RECIPE: REC: Fettuccine with fried zucchini T&T

[randi]

of Marcella's little gems smileys/smile.gif

Fettuccine with fried zucchini

1 1/2 lbs young zucchini

10 - 12 fresh basil leaves

6 TBS butter

1/2 cup flour

olive oil

3 peeled garlic cloves

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan

the required 1 LB fettuccine, home made if possible.

scrub the zucchini and cut off the bottom and stems. cut into stick about 2 1/2 inches long and not more than 1/4 inch thick. put them in a colander and sprinkle very liberally with salt. toss to distribute the salt evenly. let the zuccs stand for at least 2 hrs to drain - possibly more. when they seem like they won't get any drier - dry with a kitchen towel

start your pasta water, it should be ready for the pasta by the time you finish frying the zuccs.

tear each basil leaf in 2-3 pieces and set aside.

melt the butter and set aside.

put the zuccs back in the colander and dust

with the flour, shaking the colander until the zuccs are evenly coated and any excess has passed

through the colander.

in a 9 or 10 inch skillet, add enough oil to come

at least 1/4 inch up the side of the skillet and turn heat to high. add the garlic and when the oil is hot put in as many zucc sticks as will fit loosely in a single layer. remove the garlic as soon as begins to brown. brown the zuccs on all sides and then transfer to paper towels to drain.

keep in mind that you need time the pasta

cooking time with the zucc fry time so the zucc

don't cool off too much.

drain the pasta and put in a serving bowl and pour the melted butter over it. add the zucc, basil and grated cheese and toss thoroughly. serve at once.

now, tweak time. I coarsely grate the zucchini, and go lighter on the salt for the draining process. I heat the oil to high and add the zuccs and chopped garlic all at once and quickly fry it up (using a lot less oil, like

a stir fry) when browned a bit but not necessarily crisp I add the basil and 1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream. (just when you thought you were safe with less oil) toss with the pasta and cheese, lots of freshly ground pepper. I also add more basil quite often.

mangia!

 

[randi]

REC: Cannelloni with Prosciutto and Zucchini

Cannelloni with Prosciutto and Zucchini

12 cannelloni shells - cooked
3 T. olive oil
4 medium zucchini - diced
8 cloves garlic - sliced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 onion - chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 cup ricotta cheese
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 cup chopped prosciutto or ham
1/4 cup fresh parsley - chopped
2 cups tomato sauce
3/4 cup Bechamel sauce

Bechamel Sauce:
3 cups milk
3 T. butter
3 T. flour
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Cannelloni - Cook the cannelloni noodles for half the time directed on the package. Drain and let cool. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan until hot.
Add the zucchini, garlic, red pepper flakes, onion, salt and pepper and cook for 8-10 minutes. Add the wine and chicken
stock and boil until most of the liquid cooks away, 4-5 minutes.

Place zucchini mixture into food processor with the ricotta and 1/3 cup of the parmesan cheese, the prosciutto and parsley. Process to a smooth consistency. Transfer filling to piping bag. Place the tip of bag into one end of the cannelloni and fill halfway. Repeat for the other side of noodle. Pour 1 cup of the tomato sauce into a 9x13 baking dish. Place filled
cannelloni on top of sauce. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over and top with bechamel sauce. Top with remaining parmesan cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Bechamel Sauce: In a large saucepan, warm the milk until steaming. In another saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk the flour into the melted butter to create a roux. ontinue
cooking for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not let the flour brown.

Remove pan from heat. Add the nutmeg to hot milk. Pour a little at a time of the warm milk into the roux, whisking vigorously to prevent
lumps. When milk has been added, return pan to heat, whisking until sauce thickens.

mangia!

 

[randi]

REC: Wild Mushroom Fettuccini with Truffle Oil T&T

a fire in the fireplace, warm, red wines and no business calls I finally got to play in my kitchen and this is what I came up with. I've tried to get the measurements as close to what I did as possible.

I had the chanterelles in the freezer, already sliced and sautéed in butter and I forgot to weigh them before adding to the skillet but I think this just about exact.

Wild Mushroom Fettuccini with Truffle Oil

take a handful of morels and pour boiling water
over them. let them sit for 1 hour. squeeze dry
and chop. (save that soaking liquid)you should have 1/2 cup of chopped morels.

chop and sauté enough chanterelles in butter
to equal 1 1/2 cups. when they start to give up their liquid, add one small clove of garlic, minced and the morels and sauté on moderate heat for 3 - 4 minutes. add about 1/8 cup of the morel soaking liquid. (freeze the rest for future uses) add 2 cups of heavy cream and simmer until reduced to about 1 or 1 1/4 cup. add 1/4 tsp. of black truffle oil, stir and add salt and pepper. toss with a lb. of fettuccini (cooked of course) and toss in 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan.

you can mix and match mushroom if you like
but the morels give a rich, woodsy taste to the dish.
magia

 

[randi]

REC: Pasta with Vodka & Caviar T&T

Pasta with Vodka & Caviar

4 tbs olive oil
3 scallions thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 cup vodka
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup caviar
salt & fresh pepper to taste

1 lb pasta - preferably thin

heat oil and add scallions and garlic, cook gently for 4 - 5 minutes. add vodka & cream and cook over low heat for about 5 - 8 minutes more.
remove from heat and stir in caviar. season and
toss with the pasta.

note: 1/2 cup caviar is a lot of caviar. I would use 1/4 cup to start and taste. you can always add more or put a tbls on each serving. you can use whatever caviar you like.

I make a dish with just 4 - 5 cloves of garlic, chopped, sauteed lightly in extra virgin olive oil, toss with pasta and add caviar. the taste is rather like the baby eels they serve as tapas cooked in hot oil and garlic. maybe a touch of cayene.

mangia!

 

[randi]

REC: Pasta Carbonara T&T

from "The Fine Art of Italian Cooking"
Giuliano Bugialli

Pasta Carbonara

4 oz pancetta
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped very fine
3 tbls olive oil
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
2 extra large eggs
1/3 cup freshly grate Parmigiano cheese
1 lb spaghetti
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

you all know how to boil pasta so I'm skipping that part smileys/smile.gif

cut pancetta into small pieces. place in a saucepan with oil and hot pepper and sauté very slowly - approx. 12 - 15 minutes. you want the pancetta to brown very slowly to render all the fat. about 5 minutes before you think the pancetta will be done, add the garlic. when pancetta is browned, remove pan from heat.

beat the eggs well and then beat in the cheese.

drain your cooked pasta (* save about 1/4 of the water). toss the pasta with the pancetta mixture and very quickly add the egg & cheese mixture and toss thoroughly. add lots of freshly ground pepper and plate.

* if, after tossing with the pancetta the pasta seems too dry, dribble in a bit of the cooking water.

mangia!

 

[randi]

REC: Pasta with garlic - 2 versions T&T

this is from Honey From A Weed by Patience Gray

the recipes are all written in this style and I'm just in love with the stories of living in rural Italy and Greece. I can't wait to try the second method she describes here. this is exactly how it appears in the book I hope you enjoy it as much as I think did. smileys/smile.gif

"Spaghetti con aglio e burro
spaghetti with garlic and butter

There is no pasta dish simpler than this. Nevertheless, there are, as always, two schools of thought as to how to incorporate the garlic.

The Mantuans believe that some cloves of garlic should be sliced and fried for a few moments in hot olive oil till they coulour slightly. With garlic, the moment between browning and burning is brief. So, retrieved by the expert from the pan, the fried garlic is used with the addition of fresh butter to flavour the spaghetti cooked al dente; with or without chopped parsley and with our without parmesan.

The other school of thought cherishes the fragrance which emanates from sliced cloves of fresh garlic, particularly when it is newly pulled in June, coming in contact with hot spaghetti in a heated white china bowl in
which a tablespoon of olive oil is warming. In this case, butter is lavishly added, and chopped parsley or basil, with plenty of parmesan mixed in."

mangia!

 

[randi]

OK, that's the last of rescue and retrive of my recipes for today. the first person to

guess what my favorite cuisine is recieves a prize! 'LOL

 

[marsha-tbay]

definitelt Italiano. I'm gonna have to learn how to cook Italian we don't have a favorite

Italian restaurant anymore...

 

[randi]

oh you should Marsha, most of it is really easy to make. I made a classic risotto...

last night. both my girlfriends are accomplished cooks but had neve considered a risotto thinking it was tricky and difficult.

I told them it was simple and seizing the opportunity, I gave them the spoon to stir constantly while I watched over them and enjoyed a glass of wine '-)) they will now be making risotto themselves.

most of the pasta recipes I just posted are very simple but very good. try your hand at it.

I'll send you a catalog so you can pick out your prize '-))

 

[randi]

REC: insalata di mare - Italian Seafood Salad T&T

insalata di mare - Italian Seafood Salad


this is a really simple dish to make. first you'll want to choose your seafood. traditionally the salad is composed of shrimp, scallops & calamari (squid) and perhaps some scuingilli (conch).

boil your seafood (separately) until done. the
scuingilli comes canned and is already cooked.
for the calamari, boil for about 3 - 5 min only to keep it tender.

place the drained, cooled seafood in a bowl.
add enough olive oil to coat and have about a
a cup extra in the bowl. to this add freshly chopped garlic to taste but at least 4 large cloves. (I use more since I love garlic). add freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste. (at this point you will be tasting often) add salt to taste and let it marinate for at least an hour at room temp, longer if in the frig. serve at room temp with crusty bread for sopping up the oil.

note: some Italians like to add chopped parsley
(flat leaf only) or basil. if you care to add anchovies, don't add extra salt.

this is a simple and wonderful salad. I've had never a recipe with specific measurements. I use baby octopus too.

mangia

 

[randi]

REC: Torta Co` Bischeri

from Tuscany the Beautiful
by Giulliano Bugialli

Torta Co` Bischeri

the filling:
1 quart whole milk
1 cup cold water
2 tbls sweet butter
pinch of salt
3/4 cup raw rice - preferably aborio
6 oz sugar
3 oz candied orange rind
2 oz glaceed citron
5 extra lg. eggs
1 cup heavy cream
grated peel of 1 lg. orange
3 oz pine nuts
4 oz coarsely grated semisweet chocolate
1 TB light rum

the crust:
1 lb. unbleached all-purpose flour
8 tbls sweet butter
8 oz superfine sugar
2 TBS confectioners' sugar
1 extra lg. egg
1 extra lg. egg yolk
grated peel of 1 orange
1 TB light rum
1 tsp. backing powder

to serve
confectioner's sugar.

begin the filling: bring milk and water to a boil in med sized pot over medium heat. when reaching a boil, add the butter and salt. when the butter is completely melted, add the rice, stir very well and cook for about 18 minutes. the rice should be soft. drain the rice and discard the liquid and let the rice rest in the strainer, covered, until completely cooled.

crust: sift the flour onto a board. place the
butter, superfine sugar and confectioners'
sugar in a bowl and stir very well with a wooden
spoon, until the butter is amalgamated with the
other ingredients. place the mixture on top of
the flour, add the egg and yolk, peel and rum.
use a metal dough scraper to quickly mix all
the ingredients and form a ball of dough. wrap
in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hours.

finish filling: transfer rice to a glass or crockery bowl and add the sugar, candied orange peel, citron, eggs, cream, grated orange rind, pine nuts and chocolate. mix very well with a wooden spoon, add the rum and mix again.

lightly butter a 10 - 11 inch round cake pan with a removable bottom.

sprinkle the baking powder over the dough and lightly knead it.

preheat oven to 375 degrees. between two large
pieces of plastic wrap, using a rolling pin, stretch the pastry into a 15 inch disc. peel off the plastic on top, flip the pastry into the prepared cake pan. remove the second piece of plastic and press the pastry down on the bottom, then cut off and save the dough hanging over the side. with a fork, prick the pastry on the
bottom of the pan and bake for 15 minutes. remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes.

with the remaining pastry, roll out one long strip and make "pinches" along one of the edges to resemble large fluting. attach the non-fluted edge of this strip of pastry to the pre-baked shell. pour filling into the mold.

using the remaining dough, prepare 1-inch-wide
strips of pastry, cutting them with a scalloped pastry cutter. criss-cross the strips of pastry 2 inches apart over the filling.

bake the Torta for 1 hour. remove from the oven and cool for 1/2 hour before transferring it to a serving platter. cool the Torta for an additional 1 hour before serving it with confectioners' sugar sprinkled over the
top.

mangia!