A year of Italian cooking

[Kevin72]

Sunday night was a mix of dishes normally served around Easter in Rome. To welcome the time change, and a spectacular day, we had our first meal out on the patio.

The primo was papardelle with asparagus and basil-ricotta sauce.

It's a tweak of a pasta dish listed in Dowden's Cooking the Roman Way; in that book it's penne, asparagus, and plain ricotta. I still had basil on the mind from Liguria, so I pureed it with ricotta, parmigiano, and pecorino in a blender with some of the pasta cooking water.

The Monday after Easter, Pasquetta, is traditionally a big picnic day, and one popular dish is agnello en brodetto, lamb (usually leftover or the unused cuts from the previous night) braised and then finished with raw eggs and cheese getting vigorously beaten into the pan juices. The residual heat from the pan cooks the eggs and the sauce thickens. The contorno was soybeans done "fava style": tossed with cured pork and scallions. Soybeans aren't traditional to Italy of course but I used them instead of the task of buying 5 pounds of favas and shucking them twice.

I was pretty nervous about the main dish since I'm trying to win my wife over on eating lamb. Plus you have to be careful with the eggs in the sauce: too hot and you get scrambled eggs, and what would it taste like, anyways? And mint? But it worked quite well, the mint really added a good zip to the heavy braised flavor, and we had to stop eating the sauce left in the dish or we wouldn't have had any for the leftover meat! My only complaint is that the lamb came out a little dry, which shouldn't have been the case since it was from the leg, and braised, right? Don't know what happened there.

[albiston]

Culinaria: Italy relates that the regional origin of tiramisu is a topic of controversy among Italians: Piemonte, the Veneto, Rome, and Tuscany all lay claim to having invented it.

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Definitely a topic of controversy, though, after reading around, I'm more than convinced that it comes from southern Veneto-northern Emilia Romagna. If I manage to find the files I saved in the mess my HD is at the moment, I'll add more info about it.

Oh yes... Kevin, could you please stop making me hungry? Still four hours to dinner here and my stomach is rumbling!

[Kevin72]

Oh yes... Kevin, could you please stop making me hungry? Still four hours to dinner here and my stomach is grumbling! 

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Well at least it's only four hours for you. I posted this after finishing a bowl of oatmeal and found myself wondering why I was so hungry all of the sudden . . .

[hathor]

That fennel looks superb! I'm always on the lookout for something new to do with fennel. That dish has all the elements! We might even have some laying around in the kitchen..... The lamb dish also sounds excellent. Its been awhile since I've been to Rome...but now, I'm longing to go....

Yes, right now I'm in school. I guess my husband and I are having complete mid life crisis or rejuvination depending on how you look at it. We've chucked our former, office life for a grand adventure here in Italy. With some other friends, we're restoring a medieval guard tower in Umbria, and will turn it into a small hotel-bed & breakfast. Oh, and guess who will be doing the cooking? You think Varmint has a kitchen renovation on his hands? I'm looking at a dirt floor, no windows and a stunning rock that makes up the back wall.

So, for now, I'm heartily enjoying your journey thru Italy. Many thanks!

[Kevin72]

Man, that's amazing Hathor. As I sit here dreading a call from my new manager, I feel nothing but jealousy. You might have to make room for a sous, like it or not!

[albiston]

Yes, right now I'm in school. I guess my husband and I are having complete mid life crisis or rejuvination depending on how you look at it.  We've chucked our former, office life for a grand adventure here in Italy.  With some other friends, we're restoring a medieval guard tower in Umbria, and will turn it into a small hotel-bed & breakfast.  Oh, and guess who will be doing the cooking?  You think Varmint has a kitchen renovation on his hands? I'm looking at a dirt floor, no windows and a stunning rock that makes up the back wall.

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If that doesn't call for its own special eGullet thread I don't know what does !

In bocca al lupo!

[Kevin72]

I'm going to add my voice to the growing crowd of people who want a Hathor thread.

[Kevin72]

Monday night was a meal that's a testament to simplicity: la vignarola, casserole/soup of spring vegetables.

Get as many different spring vegetables as you can lay your hands on (I had in mine spring onions, fennel, peas, soybeans standing in for favas, asparagus, Napa cabbage, and purple baby artichokes which I was giddy to see my store carrying for the first time). Saute them in layers in olive oil, add water and simmer for about twenty minutes, finish with mint, lemon zest and juice, and fruity olive oil, and you're done.

I should note that my recipe differs from other recipes for vignarola I've seen that do call for each item to be cooked separately (and also usually have potato and cured pork like pancetta or prosciutto). There's a similar recipe in Sicily called fritedda and in that version you do cook everything together, so I guess this is a combination of the two.

The vignarola was ladled over bruschetta made from a homemade loaf of pane Genzano from Jeffrey Steingarten's book It Must've Been Something I Ate. It's a monstrous beast of a bread from a three-page recipe that I only very loosely followed--I can never figure out all the different folds and shaping you're supposed to do. But I was well pleased with the result.

[reesek]

kevin,

really man. i love your work. i love the favas with pork and scallions idea. i'm intrigued by your use of soybeans (frozen edamame?) instead of favas. i'm still having trouble finding favas (in seattle) and because i'm ansty for spring, have been tempted to use defrosted lima beans instead. i usually serve favas at room temp with pecorino, lemon zest, olive oil, mint and salt. do you defrost the soybeans and just saute them with the pork and scallion, or do you blanch them first?

hathor - you are my hero. please blog.

[Kevin72]

The favas should be in soon; it did seem like they started later this year.

Yeah, the soybeans are the same as the frozen, shucked edamame. Truth be told I don't know anyone who likes lima beans so that's why I went with the edamame.

They don't have that pleasant little bitter, vegetal kick that favas do.

If you get busted by the authenticity police I'll disavow all knowledge!

Thanks for the new thread title, Alberto!

[Kevin72]

Correction:

The author of Cooking the Roman Way is David Downie, not Dowden.

[Kevin72]

Earlier last week I made one of my absolute favorite pasta dishes, and yet another must-have spring dish, spaghetti with fennel and artichokes.

The fennel is slowly caramelized with garlic and chilies, then you add slivered baby or large artichokes and cook the whole thing down with some of the salted water for the pasta. Finish with mint, fennel fronds, and pecorino. The slow cooking of the vegetables gives them a sweet flavor, which is amplified by the mint and pecorino.

Also made an attempted approximation of puntarelle salad using slivered Belgian endive as directed by Marcella Hazan in Marcella Cucina. Puntarelle is a member of the chicory family, and one interesting feature of the salad is that when the stalks are trimmed and put in ice water they curl up a little, giving the salad a distinctive look. One of my regrets from being in Rome is that I ran out of time before I got to try this salad. Puntarelle is only just starting to make inroads in the U.S., (at the usual suspects, NY and California), so it's probably 3-5 years before I see it here in Dallas, if ever. What made the salad was the peppery garlic nd anchovy dressing which gave it a good, lusty kick. The endive was a bit innocuous in flavor though: next time I'd throw in slivered radicchio or raw dandelion greens to give it the bitter edge the real deal is reputedly famous for.

[Kevin72]

Saturday's dinner:

Primo: Capellini aglio, olio, e peperoncino

Secondo: Roasted fish with scallions, peas, edamame, and mint

Contorno: Braised broccoflower, aka Romanesco Broccoli

Dolce: Salad of strawberries, canteloupe, mint, and balsamic vinegar

The pasta dish is famous across Italy and probably knows no specific regional boundary, but I love it when paired with a seafood secondo. In my opinion (learned from Diane Darrow and Tom Maresca's books), the thinner the pasta, the better: each strands fully absorbs the flavor of the garlicky, spicy olive oil condimento. It's not all that different from the spaghetti with artichokes and fennel above, only now the base flavors of garlic and chilies take center stage. My wife says she could eat this every day and I agree. Marcella Hazan implies that it's a favorite hangover cure.

For the secondo, I roasted two fish I bought at a seafood market near my parents' place in Houston. The market is run by a father and son-in-law from Croatia, and they're pretty hardcore as far as seafood markets go. You get to pick out your own mussels, clams or oyters from an ice bin and box them up yourself, then take them up to be weighed. Also they sell WHOLE fish as opposed to fillets, something I am continually dismayed to see at even well-thought-of fish markets in Texas. This particular day they had a fish that they called in Croatian burata or borata or something like that; I never caught the full pronunciation. They were very proud to have it and went into length explaining how doted upon it is up and down the Adriatic coast. I talked with them for a while about that area and won points from them for asking about red mullet, which they said they can never get people to buy here so they just don't carry it. But they were impressed I knew what it was!

So I seared the fish off in a very hot roasting pan over a grill, flipped them, then poured white wine over along with scallions, peas, edamame, and mint. I'm pretty sure these are the same as or similar to Italian orate, (sea bream?), and I have never seen it at any other seafood market here in Texas. I really liked the fish. If anyone can confirm what these are (didn't get a pic of them raw, sorry) let me know.

The contorno was braised broccoflower. Also that day, we went to a new farmers market and I was really excited to see the broccoflower there, which looked almost exactly like the kind I saw in Italy.

Starting in Tuscany on south, the standard technique for cooking vegetables seems to be to slowly braise them in olive oil, garlic, and sometimes chilies, then finish with an herb. I got this technique from Mario Batali, who in turn attributes it to Faith Willinger, and I'd say that this is probably the best and most important technique I've learned from them both.

For dessert it was a simple salad of macerated strawberries and canteloupe, finished with mint and balsamic vinegar. Rome trivia: the U.S. canteloupe actually gets its name from similar melons grown outside of Rome, "canta lupa" (sp?), "singing wolf", named after the mythical she-wolf Lupa who suckled Romulus and Remus. The U.S. canteloupe is closer to the muskmelon though ( but I'm hazy on the specifics and that reference).

I've introduced my parents to the pleasures of Frascati which we drank with the meal.

Edited April 11, 2005 by Kevin72 (log)

[Kevin72]

Sunday's meal was an "alla Romana" extravaganza to show how broad that term is.

Antipasto: Carciofi alla Romana

Primo: Gnocchi alla Romana

Secondo: Pollo alla Romana

My absolute favorite vegetable is the artichoke, even from back in my childhood when my mom would serve it with a butter/lemon sauce to dip the leaves in. It took me forever to conceptualize the Italian way of mercilessly trimming all the leaves and tough outer skin away, leaving basically the heart, stem, and tender inner bracts to eat. And I can't believe how incredible it tasted with mint; why it's not more widely-known here in the U.S. is a mystery. So this is that standard artichoke and mint combo, Carciofi alla Romana, where the aggressively trimmed artichokes are braised upside-down with garlic, mint and white wine. I got to use the "carciofi mix" of dried herbs I bought from the famous spice seller in Campo do Fiore. When I met him one of the first things he did was proudly show me the sidebar about him in Downie's book, which I of course had and excitedly told him about.

Here's an observation I forgot to add in my Top 5 thread: despite hearing repeatedly how fond of mint the Romans are, I detected none of it in any of the cooking I had there. I'd imagine that, as Alberto pointed out when I made the same observation about the lack of chilies in the dishes I had, it must be reserved for home cooking.

Gnocchi alla Romana are a semolina-based dumpling. As with polenta, you pour semolina into simmering liquid (milk), cook until it thickens, then pour onto a tray or flat surface and let it set. Then you cut out little circles of the semolina and line them in a baking dish, top with grated pecorino and parmigiano cheese and butter, and bake/broil until the topping is browned and bubbly. The semolina layer gets creamy and custard-like while the topping gets caramelized and crunchy and they play well off of each other. I have to wonder though why even go through the added step of cutting out the shapes when the whole thing "melts" together again when you cook it. Why not just pour it into a pan, let it set, top it and cook it off?

Pollo alla romana is chicken braised with peppers, tomato sauce, and bacon/pancetta. Traditionally the peppers are roasted and peeled before they are added, but I do the Marcella Hazan technique of peeling the peppers and adding them raw. Actually I wasn't much of a pepper fan until I learned this technique which leaves them pleasantly sweet.

[hathor]

Everything looks wonderful as ususal. Also, as usual, now I'm hungry. Its all your fault! I love what you have been doing with fennel. (Not to make you cry or anything but both the carcofi and fava beans are all over the markets right now. Its just amazing how many varieties of artichokes are available in Italy, and you basically only have one stand by type in the U.S. )

That fish also looked very, very good (and orata like).

Ciao!!

[Kevin72]

You're in Umbria, right? They seem to really like fennel/anise flavors, so that's a happy coincidence for you!

And yes I was bowled over by the variety of 'chokes when I've seen them. I'd imagine it's even more so when the season's in full swing.

[Ore]

Ciao Kevin,

Time for me to catch up on this AMAZING thread. Awesome job on all the recipes. When do you have the time to do all this cooking!?! I must have missed when you laid out what you do!! The idea of blanching the bacon and re rubbing with spices is great - but the real stuff is always gonna be the real stuff...but then again...its always better being close to the real stuff!

I look forward to more posts.

Ore

[Kevin72]

Thanks for the input, Ore. Truthfully, your own thread inspired this one. And I'd imagine being a salumi master by now you've gotta cringe seeing the lengths I go through. Does it sound like that process would work? Not in the replicating guanciale sense but more will the technique and flavors work.

Probably the only benefit of my current job is that I live 6 minutes from where I work. So I usually get home with a good 2 hours of cook time, and come home at lunch sometimes too to start prep work. Other times I cook ahead on the weekends and eat off that during the week.

[divina]

Kevin.. very Italian of you to live 6 minutes from where you work.. i does help with cooking times!

I just arrived in Dallas.. boy is it Flat!

have you set up a bibliography of the books you are using?

[Kevin72]

Kevin.. very Italian of you to live 6 minutes from where you work.. i does help with cooking times!

I just arrived in Dallas.. boy is it Flat!

have you set up a bibliography of the books you are using?

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Apologies in advance for whatever culture shock we give you.

A bibliography is a great idea . . . I try to reference the recipes I use and what the basis of my cooking for the month will be, but maybe when all this is over I'll do a list of the regions and cookbooks for each month . . . ?

[Kevin72]

This past week I've been trying to replicate some of the dishes we had at Trattoria da Lucia in the Trastevere neighborhood. Trastevere is a neat little secluded world away from Rome; when we were wandering around there we were relieved not to have to be scrambling away from cars rocketing down the streets for once. And the ecstatic write-ups about the great places to eat there are no lie: I must've seen at least five other intriguing places in addition to da Lucia.

Monday night we had pasta e ceci, a hearty soup/pasta dish with a chickpea base.

As I had said earlier, Rome is very much affixed to certain dishes only being served on certain days. On Tuesdays, pasta e ceci is the dish. When I went to da Lucia on a Wednesday and tried to order it the waiter shook his head and I got a perfectly satisfying pasta e borlotti dish instead. I made it Monday since Tuesday is another late work night for my wife.

After not liking chickpeas for most of my life, I've decided to start giving them a try and this was a great first start.

Last night I recreated the dishes my wife ate at da Lucia. The pasta was spaghetti cacio e pepe, another testament to big flavors for such simple, minimal prep. Boil the spaghetti until al dente, drain and reserve about a cup of the cooking water, then toss the pasta in the pot it cooked in off the heat with the pasta water, ample cacio cheese, and a good punch of black pepper.

The secondo was beef rotoli braised in a spicy tomato and mint sauce, and finished with peas.

I tweaked the recipe a little, adding prosicutto and mint to the filling (normally the beef is just wrapped around a carrot stick) and braising the meat in the tomato sauce. At da Lucia the beef was cooked separate and just finished with a ladle of tomato sauce as it was served, which didn't give the flavors a chance to really meld.

[Kevin72]

Saturday's Meal:

Primo: Fettuccini Alfredo

Secondo: Turkey (Gallinaccio) en tegame

Contorno: Stuffed braised escarole

Dolce: Yogurt and Sambucca custard

One of the things I most enjoy about Downie's Cooking the Roman Way is his sidebars on a number of Roman traditions and dishes. He explores, at length, Spaghetti Carbonara, Fettuccini Alfredo, and Bucatini all'Amatriciani, dispelling myths and plunging into their respective histories.

Fettuccini Alfredo's history is wrapped in the story of two feuding families, the di Lelio's and the Mozzetti's. If they haven't already, someone should make an Italian soap opera loosely based on this generation-spanning story. Alfredo di Lelio I popularized the dish with visiting Hollywood royalty in the '20's, then sold the popular restaurant and recipe to his headwaiter (Mozzetti) during the lean WWII years. After the war he returned and set up a new, larger restaurant elsewhere in Rome and began serving his classic dish again. So now the feud was on: which one could lay claim to had the real, original recipe: the original restaurant now run by Mozzetti, or di Lelio's new restaurant, run by his son and now grandson?

We didn't try Fettuccini Alfredo when we were in Rome: I couldn't get the specifics of which was which right, and undoubtedly would have wound up eating at some unrelated tourist trap and paying 18 Euros a pop for it. We did see a huge bilboard advertising the "Original Alfredo's!" at one point, though.

I have to make a confession here: in all my years of cooking Italian, I'd never really tried to make the true Fettuccini Alfredo specifically to recipe before. I'd always done the Americanized version with cream, and using evaporated skim milk in its place. What? Don't look at me like that. I had tried a few years ago to make the classic version using butter and cheese but got scared by the quantity of butter called for and dramatically cut it back, resulting in a pastey, gluey mass of noodles stuck together.

What I like about Downie's version is that the pasta recipe he uses is made from half semolina, so that the pasta retains a firm bite and doesn't loose itself amongst the butter and cheese. So Saturday, in the name of authenticity, I tried to make fettuccini Alfredo mostly to specifications. I still didn't use the full amount of butter (2 sticks) required for the recipe, but then I also didn't have the full weight of pasta called for either. As you heat the water to cook the pasta, you place the pasta bowl over the pot in place of a lid to heat the bowl up. Then when the water comes to a boil, remove the bowl and wipe it off, and put the butter in to melt in the residual heat. Cook the pasta, then toss into the butter. Ooh boy. It's not going to absorb is it? Look at all that butter! It's just swimming in it! It's gonna be too greasy! Well, toss the cheese in, and that half-ladle of cooking water, and maybe the cheese will set somewhat and help the consistency.

You toss and turn the pasta in the bowl with a fork and spoon, carefully but firmly. And, miracle of miracles, the butter is absorbed, the pasta doesn't stick together, and the cheese emulsifies and coats every last strand of the pasta.

Oh. My. God. Heart-cloggingly good. It's for the best that I hadn't ever tried this version before, and wasn't aware how good it was, or I'd have made it more often and probably be dictating this entry from the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit at Cedar's. It tasted just like cream, only of course the creamiest cream you've ever had. And yes, I did splurge and buy Plugara for this.

The contorno was turkey thighs, braised with pancetta, white wine, thyme, leeks, celery, and rosemary. On the side was stuffed braised escarole. I liked the escarole itself but found the stuffing (anchovies, olives, capers) to be too aggressively salty, probably due to an overdose of olives in there.

For dessert it was baked yogurt and sambucca custards, a modification of Marcella Hazan's recipe in Marcella Cucina. No pics >hic!<.

Edited April 18, 2005 by Kevin72 (log)

[Kevin72]

Sunday night was an antipasto sampler. One of the many things Roman cuisine is noted for is its antipasti and snacks: go into most trattorie in Rome and the night's anitpasti are laid out on a table near the entrance.

Fiore di Latte with marinated anchovies.

Marinated artichokes and onions.

Based on another Marcella Hazan recipe. The 'chokes and onions are blanched in a vinegar and water solution, then honey and vermouth are added and they cook a bit longer. Meanwhile you simmer garlic, chilies, and mint in some olive oil. Drain the artichokes and submerge them in the flavored oil.

Pizza Bianca with mortadella.

Yet another regret from our Roman trip is that I didn't get to try fresh from the oven, oozing with oil and crunchy salt, Pizza Bianca. Both Downie and Jeffrey Steingarten devote essays to its goodness. I did try it at one place our first night, and even though there was a sign advertising it "Sempre Caldo" it was cold and so not anything great. My wife had her's with a piece of mortadella folded atop it and that added greatly to the enjoyment. This version was good enough but not so different from Foccaccia, and looked not much at all like the pics of it in Downie's book.

[hathor]

That alfredo looks divine...and of course, you made your own fresh pasta, right?? My fellow studente are all convinced that only rolling will do, no machines for this group!

And, inspired by you, I carmelized some fennel this weekend, and it was excellent. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Kevin72]

I make my own pasta, but only handroll it very occasionally. I was debating doing it this time but ran out of time in the kitchen.