February in the French Alps means snow. Lots of snow. A week of continuous snowfall. Snow means chilly weather. The best remedy for chills is my Northern Italian grandmother's: soup! Many people find soup boring, but in our household we love soup, or zuppa or minestrone or minestra... but then Italian soups are full of yummy things, like pasta!
Tortellini are always a treat, so put them in soup and it's a sure to be a success. It's also a very simple & quick recipe.
Usually I make my own broth from a chicken carcass (or beef, lamb, fish), celery, carrots, onion, garlic & laurel (add whatever other vegetables are in the fridge) and I do occasionally add homemade tortellini (on the rare occasions that there are leftovers). Broth keeps 5 days in the fridge & freezes well, so I automatically make some when I have the ingredients. However, commercially available broths can be substituted when in a rush, as well as the tortellini.
Just bring the broth to a boil, add the tortellini, simmer until cooked (al dente). Serve with grated parmesan.
TIPS: Use dried tortellini (as they tend to absorb liquid so will over cook), preferably with a meat filling.
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Friday, 12 February 2010
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Aglio & olio-simple pasta sauce
Another typical Saturday. Up (relatively) early to prepare for a huge BBQ on Sunday, my almost son-in-law pops his head through the kitchen door, followed by a friend of his. Both are pretty built & ravenous types. Naturally, since I spent the morning cooking for the next day, lunch was meant to be simple, for 4 people, not 16. Therefore I adapted a classic pasta dish, aglio & olio (literally garlic & oil-sounds better in Italian).
Classic aglio & olio is just garlic cloves sauteed in olive oil with a dried chili pepper.
This time I added the following:
6 cloves garlic
5 anchovies
6 sundried tomatoes
1/2 cup of green olives
capers
chopped parsley
Slice all the ingredients. Wait until the pasta has been thrown into the boiling water & turn the heat on the olive oil, garlic & anchovies. Let the garlic saute nicely, the anchovies will melt. Add the , capers & olives. Pour onto cooked spaghetti, sprikle with parsely.
Classic aglio & olio is just garlic cloves sauteed in olive oil with a dried chili pepper.
This time I added the following:
6 cloves garlic
5 anchovies
6 sundried tomatoes
1/2 cup of green olives
capers
chopped parsley
Slice all the ingredients. Wait until the pasta has been thrown into the boiling water & turn the heat on the olive oil, garlic & anchovies. Let the garlic saute nicely, the anchovies will melt. Add the , capers & olives. Pour onto cooked spaghetti, sprikle with parsely.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
PENNE CON LA BOTTARGA
The concept of "favorite pasta" has a way of changing over the years or maybe even month to month as kids grow, seasons change, or we fall out of the habit of this or another kind of pasta or sauce. With us there was for a while a madness was about pesto, and I grew large amounts of basil—the right kind of basil (grande genovese) from seed imported from Liguria. Then there were the "tomato sauce years," when I grew San Marzanos in the yard and bought boxes of farmers market tomatoes to make basic sauces containing only tomatoes and salt. Those were ambitious times.
It's been over a year since the last time I rolled out fresh pasta or made gnocchi from scratch, but now that I'm posting to Frangykitchen, I might have to dust off some of those skills for fresh blog-able content. Right now, I'm thinking about how we (and maybe most other households) have a small set of "go to" dishes made from dried pasta that just work perfectly in different situations and carry all the advantages of noodles and sauce, which is to say, they can be prepared quickly and are delicious.
There's spaghetti, which for us usually means either aglio e olio or carbonara. Penne rigate is the other big favorite for us, and this usually means arrabbiata or pesto. For more "special" dinners we often tap into our stock of exotic ingredients, and here is where we come to the topic of bottarga.
Bottarga is fish roe, or ripe ovaries extracted whole from the body cavity of just-caught fish, salted and air dried and pressed through some mysterious process that is thought to originate either in Liguria or in Sardinia. Traditionally, two types of fish roe are used: tuna for "bottarga di tonno" and mullet for "bottarga di muggine." The nearly exclusive use of these two fish species to make such a toney item (yes, the price you see in the image really is 18.47 euro) has always struck me as completely bizarre. Tuna I understand—kings of the sea, they are the true nobility among fishkind. Mullet, however, are at the opposite end of the spectrum of piscatorial social rank. Italians often refer to muggine (mullet) by other colorful names such as "pescediesel" (diesel fish, because they smell like the bilge-y water in the port of Genoa) and "mangiacacca" (which I'm not going to translate for you). Please note that I'm restraining myself from mentioning the other kind of "mullet."
Anyways, up until around ten years ago, very few people outside certain provinces of Italy knew about bottarga, and in those areas its use was fairly limited to local "high-class" dishes—usually a very thin slice of bottarga on canapés, often paired with other exotic slices from the sea such as mosciame, which is basically a prosciutto made from the meat of tuna or—under the cloak of secrecy since this is totally illegal—dolphin.
I don't see a surge of popularity for eating Flipper anytime soon, but bottarga has definitely hit the big time. World-famous chef David Pasternack of Esca restaurant in New York has been making bottarga from the ovaries of different species of fish, and basically has found what seemed to me to be the intuitive truth—that with the exception of some fish whose eggs are poisonous (like the Great Barracuda), any fish can be used to make excellent bottarga, and this is the intuitive truth because we all know that fish eggs are just generally very tasty!
These days it's possible to find bottarga made in Italy from a variety of fish (I got a nice bonito bottarga last year), but what you'll find more than anything else is still mostly tuna and mullet. Of the two, tuna bottarga has a bold flavor and drier consistency, while mullet bottarga is mild and rather oily. My preference has always been tuna. You also have a choice between pre-grated in a jar and solid blocks of bottarga vacuum sealed and kept under refrigeration. The stuff in a jar is just not very good, in my opinion. The solid blocks can be kept in the fridge and grated with a microplane grater or slightly frozen and sliced with a mandoline (or truffle slicer), and the rest can go in a ziploc and then back into the fridge. Stuff with that much salt keeps for months.
So we're in the mood for something we won't find just anywhere, but we're also not in the mood to do anything elaborate. One very viable solution: pasta con la bottarga. Here's what I do.
Water for a pound of pasta is put on to boil. In a large sauté pan, I gently cook some finely minced garlic in a small amount of olive oil. Before the garlic is fully cooked in goes a glass of white wine—something like a sauvignon blanc will do—and this is allowed to reduce a bit. Around the time the penne go into the boiling water, I can add a nice dose of heavy cream to the wine and garlic, and let this reduce some more while the penne cook.
In the meantime, I grate out a nice pile of bottarga with a microplane grater, and I chop finely a medium handful of either chives or dill. If I've timed things right the pasta approaches perfect done-ness at the same time that the cream/wine has reduced by the right amount. This is the point where I call the spouse to the table.
Final step. The penne are strained and given a nice shake. The herbs go into the cream and given a stir with a dash of sea salt. Yes, even with the bottarga, additional salt is needed. Pasta added and mixed with the sauce and then put into a big "spaghettata"—a large shallow serving bowl for pasta. At last the fine flakes of bottarga are sprinkled over the pasta. Adri is arriving at the table right about now. And yes, this is enough for four as a primo piatto, but we polish it all off no prob just the two of us. We know to have some bread handy to wipe up the bottarga and herb-y cream after the pasta is gone.
It's been over a year since the last time I rolled out fresh pasta or made gnocchi from scratch, but now that I'm posting to Frangykitchen, I might have to dust off some of those skills for fresh blog-able content. Right now, I'm thinking about how we (and maybe most other households) have a small set of "go to" dishes made from dried pasta that just work perfectly in different situations and carry all the advantages of noodles and sauce, which is to say, they can be prepared quickly and are delicious.
There's spaghetti, which for us usually means either aglio e olio or carbonara. Penne rigate is the other big favorite for us, and this usually means arrabbiata or pesto. For more "special" dinners we often tap into our stock of exotic ingredients, and here is where we come to the topic of bottarga.
Bottarga is fish roe, or ripe ovaries extracted whole from the body cavity of just-caught fish, salted and air dried and pressed through some mysterious process that is thought to originate either in Liguria or in Sardinia. Traditionally, two types of fish roe are used: tuna for "bottarga di tonno" and mullet for "bottarga di muggine." The nearly exclusive use of these two fish species to make such a toney item (yes, the price you see in the image really is 18.47 euro) has always struck me as completely bizarre. Tuna I understand—kings of the sea, they are the true nobility among fishkind. Mullet, however, are at the opposite end of the spectrum of piscatorial social rank. Italians often refer to muggine (mullet) by other colorful names such as "pescediesel" (diesel fish, because they smell like the bilge-y water in the port of Genoa) and "mangiacacca" (which I'm not going to translate for you). Please note that I'm restraining myself from mentioning the other kind of "mullet."
Anyways, up until around ten years ago, very few people outside certain provinces of Italy knew about bottarga, and in those areas its use was fairly limited to local "high-class" dishes—usually a very thin slice of bottarga on canapés, often paired with other exotic slices from the sea such as mosciame, which is basically a prosciutto made from the meat of tuna or—under the cloak of secrecy since this is totally illegal—dolphin.
I don't see a surge of popularity for eating Flipper anytime soon, but bottarga has definitely hit the big time. World-famous chef David Pasternack of Esca restaurant in New York has been making bottarga from the ovaries of different species of fish, and basically has found what seemed to me to be the intuitive truth—that with the exception of some fish whose eggs are poisonous (like the Great Barracuda), any fish can be used to make excellent bottarga, and this is the intuitive truth because we all know that fish eggs are just generally very tasty!
These days it's possible to find bottarga made in Italy from a variety of fish (I got a nice bonito bottarga last year), but what you'll find more than anything else is still mostly tuna and mullet. Of the two, tuna bottarga has a bold flavor and drier consistency, while mullet bottarga is mild and rather oily. My preference has always been tuna. You also have a choice between pre-grated in a jar and solid blocks of bottarga vacuum sealed and kept under refrigeration. The stuff in a jar is just not very good, in my opinion. The solid blocks can be kept in the fridge and grated with a microplane grater or slightly frozen and sliced with a mandoline (or truffle slicer), and the rest can go in a ziploc and then back into the fridge. Stuff with that much salt keeps for months.
So we're in the mood for something we won't find just anywhere, but we're also not in the mood to do anything elaborate. One very viable solution: pasta con la bottarga. Here's what I do.
Water for a pound of pasta is put on to boil. In a large sauté pan, I gently cook some finely minced garlic in a small amount of olive oil. Before the garlic is fully cooked in goes a glass of white wine—something like a sauvignon blanc will do—and this is allowed to reduce a bit. Around the time the penne go into the boiling water, I can add a nice dose of heavy cream to the wine and garlic, and let this reduce some more while the penne cook.
In the meantime, I grate out a nice pile of bottarga with a microplane grater, and I chop finely a medium handful of either chives or dill. If I've timed things right the pasta approaches perfect done-ness at the same time that the cream/wine has reduced by the right amount. This is the point where I call the spouse to the table.
Final step. The penne are strained and given a nice shake. The herbs go into the cream and given a stir with a dash of sea salt. Yes, even with the bottarga, additional salt is needed. Pasta added and mixed with the sauce and then put into a big "spaghettata"—a large shallow serving bowl for pasta. At last the fine flakes of bottarga are sprinkled over the pasta. Adri is arriving at the table right about now. And yes, this is enough for four as a primo piatto, but we polish it all off no prob just the two of us. We know to have some bread handy to wipe up the bottarga and herb-y cream after the pasta is gone.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Meatloaf (Italian version)
Meatloaf can often evoke groans, but this recipe, handed down from my grandmother, has the opposite effect. Grandma made this for us kids & would improvise with whatever was in the fridge in terms of the filling (you'll see!).
Usually I serve the sauce from the meatloaf with pasta and the meat seperately, Italian style.
TIP: ALL meat must be taken out of the fridge at least 20 minutes (room temperature) before cooking.
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
4 tbsps bread crumbs
4 tbsps chopped parseley
4 tbsps grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
1 hard boiled egg
2 slices of ham, salami....
1 small onion
1 medium carrot
1 glass red wine (optional)
12 oz tomato sauce
In a large bowl, mix ground beef, raw egg, breadcrumbs, parsely & parmesan. Salt & pepper to taste.
On a flat surface, make a ball with the mixture, make a hole in the center.
Wrap the hard boiled egg in the cold cut.
Place in the center of the meat mixture then press the ground beef around it & make an oval form.
Cut the onion in four.
Chop carrot.
Sauté onion & carrot in olive oil or butter in a deep pan.
Add meatloaf, lower to a medium heat.
When it browns on one side turn gently with the aide of two utensils.
When the loaf is browned on all sides, add a glass of red wine.
Cook down the wine, then add the tomato sauce.
Simmer about 30 minutes.
Serve the sauce with pasta & parmesan cheese.
Usually I serve the sauce from the meatloaf with pasta and the meat seperately, Italian style.
TIP: ALL meat must be taken out of the fridge at least 20 minutes (room temperature) before cooking.
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
4 tbsps bread crumbs
4 tbsps chopped parseley
4 tbsps grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
1 hard boiled egg
2 slices of ham, salami....
1 small onion
1 medium carrot
1 glass red wine (optional)
12 oz tomato sauce
In a large bowl, mix ground beef, raw egg, breadcrumbs, parsely & parmesan. Salt & pepper to taste.
On a flat surface, make a ball with the mixture, make a hole in the center.
Wrap the hard boiled egg in the cold cut.
Place in the center of the meat mixture then press the ground beef around it & make an oval form.
Cut the onion in four.
Chop carrot.
Sauté onion & carrot in olive oil or butter in a deep pan.
Add meatloaf, lower to a medium heat.
When it browns on one side turn gently with the aide of two utensils.
When the loaf is browned on all sides, add a glass of red wine.
Cook down the wine, then add the tomato sauce.
Simmer about 30 minutes.
Serve the sauce with pasta & parmesan cheese.
Friday, 27 February 2009
Zucchini pasta-pasta alle zucchine-Chris & Karen's recipes
The following is my friend Chris' recipe, as she sent it in. Chris is a former caterer, with better credentials than me, so I never hesitate to add her contributions!
I just sent my zucchini pasta.
Madolin sliced Zucchini sauteed in olive oil, until starting to caramelized.
Capellini, pasta water, Salt Pepper and a little more olive oil to taste.
No garlic, no cheese. Just that.
It is lovely. .........So a no brainier, and a fast feast.
Zucchini pasta was a huge trend in Italy about 20 years ago, I remember eating variations of the dish all summer. This is my preferred version, made with saffron & served with spaghetti. My mother also adds a little heavy cream at the end & will serve it even with other types of pasta. Both of us have served the sauce on gnocchi.
When purchasing zucchini, select the smallest & firmest as they are the most likely to be sweet.
1 small zucchini per person
1 medium onion
1 tsp saffron (or to taste)
olive oil
fresh grated parmesan cheese
Put on the water for the pasta or gnocchi.
Cut the zucchini in thin slices or chunks, depending on the type of pasta or gnocchi.
Slice onion.
Sauté in a large saucepan with olive oil until golden, adding a few extra tbsps to make a sauce.
Just before the pasta or gnocchi are cooked, add the saffron & stir until evenly distributed.
Drain the pasta or gnocchi but leaving a few tbsps of water. Keep some of it on the side.
Add to the saucepan and stir. If too dry, add a few tbsps of pasta water or some heavy cream (like mom!).
Serve immediately, with grated parmesan.
I just sent my zucchini pasta.
Madolin sliced Zucchini sauteed in olive oil, until starting to caramelized.
Capellini, pasta water, Salt Pepper and a little more olive oil to taste.
No garlic, no cheese. Just that.
It is lovely. .........So a no brainier, and a fast feast.
Zucchini pasta was a huge trend in Italy about 20 years ago, I remember eating variations of the dish all summer. This is my preferred version, made with saffron & served with spaghetti. My mother also adds a little heavy cream at the end & will serve it even with other types of pasta. Both of us have served the sauce on gnocchi.
When purchasing zucchini, select the smallest & firmest as they are the most likely to be sweet.
1 small zucchini per person
1 medium onion
1 tsp saffron (or to taste)
olive oil
fresh grated parmesan cheese
Put on the water for the pasta or gnocchi.
Cut the zucchini in thin slices or chunks, depending on the type of pasta or gnocchi.
Slice onion.
Sauté in a large saucepan with olive oil until golden, adding a few extra tbsps to make a sauce.
Just before the pasta or gnocchi are cooked, add the saffron & stir until evenly distributed.
Drain the pasta or gnocchi but leaving a few tbsps of water. Keep some of it on the side.
Add to the saucepan and stir. If too dry, add a few tbsps of pasta water or some heavy cream (like mom!).
Serve immediately, with grated parmesan.
Eggplant Parmesan-melanzane alla parmigiana
Another of my grandmother's recipes. As a child, this was one of my favorites. It has become a staple in my home as the kids & hubby would eat this once a week, if I let them. As with all Italian cuisine, there are regional variations....
Like most traditional recipes, this should be made ahead of time, even the day before, as it adds to the flavor!
I make a variation of this dish by substituting zucchini for the eggplant.
TIPS:
Preparation: Eggplants are a summer vegetable, one I usually purchase at the local farmer's market. In winter I must purchase them in supermarkets & they tend to be a bit bitter. In which case, before frying I salt the eggplant to get the bitterness out. Simply slice the eggplant as thinly as possible, place in a collander & cover with salt. Preferably weight it down. Leave to sit for at least 1/2 an hour. The slices will seep water out, so throw that away & pat them dry. By salting them, the eggplants will also soak up less oil.
Frying: Select a heavy pan with at least a few inches up the sides. Pour in a generous amount of oil as you should never add to it while frying. The oil should be HOT, kept at a steady temperature trhoughout. Do not add ingredients until the boil in the oil. Do not over fill the pan, leave a reasonable amount of space among the food slices. By following these simple steps, the food will soak up less oil & will cook more quickly.
3 large eggplants
16 oz fresh or prepared tomato sauce
1 fresh mozzarella
1 garlic clove
fresh grated parmesan cheese (non of that freeze dried sawdust!)
olive oil
oil for frying
salt & pepper
Prepare eggplant. Even if not salting, pat it dry & set aside.
Preheat oven to medium temperature.
Heat oil in large frying pan.
Add as many slices of eggplant as possible.
Fry until golden, then scoop them out with as ittle oil as possible. Set aside on a plate covered in papertowels to soak up extra oil.
Meanwhile, heat a few tsps of olive oil in a pot.
Add a whole clove of garlic.
Add tomato sauce (a basil leaf if available).
Let simmer while frying eggplant.
Cut up the mozzarella in cubes. Set aside.
Layer the eggplant slices on the bottom of a pyrex or ceramic oven dish.
Thinly cover with tomato sauce, then mozzarella, sprinkle with parmesan, salt & pepper.
Repeat layering until all ingredients are used up.
Sprinkle extra parmesan on the final layer.
Bake in oven until crisped, about 40 minutes.
I usually serve this with spaghetti, using the sauce from the eggplant on the pasta but eating the dish seperately.
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Sauce- Matriciana
This is a popular pasta sauce in Rome. It can also accompany gnocchi (Italian potato dumplings).
The sauce freezes well, so I just cook up a batch. Traditionally this is made with pancietta, but if that's not available substitute bacon.
24 oz tomato sauce
1 small onion
3 oz pancietta or bacon
Salt & pepper
Red wine (optional)
Cut the onion in quarter, then slice thinly. Sauté in a few tbsps of olive oil in a medium saucepan.
Slice the pancietta or bacon in slivers. Add to pan.
Sauté until onions are golden, add 1/2 glass of red wine. Simmer.
Add tomato, salt & pepper to taste.
Simmer another 15 minutes.
Serve on pasta or gnocchi with a generous sprinkle of parmesan cheese on each plate.
The sauce freezes well, so I just cook up a batch. Traditionally this is made with pancietta, but if that's not available substitute bacon.
24 oz tomato sauce
1 small onion
3 oz pancietta or bacon
Salt & pepper
Red wine (optional)
Cut the onion in quarter, then slice thinly. Sauté in a few tbsps of olive oil in a medium saucepan.
Slice the pancietta or bacon in slivers. Add to pan.
Sauté until onions are golden, add 1/2 glass of red wine. Simmer.
Add tomato, salt & pepper to taste.
Simmer another 15 minutes.
Serve on pasta or gnocchi with a generous sprinkle of parmesan cheese on each plate.
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