Do yourself a favor and make the pesto from scratch if you have access to a food processor. It’s soooo much better than that stuff you’re tempted to buy at trader joe’s. Shame on you.

1/4 C pesto
1 C troffiette (substitute a pasta of similar size if you must)
1 bunch asparagus (~ 1/2 lb)
olive oil
salt

Clean your asparagus and use a carrot peeler gently to remove the thick skin along the bottom. The result should not be white but a paler green from below the head down. Trim the ends off. Cut in pieces as in the picture.

Heat olive oil in non stick pan (about 2 tsp) at medium heat. Add asparagus and cook until bright. Meanwhile, boil the pasta until al dente (very important not to overcook for this one). When done, drain and add to asparagus, turning to low. Add the pesto, mix, and turn off heat immediately. Serve by itself or with some meat or other dish.

By the way, troffiette is a Ligurian specialty (as is Pesto aka “pesto genovese,” I’ve mentioned before basil grows like weeds in the seaside, Italian riviera hillside that is Liguria, let’s not even start to talk about the ligurian foccacia, lobster-like delicious seafood, or wines on this tangent), though it’s not impossible to find in the US or to make yourself. It’s a very easy to make shape, the hardest part is cutting the peice of pasta dough you’re going to work with small enough and using a fine enough ground wheat flour in its construction, as well as letting it rest long enough to cooperate with you. But I encourage you to try to find it or make it.

I’ve posted about my favorite Italian comfort food before, but I’ve decided it’s time to wow you with its deliciousness in a way that will allow replication. This dish was the very first recipe (and demonstration of technique) I learned in Marcella Ansaldo’s introduction to Italian Regional Cuisine course at International Culinary School Apicius in Florence.  Marcella was fabulous and ended up to be one of my very favorite and most professional teachers while I was there.

Typically you’d make your own pasta (once you’ve done it a few times, it’s really not overwhelming), but if you’re in a hurry you could use dry pasta, preferably something with texture like rigatoni, penne, or egg fettucini.

All of the measurements below are approximate. You’ll develop your own liking over time. Serves 4.

1 large carrot, small dice
2 stalks celery, small dice
1/2 medium/small onion, diced
1/2 C red wine
1/3lb lean ground beef
1/4lb ground pork
50g (1 quarter inch thick) slice of pancetta (if you can get it smoked, that’s the best option)
1.5-2 C san marzano or other good quality tomatoes, preferably whole
1 tsp chili flakes (this is non traditional)
olive oil
salt & pepper

Heat about 1T olive oil in a large sauce pan. Start your water to boil at the same time, or soon after. Sautee on medium low heat the onion, carrot, and celery which are chopped a small dice, evenly sized. You do not want to caramelize anything here–simply soften and cook. I remember Marcella telling us that Italians 1) do not like to see their vegetables and 2) do not over cook them like the French. Don’t forget the salt at this point, either.

Once softened but not brown, add the pancetta, diced the same size, and if it’s not smoked, allow it to cook until almost crispy (you may need to adjust the heat upwards). If it’s smoked, cook together for 1-2 minutes, and add the ground meat. You should mix the meat together first and make sure not too add too large of chunks. Once the meat is mostly cooked, crank the heat a bit up and add the wine*.

When the vapor coming from the pan is no longer astringent, add the chili flakes and the tomato, and reduce to simmer. Adjust salt & pepper.

Mix your sauce and pasta well in a large bowl/in the pasta pan and serve with good Parmesan (I will cry if you use the pre-grated stuff, seriously).

*If you’re smart, you’ll buy a dry, red Italian wine that you might actually want to drink not only because it will taste better, but because then you’ll have an appropriate wine to go with your dinner.

As a side note, we ate it up with some Liguria Bakery Foccacia, which I am very pleased to say is being retailed at my neighborhood Andronico’s, for four times the price as at the bakery and not as fresh, but it is so freaking good and so inconvenient to get at the bakery that I am happy to pay it.

Carrot-Kaboucha Crostini
4 large, fresh spring carrots
1/2 kaboucha squash (1-1.5lb), roasted with olive oil at 350 until soft
sesame seeds (or toasted sesame & salt mixture)
2 T butter
salt & pepper
macadamia oil
water

You will need a food processor. Cut roughly your carrots and sautee with salt & pepper in 1T butter until soft and bright. Place into food processor. Add 1/2 C water and then 1/4 C water at a time as needed, and puree. Add 1-3 T macadamia oil to taste. Add 1 T sesame seed to taste. Blend and puree. Add liquid as needed keeping it as minimal as possible while achieving the smoothness. When smooth, add the kaboucha squash, and puree, adding water as needed. Adjust seasoning, add 1 T butter and puree, and you’re done.

Beet Greens & Red Onion Crostini
Optional: Add sheeps milk in a shaved slice on top, over the warm mixture.
Greens and Stems from 2-3 fresh red beets, cleaned and seperated
1 T butter
1 large red onion
2 T fresh parsley, minced
salt & pepper

In a non stick pan, sautee finely chopped beet stems until softened. Add thinly chopped red onion and sautee until soft. Add medium to fine chopped beet greens and cook until wilted and bright. Take off heat and add parsley. Serve with sheetps milk cheese (like pecorino) on top if you like.

Artichoke & Bacon Crostini
4 small to medium artichokes
1/4-1/3 lb thick cut bacon (thick is important in this one)
1/3 C sour cream
3 T grated Parmesan or other grating cheese

I used previously grilled artichokes for this, but you can use fresh ones. If you are using fresh ones, clean & trim the artichokes, and steam/simmer until tender. Remove the hearts and chop coursely but smaller than bite size.

My artichokes were not fully cooked (hence why they survived the aftermath of the grill–I didn’t blanch them long enough before), so I removed the hearts, chopped them, and added them to a sautee pan with some water and steamed them for a bit.

Add your artichokes to a pan and turn the heat to medium high. Add a touch of water and let it evaporate after a while. Add pepper. When water is evaporated, add bacon (cut it into small strips first). The thickness of the bacon is important in order to contrast with the artichoke size. Fry the artichokes with the bacon until all is colored and bacon is crispy. Remove with tons and place on paper towels and allow to drain a bit.

Finely grate the cheese and mix it with the sour cream. Slowly incorporate the artichokes and bacon (after draining). It should be thoroughly coated without an excess of sour cream.

This is a typical dish from the north west of Italy, usually prepared with pumpkin but any winter squash will work well. I like to use butternut squash. It is typically fried after boiling, served in a brown-butter sage sauce. I call it typical and not traditional because it only came about around the 1800′s or so (well, same with Italian pasta in general), and there is argument between the French and Italians as to who came up with this dish. Some accredit inter-country marriages to the leaders of regions in Italy or vice versa to its spread, and admittedly some of the technique involved is typically French. I’m gonna vote Italian, though.

I used some of the butternut squash I had received in my bi-weekly Farm Fresh to You shipment as well as the dino kale that came this week from the Capay Valley. And in the name of honesty, I made this with my neighbor Marta a few days ago, had leftover filling, and made it again last night. She prepared some delicious roasted brussel sprouts for our meal.

For the Pasta:

1 small butternut squash, halved & seeded
1 portion fresh italian egg pasta (my recipe is here)
1/2 tsp ground sage, and/or several leaves fresh sage
amaretti cookies (a light, almond cookie that is about bite sized or as large as a golf ball, also from the north)
1/4 C walnuts
1/2 stick butter
olive oil
salt & pepper

Roast the squash with olive oil, salt, & pepper face down at 350 or 375 until tender and bright orange. Seperate the flesh from the skin and add to a food processor along with several amaretti (4, 5?), the ground sage if you’re choosing that option, salt, pepper, and walnuts. Reserve some amaretti. Puree until mostly smooth or no large chunks remain. You’ll be using this in small amounts to fill your ravioli, so it’s important it’s smooth and won’t tear the dough.

Roll out your dough after it has rested sufficiently. I would recommend an alteration to the recipe to include 1/2 size 00 semolina flour and 1/2 size 00 farina/white wheat flour. This will make the dough more elastic and forgiving and better suited to a stuffed pasta.

Making the dumplings: use your own method or ravioli tools, or follow the technique I used in these goat-cheese beet raviolis to make a different stuffed pasta shape (minimal dough waste in my opinion), or cut squares or circles to attach together. If you’re attaching two sheets of pasta together, I recommend using a touch of egg on your finger or at least a bit of water to help it adhere. Make sure to roll out only what you need as you can use it, or it will go dry and create problems when shaping the dumplings.

Toss your finished raviolis into boiling, salted water. Remove them with slotted spoon or gnocci paddle, and put them directly in a large sautee pan with your melted, medium high heat butter. It should sizzle.

Let the ravioli/tortelloni fry until bubbled and golden or browned at least on one side. Toss occasionally. If you choose to use fresh sage, you’ll want to fry the dry, cleaned sage in the butter before adding the ravioli. Serve and top with crushed amaretti.

For the Kale:

1 bunch dino kale (soft, bubbly dark green variety), washed, cores removed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red pepper, diced
olive oil

In a large sautee pan, cook the garlic & pepper at medium heat in olive oil until softened. Add the kale and continue to cook until bright green and more tender to your liking.

History has it that Pasta (in this case, Rigatoni) puttanesca had something to do with prostituites in Naples, but all I can tell you is it’s great in winter and terribly typically Mediterranean.

180g rigatoni (pasta for 2-3), dry
80g (several T) good quality tomato paste
1 yellow bell pepper
1/3 red bell pepper
2 T capers (packed in salt if possible)
2 T diced black, kalamata, or other full flavored pitted olive
2 Heaping spoonfuls of creme fraiche
1/4 C stock (vegetable or chicken or water if you must)
chili flakes
salt & pepper
olive oil

Boil the pasta in well salted water until al dente. While cooking, sautee 1 inch chunks of yellow bell pepper & diced chunks of red bell pepper in hot olive oil, medium high heat. Add salt & pepper. If you want, you can start with a bit of finely chopped onion. Add 2 tsp red pepper flakes or less/more to taste.

Once a bit softened, add tomato paste and a splash of vegetable or chicken stock (water if you have to). Let paste incorporate and sauce simmer until reduced. Add capers and olives, let warm. Turn off heat and add creme fraiche (I used the ultra full flavored and delicious local SF Cowgirl Creamery variety), stir in. Toss pasta and serve.

Wine: It’d be nice with a nice spicy red wine like sangiovese (chianti, chianti classico, rosso di montalcino, etc) or a lighter zinfandel, or a well balanced merlot to soften it up and take away the spice a bit

When I was a little girl, I lived in Seoul, South Korea for some time. My family sometimes ate at the Italian restaurant at the Seoul Hilton–foreign food was a delicacy to us back then (early 90′s), and sometimes real cravings surfaced. Since my mom is a pretty accomplished home chef (and has managed some pretty amazing multi-course 12 person dinner parties on her own!), she, over the course of some months or years, befriended the chef of the restaurant, an Italian man named Chef Bosco (I heard he now has a restaurant somewhere near the heel in Italy).

I loved Chef Bosco’s tomato soup. For a kid who loved sugar and chocolate more than anything, the amount that I loved this soup really cannot be communicated. I craved it. My family would eat a 3-course meal at this restaurant, and I’d order this soup for appetizer, main course, and even dessert. I couldn’t get enough of it. After 3 years, when we were moving away from Seoul, Chef Bosco was kind enough to share his recipe with my mother. I have modified it slightly to recreate it most suitibly to ingredients available in the US.

600-800 grams canned San Marzano Tomatoes**
3 medium carrots, peeled
1 large onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 stick (or just scant) of butter
4+ C home made chicken stock
1 pint heavy whipping cream
4-6 T Parmesean cheese, grated
salt & pepper
Crusty bread for making crutons
Chives for garnish

Melt butter in large sauce or saute pan. When melted, add onion, garlic, and carrot. Add salt & pepper. Sautee until soft and bright in color.

Add tomatoes, and pleanty more salt. Let cook, break down, simmer and incorporate. When thickened, place into food processor, in parts if necessary. Blend until very smooth.

Add to pan large enough for all soup. Add the chicken stock (heat it/warm it first!). Mix, let come to boil. Add in heavy cream just before serving. (If you increase the batch or otherwise wish to freeze or preserve the soup for more than 3 days, do not add the cream. Add the cream before serving.) Add the parmesean cheese, let incorporate.

Serve with crutons on top, a crack of fresh ground pepper, whole or diced chives, and optional creme fraiche.

For Crutons: Dice bread. Spread evenly and in one layer on baking sheet, bake at 315-325 for 15-20 minutes, until darkened and dry. When almost done, heat 1-2 T butter in saucepan. Add 1 clove minced garlic. Let soften. Toss diced, toasted bread, turn off heat, let sit in butter.

**Tomatoes – make sure they are real and imported from the Napoli area, with the DOC identification on the can. Alternatively, use canned tomatoes from other areas of Italy that are the PLUM variety, for example, a brand from Bolghari in Tuscany has some that compare). This is VERY IMPORTANT to the quality and flavor of the soup.

For Two:
Italian style loaf bread, sliced thick
1/2 lb rare roast beef
1/4 large onion
pesto
Swiss, Leerdammer, or Bleu Cheese (Blue d’auvergene, St Agur, etc)
olive oil
salt & pepper

Heat your panini machine, slice the bread. Dice the onion and place into hot sautee pan with olive oil, adding salt & pepper. Cook until translucent.

Assemble sandwiches–Spread blue cheese on one side of the bread (alternatively layer your cheese), smear pesto on the other peice. Add hot onions against the cheese side, then add roast beef slices. You could also add arugula. Brush the outer sides of the bread with olive oil and grill at medium heat until heated through and golden outside.

Including: How to make fresh pasta for tortelloni and other stuffed pastas & ravioli

Most of us who are at least a little enamored with Italian food realize and recognize the vast and unending code for Italian pasta shapes. They range from fairly consistent (spaghetti is spaghetti just about anywhere you go) to the incredibly confusing (tortelloni can be either the little parmesean filled pastas we find dried in the grocery, more commonly known in the US as tortellini, or large, fresh pasta dumplings, or even a stuffed dumpling of any kind, as in a bit after the middle ages, when pasta was really making itself popular in Italy via Napoli’s maccheroni which we think of as being the elbow shape but in Italy can mean just about any unstuffed pasta shape, especially something similar to bucatini).

Anyway, it’s not consistent. But by tortelloni here, I mean a stuffed pasta in a particular shape, as, well, shown.

For the filling:
two medium golden beets, roasted with olive oil, salt, & pepper in foil for 1 1/2 hours or more, peeled & rough chopped
1/3 lb capricho di caba or other salty, moist fresh goat cheese/chevre
salt & pepper
olive oil

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add olive oil as needed to make a ricotta consistency.

For the pasta:
Measurements are approximate
1/2 C (or 50g) semolina 00 size flour
1/2 C (or 50g) 00 white wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Mix the flours, pour in a pile and create a well. Sprinkle with salt, add the egg to the center, and gently beat to incorporate flour. Once somewhat together, use hands to mix the rest of the flour in until it takes a comfortable amount and is no longer sticky when handling repetedly for several rounds of kneading. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and let set for at least 1 hour, up to 12. See this entry on making fresh pasta for more details on making the dough: How to Make Fresh Italian Egg Pasta.

Roll the dough out using plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. I find it easier to work with half the dough at once, keeping the other half nicely covered with the plastic wrap. Roll out as thin as the dough will allow without tearing or becoming fragile. The longer you let it rest the easier it will be to accomplish this. Using the correct size flour (extra fine) will also aid in this.

Cut in equal squares. I eyeball it, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Add a small drop of filling to each square.

Fold into a triangle and seal with your fingertips by pinching, starting at the top of the triangle and working around the edges. Try not to include extra air near the filling, or they may have trouble staying closed once in the hot water.

Press the left and right sides of the triangle together to form a circle with a tail. Flip the pasta “inside out” to create an edge that will help trap sauce.

Cook in boiling hot water, salted (several T of sea or kosher salt).

Meanwhile, melt 2-3 T of butter, adding salt & pepper; you can add poppy seeds too if you like. Let it brown, and add pasta as it’s finished cooking. Toss. Serve.

Wine: this one is fairly tricky, because of the salty-sweet combo. A nice and soft, round merlot would work, as would a dry, less aromatic white.

Wheat Bread
Organic Roast Pork Loin slices
Raw Pumpkin Seeds
Mixed “Rainbow” Microgreens
Swiss Cheese slices
Deli-style mustard
Green Fig Jam (in this case, from Liguria)

Throw it together, stick it in the panini machinie.

For Two:
140 grams spaghetti
1 large bunch basil
olive oil
1/3rd cup pine nuts
8 cloves garlic
1 lemon
1/2 lb Rockfish Fillet (or substitute sea bass or red snapper)
salt
pepper

Start a large pot of water boiling, meanwhile using your food processor to combine washed basil, pine nuts, juice of one lemon, several tablespoons of olive oil and salt & pepper to taste to make the Ligurian-style pesto (basil grows like a weed in Liguria, and the Italian Riveria region is the origin of this now popular tapanade).

When the water is ready for the spaghetti, add 2 T salt to the water. Add spaghetti, cook AL DENTE. The pasta should retail some stiffness when it is finished (when you roll it into a ball on a spoon, the last inch of the noodle should stick out defiantly).

After adding the spaghetti to the pan, heat your non stick skillet to medium high, add olive oil, and then your lightly salt & peppered fish fillet. Cook most of the way with the top side down, then flip to finish.

Drain the pasta, put back in the saucepot and add several tablespoons of your fresh pesto, mixing well. Serve in a ball (use a serving two-prong fork to roll it into one) in a soup or pasta bowl. Cut the fish fillet in half and serve on top with lemon slices.

Wine: Vermentino from Liguria (hard to find! Will say “Cinque Terre” most likely), Sardegna, or Tuscany (in that order of preference), or a nice Sauvignon blanc or Pinot Grigio-Tocai blend.