I have no idea if this link will seamlessly lead you to Ciao Ciao Linda’s blog – but I hope so. She has just written about truffle hunting in Abruzzo and it made my mouth water. My cousin’s husband Mario also hunts for truffles here in Pontelandolfo and we have had some incredible truffle based meals. Give a glance at Linda’s blog – I bet you’ll get hungry too. Boun appetit.
Category: Food – Eating In and Out!
Subscriber Dirties Her Hands With Dough!
This post was sent to me by an incredible cook, Kathy Hall. I know she’s a great cook because I have sat at her table and practically licked the plate clean every time she invites me over. She has been following “Nonna’s Mulberry Tree” and sent me this pictorial post of her own. Enjoy!
Kathy:
Homemade fresh pasta has always ranked high on my kitchen bucket list. I have always cooked almost everything from scratch and still have a fond memory of a pasta party at my friend Grace’s college apartment. She was the first in our crowd to get a Cuisinart and we watched in amazement as in less than two minutes the flour and eggs formed a ball of dough right in the bowl. We liked it so much we did it three times. Luckily, being Italian, she had a pasta maker so we all took turns cranking away for about an hour then happily stringing fresh strands on the back of every available kitchen chair.
That was over 40 years ago. This summer my friend Midge traveled to Italy to reconnect with her Italian heritage and I am following along virtually via this blog. One of her first posts was a recipe for homemade pumpkin ravioli with walnuts, parmesan and speck. It looked and sounded heavenly so I dug out my rolling pin and borrowed my neighbor’s ravioli cutter.
It was not a complete success. The filling was a savory rustic delight. The pasta, which I insisted on rolling by hand, was way too thick and cooked up into a gummy mess of semi raw dough not worthy of it’s yummy filling.
Time for technology. I ordered a pasta machine from Amazon and watched a bunch of Youtube videos on how to make home made pasta. This is my second batch in four days (We ate the first one too fast to photograph.)
The recipe is simple, one egg, about 2/3’s of a cup of all purpose flour, a small splash of olive oil and a little salt (if I remember to add it). I mix it old school starting by making a hole in a mound of flour big enough to hold one broken egg. I scramble the egg, olive oil and salt with a fork and then slowly incorporate the flour working from the inside of the volcano out.
When the fork gets coated with the thick egg flour mixture I switch to my hands continuing to incorporate flour until I have a not too wet, not too dry dough. It’s not as magical as the Cuisinart but it’s a lot less clean up.
The next step is where practice makes a difference as I transform that sloppy doughy mess by manipulating it with my hands. Pasta making is similar to bread making. You have to experience how the dough should feel as you knead it. Ideally your Italian grandmother shows you this. I’m Irish so I learned by experimenting and seeing how different doughs perform as pasta.
For those non bakers, here’s how to knead. Flour your hands and the board. Stretch the ball of dough you formed by pushing down and away from you with the heel of your hand, then rotate 90 degrees, fold in half and push again. If it’s too wet sprinkle a little more flour on the ball and keep working it. If it’s too dry wet your hands and incorporate that little bit of water as you knead. A lot depends on the size of the egg, how much olive oil you put in and the humidity in the air. Relax, work slowly and enjoy. In time you will know when you have the right combination of flour, eggs and water. Eventually the dough will stop sticking to your hands and start to become silky.
Keep pushing away, folding and rotating until the dough is smooth and springs back when poked. It takes between six and ten minutes total and is a nice upper body workout. Then form the dough back into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Some recipes say to flour the ball before wrapping it, others say to coat it with a little olive oil. I flour if the dough seems a little wet, oil if it seems a little dry.
While the dough rests, I make a sauce and put on a big pot of salted water to boil. One night my sauce was fava beans, garlic and olive oil. The next it was tomato sauce with turkey sausage and mushrooms that I had in the freezer. The classic combination of butter and cheese is also good.
After the dough rests, and the sauce and boiling water are ready. Either try to roll the pasta out by hand or dig out a pasta machine and follow the instructions. I strongly recommend the pasta machine. Unlike the Cuisinart, it never has to be washed, just dusted off with a pastry brush.
Roll your pasta dough til it’s thin enough to see your hand on the other side, cut into your favorite shape, cook for two to four minutes depending on thickness, toss with sauce and enjoy. . I can’t speak about left overs since we have had none. This recipe serves two people if you are used to 2 ounce dry pasta servings.
Next week I’m tackling those ravioli again.
Buon appetito!
Kathy Hall
Il Re Ghiotto – Yummy Surprise in Rotondi (AV)
Everyday can be a culinary adventure! My nephew Nick was flying in to meet the family and see Pontelandlofo for the first time. Being “Auntie Never Late”, my accommodating spouse and I set off a little after noon for the Naples Airport. The idea was to explore a town or two along the way. Being foodies we started salivating at the signs for fresh buffalo mozzarella and various local trattoria. What can I say, we slowly drove ignoring the incredible mountain vistas and looking for a place to stop for pranza. I’d spy something on the left and bellow there! Jack would swerve and through clenched teeth say look for something on the right. That was the right advice.
The next place on the right was “Il Re Ghiotto”. It looked interesting and – this was incredibly important on a busy narrow street – it had a parking lot. Inside the tables all had sweet checkered table clothes and linen napkins. We could see the comfortable layout clearly because there was absolutely no one in the place. We knew why, but hated to admit it. We were hungry Americans who stopped for pranza on the early side of appropriateness – 1:00 pm.
Being in mozzarella di bufola country we of course ordered a caprese salad to share, aqua minerale frizzante and vino rosso di tavola. Within moments toasted quarters of artegean bread appeared topped with diced tomatoes and fresh basil that had been marinating in the regions incredible olive oil. Yummy. I wondered if my Italian had been so bad that my “l’insalta caprese” sounded like “bruschetta “. I shouldn’t have worried, the bruschetta was simply a gift from the kitchen. Like every caprese salad we have had in Italy, the tomatoes tasted like fresh tomatoes not hot house drek and nothing beats really fresh mozzarella . Since we had about 5 hours before the flight was due and were only an hour from the airport, we ate slowly and savored every bite.
Jack had ordered miniature penne pasta tossed with porcini mushrooms, a few diced tomatoes, loose sausage and of course that amazing olive oil. He made me taste it and I wanted to grab the plate. But if I did that he’d grab my risotto and I refused to share. I ordered mystery risotto. A mystery because the only word I recognized in the description was “risotto”. It was purple in color, had teeny tiny bits of something meaty in it and was amazing. Jack took a taste. I took two tastes. OK – purple- maybe squid with squid ink? But everyone knows the word for squid – calamari. This word started with A. Of course, I didn’t write it down. Didn’t tell master mind Jack the word. Hence, I couldn’t look it up. ( I found out later it was made with red wine.)
For contorni we had rucola (arugula) that Jack pointed out must have been picked 5 minutes ago. They were tiny leaves perched in a bowl and served with bottles of olive oil and vinegar.
After our coffees,I asked the owner in what I thought was impeccable Italian for the check. He looked at me and responded in impeccable university grade American Standard English,” are you from New Jersey or Connecticut?” All those Italian classes and I still can’t pass. We introduced ourselves to the charming Pasquale and he joined us for tale swapping
He was born in Jersey City and lived there during his adolescent years. The family has a marble, granite and stone business in Patterson,NJ. They also own the R\restuarant in Rotondi (AV). He and his parents fly back and forth often. We promised to come back the next time we made the airport trek and take a picture for this blog of his dad’s circa 1970s Cadillac Coupe De Ville sitting I the garage flaunting its NJ liscence plates.
You will notice there are no pictures of food. Why? You damn well know why! It was so good we scoffed it down before I remembered to take a picture. If you want to see the food visit:
Il Re Ghiotto – Ristorante Pizzeria
S.S. 7 Appia, 62
83017. Rotondi (AV)
Tell Pasquale that the New Jerseyans sent you.
Pumpkin Ravioli – Ravioli con la Zucca Dentro e Fuori
Skip the plate!
This is the beginning of the most exciting part of my living in Italy. Learning how to cook not like an Italian American but like a Pontelandolfese. Today, I am sitting next to the gorgeous, multi-lingual, brilliant Annarita Mancini and she is going to unearth the secret of the incredible ravioli con zucca. We decided that this is not a cook book blog but a “watch your nonna” and “listen to your nonna” blog. Everything is a pinch of this and a handful of that. So just leap into the conversation and add your nonna’s touches too. Sit back, think foodie thoughts and follow along.
For you lovers of language we will post the first recipe but not a recipe in Italian ably written by Annarita and then in English poorly written by me.
Facilissimo preparare i ravioli! Un uovo per 100 grammi di farina…io e mamma abbiamo dovuto usare 9 uova!!! (That means she fed a ton of people and added more flour too.) ok…unire le uova, la farina e un pò di olio, mescolare fino a rendere l’impasto omogeneo. (“The flour is asking you for more eggs” says Carmela – “that is how you know how much.” How funky granola woo-woo is this! I love it! It is more about look, touch – or as Carmela says “your relationship with the food) Sorry for interrupting – what kind of look are you shooting me – I said I was sorry.
Creare delle sfoglie usando la macchinetta per la pasta. Le lasciamo riposare cospargendole con un pò di farina…nel frattempo prepariamo la zucca per il ripieno dei ravioli…cuocere la zucca con olio,aglio e sale, quando é cotta unire le noci tritate, lo speck a pezzetti e una manciata di formaggio grattuggiato. Con l’aiuto del “miracoloso” attrezzo per preparare i ravioli il gioco é fatto. Mettiamo una prima sfoglia di pasta sull’attrezzo,poi aggiungiamo un pó di ripieno negli appositi spazi,copriamo con una seconda sfoglia, passiamo il matterello sulle sfoglie e i ravioli sono pronti. Passiamo alla cottura…cuocere i ravioli in acqua bollente per meno di 5 minuti. (Come dice mamma:” il tempo che salgono!”)
See she is doing it again – she just knows when it is done! OK, OK – back to Annarita – Per condirli abbiamo usato gli stessi ingredienti del ripieno: zucca, noci, speck e formaggio…basta farli saltare in padella per 2 minuti e il risultato sará delizioso!!!!
According to Annarita making ravioli is easy! She forgot to tell you that Zia Giuseppina first had to go to the chicken coop and get the eggs. OK, now that we have eggs and flour here we go. They use one egg for about 100 grammi of flour – that is about 4 ounces. You have to go by touch here. Not too liquid and not to dry. If it needs more flour – add some. So for twelve people they used nine eggs and about two pounds of flour – Did we really eat all those ravioli???
Blend the eggs and flour together until you have a nice smooth ball of dough. Then break it into handfull sizes, flatten it and send it through the pasta machine. After you made the sheets of dough, set them on the counter on a little flour and let them rest.
Meanwhile, you got some strong dude to cut into the fresh pumpkin and peel it – go find a cute guy at the local caffé. Slice the pumpkin into tiny thin slices. Put some great olive oil in a frying pan with garlic and let that start to cook. Add the pumpkin and saute all together. Add salt to taste. (Anyone have another word besides “add”?) When the pumpkin is cooked add thinly sliced walnuts, grated parmesan and speck.(Unlike other prosciutti, speck is deboned before curing and made in northern Italy.)
Place a sheet of pasta on the – I could not believe this- TUPPERWARE ravioli form. Poke the dough into the form and put about a spoon full of filling in each cavity. Cover with a second sheet of pasta and pass a rolling pin over it. The ravioli form has ridges that will cut the pieces into the perfect shape. Flip the form over and – shazaam – you have ravioli. Now, you all know how to toss ravioli into boiling salted water and cook it until it floats to the top.
What you didn’t know was the segreto – secret – use the same filling for the “condimento” – non sauce. They fried up extra pumpkin, garlic and speck. Then tossed in the nuts and some grated parmesan – which is made from local cheese and the cooked ravioli and served it up with fresh parsley – add extra parmesan to taste. There you have it – “to die for” ravioli.
Buon appetito! 
Buon Compleanno a Me!
Happy Birthday to Me! The family rallied to create the perfect birthday party for me. What made it perfect? Great food! Great conversation – that I only understood 40% of! Great tales of yesterday. Great hopes for tomorrow.
Primo piatto was ravioli that was so “sono buoni” that I want to take Annarita and Carmela back to the United States with me to just feed me the ravioli. I’m going to create a special section to post Carmela’s recipes – they are all a touch of this and a toss of tantalizing!
Secondo Piatto? Why it could be nothing less than my absolute favorite meat – roasted lamb. Jack absolutely hates lamb but tasted Carmela’s and asked for seconds. She added a secret ingredient – booze!
Yes, we had a vegetable too. Right now fava beans are in season and incredibly plentiful at the market. But who needs to go to the market – so many people grow fava beans that they give away baskets full. Think tons of zucchini in the summer finding its way from your neighbors garden to your back porch. I must admit, I never had fresh fava beans before – only dried. Since Zia Vittoria gives me a basket every few days, I too have been experimenting with how to cook them. (I made a fantastic batch the other day with apple, cinnamon, onions, red pepper and – well I don’t remember – I just threw in what ever was handy.)
Diets be damned. How can anyone say no to a vanilla cake with layers of real whipped cream, nuts, chocolate and bits of heaven. My family in the states is full of artistic types and it never ceases to amaze me to discover that our family in Italy has the same artistic characteristics. As Zia Giuseppina is constantly saying to me – “we are of the same blood.”
You know, today is my special day. I am just going to eat, drink and then go to the piazza and do it again. So long – see you domani.
Nonna's Mulberry Tree 