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ITALIAN RECIPES

Ideas for Christmas Eve

Lasagna with Salmon and Robiola Cheese

Ingredients:
10 ounces sheets fresh lasagna
1 pound fresh salmon fillet, finely sliced
1/4 pound smoked salmon
1 pound robiola or similar mild soft spreadable cheese
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano
1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons fresh marjoram, minced, or 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
salt and pepper, ideally pink (similar to black pepper, but the peppercorns are pink)

Preparation:
To begin with, Robiola is a mild, slightly tart spreadable cow's milk cheese from the north. In its absence I would combine cream cheese and ricotta.
Returning to the recipe, chop the smoked salmon and combine it with the robiola, a teaspoon of ground pepper, half the marjoram, the milk, and salt to taste.
Mix well.

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C). Grease a 9 by 11 inch (20 by 25 cm) baking dish and fill it, starting with a layer of lasagna, followed by a layer of the creamy mixture and one of the fresh salmon. Continue alternating layers until all is used up, closing with a creamy layer.

Mix the breadcrumbs with the grated cheese, another half teaspoon pepper, and the remaining marjoram. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the lasagna.
Cover the lasagna with a sheet of aluminum foil and bake it for 15 minutes. Remove the sheet and bake it another 5-7 minutes, and serve at once.
A wine? White, and I might go with a Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli Venezia Giulia's Collio.

Sardine and Curly Endive Tart

Ingredients:
2 heads curly endive
1 1/8 pounds fresh sardines, cleaned, boned, and split to obtain fillets
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
hot pepper flakes to taste
salt

Preparation:
Begin by washing the endive and cutting the leaves into strips a couple of fingers wide. Heat the oil in a broad skillet, add the garlic, and when it begins to crackle the endive.

Salt lightly and cook the endive, stirring, until it has wilted and the water it has given off is mostly evaporated (you don't want it to be bone-dry, but it shouldn't be dripping either).

While you are cooking the endive, heat your oven to 400 F (200 C). Line a fairly deep pie pan (9-10 inch, or 22-25 cm) with oven parchment, and make the tart by sprinkling a little hot pepper over the paper, and putting down a layer of fish fillets arranged in a spoke pattern.

Follow the fish with a layer of endive, and continue until all is used up, lightly seasoning the layers with salt and hot pepper.
Bake the tart for about 20 minutes, and when you remove it from the oven set a serving dish over it.

Hold the hot pan with an oven mitt, press down on the serving dish, and flip everything so the tart comes to rest on the serving dish with the first layer of fish topmost. Remove the parchment, season, if you want with a little more olive oil, and serve at once.
Since this is Roman, I would go with a Colli Albani white.

Roasted Baccalà with Bell Peppers

Ingredients:
1 4/5 pounds soaked baccalà
2 bell peppers, one yellow and the other red
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
A small bunch of parsley, coarsely chopped
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
Stem and seed the peppers, cut them into flat strips, and run the strips skin-side up under your broiler to blister the skins. As soon as the pieces are cool enough to touch, skin them, and cut them into thin strips.

Season the peppers with a drizzle of olive oil, the chopped parsley, and the garlic clove (if you want more garlic flavor, mince the clove).
Lightly oil the pieces of baccalà. Heat a non-stick skillet large enough for the pieces to lie flat in a single layer, and cook the pieces, skin-side down, over a fairly brisk flame for 3-4 minutes.

Fip them and cook the other sides for 2 minutes. Remove the skin (it will come off easily), transfer the pieces to a serving platter, and add the bell peppers, spooning the drippings from the peppers over all. Check seasoning and serve at once.

A wine? I might be tempted by a Rossese di Dolceacqua, which is an intensely perfumed pale Ligurian red, or by a rosé.

Roast Sea Bass with Herbs

Ingredients:
4 small (4/5 pound) sea bass, scaled and cleaned
A bunch of parsley
2 6-inch sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 tablespoons olive oil or unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 400 F.
Rinse the fish well and pat them dry. Make three diagonal cuts on each side of the fish, and season them inside and out with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Rinse the parsley, pat it dry, and remove the leaves from the stems, which you can discard.

Remove the needles from the sprigs of rosemary too. Mince the parsley leaves and rosemary needles, and season the fish with the herbs, inside and out.
Arrange the fish in a baking dish, sprinkle the wine and olive oil or butter over them, and roast them until done, 15-20 minutes; should they look to be drying out, add a little more wine.

Serve them at once. In terms of a wine, white, and I might go with a Soave.

Breaded Mussels with Parsley

Ingredients:
2 1/4 pounds live mussels
1/4 pound freshly and finely crumbled breadcrumbs
a medium-sized bunch of parsley
a clove of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup dry white wine
olive oil

Preparation:
Begin by washing the mussels well, and removing their beards with either a stiff brush or a scraper.

Take a steel or aluminum pot large enough to hold them (don't use a pot with a non-stick surface because the shells will scratch it) and put the mussels in it, together with the wine, a few sprigs of parsley, and half the clove of garlic, crushed.

Season the shellfish with a healthy grind of pepper, cover, and cook them over a brisk flame for about 5 minutes, or until they have opened.
Drain them, reserving the pot liquor, and pick them over, eliminating any that remained completely closed, because they were dead when you put them in the pot, and eating them could make you quite sick. Next, eliminate the empty halves of the shells.

Put the pot liquor through a fine wire mesh strainer to remove grit and pieces of shells that may be present.
Whir the remaining parsley with the garlic and the breadcrumbs in a blender to obtain a homogenous mixture, and season the mixture with three tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the strained pot liquor.

Heat a non-stick skillet, add the mixture, and cook over a medium flame, stirring, until the mixture begins to brown. Adjust seasoning. Lightly oil a baking dish large enough to hold the shellfish in a single layer, arrange them in it, sprinkle the breading over them, and broil them for about a minute. Serve at once, with a Castel Del Monte Bianco.

Buon appetito!

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