Focaccia alla Molisana

Here's one from Mary Ann Esposito - another of my favorite Italian chefs. Her show, Ciao Italia has been on TV for almost 30 years - the longest-running TV cooking show, ever. Not bad for a girl from Buffalo!

One of the things I like most about Mary Ann is that she didn't start out to be a cook. She learned to cook from her family but she went to school and became an elementary school teacher - definitely useful skills in a teaching-cooking environment. It really wasn't until after visiting Italy with her husband and taking a cooking class that her Italian cooking passion surfaced. She began learning the history of Italian cooking - region by region - and traveling back to Italy for cooking lessons. And even with an Italian background, she had to go school to learn to speak Italian. Cooking classes, Italian classes... It didn't just happen - there's a bit of drive and dedication, here!

In this episode, she started off by talking about focaccia. Every region of Italy has something they call focaccia - and no two places are alike. The focaccia we had in Sicily is totally different from the focaccia of Genoa - they don't even remotely resemble one another. And all of them are different than the flat-breads made with pizza dough - and they're all made with yeast.

This one hails from Molise - southeast of Rome, northeast of Naples, and bordering the Adriatic Sea. It's more like a cracker dough - unleavened.

Focaccia alla Molisana

adapted from Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 heads escarole, cleaned and chopped
• 10 black olives, chopped
• 1 tbsp capers
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 2 tbsp raisins
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 8 anchovies in oil
• 2 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• black pepper, to taste
• Egg wash for top of dough
• Black Garlic Salt and additional pecorino for the top - optional

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a food processor, combine the flour, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and white wine and form a dough. Set aside in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap while you make the filling.

Sweat the escarole leaves in a little water in a large sauté pan until leaves are wilted; drain and squeeze very dry. Chop.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a sauté pan; add garlic, escarole, olives, capers, red pepper flakes, raisins, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, and anchovies; cook 3 to 4 minutes.

Mix well, then add grated cheese. Set aside to cool.

Divide the dough in half and roll out to 12-inch diameter and place one half in a greased and parchment lined rimmed cookie sheet. Spread cooled filling over the dough leaving a 1" border and top with second rolled out piece of dough. Pinch edges closed. Cut vent holes in the top of dough to let air escape as the focaccia bakes. Brush top with beaten egg and sprinkle with black garlic salt and pecorino. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Cut into wedges and serve warm.

This is one for the ages! The crust is totally unique. It's cracker-like in its structure, but juuuust soft enough. It is sturdy enough to actually pick up one of those wedges without it drooping, but tender at the same time.

And the filling... Everything balances with the bitter escarole. The salty anchovies, capers, and olives pair with the red pepper flakes and the sweetness of the raisins. A perfect little crunch from the pine nuts. Every bite was a taste sensation.

I can envision a dozen different fillings, from broccoli rabe and sausage to leeks and fennel with lots of cheese.

We actually toyed with the idea of cutting everything in half and making a smaller one - our fitness goals, you know - but decided to make it all and then have luncheon leftovers. I'm glad we did!

We'll be making this, again. And again.

by Tim Dineen

Roasted Garlic Gnocchi with Pesto

Okay. I just had the best gnocchi I have ever had in my life. Really. No hyperbole, no exaggeration. Perfect pillows of flavor nestled in pesto.

O.M.G.

A dear friend of ours called him yesterday wanting a bit of gnocchi advice. Susan was attempting gnocchi for the first time and nailed it on her first try! We have very talented friends.

If your dough is right, the actual forming of the gnocchi isn't really difficult - it's just really tedious. Each one of those things is individually made. Every one.

Because I was working late, today, Victor was going to make dinner. Susan made gnocchi. He got the bug. Victor made gnocchi.

He's has been working on this recipe for a while and, tonight, he perfected it. Totally perfected it. I only stopped eating because there was nothing left to eat.

Perfect pillows of flavor...

Roasted Garlic Potato Gnocchi

• 2 cups potatoes, riced
• 1 head garlic, roasted
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper

Roast garlic head for an hour. Cool.

Bake potatoes. Cool for 20 minutes. Rice potatoes and garlic together onto a sheet pan and cool to room temperature.

Mix potatoes/garlic, flour, cheese, and egg, along with salt and pepper, to taste. Only work until everything comes together. Don't over mix - they'll get tough.

Cover the dough and let relax for about 30 minutes. Longer is okay, but not all day okay.

Cut off a piece of dough and roll into a rope. Cut into 1" or so pieces and roll off the times of a fork - or, better yet, a gnocchi board - to form.

Cook in batches in boiling - but not heavily boiling - salted water for just a minute or two. There are a lot of variables, so test one after a minute and a half.

Top with your favorite sauce.

Perfect pillows of flavor.

The pesto was the perfect choice for a sauce, as well. Anything would work - a red sauce would be fine, browned butter would work. But the pesto and the subtleness of the  roasted garlic was a perfect marriage.

There were fried long hot peppers and stuffed olives to much on and mix in.

My stomach is smiling!

by Tim Dineen

Orecchiette with Chicken and Asparagus

I called home at lunch, today, and, as per usual, we talked about dinner. It's usually a take something out of the freezer, or what did you have in mind... There was already a big package of chicken in the 'fridge that I needed to vacuum-pack and freeze when I got home, and fresh asparagus I had picked up the day before. I didn't have a concrete plan, but kinda thought about making a stuffed chicken breast. I mentioned ingredients to Victor and he said dinner was ready and he would take care of it!

Mama didn't raise no fool. Victor says he's cooking and I'm eating. I had no idea what he was planning, but it didn't matter.

What he ended up creating was heaven on a plate! It's fun how when someone else cooks, the food is infinitely better than if you had made it, yourself! This dish hit every one of my taste-bud pleasure zones!

Orecchiette with Chicken and Asparagus

• 1 large chicken breast, cubed
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 8 oz orecchiette pasta
• red pepper flakes
• fresh basil
• oregano
• garlic powder
• salt & pepper

Cut up chicken and lightly saute in a bit of olive oil. Add chicken broth, half and half, and cream cheese and cook, stirring, until sauce begins to reduce.

Add the basil, oregano, red pepper, garlic powder, and S&P, to taste.

Meanwhile, cook orecchiette. Halfway through, add the cut up asparagus and cook both together, until done.

Drain, and stir into sauce. Let it all simmer together for a minute or two. Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese.

Check for seasoning and add more S&P, crushed red pepper, or herbs, as desired.

Rich and creamy without being too rich and creamy! The cream cheese added silkiness to the sauce. The fresh parmesan added oomph. The red pepper a bit of zing...

And a simple fork made it really easy to eat.

As my sister, Eileen, would say... My stomach is smiling!

by Tim Dineen

Spaghetti and Shrimp

Spaghetti. Probably my most favorite of the hundreds upon hundreds of pasta shapes.

I certainly don't remember a lot of pasta shapes as a kid. Pasta was spaghetti. Macaroni was elbow macaroni used for making macaroni salad or macaroni and cheese. My first real recollection of different pasta shapes was when I went to work for Pirro's circa 1968. We had mostaccioli and rigatoni on the menu - as well as a 36" spaghetti! The noodles were a full 3 feet long! You started slurping one of those things and it lasted for days! We had a huge - really huge - copper pot that we cooked the spaghetti and our sauce in.

It was old school. We served meat sauce or meat balls. There was no marinara, although we did do a special butter and parmesan sauce on request. And no pineapple on the pizza.

My first business card - when I was still a wet behind the ears kid. Hell - I was still a teenager! But it's where I really learned the restaurant business, the importance of answering a phone right, and how to schmooze someone when you screwed up an order. And also how to deal with the Health Department, construction dirt vs production dirt - I physically helped build the new restaurant at 33rd and Taraval that's still there, today, albeit quite changed from our glory days - and how to win an argument with a government agency when you can prove you followed their rules.

You think I'm a smart ass, today?!? You should have seen me in my youth!

I don't recall the price of that 3-foot spaghetti, but it was twice the price of the regular restaurant-length stuff of the day and came in sturdy, long, 10 pound  boxes - like the shape of flower boxes from days gone by. I remember Barry totally losing it one day when a new cook he had hired was breaking it in half to fit the pot better. He didn't last long. I lasted over 6 years.

Fast-forward 50 years and we're in Pennsylvania - not San Francisco - and Victor is preparing a spaghetti dinner for the two of us. Spaghetti is one of the foods Nonna no longer likes, so she had a stuffed eggplant rolatini.

A simple shrimp sauce with butter, olive oil, garlic, lots of crushed red pepper, Italian Dry Vermouth - and finished with fresh basil and freshly-grated parmesan.

It was total simplicity bursting with flavor. The spaghetti was perfectly cooked, the shrimp, as well. The sauce coated the noodles without drowning them - every flavor came through.

It shows how much my taste buds have grown and changed over the past 50-odd years. Back then I wouldn't have even thought of shrimp and spaghetti - shrimp was butterflied, batter-dipped, and deep-fried! - but, today, there's nothing that can't be thrown into a pot to make a sauce... although it takes a lot of skill to do it with just a couple of things.

Victor did it, tonight!

by Tim Dineen

Sunday Spaghetti and Meatballs

There's nothing better than a big ol' plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs - especially when you have fresh-from-the-oven bread to eat along with it. Unless, of course, you're a 92 year old who no longer likes spaghetti. Or homemade sauce. Or homemade bread.

I kinda get the spaghetti. It's difficult for her to eat. She prefers smaller pasta like penne or orecchiette that she can easily get on her fork. But now, the sauce isn't to her liking, either. She thought it was too hot tonight - even though there wasn't anything spicy in it. Her taste buds seem to change daily - things she loved she now won't touch. The list of things she won't eat is outnumbering the things she will. And we never quite know what's going to show up on the list until it's been served.

It's definitely a challenge for someone who loves to cook and loves to eat anything and everything under the sun, but... if she wants - and will eat - the bland 99¢ sauce from Wegmans served atop overcooked pasta, so be it. Cooking two meals is now the norm. So be it, as well.

While she was disdaining dinner, we were enjoying every bite! The sauce was perfection, the meatballs totally delicious, and the bread wasn't bad, either. A great Sunday treat.

Dessert is awaiting in the form of a Spice Cake with a Caramel Frosting.

My mom made a spice cake with a particular icing that really was good. Always made in a 9x13 pan, it was a brown sugary affair that was more glaze than frosting - but more frosting than glaze. I called my sister to get an idea of how she did it and we pretty much got the ingredients down, but I made it wrong. I ended up making a caramel icing that's really good - but it wasn't mom's. And... I think I just found the one she made attached to an Applesauce Spice Cake that may very well be the cake she used to make, as well. I cheated and used a Betty Crocker! In fact, the whole idea started when I was getting my Italian "00" flour at the grocery store and glanced over and saw a Spice Cake mix. I haven't had a spice cake in years and immediately flashed on the cake mom made and that specific frosting. Just because I'm a totally opinionated food snob doesn't mean Betty or Duncan can't come and visit now and again. I mean. Really.

I shall have to experiment with the frosting when we get back from California! We're meeting all of my siblings in Sonoma this week for a long weekend of fun and frolicking amongst the grape vines. It's the first time all six of us will be together under one roof in forever. Fortunately, we all actually like one another and have a great time when we are together. Maybe we'll just have to make one while we're there and get everyone's opinion. The house we've rented has a huge kitchen...

And I'll keep ya posted if we need a GoFundMe for bail money.

Knowing us, it could happen.

by Tim Dineen

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Our new potato ricer was put into use this afternoon - with both potatoes and butternut squash. Victor bought the ricer for the sole purpose of making a lighter gnocchi. And tonight, he succeeded!

Making gnocchi is all about a light hand and not overworking the dough - very much like making biscuits. For those of you who actually make real biscuits and not those store-bought tube things, you'll know what I mean.

In all my years of cooking, I never owned a ricer. I now see where I have been missing out. Old dog, new trick.

The other new trick was making a butternut squash and potato gnocchi. Victor headed into he kitchen and started creating. My only job was to bake a loaf of bread - otherwise, dinner was on him! It's a great sharing of responsibilities!

He hasn't quite perfected the recipe to his standards, so no actual amounts are listed, tonight. Personally, I thought they were perfection in a fresh herb, garlic, and butter sauce - but... if he thinks he can make them even better, I sure as hell am not going to stop him!

Step one is baking off potatoes and butternut squash - and then sending them through the ricer.

Then, it's mixing the two with egg, salt, nutmeg, grated cheese... and slowly incorporating a bit of flour...

When it all comes together, it's rolled into a rope, cut, and then shaped.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

These were some of the lightest gnocchi I have ever had. Victor was worried about adding too much flour, but he thinks the next time he may actually be able to add a bit more. It's done by look and feel, so he has his baseline. I will write down exact amounts next batch - but you'll still have to adjust, as necessary.

Totally delicious.

I made my favorite Pane Pugliese.

It's a crusty crunchy bread that has a mind of its own in the oven.

I dimple the entire loaf 10 minutes before baking to help keep it from going too crazy - but much of the charm is the huge holes.

It's based on Carol Field's book. My favorite...

So... stay tuned. A new batch will be coming in a few weeks.

I'm psyched!

by Tim Dineen

Lasagne

Victor made an outstanding lasagne yesterday. It was so outstanding, I wanted it for dinner again, tonight!

Lasagne is one of those dishes we don't make really often because there's just no way to make a small one. I definitely don't mind leftovers, but those days of making a pot of something and then eating it all week are far behind me. I want variety in my dotage!

But now and again, one is presented with something that defies the rules - and this lasagne did just that.

Layers of pasta, sauce, ricotta, quattro formaggio, peas, broccoli, pancetta, parmesan blended and baked together into gastronomic heaven on earth.

There are a million ways to make a lasagne - from simple to complex and everything in between. Back in my Pirro's days, we made an outstanding lasagne in a deep hotel pan, baked it, and then chilled it. For serving, we cut slices and re-baked it in rarebit dish covered in sauce and cheese. Our signature ingredients back then were ground salami, crumbled meatballs, and hard cooked eggs. Delicious, but way too big for home use. I made it once in a half pan and then portioned it and froze it. There was lasagne in the freezer for years until I finally tossed it out.

We shan't have that problem this time around!

Everything about this worked - from the sauce to the noodles to the blending of flavors and textures. Peas, broccoli, and chunks of pancetta made every bite a pleasure.

And just to make the night complete, Victor made an Apple Cake for dessert. I brought home apples yesterday and dropped a broad hint along the lines of do you think these are enough apples to make an apple cake?!?

There were.

It's another fun night at our house!

by Tim Dineen