Diva Eats Italia

I’ve said this time and time again in my posts, that I love the restaurant Barbuto, located in the West Village of Manhattan. The chef owner Jonathan Waxman, (who was recently nominated for a James Beard award for best chef) makes Italian food his way. His dishes are kept simple, and change according to the season…I LOVE THAT.

Barbuto is casual, energetic and a real mixed crowd. At one table you may see a conservative man in a suit and next to him there’s a girl covered in tattoos. Also, it’s a great place for celebrity sightings, as well as many Food Network chefs, since it’s in walking distance from the cooking studio.

For Mother’s Day, me and my little family went to Barbuto for dinner. Needless to say, we had a fantastic meal and a great time. Jonathan has some specialties and I have some favorites, but this time on the menu he had a farro salad, that I totally enjoyed. Since my husband and I love farro, I had to go home and recreate Jonathan’s recipe; I did, however make some changes. He used almonds, I used hazelnuts and I added orange rind and juice, which he did not. If you’re in NYC, this place is a must go. You won’t be disappointed, in the last 7 years we have never been!

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One of Jonathan Waxman’s specialties is his gnocchi. What makes them unique is, that he pan sears them before saucing. Below are 2 links to my version of gnocchi.
link to gnocchi recipe>
link to pan seared gnocchi recipe>

Frico di Friulano is basically cooked cheese. We’ve all watched Giada, on “Everyday Italian,” place little piles of grated parmesan cheese on a silpat and melted them, until they turned into little doilies of cheese. Well, this is pretty much the same process, except the Italians from the region of Friuli, add sauted potatoes & onions to the cheese. This takes the recipe to a much higher power. It’s like putting those parmesan crisp on steroids!

I first, browned cubes of potatoes and onion, added parsley and then piled on lots of grated cheese. I used Fontina, but in Fruili, the cheese of choice is Montasio, a creamy, semi-soft cheese from the region. It’s not that easy to find here, so you can replace it with fontina, asiago, or Gouda. I cooked the cheese on low, until it began to hold together and brown on the bottom. I carefully flipped the cheese and waited for the the opposite side to become golden. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into that cheesy loveliness. All I can say was it was worth the wait.

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One night I was scrambling around the kitchen, trying to find something to serve friends that were unexpectedly dropping by. I opened the fridge, stood there for a minute, or two, or three and finally something hit me. I saw a container of ricotta and remembered seeing a recipe for lemon ricotta crostini. I added mint, lemon zest, garlic & extra virgin olive oil to the cheese and put it in a small bowl. I cut up some bread and let our guest fend for themselves. Not that I was too lazy to make the crostini, I was too pressed for time. Regardless, they loved it.

Since then, I have made lemon ricotta at least a thousand times. I even found a few things to do with the left over cheese, that have become some of my family’s favorites. One such thing are these zucchini timbale. I place thinly sliced zucchini overlapping in ramekins, filled them with the lemon ricotta and baked until the edges of the squash start to brown. They were a hit. They’re easy to make and rather impressive to serve to guest, if you want to be fancy.

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Ricotta cheese pie, is one of the many traditional pastries made for Easter by Italians. I’ve said this in some of my past post, “Baking for holidays are almost as important than the holiday itself.” The ricotta pie has a creamy, citrusy filling with a flaky crust. Although, everyone in my family loves it, it would be sacrilegious to make it any other time but Easter! Any traditional food that is made for ANY holiday, will only be made on THAT holiday. I guess that’s a good thing. It keeps tradition and makes those foods extra special.

The other day I was flipping through La Cucina Italiana magazine, and saw a section on recipes to make for Easter. As I was scanning the pages, I came across these mini ricotta pies. When I read the ingredients and instructions, I knew I had to make them. They were surprising easy. Although, they are not the same, they do have the creamy, citrusy filling that’s reminiscence of the traditional Easter pie. I figure, that since they’re not traditional, we can have a tiny piece of Easter, all year long.

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Zeppole di San Giuseppe, are basically fried cream puffs. They’re made from a classic pate de choux batter, of warm milk and flour, that’s piped into circles, fried and filled with a citrus pastry cream. They’re made in honor of St. Joseph’s Day, March 19th. The zeppole are sweet treats from Naples. Where I grew up, most the families in the neighborhood, came from Naples and it’s surrounding towns, so it’s no wonder that these pastries filled the bakery shops and found their way into every household.

When I was a kid, there was a bakery down the street from the school I attended. The smell of fresh baked dough, would fill the entire neighborhood. Every year on March 19th after school, you would find me standing in line at the bakery, waiting to buy a zeppola. I would always ask for a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top of my pastry. By the time I would get home, I would have cream on my face, powdered sugar on my chest and a smile from ear to ear. I think that might have been the only day that I didn’t mind going to school!

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Easter, makes most people think of colored eggs, chocolate bunnies and a roasted lamb dinner. I think of bunnies and eggs too, but being an Italian American, I think of sweet and savory pies and breads. Il Casatiello, is a typical bread that’s eaten during Easter. In Naples, Italy; where my grandparents are from, holiday baking is important as the holiday itself.

My mother was a great cook but, not much of a baker. With baking, she couldn’t add a little of this and little of that; it was to scientific. My Aunt Lee, was the baker of the family, and has all my grandmother’s recipes. Everything she baked, looked like it was just out of a bakery shop window. Her Christmas cookies were coveted by all who received a tray, but for me it was her Easter pies that I loved.

Catholics use to and some still do, abstain from eating meat during Lent. On Easter, all hell brakes loose, (no pun intended) there’s meat everywhere. The recipe I posted here is a black pepper lard bread, that has small pieces of pancetta, salami, spicy sopresatta, fontina, provolone, grated parmesan cheese, and rosemary tucked inside it’s flaky crust.
It’s recipes like this, that make me happy that my grandmother was from Naples.

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This cavatelli and broccoli, is one of my mother-in-law’s many recipes. This dish is really more of a soup than pasta and sauce. The pasta and broccoli sit in a broth made from chicken stock and tomatoes. My mother-in-law uses dried cavatelli instead of fresh, so it could hold up better to the broth. Until I ate this, I had no idea there was such a thing as dried cavatelli. Who knew!

Along side of the pasta, Rosy would always serve crunchy, toasted breadcrumbs, as a condiment. I think the crumbs were my favorite part. They shouldn’t be left out. They really do add something extra to the dish. I love the crunch. They also, soak up the broth to make it less soupy. Either way, it’s an easy and delicious recipe I wanted to share with you. Hope you like it.

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I went to brunch last Sunday with my husband and daughter. We went to a new Italian restaurant in the West Village of Manhattan, NY called, “Rosemary’s.” It’s a “hot spot,” right now in NYC and rightfully so. It has a great energy and the food is next level. They have a roof top garden and make everything in house. You can’t get any fresher than that! Rosemary’s was a perfect spot for brunch that morning.

I’m not much of a breakfast person. Although, I will admit that IHOP pancakes are one of my guilty pleasures. When we sat down, I scanned the menu and saw eggs in purgatory, which is simply eggs poached in tomato sauce. When I was a kid, my mother would occasionally make this for my father. I use to think it was so gross!! I couldn’t wrap my head around eating eggs in tomato sauce!! Now, that I’m SOMEWHAT older, I have eaten poached eggs on just about everything, salad, asparagus, steak, pizza, pasta and even a hamburger.

When the server sat the dish in front of me, I could smell the seductive aroma of garlic and tomatoes from the sauce. Looking up from the plate, were these two perfectly round yellow yolks that seemed to be winking at me. I picked up a piece of crusty Italian bread and scooped up as much as I could. It was pure pleasure! I enjoyed it so much, that I decided to make it at home. Diva’s version was just as good as Rosemary’s, or if I may say so myself….BETTER. This may be my new favorite breakfast food. Good-by IHOP!
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ROSEMARY’S (NYC)

The region of Piedmont, encompasses the foothills of the Alps. Needless to say, the winters are cold, and hearty food is in order. Braised meat of any kind, invokes the feeling of warmth and a stick to your ribs meal.
I guess you can say, this dish is an Italian stew. It’s made by slow cooking lamb shanks in a rich, robust sauce of onions, tomatoes, capers, anchovy and red wine. As far as I’m concerned, when there is wine involved, it has to be good!

The region of Piedmont, makes some of the best and well known wines in Italy. They are especially known for their big, juicy, red wines, such as, Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbara, all of which are some of my personal favorites. It’s no surprise that a lot of the recipes from this region, contain the use of red wine.

Every stew needs to be accompanied by a side that will absorb all it’s wonderful rich sauce. For this dish, I made a mound of creamy, cheesy polenta, for the stew to set on. It was the perfect partner for a perfect cold winter dish.

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