Calamari all'amatriciana

On our first night in Rome, after our twilight, highlights of Rome from a bus tour, we were treated to a meal at a local trattoria.  One of the pasta dishes we tried that night was bucatini all'amatriciana.  This dish was soon to become one of our favourites as we travelled around the different areas of Italy.  Of course, as with anything there were variations at each place that we tried it.

Amatriciana is a classic dish, and one of simplicity.  Traditionally it is made only with smoked pork (guanciale), tomatoes (oh how I loved those sweet Italian tomatoes!), a kick of chilli, and then topped off with some grated pecorino cheese.  A purist would argue that onions and garlic have no place in this dish!

The Romans claim this dish is theirs, but there are others who claim it originates from the town of Amatrice - a tiny town in the mountains bordering Abruzzo (more than 100 miles from Rome!) Wherever it comes from, it is a truly wonderful dish.

Since coming home I have made this dish several times, but this version I think nails it on the head, the flavours that I loved while in Italy.  While not claiming this is a traditional version, it is one that my whole family enjoys.

When you are out and about in real Italian food shops, you find some lovely interesting shapes in the pasta that is on offer on offer.  In Italy we found some very interesting shapes (and colours) of pasta!!

On a recent trip to Haberfield I ran across a shape called "calamari" - it reminded me of the shape of the pasta that I had at our favourite restaurant "Scirocco" - so this was the pasta I used tonight!

Calamari all'amatriciana
from trial and error, and several recipes!!


Serves 6

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
250g speck, cut into batons
crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 onion, minced finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 x 400g cans whole peeled italian tomatoes
500g pasta  *
grated pecorino cheese

Heat the oil in a large frypan over medium high heat.  Add the speck, and saute until crisp, and golden. Drain the excess fat from the pan.  Add the onion and garlic, cook stirring until the onion softens - approximately 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, crushing slightly with a fork or a potato masher.  Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Meanwhile bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.  Add the pasta a cook until 3 minutes before al dente.

(In Italy the pasta is served very chewy, almost with a breadlike consistency - the worst crime you can commit is to serve watery gluggy pasta!!)

* I have found that it is worth paying a little more and buying "real" italian pasta - the "al dente" texture is much easier to replicate.  The cheap local stuff goes far too gluggy!!!

Drain the pasta, but retain the cooking water.

Add the drained pasta to the tomato sauce, toss to incorporate the sauce well.  Add 1 cup of reserved cooking water.  Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, until the pasta is al dente.  Add more cooking water if needed.

Stir in approximately 1/4 cup of grated pecorino cheese.

Serve topped with grated pecorino cheese.

So while this isn't the traditional amatriciana recipe - it certainly went down a treat in our house the other night!!!  No leftovers tonight!!!!

Buon Appetito!!!

Osso Buco Milanese

During a cooking class on my recent trip to Italy, Chef Raffaele gave us some sound advice.  "if you don't have access to fresh, vine ripened tomatoes, use canned!". Looking at the insipid, flavourless offerings that are available at the  moment, I heeded his advice when making this meal!

On my recent shopping spree in Haberfield I picked up some lovely looking veal osso  buco, and some lamb shanks (amongst many other wonderful offers!).  After a cold, wet time at the rugby yesterday, where we watched the game from the protection of an overhanging rock cliff, I gave DH the choice, of either Osso Buco with Parmesan Polenta, or Tunisian Style Lamb Shanks for dinner.  Osso Buco won!

In the current edition of Good Taste Magazine, Tobie Puttock shows us his version of this famous Milanese dish.  Everyone tweaks it just a little, and calls it their own version, but the base ingredients pretty much stay the same.  Although Wikipedia does state that Osso Buco comes in two varieties - the  modern version which is based on a tomato sauce, with the obligatory soffritto as it's base, or the old version which is bianco or "white", with no tomatoes and is flavored with cinnamon, bay leaves and gremolata.

Tonight's version is the modern take.

Osso Buco Milanese 
Adapted from recipe found  in Good Taste Magazine, by Tobie Puttock 

Serves 4-6 

3/4 cup plain flour
8 pieces veal osso buco
Extra virgin olive oil
2 small brown onions, finely chopped
2 small carrots, peeled, finely chopped
2 large sticks celery, finely chopped 
6 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 x 400g cans cherry tomatoes 
100g pancetta, chopped
12 fresh sage leaves
3 springs fresh rosemary
2-3 dried bay leaves (depending on size)
2/3 cup white wine
1 cup vegetable stock

Gremolata  

Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
Handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Sea salt to taste
1 clove garlic, finely grated

Parmesan Polenta 

2 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
1 cup polenta
40g butter
60g grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.  

 Place the flour on a large flat plate, season with salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Add the veal, and turn to coat, shaking off the excess.

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large ovenproof casserole dish over high heat. Cook the veal,  in batches, for 2-3 minutes each side, or until browned.  Transfer to a plate.

Heat 1 tbs of olive oil over medium heat.  Cook the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic for 5-10 minutes, or until soft.  Stir in the pancetta, tomatoes, sage, rosemary, and bay leaves.  Stir for 5 minutes, or until aromatic. Add the veal, and the wine. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add the stock and bring to the boil.  Cover, and bake for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, check.  At this stage if there is a lot of liquid, you may want to cook for the next 30 minutes uncovered, make sure it doesn't burn on top though!

To make the gremolata, combine all ingredients in a small bowl.  Reserve.

To make the polenta, bring the water and chicken stock to the boil in a medium sized saucepan.  While stirring the liquid, add the polenta to the pan in a thin stream, while continuously stirring.

Stir the mixture for 5-10 minutes, or until thickened and the grains are soft.

Quickly add the butter and Parmesan cheese.  Stir to incorporate well.

To serve place a small amount of polenta on a serving plate.  Top with a piece of osso buco, some sauce, and then a sprinkling of gremolata.

Nothing warms soul more that a beautiful, flavourful casserole!

This meal certainly had us slurping at the bones to get out that rich marrow!

Good choice DH!  Guess that means lamb shanks next week!  That's something to look forward to!

So Dear Readers what is the best piece of cooking advice you have been given? Chef Raffaele also told us that when basil is bountiful, place it, unwashed in a large glass jar, and keep in the fridge.  I have had great success with this one - it lasts for at least 2 weeks!!

A Little Bowl of Tuscany!

On a cold wet, winter night is there anything better than having dinner in front of a log fire?  I think not!!!

I was feeling a little homesick for Italy the other day, so I took myself off for a shopping trip to Haberfield.  Now, it's not quite like shopping at the market place in Italy, but it was the best I was going to get here in Australia!

I wandered up one side of Ramsay Street, and back down the other, peering into all the shops, and making a mental shopping list as I travelled form shop to shop - menu plans were formulating!

One thing that I have been craving since getting back, is Mozzarella di Bufala (Buffalo Mozzarella), so a trip to Paesanella Cheese Shop was a prerequisite on this trip!  There they were - my beautiful little lovelies, sitting in their milky looking brine!!  There were two varieties on offer - the true Italian one, and the ones that they make themselves.  After being told in Italy, that they should never be refrigerated, I decided to go for the local ones, who knows how long the imported ones have been refrigerated on their trip here!

There were so many lovely looking things on display in the cabinet, it was very hard to choose.  I limited myself with what I though we would consume in the next few days.  Some speck, provolone, and pecorino, but the carciofi (artichokes) looked tempting too, and also the caramelised tomatoes.  A tasting plate was forming in my mind.

Onwards I travelled, some beautiful proscuitto was procured, along with a lot of beautiful looking meats (osso bucco, lamb shanks, Italian sausage, lamb kebabs).  Next some pasta, and then various other vegetables, including some tuscan cabbage were added to the growing mountain of food in my boot!!!

It was very tiring work, all this shopping, so a rest was required - lunch stop was at  Pasticceria Papa for a cappuccino and a panini.

A few more stops, and I had enough food to feed the family for the week!!!

What fun it was, so much better that going to the local iridescently lit shopping mall,  and offending supermarket!!!  Sure it wasn't a market place, but it was different to how I usually shop. The only thing I wasn't able to get were those beautiful Italian tomatoes, but then it is the wrong season!!!  Me thinks a return visit in summer is in order!!!

So what were we going to have for our meal in front of the fire?

Our tasting plate consisted of some rustic bread, which we topped with the Buffalo Mozzarella, Artichokes, Bruscetta, caramelised tomatoes, and dolmades (yes, I know they are not Italian, but we do like them!!).

After being at a night game of rugby we really needed to warm ourselves up - so some soup was in order.  Remember the Tuscan Cabbage?

I just had to make the recipe for Ribollita  from The Tuscan Sun Cookbook, that I recently won from the lovely Not Quite Nigella.  Thank you Lorraine!!!  There's a bowl waiting here for you in front of the fire!

Ribollita
From The Tuscan Sun Cookbook by Frances Mayes & Edward Mayes

Serves 15!

500g dried cannellini beans *
1 tsp salt
2 brown onions, diced
6 carrots, diced
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
4 celery stalks, diced
4-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp pepper
1 bunch tuscan cabbage, finely chopped
8-10 tomatoes, or 1 x 800g can whole tomatoes, chopped
the heel of a wedge of parmigiano reggiano
2 litres of vegetable, chicken, or meat stock
2 cups cubed, day old bread
generous handful of combined flat leaf parsley,  torn basil and thyme leaves

grated parmigiano reggiano cheese and olive oil to serve


* you can use dried cannellini beans if you have the time, but you will need to soak them for 5 hours though! I used 2 x 400g cans of cannellini beans, drained.


In a large stockpot over low heat, sauté the onions and carrots in the olive oil. After 3-4 minutes, add the celery, garlic and the salt, pepper and the Tuscan Cabbage. Add more olive oil if needed. Cook,
for 10 minutes, or until the cabbage is wilted, then add the tomatoes, and the heel of the Parmesan. Add enough stock to cover. Bring to the boil, and then simmer, covered for 1 hour to blend the flavours.

Make sure you stir now and then.

After about 50 minutes add the drained cannellini beans. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Add the bread cubes and herbs. Heat through.

Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some grated Parmesan cheese.

Bellisimo!

This soup was sooooo good. The best part is that I now have a huge container left for lunches, and easy meals for the rest if the week!

This meal took me back to the night we arrived in Florence. My traveling buddy, Barb, had this as her starters (no we didn't follow protocol that night by having antipasti, primi, secondi and contorni!) We introduced ourselves to Florence that night, by eating at a little trattoria just off the Ponte Vecchio!

I don't know what her's was like that night, but mine last night really hit the spot!



















 Ahhh.... Food memories... Don't you love them! So Dear Readers do you make meals to remind you of places you have visited?

Me, I'm on a bit of Italy revisited at the moment.... Osso Bucco tonight!!!!

Italian Feast

Life has kind of gone back to normal now.

The long weekend is now a distant memory, the pupil free day is over, and they are all back at school again (breathe a big sigh of relief!!!)  Of course there was my birthday in there this week as well - so things have been quite topsy turvey here to say the least.  While I have been cooking as usual over the last few weeks, I just haven't had the time (or the concentration with everyone around) to blog.  So I guess I have lots to catch up on.  I take the photos, and file them away in a file, meaning to write about them, but the enthusiasm seems to wane, and well, before you know it I never wrote about them at all - and they become little lost "orphans" sitting in a file feeling very unloved.

This is the time of the month is when the new editions of several magazines hit the newsstands. The current edition of Good Taste Magazine features food from all over the world.  This meal is a trip to Italy.  (I always wanted to spend my 50th birthday in Italy, but somehow it never happend - a trip via food will have to do!)

While this looks like quite a lot to do, if you break it down it becomes quite simple.  The stew takes a couple of hours to cook - so you need to start that early.  The sides really don't take too long at all, just coordination.  Make sure that you start the bread once you have the stew under way, and you will have it all covered!

Spezzatino di Manzo (Italian Beef Stew)
From Good Taste Magazine May edition

Serves 6
1/2 cup plain flour
1.5kg beef chuck steak, cut into 5cm pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
100g pancetta, coarsely chopped *
2 carrots, peeled, finely chopped *
2 celery sticks, finely chopped *
1 brown onion, finely chopped *
2 cloves garlic, crushed *
1 cup dry white wine
400g diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbs chopped fresh sage
2tbs capers, rinsed, drained, chopped

Place the flour in a large plastic bag.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the beef and shake to coat.  Heat 1 tbs of the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add 1/3 of the beef and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes, or until browned.  Transfer to a plate.  Repeat until all beef is cooked.

Add the pancetta, carrot, celery and garlic to the pan and cook stirring for 5 minutes or until browned.  Stir in the wine, and using a flat edged wooden spoon scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Stir in the beef, tomato, stock, rosemary and sage.  Bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat to low.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour 20 minutes.  Uncover and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the beef is tender and the sauce is thick. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan regularly so that you don't get the sauce "stuck" on the bottom!

Stir in the capers and season to taste.  It is quite salty with the pancetta - so taste it before adding any more salt!!!

Serve with polenta and spinach on the side, and topped with the reserved pepperoni.

* I blitzed these items separately in the TM - put on closed lid position and pulsed the turbo button 2-3 times - this will ensure it is roughly chopped - not pureed!!!


Polenta con pepperoni (Polenta with Pepperoni)

Adapted From Good Taste Magazine May edition

Serves 6

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup polenta

30g butter

150g peperoni

Chop the pepperoni by placing in the TM bowl - put on closed lid position and press the turbo button 2-3 times.  This will give you nice and uneven chopping.   Remove from the bowl and place in a small frypan.  Pan fry the chopped pepperoni until crispy.  Remove and drain on a paper towel until needed.

Place the chicken stock in the TM bowl and cook for 10 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.

Add the polenta to the bowl and cook for 25-30 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 2.  Add the butter and half of the cooked pepperoni, and cook for another 2 minutes, or until well combined and the butter has melted through.

Spinach all Romana (Spinach with Raisins)

Adapted From Good Taste Magazine May edition

Serves 6

500g English Spinach
40g butter
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbs pine nuts
2 cloves grushed garlic

Heat the butter in a frypan over medium high heat.  Add the raisins, pine nuts, and garlic.  Cook for 5 minutes, or until the pine nuts are golden.

Add the spinach, and toss for 2-3 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted and hot.

We love our bread here - and recently while reading Not Quite Nigella she talked about visiting the Noosa Farmers Markets and showed an image of Stromboli Bread - says it was named after a volcano in Italy - and had a pocket of mozzarella cheese and garlic in the middle.  Sounds good to me!!

Here is my attempt - be warned it is not for the faint hearted - it contains serious garlic

Serious Garlic Bread

1-2 heads of fresh garlic
30g mozzarella cheese
520g bakers flour
2 tsp yeast
300ml warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Place the garlic heads on piece of foil.  Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until lovely and soft.  Allow to cool.  Once cool, gently squeeze the garlic from the skins.  Reserve.

Place the flour, yeast, water, salt, sugar, and 3/4 of the roasted garlic into the TM bowl.  Knead on interval setting for 4 minutes.  Remove from the bowl and place in a large bowl that has been lightly oiled.  Cover with cling wrap that has also been lightly oiled.  Place in a warm place and allow to rise for approximately 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and roughly shape into a large rectangle.  Down the centre of the dough place the reserved garlic (that has been roughly pureed) and the mozzarella cheese.  Fold the dough over to cover the cheese and garlic.

Lightly grease a tin and place the bread into the tin.  (At this stage I lightly sprinkled the top of the bread with a small amount of salt flakes).  Allow to rise again, in a warm place for approximately 30 minutes.

Cook in an oven that has been preheated to 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and sounding hollow when tapped.

After removing from the oven I sprayed lightly with olive oil spray just to give it a bit of a glisten!!!  This was serious garlic bread - if you love garlic - then you will love this!!!!  Be warned though - serious garlic breath!!!!

So while I didn't actually get to Italy for my birthday - I am still enjoying the food!!!

Gamberi alla Parmigiana

I'm sure you have all had Veal Parmigiana, and I'm sure most of you have had Chicken Parmigiana - but have you ever had Gamberi alla Parmigiana??

I had never even thought to do do prawns this way until I received my first birthday present this last week (yes my birthday is approaching - but more on that another time!!)   My dear friend Madame T gave me a lovely cookbook by Nico Moretti.  Nico is a "Celebrity Chef" from Perth who embraces the Thermomix.  While the recipes are not written specifically for the Thermomix - there is a section in the back that tells you where you can utilise it for particular recipes.

I actually found it strange that there was no adaption for this recipe - I guess the applications for this recipe were so second nature that he didn't even think to include them.  I mean we all know how to make breadcrumbs and chop parsley and garlic don't we? Of course we do, but it takes mere seconds in the Thermomix - and even the hardest, most crustiest sourdough is not match for Thermie!!

The blurb on this recipe tells us how this dish is his father's signature dish at the restaurant he owns.  He goes on to say that "Every time I make this dish I end up wishing I'd made a larger portion - they're dangerously moreish."  I took this statement as a warning, and paid no attention to the the quantity of prawns that he stated for the recipe - 3 to 4 prawns per serve!!!  Seriously, that is not going to satisfy the seafood lovers in this house!  Here is my version!

Gamberi all Parmigiana
Adapted from Cooking Passions : Food for Friends by Nico Moretti

Serves ...???? you decide how many you want


1.2 kg green prawns (this yielded approximately 56 prawns) *
4 +/- cups fresh breadcrumbs **
4 eggs, lightly beaten
flour
salt and pepper
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped
mozzarella cheese slices
good quality comercial tomato pasta sauce ***
canola oil for frying

Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

Peel prawns, and with a small sharp knife gently cut down the back of the prawn, gently flattening as you cut.  You want a nice flat piece of prawn meat.

Place the bread in the TM bowl process for 8 seconds on speed 8.  Remove from TM bowl, place into a large bowl.

Place the parsley and garlic in the TM bowl process for 3 seconds on speed 7.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt and pepper, garlic and parsley.

Place some flour on a large plate.

Now comes the process line thing.  You need to dust the prawns in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture, then crumb in the breadcrumbs.  I used one hand to dust with the flour, then dip in the egg - then use the other hand to do the crumbing - this way hopefully you won't end up in too much of a breadcrumb caked mess!!!  Be careful though, your hand will sometimes take on a mind of it's own and want to do both jobs!! Don't let it!!

Have a large tray lined with foil, and lay the crumbed prawns out in a single layer on the tray.  When the tray is full place another piece of foil on top and start another layer.

Once all the prawns are crumbed it's time to start frying.

Heat the oil in a large frypan over medium high heat.  Cook the prawns in batches until golden brown.  This will only take a couple of minutes.  Drain the prawns on paper towels.

Warm the pasta sauce and set aside.

Place the prawns on either a serving plate that can go in the oven, or on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

Cover the prawns with the mozzarella slices.  Place in the oven for 3-5 minutes, or until the cheese has just melted.  Top the prawns with the warmed pasta sauce and serve immediately.

Serve with a salad on the side.  This is a great dish - you will definitely want more than 3 or 4 prawns each!!!

** I used sourdough bread to make my breadcrumbs
*** I used Sacla Cherry Tomato and Basil Pasta Sauce

The number of prawns that I crumbed far exceeded the amount that I needed for this dish - Nico says in his class notes on this recipe that you can crumb the uncooked prawns the day before and refrigerate, or as he often does, freeze them overnight on a flat tray.  Once frozen, store the prawns in a conventional freezer bag.  Then when ready to use, shallow fry them from frozen (do not defrost) as required. 

I now have a approximately 18 crumbed prawns in the the freezer - ready for next time!!  Thanks Nico - a) for warning me to make more than the 24 prawns you recommend for the recipe, and b) for telling me how to be prepared for the next sitting of this dish!!!

So Dear Readers tell me, do you automatically up the amount of meat/prawns/chicken stated in a recipe knowing that there is not sufficient for the average mortal's appetite stated in most recipes - or are we just little piggies here??

Italian Pork Meatballs

When is a sausage not a sausage? When you turn it into something that both you and the kids love!!! I saw this recipe in the current edition of Delicious Magazine - and knew straight away that it would be a winner with "The Darlings".  Of course I have "tweaked" it a little - as I usually do!!!  Here is what we ended up with!

Italian Pork Meatballs
Adapted from Delicious Magazine - March Edition

Serves 6


1kg Pork, Sage and Onion Sausages
2 tbs each oregano and rosemary
120g fresh breadcrumbs
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 x 700g bottles passata
red wine
2-3 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs TM vegetable stock concentrate
500g dried spaghetti
handful of fresh basil, chopped

Parmesan and crumbled fetta to serve

Place the breadcrumbs in the Thermomix bowl - process for 10 seconds on speed 8.  Place in a bowl.  To the TM bowl add the onion, garlic, oregano and rosemary, process fro 3 seconds on speed 7, scrape down bowl and repeat until processed to your liking.  Squeeze the meat from the sausages into the TM bowl along with the chopped herbs/onion.  Add the breadcrumbs and process on Interval speed, closed lid position, for 2 minutes.

Taking small spoonfuls, make meatballs approximately the size of walnuts.  Allow to sit for 20 minutes in the fridge to firm up.

Heat a frypan to medium high heat, and brown the meatballs in batches, until they are slightly golden.

Place in a large saucepan, add the passata (now here is what I did - I added a good slug of red wine to the passata bottle to ensure I got it all from the bottle - so this is not an exact science!!)  Add the tomato paste, and the stock concentrate.  Season with salt and pepper, and  basil. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.  In the meantime cook your pasta, drain well.

Add the cooked pasta to the meatballs and sauce.

Serve with crumbled fetta, and or grated parmesan cheese.

One of "The Darlings" said to me "Mum, this is the best meal ever - Only one thing would have made it better - your garlic bread!!  (Sorry, didn't have time for that today - perhaps next time!!!) Music to my ears!!!

So the humble sausage had a makeover, and turned itself into a family friendly Italian Meatballs dish that had everyone coming back for seconds!!!