Italian Recipes

Fivenations

Apart from the cheese this is as frugal as it gets. My Nonna used to give this to us for lunch. I have fed it to a toddler I babysat when I could not find any food in the kitchen and he loved it.

Ingredients

• 250g stale Italian country bread, thickly sliced
• 1 1/2 litres water
• Parmesan or Grana ( next level down from Parmesan but can be just as good)
• Generous knob of butter

Toast the bread in a medium hot oven until it is golden brown then cut into cubes. Place in a pan and cover with the water. Cook over a low heat for about 45 minutes then off the heat, add the buetter, pepper and a handful of cheese.

Churchmouse

Thanks nikibella and livalot!!:D

Yes I eat all those things, so will now happily try this soup;) ( I do know I'm pathetic, just a tiny phobia I've always had:o )

CM

Quasar

Ok I've dug up my old recipes and found loads. Apologies if some recipes will be duplicated - but I bet they will still be a bit different.

Here is Antipasto di Peperoni e Acciughe (peppers and anchovies starter) from the land of my birth, Piedmont. Be aware that this is a rather heavy dish - ie. it may "repeat" on the more delicate stomachs...

This recipe serves 4 to 6 people.

3-1/2 oz (100g) canned or salted anchovies
2 large cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of olive oil (extra virgin is best)
3 tablespoons of milk
1 oz (about 25g) of butter
4 yellow peppers, quite fresh and "fleshy"

Remove the bones from the anchovies, then wash them thoroughly to get rid of excess salt and oil.
Chop them finely together with the garlic
Fry this mixture in the olive oil and butter over low heat, but stir constantly
Cut the peppers in half, take out all the seeds and stringy white bits, then dice up into pieces. Add the milk to the frying pan and stir carefully so it becomes creamy.
Add the peppers and stir the lot together.
Cook for about 15 minutes - until the peppers are just soft. Mix well often so that the pepper absorb the flavour.

Serve as a hot starter with crostini (crusty bread).

meanmarie

OMG! Fivenations, why did you do this to me at this time of night?? I can't go to bed now without having something to eat!

One of the pasta recipes I like best and which is so simple to make is tomatoes, butter, olive oil, fresh rosemary simmered gently for about an hour....can' t do it now but there is some ciabatta in the kitchen...

Roll out the recipes please, most of mine are just off the top of my head and don't always turn out as I like.

Good night,

Marie

Fivenations

Sorry, not had time to post anything this evening so this link will have to do. It contains a piece about the virtues of dried durum wheat pasta as well as some tasty recipes. Buon appetito and apologies to any dieters.

fluffalo

Fivenations wrote: »

This very frugal dish is from Trentino Alto Adige region, once part of the Austro HUngarian Empire. It can also be made without meat.

Canederli (Bread Dumplings)
INGREDIENTS
• 450 g (1lb) loaf of stale white bread
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup grated Parmesan - well, it's cheaper in Italy! You could try a strong cheddar or get a friend to take you to Costco where they sell Grana for £8 a kilo.
• 110 g (4 oz) cooked meat, minced
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

METHOD
Cut the bread up into cubes and soak in a bowl of warm milk until it has been almost all absorbed.
Pulp the bread and mix with the eggs (slightly beaten), meat, parsley, cheese.
Blend ingredients well. Make dumplings the size of large eggs.
Roll them in flour and lower them into boiling stock. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve in bowls with grated cheese on top or with broth. Can also be served with goulash.

Hi Fivenations -
We were in Renon last week and I had dumplings that had spinach in them - they were very nice and I would like to try making them..do you think it is the same recipe with perhaps cooked spinach instead of the meat/parsley? Or is it something completely different?

HappyIdiotTalk

I love italian food, infact I like it so much I would gladly eat pasta and other Italian dishes day in day out. I look forward to reading through the recipes later... when I'm not at work. And if noone has added carbonara by then, I'll add that. Beautiful!

I do think though that to make italian dishes properly, you have to be italian. I've watched an italian cook the simplist of dishes, then made the exact same thing with the same ingredients the next day and ended up with something still good, but missing something. Its really weird, Italians just have a flair that cant be taught.

[edit]
Its like a cup of tea here. Ingredients: water, a tea bag and milk. But some people make great tea and some make terrible tea! Italians make great tea!

Fivenations

Hi Fluffalo
Post number 21 has a link to a recipe for Strangolapretti which sounds like what you had. They are espcially nice with a sauce made from melted butter, a touch of cream or milk and some gorgonzola or dolcelatte - good hearty mountain food!

Fivenations

Another quick lunch that my Nonna would make was simply to cook and drain some long grain rice or vermicelli (very thin spaghetti) and mix in a generous knob of butter and a handful of parmesan cheese, or whatever cheese she had to hand.

Fivenations

Mild blue cheeses like gorgonzola or cambozola go really well with hot boiled potatoes. My Nonna would just eat the two together for lunch. You could slice layer them and bake just enough to warm up the cheese and serve with a salad. I'm not a fan of strong blue cheese like Stilton but I guess it would work with them too.