Italian Recipe Chatter

Growing up in an Italian family, food is central to literally every event and family get-together. My grandma was always the one who was in charge of the kitchen, no matter whose house we were at. All of the recipes that we used were passed down to us from her great-grandmother, from traditional cannolis to our authentic Italian lasagna recipes.

Some of my fondest memories are of standing on phonebooks to reach up to the sink and helping her fill the manicottis. I always think of our family get-togethers as being quite similar to the opening scene from The Godfather—without the organized crime. Today my family has tried to maintain the tradition and atmosphere that my grandmother worked so hard to create.

One of the great things about all Italian recipes is that they are so open to interpretation. There is no canon for the right or wrong methodology for creating pasta, gnocchi or cannolis—you are free to adapt the flavors to your palate. Nowhere is this more evident than in the spectrum of Italian sauce recipes.

Italian sauce is utilized in everything from meat and poultry dishes to pasta and pizza. While the staple ingredients of tomatoes, garlic and olive oil stay the same, the combination of herbs and concentration of flavors is up to you. I prefer to cater the flavor profile of my sauce to complement the particular dish that I will be using it in.

Like all food, pasta tastes best when it is homemade. While the task may seem daunting to some, there are some simple pasta recipes that virtually any home cook can create. Here is one of my favorites:

Ingredients:

3 whole eggs + 2 yolks
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of canola oil

Directions:

Beat the eggs and oil with an electric mixer, and then add the flour until the dough becomes too thick for the mixer to turn. Take the dough out of the mixer, and knead with flour until it is stiff. Divide the dough into balls about the size of an egg. Run the balls through the thickest setting of the pasta machine.

You will want to achieve a balance between keeping the noodles too wet and keeping them too dry. When the noodles are in a perfect, malleable, yet stiff state, cut them and you will have perfect homemade noodles.

The last few years I have developed somewhat of an affectation for watching the Food Network. Even though I rarely use the thing I learn to prepare my own food, the channel has definitely expanded my knowledge of the culinary arts. While the host of any program is a crucial element, it is especially important on Food Network, as they are one-on-one with the camera the majority of the time.

One of my favorite shows to watch on the Food Network is Everyday Italian, hosted by Giada De Laurentiis. Admittedly, one of my main motivations for tuning in is seeing a gorgeous Italian woman for half an hour, but I also have learned a lot about Italian recipes and cuisine. Despite the fact that I am somewhat of a novice in the kitchen, I have been able to learn the staple ingredients of Italian cooking and develop some of my own recipes.

When you think of Italian cuisine, it’s probably a hearty entrée that first pops into mind. Maybe it’s a steaming plate of vegetable lasagna or tender, delectable veal parmigiana. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that – these and other Italian main dish mainstays are popular for a reason: they taste great. Unfortunately, Italy’s storied dessert tradition is occasionally overlooked by the rest of the world.

Take the time to think about it and you’ll likely be able to list numerous Italian dessert favorites. There’s the Piedmontese set dessert with fruit accents known as panna cotta. Who could resist a tube-shaped shell of fried dough stuffed to overflowing with creamy ricotta, vanilla and other flavorings (cannoli)? Perhaps best of all, Italian biscotti recipes are the envy of the Western world. Who would have thought a twice-baked cookie could taste so divine?

My mother is a living museum of great Italian recipes. Although she’s well into her 80s and occasionally forgets the names of her many nieces and nephews, she has a mind like a steel trap when it comes to cooking. A conservative estimate would be that she has memorized hundreds of pasta recipes in minute detail, and it seems that every time I bring my family to her house we are treated to something new.

While I definitely inherited my mother’s passion for all things culinary, my memory is nowhere near as impeccable. A missed ingredient or two won’t always spoil the dish, but it can affect the outcome so dramatically as to prove shocking at times. With this in mind, I’ve started a vast collection of Italian cookbooks and loaded each one with bookmarks for my favorite recipes. That way I can refer back to them as often as necessary and treat my family to a consistently delicious dinner experience.

My wife and I had been renting apartments for the duration of our marriage until about a year ago when we managed to purchase our own home. The improvement projects and mortgage payments are stressful, of course, but anything beats dealing with incompetent landlords and sky-high rents. Now that we have a place to call our own, we’ve begun hosting dinner parties on a regular basis.

Knowing that our close friend and neighbor Brad and his wife Judith are both vegetarians, we like to shake up the main course on occasion. It’s much easier to prepare a meat-free entrée for everyone instead of a meat dish with vegetarian option. My wife’s vegetable lasagna recipe is a dinnertime staple anyway, but it’s especially useful for when we need to be accommodating toward our guests.

Fairly or not, French cooking is often considered to be the holy grail of ethnic cuisine. It seems that most professional chefs are trained in the classical French mode, and there’s no disputing the fact that French dishes are complex and difficult to execute. But how often does the average American sit down to enjoy a French meal? You almost never hear about the elusive beef bourguignon or escargot outside of fancy-schmancy restaurants.

Italian cuisine, on the other hand, is incredibly versatile. It has a populist element as opposed to the air of elitism surrounding French food. Italian cuisine can be remarkably simple with its foundation in succulent meats and saucy pasta. Still, perfecting a given Italian dish takes time and artistry. Best of all, practically any Italian fare you prepare will draw favorable reviews from children, husbands, wives and anyone else with a healthy appetite.

If you visit a restaurant that specializes in authentic Italian cuisine, you might be surprised to find a dearth of Americanized Italian food. Many restaurants in the New World make a mockery of genuine Italian cooking, dishing out massive portions of carbohydrate-rich food with little to balance it all out. In Italy, food is generally served in multiple courses, but the portions are much smaller.

And boy do Italians know how to make pasta sauce. A real Italian chef will typically offer two options: a red sauce and a white sauce. Marinara sauce features tomato as its main impetus and is does not include meat. An alfredo sauce will be anchored with cream, butter and parmesan, and it is almost always served over a bed of vegetables and lighter meats.

Growing up, I always looked forward to family dinners. When my dad got off work early enough to cook, there was about a 50-50 chance that we would be treated to a real Italian feast. My personal favorite, spaghetti and meatballs, was reserved for special occasions. The sauce was memorable, certainly, but the meatballs were the real star of the show. Here’s one of the Italian meatball recipes I still follow to this day.

Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground beef, veal and pork mixture
2 eggs
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced
1 cup bread crumbs
salt, to taste
splash of milk

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients except garlic in a large mixing bowl. Shape into meatballs.
2. Fry until browned in a skillet with olive oil and garlic. Add to tomato sauce, allow to simmer there for at least 3 hours.