Cucina DiBella

Amaretti Cookies

Amaretti cookies are a classic dessert throughout Italy, but are especially prevalent in Sardegna.  The island has an abundance of almonds, and they take a starring role in many of its recipes.  This almond flavored, crunchy cookie is perhaps one of the most ubiquitous of the almond treats. An Italian macaroon, this dessert is perfect with a nice cup of espresso.

There seem to be two camps when it comes to Amaretti recipes.  One version combines sugar and ground almonds with beaten egg whites.  This produces a cookie that closely resembles a meringue, and which is similar in nature to the Brutti ma Buonicookies that I made back during the Lombardia region.  The other version uses almond paste, sugar, and egg whites (non-beaten) to produce a cookie that almost resembles a snicker-doodle in shape, but which is more crunchy.  Both are delicious, but the almond paste Amaretti are much easier to make and are more likely to satisfy that cookie craving! But, make up your own mind!

Amaretti version 1 (Meringue version)

Adapted from CD Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds

1 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a food processor, grind the almonds together with the sugar.
3. In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. 
4. Add the almond and vanilla extracts to the egg whites.  Gently fold in the ground almonds and sugar until well combined.
5. Spray a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Place rounded tablespoons of the mixture onto the baking sheet, about 1 to 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are beginning to turn golden. The cookies should be firm to the touch.

Ryan'sSue's rating of Amaretti version 1: 3.5.

Amaretti version 2 (Almond paste version)

Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

One 8 ounce can or tube of almond paste

1 cup superfine sugar

2 egg whites

Granulated sugar

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Break the almond paste into small pieces and put into the bowl of an electric mixer.
3. Add the sugar to the almond paste.  Beat on low speed until well combined.
4. Add the egg whites one at a time, mixing well between each egg. Mix the dough just until it begins to stick to the bottom of the bowl, about 1 minute. Try not to over mix.
5. When mixed, put the dough in a pastry bag or in a ziplock bag with the corner cut off of it.
6. Spray a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.  Pipe circles of the dough onto the baking sheet, about 1 and a half inches in diameter.  Leave about 1 to 2 inches between circles. Using a wet paper towel, lightly push down on the dough circles to smooth the top of the cookies.
7. Sprinkle the cookies with some granulated sugar.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cookies get a dark golden color.  The cookies will begin to crack on top. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.

Ryan'sSue's rating of Amaretti version 2: 4.5. These would only be better with some espresso!

Culingiones - Sardinian Ravioli

Making Culingiones, which are Sardinian ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach, was probably my proudest moment in cooking for this blog.  It was one of the most involved dishes that I've made, but more than that, it's something that I really wasn't sure I would be able to pull off. I was lucky in that my mom got me a pasta roller for my birthday, so rolling out the dough was no problem. If you don't have a pasta roller you can still make this, but rolling out the dough will be a little more tedious.

Traditionally, the ravioli is stuffed with Pecorino and Parmesan cheeses and spinach.  However, I've also seen versions that use potato as part of the filling. You will often see them made in a half moon shape with crimped edges, but for the sake of simplicity, I went with plain square ravioli.  Next time maybe I'll be a little more ambitious and go for the circlular version.  Culingiones are usually served with a simple tomato sauce or meat sauce.  However, I loved the flavors of the filling enough that I just ate it with some olive oil drizzled on top.

Culingiones - Sardinion Ravioli

Adapted from Italian Regional Cookingby Ada Boni, 1969

Serves 6

Ingredients:

For the dough:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

For the filling:

1/2 pound fresh spinach

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 pound Pecorino cheese

3 eggs

1 cup Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

Process:

1. To create the dough, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the flour and add the 5 eggs.  Knead on a slightly floured surface until you get a smooth, elastic dough.  You may need to add water if the dough is too dry.
2. Form the dough into a ball and put into a clean bowl.  Cover with a damp towel and let sit for 30 minutes.
3. While the dough sits, make the filling.  Wash the spinach but do not dry it completely.  Put the spinach in a pan.  Cook over a moderate heat, covered, until the leaves are tender, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Remove the spinach from the pan.  Once it cools, squeeze the water out of it and chop it finely. 
5. Add the olive oil to the pan that you used for the spinach.  Once heated through, return the spinach to the pan and saute over medium heat for about 3 minutes.
6. Remove the spinach from the pan and let cool.
7. In a bowl, combine the Pecorino cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. When the spinach is cool, add it to the bowl and mix thoroughly to combine.
8. Divide the dough into four pieces.  Either using a pasta roller or a rolling pin, roll out the dough as thin as possible into rectangular sheets. 
9. Use a kitchen knife to lightly mark squares that are two inches by two inches on one of the sheets. In the middle of each 2 by 2 square, place a spoonful of the filling. Cover with another one of the pasta sheets.  Press down firmly between all of the squares to seal the pasta. Use the a knife or a ravioli form to cut out each square and check that each raviolo is sealed completely. Repeat with the rest of the pasta sheets.
10. Bring a pot of water to boil.  Season with salt. Cook the ravioli in batches until al dente.  The ravioli will only take around 4 minutes to cook.  
11. Serve hot with olive oil or marinara sauce.

Ryan's rating of Culingiones - Sardinian Ravioli - 5.

Spaghetti all'Aragosta - Spaghetti with Lobster

Sardegna is a region that really agrees with my locale.  The island has an interesting history in which seafood actually didn't play as strong as role as you would think.  Sardegna was long vulnerable for invasion, and so in the past people often traveled inland for safety.  This led to the island region having a diet that was heavy on things like pig and boar.  However, seafood now plays a more focal role in Sardinian food.  Rock lobster and sea urchins are among the seafood most commonly used.  Living in Maine, I'm able to get fresh lobster quite easily, and sometimes for less per pound than I would pay for chicken. So the recipe that I found from Sardegna for Spaghetti with Lobster sounded perfect! 

This is a really simple dish, made even simpler if you can buy lobster tails or chunk lobster tail meat rather than cooking a cutting apart an entire lobster.  The sauce is made from white wine (or fish broth), tomatoes, and onion.  This gives the dish a taste that is reminiscent of the Brodetto soup that I made from Le Marche.  This dish is absolutely delicious, and if you don't have easy (or cheap) access to lobster, you can easily make it with schrimp or scallops instead.

Spaghetti all'Aragosta - Spaghetti with Lobster

Adapted from La Cucina: The regional Cooking of Italy by the italian Academy of Cuisine, 2009

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced

10 ounces diced tomatoes in their juices

1/2 cup white wine or fish broth

pinch red pepper flakes

3/4 to 1 pound lobster meat (If using full lobsters, this would be 1 to 2 lobsters totaling about 2 pounds)

salt

1 pound spaghetti

Process:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and saute about 3 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and their juices, along with the wine or fish stock and the red pepper flakes to the pan.  Cook over medium heat about 15 - 20 minutes to thicken.
3. With about 10 minutes left, add the lobster to the pan and finish cooking.
4. While the sauce and lobster cook, bring a pot of water to a boil.  Add salt.  Cook the spaghetti until al dente.
5. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce and lobster. Serve hot.

Ryan'sSue's rating of Spaghetti all'Aragosta/Spaghetti with Lobster - 5.

Pane Carasau and Pane Guttiau

It figures that in the last (last!?) region of Italy I would have a kitchen disaster.  A typical antipasto in Sardegna, which is the large island off of the west coast of Italy, is Pane Carasau.  This is a very crispy flatbread.  It's generally eaten with pieces of salami or cheese, but can also be modified into different dishes.  One version is Pane Guttiau, which is Pane Carasau that is topped with olive oil, pecorino cheese, and salt.  I tried to make both versions, figuring that it would be a fairly straightforward recipe.  No such luck.

Things started out well enough; the dough came together wonderfully.  However, things started to fall apart when the baking part began.  Each piece must be cooked at a very high temperature so that it balloons up.  You are then supposed to cut along the seam of each piece so that you separate the top layer from the bottom layer and then put them back in the oven to crisp up.  Well, I had a hell of a time trying to get them to balloon up correctly.  Most of my attempts got large air pockets in some areas, but not throughout, which led to me butchering the bread when I tried to separate the layers (a surgeon I am not).  I also ran into several getting too crispy in the first round of baking, which made them crack and crumble in my hands as I tried to bisect them.  I played around with the temperature, experimenting at different intervals between 400 and 500 degrees, played with the time that I baked the bread for, rolled the dough to different thicknesses and even tried different methods of baking it such as on a pizza pan, on a baking sheet, or directly on the rack.  Of 8 attempts (which should have given me 16 pieces of Pane Carasau once the cutting was done), I got about 4 pieces that seemed to resemble the pictures in the recipes in a 3rd cousin sort of way.

Conclusions?  This recipe is great if you can get it right, because it can be used with practically any cheese, meat, tapenade, or other topping that you can think of. But, it's hard to replicate in a crappy electric oven.  For this you really want a wood burning pizza oven that can reach insanely hot temperatures.  In the recipe below, I went with the method that produced the best result from all of my attempts.  If anyone manages to make this work, please let me know how you did it!

Pane Carasau

Adapted from The Ingredient Store

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cup semolina flour

1 teaspoon salt

Process:

1. In a small bowl, combine the yeast with 1/4 of a cup of warm water.  Let sit about 10 minutes, until the mixture is bubbly and foamy.
2. In a large bowl,  combine the two kinds of flour and the salt.  Make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture along with the remaining 3/4 of a cup of warm water.  Use a fork to gradually add the flour into the water mixture.  Once it become too difficult to use a fork, use your hands to continue mixing until you get a smooth dough.
3. Cover the bowl with a damp, clean towel and let it sit for an hour.  After an hour has passed, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes.
4. Cover the bowl again and let the dough sit for another hour.  After an hour has passed, knead for another 5 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.
6. Cut the dough into 8 pieces.  Roll each piece out in a circle as thin as you can (should be between 12 and 15 inches in diameter).
7. Put one of the rolled out pieces of dough on a pizza pan or stone and bake for about 2 minutes.  Try to resist peaking in the oven until the time is up!
8. Pull out the dough and carefully using an oven mitt (it will be hot!), use a knife to cut horizontally along the seam to create two pieces of dough.  Put these aside for now.  Repeat this with all of your pieces of dough.
9. When all of the dough has been baked the first time and split, return them to the oven for another 30 seconds to 1 minutes, just until it crisps up and browns a little.

Ryan'sSue's rating of Pane Carasau - 2 with a potential for a 4 if I could figure it out. Hey, they can't all be home runs!

Pane Guttiau

Adapted from The Sardinia Cookbook

Ingredients:

4 pieces of Pane Carasau

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mediterranean Sea Salt

Pecorino Romano Cheese

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Sprinkle the pieces of Pane Carasau with some olive oil, salt, and pecorino cheese. 
3. Bake just until the cheese melts. 

Ryan'sSue's rating of Pane Guttiau - 3.  The cheese improves the dish, but it again would be better if the base Pane Carasau had turned out better!