Archive for the Italian Category

I’m likely not the first one to come up with this… but it seems novel at the moment, so I’ll share.

We all have leftovers in the refrigerator, and what do we do with them? What do you do with those extra slices of salami? Or left over chicken? Or those extra olives you have left over?

As it turns out, so many things I find are too little to serve as a meal, but you still hate to toss them. That’s why, at this busy time, I came up with an idea: let’s throw some stuff on a pizza.

It was Christmas Eve, and we’d been busy. We were hungry, but we were sick of recipes, sauces, and complicated cooking. Now, before I start, you might want to gather some key ingredients/tools to make pizza at home. I think these are important.

1. Pizza stone. This is a great thing to use in your oven almost all the time. It helps regulate temperature and gives you really nice crusts. You put your pies right on this ceramic surface. I use a square one that takes up the entire bottom grate of my oven, and I leave it in there all the time. I simply pre-heat my oven longer with it in there so it comes up to temperature.
2. Pizza Paddle. If you have a stone, spring for a wood or steel paddle. This is the device you use to slip your pie off and onto your stone.
3. Pizza pan If you don’t want the stone, get a dedicated pizza pan, that’s metal. It’s nice for helping you form a round pie.
4. Pizza dough. This is not hard to make, but when you’re in a hurry, I’ve found two local purveyors that do a good job. For just 99 cents, Trader Joe’s offers a bag of dough. It makes one medium pizza. For around $3 or so, Whole Foods market sells a heftier block of dough, and the one I used for the recipe I’m going to describe included 7 grains or something.

The important part about dough and making it yourself - find a recipe you like - and keep making it… commit it to memory. It just requires advanced thinking on your part.

So, since I had some dough from Whole Foods, I left it out of the icebox for about 2 hours… and then lightly floured a board, and formed it. Don’t over-mix these bought-doughs… they’re pretty much ready to go. You can use a rolling pin, but most are pliable enough you can just use your clean hands.

I added my own basic tomato sauce with lots of garlic to the bottom. I used pine nuts, 2-3 kinds of left over cheeses (among them tallegio - yum), pine nuts, and olives. I also used some slices of peppered salami.

This is the key - add what you want. Since pizza should be baked like this at 500+ degrees in your oven, nothing is in there for too long. Use pre-cooked meats (chicken, sausage), and if you’re using veggies, make sure they aren’t watery. And see what flavor combinations you can come up with. I might make this a regular thing for 2011… weekly leftover pizzas.

With great weather today, I knew Carytown was the place for lunch, but might it be a late French bistrot lunch at CanCan, or perhaps would we go to Coppola’s Deli for my favorite sandwich?

The sandwich, of course, won.

They have great sandwiches with all kinds of toppings, however their imported prosciutto “Original Italian Hero” sandwich is a favorite because of its simplicity.

First, they take Parman ham, shaved thin, and pile it on loosely. There’s a little dressed roasted red pepper, and a hunk of mozzarella. But that’s it… I guild it with a little salt, and I sometimes I wish I carried a stealth bottle of EVOO with me, but… their roll is fantastic. The whole thing is about letting that delicious ham sing, and it does so beautifully.

As good as ever, something simple yet ultimately profound. (They also carry a new flavor of “Dirty” chips which were superb, called “Funky.”)

According to Lynne Rosetto Kasper, of the Splendid Table radio show, this is a pasta dish that came from the hills of Abruzzo before tomato sauce overtook Italy.

It’s a simple, yet tasty pasta:

• pancetta
• garlic
• pepper, red pepper flakes
• parmesan or romano cheese, grated
• salted pasta water

That’s it! I added parsley because I had it.

This weekend’s cooler weather seemed an appropriate time to make a dish I haven’t made for many months: risotto. And what type? My favorite, of course, mushroom risotto.

I’m going to share a few secrets about risotto with readers—these aren’t Italian grandma-style secrets (as I don’t have, nor I have learned to cook this from an Italian grandmother)—but my own. “What makes you an authority on risotti, Mr. Messy?” Well… I can’t say I’m an authority, but I have received many accolades for my risotti, with many a person to tell me “this risotto isn’t as good as yours,” when we’re out to eat.

Of course, who in a restaurant can give this dish so much love as when I’m cooking for two?

The recipes aren’t really that important. In tonight’s example, I used yellow and red pepper, crimini and shiitake mushrooms. Red onion. Celery and carrot. Garlic. But use what you have on hand.

You will need, no matter what:

• onion
• two or more kinds of mushrooms
• garlic
• something red (tomato, or tomato paste; red pepper, etc.)
• something green (likely an herb)
• parmesan cheese (or the rind)
• salt, pepper
• pork product (I used pancetta)
• stock (beef, chicken, or water, or a combination)
• wine (I used red; you can use white)

I also used two luxury ingredients, but these are simply for showing off: black truffle butter and saffron.

For me, risotto is a layered dish. You are layering flavors over flavors. You can develop these in stages. I always start with onion in fat, and in this case, it was pancetta and EVOO. Then add roughly half of your mushrooms. Add garlic. You want some color on the mushrooms. Layer in some pepper. Then add the rice, with fat still in the pan. Stir in that risotto rice (aborio is but one style), and cook it in the fat.

Next, add alcohol. I here used a Abruzzo red wine, enough to moisten all of the things in the pan. Stir. You’ll be stirring now for 20 more minutes.

Reduce the wine, then add some stock or water. This evening I used a combination of water and stock. So, three liquids: wine, water, stock. Then add the cheese rinds if you have them, from a block of parmesan cheese. You can fish these out later.

Stir. Stir. Stir. Keep adding warm liquid to the pot, and stir. You never want a huge amount of liquid, and you never want it so dry it’s “frying.” Mid-way, add the aromatic vegetables (peppers). Pinch of saffron. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the mushrooms.

Put in 1/2 of the remaining mushrooms (1/4 total) into the risotto. These will be firmer than the first ones, which cooked in fat. Take the rest, and fry them in butter. Really get color on these guys, and add salt and pepper. Add fresh thyme. Add more fresh garlic. Let these rest until you’re ready to serve.

Before serving the risotto, add your green: chives, more herbs; I used parsley.

Stir in that truffle butter.

Then, when plating, put the “fried” mushrooms on top. They’re crispy and garlicky. And now you have a properly composed dish: the textures will astound you. The flavors should please you. Warm mushrooms with the scent of truffles is divine.

There was a request earlier this weekend “for pizza featuring tomatoes.” I’d pictured one of those “pizza margheritas,” but I always like a little more sauce than plain tomatoes.

I started with Hanover tomatoes and roasted them in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours to a) remove the skins, and b) reduce some of the moisture. I also drizzled them with EVOO, black pepper, and some garlic slices.

The pizza crust was made from a mixture of:

• ap flour
• 1 packet yeast, warm water
• milk
• EVOO
• salt

I mixed the dough in the stand mixer and let it rise for 2 hours. Then, it was flattened and shaped with additional flour (I always leave pizza dough moist). The end-product was pretty good for crust, maybe a little too much; the yeast was especially active and rose fast.

The toppings included:

• base of grated parmesan cheese
• tomatoes with garlic
• fresh basil
• fresh mozzarella

That’s it! It wasn’t bad. The salad was a simple one, featuring a delicious heirloom tomato.