Baked Ziti

This is another recipe I've made a few times for company and just made again this weekend. I absolutely love the make-ahead aspect. I omit the peas, because if you've ever had a meal with Jake he's probably told you about his hatred for peas.

Janice's Vegetarian Baked Ziti
(apparently from the Sopranos Family Cookbook, but I found it on google)

For the sauce:

1 (10-ounce) package white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 (28-ounce) cans tomato puree
4 basil leaves, torn into bits
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup fresh or frozen peas (unless you are having Jake over!)

For the pasta:

1 pound ziti
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Regiano
1 cup ricotta
8 ounces mozzarella, diced

To make the sauce: Cook the onion in the oil in a large skillet until tender and golden. Stir in the mushrooms and garlic and cook until the mushrooms are lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato purie, basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Stir in the peas.

Meanwhile, bring at least 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Add the ziti and salt to taste. Cook, stirring frequently, until the pasta is al dente, tender yet firm to the bite.

Drain the ziti and place in a bowl. Toss with about 3 cups sauce and 1/2 cup grated cheese.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spoon half of the ziti into shallow 3 quart baking dish. Spread the ricotta on top. Pour on 1 more cup of sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella. Top with the remaining ziti, sauce, and grated cheese. Cover the dish with foil. (At this point, the ziti can be refrigerated for several hours, or overnight. Remove from refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking.)

Bake the ziti for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 to 30 minutes longer, or until the center is hot and the sauce is bubbling around the edges. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Servings: 6 to 8.

TIP: I made this once in a 9x13 pan and it overflowed. (This seems to be a pattern for me.) This time I made it in two round baking dishes - one 2.5 quart and one 1.5 quart, and it was just perfect.

Baked artichokes with Gorgonzola and herbs

Artichokes are another very Italian food, and since they are back in season I wanted to incorporate them into dinner, too. I had never cooked one before, because they struck me as a high-maintenance vegetable: they are easy to overcook or undercook, their cut surfaces brown almost immediately, they have fuzzy inedible junk in the middle of them, and they are sort of a mess to eat, as you pull off leaves one and a time and drag them between your teeth to get the good stuff out, and you discard the rest. Fussy, no?

However, they are delicious.

One of the purposes of us girls having our dinner club is to try making things we have never cooked before, expanding our culinary repertoires. I enjoy looking for new dishes to challenge me in the kitchen.

The following recipe is not from The Silver Spoon (although that cookbook dedicates eight pages to the lovely carciofi) but instead comes from Giada de Laurentiis of the Food Network.

Baked artichokes with Gorgonzola and herbs

Salt
4 artichokes
3 lemons
10 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, room temperature (MG - I recommend a Gorgonzola dolce rather than one of the stronger varieties)
2 tablespoons cream
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.

Trim the artichokes by cutting off the top 1-inch or so. Cut the stem close to the base of the artichoke, so that the artichoke can sit up straight, and remove some of the bottom leaves. Using kitchen shears, trim the sharp points off any of the remaining outer leaves. (MG - at this point, I recommend having a bowl of acidulated water ready for your artichokes, so you can drop them in as you finish trimming them. They get brown fast!)

Add artichokes to the boiling water. Halve the lemons and squeeze the juice into the boiling water. Toss in the lemons.

Cook the artichokes until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and let cool.


Boiling the artichokes with the lemons


Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together the Gorgonzola, cream, thyme, 2 teaspoons parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. In another small bowl, stir together the bread crumbs and remaining 1 tablespoon of parsley.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the center choke of the artichokes using a small spoon. Stuff the cheese mixture into the center of the artichokes.

Place the artichokes into a baking dish. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the top of the artichokes, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the artichokes are heated through, the cheese is melted, and the bread crumbs are crisp and golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and serve.

Makes 4 servings.


The finished products, clockwise from top: Italian white bean hummus;
potato gnocchi; a selection of Italian cheeses; fennel,blood orange, and
walnut salad, baked artichokes with Gorgonzola and herbs, and tomato
sauce (notice the fancy serving dish).

Italian white bean hummus

An Italian twist on a Middle Eastern favorite, courtesy of chef Sabra Ricci. I served this as an appetizer before dinner with crackers, baby carrots, and red pepper slices.

Italian white bean hummus

2 c. white beans, canned, drained, and rinsed
1/4 c. tahini
1/4 c. lemon juice
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 tsp. cumin powder
Dash cayenne
2 oz. extra virgin olive oil
Warm water

Combine beans, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and cayenne in a food processor. Blend and gradually add oil and warm water until the mixture has a creamy consistency.

Refrigerate overnight for the best flavor.

Makes 16 servings.

La Notte del cucchiaio d'argento (Silver Spoon night)

I was the host of the most recent dinner with the girls, and Emily's foray into Indian inspired me to crack open a cookbook of my own that had been collecting dust for years: The Silver Spoon, Italy's answer to The Betty Crocker Cookbook. At nearly 1300 pages, this ponderous book intimidates with both its size and the sheer volume of recipes and information. Not only that, but many of the recipes contain ingredients that are a mystery to even a foodie like me. Cardoons? Porgy? Woodcock? The Silver Spoon was clearly out of my league.

But if Emily could brave her Indian cookbook, filled with even more difficult recipes and exotic ingredients, surely I could rise to the challenge of authentic Italian. I ended up choosing four recipes from The Silver Spoon for my meal: potato gnocchi; tomato sauce; fennel, orange, and walnut salad; and cream and chocolate semifreddo.

The translations of the recipes from the original Italian to English are largely pretty decent, though the occasional idea gets lost sometimes. For example, the gnocchi recipe called to mash the potatoes with a potato masher -- which in my world is one of those bent- or perforated steel tools with which you bash the life out of potatoes in the pot till they are (mostly) smooth -- when what you really need is a potato ricer to give the potatoes an even consistency. I didn't realize this till it was too late, but I managed to work most of the remaining lumps out of the dough with my hands.

That aside, I was happy with how the recipes turned out... and more importantly, my dining partners seemed to enjoy the meal, too. I am no longer afraid of The Silver Spoon, and I look forward to exploring more of its treasures. But I'll pass on the woodcock and cardoons.


Julie and Rebecca, enjoying a Peroni before dinner

Potato gnocchi (basic recipe)
2-1/4 pounds potatoes
1-3/4 c. all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 egg, lightly beaten
salt
choice of sauce, to serve

Steam the potatoes for 25 minutes until tender, (MG - I don't have anything big enough to steam that many potatoes, so I boiled 'em and that worked fine.) then mash with a potato masher (MG - a.k.a. "ricer") while they are still hot.

Stir in the flour, egg, and a pinch of salt and knead to a soft, elastic dough. Be careful with the ratio of potato to flour: if there is too much flour, the gnocchi will be hard; if there is too much potato, the gnocchi will disintegrate while cooking.

Shape the dough into long rolls just over 2/3 inch in diameter and cut into 3/4-inch lengths. Press them gently against a grater and arrange on a dish towel dusted with flour.

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to a boil, add the gnocchi a few at a time, and remove with a slotted spoon as they rise to the surface. Drain, put on a warm serving dish, and pour your chosen sauce over them.

Allegedly, makes 4 servings. Unless this is your only dish, this will feed 4 NFL linebackers. That said, the resulting gnocchi are feather-light and practically dissolve on the tongue; they would make any Italian nonna proud.


Fresh gnocchi before they were cooked


My choice of sauce to go with was:

Tomato sauce

Even with canned tomatoes, the resulting flavor of this sauce is fresh and lovely, thanks to the fresh garlic and basil. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the nicest.

9 ounces canned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, peeled
Pinch of sugar
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 fresh basil leaves, torn
Salt

(MG - Canned tomatoes come in 14-oz. sizes in the U.S., so that is what I used. I increased the rest of the ingredients by half, accordingly.)

Put the tomatoes, with their can juice if using canned tomatoes, into a pan and add the sugar, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook over a very low heat for about 30 minutes without stirring. Mash the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and, if using canned tomatoes, cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool. Stir in the olive oil and basil.

Again, this allegedly serves 4. It was enough for us at the table, but it was not enough sauce for the whole batch of gnocchi (of which there were many leftovers). If I could do it again, I would triple or quadruple the recipe to serve with the gnocchi.