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ITALIAN RECIPES

Happy Tuscany Day

Tuscany celebrates this week, because on the first days of December 1786 Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena abolished the death penalty, making Tuscany the first state in the world to have done away with that practice. New concepts, from people far ahead of their time.

Florentine Style Steak
Ingredients:
Thick steaks, with the bones
Salt
Hot coals, ideally hardwood
Freshly cracked pepper

Preparation:
To serve two people you will want one that has been well aged, weighs 1 1/2 to 2 pounds, and is 1 3/4 inch thick.
Once you have your steak and your coals, which should be quite hot (you should only be able to hold your hand over them at grill height for about 4 seconds), set your grill about 4 inches above them and let it heat for a few minutes, but not too long because otherwise it will burn lines into the meat.

Drop the steak on the grill, let it sear briefly, and then reduce the heat by raising the grill slightly. As soon as the steak comes off the grill easily flip it and liberally salt the freshly grilled surface.

After a few more minutes, when the other side comes free, flip again and salt. Don't worry about over salting because the seared surface won't allow the salt to draw out excess moisture. A few minutes more, flip, pepper (lightly), flip, pepper again lightly, and that's it.

The important thing is that the heat remain constant and intense following the initial very high-heat searing, and if the coals look like they're dying down gently fan them back to life. The cooking should happen in the space of a few minutes, and when done the steak should still be rare on the inside. How much time? This depends upon your fire and your taste.

One of the best tests for doneness of a steak is feel.
Raw meat is squshy and soft, and as it passes from rare though medium to well done, toughening as it goes, it becomes progressively firmer, and finally unyielding.

Do keep in mind that your steak, especially if it is thick, will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the fire.
What to serve your Fiorentina with? In the past people suggested a pat of butter, but the most you'll see today is a lemon wedge.

And a tossed green salad, which will nicely complement the meat without impinging upon it the way a salad with tomatoes or other vegetables would. Other possibilities for side dishes include fried potatoes and freshly boiled white (canellini) beans drained well and seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
And a rich red wine, a Chianti Classico Riserva, or a Brunello, or a Barolo.

Ribollita & Minestra di Pane
Ingredients:
1 pound dried white beans, washed and soaked for three hours
A small onion, a small carrot, a six inch stick of celery, and a small bunch of parsley, minced together
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 pound cavolo nero (black-leaf kale in English), shredded
1 pound beet greens, ribbed and shredded
1/2 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt, pepper, and a sprig of thyme
Thinly sliced day old Italian or French white bread
Olive oil (to be used at the table)

Preparation:
Boil the beans in lightly salted water. When they’re almost cooked, sauté the onion mixture in the oil, in a heavy bottomed pot. When the onion has become translucent, add the tomato paste and the liquid from the beans.
Add the cabbage, beet greens, and potatoes. Stir in the beans and season to taste with salt, pepper, and a sprig of thyme.

Simmer until the potatoes are cooked (taste a piece for doneness), and remove the thyme. Take an oven-proof serving dish and fill it with alternating layers of thinly sliced bread and soup, making sure the bread is damp, until the soup is used up.

Served immediately, this dish is called minestra di pane, or bread soup. However, it improves dramatically with age, so much that when it’s reheated and served the next day it’s called ribollita, reboiled, and is one of the few reasons to get excited about the arrival of winter.

Serve it as a first course, with a cruet of extra virgin olive oil so your diners can sprinkle it into their soup according to their taste. The wine? A light zesty red, for example a Chianti Colli Fiorentini would go well, as would a rosé.
Serves 6.

Lasagne
Ingredients:
An 8 ounce can minced plum tomatoes
1/2 pound ground beef
2 ounces prosciutto
1 ounce dried porcini
1/2 an onion, minced
A small carrot, minced
A 6-inch stalk of celery, minced
A few leaves of basil (if it’s in season), and a small bunch of parsley, minced
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 cups grated Parmigiano
2 cups milk
2 1/2 tablespoons of flour
Olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste
A pound of store-bought lasagne, either fresh or dried

Preparation:
Set the dried porcini to steep in a half cup of boiling water.
To make the meat sauce, start by mincing the prosciutto, onion, carrot, and celery. Sauté the mixture in two tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan till the onion’s translucent, then add the meat and continue cooking till it’s browned.

Drain and chop the mushrooms, straining and reserving the liquid. Add the mushrooms, the parsley and basil, the salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg, and the red wine, and simmer the sauce over a low flame till the wine’s evaporated.
Then thicken the sauce with a half tablespoon of flour stirred into the reserved mushroom liquid, let cook for a few minutes, and add the canned tomatoes. Check the seasoning and simmer the sugo over a low flame, for at least a half hour.

Make a béchamel sauce by melting a the butter and adding the remaining flour, stirring to keep lumps from forming. Cook until the flour begins to brown, then add the milk, a few drops at a time, stirring briskly to keep lumps from forming. Should they form anyways, remove the pot from the flames and stir them out before adding more milk. Add a pinch of grated nutmeg (optional) and continue cooking over a low flame till the sauce thickens somewhat. Set it aside.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil, adding a tablespoon of oil to it to keep the sheets of pasta from sticking to each other. Butter an oven proof dish while the first few sheets of pasta are cooking.

Remove the pasta with a slotted strainer when it’s a little bit al dente. Drain it well and add some more sheets to the water. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 385 F (190 C).

Lay the first layer of pasta in the dish, following it with a layer of meat sauce, another layer of pasta, a layer of béchamel with cheese, and so on, till the pasta, sauce, and béchamel are used up.

Go easy on the Parmigiano with the top layer, because it can become bitter as it browns. Heat the lasagne through in the oven (they should be lightly browned) and serve them with more grated Parmigiano on the side.
Serves 4 to 6.

Buon appetito!

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