Saffron Fazzoletti with Sausage and Mushrooms

Fazzoletti (the Italian word for handkerchiefs) is a pasta I’ve been wanting to make for a long time, after eating it years ago at Le Virtù, a favorite Philadelphia restaurant. I finally got in the fazzoletti-making mode a couple of weeks ago and decided to channel fall flavors, with sausage and mushrooms in the sauce. But to kick it up a further notch, I added saffron to the dough. Saffron is expensive here in the states, but a little goes a long way. It’s a lot less expensive in Italy, and it’s much fresher if you buy it near the source (Abruzzo is famous for its saffron from Navelli). So whenever I’m in Italy, I buy saffron, whether in a pretty little ceramic container, as I bought in Santo Stefano di Sessanio, or in paper packages, that you can find in any supermarket in the country. One of my very favorite ways to use it is in the classic risotto alla Milanese, a recipe I wrote about here.

The dough is made with OO flour, the gold standard when making pasta, with its fine, soft grain and high gluten content. I added two of the small glassine envelopes of saffron to the dough, after dissolving it in a tablespoon of warm water. And yes, you can taste the saffron in the pasta, although it is subtle. Dump everything into a food processor, leaving some of the flour aside because when you’re making an egg/flour pasta,  it’s much easier to add more flour to a wet mixture than add more eggs to a dry pasta mixture. Feel free to mix it on the countertop, but you’ll need a lot more muscle. Even with the food processor, take it out and knead it on the counter, adding more flour if it’s too sticky, and kneading it until it’s as soft as a baby’s bottom. Cover it and set aside for at least a half hour, which gives the gluten time to relax and do its thing. It’ll be much easier to work with as a result.

This is the amount of pasta I made using the recipe below. 

As you can see, I made about a dozen fazzoletti, that each measured 4″ x 4″, plus a lot of pappardelle that I plan to use in a separate recipe. Of course, you can always buy packaged pasta, or even fresh pasta in the refrigerated section, but you’ll have a hard time finding fazzoletti pasta, and there’s nothing quite so delicious as home made. I had a few scraps left over and cut them into thin spaghetti that I’ll most likely use in chicken soup.

The sauce comes together quite quickly, with some olive oil, herbs, sausage, shallots and mushrooms, all cooked in one pot.

Lift the cooked fazzoletti from the boiling water directly into the sauce, letting some of the water come along with it. Stir and mix everything together gently so you don’t rip the pasta. Add more of the pasta water, if needed.

Serve on a large platter, sprinkled with a drizzle of olive oil, some parmesan cheese and minced parsley.

Wait till you bite into this toothsome, yet silky pasta with these complementary flavors. If you’re like me, you’ll have a hard time stopping at one bowl.

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Saffron Fazzoletti with Sausage and Mushrooms

Author: Ciao Chow Linda

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• FOR THE PASTA:
• 2 cups flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 packages (glassine envelopes) of saffron
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• FOR THE SAUCE
• 1 1/2 links of sweet Italian sausage (about 1/2 pound)
• 8-10 small portobello (or cremimi) mushrooms
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 olive oil
• fresh sage leaves
• fresh thyme leaves
• salt, pepper
• minced parsley
• a little pasta water
• parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Dissolve the saffron in the hot water.
2. Place the flour (keep 1/2 cup of the flour aside) and eggs and the watered down saffron into a food processor (or mix by hand if you have the strength).
3. If the dough is too sticky, add the rest of the flour, a little at a time.
4. When the mixture has turned into a ball, remove to a wooden board.
5. Knead a bit more (keeping flour on the board) until the dough is smooth.
6. Shape it into a ball (or two balls) and wrap in plastic wrap, or keep covered under a bowl.
7. Let the dough rest for a half hour.
8. When ready to shape the dough, roll it by hand to a thin consistency, or using a pasta machine, roll it to the smallest number on the setting.
9. For the fazzoletti, cut into 4 inch squares.
10. This recipe makes a lot of fazzoletti, but you can shape some of it into fettuccine, or pappardelle or other shapes and reserve for other meals.
11. I used 12 fazzoletti for two people and it was plenty for a meal.
12. If you’re making it as a first course, you will want fewer fazzoletti for two people.
13. Boil the fazzoletti in ample salted water and add to the sauce.
14. FOR THE SAUCE;
15. Add half the olive oil to a large saucepan.
16. Heat to a medium heat, and add the sausage, crumbling it into pieces, and removing the casing.
17. Wash the mushrooms and cut into quarters.
18. Add the mushrooms to the sausage and when almost cooked, add the minced shallot and garlic.
19. Add the fresh sage leaves and thyme leaves and let everything cook for about 10 minutes.
20. Start cooking the fazzoletti in the boiling water.
21. They should take only a few minutes to cook.
22. Meanwhile, if the sauce looks too dry, add some of the pasta water.
23. Drain the fazzoletti and add to the sauce.
24. Don’t worry if some of the water comes along with it.
25. Gently stir the pasta into the sauce, letting it absorb the flavors, and reducing the water.
26. Season with salt and pepper.
27. When the water is nearly all gone, add the rest of the olive oil.
28. Toss gently into a serving bowl, and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and minced parsley,

3.5.3251

 

 

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Have you got a celebration coming up? If not, consider this afternoon a good enough occasion for a celebration. Forget Norman Vincent Peale. If you want to win friends and influence people, chocolate is where you want to be and this is the route to take. This cake has great flavor and texture, and is the second best chocolate cake around. THE best chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten is a chocolate truffle cake from a local shop here in town (Olive’s) and the hubs is getting it for me for my birthday this week. (Yea!) Only fitting, since I made this cake for his birthday earlier this year.

Most of you don’t live within a quick drive to my town and that shop, so I’ve giving you the next best thing. It’s almost the same recipe as Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate Cake” but since I had buttermilk in the house from another recipe, I decided to use that instead of regular milk. Buttermilk adds a bit of a tang, and makes a big difference in the tenderness of cakes. Even if you don’t have buttermilk in your refrigerator, you can create it by squeezing a little lemon juice into regular milk and letting it sit for five to ten minutes.

This ratio of chocolate frosting to cake is crucial, in my humble opinion, but then again, I’m a pushover for chocolate frosting (well, any kind of buttercream frosting, actually).

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Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Author: Ciao Chow Linda

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• CAKE:
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee, cooled (I use espresso, and add more water to bring to one cup)
• CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. MAKE THE CAKE:
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Grease and flour two 8″ cake pans, and line the bottoms with parchment paper for easy removal later.
4. Whisk together in a large bowl of a standing mixer (or use a hand mixer) the sugar, flour. cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla, and whisk to combine.
6. Beat at a low speed, then and slowly pour in the wet ingredients until just combined, scraping sides of the mixing bowl if necessary.
7. Keeping the mixer at a slow speed, carefully pour in the coffee. Mix until just combined, scraping the sides of bowl as needed.
8. Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Remove cakes from oven.
10. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then flip gently onto cooling racks to continue cooling.
11. Remove the parchment paper and cool completely before frosting.
12. MAKE THE FROSTING:
13. Beat the butter, vanilla and salt together until smooth and creamy.
14. Whisk together the cocoa powder and powdered sugar, then add the mix and the whipping cream to the butter mixture, a little at a time until mixed together.
15. Continue beating for 3 or 4 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
16. Frost the cake, using about 1/3 for the inside of the cake and the rest for the tops and sides.
17. If you want to decorate as I did, shave some chocolate using a vegetable peeler and press on the sides (It can be messy)
18. For the top, microwave an ounce or two of dark chocolate with a 3-4 tablespoons of cream.
19. You may need to add more cream to get to a pourable consistency.
20. Stir until it is liquid enough to pour, then drizzle in lines across the top.
21. Using a toothpick or butterknife, swipe across the opposite directions of the chocolate lines, first in one direction, then the other, to get the wave pattern.

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Gnocchi with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms and Crispy Sage Leaves

I love carefree summer days at the beach, but when autumn rolls around, and some of my favorite foods are at their peak — like butternut squash — I enjoy spending more time in the kitchen. Pumpkins and squash are so redolent of crisp fall days, of Halloween, heartier cooking and family time. Unfortunately, Covid has severely limited family time, although we were all tested recently so we could gather for my granddaughter’s second birthday – YEA!!! I decided to make gnocchi for the occasion, one of my husband’s all-time favorite meals, and I knew it would be equally welcomed by my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. The recipe is included below, but if you want a photographic step-by-step tutorial on making potato gnocchi, click here.  If you haven’t got a gnocchi paddle, a little wooden implement that makes these ridged impressions, you can easily use a fork to roll them, as my mom always did when I was growing up — or even the rough edges of a cheese grater.

Getting the right consistency is the key to successful gnocchi, and it helps to have a “feel” that comes after you’ve made them a number of times. Too much flour and they’re leaden. Too little flour and they disintegrate in the water. So after you’ve mixed the dough, make a few gnocchi and test them out by boiling them in water. You’ll know right away if you need to add more flour. It’s so much easier to add more flour, but if you’ve already added too much, then you’ve got a problem. You can make these ahead of time, but refrigerate them on floured dishcloths if you’re making them the day before you serve them. You can freeze them too, but in my experience, they sometimes attract too much water from the freezer and fall apart when later boiled in water. Instead, I boil them to start with, drain them on paper towels or dishcloths, then lay them on cookie sheets and put the cookie sheets in the freezer. After the gnocchi have individually frozen, you can pull them off the paper towels or dishcloths, and pop them in plastic bags, ready to be reboiled again whenever you want to serve them. They seem to retain their consistency better, at least for me.I wanted to showcase some fall flavors with the gnocchi, so I cut up some butternut squash (I’ve used honeynut squash too, which I love) and some mushrooms. Roast at high temperature after you’ve drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. You can do this ahead of time too, even the day before, and just set it all aside in the refrigerator until you need it.

Fry up some sage leaves in olive oil, drain on a paper towel, and sprinkle with salt. They’re hard to resist as a crunchy snack, so make a bunch if you have enough sage to spare.

Melt the butter in a large pan, add some fresh sage leaves and let the butter absorb the sage flavor for a couple of minutes. Then add the roasted squash and mushrooms, and scoop the cooked gnocchi directly from the boiling water into the pan with the butter and vegetables. Don’t worry if some water comes along with it. In fact, reserve a bit of water to add in order to get a little more “sauce.” Toss everything gently, and remove the sage leaves, which have become soggy. Serve with grated parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, and some crispy sage leaves on the side.

It’s a family favorite, as you can see from my little granddaughter. They was worth making just to see her sweet little smile.

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Gnocchi with Butternut squash, Mushrooms and crispy sage

Author: Ciao Chow Linda

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• FOR THE GNOCCHI:
• 5 large brown-skinned baking potatoes
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t. salt
• 1/4 t. white pepper
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• 1/2 c. parmesan cheese
• 2 cups flour (or more if needed)
• FOR THE ROASTED SQUASH AND MUSHROOMS:
• 1 1/2 cups honeynut or butternut squash
• a handful of mushrooms (cremini, baby portobello or button mushrooms)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• seasoned salt, pepper to taste
• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 8-12 tablespoons unsalted butter
• a dozen sage leaves
• some water from boiling the gnocchi
• grated parmesan cheese
• FOR THE CRISPY SAGE LEAVES:
• olive oil
• sage leaves

Instructions

1. FOR THE SQUASH AND MUSHROOMS:
2. Cut the squash into small pieces, cut the mushrooms into halves, or quarters if large, and toss with the olive oil and seasonings.
3. Roast in a 475 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until the pieces are tender.
4. FOR THE CRISPY SAGE LEAVES:
5. Place a little olive oil in a shallow saucepan and when it’s hot, add the sage leaves.
6. Fry for a minute or two and flip, removing to a paper lined plate.
7. Sprinkle salt on them immediately and set aside.
8. FOR THE GNOCCHI:
9. Bake the potatoes uncovered in a 375 degree oven for about an hour or until done.
10. Remove from oven and when you can handle them, peel them.
11. Put chunks of the potato through a ricer and spread on a cookie sheet.
12. Let it cool completely, then mix with the eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg and cheese.
13. Add flour, 1/4 cup at a time.
14. You may not need all 2 cups flour, or you may need more.
15. Just add enough until the dough comes together and you can easily roll it into a big “log.”
16. Cut the log into four or five pieces, then take each piece and roll it out like a snake, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick.
17. Using a knife, cut off some pieces of the roll, maybe about 1/2″ each.
18. Take each 1/2″ gnocco and make an imprint on it, using either a fork or a gnocchi paddle.
19. At this point, you can refrigerate if not using immediately — even overnight.
20. Bring water to a rolling boil, add salt and the gnocchi and let simmer gently until they rise to the top.
21. The recipe makes about 225 gnocchi so freeze half if you like.
22. If I’m planning to freeze some, I actually cook them all in the water, then drain them on paper towels, place half on a cookie sheet and put those in the freezer. When they have frozen hard, I move them to a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer until I need them.)
23. FOR THE SAUCE AND TO ASSEMBLE:
24. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the sage leaves, letting them simmer a few minutes to impart their flavor.
25. Then using a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the water and place them directly into the pan with the melted butter and sage leaves.
26. Don’t worry if a little water comes along when you ladle out the gnocchi, in fact, it’s good to add a little of the water to the sauce.
27. Add the roasted squash and mushroom pieces, and gently stir everything together.
28. Place everything into a serving bowl, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and scatter the crispy sage leaves on top.

3.5.3251

 

Pork Tenderloin with Plums

Pork tenderloin is such an easy and delicious cut of meat that pairs so well with fruit — especially plums. Even if you can’t find these oval-shaped Italian plums that are in season right now, the round ones are fine. The plums I found were quite large, so I cut them in quarters, but next time I’ll just cut them in half, since they will be likely to retain more of their shape that way.

Season the meat (I used a homemade seasoned salt, and pepper) then sear it on the range to brown the outside a bit. It will finish cooking in the oven.

When I first made this, I roasted everything together right from the start. But when the meat and plums were ready, the onions weren’t cooked enough, so I removed the roast and plums and put the onions back in for another 15 minutes. I don’t recommend doing that, since the juices that had released from the meat and plums dried up and the pan started to smoke. Instead, I would start out by cooking the onions alone in the pan for 15 minutes, then add the meat and plums and cook another 20 minutes.

Let the meat rest for at least five minutes before slicing and serving, Take a bite of the plum and the pork in the same forkful, and see if you don’t agree that they were meant for each other.

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Pork Tenderloin with Plums

Author: Ciao Chow Linda

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin
• homemade seasoned salt (or use a mixture of salt, dried thyme, parsley, rosemary and sage)
• black pepper
• olive oil
• 3 or 4 plums

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Season the pork with the salt/herb mix and pepper.
3. Sear it in a pan that has been coated with olive oil, turning it on all sides until it’s lightly browned.
4. Remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
5. Add the onions to the pan, season with salt and pepper (herbed salt if you have it) , drizzle with olive oil, then cook the onions in the oven for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the pan from the oven, stir the onions a bit and place to one side of the pan, then place the pork in the middle of the pan at a diagonal.
7. Add the plums on the other side of the pork.
8. Place the pan back in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and let the pork rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

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