Pasta e Piselli (Pasta with Peas)


Here's an easy dish for when you are rushed, you can use fresh peas but they will take longer to cook or simply use frozen peas. The important part of this dish regarding flavor is much onions and black pepper.


Pasta--any small type, I prefer the broken up spaghetti that is the dimension of angel hair, that here are called filini
1 large onion slivered
1 box of frozen peas
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
water

Start out with a slight sauteeing of the slivered onions in olive oil. You can see I covered the bottom of the saucepan with onions. You need not worry about them being well cooked because they will cook alongside the peas, we just want to saute them until they are a bit soft.

Add your peas to the onions give them a stir and give them heat for about 30seconds to a minute stirring well so they seperate.









Add about 1-2 cups of water. Make sure they are covered. Add salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until peas are tender. Adjust salt and pepper if needed. Let the water simmer down just a bit, we don't want soup.

Then mix with the cooked pasta, sprinkle with  additional pepper and grated cheese if you want.


OPTIONAL---sprinkle crumbled bacon bits if you want to give it an extra twist.

Pasta e Panna (with a twist)

 We have a dish here called Pasta, Panna e Prosciutto, which is actually a type of mac and cheese with the addition of diced cooked ham. This is a great base recipe to extend from, and the recipe posted here is just that, my own version, which oftentimes I change depending on the ingredients that I have on hand.

8-10 links sausage
1 onion
8oz heavy cream--Panna
Pasta, any will do, I used bow tie
salt, pepper, dried parlsey, grated cheese

Remove sausage from casings and sauteè in olive oil, you can also use ground beef if you prefer. As soon as you give it a quick stir, add onions, and continue sauteeingtil onions are tender, add salt, pepper, dried parsley to taste and if you want add a shot glass or 2 of white wine, I used grappa, like the flavor.

Set aside and cook the pasta in salt water. Once the pasta is cooked, before draining set aside a cup of that pasta water. You may need it.

Add the panna to the sausage mix and on low heat bring to a boil,add a fistful of grated cheese and taste.

 
You may need to add more salt and pepper because heavy cream is bland so may end up cutting out your spice flavor.

Then toss in the pasta until all well mixed and heated through, if it looks a little sticky and dry add in your pasta water until its nice and creamy and serve. If you are a cheese lover you can sprinkle some more grated cheese on it.

Buon Appetito!

Shortcuts

Although I have time at home to cook the old fashioned way, I prefer to prep things in advance so that when I have those busy days or the stores are closed here, I always have something on hand to eat.I know that much of what I will write, you can already find in the grocery stores in the states, whereas I cannot here, although am starting to find them. BUT the point is, if we can make it at home we can save that bit of money, and assure us of the quality of what we eat. No, am not ready for assuming the Grizzly Adams role in the wild just yet----wouldnt want to break a nail! hahahahahahah! Sorry just a bit of humor, and in these weeeeee bit dark times that we live in----humor IS good!

• I have 3 sizes of food grinders, the smallest is just a bit larger than a Krups coffee grinder which is excellent for the smaller stuff. 
• Get a bulb of garlic, clean all the cloves, pop in a grinder, mince well, put in a clean babyfood size jar, cover with olive oil and keep in the fridge. Since there are no preservatives this lasts about 2 weeks if not more just smell it after about that time and you will be able to smell if it starts going bad. Also the good part of this is that if you cover with more than enough oil, you end up getting a garlic flavored oil to drizzle over your bruschetta or whenever you cook. BTW you can do the same with onion and I also do this with fresh parsley. Although am going to try to find those really small ice cube trays and freeze them. Will let you know how it works or if any of you do the freezer method let me know.
• We all know Pesto, easiest thing to make, and Basil is the easiest thing to grow,and if you trim the basil stalks about a 1/4 to a 1/2 way down, you will end up with a basil bush. Trust me I tried it and have a planter the diameter of a large aluminum trash can that was filled with basil leaves. Now with all that basil, pity to waste it, so you make pesto, put it in small containers and freeze. When you are running late, just cook some pasta, defrost some pesto, mix and dinner is served.
•  Now here is a different twist on pesto. Instead of using basil, I prefer Arugula. Here is the link from wikipedia and it explains well where you can find it and its varied uses--hey even mentions my Puglia region--YEAH! 
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruca_sativa   OK so, I get alot of rucola leaves and grind them with pesto ingredients, then I pour it into ice cube trays, freeze and when completely frozen, pop the cubes out into a ziploc freezer bag and when I need them just grab the needed cubes and toss with pasta(after having defrosted).
• These pestos can be spread on pizza and toasted french bread, tossed with pasta. If you want something a little more outrageous, mix in some of that leftover chicken like a chicken salad with a twist.
• Oh and BTW, if your leaves are store bought, which for the cost of things might not be wise-grow your own- I soak all my leafy veggies in water with baking soda for about 10 mins, and then rinse well, they say that it helps to strip some of the pesticides.Especially if you will be eating them raw. May be true because baking soda is great to clean with. 
• Breadcrumbs, I usually mix my own here, we dont have that Progresso type. You can go to a bakery and if they have day old bread, and hardened, grind it into breadcrumbs, mix in salt and pepper, garlic powder, dried parsley and pop in the fridge, when you need it throw in a handful of grated cheese. But do not put the cheese in the breadcrumbs that you keep in the fridge because grated cheese does spoil. But if you use these breadcrumbs often enough then go ahead and add. Then your crumbs are ready whenever you need, coating porkchops, or chicken breasts.
• I do the toasted breadcrumbs for the Pasta di San Giuseppe and always have extra on hand in the fridge since it has no cheese, just salt and pepper, it lasts a good while.

Here are just a few starters and I will add as I go along. Because tricks in the Kitchen are endless. Enjoy. Blessings to you all!

Pasta di San Giuseppe

This is my version of Pasta di San Giuseppe, generally you use sgombro, but I prefer anchiovies. (You can use anchiovy paste if you prefer.)
Basically it's a pasta dish with toasted breadcrumbs, oil, anchiovies and garlic. Another poormans dish but rather tasty. Maybe the only costly thing are the anchiovies. If you can find the ones in the large hermetic jars, invest in it, they are soaking in oil and take a very long time before they spoil, I generally keep them in the fridge.
You will need to toast your breadcrumbs in oil, I make enough that even if I don't use it all, I put it in a ziploc bag and keep it in the fridge, so I will have on hand the next time around.

1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup breadcrumbs
7-8 anchiovy fillets
6-8 dried tomatoes in oil
1 garlic clove
Pasta, here its called mafaldine, its long, thin and wavy on both sides


Put the oil in the skillet as you see on the left, start heating it up and add breadcrumbs. Stir until you have moistened all the breadcrumbs. Add more oil if too dry or add more breadcrumbs if it seems too wet. Medium heat and keep stirring until golden.

After you have toasted the breadcrumbs, take them out of the skillet and put them in a dish or else they will keep toasting and you'll get burnt crumbs.

 This is a bowl of the toasted crumbs.

 In the meantime get your salted water boiling to toss in your pasta.
While the water boils, get about 1/2 cup oil and in a skillet add your cut up anchiovies and start simmering on low until it all breaks up.

 Then add in your slivered dried tomatoes and simmer.
Then add the minced garlic and sautee. A few minutes at best, this too must be passed to another bowl or the garlic will burn. Add salt and pepper to taste but careful with salt, anchiovies can be very salty.

 This is the pasta we use for this dish. They have various types of this, there's the one that is wider, or the type that is wavy just on 1 side. You decide which you prefer. Once the pasta is cooked before draining, set aside about a cup of the pasta water, you may need it later.

 Once pasta is cooked toss in the skillet with the anchiovy mix, stir.
Then add the toasted breadcrumbs a little at a time. You want it a medium dry. If you see that it's too dry add a bit of that pasta water.

This is the finished dish with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs over the top and ready to eat.

Dig in and Buon Appetito!





By the way, you can make same dish, same way but just omit the dried tomatoes, that would make it closer to the original version.

Pasta e Patate (pasta with potaoes)

Here is another simple dish that costs little. Pasta and potatoes, it's almost like when you boil potatoes to prepare them for mashing, only difference is that they are diced then add diced tomatoes and garlic. Thats it and it gets served with pasta.

• Potatoes 2 large, 3 medium,diced, up to you based on how many you will feed.
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced 
• Pasta larger type pasta; doesn't go well with spaghetti type.
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, garlic or onion powder, grated cheese.

Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a medium saucepan.
Add 2 large potatoes diced up.

3 medium tomatoes diced up.

Cover with water.

Add tomatoes, add a bit of water because you want them to be covered at all times.
Add salt and pepper to taste and also some garlic powder or onion powder if you prefer. Keep checking water, dont want to get too low.



Cook any type of larger stout pasta (not good with spaghetti type) in salted water. Drain and mix with the potatoes and serve. You can also add a sprinkling of grated cheese if you wish.

.

Here in this photo I had some left over potato 'chowder' so I went ahead and blended it all together, and got a mashed potato 'chowder' where I mixed in some grated cheese. This gets served with slices of toasted french bread, great as an appetizer, or just something to munch on.



**Note-- for those cold nights add some hot pepper powder and see how it warms you up.

Buon Appetito!!

Penne alla Crudaiola Baked

This one is so easy to make that you will surprise yourselves, and what's great about it, is that you can eat it hot, warm or even cold. Now this isn't going to be a traditional recipe with measurements because I learned it that way. It's a variation to a pasta dish called La Pasta alla Crudaiola. And beneath I will add the recipe for the original dish--difference between this and that one is, one is baked the other is raw,(except for the pasta of course--might be a bit toooo crunchy that way--hahahaha) Hope you like it!

 You'll need tomatoes, basil, garlic(fresh or powdered),penne pasta(I think they are called quills in the states),breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, olive oil.

**Now I used a lot of cherry tomatoes, because I was cooking for 8 people, but you can use regular juicy tomatoes, the larger ones about 7 or 8 for a smaller portion. Basically you want lots of diced tomatoes because you will need to line the bottom of baking pan and then cover the top of the pasta as well.**Dice the tomatoes and place in a bowl as you see in the photos, Then add about a fist full of fresh basil leaves,

either whole or cut up into pieces. Add 1 clove minced garlic or use powdered to taste, add salt and pepper, then add your oil, you want enough to make it real wet. Otherwise when the pasta bakes it will be too dry.Let it set while you start cooking the pasta, so the flavors start blending together, you can even do this an hr ahead, and leave in the refrigerator. 

**As you can see with this pic (#4),I drizzled some oil on the bottom just enough to coat and then I lined the bottom of a large deep dish baking pan with 1/2 of my tomato mixture. 

**Then toss in your cooked pasta, BUT here's the trick, the pasta has to be 1/4 to 1/2 cooked, let's say still on the raw side, because it will finish cooking in the oven.

**Put the rest of the tomatoes and juices on top and give it a good stir. Especially from the bottom to get all the juices well mixed throughout the pasta.

**Now just sprinkle breadcrumbs to coat and drizzle a little oil over.

**Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350° for about 20 to 30 mins. HINT- for the last 5 mins put it under broiler to toast those breadcrumbs to a golden color if you wish, makes the top layer a little crunchy.


That's all there is to it, the finished dish will look like the next to last photo if you didn't toast and a shade darker than the last pic if you did.You want to be able to taste the flavors of the tomatoes and especially the basil.

**VARIATION- Sprinkle grated cheese ,use a nice heavy hand, on the pasta before the bread crumbs and then drizzle oil, or you can add cheese when you serve the dish.

**Original Crudaiola-- Basically the original crudaiola is the same procedure except that the pasta must be cooked through to al dente or to the level that you like your pasta. Drain and toss with the tomato mixture, stir and serve. The heat from the pasta will warm up tomatoes. This is one of our summer dishes, its warm because of the pasta and tastes great on the cooler side.

Here is another variation that I prefer because I am not too keen on that much raw basil when I would make the original crudaiola --too strong of a taste for me, but do not mind it if its cooked through. Instead of using basil leaves use a few fistfuls of arugula leaves. This too has a strong flavor but for me personally I prefer it. Try both.

Buon Appetito!!

Pizza di Patate

Ingredients

boiled potato

mashed potato

sauteed onion celery and tomatoes

sauteeing ground beef

oil coated glass pie pan

breadcrumb coated pie pan

 You'll need as you see in photo 1,

• Breadcrumbs
• 2 or 3 dried tomatoes (the ones in spiced oil)
• 1 small celery stalk
• 1 onion
• 1 medium - large potato
• 1 egg beaten
• Ground beef, about size of a baseball
• salt and pepper to taste, even cayenne pepper if you prefer

---Take the potato/s pierce, pop in microwave, cook on high about 7-10 minute depending on the size. When tender,peel under cool running water, mash in a medium sized bowl,(we have a utensil for mashing as seen in photo 2, and gives result as seen in photo 3)

---In a fry pan with some olive oil add minced tomato,celery and onion, (I have one of those small electric grinders that I use to mince things)and saute until tender (photo 4)

---Then add the ground beef and cook that thru along with your veggies, adding salt and pepper to taste (photo 5) let cool til warm

Now you are ready to pull everything together. In the medium sized bowl where you have the mashed potato, add the beef mixture, beaten egg and mix,use your hands, kneading throughout to get everything well mixed.
(Before adding egg, taste the mixture and see how it goes for salt, add additional if needed.)
In a pie pan or even deep dish pie pan, drizzle oil and coat, sprinkle enough breadcrumbs to coat as well, even the sides.
Now place the mixture in the pie pan and spread out with your hands, make sure its pretty even in thickness all around.
Then sprinkle with breadcrumbs on the surface to give a light coating, sprinkle on grated parmesean cheese (this is optional), also a light coating here and then drizzle some olive oil over it all, not alot, just enough to keep crumbs from drying out.
Bake in a 350°oven for about 20-30mins til lightly browned.
Since everything is already cooked you just need the time to cook thru the egg and heat up all the rest.

Serve warm, but you can also eat it cold---up to you.
Buon apettito!

*****VARIATION
You can do a simpler version of this by using just potatoes, cooked ham,egg and grated cheese, salt and pepper. Just mash potato, mix in shredded ham, add about a fistfull of grated cheese, one egg,salt and pepper, mix and spread in oil and crumbs coated pan, finish off with just the sprinkling of crumbs and oil and bake. This version is the base recipe for pizza di patate. The one I made is a grownup version. If you want to add zest you can also add either powdered garlic or onion and add some minced parsley(or dried).

Play around with this recipe, instead of beef add tuna, omit dried tomatoes. The sky is the limt. Enjoy

Awesome song

Sorry about the delay

Well what I had thought would have been the harder part turned out to be easier---setting up a blog. Now I can't seem to upload a video, well it does upload but I get no sound. I have downloaded more programs on my computer to try to fix the problem but no go.
So bear with me, might take me a while. In the meantime I am still trying to make the videos, so that way when I get the problem resolved , I'll have things to upload. Just like any good dish, hopefully it will be worth the wait.
Blessings y'all!

Ok, this part was easy, setting up the blog. Now comes the harder part---how to video me cooking with a small camera without holding it and avoid getting me in the frame. The recipe is the highlight not my airbags,  hahahahaha.
Sorry, a bit of humor for those of you that know me, is the best part of life. Otherwise the flip side are tears and I prefer to reserve them only for when I cut up onions, doesnt always work but I keep hoping.
It may take awhile til I get a video uploaded, am in the 'working out the kinks' stage.
Oh by the way, if I find some interesting things to read or view, or if I have something to write worthy of reading, I will probably add it in here as well.
So bear with me, may take me a few days til I get something uploaded, in the meantime will be busy practicing with the video aspects. Blessings!