ITALIAN... ongoing thread- ethnic cooking

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I understand it's mostly about

pasta
cheese
tomato sauce and
garlic

What about some vegetable recipes?

and for a bonus 100 points what can be done in italian cuisine WITHOUT the four above-listed holy food groups? :-)
 
OK? I am not attacking anyone or their cuisine. Just pointin

Hi Kevin,

I didn't feel like you were attacking the cuisine :-) I just didn't agree with some of your observations. I'm at a disadvantage in that I've never been to Italy. I do hope to go someday. No offense taken by me :-))

I've never heard of smoking Garlic!! Does it come with a filter? Menthol??? Seriously I'm curious as to how it's done and how would it be served?

Rich
 
When we moved back here 2 yrs ago I found out that my next door neighbor is the son of what way back when was the best pizzeria pizza in town, my fave at least. I ordered one soon after moving back and it tasted awful and then when talking to him found out his folks had sold it and retired about 20 years ago. Anyways I bugged them to get the dough recipe from mom and I got 20 lbs of flour a handful of salt and about a 1/2 handful of yeast and a bit of oil. That's it. I'm still no further ahead.
 
Um... roasted veggies as a side dish to almost anything?

Cut desired veggies into large pieces/chunks, but proportional so they'll cook in about the same time. Any color sweet peppers, onions, zucchini.... Toss in evoo and season as you will (salt & pepper is a good base, but you could use rosemary or anything else you like).

Roast in a hot oven (450f) until lightly charred and al dente.

Do I get 100 points Toggie?

Chuck
 
Keven,

I was only responding to your following statement:

"dried and powdered garlic are abominations which one never sees in good cooking"

Am I to understand that you were not referring to granulated (dried and pulverized) garlic as in your "Chuck & Rich" post? They really are different as you no doubt know.

Thanks for clarifying!

Chuck
 
Toggle-

Try putting some EVOO in a pan on the lowest heat you can, and putting some thinly sliced garlic in there as well. If you have patience, and very low heat, the garlic will infuse the oil with flavor sans bitterness, soften, and sweeten. If you need to raise the heat on the oil, say to cook a little chicken, scoop the garlic out first. Rich just made some pasta tonight doing just that and it was yummo!

Chuck
p.s.- I do much prefer the oven roasted. I have a tube of heads from BJ's (about 30-35 heads) that I'll roast this week and store for long-term use!
 
veggies drenched in olive oil

and roasted in the oven, now that is truly Italian.
Yum!

Of course I meant that hideous product which is both dried and powdered and not, of course, freeze-dried granulated which has its purposes. Yes, I am familiar with it, but, no, living as I do where all those wonderful Italian ingredients are an easy drive away and worth stocking up, I don't use it.

Once again for the chorus, Panthera loves American Italian food, he merely was noting that it is very different to Italian food in Italy.

Toggles, you must surely be familiar with the different flavors of olive oil, no?

Also, lactose intolerance can be handled with those wonderful tablets.

Thought of another one: Gnocchi done gluten free. No, now the Italian-Americans don't flame me and the Italians don't all die of shock, they aren't bad. Really. With a fresh basil pesto and a decent white wine sauce quite good - (remember Toggles list of no-no's).
 
Frittata

!
OK, Toggles, how about a frittata? That can be done without the horrible four!
(Those without a sense of humor, no, I love all of that list, that was a joke).

Seriously good, a fresh frittata with mushrooms and spinach or anchovies and potatoes, to die for.
 
but I'm too ill to dig up my recipe right now.

Lawrence,
I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope it's nothing serious :-)

Kevin,
Thanks. I've never heard of that. Sounds interesting!!
 
A Twist On Roasted Veggies....

Take previously mentioned oven roasted veggies - such as butternut squash, sweet potatoes, onions or leeks, carrots, etc, that have been roasted with just olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkling of garlic powder....(whole garlic is optional here!!) and puree the whole mess in a food processor. Sautee some onions and garlic and olive oil and butter, add some fresh chicken stock and the puree mixture until you have the "right" consistency, and you have a wonderful soup for dinner. Serve with some warm, crusty Italian bread....it's outta this world. Sorry guys, don't know how much of anything I put in here, but add chicken stock until it's of a desired consistency. You can be very creative with this one, making use of many fresh ingredients you may have laying around the fridge. You can even add some fresh cream to the finished product but that adds lots of calories and fat too!! Toast some fennel spice and add to the soup if you like that flavor, along with a little nutmeg, too....and other spices to taste, but toast them all in a pan first...gives it all a nice rustic flair.

You can make the same soup with butternut squash and granny smith apples, just peel, cube, roast or boil, and puree into a soup by addind some chicken stock and even some white wine if you like. Experiment with different toasted spices like fennel and nutmeg, cinammon, etc.
 
Here's another favorite:

This recipe comes from a great Tuscan restaurant in London called "The River Cafe". They have a cookbook that I recommend, full of simple beautiful Tuscan food. This is for a pork shoulder braised in milk with lemon.

Maiale al Latte
Pork Cooked in Milk with Lemons
The curdle that results from the slow cooking together of lemon and milk makes a delicious sauce.

Serves 6
1 4-to 5- pound loin of pork or shoulder picnic
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 small handful fresh sage leaves(optional)
1 ½ quarts fresh WHOLE milk
Zests of 2 whole lemons, in big strips, lemon pulp reserved (either as sûpremes or as slices)

Generously season the pork on all sides. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a lid, casserole dish, or Dutch oven, just large enough to hold the pork. Brown the meat on all sides, then remove. Pour away the fat.

Melt the butter in the pan, add the garlic with the sage leaves, (if using), and before the garlic begins to color, return the meat to the pan. Add enough hot milk to come three-quarters of the way up to the pork, Bring to a boil, add the lemon zest, and reduce the heat. Place the lid on the pan, slightly askew, and very gently simmer for about 1 ½ to 2 hours (you can also put casserole in oven at 275 F for slightly longer).Resist temptation to disturb the meat, the less you touch it, the better.

When the pork is cooked, the milk will have curdled into brown nuggets. Carefully move the meat, slice quickly and spoon sauce and reserved lemon pulp over it.

Note: this recipe is from the Rogers/Gray Italian Country Cookbook. Rather than throwing away the fats that the pork is browned in and then using fresh butter in which to sauté the garlic, I just use what’s left in the pan. I didn’t detect a big difference and I don’t like wasting all that fat and browned bits that have a lot of flavor in them.
 
Roasted Garlic

Just came to me- it's been referred to a few times, but no recipe was given. Here's how I do it.

Cut the top 1/4 or so from full bulbs of garlic. You're looking to expose the tops of most of the cloves.

Choose an oven-safe dish that's a little deeper than the garlic, and holds the number of bulbs you're doing with as little etra space as possible. A 9 x 13 glass Pyrex will hold about 12-15 bulbs, depending on size. I usually do about 30 at a time.

Drizzle the bulbs completely with olive oil (I use extra virgin) and have the oil come up about 1/2 way to the bulbs. Seal the dish with foil and bake at 300 for about an hour. Turn the oven off and let the dish cool a bit in the oven.

Take the dish out and remove the foil. Pick or squeeze the cloves out and store under oil. The oil they baked in is well-flavored w/ the garlic and great for pasta or other dishes. Good for garlic bread too!

The garlic lasts over a month in the fridge. I think they officially say a week, but if kept under oil and cool, I've used it probably 2 months or more safely.

Enjoy!!!

Chuck
 

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