Piselli in Umido (Peas in Tomato Sauce)

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.


Print Recipe
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
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. 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.
  2. Add the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until it evaporates.
  3. Add the tomato paste and sauté until it becomes slightly darker, 3-4 minutes.
  4. Add the water, sugar, bay leaf, rosemary, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Simmer, partially covered, until thickened, approximately 45 minutes.
  6. Adjust seasoning.
  7. Rinse the frozen peas under cool water to remove any ice crystals.
  8. Add the frozen peas to the sauce.
  9. Simmer approximately 15 minutes, adjusting seasoning once again, if needed.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Gnocchi di Patate (Potato Gnocchi)

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.


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.


 

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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.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Scrub the potatoes.
  2. 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.
  3. Remove the potatoes from the water and allow them to cool enough to peel, about 15 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, put three cups of flour on the counter or a pasta board.
  5. 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.
  6. Allow the potatoes to cool completely.
  7. Sprinkle the salt on the potatoes.
  8. Using your fingers, begin to mix in the flour.
  9. Add two eggs. Work in the eggs, incorporating more flour.
  10. 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.
  11. Cut off a small piece of dough and roll it into a cylinder approximately 1/2 inch in diameter.
  12. After all the gnocchi have been rolled and cut bring a large pot of abundantly salted water to a rolling boil.
  13. Add some of the gnocchi, maybe 18-24 depending on the amount of water.
  14. As soon as the water returns to a full boil. Remove the gnocchi with a spider or slotted spoon.
  15. Put them in a serving bowl with a small amount of whatever sauce you are using on the bottom.
  16. Add more gnocchi to the boiling water.
  17. Meanwhile drizzle a bit more sauce on the gnocchi in the bowl and sprinkle with a bit of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, if desired.
  18. 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).
  19. Once all the gnocchi have been added, gently stir the gnocchi to distribute the sauce and cheese.
  20. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Anise Twists (Italian Anise Sweet Bread)

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!


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.


 

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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
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Melt the lard over gentle heat and allow to cool until lukewarm but still liquid.
  2. Dissolve one teaspoon of the sugar in the warm water, not more than 110°F.
  3. Add the yeast and allow it to proof.
  4. Meanwhile, combine flour, remaining sugar, anise seeds and salt.
  5. Form a well in the center and add 6 eggs and the melted and cooled lard.
  6. Using a circular motion, begin to mix the flour into the liquids in the well.
  7. Add the proofed yeast.
  8. Continue incorporating flour until it is all mixed in.
  9. Add a touch more flour or water, if needed, to create a supple, non-sticky dough.
  10. Knead for approximately 10 minutes.
  11. Place the dough in a bowl. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to double in bulk.
  12. Punch the dough down. Cover and allow to double again.
  13. Cut off small pieces of dough and roll into thin ropes, not much thicker than a pencil.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. Fold the lengths of dough in half and twist few times.
  17. Put on ungreased sheet pans, either straight or in circles.
  18. Brush each with beaten egg. Sprinkle with additional anise seeds.
  19. Invert another sheet pan on top. Allow the bread to rise an hour.
  20. Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
  21. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Pancetta

March 19, 2018

I didn’t grow up with a tradition of curing meats at home.  There was a long tradition of homemade hot Italian sausage headed up by Uncle Joe Medile but no meat curing.

I started curing meats in medical school.  These were wet-cured products, corned beef and pickled pork.  I used them primarily to make West Indian food which was a significant part of my repertory at the time.

I bought myself a container of salt peter (sodium nitrate) and mixed my cures from old recipes.  The use of salt peter is no longer permitted commercially for wet cures and only as a minor addition to a cure containing sodium nitrite for meats that require a long, dry cure.  Wet cures are now made with sodium nitrite only.


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During a long, dry cure, the sodium nitrate breaks down into sodium nitrite, acting like a time-release curing agent.

I frequently had two large containers of wet cure in my kitchen, one for beef and one for pork.  Refrigeration wasn’t necessary, which was a good thing, because I didn’t have lots of extra refrigerator space as a medical student.

Because of the small quantities of nitrates and nitrites used to cure meat, it is much easier to buy curing salt that consists mostly of table salt with appropriate amounts of curing salt mixed in.  Prague Powder #1 is a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite.  It is used for wet curing and for dry curing that doesn’t extend for weeks.  Prague Powder #2 is salt with both sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate.  It is used for dry curing.  Prague Powders are always colored pink to differentiate them from ordinary salt.

After my first year of medical school my meat curing came to an end as I was involved in much more demanding clinical rotations and then ultimately internship and residency.


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Though I occasionally made Italian sausage, I didn’t start curing meats again until around 2000 when we had a temperature and humidity controlled wine cellar at The Henry Rohkam House, our home in Chicago.

The Rohkam House in Chicago when we lived there

It actually started innocently enough.  When she heard about our wine cellar, Aunt Margie (my mother’s sister and Uncle Joe’s wife) asked me if I was going to make salami.  I hadn’t thought about it until that point but it seemed clear to me that she had memories of “the old Italian guys,” perhaps even her father, making salami and curing it in their wine cellars.

There was a temperature and humidity controlled wine cellar in the basement of the Coach House that was perfect for curing salumi of various types

For several years, I made different types of cured salumi including Calabrese salami and pepperoni.

It was fun, and really pretty easy.  It was also rewarding to slice up one’s own homemade salami for an antipasto platter when company arrived.

The drawing room at Villa Sentieri

Although we have a temperature and humidity controlled wine cellar at Villa Sentieri in Santa Fe, I haven’t made salami since moving there full time in 2012.  I have, however, made pancetta.  In fact, for a number of years now the only pancetta that I’ve used has been my own home-cured version.

The wine cellar at Villa Sentieri. We’ve been trying to drink down our collection, hence the bare look!

It’s even easier than making salami.  You just weigh out the ingredients, rub them on a slab of pork belly and refrigerate it.  There is no grinding of meat and stuffing of casings.  Although it takes several months to turn pork belly into pancetta, the actual active time can’t amount to more than 30 minutes over the entire time period, and most of that is the initial step of weighing out the ingredients and rubbing them on the meat.

Although I now buy about an eight-pound piece of pork belly when making pancetta, I started making pancetta with one-pound pieces from my butcher.  If you’re at all inclined to try home curing meat, a small quantity of pancetta is a great place to start.


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.


 

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Pancetta
The amounts below are for 450 grams of pork belly, approximately one pound. You will need to increase the ingredients proportionately if the pork belly is larger. Measurements are critical with the salt and Prague Powder. If you are making a larger quantity, a small electric coffee mill can be used to grind the spices. Just be certain they are finely powdered before mixing with the salt.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Passive Time 5 weeks
Servings
variable
Ingredients
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Weigh out the ingredients, increasing the amount in proportion to the weight of the pork belly.
  2. Finely grind the juniper berries, peppercorns, allspice, and cloves in a mortar or small electric coffee grinder.
  3. Juniper berries
  4. Black peppercorns
  5. Allspice berries
  6. Cloves
  7. Combine the ground spices with the nutmeg, shredded bay leaf, garlic, salt and Prague Powder #2.
  8. Bay leaf
  9. Garlic
  10. Canning and pickling salt
  11. Prague Powder #2
  12. Mix well.
  13. Place the pork belly in a non-reactive container with a tight-fitting cover.
  14. Rub the cure over the meat, massaging it in.
  15. Refrigerate the pork belly, tightly covered, turning every 2-3 days for 7-10 days, until it is of a uniform firmness. Some liquid will leach out of the pork.
  16. Rinse the cured pork belly to remove excess cure.
  17. Pat the cured pork belly dry.
  18. Season the pancetta with a generous amount of coarsely ground black peppercorns.
  19. Weigh the cured pork belly and write down the weight and the date.
  20. Put the cured pork belly fat side up on a non-reactive rack over a shallow tray and refrigerate, uncovered, until it loses 20-25% of its weight, approximately 4 weeks.
  21. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate approximately one week to allow it to evenly hydrate. Even so, the edges will be drier than the middle.
  22. If you are not using the pancetta within a few weeks, cut it into pieces and freeze, tightly wrapped.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Frittata di Spaghetti (Frittata with Spaghetti)

March 9, 2018

Although I typically heat up left over pasta and have it for lunch, it definitely pales in comparison to the freshly made dish.

In the pre-microwave days of my youth, leftover pasta was heated gently in a sauté pan with a little bit of water added.  Now, the microwave makes quick work of the same task.

If you have leftover pasta, though, consider turning it into a frittata.  I think it constitutes an entirely new dish, and not leftovers, because it’s being turned into something totally different.

A slice of frittata with a few Calabrian oil-cured peppers on the side

We eat so much pasta in our house that if we turned the leftovers into frittate (the plural of frittata) our dinners would alternate between pasta and frittata almost every day of the week!  That’s why some of the leftover pasta is simply heated up for lunch.


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A frittata is often referred to as an Italian omelet.  But an omelet it most definitely is not.  It is cooked using a different technique with a different intended outcome.

Calling a frittata an Italian omelet is like calling everything made from ground beef a hamburger.  (OK, off my soapbox for now.)

You can use most any combination of pasta and sauce for a frittata but you don’t want there to be lots of extra sauce or it will be difficult to get the eggs to set.

Most often, I’ll use a long thin pasta, like spaghetti or spaghettini with either a tomato sauce or anchovies and garlic.  They both work well.  That said, I’ve made frittate from a wide array of leftover types of pasta.  Shape is no object!

If you happen to know somebody who raises chickens or if you have access to freshly laid eggs at a farm stand or farmers’ market this is an excellent use for them.  There’s little that stands between you and the eggs, so using really good, fresh eggs is noticeable.

Crushed red pepper is a good alternative to Calabrian oil-cured peppers, but definitely not as flavorful

As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m losing the battle to raise chickens at our house.


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A frittata is cooked slowly in a sauté pan until the eggs set and turn golden brown on the bottom.  I prefer to do this with the pan covered as it aids in setting the top of the eggs, too.

Once the bottom is set, there are two methods to finish the frittata.  One is to put the frittata under the broiler or in the oven.  The good folks at Wikipedia think this is the only way to do it.  In fact, I would suggest that most Italians do not do that.  They simply flip the frittata over.  (OK, I was back on the soapbox for a moment there.)

If you’re going to finish the frittata by flipping, however, you need to be sure that the top of the frittata is not runny.  It should be just barely set.

In case you missed it, I previously published a recipe for an onion frittata.  Although it uses a large quantity of onions, they cook down into sweet, golden deliciousness before the eggs are added.

And…before we leave the subject of leftovers…leftover frittata makes a great filling for a sandwich, especially with a few oil-cured Calabrian peppers!


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.


Print Recipe
Frittata di Spaghetti (Spaghetti Frittata)
This is a wonderful Italian way to use leftover pasta by turning it into something completely different. The proportions are approximate and will depend on how much pasta is leftover. The pictures show this being made with about half a pound (uncooked weight) of spaghettini with anchovy and garlic (see the Notes section below for a link to the recipe) but it works equally well with most pastas and sauces, including tomato sauce. Use 8 eggs if you have a larger amount of leftover pasta or if you need to stretch the dish to feed more. Use either onion or garlic as the aromatic. Which you choose will depend on which better compliments the pasta. In this case, because the sauce had a lot of garlic, I chose onion to add a bit of a sweet note. If using a tomato sauce, I would have chosen garlic. Whether or not to use Parmesan cheese follows the same logic. Italians feel that cheese rarely goes with fish, like the anchovies in this sauce, so I didn’t use it.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a 12 inch (preferably non-stick) sauté pan.
  2. Add the onion or garlic and sauté over medium heat until the onion is soft and caramelized or the garlic is fragrant.
  3. Add the pasta and sauce and heat gently.
  4. Toss the pasta a few times to be sure it heats evenly.
  5. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with salt and pepper to taste.
  6. When the pasta is heated through, spread it evenly on the bottom of the pan.
  7. If you cannot clearly see enough of a slick of oil on the bottom of the pan to protect the eggs from sticking, add a bit more. (Some sauces sop up the oil more than others.)
  8. Pour the eggs over the pasta, being careful to distribute them evenly.
  9. If using cheese, sprinkle it over the top of the eggs.
  10. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low.
  11. Keep the eggs covered the whole time and move the pan around on the stove, even putting it off-center much of the time, to be sure the heat is evenly distributed around the bottom of the pan.
  12. Cook until the top of the eggs is just set. That is, there is no runny egg left. This will take approximately 25-30 minutes.
  13. When the eggs are set, slide them out of the pan onto a cookie sheet or pizza pan.
  14. Put the sauté pan upside down on the eggs and then flip the whole set-up over.
  15. Return the eggs to the heat, uncovered, for approximately 5 minutes to lightly brown the bottom.
  16. Slide on to a serving platter and cut in wedges to serve.
Recipe Notes

This is where you can find my recipe for Spaghettini with Anchovy and Garlic.

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Stracciatella (Italian Egg Drop Soup)

March 5, 2018

The name of this Italian soup, Stracciatella, comes from the Italian verb meaning “to shred,” a reference to the strands of egg in the soup.

I learned to make this from Auntie Helen d’Aquili when I was in college.

Auntie Helen and I in 1976. Can you believe my hair!!!

It’s really simple to make but, like so many Italian dishes, it relies on few ingredients that must be of high quality.  In this case the broth is absolutely paramount as is high-quality Italian imported Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.


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I have a few friends in Santa Fe who raise chickens and I am occasionally gifted with freshly laid eggs but good supermarket eggs are usually what I use.

I’ll let you in on a little domestic struggle, however.  I want to raise chickens.  My husband doesn’t.  So far, he’s winning the struggle but I haven’t given up.  His excuses are pretty lame as far as I’m concerned.  The most common one is that chickens will attract coyote.

HELLO!  We live in the forest.  We are surrounded by coyote and other wildlife.  Just an hour ago, while sitting at my desk getting ready to write this blog, a big deer walked through the paved area in front of our house gnawing down our landscaping like it was a salad bar.


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Most summer nights we hear the coyote yipping as go hunting.  They are mere yards from our house.  I don’t think a few chickens will bring them any closer than the already abundant rabbits currently do.  We just need to build a coyote-proof chicken enclosure.  There’s a great how-to right here (Frank! Frank, are you listening?).

Frank seems pretty happy in this selfie we took on Kauai. Chickens roam everywhere on Kauai. I think that is part of Frank’s happiness though he has yet to admit it.

Homemade broth is essential.  Chicken or beef broth are both standard choices, though Auntie Helen used beef.  You can make an excellent beef broth as part of the process of making Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs.  In fact, this soup would make an excellent first course followed by the meatballs and accompanied by a vegetable or two and some rice.


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.


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Stracciatella (Italian Egg Drop Soup)
This classic Italian soup requires top-notch broth and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Homemade broth is essential. See the Notes section, below, for a link to my blog post that contains instructions on making a wonderfully flavorful beef broth.
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Grate the cheese.
  2. Grate the nutmeg.
  3. Beat the eggs, cheese and nutmeg together.
  4. Beat 1/2 cup of cold broth into the egg mixture.
  5. Bring the remaining broth to a boil.
  6. Stir the boiling broth with a whisk while slowly adding the egg mixture.
  7. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
  8. Adjust salt and pepper.
  9. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

You can find a recipe for beef broth in my post on Marisa's Mystical Meatballs.

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Mom’s Slow-Roasted Pork

February 14, 2018

Growing up, Sunday dinner almost always included some sort of pasta with my mother’s long-simmered Southern Italian sugo.

The sauce was made with large pieces of pork which were always served on the side.  In addition, there might be meatballs, simmered in the sauce after being fried to a deep brown.  Sometimes, actually, much more often than sometimes, there would be veal cutlets.  This was back in the day when people didn’t really think about how veal was produced…or maybe it was produced more humanely back then.  I’m not sure.

Sometimes a pork roast would accompany the pasta.  Occasionally, though not often, the pork roast would be accompanied by potatoes and there wouldn’t be pasta on the table.

A Sunday without pasta, though, was quite unusual in my parents’ house.


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The pasta could have been homemade linguine or fettuccine, which my mother and her sister, my Aunt Margie, made on a regular basis and then dried and stored in large rectangular aluminum tins that once held baccala (salted cod).

Those tins had a myriad of uses, from protecting pasta and cookies to storing recipes and papers.  Even though they were made of an inert metal, they had to be thoroughly scrubbed and allowed to air out, uncovered, for weeks to rid them of the smell of baccala.

My mother learned her style of Southern Italian cooking from her mother, Angelina (far left). No doubt she learned it from her mother (center).

Sometimes the Sunday pasta was homemade ravioli, never was it gnocchi as my father didn’t like gnocchi.  Those were reserved for dinners when my father was out of town.

Usually, though, the pasta was dried pasta from a box: spaghetti, rigatoni, wagon wheels, fettuccine, and so forth.  Dried pasta is really a different sort of pasta with some different uses than fresh pasta (even if the fresh pasta is dried before use as mom and Aunt Margie often did).


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I know many of you have heard me say this, but roasts in our house were much more similar in texture to pulled pork than the typical French-American style of “just-how-little-can-we-cook-this-hunk-of-meat-and-say-it’s-done” type of roast.

A huge advantage of this style of cooking is that you can know in advance when it will be done because it’s really the clock that counts, not the thermometer.  I don’t like making an American style roast for a dinner party.  It makes me crazy.

I don’t get to enjoy cocktails and I don’t get to enjoy the first course because I’m focused on when the thermometer might say the roast is done.  While the temperature to be achieved is precise, the time is not.

On the other hand, the Italian style of roasting eliminates all of these problems because the meat is not “just barely cooked enough.”  The collagen begins to liquefy and the roast becomes unctuous.

If you haven’t experienced this style of roast, give it a try.  If you like it, look up my recipe for Italian Slow-Roasted Chicken or Turkey for the poultry equivalent.


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.


 

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Mom's Slow-Roasted Pork
I have an assortment of blue spatterware roasting pans which are perfect for this type of roast. I also have an array of heavy stainless steel, aluminum, and enameled cast-iron roasters. The more important issue is using a roasting pan of the right size to hold the roast without crowding (it shouldn’t touch the sides or top of the roaster) or without too much empty space. The initial cooking at higher temperature not only browns the roast, it helps it to reach the optimum temperature for collagen to break down to produce that pull-apart texture. You can easily increase the size of the roast. With a 4 to 5 pound roast, you would probably need to add another 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours to the roasting time.
Course Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Cut the garlic cloves into 3 to 4 slivers each.
  2. Plunge a paring knife into the pork at intervals to make small pockets about 1 inch deep. Space the pockets out around the roast.
  3. Put a piece of garlic and some of the fresh rosemary into each pocket.
  4. Some of the rosemary will invariably stick to the fat cap. Don’t sweat it, just try to get most of it in the slits.
  5. Put the roast into a roasting pan that is just large enough to hold it.
  6. Generously season the roast with salt and pepper.
  7. Pour the wine (or water) into the bottom of the roasting pan.
  8. Roast, uncovered, at 375°F until the roast is browned a little, 45-60 minutes.
  9. Baste with pan juices.
  10. Cover and continue to roast at 275-300°F for about another three hours, basting with the pan juices every 30-45 minutes or so.
  11. The pan juices will dry up. Be careful not to burn the bits on the bottom of the pan, but allow them to brown before adding another ¼ cup of water or so. After two or three cycles of this, the pan juices will be a luscious dark brown.
  12. Remove the roast from the pan. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
  13. To serve, pull the roast into large pieces. Don’t even try to slice it. It’s not supposed to slice.
  14. Pour a little of the pan juices on top. Pass the rest.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs

February 9, 2018

These meatballs are really mystical if you consider the sway they hold on my husband, his brother, and his father.  They go wild for these meatballs.

Well, wild in that very restrained Northern Italian way.

If they were Southern Italian, where a dinner conversation can seem like a minor riot, their meatball response would barely register on the scale.  It would signal almost utter disregard for the meatballs.

But that, in fact, is not the case.  The meatballs hold some sort of magical, mystical charm.

Marisa, of course, is my mother-in-law and these are her meatballs.  She considers them quite unusual, having learned to make them from her mother and basically not remembering any other relatives or friends making something similar.

And, as meatballs, they ARE unusual!

An old-fashioned ricer is still an indispensable piece of kitchen equipment. Make sure yours is very sturdy. Many new ones are not.

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But here’s a secret that I haven’t told anyone yet.  They really AREN’T meatballs.  They’re croquettes!  Crocchette in Italian.

There, I said it.  Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs aren’t really meatballs.  But everybody in the family calls them “Ma’s Meatballs.”  “Ma’s Croquettes” doesn’t have the same alliterative allure, even if it’s more accurate.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law celebrating his birthday.

When I did a Google search for crocchette, Google turned up about 1,730,000 results in 0.51 seconds.  When I searched for crocchette patate e carne (potato and meat croquettes), Google returned 1,500,000 results in 0.72 seconds.

And that was doing searches in Italian!

I found a Japanese woman who seems to have the same relationship to her mother’s meat and potato croquettes (korokke) as my husband and his family have to his mother’s.


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The meat for these “meatballs” (a word I’ll use in deference to my husband and his family of origin) is boiled before being finely chopped.  This presents a perfect opportunity to make a really nice beef broth.  You don’t have to do that, of course, but since you’re going to be boiling the meat anyhow, and since it only takes a few extra minutes to throw some aromatics into the pot, why not!

The broth from the meat for the specific batch of meatballs shown in this blog is sitting in the freezer ready to be turned into Auntie Helen’s Stracciatella, which will be coming up on the blog next month.


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.


 

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Marisa's Mystical Meatballs
Marisa says she usually uses cross-cut beef shank for the meatballs. When we made them, she also had a piece of beef she bought for soup so we used both. In the end, we got ½ pound of cooked beef, with fat and gristle removed. Adjust the proportion of the other ingredients if you get substantially more or less cooked beef. If you want to use just cross-cut beef shank, I would try about 2 ½-3 lbs. The beef is boiled and then finely chopped to make the meatballs, giving you the opportunity to make a really nice beef broth with just a few minutes more work.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Servings
meatballs
Ingredients
Beef and Broth
Meatballs
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Beef and Broth
  1. Cross-cut beef shank.
  2. Put the meat and all other broth ingredients in a large stock pot.
  3. Cover with abundant cold water.
  4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 4-6 hours, until the meat is very tender.
  5. Remove and cool the beef.
  6. Strain the broth and reserve for another use.
Meatballs
  1. Remove fat, gristle and bone from beef. You should have approximately ½ pound of cooked beef.
  2. Cook the unpeeled potatoes in boiling water until you can easily pierce them with the tines of a long fork or paring knife, 20-25 minutes.
  3. Remove the potatoes from the water and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, mince the garlic or grate it on a microplane grater.
  5. Combine beef, parsley and garlic in a food processor. Process until finely chopped.
  6. Peel the slightly cooled potatoes. If they are too cool it will be difficult to rice them.
  7. Pass the potatoes through a ricer.
  8. Combine the beef mixture with the potatoes, nutmeg, allspice, salt and black pepper.
  9. Mix well with a large spoon or your hands.
  10. Add the lightly beaten eggs.
  11. Mix well using your hands.
  12. Form the mixture into 16 balls and then flatten them slightly.
  13. Lightly roll the meatballs in fine dry breadcrumbs.
  14. Pour ⅛ inch of oil into a large sauté pan.
  15. Heat the oil on medium-high heat.
  16. Fry the meatballs in two batches, on medium-high, flipping once, until brown.
  17. Drain on paper towels.
  18. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Italian Wedding Soup

February 5, 2018

Growing up I never really understood why this was called Wedding Soup.  It was NEVER served at weddings.

It was mostly served at home, unceremoniously.

The fact that it was unceremonious is a shame.  It is a wonderful soup and, being honest, takes a bit of work to pull together.  Both the soup, and the soup-maker, in my estimation, deserve a bit of attention.

Although it takes some work, it doesn’t require much in the way of heard-earned skills like frosting a cake or making pie crust.  It’s just a bit of slogging through a series of steps.

This is a beloved soup among Americans of Italian descent.  Interestingly, my in-laws who are actually from Italy had never heard of it until I made it for this blog!


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But back to the “wedding” part.  I did a bit of internet research (thanks Google!).  Actually, I hesitate to call it “research.”  I’m old school.  I remember when doing research meant hours upon hours spent in libraries looking at actual hardcopy materials.  It almost doesn’t seem fair to sit on my sofa with my laptop and read materials served up by Google based on natural language questions and call it research.

The “natural language” part is interesting too.  In the “old” days, if you found an article that was relevant to the research topic, you would look at the articles referenced by the author and find, potentially, other relevant articles.  But they would all be older than the first article.  This is where the “Science Citation Index” came into play.

The Index was a series of periodically published volumes that listed all the articles that cited a particular article in their bibliography.  With the Science Citation Index, you could start with a relevant article and then work forwards finding all the newer articles that had cited that article.

Now I just tell Google what I’m interested in and I get a bunch of (almost always) relevant “hits!”  Google is even nice enough to tell me how many hits there are and what fraction of a second it took Google to identify them.

Even when I’m researching a biomedical topic I sit on my sofa with my laptop and search the National Library of Medicine.  The search language is a bit more arcane than the natural language used by Google but it still feels like cheating compared to slogging around a library.  I can even have the full article delivered to my laptop so I don’t have to figure out what library has the publication I need.


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So, what did I learn from my Google search?

It appears (at least it’s a plausible theory) that Wedding Soup is an inaccurate translation of Minestra Maritata or Married Soup; apparently so-named because of the way the different ingredients marry together so well.

I’m guessing that many Americans with no affiliation to Italy have never had escarole.

Interestingly, my husband’s Tuscan grandmother would use up small amounts of different types of dried pasta, perhaps putting them into a soup or serving them with a simple sauce.  She referred to this as Pasta Maritata because she was marrying the different types of pasta to create a dish.

If this theory is correct, I am perplexed by the inaccurate translation but, be that as it may, the soup is wonderful.  I urge you to give it a try.

I like breaking up the work over two days, especially since I like to make a long-simmered broth as the base of the soup.  My mother didn’t do this.  Once the chicken was cooked, it was removed and shredded and the broth was used without additional simmering to make the soup.  It shaves about 3 hours off of the prep time.  But, since making broth is mostly hands off, and the improvement in flavor is dramatic, I simmer everything a bit longer before straining and discarding the solids.


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.


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Italian Wedding Soup
If you don’t want to use the white center of the escarole, start with two heads and just use the dark green parts. The pale inner portion can be served in a salad or cooked in a number of ways. I like to divide up the work over two days, making the broth on the first day and the remainder on the second day. It’s perfectly feasible to do it all on the same day, however. I always keep a stash of rinds from Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino cheeses in the freezer. They add great flavor to broths, beans, and an array of other dishes.
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 5 hours
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Broth and Chicken
Meatballs
Final assembly
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Broth and Chicken
  1. Cut the chicken into breast halves, legs, thighs, and wings. Cut the back into 2 or three pieces. Reserve the liver for another use but chop the remaining giblets.
  2. Slice the onions. There's really no need to peel them first.
  3. Same with the garlic, no need to peel. It all gets strained out in the end.
  4. Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered for two hours.
  5. After two hours, remove the breasts, legs, and thighs. Continue to simmer the broth.
  6. Remove the meat from the bones. Return the chicken bones and skin to the broth.
  7. Continue to simmer the broth for another two hours, adjusting seasoning as needed.
  8. Meanwhile, shred the breast meat and refrigerate.
  9. Reserve the leg and thigh meat for another use.
  10. After the broth has finished cooking, cool it for several hours. Strain and discard the solids. Allow the broth to come to room temperature and refrigerate.
  11. Alternatively, immediately strain and discard the solids and proceed as below.
Meatballs
  1. Put all the ingredients except the bread into a mixing bowl.
  2. Cut the crusts from the bread.
  3. Cover the bread with warm water for 3-4 minutes.
  4. Squeeze some of the water from the bread.
  5. Add the bread to the mixing bowl.
  6. Mix with your hands, until thoroughly combined and no streaks of white from the bread remain visible.
  7. As you are mixing add a bit of the bread soaking water from time to time (about a quarter cup or so total) to keep the mixture moist but not wet.
  8. The mixture should become tacky from the effects of the water and the mixing on the proteins in the meat. The tackiness will help the meatballs hold together for the same reason that sausage doesn’t fall apart when the casing is removed.
  9. With damp hands, roll the mixture into approximately 50 meatballs. Keeping your hands moist will enable you to create a smooth surface on the meatballs. If there are visible cracks, the meatballs will split when cooking.
Final assembly
  1. Skim the fat from the broth. Add water to make 6 quarts of broth. Bring the broth to a boil.
  2. Meanwhile, coarsely chop the escarole.
  3. As the broth comes to a boil, adjust the salt and pepper.
  4. Add the chopped escarole. Return to a boil and cook at a moderate boil for approximately 5 minutes.
  5. Add the meatballs. Return to a boil and boil gently, so the meatballs don’t break, for 10-12 minutes.
  6. Add the shredded white meat chicken and return to a gentle boil.
  7. Adjust salt and pepper. At this point, slightly over-salt the soup as the dry pasta will reduce the saltiness of the soup. The soup can be made ahead to this point. Return to a boil and add the pasta just before serving.
  8. Add the pasta and boil gently until pasta is cooked, approximately 10 minutes.
  9. Adjust salt and pepper.
  10. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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Torta di Riso (Italian Rice Tart)

January 31, 2018

Torta di Riso is an Italian specialty.  It is basically a rice pudding baked inside of a pastry crust; a Rice Tart, so to speak.

I first had Torta di Riso more than 20 years ago while visiting Italy with my husband and his parents.

We ate meals at the homes of many relatives.  I often arrived with a spiral-bound notebook to jot down the inevitable recipes that would be discussed around the table or the recipes I begged for after being served something wonderful.  That notebook is a mashup of American and Metric measures and English and Italian words for ingredients.  It became a bible of sorts for recreating many of the dishes I ate on that trip.


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My father-in-law’s Zia (Aunt) Mery made the first Torta di Riso that I ever tasted.  Her recipe is below (adapted for American measures).

After having it at Zio (Uncle) Beppe and Zia Mery’s house, I started noticing Torta di Riso in many places in Tuscany.

My father-in-law with his Uncle Beppe and Aunt Mery, from whom this recipe for Torta di Riso originated in their garden in Tuscany, 1994.

Alkermes liqueur originated in Tuscany so it is particularly appropriate to use it as the liqueur in Torta di Riso.  Alkermes is nearly impossible to find in the United States, however.  One can make a perfectly traditional Torta di Riso using rum in place of Alkermes but the resulting confection won’t be pink.

According to CooksInfo, “Alchermes was invented in the Frati Convent at Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Its making was kept secret, but the recipe was reputedly stolen by spies from the nearby city of Siena, which Florence was often at war with.”


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Recipes for alkermes (also spelled alchermes) are closely guarded but the process basically involves infusing alcohol with spices and flavorings like cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, star anise, rosewater, and orange zest.  The red color comes from cochineal, an insect that is the foundation for natural red food coloring.  The resulting infused alcohol is sweetened and diluted with water.

The pastry crust is pasta frolla, a slightly sweetened pastry, leavened with baking powder, and often flavored with vanilla and lemon zest.  This is Mery’s recipe for pasta frolla but I also have one from Zia Fidalma that makes about half the quantity.

Torta di Riso was a big hit at my father-in-law’s birthday dinner last week. So were the cocktails, wine, and champagne!

If you don’t have access to Alkermes, you can use rum.  In fact, torta di riso is not always pink.  Many that I saw in Italy were white.

If you want to try to make your own Alkermes you can find a recipe here.  Amazon even sells the dried cochineal insects that provide the traditional scarlet color.


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.


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Torta di Riso (Italian Rice Tart)
This classic Italian dessert is basically a rice pudding baked inside of a pastry crust. Alkermes is a traditional Tuscan liqueur used in a number of sweets, including torta di riso, for its color and spice-like flavor. If you don’t have Alkermes, use rum. Not all versions of torta di riso are brightly colored. Vanilla powder is a natural vanilla product, not artificial. Use vanilla extract if vanilla powder is not available.
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 75 minutes
Passive Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Pasta Frolla
Rice
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Pasta Frolla
  1. Blend the flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla powder, salt and lemon zest in a food processor until combined.
  2. Add the butter, cut in pieces, and blend till well combined.
  3. Add the eggs and blend till the pastry almost forms a ball.
  4. Remove the pastry from the food processor and use your hands to press everything into a single ball.
  5. Wrap the pastry in waxed paper and refrigerate for an hour before using.
Rice
  1. Wash and drain the rice.
  2. Combine the rice, water and milk in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan.
  3. Bring the rice to a boil.
  4. Cover the rice and simmer, stirring frequently, until cooked and the liquid is almost completely absorbed. If the rice does not have the consistency of thick oatmeal, add a bit more milk at the end to make it creamy.
  5. Mix the sugar, lemon zest, and Alkermes and/or rum into the rice.
  6. Pour the rice into a bowl and cool, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
Assembly and Baking
  1. Cut off a small piece of the pastry to make a lattice top and refrigerate.
  2. Roll the remaining pastry between waxed paper, turning often, until it is large enough to cover the bottom and sides of a 10 inch springform pan.
  3. Line a 10" springform pan with the pasta frolla.
  4. Cut the pastry even with the top of the pan. Add the scraps to the pastry you have reserved for the lattice.
  5. Beat the egg and egg yolks to combine.
  6. Stir the beaten eggs into the cooled rice.
  7. Pour the rice into the pastry lined pan.
  8. Roll out the pastry reserved for the lattice.
  9. Cut seven or eight strips, approximately 1/2 inch wide.
  10. Arrange the strips into a lattice on top of the rice. Cut off the excess.
  11. Roll the pastry lining the sides of the pan down to the top of the rice and form a decorative edge.
  12. Bake at 350°F until the crust is lightly browned and the rice is barely jiggley in the center, approximately 30-45 minutes.
  13. Cool on a rack for approximately 20 minutes.
  14. Remove the side of the pan and cool completely.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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