Edit: I just re-tested this recipe 9 (!) years later and made a few changes: There’s a time for thick, doughy pizzas and a time for thin, crispy pizzas. This is for when you have a hankering for the latter. It takes some forethought, since the dough rises overnight in the fridge, but is well […]
Italian
Spicy Spaghetti Bolognese
There’s a zillion recipes for bolognese sauce, but this one worked well for me. Some people add cream at the end, but I find I don’t like that as much. This one’s really good if you can find hot pepper paste (usually associated with Hungary, but I have a Peruvian brand that’s excellent). You can […]
Gnoccho cum laude
Alternate title: Gnoccho erat demonstrandum Gnocchi, as an easy and storable potato delivery vehicle, are a staple in my household. I have never really used/made a recipe for them even though I have made reference to such recipe as would exist, and Lillian has written a recipe for squash gnocchi. Also, it appears there is […]
Tender Italian Meatballs
I wind up making this slightly different each time, but apparently if you follow the recipe as I wrote it down for mom it turns out great. The trick to tender meatballs of any kind is to add pureed onion (use a food processor or blender). Using a mixture of meats helps too. I often […]
Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage
This recipe was sort of implied in our previous gnocchi post, but I thought I’d post it as a stand-alone recipe because it’s just so darn good. The time consuming part is making the gnocchi, but once that’s done with the rest goes quickly. If you want to freeze some for future use (which you […]
Minestrone Soup
My minestrone, made with potatoes, carrots, small red beans, green beans, fresh tomatoes, and sproingy noodles. All just stuff I had on hand. I just learned a great tip for making this free-form soup: add a couple spoonfuls of pesto at the end! I thought I should post the recipe (or more like, guidelines) as […]
Chicken Saltimbocca
I haven’t been cooking that much lately (my energies have instead been spent on pickling and preserving things), but tonight I got back into the kitchen and put together an excellent meal. Saltimbocca (literally, ‘jumps in your mouth’) can be made with chicken, veal, or pork cutlets, and this time I opted for boneless, skinless […]
Fettuccine alla Carbonara
This might just be the perfect weeknight meal. Have you ever thought to yourself, “wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a combination of scrambled eggs and macaroni and cheese that also contained ham and only took about half an hour to make?” Then this is the recipe for you! It’s incredibly simple and deeply […]
Gnocchi alla lefto’versi
Step 1: Make gnocchi. I had lots of leftover potatoes that were starting to go all mushy. I’m sure we all know how to trot the gnocchi tango, but heres a quick recap: Boil peel and mash potatoesa) Add about a cup of flour and one egg per pound potatoes. And lots of salt.b) Mix […]
Making Mozzarella
So, this weekend I finally tackled mozzarella. My friends Kevin and Ranae have a cow and are selling awesome raw milk to folks in the department (on the down low, of course). I didn’t have great luck with making yogurt, since I had no idea what I was doing, so for some reason I decided […]