Cucina DiBella

Almond Brittle - Croccante

This dessert from Abruzzo, Croccante, is a perfect way to kick off December and the holiday season! Peanut brittle is a classic holiday snack, so I was thrilled to find an Italian version from the region that I am working on - almond brittle.  This dessert is easy to make and uses only 4 ingredients, one of which is water! Doesn't get much better than that.  While making this, it was hard to resist stirring the sugar as it cooked, but if you just have a little more patience than I do, you'll see that if you let it do its thing it will turn out fine.  This recipe gave me about 1 baking sheet full of brittle that I made more on the thin side.  If you usually make peanut brittle for the holidays, give this a shot and let me know how you like it!

Almond Brittle - Croccante

Adapted from Mario Batali, Food Network

Ingredients:

1/2 cups slivered almonds

vegetable oil, for greasing

1/2 cups sugar

1/8 cup water

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Put the almonds on a baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted.
2. Lightly grease another baking sheet with vegetable oil and set aside.
3. In a medium sized pot, combine the sugar and the water.  Let the sugar cook over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes.  The sugar will come to a boil and slowly change color to a dark amber color.  Do not stir the sugar.
4. Once the sugar reaches the desired color (watch carefully, because it can burn easily!), remove from the heat and quickly stir in the almonds. 
5. Pour the sugar and almond mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, and quickly spread it to an even thickness.
6. Let the brittle cool completely and then break up into small pieces.

Ryan's rating of Almond Brittle - 5.

Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Lamb Ragu

Like several other regions, Abruzzo has a type of pasta that is unique to its region.  That pasta is Maccheroni alla Chitarra.  Shaped like square spaghetti, this pasta is traditionally made using a tool called a chitarra,or guitar which has strings situated closely together as with a traditional guitar.  The dough for the pasta is made and is then rolled out flat.  The sheet of dough is then placed on the string of the chitarra and is then rolled over with a rolling pin to push the dough through the strings, cutting it into long, square-shaped pasta.  If you don't have a chitarra though, which I don't, you can make the pasta by rolling it out and simply cutting it into thin strips using a sharp knife.

Another traditional part of Abruzzo cooking is the incorporation of lamb.  Lamb is something that I have never cooked with before, nor can I even remember eating it.  However, Maccheroni alla Chitarra is often paired with a lamb ragu, and so I felt obligated to give it a shot.  Normally, the lamb ragu is made from chunks of lamb shoulder mixed in with a marinara sauce.  However, I chose to use ground lamb and mix it with the marinara sauce so that it was just a meat sauce.  I also made some mini lamb meatballs to accompany the pasta.  The lamb was an interesting change, but I think for the most part I will stick to beef meatballs!

Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Lamb Ragu

Adapted from Rustico: Regional Italian Country Cooking by Micol Negrin, 2002

-Makes 3/4 pound pasta-

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 extra large eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 pound ground lamb

1 1/4 cup marinara sauce, store-bought or home-made

Process:

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour and salt with a fork.  Make a well in the flour and add in the eggs.  Use a fork to gradually add the flour to the dough. Once it gets too hard to use a fork, continue to mix using your hands.  If too dry, add a little water.  If too sticky, add a little flour.
2. When the dough is formed, knead it for about 5 minutes.  Cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
3. Roll out the pasta as thin as you can on a flat surface using a rolling pin.  When the pasta is rolled out, cut the dough into thin strips as thick as wide as the dough is thick, so that each piece will be a square shape.  You can do this by rolling the dough up into a log, as was shown in the recipe for Umbricelli.  However, I find that this squishes the pasta.  Using a pizza cutter to just cut the pasta into strips seemed to work well for me.
4. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt.  Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta.  Drain the pasta.
5. Brown the ground lamb in a skillet. 
6. Add the lamb and the marinara sauce to the pasta and serve with some grated parmigiano reggiano.

Ryan's rating of Maccheroni alla Chitarra - 4

Lamb Meatballs

Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground lamb

1 egg

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
2. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.  Form balls that are 1 inch in diameter and place on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Cook for about 25 minutes, turning the meatballs once. 

Ryan's rating of Lamb Meatballs - 4.

 

Chicken with Roasted Peppers

Skipping around a little bit, before cooking a first course from Abruzzo, I made a main course.  Though Abruzzo does make a large amount of seafood dishes along its coast, the majority of the region is mountainous and relies on things like lamb and chicken in its recipes. 

This dish, Chicken with Roasted Peppers, is fairly simple to make.  The only difficult part may be roasting the peppers, but even that is fairly easy after the first time that you do it.  The key is to remember that the peppers are supposed to be scorched to the point that the skin is blackened.  This is what will allow you to remove the skin easily.  Once you have mastered this step, roasting peppers is something that you can do with many recipes.  Personally, I like to just roast some red peppers, let them soak in oil that is infused with garlic and rosemary, and eat them piled on some toasted bread. So, while you can buy roasted red peppers at the store, I definitely recommend making an attempt at roasting your own peppers.

Chicken with Roasted Peppers

Adapted from Rustico: Regional Italian Country Cookingby Micol Negrin, 2002

-Serves 3-

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 teaspoon basil

Process:

1. Cut the chicken breasts in half so that you have 6 thinner slices of chicken. 
2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the chicken and cook until golden brown, then repeat on the other side.  This should take about 5 minutes per side.
3. Add in the onions and garlic to the chicken.  Let cook about 5 minutes. 
4. Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.  Turn the heat down to medium-low, and cover.  Let cook for 30 minutes.
5. While the chicken is cooking, roast the red and yellow peppers.  Either roast on a grill or place under the broiler of your oven on a baking sheet.  Rotate the peppers until they are charred on all sides.  This will take about 15 minutes.  Then, place the peppers in a paper bag.  Close the bag and then place that bag in a plastic bag and allow the peppers to sit for about 10 minutes.  This lets the peppers sweat and will make it easier to remove the skin.  Remove the peppers from the bags to a cutting board.  Remove the seeds and the ribs and use a knife to scrape off the skin.  Cut the peppers into strips.
6. Add the peppers to the chicken.  Continue to cook for another 15 minutes. 
7. Remove the bay leaf and sprinkle in the basil.  Serve hot.

Ryan's rating of Chicken with Roasted Peppers - 5.

Grilled Scamorza

So once again, sorry for a delay in posts. After some awesome food from Lazio last week, I've moved on to cooking some of the traditional meals from Abruzzo.  Abruzzo has some great recipes based on some amazing ingredients that are available in the region.  One of these is scamorza cheese.  Also available in the Campania region to the south, scamorza is a smoked mozzarella cheese that comes in a pear shape.  I had some trouble finding this in a regular grocery store, but struck gold when I went to my local Italian grocer. Please, please, please. If you have an Italian grocer near you, USE THEM.  The items that they carry are of such an amazing quality, and chances are you will find whatever unusual Italian ingredient you are looking for.  And if you're ever in Portland, Maine, visit Micucci's.  They have saved me multiple times, and I have never been disappointed in anything that I've bought from them.

So, the reason it took me so long to start writing about the food from Abruzzo is because I had a little trouble with the recipes this time.  I planned on making this dish, Grilled Scamorza, a few nights ago.  When I tried though, it was an epic failure.  I tried to make it on my outdoor grill and the result: cheese and flames EVERYWHERE.  What I salvaged of the scamorza came away with a layer of black soot on it. Not so appetizing. So, I made another trip to my Italian grocer and tried again, this time inside on my stove top.  Round two went smoothly, producing perfect scamorza that had formed a golden crust on the outside, but was melty and gooey on the inside.  This is a great appetizer, because you can pair it with whatever you like.  I chose to eat it with some fresh crusty bread and topped with some sun-dried tomatoes.  The tomatoes added the perfect amount of sweetness to the dish, but roasted red peppers would probably be a good choice as well.  Adding some crispy prosciutto to the top wouldn't be a bad move either.  As long as you serve it piping hot, you really can't miss with this as an appetizer.

  
Grilled Scamorza

Adapted from Mario Batali via Fine Living

Ingredients:

1 8-12 ounce piece of scamorza

1/2 loaf crusty bread, cut into 1/2 inch slices

1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

Process:

1. Heat a non-stick pan to medium heat. 
2. Cut the scamorza into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.  Spray the pan with cooking spray or use the tiniest bit of oil in the pan.  Lay the scamorza flat in the pan.  Let it cook for about 1-2 minutes until it has developed a golden crust.  Flip the cheese and cook another 1-2 minutes on the other side. 
3. Remove the cheese from the pan and top with the sun-dried tomatoes.  Serve immediately with the slices of bread.

Ryan's rating of Grilled Scamorza - 4.5.