Of the many things I am thankful for are moments spent with dear friends, in or out of the kitchen. While celebrating Thanksgiving last week in Pittsburgh, I met up with Martin ‘dahn ‘a ‘Strip for some shopping ‘n ‘at. Moments after greeting, we quickly settled on our menu: homemade farro tagliatelle. He bought a brand-new pasta machine from Penn Mac and we head back to his place in Shadyside for a pasta practice session. No matter how many cookbooks, blogs or You Tube videos you watch, the best way to learn how to make homemade pasta is in the kitchen with someone else who’s been doing it for some time. Martin and I have known each other for at least 10 years; I’m not sure how we’d managed *not* to make pasta together before!

Here are some pictures marking the evening’s progression.

Martin with Glögg, in an Italian flag apron I had given him years ago.

Martin's most delicious wedding soup!

All warmed up, with squash roasting and music playing, we started the pasta-making, deciding to film bits for the blog.

Making the pasta dough with the farro flour was a challenge we tackled as we went along. We learned we needed to mix the farro flour with white flour in order to get the desired elasticity. We added fresh thyme to the third egg of pasta, adding a bit of contrast and flavor to the third egg of pasta. Martin speaks Italian when he cooks, whether or not he’s wearing the flag. How cool is that?

Cutting the pasta after many rolls through Martin's brand new machine.

Our artwork. It tasted as good as it looks here.

We dressed our pasta with roasted butternut squash, thyme, shallots, spinach and pine nuts.

Martin's apricot vlaai for dessert. The perfect ending to a great meal.

I’ve gone out a few times with this really interesting man who’s got a greenhouse. On our date last night, he brought me a gift of herbs: mint, rosemary and bay leaves. Oh dear. I was inspired to use the rosemary in a risotto. It was the best one I’ve made in months. Here goes:

B2 Risotto – with butternut squash and butter beans

Saute chopped shallots in a bit of oil and butter until softened.

Add copious amounts of chopped rosemary, and marvel at the aroma.

Throw in a few handfuls of cubed, uncooked butternut squash

Then a handful per serving of carnaroli rice.

Cover with homemade chicken (or vegetable) stock and cook away until the rice is both glutinous and al dente.

Shave on some parmigiano reggiano and call it a meal.

I ate this alone tonight, wondering if I could modify it for the man who brought me the rosemary. He’s a vegan. And he doesn’t eat pasta. I still don’t understand the not eating pasta thing, but will get to the bottom of it if he’ll let me. I’m really surprised I genuinely like him anyway.

I’m really looking forward to my trip to Italy in December. Will go to Eataly and buy some more rice from this Piemontese producer.

According to the web pages of Eataly, Falasco rice is produced by the Cirio family, who’ve been cultivating rice for six generations.  Planted in April and harvested between September and October, Falasco carnaroli rice is dried and stored for about a year before it’s prepared for the vacuum pack. Traditionalists agree that Falasco makes the best carnaroli in Italy. This year I’m going to buy some Falasco venere nero rice as well.

Driving from Malpensa a Milano to Torino takes you right through the rice fields. When I first arrived in Italy in ‘89, I remember being surprised to learn that Italy produces more rice than anywhere in Europe. I don’t know why I can’t buy Falasco rice in the States. Still feel duped that the Eataly in New York did not open as planned, but read earlier this year that it is supposed to open by late 2009. We’ll see!

It was a beautiful fall day today in Philadelphia – sunny, with temps in the high sixties. I woke up wanting to bake, not bike. Seasons *have* changed.

My morning baking was simple: zucchini bread and banana-coconut-chocolate chip bread. I split them up and delivered all but a few slices of each to neighbors. I’m grateful to have landed in a building with so many wonderful people. When I moved in and signed a month-to-month lease, I never imagined I’d end up living here longer than I’ve lived anywhere since my childhood home.

After brunch with Luca at Carman’s Country Kitchen and some errands, I came home to chores and more kitchen fun.  Made D’jej de’al homes: chicken with chick peas. It’s Moroccan spices brought a surprising sense of comfort. Sharing here the recipe:

D’jej de’al homes

Spice mixture:

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

Cut up a chicken (or use packaged thighs), remove the skin and rub the spice mixture onto the meat. Let sit an hour or so.

Saute several chopped onions in butter and olive oil. Saute the chicken and the onions until brown.

Add a can of chick peas, two to three cups of chicken broth (or water) and copious amounts of cilantro.

Simmer for an hour or so until the chicken falls from the bone. Serve with cous cous or brown rice.

I got this recipe from a cookbook I used to use often: The World’s Finest Foods: 180 Classic Recipes from Around the World. Past dinner parties have featured recipes from the pages on Morocco, Greece, Spain and Italy, but I’m not sure I’ve ever actually attempted any of the recipes from Thailand, Japan, China or Mexico. Mediterranean flavors attract me. Still. After all these years. Will travel to Italy in December.

Why should I be eating a slice of just-baked, warm zucchini bread at 11:30 pm? Because I want to and it tastes good, that’s why.

In a futile attempt to incorporate whole grains while reducing reduce fat & sugar last year, I played around with various recipes, but in the end, enjoyed nothing I made. This year I’ve returned to the classic recipe, dictated by my sister Missy, who got the recipe from my mom. I’m going to write it up here so that I have it next year:

3 well beaten eggs

2 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla

1 cup of oil (I used canola)

2 cups of shredded zucchini

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

3 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg

1 cup of nuts

You basically  mix these together in the order that they’re listed (with dry ingredients pre mixed of course), pour the batter into two greased and floured loaf pans and cook at 350 for one hour. Flip them out of the pans shortly after baking and cool them on a cookie rack.

Neighbors and security guards love zucchini bread. Share freely. Pretend that it’s an old Italian recipe passed down through generations.

My fruity shopping trip Friday yielded two pounds of strawberries (at an irresistible sale price), more than I can reasonably eat in the few days that they stay fresh, so I decided to make the season’s first frozen treat: strawberry sorbet. 

Eric gave me the perfect sorbet recipe last summer, but all that remained were shady memories of a simple syrup, fruit, lemon and liquor. The strawberries weren’t all that sweet, so I decided to go with – and modify – a recipe I found online, at Epicurious. 

Sorbetto

Final spoonful scraped from the freezer bowl 'round midnight

1 1/2 pounds of hulled strawberries

3/4 cup sugar, plus 6 TBSP water and 1/4 tsp of salt

3 TBSP limoncello

Heat salt and sugar with water in a saucepan until dissolved. Let cool.

Blend the hulled strawberries in a food processor until smooth.

Add limoncello and simple syrup.

Refrigerate overnight.

Churn in an ice cream maker. 

Serve to friends (Ben and Rachel).

Next time I will halve the sugar and skip the salt, especially if I get sweeter strawberries. Will wait until the local organics come in …

I don’t recall how, exactly, the idea came about, but Ben recently suggested we cook pasta IN wine instead of water. With lots of gift bottles sitting in his cabinet, we’d be putting them to good use, so why not? 

This is not an April Fool’s Day post! I was curious. Am perhaps more so now that I’ve tried cooking pasta in wine. Here’s how it went:

P²G Sauce

Slice chicken breasts into thinner cutlets, and layer in a dish with sliced lemons, cilantro sprigs, sliced garlic, and salt. Cover the chicken with white wine and marinate overnight.

Caramelize a sliced sweet onion (I began the braise with a bit of wine).

Add some olive oil, sliced chicken, roasted red peppers and snow peas to the pan and saute 5-10 minutes or so.

Add the cooked pasta to the pan to coat, then serve. 

Marvel at how delicious it was, sigh with relief and immediately start imagining variations on the theme. Though the texture of the penne was compromised (a bit gummy), its ‘lemony’ flavor was pleasant. Wonder what kind of other sauces might work well with it?

I think the experiment went well. So well that I wondered if people have been doing this for some time. They have.  Check out this Mark Bittman piece written 10 years ago on the technique. He suggests cooking the spaghetti for about 5 minutes in water before transferring it to a pot of boiling wine, and dressing it in an aglio olio with pepperoncino. Interesting idea ….

My creative energies need an outlet. Hanging out at the restaurant this weekend and socializing yesterday meant no cooking, so I decided to make rosemary cookies. First time. Inspired by a Tastespotting recipe viewed long ago. 

To celebrate a certain someone’s dissertation defense tomorrow, I’ve made an old favorite: torta di ricotta (ricotta cake). A lightly sweet cheesecake with a touch of lemon zest, this is best served at room temperature with some fresh fruit. I’m not sure where this recipe originates; it does not include a pastry crust. 

Torta di ricotta

2 lbs. ricotta

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

4-6 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

zest of one lemon

Beat the egg whites with 1/4 cup of sugar until stiff. 

In a food processor, combine ricotta, 1/2 cup sugar and flour. Process until smooth and transfer to a large bowl. 

Beat the egg yolks until just combined and add them with the lemon zest to the ricotta mixture. 

Fold in the egg whites. Spoon batter into a buttered springform pan and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Mix together the cooked potatoes, flour, 1.5 cups parmigiano and a pinch of nutmeg. Add the eggs and form a dough. Flatten the dough onto a large piece of cheesecloth.

Place the fontina, prosciutto and peas on the dough, leaving a quarter inch border. Roll the layer up into a pinwheel. Wrap the roll tightly in the cheesecloth and tie it on each end.

Boil the roll in a large pot of salted water for 4-6 minutes or until it floats. Remove the roll and place it in an ice bath to cool.

When it’s cool, unwrap it, slice it and place slices in a buttered baking pan.

Brush slices with melted butter and bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until browned. 

Melt 2 TBSP butter with the sage. Before serving, sprinkle the remaining parmigiano over the gnocchetti, and pour the butter and sage over it.

It feels good to cook something that’s been on your mind and in your heart, even if you end up eating alone. Gnocchi alla romana carries lots of memories: from Carla teaching it to me 20 years ago, to making it with Gianni and Giorgio on their Pittsburgh visits, to impressing dinner guests who hadn’t ever tried it. Rather than look up recipes online, I went back to my handwritten notes for the recipe Carla once recited:

Gnocchi alla romana 

1 liter of milk

250 grams of semolina

a pinch of salt

2 egg yolks

parmigiano, butter and nutmeg

Bring the milk to a boil and slowly add a stream of the semolina and the salt, stirring constantly. Cook it for about 10 minutes and remove from heat. Once cooled slightly, add the two beaten egg yolks, a bit of nutmeg and some parmigiano. Using a wet hand or a spatula, spread the semolina out onto a dishcloth (or silpat) and let cool completely. Using a glass, cut circles into the dough and layer them in a buttered baking dish. Bring together all the dough remnants, spread again and cut some more circles. Add small bits of butter and more cheese (I used microzested Gruyere but dreamed of fontina) and bake at 375 until browned … or not if you get impatient. LOL. 

These are light, tasty, and IMHO, far more delicious than the more popular gnocchi di patate. The photo can’t do it justice. Lots of variations a theme exist with these. Traditionally served with fontina, you can also eat them with mushrooms or stewed meats, like polenta. You could add small pieces of verdura or speck in them, and serve them with herbed butter. Just about anything pairs well with semolina. 

After grating the nutmeg, I was struck by the beauty of its internal patterns:

Perhaps the photo here too doesn’t do the pattern justice. Freshly ground nutmeg is so far superior to the stuff that comes in a jar.