winter Archives - Page 2 of 2 - attheitaliantable.com

October 7, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Moving into Autumn

Indian Summer is my favorite time of year. Hot, clear and sunny days remind us of the summer that has passed and gives us one more chance to warm our bones in the sun before winter hits and envelops us in its cold, dry arms.

But it reminds us that cold weather is coming in earnest and holiday fun is soon to be enjoyed! For me, the cooler fall weather brings a most welcome change to the Italian Table with roasted meats, braised dishes and stews, warming soups and hearty pastas.

I love this time of year! The deeply flavored and long-cooked dishes I left behind in the spring when the weather lightened and warmed have been missed, and I welcome them back to my stove!

This season’s vegetables are visible in the farmers markets and stores: winter greens like kale and chard, pumpkins and winter squash, nuts and mushrooms all herald the harvest and the autumn. In Italy the grapes have been pressed into the fermentation tanks and they look to the olive trees to determine when harvest for the oil will begin. Chestnuts are falling in the woods and if the rain has cooperated, mushrooms and truffles are available too. October means deer season, with wild boar hunting not far behind.

In Tuscany, this time of year means we relight the big fireplaces and use them to grill sausages and bruschetta to be served with cannellini beans cooked with rosemary and sage and new olive oil drizzled over all. Hearty braised stews with wild game and wild juniper are paired with rich polenta for a filling and satisfying meal.

Some of my favorite dishes to cook are rich ragus of beef, pork and wild game serve with wide papparadelle, or rich pastas stuffed with mushrooms and cheese or butternut squash and nutmeg and served with a butter sage sauce.

Enjoy this return to the enveloping flavors of the Italian Table!

March 2, 2015 by Gina Stipo 1 Comment

Winter Blood Oranges

I tasted my first blood orange the first winter we were in Verona when I was six. They were newly arrived at our local market from Sicily, and we thought what a wonderful place Sicily must be to have such beautiful ruby red oranges when everyone else had snow. We looked forward to their arrival every year and greatly missed them when we moved back to the United States, where all the oranges were, well, orange.

Blood oranges, or tarocco in Italy, are a late crop and come to the market after all the tiny mandarins and clementines are finished. In Tuscany I see them as late as May, picked in the winter and held till the spring. While the skin can be orange or pale red, the inside is a beautiful dark maroon.

I’ve found them this winter at Trader Joe’s. They’re not from Sicily but from California, where they’re smaller than what we get in Italy, but just as tasty and beautiful. In Italy the Arancia Rossa di Sicilia is a registered DOP food product and is most often found as juice in the grocery store.

The skin of the blood orange is thin and sweet. I like to eat them like an apple, biting through the peel into the juicy pulp that’s as brilliant and colorful as a sunset. They’re versatile, just as wonderful in savory dishes like roasted rabbit with oil-cured olives, or sliced with fresh fennel in a salad, as they are for dessert.

One of my favorite desserts is crepes stuffed with Nutella and topped with blood orange slices that have been warmed in butter and Grand Marnier. I served it for dessert recently and after eating it, one of my friends at the table put his fork down, looked around and said “that might be the best dessert I’ve ever tasted.” The taste of orange and chocolate never fails to make a big impression!

So here’s a wonderful dessert for a winter night. The crepes are easy to make ahead and keep covered in the fridge for several days. You can use regular oranges, but for a special elegant look, try to find blood oranges. Buon Appetito!

Crespelle with Nutella
Crepes: makes about 25
2 ½ cup flour
4 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp melted butter
2 cups milk, more if needed
dash nutmeg
½ teas salt

Mix liquid ingredients together, make a well in the flour and add the liquid ingredients to the flour. Whisk together, add salt and nutmeg. Strain the crepes batter through a fine sieve to remove any lumps.
Using a non-stick skillet or crepes pan, heat a small amount of butter or oil, add a small scoop of the batter to the heated pan, tilting and turning the pan quickly to evenly distribute the batter before it sets. The crespelle should be thin and even. Turn the crespelle as soon as it is cooked through, before the bottom browns. Stack them on top of each other as they are done. They won’t stick together, cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge.

For the sauce: Slice 2-3 oranges, enough for each person to have 2-3 slices. Melt 2 tbsp butter with 1 tbsp sugar the juice of one orange in a sauté pan, add the orange slices and tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau and allow to cook for 2 minutes. To serve, place two crepes on each plate, arrange 2-3 orange slices on top and pour a small amount of sauce over all. The orange slices should be eaten peel and all.
To warm the crepes: Place a teaspoon of Nutella on a crepe, fold in half, then half again so the crepe forms a triangle. Place the triangles on a baking sheet like shingles, one overlapping the other, and put in a 350° oven for 5 minutes.

January 19, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Pancetta Arrosto – rich roasted pork belly

Years ago in Tuscany and most of Italy, before fresh meat was readily available for purchase in the grocery store or a butcher shop, fresh meat was rare on the common dinner table. Roasted and braised meats or grilled steaks were only available during the hunting season or in the winter when the pigs were butchered. The rest of the year it was vegetables, bread and pasta, and the protein options were cured meats like salami, prosciutto or pancetta, with the occasion chicken or rabbit for Sunday dinner and special occasions.

January and the winter months were traditionally the time that the pigs were slaughtered, when the cold weather would keep the meat from spoiling before it had a chance to begin to cure. Hams, necks, and bellies and were salted and laid down to become prosciutto, capocollo and pancetta. The head was boiled in spices and lemon and picked over to be made into soppressata. All the rest was chopped and ground to be made into sausages, cured in olive oil, or salami, mixed with fennel, garlic and black pepper.

All that is still done, but in modern, temperature controlled facilities on a year round basis. The seasonality of the pig slaughter has mostly disappeared and with it the appreciation of the rarity of a great chunk of roasted loin, shoulder or pork belly.

During my first winter in Tuscany, one of my most exciting discoveries was roasted pork belly, or pancetta fresca arrosto. To me, the best part of roasted pork was always the fat on the outside, and the cuts had become so lean and dry in the US it had lost its appeal. But all that fat, hot and roasted, with the skin brown and crunchy, was sheer heaven.

Pancetta in Italian comes from pancia, which is the belly of the pig, and can be cured, smoked or raw. The first time I saw a large slab of raw pancetta in the butcher window, rolled and stuffed with rosemary and sage, I knew I’d found dinner.

The pancetta can be rolled on it’s own or rolled around a pork shoulder. Because the pork belly must cook at a high temperature until it’s crunchy and thoroughly cooked, it’s unwise to roll it around a pork loin, which will overcook and become dry.

The easiest way to cook a pork belly, is just to salt it and put it on a bed of sage and rosemary sprigs and whole garlic cloves. Add some white wine to the pan and put it in a really hot oven, at 425-450, until it’s gorgeous with a brown crunchy skin and the juices from the fat running out and making your mouth water. Take it out and put it on a large cutting board for 10 minutes. Chop it with a large chef or butcher knife and serve it with sauteed fennel and winter greens, roasted potatoes and good bread.

You can also get a pork roast and roll the pork belly around it. Salt the shoulder, rub it all over with a paste of fresh rosemary, sage and garlic, and wrap the pancetta around it, skin and fat side out. Tie the roast well and follow the above roasting instructions.

Enjoy the winter! Buon Appetito!

January 16, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Stracotto & spezzatino – braising meats to fight the winter cold

Winter in Italy closes in on you. The valley where I lived for 13 years is well known for its fog – la maledetta nebbia – that rolls in off the flat farmland and socks in my little town, a cluster of medieval buildings nestled against the Montagnola hills. It came early in the morning and finally burned off about an hour before the sun set, then returned the next day. I always wanted to fortify myself against it, and frequently turned to the kitchen to cook up something warm and comforting.

Braised dishes are best for arming yourself against winter weather. A big pot of beef roast or pork shoulder simmering in red wine on the stove top is an excellent companion in the kitchen on a cold winter day. Thick stews of lamb or beef that are accented with sage, rosemary and juniper, served over rich polenta and washed down with a deep sangiovese wine, are your compatriots in arms against the worst winter can throw at you.

One of my favorite winter braises utilizes the toughest and cheapest part of the cow, the rump or shoulder, a muscle that gets a lot of exercise and so is full of collagen and tough muscle fiber. Both spezzatino, “little pieces”, and stracotto – “long cooked” – use the liquid of red wine and a long, slow fire to break all that down and turn the meat into luscious, tender and flavorful stews and hearty meals.

To accompany the spezzatino or stracotto, make a polenta and at the end of cooking, beat in butter and grated parmigiano. Slice the meat and serve it on top of the soft polenta accompanied by a rich red wine like Barolo or Chianti Classico.

While spezzatino is made with small pieces of meat, stracotto is made with larger pieces that are then sliced or shredded to serve.

Spezzatino di Manzo (Tuscan beef stew)
This is a hearty and filling winter dish and is best served over polenta. It can also be made with lamb.
2 lbs cubed meat, salted
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
3 cups red wine
½ cup or more olive oil
2 rosemary sprigs
2 bay leaves
4 sage leaves
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 cup crushed tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste
Sauté the meat in a large pot in olive oil until browned, remove the meat and set aside. Add the carrot, celery, onion and garlic to the pan and sauté in olive oil over medium heat until soft but not browned, add the tomato paste and herbs and continue to cook another 5 minutes. Return meat to pan and deglaze with red wine. Cook five minutes, add tomatoes, sea salt and pepper and allow to cook over low heat 2 hours, covered. Stir occasionally, being careful not to allow the bottom to stick or burn, adding a little water if necessary. Serve over polenta.