Salmon Gnom Gnom

So your boss gave you an enormous smoked salmon for Christmas.  Mine didn’t.  Mine gave me a purse, but maybe yours did.  I bought this one when all the fancy boss-like Christmas goods went half off.  

   Here’s a recipe even my kids like that is served as easily for dinner as brunch.   

The ingredients:

1 ball of pizza dough
3 eggs scrambled
 Mild white cheese
 Smoked salmon
 Mustard or Dijon
 Sour cream

Okay, as you know, I live in Italy.  It is relatively easy for me to get a ball of pizza dough.  I can buy homemade dough fresh daily at the grocery.  Don’t worry if you don’t a.) live in Italy or b.) want to spend the time making your own.  There are ways around this.  Ask at your local pizza parlor if they will sell you a dough ball.  Lots of places will.  How easy is that?  There is also always the option of canned pizza dough, which I think tastes like a can, but it is an option.

-Rollout your dough more or less until it covers a cookie sheet. 

-Spread the three eggs you scrambled down the center as evenly as your sanity will permit.

When I used to make a version of this in the States, I would use Havarti Cheese.  As with so many things I used to cook with in America, I can’t find havarti cheese here.  I started buying asiago cheese because it sort of looked like Havarti.  Turns out the taste isn’t far off either.  Use whatever you like, but I would suggest something mild.

-cut the cheese (teehee) and place a layer on top of the eggs

-add a layer of salmon

-take a sharp knife and slice the edges of the dough into strps.  Try to get the same number of tabs on each side.  If you don’t – whatever.  You’re going to eat it, not hang it on the wall for a few generations.

-criss cross (make you jump, jump) the dough tabs like so

-pop it in a preheated, let’s say 350 degree, oven for…well, until the dough gets a bit golden

While it’s baking is a good time to make a yummy simple sauce from two of my refrigerator staples: mustard and sour cream.  It is pretty simple, half Sour Cream, half mustard or Dijon.  How much you make is completely up to you.

Plate it up and wait for the smiles J

I like this recipe because it reminds me of a couple really good friends.  Also, it can be altered to include anything.  I often make the same recipe with egg whites and soy-sage (my pet name for vegetarian soy sausage) as a breakfast treat for the fam.  It works well with about anything you would put into a hot sandwich, like ham and cheese. 

Little Straw Hats

Cappellacci di Zucca

It's Italy.  It is amazing that I have written 42 blog posts and not done one about pasta.  Let's remedy that right now!  Northern Italy loves to stuff pasta.  I was first exposed to the beauty of stuffed pasta many years ago by one of America's most famous Italian chefs, Chef Boyardee.  My, his ravioli were such a culinary complexity following spagetti-os. Who knew it could get even better?

There are loads of stuffed pastas in this region.  Some of the more readily found contain spinach and ricotto, prosciutto (parma ham) and cheese, but by far the most popular here in Ferrara is the Cappellacci di Zucca.  Cappellacci refers to the shape of the pasta.  It means "little hats".  Di Zucca refers to the filling "of pumpkin".  I know I have only written one other food blog and it was also about pumpkin...I am loyal if not terribly diverse. 

This pasta is part of the ancient and popular culinary tradition of our town of Ferrara.  Amazingly, there is record of this recipe dating back to 1584!  It didn't have the clever "hat" name back then (that took a couple extra centuries). 

If you are going to stuff pasta, you need some pasta to stuff.  So, let's get on it!

The recipe is not terribly complex.

One egg for every 100 grams of flour.  That's it!

For this demonstration, we used 400g of flour and 4 eggs.

On a solid surface, make a bowl with your flour and crack in your eggs.

Start working the eggs into the flour

until you are able to knead it.  If it is too sticky, you can add a bit more flour.

After your dough has been kneaded into a fabulous ball, cover it with a tea towel and let it rest for a while.  For reference, this is a lunch or salad sized plate, not a dinner dish.

While the pasta is resting, let's work on the filling!  The base is pumpkin.  Maestra's Mom cooked this pumpkin down for us.  She split the pumpkin and baked it in the oven.  To get the pumpkin to this point, you can also peel and dice the pumpkin and cook it over a low flame on the stove top.

Here's where the special happens:

Add three-ish teaspoons of sugar, one teaspoon of salt, and one grated nutmeg nut

Grate and add 300 grams of parmasean...or more

There seems to be some heated culinary debate over the addition of amaretto cookies.  It seems that one is either way for them or way against.  Maestra is a fan, but her sister who stopped by, is not.  We ended up adding three of these quarter sized cookies crushed to powder. 

 

The completed filling.

So the pasta has had a chance to rest and is ready to be rolled

Divide the pasta into workable sized sections.

We made a 4 egg batch and Maestra has chosen to divide the dough into four sections.

The pasta is getting worked!  Start with the setting rather thick and run the dough through several times.  If it is sticky, dust it with a bit more flour.  It will get worked in with the passes through the pasta roller.  Reduce the setting on the roller until your pasta is thin enough for cappellacci.

It is now past 11.  It's PROSECCO TIME!

 

Prosecco, there's happy in every bottle!

So how do you know when your pasta is thin enough?

The pasta on the left is still a bit thick.  The strip on the right is ready and has had the rough edges trimmed.

The rolled pasta needs to be cut into roughly two inch squares

Here is the life-cycle of rolling a cappalaci.

Put a slight teaspoon of filling in the center

Fold, then seal the pasta around the outside edges by pressing firmly with your fingertips

Pinch the ends

like so

Twist and pinch!

Voila!

Lather, rinse, repeat a few gagillion more times...

These have been placed on a screened board to dry a bit before cooking

To cook:

Bring a big old pot of water to a boil.

Toss in a reasonable amount of pasta (don't want to totally cowd those hats)

And a handful of sale grosso (big salt)

Return to a boil for at least three minutes

What sort of sauce you serve your cappellacci di zucca in is totally up to your taste.  Traditionally, they are served with butter and fresh sage.  They are also very often served with ragu.  One of my favorite restuarants serves them with a butter and orange sauce.  Another family favorite restuarant serves them in a brandy cream sauce with walnuts.  Each one, amazingly, is delish!

The butter and sage

Straight from the pot into the sauce

And onto the plate

Top with a bit more grated parmasean...

Ivy is having hers with ragu while Girl Crush remarked these are the best cappellacci she had ever tasted.

Maestra enjoys the fruits of her labor while I polish off the prosecco!

Delizioso!

Special great big thanks to Maestra for the fantastic cooking lesson as well as her Mum and Sister for helping us along.  And of course, to amazing friends that make everything a joy.

Riso di Zucca

Last week I could get away with sundreses! 

This week...it's time for hearty warm food.

I love autumn.  Getting dressed in the cooler temps is so much fun.  Layering jackets and bringing out the tights gets me excited to get out of my warm bed in the morning.  It’s more fun to go running when the air is crisp and being in the kitchen is sublime.  Soups and chilies are naturals when the temps drop, but since moving here I have to add risottos to the short list.  Full of fall veggies, warm and hearty, they make my tummy happy.  Risotto can be made with just about anything, but here in Ferarra they are particularly fond of pumpkins and all I can say about that is, “yum”.   

Even though I had eaten my share of risotto prior to my arrival, I had no idea how to make it for myself.  Turns out, it isn’t that hard.  Yes, it takes some time, but being in the warmth of the stove with all those delicious scents sort of makes it not suck. 

Normally a risotto here is considered a first course.  I still serve my meals American style so I make it either as an entrée or a side.  Either way…does not suck. 

I present my first cooking blog entry:

Poor a hearty glass of wine – you know for the anti-oxidants and heart health and all.

Here's what you'll need...other than more wine

An onion – diced

Risotto rice

Olive oil

A pumpkin - skinned and diced

Bouillon cubes or chicken broth

Pepper

Grated parmesan

Getting started:

Sauté the diced onion in some olive oil.  I don’t know how much oil I use…let’s say two tablespoons shall we?

Toss in the diced pumpkin.

When I buy pumpkin, I either get one of these green guys like in the ingredient photo or I get one of the monsters that look like butternut squash.

Pumpkins from a local farmer

Cover with water and let the pumpkin cook down stirring it occasionally.  I found it goes quicker if you add a bit more water and let it boil down.  Impatient perhaps, but effective.  You want to cook it until it looks like baby food.  This can all be done way ahead of time and refrigerated then popped back on the stove later.

So not Italian, but I add my bouillon at this point.  I use a veggie variety from the grocery store here, but whatever floats your boat.  If you prefer chicken broth, don’t add bouillon, skip this and add the broth instead of water later.

Grind in some pepper and refill your glass.

Toss in one hand full of risotto rice per serving and one for the pot.  Eight is a good bet for a full pumpkin like this one.

Add water (or chicken broth if you went that way) a bit at a time while stirring for about 20 minutes.  Luck for you, you only need one hand to stir, leaving the other free for your wine glass.  Perfect.  Also, haveing friends in the kitchen with you has been known to contribute to time warp.  After twenty ish minutes, taste to make sure the rice is tender.  If so – SWEET!  If it is a bit crunchy yet, top off your glass and keep stirring. 

Top with a bit of grated parmesan and ENJOY!  Or don’t – I don’t want to tell you how to live your life.