Penne ai Quattro Formaggi (Super Tuscan Mac ‘N’ Cheese)

It is interesting how different cultures have very similar recipes that fall into the category of “Comfort Food“: Mashed Potatoes, Meatballs, Mac ‘n’ Cheese just to name a few.

Each and every family that I know has a few recipes that are executed “on demand” whenever it might feel appropriate: if somebody is sick, if the kids are driving you nuts, if grandma is coming for a Sunday dinner. We are no different! Continue Reading…

Homemade Pasta

Making fresh home made pasta is easy but a little lengthy. For the most part, in hour house we use regular dry pasta for all of our recipes however, when the right ingredients like a fresh hunted duck or a succulent chunk of Boar come around, nothing better than prepare some fresh pasta to go with it, on the spot!

When I learned to make my very own fresh pasta from my grandmother we never used a scale, a measuring cup or a pasta rolling machine. She used to have a metal spoon, like the ones you used to find in groceries stores that sold beans, lentils and other dried goods… Continue Reading…

Straccetti con Speck e Porcini

Porcini Mushrooms are a “Northern Hemisphere” delicacy that can be purchased fresh from mid Autumn until mid Winter, depending on temperature and rain precipitation. These Fungi should preferably be eaten fresh, but given the limited time they can be sourced through the year, it is very convenient to purchased them dried which makes for easier storage and convenience of use.

Needless to say, if you know mushrooms there is no comparison between the fresh Porcini and the Dried ones, however if we exclude recipes that call for raw mushrooms like salads and carpaccio, both version are totally interchangeable. Continue Reading…

Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca

So the story is there was a brothel, and everybody was hungry after working and getting tired. It’s a pick-up for a brothel, so they made pasta with whatever they had in the cabinet, and I guess in this brothel all they had were tomatoes and olives and some spices. Puttanesca means “of the whore,” and this is the legend I was told about how this dish came to be. It works, it’s absolutely fabulous, and it’s definitely a pick-up after working hard.

Besciamella

Besciamella is a sauce, you don’t eat it as is. You use it for preparations like lasagne or manicotti or cannelloni. In America, besciamella has been substituted with mozzarella and ricotta which is the way Italian-American lasagne is defined (with a lot of cheese.) The Italian lasagne doesn’t have that much cheese, only some parmesan to add saltiness and flavor. The fluffiness and richness is from besciamella, which is easy to make.

Pasta al Vino (with Sausage and Saffron)

My wife described this pasta last week, as we were testing the recipe, as “very feminine”… to me it means that this dish makes a perfect lunch!
As much as this sauce is rich in flavor, it is not an aggressive recipe for your palate, it has no kick, so to speak, but more a very round and politically correct aroma that you can feel on the back of your palate… you can smell it from the “inside”… balsamic, yes, that’s the right word. Never described a pasta dish as balsamic in my life though… I guess try the recipe and let me know if you understand what I mean. Continue Reading…

Lasagne alla Bolognese

Today’s recipe is a gem!
Lasagne alla Bolognese (with meat sauce) is one of the most popular dishes of Emila-Romagna, in Italy. Because of the proximity with Tuscany, the dish is now a very well represented item in restaurants’ menus throughout my region and many families have their own version of it: today we will introduce you to the traditional recipe… the one without Ricotta Cheese!!!
Don’t let the hours of work needed to cook this intimidate you, indeed this is a dish that can be prepared without braking a major sweat… no surprises here. Continue Reading…

Homemade Gnocchi

“Gnocchi di Patate” (Homemade Potato Gnocchi) are yet another very humble treasure of Italian culinary tradition that can be eaten in its many different regional variations all across the “Bel Paese”. In Italy they are often sold at local bread bakeries, along with many different kind of fresh made pastas and ravioli, and also are very well represented on the mass market in their prepackaged, usually much drier version. Because of the simplicity of the ingredients used in the preparation of Gnocchi, many believe it to be a dish that was mostly prepared in the country by farmers; truth is that, because potatoes were introduced in the European diet only after the Americas were discovered, the original roots of this dish are not really easy to trace. Continue Reading…

Pesto Lasagne

Today’s recipe is somewhat a classic in Italy; it is a Vegetarian Lasagne, without the “Ratatouille” inside.
If you were in Italy, this dish would be always easy and very fast to prepare, here in the States it will be up to your own luck in finding the pre-made ingredients we use… In fact, almost anywhere in “The Old Country” you are able to scout (and successfully find) pesto and “besciamella” (bechamel sauce) ready to go, and a special kind of lasagne that do not need to be boiled in water: and this is what truly makes the difference, as you can prepare a pan that can serve up to 12 people in less than 20 minutes, and shove it in the oven without further worries. Continue Reading…