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Amatriciana

You have no idea, Clint. I'm not surprise there's sheep in Iowa, but anchovies??!!

Doc
MoeCizlak said:
Ok, I'm starting to think there's more to Italy than Monica Bellucci and mysterious pallets of Cuban cigars. For my mom's bday dinner I tried a Batali recipe of lamb calzone. My parents were bringing red wine for dinner and I forgot to pick some up for cooking so I had to substitute port in the calzone. It left a wonderful sweetness to it so that was a plus. I paired the calzone with fried eggplant with tomato and mozzarella stackers with an infused olive oil that was other-worldly. It had basil, garlic and anchovy (although I sub'd anchovy paste). Man you people eat well!
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Yeah...in Iowa they have anchovies in the 'Ethnic Food' aisle!!!!

Clint, have you explored anything that uses aged balsamic vinegar yet? When you get into the 15 -30yr old stuff, heaven! When aged, it gets thicker & sweeter. Drizzle it on some sharp, aged provolone....WOW! Try drizzling some of that on your Italian 'stackers' instead of the infused olive oil and see what happens :thumbs:
 
Well, anchovies aren't as "useful" as sheep are here. ;)

Gary, we just had a shop open up that is selling aged Balsamics now, I'll have to get in there and try some. I've heard they are incredible and will hopefully find out first-hand soon. I think Batali called the calzone a Ragusa recipe so I think it was a Sicilian variant. Any idea on the origin of the fried eggplant? Or is that a universal dish in Italy?
 
I'm half Sicilian, half Roman. 1st generation. It's a funny thing, my parents and grandparents never heard of Balsamic vinegar or calzones. I suspect Gary's didn't either. I like Mario, but I take everything he has to say with a grain of salt. Eggplant is universal as far as I know. I have friends from Genoa who adore it as much as we Southerners do.

Doc
 
Devil Doc said:
I'm half Sicilian, half Roman. 1st generation. It's a funny thing, my parents and grandparents never heard of Balsamic vinegar or calzones. I suspect Gary's didn't either. I like Mario, but I take everything he has to say with a grain of salt. Eggplant is universal as far as I know. I have friends from Genoa who adore it as much as we Southerners do.

Doc
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EXACTLY Doc...hell, I never heard of balsamic vinegar until after college when I took a few classes at CIA. It was always red wine vinegar in our family. The aged stuff?...I was introduced to it when my brother came back from Italy and gave me a bottle of 25yo of Aceto Balsamico Tadiziones di Reggio Amelia from the hills of Modena....after I learned more about it, I was hooked not only to the taste, but the history of how they make it and how carefully it's monitored to receive the ratings they do.

PIZZA?...we NEVER ate pizza at home...EVER! "We eat good food here" is all I ever got when I would suggest it...pizza was what we ate when I went out with friends. As for a calzone, growing up, our family would always take the "moleague" out of the Italian bread (the soft middle part) and because of that, I still don't like food where there is thick, semi soft bready anything...like a calzone. When I eat pizza, it has to be thin crust, well done...I can't stand (and won't eat) olive oil soaked, soft crust pizza. When I buy Italian bread at the bakery, I always look for the most well done loaves...in fact they save them for me every Sunday!

Eggplant...definitely universal. When our Mother fried eggplant along with frying some meatballs, you never wanted to leave the kitchen...that smell still reminds me of my parents or Aunt & Uncle's houses when I fry them up myself in my kitchen. A freshly fried piece of eggplant with a pinch of salt, on top of a slice of crispy Italian bread with a spoonful of gravy over the top while leaning over the pot...WOW!...our Mother would hit us with a wooden spoon while we did it because we were acting like barbarians...but as we got older, it didn't hurt as much...but it was worth the pain...and the laugh!
 
I took the wife to our local version of an Italian restaurant last night. It's one I frequent often but that is usually on business so I don't often get to concentrate on the food. All of their entrees are home made, not frozen or pre-packaged. So already it's better than the Olive Garden. The people that own this place have their own private label wine from somewhere in Calabria. It was a nice red, although it could've had a little more body to it. I tried the Livers Caruso and loved it, although I think a different pasta from spaghetti could've been used. Maybe a fusilli? The wife had the carbonara which she really enjoyed and we both have at least one more meal from what we took home. The first time I ever tasted tiramisu was at this place probably 15yrs ago and I have spent that amount of time trying tiramisu literally everywhere I have gone in an effort to try and find a better one than this place has. I'm still looking. I'm not sure what they do differently, but this is heads above any other I've tasted and I've lost count in how many I've tried in my journey. Anyway, that's my latest entry into my quickly growing "I Love Italian Food" journal.
 
Next thing you know, Clint will develop an affinity for zinfandel on the rocks. And speaking of wine, the wine you found lacking in body is probalbly meant to replicant what Italians call Vino fatto en casa. We like it.

Doc
 
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. Paying double its worth at a restaurant, I tend to expect a little more from wines, which is just my inexperience showing. My wife said I misunderstood the waiter last night (probably his thick, Calabrian accent :sign: ) as the wine isn't a private stock, but it comes from the same area where the owners of the restaurant are from.

Wine Linky
 
My Father's Day present was another foray into Italian cooking.  There was a Bourdain episode in Naples and at the end of that episode he was invited into a private home where an older lady made a ragu.  I did a hybrid of her ragu and a Bolognese Ragu from Marcella Hazan's book.  The Hazan recipe called for ground beef or pork but I wanted whole pieces of meat like in the Bourdain episode.  I don't know if that's the difference between the Bolognese and Neapolitan ragus, but I liked the whole cuts version better.  I bought a neck portion of the chuck and sliced a couple of steaks off it to make several bracioles.  I wrapped Parmasean, basil, pine nuts, raisins and garlic in these and tied them up.  I also used a big chunk of the neck along with pork sausages and a butterflied pork chop since my wife doesn't eat beef.  I browned these cuts in EVO and deglazed with white wine. 
 
MeatforRagu.jpg

 
 
I added these cuts to the onion, carrot and celery and then simmered in whole milk and then white wine before adding the San Marzano tomatoes. 
 
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This simmered for the better part of 5hrs before I removed the meat and added the meatless sauce to tagliatelle and served the meat as the second course. (See Doc, I paid attention). 
 
SlowSimmer.jpg

 
 
While I've never had the pleasure of having this before made from scratch, it turned out very well.  Maybe had I tried it from someone who knew what they were doing I could compare my version, but I was very happy with the results.  I was expecting a "tomato sauce" taste but it actually tasted more like a gravy from the flavors that the meat left behind and I loved that.  I had a loaf of the most dense ciabatta I'd ever had and it made for a great scarpetta.  The salad course was a romaine/mixed green salad with pine nuts, strawberries and grapefruit with a balsamic vinaigrette.  I don't know how Italian it is, but it's my mom's recipe and it is delicious.  For dessert we had some pears with pecorino cheese and walnuts with hazelnut honey drizzled over them.  It was sublime.  While everyone else had wine, I paired mine with a La Moneuse saison which was a great summer beer.  I can't wait to get home tonight and try some of the cold ragu on some bread, I understand that is a real treat.  Alright Doc, Gary, Frank and Dan, let me know your thoughts.
 
See that, even an Irishman can become civilized, and it happened here on Cigar Pass. What a community!
 
Doc
 
Boiling stuff comes naturally, so this seemed like a good fit.  I should also mentioned that all the ingredients save the meat were organic.  We now have a couple of places in town that sell locally grown organic stuff as well as imported.  The pears were from Argentina, the honey, pasta and cheeses were all from Italy and the veggies were all Iowa grown.  It's amazing what a difference in taste these had over the homogenized, generic grocery store stuff.  Even 5yrs ago I couldn't have done this meal unless I lived in one of the larger cities in the US or if I grew all the stuff myself.
 
Words matter. To an Irishman, it's boiling. To an Italian, It's brazing. It's all in the marketing. :rolleyes:
 
Doc
 
As an Italian...I must say, I'm proud of you Clint...DAMN PROUD!
 
Now your final step is in the eating. You MUST eat & drink until you feel pain and you're uncomfortable...that's mandatory when enjoying such a fine meal.
 
If you can accomplish that last step, Doc & I may share with you the Italian password to the Vatican. :whistling:
 
ironpeddler said:
As an Italian...I must say, I'm proud of you Clint...DAMN PROUD!
 
Now your final step is in the eating. You MUST eat & drink until you feel pain and you're uncomfortable...that's mandatory when enjoying such a fine meal.
 
If you can accomplish that last step, Doc & I may share with you the Italian password to the Vatican. :whistling:
 
 
 .
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Then dink a glass of Brioschi and eat some more
 
Doc
 
Devil Doc said:
 
As an Italian...I must say, I'm proud of you Clint...DAMN PROUD!
 
Now your final step is in the eating. You MUST eat & drink until you feel pain and you're uncomfortable...that's mandatory when enjoying such a fine meal.
 
If you can accomplish that last step, Doc & I may share with you the Italian password to the Vatican. :whistling:
 
 
 .
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Then dink a glass of Brioschi and eat some more
 
Doc
 
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For those of you that don't know what Doc is talking about, this sits next to EVERY old school Italian's kitchen sink. I just bought a new one 2 days ago...
 
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Hand me the 2 glasses Hank, I got agita....
 
Go ahead and PM me that password, I got the eating part covered.  I'm in the process of losing weight and I don't eat a lot of carbs.  Between the pasta and the bread and the beer I went into an almost immediate food coma that I'm just now starting to come out of.  If this is a typical Sunday meal in Naples or anywhere else in Italy, I don't see how Italy hasn't sunk off into the ocean yet.  But man, what a way to go.
 
My current streak started September 21, 1996.  A Catholic priest even verified the official document to prove it.
 
How many pints of blood did you lose?...without blood-loss, you may as well be an atheist.
 
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