The Preamble:
My father Wayne isn’t Italian. His heritage is English/Dutch on his father’s side, and German/Hungarian on his mother’s. His maternal grandmother was a homesteading schoolteacher in the wilds of North Dakota, and his parents lived in the neighboring towns of Williston and Epping, ND; they came to Montana shortly after getting married. Dad was born in Glendive and raised in Livingston and Missoula on a diet of meat and potatoes, hot vegetables and amazing baked goods – simple, wholesome farming fare, and nothing that would be considered even remotely “ethnic” by today’s standards.
My parents met in high school, and prior to their first official “date”, my father was invited to the Cipolato home for Sunday dinner. My grandmother served lasagna; my father ate small portions, very politely, wielding his fork and knife with skill and refinement, doing his best to impress my mother’s family with his fine table manners. The second time my father was invited for dinner, my grandmother served crab spaghetti, a great delicacy – Dungeness crabs, separated into pieces and stewed in the shell with tomatoes and olive oil. The sauce is served over spaghetti, and the crab comes to the table in a giant bowl, dripping in sauce. Dad did fine with the pasta, though I don’t know to this day whether he attempted to twirl the spaghetti on his fork or committed the mortal sin of cutting it into smaller pieces. When the crab came out, he was mortified! It was a free-for-all, as it is to this day when crab is served; my mother’s siblings grabbed legs and claws out of the bowl with their hands and slurped the sauce off before cracking the shells to extract the crabmeat inside. My father sat at the foot of the table, petrified – think deer caught in the headlights – until my grandfather looked at him from the head of the table, leaned forward and said quietly, “You don’t eat, you don’t come back.” Dad gained about 40 pounds after my parents were married a few years later.
My father is an excellent cook, and after a trip to Venice about a decade ago, he started trying to duplicate the risottos they enjoyed so much. Rice never featured prominently in my grandmother’s cuisine; she made risi e bisi – a very wet Venetian dish of rice and peas to welcome Spring, and risotto with squid tentacles and ink when we had calamari, but that was about it. Dad has branched out significantly – his shrimp risotto is sublime, and for Christmas Eve this past year he served a smoked trout risotto, plated with a sprinkle of single malt scotch on top, that outshone anything I’ve ever had in any country. In spite of his heritage, Dad is the acclaimed risotto expert in the family, putting all the rest of us to shame. Spinach risotto is his specialty, holding court as the favorite meal of both Nonno and Nonna and my 6 year old nephew, Dylan. The recipe featured this week is his, reproduced in the form in which he sent it to me.
Despite rumors to the contrary, risotto just isn’t that hard. Yes, it takes about 30 minutes, and yes, you do have to stir it frequently, so it’s not a “start it and forget it” sort of a meal. However, provided you use the correct ingredients and follow the basic template, 30 minutes buys you an amazing first course – rich and flavorful, creamy, hot and comforting. A short-grained rice (Arborio is my choice) is imperative to release the appropriate amount of starch while still remaining intact. Your other ingredients should be of the highest quality, though this is true with anything you cook! Like most of the recipes I’ve presented here the variations are nearly endless, so you can experiment with wild abandon once you’ve mastered the basic technique. My favorite additions are asparagus, smoked salmon with scotch, fennel with shrimp and fresh tomato, Italian sausage with cauliflower, and red pepper puree. Coincidentally, this month’s Cook’s Illustrated magazine features a recipe for almost no-stir risotto; I can’t imagine why you’d bother.
The Recipe:
Spinach Risotto
Serves 4 generously
Following the ingredients list is a copy of the email from my father – he said that the recipe didn’t want to be written in the standard form when he was at the computer this time. With regards to the ingredients, clearly you won’t have access to my mother’s (Eletra’s) broth, but if at all possible, you should make your own from scratch. Again, it’s not that hard. In a pinch, many prepackaged organic broths including Swanson’s Natural Goodness are an acceptable substitute. Please, don’t use bouillon cubes, whatever you do!
Total prep and cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 ½ c. Arborio rice
1 Tbsp. butter
2-4 Tbsp. olive oil
¼ - ½ c. finely chopped onion
¼ c. dry white wine (something you’d like to drink, not “cooking” wine)
6-8 c. broth
½ c. spinach (see details below)
½ c. Parmesan cheese, grated
additional butter, to taste
salt and pepper to taste
From Wayne:
The standard rice is Arborio Superfino, not too difficult to find. Carnaroli is a step up but less available. What is necessary is a short grain rice able to absorb the liquid and still remain firm. Lundberg has a very serviceable, organic Arborio in bulk at the Good Food Store in Missoula.
Eletra's broth is essential to my results. Her chicken broth, sans tomato, slightly diluted is perfect for the smoked trout or salmon, or for risi bisi or asparagus. Diluted turkey broth is also excellent. If she adds tomatoes it creates a more complex taste but still works for vegetable risottos. Her hearty beef broth with tomatoes is perfect for less subtle vegetables like broccoli or spinach. For shrimp risotto I use a handful of shrimp plus the shells to make my own broth (with a bit of celery, carrot and onion). I've used a Kitchen Basics Seafood Stock diluted with equal amounts of water successfully. If the risotto is a main dish I may use a more concentrated stock. The broth is brought to a simmer in a saucepan.
I start with at least 1 Tbsp. of butter and several of olive oil over medium heat in a 3-4 qt saucepan. Many recipes call for butter only at this stage but I'd rather add it at the end if I want the flavor. A good quality pan allowing even distribution of heat on the bottom of the pot prevents the rice from sticking. Use a larger pan if you increase the amounts of the recipes so it will not take too long. Too large a pan will cook off the broth too quickly.
Minced onion, 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending on the strength of the main ingredient, is softened for several minutes in the butter/oil but never allowed to brown. Garlic is added at this time if called for. I recall only using it for broccoli.
The rice is added and stirred for a minute, coating the grains until glistening. 1 ½ cups is usually called for, generously serving four. Every recipe I've seen talks about a wooden spoon. I think silicone spatulas are a huge improvement.
I start timing from this point. Many recipes call for 18 minutes. 20 minutes is probably more appropriate at our altitude. Eletra thinks it too al dente if I stick with the 18. I've seen Italian cookbooks call for 25 minutes. It may be a difference in the heat setting.
Add a generous 1/4 C of dry white wine and stir until it's absorbed. Adjust the heat so that the wine is absorbed fairly quickly-less than a minute. And pour yourself a glass. I truly enjoy the process of making risotto. The wonderful aromas and their synergy are part of the process; first the broth, then the butter and oil heating while mincing onions, the onion softening in the butter, the wine cooking off quickly. I'm salivating.
Start adding the broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and develop the starch. Allow the broth to be almost completely absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup but don't allow it to become dry. Same with the wine above. The rice should never be submerged. I look for the action to be more than a simmer but less than a boil.
Most defining ingredients are added in the last few minutes. Especially if precooked. For spinach risotto, 1/2 cup of cooked, well drained spinach (3/4 lb fresh or 10 oz box frozen) is pureed with sufficient broth. (For broccoli, I dice the stalks and add them after I start adding broth and cook the tips in the broth for five minutes and add them at the end.)
The rice should be tender but firm after 18-20 minutes. Take it off the heat. Add the spinach and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (a finishing pat of butter at this time if desired) and stir in well. The pureed spinach will add liquid while the cheese will firm things up. Nonno liked it more like a very thick soup served in a bowl than having a consistency capable of being served as a portion on the plate. Serve with extra parmesan.
This basic method works for most ingredients with slight variations depending on required seasonings. I rarely add salt relying on the broth and cheese. I add pepper to taste usually toward the end of the process.
Thanks, Dad!
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Nonna's Kitchen 6 - Verdure: Vegetable Side Dishes
The Preamble:
I love Spring! There are obvious reasons, like warmer weather, blue skies instead of gray, and longer daylight hours to spend on a bicycle, in a kayak or out in the yard. But, there are the smaller things, too – like affordable asparagus! Sure, you can get asparagus at the store year ‘round in these days of global markets, but who wants to pay seven bucks a pound for the stuff? Starting in early to mid- March, you can find asparagus for around $1.49 per pound, making it an everyday dish instead of a splurge. It’s by far my favorite vegetable, and lately I’ve been eating it two or three times a week. This abundance of green, combined with a recent comment from a reader who wondered if I was ever going to do anything other than meats and pasta dishes, inspired me to share a few of my family’s favorite vegetable recipes.
I don’t have kids, so I’m hardly the authority on getting one’s children to eat their vegetables. Still, I’m always surprised when my friends complain about their kids’ poor eating habits. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a choice – you ate what was on the table, and you tried everything, or you went to bed hungry. As a result, I LOVE vegetables! Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, squash, even Brussels sprouts and parsnips – I can’t actually think offhand of a vegetable I dislike. I now realize that much of this is because we lived pretty frugally when I was growing up, and vegetables are cheap if you eat the ones that are in season. They’re even cheaper if you grow them yourself, and a couple of these recipes in particular lend themselves to veggies that you have an overabundance of, like spinach or Swiss chard that has bolted, or zucchini in the late summer. Like many of the previous recipes, these can serve as a framework – a cooking method to be adapted to the vegetables of your choice. Enjoy, and think Spring!
The Recipe:
Oven Roasted Asparagus
Serves 4
This barely qualifies as a recipe, it’s so easy. Works especially well for Brussels sprouts (my second favorite vegetable), or for mixed veggies like onions, peppers, potatoes and zucchini – adjust cooking times as necessary, and season however you wish.
Total prep and cooking time: 15-20 minutes, depending on your desired level of doneness
Ingredients:
2 lbs. young green asparagus (roughly the diameter of a pencil)
2-4 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Wash the asparagus, and break or cut off the woody parts of the stems. Pour the olive oil on a sheet pan or cookie sheet with edges, spread out the asparagus, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper, then toss with your hands to coat all of the asparagus. Spread them out evenly on the sheet pan, then bake 8-15 minutes or until done to your liking. I like them still slightly crisp, but with browned and blistered skin. Don’t use fresh garlic with this recipe, as it will burn at these temperatures and lend an off flavor.
Variations:
If you like your asparagus particularly browned, try this under a hot broiler, reducing cooking times to 5 minutes or so. You can add herbs of your choice – rosemary and Herbes de Provence are particularly good. A liberal sprinkling of Parmesan cheese is also great (eliminate the salt.) If you don’t want the cheese to brown, add it halfway through the cooking time.
This also works quite well on a barbecue – substitute fresh garlic if you like, and toss all ingredients in a baking dish or a large plastic bag to coat. Turn the asparagus at least once when cooking on the grill. Serve hot, room temperature or cold, and feel free to add a dash of balsamic vinegar for a change. We’ve served these at the Spring Art Walk several times, to rave reviews.
The Recipe:
Cauliflower and Egg
Serves 4 as an appetizer or side dish
My favorite way to eat cauliflower. The egg makes this richer and more flavorful than Fritto Misto – the Italian version of tempura, used for fish and vegetables. This works equally well with broccoli and zucchini, but I use it pretty much exclusively for cauliflower. This is also quite good served room temperature or cold and unlike most of the things I cook, the flavor benefits greatly from a healthy sprinkling of salt. If you’re feeling particularly decadent, serve with mayonnaise flavored with fresh garlic, parsley or chopped sun dried tomatoes for dipping.
Total prep and cooking time: about an hour
Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower
2-3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil or vegetable oil for frying
Wash the cauliflower and cut into florets roughly two bites large – say, golf ball sized. Smaller is fine if you prefer, but you’ll end up wasting more of the stem parts. Steam the cauliflower for 2-4 minutes, either on the stovetop or in the microwave. You want it to be a little softer, but still have that raw flavor – it will finish cooking when you fry it. Cool until you’re able to handle it without burning yourself. Heat three to four inches of oil to about 375 degrees in a deep saucepan or deep fryer – I prefer cooking grade olive oil for the flavor, but you can use any oil you like if you’re on more of a budget. The larger your pan, the more cauliflower you can fry, thus shortening cooking time (but using more oil, obviously.) Mix the flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and beat the eggs in another small bowl – start with two, and add the third if you need it later. Dredge the cauliflower pieces in flour, shake off the excess, then give a quick dip in the egg and drop into the hot oil. Cook until golden brown – roughly four minutes – working in batches. Drain the cooked pieces on paper towels and sprinkle liberally with salt to taste while still hot. Eat with your hands!
The Recipe:
Peperonata
Serves 4-6 as a side dish
A classic Italian recipe with nearly infinite variations. This is my mother’s version, simple and excellent eaten at any temperature. Leftovers are especially good with eggs for breakfast!
Total prep and cooking time: 30-60 minutes, depending on desired doneness
Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion
2-3 bell peppers, any color (we always used green, but red will sweeten the dish significantly)
1 globe eggplant
2-3 zucchini, depending on size (about ½ lb. total)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or sauté pan with a tightly fitting lid. Cut the onion into large dice – roughly ¾” – and add to the pan. Stir occasionally – you want the vegetables to sauté, but not to brown too much. Seed and dice the peppers into roughly the same size as the onion, add to the pan, toss or stir to incorporate. Cut the eggplant into ½” dice, add to the pan, stir. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise (and half again if you’re using giant late summer zukes), then cut into ¼” slices, add to pan, stir. Drain the liquid from the tomatoes, then add them to the pan. Bring everything up to temperature, add salt and pepper to taste, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for up to 45 minutes – my grandmother always cooked this until all of the veggies were soft and shapeless, but I prefer if the zucchini still retain their shape. Correct the seasoning (this will take more salt than you might think, especially if you’re using organic no salt added tomatoes.)
Variations: Red pepper flakes sautéed with the onion add zing. Season with dried basil to taste, or add a handful of basil roughly torn fresh basil leaves near the end of the cooking time. Fresh minced garlic is a nice flavor – add with the tomatoes so it doesn’t brown and get bitter. I make a greatly simplified version of this using either just onions and zucchini, or onions, zucchini and peppers, and reduce the cooking time to as little as ten minutes, resulting in bright, crisp veggies – quick and easy. The versions without tomatoes and eggplant also lend themselves to adding eggs directly to the cooking pan – either stir them in and cook to desired doneness, or fry directly on top of the veggies for a great brunch or light supper entrée.
The Recipe:
Cassaoun
Serves 4 as an appetizer or side – approximately 4 per person
A classic dish from my grandmother’s family, these are basically very large fried spinach ravioli. I think it’s by far the best possible way to eat spinach or Swiss chard. Like last week’s indorata, nobody knows how this is spelled – it’s probably a word in some dialect from San Marino or Rome, and is pronounced to rhyme with “the noun.” No references anywhere, and nothing like it in any cookbook I’ve ever seen. Not that this makes them any less enjoyable! These are perfect served room temperature or cold at a picnic, and the flavor is particularly good when using rainbow chard – it’s much more complex than spinach. My mother and grandmother always made this with fresh egg pasta, but I’m totally lazy, and I go for the egg roll wrappers every time. The texture is a little different, but they’re still a huge hit, and last time I made them for my grandmother, she commented on the excellent quality of my dough!
Total prep and cooking time: one hour
Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion
1 large bunch spinach or Swiss chard, or 1 large bag frozen chopped spinach
1 recipe fresh pasta dough (see Nonna’s Kitchen 1) or 1 package refrigerated egg roll wrappers
fresh grated nutmeg to taste
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for frying
If you’re using fresh spinach, wash it thoroughly and drain in a colander, then chop roughly – stems and all. For chard, wash and drain, roughly chop the leaves and slice the stems into ¼” slices. For frozen spinach, thaw in the microwave then squeeze out as much water as possible using your hands and a mesh colander. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Cut the onion into ½” dice and sauté in the oil for 4-5 minutes, along with the stem pieces if you’re using chard. Add the leaves and cook until thoroughly wilted (or heated through, if using frozen) – roughly 5 minutes more. Season liberally with freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, stir to incorporate and remove from heat. Transfer to a large colander placed over a bowl to drain any liquid, cool to room temperature.
Heat 2” of olive oil over medium heat in a large high-sided saucepan. If you’re using fresh pasta, roll it out to the thinnest setting – approximately 1/16” – and cut into 5” rounds using a small plate as a guide. Place roughly 2 Tbsp. of the spinach mixture into the center of a round, moisten the edges with water, then fold over to make a half moon shape. Press out all of the air and distribute the filling to about ½” from the edges, then seal the packet by crimping with the tines of a fork. Fry two at a time in the oil, flipping once, until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels, and try not to devour them while you’re cooking the rest!
Note: if you’re using egg roll wrappers and you can’t find round ones, you can either trim square wrappers into circles, or be lazy like me and just fold them crosswise to make triangles instead of half moons – they taste just the same!
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
I love Spring! There are obvious reasons, like warmer weather, blue skies instead of gray, and longer daylight hours to spend on a bicycle, in a kayak or out in the yard. But, there are the smaller things, too – like affordable asparagus! Sure, you can get asparagus at the store year ‘round in these days of global markets, but who wants to pay seven bucks a pound for the stuff? Starting in early to mid- March, you can find asparagus for around $1.49 per pound, making it an everyday dish instead of a splurge. It’s by far my favorite vegetable, and lately I’ve been eating it two or three times a week. This abundance of green, combined with a recent comment from a reader who wondered if I was ever going to do anything other than meats and pasta dishes, inspired me to share a few of my family’s favorite vegetable recipes.
I don’t have kids, so I’m hardly the authority on getting one’s children to eat their vegetables. Still, I’m always surprised when my friends complain about their kids’ poor eating habits. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a choice – you ate what was on the table, and you tried everything, or you went to bed hungry. As a result, I LOVE vegetables! Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, squash, even Brussels sprouts and parsnips – I can’t actually think offhand of a vegetable I dislike. I now realize that much of this is because we lived pretty frugally when I was growing up, and vegetables are cheap if you eat the ones that are in season. They’re even cheaper if you grow them yourself, and a couple of these recipes in particular lend themselves to veggies that you have an overabundance of, like spinach or Swiss chard that has bolted, or zucchini in the late summer. Like many of the previous recipes, these can serve as a framework – a cooking method to be adapted to the vegetables of your choice. Enjoy, and think Spring!
The Recipe:
Oven Roasted Asparagus
Serves 4
This barely qualifies as a recipe, it’s so easy. Works especially well for Brussels sprouts (my second favorite vegetable), or for mixed veggies like onions, peppers, potatoes and zucchini – adjust cooking times as necessary, and season however you wish.
Total prep and cooking time: 15-20 minutes, depending on your desired level of doneness
Ingredients:
2 lbs. young green asparagus (roughly the diameter of a pencil)
2-4 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Wash the asparagus, and break or cut off the woody parts of the stems. Pour the olive oil on a sheet pan or cookie sheet with edges, spread out the asparagus, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper, then toss with your hands to coat all of the asparagus. Spread them out evenly on the sheet pan, then bake 8-15 minutes or until done to your liking. I like them still slightly crisp, but with browned and blistered skin. Don’t use fresh garlic with this recipe, as it will burn at these temperatures and lend an off flavor.
Variations:
If you like your asparagus particularly browned, try this under a hot broiler, reducing cooking times to 5 minutes or so. You can add herbs of your choice – rosemary and Herbes de Provence are particularly good. A liberal sprinkling of Parmesan cheese is also great (eliminate the salt.) If you don’t want the cheese to brown, add it halfway through the cooking time.
This also works quite well on a barbecue – substitute fresh garlic if you like, and toss all ingredients in a baking dish or a large plastic bag to coat. Turn the asparagus at least once when cooking on the grill. Serve hot, room temperature or cold, and feel free to add a dash of balsamic vinegar for a change. We’ve served these at the Spring Art Walk several times, to rave reviews.
The Recipe:
Cauliflower and Egg
Serves 4 as an appetizer or side dish
My favorite way to eat cauliflower. The egg makes this richer and more flavorful than Fritto Misto – the Italian version of tempura, used for fish and vegetables. This works equally well with broccoli and zucchini, but I use it pretty much exclusively for cauliflower. This is also quite good served room temperature or cold and unlike most of the things I cook, the flavor benefits greatly from a healthy sprinkling of salt. If you’re feeling particularly decadent, serve with mayonnaise flavored with fresh garlic, parsley or chopped sun dried tomatoes for dipping.
Total prep and cooking time: about an hour
Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower
2-3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil or vegetable oil for frying
Wash the cauliflower and cut into florets roughly two bites large – say, golf ball sized. Smaller is fine if you prefer, but you’ll end up wasting more of the stem parts. Steam the cauliflower for 2-4 minutes, either on the stovetop or in the microwave. You want it to be a little softer, but still have that raw flavor – it will finish cooking when you fry it. Cool until you’re able to handle it without burning yourself. Heat three to four inches of oil to about 375 degrees in a deep saucepan or deep fryer – I prefer cooking grade olive oil for the flavor, but you can use any oil you like if you’re on more of a budget. The larger your pan, the more cauliflower you can fry, thus shortening cooking time (but using more oil, obviously.) Mix the flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and beat the eggs in another small bowl – start with two, and add the third if you need it later. Dredge the cauliflower pieces in flour, shake off the excess, then give a quick dip in the egg and drop into the hot oil. Cook until golden brown – roughly four minutes – working in batches. Drain the cooked pieces on paper towels and sprinkle liberally with salt to taste while still hot. Eat with your hands!
The Recipe:
Peperonata
Serves 4-6 as a side dish
A classic Italian recipe with nearly infinite variations. This is my mother’s version, simple and excellent eaten at any temperature. Leftovers are especially good with eggs for breakfast!
Total prep and cooking time: 30-60 minutes, depending on desired doneness
Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion
2-3 bell peppers, any color (we always used green, but red will sweeten the dish significantly)
1 globe eggplant
2-3 zucchini, depending on size (about ½ lb. total)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or sauté pan with a tightly fitting lid. Cut the onion into large dice – roughly ¾” – and add to the pan. Stir occasionally – you want the vegetables to sauté, but not to brown too much. Seed and dice the peppers into roughly the same size as the onion, add to the pan, toss or stir to incorporate. Cut the eggplant into ½” dice, add to the pan, stir. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise (and half again if you’re using giant late summer zukes), then cut into ¼” slices, add to pan, stir. Drain the liquid from the tomatoes, then add them to the pan. Bring everything up to temperature, add salt and pepper to taste, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for up to 45 minutes – my grandmother always cooked this until all of the veggies were soft and shapeless, but I prefer if the zucchini still retain their shape. Correct the seasoning (this will take more salt than you might think, especially if you’re using organic no salt added tomatoes.)
Variations: Red pepper flakes sautéed with the onion add zing. Season with dried basil to taste, or add a handful of basil roughly torn fresh basil leaves near the end of the cooking time. Fresh minced garlic is a nice flavor – add with the tomatoes so it doesn’t brown and get bitter. I make a greatly simplified version of this using either just onions and zucchini, or onions, zucchini and peppers, and reduce the cooking time to as little as ten minutes, resulting in bright, crisp veggies – quick and easy. The versions without tomatoes and eggplant also lend themselves to adding eggs directly to the cooking pan – either stir them in and cook to desired doneness, or fry directly on top of the veggies for a great brunch or light supper entrée.
The Recipe:
Cassaoun
Serves 4 as an appetizer or side – approximately 4 per person
A classic dish from my grandmother’s family, these are basically very large fried spinach ravioli. I think it’s by far the best possible way to eat spinach or Swiss chard. Like last week’s indorata, nobody knows how this is spelled – it’s probably a word in some dialect from San Marino or Rome, and is pronounced to rhyme with “the noun.” No references anywhere, and nothing like it in any cookbook I’ve ever seen. Not that this makes them any less enjoyable! These are perfect served room temperature or cold at a picnic, and the flavor is particularly good when using rainbow chard – it’s much more complex than spinach. My mother and grandmother always made this with fresh egg pasta, but I’m totally lazy, and I go for the egg roll wrappers every time. The texture is a little different, but they’re still a huge hit, and last time I made them for my grandmother, she commented on the excellent quality of my dough!
Total prep and cooking time: one hour
Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion
1 large bunch spinach or Swiss chard, or 1 large bag frozen chopped spinach
1 recipe fresh pasta dough (see Nonna’s Kitchen 1) or 1 package refrigerated egg roll wrappers
fresh grated nutmeg to taste
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for frying
If you’re using fresh spinach, wash it thoroughly and drain in a colander, then chop roughly – stems and all. For chard, wash and drain, roughly chop the leaves and slice the stems into ¼” slices. For frozen spinach, thaw in the microwave then squeeze out as much water as possible using your hands and a mesh colander. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Cut the onion into ½” dice and sauté in the oil for 4-5 minutes, along with the stem pieces if you’re using chard. Add the leaves and cook until thoroughly wilted (or heated through, if using frozen) – roughly 5 minutes more. Season liberally with freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, stir to incorporate and remove from heat. Transfer to a large colander placed over a bowl to drain any liquid, cool to room temperature.
Heat 2” of olive oil over medium heat in a large high-sided saucepan. If you’re using fresh pasta, roll it out to the thinnest setting – approximately 1/16” – and cut into 5” rounds using a small plate as a guide. Place roughly 2 Tbsp. of the spinach mixture into the center of a round, moisten the edges with water, then fold over to make a half moon shape. Press out all of the air and distribute the filling to about ½” from the edges, then seal the packet by crimping with the tines of a fork. Fry two at a time in the oil, flipping once, until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels, and try not to devour them while you’re cooking the rest!
Note: if you’re using egg roll wrappers and you can’t find round ones, you can either trim square wrappers into circles, or be lazy like me and just fold them crosswise to make triangles instead of half moons – they taste just the same!
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
Nonna's Kitchen 4 - Nonno's Meat Sauce, Macaroni Pie and Lasagna
The Preamble:
Most of the cooking in my grandparents’ house was handled by my grandmother, but my grandfather had a handful of specialties that nobody else could come close to duplicating. His barbecued chicken was always a treat in the summer, stewing in red wine, garlic, mushrooms and rosemary on a charcoal grill. Bean soup cooked for hours in a giant cast iron pot in the colder months, and Fritoli, a deep fried Christmas pastry, was the thing I missed the most when I was away at college. Nonno also made a meat sauce – unusual, because his family was from the Veneto region of Italy, where tomato sauces are not much a part of the cuisine. This sauce most closely resembles a Bolognese sauce, rich and complex and cooked for hours. It’s a good Sunday project, needing most of an afternoon to fully develop. The order of the ingredients is a little unusual; instead of sautéing the aromatics first like many dishes, you start with the meat first and add ingredients from there. It seems a little strange, I know, but for some reason it just doesn’t taste the same unless you do it this way. Nonno cooked this sauce in an ancient pitted iron pot that was probably 16 or 20 quart capacity. If you’ve got a dutch oven or an enameled cast iron pot that’s at least 12 quart, that will work quite well. Me, I make it in the largest of the Farberware pots that I got when I first moved away from home, 24 years ago, so I know for certain that a cheap pot will work just fine.
Not much preamble this week – you get three recipes instead!
The Recipe:
Nonno’s Meat Sauce
Enough sauce for pasta for 8-10 people, two macaroni pies or one large lasagna
Total prep and cooking time: 45 minutes, plus 4-5 additional hours to simmer
Ingredients:
Olive oil – not extra virgin (see last issue for details on olive oil)
1 lb. ground beef – I use ground sirloin
1 large or two medium onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, minced (1/8” dice)
3 stalks celery, minced
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced or put through a garlic press
1-2 Tbsp. dried rosemary (don’t use fresh)
2 bay leaves
2 28 oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes, manually crushed (see below)
2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Heat 3-4 Tbsp. olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, then add the ground beef. Cook until all the pink color is gone – 5-8 minutes – breaking up with a wooden spoon or other utensil as it cooks. You want the beef to be in pretty small pieces before you add the next ingredients – Nonno used a giant wooden spoon, my mother employs a pastry cutter, I use a potato masher! Choose whatever works best for you. When the beef is cooked through, add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots, then the celery, stirring and cooking each for 5 minutes before proceeding. Some liquid should form in the bottom of the pot – if your pot is dry and brown bits are sticking to it, your heat is a little too high. When the vegetables have cooked, add the garlic and stir to incorporate. Add a palm full of dried rosemary, crushing it between your palms to break it up and release the oils. Toss in the bay leaves and stir to thoroughly mix all ingredients, cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their liquid. Nonno crushed the tomatoes with his hands after dumping them into the pot; if you find this a little risky, you can squeeze them while still in the can (messy) or simply run a sharp knife through the opened can several times to break the tomatoes into large chunks. Don’t worry if they’re not uniform – they’ll break down as the sauce cooks. Bring the sauce to a boil, then check the seasoning – I usually add several grinds of black pepper, and maybe 2 tsp. of salt. You can always go back and add more later. The sugar is optional – if you’re using Progresso or another Italian brand of tomatoes, it’s usually not necessary. I like Muir Glen Organic tomatoes, and find that the sugar helps to mellow them a bit. You don’t want your sauce to taste sweet at this point, but it shouldn’t be harsh or sour, either – if it has a bite, add the sugar.
When the sauce has come to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting, cover it and simmer for 4-5 hours. Check on it every 30 minutes or so, stirring to reincorporate the juices. The finished sauce should be much more dry than, say, a bottled marinara sauce, so if it’s still really wet after two hours of cooking, leave a gap in the lid to allow some of the moisture to evaporate. When the sauce is a rich, deep red and the tomatoes are thoroughly dissolved, it’s ready! Salt and pepper to taste.
This sauce is great served with rigatoni or another large pasta that has some texture to hold onto the sauce – the recipe makes enough for 2 lbs. of pasta with some additional for serving. (Italians eat their pasta with much less sauce than most Americans – the flavor of the pasta is important, too.) I’m a sucker for butter, so I’ll toss 1 lb. of pasta with 2 Tbsp. butter just before adding half of the sauce – I freeze the other half for another meal.
The Recipe:
Macaroni Pie
Serves 6 as a first course
This is a specialty of my mother’s, and is a really fun dish for a dinner party – you bring a dish to the table that looks exactly like a dessert pie, then cut it to reveal…pasta!
Total prep and cooking time: 90 minutes
Ingredients:
½ lb. farfalle (bowties) or other medium sized dry pasta
2 c. Nonno’s meat sauce, plus extra for serving
¼ c. grated Romano cheese
1 c. unbleached white flour
½ c. (1 stick) salted butter, very cold
ice water
Make a pie crust using the butter, flour and ice water: you can get directions for this in about any cookbook if you haven’t made pastry before. It’s the butter that’s important – don’t use shortening or lard, because the flavor just isn’t the same. Roll the crust out into two large rounds, and use one to line a large Pyrex or other glass pie plate; cover the other with waxed paper and put both in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the pasta. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cook the pasta in salted water until it’s just about half cooked – it will continue to cook while the pie bakes – then drain and toss with 2 cups of sauce. This works best if the sauce is room temperature, because you don’t want the pasta to be piping hot when you add it to the pie crust. (Just this once, you could rinse the pasta with cold water if you really want to – the additional cooking time will allow more starch to release and bond with the sauce.) Turn the pasta into the prepared pie crust, spread it out evenly, toss the grated Romano cheese over it and then cover with the second crust, finishing the edges however you wish. Poke a few holes in the top crust to allow steam to escape, then bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and cook for an additional 40 minutes or until nicely browned. Allow the pie to cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. Pass a bowl of heated sauce for those who wish it.
The Recipe:
Lasagna
Makes one large lasagna (10x14), enough for 10-12 as a first course
Total prep and cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
1 recipe Nonno’s meat sauce
1 box (12-16 oz.) dried lasagna noodles (don’t use the no-bake kind)
1 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
½ lb. Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
You’ll notice there’s no Ricotta cheese and no béchamel sauce in this recipe – we never used either one, and when I have lasagna with these ingredients, it just doesn’t taste right to me. Try it this way, and if you don’t like it, add them next time. And, while we’re on the subject of cheese, DON’T use the stuff in the green cardboard box! That’s not cheese, it’s chemicals. Costco has great cheese, as do most supermarkets at this point. Spend a little more and get something that’s actually edible, please.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook the lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box, then drain them and lay them out in a single layer on cookie sheets greased with a little olive oil. (My mother skips this step and simply grabs noodles out of the hot water as she needs them, but I’m not so brave.) Spread 2 ladles of sauce evenly over the bottom of a Pyrex or other glass baking dish, then place a layer of noodles, followed by a large handful of mozzarella and a small handful of Parmesan. Repeat until all the noodles are used up, making sure that the top layer is sauce and cheese. Bake for approximately 1 hour or until browned and bubbly. If the top browns too quickly, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil until you get to the bubbly stage. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
Most of the cooking in my grandparents’ house was handled by my grandmother, but my grandfather had a handful of specialties that nobody else could come close to duplicating. His barbecued chicken was always a treat in the summer, stewing in red wine, garlic, mushrooms and rosemary on a charcoal grill. Bean soup cooked for hours in a giant cast iron pot in the colder months, and Fritoli, a deep fried Christmas pastry, was the thing I missed the most when I was away at college. Nonno also made a meat sauce – unusual, because his family was from the Veneto region of Italy, where tomato sauces are not much a part of the cuisine. This sauce most closely resembles a Bolognese sauce, rich and complex and cooked for hours. It’s a good Sunday project, needing most of an afternoon to fully develop. The order of the ingredients is a little unusual; instead of sautéing the aromatics first like many dishes, you start with the meat first and add ingredients from there. It seems a little strange, I know, but for some reason it just doesn’t taste the same unless you do it this way. Nonno cooked this sauce in an ancient pitted iron pot that was probably 16 or 20 quart capacity. If you’ve got a dutch oven or an enameled cast iron pot that’s at least 12 quart, that will work quite well. Me, I make it in the largest of the Farberware pots that I got when I first moved away from home, 24 years ago, so I know for certain that a cheap pot will work just fine.
Not much preamble this week – you get three recipes instead!
The Recipe:
Nonno’s Meat Sauce
Enough sauce for pasta for 8-10 people, two macaroni pies or one large lasagna
Total prep and cooking time: 45 minutes, plus 4-5 additional hours to simmer
Ingredients:
Olive oil – not extra virgin (see last issue for details on olive oil)
1 lb. ground beef – I use ground sirloin
1 large or two medium onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, minced (1/8” dice)
3 stalks celery, minced
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced or put through a garlic press
1-2 Tbsp. dried rosemary (don’t use fresh)
2 bay leaves
2 28 oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes, manually crushed (see below)
2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Heat 3-4 Tbsp. olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, then add the ground beef. Cook until all the pink color is gone – 5-8 minutes – breaking up with a wooden spoon or other utensil as it cooks. You want the beef to be in pretty small pieces before you add the next ingredients – Nonno used a giant wooden spoon, my mother employs a pastry cutter, I use a potato masher! Choose whatever works best for you. When the beef is cooked through, add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots, then the celery, stirring and cooking each for 5 minutes before proceeding. Some liquid should form in the bottom of the pot – if your pot is dry and brown bits are sticking to it, your heat is a little too high. When the vegetables have cooked, add the garlic and stir to incorporate. Add a palm full of dried rosemary, crushing it between your palms to break it up and release the oils. Toss in the bay leaves and stir to thoroughly mix all ingredients, cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their liquid. Nonno crushed the tomatoes with his hands after dumping them into the pot; if you find this a little risky, you can squeeze them while still in the can (messy) or simply run a sharp knife through the opened can several times to break the tomatoes into large chunks. Don’t worry if they’re not uniform – they’ll break down as the sauce cooks. Bring the sauce to a boil, then check the seasoning – I usually add several grinds of black pepper, and maybe 2 tsp. of salt. You can always go back and add more later. The sugar is optional – if you’re using Progresso or another Italian brand of tomatoes, it’s usually not necessary. I like Muir Glen Organic tomatoes, and find that the sugar helps to mellow them a bit. You don’t want your sauce to taste sweet at this point, but it shouldn’t be harsh or sour, either – if it has a bite, add the sugar.
When the sauce has come to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting, cover it and simmer for 4-5 hours. Check on it every 30 minutes or so, stirring to reincorporate the juices. The finished sauce should be much more dry than, say, a bottled marinara sauce, so if it’s still really wet after two hours of cooking, leave a gap in the lid to allow some of the moisture to evaporate. When the sauce is a rich, deep red and the tomatoes are thoroughly dissolved, it’s ready! Salt and pepper to taste.
This sauce is great served with rigatoni or another large pasta that has some texture to hold onto the sauce – the recipe makes enough for 2 lbs. of pasta with some additional for serving. (Italians eat their pasta with much less sauce than most Americans – the flavor of the pasta is important, too.) I’m a sucker for butter, so I’ll toss 1 lb. of pasta with 2 Tbsp. butter just before adding half of the sauce – I freeze the other half for another meal.
The Recipe:
Macaroni Pie
Serves 6 as a first course
This is a specialty of my mother’s, and is a really fun dish for a dinner party – you bring a dish to the table that looks exactly like a dessert pie, then cut it to reveal…pasta!
Total prep and cooking time: 90 minutes
Ingredients:
½ lb. farfalle (bowties) or other medium sized dry pasta
2 c. Nonno’s meat sauce, plus extra for serving
¼ c. grated Romano cheese
1 c. unbleached white flour
½ c. (1 stick) salted butter, very cold
ice water
Make a pie crust using the butter, flour and ice water: you can get directions for this in about any cookbook if you haven’t made pastry before. It’s the butter that’s important – don’t use shortening or lard, because the flavor just isn’t the same. Roll the crust out into two large rounds, and use one to line a large Pyrex or other glass pie plate; cover the other with waxed paper and put both in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the pasta. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cook the pasta in salted water until it’s just about half cooked – it will continue to cook while the pie bakes – then drain and toss with 2 cups of sauce. This works best if the sauce is room temperature, because you don’t want the pasta to be piping hot when you add it to the pie crust. (Just this once, you could rinse the pasta with cold water if you really want to – the additional cooking time will allow more starch to release and bond with the sauce.) Turn the pasta into the prepared pie crust, spread it out evenly, toss the grated Romano cheese over it and then cover with the second crust, finishing the edges however you wish. Poke a few holes in the top crust to allow steam to escape, then bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and cook for an additional 40 minutes or until nicely browned. Allow the pie to cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. Pass a bowl of heated sauce for those who wish it.
The Recipe:
Lasagna
Makes one large lasagna (10x14), enough for 10-12 as a first course
Total prep and cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
1 recipe Nonno’s meat sauce
1 box (12-16 oz.) dried lasagna noodles (don’t use the no-bake kind)
1 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
½ lb. Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
You’ll notice there’s no Ricotta cheese and no béchamel sauce in this recipe – we never used either one, and when I have lasagna with these ingredients, it just doesn’t taste right to me. Try it this way, and if you don’t like it, add them next time. And, while we’re on the subject of cheese, DON’T use the stuff in the green cardboard box! That’s not cheese, it’s chemicals. Costco has great cheese, as do most supermarkets at this point. Spend a little more and get something that’s actually edible, please.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook the lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box, then drain them and lay them out in a single layer on cookie sheets greased with a little olive oil. (My mother skips this step and simply grabs noodles out of the hot water as she needs them, but I’m not so brave.) Spread 2 ladles of sauce evenly over the bottom of a Pyrex or other glass baking dish, then place a layer of noodles, followed by a large handful of mozzarella and a small handful of Parmesan. Repeat until all the noodles are used up, making sure that the top layer is sauce and cheese. Bake for approximately 1 hour or until browned and bubbly. If the top browns too quickly, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil until you get to the bubbly stage. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
Nonna's Kitchen 3 - A Pasta Recipe for Lent
The Preamble:
By the time you’re reading this, Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday will have come and gone, Mardi Gras is over, and the season of Lent has begun. Lent, common to most Western Christian traditions, is the season of fasting and repentance prior to Easter. Many Christians “give up” something for Lent, usually something thought of as indulgent, or slightly wicked, say…chocolate, or maybe alcohol. One common tradition of Lent is to not eat meat on Fridays; the Midwest standard Friday Night Fish Fry was one of my favorite things about attending college in Wisconsin!
Italian Catholics like my grandparents are a little more Old School than that – when I was growing up, my family NEVER ate meat on Friday. I’ve never found this to be much of a hardship, because some two of my favorite foods – baccala (salt cod) and squid – were cheap and plentiful when I was a kid, and there was that Fish Fry…
Meatless Fridays also meant that my grandmother had to be creative about the Primi (the first course, usually pasta, polenta or risotto) because most preparations use some sort of meat as a flavoring or starter. One of my favorite pastas as a child is something I still make today, and as I mentioned in an earlier article, it was one of my staples in college when my friends were eating prepackaged prepared foods or takeout. Broccoli spaghetti is quick, easy and cheap, and is perfect for busy families because it’s a pretty good way to get kids to eat vegetables. Two variations are offered, both of which are more traditional to my family but less so for me at this point.
A note about olive oil: you’d have to be living under a rock these days to not know about extra virgin olive oil. Once thought of as exclusive to specialty shops and haute cuisine, EVOO, as one perky television host calls it, is available in supermarkets now. I use it a lot – it’s great for salads and for preparations when you want the piquant, greenish olive flavor to play a role in the dish. BUT, it’s not what you want for this pasta. Used here, EVOO will overpower the other flavors, making the pasta taste…well…oily. You need a serviceable second-pressing olive oil for this recipe – inexpensive, and relatively flavor neutral. My family has always used Tiger brand olive oil, but this isn’t a supermarket brand. If you don’t have access and don’t want to order online, look on the shelf for an olive oil that’s pale and yellowish, rather than the bright green of EVOO. Berio, Bertoli, Colavita and DaVinci are all acceptable brands, and even the Crisco branded olive oil isn’t bad. In a pinch, I suppose you could just use a vegetable oil, but the flavor won’t be the same.
The Recipe:
Broccoli Spaghetti
Serves 4 as a first course
Total prep and cooking time: approx. 40 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb. broccoli
1 lb. spaghetti or other dried pasta (penne works well for a change)
¼ c olive oil, plus more to taste
2 Tbsp. butter
4-6 large cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
red pepper flakes to taste (I use approx. 1 tsp.)
salt and pepper
Wash the broccoli and cut it into very small florets – you want the pieces to be smaller than bite sized. If you’re using broccoli with the large stems attached, peel the woody stems, chop them up and use them as well – the flavor is just as good. You can use frozen broccoli if you want, but it’s not a vegetable I buy frozen – the flavor just isn’t the same. If time is a factor, buy the pre-cut and prewashed broccoli from Costco and cut each piece into four smaller pieces.
Start the water for the pasta; use at least five quarts of water in an eight-quart or larger pot. As I mentioned in the first article of the series, you can’t skimp on this or the pasta will stick.
Heat the olive oil in a 12” skillet over medium low heat, add the red pepper flakes (if you’re using them) and the garlic. I prefer to cut my garlic in a fairly coarse mince and use more cloves, rather than using a press which extracts more of the garlic flavor, because I like the large bits. But, this is personal taste – do what works for you and your family. The garlic should barely sizzle when you add it – if it looks like it’s frying, then your temperature is too high and the garlic will brown, adding an off flavor. Add the broccoli to the pan and toss to coat everything. Leave the heat low and cover the pan, but don’t ignore it – you’ll need to stir or toss every minute or so. The broccoli needs to cook slowly for the 20 minutes or so that it will take for the pasta water to boil and the pasta to cook. You’re looking for a slow, moist braise here, hence the use of the pan lid to keep in some of the steam. If the pan dries out and the broccoli starts to brown, add a tablespoon or two of water (or chicken broth if you have it opened) to keep things moistened. If you want your broccoli to be a little al dente, rather than cooked through, and it’s ready before your pasta is cooked, just turn the pan off and leave it covered – it will be fine.
When the water is at a rolling boil, add salt (about 2 Tbsp.) to flavor the pasta, then add the spaghetti, stirring until the pot comes back to a boil. Prepare the pasta according to the package directions and to your desired doneness. Two notes on cooking pasta: DON’T add oil to the cooking water, or none of the sauces you use will hold on to the pasta – if your pasta sticks when you’re cooking, your pot is too small or you’re not using enough water. Second, DON’T rinse the pasta when you drain it – you’ll rinse away the starch and sauces will taste runny and bland.
When the pasta is done, save 1 c of cooking water (you might need it for the sauce), drain it and add the butter to the still hot cooking pot, swirling to coat the bottom of the pot. Return the pasta to the pot, toss with the butter, then add the broccoli and toss thoroughly. If things seem a little dry to you, you can either add a little of the cooking water back to the pot, or, if you’re feeling extravagant, add more olive oil or butter. Salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!
Variations:
The most traditional version of this recipe is to substitute fresh asparagus, washed and cut into ½” lengths, woody ends discarded. Omit the red pepper flakes for this version, and use more black pepper if desired. Asparagus is starting to drop in price now that Spring is around the corner, so it’s nearly as economical as the broccoli, at least for the next few months; I wouldn’t make this version in the winter when asparagus costs more than steak…
When I was in elementary school, artichokes were pretty weird to most people, and so they were cheap at the grocery store; artichoke hearts make what was my grandfather’s favorite version of this pasta. Use fresh globe artichokes (not canned or frozen), clean them thoroughly and cut the hearts into a medium small dice, cook in the same manner. As with the asparagus, omit the red pepper flakes.
Thoughts on serving this pasta: Like checkered tablecloths and Chianti bottles wrapped in straw, serving grated Parmesan or Romano cheese with all pastas is somewhat of a bastardization of Italian cuisine. A nutty, piquant cheese is a nice flavor compliment to a hearty meat or tomato based sauce, but it totally overpowers a dish like this, so leave the cheese in the fridge for this pasta, please. Finally, though the flavors permeate the entire dish, the broccoli doesn’t usually stick to the pasta and ends up in the bottom of your serving bowl. So, when you’re dishing up, be sure to scoop out a spoonful of broccoli from the bottom to add to each plate.
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
By the time you’re reading this, Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday will have come and gone, Mardi Gras is over, and the season of Lent has begun. Lent, common to most Western Christian traditions, is the season of fasting and repentance prior to Easter. Many Christians “give up” something for Lent, usually something thought of as indulgent, or slightly wicked, say…chocolate, or maybe alcohol. One common tradition of Lent is to not eat meat on Fridays; the Midwest standard Friday Night Fish Fry was one of my favorite things about attending college in Wisconsin!
Italian Catholics like my grandparents are a little more Old School than that – when I was growing up, my family NEVER ate meat on Friday. I’ve never found this to be much of a hardship, because some two of my favorite foods – baccala (salt cod) and squid – were cheap and plentiful when I was a kid, and there was that Fish Fry…
Meatless Fridays also meant that my grandmother had to be creative about the Primi (the first course, usually pasta, polenta or risotto) because most preparations use some sort of meat as a flavoring or starter. One of my favorite pastas as a child is something I still make today, and as I mentioned in an earlier article, it was one of my staples in college when my friends were eating prepackaged prepared foods or takeout. Broccoli spaghetti is quick, easy and cheap, and is perfect for busy families because it’s a pretty good way to get kids to eat vegetables. Two variations are offered, both of which are more traditional to my family but less so for me at this point.
A note about olive oil: you’d have to be living under a rock these days to not know about extra virgin olive oil. Once thought of as exclusive to specialty shops and haute cuisine, EVOO, as one perky television host calls it, is available in supermarkets now. I use it a lot – it’s great for salads and for preparations when you want the piquant, greenish olive flavor to play a role in the dish. BUT, it’s not what you want for this pasta. Used here, EVOO will overpower the other flavors, making the pasta taste…well…oily. You need a serviceable second-pressing olive oil for this recipe – inexpensive, and relatively flavor neutral. My family has always used Tiger brand olive oil, but this isn’t a supermarket brand. If you don’t have access and don’t want to order online, look on the shelf for an olive oil that’s pale and yellowish, rather than the bright green of EVOO. Berio, Bertoli, Colavita and DaVinci are all acceptable brands, and even the Crisco branded olive oil isn’t bad. In a pinch, I suppose you could just use a vegetable oil, but the flavor won’t be the same.
The Recipe:
Broccoli Spaghetti
Serves 4 as a first course
Total prep and cooking time: approx. 40 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb. broccoli
1 lb. spaghetti or other dried pasta (penne works well for a change)
¼ c olive oil, plus more to taste
2 Tbsp. butter
4-6 large cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
red pepper flakes to taste (I use approx. 1 tsp.)
salt and pepper
Wash the broccoli and cut it into very small florets – you want the pieces to be smaller than bite sized. If you’re using broccoli with the large stems attached, peel the woody stems, chop them up and use them as well – the flavor is just as good. You can use frozen broccoli if you want, but it’s not a vegetable I buy frozen – the flavor just isn’t the same. If time is a factor, buy the pre-cut and prewashed broccoli from Costco and cut each piece into four smaller pieces.
Start the water for the pasta; use at least five quarts of water in an eight-quart or larger pot. As I mentioned in the first article of the series, you can’t skimp on this or the pasta will stick.
Heat the olive oil in a 12” skillet over medium low heat, add the red pepper flakes (if you’re using them) and the garlic. I prefer to cut my garlic in a fairly coarse mince and use more cloves, rather than using a press which extracts more of the garlic flavor, because I like the large bits. But, this is personal taste – do what works for you and your family. The garlic should barely sizzle when you add it – if it looks like it’s frying, then your temperature is too high and the garlic will brown, adding an off flavor. Add the broccoli to the pan and toss to coat everything. Leave the heat low and cover the pan, but don’t ignore it – you’ll need to stir or toss every minute or so. The broccoli needs to cook slowly for the 20 minutes or so that it will take for the pasta water to boil and the pasta to cook. You’re looking for a slow, moist braise here, hence the use of the pan lid to keep in some of the steam. If the pan dries out and the broccoli starts to brown, add a tablespoon or two of water (or chicken broth if you have it opened) to keep things moistened. If you want your broccoli to be a little al dente, rather than cooked through, and it’s ready before your pasta is cooked, just turn the pan off and leave it covered – it will be fine.
When the water is at a rolling boil, add salt (about 2 Tbsp.) to flavor the pasta, then add the spaghetti, stirring until the pot comes back to a boil. Prepare the pasta according to the package directions and to your desired doneness. Two notes on cooking pasta: DON’T add oil to the cooking water, or none of the sauces you use will hold on to the pasta – if your pasta sticks when you’re cooking, your pot is too small or you’re not using enough water. Second, DON’T rinse the pasta when you drain it – you’ll rinse away the starch and sauces will taste runny and bland.
When the pasta is done, save 1 c of cooking water (you might need it for the sauce), drain it and add the butter to the still hot cooking pot, swirling to coat the bottom of the pot. Return the pasta to the pot, toss with the butter, then add the broccoli and toss thoroughly. If things seem a little dry to you, you can either add a little of the cooking water back to the pot, or, if you’re feeling extravagant, add more olive oil or butter. Salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!
Variations:
The most traditional version of this recipe is to substitute fresh asparagus, washed and cut into ½” lengths, woody ends discarded. Omit the red pepper flakes for this version, and use more black pepper if desired. Asparagus is starting to drop in price now that Spring is around the corner, so it’s nearly as economical as the broccoli, at least for the next few months; I wouldn’t make this version in the winter when asparagus costs more than steak…
When I was in elementary school, artichokes were pretty weird to most people, and so they were cheap at the grocery store; artichoke hearts make what was my grandfather’s favorite version of this pasta. Use fresh globe artichokes (not canned or frozen), clean them thoroughly and cut the hearts into a medium small dice, cook in the same manner. As with the asparagus, omit the red pepper flakes.
Thoughts on serving this pasta: Like checkered tablecloths and Chianti bottles wrapped in straw, serving grated Parmesan or Romano cheese with all pastas is somewhat of a bastardization of Italian cuisine. A nutty, piquant cheese is a nice flavor compliment to a hearty meat or tomato based sauce, but it totally overpowers a dish like this, so leave the cheese in the fridge for this pasta, please. Finally, though the flavors permeate the entire dish, the broccoli doesn’t usually stick to the pasta and ends up in the bottom of your serving bowl. So, when you’re dishing up, be sure to scoop out a spoonful of broccoli from the bottom to add to each plate.
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Nonna's Kitchen 2 - Chicken Marsala
The Preamble:
I don’t actually know when I learned to cook. I definitely didn’t have any formal training, and I don’t have any specific memories of asking my mother or my grandmother (Nonna) how to do things. And yet somehow, by the time I was away at college, I knew how to make three or four different tomato sauces, a fair risotto, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs and the homemade egg pasta featured in the last issue. I could roast a chicken, and when most of my friends were living on beer and pizza, Ramen noodles and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, my quick go-to dinner was spaghetti with broccoli, a recipe that will appear in the next issue. It was great with cheap beer!
Fast forward twenty years. I’m an adventurous cook now, and I’m always trying new things, swapping ingredients from other cultures into the traditional family recipes I grew up with. Sometimes the results are fantastic, sometimes they’re not, but they’re almost always edible. I suspect the reason for this is that my cooking tends to be more technique-based, rather than closely following a specific recipe. I learned how to do just a few basic techniques, like sautéing, roasting and making basic sauces, and discovered early on that rigidly following a recipe is totally unnecessary. This week’s recipe – Chicken Marsala – is the perfect example of a dish that can become something entirely different just by altering a few of the ingredients. Bear with me; it will all make sense soon enough!
Chicken Marsala is my family’s preferred version of the traditional Italian classic, Veal Scaloppine, where thinly pounded cutlets of veal are quickly sautéed and served with a light sauce. My family stopped eating veal ages ago, when I was in grade school. At the time, I assumed it was because it had become politically incorrect to consume small cows immobilized in tiny pens and stuffed with who knows what to give the appearance of being milk fed veal. In retrospect, I think it was probably because we couldn’t afford to actually buy veal after my Grandpa Vandeberg stopped raising cows. No matter – this entire family of dishes is fantastic with chicken, but you can substitute veal if you prefer it.
You can prepare the chicken for cooking in a number of ways. The traditional method is to start with boneless, skinless chicken breasts that you butterfly open, then cut in half, then pound to ¼” thickness between plastic wrap with a meat mallet. I think this is just waaaay too much trouble. I also think the resulting pieces are too large; I prefer to serve a platter covered with smaller pieces of chicken so each person can choose how much to eat, rather than serving four equally large cutlets. If I’m feeling especially lazy, I’ll buy chicken tenderloins, the little strips of white meat attached to the back of the breast and sold for big bucks. The prep is easy – all you have to do is cut out the little tough little tendon in each piece with a sharp knife, and you’re ready to cook. A less expensive method is to start with boneless, skinless breasts and slice them into ¼” thick cutlets with a sharp knife. I like my cutlets to be about the size of a large potato chip – say, 3” x 4” – but the actual size of the pieces doesn’t really matter, so long as you get things to a consistent thickness.
The Recipe:
Chicken Marsala
Serves 4 as a main course
Total prep and cooking time: approx. 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken breast cutlets, preparation as described above
3T extra virgin olive oil
5T butter, divided
1c Marsala wine
1c flour
1t each Paprika, salt, black pepper
After preparing your chicken cutlets, place the flour in a shallow bowl, add the paprika, salt and pepper and stir with a fork to combine. (You can use any number of spices to season your flour; try thyme or sage, poultry seasoning, Old Bay, whatever you like. I often add cayenne for a little kick – it’s all up to you!)
Melt the olive oil and 3T of the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat, swirl to combine. The butter is for flavor, and the olive oil allows you to cook at a higher temperature without burning; this is especially important so the chicken can brown. Use any pan you wish; I prefer non-stick just because of the ease, but stainless is fine, as is cast iron. Dredge the chicken cutlets in flour, shake to remove the excess and sauté 2-3 minutes on each side, cooking in batches so that the pan is not too crowded. Don’t overcook, or the result will be tough and stringy – the cutlets need to be just barely cooked through at this point. Remove from the pan and keep warm while the rest of the chicken cooks – I put mine on a platter in the oven at 275 degrees. Repeat until all of the chicken is cooked. PLEASE, don’t try and do this with less fat, or with cooking spray to coat the pan – the result will be dry, floury and unappetizing. As a matter of fact, you’ll probably need to add a tablespoon or two of oil to the pan for the later batches to keep it from sticking.
When all of the chicken is cooked and warming in the oven, turn the heat under the pan to high and pour in the marsala. Bring to a boil, using a wooden spoon to scrape all the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan. Reduce by half, so the remaining marsala has the consistency of maple syrup – this will take a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining 2T of butter to the pan, swirling to incorporate. (This gives the sauce a nice shine and a rich flavor.) When the butter is mixed in, return all of the chicken to the pan, turning so each piece is coated in the sauce. Cook the chicken in the sauce for 2-3 minutes or to desired doneness, turn it out on a serving platter and enjoy! Serve with the egg pasta from the last issue (make a fresh batch, please!) and vegetables and salad of your choice.
Variations:
The beauty of this recipe is that it is a basic template for an unlimited number of dishes. If you follow the basic technique of sautéing the chicken, then deglazing the pan with liquid to make a sauce, you can create just about anything! Here are some suggestions:
1) Substitute sweet Vermouth, sherry or white wine for the Marsala for a slightly different flavor.
2) While the chicken is cooking, sauté 2c sliced mushrooms in a separate pan with 1T butter or oil and some fresh thyme. After deglazing the chicken pan with Marsala, omit the 2T butter and instead add 1/2c cream or half and half, reduce to desired thickness, then toss with the mushrooms and chicken, garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
3) Chicken Piccata: After the chicken is cooked and warming in the oven, sauté one finely minced shallot and 2T rinsed capers in the pan for three minutes. Substitute the juice of one lemon and 1/2c chicken stock for the Marsala, cook to reduce before swirling in the butter, then toss with the chicken and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
4) Replace the Marsala with diced fresh tomatoes and minced garlic, garnish with fresh basil.
5) Replace the paprika in the seasoned flour with smoked paprika or ground chipotle, sauté 1 finely diced jalapeno pepper in the pan before deglazing with tequila and fresh lime juice. Not Italian, but awesome!
6) Use your imagination! Replace the Marsala with chicken broth, then add flavorings of your choice – sun dried tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini and pistachios all work quite well, as will just about anything else you try. Have fun with this…
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
I don’t actually know when I learned to cook. I definitely didn’t have any formal training, and I don’t have any specific memories of asking my mother or my grandmother (Nonna) how to do things. And yet somehow, by the time I was away at college, I knew how to make three or four different tomato sauces, a fair risotto, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs and the homemade egg pasta featured in the last issue. I could roast a chicken, and when most of my friends were living on beer and pizza, Ramen noodles and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, my quick go-to dinner was spaghetti with broccoli, a recipe that will appear in the next issue. It was great with cheap beer!
Fast forward twenty years. I’m an adventurous cook now, and I’m always trying new things, swapping ingredients from other cultures into the traditional family recipes I grew up with. Sometimes the results are fantastic, sometimes they’re not, but they’re almost always edible. I suspect the reason for this is that my cooking tends to be more technique-based, rather than closely following a specific recipe. I learned how to do just a few basic techniques, like sautéing, roasting and making basic sauces, and discovered early on that rigidly following a recipe is totally unnecessary. This week’s recipe – Chicken Marsala – is the perfect example of a dish that can become something entirely different just by altering a few of the ingredients. Bear with me; it will all make sense soon enough!
Chicken Marsala is my family’s preferred version of the traditional Italian classic, Veal Scaloppine, where thinly pounded cutlets of veal are quickly sautéed and served with a light sauce. My family stopped eating veal ages ago, when I was in grade school. At the time, I assumed it was because it had become politically incorrect to consume small cows immobilized in tiny pens and stuffed with who knows what to give the appearance of being milk fed veal. In retrospect, I think it was probably because we couldn’t afford to actually buy veal after my Grandpa Vandeberg stopped raising cows. No matter – this entire family of dishes is fantastic with chicken, but you can substitute veal if you prefer it.
You can prepare the chicken for cooking in a number of ways. The traditional method is to start with boneless, skinless chicken breasts that you butterfly open, then cut in half, then pound to ¼” thickness between plastic wrap with a meat mallet. I think this is just waaaay too much trouble. I also think the resulting pieces are too large; I prefer to serve a platter covered with smaller pieces of chicken so each person can choose how much to eat, rather than serving four equally large cutlets. If I’m feeling especially lazy, I’ll buy chicken tenderloins, the little strips of white meat attached to the back of the breast and sold for big bucks. The prep is easy – all you have to do is cut out the little tough little tendon in each piece with a sharp knife, and you’re ready to cook. A less expensive method is to start with boneless, skinless breasts and slice them into ¼” thick cutlets with a sharp knife. I like my cutlets to be about the size of a large potato chip – say, 3” x 4” – but the actual size of the pieces doesn’t really matter, so long as you get things to a consistent thickness.
The Recipe:
Chicken Marsala
Serves 4 as a main course
Total prep and cooking time: approx. 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken breast cutlets, preparation as described above
3T extra virgin olive oil
5T butter, divided
1c Marsala wine
1c flour
1t each Paprika, salt, black pepper
After preparing your chicken cutlets, place the flour in a shallow bowl, add the paprika, salt and pepper and stir with a fork to combine. (You can use any number of spices to season your flour; try thyme or sage, poultry seasoning, Old Bay, whatever you like. I often add cayenne for a little kick – it’s all up to you!)
Melt the olive oil and 3T of the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat, swirl to combine. The butter is for flavor, and the olive oil allows you to cook at a higher temperature without burning; this is especially important so the chicken can brown. Use any pan you wish; I prefer non-stick just because of the ease, but stainless is fine, as is cast iron. Dredge the chicken cutlets in flour, shake to remove the excess and sauté 2-3 minutes on each side, cooking in batches so that the pan is not too crowded. Don’t overcook, or the result will be tough and stringy – the cutlets need to be just barely cooked through at this point. Remove from the pan and keep warm while the rest of the chicken cooks – I put mine on a platter in the oven at 275 degrees. Repeat until all of the chicken is cooked. PLEASE, don’t try and do this with less fat, or with cooking spray to coat the pan – the result will be dry, floury and unappetizing. As a matter of fact, you’ll probably need to add a tablespoon or two of oil to the pan for the later batches to keep it from sticking.
When all of the chicken is cooked and warming in the oven, turn the heat under the pan to high and pour in the marsala. Bring to a boil, using a wooden spoon to scrape all the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan. Reduce by half, so the remaining marsala has the consistency of maple syrup – this will take a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining 2T of butter to the pan, swirling to incorporate. (This gives the sauce a nice shine and a rich flavor.) When the butter is mixed in, return all of the chicken to the pan, turning so each piece is coated in the sauce. Cook the chicken in the sauce for 2-3 minutes or to desired doneness, turn it out on a serving platter and enjoy! Serve with the egg pasta from the last issue (make a fresh batch, please!) and vegetables and salad of your choice.
Variations:
The beauty of this recipe is that it is a basic template for an unlimited number of dishes. If you follow the basic technique of sautéing the chicken, then deglazing the pan with liquid to make a sauce, you can create just about anything! Here are some suggestions:
1) Substitute sweet Vermouth, sherry or white wine for the Marsala for a slightly different flavor.
2) While the chicken is cooking, sauté 2c sliced mushrooms in a separate pan with 1T butter or oil and some fresh thyme. After deglazing the chicken pan with Marsala, omit the 2T butter and instead add 1/2c cream or half and half, reduce to desired thickness, then toss with the mushrooms and chicken, garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
3) Chicken Piccata: After the chicken is cooked and warming in the oven, sauté one finely minced shallot and 2T rinsed capers in the pan for three minutes. Substitute the juice of one lemon and 1/2c chicken stock for the Marsala, cook to reduce before swirling in the butter, then toss with the chicken and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
4) Replace the Marsala with diced fresh tomatoes and minced garlic, garnish with fresh basil.
5) Replace the paprika in the seasoned flour with smoked paprika or ground chipotle, sauté 1 finely diced jalapeno pepper in the pan before deglazing with tequila and fresh lime juice. Not Italian, but awesome!
6) Use your imagination! Replace the Marsala with chicken broth, then add flavorings of your choice – sun dried tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini and pistachios all work quite well, as will just about anything else you try. Have fun with this…
Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!
Nonna's Kitchen 1 - Fresh Egg Pasta
The Preamble:
I miss the food articles in the Journal. For as long as I can remember, I’ve consumed recipes in all formats, from cookbooks, foodie magazines, newspaper columns like the ones that used to run here, and more recently, from blogs and articles on the internet. In reality, I actually try just a tiny fraction of the recipes I read, but I’m fascinated by the way flavors combine, and I love to incorporate that into my own food world. I’m particularly fond of comfort foods from all cultures, and I think that’s what I do best – comfort food. I asked Jan if she’d be interested in printing stories and recipes from my family, and she was willing to give it a shot, so here we go!
First things first – clearly, “Vandeberg” is not an Italian name, so the title of the article might throw you. My father’s heritage is largely English and Dutch, but my mother’s family came from Italy, and if you’ve lived in Western Montana for long, you might actually know of them. My grandparents, Alfredo and Ann Cipolato – Nonno and Nonna to me – owned and operated the Broadway Market in Missoula from 1957 to 2004, when my grandfather decided at 93 years old that he was finally tired of working. The Cipolatos were (and still are) famous for having brought the tastes and ingredients of Italy to Western Montana; I still hear stories of folks who used to make regular pilgrimages from Whitefish, from Dillon, from Butte to Missoula just to go to the Broadway Market. Whether you wanted a special wine, Parmigano-Reggiano, real Prosciutto di Parma, or salty black olives scooped from the 50 gallon wooden barrel behind the deli counter, you could always find those things and just about any other ingredient necessary to complete your Italian feast.
So, that’s my pedigree. What’s my plan? I want to share recipes that are special to my family, and to try and keep things somewhat seasonal, so that the articles essentially track what we would be eating during the time of year that you’re reading. Like many cultures, Italian food is very regional, and there are probably as many different recipes for a dish like lasagna as there are ways to make a hamburger in the United States. My grandfather was born and raised in Venice, meaning that butter was more prevalent than olive oil, risotto and polenta were served more often than pasta, and fish was the primary protein source. My grandmother’s family came from San Marino, a principality in Italy near the Emilia Romagna region, so her cuisine consists more of egg pastas, meat sauces, beef, lamb and cured meats like Prosciutto. My cooking incorporates both of those, and adds a dash of Sicily and Calabria because of my love of all things hot and spicy. I certainly don’t claim what you read here will be definitive, just authentic to my family.
A few more things bear mentioning before the inaugural recipe. First of all, I almost never measure when I cook. I learned by rough amounts – a handful of breadcrumbs, a lump of butter, garlic and cheese to taste, etc. Next – I seldom add salt to my food. My father was a bit of a health fanatic in the 70s, so my taste buds are attuned to meals with little or no salt. I’m going to make every effort to give accurate measurements where necessary, but please understand that with my style of cooking, things are really quite flexible. If you find something to be a bit bland, by all means, season at the table and remember to add salt when you’re cooking next time. Add more or less garlic, throw in a few red pepper flakes, switch out basil for oregano, do whatever you like to tailor these dishes to your family’s palate. Realize that these recipes are intended as a framework, and often are basically a cooking style that can be changed in any number of ways to make a completely different dish. Finally, my grandmother raised five children while working in a grocery store that was open late into the evening, so the vast majority of these recipes aren’t fussy or difficult, except for some of the special holiday foods. Most things can be thrown together quickly, certainly within an hour, so that dinner can be ready in a hurry without coming from a box. Mangia, mangia, fatte grande! (Roughly: Eat, eat, grow big!)
The First Recipe:
Fresh Egg Pasta
Serves 4 as a first course
Fresh pasta has always been a huge treat in my family. The ingredients are simple, but the basic dough can be turned into everything from simple noodles like tagliatelle to complex filled pastas like ravioli, cappelletti and cannelloni. My mother still rolls out her pasta by hand on a wooden table with a rolling pin my father cut from a shovel handle shortly after they were married. The rolling is the real work, and it’s one of the reasons that we have always eaten much more dried pasta from a box than fresh. I can roll it by hand, but I never do anymore. A manual pasta machine works quite well, but I ponied up for the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer a few years back, and my life hasn’t been the same ever since! Start to finish, fresh pasta in an hour!
Ingredients:
1 scant cup of unbleached white flour, plus extra for dusting
2 large eggs
That’s it! No salt, no oil, no semolina, no water. Every cookbook has a different recipe for egg pasta, and I’ve never tried them because this works, every time. Mound the flour onto a large wooden cutting board or directly onto your counter, and make a well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the well, break the yolks with a fork and then stir with the fork to slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs. If you’re careful and you don’t break the walls of the flour mound, this is a pretty neat process. When you’ve got a mostly cohesive mass, flour your hands and the work surface, then knead the dough, just like bread, for a minute or two, just until it’s smooth and homogenous. Cover the dough with a bowl and let it rest for 20-30 minutes so the glutens can form.
Cut off a piece of dough roughly the size of an egg, flatten to a disk and roll with a pasta machine, starting with the largest setting. After the first pass, fold the dough in half and pass it through again. Repeat six times – this helps the dough to develop elasticity and stay together when cooking -- then start reducing the thickness of the dough, one setting at a time. If your dough looks striated or cracked as is passes through the rollers, fold and pass through that setting again before proceeding. When you have the dough rolled to the desired thickness (I go to the smallest setting on my machine), use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to cut the pasta sheet into strips roughly ½” wide, lay them out on a floured surface (a cookie sheet is fine) and move on to the next piece. Don’t worry about perfectly straight lines, ruffled edges or uneven pieces. It’s rustic, and it will all taste great!
When all the pasta is rolled, cook for 3-5 minutes in a large pot of salted, boiling water. Use at least an 8 quart pot with 5 quarts of water – pasta will stick together if the pot is too crowded. Bring the water to a rolling boil, toss in a tablespoon or two of kosher salt, then add the pasta, stirring gently to keep it from clumping. When the pasta is cooked to desired doneness (it will float when it’s done, and should be al dente – cooked through, but not soft) drain it and then toss immediately with your choice of sauce. DO NOT rinse the pasta with cold water, and please, don’t serve it in a mound with sauce poured on top. Both of these will give you a lump of sticky pasta that’s difficult to eat. There’s also no need to add olive oil to the cooking water or to the cooked pasta after draining – both will prevent the sauce from sticking to the pasta.
My favorite sauce recipe will come in a few weeks, but for this pasta, the easiest sauce is also by far my favorite. Throw a few tablespoons of butter into the cooking pot immediately after you drain the pasta so that the residual heat starts to melt it. Return the pasta to the pot, add a handful of chopped parsley and toss gently to coat. Salt and pepper to taste, then devour! Bon appetit!
I miss the food articles in the Journal. For as long as I can remember, I’ve consumed recipes in all formats, from cookbooks, foodie magazines, newspaper columns like the ones that used to run here, and more recently, from blogs and articles on the internet. In reality, I actually try just a tiny fraction of the recipes I read, but I’m fascinated by the way flavors combine, and I love to incorporate that into my own food world. I’m particularly fond of comfort foods from all cultures, and I think that’s what I do best – comfort food. I asked Jan if she’d be interested in printing stories and recipes from my family, and she was willing to give it a shot, so here we go!
First things first – clearly, “Vandeberg” is not an Italian name, so the title of the article might throw you. My father’s heritage is largely English and Dutch, but my mother’s family came from Italy, and if you’ve lived in Western Montana for long, you might actually know of them. My grandparents, Alfredo and Ann Cipolato – Nonno and Nonna to me – owned and operated the Broadway Market in Missoula from 1957 to 2004, when my grandfather decided at 93 years old that he was finally tired of working. The Cipolatos were (and still are) famous for having brought the tastes and ingredients of Italy to Western Montana; I still hear stories of folks who used to make regular pilgrimages from Whitefish, from Dillon, from Butte to Missoula just to go to the Broadway Market. Whether you wanted a special wine, Parmigano-Reggiano, real Prosciutto di Parma, or salty black olives scooped from the 50 gallon wooden barrel behind the deli counter, you could always find those things and just about any other ingredient necessary to complete your Italian feast.
So, that’s my pedigree. What’s my plan? I want to share recipes that are special to my family, and to try and keep things somewhat seasonal, so that the articles essentially track what we would be eating during the time of year that you’re reading. Like many cultures, Italian food is very regional, and there are probably as many different recipes for a dish like lasagna as there are ways to make a hamburger in the United States. My grandfather was born and raised in Venice, meaning that butter was more prevalent than olive oil, risotto and polenta were served more often than pasta, and fish was the primary protein source. My grandmother’s family came from San Marino, a principality in Italy near the Emilia Romagna region, so her cuisine consists more of egg pastas, meat sauces, beef, lamb and cured meats like Prosciutto. My cooking incorporates both of those, and adds a dash of Sicily and Calabria because of my love of all things hot and spicy. I certainly don’t claim what you read here will be definitive, just authentic to my family.
A few more things bear mentioning before the inaugural recipe. First of all, I almost never measure when I cook. I learned by rough amounts – a handful of breadcrumbs, a lump of butter, garlic and cheese to taste, etc. Next – I seldom add salt to my food. My father was a bit of a health fanatic in the 70s, so my taste buds are attuned to meals with little or no salt. I’m going to make every effort to give accurate measurements where necessary, but please understand that with my style of cooking, things are really quite flexible. If you find something to be a bit bland, by all means, season at the table and remember to add salt when you’re cooking next time. Add more or less garlic, throw in a few red pepper flakes, switch out basil for oregano, do whatever you like to tailor these dishes to your family’s palate. Realize that these recipes are intended as a framework, and often are basically a cooking style that can be changed in any number of ways to make a completely different dish. Finally, my grandmother raised five children while working in a grocery store that was open late into the evening, so the vast majority of these recipes aren’t fussy or difficult, except for some of the special holiday foods. Most things can be thrown together quickly, certainly within an hour, so that dinner can be ready in a hurry without coming from a box. Mangia, mangia, fatte grande! (Roughly: Eat, eat, grow big!)
The First Recipe:
Fresh Egg Pasta
Serves 4 as a first course
Fresh pasta has always been a huge treat in my family. The ingredients are simple, but the basic dough can be turned into everything from simple noodles like tagliatelle to complex filled pastas like ravioli, cappelletti and cannelloni. My mother still rolls out her pasta by hand on a wooden table with a rolling pin my father cut from a shovel handle shortly after they were married. The rolling is the real work, and it’s one of the reasons that we have always eaten much more dried pasta from a box than fresh. I can roll it by hand, but I never do anymore. A manual pasta machine works quite well, but I ponied up for the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer a few years back, and my life hasn’t been the same ever since! Start to finish, fresh pasta in an hour!
Ingredients:
1 scant cup of unbleached white flour, plus extra for dusting
2 large eggs
That’s it! No salt, no oil, no semolina, no water. Every cookbook has a different recipe for egg pasta, and I’ve never tried them because this works, every time. Mound the flour onto a large wooden cutting board or directly onto your counter, and make a well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the well, break the yolks with a fork and then stir with the fork to slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs. If you’re careful and you don’t break the walls of the flour mound, this is a pretty neat process. When you’ve got a mostly cohesive mass, flour your hands and the work surface, then knead the dough, just like bread, for a minute or two, just until it’s smooth and homogenous. Cover the dough with a bowl and let it rest for 20-30 minutes so the glutens can form.
Cut off a piece of dough roughly the size of an egg, flatten to a disk and roll with a pasta machine, starting with the largest setting. After the first pass, fold the dough in half and pass it through again. Repeat six times – this helps the dough to develop elasticity and stay together when cooking -- then start reducing the thickness of the dough, one setting at a time. If your dough looks striated or cracked as is passes through the rollers, fold and pass through that setting again before proceeding. When you have the dough rolled to the desired thickness (I go to the smallest setting on my machine), use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to cut the pasta sheet into strips roughly ½” wide, lay them out on a floured surface (a cookie sheet is fine) and move on to the next piece. Don’t worry about perfectly straight lines, ruffled edges or uneven pieces. It’s rustic, and it will all taste great!
When all the pasta is rolled, cook for 3-5 minutes in a large pot of salted, boiling water. Use at least an 8 quart pot with 5 quarts of water – pasta will stick together if the pot is too crowded. Bring the water to a rolling boil, toss in a tablespoon or two of kosher salt, then add the pasta, stirring gently to keep it from clumping. When the pasta is cooked to desired doneness (it will float when it’s done, and should be al dente – cooked through, but not soft) drain it and then toss immediately with your choice of sauce. DO NOT rinse the pasta with cold water, and please, don’t serve it in a mound with sauce poured on top. Both of these will give you a lump of sticky pasta that’s difficult to eat. There’s also no need to add olive oil to the cooking water or to the cooked pasta after draining – both will prevent the sauce from sticking to the pasta.
My favorite sauce recipe will come in a few weeks, but for this pasta, the easiest sauce is also by far my favorite. Throw a few tablespoons of butter into the cooking pot immediately after you drain the pasta so that the residual heat starts to melt it. Return the pasta to the pot, add a handful of chopped parsley and toss gently to coat. Salt and pepper to taste, then devour! Bon appetit!
An introduction to Nonna's Kitchen
I've had a bug in my head for over a year now, a little tickle that has developed into a strong desire to write a biography about my maternal grandparents. Ann and Alfredo Cipolato ran the Broadway Market in Missoula, Montana from 1957 until 2004, supplying authentic Italian ingredients to Montanans in the days before mail order and Amazon. When I was a kid, people used to travel for literally hours to come to the Broadway Market for olive oil, Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano that didn't come in a green cardboard can. My grandparents have lived rich, interesting lives, and their stories deserve to be told.
Until I'm able to actually sit down and work on the book, I've come up with a temporary fix. For a few months now, I've been sharing some of my family's recipes and our history in a series of articles entitled Nonna's Kitchen - Italian Comfort Food. The articles appear in a local biweekly free newspaper here in Bigfork, Montana - The Lakeshore Country Journal. I have had lots of great compliments and comments on the recipes, and several people have asked how to share back issues with their friends and family, as the paper does not have an online presence. So, that's what this blog is for - reprints of the articles. New posts will appear every other week. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I am enjoying writing!
Until I'm able to actually sit down and work on the book, I've come up with a temporary fix. For a few months now, I've been sharing some of my family's recipes and our history in a series of articles entitled Nonna's Kitchen - Italian Comfort Food. The articles appear in a local biweekly free newspaper here in Bigfork, Montana - The Lakeshore Country Journal. I have had lots of great compliments and comments on the recipes, and several people have asked how to share back issues with their friends and family, as the paper does not have an online presence. So, that's what this blog is for - reprints of the articles. New posts will appear every other week. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I am enjoying writing!
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