zucchini with garlic, lemon and mint

This is one of three superb, simple zucchini preparations that we love, especially when wonderful, sweet small zucchini are available fresh in the various Farmer's Markets. Zucchini is such a wonderful "fall-back" vegetable for special dinners, as well as being a main-stay in stay-at-home and-love-it evenings.

ingredients:

• three tablespoons olive oil
• one and a half pounds of fresh zucchini
• two medium garlic cloves, peeled and diced
• one small onion, thinly sliced
• pinch or two of red pepper flakes
• one tablespoon lemon juice
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• one-quarter cup mint or basil, finely chopped

Wash the zucchini in cold water. Cut off the ends, and then dice into about one-quarter inch squares.

Heat one and a half tablespoons of the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, and then thirty seconds later add the onion. Cook until translucent, about two minutes.

Add the zucchini and the red pepper flakes, and cook until the zucchini squares are just tender, stirring reglarly with a wooden spoon. (This is a matter of taste; we like the zucchin still a little firm, but if you like them soft cook until slightly brown).

Remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice, a teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground pepper, and tthen the mint or basil. Stir a touch and serve.

For several other terrific and simple zucchini recipes, go to www.classicpasta.com, click on extra pantry" and then "verdure". Enjoy!

Trofie pasta with pesto

We had the good fortune to discover a small food, cheese and wine shop in the Portrero Hill section of San Francisco recently, where we were able to buy authentic trofie pasta from Italy. There are certainly other shops in the U.S. where trofie can be found (as well as on-line) but we had been carrying ours back in our suitcases, buying it at Carlucci's in Covent Garden in London.

The trofie we purchased in San Francisco is Saporia di Liguri, from La Bella Angiolini, made in a facility near to the original location of the oldest pastificio in Italy (so they claim) in Savona in the heart of the Ligurian Riviera.

Trofie, or trofiette, are thin strings of pasta, about one to two inches long, twisted into a corkscrew shape. They are generally made with durum wheat flour, but they can also be made from all-purpose flour. Trofie are frequently called Ligurian gnocchi.

This being the heart of wonderful fresh basil season, it was a perfect time to have the trofie and pesto, a marriage made in Ligurian heaven. Here is the recipe for a simple trofie and pesto dish, which takes almost no time to make.

Some recipes have made the making of pesto time consuming and difficult, by over-working the chopping of the fresh basil. No need. A blender, which is what most Italy uses now, works perfectly. Nothing lost in taste.

for the pesto sauce:

• two cups fresh basil leaves


• one-half cup olive oil


• three cloves garlic, peeled and roughly diced


• two tablespoons pine nuts


• salt (a teaspoon or to taste)


• one-half cup freshly grated parmesan cheese


• two tablespoons freshly grated pecorino, Romano or Tuscano (or whatever)


• two tablespoons butter

for the pasta

• one pound trofie, durum wheat preferred but go with what you can get

Using a blender (pesto was traditionally made in a mortar and pestle, hence the name), put in the basil and garlic and mix for a few seconds. Add the pine nuts and olive oil and salt, and blend at a high speed until the sauce approaches creamy (not too creamy, however, as a little roughness in the texture is wonderful).

When the blending is completed, transfer the sauce into a mixing bowl and stir in the two cheeses. Presto, done!

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water (4-5 quarts), until it is al dente. Stir regularly while cooking.

Reserve a cup of the pasta liquid. Drain and toss with the pesto sauce. Add the butter and a tablespoon or two from the reserved liquid to assist in the tossing and mixing.

Serve!

chicken marsala

Last night we did one of our favorite, easy, wonderful treats: chicken marsala. We evolved this recipe from our original forays with the always fabulous veal scallopine, either marsala, or piccata. Evolved because veal was a lot more expensive than chicken!

We want to share our version of this oft-used recipe. But before we do, we have to confess that we googled "chicken marsala" and discovered a torrent of entries. Amazing. One site is just "chickenmarsala.com". Italian Chef, All recipes, and of course the Food Network all have versions. One site "cooks.com" yielded hundreds (I think, I quit counting) recipes all for chicken marsala.

Undaunted, here is ours:

• four chicken breasts. About a pound. (See note).


• three tablespoons butter (to start)


• three tablespoons vegetable oil


• about a half cup of flour


• salt and pepper

This gets us started. Spread the flour on some waxed paper. Add salt and pepper. Put the oil and butter in a saute pan (equipped with a lid to use eventually). Medium high heat. When oil is hot, roll the chicken breasts in the flour, shake off excess flour, and put in the saute pan (which should be large enough to hold the chicken breasts without overlapping). Brown the chicken breasts, usually about three minutes a side, and then cover and turn the heat to medium. This is because we find the chicken breasts cook more evenly by cooking under cover rather than getting the breasts done just by continually sauteeing.

Watch the chicken breasts closely. Ideal is to take them off just before they are completely done -- a tiny touch of pink. Worst case is to overdo the chicken: tough and tasteless. When done remove the chicken breasts to a plate and keep warm in the oven.

Note: we do not pound the chicken breasts. We like them in their full glory. And let's face it, we always seem to get different sizes and shapes, depending. Sometimes this requires cutting the chicken breasts in half. Sometimes we just remove the "extra" pieces on the side. Whatever works. Ideally we get free-range, organic chicken breasts, skinned, deboned and halved, quite thick, and then we go from there.

Now the sauce:

• four tablespoons butter


• one-quarter cup white wine


• one-half cup marsala


• one-quarter cup chicken stock


• couple tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped


• one teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (optional)


• one-half cup mushrooms, sliced (optional)

First: drain the saute pan of the fat accumulated. This is key. It is not necessary to drain all the fat and certainly not the wonderful brown bits and stickings from the sauteeeing. But get rid of most of the fat. Otherwise you get a fatty sauce!

Turn the heat to high. When hot add the butter. As soon as it starts to melt, add the white wine which should steam and immediately de-glaze. Add the marsala. Add a half teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground pepper. Add a tablespoon chopped parsely. Stir. You don't want the sauce to get too thick, but you don't want soup either. Probably add the chicken broth to create enough broth.

When the sauce is just about the right consistency, bring back the chicken breasts, and add them, and their juices, to the saute pan. Turn them over a couple of times to get them well coated.

If the sauce is too runny, thicken by adding a little more butter.

Serve, putting the chicken breasts on the plate, spoon the sauce over, add a touch of parsley for garnish.

On the oregano option, just add it after you add the marsala.

On mushrooms: we ordinarily do not add mushrooms to the dish, but they can be delightful. As soon as you add the marsala, add the sliced mushrooms. They should be done just right as the sauce thickens. (some recipes call for a cup or two or three of mushrooms, which we think is overkill, and takes away from the great taste of the marsala.)

Remember: watch the chicken carefully (checking by cutting into it with a sharp knife). Do not overcook. And get rid of all the fats in the saute pan before starting the sauce.

pasta with sausage

We received some outstanding sweet Italian sausage recently (more on this on a later blog), and indulged ourselves with two back-to-back incredibly delicious pastas. Which we want to share!

Rather than repreating these two excellent recipes on the blog, we would like you to go to www.classicpasta.com/pasta.htm for the details, as usual presented in clear and complete, easy-to-use, form.

Under the heading "penne and other short tubular pasta", you will find garganelli or penne with sausage. Try this one first.

Under "tagliatelle" you will find tagliatelle with sausage, lemon and nutmeg. This more delicate sauce is a wonderful follow-up.

Let us know if you find these pasta and sausage recipes -- which we think define the wonderful combining delights of pasta and sausage, combinations made in an Italian heaven -- perfectly.

the best lamb ragu ever

This is the sauce we made for our imported (by us) pinci from Montalcino at a dinner we prepared last weekend. Naturally the sauce transports easily to other pasta: pappardelle, penne and tagliolini for example.

For the sauce:

• three tablespoons of olive oil
• eight ounces of ground lamb
• eight ounces of mild Italian sausage (casings removed)
• two cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• one medium onion, finely chopped
• one stalk celery, finely chopped
• one medium carrot, finely chopped
• one-half cup red wine
• one tablespoon tomato paste
• one bay leaf
• two sprigs oregano
• two sprigs thyme
• one sprig rosemary
• two cups beef broth
• two cups imported peeled Italian plum tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped (see note)
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• one half cup freshly grated parmesan

for the pasta:

• one pound of pinci, pappardelle, fettucine, or penne

Note: if you are lucky enough to have truly ripe and tasty plum tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes, dice them and use two cups of them rather than the imported variety.

Put two tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the sausage and lamb. Add a half teaspoon salt and some freshly ground pepper. Brown the meat -- cooking it until it is brown all over. Throughout the browning, constantly work the chopped meat with a wooden spoon to break it up as much as possible (in fact make sure it is truly all broken up).

Remove the meat and set it aside. Drain the fat, most of it anyway (leaving all the good brown bits) from the pan.

Add the third tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onion and cook until golden, about four minutes. Add the garlic, and then a minute later add the celery and the carrots. Cook another three minutes; the carrots should start to get soft. (add more olive oil if you need it).

Have the heat high, and add the wine, to deglaze the pan. Cook for about two minutes until the alcohol is dissipated and the wine reduced by about half.

Add the tomato paste and stir. Add the browned meat. Add the bay leaf, oregano, thyme and rosemary. Stir. Add the tomatoes and then add the beef broth. Stir, bring to a boil and then cover and lower the heat to a simmer.

Note: you can reduce the time involved in making this sauce by reducing the amount of beef broth added to one cup. By cutting the beef broth amount, you will get a sauce of the right consistency in about thirty or forty minutes.

We love the long simmer, since it isn't any work anyway and the kitchen smells wonderfully for a long time. We put the cover slightly askew, and simmer away, maybe several hours, to get a sauce with a great consistency: moist with just enough liquid to meld with the pasta.

When the sauce is done, remove from the heat, discard the bay leaf and sprigs. Add several grinds of pepper and a half tespoon of salt. Stir, taste, adjust.

Meanwhile bring 4-5 quarts of water to a boil. Add two tablespoons of salt. Drop in the pasta and stir. Continue cooking until al dente. If using pinci, they seem to take about twenty minutes. Reserve a cup of the pasta water and drain.

Re-heat the sauce, add the pasta, and stir (or mix). If not moist enough add the reserved pasta water as needed. We find that by covering the pan with the pasta with its sauce, and turning the heat up to high for about two minutes, we can guarantee a truly hot and steaming presentation, with the pasta staying hot longer.

Serve with ample parmesan (and more on the side) plus some chopped parsley. The best lamb ragu ever, right?

For a version with lamb cubes, see www.classicpasta.com, under sauces.

pinci (pici)

When we were in southern Tuscany recently, we enjoyed (among many things!) the special hand-made non-egg pasta of the region called pici (or pinci). These are long spaghetti-like strands, thicker than spaghetti. They were originally hand-made, with water, flour and a dash of olive oil. The pasta is rolled out in a less than half-inch sheet, and then cut into small cubes. The cubes are flattened, and then rolled out first by the heel of the hand, and then fingers, until one gets a long round strip, like spaghetti, maybe nine inches long and about one-quarter inch in diameter.


This lovely, slightly chewy pasta is generally served with a strong ragu, duck or lamb primarily. It is just a special treat as a change-of-pace pasta base.


We brought back a pound of pinci that we purchased in Montalcino, and last night we broke it our of the pantry and enjoyed a wistful return to Tuscany.


For the sauce we made a wonderful lamb ragu, which we modestly call "the best lamb ragu ever". We will provide the ragu recipe in our next post.


If one wants to make the pinci from scratch, Giuliano Bugialli, in "Bugialli on Pasta" gives the best directions. We found that we could buy the pasta on-line at www.igourmet.com.


The best lamb ragu ever coming next!

making the ravioli and the sauce

Following up on the previous blog, here is what we did after creating the filling.

Using fresh egg pasta sheets, either purchased from our local pasta-maker, or made by hand: we took about a pound of the sheets. We took a circular cutter (like a cookie cutter) about two inches in diameter and cut out a lot of circles. We then put about a teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle. We moistened the edges of the circle (very important) and folded it over in half to make a half-moon shape. Sealed it. Eccola: a mezzaluna.

Very important: while preparing the ravioli, keep the pasta sheets moist. Do not let them get dry. Keep under cover of moist towels. We did not try to use the whole pound of sheets at once. Use one sheet, make the mezzaluna, then go to the next sheet which you have kept moist with the wet towel. And so on.

For the other pound of pasta sheets, we made agnolotti (squares in the Piedmont style). We did not try to mass produce these. Again we took one sheet of pasta at a time. We cut it into rectangles one and one-half inch by three inches. We put a teaspoon of filling in the center of the lower half of this rectangle, moistened the edges well, and then folded the top half over and sealed the edges. Eccola: a one and one-half inch square agnolotti.

for the sauce:

(This is sauce for about twenty-four of the ravioli, not all 100 or so!)

• four tablespoons butter
• one-quarter pound crimini mushrooms, sliced thinly
• two tablespoons chicken stock
• salt and pepper
• one-quarter cup fresh parmesan

In a saute pan over medium heat, heat the butter until it starts to sizzle. Add the mushrooms. add a teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground pepper. Add the chicken stock. Cook until the mushrooms are soft.

When we cook the ravioli in plenty of boiling, salted water, until done: we remove them with a slotted spoon, so as not to damage them, and drop them right into the heated saute pan with the sauce.

Add parmesan and some chopped parsely and serve.

If you want to make your own fresh pasta, one of the best instruction sets can be found at www.classicpasta.com/pasta. Click on how to make your own, etc. It is worth it.

Is this one of the tastiest raviolis you have ever had?