Cucina DiBella

Ciambelle

Well, it seems that I should listen to my wonderful husband more.  When we first tasted this cake, still warm from the oven, I was not a huge fan of it.  It's called Ciambelle and is a traditional dessert from Le Marche.  It's taste and consistency land somewhere in between bread and cake.  I was about to write it off when Ryan said, "You know, I think this would be better along with a cup of coffee or something.  I picture myself eating this with a cup of hot chocolate."  BRILLIANT!  Of COURSE this would be better with coffee or hot chocolate. Drinking coffee after dinner is a common practice in Italy, and so having a dessert that hinges (at least in my mind) on a good cup of espresso really shouldn't be that surprising.  The nice thing is that using that same logic, this also makes a great breakfast!

To give this dessert a little more sweetness, I added some confectioner's sugar to each piece.  You could also make an icing for it by taking 1/2 cup water and adding confectioner's sugar until it has a thick consistency. The Ciambelle that I made has some cocoa powder as flavoring, but I've also seen recipes that use anise or orange flavoring as well.  If you're looking for something that is representative of Le Marche, then anise flavoring would be a good bet (if you like licorice flavor, which I don't).  Regardless of my opinion on it though, anise is a great regional asset for Le Marche. A great example is Anisetta Meletti, a liquor distilled from aniseed that is produced in Ascoli Piceno.  So, putting anise flavoring in the cake or even into the icing would give the dessert that extra Ascoli umph!  God, I sound like a bad cheerleader.  Let's just move on to the recipe:

Ciambelle

Adapted from La Tavola Marche

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons butter plus extra for greasing

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus a little more for dusting

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 pinch of salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

confectioners sugar for dusting

Process:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Using butter, grease a ring mold and dust with flour.  Melt the 6 tablespoons of butter.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt.  Whisk to combine. 
3. Add the eggs, 6 tablespoons melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract to the bowl.  Mix until smooth. 
4. Pour into the ring mold and smooth out.  The mixture will be closer to a dough than a cake batter, so just push it into the mold and smooth it out.
5. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Ryan's rating of Ciambelle - 2.5.  A little disappointing, but I think that would go up if he tried it with hot chocolate like he suggested!

Chicken with Green Olives

One thing that Le Marche is known for in its main dishes is cooking a lot of meat.  From lamb to pork to rabbit, the region knows how to produce kick ass meat dishes.  I really wanted to find something that was a little lighter though, and stumbled across this Chicken with Green Olives.  Easy to prepare and using very little fat, it seemed like a good choice.  This recipe proved to be intensely flavorful and just what I was looking for.  Like most Italian dishes, it relies in having fresh, quality ingredients that speak for themselves.  It was also great to have another chance to utilize the olives that the region is so well known for!

Chicken with Green Olives

Adapted from The Denver Post

-Serves 2-3-

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts

salt

pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 pound green olives, pitted

Process:

1. Trim the fat off of the chicken and cut each breast in half to produce 4 thinner pieces of chicken.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken.  Cook until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 5-10 minutes per side. 
3. Add the garlic and let it cook about 2-3 minutes.  Be careful not to let the garlic burn.
4. Turn the heat down to low.  Add the wine.  Scrape the bottom of the pan to remove the browned bits.  Cover and let simmer about 5 minutes.  Add the olives, cover the pan again and let simmer another 15 minutes to soften the olives.  Serve hot with some of the wine sauce poured over top.

Ryan's rating of Chicken with Green Olives - 5.

Brodetto

With Le Marche resting comfortably on the Adriatic, it would be impossible to talk about the regional cuisine without finding a recipe that focuses on seafood.  Brodetto is a classic fish stew, somewhat similar to cioppino.  A recipe that goes back centuries, it has been said that there are as many variations of brodetto as their are towns along the Adriatic coast. 

 
My beautiful mom and sister at one such Adriatic town in Le Marche, San Benedetto del Tronto. 

 
San Benedetto del Tronto 

The constant among the Brodetto recipes is the fact that the soup features a tomato base and plenty of seafood.  One of the oldest recipes for Brodetto comes from the Le Marche town of Ancona and calls for 13 different types of fish.  Not having the time or resources to get 13 different kinds of fish, I chose to make a simplified version with shrimp, tilapia, and scallops.  I didn't feel too bad about this since the original recipe was created in order to use the seafood that was fresh and available in the area.  So, keeping with that mindset, I chose what was available to me; living in Maine I could have easily added lobster tail or clams as well.  (If using clams or mussels, leaving some of them inside their shells when serving the soup.)  Traditionally, this soup is also supposed to be served over a piece of grilled or toasted bread.  I am vehemently against serving bread in my soup though, so I put the bread on the side.  To me, that's the fun of cooking: making a recipe your own!

Brodetto

Adapted from About.com

-Serves 3-4-

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 eight ounce can of tomato sauce

1/6 cup vinegar

1 cup white wine

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 pound tilapia, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 pound scallops

1/2 pound shrimp

Process:

1. In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
2. To the pot, add the tomato sauce, vinegar, wine, water, tomato paste, and parsley. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.  Let the mixture come to a boil to burn off the alcohol from the wine.  Return to a simmer, cover, and cook about 30 minutes.
3. Add the fish, followed by the scallops and shrimp.  Cover and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.  If you are using pre-cooked shrimp, don't add the shrimp until the last 5 minutes or so.  You want the shrimp to meld with the other flavors, but not overcook.  Serve hot.

Ryan's rating of Brodetto - 5.

Olive all'Ascolana

This week at Cucina DiBella is a very exciting one for me.  The 4 months that I lived in Italy were spent in Ascoli Piceno, a little medieval city in Le March.  So, cooking the food from Le Marche this week is making me unbelievably nostalgic.  Who wouldn't be when they lived in a city as beautiful as this?

 
Piazza del Popolo - Ascoli Piceno

Myself in Ascoli Piceno

The abundance of olives in this region and the high quality that they are able to claim is amazing.  I was lucky enough to have the opportunity while living in Ascoli to help with an olive harvest.  The process is a long one, using little rakes to comb the olives off of the trees into nets to then collect and bring to the press for olive oil.  It is so worth it though.  As a thank you, all who helped received a bottle of the freshly pressed oil.  It was without a doubt the most amazing olive oil I have ever tasted.

 
Olive harvest - Ascoli Piceno 

With such wonderful olives available in the region, it's not a surprise that one of the foods that Ascoli is most well known for is their Olive all'Ascolana (Ascolani Olives), or as they are called around town, Olive Fritte.  They are large, green olives that have been pitted and stuffed with meats and cheeses and then fried.  They are a delicious antipasto and are served at nearly every restaurant in the city.  To be honest, I'm not sure how I've gone the last 3 years (God, has it been 3 years??) without them.  So making them as the antipasto from Le Marche was really a no brainer.  And luckily for me, they weren't nearly as difficult as I thought they would be!  If you can find good quality pitted olives at your grocery store you will cut your prep time dramatically.  However, if you do find already pitted olives, rinse them thoroughly to get some of the brine off.  Otherwise, the end product will be super salty.

Olive all'Ascolana

Adapted from About.com

-makes about 25 olives-

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (about 25) large green olives

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/4 pound Italian sausage

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup beef broth

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs

1/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano

2 eggs

flour, for dredging

oil for frying

Process:

1. Pitt olives if you didn't buy them already pitted.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Remove the casing and crumble the sausage into the skillet.  Cook for several minutes until browned.  Add the wine, scraping up the little bits from the bottom of the pan.  Cook for about 5 minutes until most of the wine has evaporated.  Add in the beef broth and cook another 5 minutes.  Remove the sausage to a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan.
3. Using a meat grinder or a food processor, grind the meat. 
4. Removing the pan from the heat, add 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs to the drippings in the pan.  Return the meat to the pan as well.  Add the parmigiano cheese and 1 egg (beaten) to the pan.  Combine together to make the stuffing mixture for the olives.  Let the mixture rest for a bit to cool.
5. Once cool, stuff each olive with some of the sausage mixture.  Don't over stuff the olives or they may break apart. 
6. Set up a breading station.  Make 1 plate of the flour, 1 bowl of the remaining egg, and 1 plate of the remaining breadcrumb.  Coat each olive in flour, then in egg, and finally in breadcrumbs.
7. Heat the oil to a medium heat.  Don't make it to hot or it will burn the olives.  Once the oil is hot, fry the olives (in batches, depending on the size of your pot) just until they are a golden brown color.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the olives from the oil to a paper towel to drain them.  Let the olives cool a little before serving.

Ryan's rating of Olive all'Ascolana - 4.