The best part is the leftover…
May 28, 2010
LINGUINE CON PROSCIUTTO E PISELLI – PEAS AND HAM LINGUINE
Recipe n. 18
I haven’t made this dish in a while as I inevitably got bored with it because my husband keeps asking me to cook it way too often, as he likes it so much. I have decided to start making it again after kept it in ‘quarantine‘ for quite some time. What I really love about this dish is what you can make with it from the leftovers the next day.… I learnt this trick in Italy from a lovely ‘mamma Napoletana’ who told me that in Naples it’s a very common thing to do with leftover pasta. I am not the kind of person who would ever eat cooked pasta from the day before as it usually tastes like ‘glue’, but with this recipe it’s a totally different story…
Ingredients
- 1 lb Linguine or Spaghetti
- 1 medium sized onion
- 1 lb Frozen peas
- ¼ lb Ham cut in strips
- ¼ cup Parsley chopped
- 1/2 cup of vegetable broth or plain water
- ¼ cup Fresh grounded Parmesan cheese
- Pinch of Red chili pepper flakes
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 3 to 4 Eggs
- ¼ cup Milk (or rice milk)
In a tall pot bring the water to a boil and cook pasta until ‘al dente’. In the meantime in a large skillet or pot heat the olive oil and add the onion, salt and pepper and red chili pepper flakes. When the onion is about translucent add the peas and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the broth or just plain water and cook the peas for about 10 minutes. Add the ham and cook 5 minutes longer. Turn the heat off and add some fresh chopped parsley and mix this dressing with spaghetti. If the dressing looks a bit dry you can add some of the cooking water you used for pasta. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on each plate.
Now here comes the best part. Keep the left over pasta already mixed with the dressing refrigerated. The day after you can enjoy this great ’frittata di pasta’ at lunch or dinnertime: whisk 3 or 4 eggs in a bowl, salt and pepper and some milk (I like to use rice milk). In a skillet heat a couple of table spoons of olive oil and stir the pasta ‘to bring it to life’ again, now add the eggs and lower the heat, cover with a lid and cook until the eggs look brown on the surface. I actually finish the cooking part of this dish in the oven and broil for 2 or 3 minutes to obtain a crunchy brown frittata. Set aside, let it cool and cut the frittata in slices to serve.
INSALATA DI POLLO AL PESTO E VERDURE ARROSTITE – CHICKEN PESTO SALAD WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES
Recipe n. 17
In one of our recent trips to Ireland we went to visit some friends of ours who live in a lovely little village in the middle of the countryside. They have two great kids and their mum Lynn besides being a beautiful mom, is also a great cook. She cooked lunch for us and I totally fell in love with this dish. It was so tasty, fresh and different from the Irish cuisine, that I am prepared for when in Ireland. I almost felt at home, in Sicily. The way all these ingredients and colors complement each other is absolutely great! As soon as I came back to the States I started to make this dish over and over again. Unfortunately I never wrote down the recipe and the ingredients, so it might not be exactly the same. This version is what is left in my mind from the memory of the flavors, which inspired me so much.
As I said in my last post, I made pesto and cooked extra roasted vegetables to be added to this dish, which looks elaborate but if you roast your vegetables as well as making pesto a day in advance, at the end it’s all about ‘assembling’ and it’s all well worth while!
Ingredients
- 1 fresh bunch of basil (about 2 cups)
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 lb chicken breast cubed
- 10 shallots roasted
- 1 yellow or red roasted bell pepper
- Mesclun salad
- Edible flowers for garnish or thyme flowers (optional)
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil
- Balsamic vinegar
- Salt and pepper
Roast the pepper and shallots according to my previous post ‘ROASTED VEGETABLES – Recipe n.16 ‘. In a food processor place 1 garlic clove and pulse until chopped. Add the basil, pine nuts, salt and pepper and pulse a few more times. Add the olive oil slowly until you obtain a creamy pesto. Transfer to a bowl and mix with Parmesan cheese. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a medium skillet and cook the chicken through until crispy brown on the outside. Transfer the chicken to a dish with kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. In a large salad bowl place the mesclun salad, chopped roasted shallots and bell peeper and dress with 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix the chicken with a ¼ cup of pesto sauce and transfer to the salad bowl. Add the flowers for garnish and you can enjoy your salad!
Let’s roast vegetables…
May 21, 2010
ZUCCHINE, CIPOLLINE E PEPERONI ARROSTITI – ROASTED ZUCCHINI, SHALLOTS AND BELL PEPPERS
Recipe n. 16
Yesterday I went for a nice walk to the Farmers market. It’s such a pleasure walking around the market, especially this time of the year. The weather is perfect and the farmers have started to bring fresh and colorful fruit and vegetables to the market for the new season. I bought my first bunch of fresh organic basil, which I used later that day to make a delicious pesto sauce. I ‘m also going to use it for my next recipe. The smell was so strong it kept me happy all the way home. I also bought zucchini, shallots and bell peppers to roast and pour over a great dressing from ‘la cucina di mia madre’.
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized zucchini
- 3 bell peppers
- 10 shallots peeled
- 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
- ¼ cup fresh mint chopped
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil
- Balsamic vinegar
- Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a medium sized pot bring water to a boil and blanch the shallots for about 3 minutes. Place the bell peppers and the shallots on 2 different baking dishes. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle the onions with some olive oil. Roast the peppers and the onions for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the peppers cool down before peeling. Slice the zucchini lengthwise to half an inch thick or less. Preheat the grill (I use a cast iron roasting pan on my stove top) and place the zucchini and grill each side for about 4 minutes. Prepare the dressing in a large mixing bowl with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, mint, salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients and dip the zucchini slices one at a time ensuring each piece absorbs the dressing well. Transfer the zucchini into a serving dish and pour the remaining dressing and garnish with mint on top.
Serve the vegetables with grilled rustic bread sprinkled with olive oil.
Deep Dark Green Creamy Sauce…
May 17, 2010
PASTA CON CREMA DI SPINACI – PASTA WITH SPINACH SAUCE
Recipe n. 15
When my son was still learning colors, among his big collection of trains from ‘Thomas the tank engine and his friends‘, there was one train in particular which was green. It is a very dark green and for this reason every time we refer to this train we emphasize it calling it the ‘deep dark green train’, exactly the same color as this delicious creamy sauce for pasta, which reminds me of that train. I have been making this sauce for pasta for years. By now it has became part of our recurring family menu. It’s an easy and quick recipe and a light dish to enjoy for lunch or dinner. Sometimes I make this sauce in big batches and freeze it to have it handy on days when you don’t have much time to cook but you don’t want to end up eating take out food.
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh spinach washed
- ¼ cup rice milk (I like to use rice milk instead of regular milk because it’s lighter and gives a sweeter taste to the sauce with no need to add any butter or cream)
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup fresh ricotta, optional (I usually make this sauce without ricotta, unless I ‘m having a guest for lunch and want to obtain a richer taste and consistency)
- Salt
- Pepper
- ¾ lb your favorite short pasta
In a medium sized pot bring the water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Take the spinach from the pot and drain excess water. Put to the side and let it cool. In a food processor add the spinach, rice milk, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix to obtain a creamy consistency. Bring again to a boil the same pot with water you have used to cook the spinach and add pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain the water and in a large bowl mix pasta with the spinach sauce. Add some extra Parmesan cheese to garnish.
Who said that polenta belongs to northern Italians…?
May 14, 2010
MEDAGLIONI DI POLENTA E PROSCIUTTO AL FORNO – BAKED POLENTA MEDALLIONS WITH HAM.
Receipe n. 14
I’ve been craving for polenta lately, despite my southern Italian origin. It’s not a very common dish where I come from. Usually polenta is eaten in the north of Italy. In the south, we sometimes call people from the north of Italy ‘polentoni’, and they have equally endearing terms for us! Last night I made this dish for dinner again and I realize that the more I make it the more I like it. I also found this great brand of organic polenta, which is really delicious and it doesn’t come from Italy but from Argentina. It’s very sweet and has a very light texture.
Ingredients
- 2 cups polenta
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups rice milk
- ½ lb smoked ham
- 1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
- 1tsp fresh chopped thyme
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
- Salt
- Pepper
Having all the other ingredients already chopped and ready next to you, in a medium sized pot bring the water with rice milk to a boil. Turn the heat off and slowly add the polenta while stirring with a whisk, always in the same direction. Add the ham, Parmesan cheese, herbs, 1 tbsp butter, salt and pepper. Mix gently together until the polenta is thickening up but still creamy. Don’t let the polenta become hard before transferring it to a flat slightly wet surface (you need to wet it so it won’t stick). With the blade of a knife flatten the polenta and let it cool for at least an hour. Using a round cooking cutter make as many roundels as you wish and transfer them onto a baking dish. Put on top of every medallion a tiny amount of butter and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.
COUSCOUS FEAST…
May 11, 2010
COUSCOUS DI PESCE – COUSCOUS AND FISH
Recipe n. 13
There is a small town in Sicily called San Vito Lo Capo where every year they have a Couscous festival, ‘la sagra del couscous’. Chefs come from countries around the Mediterranean to participate and show original ways of cooking couscous with fish, according to their own traditions. I personally love couscous and I could eat it every day for lunch and dinner without ever getting bored. It’s so versatile and it can go well with meat, fish or vegetables. In San Vito Lo Capo fish is mandatory and if you want to follow the typical Sanvitese way of making this dish it would require a very long time and an elaborate preparation. This involves making couscous with durum wheat, semola, using an ancient technique, called ‘incocciata’ in Sicilian dialect. Couscous is then steamed in a pot made of terracotta, a couscoussière. This is my own semplified version of couscous with fish which probably wouldn’t go very far in the cooking contest in San Vito as I‘m breaking the rules using precooked couscous and using other types of fish, but if you don’t want to spend half your day preparing this dish then this is the way to go and it tastes good too!
The next time I make this dish I promise we’ll go through all the different stages in the traditional way of making it.
Ingredients
- 1 lb couscous
- 1 lb of fresh fish mixture *( I use cod or lemon sole, red snapper and salmon)
- 4 cups of water
- 1 carrot (optional)
- 1 stalk of celery
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
- ½ onion
- 1 cup sweet cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped almonds
- 1 tbsp capers
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Lemon (zest and juice)
- Fresh Italian flat parsley
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Let’s start with the broth: in a medium stock pot, add the water, carrots, celery, parsley, tomatoes, onion and bay leaf. Bring to boil and add a small piece of each fish just to let the broth infuse with the flavor of the fish. Reduce to simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. In the meantime in a large skillet add the olive oil and garlic. Be careful not to burn the garlic. After a minute or so gently place the fish and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, almonds, capers, lemon zest and juice and a few segments if you like too. Add 1 ½ cup of broth, cover and cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes. Place the couscous n a large dish or bowl and add a 1 /2 cup of olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and place first the fish on top followed by the juice where the fish was cooking and add another cup of broth. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and cover tight letting the couscous rest for at least 5 minutes. Using a fork be sure to separate the couscous grains from each other to avoid clumps. Add more broth if necessary or if it looks to dry.
*NOTE: You are supposed to use fish suitable for making broth, but I like to use any sort of fish. I like to buy wild fish in general. I don’t trust farmed or even organic farmed fish. To me fish always tastes better if it’s caught wild.
BIRTHDAY TIME
May 7, 2010
CARAMELLE DI NOCI E FRUTTA SECCA – DRIED FRUIT AND NUT ROLLED CANDIES
Recipe n.12
Soon our son will be turning 3 and I’m already planning with excitement his birthday party, which requires me to do lots of thinking about alternative solutions for a healthy kids menu and eco friendly party. This is the kind of person I am and not surprisingly I hang out with other ‘health freak moms’. We always worry about our kids eating too much sugar and other refined products. Of course when it comes to a party it’s almost impossible to avoid the sugar but at least we can control it by making our own cakes, sweets and treats.I found these caramelle a great idea to add to ‘Sasha’s birthday menu’. They really are just nut snack bars but rolled into a small ball shape. The way they are presented makes them more interesting and delicious in the kids eyes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of mixed nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almond, sunflower seed and sesame seeds)
- 1 cup of dried fruit (cranberries, currants or raisins, apricots, dates)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil to help it to stick together
In a food processor mix the nuts, the dried fruit and the vegetable oil until you obtain a sort of crunchy sticky dough. Roll candies into small ball shapes or any other shape you would like to experiment with, although balls are the easiest shape as the dough could easily fall apart as the oil and the stickiness from the fruit are the only things that hold them together. Place each ball in a small baking paper cup. Chill for a couple of hours to help them to stick together. You can serve cold or at room temperature.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe is not suitable for people with nut allergies. Be sure to warn your guests.
Recipe n.11
May 4, 2010
INSALATA DI CALAMARI – SQUID SALAD
Here is another fresh and simple recipe that brings me back to Sicily. It’s a dish that my mother used to make for us quite often, especially in the summer time. If I close my eyes I can still smell the fresh fish from the local vendor where my mum still buys her fish every day with the breeze coming up the hill from the sea. It’s a perfect salad to serve as an appetizer during a party or to eat on its own for lunch or dinner. I love how it tastes and how beautifully the colors of the ingredients complement each other.
Ingredients
- 15 wild squid ( tubes and tentacles)
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 carrots peeled and chopped small
- 4 stalks of celery chopped small
- 2 green onions sliced small
- ¼ cup fresh Italian flat parsley chopped
- 2 juicy lemons
- olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Rinse the squid and place them in a pot with water, bay leaf and a few slices of lemon with its juice. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain the water and set aside to cool down. In a large salad bowl add the carrots, celery and onions. Cut the squid in rings and put in the bowl with the tentacles and the rest of the ingredients. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Toss well and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the salad marinate. You can serve it cold or at room temperature.
Buon appetito!
Recipe n.10
May 1, 2010
PASTA con BROCCOLI, NOCI e UVA PASSA – PASTA with BROCCOLI FLORETS , WALNUTS and RAISINS
Being Italian you would guess that I eat pasta everyday. I used to, especially when I was living in Italy, but now that I have also embraced other ways of cooking I eat pasta dishes less often. Since we also eat less meat, I’m always trying to add protein to our dishes from other sources such as nuts. I remember the day I came up with this recipe, it wasn’t that long ago: the evening I made this for the first time I was happily surprised looking at my son finally eating broccoli and enjoying it!
Ingredients
- 1 lb pasta (I use short whole wheat pasta)
- 1 large broccoli head
- 2 garlic cloves thinly chopped
- ½ cup raisins ( I like to use dried Zante currants)
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
- olive oil
- fresh chopped parsley for garnish
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper
Wash and chop the broccoli into florets. In a large pot with water, where you are also going to cook pasta, place a steamer on top with the broccoli florets. Bring to boil and after the florets are steamed put to the side. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. In the meantime in a large skillet with olive oil add the garlic, florets, raisins, walnuts , red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes and remove from the heat. Drain pasta when it is cooked, and in a large bowl mix the pasta with the broccoli dressing and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.
Recipe n.8
April 28, 2010
PASTICCIO di PATATE e SALMONE – FISH POT PIE
If you’re having guests for dinner and you want to impress them, this dish is what you want to make. You cannot go wrong (unless your guest hates fish!). I love to cook with herbs and fresh dill has a unique flavor, which goes very well with this recipe. This pasticcio di patate e salmone is absolutely delicious and yes, it does require a bit more work, but you will be pleased when each single bite will literally melt in your mouth and will satisfy your appetite leaving you with a smile on your face. I’m pretty sure that there won’t be any left over. I’ve been cooking this dish for years on special occasions. Today I made it just for my family and we all enjoyed it!
FISH POT PIE
Ingredients
- 1 lb potatoes peeled
- 1 lb salmon fillet cut in cubes
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 1½ cups of rice milk (or regular milk)
- 4 Tbsp butter + 2 Tbsp for the sauce
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 1 lemon for juice and zest
- 1 Tbsp fresh dill
- salt and pepper
- ¼ cup cheese grated Parmesan or Emmental (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 F
Boil or steam the potatoes until they are cooked through. Drain the water and mash with milk, butter, salt and pepper. Put to the side and keep warm. In the meantime place the salmon on a skillet and cover with milk. Bring to boil and cook for 3 to 4 min. Drain the milk and reserve it for later. In another pot melt the butter with the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add the flour and stir at the same time. Add the milk from the salmon, bring to boil while you’re stirring it to avoid clumping and reduce to simmer until you obtain a creamy consistency. Add the zest and the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Transfer the fish to a baking dish and pour the sauce over and mix gently. Make a layer on top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle with some grated cheese.
Bake for about 30 minutes until you obtain a nice golden brown crust on top.
