Rainbow Cookies

From Greenpointers, Recipe: Rainbow Cookies

I've had this recipe for Rainbow Cookies on my fridge since last year and decided to make it. Working my first job as a counter girl at an Italian bakery in Queens and accepting collect calls from the grumpy bakery owner's son, who was in jail for idiotic low-level racketeering, gave me have a distaste for Italian pastries, with the exception of a few things: Pignoli Cookies, Rainbow Cookies & Cannolis (but only the cannolis that the nuns from the San Carlo monastery on Erice, a medieval mountain town in Sicily make. God is in them.) The rest of the Italian pastries can burn in hell.

Rainbow Cookies are pretty pricey per pound and if you're going to buy them around Brooklyn I would recommend Fortunata Brother's on Manhattan & Devoe.

Making the rainbow cookies seemed pretty pricey, too. It didn't help that I had to buy 3 half sheet pans at $15 a pop from The Brooklyn Kitchen, plus 4 tubes of Almond Paste at $8 a pop! I definitely came home grumpy.

"I should have just bought them at the bakery," I said as I laid the ingredients on the counter. But the process and the end result were worth it, plus we got between 150-200 cookies out of it.

I cut the recipe out of New York Magazine from the chef of Torrisi Italian Specialties, a great Italian restaurants down on Mulberry, the walls lined with Manhattan Special: my favorite drink, espresso soda.

If you plan on making rainbow cookies, make sure you have an entire day off plus a partner with good hand-eye coordination. I am lacking in that area and Jon, who is mechanically inclined proved, to have amazing cake layering and chocolate spreading skills. Had I tried to take this endeavor solo, I assure you these cookies would not be so pretty.

When it comes down to it, "it's a lot of work, Jane," as Nonna, my Sicilian Grandma would say. There are many steps: beating the egg whites for stiff glossy peaks, splitting one batter into three for coloring, baking three cakes separately until just underdone so they stay moist, cooling the cakes then layering them using orange marmalade as glue, letting them set then spreading warm chocolate on the top and bottom. Start as early in the morning as you can.

While getting closer and closer to chocolatey soft almond cookie goodness, I was giddy. I remember saying, "this sure as hell beats last minute christmas shopping." In fact, making these cookies is what the holidays are all about: slowing down, spending time with someone you love, making something you love, then giving to people you love." These cookies put a truer smile on faces than anything you can unwrap and rip a price tag off of.

Torrisi Rainbow Cookies Recipe from New York Magazine

12 large eggs, separated

2 2/3 cups sugar

24 oz. almond paste

8 sticks butter, softened

5 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. red food coloring

2 tsp. green food coloring

16 oz. orange preserves, heated and strained

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Beat egg whites in electric mixer until they just hold stiff peaks. Add ½ cup sugar, beating until whites hold stiff, slightly glossy peaks, then refrigerate. Beat together almond paste and remaining sugar in mixer. Add butter gradually and beat until mixture is fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add yolks and beat until well combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour and salt and mix until just combined. Fold in egg whites. Divide batter equally among 3 bowls; wearing gloves,(1) whisk red food coloring into one and green into another, leaving the third batch plain. Spread each batter separately and evenly, about ¼-inch thick, onto 3 half-sheet pans, each greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake until just barely set, about 7 minutes. (2) When layers are cool, spread half the preserves onto the green layer. Invert plain layer over it and discard paper. Spread on remaining preserves, and invert red layer over it; discard paper. Wrap with plastic and top with a weighted baking pan. Refrigerate for several hours. Remove plastic and bring to room temperature. Melt chocolate in a double boiler, and (3) spread thinly on top layer. Chill in freezer briefly until firm. Cover with wax paper, place another baking sheet on top, then invert cake onto sheet pan and remove paper. Quickly spread with remaining chocolate and return to freezer until firm. Trim edges, slice, and serve.

LOCAL WEDNESDAYS*: SPINACH GOAT CHEESE FRITTATA

       One of my most cherished possessions is my Grandma Isabelle's recipe tin. I love flipping through her old fashioned "American" recipes that call for lots of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. The tin is a food network of all of the great recipes she collected from her family and friends over the years and many predate me, like Fez's Spinach Casserole from 1971. There are recipes cut out from old newspapers and magazines, which show food trends of the time, like the article on bulgur wheat from Better Homes and Gardens in 1989. Pizza Bulgur Meatloaf anyone?  

     Recipes I have to try are Cream Cheese Cupcakes, Lentil Frankfurter Soup and Mrs. Keyser's Carrot Pudding, all written in Grandma's perfect handwriting. She was so organized and really had it all together, a trait I wish I inherited. I try to keep my recipe tin up to date, too, in case my Delicious account is lost or my blog disappears into the internet abyss. Going through all those recipes makes me very hungry, so I needed to prepare something to keep me from eating the index cards. (I was a glue eater as a child.) 

      I made this easy Spinach Goat Cheese Frittata, with farmer's market eggs, dairy, spinach and this awesome Queso Blanco garlic and parsley goat cheese from Patches of Star Dairy. It really might be one of my best yet.  

Local Spinach Goat Cheese Frittata

Bag of Spinach, chopped 

1/2 onion, sliced thinly

6-8 eggs

1/4-1/2 C. crumbled goat cheese

1/2 C. milk or cream (soy is okay, too!)

Salt and pepper

In a pan, sautee the onion until translucent in olive oil. Add the chopped spinach, drizzle more olive oil on top and season with salt and pepper. When the greens have wilted, set aside to cool. (Sometimes, I put them in the fridge of freezer.)

Preheat oven to 350. 

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk and salt and pepper. Stir in the cooled spinach and the goat cheese. (You might not need all the spinach; you want a dense amount of spinach with egg running through it. Either way, it will be good, it will just either be more eggy or more spinachy. After a few frittata's you get a feel for the egg/greens ratio.)

Pour the mixture into a heavy duty oven safe greased 8-10 in. skillet. (I coat it with non-stick spray.) You can either start cooking it on the stove top to get nice color on the bottom, then put it into the oven for about 25 minutes until its it firm in the middle, or bypass the stovetop step and stick it in the oven. 

Eat with Italian bread. 

SICILIAN SUNDAY DINNER: PASQUA 2010

     A few posts back I told you how Nonna caused a ziti fiasco when Francesca was planning the Easter menu that almost made my parents get divorced. At least ziti is the most of their problems. It doesn't help that my Mom is married to a crazy Sicilian either, but somehow those two make it work. They have made up and Rocco has full custody of me again. I am 28 years old. 
    Easter this year, if you are in the Northeast was a glorious day. When you get weather like that on Jesus' favorite day, it makes you almost believe in God. Or you can just move to the west coast and practice atheism in nice weather everyday. Hallelujah! 
    As much as I make fun of my family and exploit them for your entertainment, I wouldn't trade them for another less crazy family. I never feel like I have to go to family functions. Knowing that my family is there motivation enough, because it is always a good time. And the delicious food helps, too.
    Fra as always was the perfect hostess. When we walked in the door, kisses all around and the eating and drinking and craziness immediately began. She is a homemade pizza maker and whipped up all sorts of yummy focaccia's and pizzas for appetizers as well as the meats and cheese and olives you come to expect in a Siclian home.    
    And to get everyone out of her gorgeous kitchen, because we tend to coagulate where the food is, she set up a long table in her sunlit living room. Twenty plus hungry Sicilians in one room and somehow Fra managed to satisfy everyone and keep them (relatively) under control. That makes her a living saint. 
    Take a look here at the menu. Everything was insanely delicious. Since Nonna only brought one tray of ziti for everyone, Fra served it as a side dish to the amazing lasagna she made, and we joked that we all got one zito. (Singular for ziti, would be zito in Italian. But get real, who eats only one piece of pasta? So I don't think the word really exists.) Both pastas were fantastic!
    One super stand out dish that Fra made really blew my mind. It was angel hair pasta wrapped in fried eggplant. What a great idea. Fried eggplant embracing delicious pasta that is smothered in sweet tomato sauce. A match made in heaven. Now I officially believe in God! 
    On the deck cousin Paul did his man grilling duties. He sure loves his meat and his Miller Hi-Life! We all enjoyed the beautiful day out back. Uncle Sal was in full beating up everyone around him mode. He thinks he is "play fighting" but he actually punches really hard. When I told him that he challenged me to punch him as hard as I could. He taunts and teases me ALL the time, so I really could not turn up the offer for a little Sicilian revenge. 
     I felt like Pam on the office when Michael gave her the opportunity to punch him in the face. Unlike Pam, instead of bitch slapping my Uncle, I punched him as hard as I could in the gut. For a sixty plus pasta eating dude he is pretty solid. But of course, my first punch wasn't hard enough for him. So I wailed on him again. All the onlookers, victims of Sal's "rough housing" were thoroughly enjoying the show. The second time, I gave it all I got and I think he tried to hide it but I could see that he flinched a little, and I think I broke my hand. It was so worth it! 

     And this is how my family spends out Easter, a young woman in her Easter dress punching an old man with all the vengeance she can muster up. And eating a lot! And this is why I would never get rid of these crazy people. 
   

LOCAL WEDNESDAYS*: Duck Egg Pasta Carbonara

     So Local Wednesdays (like Sicilian Sunday Dinners) is another attempt to focus Morta Di Fame, give it some structure, a routine. If only I could do that for the rest of my life! Needless to say, if you have visited the Wednesday Farmer's Market at Union Square you know it is the best in the entire city. So, even if I have to get up at 5am to get there before work (who am I kidding?) I'll do my best, then make a meal with ONLY local ingredients that evening. Invite yourself over on a Wednesday (you will have to come to Queens) and enjoy a local meal with me! Or we can do it at your place.
     I am very proud to say that all components of this Carbonara Pasta dish are local, even the pasta was homemade from Knoll Crest Farms. So here is the deal: my dad hates chickens and my mom hates eggs. Hence, I have never eaten this type of pasta and until recently had no idea what it was. Did you say bacon? And eggs? And cheese? And garlic? And fresh ground pepper? On pasta? When? NOW! OKAY! 
    I used duck eggs, which is very exciting! Their eggy robustness took some getting used to. And they were gigantic; the yoke was the size of a ping pong. The shell was really resilient and I almost needed a hammer to break it. But they were beautiful and really delicious. I knew they would be perfect for Pasta Carbonara. 
     This dish is so easy, too. It takes only 20 minutes, I promise! Fry some chopped bacon until crisp, then drain on a paper towel. Meanwhile, boil your pasta. Remove some of the bacon fat from the frying pan and add chopped garlic, fresh black pepper, the fried bacon, the cooked pasta. Turn the heat off. Then crack a few eggs on top and mix into the pasta too cook them. Most recipes call for a swirl so as not to scramble your eggs, but mine were a tad scrambled. Mario Batali, as described in Bill Buford's Heat, separates his yokes and whites, mixes the whites in first, then just drops the raw yokes on top. Add some pecorino romano cheese. Serve warm and gooey with some nice local greens or broccoli rabe.

*All ingredients from the post are made exclusively from local seasonal meat and produce.

Sicilian Sunday Dinner: Step out of your comfort zone homemade pasta

     Shame on me: I haven't been posting as frequently as when I first started the blog. I say: quality over quantity! I want to make each post and photograph really count. And as Morta Di Fame approaches its one year birthday (April 18th!) I realize that maybe I only had a year's worth of recipes in my noggin, hardly a lifetime. I am such a not-follow-recipes kind of person(except with baking), but after actually opening up a few cook books, I see the light: there is a reason why they make cook books! New recipes, ideas, techniques, helpful tips. I find myself saying: "oh thats how you do that!" "oh thats whats in that!" "this is easy afterall," "i can do this!" I am inspired again! And since this is a Sicilian-ish American-ish food blog that needs some focus, one of my goal is to do Traditional Sicilian Sunday Dinners using recipes from some hard core Sicilian cook books I have come across aka "borrowed" from my parents house. I love shopping there!

    This week I invited my best gal Elina over to help me "step out of my comfort zone" and for the first time made homemade pasta. Elina would explain that this is one of the first steps to success, doing something that makes you feel uneasy at first. But if you never try, you can never succeed. Another step is to surround yourself with inspirational people, like Elina, whose vibrance is exhilirating. She works for a company called University of Dreams and Elina is truly dedicated to helping students realize their vision and accomplish their goals. 
     We made dinner for 5 hours, 2 hours of actually cooking and spent the rest of the time talking. Girl chats are just so therapeutic. Before Elina comes, I am about to call a psychologist, but after she leaves, I feel like I hashed everything out. And yes, we do talk major smack, buts its okay, we need to get it out of our systems. And no, we aren't going to tell you what/who we were talking about. You will just have to come to the next dinner. 
    Elina stepped up in the food styling department. It was so hard for us to hold back from eating the beautiful dishes we were creating before photographing them, which is such a big challenge for me. I usually just rush through the photos so I can eat. But we staved off hunger and I am so happy we did because I think it paid off in the photos.

     All recipes from this dinner (aside from the fava bean sauce) were taken from Vincent Schiavelli's cook book Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table.
    We started with Pipi Sutt'ogghiu or Roasted Red Pepper Salad. Elina gets all the credit on this dish. I merely roasted the peppers, which she then peeled, deseeded, cut into slices then layered with fresh chopped garlic, extra virgin olive oil and dried oregano (from Crete) and sea salt, as the recipe calls for. For a finishing and balancing touch we drizzled the salad with balsamic creme. They were sweet and peppery and a perfect topping for Italian bread. So simple and so flavorful.

    Our next course was  Cacuocciuli Mandorlata (Artichokes with Almond Sauce). I grew up eating stuffed artichokes. When its artichoke season, Nonna buys them in bushels and prepares them for me. Nonna says, "you love artichokes, Jane!" and she is right, I do. But I never actually make them. This recipe seemed perfect. Almonds and anchovies are so Sicilian and topped with capers made, irresistible. 
The recipe calls for steaming the artichokes with water, lemon and wine, but I do think the water should also be salted. Meanwhile you prepare an almond bread crumb paste that you then season with a lemon anchovy dressing, then stuff it into the halved artichokes. Not only were these so delicious, they were just gorgeous. Instead of whole anchovies I substituted anchovy paste.

     Pasta time! For the sauce I prepared a simple fava bean puree, which if you take time to soak your fava beans overnight, is the easiest sauce to make, just the beans, garlic and some bay leaf, plenty of salt and olive oil. 

     The hand made fresh pasta recipe Pasta Frisca, called for semolina flour, eggs, water, olive oil and some salt. I love simple. And I used the best farm eggs I could find. Kneading the dough is a great way to take out your frustrations. And for me and Elina, the hand motions were in our DNA. We really worked it.     

 I think it could have been a bit moister, and it was difficult to roll very thin by hand. But, the flavor was there. A few words came to mind as we inhaled it. Elina said "rubberband" ouch! I said, "rustic." A little better. It was just too thick.       For my first try I was very happy.  But, I think I am going to fish Nonna's pasta machine out of the garage for next time. I just couldn't roll it thin enough. 

    This was the first of I hope many ongoing Traditional Sicilian Sunday Dinners I will be making with friends and family. Thanks for sharing this with me Elina! And please everyone invite yourself over for one of these delicious meals; most Sundays you will find me in my kitchen cave making a Sunday dinner. 

Pipi Sutt'ogghiu (Roasted Red Pepper Salad) adapted from Vincent Schiavelli's cook book Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table

4-6 Bell Peppers

Dried oregano

Olive Oil

Chopped Garlic

Sea Salt

additions: sweet balsamic vinegar creme

Wash, dry and roast the peppers whole under the broiler until the skins turn black. Remove from the oven and let cool. Peel and deseed the peppers then cut into strips. Layer the strips on a platter with chopped garlic, olive oil salt and oregano. Top with sweet balsamic vinegar creme. 

Cacuocciuli Mandorlata (Artichokes with Almond Sauce) adapted from Vincent Schiavelli's cook book Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table

6 artichokes

1 1/2 C. almond meal

2 TBSP. flour

2 C. water

1/2 onion chopped finely

substitution: 2 TBSP anchovy paste (or as original recipe calls: 2 anchovies melted in a double boiler with their oil)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp. red wine vinegar

1 TBSP. sugar

1/4 C + 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

2 TBSP. capers

addition: red chili flakes

black pepper

Liquid for steaming

juice and rind of 1 lemon

1/4 C. white wine

water

(additions: salt)

Cut an inch off the top of each artichoke and cut points of the remaining leaves with scissors. Spread each artichoke and run under cold water. Rub each with lemon and steam upside down until tender. (Keep an eye that you have enough liquid in the steamer or you run the risk of burning the bottom of your pot.)

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, 1/4 C. olive oil and anchovies.

Dissolve the flour in water.

In a saucepan, sautee the onion in olive oil until brown. Add the almond meal and sautee for a few minutes. Season with salt. Whisk in the flour water mixture and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick. Remove it from the heat and while whisking add the anchovy sauce and black pepper. Set aside.

When artichokes are cooked and cool, cut each in half, scrape out the middle and stuff with the almond sauce. Sprinkle with capers and red chili flakes.

Pasta Frisca (Fresh Pasta) from Vincent Schiavelli's cook book Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table

(for 2-4 servings)

1 1/4 C. semolina

2 eggs

2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt

2 TBSP. water

Mound the semolina on a large wood or marble surface. Make a crater in the middle and crack in the eggs, olive oil and salt. Beat with a fork. When its well beaten draw the flour into the middle. When you can no longer use the fork, use a metal scaper, until everything is mixed thoroughly.

Knead the dough by stretching it and folding it together on itself until it is elastic and pebbly. Make into two balls and let sit for 10 minutes.

Roll the dough using a heavy pin until its 1/4 in thick. Fold it in half and roll again. Continue this until its the consistency of damp leather. Roll it so thin you can see the work surface. Flour it with semolina and fold it in half. Flour again and fold again until it resembles a bed sheet. Let it dry for 10-20 min.

Unfold and cut the dough with a sharp knife into 1/2 inch wide strips. Flour and leave covered with a dish towel until you are ready to use it.

Boil in a pot of salted water for 3 minutes or less. When it rises, it is cooked.

Use with your choice of sauce.

Maccu ri Favi (Dried Fava Beans Sauce)
1/2 lb or just over 1 C. of dried fava beans soaked overnight
3 cloves of garlic chopped finely
hot red chili flakes (pepperoncino) - optional
2 bay leaves
extra virgin olive oil

In a heavy duty pot, briefly sautee the garlic and bay leaf with the pepperoncino in olive oil. Add the beans and sautee for a few more minutes. Add about 1-2 C. of water, enough to cover the beans. Add a little salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. The beans will break down to a soft chunky paste. Season with more salt and pepper. Add sauce to pasta and top with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. Makes enough sauce for 4 bowls of pasta. Adjust amount of pasta accordingly.

APPY EAST!

Thats how all the old Sicilian ladies in my family say Happy Easter. APPY EAST!
And if the celebration happens to be on Long Island, where all New Yorkers tend to move, Nonna will say, "Jane, fah east, I go to long aye." (Jen, for Easter, I am going to Long Island.)

PASQUA 2010  

A CASA ASARO 

MENU’ 

Antipasti: 

- Sfincione Siciliano 

- Caponata 

- Olive, Salame & Pane 

Primi: 

- Lasagne alla Palermitana 

- Involtini di Melenzane ripieni di Capellini 

Secondi: 

- Carne mista alla brace (salsiccia, agnello, 

pollo, ecc) 

Contorni: 

- Insalata di Delizie Primaverili 

- Funghi ripieni 

- Kish di Zucchine 

Dolci: 

- Gelato 

- Torta alle Mandorle e Olio d’Oliva 

Bevande: 

- Prosecco, Vino Bianco, Vino Rosso, Acqua 

San Pellegrino, Espresso, Caffe’ Americano, 

Amaro, Zibibbo. 

PS. This Event is BYOC 

(Bring Your Own Chair) 

MOM'S RED SAUCE

Good thing Nonna doesn't understand the concept of the internet, because if there was any remote possibility that she could read what I am about to write I would think twice. My mom Marcy, who my father Rocco calls the "American woman," because she is the one who lended the normal non-Sicilain half of my DNA, makes sauce at the same level if not better than Nonna's time honored red tomato sauce. What? How can this be? Apparently you don't need to have Sicilian blood to make a killer tomato sauce. For a while I couldn't seem to get it right. But I called Mom at work and in about 5 minutes she gave me all the secrets. It turned out to be the best sauce I ever made. Aside from eating it with pasta, I used it to poach farm eggs for brunch, topped with a little cheese. It was fantastic!

Marcy's Red Tomato Sauce
1-1/1/2 large onions, roughly chopped
2 cans of peeled whole tomatoes
1-2 TBSP sugar
Salt
5-6 whole cloves of garlic
Bunch of fresh basil

Sautee the onions in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and season with salt and sugar. Bring to a boil then simmer for about a half an hour. Pass the sauce through a food mill and transfer to another pot. Addthe garlic and a generous bunch of basil leaves. Bring to a boil, then a simmer for about another 20-30 minutes. Take out the garlic and basil (optional). 

GUIDO GIRLS DINNER #3 - in Queens!

In a worried tone Nonna asks when I go to Manhattan, "Jane you gotta go to New York?" I always find this funny, but then again I myself call it "the city," as if there aren't 4 other boroughs in New York City besides Manhattan. Most of my friends think visiting me in Queens is like traveling to another planet.

So when I proposed an Eyetalian Girls Dinner in my new Queens place, Meredith basically said, "Thanks for the offer, why don't we have it at my place?" (which is in Brooklyn). I held my ground, which is not easy with strong brained crazy Sicilian broads, and everyone made it here without a problem. Enter the new "awesome" phase of our friendships, because anyone willing to visit me in Queens from another borough is automatically an awesome friend.

Markus started off everyone's unique Queens dining experience with some professional Old Fashioned Cocktails he made with the Tuthilltown Manhattan Rye Whiskey we brought back from our "wine" tasting along the Shawangunk Wine Trail. If you haven't gone wine tasting along this trail, go! It was so much fun. But beware, after a few tastings you will get loose with your credit card and come home with an obscene amount of wine.

Markus takes his cocktail making very seriously and even watched an instructional video on how to make a proper Old Fashioned, the cocktail so named because people would ask for a whiskey cocktail made the "old fashioned" way. That day he put me on the hunt for oranges with oily skin, which I thought were appropriate for a greasy Italian dinner party. The cocktails were perfect, strong, enough but not too sweet with a nice citrus hint.

For appetizers I made local Sunchoke Bruschetta and served it alongside some Sicilian cheese, olives and sun dried tomatoes.

For the pasta course, I made a Creamy Mushroom Sage Sauce over Campanelle. This is such an easy sauce, perfect for company and in my opinion there is not a better flavor combination than shallots, mushrooms and sage. I also made an vegan version for my special Sicilian vegan guest that stood up to the creamy version. It had more of a mushroom flavor.

For the main course I served Panelle, which are chick pea fritters, with Italian bread, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Brocolli Rabe. This was my best panelle effort yet.

On our way to Ikea Rocco and I had stopped at Ferdinando's in Red Hook, which is one of the only places in the city where you can find panelle. I asked the panelle guy for some advice. He just said chick pea flour and water, with a little salt and fry them in canola oil. And at Ikea I found this great pan to use as a panelle form for $6. I followed his advice and didn't use lemon juice or parsley, I salted the paste well and I deep fried the panelle in Gemma oil, which is a vegetable oil about 10% olive oil. I was very satisfied with the results.

Melissa Love, of Crema Fatale, our favorite Vegan Pastry Chef brought over an unbelievable Salted Caramel Chocolate Mousse Martini with Almond Praline. It was so delicious we practically licked the salt rimmed martini glasses clean. The almond praline was outstanding, so crunchy and chewy. The chocolate mouse was so smooth and there was a nice soft caramel surprise waiting on the bottom. The sea salt with the sweet was perfection and I don't do justice in this photo of the remarkable presentation. The dessert along with some really nice Cava, a white spanish sparkling wine that Meredith brought over was the perfect ending to our Crazy Eyetalian Girl's Dinner #3.

Thanks for coming to Queens my awesome Eyetalian friends!

Recipes from Eyetalian Girl's Dinner #3:

Old Fashioned Cocktail

To a cocktail glass add:

2 oz. rye whiskey

2-3 spoonfuls of simple syrup (For simple syrup dissolve 1 C. sugar in 1 C. water and cool)

2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Ice

oily orange peel, twisted to express the oils and used as garnish

maraschino cherry (optional)

Sunchoke Bruschetta

1lb of Sunchokes or Jerusalem Artichokes

Olive Oil and/or butter

Salt and Pepper

1/2 loaf Italian Bread, sliced

1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 whole clove of garlic

Preheat oven to 450.

Wash and peel the sunchokes and chopped into small pieces. Drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper on top and roast for about 15-20 minutes until they are soft.

Chop 1-2 pieces of garlic. Roast the chopped garlic with the sunchokes during the last 5 minutes of roasting.

Remove sunchokes from the oven and melt a few pats of butter on top (optional). Season to taste with salt and pepper and additional olive oil.

Toast sliced Italian bread. Upon removing from the toaster rub each slice with a clove of garlic.

Top each slice of toasted bread with the roasted sunchokes and serve.

Creamy Mushroom Sage Sauce with Campanelle Pasta

2 packages of fresh mushrooms (baby portobello, crimini or shiitaki), sliced

2 shallots, chopped

bunch of fresh sage, chopped

olive oil and butter

salt and pepper

about 1/2 C. cream or regular milk or soy milk

about 1 C. vegetable or chicken broth

1/2 lb. pasta, campanelle or penne

Sautee shallots and sage in butter and olive oil until softened. Add sliced mushrooms.

Once soft, season with salt and pepper. Add vegetable broth. Reduce for 5 minutes. Add cream of soy milk. Reduce until thickened about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and add a few pats of butter. Serve over campanelle pasta.

Panelle Revised

1 lb. chick pea flour

4 C. water or 1 Liter of Water

Salt

Oil for Frying

Boil the water. Add the chick pea flour slowly stirring constantly. Lower the heat if it starts to boil over. Keep boiling until its thick. Keep stirring. Once it pulls from the side of the pot, season with salt. Pour the paste into a greased mold. Cooking spray works best.

Let the panelle paste cool for a few hours in the fridge. Once its cool remove it from the mold and cut into thin 1/8 in. slices. Fry in canola or gemma oil and season with sea salt. Serve with Italian bread.

Brocolli Rabe

1 bunch broccoli rabe

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp peperoncino (red pepper flakes)

extra virin olive oil

salt and pepper

In a large pan with a lid, sautee garlic and peperoncino in olive oil. Before the garlic browns add the broccoli rabe season with salt and pepper and put the lid on so it can steam. Stir after a few minutes so the greens on the bottom don't burn. Cook until the greens are softened. Serve with Italian bread.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1lb. Brussels Sprout

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and cut bottoms off the brussels sprouts. Cut each brussels sprout in half. In a baking dish season with a generous amount of olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake about 20 minutes until tender and the outer edges of the leaves are browned and caramelized.