated in the fat and olive oil.

When your pasta has been well coated by the oil and fat, add the egg and cheese mixture and stir to coat the pasta. Keep heat low enough that you don't get scrambled eggs but high enough to cook the eggs. Approx 1 egg per serving size. Serve hot.

Baked ziti

Normally I avoid Italian-American food like the plague. Then last night I get the crazy idea of making baked ziti, perhaps the most iconic Ital-American dish after spaghetti and meatballs. Turned out monster delicious due to the addition of fried eggplant and lots of red chili pepper. I now must admit, sometimes a crapload of garlic and mozzarella can make a palate happy.

Didn't take a picture, was too ashamed of my transgression into the red sauce world.

Braised country ribs with polenta

I wasn't real satisfied with this dish. I think white wine and sage go better with veal as saltimbocca than they do on these ribs. Country ribs braised in white wine, garlic, and sage, chunked and served over polenta.

Pizza alla carbonara

I wanted to do something interesting with my pizza tonight, and the terrific bacon in my fridge sparked the imagination. Next thing I knew, I had added the bacon, an egg, garlic, red pepper, and pecorino romano to my pizza. It turned out beautiful, and really, really good. The egg adds moisture and a silken texture. It's carbonara, on a pizza.

The only trick to this is to time the egg right. You can't place it on the pizza right away, or the egg will be overcooked by the time the crust is done (and vice versa). My pizza cooks for 10 minutes, so I put the egg in there at about minute 4 or 5, just enough time so that the whites turn opaque.

Green bean and potato torte, Genovese style

The Genoa area of Italy is mostly famous for pesto and basil. With that said, Liguria is famous too for using green beans and new potatoes in many of its dishes (see for example, this lasagna recipe). I made this pie from Marcella's book, and it turned out tasty - it'd go great alongside a hunk of meat and its drippings. It's probably not something that can serve as a main dish like her swiss chard torte.



The recipe goes as follows: 1/2 pounds of new potatoes, boiled then mashed. 1 pound of green beans, boiled in salted water, then chopped very fine. Combine in a bowl. Add to this 2 eggs, 1 cup parmigiano cheese, and 2 teaspoons chopped marjoram (if fresh, 1 tsp if dried). Mix well. This mixture goes in a springform pan that has a) been lubricated with olive oil and then b) breadcrumbed evenly to act as crust. Top with more breadcrumbs and drizzled olive oil. Bake for 1 hour, top rack of oven, at 350 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken alla diavola

Getting grilled meat in the dead of winter (particularly the New England winter) is a nice treat, so I put my broiler to the test. Results: positive.
















This was my first time dealing with a whole chicken. A bit of an adventure, but all turned out as it should. I was instructed to butterfly the chicken, which at first had me going $#@*%$, but with the help of Alton Brown and this video it was accomplished. Once butterflied, it got a bath of lemon juice and olive oil, and a rub of freshly cracked pepper (courtesy of my mortar and pestle) and sea salt. It then went in the broiler, lower rack, for maybe 45 minutes, turned over once.

Served with a side of nutmeg sweet potatoes, mashed again in the mortar.

Crespelle

Today's yum were crespelle filled with spinach, ham, bacon, onion, parmigiano reggiano and bechamel. Topped with more bechamel and parmigiano. In essence, these are Italian crepes (crepe:France = crespelle:Italy) with sauteed goodness added to them, rolled, and placed in an oven (top rack) for 5 minutes at 450 degrees. Then they go in the broiler for a minute or two to brown the top. Rich as hell, delicious, not at all healthy.

Puttanesca

The following photo probably looks like every other tomato-based pasta dish. But this sauce is serious. In addition, it's probably better than any puttanesca in your local Italian joint, and definitely better than what comes out of the can.













"Traditional" puttanesca doesn't call for rosemary or lemon, but I like them in this dish. They brighten it up and complement the anchovy and red pepper. This is a dish with big flavors. One big flavor I omit are olives, I don't find them necessary and they are overly salty in this already rather savory sauce. Be very careful with salt here - capers and anchovies are very salty. I don't add any salt to the dish, but your tastes may vary...

Nuts and bolts of it (no exact measurements really): olive oil and anchovy fillets go in a skillet, heat medium-low. As the anchovies soften, mash them into a paste. Add garlic and cook it until light gold, do not brown it. Add tomatoes, capers, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and rosemary. Mix well and cook at a very lazy simmer for 20 minutes or so. Before combining with your favorite pasta (spaghetti is traditional here), add lemon juice. It's important to add the lemon juice at the end or the lemon flavor cooks out and only the acidity remains.

Roast lamb with juniper berries (arrosto di agnello al ginepro)

Continuing the winter roast kick featuring Marcella Hazan. This delicious Lombard recipe featuring lamb shoulder and juniper berries. Recipe is simple: roast 2.5 lbs of lamb shoulder (bone in, 3/4" slices) with carrot, celery, and onion (2 part onion to 1 part the carrot/celery), 2 garlic cloves smashed (not chopped), 2 teaspoons of juniper berries (lightly crushed), 1 cup of white wine. Put it in a dutch oven or heavy pot, cook for 2 hours on medium low heat with lid on, turning the meat every 30 minutes. At this point my meat was done so I pulled it, and deglazed the pan with red wine. This turned into a fantastic sauce, the red mixing with the blackened lamb bits and the juniper.

Marcella instructs to cook another 1.5 hours with lid askew, but my meat was already finished at the end of the second hour. She makes no mention of the red wine reduction, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind.

Swiss chard torte (tegliata di biete)

This is a Swiss chard torte with raisins, pine nuts, and parmigiano. Crust of breadcrumbs. Delicious!














Another gem from Marcella Hazan's book, although vastly less common according to Google. Googling "tegliata di biete" brings up practically no results, so here's my contribution to the cyberkitchen. It turned out wonderful and went mostly to Marcella's plan.

Tegliata di biete (Venetian origin). Adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

2.5 lbs young Swiss chard w/ undeveloped stalks OR 3.25 lbs mature chard
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup for cooking chard plus more for greasing and topping the pan
2/3 cup onion chopped fine
1 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese (Buy the real thing. Parmigiano reggiano. Grate your own. Do not use pre-grated Parmesan or else this will not taste very good.)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup seedless raisins
Freshly ground black pepper
9" or 10" springform baking pan
2/3 heaping cup of unflavored bread crumbs, lightly toasted

1. If using mature chard, cut off the broad stalks and set aside [good sauteed with garlic and olive oil for a side dish!]. Cut the leaves into 1/4 inch shreds. Soak and wash the chard.
2. Boil water in a pot, using enough water and pot volume to accomodate the chard. Cook until tender, approx. 15 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.
3. When cool enough to handle, squeeze the moisture from the chard.
4. Chop the chard very fine.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Choose a sautee pan that can accomodate the chard. Put in 1/4 cup olive oil and the chopped onion. Cook at medium until the onion turns a light nut-brown.
7. Add the chopped chard, turning heat to high. Cook, turning the chard over frequently, until it becomes difficult to keep the chard from sticking to the pan (if using non-stick, you'll have to eyeball it to sense when the chard has properly heated through and become coated with the oil/onion mixture). When done, transfer entire contents to a bowl and let cool.
8. When chard has cooled to room temperature, add the grated Parmesan, the beaten eggs, and the pine nuts. Drain the raisins, squeeze them dry in your hand, and add them to the bowl. Add a few grindings of pepper. Mix thoroughly, taste and correct for pepper and salt (the Parmesan is salty, so a small pinch of salt is probably all that's necessary).
9. Smear the bottom and sides of the springform pan with olive oil. Use a little more than half the bread crumbs, spreading a thin layer evenly over the pan. Add the chard mixture, leveling it off, but not pressing it hard. Top with the remaining bread crumbs, and drizzle the top with olive oil (higher quality, the better here).
10. Put pan in preheated oven, bake for 40 minutes.
11. Remove pan, running knife edge along side of pan to release the torte. After 5 minutes rest, use a spatula to loose the torte from the pan bottom and slide it, without turning it over, onto a serving plate. Serve at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.

Roast pork with milk (arrosto di maiale al latte)

Roast pork with sweet potatoes. Marcella Hazan's incredibly simple recipe, comprising only of pork butt, milk, salt, and pepper. Slow roasted for two hours, the milk and the drippings form a gravy of coagulated milk clusters. It doesn't look like much, but the milk clusters are incredibly rich. Divine, even.

Arrosto di maiale al latte (Bolognese origin), adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking:

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2.5 lbs pork rib roast or 2 lbs of Boston butt
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
2.5 cups whole milk

Do not have any fat trimmed away from either cut of meat. Most of it will melt in the cooking, basting the meat and keeping it from drying. When the roast is done, you will be able to draw it off from the pot and discard it.

1. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot (e.g. enameled cast iron) that can snugly accomodate the pork. Put in the butter and oil, turn on the heat to medium high. When the butter foam subsides, put in the meat, the side with fat facing down at first. Brown the meat well on all sides. If the butter becomes very dark, lower the heat.
2. Add salt, pepper, and 1 cup milk. Add the milk slowly so it does not boil over. Allow milk to come to a simmer for half a minute, turn the heat down to a minimum, and cover the pot with lid on slightly ajar.
3. Cook at very lazy simmer for approx. 1 hour, turning meat occasionally, until the milk has thickened, through evaporation, into a nut-brown sauce. The exact time will depend on heat and size/thickness of pot. When milk reaches this stage, add 1 more cup of milk. Let simmer 10 minutes, then cover the pot tightly with the lid.
4. After 30 minutes, set lid slightly ajar. Continue to cook at minimum heat, when there is no more liquid milk in the pot add another 1/2 cup of milk. Continuing cooking until meat feels tender and all the milk has coagulated into small nut-brown clusters. Altogether it will take 2.5 to 3 hours. If, before the meat is fully coooked, you find that the liquid in the pot has fully evaporated, add another 1/2 cup of milk and repeat above step.
5. When the pork has become tender and all the milk in the pot has thickened into dark clusters, transfer the meat to a cutting board. Let sit a few minutes, then cut into slices.
6. Tip the pot and spoon off the fat, saving the milk clusters. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water and deglace the pot. Spoon all the pot juices over the pork and serve immediately.

I had two smaller chunks of pork butt, thus my meat finished before the milk sauce. If this happens, remove the meat and simmer the milk alone. My pork wasn't especially fatty, so I kept the drippings and used it and the milk bits as my gravy. Richly delicious.