Although he grew most of the vegetables we ate, my father wasn’t really much into cooking.   He was in charge of salads and made eggs on Sundays, but that was pretty much the extent of it.  Dad did, however, have a few signature dishes that he  loved to prepare – and he did so with great gusto!  One of said dishes was a frittata.

A frittata is a fancy, Italian name for a baked, open-faced omelet.  It’s an egg-based dish that usually contains  a combination of various vegetables, cheese and meat.  The cooking is started on the stove and then finished off in the oven.  It is very similar to the Spanish dish,  tortilla de patatas, except that there is no flipping involved, making it much easier to execute.

Frittatas were always on the menu at my house on “meatless” meal days like Christmas Eve and Fridays during Lent.  My dad would thoughtfully plan what to include in his frittatas based on what was growing in his garden at the time.  His favorite kind was filled with caramelized onions, fresh asparagus, mushrooms and big hunks of mozzarella cheese.   He would prepare each component of the dish separately, and with the skill of an architect, would carefully construct his creation before cooking it.  Then, Dad would strut into the dining room, proud as a peacock, and present his masterpiece to us. I can still see his face, beaming with satisfaction and delight!  My father’s frittatas always turned out perfectly – much better than mine ever do.  I wish I had paid more attention to his technique.  I guess I just thought that he would always be around to make them.    Sigh…

While it looks rather impressive, a frittata is a super simple dish to prepare, with lots of room for creativity.  And, it works equally well for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  You can put just about anything but the kitchen sink in it too, making it a great choice for when you need to purge your fridge.   This frittata is filled with onions, potatoes, ham and Parmesan cheese, which is what I happened to have handy on the night I made it.   If I had planned ahead, I would have probably also added mushrooms and some mozzarella or provolone chunks.  It’s all good!

Do you ever make frittatas?  What are your favorite things to put in them?  I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

In my family, we always knew it was a special occasion by the telltale aroma of lasagna baking in the oven.  Neither my grandmother nor my mother made it often.  A traditional lasagna is a labor intensive dish that takes several hours to prepare – even longer if you make your own pasta.  So, it was usually reserved for  holidays and the occasional birthday, christening or graduation party.  Maybe that’s why this classic Italian combination of layers of tender sheets of pasta filled with meat, veggies and ooey, gooey cheese tasted so wonderful to me.  Or, maybe it was because lasagna is just plain wonderful.

The thing is, that with a little advance planning and a few teensy shortcuts, you can make a perfectly scrumptious lasagna in a lot less time than you may think. And, if you prepare it in the form of these luscious, self-contained lasagna rolls, you can easily make enough to stash a batch or two in the freezer for later. How about that! You can enjoy lasagna any old time you feel like it! What a concept!

So, grab an apron and let’s make some lasagna rolls! 

Remember those teensy shortcuts I mentioned?  Well, the first one is using marinara sauce from a jar.  Oh yes, I really did just say that.  I know that cooking a marinara from scratch is preferable, but I’m trying to save you some time here.  And, unless you already have a vat of homemade marinara sauce in your freezer, it’s going to take an extra hour to make some.  Besides, there are some really excellent jar sauces out there made with San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil and other quality ingredients.  So, don’t be a sauce snob.  Embrace the convenience!

Another shortcut I take is using pre-shredded mozzarella.  Sargento makes a very good one, as does Sorrento.  There is no shame in not shredding your own cheese.  Even my mother does it.  I swear.

When I make this dish, I start preparing my filling at the same time I put a big pot of water on to boil for the lasagna sheets.  By the time the pasta is cooked, my filling is all ready to go.

Roll, baby, roll!

Cook your lasagna sheets just to the shy side of al dente.  They will be drenched in sauce and baking for a while.  This will help keep them from falling apart.  Also, be careful not to put too much filling into each roll.  A couple of tablespoons is enough.  If you overdo it, the filling will ooze out during baking.  It will still taste good, but it will look kind of yucky.  Yucky is not a good look for lasagna.

Snugly fit your rolls together in a baking dish and smother them with sauce and cheese.  See!  It looks just like a traditional lasagna, except that it will be a lot easier to serve.

These lasagna rolls can be prepped the night before and will be ready to bake when you get home from work the next day.  They can also be made ahead and frozen in one of two ways.  You can prepare them and freeze either before baking or after.  I prefer to freeze before baking.   If do you freeze them, you’ll need to either thaw them out first, or add at least an extra half hour or so to the baking time.  This is no big deal, as your prep work is already done.

So, don’t wait for a special occasion to treat yourself to these cheesy, meaty, yummy lasagna rolls.  Every day should be a celebration!

I’ve always been somewhat of a food purist.  I’m probably the only person over the age of five that actually prefers a plain cheese pizza to one with a zillion toppings.  Pasta nirvana for me is a bowl of spaghetti with Marcella Hazan’s three ingredient tomato sauce.   And, I take my vanilla ice cream straight up – no add-ins, thankyouverymuch.   Actually, my very favorite ice cream flavor is fior di latte, which doesn’t even have vanilla in it.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate more complex flavor combinations, because I do.   But sometimes,  I just like to savor the purity of really good ingredients, like fresh, local, organic cream from happy cows; or sweet and juicy, ripened by the sun, heirloom tomatoes.  And, I love that soft tug against my teeth when I bite into a buttery, melting mass of fresh mozzarella that was made by real hands.

I like my panna cotta straight up as well.   I also enjoy it flavored different ways.  But to me, nothing says heaven more than a soft, pillowy cloud of simply sweetened, pristine creaminess, adorned  by nothing more than a smattering of fresh berries.    Oooh!  I get goosebumps just thinking about it!

Panna Cotta is one of the easiest desserts to make.  Yet, it is so elegant and luxurious, one would never guess.    This basic “fior di Latte”, or “flower of milk” panna cotta recipe only contains three ingredients: cream or milk, sugar and gelatin. That’s it!  And, you can whip up a batch in under fifteen minutes.   If you want to jazz your panna cotta  up a bit, you can add any number of different flavorings to the base, as well as a variety of toppings.  I’ve tried it with everything from instant espresso powder to  fruit purees.  It’s all good.    That’s why this recipe such a “must have” in anyone’s dessert repertoire.  Its ease and versatility make it perfect for every occasion.

Today, I’m sharing panna cotta “di due fiori”, i.e. “with two flowers”.  The first is the basic, unadulterated version, which can be topped with any kind of fresh fruit, gelée, or coulis.  The second one is a panna cotta di fiori di arancia, which translates to orange flowers.  Both recipes are identical, except that I’ve added some orange flower water to flavor the second one.  Orange flower water is a popular ingredient in Italian desserts.  It has a subtle floral quality, and is wonderfully fragrant.  You can find orange flower water at most Italian or Middle Eastern markets, as well as online.

I’ve garnished my plain panna cotta here with fresh blueberries and the orange ones with some of the candied kumquats that I made last week.  Candied orange peel would also be a good choice.  Or, you could just leave it plain and revel in its silky creaminess and sublime simplicity.

It seems like all I ever do lately is complain about the heat?  Well, that’s because it’s HOT here, people!  Really, really hot.  And humid.  Hot and humid is miserable.  Thus, I am miserable too. Hot, cranky and miserable!   Yes, I know it could be worse.  The grass is always greener and all that.  But in this case, the grass actually is greener somewhere else.  Because it is so damn hot, our grass is mostly brown these days – brown and crunchy and sad.  I know that compared to much of the country, this place is considered a paradise.  But, living in paradise does have its drawbacks.

Heat makes me tired – and lazy.  I don’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything, including cooking.  Except for making ice cream.  Does making ice cream count as cooking?

But still, we have to eat, and I can only get away with heat-related cooking reprieves for just so long.  So, I’ve been resorting to lots of salads and other quick dishes that don’t require a lot of effort on my part.

One of the easiest ways to get a meal on my table in a short amount of time is to make pizza.  All you need is the dough, a stocked fridge and some imagination.  And, I’ll let you in on a little secret: I buy my dough.  Sure, I know how to make it from scratch, and I sometimes do – when it’s cold outside, and I’m in a good mood.  In fact, my favorite recipe can be found here.  But, I’m sure not going to go to all of that time and trouble making homemade pizza dough in the dead of summer, especially when I can buy some great stuff at several local pizzerias and bakeries.  I can even find an acceptable product at my neighborhood supermarket.

Pizza is a lifesaver because you can put just about anything on it – even leftovers -  and it will almost always taste good.  I’ve made a lot of pretty great pizza using some rather unconventional toppings, like leftover pulled pork, picadillo and even fruit salad.  Last Friday night, I think I created my most interesting and delicious concoction yet, and it all started with a leftover container of Chinese takeout.

I’d been having one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, and all I wanted to do  was go home, turn the a/c down to 68 degrees and crawl into a cool corner.    I would rather have chewed on broken glass than go back out and sit in a restaurant.  So, I called an Italian bakery that was on my way home and asked if they had any pizza dough left.  They did, and I swung by to pick up a few blobs.

After I got home, I foraged around in my kitchen to find something to put on my pizza.  I decided to make one pie with the last of my homemade ricotta and some tomatoes from my garden.

Coming up with the fixings for the other pie wasn’t so easy.  I guess I hadn’t been shopping in longer than I’d thought.   And then, I spied a small container of Szechuan Eggplant with Garlic Sauce leftover from the night before.  There wasn’t enough to make a meal out of, but there was plenty to top a pizza with.  So that’s just what I did.

I’ll admit, I was a little concerned about how that pizza would turn out.  But OMG!  It was out. of. this. world.  Seriously!  Mr. SGCC and I couldn’t stop eating it.  In the oven, the sauce thickened and the eggplant and onions got all melty and caramelized.  It had a subtle sweetness that cut right through the sharpness of the garlic.  Who would have ever guessed that a container of half-eaten Chinese takeout could be turned into such an amazing pizza?  Color me gobsmacked!

I’m leaving you with not so much a recipe, as a guide.  Don’t feel obligated to run out to your corner Chinese place for Eggplant in Garlic Sauce.  That is, unless you really love Eggplant in Garlic Sauce.  In that case, go right ahead.  If you don’t, however, any number of different dishes would work just as well on a pizza, like Moo Shu Pork or Beef and Broccoli.  (I wouldn’t try it with wonton soup, though.  Just sayin’.)   It doesn’t even have to be Chinese.  I’ll bet Butter Chicken or Saag Aloo from your favorite Indian restaurant would be great options as well.

I suppose that the moral of this story is that we need to keep our minds open to new things, especially when it comes to food.  Sometimes flavors that we would never think of mixing together can be a fantastic combination.  And also, that no matter how crappy your day has been, a fabulous pizza can put it all in perspective.

It seems like we have zucchini coming out of the woodwork these days!  Everyone has it growing like mad in their gardens and no one can use it up fast enough.  I happen to adore zucchini, but even I’ve been feeling a bit challenged trying to find some different and interesting ways to use it.   And then, I found the recipe for this cake – Zucchini Olive Oil Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze.   The moment I saw it, I knew I had to make it.

This is not your typical, dense, leaden loaf of zucchini bread, people.   No, no, no!  It is cake. Real, honest-to-goodness cake, with a moist, light and delicate crumb drenched in a lovely sweet-tart lemon glaze.  And, it is heavenly! 

It all starts with the usual cast of cake ingredients, like flour, sugar and eggs.   There are also a few special guest stars, like coarsely grated, fresh from the garden zucchini…

And, some fragrant, fruity extra-virgin olive oil.  Yes, olive oil.  In cake!

Let’s not forget the crunchy, yummy toasted pecans.  How could anything not be wonderful with toasted pecans?

I’ll admit it doesn’t look like much before being baked, but just wait until it comes out of the oven…

And it gets a nice slathering of that delightful lemon glaze.

WOWZA!

Seriously folks, this was one of the tastiest cakes I’ve ever baked – and there was no chocolate ganache or Swiss buttercream in sight.  Even Mr. “I Don’t Eat Sweets” SGCC indulged in two slices – and that’s saying something!

I have to say, I was a little leery about using extra virgin olive oil  in a cake.  I was afraid that flavor would be too assertive, but it wasn’t.  In fact, if I hadn’t known it was in there, I wouldn’t have ever guessed.   On its own, the cake has a slightly earthy, mellow quality to it, and is not overly sweet.  The lemony glaze, however, is what really gives this cake its va va voom.   A mixture of granulated and confectioner’s sugars is what supposedly gives the glaze its crunch.  Although I thought the glaze was really delicious, I have to say I didn’t find it to be particularly “crunchy”.  But, I didn’t care.  It is a luscious glaze adorning a fabulous cake.  Who could ask for more?

Until recently, I never understood some people’s fascination with biscotti.   My parents loved them.  I did not.  To me, they were long, thick, rock-hard bricks with a peculiar licorice taste, obnoxiously trying to pass themselves off as cookies.  They didn’t fool me, though.  Whatever they were, I was certain that they were not any kind of  cookies I was interested in.

When I was a kid, every Sunday dinner was finished off with a pot of espresso and a plate of those obnoxious biscotti – always Stella d’Oro brand.    Every self-respecting Italian housewife kept a stash of Stella d’Oro cookies in her pantry, including my mother and my nonna.   You know, in case anyone happened to stop by.    God forbid someone should stop by for coffee and there were no cookies or cake to serve with it!    Tongues would wag for weeks!

As they sipped their espresso, the adults would dunk the biscotti into the thick, dark liquid and eat  them.  Gah! The only thing worse than biting into one of those jaw-breaking biscotti, was biting into one turned to mush by strong black coffee.  To this day, the thought of it makes me cringe. 

It wasn’t until I began blogging that I realized that all biscotti were not the same.  In fact, homemade biscotti were kind of wonderful.  You can flavor them however you like, and stud them with all kinds of dried fruits and nuts – or even chocolate.  And, instead of being as hard and tough as granite, they could be delightfully crunchy.  The best part is, that biscotti are not hard at all to make at home, so you can have nice, fresh ones whenever you want.  You never have to keep cellophane-wrapped packages of that other kind in your pantry again.

Perhaps, if my mother and grandmother had baked their own biscotti from scratch, I would have discovered their allure at a much earlier age.  Think of all the years I wasted hating them!  Unfortunately, except for certain holiday specialties, neither Mom nor Nonna were much into baking.  Such a shame…

Since I began baking my own biscotti, I’ve tried several different recipes.  Over time, I’ve taken a pinch from some and a dash from others and come up with a “go to” recipe that I really like.  The basic recipe stays the same, although I switch the various add-ins based on what I have on hand and whatever my whim is that day.  For these, I’ve used toasted almonds and plump dried cherries.  I think think that this is my favorite combination of all.   The cherries add a little chew and a touch of tartness to balance out the sweet.    The texture of the biscotti is light, but super crunchy.  And, there is no danger of chipping a tooth on one!

I like to add a little Fiori di Sicilia to these biscotti as well.  It’s a little difficult to describe, but Fiori di Sicilia is an Italian flavoring that has notes of vanilla and citrus.  Think of an orange creamsicle and you’re on the right track.  It literally means “flowers of Sicily”.   I get mine at King Arthur Flour, but you can simulate the same flavors by mixing 2 parts vanilla extract with one part each of orange and lemon extracts.  It smells heavenly and gives the biscotti a certain special something.

The key to a biscotti’s signature crunch is that they are baked twice.  The first time, they’re baked in one long log.  Then, they sit and cool off for a while.  After that, they are sliced into bars and baked again until they get all browned and crispy.

Here they are getting ready for round two.

Even though I do sometimes serve my biscotti with espresso, I never dunk.  I’m convinced that the reason my parents did is because the ones they had were so damn hard.  These biscotti are toothsome, but with one bite they yield into lovely, crumbly bits of deliciousness.  Move over Stella d’Oro.  There’s a new game in town.

There’s a popular story that’s been floating around my family for years.  My mother revels in telling it, and every time she does, it elicits a mixture of nervous laughs, horrified looks and hasty signs of the cross.  It’s about my mother’s childhood BFF, Rosie.  Rosie and my mom lived next door to each other while growing up, and for most of that time were inseparable.  They played with each other’s dolls, did each other’s hair and practically lived in each other’s houses.  Rosie wasn’t Italian, but my nonna loved her anyway.  After Rosie and Mom graduated from high school, my  mom began dating my dad and Rosie met a nice boy named Tommy.  Of course, they did a lot of double dating too.  And, when they both got married, they were each other’s maids of honor.

After a while, Rosie and Tommy bought their first house out in Long Island and moved away.  Since not many young couples had cars back then, Mom and Rosie didn’t see too much of each other anymore.  So, it was a huge deal when my father bought his first car, and we excitedly drove out to “the island” for our first visit to Rosie and Tommy’s place.   

Now, here is where I need to give you a little background information in order for this story to make sense.  For those of you who don’t know, my father was an Italian immigrant.  He was born and raised in a little hill town halfway between Rome and Naples.  Life in the Italian countryside in the mid-20th century was rustic, at best – especially during World War II.  My father grew up on a farm and everything his family ate, they grew.  Each year during tomato season, all of the women in the village canned tomatoes for use throughout the rest of the year.  They’d never even heard of tomato sauce from a jar, and I’m sure that the very idea would have been abhorrent to them.

My mother’s family was from the same hometown as my father.  When he came to this country in 1956, he naturally settled in the same area as my Mom’s family and the rest of the “paisans” from home.    They carried their food traditions with them across the ocean, and cooked the way they did back in the old country – with fresh, unprocessed, whole foods.   And, every year the women still got together for a marathon tomato preserving session.  The hundreds of jars of tomatoes it yielded were stored in their basements and garages while waiting to be cooked into luscious gravies and sauces made from scratch.

Okay. Back to the story…

So, there we were, out at Rosie and Tommy’s house on Long Island – only I don’t really remember it because I was barely a toddler.   Dinner time came rolling around, as it always does, and Rosie prepared a meal for us.  Now, here’s the kicker.  She opened a jar of Ragu Pasta Sauce, poured it over some boiled spaghetti and put it in front of my “barely off the boat” Italian father.  Oh, yes she did!  Rosie served my father tomato sauce from a jar.  And, this was the sixties.   Jarred tomato sauce wasn’t what it is today.  There were no premium, all natural, gourmet brands.  Just Ragu.  I may have been just a little tyke, but even I knew that serving Ragu to Italian dinner guests was a great, big no no.

My father, being the gentleman that he was, choked down a few bites and then devoured the salad as he sidestepped the canned green beans.  My mother, on the other hand, was absolutely outraged.  Never, even on her worst day, would she serve Ragu – and to company, no less!  Fai scumbari! But, they both held their tongues, muddled through and hoped for a better breakfast.

The next morning, when Rosie whipped out a jar of Tang to make my parents some “orange juice”, my mother announced that I had “swollen glands” and that we had to leave.  On the way home, we stopped at White Castle for a bag of burgers and vanilla shakes.  That was the last time we went to Long Island.

Rosie and Tommy came in to the city to visit us several times after that, and my mother always made sure to demonstrate the “proper” way to feed guests.  No jars, no cans and definitely, no fake orange juice!

After the story I just told you, you will probably find what I’m about to say shocking.  But, every once in a while I – the fruit of my mother’s womb – do, in fact, use jarred tomato sauce.  I know that this must be quite a blow to some of you, but before you boil me in extra virgin olive oil, hear me out.

Although homemade tomato sauce isn’t difficult to prepare, a good meat sauce does take some time.  When I do make a sauce from scratch, I usually make a lot so that I can freeze some for later.  However, sometimes I run out.  And, sometimes I’m just really feeling tired and lazy.  When that happens and I want a bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce, I buy a couple of jars of a good quality premium sauce to use as a base and jazz it up.  A few of my favorites are Rao’s and Dell’Amore brands.

I start out by browning ground beef and Italian sausage meat.  Then, I add lots of onions and fresh mushrooms.  I stir in some white wine and simmer it all together until the wine evaporates.  Then, I add the tomato sauce and fresh basil and heat it through.  That’s all there is to it.  In the time it takes to make the pasta, I have a rich, hearty and incredibly tasty meat sauce ready to go.   And, I’m telling you that if I served this dish to you, you wouldn’t know the difference.  My quick and easy meat ragu is so delicious that my father probably even wouldn’t be able to tell!

Let’s face it.  We’re all busy people and sometimes we take shortcuts in our kitchens.  The trick is to find shortcuts that don’t sacrifice quality and flavor in the process.  My meat ragu doesn’t.  And, I can guarantee one thing.  It’s better than Rosie’s!

I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Even though I grew up in an Italian family where more than half of my relatives, including my father and grandparents, were actually from Italy, I had never heard of mascarpone until I was an adult and discovered it for myself.  Shocking, isn’t it?  But, it’s true.  For some reason none of the cooks in my family ever used the stuff.  How could this be?  Well, the only answer that I can come up with is that none of them were big bakers, and mascarpone is more commonly used in sweet dishes.   Also, since my family came from the southern half of the boot, most of the food out of their kitchens was tomato and olive oil based.  Except for ricotta and fresh mozzarella, very little of anything creamy was ever used in cooking.

My grandmother was diabetic, so she really never served much in the way of desserts outside of fresh fruit platters and some sfogliatelle or cannoli picked up from one of the neighborhood pastry shops.   I guess she figured why make luscious desserts that she couldn’t enjoy herself, especially when there were so many excellent bakeries within walking distance.  And, because she didn’t bake or make lots of sweets, none of her four daughters ever did either.  They bought their cakes, tiramisu and pastries too.  I guess you could say that our entire family did its part to keep the local bakeries in business.   Heck, I’d probably do the same thing if I had access to all of those wonderful Italian treats!  Sadly, here in my neck of the woods that is not an option.  If I want to enjoy authentic, mouthwatering Italian delights, I have two options.  The first is to buy them at the one and decidedly “meh” Italian bakery in town.  The second is to make them myself.  Sometimes, I choose option one, but most of the time I go the DIY route. 

Even though the cooks in my family leaned towards the savory side of food, there were some notable exceptions.  There were always homemade cookies and struffoli at Christmas time,  and Pizza Rustica and Pastiera di Grano for Easter.  There was also this Italian Ricotta Cheesecake that made an appearance every so often.  I remember my mother poring over her Polly-O cookbook while churning out her version of cheesecake – Italian-style.  This cheesecake bears little resemblance to the super rich and dense variety that most of us are familiar (and maybe a little obsessed) with.   Instead of cream cheese, the primary ingredient in this cheesecake is ricotta cheese.  Using ricotta makes for a much lighter and fluffier cake, but also one that has a significantly less smooth and creamy texture.   Honestly, I was never the biggest fan of my mother’s ricotta cheesecake, but my father loved it.  He wasn’t a big dessert guy, and this cake was one of the few he truly enjoyed.   So, when I think of  it, I think of him.  That’s why I wanted to share it with you.  And, that’s also where the mascarpone comes in.

As I mentioned, I am not overly fond of the traditional ricotta cheesecake.  I mean I like it, but it doesn’t send me to the moon.   The flavors are lovely, but there’s just a slight graininess and wetness about it that puts me off.   When I conceived the recipe for this cheesecake, one of the things I wanted to achieve was smoother, creamier consistency – more like its New York-style cousin.  Adding cream cheese didn’t work because I felt it gave the cake too much of a sharp edge.  The flavor profile of an Italian cheesecake should be subtle, mellow and a little lazy, reminiscent of sunny afternoons enjoying la dolce vita in the Italian countryside with the scent of Sicilian orange blossoms wafting by on a breeze.   Nope.  Cream cheese wasn’t the answer.  But, mascarpone was another story.  Its silky, luxurious quality with the barest hint of sweet cream was exactly what my cheesecake needed!  So, in this recipe I have swapped out a pound of the regularly used ricotta for mascarpone.

Besides the ricotta, another signature ingredient found in an Italian ricotta cheesecake is orange flower water.  Orange flower water is a clear, perfumed distillation of fresh bitter orange blossoms that is widely used in Mediterranean dessert dishes.   It is incredibly fragrant and its flavor is quite distinctive.  It is more floral than citrusy.   You can try using orange extract instead of orange flower water, but there really is no substitute.  It’s available at most Italian and Middle Eastern markets, as well as online.

Oh, how I wish you could have been in my kitchen while my cheesecake was baking!  I’m pretty sure that the heady aroma of vanilla and orange blossoms would have made you swoon.  I did.  And, if you had been there, you would have also gotten to taste this dreamy confection.  It was marvelously smooth and rich, and yet lighter in texture than I expected it to be.  The mascarpone didn’t weigh it down.  It pulled the rest of the ingredients together and enhanced them.  This will definitely be my “go to” ricotta cheesecake recipe, now and forever.  I only wish that I could have shared a slice with my father.  I know he would have loved this version just as much as Mom’s.

Everyone knows that Valentine’s Day is synonymous with chocolate.  It’s the food of love.  Who doesn’t melt a little when presented with one of those precious little heart-shaped boxes on this day when we celebrate love and romance?  But, chocolate isn’t only for the sentimental.  It’s big business too.  In fact, in these days leading up to V-Day, American consumers are expected to buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate, and shell out around $345 million dollars to do it.  That’s a lot of chocolate!

But what about those of us, myself included, whose sweethearts don’t have a sweet tooth?  (Yes, Mr. SGCC, I’m talking about you!)  Don’t they deserve a rich, delicious, velvety chocolate token of your affection too?   I think so, and that is why I’m excited to share this pasta dish with you. 

I saw TV chef, David Rocco, prepare this Penne al Cioccolato con Acciughe, or Chocolate Penne with Anchovies, on his show a few days ago, and it intrigued me.  I wasn’t surprised that he was using chocolate in a savory dish.  People have been doing that for ages.  What really drew me in was that instead of as an add-in, he was using chocolate as the main ingredient in his dish – and a lot of it.  I was also fascinated by the fact that he paired the chocolate with anchovies.  When I saw that, I had quite a WTF moment!  It must have worked though, because when David fed a taste of the concoction to his wife, she kind of swooned a little.   That was when I knew I had to recreate this dish at home.

Penne al Cioccolato con Acciughe requires only a few ingredients and is very quick and easy to prepare.  You put your pasta on to boil and make the sauce while it cooks.  By the time the pasta is ready, the sauce is too.  It’s also all tossed together in one pan so cleanup is minimal, leaving more time for…well…other things.

But, how did it taste?  Pretty darn good, actually!   It was definitely chocolatey, but not really sweet.  And, it was rich!  The anchovies were very subtle, adding just a hint of smoky saltiness to the dish – not “fishy” at all.   While Penne al Cioccolato con Acciughe will probably never replace truffles as my chocolate indulgence of choice, it is definitely an interesting dish that is well worth trying – especially for Valentine’s Day.  And, while it didn’t instantly convert Mr. SGCC into a chocolate lover, I think it got him one step closer.

When I was a little girl, my grandfather worked as a longshoreman for the New York Port Authority.   For most of his career, he worked the night shift.  This meant that from Monday through Friday, he was rarely ever around at dinner time.  As a result, my Nonna  usually kept weeknight meals simple, since it was only her – and sometimes me – dining in.  Nonna was a big fan of bean dishes and she made them often. They were easy, nutritious and cheap.  And my Nonna was nothing if not frugal, as most World War 2 wives were.  Cucina povera was her specialty.

I’ve already shared Nonna’s recipe for Pasta e Fagioli, or “Pasta Fazool”, as we affectionately call it.  But another pasta and beans dish that we ate a lot of back then, was Pasta e Lenticchie, or pasta with lentils.  Although a lot of recipes portray both dishes as soups, neither dish is intended to be one, but rather a thick, wet, sloppy stew, with just enough liquid in them to sop up with a hunk of crusty Italian bread. 

Lentils are members of the legume family and come in many different varieties, from black and yellow to red and green.  They have a mild, earthy and sometimes nutty flavor, depending on what kind you use.   Like other legumes, lentils are low in fat and high in protein and fiber.  Because of their small size, they also cook quite a bit quicker than other types of beans, and they don’t need to be soaked first.   For some tips on cooking lentils, take a look at this article from About.com.

In Italian culture, the lentil’s biggest claim to fame is that it is one of the traditional “must eat” foods on New Year’s Eve. Eating lentils on New Year’s Eve is believed to bring good luck and prosperity throughout the following year.  Their small, round shape resembles coins that swell when cooked, so they are looked upon as a symbol of wealth. Italians are absolutely militant about this.  In fact, my grandmother wouldn’t even think of serving a meal on December 31 that didn’t include lentils in some form.

Pasta e Lenticchie, like Pasta e Fagioli, is a simple, rustic dish prepared with just a handful of basic ingredients.  Garlic and onions are sautéed in olive oil to which lentils, tomatoes, water and pasta are added and simmered to tenderness.  There isn’t much more to it than that.  I use chicken broth instead of water as my simmering liquid for extra flavor, but I’m pretty sure that my grandmother made do with plain, old H2O from the tap.

Dishes like this Pasta e Lenticchie are pure comfort food for me.  Cooking, and of course, eating them always transports me back to being six years-old in my grandmother’s homey, little kitchen.  Those were golden times for me.

My Nonna passed away over thirty years ago – just a few years after we moved to Florida.  I was fourteen and the memory of it still stings.  She was much too young and went much too soon.  I hardly had a chance to really get to know her beyond her infectious laugh, twinkling brown eyes and the heady scent of Cashmere Bouquet and Noxema that trailed her as she entered a room.  And it’s such a shame, because I have a feeling that as the years went on, we would have had a whole lot more in common than just DNA.

What are your favorite comfort foods?  Is there any one dish above all others that makes you think of “home”?  Does your family have any New Year’s Eve food traditions?  “Enquiring minds” want to know.

Buon Appetito!