Pasta & Other Things

Italian Home Cooking

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Tony

I do not want to write about just pasta but Italian home cooking in general. Although pasta is surely my favorite. There are so many different pasta recipes that you can have pasta everyday of the week and not have your head explode.

Italian home cooked dishes are purely traditional and have been influenced very little by Pasta the cultures of other countries. Many popular foods such as vegetables, salad greens and wines were used in the days of Nero in much the same way as in present-day Italy.

The bases of the most colorful Italian dishes are tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. Yet, foods in Italy are as diversified as they are traditional. It is not at all unusual to find an Italian who does not like tomato sauce or garlic. They probably have their spaghetti with a butter and cheese sauce and prefer melon and prosciutto to an ordinary antipasto course.

Taste Of Chicago

Growing up in Chicago in the 50′s and 60′s ( I know, I dated myself ) was a great experience and my family was very traditional when it came to food. Chicago is a wonderful city to grow up in and sample all the worlds foods, of course having an Italian mom can’t hurt. In the days to come I hope to help bring a cross section of Italian home cookery to your kitchen door. From the Alps to Sicily, from the rice and polenta eating north to the tomato loving south, it’s all good.

Most of these recipes are my traditional family recipes that came with my grandparents from Italy and is what I grew up on. Because of some hard to find ingredients here and translations, some may have changed through out the years.

Mangia – Eat!

(Looking for the Chi 3D virtual worlds hosting pages? Sorry, please see http://chicago3d.net/?page_id=1199.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 3D, Antipasto, cheese, Chicago Food, Garlic, Italian, Olive Oil, spaghetti, Tomato, Virtual Worlds | 4 Comments

Eggplant Parmesan (Melanzane Parmigiana)

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Tony

Eggplant-Parm Melanzane Parmigiana was originally a Sicilian dish called Parmiciana di melenzane, parmiciana being the slats of a wooden shutter which resemble the layering of the slices of eggplant in the dish. In the form in which it is now known worldwide, it is generally fried then oven baked consisting of eggplant, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella and tomato sauce. This recipe takes it a step further by adding ricotta cheese.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

1 lb sliced eggplant
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
salt
black pepper
4 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1 cup olive oil, use as needed
3 cups tomato sauce, recipe found here
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Procedure

1. Cut eggplants into round 1/4 inch slices. Arrange one layer in the bottom of a large colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Repeat with remaining eggplant, salting, until all eggplant is in the colander. Weigh down the slices with a couple of plates and let drain for 2 hours.

2. Mix the ricotta, 1/2 cup Parmesan, the parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1 egg until smooth. Keep in fridge until needed.

3. Mix 3 eggs with the milk in a shallow bowl to make an egg wash. Put the flour in a second shallow bowl and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Put the bread crumbs in a third shallow bowl.

4. Dip the eggplant slices one at a time into the flour, then the egg wash, then the bread crumbs. Transfer the eggplant slices to a plate.

5. Pour about 1/4 inch of oil into a large skillet and heat over medium high heat until the oil is hot. Add the breaded eggplant slices to the hot oil, a few pieces at a time, and fry on the first side until golden brown for about 2 minutes. Turn the eggplant and continue to fry until golden and crisp on the second side for about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels and continue until all of the eggplant is fried.

6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

7. Spread some of the tomato sauce in a baking dish. Place a layer of fried eggplant, a layer of the ricotta mixture, another layer of eggplant, topped with more tomato sauce. Sprinkle evenly with the mozzarella and then the remaining Parmesan.

8. Cover the eggplant and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to bake until the cheese is golden brown.

9. Let the eggplant rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Posted in Vegetables | Tagged cheese, Italian, recipe, vegetable | 10 Comments

Chicken Tuscany (Pollo alla Toscana)

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Tony

Tuscana Chicken Tuscan cuisine is appreciated all over the world for its fine natural and flavorful ingredients. Tuscan cuisine is all about the quality of the ingredients.

The basics of this dish may have come from the Etruscans who ruled the region for eight centuries. This recipe is based on a traditional recipe found in many Italian cookbooks published from the 15^th
century to today.

Ingredients

1 lb chicken breast tenders

salt and pepper

3 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tbls white wine vinegar

2 Tbls butter

2 shallots, chopped

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2 Tbls flour

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup beef broth

Procedure

1. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.

2. Season chicken with salt and pepper.

3. Add 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, half the chicken pieces, and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic to the pan. Brown chicken 2 minutes on each side and remove from pan.

4. Add remaining olive oil, chicken and garlic. Brown chicken 2 minutes on each side and remove.

5. Add the vinegar to the pan and let it cook off.

6. Add the butter, shallots, and rosemary to the pan and cook 2 minutes, add flour and cook 1 minute more.

7. Whisk in the wine and broth, bring to a boil and let reduce for about 1 minute.

8. Return chicken to the pan and simmer over medium low heat for about 10 minutes to finish cooking.

Serves 4.

Posted in Poultry | Tagged Chicken, Italian, recipe | 6 Comments

Cavatelli with Arugula and Potatoes

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Tony

Arugula is best known as a salad green, but in Puglia it is often cooked, or, as in this recipe, stirred into pasta dishes at the last minute so that it just wilts. The arugula gives the dish a nutty flavor in this easy to make recipe.

Recipe includes an easy to make fresh tomato sauce.

Ingredients – Serves 4

1 lb baby arugula, washed

1 lb cavatelli, (homemade cavatelli recipe.)

1 lb fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned tomatoes)

1 lb potatoes, peeled

2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 tsp basil

salt and pepper

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté a clove of garlic.

2. Add basil and peeled tomatoes, a pinch of salt, remove the garlic then cook over a medium low heat.

3. In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil and boil the peeled potatoes.

4. When the potatoes are almost done, add the baby arugula, and, once the water is boiling again, the cavatelli.

5. The cavatelli should only take a couple of minutes. Once you see them float to the top they are done.

6. Pour everything in to a large strainer and drain.

7. Put everything back into the pot then add then mix in the tomato sauce.

Serve hot.

NOTE: This recipe assumes you are using fresh Cavatelli. If you are using frozen, put the Cavatelli in the pot before the arugula for about a minute or two then add the arugula and wait for the Cavatelli to float to the top.