National Pasta Month!

Well, I don't know how the inauguration of this month-long event slipped by me, but I just discovered that October is National Pasta Month!  Not that I really need an excuse to eat more pasta; I don't know if it's possible to eat *more* of it than we already do ;)

But it certainly warrants a mention and a few recipes in its honor, don't you think?

To kick it off, we broke out the hand-crank cavatelli maker that I ordered from eBay.  The little macchinetta is a classic, conceived by an Italian immigrant to Cleveland, Ohio who started the Vitantonio Company and built a business of providing pasta-making products to the Little Italy community. 


It's a very simple contraption:  you make up the pasta dough, roll it into ropes, and feed it into the machine while turning the handle.  Out pop perfectly-formed cavatelli, ready to to be boiled and topped with sugo!

My cousin Celia turned me on to this little gem; she has become something of a cavatelli collector.  Her dad has a real beauty, one of the original cast iron oldies, still in perfect working condition.

Yesterday was the first trial run for our newly-acquired macchinetta.  It performed very well, I'm happy to say.  Cavatelli transport us right to the Motherland, as it is one of the most common pastas found in Basilicata.  They are made from farina di semola, hard durum wheat which is milled more finely than the semolina flour you usually find in the US, salt and water.  It's not an egg pasta.

What is your favorite pasta type or shape?

Zuppa dei Fagiolini

Green Bean Soup

I have childhood memories of my nana making a soup of fresh green beans. Some tomato, basil and lots of sweet beans, that much I knew, but I couldn't find the recipe. My mom had never written it down and couldn't remember exactly how to make it. Never mind; I figured it out and I think it tastes pretty darn close to what I remember; at least, the aroma seemed very reminiscent. I found some beautiful long flat beans in the store so I used those, cut into smaller pieces, but any fresh green beans will work nicely.

1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
Saute in olive oil in a large pot. Add clean, snapped beans and saute a couple of minutes.
Toss in:
2 tomatoes, chopped - with juices
salt and pepper
pinch of oregano
pinch of thyme
Stir, then add broth to cover. I use a mixture of vegetable and beef broth to taste like veal broth but you can use chicken, beef or vegetable broth, as you desire or have on hand.
Mince five or six basil leaves and add to the pot. Simmer until the beans are cooked. I also sometimes add a couple of handfuls of arborio rice or ditalini (little pasta tubes).

Perfect now that the weather is turning colder and rainy!

Nana's Tomato Salad

My grandmother used to make this recipe in the summer when tomatoes are abundant. Here in Italy we're still finding ripe, fresh tomatoes in the market so I'm still throwing this simple dish together. It's good on it's own with fresh, crusty bread to soak up the sauce. But I've found it's also good used as a salad dressing by splashing in a little bit of balsamic vinegar and then pouring it over lettuce.

2 or 3 ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped (or sliced if you prefer)
3-4 thin slices of onion
1 small clove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
oregano, fresh or dried to taste
a bit of basil to taste
a drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil
Mix it all together and let sit at room temperture for about 20 minutes for the flavors to mingle and the juices to develop.

copryight 2006 Valerie Schneider

A Menu To Remember

A couple of weeks ago we traveled into remote Basilicata accompanied by two cousins. It was an astounding trip in many respects, not the least of which because we connected with distant family members there in my great-grandfather’s hometown. Michele and his wife Milena, generous and welcoming, treated us to a feast the likes of which I had never experienced before. This was a meal to remember which lasted for three and a half hours. We sat and dined for three and a half hours! Such gluttony! I felt like we’d stepped into the film, Big Night (a worthy rental if you’ve never seen it). Platters laden with food arrived constantly. It was amazing! So, without further adieu, here is the menu.

Prosciutto and coppacolla. Grilled veggies delicately seasoned. Anchovy-stuffed hot peppers that put a fire into even my mouth, a seasoned New Mexican chile-eater. Air-dried sweet peppers that were fried to a crisp in olive oil. Another type of prosciutto and a seasoned lard (the only piece of food that day that I didn’t care for), cured sausages laced with fennel. Olives, three cheeses, and semolina bread. And that was just the antipasto!

Out came a heaping bowl of cavatelli, the pillowy-soft pasta melt-in-the-mouth delicious, topped simply with those air-dried peppers, breadcrumbs and peppery olive oil. More forks and a bowl of ravioli, the ricotta cheese having been made that morning “or last night at the latest,” Melina informed us, slightly laced with mint and the lightest of tomato sauces. More forks and a huge platter of stewed lamb over top of oven-roasted and perfectly seasoned potatoes. All of this was, of course, accompanied by home-made wine and bottles of water that came from Monte Vulture, probably the food item that traveled the longest distance to reach our table. More forks and I was about to roll out of my chair when Michele assured us it was simply for fruit, not a heavy dessert. “Just fruit” was an enormous platter of the most beautifully arranged, luscious produce that it should have been placed on a banquet table in front of a dignitary. I later realized that we were considered the dignitaries, the American family come to Basilicata.

Cousin Rose reminisced throughout the meal, as each plate brought a childhood memory and her face showed the joy of it all. We reveled in these dishes, which sound so simple but were so utterly delicious, I’d make the trip again in a heartbeat just to taste the goodness of those items.
Read more about the trip in my monthly column on Slow Travel and on my 2 Baci blog.

Easter Lasagne

Since childhood Easter has always meant spring dresses (usually with parkas over them), a forsythia branch decorated with egg ornaments, and lasagna. I knew nothing else; my Italian-descended family always made lasagna, and my friends in the strongly-Italian town I grew up in also had the same tradition. When I first got married, Bryan asked what we were doing for our first Easter together. I responded that I thought I'd make the traditional Easter meal. "Great," he responded, "I love ham!" Ham?! What? Who on earth has ham on Easter, I sputtered. "No, lasagna is the traditional Easter dish." Now it was Bryan who was dumbfounded. "Lasagna?" Clearly he had no idea of real traditions. We looked at each other quizzically. We explained our respective holiday menus and activities with amusement and settled on the lasagna. I was cooking, after all. I continued to shake my head; "Ham. That will never catch on," I said.

My Easter lasagna goes something like this:

about 2 pounds of the freshest ricotta cheese you can find
a couple good-sized, fresh balls of mozzarella, chopped
about a cup of freshly grated parmigiano cheese
an egg
salt and pepper
a clove or two of minced garlic
Mix it all together.

about 3-4 cups of marinara sauce (I make my own, of course)
1-2 boxes lasagna pasta (don't even bother with the no-boil variety; I've tried them and they turn to to mush when they bake.)

Cook the lasagna noodles just until they're bendable. Don't cook them to al dente or they'll be mushy after the baking time. Layer marinara sauce, pasta, and cheese, ending with sauce on top of a pasta layer. You can add a layer of ground meat (mixture of sausage and ground beef is best) if you desire, but I usually forgo it on Easter as we serve a meat course. Cover and bake at 400 for about an hour, uncovering about half-way through. Remove from the oven and let set about 15-20 minutes before cutting and serving.

copyright 2006 Valerie Schneider

Granola Fudgies

This is an adaptation of one of my grandma's recipes. These no-bake cookies are perfect for the hot weather, when you want to pack some sweets for a picnic but don't want to heat up the kitchen!

1/4. cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sucanat*
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 cups granola
1/4 cup sliced almonds or chopped nuts
1/4 cup peanut butter

Place the cocoa in a saucepan and gradually add the milk, stirring well. Stir in the sweetener and the butter and bring to a boil for one minute, stirring. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, the granola and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper. Refrigerate until firm.

*Sucanat is a whole-cane sugar product, not refining out the essential vitamins and minerals like white sugar does. It's easier on blood sugar level and has a richer taste. Rapadura is another similar sugar product. You can use regular sugar if you prefer, but if you can find Sucanat or Rapadura you should give them a try. They are a "whole food" rather than a refined, naked "food".