Last New Year's Day when I made the resolution of traveling more, I certainly didn't expect for us to take as many trips as we have this year. The Rucci's have burned up airplanes, highways and taxi cabs this year. I'm pretty sure that in one year, we have traveled every form of transportation and even once with a highspeed police escort. My resolution this year is to win the lottery. We'll see what happens.
This Thanksgiving, we went with the Cougs to the Atlantis in the Bahamas for a tournament they were playing in. To say that Big and Daddy were over the moon and on a different planet is putting it mildly. The experience of traveling with a Division I basketball team and a Coach that they both think the sun rises and sets behind is one they will never forget. Lil' and I came along for the food and the sun. None of us were disappointed.
Thanksgiving was a little different for us this year. Scratch that. It was a lot different this year. We were able to travel with the team to the Bahamas for a tournament they were in so we celebrated with our people the weekend before. I channeled my inner Italian country cookin' mama mia' and I laid the hammer down. 4 courses. The real deal. We ate on my wedding china with Cora's silver and all the serving platters I have of hers.
1st course: Chunks of parmesan, crucolo and provolone. Spreads of speck, salami and prosciutto. Soft bagets with an olive oil imported straight from the mother land. Jugs of wine.
2nd course: Arugula with sprinkles of red onion and plum tomatoes. 3 handmade salad dressings: red wine vinaigrette, onion vinaigrette and a creamy balsamic. Jugs of wine.
3rd course: Home from College Sausage with hand-rolled ricotta cavetelli. Rigatoni covered with hand-crushed tomato sauce. Jugs of wine.
4th course: 2 different pork brachioles. One stuffed with a creamy shitake & parmesan cheese sauce. The other with grated parmesan, provolone and fresh parsley. Jugs of wine.
It was an Italian Sunday Dinner on a Saturday night in Charleston with jugs and jugs of wine.
boys did the dishes...
then we had a foot race. cause what's any meal without a foot race?
like i said. jugs of wine.
It's basketball season. Big and Daddy are in heaven. Who knew one round ball could bring two people so much happiness.
It gets me....
right here.
When we were in NYC, we had a lovely rehearsal dinner at Frankies Spuntino. It was your way above average, eat your face off, family style Italian supper. Daddy and I have been to NYC several times over the years and have been introduced and re-introduced to all kinds of foods, the top of our list being the famous "dirty water dogs" (I only had one this time. A weak effort when one takes my 7 in one day record into consideration.) Moving on.
This time there was a stand-out. A dish so powerful, I've been thinking about it and trying to figure it out ever since in hopes that I could re-create in my little Rucci Kitchen. Well, last night after much searching and education on all-things Italian, I stumbled across the recipe and the Frankies cookbook.
Take a gander. I'm pretty sure this will be something my kids ask me to make when they came from college. Therefore, I'm re-naming this. From now on in our house it will be known as: Home From College Sausage.
If I'm being completely honest, I didn't make my own pasta (I will next time, I promise Cora!!!). I used a box of penne and it was still awesome! Don't worry the bark on this dish is much worse than it's bite. I was cleaned up and outta there in 30 minutes tops.
Cavatelli with Sausage and Sage Browned Butter
recipe from The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual
Ingredients:
1 pound hot Italian pork sausage (4 to 6 links depending on the size of the sausage)
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
8-10 sage leaves
freshly ground white pepper
ricotta cavatelli (recipe below)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
½ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
Directions:
Put a large pot of water on to boil and salt it well.
Meanwhile, put the sausage into your widest saute pan with ½ of water and turn the heat to medium. After 10 minutes, flip the sausages over and simmer the for another 5 minutes (replenish the water if it threatens to boil off). After 15 minutes, the sausages should be firm and cooked through. Remove the sausages to a cutting board (discard the water) and slice them into coins just shy of ½ inch. (You can do this an hour or even a day ahead of time if you like.)
Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the pan and turn the heat to medium-high. After a minute, add the sausage coins in an even layer and let them cook, untouched, unstirred, unfussed with, until they’re deeply browned on the first side. (If there’s not enough room to brown all the sausage in one pan — which there will very probably not be — split it between two pans or brown it in two batches and use as additional tablespoon of butter.) Flip and brown them on the B side. The browning is integral to the ultimate depth of flavor of the finished dish — don’t stint on it. When the sausage is browned, remove it from the pan (a plate lined with paper towels is a nice place to hold it) and return the pan to the burner.
Keep the heat at medium-high and add the sage, the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter, and a few twists of white pepper. Stire the butter and scrape the browned bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. After a minute or two, it should stop foaming and start to take on color. That’s when you should drop the ricotta cavatelli into the boiling water. Continue to cook the butter until it’s deeply browned and fragrant, about 4 minutes more, which should be just about how long the cavatelli takes to cook.
Do not drain the cavatelli too thoroughly. The water clinging to the pasta will give the sauce body. Add it to the butter sauce along with the sausage and stir.
Add the cheese, stir again, and portion the cavatelli among several serving plates. Scatter each with a couple of pinches of parsley. Serve immediately.
Ricotta Cavatelli
recipe from The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual
Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting the pasta
1 pound (about 1 pint) ricotta
1 large egg
Pinch of fine sea salt
Up to ¼ cup milk or water if necessary to adjust the dough
Directions:
Combine the flour, cheese, egg, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough comes together in a shaggy, integrated mass that clings to the hook. If the dough looks dry and refuses to coalesce into a ball, add milk by the tablespoon to encourage it. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead it by hand for a couple of minutes to smooth it out. Or, if you don’t have a mixer [** note from TasteSpotting editors: and why don't you have a KitchenAid stand mixer?!] use the well method mixing together the egg and ricotta (instead of egg and water) and plopping that down in the center of the well. Otherwise, it works the same way.
Clamp the cavatelli maker onto the edge of the counter or work surface. Cut the ball of dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each ball into a snake just less than 1″ thick. Crank the snakes through the cavatelli machine, lightly dust the cavatelli with flour, and arrange on a baking sheet. Use at once or hold for up to 1 day in the fridge.
To cook, drop the cavatelli into a large pot of well-salted boiling water and cook for 4 minutes after the first few begin to float on top of the water. Drain, sauce and serve.
I know this is late but Nettie gave me a great idea for lighting my pumpkin this year - cut the bottom out, not the top and throw a mason jar with Christmas lights inside. That way, it can stay lit for days and days.
Twix are evil, I'd rather have a salad. I'll say it again, Twix are evil, I'd rather have a salad.
