Have a delicious Sunday

 

Happy Halloween

 

Relax, have a nice weekend

 

Pasta e patate alla napoletana

 Yes indeed pasta with potatoes, a carbs lover dream.

An easy and delicious dish that requires about three cubed medium potatoes, a small garlic chopped, some pancetta, one clove of garlic whole, a dash of peperoncino and some mild provolone. Naturally you must prepare what we call the soffritto. A stalk of celery and a small carrot minced finely.

In a non stick frying pan large enough to cook the pasta, cover the bottom with good extra virgin olive oil and add the garlic and peperoncino. Keep the heat low. As soon as the garlic has flavored the oil, add the pancetta and continue on low heat. Once the pancetta is trans lucid add the soffritto and stir until it begins to wilt. Keep a small container oh hot water handy. Now you may add the potatoes and a few laddles of hot water. Stir, cover and cook until the potatoes are half way cooked. Taste for salt keeping in mind that the pancetta is salty. Add some black pepper. Now you may add the pasta, usually penne rigate from Italy and cover with enough water so that it's about a finger above the pasta. Stir making sure that it will not stick. The starches and the fats will create the cremina or light cream that is so essential and tasty and is what Italian cooks all seek to achieve. Now you are ready to stir in the cubed provolone and stir well. Shut the stove, wait about 30 seconds and sprinkle liberally with parmigiano and finely chopped italian parsley.

Serve and enjoy. From the photo you can see the shining effect that the cremina makes. Buon Appetito.

 

The South Street Seaport

 Along with the High Line that followed, this is one of New York City's most successful public space and what space it is. It took time and I began photographing it since it's infancy way back in the early seventies when the Fulton Fish Market provider of all the fish for the city exuded a strong and unpleasant redolence. The market is gone now and the place is wonderful. It's stores and restaurants are from reasonable to upscale but the food is generally good. A wonderful place to visit.

Something to warm you up - fava beans soup

 This was a winter staple in Sicily when I was growing up and it has remained one of my favorite dishes. It's simple, economic and very healthy.

Dry favas (fave) can be obtained quite readily in natural food stores or in retailers of Italian products.

Simply cut up a small onion, Peel and chop up a small carrot and do the same to a stalk of celery. These together make up the so called soffritto. In Italian it means something sautéed at low heat.  Use a medium pot and cover it's bottom with EVO. Put in one clove of garlic whole and a dash of peperoncino. Heat up until the garlic begins to transfer it's flavors to the oil and remove it. Add the soffritto and turn the heat down.

Now as for the fava beans there are two ways to prepare them before they are cooked. The traditional way is to place them in a bowl of water the night before. Then rinse and add them to the sofffritto. A faster way is to nuke them in the microwave. Put them in a safe bowl, cover them with water and nuke for 15 minutes. Check because the water will almost be absorbed. If the favas (fave) are tender take them out. If not add some more water and cook for another 5 minutes. Then add to the soffritto. Stir and add enough water to cover. Season with Sicilian sea salt and a dash of black pepper. Stir frquently and cook in medium heat until the favas become a paste. We call this maccu in Sicily.

Serve with lightly toasted rustic Italian bread slightly coated with olive oil. To finish the dish add a little raw olive oil and chopped up Italian parsley for a nice presentation and for the freshness that this ads to the dish.

A variation is pasta con le fave or pasta with fava beans. What you do here when the soup is almost done is to add sufficient hot water and some more salt and add your pasta. My favorite is broken up fettuccine or linguine. Again when you serve this add the parsley and the raw oil. This is a very nutritious dish because the proteins in the legume when married to those of the pasta create a perfect protein so that this is a perfect vegetarian or vegan dish. Try it. Buon Appetito.

Exercise we must

During this quarantine with gyms closed and people afraid to frequent public places, many seek the open spaces, early in the morning when almost depopulated, to exercise. Public parks are a great venue. A way to go out safely. This too shall end.

A few pointers

 In another post I will discuss pasta. A day without pasta is a day without sunshine and us Italian love sunshine.

As you well realize, I mainly cook southern Italian food  but I also love the northern fare. After all, Italian cuisine is the most varied in the world. It is delicious, healthful and in most cases simple. As Luigi Barzini wrote in his The Italians, Italian cuisine is a celebration of nature. To pull of this gastronomic magic one must use only the best and freshest ingredients. This is, at times, not easy to do in a world of mass marketing and chemically treated foods and vegetables. Therefore try getting organic produce and meats and buy the best extra virgin olive oil. Italian oil is varied according to the many regions. This is a complex issuw best addressed at a later time. It is sufficient to buy oil product of Italy. Packed in Italy is OK as long as the oils come from the EU. Spanish and Greek oils are also good. It's a matter of taste and what's available in your area. Some brands of packed in Italy such as Filippo Berio and Bertolli are good. Partanna is a very good Sicilian Oil. Madre Sicilia is excellent too. Of course you cannot go wrong with Colavita oil. Be sure to use Sicilian sea salt it's the tastiest and has been made since the time of the Greeks.

Rocco Galatioto

Something simple to start the new week

Bakes sausages with potatoes and onions 

Cut two pieces of Italian style sausages about 18 inch in length. Peeo, wash and slice into chunks the potatoes. In the mean time bring to a boil a pot of water. Add the sausages and the potatoes. Remove the sausage after two minutes and continue to par boil the potatoes for three minutes more. They must be firm.

Slice up an union and if you want slice uo some nice bell pepper.

In a baking pan sprinkle some good extra virgin olive oil, place the sausages on the bottom and cover with the potatoes, onions and pepper. Season with Sicilian sea salt, if available, or regular salt and black pepper, add some dry white wine, some rosemary and salvia (sage). mix well and add some more oil on top. Bake in a pre heated oven for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. 

Arrange the dish as shown. Sprinkle liberally with pepper. The sprig of rosemary is for that all important presentation

Buon appetito.

 

Have a great fall week