Cheese tortellini soup with cannellini beans, kielbasa and kale

We started off with a lot of promise, the wine group and I.   Led by Culinary Program director Stefano at one of the loveliest places on earth, Villa Ferraia in Tuscany, our spirited members fearlessly tackled eggplant parmesan, foccacia, malfatti, ribollita, Sylvia’s amazing torta di cioccolato and many more authentic Tuscan dishes during our weeklong stay.   

Barbara, Helen and yours truly making tagliatelle verdi during our morning wine degustazione!

But our greatest challenge was tortelloni.  Tortelloni are the larger version of tortellini.  It was smart of Stefano not to ask us to make tiny tortellini – you’ll see why!  Here Teague, Jeff and Helen are adding the leek and pumpkin stuffing before folding each piece and shaping it into a circle with a flip - later to be sautéed with butter and sage leaves and then topped with grated parmesan.  Truly delicious!

Some of the tortelloni were so dainty and cute.  The shape, as the story goes, was inspired by Lucrezia Borgia’s sensual navel!

Here’s the first batch sitting pretty by the window.  Not bad.

But by the time we were done…UGH!  What a mess…tasty yes, but miserably inconsistent in size and shape! 

Astounded, our patient tutor Stefano holds up the biggest one!  It’s an Amazon’s navel, for goodness sake!

We realize that we’ll never be able to duplicate what the Italian mamas do on a daily basis, so we reach for the next best thing, fresh stuffed tortellini in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.  They’re perfectly shaped (by nothing other than a machine), relatively inexpensive and tasty, and they add flavor and texture to this hearty soup introduced to me by my wine buddies Jeff and Doris…and it doesn’t hurt to include some spicy sausage either!

Cheese tortellini soup with cannellini beans, kielbasa, and kale, slightly adapted from Bon Appétit, February 2002

Yield: Makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces fully cooked, smoked kielbasa (sausage), thinly sliced (I used Chappell Hill jalapeño sausage)
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb (about ½ large bulb. You could use the other half in a fresh salad)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
½ - 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
10 cups canned low-salt beef broth (chicken broth is good too)
4 cups chopped kale (1/2 bunch)
1 15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained
1 9-ounce package fresh cheese tortellini
1 cup grated Parmesan, Asiago or Gruyère cheese

garlic bread, toasted (optional)

Heat olive oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, fennel, garlic, thyme and red pepper and sauté until the vegetables are soft and the sausage is brown, about 12 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Stir in kale and cannelloni beans. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the kale is wilted, about 4 minutes. You can make the soup ahead up to this point. Cool and refrigerate until you are ready to serve it. Heat the soup before continuing with the next step.

Add tortellini to hot soup. Simmer until pasta is just tender but still has some bite (al dente), about 5 - 8 minutes.  Ladle soup into bowls. Top with grated cheese of your choice and serve with toasted garlic bread.

Prijatno!

Lasagne Verdi al Forno and home made spinach pasta!

When I first ate lasagna in Italy, I was surprised at how different the dish was to lasagna typically served in the US. Gracious Patrizia at Villa Ferraia served us her version during a fantastic week at Ferraia’s culinary school (can you find this blogger in the kitchen?). It was light, very flavorful, and composed of thin layers of pasta, béchamel and meat sauce .

According to Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table, lasagne should always be a “vivid expression of the ‘less is more’ philosophy of cooking. Mere films of béchamel sauce and meat ragu coat the sheerest spinach pasta. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese dusts each layer. There is nothing more; no ricotta, no piling on of meats, vegetables or cheese; little tomato, and no hot spice. Baking performs the final marriage of flavors. The results are splendid.”

Does that description sound like your typical tall stacked and heavy American-style lasagna? Definitely not! But if you’ve never had authentic lasagna, you’re missing something special.

Our Daring Baker’s challenge for March was to make authentic lasagne (plural), and particularly the lasagne verde, or spinach egg pasta. I’m always ready for a challenge with this group, founded by Lis and Ivonne! You rock!

The Daring Baker’s March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge. Click on any of these sites to find the entire recipe.

Making the lasagne was a lot easier than I expected. Only three ingredients are needed – eggs, spinach and flour. I used frozen chopped spinach, squeezed it well to remove excess liquid and chopped it by hand (and not a food processor), so my spinach was more on the chunky side:

But look at what I created! A beautiful green sheet which reminded me of stained glass when held up to the sun! The goal was to get the lasagne as thin and transparent as possible. D’ya think I succeeded?

I chose to roll the dough using a traditional rolling pin and my brute strength (of which I have none!). Fortunately, I was aided by a live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera of Wagner’s Nordic epic Das Rheingold. I had gods, thunder, and fire coursing through my veins as I pushed, turned and pulled the dough. Live from the Met – your timing was perfect!

Lasagne sheets were left to dry for a few hours:

The béchamel sauce was also simple to make using butter, flour, milk pepper and freshly grated nutmeg:

The ragu (meat sauce) was to die for! It took about 4 hours to make from beginning to end and included amongst other ingredients pancetta, beef, pork, prosciutto and sweet carrots. Surprisingly there was no garlic and no herbs, yet it had so many levels of flavor, with wine uniting them all. The wine was the key ingredient in the sauce, in my opinion, and here is a good example of why one should use quality wine when cooking. Husby was kind enough to open a Rabbit Ridge 2002 Paso Robles L.P.R. Grand Reserve. It was sooo yummy and jammy and fruity, I sipped, chopped and stirred…then I sipped again! I lived up to my license plate frame my daughter bought me that says:

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food!

The end product was a ragu I’ll be making many times, using quality wine, of course!

Assembly was easy. I chose to bake the lasagne uncovered because I love a crisp and toasted cheesy top! Served with red wine…

Prijatno!

Nuts for Nutella!

In Europe, the equivalent to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the nutella sandwich.  Nutella is a heavenly blend of hazelnuts, cocoa, sugar, milk and oil and is deliciously spread between a chunk of French or hearty whole-grain bread.  It’s the common school lunch fare in Italy and beyond!  It is a popular filling for crepes in France.  It’s a cultural icon in Europe and is included in many books and movies.  Gaining popularity in the United States since its introduction to our markets in 2000, it’s available in many grocery stores next to the peanut butters and jams.

Nutella was created in Italy’s Piedmonte region by Pietro Ferrero during World War II when there was a shortage of cocoa.  Native hazelnut trees were and still are abundant on the hills around Alba, and the hazelnuts were used as a filler with great success.   A smililar product, Eurocrem, is made in my native Serbia and you may be familiar with Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  Wrapped in gold foil, it’s a multilayered confection with a hazelnut in the middle, encased by a layer of nutella, a wafer shell, milk chocolate and chopped nuts.   It’s one of my favorite chocolate treats!

I took the following picture during a fabulous trip to Piedmonte a little over a year ago.  Piedmonte, ‘foot of the mountains’, is situated in the northwestern part of Italy, at the foot of the Alps.  The hazelnut orchard (in the foreground and middleground in the photograph) is nestled between the vineyards of the rolling hills of the Langhe hills near Alba:

Nutella is so versatile, I’ve used it in many different ways – to make ice-cream, mousses, cakes, cookies, as a filling for crepes, on toast, and as a dip for fruit.  The way my chocoholic and nutella addict daughter, Emilia enjoys it is a spoonful straight out of the container!  I was scanning my pantry for inspiration for today’s World Nutella Day recipe, when my eyes fell on a bag of chocolate pasta.  Perfetto!  I had some strawberries in the fridge and a ripe banana and I put together a simple but delicious dessert you could make in no time! 

Nutella sauce with chocolate pasta and fruit

Serves 4

8 ounces chocolate pasta

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) nutella

1 cup cream

8 strawberries, washed and halved

1 banana, sliced

whipped cream and chopped, toasted hazelnuts (or any other nut) for topping.

Cook pasta until ‘el dente’ (cooked but still firm).   While pasta is cooking place cream and nutella in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals until nutella  is soft and the cream is hot.  Blend nutella and cream together with a whisk until smooth.  Drain the pasta and divide between four serving bowl.  Pour nutella sauce over pasta and top with strawberries, banana slices, whipped cream and toasted nuts.  It’s that simple!

 

To see what other nutella lovers are doing today start at these two addicted ladies’ sites:  Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso.  For a good laugh, see what  The Top Ten Signs You’re Addicted to Nutella are!  If you are a nutella virgin or to find out what type of nutella lover you are or want to know 50 ways to eat nutella go to nutella virgin and enjoy!

Prijatno!