Browsing: Italy

Casa Grande Pizzeria

November26

I have rediscovered Casa Grande just recently but it sure looks as if their following has not waned over the years.  We arrived for lunch before the strike of noon and managed to snag a table but had we been detained we might have been out of luck.  I recommended the cosy place recently when Daughter #2’s BF was looking for an authentic Italian place to plan a date.  With the red and white table cloths and wax-laden white candles, it reminds me of the spaghetti eating scene in “Lady and the Tramp”. 

I have yet to sample a pasta as I try to avoid carbs at lunch but the salads are divine.  I am a purist when it comes to salad dressings having carefully noted the technique while travelling Italy.  A salad like the Greek one that I chose this time or the Italian that I enjoyed on my last visit,  just need a couple of tosses with a good quality olive oil and some vinegar to let the veggie and protein tastes shine through.  If the salt and pepper have not been added in the kitchen, then season at the table and you’re done.  The mozzarella in the Italian and the feta in the Greek is plentiful and satisfying.  But just to make sure, my friend and I who were sharing the salad also ordered a small Italian sausage pizza.  And even though our eyes were bigger than our tummies, it was a  great lunch accompaniment.  Although, had we known that the salad also came with a basket of grilled garlic toast, we likely would not have ordered the pizza as we left the entire bread basket untouched. 

The pizza crust was as good as my home-made (imho) with lots of crunch and a hint of sweetness. Even smothered with cheese and topping, you could tell that the sauce was carefully prepared. 

I am really looking forward to my next visit as they serve one of my very favourite Italian dishes.  They call it Seafood Spaghetti-I remember it as Spaghetti ai frutti de mare from our travels up the east coast of Italy. 

The server was handsome and attentive and the gentleman behind the cash register who I am guessing also has a hand in the food quality, equally handsome and charming.

Casa Grande Pizzeria on Urbanspoon

Kath’s quote: “It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it; and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied; and it is all one.”-M.F.K. Fisher

That’s Amore.

Italy Revisited-Part 2

September16

This combination plate of squid and shrimp was served as an entree at Ristorante L’Approdo on the water’s edge in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily.  And here are the Garlic Prawns and Calamari recipes mentioned in Part 1.

Garlic Prawns

29 large prawns

1/4 c olive oil

3 oz butter

1/2 red chili, finely chopped (red pepper flakes to taste)

10 garlic cloves, crushed-yep I said 10!

1/4 c white wine

3 T chopped parsley

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving the tails intact (if you wish).  Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the butter, chili and half the garlic.  Cook, stirring for 3 minutes.  Add the prawns and remaining garlic.  Cook for 3 more minutes or until prawns are pink.  Turn the prawns, add the wine and cook for another 4 minutes.  Add the parsley, season well with salt and pepper and serve with fresh bread to dip into remaining garlic butter.

Calamari in padella con limone e pangrattato (From Jamie’s Italy)

olive oil

1-2 fresh red chiles, pricked (once again I used chili flakes to taste)

6 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

2 large handfuls breadcrumbs

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 small package frozen calamari rings (defrosted as per package instructions)

1/2 lemon, very thinly sliced

a handful of flat leaf parsley, sliced

To make pangrattato, put 6 T olive oil into a think-bottomed pan.  Add chili, garlic and breadcrumbs and stir for a couple of minutes, until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  Remove and set aside.

Wipe the pan with paper towels and put it back on a high heat.  Add another splash of olive oil then season the rings and lay them gently in the hot pan with the lemon slices.  If you can’t fit everything in, do them in 2 batches.-you don’t want them cramped together.  Fry for a minute or so, until golden, then turn over and fry for the same amount of time on the other side.  The lemons will colour and need to be turned more quickly than the calamari, so just remove them from the pan and put to one side.  Take off the heat and divide the calamari and the lemon slices between your plates.  Scatter the pangrattato and the finely sliced parsley over top.  Serve immediately as they cool off quickly.

Kath’s quote:  “Do not overcook this dish. Most seafoods…should be simply threatened with heat and then celebrated with joy.” –Jeff Smith

Italy Revisited-Part 1

September15

It was a year ago today that we arrived Castleammare del Golfo, Sicily to commence our sojourn up the east shore of the boot along the Mediteranean coast, then to the Nice France before heading inland to fly out of Paris.

We’ve always enjoyed Italian food but I would say that since our trip we’re crazy for authentic Italian ingredients and recipes.  These are some of our favouites that we’ve made recently.

Caprese Salad is typically served as antipasta and is named for the Isle of  Capri off the Amalfi Coast (our 2nd stop).

This fresh, clean tasting combination of buffalo mozarella (an unripened cheese) , vine-ripened tomtoes and fresh basil leaves is an absolute delight.

The origin of Spaghetti Carbonara is hotly disputed.  The freshly cracked eggs are cooked only by the heat of the pasta producing a rich and creamy (but not low fat) dish.  So make sure that the eggs are as fresh as possible.

14 oz spaghetti

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2/3 c parmesan

2 T olive oil

1 oz butter

2 garlic cloves

7 oz pancetta, chopped

Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water until al dente.  Meanwhile, mix the eggs, egg yolks and cheese together in a bowl and season lightly.  Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan.  Add garlic and pancetta.  Cook over moderate heat until pancetta is crisp, discard the garlic when it becomes golden.  Drain the spaghetti , add to the frying pan and toss well.  Remove from heat and stir in the egg mixture.  Present immediately with extra parmesan.

We’ve served the above once with garlic shrimp recipe and once with calamari (see Part 2 for recipes).  Both are delicious.

Kath’s quote: “The strands of spaghetti were vital, almost alive in my mouth, and the olive oil was singing with flavor. It was hard to imagine that four simple ingredients [olive oil, pasta, garlic and cheese] could marry so perfectly.”-Ruth Reichl

Bro D

August13

When I reflect on key food influencers in my life-my brother-in-law from Toronto ranks right up there.

He has exquisite taste in restaurants and introduced me to “Fred’s Not Here” in Toronto and Keith McNally’s “Pastis” and “Union Square Cafe” in Manhattan.

He is a great cook, especially grilled items, learning early as a teen aged Broiler Chef at the Keg Restaurants alongside my husband.   The last time he cooked for me, I went on and on about the grilled potatoes (potato aficionado that I am).  He shared that his secret ingredient was truffle oil that he had purchased on a trip to Italy. Of course I had to do the same and bought a beautiful bottle on the beach in Positano, Italy.  When it was snatched with our luggage on a train platform in La Spezia, we had to repurchase one in Monterosso al Mare.

Truffle oil is precious to begin with and this little bottle is placed on the table as a flavour to top a salad or a pasta course for very special guests.

I am prompted to write all this as my husband is staying with his brother this weekend.  As he was heading out the door to catch a flight to Toronto he reminded me that he was taking my camera.  Thankfully, I remembered that the memory card was in my laptop and quickly removed it for his departure but not in time to transfer all my current photos which were for my upcoming blog entries-drat.

Kath’s quote:  “There are two types of people who eat truffles: those who think truffles are good because they are dear and those who know they are dear because they are good.”-J.L. Vaudoyer

Eggplant Reprise

June22

Sometimes I get inspired by my own blogging-how  self-centred is that?  My eggplant post of last week spawned two delicious meals.  The first was the same night as the post when I recreated the Sicilian grilled dinner.  We actually didn’t have any eggplant in the house and so my husband used the closest thing-zucchini.  This (along with grilled asparagus that we just cannot get enough of at this time of year) is one of our favourite barbeque staples.  We toss both in a plastic bag with olive oil and Clubhouse Vegetable Seasoning-so simple and so divine. 

Where was I? Ah yes.  The second meal became many dinners.  I took a single eggplant to make Eggplant Parmigiana and it fed my husband and I on Friday evening, Daughter #1 and I on Saturday evening and then she had leftovers for Sunday lunch and I had leftovers for Monday lunch.  Now that is cost effective meal planning!

I always thought that because the dish was called Parmigiana it would have Parmesan cheese in it but it is so named because of the city of Parma.  But because the recipe centres around the use of tomatoes and mozzarella, it is said to have originated in the south, not anywhere near Parma.  Confused? And to make matters worse-we like a lighter version of the classic and use Parmesan instead of mozzarella!

I cut the eggplant into discs so as not to have any piece on the edge that gets thrown away.  It is often soaked in salt at this stage to extract bitter juices but we like it just fine including these so called “bitter” juices.  Then I dipped it into a milk wash, a flour dusting, an egg wash and finally coat it with breadcrumbs (this is also the process that I use for pork cutlets, chicken fingers and many varieties of fish).  In the mean time, I make a sauce of  what ever fresh herbs I have on hand with a can of tomatoes and plenty of chopped garlic and onion.  While that is simmering I brown the eggplant in plenty of olive oil.  The assembly starts with a generous layer of sauce on the bottom of the baking pan.

Kath’s quote:“…in a well regulated kitchen nothing is ever wasted, but with careful preparation even the ‘rough ends’ of a beef steak may be made into a wholesome, tender and appetizing dish; that ‘stale bread’ may be used in the most delicious ‘desserts’ and ‘fancies,’ and ‘left-over’ food from the day before need not be thrown in the trash-box, but may be made into an endless variety of wholesome and nutritious dishes.”-The Pica Creole Cook Book (1901)

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