This is what we’ve just had for dinner, or as the primo piatto to be more precise (with a flat iron steak as secondo piatto): orecchiette pasta with slow-roasted cauliflower, capers, anchovies, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil, parsley, and … Continue reading Pasta with Slow-Roasted Cauliflower (Orecchiette al Cavolfiore)
Scallops were on sale if bought by the kilo (2.2 lbs), so I smoked some as an appetizer and cooked the remainder sous-vide to be able to keep them longer. But you can also prepare this dish using raw scallops. … Continue reading Pasta with Scallops and Bell Pepper
My favorite way of preparing cauliflower is slow roasting it. This gives the cauliflower great depth of flavor that is so much more tasty than steamed or boiled cauliflower. Cauliflower can be roasted quickly in half an hour at 225C/440F. … Continue reading Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower (Pasta e Cavolfiore)
In part of Italy it is a tradition to have dinner on Christmas Eve (the 24th) rather than on Christmas Day (the 25th). The cena della vigilia often features fish, and after yesterday’s recipe from Veneto it is fitting to have … Continue reading Cod alla Vicentina Sous-Vide (Merluzzo alla Vicentina)
Our vacation to Sardinia provided a lot of inspiration for dishes to cook. Yet another one from La Perla in Calasetta is stuffed calamari braised in tomato sauce. This reminded me of a recipe by Biba Caggiano that I still … Continue reading Stuffed Calamari Braised in Tomato Sauce (Calamari Ripieni)
Pasta con le sarde is a very typical pasta dish from Sicily with a unique flavor. The main ingredients are pasta and sardines as the name implies, but also wild fennel (finocchietto). The latter ingredient may be hard to find … Continue reading Pasta con le sarde (Pasta with Sardines and Wild Fennel)
There are so many food blogs out there that it is hard to find the really good ones. But once in a while I discover a new food blog that I really like, and one of those is Stefano’s Italian Home … Continue reading Duck ‘in Salsa’ with Radicchio (Anatra in Salsa con Radicchio di Treviso)
Calamari and squid are both types of cuttlefish. You can use any type for this recipe. Squid can be cooked in two ways: either very short or very long. Something in between, and it will be tough. Since I was … Continue reading Pasta with Calamari and Bell Peppers
Using chard for the filling of the ravioli alla genovese meant I had leftover chard stems. I thought what a home cook from Genoa would do with leftover chard stems, and that is how I came up with this contorno (side dish) … Continue reading Baked Chard Stems (Coste di Bietola al Forno)
You may have noticed something else on the plate along with the venison and mushroom stew of my previous post. Because the stew was served with a wine from Piemonte, I wanted to serve a contorno (side dish) from that … Continue reading Sancrau alla Piemontese (Savoy Cabbage with Vinegar and Anchovies)
Bacalà alla Vicentina is a famous dish from the North Italian city of Vicenza, prepared with dried cod. The cod is cooked low and slow and flavored with onions, anchovies, parsley, milk, extra virgin olive oil, and grated cheese (grana … Continue reading Fresh Cod alla Vicentina with Polenta
When you make crème brûlée, you will have a lot of leftover egg whites. On the master of cook I saw this recipe for a ‘pizza’ made from egg whites with a tomato sauce and tuna. In Italian it is … Continue reading Egg White ‘Pizza’ With Tuna
Baking or slow roasting is an original way to prepare kale. It takes a long time to bake, but most of that is inactive time. This version with Italian flavors has great depth of flavor and a nice texture. For … Continue reading Slow Roasted Kale
Breadcrumbs are often used in Sicilian cuisine to provide texture to antipasti such as sarde beccafico, primi piatti such as pasta with anchovies and broccoli, and secondi such as cotoletta alla palermitana. The latter dish inspired me to prepare swordfish … Continue reading Swordfish Palermitana (Pesce Spada alla Palermitana)
A great way to cook a whole leg of lamb is to roast it in the oven with anchovies, garlic and rosemary. I wanted to cook the lamb sous-vide instead so it would be more tender and juicy, and just … Continue reading Leg of Lamb Sous-Vide with Anchovies, Garlic, and Rosemary
We are having some wonderful weather here — I would sign up for weather like this in Summer — and so during my lunch break I walked to the market to pick up some fresh fish for dinner, to be … Continue reading White Fish Gratin (Pesce Bianco Gratinato al Forno)
Sea scallops are one of my favorite foods. This quick and easy preparation makes them shine: they are pan-fried and then finished with a sauce of white wine, lemon, capers, and anchovies. The sauce is pretty hefty, but the scallops … Continue reading Scallops with Capers, Anchovies, Lemon, and Wine (Cape Sante in Padella)
When we paid Jo of My Home Food That’s Amore a visit this summer, she gave us some goodies including a box of calamarata pasta. Thanks, Jo! The name of this pasta sounds like calamari, because these pasta rings resemble … Continue reading Calamarata Pasta with Swordfish Ragù (Calamarata con Ragù di Pesce Spada)
The idea for this antipasto came from ChgoJohn from the Bartolini kitchens. It was served to him in a restaurant in Florence, and he blogged about it. It is simply two sage leaves with anchovies in between, dipped in batter, … Continue reading Fried Sage with Anchovies (Salvia Fritta con Acciughe)
I had picked up a cauliflower because it was on sale, without knowing what I was going to do with it. Then when it was time to cook I wanted to try something new, and as ravioli is one of … Continue reading Cauliflower Ravioli (Ravioli al Cavolfiore)
A traditional side dish of Sicily is Bastaddi affucati, a Sicilian type of purple cauliflower braised with wine. I got the inspiration to try this dish from Viaggiando con Bea. Since bastaddu (in Sicilian, bastardo in Italian) is difficult to find … Continue reading Braised Cauliflower (Cavolfiore Affogato)
Viaggiando con Bea is one of the Italian blogs that I follow to get inspiration and feedback on my Italian recipes directly from the source. A while ago she published a recipe for a Sicilian side dish with cauliflower called … Continue reading Sicilian Pasta and Cauliflower Gratin (Gratin di Mezze Maniche al Cavolfiore)
As an appetizer for my Piemonte-themed evening I decided to make bagna càuda. This is a hot dip sauce made with olive oil, anchovies, and garlic and served with raw or cooked vegetables to dip. There are many varieties, with a lot of them including butter besides olive oil or even milk or cream. Also the vegetables used are endless. Continue reading “Bagna Càuda”
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