Monday, December 31, 2012

"SAUCY" EGGS

Entree - Vegetarian - Lactose and gluten free

8 eggs
2 cups crushed Italian San Marzano tomatoes
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 jar Italian small peas, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil
salt

Boil eggs for 8-10 minutes. Quickly cool them down under running cold water, peel and halve, lengthwise. Set aside.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce.

In a saucepan with lid, large enough to contain all eggs, warm the olive oil on medium-high heat an sautee onion until they start becoming golden. Add crushed tomatoes, season with salt, lower the heat to medium and cook (covered) for about 10 minutes.

Lower heat to medium-low. Add peas and stir, then add eggs cut side down. After 5 minutes, turn them upside down and cook for 5 more minutes.

Serve immediately.

This recipe serves 4

- It's vegetarian, lactose and gluten free!!
- You can serve it with toasted ciabatta and a green salad and you'll have a complete meal!!

Monday, December 24, 2012

PEPERONATA

Side dish - vegetarian - lactose and gluten free

3 big bell peppers (same colors or assorted ones - no green peppers)
1 big onion, chopped
1 14-oz can Italian San Marzano tomatoes
9 Italian dried black olives
1 tbsp capers, packed in salt and rinsed
2 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil
Salt and chopped parsley.

Wash bell pepper, halve them and remove seed and inner white ribbings, the slice them.

In a large saucepan with lid, over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. When ready add onions and sautee a couple of minutes, then add bell peppers slices and stir. Season with salt and cook, on medium heat, for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime, chop the peeled tomatoes (set juice aside) and add them to the peppers along with olives and capers. Cover with lid and lower heat to low.

Cook about 25-30 minutes, or until pepper are soft.

Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and serve immediately.

This recipe serves 4.


- If the peperonata dries too much, add a few tbsp of the peeled tomato juice.
- You can add a tsp of anchovy paste, if you like it.
- It's a perfect side dish for fish, white meat and eggs.

Monday, December 17, 2012

SHRIMP AND BEANS SALAD

Salad - appetizer - gluten and lactose free

2 cups cooked shrimp
2 14-oz cans Italian cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 bunch Italian parsley, leaves only, chopped
1 garlic clove
4 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juice and grated zest
Salt


Peel and halve garlic; in a small bowl arrange oil, lemon juice and zest, garlic and parsley, mix well to combine and set aside for about 30 minutes. Remove and discard garlic.

In a serving bowl combine shrimp, beans and celery; sprinkle with salt, drizzle with the lemon vinaigrette and toss to coat. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then serve.

This recipe serves 4.


- It can be used as an appetizer.
- If you'd like to keep garlic, finely chop it.
- Only use a very high quality Italian extra virgin olive oil in order to obtain the best from this recipe.

Monday, December 10, 2012

FOCACCIA WITH COTECHINO AND GREEN CABBAGE

Appetizer - Entree - Pizza

For the dough:
3 cups 00 Italian flour
1 cup warm milk
1 envelope dry active yeast
3 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil
Salt

For the stuffing:
2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
1 precooked Italian cotechino sausage, casing removed and thinly sliced

1 egg
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil


Combine flour and salt, then add yeast and mix. Make a well in the flour mount and pour oil and warm milk in it. Mix to combine all ingredients then transfer onto a floured working surface and knead for about 5-8 minutes, until you obtain a well combined, smooth, elastic dough.

Divide the dough into 2 balls (one slightly bigger than the other), slightly grease 2 bowls and transfer the dough balls in them; let rise for about 1 hr.

Preheat oven to 400.

Beat the egg. Roll out the dough balls onto a floured surface.

Grease a 16" round baking pan and line it with the bigger disk, top with green cabbage and sliced cotechino, leaving 1/3" border, cover with the smaller disk, seal the edges tightly.

Brush the top disk with the beaten egg, sprinkle with a little salt and make a couple of cuts to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

Serve immediately.


- You can use this doug for every focaccia and also as a pizza base
- We carry the Italian cotechino, but in VERY limited quantities.
- I always suggest to use the 00 Italian flour because it's the best!!!! And we do carry it too!

Monday, December 3, 2012

RISOTTO WITH SHRIMP, ZUCCHINE AND ARTICHOKES

Rice entree - gluten free - lactose free (read note below)

1 cup shrimp
1/2 cup diced zucchini
1 cup marinated artichokes, drained and roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/4 cup carnaroli rice
5 cups vegetable stock at least
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tbsp cream cheese


Put stock in a covered pot on high heat until it boils, then lower heat to simmer.

Meanwhile, in a big non-stick skillet warm the olive oil and sautee all the vegetables for 5 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in rice, add wine and let evaporate. Add stock, a ladle at a time, stirring often to prevent sticking, but not continuously. After 15 minutes, add shrimp.

When the risotto is al dente, add the cream cheese stir and serve immediately.

This recipe serves 4-6


- Carnaroli is the best variety for risotto: a little less starchy and not as easy to overcook as the others.

- You can also add some Italian San Marzano tomatoes, if you like them.

- It's gluten free.

- To make it lactose free, don't use cream cheese

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

SCRUMPTIOUS PANDORO

Dessert

Pandoro is the other typical Italian cake for Christmas. Its name means "golden bread", it has no fruits and comes with a bag of confectioner's sugar. Its texture is so light that this cake will melt in your mouth.
Prepare this cake at least 1-2 hours before serving it, in order to allow all flavors to combine.

For custard:
4 eggs
4 tbsp Italian 00 flour
4 tbsp sugar
4 cups milk

1 bar dark Italian chocolate (about 3 oz)

1 Pandoro

1 cup crumbled amaretti cookies

1/2 cup chopped almonds


First of all, prepare the custard. Warm milk without letting it boil. In a saucepan, with heavy bottom, combine sugar, flour and eggs, whisking to prevent knots.

On low-medium heat add the warm milk in a slow stream, always whisking and bring to boil, whisking continuously; it will take about 5-8 minutes (the warmer the milk, the quicker the cooking). Never stop stirring, otherwise your custard will stick to the bottom and burn, giving it an unpleasant taste.

Divide the custard evenly in 2 parts, add chocolate to one of them and let it melt. Set aside and allow it to cool down to room temperature.

Mix chopped almonds and crumbled amaretti.

Slice Pandoro horizontally in 6 parts.

Arrange Pandoro bottom on a big serving platter, top with custard and sprinkle with the almond-amaretti mix, top with another slice of pandoro (retaining the shape), chocolate custard, almond-amaretti mix, and repeat until you finish the pandoro slices. End with Pandoro top. Refrigerate until 30 minutes before serving it.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar right before serving it (confectioner's sugar is inside the Pandoro box).

- You can use a mascarpone based custard.
- You can mix some sugar-free cocoa powder to the confectioner's sugar and some chopped hazelnuts to the almond-amaretti mix.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

FUSILLI BUCATI CORTI WITH SWORD FISH

Pasta entree - Vegetarian - Lactose and gluten free (see notes at the end)

1 lb Italian fusilli corti bucati
2 slices sword fish, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 14-oz Italian San Marzano peeled tomatoes, roughly crushed
2 tbsp Italian capers, packed in salt, rinsed and squeezed
1/8 cup Italian dry black olives
3 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil
Salt, hot pepper flakes

In a large saucepan with lid, over medium-high heat, warm 3 tbsp of olive oil and sautee onion and garlic until onion is translucent, then add sword fish. Sitr and sautee for about 3-4 minutes.

Add wine and let alcohol evaporate. Add tomatoes, capers, olives, salt and hot pepper flakes. Stir, lower heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to boil; when it boils, add salt and pasta, stir and cook until al dente (this shape will take 10 minutes, more or less).

Drain pasta, reserving some of the water, and transfer it to the saucepan with the sauce. Toss well to coat and cook about 2 minutes. If the sauce thickens too much, add some of the reserved water (little by little) to thin it.

Serve immediately, sprinkled with freshly chopped parsley.

This recipe serves 4-6


- You can add 2 anchovy fillets or 2 tsp of anchovy paste, if you like it.
- Don't serve this dish with Parmigiano, please. It would cover the fish flavor.
- If you use Italian corn pasta, this dish will be lactose and gluten free!
- Except for fresh onion parsley and garlic, and swordfish, we carry all other ingredients (we do have a mix of dried garlic, hot pepper flakes and parsley!!)