Category Archives: Recipes

Traditional recipes for foods and beverages from around the world.

Recipes

Milk Chocolate Gelato (Gelato al Cioccolato al Latte)

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16 September 2024

Even though I published a book on gelato, I’ve never posted a gelato recipe on my blog. 

Making gelato requires a few specialty ingredients and an “ice cream machine” known professionally as a batch freezer because it freezes batches of ice cream, gelato, and so forth.  None of these items is difficult to obtain but they are not found in most home kitchens.

My Italian batch freezer is a step up from the Cuisinart ice cream maker I started with over 20 years ago.

Perhaps you already have an ice cream machine, you know, one of those machines where you put the tub in the freezer for a day or so before churning the ice cream.  This is how I started my gelato journey more than 20 years ago. Though I haven’t used it in a while, I still have my original machine.  I’m also happy to say it makes good gelato!  The current version of this machine is still available for under $100. 

Gelato begins with a base of thickened milk.  Historically eggs were commonly used to make the base, creating what is essentially a custard.  While eggs are still used in some artisan Italian gelato they usually appear in two contexts.  One of these in gelato flavors where the taste of egg is important to the flavor profile of the gelato, such as zuppa inglese gelato.  The other use is in particular styles of gelato that have historically used substantial quantities of eggs for richness, such as a gelato style favored in Bologna.

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Most Italian gelato is now made from a custard base that is thickened with ingredients other than egg.  Think about making custard (or pudding depending on which version of English you speak) with cornstarch, tapioca, or arrowroot, to name a few.  Each of these can be used instead of eggs to make custard.  Have you ever used Bird’s Custard Powder?  The thickener is cornstarch. 

Traditionally gelato is portioned using spades rather than scoops.

Cornstarch and gelatin can be used to thicken a gelato base but they are not ideal from the standpoint of a professional gelato maker because the gelato does not have good keeping qualities.  This is where two other natural ingredients come in.  These are carob powder and guar.  Carob and guar are both legumes (beans).  They have been used as food for a very long time.  After drying, they are ground to powder and that’s it.  It’s not too dissimilar from making flour from grains of wheat. 

You have probably encountered carob used in candy, sometimes as a substitute for chocolate.  You are less likely to have encountered guar beans but they are used for food in large parts of the world.

Other than eggs, carob and guar are the only thickeners that I use when making gelato.  They are natural and not chemically derived.  There are other thickeners, such as xanthan gum and carrageenan, that are chemically produced.  I believe these thickeners don’t adhere to the spirit of artisan Italian gelato though they are commonly used in supermarket brands of gelato. 

Find out more about me and the books I’ve published at www.GaryMihalik.com

Have you ever gotten gelato at a gelateria in Italy?  If you did, you may have done what most Italians do which is to get multiple flavors.  Did you notice that all the different flavors of gelato have the same texture?  This is no accident.  Italians take their gelato seriously and believe that all gelato should have the same creamy texture.  Achieving a consistent texture depends on making sure that every gelato in the display case has the same serving temperature.  (This requires calculations that I won’t bore you with but the topic will be important if you become serious about creating your own gelato formulas). 

The serving temperature of gelato is determined in large part by the amount of solids dissolved in the gelato base.  Most of these solids are sugar.  Creating a gelato with the correct serving temperature means adjusting the amount of sugar in the recipe.  But it’s a little more complicated because of the issue of taste.  A watermelon gelato and a lemon gelato with the same amount of sugar would not both taste good.  Either the watermelon gelato would be too sweet or the lemon gelato would be too sour. 

Luckily, there are sugars other than table sugar (sucrose) that can be used to address this issue.  Glucose is less sweet than sucrose while fructose is sweeter than sucrose.  They also affect serving temperature differently than sucrose but that’s getting somewhat esoteric.  Using two or three sugars can get the right sweetness and the right serving temperature. 

For all the gelatos in my book, Mastering Artisan Italian Gelato, I’ve already done these calculations.  I’m mentioning this here to explain why this particular gelato calls for dextrose.  To make good gelato you need a good recipe and some basic equipment.  You only have to deal with mathematics and science if you want to create your own flavors. 

Who doesn’t enjoy gelato?

If you like gelato, I hope you give this recipe a try.  It’s not difficult but you will be rewarded with some of the best gelato you have ever tasted. 

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 Milk Chocolate Gelato (Gelato al Cioccolato al Latte)
Dark chocolate can seem serious. Milk chocolate is quite the opposite. This gelato starts with dark chocolate but the proportion is less than is used in dark chocolate gelato. The lower percentage of chocolate and the higher percentage of dairy turn it into milk chocolate. You can buy guar gum, locust bean gum (carob), and dextrose online. Be sure to buy pure powdered dextrose, not anything labelled glucose or glucose syrup. Precision is important when making gelato, especially for ingredients like guar and carob that are used in small quantities. This will make approximately 1 quart (1 liter) of base. The recipe can be scaled up or down based on the capacity of your ice cream machine.
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
quarts
Ingredients
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
quarts
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, combine the dextrose, guar gum, locust bean gum, and salt. Mix very well as locust bean gum and guar gum can clump if they are not thoroughly mixed with the dextrose. Reserve.
  2. Combine the milk and sucrose in a stainless-steel pot. Heat to 35°C (95°F), whisking occasionally.
  3. Add the chocolate and stir until melted, keeping the temperature below 45°C (113°F).
  4. Add the skim milk powder and whisk to dissolve completely.
  5. Continuing to heat the milk mixture, slowly sprinkle in the dextrose mixture, whisking constantly to avoid lumps and keeping the mixture below 45°C (113°F).
  6. After the dextrose mixture is fully incorporated, heat to 85°C (185°F), stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula.
  7. Add the cream. Mix well. Heat to 75˚C (167°F) as the cream will have cooled the mixture, stirring constantly, and hold for 15 seconds.
  8. Chill quickly, preferably in an ice bath. Allow the base to mature overnight, covered and refrigerated at 4˚C (39°F) or less.
  9. Just before freezing the gelato, add water to return the base to the calculated batch weight.
  10. Blend with an immersion blender. Taste and adjust salt, if necessary.
  11. Freeze in a batch freezer according to manufacturer’s directions.
  12. Transfer the gelato from the batch freezer to a tub.
  13. Harden in a deep freezer at least 12 hours, or up to one month if tightly covered.
  14. About 15 minutes before serving the gelato, portion it into serving bowls and place the bowls in the refrigerator. This will allow the gelato to warm slightly.
Recipe Notes

I recommend weighing the stainless-steel pot when it is empty and recording the weight. That way, at step 9, when you add water to compensate for what evaporated when heating the base, you can simply add the weight of the pot to the intended weight of the mixture, which for a single batch is 1000 grams, and add water to reach that weight.

Copyright © 2024 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Spaghetti all’Assassina

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25 August 2024

Spaghetti all’Assassina has been having a moment.  Well, if I’m honest, it’s been having a moment for about a year and a half now, judging from the dates of various recipe posts.  I was going to be early to the party given that I took the photos for this post more than two years ago!  Working on my second cookbook took up most of my available time and, once again, the blog suffered. 

Alberobello, a town in Puglia, is famous for its stone trulli houses. (Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

I just began work on my third cookbook, but I have made a commitment to myself to post regularly on the blog, cookbook or no!

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Spaghetti all’Assassina is iconoclastic, both in its name and in its preparation.  It seems mostly clear that it made it into the public eye in the 1960s in Bari, the capital of Puglia, the region that occupies the “heel” of the boot that is Italy, most probably at restaurant Al Sorso Preferito.  Not much else is clear. 

  1. According to one account, chef Enzo Francavilla of Al Sorso Preferito created the dish by accident in 1967. He allegedly burned a spaghetti dish so badly that extra peperoncino (red pepper) was added to save it. It was then served to the staff who liked it so much that it became a regular dish on the menu. 
  2. Chef Enzo Francavilla himself says he invented the dish in 1967 when two customers at the restaurant asked for pasta. 
  3. Another version suggests that the restaurant’s owners discovered the recipe when a neighboring rotisserie closed down, tried it out, and liked it.
Octopus meatballs (polpette di polpo) at Il Polpo restaurant in Gallipoli, Puglia.

The name spaghetti all’assassina has a few potential explanations:

  1. It may refer to the “killing” or burning of the pasta during the cooking process.
  2. Some say it’s due to the dish’s spiciness, which is “killer” hot.
  3. One story claims that customers joked that the flaming hot spices were the chef’s way of “killing” them.
An Aperol spritz was a welcome relief on a very hot August day in Alberobello.

What makes this dish truly unique is its unconventional cooking technique.  The process is similar to making risotto.  In fact, pasta all’assassina belongs to a category of pasta dishes called pasta risottata (pasta risotto-style).  The pasta is not boiled but cooked directly in a pan with small amounts of liquid added, just like risotto.  What differentiates pasta all’assassina is that it is cooked with the goal of caramelizing, and possibly charring, the sauce and/or pasta, unlike risotto. 

An amazing tiramisù at Siné restaurant in Alberobello, Puglia.

For decades, spaghetti all’assassina remained a local specialty in Bari. However, in 2013, a physicist and food enthusiast named Massimo dell’Erba created a Facebook group called Accademia dell’Assassina (Academy of the Assassin) to promote the dish.  This social media presence helped spread awareness of the dish beyond Bari both in Italy and internationally.

There are several variations of spaghetti all’assassina that have emerged over time. 

Variations on the traditional recipe include:

  1. Spiciness can vary from very spicy to mild.  Note though, that the food in Puglia is not traditionally spicy so a “very spicy” pasta dish from that region would not really be very hot for true chileheads.
  2. Charring can range between a deeply charred, even burnt, pasta to just a light browning of the sauce.
  3. Tomato intensity varies due to the amount of tomato and type of product, typically tomato paste vs. tomato puree (passata in Italian).
Although it doesn’t look different, this plate of spaghetti with mussels, at Il Polpo restaurant in Gallipoli, was the best spaghetti with shellfish that I have ever eaten!

Some chefs have adapted spaghetti all’assassina by adding other ingredients such as broccoli rabe, seafood, fried olives, cherry tomatoes, and stracciatella cheese. 

In May of this year, I had the opportunity to eat spaghetti all’assassina in Puglia, the region where it originated.  I made two trips to the town of Alberobello.  On the second trip, Ryan Castillo, a chef friend from Rome made a reservation for me at restaurant Siné.  The trip lasted four days and I ate three days in a row at the restaurant.  The only reason it wasn’t four days is that they are closed on Wednesdays!  I obviously loved the food.  Alberobello is a heavily touristed town so to find a restaurant that makes great food not aimed specifically at the tourist crowd is very welcome.    

Some versions of spaghetti all’assassina are cooked until they are burnt. (ScotInPuglia, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
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 Spaghetti all'Assassina
While I like getting the sauce caramelized and quite brown in spots, I don’t like actually burning the dish as it imparts a bitter flavor that is overwhelming. Chewy bits of pasta are good, too, but not really crunchy and hard. I use both tomato puree (passata) and tomato paste to create a balanced tomato flavor. This is not a dish that calls for super-premium bronze die extruded pasta. However, a pasta that is slow-dried, such as de Cecco, works well. The traditional pan for making spaghetti all’assassina is cast iron or carbon steel but I prefer to use a heavy non-stick pan large enough to hold the spaghetti flat on the bottom.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Remove 150 g of passata from the bottle and reserve.
  2. Combine the remaining passata with the water, tomato paste and salt to make a tomato “broth”. Bring to a simmer on low heat. Use some of the water to rinse out the jar to remove all the passata.
  3. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, preferably one that is large enough in diameter to hold the spaghetti flat. Add the minced and whole garlic and sauté until fragrant.
  4. Add hot pepper, sauté briefly.
  5. Add the reserved passata and sugar.
  6. Cook until much of the liquid has evaporated and the passata has darkened somewhat.
  7. Add the spaghetti, fanning it out. Add a ladle or two of the broth and cook on brisk heat until almost completely absorbed, frequently pushing the spaghetti around to keep it from sticking together.
  8. Proceed in this way, adding broth a bit at a time and occasionally turning the spaghetti over, until it is al dente. During this time, you should begin to notice the fragrance change toward more caramel notes.
  9. During the last few minutes, allow the pasta to sizzle enough to create some very dark spots. Note, if there is not enough broth, bring some water to a simmer and finish cooking the pasta with that.
  10. Off heat, add Pecorino and more liquid if necessary to create a bit of sauce.
  11. Drizzle each serving with some additional extra-virgin olive oil and pass more grated Pecorino at the table.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2024 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Polpette di Tonno (Tuna Croquettes)

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6 March 2024

Polpette!

The usual translation of the Italian word polpette is “meatballs.”

But polpette are so much more.  Italians use the word polpette to refer to any “balls” made of chopped or ground up stuff including meat, fish, vegetables… you name it!

That leaves the translation a bit up in the air.  If the “balls” are made of meat I usually translate polpette as meatballs but if they’re made of other ingredients, as in this recipe, I usually translate it as croquettes.  Tuna meatballs just doesn’t sound right!  And eggplant meatballs is even worse!

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By the way, the singular of polpette is polpetta but who ever had just ONE meatball… or croquette!

I have other polpetta recipes coming in future blog posts but in the meantime, if you’re up for more meatball recipes, take a look at these two:

Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs

Italian Wedding Soup

The meatball mixture in the Wedding Soup makes scrumptious meatballs that can be fried and then simmered in tomato sauce rather than put into soup!

Once again, I find myself apologizing for a prolonged absence from my blog.  I have been working diligently on my latest cookbook, due out this spring, called
Dispatches from Calabria: Eating My Way Through Culinary School in Italy.

In the meantime, if you haven’t seen my first book,
Mastering Artisan Italian Gelato: Recipes and Techniques,
you can read about it HERE.

In the typical progression of an Italian meal, these croquettes would be served as a “secondo,”  what we Americans might call the main course except that in a full-on Italian meal the secondo would be preceded with a “primo,” which is usually pasta, soup or a rice dish.  A secondo is usually accompanied by one or more side dishes, “contorni.”

You might consider starting a meal with:

Pear, Celery and Arugula Salad with Lemon Dressing

For a pasta course, any of these would go well:

Pasta with Silky Zucchini Sauce

Bowtie Pasta with Peas

Angel Hair Pasta with Crispy Breadcrumbs

Along with the croquettes, you could select from the following side dishes:

Argentine Marinated Eggplant

Roasted Sweet Peppers

Green Beans with Parmesan Cheese

Rapini with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Red Pepper

Happy eating!

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Polpette di Tonno (Tuna Croquettes)

This recipe is from the Italian region of Molise. It can be made with fresh tuna instead of canned, if you desire. Gently cook and flake the fresh tuna. You’ll need about 12 ounces of flaked tuna to equal the amount in two 7-ounce cans. Simmer the croquettes in a simple, meatless tomato sauce. If you need a suggestion, try my Basic Tomato Sauce. A link to the recipe in the Notes below.

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Course Fish and Seafood
Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour

Servings
people


Ingredients

Course Fish and Seafood
Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour

Servings
people


Ingredients

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Instructions
  1. Drain the tuna and squeeze out excess oil.

  2. Soak the bread in water. Squeeze out excess water.

  3. Combine all ingredients and mix with your fingers until you get a uniform mixture.

  4. Form into 14 portions.

  5. Roll into balls then flatten slightly.

  6. Dredge in flour then refrigerate one hour, if possible.

  7. Deep fry the croquettes then simmer in tomato sauce for about 10 minutes.


Recipe Notes

You can find the recipe for Basic Tomato Sauce HERE.

Copyright © 2024 by Gary J Mihalik. All rights reserved.


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Recipes

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

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21 March 2023

Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia, Spaghetti all’Amatriciana, and Spaghetti alla Carbonara are the Holy Quaternity of Roman pasta dishes.

The sauce for Cacio e Pepe is little more than Pecorino Romano cheese emulsified into some of the pasta-cooking water to make a glossy sauce.  Pasta alla Gricia adds cured pork, usually guanciale, to Cacio e Pepe.  Amatriciana adds tomato to Gricia while  Carbonara adds egg to Gricia.

And there you have it, arguably the four most important pasta dishes of Roman cuisine.

The origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara are murky.  Given the obvious relationship between these four pasta dishes one might think that there’s not much to talk about, one just naturally leading into the other.  However, there is some intriguing evidence, and a little speculation, about the origins of Carbonara.

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The evidence and speculation go like this.  During the Allied liberation of Rome during WWII, the bacon and (powdered) eggs of American GI rations were combined with pasta to make a proto-Carbonara.  Some Italians agree with this, and some do not.  Those who do not usually insist that the cured pork product of choice is guanciale (cured pork jowl) not pancetta (cured pork belly) let alone American bacon.

But think about it.  How likely is it that the Romans had any cured pork hanging around near the end of WWII?  It’s more likely that they consumed anything that was consumable by then.  The existence of guanciale in any significant quantity is unlikely.  In addition, the first reference to Spaghetti alla Carbonara appeared in the newspaper La Stampa in 1950, indicating it was a favorite of American GIs.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Spaghetti alla Carbonara existed prior to WWII and was made with guanciale.  After the Allied liberation of Rome, it’s reasonable to see how GI rations of (powdered) egg and bacon could have been substituted for fresh eggs and guanciale.  It’s also possible, even probable, that if it existed before the 1940s, Carbonara wasn’t written about because it was part of the cuisine of the poor (cucina povera).  Despite our current fascination with traditional cuisine, until recently culinary history largely focused on foods eaten by the upper classes, not the poor.

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Unless more evidence comes to light, we may never know the origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara.  Even so, there are some things we can say definitively:

  1. Adding cream to Carbonara is an abomination!
  2. If not the original meat, American bacon has a legitimate place in the history of Carbonara.
  3. Carbonara is delicious, whether made with guanciale, bacon, or pancetta.  Yes, each is different but each is delicious!  I’ve used all of them.  I prefer bacon but I’ll never turn down a well-made dish (or three) of Spaghetti alla Carbonara regardless of what cured pork product went into it.

The most challenging part of making carbonara is to incorporate the eggs, getting them to thicken into a sauce without either remaining raw or turning into scrambled eggs.  I’ve got a little trick that eliminates these concerns.

Read on!

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 Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Spaghetti alla Carbonara is one of the four classic Roman pasta dishes, along with Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia, and Spaghetti all’Amatriciana. It can be made with guanciale, American bacon, or pancetta though guanciale and bacon probably have the greatest claim on tradition. My preference is bacon. If using guanciale, I sometimes decrease the amount by 10% because it usually has more fat than either bacon or pancetta.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Cut the bacon into matchstick-size pieces.
  2. Sauté the bacon in a dry sauté pan until some fat renders.
  3. Add the garlic and sauté until the garlic is quite golden, but not brown. Remove the garlic and reserve. If the bacon is not well browned, continue cooking.
  4. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, egg yolks, Pecorino Romano cheese, 2 teaspoons black pepper, and reserved cooked garlic in a blender jar. Reserve.
  5. When the bacon is brown, add the wine and remove from the heat unless you are adding the pasta immediately. The dish can be made several hours ahead to this point.
  6. Cook the spaghetti in salted water until just shy of al dente.
  7. Just before draining the pasta, reheat the bacon and cook off the wine.
  8. Add the pasta to the bacon and sauté on medium to medium-high heat.
  9. Add pasta-cooking water, about one ladleful at a time, and continue cooking the pasta, stirring frequently, until al-dente. There should be enough liquid to coat the pasta in a thick "sauce."
  10. Just as the pasta reaches al dente, turn on the blender. Blend the contents thoroughly and then add about 120 ml (½ cup) of the hot pasta cooking liquid while the blender is still running.
  11. Off the heat, add the blended egg mixture to the pasta along with the parsley, if using, and even more freshly ground black pepper.
  12. Mix well to turn the eggs into a creamy sauce, adding pasta-cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
  13. Pour into a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2023 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Focaccia Barese (Focaccia from Bari)

6 Comments

January 11, 2023

Never Explain.  Never Apologize.

Somebody famous once said that.

Well, according to Wikipedia, lots of famous people said that but the first, perhaps, is John Arbuthnot Fisher, a British Admiral of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

I’m about to do both!

It’s been nearly a year since my last blog post.  And many months had elapsed between my next-to-last blog post and that one.  I’m sorry!

Semola Remacinata, the finest grind of durum wheat flour in Italy.

It amazes, and gratifies me, however, that during that long dry spell I continued to get messages from new readers of the blog and new subscribers to my emails.

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Now let me explain.

Since August 2021 I have been working on a book about how to make artisan Italian gelato.  All the time that I would have devoted to testing recipes and writing blog posts, and more, went to testing recipes for and, ultimately, writing the book.

I sent the manuscript to the publisher on November 1st.  I’ve since revised the manuscript based on multiple rounds of feedback from the developmental editor.  The text is now undergoing line editing.  The photoshoot was completed a few weeks ago and photos were tentatively selected for the book.

A shot of the photoshoot for my upcoming book on artisan Italian gelato.

I’m anxiously awaiting options for page layout and cover design.  And not-so-anxiously awaiting feedback from the line editor.

Finding myself with more flexibility, I am planning on doing more baking than gelato-making for the next few months.  Winter in Palm Springs is the time to use the oven!

In fact, I had planned to make a coconut almond cake today, my second in less than two weeks.   My goal is to keep at it until I reproduce a taste memory of a coconut almond cake that I ate, one and only one time, in 1967 (or summer arrives in Palm Springs, whichever comes first).  It’s probably a fool’s errand but it is giving focus to my baking efforts.

My first coconut almond cake of the winter baking season.

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A water leak last evening, while I was making dinner, means that the water to the house is shut off until the plumber gets here later today.  No water means no baking.  No baking means that I can repurpose my time to do my first blog post in nearly a year.

I promise to do my best to be more regular in posting.

Gelato alla Zuppa Inglese, one of over 75 gelato recipes in my upcoming book. This is an egg-based gelato studded with cake soaked in Italian Alkermes liquore and dark chocolate chips.

Now, let’s pivot to a recipe:  Focaccia Barese (Focaccia from Bari).

I like to serve homemade bread with dinner as much as possible.  This is a recipe that I turn to over and over to put a really tasty bread on the table with minimal active time and often little advance planning.

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 Focaccia Barese (Focaccia from Bari)
Focaccia is a yeast-risen bread that is made from a dough that has such a high proportion of water that it is almost a batter. Crushed tomatoes as well as capers and/or olives are strewn on top. A good sprinkling of dried oregano and a few glugs of good olive oil round out the flavor. In Italy, flour made from durum wheat comes in three grinds: fine, medium, and coarse, called semola (or semola remacinata, meaning “twice ground”), semolina, and semolino respectively. I usually use semola imported from Italy for this bread. If buying domestic semolina (in English, we use the same word, regardless of the grind) look for one that is finely ground.
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Course Breads and Rolls
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
loaf
Ingredients
Course Breads and Rolls
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
loaf
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Put flour, semola, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle, NOT the dough hook, begin to mix on low.
  2. Slowly drizzle in the water. When the water is fully mixed in, sprinkle in the sugar.
  3. Add the salt and beat on medium high you see strings of gluten form in the dough, approximately 4-5 minutes. The dough will get stretchy and if you pull a bit, it should look stringy.
  4. Drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil and mix on medium until well combined.
  5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about two hours.
  6. Meanwhile, drain the canned tomatoes through a sieve. If the tomatoes are whole, coarsely crush them by hand and allow to drain further. If you are using diced tomatoes, crushing is not needed.
  7. Oil a circular baking pan, 12” in diameter x 2” high with more extra-virgin olive oil.
  8. Pour in the dough. Lightly oil your fingertips and press into the dough, without stretching, until it is evenly spread out in the pan.
  9. Arrange crushed tomatoes, capers, and olives, if using, on top. Drizzle with more extra-virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with oregano.
  10. Cover the pan and allow to rise. If you have another baking pan of the same size, turn it upside down and use it as a cover. If not, invert a large bowl over the baking pan. Whatever you do, be sure there is some space above the rim of the pan so that the dough has room to rise.
  11. When the dough reaches the top of the pan, carefully transfer it to the oven so it doesn’t deflate.
  12. Bake at 375°F with convection (or 400°F without convection) for approximately 35 minutes, turning once or twice, until browned and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.
  13. Cool the bread in the pan set on a rack before removing it.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2023 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Ragù Bolognese: The Official Recipe

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February 11, 2022

I’m a little more than halfway through a week’s visit to Bologna.  Bologna is referred to as la dotta, la grassa, la rossa: the learned, the fat, the red.

“The learned” relates to Bologna as the seat of the oldest university in the western world and the top-rated university in Italy.  It has a highly educated population.

“The red” refers to the color of the terra cotta tiles on many of the roofs.

“The fat” is well earned based on the food.  This is the land of mortadella, ragù Bolognese, tagliatelle, tortellini, lasagna al forno (aka lasagna Bolognese), prosciutto, parmigiano reggiano, and balsamic vinegar of Modena among other traditional, and dare I say, famous foods.

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Let’s not forget gelato.  While I don’t think Bologna can claim title to the originator of gelato, they have perfected a style made with eggs that is consummately smooth.  A gelateria is often referred to as a cremeria in Bologna.

Tagliatelle al Ragu at at Osteria dell’Orsa in Bologna.

My main goal being here is to eat.  I want to taste some of the iconic foods of the region in the cathedral to food that is Bologna.  To that end, I’ve had dishes with ragù Bolognese three times in the last three days.  Though there were slight differences, the preparations tasted amazingly similar.  That got me to thinking about consistency.

I know that there’s an official recipe for Pesto alla Genovese which I reference in my post on pesto.  That got me to thinking about other official recipes.  After some internet sleuthing, I discovered that there’s an Italian Academy that, after substantial research, codifies and registers what it considers to be the official recipes for traditional dishes.  (Of course there is!  This is Italy.  Food is paramount.) Access to these recipes is quite limited.  (Of course it is!  This is Italy.  Food is rigorously protected.)

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My primary culinary interest is traditional recipes.  Discovering the existence of this academy has been a revelation for me.  So much so that I decided to occasionally post their recipes, translated into English with notes on ingredients and techniques as appropriate to enable my readers to recreate the taste of the original.

So much of what passes for Italian food in the States is far from the original.

Lasagna al Forno (aka Lasagna Bolognese) at Trattoria Anna Maria in Bologna.

I’ll be quick to add that credible variations on these official recipes exist but the very existence of the official ones sets a standard of comparison.  Several years ago, I posted a recipe for Ragù Bolognese.  You will see the similarity.  The main differences in my version are a greater proportion of tomatoes and the absence of dairy.  It is a very good ragù, and one that I continue to make on a regular basis.  But today, I’m giving you the official recipe.

Enjoy!

(Photo: Erikatrioschi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

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 Ragù Bolognese: The Official Recipe
Butchering in Italy produces different cuts from butchering in the United States. I’ve noted some US cuts of beef that would be appropriate based on the recommended Italian cuts. For those of you who want to try your hand at this, the original cuts of meat listed are cartella, panica, fesone di spalla, and fusillo. Broth in Italy is light. It is not an intensely flavored stock as might be common in much of French cooking.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Sauté the pancetta in a heavy-bottomed pot, approximately 7-8 inches in diameter (20 cm). Render as much fat as possible without browning the pancetta. A little gold color is fine.
  2. Add the olive oil or butter along with the carrot, celery, and onion. Sauté gently until softened, without browning, approximately 10 minutes.
  3. Add the beef and mix well. Sauté until it sizzles (that is, until all liquid has evaporated and the beef begins to cook in the fat).
  4. Add the wine and cook gently until it completely evaporates.
  5. Add the tomato puree. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for two hours, adding broth as needed when the ragù becomes too thick.
  6. During the last few minutes add the milk. This will counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.
  7. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
  8. If the ragù is going to be used for dried pasta (instead of fresh pasta or lasagna), it is customary to add the cream, otherwise not.
Recipe Notes

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Pollo allo Scarpariello (Chicken Shoemaker Style)

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October 8, 2021

Unappetizing pictures!

Sometimes really delicious food makes unappetizing pictures.

Take Chicken Scarpariello, for example.  By the time the chicken is unctuous, the potatoes creamy, and the sauce tangy the dish is unappetizingly brown (at least in a photograph).  I discovered this when looking at the photographs I had taken for this blog post.

This is really a shame because the taste is superb.

We’re several weeks into planting our new vegetable beds but these herbs have been going strong since March 2021. They were cut back drastically last week to encourage growth.

Brown food can be challenging to photograph, especially brown food in a brown sauce.  Food stylists might solve this problem by using barely cooked potatoes that look pale and peppers that are still yellow and green, not really cooked as required by the dish.  This doesn’t represent reality.  The dish, cooked properly, will never look like the photograph.  This is an approach that I think is inherently unfair.

I’m willing to admit that some of the problem relates to my picture-taking ability.  My photographic ability isn’t great but even that meager ability sometimes suffers because I’m hastily taking photographs as I’m trying to put the food on the table.

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If I weren’t doing that, I could carefully plate a piece of chicken with the potatoes and peppers artfully arranged off to the side, lots of white space on the plate, and a few colorful garnishes or side dishes.  I could even wipe a little of the sauce off of the potatoes to make them lighter in color.  All this would mitigate the “brown problem” but it just isn’t practical because the food I post on the blog is something that I actually made to eat at the moment it is ready.

One of three vegetable beds beginning to sprout.  In the back, not in the bed, are four plants: rosemary, bay, chile pepper, and niepita.

I guess I could spend time carefully taking pictures and serve cold food but that approach wouldn’t last long in my household.

I could cook specifically for the blog and not worry about serving the food, at least not the day I cook it.  That would create a major leftover problem.  Besides, many dishes aren’t at their best when reheated.  On the other hand, many foods are better if made in advance.  So, I guess this is a partial solution to the problem that could work on a case-by-case basis depending on what the dish is.

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I can think of other potential solutions but each has its problem.  This could include having a photographer arrange the plate and photograph it (presumably while I’m having dinner with the rest of the household).

We’re looking forward to a winter crop of tomatoes!

Alternatively, I could serve everyone then spend time arranging a plate to photograph, hoping to join the dinner table before everyone is finished.

I’ll keep working on a fix to the issue but, in the meantime, I encourage you to try this Italian-American dish.  It scales up easily so you can feed a crowd if you need to.  The leftovers are pretty incredible, too!

Greens for salad being started directly in the bed.

American websites, including the New York Times, usually say the name of this dish translates as Chicken Shoemaker Style.  However, you won’t find the word “scarpariello” in an Italian dictionary.  To be sure, the word “scarpa” means shoe but the Italian word for shoemaker is “calzolaio.”  Scarpariello, however, is the word for shoemaker in the Neapolitan dialect, which gives a clue as to which immigrant group might have been responsible for creating this Italian-American favorite.

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 Pollo allo Scarpariello (Chicken Shoemaker Style)
Scarpariello means shoemaker in the Neapolitan dialect. This may give a clue as to the origins of this Italian-American favorite. The dish builds on a classic combination in the cooking of many regions of Italy: chicken cooked with wine and vinegar. The capers are optional. Use sweet or hot pickled peppers as you prefer or, if you want to spice it up, add some crushed red pepper when sautéing the garlic. If you don't have a stove-to-oven pot large enough to hold all the ingredients, do the browning in a large saute pan then assemble everything in a large baking dish.
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Course Mains, Poultry
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Mains, Poultry
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Dredge the chicken in flour. Reserve.
  2. Peel the potaotes and cut in large chunks.
  3. Cut the Bell peppers in triangles
  4. Cut the onions in eighths
  5. In a large stove-to-oven pot, heat the olive oil. Brown the chicken, sausage, and potatoes. Do this in batches, if necessary.
  6. Remove everything from the pot. Cut the cooked sausage into 1 ½ inch long pieces.
  7. Add the garlic to the oil remaining in the pot and sauté until it is fragrant and golden.
  8. Add the bell pepper and onion, season with salt, and sauté until the onion is beginning to soften and turns gold and brown in spots.
  9. Add the rosemary and bay leaves and sauté briefly.
  10. Add the wine and deglaze.
  11. When wine is almost completely evaporated, return chicken, sausage, and potatoes to the pot along with any accumulated juices.
  12. Add about 1 cup of chicken broth and the vinegar along with the pickled peppers. Season well with salt, pepper, and oregano.
  13. Bring to a boil, cover, and put in the oven at 350°F.
  14. An hour later, stir the contents of the pot. Add the drained artichoke hearts and capers, if using. Add more broth if needed to keep the contents from sticking. Adjust the seasoning.
  15. Cook for another hour until chicken is very tender and potatoes are cooked through.
  16. Stir in parsley and serve.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2021 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Funghi Ripieni (Stuffed Mushrooms)

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September 29, 2021

“Your grams are killing me!”

That’s what a friend told me recently regarding some of the recipes on my blog.

His comment came as he was considering how much pasta to cook for dinner.  I repeated what Great Aunt Fidalma told me:  80 grams per person.

Making the change to the metric system (International System or SI) of measurement isn’t easy and we don’t do much as a country to catalyze the change.  In some areas, though, we’ve made the transition.

The digital scale I use on a daily basis. I also have two battery powered scales that are just as accurate that cost $20 each.

Have you looked carefully at a wine or liquor bottle recently?  The contents are specified in the metric system even as we continue to refer to a bottle of liquor as a “fifth.”  Until January 1979, a liquor bottle, indeed, held one-fifth of a US gallon, approximately 757 ml.  Standard liquor bottles now contain 750 ml, just a smidge less.

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Cooking, and especially baking, is much easier with the metric system.  And that doesn’t even take into account the ease of weighing ingredients rather than trying to measure cups and fractions of cups.

I find that I am frequently scaling recipes up and down, but usually up.  If the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of water, and I’m upscaling by 20%, I end up with the unwieldy amount of 9/10 cup of water.  If I were using metric measures, I’d be starting with something like 180 ml and increasing by 20% to get to 216 ml which is much easier to measure out than 9/10 of a cup.

The manual scale that I used for many years. It has since been mothballed.

Let’s face it, how do you measure 9/10 cup.  You first start by determining what 1/10 cup is, which is 1.6 tablespoons.  Multiplying that by 9 gets you 14.4 tablespoons.  But since you’re not going to measure out that many tablespoons one by one (and you’re likely to get pretty inaccurate after a few tablespoons, if you do) you work backwards to figure out what standard measure comes close.  That gets you back to the 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) you started with plus 2.4 tablespoons.

For most purposes, you can treat 2.4 tablespoons as if it were 2.5 tablespoons since the difference is likely within the margin of error for measuring with kitchen equipment.  But unless you have a set of measuring spoons that contains a 1/2 tablespoon measure, you’ll be measuring out 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon… if you can remember how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon.

So rather than just pouring 215 ml into a measuring cup (a reasonable approximation for 216 ml and one that can be found marked on some metric measuring “cups”) you’d be measuring out ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon.  In my book, that’s crazy!

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It gets even easier if you give up the notion of measuring by volume and measure everything by weight, even liquids, as is typically done in professional kitchens.  You can get a very accurate scale for less than $20.  With that, you could weigh out the 216 grams of water (equivalent to 216 ml of water) and call it a day:  no guessing, no eyeballing, no complex calculations needed.

For weighing small quantities this little scale can’t be beat for accuracy.

So really, what’s holding you back from giving the Metric System a go?

It’s time for me to get off my soapbox (for now) and actually cook something.  How about stuffed mushrooms?  I’ll even write the recipe in American measures!!

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 Funghi Ripieni (Stuffed Mushrooms)
These stuffed mushrooms come together quickly and can be made early in the day and refrigerated until it’s time to pop them in the oven.
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Course Appetizers and Nibbles
Cuisine General, Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings
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Ingredients
Course Appetizers and Nibbles
Cuisine General, Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth.
  2. Remove the stems.
  3. Finely grind the stems in a food processor.
  4. Sauté the ground stems in the butter with a pinch of salt until the liquid is drawn out and then completely evaporated.
  5. Mix the cooked stems with the breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, garlic, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Cool slightly and add 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.
  7. Butter a baking dish large enough to hold the mushroom caps in a single layer, snugly.
  8. Fill each mushroom cap with some of the stuffing mixture.
  9. Arrange the stuffed mushroom caps in the buttered dish.
  10. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese, dot with butter and add a small amount of broth or water to the bottom of the dish to keep the mushrooms from sticking.
  11. Bake at 375°F for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.
  12. Baste occasionally with the liquid in the pan during baking.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2021 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Sformato di Zucchini (Italian Zucchini Bake)

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September 15, 2021

A lot has happened in the seven months since my last blog post.  I’m sure you’ll understand why I haven’t posted in a while.

We’re no longer in Santa Fe!

That’s right, we’ve moved full time to Palm Springs, California.

An aerial view of the “new” Villa Sentieri, foreground, with the hiking trail just beyond, that prompted the name of the Villa.

It was, and remains, exceedingly difficult to have left all our close friends in Santa Fe but Palm Springs called to us.

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We get two growing seasons each year.  Since we’re just a few hundred feet above sea level, I don’t need to be concerned about testing recipes at high altitude.  The weather is pretty darn great, too!

The variety of what we can grow here is amazing.  We have ten citrus trees, three fig trees and an apricot tree.  We’re considering adding a pomegranate tree.  We have table grapes trellised up a side wall.  There are four raised beds for herbs and vegetables.

Frank grew the most awesome tomatoes this year.  I have quite a stash of homemade passata (tomato puree) in the freezer.

Naso di Cane (Nose of the Dog) peppers from Calabria. Seeds I brought back in 2019 just got planted in our garden in Palm Springs. I’m hoping to make “Olio Santo” (Holy Oil, aka Hot Chile Oil) in a few months.

The timing of our seasons takes a bit of getting used to.  Our first season pretty much ended in June.  That’s probably the time that most of you were just getting started with your gardens.  Though the herbs have continued to grow through the summer heat, all the vegetables were done by the end of June.

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Right now we have an abundance of fresh limes.  The other citrus trees have fruit but it won’t be ripe for a few more months.

The vegetable beds sat fallow for the summer.  Just a few days ago, Frank planted them with seeds for what will be our second harvest of the year.  That will take place in November and December.

The “new” Villa Sentieri has an interior atrium with a koi pond filled with 17 koi.

Though we’re not harvesting vegetables at the moment, this is the perfect time for zucchini in most of the country.  When there’s an abundance of zucchini, sformato is the answer.

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 Sformato di Zucchini (Italian Zucchini Bake)
This was the first item that I cooked with Zia Fidalma at her home in Tuscany in August 2019. Green beans, cut in small pieces, can be prepared the same way except the beans are boiled and not sautéed. A combo of beans and zucchini is also possible. Zia does not usually add herbs to her sformato but since she had some niepita she added it. Though you’re not likely to have niepita (aka mentuccia romana), unless you grow your own, adding a small amount of marjoram or oregano is a welcome addition. If you don’t have fresh herbs, use a light sprinkling of dry herbs. In any case, herbs are totally optional.
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Course Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
Besciamella
  1. In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter.
  2. Add the flour and sauté briefly until the raw smell is gone. Do not brown the flour.
  3. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring well after each addition to avoid lumps.
  4. After all the milk has been added, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan. Boil for one minute.
  5. Remove from the heat and stir in the nutmeg.
  6. If not using immediately, pour the besciamella into a heat-proof bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to avoid the formation of a skin.
  7. Refrigerate if the besciamella will not be used within an hour or two.
Sformato
  1. Do not peel the zucchini. Cut off the stem ends and slice the zucchini lengthwise about 3/16 inch thick then crosswise the same thickness to make thick matchsticks.
  2. Sauté the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant.
  3. Add the cut zucchini, chopped flowers and minced niepita if using. Season with salt and pepper and sauté briskly until just barely tender.
  4. Mix the cooked zucchini with the besciamella, nutmeg, and Parmigiano.
  5. Stir in the eggs after the mixture is cool enough to not cook the eggs.
  6. Taste and adjust salt and black pepper.
  7. Butter a baking dish, approximately 7 ½” x 11”.
  8. Sprinkle the buttered dish with fine dry breadcrumbs.
  9. Pour the zucchini mixture into the prepared baking dish. It should be about ¾ inch thick.
  10. Bake at 400°F till very brown on top, approximately 90 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before cutting.
  11. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2021 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Roman-Style Olives (Olive alla Romana)

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February 3, 2021

This recipe is for Mike.

It’s for all of you, too, but especially for Mike.

Mike dutifully reads all of my posts and recipes but says he’ll never make any of them despite the fact that he’s a good cook.

I challenged myself to post a recipe that Mike COULD make if Mike CHOSE to make it.  (Hint:  that means it’s fast and easy!)

Crushed fennel seed.

Most of us are not going to cure our own olives.  Even in Italy that’s true.  But starting with good quality cured olives and seasoning them to make them unique is quite another thing.

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Many years ago, when we were living in Chicago, and had a very productive garden plot, fall “harvest” season saw lots of foods being made and preserved for the coming months.  One of the ways we made use of abundant fresh herbs was to put up gallons of olives with herbs and a light vinegar brine.  It was a technique I learned from a friend in Santa Fe, Joe Hoffman.

Tiny lemon wedges, about the size of an olive.

The vinegar allowed the olives to be kept for months and months without deterioration.  Done right, they weren’t sour.  In fact, I thought the vinegar treatment mellowed some of the bitterness that olives can have.

“Joe Hoffman’s Marinated Olives” were a staple nibble during cocktail hour for most of our dinner parties for many years.

Garlic slivers.

Our herb harvest since moving to Santa Fe hasn’t been as abundant as it was in Chicago so I haven’t made these olives in a while.  What I do make is an utterly different style of marinated olive that can be prepared just a few hours before serving time.  These olives will last in the refrigerator for several weeks, though not as long as Joe Hoffman’s olives.

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The original recipe, which I have since modified, came from Jo Bettoja’s In a Roman Kitchen.

These olives pack a major flavor punch and never cease to get raves from dinner guests.

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 Roman-Style Olives (Olive alla Romana)
These olives only need to marinate a few hours before serving. They will keep in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for several weeks.
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Course Appetizers and Nibbles
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
Ingredients
Course Appetizers and Nibbles
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients. Mix well. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature a few hours, stirring occasionally.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2021 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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