Category Archives: Recipes

Name: Aunt Margie's Pasta è Ceci (Pasta and Chickpeas)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 6 people
Ingredients: 1 pound ditalini (or other very small dry, cut pasta); 3 1/2 cups cooked dry chickpeas (or two 15 to 16 ounce cans); 1/3 cup dry white wine; 1/2 onion (finely diced); 1/3 teaspoon dried oregano; 4 cloves garlic (bruised); 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil; 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese (grated, plus more for serving); 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil; salt (to taste); black pepper (freshly ground to taste)

Traditional recipes for foods and beverages from around the world.

Recipes

Aunt Margie’s Pasta è Ceci (Pasta and Chickpeas)

4 Comments

May 4, 2018

Beans and Macaroni. Pasta è Fagioli. Even Pasta Fazool to quote Dean Martin.

It’s a classic combination and there are as many variations as there are cooks! (Google returned 6,300,000 entries for “beans and macaroni,” 588,000 for “pasta è fagioli,” and 57,900 for “pasta fazool!”)

This is my interpretation of Aunt Margie’s, which she made with chickpeas.

**At Aunt Margie’s 90th birthday party in September 2010. From left to right, Aunt Margie’s grandson, Jim, me, Aunt Margie, my cousin Donna (Aunt Margie’s daughter)**

It couldn’t be more different from my mother’s which was made with baby lima beans.

Aunt Margie’s was made with water and oil. My mother’s had tomato sauce.

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Aunt Margie’s was quite soupy. My mother’s was just slightly “saucy.”

They grew up in the same house and learned to cook from the same mother. I wish I had thought to ask either of them where their respective recipes came from and why they were so different.

**My cousin Donna and I in the lobby of the Hilton Plaza in Miami Beach, 1970**

One thing that both versions had in common, though, is that they were frequently served on Fridays, which our families observed as meatless back then. (When Fridays were no longer meatless, my father joked that it was because the Vatican sold its fisheries.)

But Friday or no, pasta è fagioli, or, in this case, more specifically pasta è ceci (ceci means chickpeas), is consummate comfort food. Admittedly, pasta è fagioli does not need to be meatless but it very often is. (Actually, I made a non-meatless version earlier this week with guanciale, cured pork jowl.)

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Aunt Margie and Uncle Joe were like second parents to me. I spent many (most?) summer days at Aunt Margie’s, getting there in the morning and staying until dinnertime or later. My cousin, Donna, is nine months younger than I am. Her neighbor Ricky Slivosky is nine months younger than she is. The three of us hung out pretty much all summer. That made Aunt Margie’s house the logical choice.

**Aunt Margie got a little too much sun while we were staying at the Beau Rivage Resort in Miami Beach, 1971**

Our families often vacationed together. Florida was a favorite destination. Once every 5 years Uncle Joe had 13 weeks of vacation (ahh, the glory days of American steel manufacturing…and collective bargaining). Those years were likely to include a trip to California.

Aunt Margie really didn’t like vacations. Several times I witnessed what I believe was an annual ritual. Uncle Joe would be loading the suitcases in the trunk of the car and Aunt Margie would be standing beside him still trying to convince him to cancel the vacation. Aunt Margie never won.

**Beau Rivage Resort, Bal Harbour, Florida**

Those vacations were always by car; two days to Florida and four days to California. Aunt Margie ate the same lunch every day of every trip: bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches on white toast, hold the mayo. Only after we reached our destination did she resume a “regular” diet!

We always had fun and even Aunt Margie seemed to enjoy herself (a minor episode of seasickness, notwithstanding).

**Aunt Margie getting seasick on the boat trip from Miami to the Bahamas, 1970**

My father didn’t always go on vacation with us due to his work schedule. He made it on the 1970 trip to Florida, which included several days in the Bahamas which we reached by boat from Miami. The only food memory I have of that trip is going to an Italian restaurant in Freeport where the garlic bread was so garlicky that it was bitter. The food itself must have been pretty good as we went back again. Unfortunately, the garlic bread was just as bad the second time around.

Aunt Margie's Pasta è Ceci (Pasta and Chickpeas)

Aunt Margie’s Pasta è Ceci was more soupy than my mother’s Pasta è Fagioli. It had no tomato sauce. This is my interpretation. I have made the liquid a little thicker by emulsifying the cheese and oil at the end. Aunt Margie never used wine. That is my addition. To prepare dry chickpeas, combine 1 pound of dry chickpeas, 7 cups of water, 1 tablespoon salt, 2 bruised garlic cloves, one bay leaf, ½ teaspoon whole black pepper, and a piece of Parmesan cheese rind. Cook in the Instant Pot for 15 minutes or simmer, partially covered, adding more water if needed, till tender but not mushy. If not using the Instant Pot, add the salt after about 15 minutes of simmering. Measure out 3 ½ cups of cooked chickpeas. Reserve the remainder for another use. Use the cooking liquid as described below. Aunt Margie's pasta è ceci was usually so soupy that it was served in bowls. Feel free to make yours as loose as you would like.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 pound ditalini or other very small dry, cut pasta
3 1/2 cups cooked dry chickpeas or two 15 to 16 ounce cans
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 onion finely diced
1/3 teaspoon dried oregano
4 cloves garlic bruised
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese grated, plus more for serving
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 pound ditalini or other very small dry, cut pasta
3 1/2 cups cooked dry chickpeas or two 15 to 16 ounce cans
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 onion finely diced
1/3 teaspoon dried oregano
4 cloves garlic bruised
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese grated, plus more for serving
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Instructions

Measure out three cups of chickpea-cooking liquid or use the liquid from canned chickpeas adding water to make three cups.
Combine chickpea liquid, white wine, diced onion, oregano and black pepper in a Dutch oven large enough to hold the cooked pasta comfortably. Bring to a boil and simmer approximately 20 minutes, until the onion is tender.
Meanwhile, brown the garlic in 1/3 cup of olive oil over gentle heat.
When the garlic is brown, remove it and reserve the oil.
Cook the pasta in two quarts of heavily salted, boiling water until the pasta retains just a little crunch at the very center.
Reserve at least two cups of the pasta-cooking water.
Pour some of the remaining pasta-cooking water into the serving bowl to warm it while proceeding with the recipe.
Drain the pasta and immediately add it to the seasoned chickpea-cooking liquid along with the chickpeas.
Add the garlic-infused oil and salt and black pepper to taste.
Simmer gently, covered, until the pasta is just al dente. Add some of the reserved pasta-cooking water as needed.
When the pasta is al dente, add more of the reserved pasta-cooking water, if necessary, to make a slightly soupy mixture.
Remove from the heat.
Stir in the Romano cheese and 1/4 cup of olive oil to create a glossy sauce.
Add a bit more of the pasta-cooking water if needed to thin the sauce as the combination of cheese and olive oil will create an emulsion that will thicken the sauce.
Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
Serve immediately with additional freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Guyanese Curried Chickpeas (Channa Masala)

2 Comments

April 30, 2018

The largest ethnic group in Guyana is comprised of those of (East) Indian descent. When I was there in the 1970s and 1980s, Indians represented just over half of the population. As of the 2002 census, those of Indian descent represent just over 43 percent of the population.

Other demographic groups in Guyana include those of African, Chinese, Western European, and mixed descent. Amerindians are now a very small percentage of the population.

The cuisine of Guyana reflects its multicultural population. Curry is very popular as is roti, Indian-style flatbread. Chinese-style fried rice is a restaurant staple. A typical Sunday dish is Portuguese-derived garlic pork. British-style baked goods are popular, especially black cake around Christmastime.

**The Guyana Supreme Court building (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=475676)**

A quick internet search demonstrated to me that the restaurant scene in Guyana has changed dramatically since my visits there. In the 70s and 80s, restaurants were, for the most part, very basic affairs. There were just a few that rose above “basic” but even they were challenged to produce really good food because of the limitation on imported foodstuffs.

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Food prepared at home was generally of a better quality, and certainly displayed more variety, than what was available in restaurants “back then.” And, while in any given household there may be more foods reflective of the particular demographics of that household, popular dishes like curry, fried rice, garlic pork, and black cake are prepared in pretty much every household. They have really become Guyanese dishes, regardless of their ethnic origins.

My last trip to Guyana was in early 1981. I finished medical school around the end of January and went to Guyana to work on the psychiatric unit at the public hospital in Georgetown, the capital, before beginning my internship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in mid-June. At that time there was one psychiatrist who worked for the government of Guyana and one psychiatrist in private practice. The government psychiatrist, who lived a significant distance from Georgetown, was also responsible for overseeing the long-term psychiatric unit in Fort Canje, now referred to as the National Psychiatric Hospital.

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The day I arrived at the public hospital in Georgetown, the psychiatrist was a no-show. He then made it clear that he had no intention of coming to the hospital for the duration of my stay. At the age of 26, just having finished medical school and not having done an internship, let alone a residency, I became the de-facto psychiatrist for the public hospital!

**The Guyana Parliament Building (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=475699)**

The psychiatric unit consisted of four rooms (plus two bathrooms) on the upper floor above the morgue. The psychiatrist’s office (my office) was the entry point to the unit. Behind the office was a very small nurses’ station. There were two large wards, one on each side of the nurses’ station. Each has eleven beds and no privacy. One ward was for men and one for women. Though we only had 22 beds, our census was often double that. There was no option to add beds so patients often slept two to a bed.

In general, male patients were attended to by male nurses and female patients by female nurses.

There was also a very, very busy outpatient clinic staffed by myself and three social workers.

The male nurses started including me in some of their evening social gatherings. I remember a few held at the home of one of the nurses who was of Indian descent. We basically sat around talking, drinking rum, and eating. My love of spicy Indian food was met with amazement. The fact that I could eat incendiary atchar was sort of beyond belief.

Whenever these gatherings happened, it was just us guys. Wives and girlfriends stayed away, even the wife of whomever was hosting the party (even though she would have prepared most if not all the food!).

When I was in Guyana, pre-mixed curry powder was the norm in cooking. This recipe reflects that tendency. When I made Indian food frequently, I would keep one or two types of homemade curry powders on hand as a quick solution to a weeknight meal. For this recipe, feel free to use a good quality commercial curry powder.

Guyanese Curried Chickpeas

Two cans of chickpeas can be used instead of the 3 to 3 ½ cups of home cooked beans but home-cooked are so good, and so much better. If using canned chickpeas, taste the canning liquid to decide whether to use it or discard it and rinse the chickpeas. The curry should be basically dry at the end so do not put in too much liquid at the beginning. Although not strictly Guyanese, adding a tablespoon or so of minced ginger with the garlic is a welcome taste treat.

Course

Beans, Nuts and Legumes, Mains, Sides, Vegetarian

Cuisine

West Indian

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
Habanero or Scotch Bonnet pepper minced, to taste
2 tablespoons Indian-style curry powder
1 1/2 cups liquid either water, chickpea cooking liquid or liquid from canned chickpeas
1 tablespoon lime juice preferably from Mexican or Key limes
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground, to taste

Course

Beans, Nuts and Legumes, Mains, Sides, Vegetarian

Cuisine

West Indian

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
Habanero or Scotch Bonnet pepper minced, to taste
2 tablespoons Indian-style curry powder
1 1/2 cups liquid either water, chickpea cooking liquid or liquid from canned chickpeas
1 tablespoon lime juice preferably from Mexican or Key limes
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground, to taste

Instructions

Sauté the onion in butter until translucent.
Add the garlic and minced hot pepper.
Continue sautéeing until the onion is golden and the garlic is fragrant.
Add the curry powder.
Sauté 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the raw smell is gone.
Add the liquid.
Bring to a boil and simmer approximately 20 minutes to develop flavor.
Add the chickpeas.
Simmer 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. The chickpeas should be almost dry by the end.
Adjust salt and pepper while cooking.
Off the heat and stir in the lime juice and serve

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Chinese Roast Pork

2 Comments

April 25, 2018

Throughout junior year in college I predominantly ate Chinese, West Indian, and Sri Lankan food. To be sure, I made Italian and a smattering of other cuisines but that year was really an intensive study in three cuisines.

My roommate, Ray Hugh, was from Guyana. His grandparents emigrated from China to Guyana around 1870. My grandparents emigrated from Italy (on my mother’s side) and Slovakia (on my father’s side) to the United States a few decades later.

**Ray Hugh in 1975 from the first page of my 1975 scrapbook**

I learned a lot about Chinese food, especially Hakka Chinese, from Ray. We also went to Chinese restaurants regularly so my palate got accustomed to the different regional cuisines of China. We spent six weeks the summer after junior year staying with his mother outside of London. I learned a lot about Chinese (and West Indian) food from her.

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As for West Indian, my primary influences were, again, Ray Hugh, Valrie Tracey, and Gloria Lannaman. Though located on the South American mainland, Guyana was administered (then called British Guiana) as part of the British West Indies and it definitely has a West Indian cultural heritage.

Valrie and Gloria were from Jamaica. I posted my version of a recipe for Valrie’s Easter Bun a few weeks ago. If I get in the right frame of mind, I’ll post my interpretations of her recipes for curry goat and for home-salted mackerel cooked in coconut milk. Admittedly, these may be a stretch for most of my readers but they fulfill the blog’s goal of highlighting traditional recipes from around the world.

From Gloria, I got a wonderful pot roast recipe with allspice (called pimento in Jamaica) and a shockingly pink rum punch recipe. I still use her technique for sautéing baked ham with caramelized onions and Scotch Bonnet peppers for a quick supper or served on crackers with cocktails. These will all appear in due course.

**Valrie Tracey in 1975, also from the first page of my 1975 scrapbook**

As I’ve described several times, Nanacy and Reggie Rajapakse were my primary instructors in the art of Sri Lankan cooking…along with a couple of cookbooks by Charmaine Solomon, who Nanacy and Reggie knew.

For much of the summer that Ray and I spent with his mother near London, we explored the city almost every day. We’d have breakfast, walk to the train station in New Malden, and take the train to London. We’d be home for dinner, usually. Lunch was frequently at a restaurant in Chinatown—you know, the Cantonese ones with roast pork, roast ducks, and other roasted animal parts hanging in the window. That was where I honed my taste for Cantonese roast pork—minus the bright red food coloring.

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In these restaurants, lunch was a bowl of rice and some sort of roasted meat, hacked to bite-size bits with a very heavy cleaver. There was nary a vegetable in sight. When I mentioned to Ray, once, that a vegetable would be nice, he walked over to the chef, who was putting together everyone’s lunch right inside the front window of the store, with rows of glistening roasted meat on hooks hanging in front of him. The chef pulled a few greens from somewhere, dipped them in a bubbling cauldron of broth momentarily, and put them in my bowl along with the rice and roast pork. He was very gracious about it but I realized that vegetables were not the point of a restaurant like this. From then on I was happy to eat rice and roasted meat for lunch, choosing to balance out my diet at the other two meals of the day.

**The third and final picture on the first page of one of my 1975 scrap book is this picture of me**

Friday, July 4, 1975 was one of the days we did not go into London from Ray’s mother’s house. Instead, we stayed home and made hamburgers and hot dogs (well, that being England and then being then, they were bangers, really) and a few of the usual trimmings. Ray and I along with his mother and two sisters, and his younger sister’s boyfriend, Clive, sat outside in the charming little backyard (what the Brits call a “garden”) eating. Clive asked what we were celebrating. I told him we were celebrating the independence of the United States from Britain. That didn’t go over really well but he was a good sport about it.

From that summer of eating Cantonese Roast Pork in London’s Chinatown, I got home wanting to be able to make it. Ray and I roomed together senior year as well. That’s when I perfected my recipe for roast pork. It involves marinating strips of pork overnight then hanging them from hooks in the oven and roasting them. It sounds fussy, but it’s really quite easy.

**Stainless steel “s” hooks are the best for hanging the pork in the oven**

This Cantonese-style roast pork is totally different from Ray’s Five Spice Roast Pork, which I like equally well.

Chinese Roast Pork

This roast pork is not as red as the roast pork often seen in Chinese restaurants as it does not use artificial coloring. Thick-cut boneless pork chops work well. It is best for the meat to have a layer of fat to provide some moisture while roasting. The thin fat cap should not be removed. The difference in taste between Chinese rice wine, sake, and pale dry sherry is not really noticeable in this dish given the other very flavorful ingredients. Good quality Chinese rice wine can be difficult to find. I prefer a reasonably-priced, good-quality domestic Sake, such as Sho Chiku Bai. Do not use the unfiltered (nigori) sake, however.

Course

Mains, Meats

Cuisine

Chinese

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Passive Time

24 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 pound lean boneless pork
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 whole star anise crushed in a mortar
1/4 cup sake or pale dry sherry or Chinese rice wine
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup honey

Course

Mains, Meats

Cuisine

Chinese

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Passive Time

24 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 pound lean boneless pork
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 whole star anise crushed in a mortar
1/4 cup sake or pale dry sherry or Chinese rice wine
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup honey

Instructions

Cut pork into 1½ x 1½ x 4 inch strips.
Mince the garlic.
Grate the ginger.
Crush the star anise in a mortar.
Combine the ginger, garlic, hoi sin sauce, crushed star anise, sake, soy sauce and honey. Mix well.
Add the pork strips and toss to coat.
Marinate the pork at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight turning once or twice.
To roast, put one oven rack in the top position and another in the bottom position. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Hang each strip of pork from an "S" shaped hook on the top rack. Put a roasting pan below the pork, filled with water, to catch the drippings.
Roast at 350°F for 30 minutes. Increase the temperature to 450°F and cook for another 20-25 minutes.
Remove the pork strips from the oven. Slice them crosswise, approximately 1/3 inch thick. Pile the pork on a platter to serve.

Recipe Notes

Sho Chiku Bai sake is reasonably priced and good to drink as well as to cook with.

Hoisin sauce is available in Asian markets and many well-stocked supermarkets.

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Recipes

Mom’s Biscotti (aka Anise Toasts or Slice Cookies)

8 Comments

April 20, 2018

Growing up biscotti were not ubiquitous the way they are now.

Remember, this was before the coffee shop craze swept the country and when Italian food was viewed as “foreign.”

Sure, one could get biscotti in Italian specialty stores. There was even a marginally passable supermarket version from Stella d’Oro. (It still exists though the company has been sold many times.)

**Stella d’Oro Biscotti (I just can’t bring myself to spell it incorrectly with an uppercase “D” and a lowercase “o”)**

But mostly, biscotti were homemade.

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My mother’s biscotti are a little softer on the inside than the standard biscotti today, which seem to have a crunch the whole way through. She also made them much smaller than is now common, maybe three inches or so in length as opposed to six or eight.

The interesting ingredient in these biscotti is maraschino cherries. The maraschino cherry as we Americans know it was a product of food science from the 1920’s and 30’s. “Real” maraschino cherries, Marasca cherries from the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, pickled in salt water and preserved in Maraschino liqueur, are actually quite rare. There are many versions of cherries preserved in liquor from throughout Europe, some clearly developed as substitutes for authentic maraschino cherries.

I remember eating these biscotti in the 1960’s so the recipe is at least that old, probably older. It is unlikely, however, that these biscotti ever saw real maraschino cherries due to their rarity.

If this recipe dates to pre-prohibition, in which case it would have been from my grandmother or someone in her generation, it’s possible that some sort of cherry preserved in alcohol (on the order of a real maraschino cherry) was originally used. I have no idea if the recipe is that old.

Since liquor-soaked cherries were outlawed during prohibition they would have been eliminated from this recipe even if it is that old. Which brings us to a dichotomy in thinking about recipes that I often consider: the difference between authentic and traditional.

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Is food authentically Italian if it’s prepared in Italy by an Italian but does not follow any traditional recipe?

If cioppino is made following a longstanding traditional Italian regional recipe but the cook substitutes seafood available in the United States for that available in Italy, is it authentic?

There is no doubt that these biscotti are traditional in my family, having been made for more than 50 years. But what would make them authentic? And for that matter, would it be authentically Italian or authentically Italian-American?

I suggest you mull that over while dunking biscotti in your morning caffe latte.

Biscotti

In my family, these biscotti are traditionally made much shorter (after being cut crosswise) that is commonly the case now. For longer biscotti, form 6 logs approximately 9 ½ to 10 inches long before baking. For shorter biscotti, form 10-12 logs of the same length. The recipe is easily cut in half (which is what I did when making this batch).

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

Italian, Italian-American

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Passive Time

30 minutes

Servings

dozen large biscotti

Ingredients

12 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
13 teaspoons baking powder (1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon)
6 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil such as corn oil
1/2 pound unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
1 cup whole milk
1 x 16 ounce jar maraschino cherries
1/2 pound walnuts chopped, optional
1 ounce anise extract not anise oil
1 egg beaten for glazing

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

Italian, Italian-American

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Passive Time

30 minutes

Servings

dozen large biscotti

Ingredients

12 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
13 teaspoons baking powder (1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon)
6 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil such as corn oil
1/2 pound unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
1 cup whole milk
1 x 16 ounce jar maraschino cherries
1/2 pound walnuts chopped, optional
1 ounce anise extract not anise oil
1 egg beaten for glazing

Instructions

Drain the cherries.
Cut the cherries in quarters.
Squeeze out excess liquid by gently pressing a small handful of cut cherries between your flat palms. Do not make a fist and do not smash the cherries. Reserve the cherries.
In a very large bowl, mix flour, sugar, and baking powder using your hands.
Make a well in the center.
Add the eggs.
Begin to incorporate some of the flour into the eggs working in a circular motion using your hands.
Add the oil and butter and continue mixing.
Add the milk and anise extract. Mix thoroughly.
Add the cherries and nuts, if using.
Fully incorporate the cherries and nuts.
Form into six or twelve cylinders approximately 9 ½ inches long. Six cylinders will make biscotti that are quite long once cut crosswise. Twelve cylinders will make shorter biscotti.
Bake the cylinders for 30 minutes at 350°F. You can line the sheet pan with parchment if you prefer.
Brush the tops with beaten egg.
Bake 5 to 10 minutes longer, until golden brown and the cylinders are cooked through. Larger cylinders will take longer to bake.
Cool the baked cylinders on the baking pan on a cooling rack for approximately 10 minutes.
Cut the baked cylinders crosswise on the diagonal into slices approximately 1 inch thick.
Cool the slices completely.
Lay the slices cut side down on a baking pan.
Toast in the top rack of the oven at 450°F.
Turn and toast the other side.
Remove biscotti to a rack to cool.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Bertha’s Salsa

Piselli in Umido (Peas in Tomato Sauce)

6 Comments

April 11, 2018

Italians have knack for combining a modest array of vegetables into an almost endless cannon of dishes, each of which is distinctive, even if the interrelationships of the various parts are obvious.

This dish of peas cooked in tomato sauce is from my husband’s paternal grandmother, Amerina Pieri.

I learned to make this from my mother-in-law, Marisa, Amerina’s daughter-in-law.

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Everyone who makes it adds his or her own signature. Mine is not exactly like my mother-in-law’s and I’m sure hers is not just like Zia (Aunt) Ida’s, Amerina’s daughter.

Interestingly, Nonni (as we all called her) used canned peas. In talking with my father-in-law (who grew up eating this) and my mother-in-law, they were pretty sure Nonni would not have used canned peas in Italy unless she possibly canned them herself. Somehow canned peas became the norm in America.

**Amerina Pieri (aka Nonni or Nonni’merina) Christmas 2005**

And, while canned peas produce a pretty good dish, I prefer something a little fresher. Because really good fresh peas are available for only a few weeks a year at the Farmers Market in Santa Fe, I usually use frozen peas.

If the frozen peas haven’t been in your freezer so long that they start to dry out and freeze into a block they are superior to “fresh” peas except during the few weeks a year when they are really locally-grown and truly fresh.

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My mother-in-law usually uses canned tomato sauce when making this, as did Nonni (at least when she made it on this side of the Atlantic Ocean!).

I use tomato paste and water. If you read the ingredient lists on cans of tomato sauce that you can buy in the United States, you will find that most are made from tomato paste and water, so why not just do it yourself? Those few brands of tomato sauce that are not made from diluted tomato paste are a little too sour for my taste. I would opt for a good-quality tomato puree instead.

**My favorite brand of domestically produced tomato paste**

Tomato paste has a richer flavor than tomato sauce or tomato puree. I attribute this to the extra cooking that is needed to concentrate the tomatoes. Those little cans provide the foundation of a taste that could otherwise only be achieved with hours of simmering.

Homemade tomato puree would be another good option if you want a fresher, more summery taste. Here’s where you can find my recipe.

If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com and we can discuss including it in the blog. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven’t seen Bertha’s Flan or Melinda’s Drunken Prunes, take a look. They will give you an idea of what I’m looking for.

Piselli in Umido (Peas in Tomato Sauce)

Fresh or canned peas can be used in place of frozen. Fresh peas will take longer to cook. The canned peas should be cooked briefly to avoid overcooking. I like to rinse off frozen vegetables to remove any ice crystals on the exterior. I find the ice crystals can carry a “freezer” taste.

Course

Sides, Vegetables

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

75 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 pound frozen petit peas
1/2 onion finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
2 sage leaves minced
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 x 6 ounce can tomato paste
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf
Pinch rosemary fresh or dry, optional
Pinch Pinch dry oregano optional
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Course

Sides, Vegetables

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

75 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 pound frozen petit peas
1/2 onion finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
2 sage leaves minced
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 x 6 ounce can tomato paste
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf
Pinch rosemary fresh or dry, optional
Pinch Pinch dry oregano optional
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Instructions

Sauté the onion, garlic, sage, parsley and ½ teaspoon of salt in the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan till the onion is translucent.
Add the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until it evaporates.
Add the tomato paste and sauté until it becomes slightly darker, 3-4 minutes.
Add the water, sugar, bay leaf, rosemary, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer, partially covered, until thickened, approximately 45 minutes.
Adjust seasoning.
Rinse the frozen peas under cool water to remove any ice crystals.
Add the frozen peas to the sauce.
Simmer approximately 15 minutes, adjusting seasoning once again, if needed.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Gnocchi di Patate (Potato Gnocchi)

2 Comments

April 4, 2018

My father didn’t like gnocchi.

As far as I know, it is the only food he refused to eat.

It was all about the texture. Mind you, this is from a man who’s comfort food was a BIG bowl of cold mashed potatoes with buttermilk poured over top.

I understand the texture thing but for me the offending texture is slimy…like Jello (or cold mashed potatoes with buttermilk).

The next worst texture is hot cereal. It’s not as bad as Jello but it’s not a favorite. It took a long time for me to enjoy polenta because it has a texture just like hot cereal. I think my dislike for hot cereal has diminished as I’ve gotten older and I can probably now keep Jello down, which as a kid wasn’t always the case.

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But gnocchi? In the pantheon of foods, gnocchi reign supreme. They are my favorite food. Not to be morose, but they would be my death row meal (assuming a prison chef could make them like my mother with her pepperoni sauce!).

The pepperoni sauce is an interesting twist.

Since my father didn’t like gnocchi, we didn’t have them when he was home for dinner. My father worked out of town from time to time, so there were weeknight meals where he wasn’t around.

**The back of a fork is commonly used to imprint ridges on gnocchi but a gnocchi board does a much better job**

My mother would freeze her Sunday sauce, which was made with large pieces of pork. Sometimes a container of sauce wouldn’t have any meat. A common Italian approach to adding a bit of protein to a meal of pasta with red sauce is to simmer some shelled hard-boiled eggs in the sauce for a little while and serve them with the pasta.

My mother did that, but she also would take pieces of pepperoni, pierce them with a fork in a few places, boil them for about 20 minutes to render some of the fat and to soften the meat, and then add them to sauce to simmer for half-an-hour or so.

That sauce, which only appeared on weeknights from leftover Sunday sauce is my favorite sauce for my favorite food!

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Let’s face it, pepperoni is an American creation. To be sure, it’s a riff on any number of Italian regional salame piccante (hot salami). In fact, you can’t get a pepperoni pizza in Italy but you can get a pizza with slices of salame piccante.

It took a while for our Italian relatives to wrap their heads around pepperoni. In Italian, pepperoni are peppers not a cured meat product. The word is also plural, not singular. Americans often adopt the plural form of an Italian word (whether changing the meaning or not) and then treat it like it’s singular.

Consider panini. One sandwich is panino. More than one are panini. The same is true with gnoccho and gnocchi or raviolo and ravioli. Americans tend to say paninis and raviolis (fingers on blackboard screeching sound) if they mean more than one. We don’t really have a rule about this as far as I know. It’s just random. Or so it appears to me.

Italian, on the other hand, has a very clear rule when adopting foreign words. The singular form of the word becomes the Italian word. That word is use for both the singular and the plural, with the adjective changing to indicate more than one.

Take bar, for example. The “Italian” word for bar is bar. (This is a critical bit of information that one learns early when taking Italian lessons.) If you’re going to the bar, in Italian you would say “il bar” (the bar). If you’re going out for a night of pub-crawling to many bars you would say “i bar” (the bars).

Now, you might ask yourself, when you would ever eat just one gnoccho. Gnocchi translates as dumplings. So if you had a large American or Eastern European dumpling, it would be a gnoccho, and you might have just one. Today, however, we are making small gnocchi, and one is never enough.

Gnocchi di Patate (Potato Gnocchi)

There are some very strong opinions about making gnocchi. The first is whether they should be very soft or somewhat firm. That preference tends to drive other decisions but sometimes in different directions. My husband’s Great Aunt Juliana liked soft gnocchi so she did not use eggs. She insisted that the gnocchi should be mixed while the potatoes were still hot, though other folks who like soft gnocchi use the potatoes after they’ve cooled and lost some of their moisture so less flour is needed. I like firmer gnocchi, so I use eggs. I also let the potatoes cool (as my mother did) because 1) it’s easier on the fingertips and 2) the trivial amount of moisture lost or not by cooling or not is no competition for the addition of eggs.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Servings

people

Ingredients

4 pounds russet potatoes
3 cups all purpose flour plus more as needed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
4 eggs

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Servings

people

Ingredients

4 pounds russet potatoes
3 cups all purpose flour plus more as needed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
4 eggs

Instructions

Scrub the potatoes.
Put the potatoes in a large stockpot and cover with a generous amount of cold water. Bring to a rolling boil and cook until a knife can be easily inserted, approximately 20 minutes. This will depend on the potatoes and the altitude so begin testing after about 15-17 minutes.
Remove the potatoes from the water and allow them to cool enough to peel, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, put three cups of flour on the counter or a pasta board.
Pass the peeled, but still warm, potatoes, through a ricer on top of the flour. Note: it is very difficult to rice cold potatoes so this step should be completed as quickly as possible after the potatoes have been removed from the water.
Allow the potatoes to cool completely.
Sprinkle the salt on the potatoes.
Using your fingers, begin to mix in the flour.
Add two eggs. Work in the eggs, incorporating more flour.
Add the remaining two eggs and work in enough flour to make a dough that is just very slightly tacky. It will firm up a bit as the flour completely hydrates.
Cut off a small piece of dough and roll it into a cylinder approximately 1/2 inch in diameter.
After all the gnocchi have been rolled and cut bring a large pot of abundantly salted water to a rolling boil.
Add some of the gnocchi, maybe 18-24 depending on the amount of water.
As soon as the water returns to a full boil. Remove the gnocchi with a spider or slotted spoon.
Put them in a serving bowl with a small amount of whatever sauce you are using on the bottom.
Add more gnocchi to the boiling water.
Meanwhile drizzle a bit more sauce on the gnocchi in the bowl and sprinkle with a bit of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, if desired.
Add each batch of gnocchi to the serving bowl, keeping it warm in a low oven and sprinkling each later with some sauce (and cheese, if desired).
Once all the gnocchi have been added, gently stir the gnocchi to distribute the sauce and cheese.
Serve immediately.

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Recipes

Anise Twists (Italian Anise Sweet Bread)

12 Comments

March 27, 2018

I really don’t know what to call these little breads any longer.

Growing up we always called them Biscotti. The Italian word biscotti, which is plural for biscotto, can be translated as cookies or biscuits. However, in the United States, the word biscotti is now completely identified with a particular type of pastry; those slices of sweet bread that are toasted until crisp (or crisp on the outside and soft on the inside depending on style).

We called those Anise Toasts when I was growing up since they were always flavored with anise in our house. That was how we differentiated these softer anise-flavored sweet breads from the chewier, and toasted, anise-flavored pastries.

**I found this lard at the supermarket. It is not hydrogenated and has just a few reasonable preservatives unlike the hydrogenated lard sold in those blue boxes**

I believe that the word biscotto is derived from the words that mean twice (bis) cooked (cotto) making it an apt label for those toasted things. Despite that, however, it really is used to refer generically to a cookie.

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The Italian word torta is translated as cake or pie or tart depending on the context. Sometimes that context can be provided only by more description. For example, the Italian word limon is used for both a lemon and a lime. To refer to a lime, you could say limon verde (green lemon) if it was not otherwise clear from the context that you meant a lime vs. a lemon. (This would be critical, for example, when providing directions for making a Margarita!) I think limon verde could also be used to refer to an unripe lemon but that’s getting a bit esoteric and, honestly, above my meager grasp of Italian.

But it points out the difficulties with translating seemingly simple concepts, like biscotti!

**Palm Oil is a solid vegetable shortening that is not hydrogenated**

I’m posting this recipe now because my mother always made these at Easter, but their appearance was not limited to that one holiday. Sometimes, for Easter, the dough would be baked in a big braided circular loaf with colored eggs tucked into the braids. Honestly, though, that was usually done by a friend of my mother’s, Mille Verbano, rather than by my mother who almost always made small ones as I now do.

Sometimes this is called Easter Bread but, truly, there are different types of Easter bread all over Italy so that term only works within a very specific socio-cultural context. Although we never called this Easter bread in our house, if a relative did so, I would know immediately what he/she meant.

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I’m not a “dunker” but my mother and her sisters, Aunt Mamie (Mary, really, but as a toddler I said Mamie and that name stuck and became what everyone called her) and Aunt Margie loved to dunk bready things in coffee in the morning. If you’re a dunker, these biscotti are perfect.

**Coconut oil is a vegetable fat that is solid at cool room temperature**

Some of you may remember my soapbox post about hydrogenated fats as a replacement for the lard often called for in traditional Italian pastries. In deference to those of you who do not want to render your own lard (which I suspect is most of you), I was prepared to test this recipe with several non-hydrogenated vegetable fats, palm oil and refined coconut oil. While shopping for other ingredients in Palm Springs I stumbled upon lard…pure, simple lard…not the hydrogenated lard that now dominates supermarket shelves. I just had to try it. I’ve not seen Farmer John lard in supermarkets in Santa Fe but I am hopeful that this signals a resurgence of the availability of unadulterated and chemically unaltered lard for baking.

I promise to test out future recipes with the non-hydrogenated vegetable fats, though!

Anise Twists (Italian Anise Sweet Bread)

Shiny aluminum sheet pans work best. Dark pans will cause the bottoms of the breads to get too dark before they are cooked through. For reference, the pictures below show me making half a batch of Anise Twists, not the full recipe given below.

Course

Sweet Breads

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

2 hours

Cook Time

1 1/2 hours

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

dozen little breads, approximately

Ingredients

3 pounds all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons anise seeds plus more for decoration
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound lard
3 packages active dry yeast 21 grams total
1 cup warm water
6 large eggs
1 egg to brush tops, beaten lightly

Course

Sweet Breads

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

2 hours

Cook Time

1 1/2 hours

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

dozen little breads, approximately

Ingredients

3 pounds all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons anise seeds plus more for decoration
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound lard
3 packages active dry yeast 21 grams total
1 cup warm water
6 large eggs
1 egg to brush tops, beaten lightly

Instructions

Melt the lard over gentle heat and allow to cool until lukewarm but still liquid.
Dissolve one teaspoon of the sugar in the warm water, not more than 110°F.
Add the yeast and allow it to proof.
Meanwhile, combine flour, remaining sugar, anise seeds and salt.
Form a well in the center and add 6 eggs and the melted and cooled lard.
Using a circular motion, begin to mix the flour into the liquids in the well.
Add the proofed yeast.
Continue incorporating flour until it is all mixed in.
Add a touch more flour or water, if needed, to create a supple, non-sticky dough.
Knead for approximately 10 minutes.
Place the dough in a bowl. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to double in bulk.
Punch the dough down. Cover and allow to double again.
Cut off small pieces of dough and roll into thin ropes, not much thicker than a pencil.
The dough will have a tendency to shrink back. Roll it out. Let it shrink back a bit. Wait a few minutes for the gluten to relax. Roll it out again. Let it shrink back a bit. Repeat until the dough is the proper thickness. I find it helpful to roll 3 or 4 pieces of dough at a time. It makes the process more efficient.
Cut the dough into lengths. For the straight pieces, the lengths should be approximately 7 inches. For the circular pieces the lengths should be approximately 12 inches.
Fold the lengths of dough in half and twist few times.
Put on ungreased sheet pans, either straight or in circles.
Brush each with beaten egg. Sprinkle with additional anise seeds.
Invert another sheet pan on top. Allow the bread to rise an hour.
Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove to wire racks to cool.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Jamaican Easter Bread (Bun)

4 Comments

March 23, 2018

Google and Wikipedia and Bing have all let me down!

Often when I’m writing a blog, I’ll do a search or two to shore up some facts.

In this instance, I was trying to find a picture of a product and to confirm my understanding of exactly what it is. That product is New Sugar.

My searches turned up nothing.

Back in college, I would buy new sugar on trips to the West Indies. The stuff I bought was sold in cans. It was dark brown, partially crystalized and partially a thick liquid. It was not as dark or as thick as molasses. My recollection is that new sugar is basically sugar cane juice boiled down until it thickens and some of the sugar crystallizes.

It’s what my recipe for Jamaican Easter Bread (aka “Bun”) calls for.

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Long ago, when my meager supplies of new sugar were exhausted and I was no longer going to the West Indies on a regular basis, I created a substitute for new sugar that fooled even my Jamaican friends. (Hint, it’s in the recipe below.)

If my recipes contain a substitute for a difficult-to-find ingredient, I like to make the substitution clear and to provide directions on how to use the original ingredient if available.

In my blog entries, I try to provide some sort of personal or cultural or social context for each recipe. In this instance, I wanted to highlight new sugar.

I was about to give up when I tried different search terms. I had only known it as New Sugar, but, finally, searching on “Wet Sugar” got me one website that had what I was looking for.

The website confirmed my understanding of what new sugar, aka wet sugar, is: boiled sugar cane juice. It also confirmed that it is much more difficult to find than it was 30-50 years ago. I hate to admit it, but I was buying new sugar more than 40 years ago!

My recipe for Bun (that’s really what it’s called in Jamaica…just Bun) came from Valrie Tracey a Jamaican friend from college. Valrie and I and my roommate, Ray Hugh from Guyana, were close friends in college. Though I’ve lost touch with Valrie, Ray and I are still in touch via Facebook. And, yes, her name is spelled Valrie, apparently due to an error on her birth certificate as her parents intended for her name to be Valerie!

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In addition to new sugar, Valrie’s recipe called for “Mixed Spice,” a commonly used mixture in the cooking of Britain and many former British colonies. I don’t like using spice combinations that I haven’t made myself, like pumpkin pie spice or curry powder. If the brand goes out of existence or changes its formula one can’t recreate the dish exactly the same way again. For that reason, starting in college, I worked out my own formulas for spice mixtures that I used on a regular basis.

Rather than have you make a batch of Mixed Spice before making a batch of Bun, I added the individual spices, in the correct amounts, to the recipe.

After resurrecting this recipe from one of my two 5 x 7 metal index card boxes of recipes that I started back in college and sharing the Bun with a number of friends, I began to seriously wonder why I hadn’t made it in over 40 years!

I can assure you, I won’t wait long to make it again.

I like to toast the Bun and add some butter and jam but in Jamaica it would often be served with a wedge of cheese. However you serve it, I’m certain you’ll enjoy it.

Jamaican Easter Bread (Bun)

If you can find new sugar (also known as wet sugar) you can use 2 ½ cups of new sugar in place of the brown sugar and molasses. The dough for this version of Bun is quite wet, more like cake batter than bread dough. When I was making this back in college days and had to mix it by hand, I added enough flour to make a dough that could be kneaded. With a stand mixer, I allow the mixture to be wet. You might want to try both variations and see which you prefer.

Course

Sweet Breads

Cuisine

West Indian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

90 minutes

Passive Time

2 hours

Servings

loaves

Ingredients

Bread

1 quart whole milk
3 pounds all purpose flour
3 packages active dry yeast (21 grams)
2 pounds dark brown sugar less ½ cup
1/4 pound butter at room temperature, cut in pieces
1/2 cup molasses not blackstrap
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons almond essence
2 teaspoons rosewater
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon caraway seed crushed
1 teaspoon anise seed crushed
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 pound raisins
1/2 pound dry currants
1/2 pound candied cherries

Glaze

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Course

Sweet Breads

Cuisine

West Indian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

90 minutes

Passive Time

2 hours

Servings

loaves

Ingredients

Bread

1 quart whole milk
3 pounds all purpose flour
3 packages active dry yeast (21 grams)
2 pounds dark brown sugar less ½ cup
1/4 pound butter at room temperature, cut in pieces
1/2 cup molasses not blackstrap
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons almond essence
2 teaspoons rosewater
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon caraway seed crushed
1 teaspoon anise seed crushed
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 pound raisins
1/2 pound dry currants
1/2 pound candied cherries

Glaze

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Instructions

Bread

Scald the milk by heating over medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent a skin from forming, until bubbles begin to foam up around the side.
Allow the milk to become lukewarm (approximately 110°F).
Combine lukewarm milk, yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar from the amount above, and 1 pound of flour in the bowl of a mixer.
Using the paddle, mix well then allow the sponge to sit, covered, until it doubles in bulk.
After the sponge has doubled, mix in 1/3 of the remaining flour and 1/3 of the remaining sugar.
When combined, add the butter, molasses and all the spices and flavorings. Mix well.
Add ½ of the remaining flour and ½ of the remaining sugar. Mix well.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Add the remaining flour and sugar. Mix for about 10 minutes on medium speed.
Mix in the fruit.
Divide the batter into 4 well-buttered 8” x 4” bread pans. Cover and sit at room temperature for about an hour. The batter will not really rise but the yeast is the only leavening so it needs to have time to make air bubbles that can expand and leaven the bread.
Bake at 300°F for approximately 90 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Glaze

When the bread is nearing completion, make the glaze by bringing the sugar and water to a boil and simmering a few minutes until syrupy.
As soon as the bun comes out of the oven, brush some of the glaze on top. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pans.
Remove the bun from the pans and brush with more glaze. Allow to cool another 10 minutes.
Brush with remaining glaze and cool completely.