Roasted Cauliflower Frittata

No fancy stuff today, but simple honest Italian home cooking. Frittata is the Italian solution to leftovers. Just add some eggs and turn it into a wonderful meal.  Although I have been blogging about Italian food for over four years, I’ve … Continue reading Roasted Cauliflower Frittata

Salsa Roja (Roasted Tomato Salsa)

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I like making everything from scratch using fresh ingredients. Chicken fajitas are one of my favorite dishes to prepare when I don’t have time and/or equipment to make everything from scratch (like when we are vacationing in an RV), as they are very tasty and store-bought flour tortillas and salsa are of acceptable quality. I had never made fajitas from scratch yet, and I wanted to try to see if it would be worth the effort compared to using store-bought components. And so I needed to make my own salsa as one of the components. Continue reading “Salsa Roja (Roasted Tomato Salsa)”

Ancho Chile with Chocolate Mousse and Amarena Cherries

Guess whose idea it was to use chile peppers for dessert? Who else but Richard McGary! I found his recipe for Cinnamon Candied Chile Relleno with Red Wine Chocolate Sauce very intriguing, and knew I had to try something similar. I thought it was very appropriate to use the ancho chiles that Richard had sent me to prepare this very unusual but very tasty dessert. The base of the dessert is a chile pepper stuffed with chocolate mousse. Richard soaks the chiles in cinnamon syrup and serves them with pecans and red wine chocolate sauce. I made my own version with an Italian twist by pairing the chocolate stuffed chile with tart amarena cherries and almonds. It was really good, and definitely something I’ll make again. Thanks Richard! Continue reading “Ancho Chile with Chocolate Mousse and Amarena Cherries”

Penne all’Arrabbiata

When I did a riff on a combination of Sugo alla Napoletana and Penne all’Arrabbiata to meet Richard’s Chilehead Challenge, I realised that I had not blogged about Penne all’Arrabbiata before. This is a classic dish from Lazio, the region around Rome, of pasta with a spicy tomato sauce. “Arrabbiata” means angry, referring to the spiciness of the sauce. Like all Italian classics, it is a simple dish with a limited number of ingredients, but a lot of flavor. It doesn’t take more time to prepare this than it takes to boil the pasta. Continue reading “Penne all’Arrabbiata”

Richard’s Awesome Chipotle Pork Burgers

After receiving Richard’s wonderful chile package, I browsed through his chile recipes (i.e. most of his recipes 😉 ) to get ideas of what to do with those chiles. His recipe for Chihuahua Cheese Stuffed Porcine Chipotle Burgers struck my fancy, so I decided to give it a try. I’ve never seen Chihuahua cheese around here, and I didn’t look forward to inquiring because everyone would think I was talking about a yappy little dog rather than cheese. So I decided to use sardinian pecorino because that is what I had.

I had never heard of chipotle chiles before, so I did not know that they are in fact smoked jalapeños. The flavor of the pork burger with the pickled chipotles mixed into the patties was simply amazing! We both loved it. The smoky flavor of the chipotles worked really well. I will definitely prepare these burgers again and then I will try grilling them on a charcoal fire because I expect that will take them over the top. Thanks Richard, not only for the great gift but also for this delicious recipe! Continue reading “Richard’s Awesome Chipotle Pork Burgers”

Linguine ai gamberoni alla Fra Diavolo (Linguine with flambeed shrimp, garlic and chile pepper)

I was intrigued by this recipe by Pasta Princess since it involves flambéing the shrimp, and decided to make my own version with some alterations. As far as I’ve been able to find out by googling, Fra Diavolo is a recipe that is typical of the Italian kitchen in the United States. Nevertheless I tried to make this recipe like I believe it might be made in Italy. I like Pasta Princess’ suggestion to serve this over home-made pesto fettucine, but since I made this after work and didn’t have time to make fresh pasta, I used linguine as this type is … Continue reading Linguine ai gamberoni alla Fra Diavolo (Linguine with flambeed shrimp, garlic and chile pepper)