Chicory Salad with Anchovy Dressing - Puntarelle alla Romana

Chicory with Anchovy Dressing

Until fairly recently there was a certain amount of discussion outside of Rome as to what puntarelle are. Turns out they're chicory shoots of a variety known as Catalogna, picked while still young and tender. Slightly bitter, crisp and fresh this pairs perfectly with salty anchovies and a squeeze of lemon.

Chicory with Anchovy Dressing
puntarelle alla romana (salsa di alici)

1 head of puntarelle, chicory, radicchio, endive or any winter lettuce.

Prepare the puntarelle: Remove the spindly outer dark green leaves to reveal the heart. This resembles a weird looking bunch of white asparagus tips. Remove the stalks from the center core, slice in half length wise and wash. Spin dry thoroughly.

Dressing:
1 spoonful of lemon juice
3 spoonfuls of olive oil
1/2 clove of garlic, minced finely
1/2 - 1 anchovy filet
salt & pepper

This recipe is really simple and can be expanded to make as large as a quantity as you want - just follow the three to one ratio.

In a bowl or mortar and pestle combine the garlic, lemon and anchovy. With either a fork or pestle make sure everything is pulverized and mixed together well. Once you are ready, continuously stir, drizzle in the olive oil. Give it a good stir until the oil has fully incorporated.  Taste and adjust the salt & pepper and acid to oil ratio.

Make a tiny bit or enough to feed an army - it’s easy & delicious!

Braised Escarole with Pancetta

Braised Escarole and Pancetta Recipe

Serves 4

1 head of escarole
5-6 thin slices of pancetta or guanciale, prosciutto, speck
half a glass of white wine
2 cloves of garlic
couple of stems of thyme - leave in tact & no need to chop (it makes it easier to remove)

Start by cleaning the escarole. Cut it into six wedges, leaving the core intact. With a piece of kitchen twine, tie the wedges into bundles to prevent them from separating.

In a pan, rosalare or lightly brown 2 cloves of garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Raise the heat, add the escarole and a crack of salt and pepper.  Cook for a couple of minutes until the greens begins to wilt. Then give everything a turn. Add in the thyme sprigs and lay the slices of pancetta over the top. In goes the white wine. Cover with parchment paper, lower the heat and allow to braise on the stove top or in a 350/175 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the escarole is tender.

To serve, cut off the twine, remove the thyme and cloves of garlic and discard (unless you love them).

Beet Citrus Salad

Brighten your bleak winter days with this colorful healthy salad of beets, citrus and whatever you've got!  Beets can be found from summer thru winter so this salad is versatile!

There are hundreds of variations; if your have beautiful carrots add them in, no green beans - don't worry about, you can even add in some nuts or shaved fennel. Play with the citrus, try grapefruit for more of a tangy flavor or blood oranges for the color & sweetness.

Beet Citrus Salad

3 beets, any color
2 oranges, supremed/sections and juiced
1 red onion, sliced paper thin
handful of green beans, blanched & cut into thirds
olive oil
salt & pepper

Scrub the beets and bring to a boil in plenty of salted water.  You'll know they are done when you can easily slip a knife in & out like potatoes. Cooking time will depend on the size of the beets, make sure to boil them whole. Drain them and let cool. When the beets are able to be handled, rub the beets with a kitchen towel to slough off the skins. Cut them into bit-sized chunks.

In a bowl, combine about 4 tablespoons of the orange juice, salt and pepper. While constantly whisking, drizzle in about 8 tablespoons of olive oil (you are looking for a 2 to 1 ratio).  (Don't throw out the rest of the OJ - drink it!) 

Toss the onions, beets and green beans with the dressing.  Check your seasoning and allow to sit for about 15 minutes, until the onions start to wilt a bit. Give the salad one more toss & taste, garnish with the orange supremes.

our homegrown beets

Peposo: Peppered Lamb Stew in Red Wine, Slow Cooked in a Wood Oven

A proper Sunday night stew, rich peppery Peposo. An Italian dish, peposo translates to "peppered" and can be made with any type of tough-cut meat with a bone. In this recipe we use leg of lamb cut into thick steaks but you could also use pork shoulder, beef or venison.  It's really all about low and slow. Jason says "I like to cook this dish the night after pizza night (or when the wood burning oven has been used). I wait until the oven cools down putting the pot in and piling all the ash up and around it. It will softly cook all night long and the next morning it's ready to go!" 

You don't need a wood burning oven to make this dish. Simply put it in a slow oven at about 225 F or 105 C for about 8 hours or so - until the meat falls off the bone.

  Perfect served piled high on a buschetta or over soft polenta or mashed potates on a cold winters night - really stick to your ribs!!

Peposo
Peppered Lamb Stew

2 kilo/4.5 lb leg of lamb, cut into thick steaks with bone-in
20 garlic cloves, peeled
4 heaping tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 bottle of red wine
2 bay leaves
3-4 juniper berries, crushed
drizzle of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 225 F or 105 C  degrees.

In a heavy pot (just big enough to hold all the ingredients), drizzle olive oil and place a layer of the sliced meat at the bottom of the pan. Cover with a few cloves of garlic, sprinkle with pepper & salt and rosemary. Repeat starting with the meat & keep layering until they are all used up & the pot is almost full.

Pour wine over the top and add bay leaves & juniper. Top off with a touch of water if necessary to cover everything.

Slowly bring to just to boil, cover tightly with lid & place in the preheated oven for about 8 hours or until tender & falling apart. [If you want to cook the stew faster, raise the temp to about 300 degrees and cook for 4-6 hours. However it will be richer the slower you cook it. ]

Once the stew is done, skim off fat from the surface & remove the bones, the bay leaves & rosemary twigs.  The meat should be super soft & juicy with a rich & powerful flavor. Taste & season if it needs it. Breakup the pieces of meat. Serve a ladleful of stew on toasted bruschetta & a drizzle of olive oil or serve with polenta or mashed potatoes.

Pumpkin Risotto

 A rich and creamy seasonal dish perfect for fall and a delicious addition to your Thanksgiving feast is Pumpkin Risotto. Make extra because the next day a risotto pancake (with a few sunny side up eggs) is amazing!! It takes a bit of time, but easy to make and gorgeous on your plate!

Don't believe the hype that you don't have to stir. You really do have to keep the spoon moving to massage the starch out of the rice to achieve a creamy constancy. It's worth twenty minutes of your time. Once you get it down, it's easy to become proficient at making risotto. Have fun, switch it up. The great part of this dish is that you can replace the pumpkin with any vegetable you like - try radicchio with a drizzle of aged balsamic from Modena for example.

Pumpkin Risotto
Risotto di Zucca
Serves 6

4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
3 big handfuls of diced pumpkin (about 3 cups or 400 gr) butternut squash or sugar baby
5 cups or so fresh vegetable or chicken stock
3/4 cup dry white wine
scant 2 cups risotto rice - Arborio or Carnaroli are best
salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese
sage leaf or tig of thyme (optional)
few tablespoons of cream (optional)

Heat the oil in a pan over low heat, add the onion & garlic and a little salt and pepper and sweat for 10 minutes or so with out browning.

Next, add  the pumpkin with a few spoonfuls of vegetable stock and cook them slowly until tender. Then raise the heat, add the rice and herb sprig and saute for a minute or two. Add in the wine and let it cook out but be sure to continuously stir.

Season with a little salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in another pot and check that the rice is now on a medium low heat. 

Add a ladle-full of the hot stock to the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until it has been absorbed.

Continue adding the stock, a ladle-full at a time, constantly stirring until each addition has been absorbed. This will take 18-20 minutes.

When the rice is al'dente, turn off the heat, add in a handful or two of graded cheese and give the rice one more stir, check seasoning. Rice should be thick & creamy but not runny. Cover the pot and allow the rice to sit for a couple of minutes. Make sure to remove the thyme sprig or sage leaf.

To serve, spoon the rice into the bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately.

If you like to make the rice a little richer, try adding 2 tablespoons cream at the point when the Parmesan is incorporated.  

Tagliatelle with White Truffles

The illusive white truffle is in season, found shaved over dishes all across the "Truffle Valley" we live in.  Travelers are enamored with truffles when they visit Le Marche in the fall and rightfully so with a price tag of 3,000 Euro a kilo. We recently served a truffle themed dinner with white truffles foraged from the woods behind our farmhouse. The aroma was so pungent the earthly smell filled our house, the guests were all curious how to cook this strange mushroom. But here's the secret you don't actually cook with them, instead shaving hundreds of euro over a finished dish like a paper thin fritatta, fresh pasta, risotto or a beautiful steak.  The truffle should never touch the heat of the pan or it will kill the flavor immediately. 

So go on and hock the family silver for a plate of irresistible homemade tagliatelle and white truffles!

Tagliatelle with Truffles
Tagliatelle con Tartufi

Serves 4

400 grams fresh pasta
 white truffles - as much as you can afford
2 egg yolks
1-2 sages leaves
salt and pepper
1 pad of butter
olive oil
3-4 spoonfuls of beef broth

In a pan melt butter with olive oil on low heat. Add in sage leaves and gently cook for a minute or two.

In a pot with plenty of salted boiling water, cook pasta until al'dente. Once cooked, scoop out the pasta and place directly in the pan with sage.

Remove from heat and toss the pasta gently. Add broth and egg yolks constantly tossing the pasta in the pan to coat the past in the egg without is scrambling.  Season with salt & pepper, remove the sage.

Transfer pasta to the plates and shave truffle on-top. The truffle should never touch the heat of the pan.

Arancello - Sicilian Blood Orange Liquor

  A new spin on the classic limoncello is arancello, use Sicilian blood oranges instead of lemons from Positano for a lovely liquor with a bold bright flavor. A no-fail recipe (orange rinds, grain alcohol, sugar & water) means it's a perfect introduction to making homemade liqueurs! I can't cook to save my life, but I have become a pro at infusing liquors from limoncello to nocino (walnut & vanilla),  visciolino (wild cherry), prugnolino (wild plum/sloe) & now arancello.

Bottle, freeze & serve for a refreshing digestivo (after dinner drink) any time of year.

Arancello (Orange Liquor)

1/2 liter of pure grain alcohol (you can also use grappa, vodka or everclear)
the skin of 5 organic Sicilian blood oranges (careful not to skin the orange too deep - you don't want the white pith)
1/2 kilo of sugar
1 liter of water

In a large jar with a lid, soak the orange-rind peels in the alcohol and leave in a cool dark place for about 14 days.
After it has sat for 14 days or so, filter the rinds from the alcohol. Boil the water & sugar, making a simple syrup, stirring to dissolve all the sugar in the water. Then add the orange flavored alcohol. Bottle.
I make about 10 liters of this liquor so I place 1 bottle in the freezer ready to serve and the rest in a cool dark place. Arancello, like limoncello will last a year or more in proper storage.
If the alochol is too strong of a flavor, it is also nice to serve it with a drop of heavy cream or dollop of whipped cream atop - then it is referred to as Crema di Arancello.

Preparing homemade Arancello - orange liquor

Decadent Lasagna Bianco with Porcini & Sausage

During the snow storm of the century in Central Italy, I can't think of a better way to warm up than devouring a plate of decadent pasta & a good bottle of red after a day of shoveling the drive. Perfect for a cold winter's night, lasagna bianco,  'white lasagna' is made with porcini mushrooms, sausages & rich creamy bechamel, a local classic in northern Le Marche. A refined take on the usual red sauce classic, that will have your mouthwatering for more after the first bite. 

Extra Delicious Tip: Make sure to have your pasta sheets large enough to hang over the edges creating golden crispy edges!

Lasagna Bianco
White Lasagna

serves 6
1 recipe of egg pasta or 4 sheets of fresh pasta
1 recipe of béchamel sauce
8 oz. sausage meat (250 gr)
2 cloves garlic, whole, peeled
2 big handfuls (about 2 cups) chopped mushrooms (we use porcini, chanertelle and other local wild mushrooms)
small handful of chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

In a skillet on low heat slowly brown whole peeled cloves of garlic for 2-3 minutes turning frequently. Then raise the heat to medium, add the sausage meat to the pan and all to cook slowly until there is no pink in the meat about 8-10 minutes.  With the back of a fork smash the meat into little pieces.  Then add in your mushrooms and season with salt & pepper.

Once the mushrooms cook out their liquid, lower the temperature and cook for 10-15 minutes until nice & soft. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan if all the liquid cooks out so the pan doesn’t go dry.

Shut off the heat and taste, checking your salt & pepper, stir in parsley.

Assembly of the lasagna
Have ready parmesan, sausage & mushroom mixture, béchamel, pasta sheets & baking dish.

Start by placing a small amount of bechamel in the bottom of your baking dish - spreading it out.

One layer of pasta into boiling water until it is half-cooked. (Cooking time will vary based on type of pasta - fresh vs. dried)

Put the pasta down in the baking pan. Add a quarter of the mushroom sausage mixture, dotting the top with bechamel and a healthy sprinkle of cheese. Repeat this process until you have 4 layers.

Bake at 400 degree oven until the edges are golden brown & bubbly.
Freezes well. If you take out of the freezer, allow to defrost & come up to room temperature, then hit the corners of the lasagna with a few drops of milk to add moisture.

Ravioli Stuffed with Greens in Butter & Sage

Photo: La Tavola Marche

  Homemade Ravioli Stuffed with Greens in Butter and Sage Recipe

Egg Pasta Dough Recipe

Pasta

Serves 1
100 grams (or 1 scant cup) of tipo 0 flour (high quality AP flour)
1 egg
pinch of salt

Pour flour onto the table in a mound.  Make a well in the center & crack the eggs into the well.
Slowly incorporate the eggs into the dough using a fork - pulling in the flour to the center of the well. Form into a nice dough, knead for 5-10 minutes until you have worked the dough well & it has a nice shiny outside.  Let stand for half hour to hour & then roll out.


Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

Filling
1 cup (200 gr) (greens (chard, spinach), boiled, drained, squeezed
salt in the water
1/2 cup (125 gr) of sheep’s milk ricotta
1/4 cup (50 gr.) of grated parmesan
squeeze of lemon juice
salt & pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. The mixture/filling must be dry - a moist filling you will have difficulties closing the ravioli with too much moisture in-between the pasta sheets.

Mix it all up - use to stuff cappelletti, tortellini or ravioli.

Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

To stuff your ravioli ~

    •    Roll out a sheet of pasta to 2-3mm thickness -the thinner the better.
    •    Evenly space out small mounds of filling.
    •    Lay another sheet of pasta over the top.
    •    With your fingers gently smooth out any air bubbles, making the basic form of the ravioli.
    •    Cut out ravioli - either squares with a pizza knife or ravioli cutter or a shot glass for circular ravioli. Most importantly making sure the sides are closed without any trapped air.

Tip: To avoid having ravioli from bursting in the water - do not overfill. Too much filling makes the dough over-stretch

Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

Ravioli with Butter & Sage
    •    In a pan slowly melt a couple of tablespoons of butter & gently fry a handful of sage leaves for 1- 2 minutes.
    •    Raise the heat, toss in your cooked pasta with a bit of pasta water.
    •    Season with salt & pepper & serve.

Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

Tip: Ravioli can freeze well in a single layer on a baking sheet, then transferred to a freezer bag. Will last for a few weeks in the freezer. To cook frozen ravioli toss in the boiling water frozen. Allow to cook 2-3 minutes and then try one to make sure the filling is not still cold in the middle.

Photos taken during a pasta class at La Tavola Marche Cooking School in Italy by Stephanie Hua of Lick My Spoon.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

1 medium-large butternut squash, seeded and cut into thick 1 -inch slices
salt & pepper
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 medium red onion, sliced paper thin
1 clove of garlic, sliced paper thin
handful of fresh oregano
pinch of red chili flakes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Season the squash with 4 tablespoons of olive oil, salt & pepper. Lay squash in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
Bake about 20 minutes, until tender.
Mix 4 tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, onion, garlic, herbs, chili flakes and salt & pepper - creating a marinade.
Remove the squash once tender and pour marinade over hot squash.
Allow to cool for 20 minutes in the marinade, sprinkle with fresh mint and serve.

Best served at room temperature.

Spezzatino (Stewed Pork)

There is nothing better on a cool autumn Sunday evening than walking into the kitchen, welcomed by the glow of the fireplace and the rich smells of meaty goodness: a pot slowly simmering on the back burner with stewed meat, falling apart ready to top thick golden polenta. This is a "stick to your ribs" hearty dinner perfect for the fall & winter.

photo: iocomesono-pippi.blogspot.com

Spezzatino

Stewed Pork

1 lb of beef or pork for stew (or a mix of both)
1 carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
handful of olives
2-3 spoonfuls of capers, drained
1/2 glass of white wine
salt & pepper
flour for dusting
olive oil
squeeze of lemon juice
aromatics/herbs - thyme, sage, rosemary
stock, enough to cover the meat
optional: mushrooms

Dredge meat in flour.
In a heavy bottomed pot on medium/high heat, brown meat on all sides.
Remove meat from the pan.
Reduce heat to low, add in vegetables and sauté for 10 minutes.
Add meat back to the pot (as well as the optional mushrooms) with your aromatics.
Deglaze with white wine and lemon juice.
Cover meat with stock.
Toss in capers & olives.
Simmer very slowly for 1.5 - 2 hours until meat is very tender.

Serve over polenta or boiled potatoes.