traditional cooking recipes and books from italy by Laura's Kitchen

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Sauces

Gravies for Pasta

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Appetizers & Crostini

Pizzas & Focaccias

First Courses & Soups

Second Courses, Meat & Fish

Eggs and Side Dishes

Cakes & Cookies

Tea and hot infusions

Menu for Robert de Niro

Each one of us has their idol. Mine is Robert De Niro. I've often thought of meeting him, perhaps exchanging a few words in Italian with him and ...inviting him to dinner. Should he accept, I'd offer him a meal based upon the antique savors of my homeland: Terrazzano, in Molise… a harsh land, where even the tastes of the inhabitants are strong and penetrating...

Starters

Pizza with peppers

Ingredients for 4 people
6 large peppers
500 g of bread dough
6 onions
4-5 tomatoes
300 g of scamorza cheese
4 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil
1 "hot" spicy pepper
a handful of basil leaves
salt

Clean the vegetables well, wash them and cut them into thin slices. Put the vegetables in a saucepan, add a pinch of salt and cover them. Heat them over a low flame for a quarter of an hour, then uncover them and let their water evaporate. Continue heating for about 10 minutes, then allow it all to cool slightly. Blend the vegetables. Cut the scamorza cheese into thin slices. Spread the bread dough in a thin layer and subdivide it into 4 small individual baking pans. Cover the bread dough with the vegetable mixture, then join in the slices of scamorza and the basil leaves. Sprinkle some powdered spicy hot pepper on top. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and bake for about a quarter of an hour.

Calcioni molisani (folded pizza Molise style)

Ingredients: for 4 people
for the dough:
2 cups of flour
un grosso pezzo of butter
a whole egg
lemon juice
salt
for the filling:
a cup of ricotta cheese
a thick slice of Italian ham (prosciutto crudo)
a thick slice of scamorza cheese
an egg yolk
a small sprig of parsley
salt and pepper
frying oil

Cut both the prosciutto and the scamorza cheese in cubes. Mix all the ingredients of the filling well in a tureen. Put the flour like a fountain on a flat surface, create a "hole" in the center and break the egg into it, soften then add the butter, the salt and the lemon juice. Knead it well and spread it in a thin layer.
Place the filling in clumps on half of the dough, fold over the remaing dough and press down on the edges around the clumps. Using a glass, cut many disks with the clumps of filling in the middle. Fry the "calcioni" in ample hot oil until golden on both sides, then drain off the excess oil using some paper towels and serve.

First Courses

Broad Bean and Onion Soup

Ingredients for 4 people

2 cups of husked fresh broad beans (fave)
4 small early onions
4 tablespoons of olio extra virgin d`oliva
a few leaves of nettles or rhea
a small sprig of parsley
one spicy "hot" pepper
salt

Wash and dice the onions into not very small pieces, then put them in an earthenware bowl and add the broad beans and the minced nettles leaves. Cover and heat over a moderate flame for about a half hour stirring now and then and eventually adding water if necessary. Salt to taste. Then, uncover the bowl and complete the cooking until all the liquid has evaporated. A few minutes before the end of the cooking phase, stir in some chopped parsley, correct the salt, if necessary, and add a drizzle of oil, the "hot" pepper, mix and serve.

Pasta and ricotta cheese

Ingredients for 4 people
4 cups of short pasta (macaroni rigati)
300 g of fresh ricotta cheese
salt and black pepper

Boil a large pot of water, add a fistful of salt, pour in the pasta and cook it "al dente". In the soup tureen that you'll be using to serve this recipe for guests, work the ricotta with the ribs of a fork, break up sbriciolandola and mix in the salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add a few tablespoons of boiling water, until a soft cream is obtained. Drain the pasta, pour it into the tureen, mix and serve immediately.

Second courses

Roast Leg of Lamb Molisana Style

Ingredients for 4 people
A leg of lamb
6-8 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of dry white wine
1 cup of beef broth
a twig of sage
a twig of rosemary
a bunch of calamint leaves
salt and black pepper

Chop the sage, the calamint and the rosemary, mix them in the oil and add a shake of pepper. Spread the aromatic mixture onto the leg of lamb on all sides, then put it in an oven pan greased with oil. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C and bake for about 20 minutes. At the end of the baking time, wet it with the white wine and let it evaporare. Allow the the leg of lamb to become golden, then sprinkle some broth onto it and continue the cooking for about an hour. Add more hot broth, if necessary. Serve the leg of lamb veiled with its juices.

Pork Molisana Style ('ndocca 'ndocca)

Ingredients: for 4 people
snout, hoofs, pork rind, ears, fresh pork ribs
1 cup of vinegar
2 leaves of sweet bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic
one spicy "hot " pepper without seeds
a twig of rosemary
salt
sliced home-made bread

Marinate the meat in cold water and a few teaspoons of vinegar for about 12 hours. Drain them, cut them into pieces and put them in in a saucepan, better if earthenware, with the sweet bay leaf, the garlic, the spicy "hot " pepper and the rosemary. Cover with water, bring it to a boil, salt to taste and continue cooking it covered over a low flame for about 4 hours. Serve the meat with a little broth and home-made breads rubbed with garlic. At the end of the cooking phase, the broth should be very viscious or gooey.

Side dishes

Fried Onions

Ingredients for 4 people
4 large golden onions
2 cups of milk
1 cup of white flour
ample frying oil
salt

Peel the onions, wash them and slice them legnth-wise to about thickness of a finger. Separate the slices in rings. Pour the milk into a tureen, salt it slightly and dip in the onion rings. Drain the onions, flour them and fry them in ample hot frying oil for 3 minutes. Drain the onions of excess oil, dry them on paper towels and serve immediately while hot.

Dessert

Sugared Almonds

Ingredients: for 6-8 people
A cup of peeled almonds
A cup of sugar

Put the almonds in boiling water, peel off any remaining skin, dry them and bake them in an oven at 100°C, turning them over now and then using a spatula, then remove them from the oven before they take on a brown color. Put 2 tablespoons of water and the sugar in a saucepan over a low flame. When it starts to melt, add the almonds and stir them with a wooden spoon. When they start to become golden d thicken, you'll see that the almonds will be coated with a white and slightly granulous, rough veil. Pour it all onto a flat surface, preferably marble, separate the almonds, let them dry and cool, then serve.