Kevin72

Octopus ragu, eh? Do tell.

This meal could go on at least three different threads: The Calabria/Basilicata thread, where the roots of this meal are from, the Italian Immigrant Thread, or I ultimately decided this thread, since it uses influences from all over The Boot, even though it is largely Southern. It's a summer mainstay for us that I've been cooking practically from the getgo. The recipes are based on typical dishes but then gussied up a bit more. I guess, in the end, it's really not that much different from how I've been cooking lately since I haven't been able to stick to a recipe for the past six months! Anyways, we start with stuffed artichokes: The stuffing mixture is breadcrumbs, garlic, chilies, oregano, mint, anchovies, pecorino, and the real star is diced up bits of sundried tomato, adding a nice zing to the whole dish. They are baked/braised in a dish partially filled with white wine. The outermost layer of leaves you peel off and dip into the stuffing, but the rest is entirely edible from then on, leaves and all. The real "fusion" element of this meal is in the contorno for the main. I take the Southern mainstay, sweet-n-sour eggplant, and use commerical balsamic vinegar with its own sweet and sour interplay in place of the more customary red or white wine vinegar. The meat course is a take off of puttanesca sauce, the quick-cooked condimento for pasta consisting of tomatoes, garlic, chilies, capers, and olives. I braise chicken in it instead, and use the leftover sauce for pasta the next day or so. The heretical part of this dish is that the first time I made puttanesca, I didn't have any chilies on hand at all, so I used Tobasco sauce instead. And it was really good that way. Something about the way it interacted with the other ingredients created a smokey flavor and a nice, vinegary zing. Blechy picture as always. Anyways, Hathor, hope you don't mind me using the thread space.

I'm not quite sure where this thread will go, but it did seem a nice capper to the project we've all been doing the past year and a half(!). Certainly in America, the wave of Italian immigrants, particularly from the South, at the turn of the 20th century collectively formed a style of cooking rooted in limited access to the ingredients they had back in Italy. This type of cooking formed an enduring preconception of "Italian cooking" that lingered only until maybe the last decade or so. There's certainly a dark side, lurking in far too many "red checker tablecloth joints" that even misunderstand Italian American cooking: buckets of garlic, hick, pasty tomato sauce, gobs of cheese over everything. But there's also cioppino, Sunday gravy, baked ziti, lemon chicken, clams casino . . . I'm fairly uninformed in Italian American cooking. I find the topic fascinating, particularly in watching the cooking and understanding of the cuisine "evolve" with differing waves of immigrants. Those from the South largely dominated the scene in the early 20th century on up through the 60s and 70s, when Northern Italian cooking seemed to come into vogue. Was it because immigrants from the North were arriving then? An effort to compete with French cooking that was sweeping the land? This thread can be used to discuss that evolution. Or to talk about either dishes from Italy that were "Americanized" or new standards of the Italian immigrant. And I don't want this to be just about Italian Americans: how have Italian immigrants evolved and adapted their cooking in other countries if there is a marked community there?

I can't imagine ricotta forte being sold or catching on in the US. Too many perceived health code problems it would be skirting. But as Hathor said, you get it or you don't. I loved it; it made my jaw hurt it was so pungent! My wife hated it. ETA: That pasta has an insanely long name, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Or is it the sagne you've posted before?

I've wondered that myself. These two regions we did this month are supposed to be the spiciest in Italy but I wonder if it's all relative. I can't believe that it would be on the par of, say, Thai or Indian food; it would just be too incongruous with not just the rest of Italy but the European palate at large. I just think they are a little more . . . refined? . . . in their taste and flavor range. It's all part of that balance we've discussed many times. So I'd imagine that while the spice would maybe be more pronounced, and certainly you'd have those exceptional individuals who ladle on the heat in their own cooking, the average Calabrese would object to a blow-you-out-the-door spicy dish.

Pancetta stessa is the flat kind and the round kind is rottolato or something to that effect. I believe it is a regional thing as to which shape it takes, since both are still just referred to as "pancetta" by the locals in that region. I'd imagine the rounded kind is more prevalent here because it's easier to ship? When you make yours Ellie do you do flat or round? Excellent looking pie. I can imagine it was exquisite. It does bring to mind a dish I forgot to mention and make this month: murseddu. The principal ingredient is 'nduja, a cured meat made of the organs of lambs or pigs. It appears to take two different forms. In the Culinaria book, it's a pie. In Marlena di Blasi's Southern Italian book, though, it is a meat sauce that you spoon over flatbread. I've made it using sausage and then chicken livers for a faint, organy taste. It's supposed to be ferociously spicy, if made from the 'nduja.

Yes; sorry I forgot to mention that part. 35 min or so at 400.

Those curls of pancetta look lovely, Ellie! This is a meal I made last week. We started with eggplant parm, which wound up not looking too good on camera. But as I've said before, my recipe is to grill the eggplant first, then top it with crushed tomatoes mixed with garlic and orgenco, then basil and mozzarella over the top. We then had for the main pork chops with vinegar and peppers. I used the updated recipe in Erica de Mane's Southern Italy cookbook. She utilizes sherry vinegar for a less assertive flavor in the final dish. Highly addictive. We had on the side zucchini with grilled tomatoes and basil:

Red mullet, aka mugine. I'm not sure of the Italian name. Puglia's one of my favorite Italian regional cuisines. Thank you for sharing the wonderful photos and experiences and please, keep 'em coming. Any good restaurants you went to?

Though a number of writers preceded him, Mario was definitely the one that caught my eye on how vastly different the regions of Italy are. The first episode I ever saw of him, he was cooking from Trentino and made a beef braise with carraway seeds and then cannderli, the bread dumplings. There's also the superb Culinaria book, detailing each region. And let's not forget Marlena di Blasi's one two punch on Northern and Southern regions. Nicol Megrin's book is, I'd imagine, an offshoot of her work at the magazine Cucina Italia, which often devoted one issue to a region of Italy as well. Biba Caggiano(?) is one of the "old guard" of cookbook writers who rose to prominence alongside Lidia and Marcella or a little after they did. I think she also had a PBS series. Each of these "____'s Italy" cookbooks don't dwell on every region from what I've seen but instead profile that particular author's favorite locales in Italy. At any rate, sorry for this to be so OT. I made a Calabrese meal earlier this week and have another one to go, but it'll probably be sometime in June before I get to it.

Mistakes on top of mistakes . . . I was thinking of Beso, not Solera. And Beso has since closed. What a pity.

I'd imagine that it's for something similar to the 'ncappriatta of Puglia. In Calabria, there's a similar version as well called macco, I believe, that is a little more dressed up. In Puglia, 'ncappriatta typical of their spartan cooking: the beans are slowly simmered in water until they collapse, then olive oil is swirled in. Calabria's version has bay leaves or dried oregano and fennel seeds. Or there's always a simple soup, I'd guess.

It's probably best to keep what momentum we have and just dive right into "The Italian Immigrant" cooking thread. As FM points out, these are all open-ended threads so you can always keep going into the summer afterwards. Her PBS show on this book is running concurrently. I'm impressed enough to want to get it. This past year we've seen Lidia's Italy, Jamie's Italy, and Biba's Italy cookbooks all released, weird . . .

Crap. I keep getting those two mixed up. Apologies.

Looks like you'll be very close to Lola. As you can see there's some unevenness to it but there's also some good food and brilliance here and there. There's also York Street. A bit more reliable, but further up the road from you, maybe 10-15 minutes. Then there's Dragonfly which, after a bumpy start, has settled into a fun groove of food and interesting menu items. It's kind of a scene, though. Fun people-watching (and people making-fun-of). If you're up for a drive to Ft. Worth, there's Lanny's.

Alex Koppelman interviews chef Marco Pierre White in advance of his takeover of "Hell's Kitchen" this summer: http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_drink/20...pierre_whiteqa/ Really good stuff. He's highly complimentary of the food scene in the U.S. and in particular, Chicago. He's also apparently laid to rest his "feud" with Mario Batali. Salon's had a number of interesting food articles up lately . . .

"What? No f***'n ziti?" All time favorite line that hooked me from the first episode. ETA: For the past couple season premieres, I've done a "Sopranos Night" meal: baked ziti, Mario Batali's Green Beans, sfogliatelle. Gonna miss those.

I liked Solera (Solara?) alot when I went once as well. I've not been to Rioja. Ibiza, which I believe is Rioja's sister restaurant, is tapas-like and tapas-inspired found that was excellent as well.

Great pics, Kent! But are Vespaio and Dolce Vita similar enough in concept for a comparison? Yeah, they're both kind of casual, mid-range Italian but I got the impression that Vespaio was more of a full service type place (i.e., breakfast, lunch, dinner and a whole range of options). Dolce Vita is a pizzeria/snack bar kinda place. It's too bad there were stumbles and you certainly ordered interesting stuff. But when it's good, it sings. I've only had brunch at Vespaio. It was awesome, though.

I'd be right there on the next gallows with you, Pontormo. I love sheep's milk feta and use it all the time as a sheep's milk ricotta stand-in.

Caccio or any of the younger pecorinos, particularly this time of year. Parmigiano of course. Of course. Every time I just nibble a shard of it it's like the first time I'm tasting it. Burratta. Oh, why hasn't this caught on more in the US yet?

Congratulations! Impressive! Will you be doing guanciale at some point then? I don't have the depth of experience that Hathor has in Italy with pancetta, but I do recall actually quite the opposite experience when I had it in Rome and Emlia-Romagna: that it was more spiced than salty and had a more "meaty" flavor instead of the salty stuff you get here. Foodman, as I'm sure you've seen the Charcuterie thread, is pretty experienced with this book and curing his own meats. He may have some pointers for ya.

Crumble them or use scissors to snip them into the dish. If you chop them with a knife, you'll have chili pieces and seeds ricocheting all over your kitchen.

I take my parmigiana a step further and grill the eggplants. I wasn't really wild about this dish until I tried that approach. Will have to do it soon; the wife's crazy about it.

According to Fred Plotkin in Terra Fortunata, sclopit is the local word for silene, a hop-like plant. It is used primarily in risotto or fritattas, either alone or as part of a number of other herbs.