Welcome to the DailyChef Blog - Helping You Make the Food You Love

Your Ad Here

Posts Tagged ‘Italian’

Simple Tomato Sauces: Pepperoncini, Salami and Mozzarella

Here’s another great tomato sauce that is a bit more work than using a jarred Prego, but is well worth the effort.  Much like my previous effort, using basil, rosemary and bacon, this recipe calls for strong robust ingredients to counteract the acidity of tomatoes.   The key here is the spicy pepperoncini.  The pepperoncini is a pickled banana pepper.  I usually recognize it from antipasto salads or in the giant muffuletta sandwiches in NOLA (fantastic, but not for pre-sleeping consumption) .   The peppers pack a little bit of heat and really enhance the flavor of this sauce.  If anything, I probably used too few pepperoncini in this recipe, so I would recommend using more than what I include in the recipe below.  I was worried that it’d be too spicy, but it definitely wasn’t!

For the mozzarella, you can probably get away with shredded mozzarella – it’d make a more consistent pasta.  However, I really recommend fresh mozzarella balls – I love the milky, concentrated cheesy flavor.  When you’re eating your pasta, it’s kinda like playing a slot machine – it’s entertaining, and you don’t know what you’ll get, but forking some mozzarella is like hitting the jackpot!

Read More…

5 Comments

Simple Tomato Sauces: Bacon, Rosemary, Basil

I am a fan of quick and simple pasta sauces that let me avoid the mundane and oversalted flavors of Prego, Ragu, or other store-bought sauces without requiring 3 hours of slow cooking.  This is going to be the first in a series of pasta sauces that can be put together quickly but are relatively varied.

One of the best ways to prepare tomatoes for pasta sauces is to simmer them in a skillet with garlic and olive oil.  With a large cooking surface, the excess moisture evaporates and you’re left with this delicious thick, hearty tomato sauce.  You don’t need a particular variety of tomato for this sauce – all the ones I’ve tried work well.  Add in some potent herbs, flavorful meats, and aggressive cheeses and you get a sauce that can stand up to the potent tartness of the tomato sauce itself.  This time, I used rosemary and smoked bacon to add some gusto to the sauce.  However, as in all things- keep things in balance.

Read More…

12 Comments

Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs

I found myself with a craving for a classic meal of spaghetti and meatballs the other night.  It had been a while since I’d made my own meatballs, so I thought I’d go for it!  Meatballs are most often made with ground beef, ground pork, or a combination, but to be more healthy, I went with ground turkey instead.  I also improvised some of the ingredients, adding in parsley, garlic, pepper, salt, minced onions, parmesan cheese, and an egg.  Lastly, I decided to make rather large meatballs, since I love a sizeable meatball instead of a bite-sized one.  They were delicious!

Other than quality of ingredients, the most critical part of making a good meatball is the bread component.  While some recipes call for stale bread, I recommend using fresh bread soaked in milk.  You can also use canned bread crumbs if you have to, but the fresh bread makes for a much smoother texture.  Here, I used French bread soaked in milk, though Italian bread is usually recommended.  I took out some of the crust pieces that didn’t soak very well, since French crusts can be rather tough.

Read More…

12 Comments

Cacio e Pepe: Pasta with Pecorino & Fresh Black Pepper

A friend from Hong Kong recently sent me an article about the growing number of restaurants in the NY East village area focused on Roman food.  I’m not sure why someone is monitoring the restaurant scene 10,000 miles away, but I’m glad he is!  Although I can’t claim to be an expert on Italian cuisine, two lines in the article caught my eye.  The first is that the hallmark of roman food is simplicity.  If I were to write down my cooking philosophy,  it would be fresh ingredients cooked simply.

The other thing that caught my eye was that Cacio e Pepe is like Rome’s mac and cheese.  How could I resist trying to make it?  There are many variations on this recipe – you can change the type of pasta and the ingredients many different ways.  However, in my opnion, there are really only two things that matter: a) how good is your cheese and b) how fresh is your pepper.  I went with button mushrooms and swiss chard.  If you’re in the mood for some meat, I highly recommend some Italian sausage.

Also, as I am now officially on a little Roman kick, stay tuned for other adventures.

Read More…

6 Comments

Fennel and Sausage Tomato Sauce + Rotini

This recipe is a variation on something I saw on the Food Network during one lazy winter day.  The fennel gives the dish an aromatic, earthy taste similar to anise or to licorice.   Fennel can be unsettling at first, and is a bit of an acquired taste.   But the more you use it, the more you come to appreciate its unique flavor.  Some people use fennel in dried spice form.  I prefer the large bulbs with the celery-like protrusions and frond it’s definitely more interesting to use!  The bulb is used most often in cooking, the frond for garnish.

In this dish, I use a pecan-smoked sausage not only because I love sausage, but also because I didn’t have time to defrost  a thick cut pork loin.  If you do use other meat, use a heavy pan to first sear the thick chops to provide some animal fat to fry in the fennel, shallots, and mushrooms.  The meat can then be added back in to finish the sauce.  I do a similar thing here with the sausage.

Read More…

5 Comments

Baked Polenta

IMG_0180

I have a confession to make – I am no Polenta professional.  In fact, this is my first time making it.  I didn’t even know that polenta is in essence a grits made from corn meal, giving it more structure than grits.  I only knew it from restaurant experiences where it serves as a great base for meats and sauces.  Because I love polenta to soak up meat sauce, I decided to do the same.  (Note: I used roasted kale on the side, and pork with carrots, onions, and tomatoes on top of the polenta.  To see how to make roasted kale, click here.)

Read More…

1 Comment