Italian Magazines

From La Cucina Italiana Culinary magazines

Pasta Focus

Italian Salumi and cheeses

Colorful Pasta Cooking Class – Dec. 2000, p. 116.

Pasta Ribbons with Braised Beef – The Pasta: Paparadelle made with carrot puree for color and celery leaves sandwiched between layers (both are in the dish). Oct. 2000, p. 36.

Walnut and Gorgonzola Spaghetti —The Pasta: Basic spaghetti or maybe linguini. I have some beets in the fridge, if they’re still good, maybe we can use one to color the pasta, since I think pink would be pretty with Gorgonzola. Oct. 2000, p. 36.

Pumpkin tortelli—with Sage-Butter Sauce – The Pasta: plain and stuffed. Oct. 96, p. 55.

Lemon Salad with Red Onion – Aug. 2001, p. 57..

Peaches with Ricotta – Look for ameretti cookies at Peppercorn. Aug. 2001, p. 30.

1 bottle of prosecco for aperitif . [Had Borgo Magredo, Yum!]

2 bottles Italian Red (I have one already)

Limoncello, Averna or Campari for after dinner drinks

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Italian Salumi and cheeses

Just whatever I can find. Maybe a fontina, provolone or smoked mozzerella (we’re having Gorgonzola in dinner), pear, maybe Buffalo Mozzerella, prosciutto, basil, olive oil, olives, crostinis crackers. Ended up buying a Piave, Fontia Val Daosta and had some Ricotta Salata hanging around. Served with some Spanish Jamon Serrano ham I had already and some Italian olives and cippoline onions from Whole Food’s olive bar.

Basic Pasta Recipe

Colorful Pasta Cooking Class – Dec. 2000, p. 116.

3-1/2 oz flour (or more if adding moist additions for color/flavor) – try to get semolina, if not, all-purpose.

1 large egg

oil (for machine recipes), olive oil would be fine.

This is the basic recipe, but you use more or less depending on texture, weather etc.

[Laura liked pasta with 1 cup semolina and 1 cup white flour. Pennie liked 100% white flour]

Don’t forget to flour-dust the pasta before piling up to dry!!! Laura blew this one and they all stuck together.

Pumpkin tortelli—with Sage-Butter Sauce

Oct. 96, p. 55.

Serves 4.

1 3/4 lbs pumpkin (we used kabocha squash)

3 oz macaroons, crumbled [I think we can use ameretti cookies, since I’ve seen them in other recipes for the same thing] – I bought 2 brands at Peppercorn, the more expensive Lazzaroni Ameretti di Saronno, which were the best for eating alone as cookies, and cheaper Bellino, which were fine for cooking but not special for eating.

5 oz candied fruit, finely minced (I used candied buddah-hand citron I had made myself earlier, which was very sweet and we could have used a less, maybe 2.5 oz)

3 Tb grated Parmigiano Reggiano

a pinch of nutmeg

[we added a pinch of ground red pepper (use a bit more next time) and 1/2 beaten egg, although it should have just been 1 egg yolk]

salt

For Pasta

7 oz flour

2 eggs

salt

For the Sauce

Butter

Grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Sage

Make the filling: seed the pumpkin, cut into thin slices, and bake on a sheet in a 400° oven for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool. Pass the pumpkin through a sieve, combine with the macaroons, candied fruit, Parmigiano, nutmeg and salt. Mix well, and leave to rest, covered. Make the pasta; arrange the flour on a work counter in the shape of a well. Break the eggs into the center of the well, add a pinch of salt and work into the flour. Gently knead until firm and elastic. Leave the dough to rest for at eleast 30 minutes. Working with half the dough at a time, roll out into thin sheets using a pasta machine. Work quickly so the pasta does not dry out. Place teaspoons of the filling in neat rows at 2” intervals on half the pasta sheets, then top with the remaining pasta sheets, sealing in the filling by pressing lightly between the rows of filling. Cut into squares using a fluted pastry wheel. To ccook the pasta, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the tortelli until al dente. Drain gently and serve with a sauce of melted butter [brown it], grated parmigiana and sage [fry some in the butter]

Walnut and Gorgonzola Spaghetti [was store-bought fusilli]

Oct. 2000, p. 36.

Serves 6 (Make all the sauce and have some for leftovers)

1 pound pasta [maybe only cook 1/2 and dry rest. Make something about spaghetti thick, however it might be better if they were short pieces like the original fusilli? Gorzonzola might make long strands sticky?]

[We colored this with a boiled, mashed beet]

5 onces aged Gorgonzola, crusts removed, cubed

2 Tb unsalted butter

1/2 cup walnut havles

1 Tb minced Italian parsley

Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil; add the pasta and 1 Tb of salt. Stir every minute with a long spoon; drain when the pasta is al dente, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. [this was originally for dried pasta that would take at least 8 minutes to cook, so maybe make the sauce first]

Meanwhile, cook the gorgonzola with the butter and walnuht halves until it begins to melt, stirring often, over medium-low heat. Stir the pasta into the Gorgonzola sauce, add the reserved pasta cooking water, and cook for 1 minute over hight heat, until the Gorgonzola melts and coats the pasta evenly.

Garish with the minced parsley.

[This was ugly!, The beet pasta color boiled out to pale fleshtone, and the sauce was a ugly grey-blue. We also forgot to put in some pasta water so there wasn’t enough sauce and it was thick. I made it a few days later with pasta water and it made all the difference. And the linquini from the pasta machine was too thick. Also, the walnuts were stale/ransid. So we could see the potential, but it just didn’t work well.]

Lemon Salad with Red Onion

Aug. 2001, p. 57.

Serves 4

2 seedless lemons (or carefully seed after slicing)

salt and freshly groiund black pepper

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (get a fruity one, not a mile one!)

1 Tb minced Italian parsley

1 Tb minced red onion (don’t over do the onion or it overwhelms)

Remove the peel and pith from the lemons and slice them into thin, round slices. Place them on a platter; season with the salt, pepper, and sugar, and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with the parsley and onion, and serve within 20 minutes.

[Pucker! Very surprising, but really good. Worked like a sorbet as a palette cleanser.]

Paparadelle with Braised Beef

Oct. 2000, p. 36.

Serves 6 (have leftover sauce/meat, make less pasta) – have this as the primi secondi since it’s like a main dish.

1-1/2 lb boneless beef shoulder

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1-3/4 cups chopped canned plum tomatoes

1 rosemary sprig, leavev only, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 bunch basil, leaves only, chopped

salt and pepper

1 Tb tomato concentrate

1-1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano [may use less, or just grate it all and have leftovers]

For the pasta [the following is the whole recipe…make it all and dry some for leftovers]:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup semolina flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

[Added some carrot puree, so boiled and pureed a small carrot]

[We put extra basil leaves in the pasta]

Make the sauce. Brown the beef in the olive oil, turning to cook evenly. Stir in the tomatoes, rosemary, celery, carrot, onion, bay leaf, basil, salt and pepper; cook 5 minutes. Dissolve the tomato concentrate in the vegetable broth and add it to the beef; Cover and simmer for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, make the pasta; Mix the flour with the semolina and salt on a counter. Make a well in the center; add the egg and 1/3 cup of water to the well.

Mix the ingredients until a firm dough forms; you may need to add a little water or semolina flour, depending on the texture of the pasta dough. Knead for 5 minutes, shape into a ball, wrap in plastic and set aside for 30 minutes.

But the pasta dough into 2 pieces; roll each piece into a thin sheet using a pasta machine. With a pastry wheel, cut into irregular strips (the Paparadelle). Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil and add the pasta ribbons [maybe only cook 1/2 the recipe] and 1 Tb of salt; drain when the ribbons are al dente, after about 2 minutes.

Remove the beef from the sauce in the pan; reserve it for a second course. “Add the pasta ribbons to the sauce and stir over high heat for 1 minute, to incorporate the flavors.

Serve the pasta hot, topped with the Pecorino.

Peaches with Ricotta

Aug. 2001, p. 30.

Serves 6

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup sweet Marsala

3 peaches, peeled, pitted and halved

1/4 cup whole blanched almonds

8 dry cookies [ameretti] [we used 16 halves]

7 onces fresh ricotta

1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

2 egg yolk

1/2 cup rum [this was MUCH too much. It tasted too much like rum and was also very wet…I think we put in more cookies to dry it out…try Ameretto and maybe use 1/4 cup or less]

1/4 cup sliced blanced almonds [just chop some more whole ones since they are garnish]

Preheaat the oven to 375°. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil with the sugar and Marsala in a 4-quart [or 2 qt?] pot. Adrop in the peaches and cook for 5 mintues.

Meanwhile, grind the whole almonds with the cookies in a food processor until the mixture is powdery. Turn out into a bowl; thoroughly stir in the ricotta, 1/2 Tb of the confectioner’s sugar, and the egg yolk. Stir in the rum.

Fill the halved peaches with the ricotta mixture and drizzle them with the Marsala syrup. Place the peaches on a serving platter, dust them with the remaining confectioner’s sugar, and bake them for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Serve warm with the sliced almonds.