Archive for the ‘Italian’ Category

Many of my preferred foods are tastes I acquired overtime. Take wine, for instance, drinking it is a ritual I love so much nowadays, but used to cause me a lot of “yuck faces” in my earlier years. The same goes for Tiramisu. The coffee dipped ladyfingers (I also wasn’t very fond of coffee in the past), the alcoholic taste that was too strong too often, and the fact of it being a cream based dessert, which I didn’t use to like back then - all of these made me not understand what the fuss is all about.

The yolks, after beating them by hand

Nowadays it’s one of  my favorite desserts. I think it started 2 years ago, while being on a trip to Tuscany. We ate a zabaglione based dessert which was actually perfect at the wonderful San Jacopo restaurant in Pistoia (Via Crispi 15, Pistoia) . Zabaglione is a traditional Italian dessert, made of egg yolks (heated to a temperature that destroys most bacteria, not to worry), sugar and an alcoholic ingrdient, tipically Marsala wine. It is also the base of the Tiramisu, in classic recipes.  

The yolks with Marsala and sugar, before heating

The Zabaglione is ready!

In Israel there are many “light” versions for Tiramisu, and I don’t mean from the calories point of view. Some of them omit the eggs, some of them replace the mascarpone with plain white cheese, and more changes that cause the recipe to drift further away from the original one. And as much as I like tweaking with recipes and adapting them, in this case, only the original version for me, please.

The final Zabaglione cream, the color of the bowl is a good indication
of the color the final cream should have

I’ve made Tiramisu for the first time for a dinner we’ve invited my Mother to. Mom remembered eating the most divine Tiramisu ever in a little restaurant in the marvelous Positano in Italy. I was aiming high, I know.. It was then that I’ve also discovered how easy it is to make Tiramisu, despite of what I thought before. The result was delightful - a classic and so tasty Tiramisu. I really love how the marsala taste goes wonderful with the coffee and cocoa. Although the one in Positano still remained my Mom’s number 1, the one I’ve made entered the honored 2nd place

The meaning of Tiramisu is “pull me up”, referring to the coffee and alcohol taste that strike you as soon as the first piece enters your mouth.  At Avi’s office they are playing a “20 questions” game once a week (a sort of a trivia game), and Avi is always proud of the fact that he knows all the answers to the food related questions. A few weeks ago there was a question about the meaning of Tiramisu, and apparently, I’ve never tought him that But on the bright side, on your “20 questions” you will surely know the answer

Some notes and tips about this Tiramisu:

* If you don’t have Marsala wine, or don’t like its taste, you can easily replace it with Port or even Brandy.

* When dipping the lady fingers in the coffee, make sure to do it as fast as you can, we don’t want the cookies to be mooshy.

* Coffee - the recipe calls for strong coffee, that’s in order for the coffee taste to remain in the lady fingers, despite the short dipping. How strong should the coffee be? According to your taste. I usually drink my coffee with 1 tsp of coffee in it, so strong for me means 1.5 or 2 times that amount.

* Sprinkle the cocoa powder over the Tiramisu just before serving, otherwise it will become moist from the cream layer, and will not be that attractive - tastewise and lookwise.

* Individual desserts always look better and more appealing to me. You can definitely make this recipe also in individual glasses. If they’re quite small, break the lady fingers to adjust them to the cup’s size.

* Folding the whipped cream into the Zabaglione is required in this recipe. Folding means gentle stirring, and is meant to prevent a beaten batter to lose the air that we’ve worked hard to introduce into it. One way of folding is holding the spatula in a manner that it touches the bottom of the bowl, and begin moving it in a form of the digit 8, while you cover as much of the bowl’s area as you can. After the folding process your batter should be uniform, though, so make sure it is before stopping.

* In order to give your Tiramisu the perfect finishing touch, use Dutch processed cocoa powder. Its taste is mild and wonderful, and it lacks that disturbing biterness of the simpler ones.

Tiramisu / Anna Maria Volpi
For a 20X25 cm pan, or a 20X30 cm pan, for a shorter Tiramisu

Ingredients:
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Marsala wine (see tips for substitution options)
450 gr Mascarpone cheese
250 ml heavy cream
25-30 lady finger cookies (depends on the pan size you’ve chosen, and of the size of the cookies)
1 1/2 cups strong coffee
2 tsp sugar

Dutch processed cocoa powder, for sprinkling on top

Directions:
1. Prepare the coffee in a small bowl, stir in the sugar and let cool.
2. Place the egg yolks in the bowl of a double boiler. Beat them well by hand, until fluffy and their color becomes lighter (about 5 minutes).
3. Add in the sugar and Marsala wine and beat until incorporated.
4. Place the bowl on top of a double boiler and whisk until the zabaglione mixture thickens (this happens just before boiling point - when small bubbles appear).
5. In a separate bowl whip the cream until soft peaks.
6. In a separate bowl mash the mascarpone until creamy.
7. Pour the zabaglione mixture upon the mascarpone and mix until incorporated.
8. Add in the whipped cream, and fold it into the zabaglione-mascarpone mixture (see tips about folding).
9. Assemble the Tiramisu: Lightly soak the ladyfingers in the coffee, one at a time and each one from both sides, arrange them as the bottom layer in the pan. Spread half of the cream over the lady fingers, then soak and arrange another layer of lady fingers, and spread the remaining cream mixture upon them.
10. Chill for at least 3 hours before serving.
11. Just before serving, sprinkle with cocoa powder. Serve within 48 hours from the preparation time, after that the lady fingers will become too mooshy.

Bread and all things pastry are one thing I’d always prefer eating, any given day. When going to a restaurant, there always has to be bread (and butter, or other spreads) on the table. When I go out to a pub (which, unfortunately, happens not as often as I’d like these days, cause since meeting Avi I’ve turned from a true party animal to someone that more often than not, prefers staying at home and watching a movie or something) I always order a cocktail, and can’t help myself to bread and butter. I also always think that it’s the best alternative for any other fatter food. Talk about wishful thinking

So spreads for me are the perfect complementary food to bread, and if I may say so - they are merely an excuse to eat the bread. Yes, I am a breadoholic! And so was this one. For the dinner with friends we held last week, I wanted to make focaccias, and thought what is gonna be best to serve with it. I decided - Pesto. The recipe I chose produced a great pesto, which can be used as is - over fresh bread, in sandwiches, or can be used for pasta sauces, or noodles sauces, as we did today. But more on that on a future post, cause that noodles dish definitely deserves a post of its own.
I used walnuts instead of pine nuts, which I don’t like (yes, I know, weird, please don’t throw anyhting at me). Like I said - great pesto!

Basil Pesto / Simply Recipes
Makes 1 cup

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

ממרח פסטו / Simply Recipes
עבור 1 כוס ממרח

רכיבים:
2 כוסות דחוסות עלי בזיליקום טריים
1/2 כוס גבינת פרזמן מגוררת
1/2 כוס שמן זית כתית מעולה
1/3 כוס צנוברים או אגוזי מלך
3 שיני שום בינוניות, כתושות
מלח ופלפל שחור טחון טרי, לפי הטעם

הכנה:
1. אם משתמשים באגוזי מלך שאינם קצוצים, מכניסים אותם למעבד מזון ומפעילים אותו למשך כמה פולסים, על מנת לטחון חלקית את האגוזים. מוסיפים את הבזיליקום (או אם משתמשים בצנוברים - הוסיפו את הצנוברים והבזיליקום לקערת המעבד יחדיו), ומעבדים מספר פולסים. מוסיפים את שיני השום ומעבדים עוד מספר פולסים.
2. מוסיפים לאט לאט את שמן הזית תוך כדי העיבוד. עוצרים מדי פעם כדי לגרד את החומרים שנתקעו על דפנות הקערה. מוסיפים את הגבינה המגוררת ומעבדים עוד כמה פולסים, עד אשר היא נטמעת בתערובת. מוסיפים מלח ופלפל שחור טחון טרי לפי הטעם ומערבבים.

Avi and I had our first date (it was April 8th, 2005, almost 3 years ago!) at a great Italian restaurant named Bellini. It was the best first date I’ve ever had - it lasted for 6 whole hours, and every minute of it was absolutely wonderful! Don’t get alarmed here, we didn’t eat for 6 straight hours, after the restaurant we went to a pub
At Bellini, which is ever since our favorite restaurant in Israel, we ate, among other things, a super delicious pasta with eggplant, mushrooms and honey.

Whenever we go to Bellini, it’s always a sure bet that we’re gonna order that dish, all the other stuff in our menu are to be decided when we arrive at the restaurant. Last time we’ve been there, I’ve noticed a hint of an oriental taste in it, which was kinda weird - suddenly noticing a new fact about a dish I’ve been eating regularly for years. I was almost certain it was soy sauce. It was then that I decided that I’m gonna try and make this at home, after figuring out some of the main ingredients it contains.

Last Friday we had a Friday nigt with no family gatherings planned, so I figured I’d give it a shot. My expectations weren’t high at all, since I’ve already tried doing reverse engineering on recipes just by their taste and the list of ingredients I think they contain, and it didn’t come close to the real thing. For example, when we were in Italy, we ate the best dinner there at a small restaurant in Pistoia, that was recommended by Lonely Planet. One of dishes we ordered, and the one that I remember its taste exactly till this day, was pasta with a superb black olives sauce. Tried to make it home, was nice, but not even close to that divine taste.

But boy was I up for a sweet surprise! The sauce came out wonderful, and tasted 99% exactly like the one at Bellini!! Avi and I were both shocked with pleasure, every bite we took was an absolute paradise! The tastes of the soy and honey along with the white wine and brown sugar I’ve added blend together to create a marvelous pasta sauce! Serving it with Feta cheese aside, and adding a little of it to every bite you take completes the tastes celebration that’s going on in your mouth. I HIGHLY recommend this one!

This is also my entry for this week’s Presto Pasta Night, a blog event kindly held weekly by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast.

Farfalle with eggplant, honey and soy sauce / Self recipe
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:
250 gr farfalle, cooked by manufacturer’s directions
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves
1 medium sized eggplant
4-5 medium sized fresh mushrooms, finely chopped
3 Tbsp white wine
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp light brown Demerara sugar
For serving: grated Feta cheese

Directions:
1. Slice the eggplant, scatter salt over all the slices from both sides, and let rest for an hour.
2. Wash the eggplant, dice them into small squares, so they won’t take ages to cook.
3. Warm the vegetable oil in a pan, add the garlic cloves and fry them for about a minute.
4. Add in the eggplant and mushrooms and fry until the eggplant is completely soft (about 15 mins, maybe a bit more).
5. Add the white wine, stir, and fry until the wine has almost completely evaporated.
6. Stir in 2 Tbsp of the soy sauce and all the honey.
7. After about 5 mins stir in the brown sugar.
8. Add the cooked pasta into the sauce, add the remaining 1 Tbsp of soy sauce and stir until the pasta gets a bit darker color (from the soy sauce).
9. It’s highly recommended to serve it with grated Feta cheese alongside, the tastes combination is simply exciting!

פרפלה ברוטב חצילים, דבש וסויה סטייל מסעדת בליני / מתכון עצמי - מירי רביבו
עבור 2 מנות

רכיבים:
250 גרם פסטה, מבושלת ע”פ הוראות יצרן
3 כפות שמן
4 שיני שום
1 חציל בינוני
4-5 פטריות יער בגודל בינוני
3 כפות יין לבן
3 כפות סויה
2 כפות דבש
1 1/2 כפיות סוכר חום דמררה
להגשה: גבינת פטה מגוררת

הכנה:
1. חותכים את החצילים (עם הקליפה) לפרוסות, ממליחים, ונותנים לזה לנוח כך כשעה וחצי, להוצאת המרירות.
2. לאחר מכן שוטפים את החצילים וחותכים אותם לקוביות קטנות, על מנת שבעת הבישול לא ייקח להם הרבה זמן להתרכך.
3. מחממים שמן במחבת ומטגנים את השום כדקה.
4. מוסיפים את החצילים והפטריות ומטגנים עד לריכוך מוחלט של החצילים (כרבע שעה, אולי טיפה יותר)
5. מוסיפים את היין הלבן, מערבבים, ומטגנים עד לאידוי כמעט מלא של היין.
6. מוסיפים 2 כפות מהסויה ואת הדבש ומערבבים היטב.
7. לאחר 5 דקות מוסיפים את ההסוכר החום.
8. מסננים את הפסטה ממי הבישול ומעבירים אותה למחבת עם הרוטב. מוסיפים את כף הסויה הנוספת ומערבבים עד אשר האטריות משחימות קלות (מהצבע של רוטב הסויה).
9. מומלץ בחום רב להגיש את המנה עם גבינת פטה מגוררת בצד, שילוב הטעמים הוא נפלא!

This post is Avi’s. I am writing it and took the photos, but other than that, it’s all his. He came up with the idea, created the recipe and made the dish. And how yummy that was! This is one of two recipes (and counting ) he came up with lately, I hope we make the other one soon, and if it turns out to be a keeper as well - we’ll be sure to post about it.

That being said, this post is a part of the Presto Pasta Night blog event - it’s a weekly event, hosted by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast, and it’s all dedicated to pasta recipes. How cool is that? (Those of you who visit here often already know that Italian food is my favorite, but I bet you didn’t know that one of my best friends calls me “Paaaaasta”, because I always say this word with a mellow-and-totally-in-love-tone).

A couple of weeks ago, I don’t remember exactly when and how, Avi came to me with the idea of making a cream and raisins pasta sauce. The only other sweet-ish pasta sauce I’ve ever tasted was a divine one (at a restaurant named Divina, imagine that ), it was a cream based sauce with a touch of orange. Yum! So Avi’s idea reminded me of exactly that sauce, and evidently his idea sounded awesome.

Last Saturday he got around to making it. He used onion and garlic in his recipe, which I thought wouldn’t accompany the raisins very well, but it turned out that the man knew what he was doing! He also added a touch of lemon to the sauce, which was subtle but at the same time gave it a great taste-hint and aroma. All in all it turned out to be a great sauce, the light sweetness of the raisins is a great match to cream based pasta sauce, and it also was a great match to the goat cheese filled ravioli that it was wrapped aound.

I’ve filed this post under both Main Courses and First Courses, since in Italy pasta is usually a first course, whereas for Avi and me (and for many restaurants here in Israel), it’s definitely a main course.

Cream and raisins pasta sauce / Avi Revivo
Makes 2 portions

Ingredients:
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250 ml cream (we used 15% fat)
1/2 - 3/4 cup raisins (we used mixed - dark and light)
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
5 Tbsp white wine
salt, pepper
milk, for thinning the sauce if necessary

Directions:
1. Fry the onion until brown and caramelized.
2. Add the garlic and fry for 1/2 min.
3. Add the white wine, stir well and cook until partially evaporized.
4. Add the cream, lemon juice, the raisins and salt and pepper according to your taste. Stir well and cook for about 15 mins. If during the process the sauce gets too thick, add a little milk to it and stir well. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

רוטב שמנת וצימוקים לפסטה / אבי רביבו
עבור 2 מנות

רכיבים:
2 בצלים קטנים, קצוצים דק
2 שיני שום כתושות
250 מ”ל שמנת (אנחנו השתמשנו ב - 15% שומן)
1/2 - 3/4 כוס צימוקים (בהירים וכהים, מומלץ לשים כמות גדולה יותר של בהירים)
2 כפות מיץ לימון סחוט טרי
5 כפות יין לבן
מלח, פלפל
חלב, לדילול הרוטב במקרה הצורך

הכנה:
1. מטגנים את הבצל עד השחמה וקרמול.
2. מוספים את השום ומטגנים כחצי דקה.
3. מוסיפים את היין הלבן, מערבבים היטב ומבשלים עד לאידוי חלקי.
4. מוסיפים את השמנת, מיץ הלימון, הצימוקים, ומלח ופלפל לפי הטעם. מערבבים היטב ומבשלים כ - 15 דקות. אם במהלך זמן הבישול הרוטב הופך סמיך מדי, מדללים עם מעט חלב עד שמגיעים למרקם הרצוי, מערבבים היטב. מומלץ להגיש בליווי גבינת פרמזן מגוררת.

Pizza night is such a great tradition! Whenever I see in movies or TV series families that have a weekly pizza night - I want to have one too. It’s such a nice together-time, and when the theme is such a tasty treat - how can one refuse it?

But, back to reality, if I’d let myself eat pizza in the evening once a week, I wouldn’t get very far (cause I wouldn’t be able to pass through the door). But there’s no harm in pizza nights every now and then, right?

So for a while now I’ve wanted to try to make home-made pizza. My childhood memories from home made pizza (not at my home, we didn’t make pizza at home, but at friends’ houses) aren’t so hot - I remember very thick dough (and I like thick dough, but that was too much even for me) that tasted nothing like a real pizza dough, sauce that on a good day would never resemble to the real thing, and some cheese. This held me back from making pizza at home for a really long time (silly me!), thinking that with home kitchen equipment there is no way I can produce pizzeria-style pizza (WRONG!). Lately though, while browsing through food blogs, and watching results of fellow bloggers and fellow food forum members here in Israel, I saw really impressive results.

I also figured that it could be nice to start using that new baking stone that we received among the presents for our wedding. So for the past couple of weeks Avi and I talked almost every night about making pizza at home (actually every time we talked it sounded something like this: Avi: “When are we gonna make pizza?” Me: “As soon as we buy a pizza pan“). Yeah, that’s me, I love to have all the right gadgets before I make any kind of food. It’s really the best excuse I’ve found to buying all sorts of great cooking gadgets!

Yesterday I bought the pizza pan and decided to surprise Avi with a home-made-pizza-night. Boy, am I happy I used the recipe I used! It belongs to Maggie, she is a friend from an Israeli food forum, actually a virtual friend, because I’ve never met her. She is SO talented! Every picture of every dish she ever makes would make your mouth water in a second, and she also tells the story of the recipes she gives so gracefully - I really admire her! Last but not least - she also lived in Italy for a period in her life, and she knows a lot about Italian food.
The pizza turned out delicious! The dough was so great to work with, I almost wanted to crawl into the mixer’s bowl and lie down to sleep on it! It made a superb crust, and eventhough I slightly overcooked it, it still had a wonderful taste. The sauce was also very tasty, and to sum it all up - I really recommend this wonderful recipe. Thanks so much, Maggie!

Place the dough on the pizza pan

Spread a little amount of the sauce on the dough. Notice here that
I’ve put a lot of sauce, because I didn’t read the recipe carefully.
This didn’t produce a wet dough at all, though.

After partial baking add cheese and toppings

And the final result (try to not overcook the margins, as I did)

Pizza / Slightly adapted from Maggie’s recipe
Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients:
For the dough:
500 gr bread flour (I didn’t have so I used all-purpose flour)
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water

For the sauce:
1 fresh tomato, grated
100 gr tomato paste
1 flat tsp sugar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

For the pizza:
200 gr mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Put the flour and salt in the mixer’s bowl and stir them well using a spatula. Add the yeast and stir well.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead for 10-12 mins.
3. Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
4. Place the baking stone in the oven (if using one) and preheat the oven to the highest temperature available.
5.Punch down dough and knead briefly. Form 2 large pizza bases from it, or 4 smaller ones.
6. Place the dough on a pizza pan. Make the sauce, by mixing all the ingredients together and stirring them.
7. When the stove has reached the highest temperature, spread only a small amount of the sauce on top of the dough. Start spreading from the center and slowly spread towards the ends, leaving a small part of the crust uncovered with sauce.
8. Bake the dough and sauce for about 10 mins, or until the margins are half baked.
9. Get the pizza out of the oven, spread more sauce and scatter the cheese and other desired toppings. Put back into the oven until fully baked.

We also made a little focaccia from the dough

פיצה / עיבוד קל למתכון של מגי מפורום מתכונים של תפוז
עבור 4-6 אנשים

רכיבים:
לבצק:
500 גרם קמח לחם (השתמשתי בקמח רגיל)
1 כף מלח
1 כף סוכר
2 כפות שמן זית
1 כף שמרים יבשים
1 1/4 כוסות מים חמימים

לרוטב:
1 עגבניה, מגוררת
100 גרם רסק עגבניות
1 כפית שטוחה סוכר
2 שיני שום, כתושות
2 כפות שמן זית
מלח
פלפל

לפיצה:
200 גרם גבינת מוצרלה

הכנה:
1. מכניסים את הקמח והמלח לקערת המיקסר ומערבבים ידנית. מוסיפים את השמרים ומערבבים טוב.
2. מוסיפים את שאר החומרים ולשים 10-12 דקות.
3. מכסים את הקערה ומתפיחים במקום חמים עד להכפלת הנפח.
4. אם משתמשים באבן שמוט, מניחים אותה על רשת בשליש התחתון של התנור ומחממים את התנור לחום הגבוה ביותר.
5. מוציאים את האויר מהבצק ע”י מכת אגרוף ולשים קלות. יוצרים ממנו 2 בסיסים גדולים לפיצה או 4 קטנים יותר.
6. שמים את הבצק על רשת לפיצה (אם משתמשים). מכינים את הרוטב ע”י ערבוב כל החומרים.
7. כאשר התנור סיים להתחמם, מורחים על עיגולי הבצק מעט מאוד רוטב, עד השוליים שיהיו גבול הנחת הגבינה ושאר התוספות על הפיצה.
8. מכניסים לתנור ואופים כ-10 דקות, או עד ששולי הפיצה חצי אפויים.
9. מוציאים את הפיצה מהתנור, מורחים עוד מהרוטב בכמות הרצויה, מפזרים גבינה ושאר תוספות. מכניסים בחזרה לתנור עד לאפיה מלאה לפי טעמכם האישי(אנחנו אוהבים את הבצק זהוב ושעל הגבינה מתחילות להופיע נקודות זהובות).