Cucina DiBella

Minestrone alla Genovese

For the few people who aren't familiar with it, Minestrone is a pretty straightforward vegetable soup with some small pasta mixed in.  Minestrone alla Genovese is no exception.  However, what sets this version apart is the addition of basil pesto to the soup.  When I went through Liguria's cuisine the first time, I talked about pesto being traditional to this area of Italy.  The addition of pesto to the soup lends a wonderful fresh basil flavor and brings a well known Italian soup to a whole new level.

This recipe is great for the summer (so long as it's not a 90 degree day) when vegetables are abundant and varied.  You can really use whatever you would like, and whatever you have available to you.  For Ryan and I, I chose to use celery, onion, carrot, potato, tomato and zucchini.  Making your own stock for this soup is quite easy, but you can feel free to use canned stock if you like.

 

Minestrone alla Genovese

Adapted from Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni, 1969

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable stock

1 stick celery, sliced

1 large carrot, sliced

1 onion, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 zucchini, chopped

2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/3 pound small pasta (I prefer Ditalini)

1 tablespoon pesto

Procedure:

1. Add the vegetable stock to a large pot.  Add the celery, carrot, onion, salt and pepper.  Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 1 hour. 
2. Add the zucchini, potato, and tomato and simmer for another 30 minutes.
3. Add the ditalini and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
4. When the pasta is finished cooking, add the pesto and stir to combine. 
5. Serve hot with fresh parmigiano reggiano sprinkled over the top.

Ryan's rating of Potato Croquettes - 4

1 - Awful. If you make this again I'll shove a fork in my eye.

2 - Meh. It's not my favorite, but I won't threaten self-harm if it shows up again.

3 - Good. I wouldn't feel forced to order a pizza behind your back. 

4 - Great! I will fight you for the leftovers.

5 - Love it! Make it again tomorrow. Or immediately and I will bathe in it.

 

Potato Croquettes

I don't know about you, but I've never seen a potato that I didn't like.  In all of its glorious, carb-filled forms, potatoes are absolutely delicious.  Potato Croquettes, or Coccoli di Patate, are no exception.  Formed into discs, torpedo shapes, or ball shapes, these are made by breading mashed potato and frying it to a perfect golden brown.  Coccoli di Patate are traditional to Liguria, however, they are found all over Italy.  I can remember eating these as a midnight snack often with my roommate, Kate, in Italy. There's nothing like fried potato after a night out at the bars!

My first batch of croquettes were a little bland, but after getting the technique down I added some garlic, parsley, and parmigiano reggiano, and this made all the difference!  Next time I think I will add some prosciutto for a little extra flavor as well.  You can also have fun with sauces for the croquettes.  They are great dipped in marinara sauce, or you could make a garlic aioli.  Any ideas out there for other ways to dress up this recipe?

 

Potato Croquettes - Coccoli di Patate

Adapted from Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni, 1969

Makes about 15 Croquettes

Ingredients:

3 medium russet potatoes

3 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 teaspoon dried parsley

Breadcrumbs

Oil for frying

Process:

1. After washing the potatoes, boil until fork tender, about 40 minutes.  Allow the potatoes to cool only slightly and then peel.  Using a fork, mash the potatoes in a bowl, ensuring that there are no lumps.
2. Add the butter, 1 egg, garlic, parmigiano, salt, pepper, and parsley to the potato.  Mix to thoroughly combine.
3. Form the potatoes into torpedo shapes about 2 inches long (or if you prefer, you can form them into discs, round balls, or any other shape you feel like!)
4. Set up a breading station by whisking the remaining egg in one bowl and pouring breadcrumbs in another bowl.  Dip each croquette into the egg, shake off any excess, and then cover in breadcrumbs.
5. Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan over medium heat.  Once hot, add the croquettes in batches.  Cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes, and then flip.  Repeat on other side.  Remove from the oil and place on a paper towel to drain off excess oil.  Serve hot.

Ryan's rating of Potato Croquettes - I only got a 3 on the first batch, but the second batch, above, scored a 4. Much better!

1 - Awful. If you make this again I'll shove a fork in my eye.

2 - Meh. It's not my favorite, but I won't threaten self-harm if it shows up again.

3 - Good. I wouldn't feel forced to order a pizza behind your back. 

4 - Great! I will fight you for the leftovers.

5 - Love it! Make it again tomorrow. Or immediately and I will bathe in it.

 

Baci d'Alassio (Chocolate-Hazelnut Kisses)

Once the hazelnut and chocolate cake was gone from last week, I found myself craving hazelnuts again very quickly.  Luckily for me, a traditional dessert in Liguria is Baci d'Alassio.  These bite sized morsels employ that same decadent combination: chocolate and hazelnut.  Though these are time intensive since you have to let them sit overnight (will I ever choose a recipe that isn't time intensive?), they are fairly simple to put together.  Pair these with a cup of espresso and you have a fantastic mini dessert!

The word baci means kisses.  What can be more apt than equating these delicious treats with love?

 

Baci d'Alassio

Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

3 cups hazelnuts, roasted and peeled

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4-5 egg whites, room temperature

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

Process:

1. After roasting and peeling the hazelnuts, grind the hazelnuts in a food processor until it is a fine powder.  Place in a large bowl and mix in the sugar.
2. Add the butter, cocoa powder, honey, and vanilla to the bowl.  Mix thoroughly.
3. Add the egg whites, a little at a time, and mix well between each addition.  Add enough egg whites so that the dough becomes the consistency of a loose paste.  You may not need to use all of the egg whites.
4. Grease 2 baking sheets.  Spoon the hazelnut spread into a pastry bag with a No. 6 star tip.  If you don't have a pastry bag (which i don't), spoon the mixture into a ziploc bag and cut the tip off of one of the corners of the bag.  This will then serve as a pastry bag.
5. Pipe out rosettes 1 inch in diameter onto the baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.  You should have about 60 rosettes in all.  Let the rosettes sit overnight, uncovered at room temperature.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake the cookies until firm to the touch, but still moist inside, about 8-10 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack.
7. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  Once melted, remove from heat and let cool, stirring occasionally. 
8. Take one cookie and hold it upside down.  Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon chocolate onto the bottom of the cookie, and press a second cookie onto the chocolate, bottom side down, to form a sandwich.  Lay the cookie sandwich on a tray.  Do this with the rest of the cookies, giving you 30 sandwiches total.
9. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to set the chocolate.

Ryan's rating of Baci d'Alassio - 3.5. (Keep in mind that he doesn't like hazelnuts.  Again - inconceivable.)

Stuffed Mussels

When my friends and I were in Cinque Terre, we were determined to try the area's stuffed mussels, a dish they are well known for.  On our first night, we found a restaurant that served them, so we gave them a try.  Served in a light tomato sauce that was almost closer to a tomato broth, the mussels instantly made their way onto my "Best Thing I Ate in Italy" list.  Three of us each ate an entire plate of them.  The next day we were all still thinking about the mussels so much that we went back to the same restaurant and ordered them again.

Last night I tried to replicate the stuffed mussels to the best of my memory.  I made some slight alterations, though.  I was afraid that I would not get the sauce correct, and that it would end up making the breadcrumbs in the stuffing soggy, so I chose to make the sauce on the side to drizzle on top of the mussels.  In truth, Ryan and I didn't even end up using the sauce because the mussels were so good on their own! The mussels that I had in Cinque Terre were also stuffed with the shell still in tact.  I chose to stuff the mussels on the half shell. I knew I wouldn't be able to replicate those mussels perfectly, but I must have done something right because when Ryan got home from work his reaction was, "I'm surprised people aren't lined up outside.  You can smell dinner from the parking lot. It smells like an Italian restaurant in here!". 

Stuffed Mussels

Adapted from Food Network

-Serves 2 as a main course, or 4-6 as an appetizer-

Ingredients:

2 pounds mussels

1/2 cup white wine

3-4 thin slices of prosciutto

3/4 cup bread crumbs

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup olive oil plus a little extra to drizzle on mussels

salt and pepper to taste

Process:

1. To clean the mussels, put them in a large bowl and fill with fresh water until the mussels are completely submerged.  Add in 1/2 a cup of cornmeal and stir to combine.  Let the mussels sit for 30-60 minutes to expel the sand and salt in them.  If you don't have cornmeal, just let the mussels sit in fresh water for about 30 minutes.  Then, clean each mussel by first pulling off the "beard".  The beard is the patch of threads hanging out of the side hinge of the mussel.  Remove it by pulling it towards the hinge, or with a sharp knife.  Then, scrub the mussels with a firm brush.  When clean, place in a clean bowl with a little fresh water.  Throw out any mussels that are open or chipped.
2. After the mussels are cleaned, put them in a saute pan with the wine and cook over high heat until the mussels open.  Throw out any mussels that do not open.  (Note: you can also steam the mussels open with fresh water rather than wine.  The wine just adds to the flavor.)
3. Remove one half of the shell on each mussel.  Place the mussels in their half shells on a baking sheet. 
4. Chop up the prosciutto and mix in a bowl with the bread crumbs, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Be very light on the salt; the prosciutto adds a lot of salt to the mixture already.  Mix everything together thoroughly.
5. Put a little bit of the bread crumb mixture on top of each mussel.  Drizzle the mussels with a little more olive oil.
6. Broil the mussels for about 2-3 minutes, or until the bread crumbs are golden brown.  Serve hot.

 

As I said, these are absolutely fantastic on their own, but if you want to add a sauce to them, just mix some marinara sauce with some white wine and let it simmer for a few minutes.  This will thin out the sauce and give it even more depth of flavor!

Ryan's rating of Stuffed Mussels - 5.  Cha-ching!

Trofie al Pesto

One of the most well known foods from Liguria is also one of the most versatile - pesto.  Basil pesto has an amazing fresh taste, and can be used in dozens of different kinds of pasta.  You can definitely stray outside of pasta, though. One of my favorite things to do with leftover pesto is to use it as a condiment on a panini. Take some of your homemade focaccia bread, layer it up with grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, and pesto and just grill it up to get an amazing sandwich. 

You can even get creative with the kind of pesto that you make.  Though basil pesto is traditional, one of my favorite kinds of pesto (and one that I experimented with making last night) is sun-dried tomato pesto.  Just substitute the sun-dried tomatoes for the basil in the pesto recipe below.  I could (and have) eat this by the jarful just as a spread over crostini. 

Since I was making traditional basil pesto last night along with my sun-dried tomato pesto, I decided to make a traditional pasta dish to use with the basil pesto - Trofie al pesto.  Trofie is a type of pasta that is perfect to make at home because it is one of the few types that doesn't need a pasta machine! Often this dish is made with green beans and potatoes mixed in.  Instead, I grilled up pieces of chicken breast and added that to the pasta and pesto mixture. This way, I can use the extra chicken in that panini I was talking about!

1.  Basil Pesto

Adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh basil

1/3 cup pine nuts

3 gloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese

salt

pepper

Process:

1. Put basil and pine nuts in food processor.  Pulse several times. 
2. Scrape down sides of processor, add garlic, and pulse again.
3. Add olive oil and parmigiano cheese and pulse again until everything is well Incorporated.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Trofie

Adapted from http://www.helenrennie.com/recipes/vegetarian/trofie.html

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour and extra for flouring surface

1 tsp salt

1 cup cold water

Semolina flour

Process:

1. Combine all purpose flour and salt in a large bowl.  Create a well in the middle and add in the water.
2. Using the tines of a fork, begin to mix together the flour mixture and water.  When the dough is too thick to use a fork, use your hands to continue mixing the dough  until all of the flour is incorporated.  If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour and mix together.
3. When the dough is still tacky but not sticky, knead the dough for 8 minutes.
4. Form the dough into a disk shape.  Sprinkle dough with flour, wrap in plastic, and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.
5. Sprinkle a large cookie sheet with semolina flour and a flat work surface with all purpose flour.
6. Cut a 2/3 inch strip from the dough (keep the rest of the dough covered except when using).
7.  Roll strip on a floured surface until it is a 1/3 inch thick rope.  Cut the rope into 1/4 inch pieces.
8. Take one piece of dough with your right hand and place it at the heel of your left hand, holding your left hand over the cookie sheet.  Roll your right hand forward quickly and with pressure and let the dough fall onto the cookie sheet.  The dough will shape into a little cylinder with tapered ends.  Do this with the rest of the pieces of dough.
9. When you have shaped all of the pieces of dough from one rope, sprinkle the pasta with semolina flour and shake the cookie sheet to coat.  Push these to the end of the cookie sheet and continue with the next rope.  Be sure to keep the pasta in only one layer so that they do not stick to each other.
10. Leave pasta uncovered at room temperature for 1-2 hours before cooking.

 

3.  Trofie al Pesto

Adapted from http://www.helenrennie.com/recipes/vegetarian/trofie.html

Ingredients

Pesto sauce

2 chicken breasts

Freshly made Trofie pasta (or 1 pound linguine as a substitute)

Process:

1. Make the above pesto and trofie pasta.
2. Grill chicken breasts and cut into 1/2 inch chunks.
3. Shake the trofie in a colander to shake off excess flour.
4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt the water.
5. Pour trofie into the pot and begin checking for readiness after about 30 seconds.  The pasta should take only about 30 seconds to 2 minutes to cook, depending on the size of your trofie, the heat of the water, etc.  Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried pasta, so watch it carefully!
6. Drain the pasta and return to the pot.  Stir in the chicken and as much pesto sauce as you would like.  Serve with grated parmigiano cheese on top.

Ryan's rating of Trofie al Pesto - 4.

Focaccia Bread

Ah, a new week and a new region.  This week my focus will be on Liguria, home of Genoa and Cinque Terre.  With picturesque homes built into the side of hills overlooking the ocean, the coastline of Liguria is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.  I was lucky enough to spend a several days traveling between the five towns that make up Cinque Terre during the semester that I lived in Ascoli Piceno.  The food, along with the sites, is absolutely unbelievable.  This week's meals are especially exciting to me as it gives me a chance to relive those days in Cinque Terre.

Me in Cinque Terre

Vernazza - my favorite of the five towns in Cinque Terre

 

One of the easiest breads to make, as well as one of the most frequently served breads in Liguria.  Nearly every day in Italy, my roommate and I would have "snack time".  This didn't end just because we were on a vacation in Cinque Terre for a few days.  We would buy some fresh focaccia bread and some cheese or salami, or whatever else we felt like, and sit on the rocks or the beach for a bit, savoring the view and our delicious snack! 

Making focaccia really is pretty simple.  Just be prepared for the fact that the dough is super sticky at first, and can make a huge mess if you aren't careful! (It was really fun trying to open the door for Ryan, who was standing in the pouring rain with his hands were full of groceries, while my hands were coated in dough.)  I like to top mine with sea salt and rosemary, but you can kick it up a notch and even do things like focaccia stuffed with cheese or spinach. Like everything else, experiment and have fun with it! 

Focaccia Bread

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

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon  active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 1/4 cups warm water (around 110 degrees)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Process:

1. Mix flour, yeast, and salt together either with a wooden spoon in a mixing bowl.
2. Add 3/4 cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Mix with a wooden spoon until everything is incorporated.  Continue to mix using either the spoon or your hands until the dough is no longer sticky, adding extra flour as needed.  Knead the dough for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
3. Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Flip the dough so that the top gets coated in oil as well. Cover the bowl with plastic or a moist towel and let the dough rise for about an hour.
4. Put dough on an oiled 18 inch pizza pan.  Use your fingers to stretch the dough to the edges of the pan.  If the dough is recoiling back after you stretch it, simply let it sit for a few minutes until it is easier to work with.  It is also ok if the dough simply does not reach to the edges. You will just end up with a slightly smaller focaccia.
5. Brush the top of the dough with the remaining olive oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary.  Press your fingers into the dough to create the characteristic "dimples" that is on focaccia bread.
6. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 45 minutes.  Preheat the oven the 475 degrees.
7. Bake at 475 for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top. Serve warm.

Ryan's rating of Focaccia Bread - 4.