Cold Sesame with Raw Zucchini, Carrot and Cucumber (Spiralized) Noodles

Cold Sesame with Raw Zucchini, Carrot & Cucumber Noodles

When I was a kid my parents would take us all to a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, Queens called The Happy Dumpling. I was just beginning to be adventurous beyond wonton soup and Cold Sesame Noodles were soon my jam! The waitress would mix all the ingredients at the table, a great way to keep restless kids entertained. The entire family loved that dish and it was the highlight of our meal there.

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.

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.

THE SICILIAN CONDITION (AND THE WORLD SERIES)

I was honored to accept a dinner invitation to Melissa and Paul's place to be followed by watching the Phillies get their asses kicked by the Yankees in the World Series. (Sorry Melissa, just stating facts.)

Melissa, along with Meredith and myself are on the board of the Eyetalian Girl's Club, a supper club (at Melissa's) in which we share our mutual guido craziness over delicious homemade local food (that Melissa makes) while Paul sits perplexed and sometimes scared of the three of us.

The mental condition of having Sicilian DNA (even if your halfsies) in a female body is recognized most commonly as being sickeningly nurturing and loving while constantly obsessing over food and making sure everyone around you is well fed. A look further and the alarming quality of being cunningly intuitive if not full on psychic is also observed. Nonna is a full psychic Sicilian. She just knows.

While chatting about our plans, we agreed to a "simple" meal, then watch the game. The evening was about the World Series after all. Simple meals to most people are Mac n' Cheese, Soup and Salad or Pizza, but to Sicilian DNAers this is how the conversation went:

Melissa: what time is the game?

me: 8pm

early enough that it could interfere with dinner

see i think we need to be in a sports bar with d-bag yankee fans when they win tomorrow

for your sake

;-)

5:21 PM Melissa: i get home around 6:30. Lets do a simple dinner. I'll make the pesto tonight, we can have it with whole wheat fussili, and I'll saute some cubed butternut squash on the side. I'll have Paul roast an eggplant before I get home and well have that as an app with some good bread. We can go to the Turkeys Nest to watch the game after. Oh and we'll have your apple crumble for dessert.

You'd gonna need all the fule you can get to deal with all that crying.

me: LOL!

sounds perfect

5:22 PM Melissa: Manley waants to make vegan ice cream. I'll have him do that tomorrow morning.

me: wowoowwo

crazinessMelissa: GO PHILLS!!!!!!!!!Thats sounds simple to me. I arrived early and Paul (AKA Manley) had just crossed the last TO DO off his prep list that Melissa had emailed him. There was some serious bulleting involved:

• Wash, peel, and cube butternut squash, put in small baking pan and set aside
• Boil Manocotti, drain and set aside in baking dish
• Wash,soak and drain arugula. Set aside in bowl
• Pull out big food processor and put on counter
• Pan toast walnuts, set side in small bowl or on paper towel.
• Wash and peel beets, cut them into thin slices, set aside in small baking pan
• Cut baby carrots in half length wise and add to beets.
• Wash eggplant and poke a MILLION holes in it with a knife and set aside in baking pan

I should be on chat. Let me know if you have any questions.

Good Luck.

Thank you.

Can I first say that I adore these two? I was impressed but not surprised by Melissa's thorough and detailed instruction and Paul's on point follow-through. Everything was prepped to perfection, but Paul looked a little frazzled juggling about 18 roasting dishes. He showed Meredith and I the walnuts he toasted.

"Burnt, right? We should get more," he said.

"They are fine," I said. Thats so my mother in me (who is non-Sicilian by blood)

"Paul's right," Meredith said, "Melissa is gonna flip out. Let's go get more walnuts."

"Really?" I said.

They weren't that bad. Not to warrant going to the store but Melissa is a perfectionist, I get it.

And there is something very admirable to be said about being a perfectionist. But forget about that, lets talk about Melissa's frightening sense of smell and her psychic abilities. As we were leaving for the store, Melissa arrived, looking cute coming home from a long day at the bakery. We gave each other a nice big hug, then she pulled back, gave me a funny look then took a big whiff of me. I did shower that day and I'm a hygienic person but by the way she sniffed I thought maybe I smelled great or something.

"Did he burn something?" Melissa said.

My jaw dropped in awe. How could her sense of smell be so acute especially in such close proximity to the Newtown Creek?

"Its the Walnuts, right? Paul burnt the walnuts," she said.

Meredith and I walked away very slowly trying not to make eye contact. How in the world did she know that Paul burnt the walnuts? And there is the condition of Sicilian Psychic Prowess demonstrated most aptly in regards to food. I am still blown away by it.

I am also blown away by the excellent meal Melissa and Paul tag teamed. (Sorry, not too many visuals for the food porn lovers.)

The Roasted Eggplant with Market Italian Bread was like buttah and so addictive.

The Roasted Butternut Squash and Tofu Manicotti topped with arugula walnut pesto was delicious. It had the texture of ricotta cheese. Meredith and I helped assemble them. It was the first time I had stuffed manicotti and I was ridiculed with "What kind of dego are you?"

The sides of roasted carrots, brussels sprouts and beets were perfect accompaniments.

For dessert I brought an Apple Crumble which was topped with Paul's vegan vanilla ice cream made with coconut milk.

We wined and talked, and by talking I mean yelled over each other and interrupted one another and had about 15 conversations going on at once among the 4 of us. Oh and I almost forgot that we watched the World Series. And the Yanks won.

Thanks Melissa, Paul and Meredith for another successful Eyetalian Girls Dinner!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO

I am trying to lay off the dairy for a while. Well until Paulie Gee opens his pizza joint in Greenpoint that is. So why did I chose to make risotto, which is supposed to be a buttery creamy rice dish? Cause I am a damn fool. A damn fool who likes a challenge. I envisioned Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage and Shallots. I also envisioned buttery creaminess. You can't fake the funk with butter, but the butternut squash did a great job of giving the risotto a nice creaminess, while good extra virgin olive oil gave it a nice rich flavor. A truffle oil here would have been perfect. And butter!

I roasted the butternut squash with olive oil salt and pepper. Then I sauteed the shallots and fresh sage in olive oil and added the mashed up squash. I added some nutmeg salt and pepper. Then the risotto. Simmering in a pot was some vegetable stock which I added in ladlefuls as the risotto aborbed most of the liquid. And I kept stirring and stirring.

I kept tasting it as I was stirring and it felt like something was missing. (the butter!) So I started freaking out and adding things. I added a clove of chopped garlic (a giant clove). Cayenne Pepper. Fresh Grated Ginger. Brown Sugar. And lots of salt. More nutmeg. More olive oil. More sage.

In the end this Butternut Squash Risotto was ultra creamy, very garlickey really tasty and dairy-free, but it really could have used some B-U-T-T-E-R! Butter makes everything better.

CAULIFLOWER CASHEW ANISE SOUP

    I am not really a cook book person. I have this thing about having too many books, so I usually either take my cook books out of the library and make photo copies of recipes or when I need a quick recipe I look in Grandma's tin, online or I just freestyle it. A little onion and garlic is the start of something special every time.

    I got Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet cook book from a Secret Santa one year (Thank You Dasha!) and I didn't open it for a while, but when I did, it was like an entire new world of Indian flavors opening up to me. Now I am no longer scared to sautee cumin seeds, make chutneys and grate ginger into everything. 

   A while back I made this excellent Sauteed Cauliflower with Anise and Cashews from the cook book. Cashews for the record are not my favorite nut, but with a little heat and spice they come alive. And now its soup season and Cauliflower Soup is an all time favorite, so I experimented with adapting this recipe for pureed soup. I am very satisfied with it. The smooth cauliflower texture combined with the crunchy ground cashews is remarkable on the taste buds. 

  Try it. Its such simple revamp for Cauliflower Soup.

Original Recipe from Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet:

Sauteed Cauliflower with Anise and Cashews

2 to 3 TBSP canola oil

1 tsp anise seed

3 or 4 long dry chilies

1 C diced shallots

1 1/2 TBSP minced ginger

2 1/4 lb Cauliflower broken into small florets

1/2 tsp salt

1 C cashews

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add the anise seeds and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Roughly break up the chilies, add them to the anise seeds and stir. After 5 minutes, add the shallots, ginger, and cauliflower. Add 1/2 C. of water and salt and stir. Cook for 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the cashews and cook for an additional 10 minutes or so uncovered, until all the moisture is gone, stirring occasionally. The cauliflower will reduce greatly in size and should have some charred brown bits at the edges. The cashews should also be toasted brown. SERVES 4-6

Cauliflower Cashew and Anise Soup 

    I wanted to get the flavor of the browned cauliflower and cashews so I basically followed the recipe exactly with a few modifications before I turned it into soup. I used olive oil obviously instead of canola oil and I used peperoncino instead of the hot chilies. I also added some ground nutmeg for fun. I followed the recipe then added enough water to cover the cauliflower plus a vegetable bouillon. I diced up a red potato, skin on, and added that for thickness and depth. I simmered it for about 15 minutes, then I pureed it with the hand blender. What a tool! I served it with fresh cilantro which really took it to another level flavor wise.

PLUM TOMATILLO SALSA

I never get angry at vegetables, but tomatillos are a pain in the butt. They just sit in the fridge staring at me with their little crinkly skins, saying, "What about me? Why can't you ever think of anything clever to do with me?" And I can't. I can only think of salsa, and on the web thats pretty much what everyone else is packing. So I tried to at least make the salsa interesting and I added local plums, a yellow tomato, red onion, amish garlic, honey, cilantro, lemon juice, olive oil, some hot pepper that was about to die, salt and pepper and of course those annoying tomatillos. This salsa was good. Really good.