PIZZA RUSTICA

YIELDS: 9 INCH SPRINGFORM PIE

Everything about this deep-dish cake-like pie is rustic.  There are as many versions for this food as there are Italians, however, the common thread is a two-crusted torta –pie filled with basket or ricotta cheese, various dried salumi, cured ham (prosciutto), bound with eggs and baked. It can be served as an antipasto or main dish.  In certain parts of Italy, Pizza Rustica signals Easter week.  The day after Easter Sunday many Italian families, pack up their families and picnic baskets for a drive into the countryside.  This is the perfect food, since it can be enjoyed either at room temperature or gently warmed

Ingredients

2 lbs of Nick Malgieri’s pasta frolla dough:

1 lb all purpose flour

4 oz sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 oz butter

6 oz eggs

Filling:

4 ounces Genoa salami, 1/4 inch dice

4 ounces dry sausage, 1/4 inch dice

4 ounces sliced prosciutto, diced

4 ounces provolone, grated

4 ounces parmegiano, grated

1 lb basket cheese

4 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup minced parsley

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1. Prepare the pasta frolla dough in advance and refrigerate 1 hour.  Place all flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.  Either with the paddle attachment of a kitchen aid or using your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like grated parmiagian cheese.  Add the eggs all at once and mix until the dough forms a homogenous mass.  Split the dough in half, wrap and refrigerate.

1. Grease a spring form pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the meats, cheeses, eggs, parsley and pepper.
3. Using 1 piece of dough at a time, roll out to 1/8 inch thick.  Fold the dough into quarters and place in the bottom of the cake pan.  Unfold the dough, pressing the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan until it reaches the top.  Trim the top edge with a knife.
4. Drop the cheese and meat mixture into the pan and press down.  It should come up 3/4 of the pan.
5. Roll out the other half of the dough.  Using a fluted pastry wheel or knife cut 3/4 inch strips.  Lay the strips on the top of the mixture diagonally, in both directions.  Brush the lattice with egg white wash.
6. Bake for 1 hour.  Cool in the pan. Unmold and serve warm or refrigerate and reheat.

Kale & White Bean Soup

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon diced pancetta

1 cup ¼ inch diced onion, peeled

1 cup ¼ inch diced celery, peeled

1 cup ¼ inch diced carrot, peeled

Pinch salt & pepper

1 can (450 grams) canned cannellini beans

4 cups chopped lacinato (a variety) kale

1 qt chicken stock

1 bay leaf

1 clove garlic peeled &minced

Sprig of thyme

Rind of parmegiano cheese

Olive oil

1/2 cup grated parmegiano

Procedure

Preliminary:  remove the ribs of the kale, chop the leaves and rinse

Heat enough olive oil to thinly coat the bottom of a soup pot.  Add the pancetta and cook for 2 minutes to render the fat.  Add the onions, celery & carrots. Add a good pinch of salt & black pepper.  Cover the pot and cook over low heat until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.

Add the kale, turning the kale until the kale is wilted.

Meanwhile, drain the beans.  When the vegetables are soft, add the beans , stock, bay leaf, thyme , garlic and rind of the parmegiano. Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf, thyme sprigs and cheese rind. Season with grated parmegiano cheese.

Are you prepared for the meals & entertaining blitz that’s around the corner? My sister Patricia is great as a stylist, but when it comes to the kitchen, I have to put her on kitchen clean-up duty. Here are some great tips to help you avoid that frazzled feeling that makes you want to head to a deserted island .

1. Make a list of your recipes including all your ingredients and equipment

2. In choosing your dishes, consider how much of any 1 appliance will be required.  There’s nothing worse than trying to fit a potato gratin into an oven with 1 rack and a 12 lb roast.

3. Do you have the right equipment? Your 8 in skillet may not accommodate that 4 lb batch of mushrooms.

4. Do you have an adequate supply of baking sheets?  They are invaluable for holding food while you are cooking small batches of anything.

5. Do you have alot of square and rectangular containers with flat lids? These will make efficient use of refrigerator and freezer space letting you prepare in adavance.

6. What can you do the day before, or a week before?  Read your recipes and list everything that can be prepped at least a day before.

And don’t forget to ask for help from you friends and family before the party begins.  The kitchen is part work, part entertainment.

Buon Apetito!

Every Wednesday morning, I climb up a stone stairway. At the top, trucks line outside the walls of Castiglione del Lago snaking up into the centro storico along Via Vittorio Emanuele, the main drag. Everything from the best local & regional fruits, vegetables, and plants to inexpensive cotton towels, cheap socks, tee shirts, shoes and house wares can be found here at a “good “price.  Hence the term “buon mercato” referring to the “good prices”.

Going to the mercato is not a chore where you have to pick up your provisions, but rather a thoroughly enjoyable social event that can last up to 3 hours. The vendors get to know you by name.  Everything begins with an enthusiastic “Buon Giorno” followed by a little chiacchiere “chatter.

Over the years, I’ve come to love the fruits and vegetables from Gianluca & Carla at TuttoFrutta.  I never “touch” anything.  Instead I ask. They pick out the best, bag it, and hold it until I’m finished shopping.  You see, a true seller knows that too many hands spoil the produce.

Next, it’s on to the center of the town where I’ll slide by the stalls and walk into the antico forno to ask Paola for my daily dose of some focaccia and biscotti.  The focaccia changes daily, from onions, salt or rosemary to artichokes, tomato, zucchini or prosciutto.  As for the biscotti there is a select variety of dry cookies studded with all sorts of nuts or filled with jam or chocolate, all made by hand in small production. You won’t find their delicious bombolini (doughnuts filled with either jam or cream) until Sunday. However, there is a selection of small tortas filled with apples or jam.

There’s a Libreria Cartoleria Marina (bookstore) stocked with any topic you need (providing you read Italian), in addition to a select assortment of language books, dictionaries, gardening, cooking, fountain pens, paper, gift cards, birthday cards, anniversary cards, gift wrap paper, etc, etc.  The donna (woman) is dedicated to helping you find what you need.

“ La Cantina” offers a highly prized selection of Italian regional products.  I can get my most favorite 12 or 8 year balsamic, DOP olive oil and some truly wonderful wines, legumes, honey, & farro.

A small shop called Calosi Cashmere sells locally produced cashmere sweaters & scarves, for both men & women.  I started acquiring these two years ago when the famous fog of Umbria descended during the winter months and I look forward to weather that stimulates another trip to Colossi.

And , then there is Ceramiche San Marco, store…. A gentle elderly man oversees his family’s shop of hand painted and fired ceramic.  If I see something that I’d like in another design, he can usually order it for me.  I’ll have it within a week.

Roberto, the proprietor of Osteria Le Scalette, houses a great selection of regional wines from Umbria and Tuscany at fair prices. Tell him what you are serving for dinner and he may suggest a Sagrantino di Montefalco, or a Sangiovese, Grechetto, Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Rosso di Montepulciano or Orvieto.

The Battilani Family sells from 5 different shops, 4 of which are in the center of town.  Here, you can purchase some great salumeri, stagionato pecorino from Norcia, regional wines .  One of their shops is now selling panini for the hungry traveling by foot or bike. For those who have the luxury of cooking for themselves, the Battalani’s have a renowned macelleria overseen by Signora Alda, 81 years with the energy of a 20 year old.  What I love about Signora Alda, is her furtive look as she slips me the end of a prosciutto bone or a few extra sausages.

Further on down outside of the main center is Laura’s Pasticerria…. This is another great place for your morning cornetto & cappuccino.  Laura’s cornetto has made me appreciate the technical difference between a cornetto and a croissant.  The cornetto is crisp, light, laminated, but less rich.  I like it filled with jam.  This is the perfect example of a local café.  Newspapers are available on the tables, locals come in and are greeted by name, and there is always lots of chatter .

From Castiglione del Lago…. arriverderci until my next blog.

I love making fresh pasta and I love eating it. My freezer is kept stocked with my favorite homemade sauces: bolognese, duck ragu, wild boar ragu, and tomato sauce.  At any time, I can whip up a batch of pasta either by hand or with a Kitchen Aid.  I roll it out immediately on the first setting until it reaches the width of the pasta roller.  It gets covered with plastic wrap and rests on the counter while I heat up the sauce and grate the cheese.  Depending on the type of sauce, it is either a meal in itself or prelude to a simple roast or sauteed meat.

Fresh Egg Pasta for Tagliatelle

100 grams of 00 flour per person

1 large egg per 100 grams of flour

Place the eggs in the bowl of a mixer .  Add all the flour . Mix on low speed using the dough hook.  Every few minutes stop the mixer and push down any flour that has collected on the sides of the bowl.  Continue to mix the dough until it forms a soft ball that comes away from the sides of the bowl.  The dough will be soft but not sticky.

Cut the dough into 100 gram portions.  Flatten each piece out and run it through the first setting of the roller.  Fold in half, and continue to run it through the first setting.  Repeat 5 or 6 times until the dough is smooth and shiny.  Wrap in plastic and let it rest while you prepare your sauce.

Once again, flatten each piece of dough and feed it through the first setting. Follow with the second and continue up through the sixth setting.  By this time your dough should be thin enough for a flat noodle like tagliatelle.

Lay the sheet of dough on a cool, lightly floured surface. Each sheet should be about 15 inches long.   Bring each end into the center . Bring the outside folds into the center again.  Using a chef’s knife, cut the dough into 1/4 inch slices.  Unravel each ribbon.  If the dough sticks to itself, you need to add more flour.

Scatter the ribbon noodles on a lightly floured pan.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  When ready to serve, add the pasta to the boiling water , stir once and boil the pasta for about a minute.  Test one by biting into it.  It should be toothsome, not mushy.  Drain in a colander and return to the pot.  Add just enough of your favorite sauce, toss, sprinkle grated parmegian cheese and open the wine.