Category — Recipes

Some time ago, a food writer friend who is also a restaurant critic came for dinner.  It was winter and I had prepared a hearty meal including cauliflower gratineed with browned butter and Parmigiano- Reggiano.   As soon as he arrived, my friend went straight to the kitchen to check out what I was cooking.  He oohed and ahed over the homemade cavatelli, and practically drooled at the sight of the fennel dusted roast pork and ribs sizzling in the oven.  But the cauliflower stopped him in his tracks.  ”I hate cauliflower”, he announced with a long face.  I must admit, that stopped me in my tracks!   I happen to love cauliflower in all its forms, so it never occured to me that anybody might not.  How could anyone not like cauliflower, I said.  But he had had a traumatic encounter with it when he was a kid and wouldn’t even consider trying my version.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have much patience with picky eaters.  I’m not talking about people who can’t eat something for whatever reason (and I really appreciate it if they let me know BEFORE they come for dinner).  But why single out a great vegetable like cauliflower to avoid?  Think of all the things you can make with it:  toss it with whole wheat orecchiette and bacon (the recipe is in my book Fresh Taste of Italy), braise it with black olives and garlic (1,000 Italian Recipes), or coat it with eggs, cheese and breadcrumbs and fry it until crisp (The Antipasto Table).  I also find that it is one of the best vegetables to cook in a slow cooker.   And do I need to tell you how full of anti-oxidants it is, and how low cal?  That’s why I formed the Cauliflower Defense League, whose sole purpose is to encourage the enjoyment of more cauliflower.

Take for example the creamy cauliflower soup I made this week in my slow cooker.  It was incredibly simple and so good.  I had a little jar of golden-hued wild whitefish caviar in the refrigerator, so I decided to garnish the soup the way the way I had had it in Paris last year, with a spoonful of caviar in the center and a sprinkle of chopped chives.   I loved the way the sweet, creamy soup contrasted with the salty cool caviar.   If you don’t want to go for the caviar, serve the soup with crumbled blue cheese, or grated Parmigiano, or leave it plain and enjoy it as is.

I hope you will do yourself a favor and join my Cauliflower Defense League.  Our slogan is Eat Cauliflower and Enjoy!

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Caviar

Serves 6

1 large cauliflower, about 2-1/2 pounds, trimmed

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

4 cups chicken broth

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream

Caviar and fresh chives (optional)

Cut the cauliflower into 1-inch pieces and discard the tough stems.  Place the caulflower in a large slow cooker with the onion and chicken broth and salt and pepper to taste. If necessary add a little water to just cover the cauliflower.

Cover and cook on low 5 hours or until the cauliflower is very soft.  Transfer the cauliflower to a blender and puree until smooth.  Taste for seasoning.  Add the heavy cream.  Serve hot, plain or garnished with caviar.

Candied orange zest and citron?  Check.  Orange flower water? Check.  Skinless wheat berries?  Check.  I’ve even got a fresh package of ground cinnamon, a bag of sugar and another of flour.

Easter is just a few days away, so it is time to start getting ready for holiday baking.    As we have done in the past, my niece Amy and I will get together to make La Pastiera, or as my mom called it, Pizza Gran.  For the second time Christine, my nephew’s girlfriend, will join us, too, and we will have a lot of fun baking, eating, laughing, and catching up on the latest family goings on.  Here is a photo of one of last year’s pies.

All I have left to buy are the fresh ingredients including the eggs, ricotta and oranges.  The recipe we use is the one my mother taught me, that she learned from my father’s mother who came from Procida, an island off the coast of Naples.  I had to cut it down somewhat from the original which my grandmother baked in a pan 15 inches wide by 6 inches deep (I still have it), but I know I got it right because it takes just like the pastiera I have eaten in Naples.  The good ones, that is!

I published the recipe on this blog last year, but here it is again.  You can also find it in my book 1,000 Italian Recipes.  If you do make it, send me a photo, I would love to see it.  Buona Pasqua!

LA PASTIERA

Easter Wheat Cheesecake

Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

2 teaspoons orange-flower water

Filling

4 ounces hulled wheat (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 pound (2 cups) whole or part-skim ricotta

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons orange-flower water

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup very finely chopped candied citron

1/2 cup very finely chopped candied orange peel

Confectioner’s sugar

1. Prepare the dough: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, and salt.

2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and confectioner’s sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and yolks and beat until smooth. Beat in the orange-flower water. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended, about 1 minute more.

3. Shape one-quarter of the dough into a disk. Make a second disk with the remaining dough. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour up to overnight.

4. Prepare the filling: Place the wheat in a large bowl, add cold water to cover, and let soak overnight in the refrigerator. Drain the wheat.

5. Place the soaked wheat in a medium saucepan with cold water to cover. Add the salt and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the wheat is tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain, and place in a large bowl. Stir in the butter and orange zest. Let cool.

6. Place the rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350[dg]F. Grease and flour a 9 [ts] 3[nd]inch springform pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta, eggs, sugar, orange-flower water, and cinnamon. Beat until blended. Stir in the wheat mixture, citron, and candied orange peel.

7. Roll out the larger piece of dough to a 16-inch circle. Drape the dough over the rolling pin. Using the pin to lift it, fit the dough into the pan, flattening out any wrinkles against the inside of the pan. Scrape the filling onto the dough and smooth the top.

8. Roll out the smaller piece of dough to a 10-inch circle. With a fluted pastry cutter, cut the dough into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Lay the strips across the filling in a lattice pattern. Press the ends of the strips against the dough on the sides of the pan. Trim the dough, leaving 1/2 inch of excess all around the rim, and fold the edge of the crust over the ends of the lattice strips. Press firmly to seal.

9. Bake 1 hour 10 minutes or until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

10. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack 15 minutes. Remove the rim of the pan and let the cake cool completely on a wire rack. Just before serving, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. Store covered with an inverted bowl in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

The Italian Slow Cooker Chocolate Truffle Cake

It’s Valentine’s Day and here’s a perfect cake to make.  It goes together quickly and needs just 6 ingredients.  It “bakes” in the steamy warmth of the slow cooker, so it comes out tender, moist and creamy.  You will need a large capacity slow cooker and a 7-inch spring form pan, or a 6 cup baking dish.  I got my pan at the Browadway Panhandler, but many cookware stores carry them.  Whatever you use, be sure it fits in the cooker before you begin.

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE

A deep, rich chocolate cake is the perfect dessert for any special occasion.  I like to serve this one with lightly whipped cream or softened ice cream.

Serves 6 to 8

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

3/4 cup unsalted butter

2 tablespoons rum or strong coffee

3 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder, for garnish

Butter a 6-cup baking dish or a 7-inch springform pan.  Line the bottom of the pan with foil or parchment and butter the paper.

Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl.  Add the butter.  Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water.  The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.  When the chocolate is softened, remove the bowl from the heat, and stir until blended and smooth.  Stir in the rum.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until light and pale yellow.  Stir the egg mixture into the chocolate.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Place the pan in the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or until set.

Remove the pan from the slow cooker.  Cover and chill several hours or overnight.  To serve, run a small knife around the edge of the cake.  Invert it onto a serving plate.  Place the cocoa powder in a small strainer and sprinkle it over the cake.

Radicchio Trevisano Tardiva

With its pointed leaves and gorgeous wine and cream color,  Radicchio Trevisano seems to jump right out of the produce aisle.  It is a welcome sight, especially at this time of year, when choices are limited.

Radicchio Trevisano Precoce

Radicchio Trevisano is grown in the Veneto region of Northeastern Italy near the city of Treviso where the climate is just right for the painstaking production process.  When I was in that area recently, I had the chance to visit Lucio Torresan who grows 2 types of Trevisano:  the early season bullet shaped heads known as precoce, and the later curled leaf kind known as tardiva.  Lucio explained that the process for growing radicchio was devised in the 19th century by a Belgian agronomist who applied techniques similar to those used for growing Belgian endive, is a member of the same botanical family. Lucio showed us how he harvests the plants, then places the bushy untrimmed bunches in shallow tubs of cold fresh water that is kept constantly circulating for between 15 and 18 days where the radicchio develops its distinctive flavor and color.  Then the plants are trimmed down to their tender hearts, rinsed again and packaged for shipping.

Radicchio Trevisano is good raw in salads, and cooked in risotto, in appetizers, and as a side dish.  The flavor of radicchio goes especially well with meats.  At a dinner at the  Ceccheto   winery organized by Buon Italia, the Italian food and wine promotional organization that had organized our trip, we had a chance to sample juicy grilled sausages made with radicchio and red wine,  radicchio roasted in a wrapping of pancetta, and in a mixed salad.  The sausages were made by Master Macellaio (butcher) Bruno Bassetto.  Bassetto is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records with having prepared the world’s longest salamella — I am not making this up– a skinny sausage that reached  7.018 meters (nearly 8 yards) in length!  While we watched, Bassetto demonstrated his meat cutting skills by first breaking down a beef carcass, then chopping the beef for carpaccio with 2 scary looking butcher knives.  With the carpaccio, he served a tangy and bittersweet roasted radicchio salsa that I could not wait to get home to my kitchen to try to duplicate.  I serve it with grilled sausages, steak or burgers, or on toasted Italian bread.

ROASTED RADICCHIO SALSA

This is really 3 recipes in one.  Make the radicchio for the salsa, or serve it plain as a side dish, or top it with a slice of Asiago and bake it a minute or so more until slightly melted for an appetizer.

Makes about 2-1/2 cups

12 ounces radicchio, preferably Trevisano

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained and finely chopped

2 or 3 anchovy fillets, finely chopped

1 tablespoon minced red onion

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Oil a large baking sheet.

Trim off a thin slice from the base of the radicchio.  Cut the radicchio into 1-inch thick wedges through the core.

Brush the radicchio with 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.

Bake the radicchio for 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.  Turn the pieces over and bake 8 minutes more or until nicely browned and softened.  Remove from the oven.

(At this point, you can serve the radicchio warm as a side dish or appetizer, drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar.)

In a bowl, mix together the capers, anchovies and onion.  When the radicchio is cool, place it on a board and chop it fine.  Transfer it to the bowl and add the vinegar and season to taste with more olive oil, salt and pepper.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Crostini with Roasted Radicchio Salsa

A few years ago in Rome, I noticed a restaurant with a small window in its facade.  In the window was a small brick alcove holding a large, round, greenish glass bottle filled with dried beans, water and herbs.  The alcove backed up to the restaurant’s woodburning oven, and every time I passed, I would stop to look in at the bottle and observe the beans simmering slowly, absorbing the liquid and becoming plump and rounded and filled with flavor.  It seemed like the ideal way to cook beans, but it made me unhappy to think that I could not duplicate it in my small apartment kitchen with a standard stove.  Or could I?  I had never owned a slow cooker, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the piece of the equipment I needed to to turn out perfectly tender, flavorful beans like those I ate in Rome.  I could hardly wait to get home (well, almost!) to buy one.

Back in New York, I soon realized that slow cookers have as many devotees as they have people who own them and abandon them to a dusty back shelf.  The difference seemed to be that those who love them have discovered delicious recipes and used fresh ingredients to prepare easy and satisfying food, while others relied on packaged and canned products and did not take a few moments to prepare the ingredients before cooking.

I bought a cooker and began by making my first batch of Roman-style beans in it.  They came out just perfect — tender and creamy and infused with the flavor of the herbs and garlic I had added.   Then I tried meats — tough cuts like short ribs, veal and lamb shanks, pot roasts, and stew meat.  The results were fall-off-the-bone tender and savory. Even chicken turned out moist and juicy every time.  To say I was hooked on slow cooking was an understatement.  I made soups, pasta sauces, stews and vegetables. Then I tried grains like farro, barley and polenta and was delighted with the results and ease of preparation.  I also made seafood in the slow cooker and discovered that sturdy varieties like salmon and squid turn out beautifully.  My biggest surprise was how well the cooker handled delicate egg dishes like frittatas, and even desserts, especially creamycheesecakes and flourless chocolate cake.  The gentle, low heat cooked them perfectly.

I compiled 125 of my recipes into a book which is now available.  The name is The Italian Slow Cooker and it was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  The book has a soft cover and lots of gorgeous color photos by Alan Richardson, one of the best food photographers.

Here is a recipe from the Italian Slow Cooker that I know you will enjoy.

COUNTRY STYLE PORK RIBS WITH TOMATOES AND PEPPERS

Meaty country style pork ribs are a great choice for the slow cooker.  They turn out moist and tender and never lack for flavor.  Here they are cooked in spicy sauce made with red bell peppers and tomato.  Serve it over polenta or mashed potatoes with zesty broccoli rabe cooked with garlic.

Serves 6

4 pounds country style pork ribs

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 large garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup tomato puree

1 teaspoon dried oregano

4 medium red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch slices

Pat the ribs dry and sprinkle them with salt and pepper to taste.  In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add as many of the ribs as will fit in the pan without touching.  Cook the meat, turning it occasionally, until nicely browned on all sides.  Place the browned ribs in the slow cooker.  Brown the remaining meat in the same way.

Add the onions and garlic to the skillet and cook 5 minutes, or until softened.  Stir in the wine and tomato paste and cook, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the liquid begins to simmer.  Stir in the tomato puree, oregano and salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from the heat.

Scatter the peppers over the pork in the slow cooker.  Pour on the sauce.  Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until the meat is tender and coming away from the bones.  Discard any loose bones and skim off the fat.  Serve hot.

© Copyright 2010 The Italian Slow Cooker by Michele Scicolone

A few years ago, I visited the Academia Barilla in Parma, Italy.  Once an industrial zone that included a Barilla pasta factory, the outdated facilities on the edge of Parma were converted about 5 years ago into a beautiful complex housing the Academia Barilla culinary school, two concert halls, a culinary library, a hotel and restaurant.

After a tour, I had the chance to work with Chef Nicola Bindini in one of the Academia’s enormous professional kitchens.  Some are used for pastry making, there is one with a pizza oven, and others are used for cooking demonstrations.  Classes are open to aspiring chefs, avid home cooks, and experienced chefs who want to improve their technique and learn more about Italian ingredients.  It is definitely worth a visit if you plan to be in the area.  You can find out about what’s going on there by checking their website at http://www.academiabarilla.com/

The chef showed me how to made an artichoke and prawn salad topped with shavings of Barilla’s Pecorino Grand Cru, lamb chops with pesto, a molded chocolate and zabaione dessert and my favorite, pennette with pumpkin, smoked pancetta, Parmigiano Reggiano and balsamic vinegar.

I thought of that pasta the other day when I was trying to decide what to do with the large butternut squash that was sitting on my kitchen counter.  At Barilla, Chef Nicola had used a large winter squash called Zucca Mantovana.  It was round and pumpkin shaped with rough tan skin, orange flesh, and a flavor similar to that of butternut squash, so the one I had was a perfect substitute.  Since I didn’t have smoked pancetta which can be hard to find in this country, I used some thick-sliced bacon.  I always have Parmigiano in the refrigerator and a small bottle of aged balsamico on hand, so the rest was easy.

The warm colors of the squash and pasta and the contrasting flavors of the salty cheese and bacon with the sweet, creamy squash made it a perfect pasta for a fall day.

Penne with Butternut Squash, Bacon, and Balsamic Vinegar

Serves 4

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling

2 ounces smoked pancetta or thick sliced bacon, finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1-1/4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch dice

Salt and freshly ground pepper

8 ounces penne

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano

1 teaspoon aged balsamic vinegar

In a large skillet, cook the pancetta in the olive oil over medium heat until the pancetta is lightly golden, about 5 minutes.  Add the onion and rosemary and cook 5 minutes more until the onion is tender.  Stir in the garlic.  Add the squash and salt and pepper to taste and stir well.  Cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes until the squash is tender and starting to brown.  If it begins to stick, add a tablespoon or two of water.  With the back of a spoon, mash some of the squash until creamy.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add the pasta and salt to taste.  Cook until slightly underdone.  Scoop out about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and set aside.  Drain the pasta and add it to the squash.  Add some of the cooking water and stir well.  Cook 1 minute until the pasta is tender.  Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese.  Add a little extra virgin olive oil and mix well.  Drizzle with the vinegar and serve hot.