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Paul's archive: Can you send me a recipe for vodka sauce? Is it true that farro must be soaked overnight? What's an authentic recipe for Alfredo sauce? Why can't I find fresh-pressed olive oil? How do I store olive oil? Where can I find San Marzano tomatoes? How do I make real Italian tomato sauce? What's the difference between polenta and grits? Do you ever sell soft torrone? Who invented pasta? What's a good olive oil dipping recipe?
Thanks for writing. Penne with Vodka Sauce -- as popular as it is here in the states -- is not an traditional Italian recipe. Vodka is not typically used in Italian cooking, and the recipe was probably invented by a creative Italian during the height of vodka's popularity. Here is a recipe from John Mariani's excellent cookbook, The Italian American Cookbook. Penne alla Vodka
3 Tbsp unsalted butter In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more. Add the vodka, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large stockpot, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Add 1 heaping Tbsp salt and add the penne. Cook until al dente, and drain. Add the cream to the tomato sauce, and simmer for 2 minutes. Transfer the penne to a serving dish, add the vodka sauce, toss well and serve.
Buon appetito!
I Purchased some Farro at you Belmont store after reading about it in your newsletter. There were no cooking instructions on the package, so I consulted some of my Italian cookbooks. I am confused because the
information I found said that true Farro must be soaked overnight then cooked
for 2-3 hours. Your newsletter and farro soup recipes imply a much shorter cooking time. How long does it really take? How much liquid would I use if I
were to make a risotto-like dish?
Dear Soaked,
Buon appetito!
I'm looking for a truly authentic alfredo sauce recipe- some are mostly
cream some have more cheese. Do you have a good recipe?
Thanks, Dear Obsessed, Thanks for writing. Here is a recipe for Fettuccine alla Romana (more popularly called Fettuccine Alfredo) from Carlo Middione's collection of pasta recipes. Truth be told, this isn't a "true" Italian dish. It was created by Roman restaurateur Alfredo di Lello in the 1920s for the American palate. You're more likely to find this famous dish in an American restaurant than in an Italian one. Here's the recipe:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature Place butter in a large, heavy frying pan and melt butter over very low heat. Bring the cream to room temperature or warmer. Cook pasta al dente and quickly drain it, leaving it slightly wet. Immediately put drained pasta into the pan with butter and toss all around to coat well. Add the cream and grated cheese and gently toss again. Add the nutmeg and pepper and serve the pasta immediately. Pass additional cheese around the table. Note: If pasta look a little wet, don't worry. If you've bought a high-quality dried pasta or are using fresh pasta, it will absorb the liquid.
Why can't I find fresh-pressed olive oil? Asking for a Friend Dear Friend, Thanks for writing. All of our oils are first pressed oils that include the sediment (this is called unfiltered). Green color is not a guarantee that an oil is freshly pressed; there are terrific extra virgin oils that are gold and yellow as well. Our oils are shipped within a month or two of having been pressed. Our house brand oil, the Le Corti oil and the Brisighella are all peppery green oils that your friend would probably enjoy. It is immediately after having been pressed because most Americans find the flavor too strong and most Italian presses prefer to let their oil mellow before exporting it.
Buon appetito,
How do I store olive oil after it has been opened? How do I store olive after it has been opened? Just Wondering Dear Wondering, Thanks for writing. Keep your olive oil in a cool spot, like a cabinet, or simply out of the sun. It will keep for about 18 months (regardless of whether it's open or not). Paul
Where can I find San Marzano tomatoes? Happy New Year to everybody! This will always be my favorite Italian food website. The Caterina canned tomatoes, are they actually San Marzano tomatoes? Or are they just grown in the same area as San Marzano? San Marzano Man San Marzano Man, The San Marzano tomatoes are from San Marzano, but they are not San Marzano tomatoes. Real San Marzano tomatoes are prohibitively expensive and difficult to find even within Italy (most "San Marzano tomatoes" available in the U.S. are not real San Marzano tomatoes at all). Our chef, Gianluca Guglielmi, agree that the La Caterina tomatoes are virtually indistiguishable from the San Marzano type. You might want to try a taste comparison and let us know what you think!
Buon appetito,
How do I make real Italian tomato sauce? I was so happy to see your website in Sunset. I am also a Ferrari by birth, but I'm pretty confused with the kind of food that my family prepared when I was a child. We are Northern Italians. The village my family was from was Pavulo, which I have heard is the mountains. Now, the food confusion, or problem as I see it. Very little tomatoes are used for the sauces, lots of garlic, but little else, no oregano, etc. A typical sauce would have one can of tomato paste, fresh chopped garlic, fresh chopped onion, some ground beef and perhaps tomato juice. Is there such a sauce in real Italian or is this just something put together by my ancestors who truly were Italian peasants? A Fellow Ferrari Dear Fellow Ferrari, Thanks for writing. The sauce you describe sounds like a ragu, a meat sauce made all over Italy, with many regional variations. Ragu from Northern Italy is typically finely ground and contains less tomato than ragu made in Southern Italy. The red sauce most Americans identify as "Italian" is actually native to Campania, where some of Italy's best tomatoes are grown, but it is not used in all parts of Italy. Let me know if that helps explain your culinary confusion. Feel free to ask additional questions you may have. It's a pleasure to talk to customers interested in exploring their culinary heritage. You're lucky to be a part of such a rich history. Paul
What's the difference between polenta and grits? Paul, My husband and I were talking about polenta. I said I thought it was the same as cornmeal because I have made cornbread from it. He thought it contained grits. My father had a grist mill (not grits) and ground corn for the farmers. The corn meal was sifted through a fine screen, and the grits and bran were collected separately from the top of the screen. You could separate the bran from the grits by adding water to the mixture in a pot, and the bran would float and the grits remained on the bottom. When we lived in Italy, I finally found grits at a "grainaio", a store that sold grain products. I bought it out of a barrel. Do you know the Italian word for grits? Does polenta contain grits? We all need to settle the really important questions. All About Grits Dear All About Grits, According to my Food Lover's Companion, grits refers to any corsely ground grain, such as corn, oats or rice. So that would confirm my assumption that grits and polenta are indeed the same thing. It's just the preparation that's different. Grits are also typically made using white corn rather than Italy's more common yellow corn. Today, grits are most often made with hominy, which is dried white corn from which the hull and germ have been removed. Our polenta (and other artisan polenta flours) contains the germ of the corn, which gives it a "cornier" flavor and limits its shelf life. But the bottom line is that you can use polenta flour to make grits.
Buon appetito,
Do you ever sell soft torrone? Dear Paul, I noticed you offer hard torrone. I prefer the soft torrone. Do you plan to offer soft torrone in the future? If not, would you know where I can purchase it? I greatly enjoy your product selection.
Torrone Fan Dear Torrone Fan, Thanks for writing. As you point out, there are many different types of torrone. In fact, nearly every region makes it own style of torrone: some hard, some soft, some with hazelnuts, some with almonds some soft, some with chocolate, etc. We always offer a soft torrone (in addition to the hard torrone) during the holiday season. Our soft torrone is made in the Abruzzo by Fratelli Nurzia. It's usually not available until early November. I hope you'll come back and take a look as the holidays approach. I appreciate your comments. Paul
Who invented pasta? Do you know when was spaghetti invented? Confused Dear Confused, Thanks for writing. No one knows specifically when or where pasta was invented, but it is a myth that Marco Polo brought it to Italy from China. One of the great myths is that pasta was not known in Italy until Marco Polo brought it back from his travels to China in 1292. What the Venetian explorer probably introduced to his native country was not pasta, but a version of rice noodles that was a favorite food of the Orient. The fact is, throughout the Italian peninsula, pasta had been eaten for millennia before Marco Polo's adventures. In an Etruscan burial chamber near Rome that dates from 400 B.C., painted stucco reliefs depict the necessary tools used for making pasta. Numerous ancient frescoes depict feasts at which pasta appears to be a main dish. Although new pasta shapes have been invented over the centuries, the ingredients and process of making pasta have not changed. Essentially, the best dried pasta is made from durum wheat semolina, a yellow-white flour. After the bran and germ of the kernel are removed, the wheat is ground into semolina, mixed with water and left to harden. Before factory methods were invented, the pasta would be left in the sun to dry; true pasta aficionados believe that the rays of the Italian sun impart their own flavor.
Hope that helps,
What's a good olive oil dipping recipe? Paul, How do I prepare the mix of olive oil and vinegar offered in some italian restaurants with fresh bread? Dipping Fool Dear Dipper, Thanks for writing. There are many variations of the dipping sauce used in Italian-American restaurants around the country. Some restaurants use fresh herbs, like basil or rosemary, chopped garlic, roasted garlic, chili powder or anchovy paste. Some simply use olive oil with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Some just ground black pepper. I'd play around with a few ingredients until you find a combination you like. Italians don't really dip bread in oil. They're more likely to drizzle toasted bread with olive oil and eat it as a snack. The dipping craze started in the U.S. several years in response to butter's increasingly unhealthy reputation. A good italian extra virgin olive oil is so flavorful that it would be a shame to disguise its natural flavor.
Buona appetito,
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