risotto with mushrooms and pancetta

One can not have too many recipes for risotto with mushrooms. It is hard to imagine any other foods that meld so perfectly. There are several risotto recipes available on www.classicpasta.com, but true to our calling, here is another.

This recipe comes from Janet Moga, of the East Bay, who has tested (and corrected) many of the recipes on the site. She uses slightly more dried porcini than we, but both are excellent -- your taste.

If you have truffle oil available, here is a great chance to use it.

The recipe: http://classicpasta.com/risotto_mushroom_and_pancetta.htm

best minestrone ever

The winter season is soup season of course, and here is our favorite of all the many and varied minestrone recipes out there. This is quite a hearty version, and, for us, when we get the beans "just right" it is a perfect balance: not too thick but definitely not too liquid!

The recipe is on classicpasta.com, and here is the link:

www.classicpasta.com/minestrone.htm

We used a short cut that really works when we last did this soup. We did not have time for long soaking, so we used Lidia's quick soaking method. Put the beans, after cleaning, in a pot of water with the water covering the beans by at least two inches. Turn up heat and boil. When you get to a boil, continue the boil for one minute. Turn off and let sit, uncovered, for an hour.

Works perfectly!

butternut squash soup

Welcome to our mangia italiana blog for 2010.

Let's keep in touch . . . we promise to keep you supplied throughout the year with a steady influx of information, tips, ideas, discoveries and suggestions concerning all food Italian. (If you haven't done so, scroll back through previous blogs to see the variety and quality of the information herein). Our goal is to provide you with three new blogs a week. So do stay connected!

Now is the time for the great winter squash explosion. Butternut squash is obviously one of our favorites.

Here is a great butternut squash soup recipe we have adapted from Faith Williger's "Red, White and Greens." The original recipe is from Fabio Picchi, chef at the famed Cibreo in Florence.

We add a little cream to the soup at the end which he doesn't. Take your pick. Any squash will do -- acorn for example -- butternut is our favorite.

The complete recipe is on http://www.classicpasta.com/, the best site on the web for all things pasta. Here is the link:

http://www.classicpasta.com/butternut_squash_soup.htm

While you are on the classic pasta site, browse for a moment. Go to "pasta" and then click on "ravioli" on the right hand side of the page, and then "butternut squash ravioli". Another taste treat!

pesto time

All of that wonderful basil that has been growing in our garden all summer needs to be used before the nights turn chill and it starts to get a little bitter. Carol (left), one-half of classicpasta.com, and her good friend Judy got together so Judy could learn to make pesto. One of Judy's, and our, favorite dishes is halibut a la Carol, which we will divulge in a subsequent blog. It uses pesto to a beautiful result.

We make pesto with the basic Marcella method, and a slight variation. This is her blender pesto from "The Classic Italian Cook Book" and "Essentials." There have been a few bursts from some with "make-it-authentic" zeal that call for using the actual mortar and pestle (from which pesto gets its name). But the blender is what is now used in almost all of Italy, and it works fine, without all the mortar-pestle effort.

• two cups fresh basil
• one-half cup olive oil
• two tablespoons pine nuts
• four cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• one-half teaspoon salt
• two tablespoons freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Pecorino Toscana (or Parmesan)
• three tablespoons of butter, softened

Gently tear the leaves of basil into small pieces (about the size of the smallest full leaf). Carol, generally in a hurry, skips this labor and just puts the basil leaves, as is, into the blender. Put the basil, the olive oil, the garlic, the pine nuts and the salt into a blender. Blend at high speed. Using a spatula, halt from time to time, and spatula the ingredients down into the center of the blender, to get a uniform, complete blend.

When well blended, one can go to (1) completion or (2) freezing for use later in the winter.

For completion (to use right away), put the blended pesto in a bowl, add the cheese and work it in with a wooden spoon. Easy to do (although one can just add the cheese to the pesto while in the blender and blend there). When the cheese is evenly distributed, add the softened butter and also mix it in with the wooden spoon.

Marcella suggests, very wisely, that when one is cooking the pasta, reserve a tablespoon of the pasta liquid and add it to the pesto, and stir, just before adding the pesto to the pasta.

Freezing

Ah, pesto in the winter, tasting as fresh (almost) as when it was prepared in the summer. To do this, halt when you have blended well the basic pesto, before adding cheese and butter. Take the pesto and put it into a freezer jar, preferably small, seal well, and freeze. Carol also takes the basic pesto blend and spoons it into an ice cube tray, providing many small cubes of pesto ready to be used at different times. Works beautifully.

Then, when it is pasta time, have the frozen pesto already thawed (takes about five seconds in the microwave)) and then beat in the cheese and butter and serve. This just sparkles with flavor!

There are plenty of wonderful pasta and pesto recipes in www.classicpasta.com.


Next: pesto in its native habitat --Portofino!

Tupper Lake

This isn't exactly the Lake Country of Northern Italy: actually it is the lake country of Northern New York. The publisher, Pietro, is comporting himself on Big Wolf Lake, near Tupper Lake, in the beautiful Adirondacks, on a very recent vacation.


However, even though we were far from a friendly Italian deli, we ate fine. The local Tupper Lake grocery had a wide variety of Buitoni pasta, and also a butcher who made wonderful sausage. Plus it was late in the summer, almost Labor Day, and the tomatoes were ripe and flavorful.

It did not take much to improvise successfully.

For a pound of penne, we took about a quarter cup of olive oil, added about five cloves of garlic, finely chopped, and then about thirty seconds later, an onion, also finely chopped. We let the onion get quite soft, almost starting to carmelize, when we added a half pound of this wonderful sausage, which we has also chopped. We cooked this over medium-high heat. The key is to continually pound the sausage with a wooden spoon as it cooks, to really break it up.

When the sausage was brown we added about four ripe tomatoes, which we had diced. We brought this mixture to a boil and then turned it down to a good simmer, about eight minutes, until the tomatoes had broken down. We added a good dose of salt and some freshly ground pepper, and stirred vigorously.

Meanwhile, of course, we had the penne in boiling water. When the penne were ready, we drained them (saving a cup of the liquid) and added them to the sauce, stirring well. If dry, we added some of the reserved water.

Then we did our special trick: cover the pasta and sauce, turn up the heat and steam vigorously for about a minute. This gets the pasta steaming hot, of course. And serve with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.

Not quite Lake Como cuisine, but not bad!

Ava loves tomato sauce

Ava, obviously, loves Grandpa Pete's tomato sauce. Her favorite is just pure tomato sauce with, probably, farfalle, although she also likes it with penne. Her older sister, Zoe, is a touch more sophisticated, and her favorite (see previous post) is Grandpa Pete's Best Bolognese Sauce ever.

This is the season, of course, for simple, pure, fresh tomato sauce, and this presentation of pasta and sauce did not last long in Ava's dish.

The sauce is so simple to make. We get very lovely vine-ripened tomatoes at the local farmer's Market. Italian Romas are the best option.

For two pounds of tomatoes: wash them, dry, cut off any edges, and then cut them in halves or quarters.


In a saute pan large enough to hold the tomatoes, heat one-third cup of olive oil over medium heat. Finely chop five garlic cloves and add them to the oil. Cook for about fifteen seconds, letting the garlic just start to sizzle, and then add the tomatoes. Stir. Add a teaspoon or two or salt (two) and a teaspoon of sugar.

Cook, uncovered, slowly, over low/medium heat for five minutes. Should have strong simmer.Take a half cup of fresh basil (we are fortunate to have lots of basil in our garden) and tear the leaves into small pieces. Add the basil to the tomatoes and stir. If you would like, add a sprig of fresh rosemary and maybe a tablespoon of fresh oregano.

Cook for another ten minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes should be soft, but still holding their shape.

Let cool, run through a food mill -- medium is good, but if you want really pure, minus all seeds, run it through medium and then fine.

Put back in saute pan, bring to a boil, and turn off. Taste for salt. Put it on your favorite pasta (farfalle is Ava's). Top with plenty of freshly grated parmesan and some basil leaves for decoration. Serve very hot.

comfort food

It has been a while since I got to my blog: face surgery, followed by six weeks of radiation. Taste buds coming back! After several weeks of soups and milkshakes, it was time for pasta: and also for comfort food. My choice: spaghetti carbonara!

I know this is a Roman dish, but I also always remember going to a small trattoria a "calle" or so from the Rialto Bridge in Venice, appropriately named Trattoria Carbonara -- I don't believe it exists any longer -- where I feasting on this satisfying dish was an every-trip-to-Venice routine

Carbonara is part of the great Roman pasta triumvirate of "cacio e pepe" and "alla gricia", all simply prepared, flavor-filled pasta dishes (frequently using a more egg-yolk-heavy pasta). For these great recipes, see: http://www.classicpasta.com/ -- and click on pasta and spaghetti.

Herewith:

• two tablespoons olive oil
• two tablespoons butter
• four ounces guanciale (preferred), pancetta or bacon
• three small cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• one-third cup dry white wine
• one large egg
• three egg yolks
• two tablespoons Pecorino Romano
• six tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
• tablespoon or two chopped parsley
• salt and lots of freshly ground pepper
• one pound spaghetti

Cut the guanciale (pancetta or bacon) into roughly one-quarter inch long thin strips.

Heat the butter and oil in a saute pan over medium heat. This pan should be big enough to eventually hold and mix the spaghetti. Add the garlic and cook until it starts to sizzle. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is lightly browned.

Add the wine and cook for about two minutes more, until the alcohol smell has disappeared. Set aside.

In a large bowl, into which you will eventually put the cooked spaghetti, put in the egg yolks and the whole egg. Stir with a fork until they are well mixed. Add the two cheeses and the parsley, salt and pepper. Stir.

Heat 4-5 quarts of cold water to a raging boil. Add two tablespoons of salt, drop in the pasta, stir regularly, and cook until al dente. (test by tasting!) Set aside a cup of pasta water and drain.

Add the cooked pasta to the bowl with the egg mixture. Toss it gently until well mixed and the strands are thoroughly coated. Quickly reheat the pancetta for a minute or so. Add the pasta and egg mixture to the heated pancetta pan. If too dry, add some of the reserved pasta water to keep moist. Cover and heat under high heat for a minute. Should be steaming.

Serve immediately, adding the chopped parsley, and with some more parmesan on the side.

Note: if halving this recipe, use one egg and one egg yolk.