Italian recipes, from Italy :P

[Luciano]

Hi, UberLutheran asked me if I would like to exchange recipes and the answer is a loud YES!

The first recipe is Risotto alla Milanese, you can use it as the starting point of many different risotto recipes.

Risotto alla Milanese - Risotto Milan-Style

Tthe real origin of this recipe is in Lomellina (the part of the Pavia province between the Po and Ticino rivers, my land), even if the name is Milano (big vity 60 km north of Lomellina) style.
Lomellina, with the provinces of Novara and Vercelli in Piedmont, produce the 55% of the European rice, and the 90% of the Italian mosquitos
It's a traditional sunday dish.

Serves 4:
6 cups broth (beef, capon, or vegetables*)
1/4 teaspoon saffron
7 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 ounces minced beef meat or pig sausage, optional
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 clove of garlic (optional, I use 2 cloves)
1/2 cup of white wine or Marsala wine** (both are optional)
1 1/2 cups Arborio or Vialone Nano rice
salt
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano (or Grana Padano or Pecorino) cheese

Heat the broth in a saucepan; set aside 1/4 cup and dissolve the saffron in it.
Melt half of the butter in a deep, wide pan, add the meat/sausage (if you use it), onion, carrot, garlic and the wine, and cook over low heat 15 minutes. Raise the heat, stir in the rice and salt, and cook 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the broth and cook, stirring, until it is absorbed; continue adding broth and stirring until the rice is nearly cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir in the saffron broth, and cook until the rice is al dente. Stir in the remaining butter and the Parmigiano, and serve.

With risotto you can drink white or red wine, I usually drink Riesling (white) or Bonarda (red).

* for the vegetables broth I use a potato, a carrot, a stalk of celery, an onion. When the broth is ready, with the vegetables you can make a salad: cut roughly the vegetables, add salt, pepper, vinegar (I prefer the aromatic one), extra-virgin olive oil. I like to eat this salad while it's still warm.
**The traditional recipe use white wine but my grandma always used the Marsala wine and I think it give to the risotto a richer flavour.

As for the Italian sausage, I use only the "Luganega", one of the traditional Lombard sausages, but any kind of sausage (without strong flavourings added) can be used. I often mix the sausage with minced beef meat.
This recipe is the "popular" one, as I learned it from my grandma and mom, you can find online and on recipe books more refined versions of it.
To have a mushrooms risotto I usually use dried mushrooms, I place some of them in a bowl with some water in the morning to use them in the evening. Then I will use the water (now very mushroom tasting) in the risotto, with the broth.

Buon appetito
Luciano

[Luciano]

Aaaaand other 3 recipes.

Pollo alla cacciatora
(Chicken hunter's style)

To cook a medium size chicken (an Italian medium size chicken could be an USA small size, but I know only what I see on movies :P.

3 knobs of butter, 3.5 glasses of olive oil (better virgin or extra-virgin), 1 onion (minced), 3 cloves of garlic (fine minced), 1 glass of wine (red or white, sweet or not, don't worry), a pinch each of clove-cinnamon-nutmeg (the last two grated or ground), approximately 1 pound of tomatoes (roughly cut to pieces, fresh or in tin), a soup cube, salt if required, pepper /chili pepper (better ground) if you like it, but not much.

Heat the oil in a deep pan over a low heat, melt in the butter, add the onion and the garlic. When onion and garlic start to brown (in Italian we say "when they turn golden") add some water (enough to cover the bottom of the pan whit a film of liquid), then as soon the water is dried out add the chicken cut to pieces.
When the chicken browns (turn golden ) add the wine and cook until it's absorbed. Now add the tomatoes, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, the soup cube, pepper/chili if you want, and let it cook, ever on low fire. The cooking time depends on the kind of chicken: if it's a farmyard chicken 1/1.5 hours, if battery chicken less. The best thing is to taste it
The chicken must "drown" in the sauce (not fully covered but nearly), if dries too much add some water and soup cube.

With this recipe it's better to drink red wine (not sweet).


The "No Name" Pasta
I invented this recipe few years ago.
Dedicated to all the "flame retardant coated digestive tracts" people :D

Boil the pasta (that's easy )
Take garlic (a clove), some anchovies, some chili peppers, and black olives, finely mince them and then fry this mix in at least a couple of spoon of olive oil.
When the pasta is ready, strain it then throw in the frying mix and swiftly add breadcrumbs and mix all.
The breadcrumb will coat the pasta and the sauce together, the trick is not too much breadcrumbs.

As always with strong flavoured dishes I counsel a red wine.


Bagna Caoda
In piedmontese dialect it means Hot Sauce and, as most of the better Italian dishes, it's a poor man's recipe.
I learned it from my father.

serving 6
Garlic: at least a head of garlic
Anchovies: at least a pound, the true recipe requires salted anchovies
Butter: 2 ounces
Milk: 2 spoonful
Extra-virgin olive oil: 2 cups
Vegetables: Cardoons, celery, carrots, fennels, artichokes, peppers, scallions, cauliflowers, (any crunchy vegetable you like)

Peel the garlic and slice it very fine, take the bone out of the anchovies, wash them to remove the salt, drain, dry and then slice them.
Heat the oil in a pot over a low heat, I prefer an earthenware (terra-cotta) pot, then add the garlic, before the garlic browns add the anchovies and the butter. Stir carefully and cook until the garlic and the anchovies have dissolved, then add the milk. After 2 minutes the dip is ready.

It's best to leave the pot on a low fire (bagna cauda should be hot).
You can eat from the communal pot o serve each person a little sauce in a cup and and fill when empty (what a good idea )
And voilà: you will dip the vegetables (previously cut in pieces) in the sauce.

Drink a strong red wine (I prefer Barbera), anything not strong flavoured will be "drowned" by the taste of this sauce.

You can use what remains of the bagna caoda (if any) on pasta too, it's very good.

Remember: to eat bagna cauda you MUST love garlic, and never, never kiss (a non bagna caoda eater) for at least 24 hours


----------------------------
The pasta sauce I often use, we can call it my standard sauce, is prepared with the usual soffritto (small minced onion and garlic fried in olive oil until golden and then adding a little bit of water), with added tomato sauce (I prefer using fresh tomatoes in springtime and summer), olives, basil and a small piece of Gorgonzola cheese (but any kind of strong flavoured, melting cheese will be good), chili pepper, grated pepper. After pouring the sauce on the pasta I add lots of grated Parmesan cheese (my wife is Texan and loves this sauce).

Don't worry if your recipes aren't "really" Italian, I don't know anyone in Italy cooking exactly as the recipes are written, whe always add/subtract things to prepare a personal recipe.
My mom was never able to repeat the same recipe without changing it.

Ciao e buon appetito
Luciano

[ravenscape]

This thread is making me very hungry! Thank you so much for sharing these, Luciano!

[Luciano]

This thread is making me very hungry! Thank you so much for sharing these, Luciano!
It's a pleasure :D
I hope I will have some feedback from people trying these recipes, I have others translated, I need only to find them.

Ciao e buon appetito :P
Luciano

[BigToe]

Ho fame!

[Luciano]

Ho fame!
Good Italian!
Try one of these recipes and let me know if you liked it :D

One of the more upsetting things for my wife, in the first months at least, was that she asked me more than once for a simple pasta sauce and she couldn't understand why I had to use at least half a dozen of ingredients (tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrot, basil, parsley, pepper, chili pepper).
For her a simple pasta sauce was tomato sauce and nothing else. :shock:

Luciano

[Luciano]

A couple of vegetarian recipes.


Penne all'arrabbiata - Angry Penne

Some kind of pasta (as penne) can be found in a "liscia" (smooth) or "rigata" (ribbed) version, I prefer the pasta rigata as it can keep better the sauce, IMNSHO.

Serves 5
1 pound of penne - 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes - 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes (or more if you like it) - 1-3 (depending on your liking of garlic) cloves garlic, minced - 1 tablespoon minced Italian parsley - 1/3 cup extra - virgin olive oil - 2 tablespoons dry white wine (optional) - salt

In a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and cook for 20 minutes over medium heat. In a skillet large enough to hold the penne later, heat the remaining olive oil with the garlic and parsley; deglaze with the wine, allow to evaporate and fold in the tomato sauce and chili. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the penne al dente; drain and transfer to the skillet. Toss with the spicy sauce over high heat for 1 minute, transfer to a serving platter, and serve immediately.

As usual, with strong flavoured recipes, red wine it's the best drinking choice.

Pasta all'avocado - Pasta with avocado

Ok, I know avocado isn't an Italian vegetable, but this Italian recipe use it.
It's a dishes best served in springtime/summer, almost a pasta salad.

Serves 4
400/500 gr of pasta (I prefer penne, maccheroni or pipe), a mature avocado, 400/500 gr of minced tomatoes, 1/2 garlic cloves (minced), a couple of tablespoon of minced basil, pepper, salt, extra virgin olive oil.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, meanwhile cut the avocado in cubes, throw it in a large bowl with the tomatoes, garlic, pepper, salt, basil, and mix. When the pasta is "al dente", drain it and then throw in in the bowl, mix again and ... voilà! The pasta all'avocado is ready!

It's a swift and easy recipe, and you can experiment with other ingredients, I like to add some chili.
If you don't like garlic very much, a little trick is to use the whole clove(s) and then take it away before to add the pasta. Another trick with garlic is, when you mince it, to take away the internal sprout.

As a drinking choice I counseil a white whine or a red one but not too strong flavoured.


If someone will try one of these recipes I would love to know if/how much you like them.

Ciao
Luciano

[Loki]

How many types of basil do you have? At a local farmer's market, I have access to several different strains, with sweet and genoa being the most common. I prefer sweet, but genoa is not without its merits.

[Luciano]

On this issue I'm quite ignorant, as I know only the "normal" kind of basil. :oops:
I use a lot of basil and some of the best is the one my mom or my aunt (they grow it in vases near the flowers) give me.

Luciano

[stumpjumper]

Great recipes. I love Chicken Hunter's style...

[Luciano]

I'm waiting for someone brave enough to try Bagna Caoda :twisted:
I love it, but it's a hit or miss recipe: you love it or you hate it.

A Canadian friend loved it while my wife can eat it but without great enthusiasm.
It's best in winter, for a New Year party (many years ago) I prepared a MEGA bagna caoda for a dozen of persons.
It was a wonderful dinner, with lots of wine and grappa (and coffee). Luckily everyone enjoyed it so there weren't problems with the kissing :P

Luciano

[ravenscape]

The Bagna Caoda recipe sounds wonderful, and I may try next time I get together with my father in law. He and I are the only family members who will touch anchovies, unfortunately.

We are in the middle of preparations for a kitchen remodel. I hope I'll get a chance to try Angry Penne or Pasta with Avocado before the kitchen is indefinitely closed.

[violets]

they all look great! I can't wait to try them :)

[Luciano]

I'm preparing some recipes for pasta salad, very good in springtime and summer.
I will post them soon, so you will have new experiments to try :D

Luciano

[Luciano]

Here in Italy the weather is warm now, at last!
So, it's time for salads.

We could start with Insalata Caprese

One of the simplest salads, its secret is using only the best ingredients: tomatoes, mozzarella, salt, pepper, basil, olive oil.
For only two servings, I use a mozzarella (the best one is "mozzarella di bufala"), a couple of medium sized, not too ripe tomatoes (their quality too is very important), pepper and salt to taste, a couple of extra-virgin olive oil spoons and 5/6 basil leafes.

Slice the tomatoes and the mozzarella, put on them salt and pepper, the olive oil and the basil leafes and let it rest for 10 minutes. Voilà, it's ready.

This recipe it's simple but really tasty, I like to eat it with the bread used in Pavia and province ("miccone"), as usual I prefer red wine.

Ciao
Luciano

[Luciano]

Hi folks, that's the recipe I will prepare today, a pasta salad I love to have in these warmer months. My wife too loves it, she's a Texan and the first time she tasted it she was surprised by how tasty can be something so simple.

Insalata di pasta, com mozzarella, pomodoro e basilico
The title says everything, the ingredients for two servings are: pasta (80 g each serving), tomatoes (I prefer the smaller ones as cherry tomatoes, Pachino, ecc. and I use 15/16 of them), one mozzarella, fresh basil (for two I use afull fist of leaves), salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, a couple of garlic cloves (or less if you aren't a garlic lover).

First thing is to put the ingredients togheter: slice the tomatoes, the mozzarella, garlic, put everything in a bowl, add salt and pepper and olive oil.
Sometimes I add few drops of aromatic vinegar, it tastes very differently from the normal one (it's a very dark vinegar, with a deep, almost sweet smell) and it add a lot of flavour. Sometimes I add to it also some black olives, for this kind of use I prefer the small, black Ligurian ones.
Put the pasta in the boiling water, so the salad ingredients will rest togheter for some minutes, mixing their flavours together.
When the pasta is ready throw it in the bowl, add the basil leaves, leave it resting for another 5 minutes and it's ready.

In less than 20 minutes you will have a really good (and filling) dinner. Pasta salads are often used, here in Italy, when you have many guests at home. You can prepare lots of it without wasting lots of time (or money) and being cold you don't have to eat it immediately.

For pasta salads I usually prefer a black, not too strong wine. Lambrusco or Gutturnio are perfect.
If you prefer white wine I would counseil a good Riesling.

Ciao e buon appetito!
Luciano

[beoba]

This is from a textfile which I got off someone on IRC. It is written from a first-person perspective, but that person isn't me. I haven't tried this recipe, but I'm hoping to do so once I have a kitchen.. (currently in a dorm, graduating this coming weekend):

I have not met a person yet, male or female, that did not melt when I made this for them. It is a recipe given as thanks for medical care given to a first generation North End (Boston, Famous Italian food abounds) restaurant owner's mother.

A few things you will need.

11 ounces of cream cheese (Don't worry, you won't really even taste the cream cheese when you are done)
16 ounces of heavy cream
1 cup of sugar
4 packages of lady fingers (24 per package kind that come in sheets)
1 can of crushed pineapple (A large can)
1 can of sliced pineapple rings (Samll can, you'll need about 7 of them depending on the size of the pan you use)
1 Ring form pan (I'd say about a 12-15 inch pan, I've never really measured the ones I use)
1 stick blender
1 freezer with adequate room in it to fit the ring form pan

Here we go!

* Mix together the sugar, heavy cream and cream cheese with the stick blender until it is whipped.

* Drain the cans of pineapples, keep them seperated.

* Put the lady fingers on the bottom of the spring form pan and along the sides so it is all covered.

* Spread cream cheese mix along the bottom and add a layer of crushed pineapples, then cover that with a layer of lady fingers.

* Repeat the last step until there are three layers with lady fingers on top as well.

* Add the remaining cream cheese topping and decorate the top with the pineapple rings, if you want to add maraschino cherries you can, but I found it takes away from the overall taste, but whatever floats your boat.

* Toss the whole thing in the freezer for a few hours until it is nice and firm, you can even leave it in there overnight and it will defrost fine, if you freeze it completely it will make the lady fingers even softer when it defrosts.

If this cake doesn't get you copious amounts of sex I don't know what will. Ladies love a man who can cook.

If you have to name it something, my sister calls it the "North End No Bake Pineapple Cake". Catchy, no?

[Luciano]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it sounds very good!
Cakes are my weak point, I'm not good at preparing them. Good for me, because otherwise I would be 100 pounds heavier :p

Luciano