Quotes

"What is even more important of what you eat is with whom you eat" - Peter Whitehouse

Risotto with potatoes

You need to try it to belive it. I know it sounds weird, but we make a lot of dishes in Italy with rice and vegetables... and we call them risotto.


Preparation time: 20-30 minutes.

1) Peel and cut in small cubes one potato per person.

2) Saute` one whole finely cut onion with olive oil in a pot.

3) When the onions start browning, add an inch of butter and 3 tablespoons of rice per person (2 people=6 tablespoons of rice).

4) Stir the rice until browning and then add hal cup of white wine. Stir the rice and let the wine evaporate.

5) Add the potatoes to the pot. Also add some rosemery.

6) Add a cup of water every 3 minutes and keep stirring the rice. The rice will need a total of 20 minutes of cooking. Add few fresh baby tomatoes and some basil for color.

7) After about 18 minutes, turn off the heat and let the rice rest in the pot. At this moment add some parmesan cheese and/or asiago cheese and stir it into the rice.

Add black pepper if you like

Buon appetito!

Ziti with tomatoes sauce

It is a classic sunday pasta in Naples, Italy. You can make a ragu` sauce or you can make an easier and fresh sauce for the summer time.
All you need is a can of tomatoes, some fresh basil, garlic, onions and olive oil. And of course pasta. In this case a special kind of pasta that it is typical of a suthern italian region, Campania. The region where I come from. The same region where pizza and mozzarella come from, just so you understand...

Preparation time: 30 min

1) Put the water to boil for the pasta. Add 2 teaspoons of salt.

2) Start making teh red sauce. Saute` the onions in a pot with some olive oil. Before the brown, add the red sauce, some basil and a clove of garlic. Cover the pot and let it cook at low heat for about 30 min.

3) We use ziti pasta. You need to break them with you hands. It is really a special pasta and it will taste fantastically with the sauce that goes inside them.

4)Drain the pasta and add some sauce to it stirring. Save some sauce for the top

5) Dress with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.

Well...Buon Appetito...!

Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes sauce

It is almost summer time. That means that fresh tomatoes are in the right season and tasty.
Also, you can find fresh basil at the groceries. All the ingridients of a nice fresh spaghetti dish.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

1) Put water to boil in a pot and add 2 teaspoons of salt.

2) In a separate pan, sauté some onions and garlic in olive oil until browning. Add a bit of red hot pepper too.

3) Wash and cut fresh tomatoes

4) When you start cooking the spaghetti (5 minutes of cooking, see the time on the package), add the fresh cut tomatoes to the pan. Cook the tomatoes just for few minutes.

5) Drain the spaghetti and add them to the pan, stirring and smashing the fresh sauce onto them.

6) Dress with fresh basil and olive oil

Add parmesan cheese and black pepper if you like...

Buon appetito

Pasta with potatoes

This is a must. Pasta with potatoes. Good for the winter as well as for the summer time.

Ingredients: potatoes, onions ,olive oil, parmesan cheese and

of course pasta.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

1) Peel 2 potatoes per person. Cut them in 1 inch cubes.

2)Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a pot and saute some onions

3) Add 4 coups of water and the potatoes. Add also 1 fresh tomato, a carrot and some celery.I like to add also some basil. Cover the pot and let it cook for 10-15 min.

4) When the potatoes are soft enough, it is time to add the pasta (short pasta) to the pot. Often we use mixed pasta, which is made from the left over pasta (penne + broken spghetti + ditaloni + whatever short pasta you have left in your cabinet). Add enough water just to cover the pasta. Also at this point I like to add hot red pepper.

5) Stir until the pasta is cooked.

6) Add parmesan cheese. and black pepper.

Buon Appetito

Pasta with cauliflowers in red

This is a variation of a typical dish: pasta with cauliflowers in white. The difference is the addition of fresh tomatoes and garlic to the dish.

Preparation time : 30 min

1) Put some water to boil for the pasta and add a teaspoon of salt to it.

2) Wash and cut one cauliflower.

3) Make the sauce: put some olive oil and garlic in a skimmer, then add the cauliflower and let it cook for 15-20 min.

4) Cook the pasta, drain it and the add the sauce to it

5) Add some parmesan cheese and fresh parsley


Buon Appetito

Pasta with butter

You cannot believe it but butter tastes diffently in Italy. I think it is lighter here
in the US. However you can make a successful pasta with butter anywhere. What you need is butter, olive oil and parmesan cheese.
In Italy we use to eat it when we are stomach sick or we just want to eat lighter. My mom used to call it "pastina in bianco", that means "pasta in white sauce or pratically with no sauce".

Preparation time: 15 min


1) Put some water to boil in a pot and add 1 teaspoon of salt

2) Add short pasta (tubettini)
to the boiling water

3) Let it cook for 5 minutes

4) Drain the pasta
saving some of its cooking water

5) Add a quater of butter per person and stir in the pasta

6) Add a bunch of parmesan cheese and a teaspoon of olive oil.

Variations: very easy to make also as a side dish or adjusting the amount of water in the pasta you can make a sort of soupy pasta.

Buon Appetito!