Italian Recipes

It really is strawberry season here in Florida and everywhere you turn you come across lush, ripe Plant City strawberries. I acquire them often when they re in season as unfortunately the season is fairly short, and when the local strawberries are no longer obtainable the only ones you are able to uncover are imported from wonderful distances and just do not have much flavor. When in season, I enjoy my strawberries chopped on yogurt for breakfast, dressed in a little sugar and balsamic vinegar for dessert, or sliced in a salad as shown in this recipe. You’ll be able to effortlessly turn this salad into a major curse by adding some crisp bacon pieces and slices of grilled chicken, but I like it simply with some crumbled goat cheese on top. I utilized a raspberry vinegar in my dressing to intensify the berry flavor too as just a touch of honey for sweetness.

Serves 6

2 Bags (6 Ounces Each) Baby Spinach

1 Pound Fresh Strawberries, Hulled & Sliced

4 Green Onions, Diced

1 Cup Sliced Cucumbers

3 Ounces Goat Cheese

Dressing:

2 Tablespoons Raspberry Vinegar

6 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon Honey

1 Teaspoon Poppy Seeds

Salt & Pepper

Place the dressing ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix well. Place the spinach, green onions, cucumbers, and strawberries in a large bowl, and toss with just enough dressing to lightly coat the spinach leaves. Arrange the salad on individual bowls and crumble some goat cheese on leading of each and every plate. Serve immediately.

Umbria is well-known for it is pork, and when we are in residence there, we do indeed seem to take pleasure in a fair number of pork dishes. This dish combines a lovely pork chop with the really addictive spicy pork/chile spread from Calabria known as Nduja. My husband’s roots are Calabrian and we both enjoy spice in our food. When we stumbled across nduja for the very first time at a multi regional marketplace in Umbria we both fell in adore with the taste. Nduja might be discovered sold fresh, stuffed in a sausage casing and sold like a substantial sausage which you open and scoop out or use to spread on anything you desire, or a lot more commonly in tiny jars which is what we utilised in this recipe. Though it is illegal to import meat items into the US, you will discover a couple of US organizations that now make their own nduja, including Boccalone.

The inspiration for this recipe came from two distinct sources. The first is Epicurious.com which has a lovely recipe for Pork Blade Steaks with nduja and honey which is served with an arugula salad, and my second source of inspiration was a dish I’ve enjoyed quite a few times in Umbria that involves serving grilled pork chops topped with chopped radicchio salad dressed with balsamic vinegar. I adore both dishes and 1 day when I had bought lovely pork chops at our local butcher and was in search of preparation suggestions, I decided to brine the chops, grill them, then leading them with the nduja and honey as directed within the Epicurious.com recipe. Brining is simply soaking meat in a sugar/salt/water mixture just before cooking which maximizes the moisture and tenderness of the meat. To serve my version of this pork dish, I gently sauteed some thinly sliced radicchio and served it along with the chops. Now, I do apologize for the photo as for some reason I discovered this a tough dish to obtain a decent image of. I’ve in fact made a variation of this dish several times already but was never happy sufficient with the photo to post the recipe. To serve this dish, I truly location the radicchio on leading of the pork chop as they are meant to be eaten together but show them side by side in my photo so you’ll be able to superior see how delicious that pork chop looks. The mixture of spicy meat spread, sweet honey, and bitter radicchio along with tender moist, pork is genuinely incredibly highly addictive!

Serves 4
Adapted from Epicurious.com

4 Meaty Pork Chops (About 3/4 to 1 Inch Thick)

3 Cups Water

6 Tablespoons Coarse Kosher Salt

3 Tablespoons Sugar

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

4 Ounces Nduja (soft, spicy salami)

2 Tablespoons Honey

To Serve:

1 Modest to Medium Round Head Radicchio Lettuce, Cored And Cut Into Thin Slices

1 Tablespoon Oil

Salt & Pepper

Combine the 3 cups water, Kosher salt, and sugar in 15 x 10 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve. Place pork chops in the brine within the baking dish. Cover and chill at least 2 hours and up to four hours. Once brined, remove from the liquid and pat the chops dry with paper towels. Rub with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat up your grill to it’s highest temperature as you would cook a steak.

Grill the chop on each side for about 3-4 minutes and then flip as needed until they reach the internal temperature of 150-155 degrees. Thicker chops will take longer and may need to be flipped more than twice in order to keep them from becoming charred. Once the chops have been turned for the last time, spread each on 1 side with some of the nduja, and keep on the grill another minute or two until it melts. Spread it evenly across the top of the chop with a knife. Remove from the heat to a warmed platter, drizzle 1/2 teaspoon of the honey over each chop, and cover.

In a substantial pan, heat the oil and toss in the radicchio. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or just until the radicchio begins to soften. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the chops with the radicchio on the side or on top of the chops.

Eating seafood every single night can get high priced unless you are lucky enough to have fresh, locally caught fish inside your region. Here in Florida, tilapia is really a light tasting, inexpensive fish that we buy generally and due to it’s mild flavor it may be utilised in several recipes. We have been buying a significant package of tilapia in bulk at Costco, and I just divide it up at property and freeze in meal size servings. I was calculating the price of this tilapia, and we are able to take pleasure in a good sized tilapia fillet each and every for under $2 a portion by buying it this way. Absolutely not high priced for seafood! When you don’t have tilapia in your location, any mild white fish fillets would do for instance flounder or snapper. I have discovered that the most beneficial method to cook these fillets so they do not dry out would be to either bread them and rapidly pan fry them, or bake them as I do in this recipe in a sauce of roasted tomatoes. This has quickly grow to be our most recent favorite seafood recipe that we have been producing when a week since the new year began simply because it is flavorful, moist, and together with some roasted vegetables makes a ideal quick mid-week dinner. This dish is what Italian house cooking is all about…..fresh local ingredients cooked basically, to truly get pleasure from the natural flavors of the food.

Serves 4

4 Skinless, Boneless Fish Fillets (About 6 Ounces Each)

2 Pints Cherry Tomatoes

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Salted Capers, Rinsed Nicely

Salt & Pepper

4 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Basil

1/3 Cup Pitted Black Olives

Dressing:

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Salt & Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a casserole dish substantial enough to hold the fish fillets, add the tomatoes, capers, olives, 3 tablespoons olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. Roast the tomato mixture for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tomatoes have softened and begun to release their juices. Use a large spoon to move the tomatoes aside, and lay the fish fillets in the casserole dish side by side. Spoon the tomato mixture on top. In a small bowl mix together the dressing ingredients and drizzle this over the fish. Bake until the fillets flake easily and are cooked through. Serve a fillet per person with a spoonful of the tomato mixture and juice on top.

Any Italian recipe with “arrabbiata” in its title might be a little spicy, because the word translates as “angry” and means hot chile peppers have been added towards the ingredient list. The good thing about creating this sort of recipe at home is that you control the amount of heat you need inside your dish and can add added should you like things truly HOT, or add much less if you choose a more subtle heat. One dish which will be seen just about everywhere in Italy also as in North America is Penne all’Arrabiata which is merely penne pasta topped having a spicy tomato sauce. In Umbria, a well-liked dish that could be identified in a lot more casual trattorias, or in household properties is Pollo all’Arrabbiata, or Chicken In Spicy Tomato Sauce.

Serves 4
by Deborah Mele

8 Small To Medium Chicken Thighs (Or 1 (3 Pound) Chicken Cut Into Pieces)

5 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Smaller Onion, Peeled & Finely Diced

5 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Minced

1 Red Chile Pepper, Finely Minced

3/4 Cup Dry White Wine

1 1/2 Cups Chopped Tomatoes

Salt & Pepper

1/4 Cup Chopped Fresh Parsley

1 Teaspoon Dried Italian Seasoning Mix (Or Oregano)

To Serve:

Green Tops From Scallion Onions

Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottom pan large enough to hold all the pieces once browned, and once hot, brown half the chicken pieces on each side until golden brown over medium high heat. Brown the rest of the chicken pieces and then move all to a plate. Add the chopped onion towards the pan and cook over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and chile pepper towards the pan and cook another minute or two until fragrant. Add the wine towards the pan and turn the heat up to high. Use a fork to scrape up any brown bits off the bottom of the pan, and cook until the wine has reduced by 1/3 volume. Return the chicken pieces towards the pan along with the tomatoes, dried seasoning, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for about an 45. Remove the cover, and cook an additional 15 minutes. At this point, the sauce should have thickened and the chicken should be so tender it falls off the bone. Alternately, at this point you could place the pan in an oven preheated to 325 degrees F. and cook for 45 minutes, then uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes.

To serve, place the chicken on a warmed platter and spoon the sauce over top. Sprinkle with the chopped onions and serve immediately.

A lot of people probably have created these tartlets in the past using jam or preserves as a filling but here is a recipe on how to make them with Nutella for World Nutella Day this year. These little tartlets are seriously effortless to place together, and are just the right size for a tasty snack. Just use a teaspoon of Nutella for the filling of the tartlets, but you may use slightly more if you prefer. But teaspoonful was just adequate to give the tartlets a good surprise chocolate center.

Makes 6 (1/4 Cup Capacity) Tartlets
by Deborah Mele

1 Cup Almond Flour

1 2/3 Cup Powdered Sugar

3/4 Cup All-purpose Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

5 Medium Egg Whites

4 1/2 Ounce Melted Butter

1 Teaspoon Almond Extract

For Filling & Topping:

Nutella

1/4 Cup Thinly Sliced Almonds

Powdered Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 6 fluted tartlet pans. In a bowl, add the flours, sugar, baking powder, egg whites, butter, and almond extract. Whisk ingredients together until blended. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tartlet pans. Add a teaspoonful of Nutella to the center of each tartlet pan. Sprinkle the tops of each with some almonds. Place the tartlets on a baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and set. Cool to room temperature, then lightly dust with powdered sugar.

This is really an easy and delicious pasta dish. And you will be amazed with how tasty it will be when you are done. Tomatoes of each description are accessible locally at this time, and I decided to use cherry tomatoes rather than the chopped plum tomatoes. It is better to prepare the tomatoes a couple of hours prior to cooking your pasta as the tomatoes will break down a bit, releasing their juices which helps to create a sauce.

You can use any firm Italian cheese that you prefer, but I used a nice Pecorino Romano in my dish. This dish works greatest if the cheese is freshly grated using a box grater so when the little slivers of cheese meet the hot pasta they melt into the pasta. Be sure to taste the pasta prior to adding salt as the cheese is fairly salty on it’s own.

Serves 4-6
1 Pound Orecchiette Pasta

2 Pints Ripe Cherry Tomatoes (Or About 3 Cups Ripe Plum Chopped Tomatoes)

2 Large Garlic Cloves, Minced

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Cracked Black Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes

1/4 Cup Fresh Basil, Finely Chopped

3 Cups Freshly Grated Pecorino Cheese

Cut the tomatoes into quarters, and mix with the garlic, olive oil, a pinch of salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and fresh basil in a bowl. Let rest for at least two hours before you are ready to cook the pasta.

Cook the orecchiette in a large pot of boiling water until it is al dente. Drain, keeping a small cup of the pasta water. Mix the tomatoes and cheese into the pasta, tossing to combine. Add a little of the pasta water if the pasta seems dry and mix well. Taste, and season with additional salt if needed and additional cracked black pepper. Serve hot.

I love a fantastic fruit flavored gelatoand I was seeking for a simple recipe that wouldn’t take hours to produce when I remembered seeing a fantastic Apricot Gelato recipe on Matt Bites blog. He posted this recipe for Summerfest 2009 and it originally came from David Lebovitz’s book The Best Scoop which is a wonderful ice cream cookbook if you’re seeking for 1! The recipe was fast and straightforward and peaches would work just along with the apricots in this recipe. I considered roasting my peaches 1st which actually creates a scrumptious flavored gelato, but my peaches had been actually too best to play around with. I made this gelato twice this year, as well as the second time I added some diced fresh peach to the gelato mixture prior to I froze it and discovered it scrumptious.

Serves 6-8

1 Pound Very Ripe Peaches (I Used 6)

1/2 Cup Water

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Heavy Cream

1 Tablespoon Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

Slice the peaches in half and remove the pits. Coarsely chop the peaches and place them with the water and sugar in a covered medium, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Once cool, purée the peaches and any liquid in the pot in a blender or food processor until very smooth. Press the mixture through a mesh strainer or sieve to remove any pieces of skin or fibers. Stir in the cream, and lemon juice. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Store in an airtight container in your freezer.

Note: I found this gelato was best eaten within a day or two of making it. If kept too long in the freezer it did lose some of it’s creaminess and became a bit icy.

With a cold nip in the air and Thanksgiving right around the corner, mushrooms are a natural appetizer for a party or family gathering. Here is a guest recipe from Mark Leslie, author of Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family and the popular Italian food and travel blog “Beyond the Pasta.” Mark lived with an Italian family in Viterbo, Italy where he studied cooking from the grandmother (Nonna) and language from her daughter. The book includes recipes that he learned from Nonna, but as a treat to Italian Recipes, Mark has given us one of Nonna’s recipes not featured in his book ~ a very special pre-holiday bonus! Buon Appetito~

I love the woodsy flavor of mushrooms. Here is a simple way to enjoy mushrooms as an appetizer. I tend to use cremini, shitake, and button mushrooms in this recipe—but why limit yourself? Use a combination of your favorite mushrooms to make this dish truly yours!

For the topping:
½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 pound mixture of fresh mushrooms (Use any two,
three, or four combination of: cremini, button, shitake, chanterelle, woodear, oyster.)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
½ cup white or red wine (your preference)
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the bruschette:
8 ½-inch-thick slices of artisan bread (Tuscan boulle,
ciabatta, or similar)

1 large clove garlic, peeled, with stem end removed
Additional extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Reconstitute the dried porcini mushrooms in a small bowl by adding 1 cup very hot water and allowing to soak for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, using a paper towel, clean off any dirt from the mushrooms and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices.
(* Note: If using shitake mushrooms, remove the stems and discard before slicing—the stems are notoriously tough and really unusable.) Set aside.

With your hand, remove the porcini mushrooms from their soaking liquid and squeeze any excess liquid from the porcinis back into the soaking bowl. Place the squeezed porcinis on the cutting board and roughly chop into smaller pieces. Set aside. Strain the soaking liquid through a fine sieve, or coffee filter, and reserve for use.

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and, when hot, add the olive oil and garlic. Cook the garlic briefly for 15 to 30 seconds, making sure the garlic does not burn. Quickly stir in the sliced fresh mushrooms and stir continuously until the mushrooms start to release their own liquid, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chopped porcini mushrooms and stir until well combined, cooking another 3 to 5 minutes, until the mushrooms natural liquid has almost evaporated.

Add the wine and cook until it has reduced by half. Stir in the reserved porcini soaking liquid, salt, and black pepper. Continue cooking an additional 5 to 7 minutes until the liquid has almost evaporated. You want the mushroom mixture to be loose, but not too wet or too dry. Remove from heat and set aside while you prepare the bread.

Heat a grill pan over medium-heat heat, and when hot, place the bread on it to toast. Toast both sides, turning to make sure both have nice dark brown grill marks. If you don’t have a grill pan, you may toast the bread in a 450-degree oven or in a toaster.

Remove the grilled bread to a platter and while hot, rub the cut end of the garlic clove over the top surface of each grilled slice. The heat of the bread will “melt” the garlic into the crunchy surface.

Top each slice with a large spoonful of the mushroom mixture, making sure to distribute evenly between all slices. Drizzle the slices with additional extra virgin olive oil. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8 full slices or 16 ½-slices.

These delicious, tender beef rolls are cooked in a powerful tomato and wine sauce. They go perfectly with a side dish of Risotto Milanese, garlic mashed potatoes, or polenta.

Serves 6

1 1/2 Pounds Top Sirloin, Cut Into 12 Small Thin Slices

2 Cloves Garlic, Finely Minced

2 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary

6 Thin Slices Of Prosciutto, Cut In Half

1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/3 Cup Olive Oil

1 Cup Dry Red Wine

1 Carrot, Finely Chopped

1/2 Onion, Finely Chopped

1 Celery Stalk, Finely Chopped

2 Cups Chopped Canned Tomatoes

Salt & Pepper

1/4 Cup Chopped Fresh Parsley

Pound each piece of the beef into thin slices. Spread a little bit of the minced garlic, chopped rosemary and grated cheese over each slice. Cover this with a slice of prosciutto, and roll up into a small bundle, securing each with toothpicks.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and brown all of the bundles well on all sides, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a separate dish, and add the onion, carrots, and celery to the skillet. Cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the wine, and cook up until it is reduced by half, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add the tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, until the sauce has begun to thicken, about 5 minutes. Remove the toothpicks from the bundles, and return them to the skillet. Add the fresh parsley, and cook until heated through, about 3-4 minutes. Serve hot with a side dish of your choice.

This is really a fantastic Christmas Eve appetizer but is delicious all year round. This seafood salad normally contains octopus as well as shrimps, scallops, and calamari, but in case you prefer, it is possible to certainly leave the octopus out. The octopus takes a much lengthier cooking time, so should you decide on to include it, you’ll need to add an extra hour or so to your preparation time.

Serves 6

3 Cups White Wine

5 Bay Leaves

2 Cloves Garlic, Crushed

2 Lemons

1 Pound Calamari, Cleaned And Cut Into Rings

1 Pound Medium Shrimp, Cleaned And Deveined

1 Pound Scallops 3 Cups Cooked Octopus Cut Into 2 Inch Pieces

1 Cup Black Olives (Optional)

Dressing:

1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Lemon Juice

3 Large Garlic Cloves, Thinly Sliced Br/>

1/4 Cup Chopped Parsley

Dash Red Pepper Flakes

Salt & Pepper To Taste

In a stockpot, combine 3 quarts of water, the wine, bay leaves, and crushed garlic. Slice the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into the mixture. Drop the lemons into the pot. Bring the mixture first to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low.

First cook the shrimp, cook 2 minutes and remove from the pot. Cook the calamari 1 1/2 minutes and remove from the pot as well. If you are cooking scallops, cook in the same manner for 2 minutes. Mix the seafood together and set aside. If you are cooking octopus, add it to the pot, and cook it for about 45 minutes to an hour or until it is tender. Remove it from the pot and let it cool. Remove the skin and suckers, and cut it into bite sized pieces. Mix the octopus with the other ingredients.

Place the seafood in a bowl and add the chopped celery. Add the dressing ingredients and mix well. Cover and let marinade a minimum of 12 hours. Just before serving, adjust the seasonings, and add the black olives if you are using them. Serve.