cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Italian’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

Have you ever gone to the market, brought something home and said now what am going to do with this? I’m sure we’ve all done that. I certainly have. I’d love to say I always shop with a plan. I would have to say I partly do. I often buy food with some recipe or some idea at least vaguely in my mind. But not for the entire shopping experience; the rest of the shopping goes by what I see, what’s on sale, what looks fresh, what looks not so fresh, and what just generally grabs my attention. And this time it was the on-sale bag of frozen bay scallops.

And then I got home and thought “now what?” You see, I know what to do with the larger scallops. You know the one’s I mean that are the size and shape of big marshmellows. Pretty much you sear them on one side, then the other, bang, they’re done. Well, you’re certainly not going to do the same with what amounts to 60 or 70 miniature marshmellow-sized scallops. We’re talking just slightly larger than pencil erasers after all. So, what to do?

Eventually I recalled a dish I had served in a restaurant awhile back. Funny thing, can’t recall where I was. Could have been here in Center City Philly, but my recollection is that it was somewhere while traveling, either on business or a vacation. But I can’t put my finger on where. In any case, it was scallops in pasta with a fresh pesto sauce and some veggies. Which I began to reconstruct here and eventually got so far and did my usual, namely used that as the basis or the spring board and then went on my own from there. And what I ended up with was very delicious. (Or you wouldn’t be reading it now.)

You know I like to know about what I’m eating. And since I’m thinking you’re thinking the same way, here’s some things you should know about scallops when it comes to cooking. It’s a shellfish. Technically a marine bivalve mollusc. It’s found in cuisine everywhere, that is in Eastern and in Western cooking. You’ll find it on plates in Nagasaki to New York, from Dover to Buenos Aries, you name it. In the United States only the adductor muscles is used; elsewhere the entire scallop is often used. As to size, those large ones mentioned before, the one’s I know I’m most used to are called sea scallops and you can often get those as 20-40 per pound and are often an inch-and-a-half in diameter. Sea scallops are available fresh year-round, peaking from late spring to early fall.

Then there’s the one’s used in this particular dish, the bay scallop, which as the name implies they reside in bays. Historically these tended to come from New England. Nowadays much of the bay scallops consumed in the US are farmed in China. Bay scallops are often in the 50-90 of them in a single pound; these are usually half-an-inch in diameter. The one’s I got at the market (bad me for not looking) said on the bag, 150-200 per pound and were slightly less than a half inch in diameter, so I definitely got the super minis. In terms of season, bay scallops are available frozen purchased year-round.

Nutrition info: Scallops contain a variety of nutrients that can promote your cardiovascular health, plus provide protection against colon cancer. Scallops are actually a very good source of a very important nutrient for cardiovascular health, vitamin B12. Four ounces of scallops contains 33.3% of the daily value for vitamin B12. As with fish, scallops are a rich source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A four-ounce of serving of scallops alone contains roughly 24 grams of protein and about 152 calories.

Healthy and delicious. What more do you want? Use the recipe I put up just the other day for Classic Basil Pesto Sauce. Enjoy.

Bay Scallops in Linguine with Pesto
©2008 Harry Kenney

8 oz bay scallops
1/2 red bell pepper, julliene then cut in half
3 oz portobellos (or other mushrooms), cut into chunks
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 box linguine
1 clove garlic, slightly crushed and sliced
olive oil
homemade pesto sauce

Put linguine in pot of boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve.

Olive oil into large, deep pan at medium heat. Add garlic. After a minute add red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms. Sweat well, do not brown. After several minutes, take out of pan into bowl and hold.

Place well-drained bay scallops into pan. Add little oil, turn up heat as needed. These will start extruding water. You want the water out but you don’t want to burn or even brown much the scallops at all. Toss constantly. Empty water out in sink as necessary. Add oil as necessary.

Toss veggies back from bowl into pan and mix. Remove from heat. Toss pasta into pan and mix. Add pesto sauce and mix well. Serve. Makes about 4 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

When you think of pesto you think of — I’m willing to bet — three things. In no particular order they are: Basil, Italian and green sauce. Ok, seemingly not a revelation right? More like something that comes outta the mouth of “Captain Obvious”. Generally I agree with you. That’s exactly how it seems.

… Until you discover that while sure, pesto is usually made from basil, it doesn’t have to be. Or that when you think of pesto as “green sauce” turns out there’s another totally different sauce known as salsa verde that is actually Italian green sauce. Or that here in America when you say salsa verde, we think of Mexican, not Italian. Aha! Suddenly not everything seems so black and white — or rather, green — now, does it?

Yes this recipe here is the “original”, the traditional Italian, green, basil one. But did you know you could make a tomato pesto? A sun-dried tomato pesto? Or a red bell pepper pesto? How about one with the main ingredient being arugula or parsley or even olives? Now you get the idea.

Then there’s the whole “green sauce” thing. Yes, I would have to say pesto is the most famous “green sauce” in many ways. But — a big but — it is salsa verde that is the actual, true “green sauce” when people speak of a green sauce. The Italian version, which supposedly has been around since the days of the Roman Empire, is according to it’s Wikipedia listing made with “parsley, vinegar, capers, garlic, onion, anchovies, olive oil, and possibly mustard”. (Mind you, this is one of those Wikipedia listings that cites no references to back up the listing. But it seems logical.)

One thing for certain, here in America when we hear the term “salsa verde” we first think of Mexico, not the country shaped like a boot. And that salsa verde is made with ingredients that include tomatillos, either serrano or jalapeno chiles, cillantro, garlic and onion. Finally, on our trip around the world of green sauces, there is chimichurri from way south of the border; this sauce originally an Argentinian staple that can be found in mostly all of the other South American countries as well, is made with ingredients including oregano, parsley and jalapenos.

And one of these days, I will get around to making something with all of these. They are just too good not to do so. For today though, enjoy this classic pesto, and tomorrow, we’ll make a delicious pasta dish with it.

Classic Basil Pesto Sauce
©2008 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup pine nuts, toast them in small frying pan
2/3 – 1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup grated Parmegan
salt
pepper
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

In food processor put in basil leaves (wash and dry then as you wuld lettuce, frist) along with a dash of salt and pepper. Give a quick couple of pulses to chop only. Then add pine nuts, garlic, cheese. Pulse sevel times til fine. Put switch to on, open feed tube or lid and add olive oil slowly to emulsify. Not too much. You want a thick paste like sauce. Taste. Leave alone or add a teaspoon of lemon juice and mix in if needed. That’s it. Doesn’t look like a lot but it’s concentrated a lot; in a pasta dish that’s enough to serve 4 to 6.

©2008 Harry Kenney

This recipe was actually going to go in two different directions from where it ended up. Recipes happen that way sometime. It was originally going to be pure vegetarian. Visits to two supermarkets and failing to find vegetable stock at either (as well my being too “lazy” or not that interested in making it myself) meant I ended up using the more traditional chicken broth as base. Also, once I got past that, I decided bacon would definitely give this a more interesting taste.

So, for those of you looking for vegetarian dishes that are robust and stand-alone and not merely “sides”, you can oh so easily alter this recipe and make it so. To make it vegetarian (as mentioned above) simply substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. Don’t use bacon. Then either leave the rest of the recipe exactly as is, or you add still more vegetables in the form of finely diced zucchini and/or yellow squash. Also black and/or white cabbage would be nice and is often used in some parts of Italy in one of the many variants of this recipe.

Seems like a lot of ingredients maybe, but they are all pretty basic. We start of with basically a mirepoix. Then add garlic and take it out. Then to get some “meaty” flavor going, we sweat bacon and then mushrooms in with the bacon. Then the chicken broth goes in on top, the mirepoix goes back in, then the white beans and spinach. Along the way comes wine and heavy cream, and a side trip to the food processor to puree part of the mixture, giving it a creamy thick feel while still leaving the rest of the soup chunky. Add some grated parm and you have an absolutely delicious, rich, full-bodied soup for a cold winter’s day. And you have to serve this with the Toasted Polenta Cheese Rounds. That’s specifically why I did that recipe yesterday in preparation for this one today.

You probably know from my (at the moment only other soup recipe) Butternut Squash Soup with Chorizo and Rice. I like my soups a mix of creamy and chunky. Rarely all creamy. I enjoy that mixed texture much more. Speaking of things I’ve done before. You could if you wish puree the part of this soup in a blender. However, big warning … as I said in a past article called “But I Saw the TV Cook Do It” you can only do this in one of the newer, powerful blenders that come with the newer, stronger containers.

If you use an old kitchen blender, glass or plastic, the heat could crack or smash the container, causing not only a big mess but possible personal injury, so either use a food processor or one of the new blenders. And even then, still be careful. Be sure you take the feeder tube or top cap off, because of the heat, and then place a folded kitchen towel or potholder over the top when doing this. Taste is nice, but hey, safety is number one.

Oh, right I said at the start this recipe was going two ways. At first, as mentioned I was going to make this vegetarian. The second thing was, the Tuscan white beans were going to be the star of this recipe. But hey, when I added the spinach for extra taste, well, I forgot myself how much spinach colors everything. I know better, after all that’s how you get green pasta such as spinach fettucine. Now the fact this soup turned out green instead of beige with green flecks, hey, I can live with it. It’s still a very pretty looking soup, and more importantly you will love the taste of this. Every component comes out when your eating it. It’s really a nice complex taste as all these different yet very compatible tastes just burst on the taste buds.

Creamy Cannelloni-Spinach Tuscan Soup
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 small onion, diced fine
1 medium carrot, diced fine
1 celery stalk, diced fine
3 gloves garlic, smashed and sliced thin
4 slices of thick sliced bacon, sliced 1/3-1/2 inch pieces (leave out for vegetarian version)
3-4 oz of portobello mushrooms, 1/2 dices
1 quart chicken (or vegetable stock)
19 oz can cannelloni white beans, washed and drained
8-10 oz chopped frozen spinach, partially thawed (don’t drain)
1 cup dry white wine
1 half pint heavy cream
1 small or 1/2 a medium-sized bay leaf
1 tbsp dried oregano
salt
pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Olive oil in the bottom of a large soup pot on medium heat. Put in the onion, carrot and celery and sweat in pan, keep stirring and don’t brown. After about five minutes, add the garlic and continue to sweat. After another two or three minutes, take this out and reserve in a dish on the side.

Turn heat up to medium-high. Bacon in, sweat, again do not brown, get it to where it’s softened and going translucent. About three minutes. Lower heat add then mushrooms add in a bit more olive oil. Keep stirring. As you don’t want the bacon to brown, nor the mushrooms to start sticking, after about two minutes add the chicken broth on top. This will also help to get the browning bits that are starting at the bottom and stop all browning.

Along with the broth, add back in the reserved diced veggies, the drained white beans and the spinach. After a couple minutes this is where to season. Add herbs, salt, pepper. Cover with lid and give it a simmer on medium for 20 minutes. Take lid off every five minutes or so, give it all a good stir and replace lid.

After the 20 minutes, take out no less than 1/3 and no more than 1/2 of the hot soup, place in a food processor and puree carefully. Take off the top tube or cap and place a towel or pot holder on top for the puree. Return this mixture completely back into the soup..

Add white wine. After three to five minutes add cream. Mix, simmer another three to five minutes then add Parmesan. Lower the heat and stir more often as the added cheese can stick and start burning on the bottom if you’re not careful. After two or three more minutes, it’s done.

Depending on size of serving, makes 4-6. Serve with toasted polenta cheese rounds on the side.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Chefs are funny people. Normally they’re drawn to foods that are inherently flavorful. Sometimes, as a challenge I think, they are also drawn to things not so flavorful, but which if cooked a certain way can be made tasty and tender. Meats that are very lean such as rabbit or venison which need long time cooking and often a fat added to them come to mind.

Then there are these foods such as couscous and polenta which basically are, well, by themselves quite bland — and in recent years top chefs go nuts over it. Apparently because they can infuse taste to them. I sorta get it and I sorta don’t …. depends upon the food, the technique, the time it takes and my mood for that day. All of that said, of course this polenta is indeed tasty. For me the taste infusion comes from the long roast, browning and carmalization, and adding cheese that does it.

A quicky lesson on what polenta is and where it comes from. Yes, it’s definitely Italian. But not solely. It’s often referred to as Italian grits, and I’ve seen on television where cooks have taken either a southern grits recipe and “Italianized” it, and vica versa. Both are made from cornmeal, polenta from boiled cornmeal and is often classified as a “maize-based porridge”. According to Wikipedia, polenta under various other names is popular in many cuisines of many countries including such diverse and far-flung (from each other) countries as Cuba, Hungary, Georgia, Corsica, Peru, Mexico, Switzerland.

When it can be found in American supermarkets (which more often it can), it is either as stone-ground or coarse cornmeal which you can make into polenta, or a prepackaged “instant” polenta or the way I found it, as a premade tube or log infused with herbs. The tube I picked up was basil and garlic polenta. Of all the cooks out there, this seems to most often be found in Rachel Ray recipes. (Giada sometimes does instant and Mario of course has to make it from scratch).

Alright, enough history of this former “peasant food” now turned “premium product” and darling of cooks everywhere. Give this a whirl. Do I like it? Yes. Is it a bit of work when someone else might as easily suffice? Yes. But as said before, same can be said of couscous. Maybe it’s me, but when plain white rice with a little butter, salt and pepper tastes just great, and you either jazz it up or not, I’m not sure if these other bland-tasting grain products are necessarily worth the extra effort.

Does that mean polenta “whelms” me? Not necessarily. It tastes good. Especially when you go through the necessary motions and techniques and add tomato sauces or cheese or whatever. Anyway it is different and I do welcome a change from the “same old same old”. And yes, I’m betting you will indeed find this a very tasty and easy way to enjoy polenta, a nice and different side dish, especially to something else Italian. Bon appetito.

Toasted Polenta Cheese Rounds
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb prepackaged tube of polenta (or herbed polenta)
olive oil
salt
pepper
grated parmegan

Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice polenta log into 1/4 inch pieces. Put olive oil on both sides and season. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place on top shelf of oven for 45-50 minutes until it starts to brown. Take out, liberally top each with grated parmegan. Place back in oven 10-15 minutes until cheese starts to brown. Makes 12-16 quarter-inch thick by roughly two-inch diameter rounds. About 3-4 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Sometimes food is delicious to the tastebuds, but not so delcious to the eyes. Meat loaf comes to mind. So does split pea soup, among others. Veal piccata must unfortunately be counted among these. The photos here this time, do not do it justice. (And a quick look around the Net showed me for good or bad, none of the other images I saw taken by others did it that much justice either.) And the fact this recipe falls right after the brilliant colors of salmon no doubt makes it seem duller still, image-wise.

But enough. Not every meal can spark all the senses. What this one lacks in being picturesque it more than makes up for in taste as well as in aroma. Picatta means “sharp” in Italian and it has come to mean a variety of dishes that use thin cuts of meat, cut thinly and/or pounded thinly, cooked in a pan and served with a sharp sauce, provided by the lemon and capers.

And in this dish also added to by the dry sherry. Some dishes say use dry white wine. Fan that I am of that, three reasons for doing with the dry sherry this time. The first time I made this dish was a couple decades ago from The Frug’s recipes (Jeff Smith). Next, how often outside of Asian cooking do you get to use a nice sherry? And most importantly, third, it adds more of that piccata “bite” that we’re looking for here, where as the wine might soften that too much, take some of that away. And that’s not desired.

Before I go into the nutritional and health elements of eating veal, let’s quickly get past the talk of eating veal at all. In other words, the whole “veal bad” animal rights thing. Suffice to say conditions in veal farming and the veal industry have improved dramatically in the past two decades thanks to the activists. Some say it’s enough, some say it isn’t. You wouldn’t be reading this — nor I writing it — if this issue was of great concern. As for myself, I take a practical Native American perspective when it comes to animals and food. Hunting to put an animal on a wall or make a fur coat is (among other things) a horrible waste and soley for ego. Whereas food raised to be food is to be eaten. And as humans we eat food. And this is the natural way of life. Period.

Now on to the postive assessment of veal as food. In terms of nutrition, low-fat and cost … Veal is lean; it has very little fat. This also means there is little waste when compared to other animal meat. Because of this a pound of veal can often vield three or four servings. Some have suggested when comparision shopping to evaluate the cost per serving instead of the cost per pound when thinking about veal.

Veal is an excellent source of protein with “balanced amino acid profile containing proteins of a high quality”. Also it is a superior source of B-complex vitamins, especially niacin, zinc B12 and B6. It is also a good source of iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. A trimmed, cooked three oz. serving of veal contains on average 166 calories and only 5.6 grams of fat.

Back to this specific dish, surprisingly one does not find too many veal piccata recipes around. And those that I’ve stumbled across, not sure, they seem to have lost something in translation. Beside the advice of using wine instead of the sherry, many advocate using chicken broth. Are they crazy? That even further deadens the sharp taste that is the entire reason for this dish in the first place. Why even make this dish — I want to ask these other cooks and their recipes — if you want to deaden the inherent sharpness and pleasant bite that what makes this dish?

No idea. Maybe, because many folks are more used to seeing chicken piccata something got mixed in along the way (like adding chicken broth, yuck) which was never supposed to be in the dish in the first place. Obviously chicken piccata — which I love too of course — is more prevelent as the poultry is more widely found and is viewed as a less costly an alternative. That said though, piccata was foremost and originally made as a veal dish; it’s the others that have become variants off the master.

If you have never had veal (other than as part of your meatloaf or meatball dishes), this recipe is an excellent one to introduce yourself to this lean, nutritious and delicious meat.

Veal Piccata
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb veal scallops (or veal cutlets pounded to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness)
flour for dredging
salt
pepper
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps capers, diced
1 1/3 cups dry sherry
olive oil
butter
parsley (fresh or dried flakes)

Take the precut veal scallops or the pounded veal slices and dredge in a mixture of salt, pepper and flour. Place into medium heat frying pan with hot olive oil. Roughly two minutes per side. Take out and reserve.

Pour in dry sherry and scrape up all the bits left in the pan and mix well. Add lemon juice and capers. Mix and reduce to half. (If not thick enough, sprinkle one teaspoon of extra flour in and mix well.) After reduction add some butter to make richer.

About 30 seconds later reintroduce the veal into the pan. One minute on each side. Add parsley in now or on plate before serving, your choice. Take out of pan. Pour sauce on top. Serve. Makes four servings.

What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

Portobellos or the smaller ones, lately marketed as “Baby ‘Bellos” are perfect for stuffing. As with many other dishes (meatloafs come to mind) there’s probably a hundred different ways to stuff a mushroom, and this is only one of a handful that I like to make. I was originally intending to do this with bacon bits (real ones, naturally), but having recently purchased a container of finely-diced prosciutto and being undecided what to do with it yet, this lent itself perfectly.

So, spinch and cheese, and now Italian ham. What for a stuffing binder? Could do Italian bread crumbs, but I had still had some ricotta left over from my pie the other day, so that was perfect. Add some grated parmegena to it and little bit of onion for some bite, and wham. Although having mixed it up, even with minched garlic, it was lacking and a tad dull. To the rescue I added two tablespoons of marsala wine which rounded it out nicely and added a needed wetness. Still missing something, I opted for a recent favorite of mine, horseradish sauce. Just a tad. Turned out great.

Funny thing, this particular night I made these there were no guests — I was just in the mood for stuffed mushrooms and didn’t want the package I had in the fridge to wait too much longer and possibly go bad. So for dinner I took the remainer of last night’s fennel salad, some shrimp left over from a couple days ago when I had company over and added the stuffed mushrooms. Plus a couple of thick slices of Italian bread and some White Zinfandel, and voila a very very tasty and slightly different dinner.

Prosciutto, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portbellos
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup frozen spinach (measured before taking all the water totally out)
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 cup parmegan
2 oz. finely diced prosciutto (or ham or bacon or pancetta)
2 tbsps minced garlic
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps dry marsala
salt
pepper

Take off inner mushroom stems if present. Clean off top and sides of bello caps with a moist paper towel and ready. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix well with fork.

Spoon mixture into mushroom cap with tablespoon. Now use clean hands to gently press as much as you can into cap. If lots of excess, return to bowl. Some excess, smooth around to form slight mound. Do this to the rest.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place mushrooms on baking sheet face up. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top and add additional pinches of parmagen. Place in oven for about 25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve hot.

The above is enough stuffing for roughly 8-10 baby portobellos. Mind you, sizes of these have no standard, so it could even be as little as 6 or as many as 12.

I’m certain I’m not the first one to notice, but I must ask anyway. Exactly who was it and when that decided half of all Italian foods must begin with the letter “P”? Hey, even if you start typing “Italian food” in the Google toolbar one of the suggestions it offers is “starting with P”, and that’s based on the popular searches — so it’s not just me!

Oddly enough Google’s first 100 results never once listed a single page that actually corresponds to the search. It did find a bizarre reference to “P. Diddy’s Pasta” which you don’t want to know about …. Can you say time for another algorithm tune-up, Big G? I mean, wow, you couldn’t even match 1 in 100 to your own toolbar suggestion? That’s just sad. But enough of SEO and let’s get back to eating.

And so, since someone has to do it, at least in part … pancetta, prosciutto, polenta, pepperoni, pasta, provolone, panna cotta, Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino romano, panettone and the big one, pizza … to name a few. Seriously though, and I’m sure you knew this already, the “joke” is when you do find a long and exhaustive list of Italian food names, what you find is exactly what any intelligent person would expect: the percentage of names starting with a “P” is actually very small.

So it’s always seemed interesting the “coincidence”, for lack of a better word, that many of the most delicious and more well-known Italian dishes in the English language just happen by circumstance to be that way.

What’s way more important and to the point is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, an Italian food by any other name would taste as delicious. And so, here is a delicious sandwich to enjoy. If it’s not Italian, it’s definitely Italian-American to be sure. And yes, a three-”P”er in fact. You’ve love it on your pizza, and you’ve probably enjoyed had it with cheese and crackers, now to make it the main centerpiece of your lunch, pepperoni that is, with peppers and provolone.

A couple of quick thoughts and notes. First, of course here I am bringing you this sandwich, and from a city known for it’s great sandwiches, the hoagie, the Philadelphia cheesesteak and a strong Italian-American community, well it’s just very fitting. I just figured if the sausage and pepper sandwich is well-known then hey this makes a nice twist on the concept.

Next, note, here is yet another a recipe where the microwave comes nicely in play: both in giving a quick heat to the sauce and the very important melting of the cheese into the roll. What would we do without that appliance? Gotta love the ol’ “nuker”.

Oh, and I have to one big note of warning for you: Do use a larger plate than the one I have in my photograph. I hadn’t had this sandwich in a while, and forgot how this one comes under the heading of “delicious and messy”. Naturally after I took the photo, I dug right in and was suddenly reminded of this fact, in a rather messy way. So, use a large plate and bring several napkins with you. Trust me, it’s worth it!

Pepperoni, Peppers and Provolone Sandwich
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 medium yellow onion, thin slices
1/4 large green bell pepper, thin slices
18-24 pepperoni slices
six-inch long roll, preferably Italian steak roll
three slices provolone
4 hefty tbsps spaghetti sauce
olive oil

On low flame, put in onions into small pan, sweat and brown slightly. Take out. Do same with bells. Take out. Blot both if you wish with paper towel. Put in pepperoni, same as before. Take out, definitely blot excess oils.

Place Italian roll on a paper towel to prevent sweating, open up, place across two sides, three overlapping slices of pepperoni. Place in microwave 15-25 seconds to melt. Remove. Place in microwave spaghetti sauce in dish, cover on top with paper towel to prevent splattering. Heat up for about 15-20 seconds. Remove.

Place 3/4s of the sauce up and down both sides of open sandwich. Pile on peppers and onions evenly. Likewise pepperoni. Take remaining 1/4 of sauce and place atop each. Fold and eat.

This is one of those delicious dishes I haven’t had for so long. The very first time I had it was many years ago when I actually made it. Yes, it was a recipe and it was during the days when I was all into The Frugal Gourmet, my first television chef inspiration. Braciole (pronounced bra’zhul) was one of the dishes featured on his PBS show and in one of his very first books. Really though how could a guy in his twenties having seen this being made on the TV screen not instantly fall in love with the idea of braciole? I mean: It’s like a jelly roll made of steak!!! Obviously the same Olympus god who created beer surely must have had his hand in the making this as well.

The second time (and the third and the fourth) I had this dish was in the best place on Earth or at least in North America I can think of to have it, namely in Little Italy in New York City. Luna’s on Mulberry Street to be precise. Huge portions, so juicy, so …. scrumptious. Really it was as they say “to die for”. And here I am once again faithfully revisiting a past delight.

I have no idea right now how I made the first one. Somewhere in this house I’m sure my old tattered copy of Jeff Smith’s hardback must surely reside (despite a few housing moves between then and now), but I can’t put my hands on it. I have no idea what kind of beef I made it with either, though traditionally it’s either a round steak or a flank steak, the former of which is how I made it this particular time.

Ok, I have to get into two things here. What “traditionally” means and what steak I actually used. I will however forgo explaining what the definition of “is” is.

First, traditionally in Italy braciole, also referred to as braciola, can mean different things in different areas of the country. It doesn’t even have to be beef; apparently, it can also be veal and sometimes even pork. It’s sometimes a cutlet and not always rolled up either. Some places it’s served with sauce and in others it’s not. And of course, the stuffings can vary as well. I’ve seen it with ingredients such as copacola and raisins in it, and several times chopped hard boiled eggs. And in still other cases the cheese used can vary too. I’ve seen this often made with pecorino romano. And a couple of times with mozzarella (though I woudn’t use that one for this specific dish, personally). So, I use the word traditionally somewhat loosely. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s good enough for Little Italy (using beef, rolling it up, etc) then it’s good enough for me.

Back to the meat. Well, this is what got me into making this dish the other day. I was looking through my freezer and my eyes ended up resting on the slab of London Broil before me. And I started to wonder what I could do with it that would be different. Then I recall reading that basically sliced London Broil was flank steak. (Which is and isn’t a misnomer or, as you’ll see, possibly two misnomers.) What get’s things confusing for me is there’s on the one hand what recipes say and on the other hand what actually exists or doesn’t exist at the super market.

I constantly see flank steak, skirt steak and similar ingredients listed in book recipes and mentioned on television cooking shows, yet in real life these are elusive creatures for I have never once seen either of these, not in passing nor even a comprehensive search for them at the super market. Not once. So recently I did a little research and found out that London Broil is supposed to be a method of cooking, not a type of meat. I dunno about you, but my area super markets are totally oblivious to this fact, for they indeed sell what is labeled London Broil. Doesn’t matter to them that every television chef and culinary school that’s impossible, the fact remains they do. And not a single super market, they all do, without fail.

Ah, you’ll recall I said something about two misnomers, well the second thing is, the cut they sell at the markets can actually come from either of two totally different sides of the beast. It could be a slab from the flank or it can be top round. (Mine turned out to be two pounds of the latter.) In any event, I took my so-called “London broil”, and sliced it down through three times, making a formerly one-inch thick cut of beef into four long 1/4 inch cuts. And then I pounded each even thinner still, making them even more tender before cooking.

That done, I thought, so, just what shall I do with this now? And it came to me … Steak roll, baby! Ray Barrone, eat your heart out.

  

Braciole
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

stuffing:

2 slices potato bread, toasted then crunched into bread crumbs
(you can substitute roughly 3/4 cup of Italian seasoned bread crumbs)
4 tbsps minced garlic
10-12 unpitted kamala olives, minced (or green olives, or optional)
1/3 cup grated parmegen
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
salt
pepper
3/4 tbps dried oregano
1 1/2 tbsps parsley flakes
olive oil (see below for amount)

2 lbs top round (or flank steak or “London broil”), sliced into 1/4 inch thickness and pounded thin
1 28 oz jar Classico Carernet Marinara (or similar marinara or tomato sauce)
1.5 cups Merlot (or any find dry red wine)

Take your slab of beef, cut thinnly to about 1/4 inch thick. Take your cooking pounder or meat tenderizer and using the “textured” not the flat side, place each slice of meat on the counter between two sheets of plastic wrap, and pound thin and out towards the sides. Then reserve on a plate.

To make the stuffing or paste, take bread crumbs, garlic, olives, onion, parmegan, and seasonings, mix together and add olive oil until you achieve a not too thin, moist consistency. Take each slice of steak, spread out on a cutting board, season with salt and pepper, then spoon the stuffing lightly across the entire steak. Take the smaller side (if you ends are uneven) and carefully wrap up into a roll. Using toothpicks or kitchen string, bind the roll so it retains it’s shape and so stuffing doesn’t fall out of the ends. Repeat the procedure using up the rest of the stuffing and steaks.

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a skillet — preferably one you can place in the oven — place olive oil and brown all four sides of the steak on high heat. If it sticks, leave it until the pan tells you (yes, tells you) when it is done and you can have it. This will take 12-20 minutes.

Take steak rolls out of pan and place on plate. Add wine to the frying pan to deglaze (get the delicious brown bits out of the bottom of the pan). Once this is done, you have two choices. If your frying pan is able to be put into the oven, place your steaks back into the pan with the wine in it. If your frying pan is not able to be placed in the oven, this is the time to get out your oven dish or pan that you will be using, and place the steak in that and add the wine from the pan.

Now, in the vessel that contains the steak rolls and wine, add the marinara or sauce you will be using. Place the pan (if it’s not a pan, fine, I’ll be calling it a pan from now on though) in the oven with the lid on. Every 20-25 minutes come by and turn the rolls over 180 so the top gets sauce. After your second time doing it (roughly 40-50 minutes into the baking, take the lid off the pan and let it resume. At about 70-75 minutes, check your dish for the proper or desired meat temperature, and it should be done. Reminder: If you didn’t use string, do not forget to remove the toothpicks.

Suggest serving with the wine-enriched sauce on top, and along side a small helping of fresh spaghetti. Have a glass of the same red wine you used in the sauce as the perfect accompanying beverage. Makes 4-5 servings.

I’m noticing as time goes on and, especially with pasta dishes, when you interchange different ingredients, it becomes tougher and tougher to come up with the actual names of the recipes. To me, my short-hand for this dish is “Chicken Z-and-Z” for Zuccini and Ziti. Of course if I actually named it that, you would be going “huh?” and either turn away. Or maybe it would conversely grab your attention. But you surely wouldn’t know what it was until — and if — you started looking closely. And if you were specifically looking for a chicken and squash pasta dish, you might not find it here either.

No wonder Rachel Ray and others come up with crazy names after a while for things. I mean I love pasta simply because you can put sooooo many different ingredients, meats, seafood, proteins and veggies in it. And then the number of sauces as well are staggering. But then with all those mixes and matches, naming does become difficult.

You know, this might make you laugh. Or maybe you think the same way as I do, but, in many ways, pasta seems to me as a very American dish. It’s sometimes difficult to think of them as Italian. And this coming from an Irish-American no less.

Sure, America is the home of hamburgers, hot dogs and apple pie. But growing up, pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, and alternately cheese and meat raviolis, strombolis and calzones and lasagna were as much of it. I have this one friend from England who’s lived here forever and she still doesn’t get it, as they never ate that way in the UK. First time I heard this I thought it was weird saying, “Wait, you’re 4,000 miles closer to Italy than we are!” Right there, that shows you it’s more an American thing.

I say, fair is fair. The tomato was grown only in the Americas; Europe never had the tomato before Columbus. And yet for two hundred years the tomato has been the staple of Italian cuisine. If they can do all that with our tomato, then yeah, I don’t see why we can’t therefore say a lot of Italian food is just plain American. It’s just the boomerang effect.

  

Chicken & Squash with Ziti in Roasted Garlic Sauce
©2007 Harry Kenney

two large zucchinis, diced large
1 large yellow squash, diced large
yellow onion, diced
ziti (or penne or rigatoni, etc)
fresh baby carrots (halved)
1 1/2 pounds skinless chicken breasts, diced large
salt
pepper
garlic

While garlic is roasting in oven (see sauce below), sweat the vegetables, that is, one a medium heat and olive oil you want to cook them, break them down, but you don’t want them brown nor do you want them mushy, you want the vegetables still to have a good deal of body. Season as required. So sweat the zuccini and the squash, take out of pan. Put in the chicken, and later (so it doesn’t brown) the onion and cook them well also. Meanwhile boil lightly or steam the carrots (you can do this in the microwave if you want.) Cook the pasta per directions. Drain. Into the large vessel containing the pasta now add the chicken and veggies, mix well, add any additional seasonings. Add the sauce below. Mix well, serve. Makes enough for 8-10 servings

Roasted Garlic Sauce

head of garlic
dried oregano
dried basil
salt
pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
some lemon zest
2 tblsps lemon juice
red pepper flakes
1/4 cup grated parmagen

First, preheat oven for 350°F. Take an entire head of garlic, cut off the top, place in aluminum foil, and make an open pocket. Pour olive oil on top along with dried basil and oregano. Seal, place in oven for 25-30 minutes until roasted brown.

Squeeze the garlic out of it’s “head” of paper and place in blender. (Note, this works with the normal old bar blender as well as the super new ones.) Put in the ingredients listed above, except the oil, mix. Take off the top, pour the olive oil in as the rest is mixing, this is to emulsify and create the sauce properly. Taste, adjust as needed. Pour onto pasta, mix and serve.

I love this town. I love it for so many reasons, too many, I won’t even get into cause I might not be able to stop. But one of the reasons is food, baby. Philly is hometown to so many foods, it’s just crazy. Probably first that comes up on everyone’s list is the Philly Cheesesteak. If not that, it’s the Hoagie. Whats a hoagie? Ever have something called a “sub” or submarine? Ever have something called a “hero” or hero sandwhich? Well, if so, they are just pale, lack-luster imitations of a hoagie.

What else? There’s the Philly pretzel. Much superior to those things they burn in NYC and call pretzels. There’s scrapple, a mysterious and wonderful substance — sorta like haggis, not in taste, in mystery — that is a wonderful alternative to bacon, ham and sausage as a breakfast meat to go along with your eggs. And then, to my surprise, there’s the stromboli.

To my surprise? Well I’ve known strombolis ever since I was little. The local pizza shop or steak shop always had them along with the calzones. Wasn’t actually until just a few days ago when I looked up in various food encyclopedias on the web — Epicurious’s is my favorite by the way. And I was wondering just what was technically considered the difference between a calzone and a stromboli.

According to the Epicurious-Barron’s database: “Originating in Naples, calzone is a stuffed pizza that resembles a large turnover. It is usually made as an individual serving. The fillings can be various meats, vegetables or cheese; mozzarella is the cheese used most frequently. Calzones can be deep-fried or brushed with olive oil and baked.” Whereas a stromboli is “a specialty of Philadelphia, a stromboli is a calzone-like enclosed sandwich of cheese (usually mozzarella) and pepperoni (or other meat) wrapped in pizza dough.”

So, a stromboli, yet another food originating here in Philly, is something akin to (but not) an inside-out pizza, a loaf of Italian bread that’s stuffed, a giant non-fried calzone, the world’s biggest “hot pocket” (except it tastes 100 times better). Let’s face it, these are just comparisions. A stromboli is what it is — a stromboli. And it’s delicious!

Now, as said this here is not your average stromboli. (Oddly, now that I’ve made the monster one, I’ll have to make a “normal” one to show you in the near future.) This is brimming with pounds of delicious meats, plus a substantial amount of savory veggies too. Some believe that where calzones were made to be eaten by hand, that strombolis were too. Personally, I have never (even with the normal ones you get from the shops) believed that. When you slice it you have two open ends, what a slop that would make eating by hand. So I’ve always used the knife and fork. And with this particular one, heavy-weighted, jam-packed “big guy”, manly-sized log, that is the only way to eat it.

Needless to say, this is one puppy you definitely want to make for a tailgating party, or bowling night, or on the big game day to feed a bunch of big hungry guys. The loaf ended up being 17 inches long, 6 to 7 inches wide and an inch to an inch and a half thick and even weighed (I’m guessing here) a good five to seven pounds. Tell me this isn’t going to be the hit of the party?! You know it!

When slicing a serving, figure rbout an inch width; perhaps an inch and a half or even up to two for a jumbo slice. This is going to make anywhere from 10 to 16 servings. If you figure in the price of the ingredients, and what the same amount of food would cost at the pizza joint, this is even a pretty sweet budget saving meal to boot. Oh, and just cause it is party food, doesn’t mean it’s not dinner or lunch. I didn’t make this for a party but for “dinner with lots of leftovers”, the kind I can reheat for a couple more dinners or as a few more hot lunches later in the week.

One last item here, before we hit the recipe. There’s also two schools of thought with those who make strombolis. (Geez, aren’t there always at least two schools of thought with food?) One is, you put some of the sauce inside; other’s say no, it leaks, it’s too messy; no sauce inside the stromboli itself, instead have some spaghetti sauce or marinara on the side for dipping. Me? I figure why does is it always have to be one way or the other — both ways together works! You need some of that inside, and hey, offer some to dip too to accomodate people’s taste.

Ok, get yourself plenty of napkins, grab a cold one to “go along” outta da fridge, dig in, and enjoy!

     

Over-Stuffed Meat Lovers Monster Stromboli
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, cut open from casing
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage, cut open from casing
1/2 lb thinly sliced pepperonis
4-5 slices of frozen sandwich steak, chopped

3 green (or red or mixed) bell peppers, cut to chunks
1-2 medium yellow onions, cut to chunks
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1/2 pound baby portebellos (or any mushrooms) chopped

one portion of pizza dough (enough to make one large pizza pie)
12 oz marinara or spaghetti sauce
6 oz shredded mozerella or mixed Italian cheeses

grated parmagena
salt
pepper
garlic powder
oregano

Take one serving of pizza dough, roll and knead out into a rough rectangle about 18 inches long and 8-10 inches wide and place inside baking sheet. Add oregano and grated parmagena to dough and press in with palm of hand. Lightly add shredded cheese all around and do same with hand again, pressing in slightly

In one very large pan, bring up to medium-high with very little oil, add half of sliced garlic, put in the pepperonis and brown. These have ton of oil. After turning constantly a few minutes, dump the oil, place pepperonis on a plate with paper towels and let sit, getting off the excess oil. Add sausage mixture into this pan and start to brown, lightly salt and pepper only as these are already well seasoned.

In a second smaller skillet, add oil, remaining sliced garlic, and put on medium-low and add the peppers. Remember you’re browning the meat, but you’re going to be sweating (not browning) the veggies. As peppers start to soften slightly add onions and mushrooms. You want all the ingredients to soften, stir constantly. Add some seasonings including some oregano.

In meat skillet, make some room in the pan and add the crumbled steak, season and brown. When everything nearly done in the meat skillet, put the pepperoni back in, mix everything up and add about 4 oz of marinara or spaghetti sauce and incorporate well.

Now to layer. Take handfuls of shredded cheese and thickly make a line down the center, about six inches or so wide. Take meat and spoon out down the middle of the dough, forming a line from near top to bottom, should end up being four to six inches wide and maybe half inch or so high. Now, do the same with the veggies, right on top, form a line top to bottom, should end up being roughly two to three inches wide. Take your sauce and add a thick bead, no more than an inch wide again down the length, atop the veggies.

Fold one side up across the top, then the other side, gently prodding as needed to make oval loaf. Fold the two ends up neatly as possible. Score slits in top of dough width-wise roughly four or five inches in length and spaced and inch-and-a-half or two down entire length. Take grated parmagena and liberally sprinkle atop the entire loaf. Now drizzle some olive oil across top. This will add flavor and aid in browning. Place the baking sheet into a preheated 400°F for about 35 minutes. When nice and brown, and you see the liquids inside boiling through some of the slits, you’re done.

Let sit on sheet at least 15 minutes before serving. Optionally take some of the sauce and add to a bowl for additonal dipping. Serve with knife and fork and plenty of napkins. Servings 10-16. Beverage of choice, beer of course, but works with anything.

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This was one of the items I had listed last month in my article “Food Terms You Keep Hearing About“. There I said, “In which bread is toasted, raw garlic is rubbed into it, then olive oil is drizzled on top. Now for some folks that is the complete definition, and it stops there. For myself and others it is not complete until the above is topped with a chopped tomato, garlic, basil and olive oil salsa. Mmm. (Toss some slices of very fresh mozzarella on top for the ultimate.) Until it’s got the topping, to me it’s not a true bruschetta. This is one of the best appetizer’s in the world as far as I’m concerned.”

When I went to the local supermarket the day before a recent party to pick up a freshly baked loaf of Italian bread, I found it was all old and none had been made that day. On top of which, instead of being long and having some width to it, whoever had made all the long loafs made it in my opinion way too thin, more like baguettes — which would be wonderful were I recipe-wise going to Paris, but I was aiming closer to Rome, (And this was supposedly Italian bread, remember.)

So I perused the shelves for something else, and happily came upon a shorter, fatter oval Italian bread. Not only that, it was made with sun dried tomatoes. And it was made within the last six hours, that would make it perfect for tomorrow’s party, a little body, but still what I consider to be fresh.

In fact, check out the photos of the sliced bread, big, wide pieces. That long skinny kind they had would have been about a third the size, “cocktail” cracker almost — not what you want, you want to serve the big meaty, “this is something I can dig into” slice of Italian bread you see there.

Tangent warning: Some other day I’ll figure out why day old is considered stale and why bakeries all like to keep their bread in the air to hasten the staleness, whereas I head home and wrap it up in plastic and alumninum foil and it lasts and tastes fresh for several days. Also for another day, how many ways — there seems to be about a dozen — in which people will pronounce bruschetta. (The two major ones being bru-shet-ta or bru-sket-ta. I often say the former, though there seems to be more of a conscientious as time goes on that the latter is most correct).

At the recent part, I served near it a separate plate of cut fresh mozzarella with some cherry tomaotes on the side. And next to that a plat with two different olives. As I suspected, half the guests grabbed the garlic bread, put on the tomato mixture and added a slice of the cheese on top. So there’s a tip for you. When you can offer some complimentary elements, and folks can mix and match (or not) as they want. I’ve even included a couple of photos of those here below (that I actually took for a “menu” or “meals” page section I’ll be adding in the near future.)

I have to mention, I put the food out on the table, went for my camera which was nearby, came back quickly, and already parts of the food presentation were gone. So, sorry I couldn’t get full shots of the all of the food in my photographs; hard to fault my guests for grabbing the food so fast off the plates! Anyways, this is such a delightful appetizer and so simple easy to make it’s ridiculous. Grab a glass of Chianti or Merlot or Pinot Noir with this and nosh away!

     

Bruschetta
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

garlic bread, bakery fresh (that morning up to a day old)

diced tomatoes. canned are preferred to fresh
fresh garlic, two to three cloves, sliced thin
fresh basil, chopped

salt
pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven at 350°F. Slice the Italian bread load thickly. Assemble on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil along the tops. Place in over for 7-12 minutes. You want a golden brown. Crispy but in no way hard, just a little crunch.

Meanwhile in a bowl place tomatoes, add basil, garlic, salt, pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil, mix together.

Take out bread from oven. Once toast is cooled enough to work with (as soon as you can) rub a clove of garlic across the top of each one many times. Pretend as though you are grating something. The warm heat of the toast and the movement will get the garlic on the toast. (I did this, but then knowing my guests wouldn’t mind very garlicky bread I also got a jar of minced garlic out and put a tiny bit of that on each as well.)

Make a nice presentation and serve to your guests, garnishing with basil leaves. Later you can place it back on the cookie sheet with oven on low and serve again if it gets cold. If necessary, re-warm in oven at 170-200°F (or “warm” or “low” setting). Or make some more.

The amount of people it will serve varies greatly due to size of bread, slicing, etc. If you’ve made 10 slices, that could be five to 10 people depending. Sauce should be enough for ten people with some left over. You might want to add fresh sliced mozzarella on the side too.

What’s to say about this meal? Other than it’s light and delicious? Dunno. It’s not that I’m in any way “tired” of writing openings — I have way too much to say, generally, for that ever to be the case. It’s just that sometimes, there is no back story, nothing that went wrong the first time to warn you about. Very little to inform you about.

Other than use fresh seasonal ingredients whenever you can and come up with something special. One can argue if this dish is a pasta primavera or not. I say it is as it’s mostly about the veggies (even though hey, who can ignore shrimp?). Other’s might debate that saying instead of blanched or raw I did a saute or pan roasting of my veggies. Still other’s say, this isn’t spring, certainly the use of a summer squash negates that. I say argue until the moon turns blue and take a chill pill. It’s all about the food, folks.

And, speaking of debates and such — yes I used cheese with seafood. And what IS the story about that? Should we? Shouldn’t we? And in actual fact that entire school of thought or debate has inspired me to write an article on the matter. But that’s for yet another day.

For today, this light and robust meal with make a great lunch, a romantic dinner or even a superb party bowl at your next get together. Buon appetito!

    

Shrimp with Sauteed Asparagus Pasta Alfredo
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

20 shrimp, medium (aka 35-41s) cut in half
1/2 lb asparagus, woody ends removed
1/2 box bow tie pasta
1 red bell pepper, diced finely
1 yellow squash, diced
1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1/4 pt cherry tomatoes
14 oz jar Alfredo sauce (Classico makes four wonderful ones)

season to taste:

salt
pepper
oregano
basil
fresh parsley

grated parmagena (optional)

You can use precooked shrimp in this; it won’t hurt it at all, that said, uncooked is better as you can then impart even greater flavor. If the latter, take all the skin off, place the shrimp in a frying pan with olive oil, season as you like. Medium flame, about two minutes per side. Move on to plate to cool.

Meanwhile start pasta in rolling boil of water. And defrost peas (which don’t need a complete defrost) by straining and running warm water over them and place in bowl.

In same pan medium-high add oil and asparagus, salt and pepper and drizzle more oil on top. Pretend you are on a grill not a frying pan. You want to constantly move these around until you see some browning, and a lost of the stiff “rawness”, however you do not want to get them ovedone nor soggy. As some will get done before others, move them onto a plate individually until all are done.

In same pan, medium-high, add squash, season with salt, pepper, oregano, basil and garlic powder, and saute. In a few minutes add red peppers and cherry tomatoes and again add more seasoning.

In small pot warm up Alfredo sauce gently. Drain pasta and put back in large pot. Turn on to low heat.

Slice shrimps in half. Slice asparagus in half. Dump shrimp and all vegetables (peas included) into pasta. Dump in Alfredo sauce. Turn heat up to medium, season mixture, stir and let everything combine, add a touch of fresh parsley, about two minutes. Place in large bowls, optionally top with small amount grated parm.

Suggest serving with lightly buttered garlic bread and a nice Chianti. Serves 5 to 6.