Kevin72

You could also go a slightly different route and make the mashed sweet potatoes and chipotles into savory beignets (sp?). . . mix with flour, a little warm milk, yeast, even the chopped pecans you wanted in there. Let it rise and then spoon into hot oil. For some reason I keep thinking that a little lemon juice in the mix (either one) would help lift the flavors.

Make sure they're not sweetened or in sugar syrup. Simmer them in milk with a little rosemary or sage. They'll absorb the milk and get very soft (20-30 minutes or so). Mash (don't discard the milk left in the pan) and serve as-is or mix with mashed potatoes. The mashed chestnuts can be thinned out with stock and made into a soup with whole chestnuts as a garnish. You can also use the mash to stuff pasta, or blanched cabbage leaves and baked. Good for you going with the canned kind. I always feel sheepish reading cookbooks where the author implores you that fresh peeled are really the way to go. But the first couple years I used whole chestnuts I could never peel them fast enough out of the oven and the inner skin enclosing the actual nut would get stiff and brittle and jam up under my fingernails. Oh, and then there's the nasty gash on my index finger when my knife slipped on their rounded skin while scoring them . . . Not worth the effort, no matter what the flavor tradeoff is.

Do a compromise and mix the pecans in the breadcrumbs. You're grinding them into a meal, right? I'd think with everything being pretty much cooked you shouldn't have a problem with the nuts burning. Deep-frying might be the way to go to set it quickly though. I like your thought process on all this; very creative.

I'd leave out the butter, especially with eggs in there and the marshmallow dipping sauce.

It's a great book. I bought it in August and have read it twice since then. Last weekend I used her slow-roasting technique and made roast beef and it was insanely good.

This is probably too late to help you but I never can get the whole egg in the batter thing. The batter comes out too heavy or leathery and, well, eggy tasting, even when I use only whites. I freely allow that this could be due to my own frying incompetence, though.

I used to not cook my homemade noodles in a lasagna. Then I tried it one time with boiling them first and it's infinitely better (although admittedly a larger investment of your time). I can't break it down scientifically but the pre-boil "sets" the pasta and gives it a more defined presence in the final dish. The uncooked pasta is just kind of a starchy mess in the middle otherwise.

Thanksgiving bump. Any particular food this time of the year that you simply have to have at your meal? Example: I mortify my family every year by demanding the canned cranberry sauce. Open can, plop it onto a plate, slice it into chunks, the end. I'm virtually the only one who eats it and my mom knows there'll be hell to pay if it's not there. My mom's stuffing is made from a mix (not Stove Top): a bag of croutons and a seasoning packet. She finally revealed that little tidbit a few years back and my food snobbery was mortified at first but now, what the hell.

I think Arthur Schwartz writes that Campanians don't do this in the intro to Naples at Table. In Culinaria: Italy the authors make a similar observation about the Pugliese. EDIT: Marcella Hazan says exactly what you do about adding the garlic later. I still mix 'em, though.

Faith: I've read in a number of food writers express concern about the impact of the European Union on artisinal food production in Italy, up to an including regional produce or heirloom varieties of fruit and vegetables. What are your thoughts on this, have you seen a difference or change in either of these two areas? Kevin

Faith: It's been a pleasure reading this thread. What do you think the next big region to be "discovered" in Italy will be, and what region should, in your mind, be visited more, if there is a difference?

So if Sandra and real cooking ever came into contact the universe would cease to exist?

Since you've already mentioned feta, try to track down sheep's milk feta, a revelation if you haven't already tried it. In fact, get familiar with the whole sheep's milk cheese family: the already mentioned Manchego, Italian caccio or young Tuscan pecorino, etc.

I think the kind you grow is more for ornamental or herbal purposes. I have one in a pot that grows pretty healthy each spring, dies off in the summer heat, then throws up another stalk the following spring again. My mom's had much better luck in her garden and has big, billowy fronds in one corner. Also gets her's to flower, so you get the benefit of the fennel pollen.

Got some Ambrosias this weekend at CM and they're great.

I predict this thread will get a nice post-Thanksgiving boost. Hopefully none will be related to frying turkeys . . .

I've gradually insinuated my way into the Thanksgiving cooking. I used to help with alot of the prep, then I took over getting a dish or two to cook all by myself. My mom has mentioned on a couple of occasions that she wants to try brining the bird this year so I think I'll be the go-to for that.

I wanted to sear off a roast for yesterday's meal and decided my Le Creuset was the best vehicle to do this in. Put it on the stove over high heat, let it sit for about five minutes. Toss in some lard: whoosh! Pillar of flame up from the pot. That black ring in the bottom of the pot WILL come out, right?

I love fennel, probably to a fault. It's my default "go to" for adding punch to any dish and I listed fennel seeds as one of my ingredients in the Seasonings you can't go without thread. In the spring it's a rare meal that doesn't have fennel in it at some point. Oddly enough though I still hate black licorice.

Many would say that you actually need guanciale (cured hog jowl) instead of pancetta to make a perfect Amatriciani sauce. I actually don't like or use pancetta any more in the sauce for the reasons you have listed: I find the product too unreliable and at times there is a bit of a "gamy" flavor it lends to dishes. I've actually switched to (shhh!) slab bacon from my local butcher. Heresy I know. Pancetta stateside seems to be notably unreliable a product; I've heard or read people complain elsewhere that they just can't get it the way they had it in Italy. I'm not even sure if the U.S. can import pancetta from Italy, and if it does it is no doubt cured much longer than the Italians do for their own use. You'll need to find a deli with high turnover so the pancetta isn't sitting around so much, or switch to online. And take a chance and order guanciale, too. Told you I'd respond!!!

It is one of my favorite pizza toppings as well. I scatter it over the pizza right out of the oven and it wilts right in. One of my favorite homemade pizzas to use it with is prosciutto and chaunterelle. The wife likes it on sausage and pepper pizzas. Not a fan of it cooked though; it does lose its peppery bite and gets to me too bitter.

I visited Italy last fall and gravitated towards the "trattoria" experience as much as I could. One primary reason is that frankly we weren't dressed well enough for the full-bore ristorante experience. I couldn't resist checking out Diana in Bologna though and we "popped in" for lunch on our way to the train station. Sure enough everyone else was in their business suits and here were two scrubby tourists walking in off the street in their rain ponchos and hiking boots! Our reception was appropriately chilly. Even with appropriate attire, though, I'd still lean more towards the trattoria experience for all the reasons hit on already. The food is more "honest" and indicative of the culture and ingredients of the region we are in, which is almost my entire reason for being in Italy in the first place.

I too have been getting slabs of pancetta from the deli here, wrapping it well and freezing it with no ill effect. Now that fall's here I'm burning through it pretty quick; it makes a good backdrop for soups and sauteeing aromatics in.

Good one. On our honeymoon in Venice I remember walking past a jam-packed McD's at 8pm. I was just . . . well, floored.

That's the one that came to my mind when I saw this topic. Don't know if you'd put it at #1 but a list of top 10 wouldn't be complete without it.