Vagabond or Bust

Italian Cooking 101

Course 1: bruschetta al pomodoro, basilico, e mozzarella di bufala

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400°F (or 200°C) and toast the bread until crisp and golden brown for about 5 minutes. Rub each slice of bread with half a clove of garlic, then drizzle with one table spoon of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and season with salt. You can toast the bread in the toaster, but using the oven dries it out more, adding an authentic touch! Be sure to use only a good cold-pressed EVOO as the dish depends on the quality of the oil.
For your tomato and basil topping you have to chop the Roma tomatoes in small cubes, dice the Buffalo mozzarella in small cubes, sprinkle with salt and black pepper, and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with few table spoons of EVOO and serve.

This is a pasta dish with homemade pasta and a thick red bacon sauce...molto bene!

Pasta Ingredients (serves 4 people):
- 4 cups all purpose flour 00 SIFTED
- 4 eggs

Sauce Ingredients (serves 4 people):
-8 oz guanciale (or pancetta) diced 
-3 lb can tomatoes, peeled and chopped (the best type is called San Marzano)
-1 medium onion, finely chopped
-1 carrot
-1 stalk celery 
-1 small red chilly pepper, seeded and chopped (I used chili flakes instead of the fresh one, as it's not so invasive)
-Salt and freshly ground pepper
-1 cup pecorino cheese
-2 bay leaves

Sauce Instructions:
Sauté the chopped guanciale in a large frying pan over medium heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. In the meantime, in a large frying pan over low heat, stir in the "soffritto" made from blended carrots, celery and onion with E.V. olive oil and cook until it starts to brown. Turn on the heat over medium-high and if you want you can even stir in some dry white wine and cook it until it'll evaporate (please never use any sweet wine, it's disgusting!). Then you can add your chopped tomatoes and cook it for 15/30 minutes (depending on how much sauce you're cooking). Add the guanciale and bay leaves and chili pepper. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. 

Pasta Instructions:

For the pasta dough all you have to is mix 4 cups all purpose flour with 4 eggs. Then roll out the dough powerfully to a thin, almost transparent sheet (don’t forget to use flour on the marble surface). Now it's time to cut the pasta into the tagliolini shapes, long and thin, as thin as you possibly can. Let the pasta sit before cooking, then put a large pot of boiling water over high heat. When the water is boiling, toss in a tablespoon of salt with the tagliolini pasta. Stir to keep the pasta from sticking. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until a piece of pasta tastes cooked.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the frying pan with the amatriciana sauce and add freshly grated pecorino cheese, serve hot.

Course 3: straccetti di manzo con funghi e rughetta

Ingredients (serves 4 people):
- 1/2 lb beef carpaccio
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly chopped parsley
- Salt
- 1 cup dry white wine (Frascati wine)
- 8.8 oz Champignon mushrooms (bottom mushrooms)
- 8.8 oz Pletus mushrooms (elephant ear mushrooms)
- 8.8 oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Saute in a frying pan chopped garlic without peeling the skin (as it contains all the nutrients and it's good for the anti-oxidant nutrients) and the sliced mushrooms, cover with a lid and wait until all the water will be released for about 8-10 minutes (timing will depend on the type of mushrooms you are using).  Then add the white wine and wait until it will evaporate. 
In the same pan, turn up the heat up and add olive oil. Season the meat with salt and saute for few minutes in a seperate pan. The outside should be nicely browned, but it should still be tender and soft overall. Adjust a bed of fresh bitter arugola salad at the bottom of your serving dish and spoon the mushrooms sauce over the beef. Add chopped parsley in the same pan to let it season with the rest of the ingredients.
In the end adjust the meat and mushrooms over and add freshly grated Parmesan cheese to coat the dish. Serve hot, and it will be delicious.

Course 4 (side dish): Broccoli Romaneschi

This is a spicy sidedish of cauliflower, which Italians refer to as "broccoli."

Ingredients (serves 4 people):
- 1 clove garlic (don't forget to keep the skin on it while you're sauteing with extra virgin olive oil)
- 2 heads of roman broccoli (cauliflower)
- Salt
- Chili flakes

Instructions:
First clean and wash the broccoli. Then remove the bottom of the plant and chop the tops into halves. Let the broccoli cook in salted boiling water for a few minutes, until each piece becomes tender and soft. Then in a large frying pan, over medium-high heat, let the garlic brown with extra virgin olive oil. Once the garlic is brown, toss in your boiled broccoli, leave to simmer with garlic until everything is nicely sauteed. Season your dish with salt and chili flakes. Serve warm.

Course 5 (Dessert): Canestrelli alla Nutella

In other words, Nutella cookies.  Italians eat Nutella like Americans eat McDonalds: sometimes for every meal and with little regard for their health.

To make the dough you have to mix 5 cups of all purpose flour, 2 sticks of unsalted butter, 2.5 cups of granulated sugar, 2 eggs, and a pinch of salt. Mix everything powerfully on a slightly floured marble surface, and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.  

After at least two hours, roll out your dough and cut with small stencils or any shape you would like. With half of these dough shapes, cut a smaller hole into the middle.  Place on a wax sheet lined baking pan.  Heat the oven to 350°F and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Sprinkle pieces with small hole ("tops") in powdered sugar.  On the fuller cookies ("bottoms"), spread Nutella in a thin layer. Place the tops on the bottoms, using the Nutella like glue and fill in the hole generously with Nutella.

Ingredients:

-5 cups all purpose flour

-2 sticks unsalted butter

-2.5 cups granulated sugar

-2 eggs

-Salt

-Powdered sugar

-NUTELLA

A tavola non si invecchia