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!

Lasagna, e Pizza, e Pasta!

This time I think I even out-did myself.  The past three days I have been preparing for a feast for 20+ at my humble abode here in Grenada.  Two of my roommates have their respective parents here and since family is involved I have to make it as close to home as I can.  

First thing I came across while shopping was this beautiful tricolor pasta that gave me the inspiration for this cold pasta salad that included artichoke hearts (featured here) halved olives, Edam cheese, Gouda as well as a poppy seed vinaigrette.  

I believe the combination of the two cheeses as well as the vinaigrette made for a tasty alternative to the other treats that were in store.

The next challenge I faced (being on a small island) was the fact that they ran out of ricotta cheese.  Sure, no problem they said, just make some béchamel they said.  So I did.  and this is what I did. 

First I put equal parts butter and flour (1/2 cup of each) in a pan.  First I melted the butter then I stirred in the flour.  For those of you who aren't familiar, this is called a roux.  For all you southerners (especially from N'Orleans) this is common place.  From here we will add about 3 cups of whole milk..  The whole trick with the roux is to make a blonde roux which means we will cook it for about 5 minutes so that it doesn't turn brown and get carmelized like most Louisiana roux's.  After you've cooked the flour taste out of the roux you add the milk and start stirring with you whisk.  This takes approximately 10 minutes from here for stirring to make sure it all gets incorporated.  For good measure and added flavor at the end, I added about a quarter cup of parmesan cheese to the mix.  

Next its lasagna time!  Lets start the layers...here were all the ingredients....

First I took 3 cups of semolina flour, and made a well.  Then I added about 5 eggs to the middle. 

Next I started stirring... this is something you have to see, which you can if you look right here!

Next I rolled out the pasta..  Now this was Not easy at first...there is definitely a learning curved involved and I invite you all to explore this side of yourself.  

Now  that you made your pasta (if you're that lucky..) start laying down the home-made pasta with some Bolognese sauce that I made the day before.  This is a meat sauce that you simply stir fry chop meat with salt and pepper and then add it to a standard sauce recipe you can catch from one of my earlier recipes.  From there you let it come to a boil then simmer, taking you about an hour and change.  

From there I started layering the lasagna. First pasta, then sauce, then my béchamel,  and some parmigiano and fresh mozzarella cheese I made the day before.  

Here is my sister and my father making Lasagna from back in the day...check out that technique!

Keep on layering (2-4 times) until you get this..

Did I mention in my spare time I whipped up a pizza...there it is!

And another one!

And in the end we had a bunch of people that were well fed...Any Italian knows its a good night when you fed a bunch of people an still have leftovers...mission accomplished!  Many thanks to all who came and enjoyed the food!

Pasta Improvvisato!

Tonights pasta is one that I knew not what I was going to make until I finished it...and it came out pretty good!  Unlike baking, when one cooks, you are allowed artistic expression and with many of my meals this is the case.  This particular pasta had me at a quagmire to start.  I had a bunch of ingredients but didn't have a straight plan.  So I just started cooking and saw where I ended up. 

I started with what I know... sautéed some garlic and shallots and then kept thinking.  

First I grabbed a can of mushrooms, and threw it in the pan.

Next I grabbed some sausage (pork/chicken hybrid) cut it up in slices and watched it sizzle.  

Then I got some linguini and dropped it in the water.  Then I threw in a couple of freshly diced tomatoes and some white wine (1/2 cup or so) and let it reduce down a bit. 

 Then I incorporated it all in the pan (pasta and sauce) and cooked it for a minute then put it in the bowl.  Then I happily remembered I had some fresh mozzarella and diced it up and threw it right into the hot pasta.  Tossed it around a little bit and voila! Pasta improvvisato (improvised).

The to-go tupperware on the side was for my friend Milena who was on a brief stay in Grenada but she unfortunately missed the meal due to unforeseen circumstances.  Nonetheless another meal will be made again.  

A little cheese goes along way...