Pollo all’Uccelleto (Chicken Little Bird Style)

Name: Pollo all'Uccelleto (Chicken Little Bird Style)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h
Yield: 8 people
Ingredients: 9 medium sized chicken thighs; 4 cloves garlic; 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil; 8 ounces tomato sauce (canned is fine); 2 bay leaves; 2 sprigs of rosemary; 4-5 sage leaves; 5-6 small sprigs of oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano); 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste); salt (to taste); Freshly ground black pepper (to taste); 3/4 cup olives (half oil cured black olives and half green olives)

6 Comments

January 23, 2017

I first tasted this dish in Tuscany in the little hill town of Benabbio, in September 1996. My husband’s great Great Aunt Fidalma, Zia Fidalma, made it with little birds, sparrows actually, that her husband, Faliero, had shot.

That was one of my most memorable meals in Italy. My husband and I had traveled to Italy with his parents. We stayed in a little hotel in the town of Fornoli where my father-in-law grew up. We alternated meals at the homes of numerous relatives throughout the area.

It was wonderful sitting in Zia Fidalma’s kitchen watching her put together components of the meal in that seemingly effortless way that happens in homes throughout Italy. We had sautéed mushroom caps. Zia Fidalma foraged the mushrooms. I remember them sitting in a shallow box on the kitchen counter. She plucked a few out of the box, cleaned them. They were quickly sautéed and seasoned with salt, pepper, and nepita.

I can’t get a consensus on the spelling of nepita. I’ve seen it as gnebita, gnepita, and nepeta, among others. It is a variety of catmint. Zia Fidalma uses it to season mushrooms. It is a magical combination.

We smuggled nepita seeds back from Tuscany on that visit, along with heirloom tomato seeds, both from Zio Faliero’s garden. We’ve grown both ever since. For 20-plus years we’ve had nepita; first in our garden in Chicago (at the Rohkam House, where we lived starting in January 1996) and then subsequently at Villa Sentieri, in Santa Fe.

The Rohkam House shortly after it was built in 1887.

There are only three components of that meal that I remember clearly, the mushrooms, the little birds, and the wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano brought out at the end of the meal for us to eat with fruit. I know there was a pasta but I can’t remember what it was. The same is true for the side dishes (contorni, in Italian).

My mother-in-law was in heaven with the little birds. She was sitting across the table from me. The meal had become languorous by then and it wasn’t, somehow, inappropriate for me to pull out my video camera. Remember those? I’m talking about dedicated video cameras with cassettes for recording, not phones or cameras with video capability.

As she was reveling in her little birds (uccelleti, in Italian) I used my video camera to focus in on her. First on her face, but then ultimately on just her lips. Her lips filled the screen like the lips in the opening moments of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. There were those lips, sucking in little bird parts then extruding cleaned bones. Every now and then there was the occasional bit of bird shot that needed to be eliminated.

To this day, that video footage is a kind of kompromat in our family. Thanks to President Trump for making that term common knowledge. My mother-in-law hates that video footage. I occasionally mention its existence and (vaguely) threaten to allow it to surface…as I did for this post but, in the end, in the interest of domestic harmony, did not.

Pollo all'Uccelleto (Chicken Little Bird Style)

I first had this dish in Tuscany. It was made, literally, with little birds (blackbirds) bagged by my husband’s Great Uncle Faliero. Since little birds are not easily available in the US, I rendered the dish using chicken after returning from the 1996 trip to Italy. I called it “Chicken Little Bird Style” or “Pollo all’Uccelleto.” Much to my surprise, years later, I discovered that Italians do, in fact, refer to this preparation as “all’Uccelleto,” and use it on things other than little birds (chicken, for example). What simply started out as Uccelleti, “Little Birds,” became for me "Pollo all’Uccelleto," or “Chicken Little Bird Style.” From Great Aunt Fidalma’s kitchen to you is Chicken Little Bird Style. If you actually have little birds, by all means, give them a try. If not, chicken thighs are a great, if less gamey, substitute. Use good quality olives for this dish. If you don’t have access to an Italian market, I suggest using olives from the olive and antipasto bar that is common in many supermarkets these days. I usually use half oil-cured black olives and half green olives, such as castelvetrano. I prefer using olives with pits.

Course

Poultry

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

2 1/2 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

9 medium sized chicken thighs
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces tomato sauce canned is fine
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of rosemary
4-5 sage leaves
5-6 small sprigs of oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper or to taste
salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup olives half oil cured black olives and half green olives

Course

Poultry

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

2 1/2 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

9 medium sized chicken thighs
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces tomato sauce canned is fine
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of rosemary
4-5 sage leaves
5-6 small sprigs of oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper or to taste
salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup olives half oil cured black olives and half green olives

Instructions

Remove the leaves from the rosemary and oregano.
Mince the sage, rosemary, and oregano leaves. Reserve.
Remove the skin from the chicken thighs and any large pieces of fat.
Using the broad side of a chef’s knife, bruise (smash, really) the garlic cloves.
In a heavy skillet large enough to hold the chicken thighs in a single layer, heat the olive oil.
When the oil is hot, add the chicken thighs and garlic. Season the chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Brown the chicken, turning several times. As the garlic cloves get dark brown, remove and discard them before they burn.
When the chicken is brown, and all garlic has been removed, add the tomato sauce, bay leaves, minced herbs (rosemary, sage, and oregano) and crushed red pepper.
Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally and turning chicken over every 30 minutes or so, for approximately 1 hour.
If the sauce gets too dry add a little white wine (or water) from time to time.
After an hour, add the olives, cover, and continue cooking over low heat, stirring occasionally and turning chicken over every 30 minutes or so, for approximately 1 more hour.
Taste and adjust salt and black pepper during the last half hour of cooking. The olives will be salty, so it's best to wait till they've cooked a while before adding more salt.
When finished, the chicken should truly be “fall-apart” tender and the sauce should be mostly a red colored olive oil with just a tiny bit of tomato sauce.

Recipe Notes

I don’t usually use canned tomato sauce. I prefer to use tomato paste and water. For this dish I use tomato sauce because so little is needed and it’s consistent with what Great Aunt Fidalma did. If you want to use tomato paste, mix 1½ tablespoons of tomato paste with 6 tablespoons of water and use in place of the tomato sauce.

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Recipes

Sformato di Spinaci (Spinach Casserole)

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January 13, 2017

The word sformato in Italian means deformed or shapeless. When applied to food, standard Italian-English dictionaries often translate it as pie or soufflé. It is none of the above.

A sformato is most definitely not deformed or shapeless. In fact, a food historian described a sformato as “something that was cooked in the mould [sic] and then extracted from it” (Alexandra Grigorieva, Naming Authenticity and Regional Italian Cuisine in Authenticity in the Kitchen: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2005, edited by Richard Hosking). Nor is a sformato really a pie or a soufflé as those terms are usually used. It has no crust of any sort, as would a pie. It is not puffy like a souffle. Sometimes it doesn’t even contain eggs.

A sformato is most often made of vegetables, usually bound with some combination of eggs, cream, cheese, and/or béchamel (balsamella or besciamella in Italian), and cooked in a baking dish. I think the best English translation of the word is casserole.

Sformato di Spinaci, spinach sformato (or, reluctantly, spinach casserole), is one of those dishes that has iconic status in my husband’s family. Like Merluzzo in Umido, the recipe came from Italy with his grandmother whom we called Nonni. Nonni is one of those made up words that sometimes take hold in a family based on the mispronunciations of little kids. The Italian word for grandmother is Nonna. However, Nonni is to Nonna as Gramma is to Grandmother.

Just as Pasta Ascuitta has only one meaning in my family, Sformato has only one meaning in my husband’s. If you simply say “sformato,” everyone knows you mean spinach sformato, and not, for example, cauliflower sformato.

I first had sformato at Christmas Dinner at my in-law’s house in 1989. Although I had been cooking northern Italian food since 1973 based largely on Marcella Hazan’s wonderful cookbooks, that Christmas was really the beginning of my learning to make some of my husband’s family’s northern Italian favorites. It’s really a whole different taste profile from the southern Italian dishes I grew up with.

I’ve actually taken a heretical twist with my interpretation of Nonni’s sformato. I’ve added a little balsamella for moisture. This was most definitely not in the original, though it is not an uncommon addition to sformato. If you want to make the original version, just leave out the balsamella. It will be a little drier. You might want to not squeeze the spinach quite as tightly if you don’t include the balsamella.

Sformato di Spinaci (Spinach Sformato or Spinach Casserole)

Nonni always made this with ground beef but Italian sausage, casing removed and crumbled, works really well (a bit of southern Italian heresy creeping in!). It can also be made without meat, but the amount of spinach should be increased by an additional 10 oz. to a total of 30 oz. I have occasionally used fresh spinach but, honestly, frozen chopped spinach works just fine. I doubt you could reliably tell the difference in a side-by-side comparison of fresh vs. frozen spinach in this dish.

Course

Vegetables

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Passive Time

15 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

For the spinach mixture

20 ounces frozen chopped spinach
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef or Italian sausage, casing removed
1/2 onion finely diced
1-2 cloves garlic minced
salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese or to taste, divided
3 tablespoons coarse bread crumbs from one slice of stale home-style bread
1 tablespoon butter

For the balsamella

1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Course

Vegetables

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Passive Time

15 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

For the spinach mixture

20 ounces frozen chopped spinach
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef or Italian sausage, casing removed
1/2 onion finely diced
1-2 cloves garlic minced
salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese or to taste, divided
3 tablespoons coarse bread crumbs from one slice of stale home-style bread
1 tablespoon butter

For the balsamella

1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

For the spinach mixture

Cook the frozen spinach in a heavy bottomed sauce pan tightly covered until thawed, breaking up the spinach from time to time.
As soon as the spinach is thawed, pour the contents of the pan into a fine mesh sieve and allow the spinach to drain and cool.
When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze small handfuls of the spinach to remove excess water.
Cut through the mass of squeezed spinach about eight or ten times with a knife then rub it through your fingers to loosen it. It will be pretty tightly wadded up from squeezing out the liquid.
Brown the ground beef or sausage in olive oil over medium heat. You want to get some really browned bits of meat for the flavor. Don't make the mistake of just cooking the meat until it is no longer pink.
When the meat is nicely browned, add the onion and cook until golden and soft. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
Combine the meat mixture and spinach in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and allow to cool briefly.
Meanwhile, make the breadcrumbs by removing the crusts from a slice of two-day old home-style white bread. Tear the bread into pieces and whiz in a food processor until processed into evenly sized crumbs. Reserve.
Melt the butter and toss with the breadcrumbs. Reserve.
Make the balsamella (see directions below).
Add the balsamella to the cooled meat and spinach mixture. Stir well, loosening up the spinach. When well combined, stir in the eggs. Be certain that the mixture is not so hot that it cooks the eggs.
Reserve two tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese and mix the remainder into the spinach-meat-balsamella mixture.
Pour the spinach mixture into a buttered 9-inch round or 8-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle top with the buttered crumbs and reserved Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350°F for approximately 60 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

For the balsamella

Heat the milk in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan until bubbles begin to form around the edges. Do not bring the milk to a boil.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour when the foam subsides. Cook for several minutes without browning.
Add the milk, approximately two tablespoonsful at a time, mixing well after each addition. Adding the milk in small amounts should allow you to stir out any lumps before adding the next bit of milk.
After all the milk has been added, bring to a boil and cook for one minute, until thickened.
Remove from the heat and stir in the nutmeg.

Recipe Notes

This recipe doubles well. If you want to cook a double recipe in a single pan, use a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish. Bake at 325°F rather than 350°F as it will brown too much around the outside before the inside is cooked. If necessary, raise the heat to 375°F at the very end, and put the sformato on the top shelf of the oven, to brown the top.

If you want to use fresh spinach, use 2 pounds instead of the 20 ounces of frozen spinach. Remove the stems. Wash the spinach, shaking off most of the water. Put the spinach in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven with just the liquid clinging to the leaves. Cook covered, over medium heat till fully wilted. Drain and proceed as above with the exception that you will need to do much more chopping of the cooked and squeezed spinach than the eight to ten cuts suggested above.

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Recipes

Focaccia con Salvia (Focaccia with Sage)

Merluzzo in Umido (Cod in Light Tomato Sauce)

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January 4, 2017

The first time I had Merluzzo in Umido was November 1992. My husband and I took my mother, his mother, and his fraternal grandmother to Santa Fe for a week over Thanksgiving. At the time, we were living in Chicago. We rented an ancient adobe house off Garcia Street. The house didn’t have any central heat though it did have a frightening array of heating devices that included a kiva fireplace, a direct-vent gas heater in the living room, a portable electric heater in one of the bedrooms, wall-mounted electric radiant heaters in the bathrooms, and nothing in the kitchen. If the oven wasn’t on, the kitchen was the coldest room in the house as it had three outside walls and a door that didn’t seal very well.

Of course, it was reported to be the coldest winter that Santa Fe had experienced in 100 years! In addition to cold, there was lots of snow. And there we were, in a drafty old adobe house with no central heat enjoying a week with the likes of The Golden Girls!

We had a blast.

We had been house hunting in Santa Fe since April of that year. On that November trip we saw several houses we liked. We spent a few evenings rating each of the houses on an array of factors using a spreadsheet. (In my professional life, we would have called this a prioritization matrix or selection grid. It’s a technique I’ve taught to hundreds of health care professionals over several decades.) One afternoon we all piled into the car to look at the two finalists in the property hunt. We were uncertain which one to buy. Not so the women. A little house on Griffin Street was the undisputed, hands-down favorite. Deal done!

We put in an offer and closed in January. For most of December my mother kept saying that she wanted to go back to Santa Fe and stay in the house in the spring. We did a bit of remodeling and moved into the house in March. Unfortunately, my mother died in January, shortly before we closed on the house. She never got to experience her dream of returning to Santa Fe. We had that house for more than nine years before we moved into a much larger Santa Fe property in Ricardo-Legorreta-designed Zocalo. After Zocalo, we built and moved into Villa Sentieri overlooking the city.

I frequently think of that trip. It was memorable in so many ways. We found our first house in Santa Fe. I got to spend quality time with my mother in the last weeks of her life. My husband and I had interviews to get our medical licenses in New Mexico. (It’s the only time either of us has been personally interviewed for a medical license!). And, I learned how to make Merluzzo in Umido, one of many recipes that my husband’s grandmother brought with her from Italy.

Merluzzo in Umido (Cod in Light Tomato Sauce)

If possible, by large filets of cod and portion them at home. Three pounds is enough for eight people. The advantage of portioning the fish at home is that you can make some smaller pieces for individuals with smaller appetites. Cod is a perfect fish for this dish because it is forgiving in terms of being overcooked. However, any firm, white, non-oily fish will taste great. I used a 15-inch rondeau to cook the cod. It held the fish in a single layer. If you don’t have a pan large enough to hold the fish in one layer, make the sauce in a single sauté pan then divide it among two different pans to cook the fish.

Course

Fish and Seafood

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Servings

people

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless cod filets skin-on
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion finely diced
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup dry white wine
6 ounces tomato paste (one small can)
4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon dry basil
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Course

Fish and Seafood

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Servings

people

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless cod filets skin-on
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion finely diced
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup dry white wine
6 ounces tomato paste (one small can)
4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon dry basil
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Cut the cod into 8 to 10 serving pieces. Though you can cook whole filets, it will be easier to get the fish out of the pan if cut into portions.
In rondeau large enough to hold the fish in one layer, sauté the onion and a sprinkling of salt in the olive oil until transparent and slightly golden but not brown.
Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add parsley and some freshly ground black pepper. Sauté for a minute or two. The smell of parsley should become noticeably more potent. Do not brown the ingredients of the pan.
Add the wine and cook briskly until the wine evaporates.
Add the tomato paste. Sauté, stirring frequently, until it gets ever so slightly darker and begins to smell sweet. This will take 2-3 minutes.
Add the water, oregano, basil and additional salt and pepper to taste. Boil gently, with the cover slightly askew for 20-30 minutes. The sauce will thicken. If it becomes too thick, add a little additional water. However, the juices from the fish will thin the sauce so it is better for the sauce to start out too thick rather than two thin. The sauce can be made ahead to this point.
With the sauce at a medium boil, add the fish, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot tightly and cook for approximately 20 minutes until the fish cooks through an flakes easily. The length of time will depend on the type of fish, thickness of the portions, and elevation. Do not turn the fish but occasionally spoon some of the sauce over the top of the cooking fish.
Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. If the sauce it too thick thin with a little water. If it is too thin, boil it briskly after removing the fish.
Put the fish on a deep serving platter. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

Recipe Notes

Parsley stems can be bitter. When adding parsley to a recipe, I only use the leaves and very tender stems. To do this, I hold the end of the parsley stem in one hand and slide the stem between the thumb and finger of the other hand. When my fingers reach the leaves, I pinch off the stem and discard it. This makes quick work of the parsley and removes any chance of bitterness from the stems.

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Recipes

Pasta Ascuitta (Angel Hair Pasta with Crispy Breadcrumbs)

12 Comments

December 30, 2016

Pasta ascuitta is the name given to a whole category of pasta dishes in Italy. It means “dry pasta,” quite literally. In reality, most of them are not really dry in the full sense of that word. The category includes all kinds of pasta with almost any imaginable sauce. Spaghetti and meatballs would be pasta ascuitta to an Italian (though the meatballs would be served as a separate course a discussed previously). What makes pasta ascuitta “dry” is how it compares to the other category of pasta, “pasta in brodo,” or pasta in broth.

In contrast to pasta in brodo, pasta with sauce is dry, or “ascuitta.” Remember that in Italy the first course after the antipasto (which literally means before the pasta) is either pasta or soup or rice. So, pasta in brodo is both a soup and a pasta. A classic version in our house is tortellini in chicken broth. With appropriate Italian (not Italian-American) restraint it makes a great first course. There might only be five or six tortellini in each bowl of broth. It takes the edge off one’s hunger without filling one up before whatever comes next.

Growing up in my family, however, pasta ascuitta meant one and only one thing, the way many general terms come to have a specific meaning in a particular context. Pasta ascuitta, to my family, meant angel hair pasta or spaghettini (not spaghetti), served with an abundant amount of breadcrumbs cooked in olive oil until crispy and flavored with anchovies. Of everything that appeared on the table at Christmas Eve, pasta ascuitta was, and still is, my favorite.

As children, we called it sawdust spaghetti. I still do, sometimes. I was chatting with my cousin Donna Meinecke the morning of Christmas Eve this year. Our families spent most holidays together when we were growing up. When she asked me what I was cooking, the first thing I said was “sawdust spaghetti.” Enough said! It was Christmas Eve, after all, and while I decided it was best not to introduce a table-full of unsuspecting guests to a soup of baccala (salted and dried cod) and tomatoes; a second pasta with a tomato sauce and squid tentacles; and stuffed squid, I had to serve pasta ascuitta.

If you were counting, you would have figured out that the first course of our family Christmas Eve dinner had two pastas and one soup. This, of course, was after a massive antipasto and a large platter of steamed mussels but before the second course of breaded and pan-fried fish fillets, the aforementioned stuffed squid, and, in later years when the “no meat” rule in our family was relaxed, bracciole and homemade sausage.

I truly don’t remember what vegetables were served. I do remember, however, that there was a huge platter of cookies for dessert.

Pasta Ascuitta (Angel Hair Pasta with Crispy Breadcrumbs)

The genius of this dish, made from very humble ingredients, is the crunch of the salty breadcrumbs in contrast to the chew of the pasta. Even if you think you don’t like anchovies, give this dish a try. There is something irresistible about the salty, crunchy breadcrumbs packed with umami. If you’re still not convinced, try using half the amount of anchovies. I promise you, the next time you make this dish, you’ll follow the suggested amount. This may sound like a lot of oil but remember, it's the only "sauce" in the dish. It works out to about 2-3 tablespoons per serving. A food processor renders the job of making the breadcrumbs a breeze. Do not use packaged breadcrumbs. It is essential that they be large and soft, but made from bread that is a couple of days old for the proper texture. It is best to use bread that was baked in a pan rather than free-form as the ratio of soft, inner white crumb to crust will be greater. Many supermarkets carry a hearty artisan-style sliced sandwich bread if you don't have a good Italian bakery nearby and don't want to make your own. You want a dense crumb which this type of bread has. It will work just fine using the food processor method below.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

40 minutes

Passive Time

48 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 loaf home-style white bread approximately 1 pound
2-3 cloves garlic optional
4 ounces flat anchovy filets packed in oil (two cans, two ounces each)
1 pound Angel Hair Pasta or Spaghettini
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
salt if needed

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

40 minutes

Passive Time

48 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

1 loaf home-style white bread approximately 1 pound
2-3 cloves garlic optional
4 ounces flat anchovy filets packed in oil (two cans, two ounces each)
1 pound Angel Hair Pasta or Spaghettini
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
salt if needed

Instructions

Put the bread in a paper bag for two days at room temperature. This will allow the bread to become stale, but not hard.
On serving day, make the breadcrumbs from the stale bread in one of two ways. Cut the bread into 1-inch-thick slices.
Cut off the crust from each slice. Cut the slices into one inch cubes.
Process the bread cubes in a food processor to yield coarse (but not chunky) crumbs.
Without a food processor, cut the loaf in quarters and scoop out the center of the loaf. Using your hands, crumble the center of the loaf into coarse crumbs. Then using the teardrop-shaped holes of a grater, grate the white bread that is clinging to the crust.
Measure out and reserve 6 cups of crumbs. Save any additional for another purpose.
Bruise the garlic with the side of a chef's knife.
Heat the olive oil in large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Sauté the garlic (if using) until dark golden, almost brown, then discard. Add bread crumbs to the oil and stir constantly till light golden.
Push the breadcrumbs away from the center of the skillet and add anchovies and their oil. Working quickly so the breadcrumbs don't burn, heat and stir the anchovies, smashing and breaking them into bits. When the anchovies are in small bits, mix them into the crumbs. Season the crumbs with freshly ground black pepper. Continue cooking the breadcrumb-anchovy mixture, stirring constantly, breaking up any remaining bits of anchovy, until the breadcrumbs are crispy. Most of the crumbs will be golden brown but some will be darker. Be careful not to burn the crumbs. There will still be some visible bits of anchovy when the breadcrumbs have gotten crispy.
Remove the skillet from the heat. If not using immediately, stir the anchovy-crumb mixture every few minutes for about 10 minutes so the crumbs on the bottom don't burn from the residual heat. Reserve the anchovy-breadcrumb mixture. Making the crumb mixture a few hours in advance makes the final put-together less stressful.
Cook one pound of angel hair pasta or spaghettini in generously salted water until al dente. I usually use about 1/3 cup salt for six quarts of water. If the crumbs were browned earlier, warm them gently while the pasta cooks.
When the pasta is finished, pour some of the pasta-cooking water into the serving bowl to warm it. Drain the pasta well but do not rinse.
Toss the pasta with the crumbs. If the skillet is large enough, it is best to toss the breadcrumbs and pasta there. It will keep the pasta warmer. Season with a generous amount of black pepper. Taste and adjust salt. It is entirely likely that no additional salt will be needed.
Empty the water from the serving bowl. Dry the bowl, pour in the pasta and serve. It is not traditional to serve cheese with this pasta.

Recipe Notes

If any pasta is leftover, the breadcrumbs will lose their crispiness but still taste great for a quick lunch (in our house, mostly eaten furtively in secret before someone else nabs it). However, this pasta makes the foundation for a great frittata. We won't be covering the making of a frittata for a while but stay tuned.

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Recipes

Totos (Italian Chocolate Spice Cookies)

29 Comments

December 21, 2016

Homemade cookies and pastries were staples of my childhood. Trays of cookies showed up for holidays, celebrations, weddings, funerals, and, sometimes, for no apparent reason.

My mother along with relatives and friends set up a cookie-making operation that went on every night for weeks leading up to my sister’s wedding. The overseer was Annie Castagnola, a family friend. She had a thin spiral-bound 3-inch-by-5-inch notebook of cookie recipes. The notebook was the kind we used in grade school to write down our homework assignments. Annie’s recipes were a curated collection gathered from a host of “old Italian women,” my grandmother included.

The little notebook was coveted by more than a few cooks. Annie, however, did not share her recipes, even when those recipes came from relatives of the very people who were asking for them. I know, my mother was one of those people who wanted some of her mother’s recipes. Annie wouldn’t budge. The situation got resolved, however, during the cookie-baking marathon for my sister’s wedding. One night, Annie left her little notebook at our house overnight. Nobody’s confessing, but there are a few cookie recipes in my mother’s recipe box (sitting on my bookcase) written in my twelve-year-old hand.

Annie died a while back. Her little notebook is most likely gone forever and along with it the baking secrets of a whole group of “old Italian women.”

Of all the cookies that showed up throughout the year, my favorites were the various kinds of cakey cookies, my mom’s Genets, Aunt Margie’s aptly named “Colored Cookies,” and my cousin Angie Catanese’s Sesame Seed Cookies, to name a few. These cakey cookies, which were not very sweet by American standards, were usually little balls but not always. Genets are lemon flavored knots. Colored Cookies are vanilla flavored balls, each made with four or five pinches of dough of different colors rolled together. Sesame cookies are little logs, perfect for dunking into some Vin Santo. For me, though, the best of these cakey cookies are Totos, little chocolate spice balls.

Totos (Italian Chocolate Spice Cookies)

These little chocolate balls are intended to have a good kick from an array of spices. Lard is the traditional shortening to use. I render my own. If you need these to be vegetarian, or you just don't want to use lard, you can use solid vegetable shortening. Heck, you can even use clarified butter but that is way off the traditional scale!

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Servings

dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/2 tablespoons grated nutmeg
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 pound lard or solid vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon extract

Icing

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
1/2 pound powdered sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons whole milk approximately

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Servings

dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/2 tablespoons grated nutmeg
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 pound lard or solid vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon extract

Icing

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
1/2 pound powdered sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons whole milk approximately

Instructions

In a small saucepan, melt the lard over low heat. When just melted, remove the lard from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg together. Reserve.
Make the icing and reserve.
Put the sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add the cooled but still liquid lard and mix well until thoroughly combined. The mixture will be gritty. I recommend doing this by hand with a mixing spoon but you could use a portable electric mixer.
Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar and lard mixture, mixing well after each addition. The sugar should dissolve as the eggs are added.
Add the milk, honey, vanilla extract and lemon extract to the egg mixture. Mix until well combined.
Add the reserved dry ingredients. At this point there really is no better option than to reach into the mixture with your hand and get everything well combined. The dough will be somewhat sticky. Be certain that all the dry bits are scraped off the bottom and sides of the bowl and combined into the dough.
Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls. If you want to weigh the first few to get the size correct, they should be between 21 and 22 grams.
Space the cookies several inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375°F for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are very slightly browned on the bottom but still soft when touched. They have a tendency to crack as they bake. This is normal. You can bake two trays at a time, one in the lower third of the oven and one in the upper third. Be sure to switch the top and bottom cookie sheets after five minutes and also turn them front to back.
As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, carefully put them on cooling racks.
Ice them immediately by holding a cookie with one hand and using the tip of your finger to spread a dollop of icing on the top half of each cookie. The icing should be a glaze, not a thick coating. Put the iced cookies on cooling racks to cool completely.
Well wrapped, the cookies can be refrigerated for several weeks or frozen for several months.

Icing

Melt the butter. Add the sugar, vanilla (or lemon) extract and 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix well. Add more milk, a teaspoon at a time, if needed, to make a thick icing that will hold its shape and spread well.
It may be necessary to add a bit of milk from time to time if the icing stiffens up over the course of icing each batch of cookies as they come out of the oven.

Recipe Notes

Check out my method for rendering lard.

I prefer to grind my own spices using a small electric coffee grinder, except for the nutmeg, of course, for which I use a small grater. It is best to pass the ground spices through a small strainer to get out any small bits. If you don’t grind your own spices be sure to buy really fresh ground ones so the flavor is vibrant.

This recipe doesn’t involve any strenuous beating so the first few steps can easily be completed by hand with a sturdy mixing spoon rather than with a mixer. Similarly, after adding the dry ingredients, the dough only needs to be mixed enough to come together. This is easily (and traditionally) done with your hand though I suppose a dough hook would work, too.

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Recipes

Panettone (Italian Sweet Bread with Citron and Raisins)

31 Comments

December 10, 2016

I have been planning the launch of this site for several years. It’s going live shortly before Christmas, a time when Italians traditionally enjoy panettone. Panettone for breakfast. Panettone as a gift. Panettone as a snack. While there are wonderful commercially produced products, I prefer to make my own.

The fact that the site is going live now feels like a gift…to myself! So, I’m making panettone!!! One for me, and half-a-dozen for friends.

I’ve been making Panettone for almost 30 years. This year I’m using candied citron from Italy. I plan to try making my own candied citron from the wonderful Buddha’s Hand fruits available from the farmers’ market in Palm Springs, California where I spend time each winter using this recipe from David Lebovitz. For now, though, I’ll be using the citron from Italy.

Panettone

Panettone is a sweet bread from Italy, traditionally served around Christmas. It is enriched with eggs and butter and contains raisins and candied citron.

Course

Sweet Breads

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Passive Time

14 hours

Servings

loaves

Ingredients

22.5 g salt
200 g sugar
4 eggs
6 egg yolks
1200 g bread flour
20 g active dry yeast
480 ml water warm
225 g unsalted butter melted
2 teaspoons orange oil or grated zest of two oranges
225 g candied citron
300 g raisins preferably golden
6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (divided)

Course

Sweet Breads

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Passive Time

14 hours

Servings

loaves

Ingredients

22.5 g salt
200 g sugar
4 eggs
6 egg yolks
1200 g bread flour
20 g active dry yeast
480 ml water warm
225 g unsalted butter melted
2 teaspoons orange oil or grated zest of two oranges
225 g candied citron
300 g raisins preferably golden
6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (divided)

Instructions

This is candied citron from Italy. The flavor is superior to the diced candied citron sold in supermarkets.
If using large pieces of citron, cut them into batons approximately 1/4 inch on a side.
After cutting batons of citron, or if using citron that is already diced, slice the citron into thin slices.
Beat salt, sugar, eggs and egg yolks together. Reserve.
Use a mixer with a dough hook. Put 1200 g flour in the bowl of the mixer. Add yeast and begin to mix. Add warm water and mix. Add egg mixture and mix. Slowly with the mixer running, add 225 grams of melted butter and orange oil or zest. Knead for approximately 10 minutes, scraping the side of the bowl a few times. Add citron and raisins and continue mixing till incorporated. The dough will be sticky.
Butter the inside of a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of the softened butter. Place dough in the buttered bowl and be sure to butter the top with some of the melted butter. Cover dough with waxed paper and place a kitchen towel on top. Refrigerate overnight. It should have at least doubled by morning. In place of a large bowl, you can use a food-service container of approximately 7 quarts with a tight-fitting lid.
Punch the dough down by hand. Cover again with waxed paper and towels and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk.
Butter 3 cylindrical baking pans, approximately 7 inches in diameter, using 3 tablespoons of softened butter. Set the pans aside.
Knead the dough by hand until smooth and the air bubbles have been worked out. Form into 3 balls and place each into one of the baking pans. Butter the tops with the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter.
Cover with waxed paper and a towel. Allow to rise at room temperature until doubled (or a little more), approximately 45-60 minutes.
Cut a deep cross in the top of each loaf. Bake at 350° F for 55-65 minutes. Use a cake tester to be sure that none of the dough clings to tester.
Place on a cooling rack. Cool slightly and remove from the pans. Cool completely on the rack. Wrap tightly until ready to use.