Tiny Bites - a Vancouver food blog

Recipe round-up: a taste of Italy

4 Comments Karen HamiltonApril 14, 2008

I’ve never really been that interested in cooking Italian fare at home. Despite my long-standing love affair with risotto, there hadn’t been much else in the catalogue that appealed to me. But the incredible freshness of my hotel-room pasta primavera, made with purchases from the Morningside Farmer’s Market in Atlanta, has left me wondering if I have just never given Italian cuisine a real chance.

It was in this state that I returned home to Vancouver with a renewed interest in all things Italy and a heap of leftover tagliatelle that was just asking to be eaten. Jamie Oliver has not let me down before, so out came our copy of Jamie’s Italy for a dead easy carbonara and a crispy, crackling fennel salad.

A few days later, I caught Giada of Everyday Italian making this fantastic looking turkey meatloaf stuffed in bell peppers and hollowed out zucchini. I just had to make it. My husband is gaga for Giada (in many ways!) and it looked like a fun dish to work with for my first Flickr recipe video.

Stuffed Zucchini and Bell Peppers

Source: Everyday Italian’s “Sinful Vegetables” episode

These stuffed vegetables make for a great weeknight meal, but eat it all, as the leftovers lose much of their structure and flavour. Be more generous with the ketchup and salt unless you like your meatloaf bland. Follow the link above for the recipe on the Food Network website. Play the clip below to get the gist of it.

Insalata Amalfitana

Source: Jamie’s Italy

The Hamilton household can now add another non-lettuce salad to our repertoire! This one is worth the effort of slicing the veggies paper-thin. Use a mandoline if you need to. The task can be calming and even entertaining, if you have friends and family chatting around your kitchen island like we often do.

Ingredients:

• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 1 cucumber, finely sliced
• 1 bunch of radishes, finely sliced
• 4 oranges that have been peeled and segmented
• 2 tablespoons herb / red wine vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• A handful of ice cubes (optional)

Directions:

1. Separate and reserve the herby top of the fennel. Trim and halve the fennel bulb, losing any dry outer layers. Slice lengthwise as finely as possible.
2. Toss the fennel in a large bowl together with the other finely sliced vegetables: red onion, cucumber, radishes.
3. To crunch the veggies up a notch, toss with the ice cubes and let sit for a couple of minutes. Remove ice cubes when done. [You can skip this step if you like. We found that it did make a marked impact on texture.]
4. In a small bowl, mix the vinegar with 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add more vinegar if too flat; more oil if too tart. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Dress the salad with this vinaigrette. Top with orange segments and a few springs of the reserved fennel tops.

Pasta alla Carbonara di Salsiccia

Source: Jamie’s Italy

What to do with the remaining tagliatelle procured from Ziu Mico’s Garden stall in Atlanta? A simple carbonara chock full of spicy meatballs and pancetta. This dish was a huge hit with the husband and was one of the easiest carbonara recipes that we have attempted in our kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 4 Italian sausages
• 4 slices of thickly cut pancetta, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3.5 oz grated parmesan
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, chopped
• 1 lb dried linguine (we used tagliatelle)
• 4 large egg yolks
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Split open the sausage skins and form mini-meatballs with the sausage meat. Ours were to Jamie’s spec: the size of large marbles. Keep your hands wet to prevent the meat from sticking.
2. Heat a glug of olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the meatballs until golden brown, add pancetta and continue frying until it’s also golden brown, about a couple minutes. Bring a pot of salted pasta water and get your pasta cooking while this is taking place.
3. Whip together the egg yolks, heavy cream, lemon zest, a sprig of chopped parsley, and half the parmesan in a large bowl.
4. As soon as the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander (reserving a cup of its cooking water) and toss it at once into the egg mixture. Toss in the meatballs and pancetta, which should be piping hot. You can do this all in the pasta pot or in the bowl like we did; you shouldn’t need any more heat for these ingredients to gel together.
5. The resulting sauce should be smooth and silky and should not look like scrambled eggs. If it resembles the latter instead of the former, try adding a spoon or two of the reserved cooking water to loosen the sauce.
6. Toss with remaining parmesan, season with salt and pepper to taste, drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, and eat toute de suite. This is not a dish that waits!

Categories: Books and Such, Dinner, Food, Italian, Recipes

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