Funghi Ripieni (Stuffed Mushrooms)

Name: Funghi Ripieni (Stuffed Mushrooms)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Yield: 4-5 people
Ingredients: 16 large mushrooms (2” to 3” caps); 1 1/2 tablespoons butter (plus more for buttering the dish and dotting the tops); 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs; 2 eggs (beaten); 1 tablespoon minced parsley; 2-3 cloves garlic (minced); 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano; salt (to taste); black pepper (freshly ground to taste); 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated (or to taste)); broth or water (as needed)

1 Comment

September 29, 2021

“Your grams are killing me!”

That’s what a friend told me recently regarding some of the recipes on my blog.

His comment came as he was considering how much pasta to cook for dinner. I repeated what Great Aunt Fidalma told me: 80 grams per person.

Making the change to the metric system (International System or SI) of measurement isn’t easy and we don’t do much as a country to catalyze the change. In some areas, though, we’ve made the transition.

**The digital scale I use on a daily basis. I also have two battery powered scales that are just as accurate that cost $20 each.**

Have you looked carefully at a wine or liquor bottle recently? The contents are specified in the metric system even as we continue to refer to a bottle of liquor as a “fifth.” Until January 1979, a liquor bottle, indeed, held one-fifth of a US gallon, approximately 757 ml. Standard liquor bottles now contain 750 ml, just a smidge less.

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Cooking, and especially baking, is much easier with the metric system. And that doesn’t even take into account the ease of weighing ingredients rather than trying to measure cups and fractions of cups.

I find that I am frequently scaling recipes up and down, but usually up. If the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of water, and I’m upscaling by 20%, I end up with the unwieldy amount of 9/10 cup of water. If I were using metric measures, I’d be starting with something like 180 ml and increasing by 20% to get to 216 ml which is much easier to measure out than 9/10 of a cup.

**The manual scale that I used for many years. It has since been mothballed.**

Let’s face it, how do you measure 9/10 cup. You first start by determining what 1/10 cup is, which is 1.6 tablespoons. Multiplying that by 9 gets you 14.4 tablespoons. But since you’re not going to measure out that many tablespoons one by one (and you’re likely to get pretty inaccurate after a few tablespoons, if you do) you work backwards to figure out what standard measure comes close. That gets you back to the 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) you started with plus 2.4 tablespoons.

For most purposes, you can treat 2.4 tablespoons as if it were 2.5 tablespoons since the difference is likely within the margin of error for measuring with kitchen equipment. But unless you have a set of measuring spoons that contains a 1/2 tablespoon measure, you’ll be measuring out 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon… if you can remember how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon.

So rather than just pouring 215 ml into a measuring cup (a reasonable approximation for 216 ml and one that can be found marked on some metric measuring “cups”) you’d be measuring out ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon. In my book, that’s crazy!

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It gets even easier if you give up the notion of measuring by volume and measure everything by weight, even liquids, as is typically done in professional kitchens. You can get a very accurate scale for less than $20. With that, you could weigh out the 216 grams of water (equivalent to 216 ml of water) and call it a day: no guessing, no eyeballing, no complex calculations needed.

**For weighing small quantities this little scale can’t be beat for accuracy.**

So really, what’s holding you back from giving the Metric System a go?

It’s time for me to get off my soapbox (for now) and actually cook something. How about stuffed mushrooms? I’ll even write the recipe in American measures!!

Funghi Ripieni (Stuffed Mushrooms)

These stuffed mushrooms come together quickly and can be made early in the day and refrigerated until it’s time to pop them in the oven.

Course

Appetizers and Nibbles

Cuisine

General, Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

35 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

16 large mushrooms 2” to 3” caps
1 1/2 tablespoons butter plus more for buttering the dish and dotting the tops
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
2 eggs beaten
1 tablespoon minced parsley
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated (or to taste)
broth or water as needed

Course

Appetizers and Nibbles

Cuisine

General, Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

35 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

16 large mushrooms 2” to 3” caps
1 1/2 tablespoons butter plus more for buttering the dish and dotting the tops
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
2 eggs beaten
1 tablespoon minced parsley
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated (or to taste)
broth or water as needed

Instructions

Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth.
Remove the stems.
Finely grind the stems in a food processor.
Sauté the ground stems in the butter with a pinch of salt until the liquid is drawn out and then completely evaporated.
Mix the cooked stems with the breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, garlic, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
Cool slightly and add 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.
Butter a baking dish large enough to hold the mushroom caps in a single layer, snugly.
Fill each mushroom cap with some of the stuffing mixture.
Arrange the stuffed mushroom caps in the buttered dish.
Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese, dot with butter and add a small amount of broth or water to the bottom of the dish to keep the mushrooms from sticking.
Bake at 375°F for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.
Baste occasionally with the liquid in the pan during baking.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Sformato di Zucchini (Italian Zucchini Bake)

5 Comments

September 15, 2021

A lot has happened in the seven months since my last blog post. I’m sure you’ll understand why I haven’t posted in a while.

We’re no longer in Santa Fe!

That’s right, we’ve moved full time to Palm Springs, California.

**An aerial view of the “new” Villa Sentieri, foreground, with the hiking trail just beyond, that prompted the name of the Villa.**

It was, and remains, exceedingly difficult to have left all our close friends in Santa Fe but Palm Springs called to us.

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We get two growing seasons each year. Since we’re just a few hundred feet above sea level, I don’t need to be concerned about testing recipes at high altitude. The weather is pretty darn great, too!

The variety of what we can grow here is amazing. We have ten citrus trees, three fig trees and an apricot tree. We’re considering adding a pomegranate tree. We have table grapes trellised up a side wall. There are four raised beds for herbs and vegetables.

Frank grew the most awesome tomatoes this year. I have quite a stash of homemade passata (tomato puree) in the freezer.

Naso di Cane (Nose of the Dog) peppers from Calabria. Seeds I brought back in 2019 just got planted in our garden in Palm Springs. I’m hoping to make “Olio Santo” (Holy Oil, aka Hot Chile Oil) in a few months.

The timing of our seasons takes a bit of getting used to. Our first season pretty much ended in June. That’s probably the time that most of you were just getting started with your gardens. Though the herbs have continued to grow through the summer heat, all the vegetables were done by the end of June.

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Right now we have an abundance of fresh limes. The other citrus trees have fruit but it won’t be ripe for a few more months.

The vegetable beds sat fallow for the summer. Just a few days ago, Frank planted them with seeds for what will be our second harvest of the year. That will take place in November and December.

**The “new” Villa Sentieri has an interior atrium with a koi pond filled with 17 koi.**

Though we’re not harvesting vegetables at the moment, this is the perfect time for zucchini in most of the country. When there’s an abundance of zucchini, sformato is the answer.

Sformato di Zucchini (Italian Zucchini Bake)

This was the first item that I cooked with Zia Fidalma at her home in Tuscany in August 2019. Green beans, cut in small pieces, can be prepared the same way except the beans are boiled and not sautéed. A combo of beans and zucchini is also possible. Zia does not usually add herbs to her sformato but since she had some niepita she added it. Though you’re not likely to have niepita (aka mentuccia romana), unless you grow your own, adding a small amount of marjoram or oregano is a welcome addition. If you don’t have fresh herbs, use a light sprinkling of dry herbs. In any case, herbs are totally optional.

Course

Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

7/8 cup milk (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 medium-small zucchini about 7” long, approximately two pounds
1-2 zucchini flowers chopped, if available
1 small sprig niepita (mentuccia romana) or marjoram or oregano, minced, optional
salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 ounce Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or to taste
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
butter for the baking dish
fine breadcrumbs for the baking dish

Course

Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

7/8 cup milk (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 medium-small zucchini about 7” long, approximately two pounds
1-2 zucchini flowers chopped, if available
1 small sprig niepita (mentuccia romana) or marjoram or oregano, minced, optional
salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 ounce Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or to taste
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
butter for the baking dish
fine breadcrumbs for the baking dish

Instructions

Besciamella

In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter.
Add the flour and sauté briefly until the raw smell is gone. Do not brown the flour.
Add the milk a little at a time, stirring well after each addition to avoid lumps.
After all the milk has been added, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan. Boil for one minute.
Remove from the heat and stir in the nutmeg.
If not using immediately, pour the besciamella into a heat-proof bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to avoid the formation of a skin.
Refrigerate if the besciamella will not be used within an hour or two.

Sformato

Do not peel the zucchini. Cut off the stem ends and slice the zucchini lengthwise about 3/16 inch thick then crosswise the same thickness to make thick matchsticks.
Sauté the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant.
Add the cut zucchini, chopped flowers and minced niepita if using. Season with salt and pepper and sauté briskly until just barely tender.
Mix the cooked zucchini with the besciamella, nutmeg, and Parmigiano.
Stir in the eggs after the mixture is cool enough to not cook the eggs.
Taste and adjust salt and black pepper.
Butter a baking dish, approximately 7 ½” x 11”.
Sprinkle the buttered dish with fine dry breadcrumbs.
Pour the zucchini mixture into the prepared baking dish. It should be about ¾ inch thick.
Bake at 400°F till very brown on top, approximately 90 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before cutting.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Crostata di Amaretti (Amaretti Tart)

Sformato di Patate (Italian Potato “Cake”)

Ragù alla Bolognese

4 Comments

March 11, 2020

I grew up eating exactly one type of tomato sauce for pasta: my mother’s long-simmered, Italian-American-but-based-on-Southern-Italian (Calabrese, to be exact) ragù.

OK, OK, I sometimes ate Aunt Margie’s or Aunt Mamie’s version of the same sauce but we’re talking very minor variations on a theme.

My mother made pasta other ways than with ragù, most commonly with beans as in pasta e fagioli. But if we were going to eat pasta for pasta’s sake, not mixed with beans or in soup, it was ALWAYS served with her ragù.

**My recipe for Lasagna Bolognese will be posted in a few weeks. Get ready by making Ragù alla Bolognese and putting it in the freezer!**

When I went away to university at the age of 17 this is one of the first things that I learned to cook. Well, sort of. There’s a bit of a learning curve but even my first attempt was respectable.

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I now make scores of tomato-based sauces on a regular basis but I keep going back to three of them over and over:

My mother’s ragù.
Ragù alla Bolognese.
Ragù del macellaio (the butcher’s ragù).

There are so many childhood memories attached to my mother’s ragù that I can’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t be my favorite.

As far as I’m concerned, Ragù alla Bolognese is the gold standard for those tomato-based pasta sauces made with ground meat. (My mother’s ragù, on the other hand, is made with large pieces of pork. Other meats can be added but the pork is always there.)

**It is really important that the vegetables for Ragù alla Bolognese be cut in tiny dice, 1/8 on a side, often called brunoise.**

Ragù del macellaio is very good but, as you might expect for a sauce linked to a butcher, it is made with an array of meats—pretty much anything you have. I always end up with odds and ends of meat in my freezer, a bit of beef, a bit of pork, some sausage, a piece of chicken, some pancetta, and so forth. I grind them all up and make the sauce. The fact that it cooks, unattended, in a slow-cooker all day is an added bonus.

Just as there is an official Pesto alla Genovese recipe, there is an official Ragù alla Bolognese recipe that was codified in the 1980’s. The ingredients go something like this:

300 grams ground beef, preferably thin flank aka skirt (finta cartella in Italian)
150 grams pancetta, minced
50 grams carrot, minced
50 grams celery, minced
50 grams onion, minced
30 grams triple-concentrated tomato paste
1/2 glass red or white wine
180 ml milk
olive oil
salt and pepper

Every family in Bologna probably has a slightly different version.

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Some aspects of the recipe are notable. There is no garlic. There are no herbs. The amount of tomato is quite modest. Probably the biggest differences I see in credible recipes for Ragù alla Bolognese is whether or not to add milk or cream. The official version clearly includes it but many otherwise solid recipes do not.

This is not a “tomatoey” sauce. It’s really ground meat held together with a bit of tomato “binder.”

The version that I make most often varies somewhat from the official one. I add a hint of garlic and more tomato. I don’t typically use pancetta though it’s a great addition. I never add milk or cream.

So, I’ve done it, I’ve laid down a gauntlet. I’m advocating a recipe that’s not the official one. I can tell you, however, that it’s darn good.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ragù alla Bolognese

I make garlic oil and keep it in a squeeze bottle by the stove. It comes in really handy for cooking and for flavoring finished dishes. You can use plain extra-virgin olive oil if you wish. In fact, that would be more traditional than garlic. For added flavor, sauté 150 grams of minced pancetta in the olive oil until the fat is rendered. Remove the cooked pancetta. Brown the meat in the oil. Add the cooked pancetta to the meat just before adding the wine. Ragù alla Bolognese should be served with a wide long pasta such as mafalde or linguine.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

5 hours, mostly unattended

Servings

liters

Ingredients

1 kg ground beef 15% fat (or half beef and half pork)
30 ml garlic oil
500 ml full-bodied red wine
60 g butter
60 g celery cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g carrot cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g onion cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
3 kg canned San Marzano tomatoes passed through a food mill (3 x 35 oz cans)
1 bay leaf optional
salt
black pepper freshly ground

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

5 hours, mostly unattended

Servings

liters

Ingredients

1 kg ground beef 15% fat (or half beef and half pork)
30 ml garlic oil
500 ml full-bodied red wine
60 g butter
60 g celery cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g carrot cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g onion cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
3 kg canned San Marzano tomatoes passed through a food mill (3 x 35 oz cans)
1 bay leaf optional
salt
black pepper freshly ground

Instructions

Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Add the celery, carrot, and onion.
Sauté the celery, carrot, and onion in the butter until soft without browning. Reserve.
Heat the garlic oil, or extra-virgin olive oil, in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Add the beef and pork, if using.
While the meat is cooking, break it up into small bits.
Sauté the beef and pork, if using, in the garlic oil until a lot of fond develops.
Add the wine and boil it all away, loosening the fond from the bottom of the pan.
Pass the canned tomatoes through a food mill.
Add the sautéed vegetables, the tomatoes that have been passed through a food mill, and bay leaf, if using.
Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer 3 to 4 hours partially covered, stirring frequently, until reduced by 50%.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Bread Pudding

8 Comments

July 3, 2019

It’s a Sunday morning in June. I’m on the East Coast; Fire Island, New York to be exact. I’m one-third of the way through a three-week stay on this slip of land south of Long Island. To the north of Fire Island is the Great South Bay, which separates it from Long Island. To the south is the Atlantic Ocean.

**The Cherry Grove dock. It’s about 4 1/2 miles across the Great South Bay to Sayville on Long Island.**

Whenever I’m here, I seem to channel my childhood as far as cooking goes. I find myself turning (though not exclusively, mind you) to the foods I grew up eating and loving. A few days ago for dinner I made Italian (OK, Italian-American) sausage with peppers and onions.

Today I’m making my mother’s long-simmered Southern Italian Ragu (or Sugo or Tomato Sauce…or, because I’m in New York, Sunday Gravy). Growing up, we NEVER called Tomato Sauce of any sort “Gravy!” It was usually just “Sauce,” which we all knew meant mom’s or Aunt Margie’s or Aunt Mamie’s or some other Italian-American woman’s slow-cooked meat-and-tomato-based sauce for pasta. And we NEVER EVER used the word “Sunday” as a modifier for “Sauce!”

**A tortoise greeted me on a walk from Cherry Grove to The Pines one morning.**

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Sauce was Sauce, it was sacrosanct. It wasn’t better or different or more elaborate because it was being made on Sunday. If by some chance it were to be made on Thursday (which it usually wasn’t) it would still be made the same way. To be sure, there was some variability in the meats that were used. In my family’s version there were always big pieces of pork, preferably bone-in. There could also be sausage (preferably hot), meatballs, and occasionally (and just for the cook) one chicken thigh (to “sweeten the sauce” as my mother would say). Other than that, and the occasional appearance (or not) of an additional aromatic, like a small amount of minced onion or a hot pepper, the rest of the process was invariable.

**Though there are some larger houses, many of the houses in Cherry Grove are small cottages.**

I’m making Sauce today because, well, it’s Sunday and I’m on the East Coast, and because I LOVE it. If I could, I’d find an AM radio and tune it to a station playing Polkas (Is that even possible?). Aunt Mamie always did that on Sunday (despite being of Italian descent). It’s one of those experiences from childhood that has had an outsized impact on me for some reason. The memory is quite simple: summertime, doors open , Aunt Mamie cooking, and her big green box radio sitting on a white enamel-topped free-standing kitchen cabinet near the door to her porch blaring out polka tunes.

**The Tiki Bar can be a happening place during 2-4-1 happy hour!**

Many of my fondest memories are in the summer with the doors open, what can I say? It’s not like Aunt Mamie didn’t tune to polkas in the winter but that’s not what comes to mind!

**One of the many boardwalks that make navigating Cherry Grove possible.**

I’m also making Bread Pudding today. One of those comfort-food desserts that I really enjoy. I know I’ve mentioned this a time or three, but all of my favorite foods are carbohydrates. All of my favorite desserts are based on moderately complex carbohydrates (flour and rice, usually) without lots of extra fat (like butter) and without being overly sweet. Bread Pudding and Rice Pudding are near the top of the list.

**Getting ready for the Fourth of July, a “house cat” is decked out with patriotic sunglasses.**

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Neither would be considered fit for company but I’m foisting the bread pudding on our dinner guests today with the option of some heavy cream poured on top. I can always do a run to the store for gelato if I have a last-minute change of heart. And, it would be a “run.” There are no cars on this part of the island. There are some motorized carts that ply the boardwalks that crisscross the community, providing the only means of navigating the town. The carts are mostly used by contractors, businesses, trash pickup, the fire department, and the EMS. Although a few residents use small carts or electric scooters to get around, the rest of us walk and use wagons to cart things that are too heavy to carry.

**Looking south toward the Atlantic Ocean with deer in the distance.**

It’s a pretty idyllic place to spend part of the summer.

**A view toward the dock and Great South Bay from the Tiki Bar.**

It can also be an exciting and unpredictable place. Sunday afternoon an intense storm hit Long Island and Fire Island. Trees and power lines were downed. The storm put an end to internet service for more than forty-eight hours. That’s the reason that this blog is getting posted a few days later than planned.

**Part of the Cherry Grove Fire Department, an all-volunteer force.**

Meanwhile, I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of the next urge to cook something from my childhood!

Bread Pudding

If the raisins or currants are not absolutely fresh and soft, cover them with hot water to plump up before adding them to the mixture. It is best if the bread is a few days old so that it has lost some of its moisture.

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

American

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

80 minutes

Passive Time

60 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

7 cups 3/4 inch bread cubes such as French, rustic Italian, or Challah
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar white or firmly packed brown
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon preferably freshly ground
2 3/4 cups whole milk
1/4 cup Rum or Brandy or more milk
1/2 cup raisins or currants optional
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg optional
butter to dot the bread pudding and grease the baking dish

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

American

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

80 minutes

Passive Time

60 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

7 cups 3/4 inch bread cubes such as French, rustic Italian, or Challah
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar white or firmly packed brown
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon preferably freshly ground
2 3/4 cups whole milk
1/4 cup Rum or Brandy or more milk
1/2 cup raisins or currants optional
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg optional
butter to dot the bread pudding and grease the baking dish

Instructions

Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.
Add milk and rum to the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
Butter a three-quart ovenproof covered dish.
Toss the bread cubes and raisins if using. Put the bread into the buttered dish. Pour milk and egg mixture on top.
Grate nutmeg over the top. Dot lightly with butter.
Cover and allow to sit at room temperature 30-60 minutes.
Bake at 350°F, covered, for approximately 60 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes, or until brown on top.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Pour a little heavy cream on top if desired.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Lupara

9 Comments

May 29, 2019

A Lupara is an 8mm sawn-off shotgun favored by La Cosa Nostra.

It’s also the name of a pasta dish.

**Lupara, the shotgun not the pasta. [Licensed from Bluedog, without changes].**

Interestingly, if you search for lupara recipes online you’ll only find a few and you’ll be hard-pressed to discover much commonality among the recipes. Some are spicy. Some are not. Some have sweet peppers. Some do not. Some have tomatoes. Some do not. And most of them will be made with spaghetti.

I learned to make lupara at the Italian Culinary Institute. It was among the first pasta dishes demonstrated during the early days of the three-month course. Made with short, cut pasta, like rigatoni, this rendition pays tribute to the shotgun for which it is named.

**Lupara, the pasta not the shotgun, as prepared at the Italian Culinary Institute.**

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This dish makes use of a Basic Tomato Sauce, just tomatoes and a few aromatics cooked briefly. You can make the tomato sauce in large batches and freeze it or you can make it as needed. Although the sauce can be used on its own in some dishes, it is deliberately not aggressively seasoned. This allows it to be used in a variety of preparations, with some final additional flavoring, without the sense that the same sauce is being used over and over.

I know this seems a little out of order, but I will publish the recipe for the Basic Tomato Sauce next week For my first blog post since returning from Italy, I wanted to feature a dish that grabbed my attention. This one did. It’s got a great story and a great flavor. Basic Tomato Sauce is good but it isn’t captivating (unlike a pasta dish named after the “Mob’s” favorite weapon!). Basic Tomato Sause is meant to play a supporting role in most situations and that’s just not the type of recipe that I wanted to start with.

**Lupara on the stove at the Italian Culinary Institute.**

This version of Lupara is intended to be spicy but spicy means different things to different people. There are two ways to build spice into this pasta. You can use one or both of them. The first method is to add dried, ground red pepper (peperoncino piccante in polvere, in Italian) during the final assembly of the pasta. The other is to add thinly sliced fresh hot pepper (peperoncino fresco) when sautéing the sausage. Getting authentic Italian peperoncino, powdered or fresh, is difficult in the States. You can substitute Cayenne pepper for the ground one and a variety of long, red (always red!) chile, such as Thai or Cayenne, for the fresh.

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This recipe also calls for fresh porcini mushrooms. These can be a challenge to find. Feel free to substitute thinly sliced portobello mushrooms. Though the flavor won’t be exactly the same, the dish will still be yummy! If you are lucky enough to find fresh porcini, I suggest buying a heap, thinly slicing them, and freezing them. They can be used in all sorts of cooked dishes, especially Trifulata which will hit the blog in the near future…as soon as I can find fresh porcini!! (You might notice portobello mushrooms in the pictures.)

This recipe requires a small amount of sausage. It’s not a major player though it does add a nice meaty background note to the sauce. Pick a good quality Italian-style sausage, sweet or hot. I think that sausage with fennel seed adds a nice flavor but that’s a matter of personal taste.

Buon appetito!!

Lupara

A lupara is an 8-gauge sawn-off shotgun associated with La Cosa Nostra (the “Mob”). Rigatoni resemble the barrel of a lupara. Adjust heat level to your taste. If you can’t find Italian powdered peperoncino piccante, substitute Cayenne pepper. For a different type of heat, add some thinly-sliced hot red chile when sautéing the sausage, instead of, or in addition to, the powered chile. If you can’t find fresh porcini, substitute portobello mushrooms. It is really important to use a very good quality Italian rigatoni, preferably an artisanal variety that is thicker than the usual boxed rigatoni to get the most benefit out of sautéing the pasta. If you want to make half as much pasta, freeze half the sauce. The recipe for Basic Tomato Sauce will be posted next week.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

Sauce

1 batch Basic Tomato Sauce
5 ounces Italian-style sausage casing removed and crumbled
1 1/3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 ounces fresh porcini thinly sliced
1 1/3 tablespoons butter
5 ounces dry wine red or white
5 ounces vegetable or chicken broth
4-5 leaves fresh basil chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Assembly

2 1/4 pounds imported Italian rigatoni preferably artisinal
4 cloves garlic crushed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup heavy cream
Peperoncino piccante to taste (ground red pepper)
3 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese freshly grated

For serving

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

Sauce

1 batch Basic Tomato Sauce
5 ounces Italian-style sausage casing removed and crumbled
1 1/3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 ounces fresh porcini thinly sliced
1 1/3 tablespoons butter
5 ounces dry wine red or white
5 ounces vegetable or chicken broth
4-5 leaves fresh basil chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Assembly

2 1/4 pounds imported Italian rigatoni preferably artisinal
4 cloves garlic crushed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup heavy cream
Peperoncino piccante to taste (ground red pepper)
3 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese freshly grated

For serving

Instructions

Sauce

Using a heavy-bottomed pot, sauté the sausage in the olive oil until colored.
Add the porcini, butter, and fresh peperoncini, if desired, and sauté 5-7 minutes. During this time, the sausage should brown much more and the mushrooms should give up much of their liquid and take on some color.
Add the wine and evaporate completely over high heat.
Add the broth, partially cover, and simmer until completely evaporated.
Add the Basic Tomato Sauce, basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about 10 minutes. Reserve.

Assembly

Bring three quarts of heavily salted water (according to the Italians, it should taste like the sea) to a boil.
Meanwhile, sauté the garlic in the extra-virgin olive oil until light brown. Drain and reserve the oil.
Cook the rigatoni just until it no longer has a crunch in the center but is still far from done.
While the pasta is cooking, put the sauce in a large sauté pan and bring to a simmer along with peperoncino piccate to taste.
Drain the rigatoni, saving at least one quart of the pasta-cooking liquid.
Add the rigatoni to the sauce and increase the heat to medium to medium-high. Add pasta-cooking liquid, a ladle at a time, stirring the pasta frequently to finish cooking.
After adding a ladle or two of the pasta-cooking liquid, add the cream. Continue adding pasta-cooking liquid as needed until the pasta is just al dente and coated with a thick sauce.
Off the heat, mix in the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, cream, and the reserved garlic oil. You may need to thin with a little more pasta-cooking liquid as the cheese will thicken and emulsify the sauce.
Divide the pasta among serving bowls. Garnish each with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and sprinklings of Pecorino Romano cheese and fresh basil chiffonade.

Recipe Notes

Here's my recipe for Basic Tomato Sauce.

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Recipes

Risotto with Zucchini

Maraschino Cherry Cake

4 Comments

July 18, 2018

In September 2012, at a wine paring dinner at The Compound Restaurant in Santa Fe during the holy days of Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta, a group of us hatched an idea to start a dinner group.

After a lot of discussion and email exchanges, we decided to name the group Santa Fe Ate, both for what we do and for the (play on the words regarding the) number of people in the group.

**From the “Things You Can Cook in a Wood-Burning Oven” dinner: Roasted Cauliflower with whipped Goat Cheese, Ricotta, and Olive Oil Dip and Cannellini alla Toscana**

We had our first dinner in January 2013 and we’ve been going strong ever since. We meet about once every three months, rotating houses. At each dinner we decide the theme for the next dinner. This may not be the best time to make such a consequential decision given the amount of alcohol typically consumed. For example, one of our themes was French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s!

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Frank and Doug don’t really cook so their group assignment is always to come up with a signature cocktail and appropriate wine pairings for each course. They have leeway to be creative in finding or creating a cocktail, which they have to do for even for cultures where drinking alcohol is not really common. If the theme of the dinner relates to a wine producing region, the wines are generally from that region to the extent feasible.

**From the French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s dinner: Cambodian Fish Amok (Fish and Coconut Milk Curry Baked in Banana Leaves)**

The other six of us do successive rounds of emails refining the list of dishes to be prepared and organizing them into courses. Our task is to be as authentic to the theme as possible.

French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s was probably our most narrow theme. Others have included, for example, Summer in Provence, Winter in Friuli, Along the Silk Road, Persia (not Iran but Persia), Comfort Food, and Things You Can Cook in a Wood-Burning Oven (for which the entire meal was cooked in our outdoor wood-burning oven).

The only meal we’ve had which strayed from the basic plan was Timballo. Timballo is a (typically large) pastry-encased and baked dish of layered pasta, hardboiled eggs, cheese, meatballs, and other meats, all moistened with tomato sauce. Each of the cooks was assigned one or more components of the timballo to make at home. We got together to assemble and bake the final dish. This was a multi-hour process, even with all the prep work done in advance.

To help pass the time, Frank and Doug devised a blind wine-tasting in which we had to try to identify the varietal and provenance of each wine. I believe the eight of us tasted six bottles of wine. After we finished those, we opened some more. This was the dinner at which we decided the theme of French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s. You may notice a correlation between alcohol intake and unusual dinner themes!

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Earlier this year, our theme was Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, first edition, published in 1950. Every dish had to come from the cookbook with no changes, substitutions or updating unless absolutely necessary. One of the appetizers was anchovies rolled around cornichons!

**Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, 1950, First Edition**

The food was actually surprisingly good. I suspect part of that was related to how each of us selected our dish or dishes (Becky, who did appetizers selected three!). The wines were, undoubtedly, fabulous. In the United States, if you were drinking wine in the 1950s you were likely drinking French wine, and good French wine, at that! On that night, so were we!

I made a Maraschino Cherry Cake with Almond Crème Filling and Maraschino Boiled Frosting. Though if I were making the cake again, I would probably substitute my recipe for Italian Pastry Cream for Betty’s Crème Filling, I really wouldn’t make any other changes.

Here’s the recipe directly from the first edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook with a few minor adaptions of the technique by me. For you bakers out there, I’m providing the original sea-level measurements as published in the cookbook. Since I baked this at nearly 8000 feet in elevation, I followed Betty’s recommendations for adjusting for high altitude.

Maraschino Cherry Cake

You can divide the work for this cake over several days. The filling can be made up to three days in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered. Stir in the toasted almonds just before using. The cake layers can be made a day in advance, wrapped tightly and refrigerated. The frosting should be made when you’re ready to frost the cake. The original recipe called for “rich milk” in the almond crème filling. Remember, this recipe was published before the advent of homogenized milk. Half-and-half is a good substitute. Except in professional recipes, it is rare to see egg whites measured in volume but it is a very good idea as the white, much more than the yolk, varies with the size of the egg.

Course

Desserts and Sweets, Sweet Sauces, Frostings, and Fillings

Cuisine

American

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

1 1/2 hours

Passive Time

6 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Maraschino Cherry Cake

3 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup Maraschino cherry liquid (from the jar of Maraschino cherries)
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds or other nuts
16 maraschino cherries cut in eighths (plus additional whole cherries for decorating the top of the cake)
5 egg whites (2/3 cup)

Almond Crème Filling

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup half-and-half
4 egg yolks lightly beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted blanched almonds

Maraschino Cherry Cooked Frosting

3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons Maraschino cherry liquid (from the jar of Maraschino cherries)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Course

Desserts and Sweets, Sweet Sauces, Frostings, and Fillings

Cuisine

American

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

1 1/2 hours

Passive Time

6 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Maraschino Cherry Cake

3 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup Maraschino cherry liquid (from the jar of Maraschino cherries)
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds or other nuts
16 maraschino cherries cut in eighths (plus additional whole cherries for decorating the top of the cake)
5 egg whites (2/3 cup)

Almond Crème Filling

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup half-and-half
4 egg yolks lightly beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted blanched almonds

Maraschino Cherry Cooked Frosting

3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons Maraschino cherry liquid (from the jar of Maraschino cherries)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

Maraschino Cherry Cake

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Reserve.
Combine milk and Maraschino cherry liquid. Reserve.
Cream butter.
Cream in sugar until fluffy.
Add dry ingredients in four additions, alternating with milk-juice mixture in three additions. Mix lightly, but well, after each addition.
Stir in nuts and Maraschino cherries.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.
Fold beaten egg whites into batter, using about ¼ of the egg whites first to loosen the batter.
Pour into two greased and floured 9” cake pans.
Bake 350°F approximately 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the pans on a rack approximately 10 minutes.
Remove layers from pans and cool completely.

Almond Crème Filling

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt and half-and-half in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
Slowly pour about half of the boiling half-and-half mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the yolks.
Put the saucepan with the remaining half-and-half mixture back on the heat.
Pour the tempered yolks back into the saucepan, whisking constantly.
Bring the mixture to a boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from the heat and stir in the almond and vanilla extracts.
Pour the pastry cream into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, putting the wrap directly on the pastry cream to avoid a skin.
Refrigerate until cold.
Stir in chopped almonds just before using.
Just before making the frosting, put one cake layer on a serving platter. Top with Almond Crème Filling.
Top with second layer.

Maraschino Cherry Cooked Frosting

Combine the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and Maraschino cherry liquid in a double boiler.
Cook over boiling water, beating constantly with an electric mixer until a spreadable consistency, approximately 5-7 minutes. The top of the double boiler should not touch the boiling water in the bottom.
Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
Immediately frost sides and top of cake.
Decorate the top with whole Maraschino cherries

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Zia Ida’s Lemon Bars

14 Comments

July 4, 2018

Happy Fourth of July!!!

I’m posting this recipe today because it is one of the three desserts that I typically serve on the Fourth of July. The other two are Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars and Nick Maglieri’s Supernatural Brownies.

**Our front gate ready for the Fourth of July, 2017**

The first year that these three became our traditional dessert course, one of our guests, after tasting them, commandeered the platter and started serving the other guests. He introduced the dessert as “Sex on a platter!”

That was the moment when I knew I could not make changes to the dessert course without proof that the changes would actually be an improvement rather than just different.

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The three desserts make a winning combination.

**Guests arriving by van from the parking area**

This year, we are not throwing our usual Fourth of July party. Instead, we are spending two weeks on Fire Island.

For the last five and a half years, my husband, Frank, has been working in Alamogordo, New Mexico, a four-hour drive from our home in Santa Fe. With rare exceptions, we’ve only seen each other on weekends during this time. The trip to Fire Island is a celebration of his last day of work in Alamogordo which was this past Friday.

Even when not part of the Fourth of July dessert trifecta, these lemon bars get great reviews but I have to apologize a bit to Zia Ida.

Zia Ida is my husband’s Aunt Ida. Zia is the Italian word for aunt.

**Zia Ida, far left, my father-in-law, and their aunt, Zia Fidalma, from Tuscany**

I still consider these to be her lemon bars even though I’ve tweaked her recipe. I added the lemon zest as her original recipe only called for the juice. I think the zest adds layers of lemon flavor as the essential oils are way more lemony than the juice. I also like to add coconut, though it wasn’t part of the original recipe and can certainly be left out. Since I like my lemon bars tart, I increased the lemon juice from the original 5 tablespoons.

These lemon bars are not fussy to make. I’ve seen fussy recipes that include steps like precooking the filling and diddling with the crust. I don’t think either of those steps would improve the flavor and they’d definitely increase the work involved.

If you have a favorite recipe for some sort of dessert bar, I’d love to see it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Zia Ida’s Lemon Bars.

Zia Ida's Lemon Bars

The coconut is optional. If you like your lemon bars less tart, use 5 tablespoons of lemon juice. After zesting the lemons for the crust and the lemon topping, squeeze the juice and strain well. You may need juice from an additional lemon.

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

American

Prep Time

25 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Passive Time

12 hours

Servings

bars

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 lemon zest only
1 cup butter

Topping

4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
Pinch salt
1 lemon zest only
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
9 tablespoons fresh lemon juice strained well to remove all pulp (½ cup plus 1 tablespoon)
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut optional
Powdered sugar to dust

Course

Desserts and Sweets

Cuisine

American

Prep Time

25 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Passive Time

12 hours

Servings

bars

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 lemon zest only
1 cup butter

Topping

4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
Pinch salt
1 lemon zest only
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
9 tablespoons fresh lemon juice strained well to remove all pulp (½ cup plus 1 tablespoon)
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut optional
Powdered sugar to dust

Instructions

Crust

Butter a 9" x 13" pan.
Line the buttered pan with buttered parchment, allowing the parchment to overhang the sides of the pan a few inches in all directions.
Pulse flour, sugar and zest in food processor until combined.
Add cold butter, cut in small cubes. Briefly pulse until mixture forms coarse crumbs.
Press the crust mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes until lightly brown.