Don’t you love when you cook something for the first time and find, upon taste testing, that it needs no tweaking? You just get it perfect, right from the get-go. That’s what we experienced with this dish. Add a little of this, a little of that – and phwwm! – all the flavors join together in one big happy dance, needing nothing further from you. That’s when you step back from the stove and join in the dance.

This dish will make you happy. The kind of happy that makes you take your shoes off and wiggle your toes. Of course, when working with Chanterelle mushrooms and smoked Mangalitsa bacon it’s hard to go wrong, so prepare for shoe removal.

Chanterelle And Smoked Bacon Linguine

4 strips of good quality bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 pound Chanterelle mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Approximately 1 pound linguine
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
Parmesan cheese
Kosher salt

In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil; add pasta and cook until tender. In a saucepan, sauté bacon until browned. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Pour in wine and simmer until the alcohol has cooked off. Add the cream and season to taste with salt.

Drain pasta. Toss pasta with mushroom bacon mixture and chopped parsley.

Plate and serve with grated Parmesan on top.

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For such an amazingly good dish it has such a pessimistic name: malfatti. In Italian, malfatti translates to “bad made.” That doesn’t sound very promising, does it? Kind of like the outstanding hazelnut meringue cookies we had the other night at Spinasse called “Brutti ma Buoni” (ugly but good). If I were a food, such as a malfatto, I don’t think I’d be too happy to have either “bad” or “ugly” in my name, considering how I’d be so divinely delicious.

Contrary to their name, these little malfatti were about the prettiest little things ever – so much so that I think we should rename them belfatti (pretty made). Unlike gnocchi, their dumpling cousin, malfatti are more “roughly” made: hand-rolled, then crudely cut without much thought to uniformity or perfection. But that’s precisely what makes them so lovely – their provincial form and handmade taste.

Because they’re made mostly with ricotta and contain no flour (other than the flour used to roll them in) they result in light and airy pillows, a feat not so easily achieved in gnocchi making. In fact, if you’ve ever made gnocchi you’ll find that more times than not they turn out more dense than you’d like, and you have to concentrate fiercely on the task at hand, making sure to not overwork the dough. Malfatti, on the other hand, are easy to make and hard to ruin. You can actually do other things as you gingerly roll and cut, like sing along to the opera piping out of your Bose and take sips of your Super Tuscan.

Malfatti
I jotted this recipe down in haste one day and forgot to write the name of the magazine from which I got it, but I’m fairly certain it was from the December 08 issue of La Cucina Italiana.

1 cup cooked, well-drained, chopped spinach
1 ½ cups Ricotta cheese
1 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs or panko
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup minced scallions
1 tablespoon basil, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
½ teaspoon salt
Flour
4 tablespoons butter
Approximately 10 sage leaves

Drain cooked spinach and squeeze out extra liquid until very dry. Combine with all ingredients, except flour. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Bring pot half full of salted water to a simmer. Drop spinach cheese mixture by tablespoons into flour and roll each lightly into long logs. Cut into 1.5 inch dumplings.

Drop dumplings into the gently simmering water. When they rise to the top, remove with a slotted spoon (approximately 3 to 5 minutes).

In a saucepan, heat butter and sage leaves until both are browned and sage leaves are crisp.  Spoon butter over malfatti and top with the crisp sage leaves. If preferred, top with more Parmesan cheese.

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Photo: PaPisc

The tree outside my window is the most striking array of orange and gold. I love this time of year, and hope the winds don’t come and blow all the fall colors away. I want to enjoy that tree for as long as possible.

The nights are becoming increasingly more crisp with fall, which call for something hot to take the chill off. But, not wanting to get into a big production in the kitchen, I made a simple Italian classic soup called tortellini in brodo (broth).

Whether you’ve just come in from the cold, have a cold, or just want a nice and easy meal, tortellini in a good broth will do just the trick. All you need is packaged or frozen tortellini, chicken broth and a lemon.

Buon appetito!

Tortellini in Brodo

2 cups chicken stock (if possible, homemade is best)
3/4 C frozen tortellini
1 teaspoon Parmiggiano Reggiano, freshly grated
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, amount a wedge worth
Salt and pepper

Heat the stock to a boil and cook the tortellini. Put a handful of spinach in a soup bowl. Ladle into bowls, squeeze in lemon and stir. Grate cheese and zest on top, and add some freshly ground salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

If you want to enjoy the traditional preparation (and don’t have a beautiful tree in your yard to sit and stare at), push up your sleeves and give the homemade version of this recipe from Manga Bene Pasta a try.

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In Italy, when the first tomatoes of the season are ripe for plucking, they celebrate summer by preparing this delicious pasta dish. It’s simple to make, and tastes like you’ve captured the freshness of summer on your plate.

This isn’t just an ordinary tomato-on-pasta dish. The pasta is served piping hot and the sauce chilly cold, creating a temperature contrast that is both refreshing and unexpected. Once introduced to the heat of the pasta, the flavors of the tomato and olive oil burst with flavor.

Pasta Verano
Summer Pasta

1 pound angel hair or spaghetti
1 pound of tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
3-4 basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 small sweet onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon good quality balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Strain the diced tomato (save the juice for tomorrow’s recipe!). In a large bowl, add the remaining diced and chopped vegetables, as well as the oil and vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and refrigerate until well chilled.

Once your sauce is sufficiently chilled, start to cook your pasta in well-salted water (a good handful!). Strain the pasta, then place it in your serving dish. Drizzle with olive oil and toss until well coated. Spoon your chilled sauce on the top, and serve immediately.

Serves 4-6

Buon Appetito!

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Legend has it that during World War II American soldiers in Rome would bring their Italian friends eggs and bacon and ask them to make a pasta dish, thus becoming pasta alla carbonara. Another legend claims that carbonara, a derivative of the word carbon in Italian, was made for charcoal workers. Who really knows how eggs and bacon became transformed into a distinctively Roman pasta dish.

One thing is for sure, with the bacon grease that’s used it is certainly a meal hearty enough for a soldier or charcoal worker. So if you’re on a low-fat or low-carb (or both) diet, you may as well stop reading right here. Shut your computer down and go get an apple. If you love bacon, then take my hand and let me lead you down the long path of gluttony. It’s a fine journey.

In Rome salted pork jowl is usually used, but as it’s difficult to find in the States, pancetta or a smoky bacon works just as well.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara
For 6 servings.

½ pound pancetta or bacon
4 garlic gloves
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup dry white wine
2 large fresh eggs
¼ cup cream (optional- we didn’t use it but you could add it if you want extra creaminess)
¼ cup romano cheese
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 ¼ pounds of spaghetti
3/4 or 1 package peas (optional – I know it’s not traditional to add peas, but I thought it would be fun to mix it up a bit).

1. Cut the pancetta or bacon into ¼ wide slices.
2. Lightly mash the garlic with the flat end of a chef’s knife, enough to split it and loosed the skin, which you want to toss. Put the garlic and olive oil into a small sauté pan and heat over medium high until garlic turns a deep golden brown. Remove and throw away the garlic.
3. Put the pancetta slices into the pan, and cook until lightly brown and crisp at the edges. Slowly add the white wine, and let it cook a minute or two until the alcohol burns off.
4. Break the 2 eggs into the bowl in which you will be serving. Beat them with a fork then add the grated cheeses, a healthy grinding of pepper, and the chopped parsley. Mix thoroughly.
5. Briefly reheat the pancetta over high heat then remove from heat.
6. Add a small amount of the pancetta drippings to a small amount of the just cooked spaghetti and mix well. Add to the bowl and toss rapidly, taking care not to cook the eggs. Toss in the rest of the pasta, cream (if using), pancetta with its drippings, and peas, and toss thoroughly.
7. Serve at once.

I prepared this recipe without the added cream. If you prefer a creamier sauce add the cream or another egg or two.

Note: I’ve never had problems using raw eggs, which can transmit salmonella, as I’ve always used the freshest ones I can find. But if you are concerned, or will be serving to young children, elderly people or those with a weakened immune system, you may wish to skip the raw eggs and add cream instead.

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