La Cucina Italiana - De Italiaanse Keuken - The Italian Kitchen

Today’s recipe is another in a series celebrating the Spring harvest. Thus far, we’ve prepared dishes that included artichokes, asparagus, and ramps. Today, I’m going to share a recipe that comes from Lazio, Rome’s district, and that features freshly shelled peas and prosciutto in a cheese-flavored cream sauce. And if that hasn’t grabbed your attention, the pasta’s two colors surely will. This dish, you see, is named after the pasta used to make it, but calling it “Giallo e Verde”, “Yellow & Green”, would be so not Italian. As I’ve mentioned in the past, when it comes to naming pasta, the Italians have always let their imaginations run wild — and this pasta is no different. Here, it’s not yellow pasta but straw, paglia, while the green pasta is hay, fieno. Ready in minutes, Paglia e Fieno is another great tasting pasta to add to your arsenal, whether served as a primo piatto or main course.

Paglia e Fieno Recipe - Ingredients

The combination of the sweat pear and the sharp pecorino, along with a little creamy mascarpone to hold it together, is amazing. There's a little bite because of the pears, and the salty pecorino is very satisfying. You toss with butter, water, pepper, and more pecorino and you probably won't have any leftovers. If you want to skip the pasta making, you can do it with wanton wrappers.

Ingredients:
Pasta:
4 eggs
5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
(I made extra to make noodles for dinner another night)

Filling:
1 bartlett pear, peeled and cored
8 oz pecorino cheese, grated
2 tbsp mascarpone

6 tbsp butter
3/4 cup finely grated pecorino
freshly ground black pepper

semolina flour

Click for directions

Sweet peas have arrived at the farmers market, spring is here! Peas & pancetta - one of my favorite dishes that I only eat in Spring when the peas are bright & fresh. I can't get enough, I don't know if it's the peas or the pancetta - is it the green veggie or the fatty pork that I love so?! Maybe I should just have another spoonful...

Ingredients

serves 4
12 oz or 330 gr of fresh shelled sweet peas, rinsed
4 oz or 100 gr pancetta, bacon or guanciale, cured pig’s cheek (omit if vegetarian)
1 small onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic
2-3 cherry tomatoes, halved
spoonful red wine vinegar
small handful parsley, chopped
tiny bit of mint, chopped (optional)
salt & pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Directions - click here

Ingredients
4 cups water
1 lemon, zested
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 pinch salt
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup ricotta
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Extra-virgin olive oil, for frying
Confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Directions
In a large pot, bring 4 cups water to a boil with the lemon zest and cinnamon stick.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and a pinch of salt. Carefully pour the boiling water into the mixing bowl with the flour mixture. Once all the water has been added, use a wooden spoon to mix the flour and water until it has the consistency of thick oatmeal. Let the mixture cool at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Mix the eggs into the flour 1 at a time, waiting until fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the baking soda, ricotta and sugar and whisk together. Add the liquid mixture to the cooled flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until the egg mixture is incorporated throughout the flour mixture. This may take a few minutes.

In a 12-inch frying pan, heat 4 cups olive oil over a medium-high flame until hot but not smoking, about 375 degrees F. Working in batches, drop the flour mixture by the tablespoonful into the hot oil. Turn rounds once so that they are golden on each side. As soon as a little fritter is lightly golden, remove from the pan and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Work until all the frittelletti mixture has been used, adding more olive oil to the pan if necessary. Serve hot with a dusting of confectioners' sugar.

In all central Italy is common, in many restaurants, to use a roaring fireplace to grill steaks, chops, chicken, sausages and these simple rib lamb chops, bathed with an olive oil and garlic marinade brushed onto them with rosemary branches. The crisp, brown chops are best when eaten sizzling hot off the fire, so the Italians call them scottadito, meaning "burned fingers."

Chef Rob Gregorini was born and raised in Sudbury but learned rustic Italian cooking from both grandmothers, who are from the regions of Umbria and Marche. He makes “an interpretation of a classic Central Italian” porketta at his fast food spot, Vespa Street Kitchen. He has streamlined the recipe for us.

The preparation and serving of trippa that I am about to present is in the style of Le Marche (alla Marchigiana). Today’s recipe is pretty much the same as Nonna prepared, save 2 exceptions. The first, and easiest to explain, is that I use instant polenta and I don’t know if the product was even available when Nonna was fixing me a plate. The second exception has to deal with a basic of Italian cooking. Most, if not all, of the Mediterranean countries begin many of their sauces, stews, and, well, just about anything, with a mixture of diced green pepper, celery, and onion. In Italy, this is called a soffrito and it is sautéed in olive oil at the very start of many dishes, just as is done in France (mirepoix) or in Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean (sofrito) where the ingredients may vary a bit...

Trippa alla Stefanina Recipe

Ingredients

5 lbs honeycomb tripe
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 lb pancetta, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, separated
4 garlic cloves, diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 large can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
1 small onion, whole & studded with 5 – 6 whole cloves
1 tbsp marjoram
salt & pepper, to taste
grated Pecorino Romano cheese for serving

Click for Directions

Although the French and Italians consider themselves truffle con­noisseurs, it was the Egyptians who first dis­covered the delights of consuming them. 

The Greeks and Ro­mans believed so ardent­ly in their aphrodisiac powers they dedicated them to Venus, goddess of love, giving rise to the ancient saying that “those who wish to lead virtuous lives must ab­stain from truffles.”

Truffles may win ac­colades in the taste cat­egory but only the most scrupulous gourmand is willing to overlook its ugly appearance. 

TRUFFLED PATE

INGREDIENTS

1,5 pounds fresh pork fat

1 pound lean boneless veal

1 pound boneless pork shoulder

0,5 pound best-quality ham

0,25 pound tongue

4 chicken breast halves, boned, skinned and trimmed

1 pound chicken livers

4 eggs

0,5 cup cognac

0,5 cup chopped black truffles

0,5 cup pistachio nuts

4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon allspice

0,5 teaspoon cinnamon

0,25 teaspoon ground cloves

0,5 cup flour

Click for directions

In many parts of Italy people are immensely proud of their thrifty food traditions and they have managed to invest an awful lot of great taste in project. Pasta and beans

Ingredients
400 g of boiled beans (white beans, chickpeas or – as in this case – cicerchie)
100 g pancetta or bacon
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
10 dried tomatoes
Fresh rosemary, salt and pepper
300 ml meat stock
300 g pasta (preferably ditaloni but here it is cavatappi “corkscrews”)

Preparation

Click on the photo

Among species belonging to marine fauna of Ancona area there is a characteristic shellfish named “crocetta” (lit. “little cross”). The crocetta, whose Italian name is “garagolo”, is a shellfish belonging to the family of gasteropod. Once fished, the crocette need of an elaborated and patient procedure determining their cost and difficulty to find them out. In fact, in order to make them edible there is the necessity to “break their spouts”, i.e. eliminating either their lateral and bottom sides. Because of their shell hardness, that operation is done by means of pincers. Once broken their spouts, they have to be generously washed using water and vinegar, in order to starve them from slime (in practise it is the same procedure as for common land snails). You can taste raw, lemon added or simply prepared “in porchetta” crocette. Click on the photo for the recipe

During the snow storm of the century in Central Italy, I can't think of a better way to warm up than devouring a plate of rich & creamy pasta with a good bottle of red after a day of shoveling the drive. Perfect for a cold winter's night, lasagna bianco, 'white lasagna' is made with porcini mushrooms, sausages & bechamel, a local classic in northern Le Marche. A refined take on the usual red sauce classic, that will have your mouthwatering for more after the first bite.

Extra Delicious Tip: Make sure to have your pasta sheets large enough to hang over the edges creating golden crispy edges!

Lasagna Bianco -White Lasagna

serves 6
1 recipe of egg pasta or 4 sheets of fresh pasta
1 recipe of béchamel sauce
8 oz. sausage meat (250 gr)
2 cloves garlic, whole, peeled
2 big handfuls (about 2 cups) chopped mushrooms (we use porcini, chanertelle and other local wild mushrooms)
small handful of chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
salt & pepper to taste...

Roasting skin-on pork belly that's been wrapped around a pork loin gives you the best of both worlds: crackling mahogany crust and juicy meat seasoned with fennel, chile, and orange. Start at least 24 hours ahead. First, ask your butcher for a skin-on pork belly that’s just long and wide enough to wrap around a trimmed, center-cut pork loin...

Italians know how to celebrate Christmas Eve! Tradition holds that no meat should be consumed on Christmas Eve (vigilia di Natale), so Italians eat seafood.

Another recipe of this fantastic Le Marche dish. In this case is possible to appreciate the pictures that explain the crucial passages of the preparation. Buon Appetito