Roasted Chicken Cacciatore

I hate chicken cacciatore. It seems like something I should enjoy, since I'm a fan of its principal ingredients: chicken, peppers, and tomatoes. And I love long, slow cooked Sunday dinners.

But I hate it. Something about the braising chicken over the stove, the thick sauce, the muted way the peppers taste when smothered and simmered- it disgusts me.  I’ve tried lots of recipes- Mario, Marcella, my own made up concoctions- and nothing’s appealed to me.

Until now. Last month’s Food and Wine featured recipes from Giada’s new Vegas restaurant, including her roasted version of chicken cacciatore. The photo looked perfect- caramelized, un-saucey chicken, surrounded by bursting cherry tomatoes, softened peppers, and wonderfully browned fennel.  Certainly not traditional, but worth a try.

This was the version I’ve been looking for. The chicken is rubbed with a red wine, butter, and herb blend, and roasted on a bed of the traditional cacciatore vegetables, with just a bit of broth, which creates a light sauce. The chicken was flavorful and delicious, and the apartment smelled like an Italian feast day from the peppers and onions (not usually a bonus, but welcome on a Sunday!). It was even better the next day cold in sandwiches, topped with leftover peppers.

This is definitely a keeper.

Chicken Cacciatore with Red Wine Butter, adapted from Giada de Laurentiis
Note: Giada’s recipe calls for a whole chicken, I adapted the version below for a chicken cut into 8 pieces, since that’s what I had in my freezer. Click the link above for her original version.\\
Serves 4

1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 bell peppers, thickly sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 small bulb fennel, sliced through the core
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 large shallot, sliced
1 cup red wine
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp tomato paste
8 springs fresh thyme
1 tsp oregano
½ cup broth
½ cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted and chopped
Fresh basil and parsley, for garnish
Salt, pepper, olive oil

Up to one day in advance, arrange chicken pieces in a baking dish and sprinkle with a good amount of salt and pepper. Remove thyme leaves from branches and stuff under the skin. Cover, and refrigerate.

In a saucepan, boil 1 cup of red wine until reduced to two tablespoons. Combine with tomato paste and butter, and let cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 425.

While oven preheats, rub red wine/tomato/butter mixture on chicken and under skin. Let sit at room temp for a half hour.

Just before roasting, add peppers, fennel, garlic, shallot, oregano, and tomatoes to the pan. Pour in ½ cup broth and drizzle entire baking dish with some olive oil.

Roast for one hour, or until a meat thermometer inserted into thigh and thickest part of breast registers 165.

 Garnish with basil, parsley, and olives. Serve and enjoy!

Risotto La Fritedda

This particular version of risotto is my mash-up of two Italian recipes, and not an authentic Italian dish.  

 

I was flipping through my Marcella Hazan cookbook, and came across a recipe for la fritedda, a Sicilian combination of peas, favas, fennel, artichokes, and onions.   I thought this would be a delicious topping to a classic risotto.  Plus, I’ve been on this kick of researching my family history, and we’re Sicilian, so I enjoyed pretending that maybe this was something my ancestors ate.  I have no idea if this is the case or not, but I know my grandparents finished their meals with fennel, so let’s go with it. 

 

Marcella, as always, is bossy about the ingredients, warning that you should really use freshly picked young peas, favas, and artichokes, lest you wind up with a weaker version of the dish. I’m inclined to agree with her, but as winter is never ending here and the farmer’s markets have yet to appear, I resorted mostly to the frozen stuff. Sorry Marcella. 

 

I did prep the artichokes myself, though I feel frozen would taste exactly the same in the dish, so that is what I call for in the below recipe. I probably wouldn’t use canned though, I kind of hate that watery, salty liquid they sit in. 

 

Risotto La Fritedda

We’re working with two recipes here, one for the risotto and one for the fritedda. You simply prepare them both and top the risotto with the fritedda. 

 

La Fritedda, adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

1 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

½ cup frozen fava beans, thawed

½ cup frozen peas, thawed

½ cup white onion, sliced thin

½ cup fennel, sliced thin, handful of fronds reserved for garnish

¼ cup olive oil

Salt

 

This can be done while making the risotto. Using a large skillet or heavy bottomed pan that can hold all the ingredients, put the onion, olive oil and fennel in and cook on medium low, until translucent. 

 

Once translucent, add in the artichoke hearts and cover the pot tightly. After five minutes, add in the peas and favas and cook another five minutes, tightly covered. You may need to add in small amounts of water to keep everything from sticking.  

 

Taste and correct for salt. Let sit until risotto is ready.

 

Risotto, from Everyday Italian by Giada de Laurentiis

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

½ cup white wine

5 cups chicken broth (if you need more, use water)

¼ cup chopped white onion

3 tbsp butter

½ cup Parmesan cheese

 

Bring chicken stock to a simmer in a small pot. 

 

In a large saucepan, melt butter and add onions. Saute until softened but not browned, about five minutes. Stir in the rice and let it toast in the butter and onions for a minute or so. Add wine and cook until absorbed, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes. 

 

Add in ½ cup of broth and stir until absorbed. Then add another ½ cup and stir again until absorbed. Keep going until the rice is creamy and firm to the bite, with no hard white center. It will take about a half hour.  

 

Mix in the Parmesan, top with the fritedda, and serve.  

Almond Cake

I’m extremely Italian when it comes to dessert.  I prefer a barely sweetened sfogliatelle or anything with anisette to classic buttercream covered confections.  Italian desserts are perfect with my afternoon tea addiction, and they’re always so much less of a project than those multi-layered things. 

 

I particularly love this almond cake recipe from (who else?) Gina DePalma. It’s flavored with orange zest, the taste of which immediately brings me back to childhood trips to Bleecker street. We’d pick up my grandmother at her apartment and go to Faicco’s for sausage, and then the nearby pastry shop for sweets.  I always got these little cream puff things that were flavored with orange liqueur.

 

Try this out; it’s a really nice offering if you have guests over for a casual dinner.  It’s all whisked in one bowl, no mixer need, so it’s fast to put together.  I’m also going to claim it’s healthy, since it’s made with almond flour and olive oil, though I guess technically it’s still a cake. 

 

Almond Olive Oil Cake, from Gina DePalma

1 cup flour

½ cup almond flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

3 large eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup plus 1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

¼ tsp almond extract

Grated zest of ¼ of an orange (or, zest of 1 lemon)

½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

 

For the glaze:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

3 tbsp whole milk

Lemon juice

½ cup sliced almonds, optional toasted

 

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9 inch round cake pan and set aside.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt.

 

Crack the eggs in a large bowl, and whisk lightly. Add sugar and whisk thoroughly for 30 seconds. Add olive oil and mix until mixture lightens in color, about 45 seconds. Finally, whisk in your extracts, zest, and orange juice.

 

Add dry ingredients and whisk till combined, then whisk another 30 seconds. 

 

Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake in oven for 30-45 minutes, rotating in the oven halfway through cooking to ensure even doneness.  The cake is done when it springs back when touched and a cake tester comes out clean.  (I usually find that once you start smelling the cake baking, you’re about ¾ way done).

 

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then pop it out and place on a baking rack to cool. 

 

While it cools, make the glaze:

 

Melt butter in a saucepan until it turns a light tan color. Shut the heat off and let it sit so that it darkens in color. 

 

While butter cools, whisk together milk and confectioner’s sugar.  Then, slowly whisk in butter and add some lemon juice to cut sweetness. Use your own judgment here, add more or less lemon juice as desired. 

 

Spread glaze on top of cake, then sprinkle on almond slices. 

 

Enjoy!

One Last Christmas Cookie

Today is the Epiphany, the day the wise men visited Jesus.  And last night, in Italian folklore, is the day La Befana, an old lady, visits kids and gives them presents, or a lump of coal, depending on their behavior.  

 

My family wasn’t really big into La Befana (St. Anthony is a much bigger figure for us), but I liked the idea of having a cookie to commemorate the epiphany and mark the end of the Christmas season. 

 

These cookies have a hint of anisette flavor and are topped with sprinkles. They’re star shaped to represent the star the wise men followed to find Jesus.  I love them because they taste just like the anisette cookies my grandma used to make for me, so in her honor, I skipped the original glaze and coated them with the icing my grandma used to use on hers. 

 

La Befana’s Stars, from Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma

3 ½ cups flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 ¼ c granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks, divided

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tbsp anisette (or 1 tsp anise extract)

Zest of 1 orange

 

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp water

Multicolored sprinkles

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. 

 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy, about two minutes.  Beat in the egg and two yolks, one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, anisette, and orange zest.

 

Remove the dough from a bowl and flatten it into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about one hour. (Dough can be frozen at this point for two months).

 

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment.

 

Divide dough into three pieces. Keep one out and refrigerate the rest. 

 

On a floured surface, roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick.  Using a star cookie cutter, cut the dough into stars and place an inch apart on baking sheet.  Re-roll scraps, and repeat process with remaining pieces of dough. 

 

Bake cookies 12-14 minutes, rotating the sheets in the oven about halfway through.  Allow cookies to cool completely before glazing.

 

To glaze:

Mix water and powdered sugar together. You may need to add more, depending on how thick you like the icing. More water will give it a runnier consistency, less will keep it thick and add a lot of extra sweetness to the cookies.

 

Using a pastry brush, apply the glaze to the cookies. Top with sprinkles. Let dry.

 

Cookies will stay fresh for 4 days, kept in an airtight tin.

Seafood Salad

 

Merry Christmas!! Today, I just have a quick last minute recipe if you’re doing the Italian Seven Fishes Christmas Eve dinner. This comes by way of my friend Laura, a great Italian cook who’s taught me most of what I know in the kitchen. 

Seafood Salad
1 lb fresh calamari, cleaned and sliced into rings
1 red bell pepper, cut into very thin slices
1/3 of a small red onion
Olive oil
Olives
Capers 
Lemon zest, to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Throw in your calamari and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until calamari turns white and opaque. Don’t overcook! (I always remember the old Italian idea, 30 seconds or 30 minutes for squid, anything in between and you have shoe leather).  

Drain calamari well and toss with olive oil to taste- I never measure, sorry! Add your red pepper, onion, zest, olives and capers. I didn’t include amounts for those, just do what you like. I love olives and capers, so I included quite a bit of them. 

Let this sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving.  

To prepare a day in advance, combine everything except the red onion- that tends to get overpowering if left to sit overnight. Add that a few hours before serving. 

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer.

Thanksgiving Recipes: Turkey and Stuffing

 

 

At Thanksgiving, I get the most compliments on my turkey and stuffing, so I figured I’d kick things off by sharing those recipes with you.
 
We’ll start with turkey, which I think is probably the easiest part of the meal.  I like to roast mine with a lemon and rosemary rub, and I stuff it with lemon and cook my stuffing separately. I like a crispy top on my stuffing, and that doesn’t happen when it’s all sitting inside a bird.
 
 

 
Lemon Rosemary Roast Turkey (serves 12-16)
12 to 14 lb turkey (Figure 1 pound per person)
¼ cup butter, softened
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Zest and juice of one lemon
2 lemons, quartered, for stuffing cavity
Salt
Pepper
Garlic salt
Paprika
 
Take your turkey out about a half hour before cooking, and preheat oven to 450.
 
Carefully rinse turkey, inside and out in the sink (I hate this task and the huge amounts of Lysol the cleanup takes).  Pat turkey dry and place, breast side up, in roasting pan. Remove giblets and neck and discard.
 
Combine butter, rosemary, zest, and juice of lemon in a bowl. Using your hands, rub the mix under the skin of the turkey. 
 
Generously season the turkey with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and paprika.  I eyeball this, but I will tell you I season the crap out of it. Probably a good tablespoon of salt. Lots of salt = crispy skin!  Stuff the cavity with the quartered lemons.
 
Add water to your roasting pan to come about one inch up the sides.  Place lid on roasting pan (you can tent with foil if you don’t have a pan with a lid), and cook for 30 minutes.
 
After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to 350 and remove lid. Cook until a meat thermometer measures 165 in the thigh and thickest part of breast.  I calculate 15 minutes per pound, so a 14 pound bird will take you 3 and a half hours.
 
When done, remove from oven, cover pan, and let rest for 30-40 minutes. Carve and serve.
 
This recipe gives you a huge amount of pan juices for gravy, but I have to admit something sacrilegious: I hate gravy. I buy it premade each year, which goes against basically everything I stand for in cooking, but it’s just easier. So unfortunately I have no recipes to share for that, but I’m sure Martha Stewart or the Barefoot Contessa can fill in where I’m lacking.
 
Italian Sausage Stuffing (Serves up to 18)
This is an old family recipe!  I love this stuffing. I bake it in a separate dish, outside the turkey.
 
2 lbs Italian bread, cut into small cubes
2 lbs good Italian sausage (get it from a good Italian butcher shop! I like a mix of hot and sweet sausage)
1 stick butter
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
Salt and pepper
3-5 cups chicken stock
 
Preheat oven to 350. Arrange bread cubes onto a baking sheet (you may need to use multiple sheets), and toast for about 20 minutes, until crisp. Alternately, you can buy your bread a few days early and just let it go stale. 
 
Heat butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Remove sausage from casing and break into chunks. Saute until fully cooked and browned, then remove with a slotted spoon to a large mixing bowl.
 
Continuing in the same pan, add oil, sage, parsley, and shallots. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute 10 minutes, or until softened. Add vegetable mixture and any pan juices to mixing bowl and combine with sausage.
 
Stuffing can be prepared to this point up to one day ahead. Keep your bread covered at room temperature, and the sausage/vegetable mixture in the fridge.
 
When ready to bake, add the bread to the sausage mixture.  Add egg and three cups of stock and mix well. Depending on the type of bread you used, you may need to add more stock. You want the mixture to be wet but not too soaked and mushy.  If pressed together, it should mostly hold.
 
Butter a 9x13 baking dish and add bread and sausage mix. Sprinkle the parmesan on top. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Then, remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until top is browned.
 
Serve.
 
(Leftovers are amazing with a drippy fried egg for breakfast the next day!)

Lasagna

Yesterday, I shared my classic Italian dinner party menu with you, and today I'll share the lasagna recipe.

My recipe comes inspired by my friend and old roommate Laura, who used to spend Sundays in college rolling out her own fresh pasta and making lasagna for us.  Laura’s parents were from Italy, and as per them, her lasagna contained no ricotta, just a combination of creamy bechamel sauce and rich, meaty Bolognese. It was completely spectacular.

I don't own a pasta machine, so I cheated a little bit, and bought fresh pasta at Eataly. It was only marginally better than the boxed stuff; not nearly the same as making it yourself.  So if you are ambitious like Laura, I’d highly recommend you get your pasta machine going, but rest assured that if you’re a little more like me, purchased pasta will still be delicious. 

Classic Italian Lasagna

1 recipe Bolognese sauce, see below

1 recipe Bechamel sauce, see below

1 lb fresh lasagna noodles

½ lb fresh mozzarella, sliced

½ cup good Parmesan cheese (I mean the stuff from Italy, not anything that comes in, God forbid, a green can)

Butter

Fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 400° and get a large pot of water boiling on the stove. Next to that, fill a bowl with cold water and ice, and lay out a few sheets of paper towels on your counter.

When the water boils, add a big dose of salt (a tablespoon or so), and drop in 3 or 4 of your lasagna sheets. Boil for a minute, and then immediately remove to the ice bath to stop the cooking. Pick up the strips and let excess water drain off, and then lay out flat to dry on paper towels. Repeat this process until all the lasagna noodles have been cooked.

Spread the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with lots of butter, and a tablespoon of the béchamel sauce.  Layer the bottom of the dish with a single layer of noodles, cutting them to fit as necessary.

Combine the meat sauce and béchamel sauce, and spread a layer on top of the noodles. Sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese.  Then add another layer of pasta, cutting it to fit again, and another layer of béchamel and Bolognese. Repeat process until all the noodles have been used. Cover the top layer of noodles with remaining sauce mixture, and then spread the sliced mozzarella all over. Top with any remaining Parmesan.  Dot with a little extra butter.

Make Ahead: At this point, you can tightly cover and refrigerate it for a day. When ready to bake, bring it to room temperature for an hour ahead of time.

To continue on, bake on the upper rack of the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove, let stand for 10 minutes, and serve, garnishing with fresh basil and passing extra Parmesan at the table. 

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for two days, or you can freeze them for 2 months. 

Bolognese Sauce

1 28oz can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed

2 6oz cans of tomato paste

1 lb ground beef (or 1 1b 3 Stooges* if you prefer)

1 large clove garlic, smashed

Large handful fresh basil

Pinch red pepper flakes

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Bolognese sauce is four simple steps:

1. Over medium heat, coat a large Dutch oven or other large pot with enough olive oil to just cover the bottom. Drop in your garlic clove and red pepper flakes. Let garlic sizzle for a few minutes, until just lightly golden.

2. Add in chopped meat, and sauté in garlic and oil until browned.

3. Add in two cans of tomato paste, and cook for one minute.

4.  Add 28 oz can of tomatoes and the basil and stir to combine.  Lower heat slightly to medium low, and leave pot lid ajar.  Let the sauce simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Let this sauce cool on the stove for an hour and then refrigerate for 2 days, or freeze for a few months.

*That’s a mix of ground beef, pork, and veal, for all you non-Italians out there.

 

Bechamel Sauce (adapated from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

A béchamel sauce is a sauce made of flour, butter, and milk. It adds a deliciously creamy layer of flavor to the lasagna. 

2 cups milk

4 tbsp (half stick) of butter

3 tbsp flour

¼ tsp salt

Put milk in a saucepan and turn heat on to medium low. Heat just to the verge of boiling, where you see a ring of small bubbles.

While heating the milk, put the butter in a heavy, 4-6 cup saucepan, and turn heat on to low. When completely melted, add the flour and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for two minutes. Do not let the flour become colored. Remove from heat.

Add the hot milk to the flour mixture, no more than 2 tbsp at a time. As soon as that has become incorporated, add another 2 tbsp. Repeat until you have added ½ cup of milk, and then add the rest of the milk ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly.

Put the pot back over low heat, add salt, and cook, stirring nonstop, until the sauce is the consistency of thick cream.

Can be made ahead 1 day. Press a piece of plastic wrap to the surface of sauce and refrigerate until needed.

Dinner Party Menu: Classic Italian

I love Italian Sunday dinners, the early afternoon tradition of carbo loaded meals, laden with tomato sauce, meatballs, and lots of wine.  My family’s Italian, and my mom always cooked classic Italian American dinners- baked ziti, meatballs, and my personal favorite, Sunday “gravy,” aka tomato sauce filled with braciole, pork, beef, and sausage and piled on top of spaghetti.  The one thing she never made was lasagna, because she thought it was similar to baked ziti, only more annoying. 

So when my parents came for dinner this past Sunday, I knew they’d want a nice Italian dinner, and I decided to make lasagna, since my Sunday gravy and ziti could never compete with my mom’s.  I rounded it out with light appetizers and a salad, and it was a delicious meal and perfect complement to a great day with my family.

Our Menu:

Speck and pistachios

Lasagna Bolognese

Big Italian Salad

Smitten Kitchen Apple Cake

I’ll post the recipes this week, starting with our salad:

Big Italian Salad, adapated from Food & Wine

1 garlic clove, smashed

Salt
2 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
½ tsp dried oregano
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

2 romaine hearts, chopped

1 small head of radicchio, chopped
1 celery rib, thinly sliced
½ small red onion, sliced
½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ cup green olives
¼ cup sliced radishes
8 pepperoncini
Parmesan cheese shavings, for garnish

Rub the inside of a large bowl with garlic clove and discard clove.  Whisk together salt, mayo, vinegar, oregano, oil, and black pepper. Combine remaining ingredients and toss. Serve immediately.

You can prepare this a few hours ahead, just store the salad and dressing separately and toss together just before serving.

This was delicious and very Italian, with its spiky vinegar and oregano flavors. Yum!

Antipasto

Pretty sure antipasto is one of my favorite things in the world. Meat, cheese, olives, bread- I could happily subsist on all of the above. 

It’s also great to serve at a party- there’s something for everyone, and it requires no cooking, just arranging of some purchased cold cuts and jarred items.

I’ve served it as a light lunch for three, crowding a platter with crusty Italian bread, spicy soppressata, roasted red peppers, and olives:

Sometimes, I step things up with the inclusions of mini cheese boards, here featuring mozzarella and robiola. I like a mixed green salad to round things out as well, and I really love arugula lightly tossed with lemon juice and olive oil. 

For a football party recently, I put together this spread:

But basically, you can pick and choose whatever you like, arrange it nicely, and serve up a delicious appetizer with basically no cooking.

Some ideas to include:

·        Artichoke hearts

·        Olives

·        Marinated mushrooms

·        Pepperoncini

·        Cured hard salami

·        Mortadella

·        Prosciutto or speck (its smoked sister)

·        Mini bell peppers

·        Cheese: Provolone, Taleggio, Robiola, Fontina, or hunks of Parmesan

·        Giardinera (pickled vegetables)

·        Breadsticks or crostini

·        Figs

·        Caponata