The east coast has been been getting hit pretty hard with winter weather recently and with another major storm heading this way, it looks like winter is far from done.  (Damn that groundhog!)  If you’re looking for a hearty dinner for a cold winter’s night,  look no further than this Italian Lentil Soup.  It’s quick, easy and delicious… and will warm your bones!

Here’s what you need: (hopefully you won’t have to venture out into 25 inches of snow to get it!)

• lentils
• extra virgin olive oil
• 3 stalks of celery – chopped
• 2 carrots – diced
• 1 onion – diced
• 1-2 tomato or a small can of diced or crushed tomatoes
• box of spaghetti
• salt and pepper

What you need to do:

Bring a medium size pot of water to a boil and add your lentils (we use about 1/2 a bag for the 2 of use and we have plenty of left-overs) Let the lentils boil for about 2-3 minutes, then remove and rinse them.  In a large pot, add your olive oil, celery, onion, carrots, tomatoes, lentils and enough water to cover all your ingredients.  Then add your salt and pepper, bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until your lentils are tender.   You can serve as-is for a more traditional soup or make it Italian by adding some pasta…  (Come on, make it Italian… you know you want to!!)

In a separate pot, cook your pasta.  I like to use spaghetti and break it in quarters for this dish because that’s the way mom used to do it for our family growing up (and mom is always right… right?) Once your spaghetti is cooked to your liking, add it to your lentils, give it a stir and your done!  Serve with grated parmigiano or romano cheese.  Enjoy and  buon appetito!

When my parents were growing up in Calabria, they didn’t have much and when it came to cooking, nothing went to waste… especially since they grew up in large families (mom is one of 8 and dad is one of 6.)  Many of the foods and recipes that they made came with them to the US and became a part of our meals.  The cycle in my family goes a little something like this:

• Young child:  put food in front of them – if they like how it tastes, they eat it, if they don’t, they won’t
• Teenager: tell them what you’re making – if they like the sound of it, they’ll eat it, if they don’t they won’t
• Adult: if it tastes good, who cares what it’s called or what it sounds like or what it is.  IT TASTES GOOD.

Gizzards are one of those foods and in this economy, a great way to save a buck.

What you’ll need:

• Gizzards
• olive oil
• 1/2 onion – chopped
• 1 clove of garlic – diced
• red wine
• salt & pepper

What to do:

Gizzards are very tough, so start by boiling the gizzards for 1 hour.  Once you’ve boiled them, add a splash of olive oil in a sauce pan or frying pan with your onion and garlic.  Let them simmer for a few minutes and then add the gizzards and enough water to almost cover the gizzards.  Then add a splash of red wine and your seasonings… I used salt, pepper and adobo (which is an all-spice.)  Bring to a simmer, cover and reduce the heat to low for about 15 minutes.  Then uncover your gizzards and let the water reduce for another 10-15 minutes.  Cut up a nice loaf of bread and pour yourself a glass of red wine… enjoy and buon appetito!

What’s better than chicken?  chicken with chicken!  The wild mushrooms have started popping up and we couldn’t be happier.  Chicken of the Woods is one of our favorite wild mushrooms and easy to spot with its shades of bright orange.  You can often find them nestled at the base of an oak tree.  We noticed the first one last week while walking Dexter, spotting it in a neighbors yard… unfortunately it was behind a fence! Do they know what yumminess is growing in their backyard we thought?  Maybe we should write them a note and leave it in their mailbox… wait, then they’ll start hunting them too, which will mean less for us.  So, we sacrificed that one and painfully watch as it grows out of it’s tender stage each day as we walk by… but the search is officially ON!  It wasn’t long before we found another one in a local park.  Wild Chicken for dinner!

Photo Credit: Christine4nier’s on Flickr

Chicken of the Woods (AKA: Sulpher shelf or Nassa in our family) has a great meaty texture.  This mushroom is delicious but you need to know how to cook it.  I’ve read on many websites and blogs that Chicken of the Woods is just ok… which to me means 2 things.

1. They didn’t know how to cook it
2. They’re CrAzY!

You do need to harvest Chicken of the Woods when it’s tender, otherwise it can be really tough and awful but if you’re lucky enough to find it in its early stages it’s wonderful.

Here’s how we cooked ours the other night.  What you’ll need:

• Chicken of the Woods
• Chicken (cut into pieces or cubes)
• garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• chicken broth
• splash of heavy cream or half/half
• splash of white wine
• salt & pepper

Clean your mushroom thoroughly and tear the most tender parts into pieces.  Add your extra virgin olive oil to your pan with some minced garlic. Let the garlic and olive oil smell fill the room (che buono!)… then add your Chicken of the Woods and let it saute for a few minutes.  You’ll notice the brilliant color of the mushroom as it cooks… really beautiful.  Add your chicken and let it cook until almost completely cooked through.  Then add your chicken broth, splash of wine and heavy cream, salt and pepper.  Serve over rice.  Enjoy and Buon Appetito!

For another wild mushroom post, head over to Ciao Chow Linda where Linda’s brother Frank breaks it down nicely including Chicken of the Woods and other wild favorites.

Here’s another recipe for Chicken of the Woods with tomato sauce from last year with additional photos.

As I mentioned in my recent post about Italian food, some of the best recipes come from Italian creativity when times are tough (la cucina povera) in southern Italy that was pretty much all the time… well, times are tough everywhere!  but don’t let that stop you from making delicious Italian food.  Pasta Pie or pizza di macaroni is a great way to make leftover pasta into a great new recipe.  This recipe was created for exactly that reason… as you may know, Italians don’t cook the “correct amount” of anything.  It goes something like this at my house, “how many people are we?… 6?  we’ll need 3 pounds of pasta.” So when there’s a pound of pasta left over, what do you with it?  (Yes frat boy, you could eat it cold.)  make Pasta Pie!

There’s no reason to wait until you have leftover pasta though… Pasta Pie is a great treat anytime!  especially in the summer.  Check out this monster my brother-in-law made this past weekend.  This is 4 pounds of pasta deliciousness.  Everyone has their own recipe, amounts, types of pasta, etc.  I don’t have the exact recipe (hint: there is no exact recipes in Italian cooking, the sooner you realize that, the happier we will all be) but here’s the basics of how he makes his… which was delicious!

He uses different types of long pasta (spaghetti, bucatini, etc.) if you use short cut pasta it tends to crumble easily.  The different pasta types also help make it less dense. Cook your pasta and let it cool and drain well.  Then beat 12 eggs per pound of pasta (no, that isn’t a misprint… 12 eggs per pound of pasta, I never said my brother-in-law wasn’t cRaZy) apparently my sister only had 24 eggs to add to the 4 pounds of pasta so it didn’t come out exactly how it should have (so 48 eggs would be the correct amount here?… C-r-A-z-Y!)  Add the eggs, grated parmigiana, salt and pepper to the pasta and mix well.  In a humongous frying pan (obviously) add olive oil and let the pasta mixture cook until golden brown (the trick is to move the pasta around so that it forms in the pan) then take the lid of the pan and flip the pasta.  Let both sides get golden brown and you have yourself a Pasta Pie.  I wouldn’t recommend starting with a 4 pounder… you might want to make a 1 pounder first.  You can also add other ingredients as well… sopressata, ham or whatever your creative Italian soul is feeling.  So have yourself a slice of Pasta Pie, a fresh summer salad and a glass of wine.  Enjoy and buon appetito!

The little balls of deliciousness called arancini are one of my favorite treats.  Whenever my mother would make them, it would always put a smile on my face.  Arancini vary in size, shape and ingredients… some use sauce, peas, mushrooms, meat and other ingredients but the best ones are usually the ones you most fondly remember, which would make these my favorite.

Arancini di mamma

Ingredients: white rice, parsley, eggs, salt, mozzarella, bread crumbs, grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese, sliced ham, hard boiled egg (optional)

• Make your rice and let it cool to the touch.  You can speed up the cooling process by laying the rice out on a flat surface.
• Cut your mozzarella into small cubes and the ham into small pieces (if you are using hard boiled eggs, cut them into small pieces as well)
• Once your rice has cooled, mix it in a large bowl with salt, chopped parsley, grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese, garlic powder and 2-3 eggs.

• Place a tablespoon of the rice mixture into the palm of your hand.
• Form a small hole in the center of the tablespoon of rice (like you’re planting a seed) and place a small cube of mozzarella and piece of ham into it (also add a piece of hard boiled egg if you decide to use it in the recipe)
• Place another tablespoon of rice on top and shape into a ball.

• Gently roll each arancino in bread crumbs.
• Place them in hot vegetable oil (we use canola.) You should use enough oil to cover the arancini even though they will float.

• After a few minutes, turn each arancino over.
• You’ll know they’re done when both sides are golden brown (should be about 10 minutes)

Enjoy and buon appetito!

Once a month Italyville.com will post “Homemade” – authentic homemade Italian recipes. Since this is the first homemade post, well….. we’re going to have to start at the beginning; one of the foundations of the Italian culinary experience, something Italians simply CAN NOT eat without. Pane = Bread. If I had a lira for every time my father asked “where’s the bread?” when I was growing up, I would have a whole lot of worthless lire… but if they were Euros, I’d be a rich man! and half as rich if they were dollars…. damn the dollar!! sorry.

We were very lucky that my mother made homemade bread once a week when we were growing up… and still does. I can remember talking about “American bread” which was pretty much every other variety but mostly sliced sandwich bread. It was comical to us when we saw our friends bring sandwiches to school and their bread had the crust cut off. You cut off the crust? Isn’t that the best part? It is to Italians! We still fight over the end piece of bread….. even if you’re successful at securing it, take your eyes off it for a second and it might disappear!

So here it is, the recipe for the bread we grew up on.

Pane di casa

What you’ll need – (all these amounts are guestimated):

• 3-4 ounces of fresh yeast
• 5 lb bag of bread flour
• 1/4 cup of salt
• 1/8 of a cup of canola oil
• water

We start by cutting about a 1/2 inch slice from a block of fresh yeast. Fresh yeast is becoming more difficult to find at grocery stores but you should have better luck at a local bakery (we have a local baker in the family…. so it helps.) Place your yeast in a bowl with 1.5 cups of warm water and mix the yeast and water with your hands until it feels like the yeast has completely dissolved.

Take a small amount of bread flour (a few handfuls) and put it aside, then take the rest of the bread flower and put it in an extra large bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour your yeast water in. Add the canola oil, 2 cups of warm water and salt (sprinkle it over the flour.) and mix the ingredients with your hands. Once you start mixing, check the dough consistency and add small amounts of flour or water as needed. Make sure to knead the dough well so that all the ingredients are mixed together properly.

Once your dough is ready, place it on a flat surface and cut it in half, then in half again so that you have 4 pieces of dough that are approximately the same size. It sounds funny to explain it like that but if you try to cut off 1/4 at a time…… well, the last piece probably won’t be the same as the first piece. get it? got it? good.

Now that you have your four equal size pieces, knead them individually again and then form each piece of dough into a small ball. We like to make a few small slices in the dough with a knife for decoration but you don’t have to. Place 2 pieces of dough side by side on a cookie sheet or baking tray that has been lined with tin foil and sprinkled with flour. Set your 2 trays aside and let the the dough rise. We put the trays on a table or bed and cover them with 2-3 blankets so that the dough rises quicker. It usually takes about 1.5-2 hours for the dough to rise when we do this…. it should rise to about double the size once it’s ready.

When the dough has risen, place it in the oven preheated at 350 degrees and cook until golden brown. It should take about 1 hour and 20 minutes, depending on your oven. Make sure to turn your trays around and switch them from the top/bottom rack after 40 minutes so that each bread is evenly cooked.

This bread is great for sandwiches, toast, bruschetta and much more.

To think, we used to feel embarrassed pulling out a sandwich like this at the lunch table at school when everyone else had white sandwich bread! Thanks Mom!

One of my favorite smells:) mmmmm…..