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Posts Tagged ‘Italian cuisine’

Fusilli with Spinach and Walnut Pesto -The Macaroni Marathon

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

You’re going to want to “catch” this fresh green sauce, so I’m suggesting you use fusilli because the sauce will cling to the ridges in the spiral cut pasta.  This is a quick and easy weeknight dinner, the whole process should take about 35 minutes!  Orrechiette or penne rigate would also work well.

Photo from Martha Stewart EveryDay Food

Photo from Martha Stewart EveryDay Food

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch spinach (about 1 lb) trimmed and washed

3/4 cup walnuts, toasted

3 TBS EV olive oil

1 TBS finely grated lemon zest

coarse salt and ground pepper

1 lb fusilli

1/4 cup shaved pecorino cheese (1 oz) for serving

DIRECTIONS:

Add spinach and 1 TBS water to a large skillet set over medium-high.  Cook, stirring constantly, until spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.  In a food processor, combine spinach, walnuts, oil and lemon zest.  Process until mixture forms a smooth paste, scraping down bowl as needed.  Season with salt and pepper.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente.  Reserve 2 cups pasta water; drain pasta.  Return pasta to pot and add pesto, tossing to combine and adding enough pasta water to create a sauce that coats pasta.  Transfer to a serving plate, top with pecorino, and serve immediately.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s EveryDay Food March 2011

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Pasta alla Genovese – The Macaroni Marathon

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Pasta alla Genovese

Pasta alla Genovese

The temperature at 8:00 am this morning was 8 degrees in Manhattan and baby that’s cold outside when you’re walking to work!  I’ve been posting a lot of vegetarian pasta recipes lately but today calls for a heartier dish.  It would make a delicious  meal this evening BUT only if you’re home from work early or are lucky enough to be home all day.  If that’s the case, this is more of weekend dish because of the amount of time required.  This recipe is decidedly different from some other versions I’ve come across.  Perhaps I’ll post another incarnation tomorrow.

INGREDIENTS:

4 1/4 lb. red onions

1/3 cup EV olive oil

2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 celery rib, trimmed and roughly chopped

1/4 lb bacon or pancetta

2 1/4 lb beef chuck, cut into 2 inch cubes

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup dry white wine, plus more if desired

1 lb pasta like ziti, rigatoni or tortiglioni

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Bring large pot of water to a boil.  Place the onions in the boiling water, and cook, covered, 15 minutes.  Drain the onions, and let cool a bit, then slice very thinly.

Heat half the oil in a large heavy pot (braising pan) over medium heat; stir in the carrots, celery and bacon, and cook 4 minutes.  Add the beef, then cover with the onions.  Pour the remaining oil over the onions, then sprinkle with 1 1/2 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper.  cover, bring to a simmer and cook gently until the beef is tender, about 2 hours;  the onions will release a good deal of liquid.

Uncover the pot and bring to a boil.  Cook, stirring more frequently as the liquid reduces and lowering the heat as necessary to prevent scorching, until the meat has fallen apart and the sauce is creamy, about 45 minutes.  Stir in the white wine and taste, adding more wine if desired.  Reduce the heat to low, and continue to cook stirring frequently, until the sauce is glossy and quite thick, about 15 minutes more.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, then drain and toss with the sauce.  Stir in Parmesan to taste, then serve.

Recipe by Mark Bittman NY Times

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Wednesday Is Prince Spaghetti Day!

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wednesday Is Prince Sphaghetti Day

Wednesday Is Prince Sphaghetti Day

I probably should have saved this for ThrowBack Thursday, I mean who remembers Prince spaghetti?  Growing up in an Italian family, I certainly do remember the macaroni products we had in our home.  My father did buy Prince spaghetti, however I clearly remember the LaRosa brand boxes of shells and I think the family favorite was Ronzoni.   When I was a young married, I always stuck with Ronzoni and because I saw my parents pour the pasta out of the pot and into a colander and then rinse it, I did the same!  I can’t remember now when I learned that was definitely NOT the thing to do!  Rinsing the pasta removes some of its flavorful starch that was released during the cooking process.  Not only do I NOT rinse my pasta, I often save a cup of the water to add to my sauces.  Specifically the pasta water is used in many of my vegetarian pasta dishes to make a thin sauce that may also have some broth, butter or oil.

Look For The Red Rose

Look For The Red Rose

What do I buy now?  I love the taste of Barilla macaroni products although so many of my Italian friends swear by De Cecco.  So recently, I purchased some De Cecco linguine and I swear it didn’t have the same flavor.  De Cecco is made in Italy so I’ll give it a few more tries and see if I like the results.

This Wednesday, even though it is STILL raw and cold outside, not to mention raining,  I thought I would try welcoming Spring into the apartment with a truly Spring-like pasta dish.  To quote Pure Wow , the site where I found this recipe by Erin McDowell; “We had a good run, soups and stews.  But as temperatures rise and flowers bloom, we’re ready to swap rich and hearty for light and fresh”.

PASTA WITH PEAS, ARTICHOKES, LEMON AND MINT

Serves 4-6  Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb bucatini, spaghetti or other long pasta

1 1/2 cups fresh peas

12 marinated artichoke heart quarters, drained

3 TBS unsalted butter

1/2 cup grated Pecorino cheese

2 TBS lemon juice

Salt

2 TBS freshly chopped mint for garnish

Lemon zest for garnish

Directions

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water, cook till pasta is al dente, 6-8 minutes (or according to package instructions). One minute before pasta is done, add the peas to the pot.  Before draining, ladle out and reserve 1 cup pasta water. 

Drain pasta and peas in colander and immediately add artichoke hearts.  Toss to combine.  

Return pasta and vegetables to the pot, then add the butter and Pecorino cheese, and toss to coat.  Add 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water to and the lemon juice, and continue tossing until the mixture forms a creamy coating.  Add additional water if needed.  Season with salt to taste.

To serve, transfer pasta to plates, and top with mint, lemon zest and black pepper.

Pasta Peas & Artichokes

Pasta Peas & Artichokes

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Saturday Night Supper – Mushroom Lasagna w/Radicchio and Rosemary

Posted in Everyday Food, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Mushrooms near the composte

Mushrooms

Whenever we’re at the Shore I seem to cook much more than I do in NYC.  Perhaps it’s because I love to grocery shop here at my favorite market – Wegman’s!  Or maybe it’s because I have a real kitchen in my cottage and not the typical Manhattan work space.  Or maybe it’s not so easy to grocery shop in New York because I have to carry all my groceries home and/or have Peter tag along to carry a few bags or take my little red grocery cart and pile my bags in that.  But above all, one cannot deny how easy it is to eat out or order in any night of the week in The City.  BUT tonight we feasted on a savory Mushroom Lasagna and sautéed broccoli with garlic – A delicious vegetarian version of Italian food staple.

2 # mixed mushrooms – sliced uniformly (I used Shitake, Portobello, white, and Baby Bello)

1 onion medium dice

2 garlic cloves minced

2 TBS butter

1 TBS olive oil

1 heaping TBS of chopped rosemary

1 1/2 cups of whipping cream

2 cups of radicchio, cored and sliced

1 3/4 cups grated cheese

6 sheets of lasagna sheets (fresh lasagna noodles come in wide sheets)

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Melt butter and add olive oil and chopped onions. Saute over med-low heat till onions are soft and translucent but not brown.  Add in minced garlic and rosemary and cook stirring a minute or two till garlic is fragrant.  

Add mushrooms and 3/4 tsp salt and some pepper.  Increase heat to medium and cook mushrooms till soft 10-15 minutes.  Add cream and bring to a simmer 2-3 minutes.  Adjust seasonings.  Don’t make sauce too thick or there won’t be enough liquid to cook noodles.  

In a 9 x 13 baking dish, put 1/2 cup of the mushroom mix on the bottom.  Top with 2 lasagna sheets, then 1 cup of mushroom mix, 1 cup of radicchio and 1/2 cup of grated cheese.  Repeat.  

Top 3rd layer of noodles with all remaining mixture and 3/4 cup cheese.  Bake uncovered 35-45 minutes – Cool 5 minutes.

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Quick Marinara Sauce with Ziti and Mozzarella Cubes

Posted in Everyday Food, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sweet Tomatoes, Creamy Mozzarella!

Sweet Tomatoes, Creamy Mozzarella!

Sunday night supper!  A few days ago I happened across one of Lidia’s recipes and it seemed simple enough and was just perfect for simple supper after a day at the beach.  I thought the season was perfect for Garden State ingredients but I was slightly off.  I called one of our favorite Market Stands and I was told that it’s still too early for native plum tomatoes.  As you know I’m a huge fan of Wegman’s but there are some vegetables that I will only eat in season and bought from a fruit and vegetable stand and tomatoes are definitely in that category.  Well, at least I had the fresh basil growing in my backyard!  Lidia allowed for the fact that you might not be able to get your hands on 2# of fresh plum tomatoes so she suggested you use a 28 oz can of peeled Italian tomatoes – so I did.

This really is a quick and easy recipe  and so damn good!  

1/4 cup olive oil

8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

3 # fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded or 28 oz can of peeled Italian tomatoes

2 sprigs of fresh basil

pepperoncino (crushed red pepper to taste)

1 # Ziti

2 cups of mozzarella cubes ( 1/2″)

1/2 cup granna padano grated ( I used shredded Parmesan/Peccorino)

1/2 cup basil leaves, shredded and packed loosely

Bring a pot of  salted water to boil for the pasta.

Add the oil to a medium size saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook till lightly browned – about 2 minutes.

Carefully add the tomatoes and their liquid.  Add the basil sprigs.  Bring to a boil and season lightly with salt and crushed red pepper.  

About 10 minutes after the sauce has been up on the stove, add the ziti to the boiling water.  Reduce the heat for the sauce to a simmer and break up the tomatoes. Sauce should get chunky and thick – anywhere from 10-15 minutes.

Taste the sauce and adjust seasonings  Lydia says to remove the garlic and the basil sprigs.  I didn’t.

Drain the ziti and add to the sauce – toss till pasta is covered with sauce.  Turn off the stove, add the mozzarella cubes and the grated cheese.  Serve immediately and garnish with shredded basil leaves.

Recipe by Lidia Bastianich

 

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Chicken Cacciatore – I’m Cooking!!!

Posted in Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Slow-Cooked Chicken Cacciatore a/k/a Chicken Hunter Style

Tomorrow morning I’m taking the crock pot and gonna cook up a storm.  I need to make a couple of meals and freeze some of them.  If I don’t, I find myself coming home late and too tired to cook and that leads to ordering in or eating junk.  Either way it’s no good, one costs too much money and the other ends up being empty calories.  So tomorrow morning I’ll make the Chicken Cacciatore and give my husband a real meal and freeze the rest.

3 lbs cut up chicken (split chicken breasts and thighs)

Flour for searing

2 TBS olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

8 oz of baby bella  mushrooms sliced

2 cups diced green peppers and onions

1 cup dry red wine

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 pkg (24 oz) of seasoned tomato sauce.

Salt and pepper to taste

Dust chicken with searing flour

Heat oil on MEDIUM in large braising pan; add chicken.  Brown lightly on all sides, 8-10 minutes.  Transfer chicken to slow cooker.  Discard all but 1 TBS oil.

Add garlic, mushrooms, peppers and onions to pan.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes, until vegetables soften slightly.  Add wine; cook 1-2 minutes.  Add Italian seasoning and tomato sauce; stir.  Bring to simmer and remove from heat.

Add sauce mixture carefully to slow cooker.  Cover;  cook 3-4 hours on HIGH or 6-7 hours on LOW.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  I’m going to add some red pepper flakes too.  Serve over pasta or rice.

And omg, this house is going to smell DEE-LICIOUS tomorrow!

Recipe from Wegman’s Menu Magazine Fall 2009

Cooking Lab: Italian - Pollo alla Cacciatora (...

Chicken Hunter Style

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