Cucina DiBella

Agnoletti

Agnoletti is a ravioli traditionally made in Piemonte that is filled with a mixture of meat, spinach and cheese.  For mine, I went with a ground beef filling, but you could use ground pork, ground turkey, or if you want to be more authentic, ground veal or rabbit.  With such a simple filling, you can really do anything as far as a sauce goes.  Marinara sauce works wonderfully, as would a light alfredo sauce.  However, to be true to tradition, I made a sauce from the pan drippings after browning the meat.  Similar to a gravy, the sauce is just beef broth, butter, and a little flour, but packs quite a punch of flavor.  This is a time consuming recipe, but totally worth it. Enjoy!

 

 

Agnoletti

Adapted from Mario Batali at Food Network

Makes approx. 30 ravioli

Ingredients:

For the filling:

1/2 pound ground beef

1 tablespoon garlic

5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and chopped

2 tablespoons fresh grated parmesan cheese

1 egg

salt

pepper

For the dough:

2 cups all purpose flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:

2 cups beef broth

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-2 tablespoons flour

Process:

1. Begin by making the filling so that it has time to cool before you fill the ravioli.  Add the beef and garlic to a skillet and brown the beef.  Break the beef up well as it cooks.  Don't worry if some of the beef caramelizes on the bottom of the plan. It will make for a wonderful sauce later!
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef with the spinach, cheese and egg.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Reserve the pan that the beef cooked in to later make the sauce.
3. To make the dough, whisk together the flour and salt on a clean counter top or on a large cutting board.  Gently mix the eggs in a bowl.  Make a well in the center of the flour and add the eggs to the well. 
4. Use a fork to gently mix the flour into the eggs until you have a homogeneous mixture. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until no longer sticky. Divide into two dough balls.  Wrap one in plastic while working with the other. 
5. Using a pasta roller, roll out the dough until nearly translucent (setting 6 on a KitchenAid).
6. Cut off the edges of the sheet so that it is about 5 inches high.  Place 1/2 tablespoon size balls of filling along the bottom half of the sheet about 2 inches apart.  Fold the top half of the past sheet down over the filling. Pinch the dough around each ball of filling to completely seal each raviolo.  Cut down the center between each ball of filling to produce the ravioli.  Place on a baking sheet and dust with flour until ready to cook.  Repeat with the remaining pasta sheets.
7. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt.  While waiting for the water to boil, make the sauce.
8. To make the sauce, reheat the pan that the beef was browned in over medium heat.  Once hot, deglaze with the beef broth, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the butter and bring to a simmer for about 3 minutes to reduce the sauce slightly.  Add flour to get sauce to desired thickness.
9. Once the water is boiling, add the ravioli and cook about 4-6 minutes until al dente.  Drain and serve with the sauce and sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese.

Ryan's rating of Agnoletti - 5.  He absolutely loved this one.  When he went to get seconds he couldn't even be bothered to wait the 30 seconds it would have taken to heat it up a little since it had cooled.

 

Salsa Verde

I don't know about you, but my Italian sauces pretty much consist of tomato sauce, pesto, and alfredo sauce.  There's not too much variation going on here.  So, I was really excited to find out that one of the traditional recipes from Piemonte is for Salsa Verde.  It's a green sauce that's pretty similar to pesto, except it is made with parsley.  This sauce is usually used on boiled meats, but I couldn't think of anything more unappetizing than boiled meats.  So instead, I used it on baked fish, and it was fantastic.  This would also be great on toasted bread or roasted vegetables.  Give it a try and share with us your favorite way to use Salsa Verde!

 

 

Salsa Verde

Adapted from La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy, The Italian Academy of Cuisine, 2009, Rizzoli Publications 

Ingredients:

1 bunch flat leaf parsley

2 cloves garlic

2 anchovies

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2/3 cup olive oil

Process:

1. Put the parsley in a food processor and chop well.  (Note: instead of a food processor feel free to chop finely by hand.)
2. Add the garlic, anchovies, breadcrumbs, cheese, and red wine vinegar to the food processor.  Chop until no big pieces are left.  (Note: instead of a food processor feel free to chop finely by hand.)
3. Slowly add in the olive oil and mix the food processor until smooth.  (Note: instead of a food processor, whisk in the oil.)

Ryan's rating of Salsa Verde: 4.

 

Hazelnut and Chocolate Cake

Luckily for me, Piemonte is graced with an abundance of one of my favorite nuts - hazelnuts.  This gave me the opportunity to make a torta della nocciola, or a hazelnut cake.  To make this dessert even more delicious, I found a recipe for a hazelnut and chocolate cake, or torta della nocciola e del cioccolato.  The combination of hazelnut and chocolate is amazing.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to sit down with a tub of nutella (and what I buy really can be called a tub), a spoon, and a loaf of bread. 

Torta della Nocciola e del Cioccolato

Adapted from Diana's Desserts

Ingredients:

8 oz hazelnuts

8 oz bittersweet chocolate

8 eggs, separated into yolks and whites

1/2 cup superfine sugar

Confectioners' sugar, melted chocolate, etc. for decoration

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Roast and peel the hazelnuts. Put hazelnuts on a shallow pan and put in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until the skin begins to crack.  Working with a few nuts at a time, rub with a kitchen cloth to remove skin.  If little pieces of skin stay on, don't worry too much about it. It won't kill you or ruin the cake!
3. Leave oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 10x2 inch round cake pan.
4. In a food processor, pulse the hazelnuts.  Put in a bowl.  Next, pulse the chocolate.  Combine with hazelnuts.
5. In a mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks with 1/4 cup of superfine sugar.  Beat until light and ribbony.
6. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Slowly add the other 1/4 cup sugar, and beat until stiff peaks form.
7. Fold the chocolate and nuts into the egg yolks.  Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture.
8. Fill the cake pan 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  Let cool. 
9. Sprinkle with sugar, chocolate or whatever else you would like to decorate it with!

 

When I made this cake, I only had a 9 x 1 1/2 inch cake pan in my house, so I ended up with some batter left over. I filled up a muffin tin, and made some hazelnut and chocolate muffins as well!  Cook the muffins at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes.

Ryan's rating of torta della nocciola e del cioccolato - 3.5 if you don't like hazelnuts (which he doesn't. Inconceivable.) and 4.5 if you do (which, as I've already mentioned at least 10 times, I do!). 

Beef Braised in Barolo Wine

A traditional main course in Piemonte is Brasato al Barolo or Beef Braised in Barolo Wine.  This is a hearty meat dish that cooks for several hours, making the house smell amazing while it's cooking! This dish is also a little bit of a contradiction. While a very homey, comforting meal, the traditional recipe uses (of course) Barolo wine. The contradictory part? Barolo wine costs $50 a bottle. I'm all set with that. So, I cheated in my recipe and the used cheaper version: a $10 bottle of Chianti.

Brasato al Barolo

Adapted from Food Network

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 (3 pound) rump roast

1 large onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 bottle Barolo (or Chianti or any other full bodied red wine)

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

2 cups Beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Process:

1. Put the beef in a bowl with the onion, carrot and celery.  Pour in the bottle of wine.  Cover and refrigerate 12-24 hours. 
2. Remove beef from the marinade. Reserve marinade. Pat beef dry. Salt and pepper all sides. 
3. Heat a little oil over medium high heat in a large skillet.  Seer beef on all sides to create a crust.  Remove beef and set aside.  Remove onion, carrot, and celery from marinade. Reserve marinade.  Saute vegetables for about 5 minutes.
4. Put beef and vegetables in a large pot.  Add reserved marinade and beef stock.  Cover and cook over low heat for about 3 hours, turning the beef periodically, until beef is cooked through.
5. Remove beef and let sit for about 10 minutes before slicing.
6. Strain the sauce into a saucepan.  Add tomato paste to help thicken. Cook over a medium high heat about 10 minutes or until the sauce has reduced and thickened.  Spoon over sliced beef and serve!

The sauce in this recipe is delicious.  It sounds like the wine would be overwhelming, but when you reduce the sauce at the end it really marries the wine flavor with the broth and tomato paste to create something fabulous! And, I know I said this before, but the aroma that this gives off while it's cooking is amazing!

Ryan's rating of Brasato al Barolo: 4.

Gnocchi

The biggest challenge so far in doing this project is trying to find recipes that are authentic to a given region.  Culture, traditions, and food are so intertwined between areas that for most recipes, several regions make a claim for it.  So, keep in mind that any of the recipes that I attribute to a specific region may in fact be traditional in another nearby region as well.

That definitely goes for gnocchi.  Gnocchi is eaten all over Italy, but I'm cooking it during my Piemonte week because the area not only relies heavily on gnocchi and risotto rather than pasta, but because it has a traditional mushroom sauce that is served with gnocchi.  The great part about gnocchi though is that you can do a thousand different things with it.  I made the mushroom sauce for my husband, but for myself I added just a simple marinara sauce and parmigiano reggiano cheese.  You could also eat gnocchi with a pesto sauce, just some olive oil and cheese, a meat sauce, an alfredo sauce, or anything else you can think of.  Making the gnocchi from scratch is a challenge, and takes some practice to perfect in terms of technique, (I'm going to need a couple more tries to get it right) but it's totally worth it. 

Gnocchi

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients:

2 pounds russet potatoes

1/4 cup egg, slightly beaten

1 cup all-purpose flour

salt

Process:

1. Fill a large pot with cold water and add salt. Place the potatoes (with the skin still on) in the pot.  Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until a fork can pierce them easily (about 40-50 minutes).
2. Remove the potatoes from the water and peel each.  You may want to use a kitchen towel to hold the potatoes if they are too hot.  Mash the potatoes by either putting them through a potato ricer or by running the tines of a fork down the side of the potato.  Don't over mash the potatoes.  You just want them to be a fluffy potato base to work with. 
3. Spread the potatoes over a cutting board and let the potatoes cool for about 10 minutes.
4. Using either a bowl or the cutting board, pull the potatoes into a soft mound and drizzle with the beaten egg.  Sprinkle 3/4 cup of the flour over the top.  Fold the mixture onto itself until the egg and flour are well incorporated. 
5. Lightly knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky.  Don't be afraid of adding more flour.  If there isn't enough flour, the gnocchi will come out sticky and mushy.
6. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces.  Gently roll each piece into a long, snake shaped piece about the thickness of your thumb.  
7. Cut the pieces ever 3/4 inch.  Set aside and dust with a little more flour until ready to cook. 

This is what the potatoes should look like after going through the ricer. 

This is the gnocchi after the dough has been rolled and cut.

Gnocchi in Mushroom Sauce

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps minced

1/2 cup shallots, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 3/4 cups beef stock

Process:

1. Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the mushrooms, garlic and shallots.  Saute about 10 minutes.
3. Add stock.  Simmer until slightly reduced, about 8 minutes.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Cook the gnocchi.  Bring a pot of water to a boil and season with salt.  Drop the gnocchi into the water in batches, about 20 at a time.  The gnocchi are done when they float up to the surface (this is when the gnocchi stay at the surface, not when they are being pushed up to the surface momentarily by the boiling water).
6. Plate the gnocchi and spoon sauce over top.

(Ryan likes to overdo it with the sauce)

Here is my plate of gnocchi with some marinara sauce and parmigiano cheese:

As usual, I made more than Ryan and I could even think about eating.  So, I ended up freezing about half the gnocchi to use another time.  To freeze gnocchi, spread it out on a cookie sheet and then put the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 10 minutes, just until the gnocchi start to freeze.  Then, put them into a plastic bag or tupperware container and freeze.  To cook, just drop the frozen gnocchi into boiling water as you would fresh gnocchi.

Ryan's rating of Gnocchi with Mushroom Sauce: 4. And believe me, it really is going to be a fight for the leftovers on this one!

Antipasto from Piemonte - Bagna Cauda

Piemonte (Piedmont), like Valle d'Aosta, is nestled in the northwest corner of Italy, surrounded by France, Switzerland, and the Alps. Literally, "pied monte" means "at the foot of the mountains".  Many tourists enjoy this feature, experiencing great skiing in the Alps. If I were a smart person, I would have taken the mountainous terrain into account when making Bagna Cauda, a traditional antipasto dish from Piemonte. 

I'll give you one hint as to why this appetizer didn't go over so well between Ryan and I on a 94 degree summer day (Yes, once in awhile it gets over 70 degrees in Maine).  Bagna Cauda is translated to mean "warm bath".  Basically, it is a hot garlic anchovy dip that you use with veggies and bread.  On a hot summer day, I would lean more towards just putting some high quality olive oil on a plate with some garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper and dipping my bread in that.  I'm going to include a picture even though it looks fairly unidentifiable as anything more than olive oil in a bowl.

Actually, it kind of looks like French Onion Soup...but I wouldn't recommend eating it that way.

Bagna Cauda

Adapted from Italian Made

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1-2 oz anchovies, chopped

1/2 cup butter

pepper

Process:

1. Saute the garlic and anchovies in the olive oil, stirring until the anchovies melt into the oil.  Be sure not to have the heat too high, or the garlic will burn.
2. Add the butter to the oil and mix.  Add pepper to taste
3. Serve hot with veggies or bread for people to dip.

I have also seen people add a small amount of cream at the very end, but to keep this a little lighter I opted to skip that step. Can I call it light when it has 1/2 a cup of butter in it? Anyway, overall it wasn't bad, although I did burn my garlic a little. But I would probably reserve it for a winter night if I were to make it again. At least in Maine that means I can probably try it again in about 2 months!

Ryan's rating of Bagna Cauda - 2. I guess that makes this my first flop...it was bound to happen at some point! And I still believe the hot weather hurt me a lot on this one.