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Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

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May 23, 2018

It is amazing how the culinary landscape of America has changed since I started cooking.  That was brought home to me in a very real way when I was getting ready to cook a multi-course Asian meal for Lunar New Year a few months ago.

In the early 1970s supermarkets carried only the barest minimum of “ethnic” ingredients.  I was attending the University of Pennsylvania and lived in West Philadelphia at the time.

For most Asian ingredients I would go to Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

For Japanese ingredients, I would go to a small Japanese-owned market in West Philly, a few blocks from the western edge of the main University campus.  I don’t remember a specific source for Indian or South Asian ingredients but I was able to cobble together what I needed from an array of stores.

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There were also a few Asian stores in the Ninth Street Market.  Ninth Street is/was often referred to as the “Italian Market,” a name that was not in favor with locals at the time.  There was one store run by a Korean couple on Ninth Street where I could source an array of Asian ingredients.  It’s also where I went when I once needed a large quantity of fresh ginger root to make West Indian Ginger Beer.  After a few shopping trips where I bought enough ginger to supply a Chinese Restaurant for a week, one of the owners asked me, every time I went to the store, if I needed ginger!

When I got serious about cooking, starting junior year in college, I made weekly trips to Ninth Street and to the Pathmark Supermarket in suburban Broomall, PA.  Shopping in West Philly was an experience.  Except for the University, West Philadelphia, at the time, was an impoverished area.

I learned quickly how supermarkets adjust what they stock to the clientele.  Many items that I could easily find in a suburban supermarket were not readily available in West Philadelphia.  What was stocked was often of lesser quality, too.  Meat is a good example.  Some cuts were simply not available in the inner city and the quality of what was available was often inferior.

On the other hand, I could easily find some items in West Philly that were hard to come by in suburban markets in the 1970s.  Smoked ham hocks, pig tails, and turkey necks are good examples.

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A background flavor note in many West Indian dishes is smoked meat; and I cooked a lot of West Indian food in college.  Most often I would use ham hocks, but some recipes specify other cuts.  I remember a peanut soup that I made that called for smoked pig tail.  Sourcing it was a breeze in West Philly.

Mainstream supermarkets now carry a much larger variety of “ethnic” ingredients, including fresh produce, than was the case in the 1970s.  I can even find smoked ham hocks and turkey necks in supermarkets in Santa Fe, though smoked pig tails are still hard to come by.  But if a whole pig’s head is needed, say, for example, to make head cheese, it is readily available in Hispanic markets.

While the array of food stuffs has improved dramatically since I started cooking.  Some things have deteriorated.

I had an incredible butcher on Ninth Street.  I’ve never been able to replace the personal service, quality, and variety of what I could get there.  I was just 19 when I started going to Ninth Street regularly.  When I needed goat for Jamaican Curried Goat, the butcher not only had the goat but cubed it to my specifications while I watched.

Down the block was a shop that sold poultry.  I once needed a Guinea Hen for dinner.  I selected the one I wanted from the pen.  She was taken in the back, and came back cleaned and wrapped in butcher paper.

Shopping for this year’s Lunar New Year Dinner was an education.  While I could get many basic ingredients in the supermarket, unlike the situation in the 1970s, I was unable to shop in a major city.  This put me at a distinct disadvantage for more esoteric ingredients.  Nonetheless, one can now make a respectable Chinese meal from ingredients available in the supermarket.  This is an amazing change from 45 years ago!

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 Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
Make a rich chicken stock for this soup without any extraneous flavoring ingredients, though adding a few slices of ginger, to be strained out afterward, are welcome. If you have a ham bone or a piece of smoked ham, by all means add it. Though Westerners rarely seem to make stock from pork bones, you can add some when making the stock for a traditional Chinese touch.
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Course Soups and Stews
Cuisine Chinese
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Soups and Stews
Cuisine Chinese
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Cover the mushrooms with hot water.
  2. Allow to soak for approximately 15 minutes, until soft.
  3. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil.
  4. When the mushrooms are softened, squeeze out excess water and remove the tough stem. Slice the mushroom caps into strips ¼ inch wide.
  5. Combine the vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and hot sauce.
  6. Add the vinegar mixture to the boiling stock. Boil 1 minute.
  7. Add salt to taste.
  8. Combine cornstarch and water. Mix thoroughly.
  9. Add cornstarch mixture to the boiling soup.
  10. After boiling 1 minute, add scallions, bean curd and mushrooms.
  11. Reduce heat and simmer 1-2 minutes.
  12. Add sesame oil.
  13. Gently beat the eggs with salt to taste.
  14. Slowly pour in the beaten eggs into the simmering soup while stirring gently.
  15. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes

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

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Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashews and Snow Peas

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May 9, 2018

This is the year of the Dog.

It may be old news, but Lunar New Year was Friday, February 16, 2018.  We celebrated with close friends and a dinner menu with an extensive array of Asian dishes.  There are many traditional dishes for Lunar New Year depending on the country.  I chose to do a pan-Asian menu rather than focus on strictly traditional recipes from a single country.

Kifune Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (Photo by Avishek Kumar)

We were in Palm Springs for Lunar New Year.  The plan was to escape winter weather in Santa Fe which, as it turned out, was not very wintery after all, unlike what the East Coast experienced.

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Sourcing Asian ingredients has become a real issue for me now that I don’t live in a major city.  The only Asian grocery store in Santa Fe, Talin Market, closed a few months ago though the original location is still open in Albuquerque.

Palm Springs only has two Asian markets that I can find.  Both are Filipino-owned and, although they stock an array of Asian goods, they really focus on Filipino foods.

Honen-in Temple, Kyoto, Japan (Photo by Avishek Kumar)

Amazon came to the rescue.  While I’d rather stand in the aisles of an Asian market reading and comparing packages of honest-to-goodness product, Amazon was a lifesaver.

There were eight of us for the Lunar New Year dinner.

The kitchen in our Palm Springs house is small, approximately 9 feet by 11 feet.  Turning out a multi-course meal requires a lot of planning and organization.   I divided the main part of the meal into four courses.  Each course included a complementary array of foods and different cooking methods.

We started with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails.  We ended with a simple, non-traditional dessert of gelato and fortune cookies, which I purchased.  I assumed nobody was going to be too into dessert after all the other food.

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (Photo by Avishek Kumar)

Here’s the menu:

Hors d ’Oeuvres
Vegetable Dumplings with Soy-Vinegar Dipping Sauce
Steamed Edamame with Coarse Salt

First Course
Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashews and Snow Peas
Eggplant Hunan Style
Cambodian Fish with Bean Thread

Second Course
Korean Bulgogi
Indonesian Sweet Corn Patties
Szechuan Garlic Noodles

Third Course
Hot and Sour Soup

Fourth Course
Chinese Roast Pork
Japanese Carrot Salad
Mapo Tofu
Caramelized Tomatoes with Ginger and Vinegar

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I recently published my recipe for Chinese Roast Pork.  Hot and Sour Soup is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Today, however, we’re focusing on a Cantonese classic, Stir-Fried Chicken with Nuts and Vegetables, specifically cashews and snow peas.

This is a recipe that I started making during junior year in college.  It got tweaked a lot over that year.  By then I was comfortable with the end product and didn’t really do much with it… until this year.

I didn’t really change the recipe, though.  I changed the pan!

Shrine in Gion District, Kyoto, Japan (Photo by Avishek Kumar)

You’ve probably figured out that I’m prone to excess where kitchen equipment comes in.  I have four woks:  two carbon steel ones that date back to college and two that are a decade or so younger, one aluminum and one carbon steel.  Both of these are larger than the ones from my college days.

I always cook my stir-fries in a wok but this particular dish is always a problem due to the “velvet” coating on the chicken.  The coating always sticks to the wok.  I suspect I could eliminate that problem by using enough oil to deep fry the chicken but that wasn’t supposed to be the way to cook it.  So, I always just accepted the “sticking-chicken” problem.

Until now.

I used a large, non-stick skillet.

It worked like a charm!!!

I don’t think I’ll give up my woks any time soon but for this particular dish, non-stick is definitely the way to go.

Afterthought:  This recipe calls for MSG, though, of course, you can leave it out if you wish.  If you’re at all interested in the hype about the health effects of MSG, I suggest you read this article.

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 Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashews and Snow Peas
Walnuts and either broccoli or green beans can be used instead of cashews and snow peas. The chicken can be marinated several hours in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered. If you wish, you can reduce or eliminate the MSG.
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Course Mains, Poultry
Cuisine Chinese
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
people as part of a Chinese meal
Ingredients
Velvet Chicken
Sauce
Assembly
Course Mains, Poultry
Cuisine Chinese
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
people as part of a Chinese meal
Ingredients
Velvet Chicken
Sauce
Assembly
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Instructions
Velvet Chicken
  1. Cut the chicken into ½ inch cubes.
  2. Put the chicken in a non-reactive dish.
  3. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, five spice powder and MSG. Mix well then let stand 20 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle the chicken with cornstarch and 4 teaspoons of oil. Mix well and let stand 20 minutes.
  6. Fold the egg white into the chicken. Let stand 30 minutes. If not using immediately, the chicken can be refrigerated, covered, for several hours at this point.
Sauce
  1. Combine all sauce ingredients, stir well and reserve.
Assembly
  1. Deep fry the nuts until golden. Once they start to color, they will cook rapidly. Careful attention is required to avoid burning them.
  2. When golden, remove the nuts from the oil and spread them on a paper towel to drain.
  3. Cut the tips off the snow peas.
  4. Using a large non-stick skillet, stir-fry the snow peas in 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over high heat for about 30 seconds, until bright green. (You can use some of the oil used to fry the nuts if you wish.)
  5. Transfer the cooked snow peas to a plate to cool.
  6. In the same non-stick skillet, stir-fry the garlic and ginger over high heat, until fragrant, approximately 30 seconds, adding a few tablespoons more oil if needed.
  7. Add the chicken and stir-fry over high heat until just cooked through, approximately 2-3 minutes.
  8. Stir the sauce mixture to combine and add it to the chicken.
  9. Bring to a boil and cook until thickened, stirring constantly, approximately 1 minute.
  10. Stir in the cooked cashews and snow peas.
  11. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sesame oil.
  12. Serve immediately with steamed rice.
Recipe Notes

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

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

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April 20, 2018

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

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

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

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

But mostly, biscotti were homemade.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Biscotti
In my family, these biscotti are traditionally made much shorter (after being cut crosswise) that is commonly the case now. For longer biscotti, form 6 logs approximately 9 ½ to 10 inches long before baking. For shorter biscotti, form 10-12 logs of the same length. The recipe is easily cut in half (which is what I did when making this batch).
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian, Italian-American
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Passive Time 30 minutes
Servings
dozen large biscotti
Ingredients
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian, Italian-American
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Passive Time 30 minutes
Servings
dozen large biscotti
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Drain the cherries.
  2. Cut the cherries in quarters.
  3. Squeeze out excess liquid by gently pressing a small handful of cut cherries between your flat palms. Do not make a fist and do not smash the cherries. Reserve the cherries.
  4. In a very large bowl, mix flour, sugar, and baking powder using your hands.
  5. Make a well in the center.
  6. Add the eggs.
  7. Begin to incorporate some of the flour into the eggs working in a circular motion using your hands.
  8. Add the oil and butter and continue mixing.
  9. Add the milk and anise extract. Mix thoroughly.
  10. Add the cherries and nuts, if using.
  11. Fully incorporate the cherries and nuts.
  12. Form into six or twelve cylinders approximately 9 ½ inches long. Six cylinders will make biscotti that are quite long once cut crosswise. Twelve cylinders will make shorter biscotti.
  13. Bake the cylinders for 30 minutes at 350°F. You can line the sheet pan with parchment if you prefer.
  14. Brush the tops with beaten egg.
  15. Bake 5 to 10 minutes longer, until golden brown and the cylinders are cooked through. Larger cylinders will take longer to bake.
  16. Cool the baked cylinders on the baking pan on a cooling rack for approximately 10 minutes.
  17. Cut the baked cylinders crosswise on the diagonal into slices approximately 1 inch thick.
  18. Cool the slices completely.
  19. Lay the slices cut side down on a baking pan.
  20. Toast in the top rack of the oven at 450°F.
  21. Turn and toast the other side.
  22. Remove biscotti to a rack to cool.
Recipe Notes

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

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Piselli in Umido (Peas in Tomato Sauce)

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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.

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 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.
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Course Sides, Vegetables
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 75 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Sides, Vegetables
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 75 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
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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.
  3. Add the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until it evaporates.
  5. Add the tomato paste and sauté until it becomes slightly darker, 3-4 minutes.
  7. Add the water, sugar, bay leaf, rosemary, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Simmer, partially covered, until thickened, approximately 45 minutes.
  9. Adjust seasoning.
  10. Rinse the frozen peas under cool water to remove any ice crystals.
  11. Add the frozen peas to the sauce.
  12. Simmer approximately 15 minutes, adjusting seasoning once again, if needed.
Recipe Notes

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

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Anise Twists (Italian Anise Sweet Bread)

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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.
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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
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
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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.
  6. Form a well in the center and add 6 eggs and the melted and cooled lard.
  7. Using a circular motion, begin to mix the flour into the liquids in the well.
  9. Add the proofed yeast.
  10. Continue incorporating flour until it is all mixed in.
  11. Add a touch more flour or water, if needed, to create a supple, non-sticky dough.
  12. Knead for approximately 10 minutes.
  13. Place the dough in a bowl. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to double in bulk.
  15. Punch the dough down. Cover and allow to double again.
  16. Cut off small pieces of dough and roll into thin ropes, not much thicker than a pencil.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. Fold the lengths of dough in half and twist few times.
  21. Put on ungreased sheet pans, either straight or in circles.
  23. Brush each with beaten egg. Sprinkle with additional anise seeds.
  26. Invert another sheet pan on top. Allow the bread to rise an hour.
  27. Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
  28. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Recipe Notes

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

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Jamaican Easter Bread (Bun)

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March 23, 2018

Google and Wikipedia and Bing have all let me down!

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

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

My searches turned up nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valrie Tracey in 1975

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

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

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

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

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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 Jamaican Easter Bread (Bun)
If you can find new sugar (also known as wet sugar) you can use 2 ½ cups of new sugar in place of the brown sugar and molasses. The dough for this version of Bun is quite wet, more like cake batter than bread dough. When I was making this back in college days and had to mix it by hand, I added enough flour to make a dough that could be kneaded. With a stand mixer, I allow the mixture to be wet. You might want to try both variations and see which you prefer.
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Course Sweet Breads
Cuisine West Indian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 90 minutes
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
loaves
Ingredients
Bread
Glaze
Course Sweet Breads
Cuisine West Indian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 90 minutes
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
loaves
Ingredients
Bread
Glaze
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Instructions
Bread
  1. Scald the milk by heating over medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent a skin from forming, until bubbles begin to foam up around the side.
  2. Allow the milk to become lukewarm (approximately 110°F).
  3. Combine lukewarm milk, yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar from the amount above, and 1 pound of flour in the bowl of a mixer.
  4. Using the paddle, mix well then allow the sponge to sit, covered, until it doubles in bulk.
  5. After the sponge has doubled, mix in 1/3 of the remaining flour and 1/3 of the remaining sugar.
  6. When combined, add the butter, molasses and all the spices and flavorings. Mix well.
  7. Add ½ of the remaining flour and ½ of the remaining sugar. Mix well.
  8. Add the eggs and mix well.
  9. Add the remaining flour and sugar. Mix for about 10 minutes on medium speed.
  10. Mix in the fruit.
  11. Divide the batter into 4 well-buttered 8” x 4” bread pans. Cover and sit at room temperature for about an hour. The batter will not really rise but the yeast is the only leavening so it needs to have time to make air bubbles that can expand and leaven the bread.
  12. Bake at 300°F for approximately 90 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.
Glaze
  1. When the bread is nearing completion, make the glaze by bringing the sugar and water to a boil and simmering a few minutes until syrupy.
  2. As soon as the bun comes out of the oven, brush some of the glaze on top. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pans.
  3. Remove the bun from the pans and brush with more glaze. Allow to cool another 10 minutes.
  4. Brush with remaining glaze and cool completely.
Recipe Notes

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

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Recipes

Philadelphia-Style Tomato Pie

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March 14, 2018

Like many psychiatry residents, I used to moonlight to make extra money.

The money was good and the work was usually not difficult.  Many moonlighting jobs required being on-premises overnight.  Most of the time, this usually just involved sleeping but, again, not always.

One of my easier moonlighting jobs was at a private psychiatric hospital in the Philadelphia suburbs.  I had to do the histories, physicals, and psychiatric evaluations on the newly admitted patients and then be available for any issues that came up during my shift.  Usually I got to sleep all night.

This was in stark contrast to one of my other moonlighting jobs at the crisis service that covered a swath of northeast Philadelphia.  The patients were more acute and admissions unplanned.  Sleep was elusive.

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One morning as I was finishing up some work on one of the units at the private psychiatric hospital I spied a pizza box in the staff lounge, clearly intended for anyone who wanted to have some.

I opened the box and was presented with my first tomato pie, basically a focaccia topped with a prodigious amount of a jam-like tomato sauce.  There was no cheese and there were no toppings.

I had never heard of tomato pie like this.  Sometimes the term tomato pie was applied to a run-of-the mill pizza, usually by my Uncle Joe, but this was a whole different creation.

Not only was it naked, except for the tomato sauce, the sauce was very dense (almost like tomato paste) and thickly applied to the dough.

Good quality tomato puree is essential for this sauce. I prefer imported Italian tomato puree, called passato (or passata) (both are correct) di pomodoro

Growing up, a regular mid-morning Sunday snack (after church and before our major meal of the day around 1:00 or so) was a bowl of my mother’s long-simmered tomato sauce that was almost always bubbling away on the stove on Sunday mornings and a stack of bread to dip into it.   Italian bread was preferred but I’d make do with American “slice” bread if need be…often six slices…to hold me over until mealtime.

Tomato pie was heaven-made for someone like me.  It was bread and sauce in an easy-to-eat package.  No bowl or dipping required.

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It’s pretty astounding to realize that I had lived in Philadelphia for about 11 years before encountering my first tomato pie.  I don’t really understand why.  Two of the bastions of Philadelphia tomato pie are on Ninth Street, an area that I started going to my freshman year in college.

This article provides some interesting background on Philly-style Tomato Pie.

I’m a big fan of making dough for pizza and focaccia in my bread machine.  If you don’t have a bread machine, use a mixer with a dough hook.  Failing that, some elbow grease and a smooth kitchen counter will do the trick.

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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 Philadelphia-Style Tomato Pie
Tomato Pie is a thick crust pizza dough topped with copious amounts of very thick tomato sauce. No cheese is put on the pie before baking. Some folks sprinkle grated Pecorino on the finished pie. It is usually served at room temperature. If the garlic taste in the sauce is too strong for you, the garlic can be sautéed in a small amount of olive oil before mixing into the tomato puree mixture. It is best to make the sauce a day in advance and refrigerate it. If you don’t have a bread machine, mix the dough in a mixer with a dough hook for about 10 minutes after the dough comes together. You can also mix it by hand which will give you a bit of an upper-body workout.
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Rating: 5
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Course Pizza, Flatbreads, and Savory Tarts, Vegetarian
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Sauce
Dough
Assembly
Course Pizza, Flatbreads, and Savory Tarts, Vegetarian
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Sauce
Dough
Assembly
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Instructions
Sauce
  1. Grate the garlic on a Microplane grater or crush to a paste.
  2. Combine all the ingredients for the sauce.
  6. Cover the sauce and refrigerate overnight.
  7. Before using, taste and adjust seasoning.
Dough
  1. Prepare the dough using the dough cycle of the bread machine.
  2. At the end of the cycle put the dough into an oiled bowl or covered container and allow to rise until doubled.
Assembly
  1. Oil a half-sheet pan (13" x 18") with a few tablespoons of olive oil.
  2. Stretch dough into the pan.
  4. The dough will spring back. Stretch it out then allow it to rest a few minutes. Stretch more, then allow it to rest a few minutes. With resting in between stretches, the gluten will relax and the dough won't spring back.
  5. Cover the pan. I invert another half-sheet pan on top.
  6. Allow to rise until doubled, approximately 30 minutes.
  7. Spread all of the sauce on top.
  11. Bake at 350°F until crust is browned and sauce is thick, approximately 35-45 minutes.
  12. Cool in the pan.
  13. Cut into squares and serve at room temperature.
  14. Sprinkle with grated Pecorino cheese, if desired, once cool.
Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Baklava with Walnuts and Almonds

2 Comments

February 23, 2018

Syrup desserts are popular from the Eastern Mediterranean through the Arabian Peninsula.  Among syrup desserts, baklava is one of my favorites.

I rarely make baklava but the first time I did was junior year in college.  That same recipe is the one that I still make.

Styles of baklava vary.  More nuts.  Less nuts.  More syrup.  Less syrup.  Different aromatics.  While I like them all, I tend towards the more Arabic preparations which, in my experience, include more nuts and syrup than their more restrained Greek counterparts.

Perhaps that’s why a friend, of Greek heritage, said that my baklava didn’t look like anything a Greek ever made!  Admittedly, however, the recipe came from a Greek and I think I have been true to the recipe but, hey, I’m not Greek so who am I to say what could have come out of a Greek kitchen.

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I spent much of 2010 living in Dubai.  The consulting company that I started in the mid 1990’s landed a contract with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health in late 2009.  In January 2010 I moved to Dubai.

A view of one part of the kitchen in my Dubai apartment

Shopping for food in Dubai is just amazing.  The sheer number of expats (at the time it was estimated that 95% of the people living in Dubai were expats!) means that the supermarkets are truly multinational affairs, even the relatively small ones.

It was rare that I could not find brands with which I was familiar.  I’m sure expats from almost every country had the same experience.  The supermarkets were stocked with brands from around the world.  It truly was the most amazing grocery shopping I have ever experienced outside of the food halls at Harrods and KaDeWe.  But remember, Harrods and KaDeWe are most decidedly upscale affairs.  In Dubai I was just going to the (plain, ordinary) supermarket!

A small section of the food hall at KaDeWe in Berlin (By Blorg (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons)
I spend a week in Germany during the summer of 2010, right in the middle of my Dubai experience.  I found shopping in German supermarkets to be a much more “foreign” affair than shopping in the supermarkets in Dubai.  Rarely was there a brand I recognized in Germany.  Shopping involved intense reading of labels because I was not familiar with the products and their contents…or their quality.

A view of the Arabian Gulf and the man-made Palm Jumeriah Island in the distance from my apartment

Produce in Dubai could be hit or miss due to the distance most of it traveled.  Although there was a nascent horticultural industry in Dubai, I could never find truly local produce.  On several occasions I tried to find a store that purported to sell local produce but my driver could never locate it, even with the address!

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The closest we had to “local” produce was from Iran, the source of Romaine lettuce and cauliflower, as I recall, among other produce.  Considering that Iran and the United Arab Emirates are only 90 miles away at their closest point, and considering how far produce can travel in North America from fields in California to the Northeast, 90 miles really counts as local, even if there is an international border among two not-so-friendly countries involved!

Another view from the apartment looking at Dubai Marina

In the supermarkets, prepared food counters overflowed with Middle Eastern items and my fridge was always stocked with hummus, pita with zatar, olives, and other meze.

I also had access to world-class syrup desserts, including baklava!!!

Another fascinating aspect of most of larger supermarkets in Dubai was the existence of a room at the back that was usually labeled with something like “Pork for Non-Muslims.”  In this space once could find the most amazing cured pork products from Italy, Spain, and Europe in general!

Dubai Marina at ground level

Alas, items containing alcohol were difficult to obtain.  This included vanilla extract.  The available non-alcohol-based “extract” was just not the same.  Luckily vinegar was just as good, even if it was labeled “Grape Vinegar” rather than “Wine Vinegar!”

I hope you enjoy this baklava.  Just don’t make it for a Greek friend!

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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 Baklava with Walnuts and Almonds
Try to find phyllo that is either 9” x 13” or 18” x 13”. If it’s the latter, cut the stack of sheets in half to make them all 9” x 13”. I have found that covering the stack of phyllo with a damp towel, as some authors recommend, after you remove every sheet isn’t necessary if you move quickly. However, before you start, moisten a dish towel and keep it handy in case there are any breaks in the action, in which case you should definitely cover the stack of unused phyllo. While it is not essential to clarify the butter, removing the milk solids will prevent uneven browning of the top of the baklava.
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Middle Eastern
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 1/2 hours
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Bakalva
Syrup
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Middle Eastern
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 1/2 hours
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Bakalva
Syrup
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Instructions
Baklava
  1. Clarify the butter.
  2. Finely grind the almonds and walnuts.
  4. Mix nuts, cinnamon, allspice and sugar.
  6. Brush a 9-inch b 13-inch baking pan with butter.
  7. Lay a sheet of phyllo and brush it with butter.
  8. Repeat until 12 sheets have been used.
  9. Spread a layer of nuts, approximately 1 cup, on top of the phyllo.
  10. Cover with a sheet of phyllo, brushing it with butter.
  11. Repeat 1 cup of nuts covered with one sheet of phyllo until all the nuts have been used up.
  12. Top with all the remaining sheets of phyllo individually adding them and brushing each sheet with butter.
  13. Score the top few sheets of phyllo in a diamond pattern. Cut from one corner to the opposite corner.
  14. Make three more rows of cuts, evenly spaced, in each direction parallel to the first cut for a total of 7 cuts.
  15. Repeat in the opposite direction.
  16. Put a clove in the center of each diamond.
  17. Sprinkle the top lightly with water to reduce curling while baking.
  18. Bake 350°F for 1½ hours, until golden.
  19. Pour hot honey syrup over the hot baklava as it comes from the oven.
  21. The baklava is best if allowed to sit at room temperature, uncovered for about a day before serving.
Syrup
  1. As the baklava is nearing completion, make the syrup.
  2. Combine lemon zest, sugar, water, cinnamon, and cloves in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan.
  4. Bring to a boil, lower heat and continue cooking without stirring until syrupy, approximately 15 minutes. (218°F to 220°F if you want to measure using a candy thermometer.)
  5. Stir honey into hot syrup.
  6. Remove from the heat.
  7. Using a small strainer, remove the solids.
  8. Reheat the syrup immediately before removing the baklava from the oven.
  9. Stir in lemon juice and rum or brandy.
Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Torta di Riso (Italian Rice Tart)

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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.
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 75 minutes
Passive Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Pasta Frolla
Rice
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 75 minutes
Passive Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Pasta Frolla
Rice
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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.
  8. 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.
  5. Line a 10" springform pan with the pasta frolla.
  6. Cut the pastry even with the top of the pan. Add the scraps to the pastry you have reserved for the lattice.
  7. Beat the egg and egg yolks to combine.
  8. Stir the beaten eggs into the cooled rice.
  9. Pour the rice into the pastry lined pan.
  10. Roll out the pastry reserved for the lattice.
  11. Cut seven or eight strips, approximately 1/2 inch wide.
  12. Arrange the strips into a lattice on top of the rice. Cut off the excess.
  14. Roll the pastry lining the sides of the pan down to the top of the rice and form a decorative edge.
  15. Bake at 350°F until the crust is lightly browned and the rice is barely jiggley in the center, approximately 30-45 minutes.
  16. Cool on a rack for approximately 20 minutes.
  17. Remove the side of the pan and cool completely.
Recipe Notes

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

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Recipes

Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce

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January 17, 2018

Tomatoes…and tuna…not clams or squid…as a sauce for pasta…quite a challenge for me as a young adult!

Although pasta (spaghetti, really) with red sauce and clams or squid was in my wheelhouse as an adolescent, the idea of a red sauce with tuna was, most definitely, not!

My undergraduate advisor, and later my business partner when I set up my psychiatric practice in Philadelphia, Gene d’Aquili, was a first-generation American of Italian and French descent.  I frequently cooked at his home in Berwyn on Philadelphia’s Main Line.  (If you read the obituary link above, you will notice a comment about a sign that read “Fantasyland.”  I was the person who had that sign painted after years of Gene referring to his estate by that name.  I had the sign painted in Guyana on a trip when I was doing research for my doctoral dissertation and ended up on the Guyana Airways float for the Mashramani parade but that’s a whole other story!)

The 1981 Guyana Airways Mashramani float. I was supposed to represent one of the Canadian pilots.

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Gene’s father’s family was from Rome.  Gene’s grandparents emigrated to the United States with their four children, Gene’s father Guido, and Guido’s three sisters, very early in the 20th century.  One of the sisters died not long after coming to the United States.  The other two, Auntie Helen and Auntie Louise, are the reasons I now drink bourbon (Auntie Louise) and know a lot about traditional Roman cuisine (Auntie Helen).

The family home is now part of the American Embassy in Rome.  There are several buildings that are part of the American Embassy but I believe the palazzo pictured below was the one the d’Aquili family owned before coming to the United States.

One of the American Embassy buildings in Rome that I believe was the d’Aquili palazzo.

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Gene’s father, Guido, was a fine artist of the New Hope School.  In a previous post, I included some pictures of some of the Old King Cole murals that he painted for a private club in Trenton, NJ.  Those murals ended up in the dining room of the carriage house I rented on the d’Aquili estate in Berwyn, PA when I was in medical school.

One of Gene’s ancestors was Antoniazzo Romano, a famous artist of the 15th century.  His father’s artistic bent is part of a long family tradition.

The Annunciation by Antoniazzo Romano

For one dinner at “Fantasyland,” really known as “Salus House,” Gene and his wife, Mary Lou, wanted to serve spaghetti with tuna sauce; a classically Italian dish but completely unknown to me at the time.

I winged it based on his description.  It was basically a simple tomato sauce (what we as Americans might call Marinara but what Italians would call Pomodoro) with tuna simmered into it.

It was good, and although many years went by before I made it again, it stuck in my memory.

I’ve tweaked the recipe over the years but it really hasn’t varied much from my initial foray into making spaghetti with tuna sauce based on Gene’s description.

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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 Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce
Although mushrooms are not strictly traditional, their presence is not really noticeable and I think they add a bit of savoriness to the sauce. You can omit them if you wish. It is important to use good quality tuna to avoid any “tinny” taste. Italian Tonno is ideal but a good American brand will work fine. The small amount of sugar is intended to counteract the sourness that some canned tomatoes can have. Adjust up or down to your taste. The presence of the sugar should not be detectable, however.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Coarsely chop the carrot, celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, and parsley.
  7. In a food processor finely mince the chopped vegetables.
  9. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
  10. Add the minced vegetables and sauté on medium high heat, stirring often, until golden.
  12. Add the red pepper and sauté a minute or two more.
  13. Add the wine and quickly evaporate, stirring often.
  14. Add the basil and oregano. Stir well.
  15. Add the tomato puree, water, sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons salt and black pepper to taste.
  16. Simmer uncovered approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  17. Add the tuna and simmer 10 minutes more.
  18. Adjust seasoning.
  19. This makes enough to generously sauce one pound of spaghetti.
Recipe Notes

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