Easter pastieri

In a previous post I mentioned how pastieri is one of my favourite Easter dishes to make simply because it's so easy. This dish was passed down to me from my Calabrese Nonna Filomena. Other than our family, I've never seen it made by anyone else. 

Mix all ingredients together before baking.

In Naples they make something called pastiera, which is completely different from our recipe. Go to the Napoli Unplugged blog for a mouth-watering collection of recipes. The Sicilians make a pastieri but it's a stuffed pastry, which looks fantastic, but still not like ours.

From what I've been told, after immigrating to North America, my Nonna's cooking was greatly influenced by her Neapolitan sister-in-law who was a wonderful cook. Could this be where the name came from? I'm guessing this recipe is a combination of influences of Italian immigrants from other regions, along with the availability of ingredients in a small city at the time they immigrated. 

Whatever the reasons, it's a lovely food tradition that finds its way onto the table at family reunions reminding us of how we're connected.

If you've made pastieri or recognize this dish, please leave me a comment. If you try this for the first time, let me know about it. 

Cut in rectangles and serve cold. Eat with your hands.

The recipe

Pastieri makes an interesting addition to an Easter Brunch. It keeps well in the fridge, making it a good prepare-ahead dish.

• Cook 1 lb (or 500 g) linguini in salted water. Once cooked, rinse in cold water to cool (so it won't cook the eggs when they’re mixed together). Drain well.
• Beat 1 dozen eggs
• Add:

- Ricotta, 1 container (16-ounce or 500 gram)
- Grated cheese, 1 cup or more of parmesan, use romano if you like a stronger cheese
- Italian parsley, chopped, 1 bunch or 1/2 cup (to your liking)
- Black pepper, to taste

• Mix all ingredients together and let rest for about 20 minutes.
• Pour into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Press down on the pasta mixture with your hands (to get the air out) and smooth the top.
• Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.
• Remove from oven and cool.
• Serve cold, cut into rectangular pieces. Eat with your hands.

Enjoy!

Christmas Biscotti

This is my holiday spin on our traditional Italian biscotti, or what we used to call "Auntie Inesse cookies." The dried cranberries and pistachios give the cookies a lovely holiday feel. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped pistachios

3/4 cup dried cranberries

Method:

Cream butter and sugar until light.

Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add this dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix until blended.

Divide the dough in half. On a greased and floured baking sheet, shape into two logs (1/2-inch high, 1 1/2 inches wide, about 14 inches long) and place two inches apart.

Bake at 325F for 25 minutes (until lightly browned).

Transfer from the baking sheet to a rack for cooling. After 10 minutes, move to a cutting board and, using a serrated knife, slice diagonally about 1/2 inch thick.

Lay the slices flat on the baking sheet and return to a 200F oven for one hour.

Once cooked, let cool o

n a rack. Store in a covered container.

Makes about three dozen.

Looking for other Christmas cookies?

Here are some of my past Christmas cookie postings:

• Scalille: traditional Calabrese honey cookies.
• Pizzelle: anise cookies.

Eat Christmas Cookies, Season 3!

I've submitted this recipe to Food Blogga's Eat Christmas Cookies, Season 3! event.

If you have awesome holiday cookies, find out how to participate.

Check out all the great cookies on the round-up page.

Zucchini Sousa

Zucchini sousa is a traditional family dish that's made with large zucchini during the height of the season when you don't know what you'd ever do with one more zucchini. This dish was a highlight of my childhood summers, made with zucchini from the gardens of nonnos, zios and neighbours.

I don't know what the word "sousa" means or if it's even a real word. And I don't know of anyone outside the family who makes this recipe. If you've heard of it, please leave a comment.

This is a fabulous summer side dish or picnic dish. It's served cold and tastes better the next day. If you like wine vinegar, you'll love this dish. My dad doesn't know this but he makes the best red wine vinegar ever. Don't ask about his wine.

Here's the recipe handed down from my nonna and mom. In true nonna fashion, it has no quantities. And in true Deb fashion, my sweetie makes it for me.

Ingredients

- medium or large zucchinis (not gigantic ones because they're too seedy)

- soft bread crumbs

- grated parmesan cheese

- fresh peppermint leaves

- red wine vinegar (use a lot)

- batter (flour, egg, milk, salt, baking powder)

- oil for frying

- salt

Method

- Slice zucchini into 1/8-inch rounds

- Salt and then drain (put them in a colander with a weight -- a jug of water on a plate -- to drain the liquid from the zucchini)

- Dip the zucchini rounds in your batter and deep fry

- Put the fried rounds on a paper towel to drain off the oil

Assemble while the zucchini is still warm

On a serving platter, layer:

- fried zucchini rounds

- grated parmesan cheese (sprinkle onto the warm zucchini)

- pieces of mint leaves (make sure there's enough for every bite)

- bread crumbs

- sprinkling of red wine vinegar (sprinkle liberally with each layer)

Continue layering until all the zucchini is used.

Refrigerate (overnight is best) and serve cold.

Delicious! Thank you nonna!

Fresh romano beans

I love beans. Sweetie is allergic to beans. When sweetie is away, I make "bean delight!" Doesn't matter what the dish is, we always call it bean delight.

My last bean delight dish was a warm romano bean salad. I was thrilled to find fresh romano beans at a local produce place and greedily purchased them for my dinner. I was so happy, I think I skipped a few steps along the Drive.

Reality set in when I got the beans home. Now what? How do I tackle this now foreign-looking bag of pods? I took a three-pronged approach:

1. Ask Twitter. This was a #fail, which I attribute to the Italians still being asleep when I tweeted.
2. Call Mom. Dad answered, uh-oh, Mom was out of the country. I tried to get Dad to channel nonna for her recipe but it was futile.
3. Google the experts.

Google wasn't as easy as it sounds, partly because I didn't know that romano beans are also called cranberry beans or borlotti beans. I settled on combining the wisdom of Mark Bittman and David Lebovitz.

Here's what I did. It's nonna-style, with imprecise quantities and instructions. Simply do what feels right.

Warm romano bean salad

• Shell your romano beans: This is best done outside because that's how my nonnas did it. Before starting, pour yourself a nice glass of red wine (that's my addition). Shell the beans directly into your pot. Discard the pods.
• Add water and a few cloves of garlic to your pot of beans and bring to a boil.
• Simmer 20-30 minutes or to your liking.
• Drain.
• Mix the warm beans with your favourite vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette for about 2 cups of cooked beans

Mix together:

• 5 T olive oil
• Thinly sliced onions
• Chopped fresh basil
• 1 1/2 T dry white wine
• 1 1/2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Add the warm beans to your vinaigrette. Try adding tomatoes or greens if you like.

Enjoy your bean delight!

It's smoking hot and I decide to bake

What was I thinking? We're in the middle of heat wave and instead of sitting in a tub of ice water, I turn on the oven to bake a cake. And you remember that I don't cook a lot. 

Well, I had the kitchen to myself and wanted to bring something memorable to our friends' crabfest. And we had a fridge full of rhubarb.

This is a no-fail recipe but sweetie says I make it better than anyone. For that reason it makes my "signature dishes" list.

I love that this recipe breaks all the baking rules that I learned in my high school home ec class. You don't need to separate the wet ingredients from the dry ones, and you don't need to cut the butter into the size of small peas. You simply mix everything up, bake and serve. 

Rhubarb cake recipe

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter (melted is okay and easier to mix)

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour milk (to make sour milk, mix 1 cup milk with 2 tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice)

2-3 cups of chopped rhubarb

Topping: 1/3 cup white sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all but the topping ingredients together and put into a greased 9 x 11 baking pan.

Sprinkle with the topping mixture.

Bake 45 minutes in a 350 F degree oven

That's it. Enjoy!

Hot lemon drink

Like most people I know, I've struggled with the cycling cold/flu bug for far too long this year. While I haven't found a cure, my hot lemon concoction has helped me make it through many, many days and nights. This goes out to CS who is relapsing with a cold.

In your favourite mug, add:

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 T honey (to taste -- I like mine tart)

a few dashes of hot sauce 

a 1/4 inch slice of fresh ginger, peeled and squished a bit

Add a little bit of boiling water and stir to melt honey.

Fill mug with hot water and stir.

Bundle up with your laptop and a wool blanket and get well soon!

One pot: Baked oatmeal

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't cook a lot and when I do, it's not very complex. That's because I live with an amazing cook who is also my culinary slave as well as a recipe tester-at-large for America's Test Kitchen. My one-pot dishes and "bean delight" don't stand a chance against my sweetie's creations.

About a month ago, Cream Puffs in Venice [don't click on that link or you'll never come back -- she kicks my butt] blogged about a baked oatmeal breakfast dish that caught my attention. I read it three of four times finally convincing myself that I could do this, after all it was all in one pot. 

My sweetie was out of town and, honestly, I have no idea what a rolled oat is and how it's different from other oats. I saw we had a bag of flaked oats in the cupboard and that's what I used. 

This is a great little recipe and now that I've found it I'm less likely to skip breakfast. Here's my adaptation:

1 cup whole rolled oats (I use about 1 1/3 cups flaked oats because Sweetie likes the density. What's the difference between whole & flaked?)

1 tsp. cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. maple syrup (Sweetie says to try 1 1/2 tbsp of honey if you don't have maple syrup. We'll try that next time.)
1 tbsp. grated orange zest
2 medium apples, peeled and diced (I use whatever I have on hand, usually a crisp eating apple)
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (I use pecans, because we have lots of them)

1/4 cup fresh frozen blueberries (I freeze them in August and enjoy them through the winter. Once the raspberries ripen, I'll try a handful of them instead.)
1-1/4 cups milk 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9-inch pie plate or baking dish with butter or cooking spray

Combine all the ingredients in ONE (I love this part) large bowl and mix well.

Pour into the greased pie plate.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed (don’t overcook or it will dry out).

Remove from the oven and let cool. Serve warm with yogurt (I like vanilla yogurt). Add extra honey or maple syrup as desired.

YUM!