Stracciatella Tortoni Cake

In Italy, when you go to a gelato shop, stracciatella is the vanilla gelato with chocolate chip shavings in it. The gelato shops, of course, were a real hit with my kids. This tortoni is lighter than gelato, but still has the chocolate chip shavings in it. It's not really a cake, but a frozen dessert. It has a wonderful almond and amaretti cookie crust. The chocolate sauce is outstanding.  It was in this month's issue of Gourmet magazine, and I couldn't resist trying it out.

Serves 6 (I cut mine into 10 slices - I thought they were big enough!)

For crust:

2/3 cup finely ground amaretti cookies, about 17 cookies*
1/4 cup sliced almonds with skin, finely ground
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled



For tortoni filling:

3 large egg whites, at room temperature 30 minutes
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1.25 cups chilled heavy cream
2 Tbsp Disaronno Amaretto
3.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao) shaved with a vegetable peeler
1/4 cup sliced almonds with skin



For sauce:

1/3 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
3 Tbsp packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Make crust:

Butter a 9x5 loaf pan and line bottom and short sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on each end.

Stir together ground cookies, ground almonds, and butter, then firmly press over bottom of pan. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.



Make tortoni filling:

Beat egg whites with sugar, cream of tartar and 1/8 tsp salt in a large metal bowl set over a large saucepan of simmering water, using a handheld mixer at medium-high speed until whites hold soft peaks and an instant read thermometer registers 170 degrees F, about 7 minutes.

Remove bowl from pan and continue to beat meringue until it just holds stiff peaks, about 2 minutes.

Beat cream with Amaretto in another bowl at medium speed using cleaned beaters until it just holds stiff peaks. Fold in half of meringue gently but thoroughly. Fold in remaining meringue along with chocolate. Spoon over crust, smoothing top with spatula. Sprinkle with almonds. Freeze, uncovered, until firm, about 3 hours.



Make sauce: 

Bring cream, corn syrup, brown sugar, cocoa, 1/8 tsp salt and half of chopped chocolate to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until chocolate is melted. Reduce heat and cook at a slow boil, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and remaining chocolate until smooth. Cool to warm.

To serve: Dip bottom of loaf pan in 1 inch of warm water in a pan 1 seconds, then lift tortoni out of pan using parchment paper. Transfer to a platter.

* Amaretti cookies are a traditional Italian almond cookie that you can find in specialty gourmet shops or order online. I get some hard to find things at A.G. Ferrari Foods.

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Lasagna with Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

This is a recipe I adapted years ago from Giuliano Bugialli, the famous Italian cooking instructor in Florence, Italy. This lasagna is totally homemade, from the noodles to the bechamel sauce. It contains no meat and is very light. The noodles are rolled out very thin and the recipe uses bechamel sauce instead of ricotta cheese. The tomato sauce, though, is really outstanding. The addition of red peppers to the tomatoes makes for a fuller, richer flavor and even if you do not make the lasagna, this tomato sauce is great with pasta.

There are three items in this recipe that make up this lasagna and you must make them all from scratch - the noodles, the tomato sauce and the bechamel. If this seems daunting to you, try making the tomato sauce a day ahead and refrigerate it. You can make the bechamel in the morning and refrigerate that too, until you are ready to assemble the lasagna. Have you read my older Pasta Fresca post about how to make homemade pasta? You might want to check that out. Yes, this recipe is a lot of work, but it makes the lightest, freshest lasagna you will ever taste.

Lasagna with Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

This recipe is for an 8x8 baking pan.

For the pasta:
3 cups Italian 00 flour or unbleached all purpose flour
4 whole eggs
4 egg yolks

For the tomato sauce:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large red bell peppers, seeded & coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 large can Italian San Marzano tomatoes (or plum tomatoes, if you can't find San Marzano)
1/4 cup Italian parsley sprigs (leaves only)

For the bechamel sauce:
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups whole milk

For the tomato sauce:
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add peppers and whole garlic and cook 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and parsley. Cover and simmer 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste. Insert immersion blender and puree sauce. (Or pour sauce into blender or food processor, puree and pour back into pot. Then go out and buy an immersion blender.) Simmer sauce until sauce is thick, about 15 minutes more. Transfer sauce to bowl and let cool. (Can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated.)


For the bechamel sauce:
Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat, add flour and whisk. Cook for 1 minute. Add milk, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes, whisking constantly, until sauce has thickened up. Season with salt and pepper (I use a little white pepper). It is essential that the bechamel have some salt in order for the taste to be right. Pour into large Pyrex or a bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring every few minutes to prevent a skin from forming.



For the pasta:
Arrange flour in mound on work surface and make well in center. Break eggs in well. With fork, gently beat eggs and begin gradually drawing flour into the eggs. When enough flour has been incorporated to enable you to handle the dough, start kneading the dough. If it is too sticky, add a little more flour. (I make this in my KitchenAid mixer, with the dough hook.)   Knead dough until smooth. If making it in mixer, when you take it out of the mixer, also knead briefly by hand.  When you have a nice firm dough that's not too sticky, wrap it in a floured piece of plastic wrap and let it sit about 20 minutes to rest.



Cut a piece of the dough and flatten it (keep remainder covered).  Turn pasta machine to widest setting (setting #1) and run dough through.  Dust dough with flour if sticky and fold into thirds.  Run through machine a few more times until smooth.  Adjust machine to next narrower setting and run dough through, dusting lightly with flour if sticky.  Keep doing this until you have run the dough through setting #5.  Lay the noodles out on a floured surface and repeat with remaining dough.  Cut pasta into 12" long strips. You should have 24 pasta strips when finished. (If you do not have 24 strips, don't worry - just don't make as many layers when you assemble the lasagna.)




Bring large amount of salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice and water for ice bath.  Add 3 pasta strips and after water is boiling again, cook for about 10 seconds.  Transfer pasta to ice bath to cool.  Set on towels in single layer.  You can stack towels/pasta on top of each other.  

To assemble:

Butter an 8x8 baking dish.   Arrange 2 strips one way, allowing edges to hang over.  Spread 1/3 of the bechamel sauce over pasta.

Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan.  Cover with another layer of pasta, laying the strips the opposite way.  

Spoon on 1/3 cup tomato sauce.  Repeat pasta and tomato sauce layers 3 more times.  Add another layer of pasta, then another 1/3 of the bechamel and 1/4 cup Parmesan.  Make 4 more layers each of pasta and tomato sauce.  



Top with another layer of pasta.  Cover with remaining bechamel and Parmesan.  Cover with final layer of pasta.  Fold edges in over top layer or trim off hanging edges if you want.  It probably makes it a little easier to slice if you cut off the edges.  I just folded mine over - this is how Bugialli makes his.  (Can be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated.  Bring fully to room temperature before continuing.) Preheat over to 375. Bake lasagna uncovered until top is light golden brown and crisp, about 30 minutes.

tip: Try to use San Marzano tomatoes from Italy. Yes, they really are different than the ones grown domestically. It's because of the soil and climate where they are grown in Italy.



tip: Giuliano Bugialli does not add mozzarella cheese to the top of this lasagna. It makes a golden, crisp crust on top. If you really want the cheese on top for a softer texture, you can certainly add that. Cover the lasagna when it bakes.

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Cherry Ice Cream

I've moved my blog!  This post for Cherry Ice Cream now resides at:

http://italiandish.squarespace.com/imported-20090913150324/2008/5/11/cherry-ice-cream.html

I hope you'll hop on over there to read the post!




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Asparagus Risotto

It's asparagus season and fresh asparagus is so good, I want to use it any way I can. There's a farm across the road from us and they have their fresh asparagus for sale. I had some for breakfast the other morning and wow. You forget what really fresh asparagus tastes like after so long! What a difference. If you're buying it now, here's one delicious way to use it. This risotto is a little different from a lot of vegetable risottos because instead of just adding the asparagus at the end, you puree some of it with the stock. This makes for a richer flavor. It's delicious!



Asparagus Risotto

serves 4

1 pound of asparagus
4 cups chicken stock
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup carnaroli or arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 Tablespoons heavy cream

zest of 1 lemon

Cut the tips from the asparagus and set aside. Cut the woody ends off the asparagus so you have just the nice stems left.



In a pot of boiling water, cook the tips for about one minute and then plunge in an ice bath.

In the same pot of water, boil the stems until they are soft, about 8 minutes. Drain.

Place the stock in a saucepan and add asparagus stems. Insert an immersion blender and blend. ( If you don't have an immersion blender, you'll have to do it in a blender). Bring the stock to a low simmer and just keep warm on the stove.



Heat the olive oil in a risotto pan or any heavy saucepan. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, but do not brown. Add the rice and cook for a minute. Add the wine.  Stir in a ladleful of the stock and stir, with a spatula. Every time the stock is absorbed, add another ladleful or two. Keep stirring so the risotto does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Keep adding stock and stirring until the risotto is cooked, about 30 minutes, to your taste.

Take off the heat and add the cream, parmesan cheese, lemon zest and asparagus tips and gently blend.

For a longer discussion about risotto, you can refer to my previous post about how to make risotto.

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Farm Eggs

Look at these beauties! Remember my post back in February complaining about having to buy grocery store eggs? Well, the new hens over at Flying Goat Farms in Mason are finally laying! I've great fresh farm eggs again. What a difference. Take a look:


Can you see how orange the farm egg is compared to the paler grocery store egg? Well, that makes a very big difference in the taste. And if you look carefully at the picture, you can even tell a difference in the egg whites. The farm egg's white is much firmer and distinctive. Michael Pollan talks about this in his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? It should be required reading. If you are interested in the health differences of food like this compared with industrial food, or if you're at all interested in food and nutrition, put this book on your reading list.

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Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup

This is a really simple soup, but you won't believe how delicious it is. I had made it and photographed it, but never posted it. Then I read the latest post from Cookiecrumb over at "I'm Mad and I Eat" and I had to post this. She's been pulling out her old cauliflower and broccoli plants (sigh - she lives in California. That's why her plants are already old). Anyway, it made me think of this soup, which is a great thing to make with leftover cauliflower and broccoli. Don't skip the step of roasting the cauliflower - it adds a depth of flavor you don't get otherwise.

1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 large head of cauliflower (or 1 small head), cut into large pieces
1/2 head of broccoli
4 cups chicken broth
couple handfuls of baby spinach
parmesan cheese

On a baking sheet, spread out cauliflower and roast in oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until cauliflower starts to brown a little.

In a large saucepan, saute onions in a little olive oil for several minutes, until translucent. Add chicken stock, cauliflower and broccoli and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Make sure broccoli is soft. Add spinach and cook for a couple minutes more.

Using an immersion blender, puree soup in pot. (If you don't have one, transfer the soup to a blender and puree. But geez, if you don't have an immersion blender go out and get one right away - they're just too great not to have one).

Serve soup with a little grated parmesan on top.

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Porchetta

In Italy, this is a common way to fix pork loin which can be dry and bland, because it is so lean. I never make pork loin because of that, unless I butterfly it and stuff it somehow and cook it for a long time. The flavors used here - sage, rosemary, salt, and garlic - are classic flavors in Italy to use with pork. Use good white wine for the sauce and then pour yourself a glass.



1 center cut pork loin (3-5 pounds)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
several sprigs of fresh rosemary
several sprigs of fresh sage
handful of fresh parsley
kosher or sea salt
pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine

Butterfly pork loin, fat side down. Don't trim this outer layer of fat off - it will help keep the meat moist.





Place plastic wrap over meat and pound until flat and even.



Strip herbs off their stems. Finely chop together with the garlic. Salt and pepper the meat. Spread the herbs on top of the meat.



Roll up the meat, secure with twine. Fat side will be on the outside.







In a heavy oven proof roaster, brown the meat on top of the stove. Brown well on all sides.



Place small piece of foil on top of pork roll, tuck in around the meat. This will keep the meat from drying out during roasting.
Roast at 325 degrees for at least two hours - you can roast for three hours and the meat will be even more tender. During roasting, if you feel the pan is too dry, add a little water to keep the meat moist. Most times, you shouldn't have to do this.

Take the meat out of the pan and place on cutting board. Put roaster on top of stove. You should have some very nice browned bits of meat - fond - on the bottom of the pan. Turn the stove to medium heat. Add the wine and, with a whisk, deglaze the pan. Add the broth and stir until you have a nice pan sauce.



Slice roll and pour pan sauce over the slices.



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