Sancarlin: A Cheese Spread from Piemonte

Name: Sancarlin: A Cheese Spread from Piemonte
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients: 8 ounces best quality ricotta (preferably artisanal); 2 cloves garlic; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 2 dried hot red peppers (preferably Italian); salt; Freshly ground black pepper

2 Comments

December 13, 2019

Back at home, after spending five months in Italy this year expanding my culinary skills and repertoire, we settled on a technique to keep the process going.

Each month we randomly select a region of Italy by pulling a slip of paper out of a jar. For a month, unless there is an overriding reason, I cook all our dinners using traditional recipes of that region.

**Small, dried spicy red peppers (peperoncini) from our garden add zip to many dishes.**

The first region we selected was Piemonte (Piedmont).

Piemonte is in far northwestern Italy. It borders France and the cuisine shows a definite French influence.

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Piemonte is one of the coldest regions of Italy. Since the climate is not conducive to growing olives, animal fats, such as butter and lard are commonly used. There are some dishes, however, that use olive oil based on historic trade between Piemonte and neighboring Liguria.

Piemontese foods tend to be hearty and rich, appropriate to the colder climate, especially in the mountainous areas.

**Two of the Piemontese cookbooks that I relied on for the month of cooking Piemontese food.**

Our month of eating the foods of Piemonte included:

Bagna Cauda (anchovy, butter and olive oil dip for vegetables)
Brasato di Manzo in Barolo (beef braised in barolo wine)
Budino Freddo Gianduia (chocolate hazelnut cakes… literally “pudding”)
Cipolline d’Ivrea (braised pearl onions with white wine and butter)
La Panissa (risotto made with borlotti beans and some sort of cured meat)
Patate ai Capperi (potatoes and capers)
Peperoni e Pomodori alla Bagna Cauda (sweet peppers and tomatoes with anchovies)
Polenta e Fontina in Torta (layers of sliced polenta and fontina cheese baked together)
Pollo con Acciughe e Peperoni Arostiti (chicken with anchovies and roasted peppers)
Pollo in Fricassea Bianca (chicken braised in milk)
Risotto al Gorgonzola (risotto with gorgonzola cheese)
Sancarlin (a cheese dip and/or sauce)
Spinaci alla Piemontese (spinach with anchovies and garlic)
Tajarin con Gorgonzola e Ricotta (long pasta with a sauce of ricotta and gorgonzola)
Tajarin e Zucchine (long pasta with zucchini, garlic, and Grana Padano cheese)

As you’ll note, these are almost all substantial dishes. And it’s not as if I purposely chose dishes that were hearty. Almost all of the cuisine of Piemonte shares this characteristic.

Piemonte is famous for truffles. I avoided dishes with truffles as they were out of season the month I cooked Piemontese food. Good ones are also very expensive. Plus, I ate mountains of them while at the Italian Culinary Institute this year.

**Two excellent regional Italian cookbooks. It’s amazing how different the array of recipes is for the same region.**

Piemonte is also known for hazelnuts and for the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate, the most famous brand of which is Nutella. Note that the one Piemontese dessert that I made during the month (only one because I’m still working off the weight I gained over five months in Italy earlier this year!) is a combination of chocolate and hazelnuts which is generally known as gianduja or gianduia.

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Piemonte is one of the great wine-producing regions of Italy. It is known for Barolo, Barbaresco, and Asti, among others.

Sancarlin (Piemontese dialect for San Carlo) is a spread or dip made from cheese. It’s great as part of an antipasto with grissini (breadsticks), another Piemontese food.

**If you cannot find artisanal ricotta (check a cheese shop), Polly-O is among the best of the supermarket brands that I have tasted.**

Sancarlin is also excellent tossed with diced boiled potatoes and served as a contorno (side dish). How many times can I say “hearty” in the same blog post?

If any of the Piemontese dishes that I mentioned above interests you, and you’d like me to post a recipe, just leave a note in the comment section below and I’ll schedule it.

**Though not traditional, goat cheese adds complexity to the Sancarlin that would otherwise be provided by the traditionally used sheep’s milk ricotta.**

Sancarlin: A Cheese Spread from Piemonte

Sancarlin is traditionally made with ricotta di pecora, sheep’s milk ricotta. It is nearly impossible to find sheep’s milk ricotta in the United States. You will get good results with a high-quality cow’s milk ricotta. Though not traditional, you can add an ounce or two of soft goat cheese to the recipe to increase the complexity of the dish. If you have access to sheep’s milk (which I don’t in northern New Mexico), and you feel ambitious, you can make your own ricotta! A link to my recipe is in the Notes section below. Adjust the amount of garlic and red pepper to taste. Serve with grissini, crostini, focaccia or tossed with boiled potatoes

Course

Spreads and Relishes

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Servings

cup

Ingredients

8 ounces best quality ricotta preferably artisanal
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 dried hot red peppers preferably Italian
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Course

Spreads and Relishes

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Servings

cup

Ingredients

8 ounces best quality ricotta preferably artisanal
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 dried hot red peppers preferably Italian
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Finely mince the garlic and combine with the olive oil. You can do this by processing the garlic and oil in a small food processor.
If using the goat cheese, add it to the processor after the garlic has been minced and whiz to blend everything.
Finely crush the red peppers and blend with the garlic mixture.
Combine the garlic mixture with the ricotta and mix well.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Refrigerate, tightly covered, for two days before using for the best flavor.

Recipe Notes

If you want to make your own ricotta, you can find my recipe here.

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Recipes

Spiedini (Italian Skewered Meat and Vegetables)

6 Comments

November 20, 2019

Spiedini means skewers. By extension it also refers to food cooked on skewers.

**Zia Fidalma’s spiedini ready to be served. The extra cut-up vegetables were roasted along with the spiedini.**

There is evidence that humans cooked food on skewers as far back as 300,000 years ago in an area that is encompassed by present-day Germany.

It’s an ancient cooking method. So, it’s not surprising that food cooked on skewers is found almost everywhere.

**Zia Fidalma cutting sausage for spiedini at her home in Benabbio.**

During my month of cooking in Tuscany with Zia Fidalma this past August, spiedini were on the lesson plan.

But first, there was the shopping. Onions and peppers came from the weekly market in Bagni di Lucca. Pork and sausage came from her favorite local butcher. Pancetta tesa came from yet another vendor. The pantry staples, including olive oil from her own olive grove, were on the ready at home.

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The sausage that Zia Fidalma used is Salsiccia Toscana, Tuscan Sausage. It does NOT have fennel seed. What it DOES have appeared to be a mystery, at least temporarily.

**Pancetta Tesa produced in the Garfagnana area of Tuscany.**

Butchers in Italy who make it say they don’t know because they buy the spice mix from a company. Whether or not this is completely true is also unknown, to me at least. Requests from friends and family in Tuscany also came up empty-handed.

A Google search, in Italian, turned up more useful information. As expected, there is a range of ingredients. Every recipe has salt and pepper. Most have garlic (minced, chopped, or in one recipe, rubbed on one’s hands before one mixes the sausage!). Many have a bit of wine, both white and red are called for. I found one recipe that indicated that finely minced sage could be added if desired but NOT fennel!

**Ingredients ready to be skewered in Zia Fidalma’s kitchen.**

So, basically, Tuscan sausage is very sparingly flavored with salt, pepper, garlic and maybe a bit of wine.

For a traditional Tuscan taste for these spiedini, purchase (or make) an “Italian” sausage without fennel and without red pepper or paprika. (Note, there is no such thing as “Italian” sausage in Italy. Like most foods in Italy, sausage is hyper-local and varies from region to region, province to province, and often town to town.)

**Zia Fidalma’s spiedini ready to be cooked.**

Nobody is going to complain, however, if you use sausage with fennel seed as I had to do when I was unable to find sausage without fennel after trying four markets in Santa Fe.

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Pancetta tesa (sometimes called pancetta stesa) may be more difficult to find than the correct sausage, however. Pancetta tesa is flat, not rolled. It is better to use for spiedini because it is easier to cut into shapes that facilitate skewering.

**On the same day that I made spiedini with Zia Fidalma, we looked at a house for sale in her village. I’m still smitten by the house and the views and the idea of spending summers there!**

While you might spend 30 to 45 minutes cutting up the meat and vegetables and threading them on a skewer, the cooking process is easy. Feel free to experiment with the herbs, but I’ve called for the herbs that are most commonly used in Tuscan cooking.

Spiedini (Italian Skewered Meat and Vegetables)

If you want a more elegant look, take the time to cut the ingredients to the same size, approximately 1-inch squares. For a more homestyle appearance, as shown in the pictures, some variability is fine as long as none of the pieces is extremely large or small. The exact sequence of how to skewer ingredients is up to you but I have provided a suggestion that worked well with the quantity of ingredients I had.

Course

Mains, Meats

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

3 links Tuscan-style sausage without fennel approximately 12 ounces
1 pound lean pork such as tenderloin or another cut that can be cooked quickly
36 pieces pancetta tesa approximately 1” x 1” x 3/16”
3 large bell peppers yellow and/or red and/or orange (not green)
1 large red onion
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
8-9 fresh sage leaves
2 fresh bay leaves
5-6 juniper berries lightly crushed
2-3 sprigs oregano or marjoram or thyme
5-6 cloves garlic very coarsely chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil approximately
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Course

Mains, Meats

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

3 links Tuscan-style sausage without fennel approximately 12 ounces
1 pound lean pork such as tenderloin or another cut that can be cooked quickly
36 pieces pancetta tesa approximately 1” x 1” x 3/16”
3 large bell peppers yellow and/or red and/or orange (not green)
1 large red onion
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
8-9 fresh sage leaves
2 fresh bay leaves
5-6 juniper berries lightly crushed
2-3 sprigs oregano or marjoram or thyme
5-6 cloves garlic very coarsely chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil approximately
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Cut each link of sausage into four pieces.
Cut the pork into 24 pieces.
Cut the pancetta tesa into 36 pieces
Cut each pepper into 12 pieces.
Separate the onion into layers and cut 36 pieces of onion about the same size as the pepper pieces
Thread the meat and vegetables onto 12 skewers in the following order: Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Pork, Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Sausage, Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Pork.
On the bottom of a shallow roasting pan large enough to hold the skewers in a single layer, put the rosemary, sage, bay leaves, oregano, juniper berries and garlic.
Put the skewers on top. Season generously with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
Roast at 400°F until the meat is cooked, approximately 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally with the oil from the pan.
Arrange the skewers on a serving platter. Pour the oil over top being sure to add the cooked herbs and garlic. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Sunlight in a Bottle: Passata (Tomato Puree)

2 Comments

October 23, 2019

It’s been way over a month since I last wrote. After leaving Tuscany for Calabria on August 31st, my plan was to continue to post about my new adventures at the Italian Culinary Institute. As it turned out, I kept myself pretty busy and couldn’t quite find the time to post. Knowing that my time was limited, I chose to spend as much of it as possible in the kitchen, which usually meant 12-plus hours per day, six or seven days per week.

There were some exceptions, like the Saturday I went to Maria’s house to make passata with her.

**Maria and her son, Nicola, prep tomatoes for passata.**

Maria works at the Institute, ostensibly as a dishwasher. In reality she does much more. Her wisdom and advice are frequently sought out by Institute staff on matters related to local food. Maria assists in the kitchen during the meat-curing (salumi) courses.

Although I make passata at home, I’m self-taught. It was exciting for me to see (and assist with) it being done in a traditional manner.

But first I had to find Maria’s house.

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Maria only speaks Italian. My Italian is not good enough for anything resembling a real conversation though I can certainly manage restaurants, supermarkets, and food vendors well enough to get by.

Mariana, Chef Juan’s wife, chatted with Maria and told me that I should meet Maria at the Padre Pio mural. Maria lives in the town of Stalettì, which is up the mountain from the Institute. The directions were easy enough: Go up. When you get to Padre Pio, stop and wait for Maria. If you get to the center of town, you’ve gone too far.

**Maria and Nicola putting the cooked tomatoes through an electric food mill.**

Up I went. It was obvious I had gone too far when I hit a spot vaguely resembling a piazza onto which streets converged from many sides. There was a fussball table sitting in the roadway and a group of older guys congregated in front of the local bar. (Remember that a “bar” in Italy is traditionally a Coffee Bar.)

I mustered enough Italian to ask them where Padre Pio was. They told me to go back in the direction from which I came and that I couldn’t miss it.

**Nicola and I spattered with tomato puree.**

Luckily Maria was in her car on the roadside waiting for me across the street from the GIANT Padre Pio STATUE. I saw the statue on the way up but completely ignored it as I was looking for a mural. Something got lost in translation.

Maria made a U-turn and I followed her down a side lane that opened led to a small farm with wonderful views of the mountains beyond.

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Maria’s son, Nicola, was standing outside cutting tomatoes. Maria introduced us then immediately began to cut tomatoes, too. I opened my knife roll, got out my paring knife and began to cut tomatoes. After all, there were six cases to cut and process.

**A hand-crank food mill is a good option for making small quantities of passata.**

We cut them in half, removed the core and dropped the halves into a bucket. The cores were saved for the pig which will become Sopressata ‘round about January.

The tomato halves went into a big cauldron set over a wood fire. Maria simmered them, with salt and some basil, until they were soft enough to go through an electric food mill. The resulting liquid was put back into the cauldron and cooked until it was the right consistency.

I’ve seen many videos and recipes for making passata that remove the seeds and jelly. This definitely makes the process faster because extra liquid is removed at the beginning. However, the jelly has a high concentration of naturally occurring glutamates that really enhance the flavor of the passata. Like Maria, I always include the seeds and jelly.

Maria put the passata into jars, sealed them and put them under a blanket to cool slightly. This is where a bit of controversy exists. The USDA says it is never safe to can tomatoes or tomato puree at home without adding an acid, such as citric acid, because many tomatoes are not acidic enough to be canned safely relying on their own acidity. The Italian Ministry of Health disagrees and provides directions for canning tomatoes in a boiling water bath without the addition of acid.

In practice, many Italians simply put the passata into jars, seal, and cover the jars with a blanket to allow them to cool slowly. No boiling water bath is used at all. While I’ve eaten many jars of passata that were canned this way, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Maria made about 100 jars the day I was there. It wouldn’t be unusual for a family in Southern Italy to put up 300 jars of passata, essentially one per day for a year. If you’re making less, as is almost certainly the case, freezing the passata works well.

If you find yourself with some vine-ripe tomatoes, especially plum tomatoes or a meaty heirloom variety, give this recipe a try.

Sunlight in a Bottle: Passata (Tomato Puree)

Maria puts some fresh basil in with the tomatoes as do many Italian cooks. After going through the food mill, there are no flecks of basil to be found. Adding basil, however, is completely optional. Maria makes large quantities of passata and uses and electric food mill. For smaller quantities, up to several gallons, a hand-crank food mill works well. The passata will keep in the refrigerator for three days. It freezes well. If you choose to can it, you can find a link to recommended directions for canning in the Recipe Notes section, below.

Course

Canning and Preserving, Food Preservation

Cuisine

Italian

Servings

Ingredients

vine-ripe tomatoes preferably plum or meaty heirloom tomatoes
salt
fresh basil leaves optional

Course

Canning and Preserving, Food Preservation

Cuisine

Italian

Servings

Ingredients

vine-ripe tomatoes preferably plum or meaty heirloom tomatoes
salt
fresh basil leaves optional

Instructions

Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise. Remove the core and any hard, white pith. If you are using heirloom tomatoes rather than plum tomatoes, you may need to quarter them depending on size.
Put the tomatoes in a heavy-bottomed pot.
Heat gently until tomatoes release some liquid.
After there is liquid in the bottom of the pot, increase the heat to bring the tomatoes to a boil.
Add one basil leaf for each pound of tomatoes, if desired.
Continue to boil, uncovered, until the pulp is soft enough to go through a food mill, approximately 1 hour.
Put the tomatoes through a food mill, discarding seeds and skin.
Add ½ teaspoon of salt per quart of pureed tomatoes.
Return the tomato puree to the pot and continue to boil until thick and saucy.

Recipe Notes

You can find recommended directions for canning tomato puree here.

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Recipes

Basic Tomato Sauce

10 Comments

June 13, 2019

Basic Tomato Sauce isn’t sexy or exciting.

It’s a foundational ingredient that makes cooking a lot of other dishes much easier than they would otherwise be but, honestly, until a few months ago I never bothered to make it to have on hand.

That was a mistake!

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have tomato sauces of various types in my freezer. I almost always do but they’re fully prepared special-purpose sauces like my mother’s long-simmered Southern Italian Ragu or my mother-in-law’s Salsa Friulana. If I needed a basic tomato sauce as the starting point for another sauce, I just did it in the moment.

That all changed as part of attending the Master of Italian Cuisine course at the Italian Culinary Institute (ICI). We made a basic tomato sauce (dubbed Simple Tomato Sauce by Chef John) by the gallons…ok, by the liters!

It keeps well. It freezes beautifully. It can be used in its own right as a sauce for pasta or meat or fish. Having it on hand allows you to whip up really tasty pasta sauces much more quickly. Give my recipe for Lupara a look, for example.

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Having foundational ingredients on hand has become more important since I returned from Italy. In an effort to fully integrate what I learned, and to expand my knowledge even further, I’ve been cooking dinner every night that we’re not otherwise engaged.

As an extension, this month we started something new as a way to catalyze learning more about Italian Regional Cuisine. We randomly select a Region of Italy by pulling a slip of paper out of an antique coffee jar. Most of the meals for the month need to be from that Region. This month’s Region is Piemonte. July’s Region is Molise.

**An antique coffee jar from my hometown of Johnstown, PA filled with slips of paper each containing the name of a Region of Italy.**

I start by researching the foods of the region. Waverley Root’s The Food of Italy is a big help but so are the introductions to many Italian regional cookbooks that I own. Once I have a grasp of the traditional raw ingredients and the classic preparations of the region, I start to curate a list of dishes I want to make. I go through my Italian regional cookbooks as well as Italian-language food websites to find multiple renditions of the dish then decide on how I will make it.

The dishes that I plan to make go on my calendar days in advance and get readjusted based on new ideas or ingredients from the market. Sometimes a dish requires purchasing hard-to-find ingredients, like anchovies cured in salt (of which there is an 800 gram tin sitting in my kitchen right now) or amarena cherries preserved in syrup (1000 gram tin plus a smaller jar from a different company).

The Piemontese have a knack for putting anchovies into almost everything except dessert. And if it doesn’t have anchovies, the dish probably has a bottle of Barolo, like the braised beef that I made a few days ago.

After cooking my way through Molise in July, I’ll be going to Italy for August and September. In August I’ll be learning traditional Tuscan dishes from Great Aunt Fidalma. September will find me be back at ICI for an guided independent study on food preservation. I’ll resume cooking my way through the Regions of Italy in October.

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Now that I’ve been convinced of the benefit of keeping foundational ingredients on hand, I’m upping my game. In addition to Basic Tomato Sauce I’ve started keeping infused oils. Currently, in squeeze bottles next to my stove, I have garlic oil and rosemary oil. Sometimes I use these to provide a little extra squirt of flavor on a finished dish. Sometimes I use them as I start sautéing ingredients. At this moment, I also have some mint oil on hand that I made to drizzle on a risotto with fresh peas.

**Infused oils at the ready next to my stove.**

I am eagerly anticipating our fall harvest of hot peppers so that I can make peperoncino oil, which is sometimes called Olio Santo (Holy Oil) in Calabria. Does that give you an inkling of the significance of hot peppers in the cooking of Calabria?

Although Olio Santo can be used within a few days of being made, it is better to let it age for a year. That means I’ll have to make an extra-large batch in the fall so that I have a fully aged stash to hold me until the oil from the 2020 harvest of hot peppers is ready in 2021!

I modified the ICI recipe for Simple Tomato Sauce just a bit to make it my own. I’ve changed the name to Basic Tomato Sauce. That’s the version I’ve posted here.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This makes enough sauce for about 1 kilogram (2-plus pounds of pasta). Most often this sauce is used as the base for other sauces. You can make it in larger quantities and freeze it for future use. While I prefer to pass the tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and the occasional hard bit of tomato, you can skip this step. Just add the tomatoes to the sautéed vegetables, mashing them with a potato masher, and proceed as written. Since this sauce cooks quickly it is especially important that the vegetables be very finely diced.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Passive Time

15 minutes

Servings

quart (plus a bit more)

Ingredients

3 1/2 ounces onion finely diced
3 1/2 ounces carrot finely diced
2 ounces celery finely diced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 35-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes preferably San Marzano
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Passive Time

15 minutes

Servings

quart (plus a bit more)

Ingredients

3 1/2 ounces onion finely diced
3 1/2 ounces carrot finely diced
2 ounces celery finely diced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 35-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes preferably San Marzano
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Instructions

Sweat the onion, carrot and celery, with a large pinch of salt, in the olive oil until soft and the onion is golden, without browning, approximately 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, pass the tomatoes through a food mill.
There should be very little residual in the food mill.
Add the tomatoes to the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer, partially covered approximately 15 minutes.
Cool slightly and blend with an immersion blender or jar blender. Adjust salt and pepper.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Cotechino with Lentils

Sri Lankan Fish Croquettes

2 Comments

December 26, 2018

OK, I’m going out on a limb again posting another Sri Lankan recipe.

Whenever I do that, fewer people open the email and even fewer look at the recipe. Sri Lankan food just doesn’t garner the interest (among my readers, at least) that Italian food does. Interestingly (or not, perhaps) my cousin’s Marinated Pasta Salad from two weeks ago got the largest response ever!

Although a majority of my recipes are Italian, I am reluctant to post ONLY Italian recipes. There are just so many things that I like to cook…and therefore want to share…that I want to keep my options open. What happens, if for example if I choose to post only Italian recipes and then want to post my recipe for Bourbon Brown Sugar Apricot Jam? That most certainly is NOT Italian. (But it is so, so good!)

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One possibility, I guess, would be to focus this blog on Italian food exclusively and to start a second blog that includes all the other foods I like to cook. The majority of that food would end up being Asian with a smattering of Western Cuisines. Bourbon Brown Sugar Apricot Jam would be just as out of place there as it would in an exclusively Italian-food-oriented blog. (And, I’m not sure I could keep two blogs going.)

Here’s my request: Use the comment feature to let me know what you think about the options, or even come up with alternative suggestions, for how to focus the blog. I plan to continue posting while I am in Italy for three months but that would be a great time to redesign the focus of the blog, if need be, and start fresh when I return.

**Nanacy Rajapakse (left), who taught me the fundamentals of Sri Lankan cuisine, and her sister Thilaka in 2005.**

As for the Fish Croquettes, these are actually called Fish Cutlets in Sri Lanka but croquettes would be a more common term in the West. I think you’ll find that they go really well with cocktails and, if you didn’t tell anyone they were Sri Lankan, nobody would be the wiser.

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Over the next few months, I will post a few more of my favorite Sri Lankan recipes. When I started doing this in the late summer, my plan was to post enough recipes for my readers to be able to put together a credible Sri Lankan meal, not that every dish I posted would need to be included but that I would have posted enough of an assortment of recipes to provide a good basis for selection.

I am going to follow through on that plan in the coming months. Upcoming recipes might include Beef Smoore, Devilled Cashews, Ghee Rice, Pol Sambol, Pork Badun, Beet Curry, Fish Curry, Pickled Lime, Pumpkin Curry, Tempered Cabbage and Peppers, and Wattalappam. If you’ve got a favorite that you want me to post just let me know!

The blog will be an interesting juxtaposition over the next few months as I chronicle my culinary experience in Italy interspersed with Sri Lankan recipes.

Sri Lankan Fish Croquettes

Although Tuna is a traditional fish used for cutlets, almost any type of fish will work. Good quality frozen tuna can be used in place of fresh. Curry leaves can be found in many Asian markets. There really is no substitute for them in terms of taste but if not having access to curry leaves is the only thing preventing you from trying this recipe, use another fresh green herb such as basil, thyme, or oregano. These may be served warm or at room temperature.

Course

Appetizers and Nibbles, Fish and Seafood, Mains

Cuisine

Sri Lankan

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

1 1/2 hours

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

croquettes

Ingredients

For the croquettes

14 ounces small red-skinned potatoes
1 1/2 pounds tuna or bonito preferably skinless
1/2 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground, or to taste
2 onions chopped
3 small green chiles more or less to taste
20 curry leaves fresh (see headnote for options)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons oil
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs lightly beaten
breadcrumbs to bind

For dredging and frying

Course

Appetizers and Nibbles, Fish and Seafood, Mains

Cuisine

Sri Lankan

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

1 1/2 hours

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

croquettes

Ingredients

For the croquettes

14 ounces small red-skinned potatoes
1 1/2 pounds tuna or bonito preferably skinless
1/2 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground, or to taste
2 onions chopped
3 small green chiles more or less to taste
20 curry leaves fresh (see headnote for options)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons oil
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs lightly beaten
breadcrumbs to bind

For dredging and frying

Instructions

Peel the potatoes. Cut them into pieces approximately ¾ inch on a side.
Put the cut potatoes in a steamer basket. Sprinkle with ground black pepper to taste.
Steam the potatoes over boiling water until tender, 15-25 minutes.
Put the cooked potatoes into a mixing bowl.
Cut the fish into strips approximately 1 ½ inches wide.
Put the fish in the steamer basket. Sprinkle with ground black pepper to taste.
Steam the fish over boiling water until fully cooked and flaky, 10-20 minutes. If the fish has skin, remove it after steaming.
Put the fish on a plate to cool.
Coarsely chop the green chiles
Grind the onions and green chile in a food processor.
Sauté the ground onion mixture, curry leaves, and cumin in the oil until the onion is soft but not brown, 6-8 minutes.
Coarsely mash the partially cooled potato.
Add the fish to the potato and mash again. The mixture should not be completely smooth but there should not be any really large chunks.
Add the onion mixture and salt to the mashed potatoes and fish. Mix well.
Add the eggs and then enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture. The amount of breadcrumbs needed will vary based on the moisture content. Use your judgement and opt for making the mixture a little loose rather than overly stiff.
Refrigerate, covered, for several hours for the breadcrumbs to fully hydrate.
Taste and adjust salt (and chile if you wish).
Divide into 50 portions. Shape each into a slightly flattened oval shape.

Final Assembly

Season the flour with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Beat the four eggs lightly and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Dredge each croquette in flour, then dip in the beaten egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs.
Refrigerate, uncovered, at least one hour before frying.
Deep fry the croquettes at 350°F to 375°F until golden brown.
Drain on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet.

Recipe Notes

Curry leaves have an alluring flavor that isn't really comparable to any other herb. I recommend that you try to find them. You will probably have extra left. I suggest adding the whole fresh leaves to eggs before scrambling.

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Recipes

Pizza di Patate (Potato Pizza)

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December 19, 2018

I remember it clearly! My love affair with Pizza di Patate began May 1992 in Rome.

All of my most favorite foods are carbohydrates: pasta, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, pierogi, soft pretzels, and homemade bread, among them. The favorites among my favorites, though, combine two different carbohydrates in the same dish: potato gnocchi, bubba (and its relative, potato pancakes), potato pierogi, homemade bread rolls stuffed with mashed potatoes and rubbed with olive oil and garlic, and, of course, potato pizza.

When I first tasted potato pizza in Rome it immediately entered the highest level of my carbohydrate pantheon. I knew at some point I would need to learn to make it as I had never had anything like it in the States. I still haven’t unless it’s come out of my pizza oven, though there is a new breed of Roman Pizzerias cropping up around the country dangling the possibility that one, serving pizza di patate, might settle in near where I live.

May of 1992 was the month my (now) husband and I were to celebrate our fifth anniversary. I had been discussing with John Bowker, a friend, Anglican priest and the dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, coming to the UK for our anniversary. John had offered to perform a wedding ceremony (still not legally binding, of course) following the Anglican rite in the Trinity College Chapel with the Trinity College Choir there to sing.

After much thought, we decided against going to Cambridge for the ceremony. Although a few of our friends might have attended, we felt that most would not and we wanted to be surrounded by friends on that day.

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We opted, instead, to have a ceremony performed at our house by John Fortunato, a friend and Episcopal deacon. We had a calligrapher record our vows on parchment and signed by everyone present (in a nod to Quaker tradition) as an affirmation of our commitment to each other.

**Invitation to our fifth anniversary and commitment ceremony**

On our 25th anniversary, in 2012, we were actually married with 52 of our friends in attendance. The wedding and reception were held in a private dining room at Del Posto in New York City. But I digress…

In the early 1990’s Frank, my husband, and I were working full time but also attending Loyola University of Chicago studying for MBA degrees. Loyola decided to offer MBA classes for the first time at its Rome campus in May 1992. We jumped at the chance, leaving for Rome the day after our commitment ceremony. We treated the trip like the honeymoon we had never had though by then we were very experienced world travelers.

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A pleasant walk from the Loyola Campus (located in an old convent in Monte Mario) was a small shop that sold prepared Roman food and a dizzying array of pizza by the slice (pizza al taglio). Most nights we went there for dinner then went back to our dorm room to study. The shop had a few stools lined up along a narrow counter on one side but every patron, except us, picked up food to go.

**A funny moment during our wedding ceremony in 2012**

After a few days, our routine became clear to the shop owners. As soon as we walked through the doorway, without asking a question, one of them reached for a bottle of local red wine and handed it to us. We then ordered from the food on display and sat at the counter enjoying a wonderful meal.

Theirs was the first pizza di patate that I’d ever had. I ate it all over Rome on that trip.

It took me at least five years to try to make it, and at least another five years to perfect it. Now that we have a wood-burning oven in Santa Fe I almost always make at least one potato pizza on pizza nights (which don’t happen nearly often enough!).

Pizza di Patate (Potato Pizza)

I first tasted this in Rome in 1992 and fell in love with it. There are numerous variations, such as using potatoes that have been shredded on the teardrop shaped holes of a grater or topping the pizza with cheese. This simple version is my favorite. Making the pizza in a rectangular pan most resembles Roman pizza al taglio. The dough can be divided to make two round pizzas approximately 12 inches in diameter. See the Notes section for instructions on making the dough in a bread machine as well as directions for making the dough in advance. You can use bread flour if you wish but the dough will be really springy from the gluten making it a bit more difficult to stretch out. If using bread flour it is really a good idea to refrigerate the dough as described below.

Course

Pizza, Flatbreads, and Savory Tarts

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

65 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Dough

3 teaspoons active dry yeast or 2 packets
1 7/8 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil plus additional for oiling the dough and pan
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
5 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Topping

1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic crushed with the side of a chef’s knife
2-3 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
3-4 medium russet potatoes
Coarse sea salt

Course

Pizza, Flatbreads, and Savory Tarts

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

65 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Dough

3 teaspoons active dry yeast or 2 packets
1 7/8 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil plus additional for oiling the dough and pan
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
5 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Topping

1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic crushed with the side of a chef’s knife
2-3 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
3-4 medium russet potatoes
Coarse sea salt

Instructions

Warm the bowl and dough hook of an electric mixer with hot water. Drain and dry.
Add the warm water and yeast to warmed bowl. Blend briefly.
Allow the yeast and water to sit until creamy, approximately 10 minutes.
Add about half the flour and mix to combine.
With the motor running, add salt and drizzle in olive oil. Mix to combine.
Add the remaining flour.
Mix approximately 8-10 minutes after all the flour is added. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl or container. Oil the top of the dough. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until doubled.
Meanwhile, make the flavored oil. Sauté the bruised garlic in the oil over medium-low heat until light golden. Do not allow the garlic to turn brown.
Allow the oil to cool for a few minutes. Add the rosemary. The oil should be warm to release the flavor of the rosemary but not so hot that the rosemary begins to sizzle.
Allow the oil and rosemary to sit at room temperature to cool. When cool, remove and discard the garlic.
When dough has doubled, punch it down to remove all air pockets.
Using olive oil, oil an 11x17 inch rimmed baking sheet.
Press the dough into the pan. Allowing the dough to rest for five or ten minutes midway through pressing it into the pan will allow the gluten to relax making it easier to shape the dough.
Brush the dough lightly with some of the flavored olive oil.
Cover the dough with an inverted rimmed baking sheet and allow it to rise until doubled.
Meanwhile, scrub the potatoes and slice into very thin slices. A mandoline is best. If so, set it for 1/16 inch.
Cover the potato slices with cool water to remove excess starch and to keep them from turning brown.
When the dough has doubled, dry the potato slices thoroughly and put them on the top of the dough in a single layer that is slightly overlapping. You may have potato slices left over.
Brush the top of the pizza with the remaining flavored olive oil and sprinkle liberally with coarse sea salt.
Bake at 425°F for approximately 25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and have golden edges and the dough is golden brown on the edges.

Recipe Notes

The dough can be made, with good results, in a bread machine on the dough cycle. Though I don’t add sugar when making the dough by hand or with a mixer, the shorter rise cycles used by a bread machine work better with sugar. Put the ingredients, above, into your bread machine following the manufacturers directions adding 1 tablespoon of sugar as well. When the dough cycle is finished, press the dough into a pan, as described above, or refrigerate as described below.

If I have time, I prefer to make the dough a day or two in advance. After it has risen as described above, put the dough in an oiled container with a tight-fitting lid. Oil the top of the dough and refrigerate. Remove the dough from the refrigerator at least 5 hours before you plan on making the pizza. Punch down the dough just before making the pizza and proceed as above.

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Recipes

Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad

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December 12, 2018

After driving a circuitous route for two days (I’ll explain why in a minute), I got home to Santa Fe from Palm Springs last Wednesday to a surprise.

My husband and I had plans to attend the holiday party for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, where he is Associate Professor, on Friday. The surprise was that the party was a potluck and we had to bring a dish.

So, there I was on Wednesday evening, exhausted after two days of driving, with no prior knowledge that I had to produce a dish for a Friday event, coupled with the logistic challenge that I had to leave home around noon on Friday and ultimately make it to the party in Albuquerque by 7:00 PM with a dish in tow that I could neither refrigerate nor heat up!

It didn’t take long before I settled on my cousin Angie Catanese’s Marinated Pasta Salad. This is a recipe that I’ve been making for about 45 years and it never fails to please. It has so much stuff in it besides pasta that it’s almost a misnomer to just refer to it as a pasta salad!

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I went grocery shopping on Thursday morning, assembled the salad Thursday afternoon, and the rest is history!

You might also enjoy my cousin Angie’s recipe for Pickled Hot Peppers.

**The availability of pasta in many different shapes has ballooned over the decades. Cavatappi makes a great replacement for shells in this pasta salad.**

Now, for an explanation as to why you haven’t heard from me in two months and what will be coming up for the blog…

In early October I went to Palm Springs to complete recipe testing for the Trio Restaurant Cookbook. One can’t really test recipes for a cookbook at 8,000 feet in elevation so I spent five weeks in Palm Springs testing and finalizing over 125 recipes for the cookbook. I had intended to continue posting to the blog during this time but very quickly found it impossible to fit in anything other than grocery shopping, recipe testing, and note-taking!

I got back to Santa Fe a few days before Thanksgiving then, less than a week after Thanksgiving was back on my way to California to go to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles to apply for a visa.

In early January I am going to Italy to attend a three-month intensive course in Italian cuisine geared toward professional chefs at the Italian Culinary Institute. Because I’ll be in Italy more than 90 days I need a visa.

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My visa appointment was Friday and I was planning on spending the weekend in Palm Springs then driving back to Santa Fe on Tuesday. The consular official said my visa would be ready by Tuesday so, rather than trust my luck (and my passport) to FedEx, I decided to drive back to Los Angeles to retrieve my passport.

It took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to drive the 122 miles from our home in Palm Springs to the consulate! I got my passport in about 5 minutes then did some shopping at Eataly, conveniently located across the street from the Italian Consulate. (I’d love to know who was responsible for securing THAT location!) I then reversed course and started the drive back to Santa Fe, passing within a few miles of our home in Palm Springs where I had started the day. I spent the night in Payson, Arizona then finished the drive Wednesday (which is when this story began).

**The entrance to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles which is conveniently located across the street from Eataly!**

While I’m in Italy I will most likely be posting fewer recipes than usual. I hope to chronicle some of my experiences at the Institute and pass on some tips and pointers on Italian food. I hope you’ll stick with me during that time. When I return, I’ll be back to my regular schedule of posting recipes.

Oh, and by the way, judging from how the pasta salad disappeared at the party, I think it was a hit!

Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad

There is so much “stuff” in this that it could easily be the basis of a light meal with just some bread and cheese. Angie’s original recipe called for shells but other types of medium-size pasta work just as well. In fact, I think the cavatappi are especially nice given their unusual shape. If you are making this when tomatoes are at their peak, use three medium-sized tomatoes in place of the cherry and grape tomatoes. You can use 2 cups of purchased Italian salad dressing instead of the homemade dressing if you’re so inclined, though the flavor will obviously be somewhat different.

Course

Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides

Cuisine

Italian-American

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

16 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

1 pound dry pasta such as shells, farfalle or cavatappi
1 cup diced sweet red onion
2 Bell peppers diced (red, yellow and/or orange add a nice color contrast)
1 pound multicolor cherry and grape tomatoes diced
3 stalks celery diced
1/4 pound Genoa salami diced
1/4 pound pepperoni diced
1/4 pound Provolone cheese diced
1/3 cup chopped oil-cured olives

Dressing

1 1/3 cups olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry basil
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 pinch dry rosemary crushed
1/4 cup minced parsley

Course

Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides

Cuisine

Italian-American

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

16 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

1 pound dry pasta such as shells, farfalle or cavatappi
1 cup diced sweet red onion
2 Bell peppers diced (red, yellow and/or orange add a nice color contrast)
1 pound multicolor cherry and grape tomatoes diced
3 stalks celery diced
1/4 pound Genoa salami diced
1/4 pound pepperoni diced
1/4 pound Provolone cheese diced
1/3 cup chopped oil-cured olives

Dressing

1 1/3 cups olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry basil
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 pinch dry rosemary crushed
1/4 cup minced parsley

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
Cook the pasta in abundantly salted water until just cooked but still slightly al dente.
Meanwhile, cut-up all the ingredients.
Onion
Bell pepper
Tomatoes
Celery
Genoa salami
Pepperoni
Provolone
Oil-cured olives
When the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse in cool water to stop cooking.
Stir the pasta and diced onion into the dressing. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When the pasta is cool, stir in all remaining ingredients.
Refrigerate overnight before serving.