Mambo Italiano!

We're jumping off the Asian continent for awhile, and heading over to Europe...to my favorite country, Italy! The best part of Italian cuisine is its rusticness. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely fine Italian cuisine that is very delicate and refined, but I just love the big bowl of pasta, the hearty sauces, and the braised and roasted meats...meals that make for a real meal!

The dish I chose for my representation of Italy's cuisine is appropriately from Jamie's Italy. In Italian, Spiedini di Salsiccia e Manzo, means Sausage and Beef Kebabs. They are roasted in the oven, and I opted to serve them over a rich polenta, which is a cornmeal-based porridge-y side dish.

First things first, the meats needed to be marinaded. I cubed my beef, cut up my thick slices of pancetta and cut the Italian sausages into thirds by twisting them and then snipping in between each section. The marinade consisted of sage leaves, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil. Once all of those ingredients are mashed up in a mortar and pestle, pour it over the meats and some more sage leaves. That can marinade for 1-3 hours if you have time, but if not, just go ahead with the next step. I made sure to let it marinate for about 3 hours, though.

If you can find rosemary skewers, they are certainly a special treat, but if you can't, you can also use metal or wooden skewers available in most grocery stores. I happened to find rosemary skewers so I was psyched to use them for the added flavor. After you strip the skewers of all the rosemary except for a few fronds at the top (and save it for another recipe), use a knife to kind of whittle away the bark of the skewer, and form a point on the end of each as well.

While my oven was preheating to the highest temperature, I started building my kabobs: pancetta, sage leaf, sausage, beef, and continue that way until your skewer is full. When you've completed either all your skewers, or finished off the marinated meat (whichever comes first), it's time for them to go in the oven. Right before that, turn the oven down to 400 degrees so that as the oven cools, it continues to roast the kabobs.

After 20 minutes, your kabobs should be juicy, fragrant and best of all, ready to eat! You can squeeze some lemon juice on top before serving. I made a quick polenta, loaded with parmesan and a little bit of butter, as a bed for the kabobs. Each bite, with a bit of meat, a bit of sage and a bit of polenta was hearty and decadent. Rustic Italian cuisine at it's best!

Potato Pillows

Well, tonight I decided to make some gnocchi, using my new (old) potato ricer, as well as this gnocchi board that my brother bought me a few months ago. Making the actual gnocchi was about as far ahead as I had planned for tonight's meal, however, so this was going to be a "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" type of dinner!

from Flickr - by Samer Farha

I got the potatoes in a pot to cook, and then focused my attention on what I could do to make this ingredient into a meal! You've seen the gnocchi process before, so I won't bore you with it again. I do have to apologize however, because I was so engaged in making this dish up as I went along...that my camera got left behind. I have a picture of the finished dish...but nothing along the way. Don't worry, we can always rely on Flickr for some pretty images. :)

My husband was running to the store for something, so as he ran out the door, I yelled to him to get some pancetta. Pancetta makes for a nice, salty component in a pasta dish, so I started with that. Okay, what else do I have? A shallot, some garlic cloves, some greens left over from the CSA share (I'm pretty sure they were baby bok choy), some frozen peas...and some butter and white wine. Okay...I can totally do this!

from Flickr - by Patent and the Pantry

Once the gnocchi was made, and boiled, I started sauteeing some minced garlic and shallots with some butter. Once they had a nice aroma, I added the pancetta to the pan and allowed it to simmer and brown for a few minutes. I added some white wine, and another pad of butter...and the gnocchi. While everything was browning together, I added the greens (allowing them to wilt) and the peas (allowing them to thaw quickly). The final touch was some grated parmesan, and some salt and pepper. A quick taste...and YUM! I worked it out!

I served the gnocchi alongside an artichoke, because we all know that I love artichokes! :) It was a totally delicious and fulfilling meal, and I was so psyched that it came out as well as it did! No recipe required - although, feel free to give this a go - because goodness, it was hearty and delicious!

Marinated Grilled Flank Steak with BLT-Smashed Potatoes

Tonight, I opted for a recipe from the Food Network Favorites cookbook. I really like this book because it showcases a few wonderful recipes from each of the stars on the Food Network. This specific one is by Rachel Ray. For the most part, I'm not really thrilled with Rachel's recipes, but I have to say that the BLT-Smashed Potatoes in this recipe were just...awesome! The flank steak was, well...just a flank steak, but those potatoes made the dish! You can find the recipe here.

Here's what you'll need:

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon grill seasoning blend

1 teaspoon smoked paprika, ground chipotle chile power, or ground cumin

2 teaspoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for drizzling

2 pounds flank steak

2 1/2 pounds small, red skin new potatoes

1 leek, trimmed of tough top

4 slices thick-cut smoky bacon (I used thick-cut pancetta instead.)

1 3/4 cup chicken broth

1 vine-ripe tomato, seeded and chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup sour cream

The first step was to marinade the flank steak. Mix the garlic, steak seasoning, smoked paprika, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar in a bowl with a whisk. Slowly whisk in the 1/3 cup of olive oil until everything is blended together nicely. Once the meat is placed in a shallow dish, pour the marinade over the top, distribute it evenly, and allow to sit for at least 15 minutes.

When you are ready to start cooking, this one goes pretty quickly so get all your burners going. Place the potatoes in a pot of water, boil and cook for about 12-15 minutes. At the same time, heat your grill pan and place the flank steak on the heat. It should cook for about 7 minutes on each side.

While the potatoes and flank steak are cooking, drizzle olive oil in your pan and cook your bacon (or pancetta) until cooked through, and crispy, and then add the leeks, allowing them to wilt in the heat.

Everything should finish up around the same time. Once the steak is done cooking, remove it from the heat and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes. I opted to tent mine with aluminum foil as well. Drain your potatoes and then return them to the pot. Start smashing them, using the chicken broth to help with the job. Add the bacon (or pancetta), leeks, and some chopped tomato to the potatoes and season with salt and pepper to your liking. Slice the steak against the grain to avoid chewiness. Although I did do that, mine was still a tad on the chewy side. I'd say maybe it needed to cook a minute less, but really, it was on the rarer side as it was, so I'm not sure how to fix it...possibly a thinner flank steak would not have been as problematic. 

Fix-It of the Day: I've stressed the importance of tenderizing meat to obtain a more succulent dish. While I don't normally tenderize flank steak, I think I should have done that with this one. It was thicker in some spots than others, and I think that contributed immensely to the chewiness of the meat. A little tenderizing could have turned this one around, for sure!

Buon Appetito!

Tonight, I made some fresh spaghetti for a lovely dish from Jamie's Italy, Spaghetti alla Carbonara di Salsiccia. Well, the recipe calls for linguine...but I wanted to use my pasta press instead of the rollers, so that's what I did! :) This also gives me a perfect opportunity to talk to you about carbonara sauce, since it's one of my favorites! It is an egg-based sauce that usually incorporates Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese, as well as some parsley and some sort of pork product, usually bacon or pancetta. It's totally simple, and is an extremely easy week-night meal. You tack on a bit more time if you make fresh pasta, but you know what I say - it's always worth it to make fresh pasta!

Tonight, I started by making my pasta dough so that it could rest while I got my mise en place together. I set it aside for the necessary 30 minutes.



This is another recipe with very few ingredients so my mise en place was done very quickly. All you'll need is some extra virgin olive oil, some heavy cream, grated Parmesan, lemon zest, salt and pepper, some chopped parsley, chopped pancetta, 4 Italian sausages and 4 egg yolks.



While my dough was still resting, I moved on to the first step of the recipe - making the little sausage meatballs. I slit the skin on the sausage and slipped the meat out so that I had a pile of loose sausage meat. I rolled little pieces into meatballs, about the size of large marbles. I picked the perfect surface to work on, huh?

My dough was ready at this point to start running through my pasta press so I stuffed some in to start pressing while I started the next step. I put some olive oil in a large pan and heated it until the oil was warm. I poured my mini sausage meatballs into the pan and allowed them to fry on all sides until nice and golden.



Once the sausage was golden on all sides, I poured in my chopped pancetta and allowed the mixture to continue cooking until the pancetta started to become crispy and golden as well.



Meanwhile, my pasta dough had been fully turned into spaghetti noodles so I put a pot of salted water on to boil. While I was waiting for my "watched pot," I mixed the egg yolks, heavy cream, half of the parmesan, the lemon zest and the parsley together with a whisk. It turns into a lovely bright yellow mixture.



Once the pasta is finished cooking (8-12 minutes for boxed pasta; 3-4 minutes for fresh pasta), drain it in a colander, reserving just a little bit of the cooking liquid in case you need to thin your sauce a bit. Pour a little olive oil into the bottom of the pot that you cooked the pasta in, and then pour the pasta back in from the colander. At this point, pour the sausage and pancetta mixture into the pasta (try and avoid pouring the grease from the pan in if you can) and then pour the egg mixture on top. Quickly toss your pasta with some tongs so that the carbonara sauce coats all the noodles but doesn't scramble. The heat from the pasta will cook the egg gently so that it turns into a rich, gooey coating for the spaghetti. Be careful to continue tossing until all the noodles are well coated and there is no extra sauce cooking on the bottom of the pan...you'll have scrambled eggs if you're not watching what you are doing!



Once you've plated the pasta, sprinkle it with some of the leftover grated Parmesan. You can serve with a side salad, or a steamed veggie. Tonight, I chose to use Broccoflower. It just looked so bright and spring-y at the grocery store - I had to buy some!



That was DE-LISH-OUS!