Pasta Romana alla Siciliana

Ciao a tutti!

On this very special edition of the med chef I come straight from Roma Italia to bring you a delicious dish inspired purely from the fresh ingredients from the market.
I apologize in advance for the format since I'm thing this all from my phone.
To start off I bought a great bottle of sicilian wine, (the nero d'avola) which made me gear this meal in a sicilian vein. The great thing is most if the wine is under $10 or less. The even better part is every thing I buy here is a third if the price is at home. This whole meal cost at most $20 to $30.

The apartment my friend and I rented came fully equipped with a while kitchen and the essentials (at least for an italian). They had some fine salt as well as coarse grain sea salt. Some delicious olio di oliva (extra virgin and organic). They even take mention of separating organic material from plastic and regular garbage.

All the ingredients were bought at the Salumeria (the pancetta, sopressata, and fior di late mozzarella) and the supermercato and open air market.

I started out sauteing the onions and putting the water up for the fresh pasta. The pasta was fresh trofie which are like little twists that held the sauce in its tight little winds ever so gently imparting the flavor of the sauce.

Once the onions started going I added carrots then dime diced pancetta.  I then added some diced eggplant and some tomato paste.  At this point I dropped the pasta and added some of the salted pata water to the sauce to thicken it up along with a quarter to half cup of the Nero D'avola vino. 

The pasta at this point was coming together quite nicely. The only thing was they had ran out if pepper! Do what did I do...I cut up some sopressata and added it to the dish so that its peppery goodness could kick the dish up to where it needed to be.
In the mean time I whipped up a little antipasto of fresh mozzarella, sopressata, and shaved pecorino cheese. 

I also made a quick salad of fresh orgasmic spinach, carrots, cucumber and mozzarella.  I would of also added almonds and forgot to add the fresh tomatoes I bought as well...but I don't think I'll starve.

I then incorporated the pasta with the sauce to marry the flavor of both items.  A sprinkle of pecorino (which I MacGyver'ed a grader out of a slotted metal spoon) and we had ourselves a first class Roman grown, Sicilian style, fully Italian meal!
Many thanks to my friend Milena for asking me to come on this trip and enjoying the meal with me!

Buon appetito!

Stuffed Eggplants (Melanzane Ripiene)

Tonight's dinner was inspired by an episode of Cooking with Nonna hosted by Rosella Rago, a native Brooklynite who has such a passion for cooking she has her own show where she takes a different Nonne (Grandmothers) every week and does a dish that they love to make.  Incorporating the story of the Nonna also makes it very special and I highly recommend it! http://www.cookingwithnonna.com/ The episode that inspired me was the one with Nonna Anna and the stuffed eggplants.  I decided to put my Nonna's personal touch to it as well so its a little different.

 It starts off simply enough with an eggplant or two, (or three or four, depends on who you're cooking for).  Slice them right down the middle long way's like so.  Next you are going to wan to carve around the outer edge leaving about a quarter inch on the side.  Then take a spoon and scoop out the meat (but don't throw it away we need it!).  Then dice up the guts of the eggplant into cubes.  If you are picky like my one uncle and don't like the eggplants with seeds then try to pick smaller eggplants and they usually have less than the bigger ones.  

Next you are going to chop up some garlic and put it in the pan with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Then take about a quarter pound of ground pork sausage (my Nonna's touch) out of the casing and throw it in there as well as some salt and pepper.  Add some onions and olives in there as well for added taste (that was my own mothers recommendation when I told her I made it this way...thanks Mamma P).  Saute everything until nice and browned.  

Next throw the stuffing in a bowl and add about two handfuls of breadcrumbs (2/3 of a cup- I actually made my own breadcrumbs by putting two slices of whole wheat bread in my magic bullet), chopped up parsley, 1/4 cup of cheese.  Then crack an egg and incorporate it all together.  Then slice up some Potatoes about 1/8 of an inch think and throw them in the pan with some marinara sauce.  Put the hallowed out shells of the eggplant on top and then fill them with your stuffing.

Throw some sauce on top of the stuff then sprinkle some grated cheese on top and then throw it in the over at 350-375 for about an hour.  When it comes out you're gonna want to eat it right away.  Resist the urge and set the plate in five minutes with a nice glass of wine or a nip of 12 year old scotch like I did.

I realize it looks like I needed to add another thing on this plate!

And now introducing for the first time, Mr. and Mrs...Eggplant Parmigiano?!?

Tonight is a special night since I pass down a recipe not only to a pair of dear friends, but to all of you guys as well.  Tonight I give to you, my Eggplant Parmigiano...

Tonight, I was keeping a promise to some dear friends and I always keep a promise!  This promise was that since I was not able to attend my friend Ellery's wedding, as a wedding gift, would teach him and his wife Laurel how to cook one of Ellery's favorite dishes that I would make for him as my roommate last year, my Eggplant Parmigiano.  Since they are newly weds I thought I'd impart to them my wisdom in the kitchen and sticking to the adage, "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and feed him for life!"  

To start off, I also had my friend Evangelos over and lord knows he loves his Olives and Salami so I started out with some palate pleasures in the name of blue cheese, mozzarella olives and crackers with some Tuscan Salami.  

Alright now down to business.  As you can see, I started out with my basic sauces that involves bringing to a boil then simmering whole peeled tomatoes for about a half hour or so.  Next we cut up about 8-10 small-medium sized eggplants in preparation for creating two small corningware plates of eggplant parm.

Above you can see the sliced up Eggplant which in this case have been peeled and cut on a bias about an 1/8th of an inch thick (about 5 mm for you metric users!) and seasoned with some Hawaiian sea salt, and pepper.  Then we popped them in the frying pan with olive oil on both sides until they were soft and brown.  Don't burn them too much unless you enjoy that taste!

Above you can see Laurel, the Chef in training preparing to do the dual layering of the Eggplant Parm.  (I told her the secret to being a good cook is to look the part, which is why I always wear the rag around my neck like she has hers in place!)  Now we have prepared the sauce, eggplant and sliced up the mozzarella, so now its time to start stackin'!

First goes the layer of fried eggplant.  Its sort of important to create a good base, that's why I suggest overlapping this layer over each other.  This should also be the thickest layer so that it doesn't plop out like mush when you serve it (by the time you start serving it you're not gonna be worried about leftovers since it usually always goes!).  Next we start throwing down the sauce.  

 Here we have the first layer completed with shreds of mozzarella, basil and Parmigiano Reggiano.  The next photo down below shows the completed three layers we made from each portion.  

 Next we throw it in the oven at 350 F for about 20-25 min.  Towards the end I throw up the temp to about 400/425 in order to get the crispy top just the way I like it.

And that's it, I made sure to share it with my friends.  Would have been torture to not let them eat it after they prepared it! Our cephalic phase of digestion was kicking off as our parotid's were salivating stacking it up!  Special thanks to my new Chef Laurel, sous Chef Ellery and Chef Evangelos for taking part in a great evening with friends.  Truly a pleasure and I hope you all get to enjoy the pleasure of making my Eggplant Parm some day soon!  Buon Appetito! 

You may notice Evangelos still sucking on one of the olive pits...staying true to his roots!

Addendum:  One thing I forgot to add is make sure you have some Italian bread on hand...this meal is meant to be scraped up off the plate with some bread or make a sandwich with it as well. Also I don't always take the skin off and sometimes fry up the eggplant in breadcrumbs. Being in Grenada I have adapted the recipe accordingly.Enjoy!