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Archive for the ‘Italian’ Category

So, I decided to be brave and try a pot roast recipe different from my mom’s New England pot roast that I have always made. I mean, I know we love it, so why risk doing something different that we might not like? But I decided it was time, and since our trip to Florence, Italy, last September, I’ve been more into Italian food than ever, so that’s the direction I went.

I looked online for recipes, and found several for Straccotto, or Italian pot roast with red wine and tomatoes. I didn’t really follow a recipe for this, but sort of combined elements of several. It turned out great. I served it over rotini pasta with a green salad and garlic bread.

I’m not a big fan of red wines, but I did want to use one for this recipe. So I went to Angry Adam’s, a local wine, beer and cheese shop, for a recommendation. Randy recommended a Guenoc Lake Country Petite Sirah. It was perfect – not too dry or tannic; nice and soft on the palate.

The Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind is not strictly necessary, but I found it really smoothed out the flavor of the sauce. I buy it from D’Italia through Amazon.com – it’s a lot less expensive that way.

Straccotto – Italian Pot Roast

3 lb. chuck roast
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 cup red wine
1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms (I used shiitake, because I already had them)
1 cup hot water
1 14.5-oz. can stewed tomatoes, chopped
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 2×2-inch square of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind (optional but gives great flavor)
Salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, add hot water to 1/2 ounce dried mushrooms and set aside to rehydrate. Reserve the liquid.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Sprinkle one side of the meat with salt and pepper, then place it in the Dutch oven, seasoned side down. Brown well, season the second side, then turn to brown the second side. Remove to a plate.

Add onions and garlic to the pot and saute till softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and deglaze the pan (stir to loosen browned bits on the bottom of the pan). Bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes, to cook off some of the alcohol and reduce the wine a little.

Chop the mushrooms and add them to the pot, along with the reserved liquid, stewed tomatoes, rosemary, bay leaf and cheese rind. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. Using large tongs, turn the meat over, cover, and simmer for another 1 1/2 hours.

Served over rotini with garlic bread and a green salad. Delish!

I love the sound of that And the dish was pretty good, too.

We had about 16 people over for Thanksgiving, and since we had spent two weeks in Europe, including a week in Italy, in September, naturally I wanted to serve antipasto for an appetizer.

But most people were holding out for the main event, so there was quite a bit left over. What to do with all these preserved meats and veggies? Put them in a pasta, of course! I found this great-sounding recipe and modified it for what we had and like, and it turned out great. I’ll definitely make it again.

This is my entry in Grow Your Own, the foodie event started by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes and hosted this month by House of Annie. GYO celebrates the food we grow ourselves. We grew the basil and parsley for the pesto in this dish, and I froze pesto to use during the winter, since the basil was so prolific. The round-up of all the entries has been posted, so check them out!

Antipasto Pesto Pasta
1 medium roasted red bell pepper, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup marinated cocktail onions, halved
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
3 ounces salami, chopped
1/2 cup marinated mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup marinated quartered artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup refrigerated pesto
8 ounces uncooked bow-tie pasta (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Place the roasted pepper, onions, olives, salami, mushrooms, and artichokes in a large bowl and mix gently.

Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt; drain. In a small bowl, mix together the pesto and 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; add to bell pepper mixture, and toss to combine. Add pasta to bell pepper mixture and stir.

Sprinkle each serving with 2 tsp. remaining cheese and 2 tsp. pine nuts.

Antipasto Pasta

I still go out to dinner with friends most Wednesdays, so I’m going to start keeping track again of where we go, what we have, and how we like it. Last Wednesday, April 25, we went to Zio’s, an Italian restaurant on Colley Avenue in the Ghent section of Norfolk. Good food, reasonable prices. Here’s what we had:

• Barbara had one of her favorite Italian meals: chicken Marsala. It was quite good and a large enough portion that she took half home.
• Keith had the lasagna – he also enjoyed it, but ate it all up
• I ordered the veal parmesan – it too was a large portion, plenty to take half home, especially with the side of spaghetti with marinara sauce. Very tasty. I also ordered crostini with roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella – yummy.

Last Wednesday, Barbara and I had dinner at Fahrenheit, a new restaurant at 437 Granby Street in downtown Norfolk. It was quite good – I had a salad with grilled portobello and a honey-balsamic drizzle and penne with tomato sauce. Barbara had chicken marsala, which was served on mashed potatoes rather than the usual noodles. She enjoyed it.

Oddly, we were the only people in the restaurant. It’s only been open for a few months, so maybe it needs to find a following. The server told us that the chef used to be the chef at Velvet 25. So check it out – it was very good.

I’m a little behind on my restaurant reviews. On Wednesday, Aug. 24, my dinner group had dinner at Sirena Cucina Italiana on Granby Street in Norfolk. Sirena is Italian for mermaid and mermaids are the symbol Norfolk has adopted, so the owner used that for the name of the restaurant. Cute

So here’s how it went:

• Keith ordered caprese salad for us all to share. I love caprese salad, and they do it right at Sirena.
• I had Veal Parmigiana (veal breaded and sauteed, covered with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce and broiled) – it was wonderful. Came with spaghetti with marinara sauce and was enough for me to bring half home for Dan.
• Keith had the mushroom tagliatelle special (wild mushroom sauce over tagliatelle pasta) and it was great. He said the caprese salad was good and the tiramisu was fresh and tasty.
• Barbara had Pollo (Chicken) Marsala (lightly coated chicken breasts braised with Marsala wine and mushrooms); she said it was great, and was a generous portion.
• Karen had Pasta Pomodoro (linguine with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil) – she really enjoyed it, and it too was a generous portion.
• I think Susan also had the mushroom tagliatelle and enjoyed it.

During dinner, we were talking about pasta shapes and how there are so many. I went looking for a pasta shape glossary, and found this: pasta shapes