Pasta e Zucca

The squash that is used for pasta e zucca in Naples is a summer squash, it has the same meaty consistency as our winter squashes, but it makes this a summer dish in those parts. American summer squash is too watery for a pasta like this and just wouldn’t work. Pasta e zucca works seasonally right now for the States, in the fall and winter months when pumpkins are easy to find, as well as all of those other winter squashes, which would also work brilliantly. I love pastas like these, where the pasta is cooked in the same pot as the sauce, I actually didn’t realize that pasta e zucca was made this way until making it a few days ago. It wasn’t a dish that my husband had ever made for me, nor my mother-in-law. The recipe from Naples at Table, Cooking in Campania suggests a number of different types of pasta, but when I asked my husband what kind he preferred he said pasta mista.

Pasta mista is a brilliant way to use up that little bit of pasta left in different boxes in your pantry, yet another contribution to the Neapolitan genius of never throwing anything away. We only use an entire box of pasta when we have friends over for dinner, and since we are pigs we always use more than half of the box when making pasta for just the two of us, there are always boxes of pasta that don’t quite have enough in them for a second meal. I also think it is so pretty and the different consistencies are so nice in your mouth.

Pasta e Zucca

• 2 lbs butternut or acorn squash, o pie pumpkin
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/2 lb of spaghetti, broken into 1½-inch or slightly longer lengths, or pasta mista, tubetti, ditali or ditalini
• 1/3 cup finely cut parsley
• Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For easier peeling and dicing, cut the squash crosswise into 3/4-inch slices. Peel the slices and discard the seeds and fibrous interior. Now cut the squash into 3/4-inch cubes. If using pumpkin, cut into wedges, discard the seeds, then peel the wedges and cube the pulp.

In a 3-quart saucepan, over low heat, combine the oil and garlic and cook the garlic until it is soft and barely coloring on both sides, pressing into the oil a few times to release its flavor. Remove the garlic.

Add the cubed squash or pumpkin and the red pepper. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp of the salt. Increase the heat to medium-high and sauté the squash until it is soft and beginning to brown, about 15 minutes. If using pumpkin, it will take about 25 minutes to get the same semicooked state. (You may need to add some water in case the pumkin starts to burn and stick).

Add 5 to 6 cups of water and a tsp of the salt. Raise the heat, cover the pot, and bring to a rolling boil.

Stir in the pasta, re-cover the pot, and when the water returns to a boil, uncover and cook the pasta until cooked to your taste. While the pasta cooks, stir it frequently and mash some of the squash cubes with the back of a wooden spoon to thicken the dish. Taste for salt and correct if necessary. Correct the consistency, if desired, by adding more water. It can be soupy, thick, or almost dry, depending on your taste.

Stir in the chopped parsley and serve hot with parmigiano.

One Year Ago: Pizza Bianca Farcita & Ziti with a Seafood Fennel Sauce

Apple Pancakes

Pancakes may be one of my favorite foods, we don’t have them very often, maybe once a month, depending on our Saturday or Sunday mornings. I am really surprised that I have never posted the recipe that my family has used for pancakes since I was a kid, I don’t think that there is a better recipe, but I will take up that argument when I eventually get around to posting it, which means that I need to photograph the process, something I don’t always remember to do on groggy weekend mornings.

I found this delicious recipe on Smitten Kitchen, one of the only blogs that I am dedicated to reading. She makes a lot of desserts, which don’t make me crazy, but I really enjoy reading her, she has a great writing style that is quirky and she really brings a lot of personality to her blog.

These apple pancakes sounded delicious and reminded me of Dutch pannekoeken, the apple ones being the only ones that I would eat as a child, I discovered later on in life that the savory pancakes were equally as good. The Dutch pancakes are much bigger and thinner than my little poffertjes, but I was really going for the apple version of my original pancakes. The batter was very runny, creating oddly shaped pancakes, and though I added vanilla and cinnamon to the smitten’s recipe, the batter wasn’t terribly exciting. Next time I make these I will just add apples to my recipe (which I will post sometime in the next month!), the batter is tastier and less runny.

Apple Pancakes adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 ½ cups of milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 3 medium apples, peeled and coarsely grated
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Mix the eggs with the milk  and vanilla in a large bowl.

In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon together.

Combine the wet and the dry ingredients and stir in the apples and whatever other flavorings you see fit.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet over low to medium heat. Drop large spoonful of batter into the pan and flatten it out a little (otherwise, you might have trouble getting them to cook in the center) and cook until golden brown underneath. Flip the pancakes and cook them for an additional two or three minutes.

Either dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately, or keep on a tray in a warmed oven until you are ready to serve them. (I didn’t have any powdered sugar, but I am leaving the suggestion, we used maple syrup, they were still delicious, but the powdered sugar will make them really wonderful and so pretty).

One Year Ago: Babà, Melanzane alla Lina & Orata alla Ligure

Pumpkin and Kale Risotto

Mmmmmm, pumpkins, I love it when this gorgeous fall squash comes into season, so many brightly colored meals to make and so many experiments for an entire season. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of pumpkin, they were exclusively used for jack o lanterns and seeds were always thrown away and never roasted. Surprising considering what a creative and frugal cook my mother is. Then again I don’t remember there being that many winter squash at the markets, though that could be summed up to my not paying any attention.

This meal was a total experiment, I have made risotto with butternut squash before, so I had the pumpkin down, but I wasn’t so sure about the kale. The flavor was just right, but I miscalculated how much the kale would cook down, assuming that it was like so many other leafy greens that cook down to nothing. I would recommend chopping the kale very finely for the right consistency with the risotto, for that matter I should have also chopped my pumpkin up a bit more as well, it was a bit too chunky.

Pumpkin and Kale Risotto

• 1 cup of Carnaroli or Arborio rice (Italians measure rice by demitasse cups, 1 cup for each person and one for the pot)
• ½ of a 2 lb pumpkin or butternut squash
• ½ of a bunch of kale, stems removed and chopped
• ½ of an onion, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 4½ cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• 3 tbsp butter
• a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley
• grated parmiggiano-reggiano, to taste
• salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Slice the pumpkin into 4 slivers, paint with the olive oil and place on a baking sheet in the center of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until tender. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing the skins.

In the meantime chop onion into fine pieces and bring the broth to a simmer.

Heat a large stovetop casserole pan over medium-high heat and melt 2 tbsp of butter at the bottom of the pan, covering the pan. When the butter is melted add onion and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add rice and coat it in the butter, toasting it a bit. When the rice becomes opaque, after about 1 minute add the wine to the pan, enough to cover the rice, stir frequently.

When the rice has absorbed the wine, add a ladleful of broth to the pan and continue stirring. Repeat and once the rice starts to absorb the broth add the roasted pumpkin. Add one more ladle of broth and add the chopped kale. Continue adding the broth as the rice absorbs it, you want it to almost dry out before adding the broth each time.

When the rice is finished it should be al dente and all of the liquid should be absorbed. Remove from heat and in a tab of butter and the chopped parsley in. Serve immediately with grated parmiggiano-reggiano.

One Year Ago: Marco’s in Riviera di Chiaia, Napoli and Fried Sole with Mache and Pear Salad

Kale and Potato Soup

It appears that Charleston decided to skip fall and head straight for winter, it is cold outside, oddly it is supposed to get up in the 80’s later on this week, so my wardrobe will remain schizophrenic probably up until January. We’ve had some soggy days where a thick potato soup was the only solution for dinner. My husband was disappointed when he heard that we were having soup for dinner, imagining a thin broth with a carrot and a potato floating around, he pretends to not like soup, but then ate two full bowls and was sad when he discovered that he’d finished it. I don’t think they do much soup in Naples.

I recently learned that kale has a lot of calcium, something that I probably should have known, but I have always associated calcium with dairy and not with leafy greens. I went out that day and bought some and realized that I didn’t know what to do with it once I got it home. It took me a day or two of cold rainy weather to think of soup. With the three potatoes in my pantry, an onion, a celery stalk, a carrot and some leftover ham I made a thick delicious soup that I am wishing I still had a bowl of to heat up.

Kale and Potato Soup

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 stalk of celery, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and cut up into small pieces
• ½ a bunch of kale, washed, stems removed and chopped
• 1 cup of ham, cut into small cubes
• 2 cups broth (I used vegetable, but you can use anything that you have on hand)
• 4 cups water (you could stick to broth and not use water, but all of the vegetables add enough of their own flavor that you don’t want to overpower the soup)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed soup pot, add onions, sauté for a few minutes until they become translucent. Add the celery and carrot and sauté for another minute before adding the potatoes, ham, kale and the bay leaf. Add the broth and enough water to cover, bring to a boil and lower the heat to let simmer. Stir occasionally, adding water if it starts to dry out as it is cooking.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked press them with a wooden spoon against the side of the pot. There may be an easier way to mash them in the pot, but this worked for me. Mashing them every time I stirred the pot while it was simmering on the stove. I let it cook for about 2 hours, but it will be fully cooked after an hour. Serve hot.

One Year Ago: Pizza for Lunch and Pizza for Dinner

Spaghetti with Caramelized Onions, Anchovies and Toasted Bread Crumbs

This is a great recipe that adds a bit more complexity to the great spaghetti all’aglio, olio  e peperoncino, which is spaghetti tossed in oil flavored with garlic and hot pepper. A pasta that college students in Italy eat all of the time, also great as a late night “snack” after a night out drinking. Of course my college days are long over, and late drunken nights are over now in my condition, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the simplicity of an old standby.

The caramelized onions add a wonderful sweetness, though with the garlic and the anchovies that are also involved I don’t recommend this to my single friends, unless the late night snack is shared with friends. As delicious as it is, there is a guarantee of some serious breath after feasting on it. It’s a good thing my husband and I love each other and after 3 years of marriage have reached that level of comfort, though we reached that before we tied the knot.

Spaghetti with Caramelized Onions, Anchovies and Toasted Bread Crumbs from Mario Batali’s Molto Italiano

• ¼ cup plus 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large Spanish onions, cut lengthwise in half and then into ¼-inch-thick half-moons
• 5 salt-packed anchovies, filleted and rinsed
• ½ cup milk
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp hot red pepper flakes
• 1 lb spaghetti
• ½ cup roughly chopped Italian parsley
• 1 cup toasted bread crumbs

In a 10- to 12-inch sauté pan, combine 3 tbsp of the olive oil and the onions and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, bring 6 quarts of water to boil in a large pot, and add 2 tbsp salt. Soak the anchovies in the milk for 10 minutes.

In another 10- to 12-inch sauté pan, heat the remaining ¼ cup olive oil over medium-high heat until smoking. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until the red pepper flakes are lightly toasted, about 30 seconds. Drain the anchovies, toss them into the pan, and cook, stirring, until they have broken down, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cooked onions and lower the heat to a simmer.

Drop the spaghetti into the boiling water and cook until just al dente.

Drain the pasta and toss into the pan with the anchovy mixture. Add the parsley and stir to coat. Pour into a warmed serving bowl, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and serve.

One Year Ago: Roasted Ricciola on a Bed of Fennel