polpette napolitane

Now this is a blast from the past! I remember first having those in a school trip to the Amalfi coast in 1993. Crispy on the outside, perfectly moist in the inside,rich and not greasy at all. Pretty much, the perfect Meatball! ....and still simple in the making.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground pork

1 lb ground beef

1 bunch of flat leave Italian Parsley minced

2 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 french baguette - just the white inner part

1/2 cup of whole milk

3 large eggs

1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 ball of fresh mozzarella - cut into small cubes

unseasoned bread crumbs

salt and pepper to taste.

TO MAKE THE MEATBALLS: 

Place the white inner part of the baguette cut into small pieces, in the milk.  Place a generous amount of bread crumbs onto a large dish.While the bread is absorbing the milk preheat the oven to 350 and start preparing the meat.

In a large bowl combine the ground pork with the ground beef, salt and pepper, garlic and the parsley. Mix by hand until even, then add the eggs and the Parmesan.Mix again. Add the bread after squeezing the milk out of it and mix again until all the ingredients are nicely combined. Form into balls by hand and  add one cube of fresh mozzarella in the center then roll into bread crumbs.  Once all the meatballs are formed heat up 2 to 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet. Once the oil is sizzling hot, place the meatballs in the pan and brown on both sides. Once they are golden brown remove them from the skillet and place them into a baking dish. Bake them in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.

I wanted my meatballs with a simple tomato sauce. For this I heated up 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet, added 1 crushed garlic clove and some black pepper. After a couple of minutes, when the garlic became fragrant but not brown, I added 4 fresh ripe tomatoes crushed and I added about 1/4 cup of white wine and 2 tbs of unsalted butter. I cooked this on medium heat until it reduced to half the size and the creamy thick consistency of a sauce was reached. I served it over the meatballs and thought it perfectly complimented the creaminess of the meatballs without taking away the simplicity of Italian cuisine. 

Usually I make the meatballs large enough to stand out on a dish but for our Christmas party  I prepared smaller bite size version of them and served them with lollipop sticks to turn this dinner dish into a perfect Mess -Free Appetizer. In this case I didn't use a tomato base sauce but I served them with a side of Parsley and fresh garlic gremolata dip. However you chose to serve them I am sure you will enjoy them quite a bit.

Il gusto rustico - Easy baking - Pear tart

I know most people can appreciate a nice dessert, baking one however is usually cause for distress. Distress usually caused by the silly idea that baking is extremely hard and requires an insane amount of patience and precision, thing that is not always the case. Yes, yes, there is measuring involved in this recipe but let's be honest here, if you can pour and see lines, you probably can get the proportions just right. Also what I like about this particular dessert is that it requires no "complicated" frosting design or silly decorations. This is just a plain delicious dish anyone can make easily.One could even use a refrigerated store bought pie dough roll, although making this from scratch is really easy to do as well.
Here is what you will need :
For the crust :
 1 cup of all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
4 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons of buttermilk
3 tablespoons of ice water
For the filling you will need:
3 ripe pears
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon and 1 tsp of corn starch
1/8 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

If you choose to make your own crust here are the directions:

In a food processor mix the flour, salt and sugar. Add the pieces of butter and pulse until mixed into a coarse mixture. In a bowl combine the buttermilk and the ice water and then slowly add them to the flour mixture. Pulse until evenly combined. Remove the dough from the processor and pat it into a 4 inch round, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

In the meantime preheat the oven to 425 degrees and start preparing the filling.

Peal and core the pears and cut them into 1/4 inch slices. Place them in a bowl with the lemon juice,brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Toss until evenly coated and set side.

Roll the refrigerated dough into a 9 - 10 inch round and place it onto a parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Arrange the pears in the center leaving about 2 inches of dough all around. Fold the border over the pears only covering them partially. Pinch the border on the corners to make it stick together.

I brushed the crust with an egg wash to help it turn nice and golden. An egg wash is simple a beaten egg with a little water added to it.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes then Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake without opening the oven for another 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven. I combined 1 teaspoon of honey with 1/4 tsp of boiling water and brushed the crust and filling with it for an extra little hint of sweetness. Allow to cool and ENJOY!

spaghetti all'aglio, olio e peperoncino

This is the absolute easiest and quickest italian dish ever, and yet I find it so comforting and filling. The first dish to jump to mind after a long day at work.My kids always ask for pasta with il and parmigiano and this can be cooked right along their dish so...well...i won't hear complains about the amount of dishes in the sink....Oh yes... there is also really no measuring involved here. and not that many ingredients you will need.

Pasta, I chose Spaghetti Rigati, the ridges help the sause grab onto the pasta making each bite that much more flavorful.
Garlic, minced and about 2 to 3 cloves.
Fresh spicy peppers, traditionally we use Cayanne Pepper, however I like to mix different peppers to add flavors and colors...depending on what's ready in my garden, this time it was Fresno, Cayanne and a jalopeno.I love spicy foods so I used the al of them ,cut into very small pieces.Also I used a few minced parsley leaves,  to add a little extra freshness to the dish and enough Extra Vergin Olive Oil to allow all the ingredients to blend smoothly. Salt and black and Pink pepper to taste. The pink pepper just adds a little fresher taste to the black pepper.

VEGAN Beef bourguignon

There are a lot of great vegan dishes out there but this one...well I just had to try it for myself. Beef bouruignon is the definition of comfort food, especially for us European's. The Sunday night dinner you'd spent the whole day drooling over. And what could be better? Beef slow cooked in red wine scented with fresh herbs de provence....
So I was watching tv and saw this guy on the Martha Stewart show prepare his wife vegan bourguignon....with saitan instead of beef....but beside that, he followed a pretty traditional recipe.....and I needed to try to see if it really was as good as he said it would be. I do have to admit Saitan is my favorite vegan protein as far as consistency....and this dish, though I altered it a bit, for sure lived up to expectations.

I prepared my soffritto in a dutch oven pot. 3 sliced carots, 1 onion,cubed,( traditionally it is pearl onions but I only had white onions, and I'm not a huge fan of peeling little tiny pearl onions) 3 cloves of garlic, minced , and combined them all with 2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and fresh herbs from the garden, rosemary, thyme, sage and bay leaves.

I cooked them for a few minutes over medium heat while browning the 2 pakages of seitan in a frying pan.

Once the onion and the garlic absorbed the olive oil I added 1 cup of veggie stock and the Seitan, and cooked the mixture with the lid on for 20 minutes, keeping the heat on medium. I then added about 1 lb of fresh mushrooms, some flat leaf parsley and then 3/4 of a bottle of red wine, I went with a French ta

ble wine, just trying to keep the dish as traditional as possible.

The combined smell of the mushrooms, garlic and the wine was simply AMAZING! Nothing short of a traditional beef stew!

The freshly chopped parsley added such freshness to the dish.

I put the lid back on and cooked for another 20 minutes or so. I scooped the Seitan and the veggies out and placed them on a serving dish. I added 1 tbs of corn starch, 2 tbs of vegan butter ( spectrum is a really good one )  and 1 tbs of tomato paste to create a creamier consistency to the sauce. After cooking for a few minutes, once the cosnsistency of a gravy is reached,  I poured some over the seitan. It was delicious!

Heirloom tomatoes, hatch chiles and arugula quesadillas

Just fire up the Grill, and pour yourself a nice glass of VINO. This is easy and will only take a few moments.

Hatch chiles are only available for a few weeks out of the year but the are spectacular in their heat and smoky flavors combined. You can buy them fresh...or roasted. I got mine fresh...well what's more relaxing than cooking at the grill on a hot summer night?..NOTHING!

I washed my chiles and dried them with a towel, they cook better dry. You want to cook them on high flames till charred, once done place them in a Tupperware container and close it with its lid. The steam will allow the skin to be easily peeled off, and that's when they are ready.

Once cool enough to touch I peeled them ad cut them into small pieces. I opened 4 taco size flour tortillas and filled them with cheese and some chiles ( amount desired), I folded the tortillas in halves and placed them on the hot grill for a few minutes on each side until clear marks were created....

and yes, this dish is this simple and quite tasty, we each had seconds!

Can you smell it ? breathing in the ocean

Seafood is something I was raised around. My father loved seafood, shellfish in particular and growing up in Milan, in a valley, closed to lakes and sweet water fishes,but far from the seaside and crustaceans, we learned to truly savor those summer at the seaside, where seafood was almost part of our daily diets. We were taught the difference between fresh or frozen seafood, our palates trained toward the right choices, fresh and local. Nothing else would do, nothing else should really do. I remember my father explaining "if you can smell the fish, you should not eat it, it should just smell like the salty clean water, that's how you know it's good!"...And I have to say, the only two times I did not smell my seafood before cooking it I got sick......and bad seafood can really hurt, if you haven't experienced this, please take my word for t!    And shellfish in particular, it holds a lot of bacterias, clams and muscled are bottom feeders, they need to be perfectly fresh, tight when bought, kept cold and washed thoroughly before even being cooked......kind of a pain...but totally worth it!!!!! 

The muscles I got are local to Carlsbad....and they looked amazing....so good I got 3lbs of them. After scrubbing them clean I ran cold water over them while i made my soffritto. 1 onion, thinly sliced, 4 to 5 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 red bell pepper cut in small dices  and a fennel bulb cut into four pieces. I cook them together in a dutch oven pot with 2tbs of extra virgin olive oil for a few minutes then added 3/4 of a bottle of white wine. I wanted something somewhat sweet to compliment the fennel so I chose a french white table wine that sells at wholefoods for $11.99, Vallee Loire - VOUVRAY -  Chenin Blanc...and it worked perfectly!

I turned the heat off and let everything simmer and combine for 20 minutes before turning the heat back on and adding the muscles and 1/2 cup of chicken stock. 

I cooked the shellfish in the soffritto and wine for about 7 minutes, occasionally stirring but mostly keeping the lid on to steam all of the muscles open. I turned the heat off and added about 3/4 of a stick of butter. I allowed the butter to melt, added the juice of one lemon and freshly chopped flat leaves italian parsley. make sure you SERVE ONLY THE MUSCLES THAT HAVE OPENED,DISCARD THE REST. Enjoy

fresh hairloom tomato caprese pasta salad

Summer, summer ,summer indeed!
This is a perfect dish to cool off with during those hot summer days. I saw this on the cover of " living" magazine and simply had to make it myself. It just looks stunning, nothing is brighter and cheerier than the colors of ripe heirloom tomatoes. And nothing quite sweeter.
For the pasta I chose curly lasagna sheets simply because they look pretty. I boiled in water for 11 minutes according to the direction on the package....(whole foods brand ) then I ran them under cold water in a colander to stop the cooking process.
In the meantime I sliced a colorful assortment of tomatoes and placed them on a serving plate with some organic capers, organic fresh mozzarella disks. Once the pasta felt cool to touch I cut the sheets  into square pieces and put them on the plate with the other ingredients. I sprinkled some salt, a little black pepper, some extra virgin olive oil and of course some freshly sliced basil......
Light, Refreshing...and certainly pretty.