photo credit: balise42

I was in the mood for cooking gourmet Italian a few years ago, and I ran across a recipe online for Rigatoni with Salsiccia and Finocchio.  Salsiccia I knew was sausage, but what the heck is Finocchio?  Pinocchio’s cousin?  Did Geppeto have another little guy?

I soon learned that Finocchio is a sweet variety of fennel and that it is also known as Florence fennel.  My husband won’t eat fennel on a bet because he does not care for anything with an anise taste.  Finocchio, however, loses much of that taste when it is cooked and actually becomes sweeter!  So, I decided to try my hand at cooking gourmet with finocchio.

What I like to do first in this recipe is prepare the finocchio.  If you can’t find finnochio, just use a fennel bulb.  Cut away any bruised or wilted areas of the fennel and slice it thin.  You should have about two cups.  At this point I also chop up a large red bell pepper and half an onion.

In a hot pan, place 1/2 pound of hot Italian sausage from which you have removed the casings.  Brown this in the pan, chopping it up as it browns.  Remove the sausage and add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.  Add the onion and a large clove of garlic, minced.  Cook over medium low so the garlic doesn’t burn, but the onion is softening.  Add the red bell pepper and the fennel and cook over medium hear for about 5 minutes or until the pepper and fennel are softened.

Add 1/3 cup of dry white wine and 1/2 cup chicken broth.  Bring this to a boil, then drop down to a simmer.  Cover the pan and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, you should have 1/2 pound of rigatoni cooking in boiled, salted water.

To your sauce, you now need to add 1/4 of heavy cream and boil until the sauce is thicken and reduced by about a third.  Stir in the sausage, 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, minced, and salt and pepper to taste.

Put your warm, cooked rigatoni in a large bowl and add the sauce.  Mix well.  Add some freshly grated parmesan cheese and toss again.  You have now tried YOUR hand at cooking gourmet with finocchio! 

Take a peek at Stephanie preparing fennel for soup!

Mangia Bene!

Photo by Gepiblu

When cooking gourmet gifts for Christmas, why not try the wonderful Sicilian traditional “Croccante” or Nut Crunch.  It is very similar to a French praline except pralines are sweeter.  Croccante is made with carmelized sugar and nuts – most often almonds.  If you are not fond of almonds, try hazelnuts or whatever you like!

Croccante actually means “cracking” and it is made very similar to peanut brittle, so you know that you have to work fast.  The part I always hated about making peanut brittle was spreading the hot candy before it hardened without burning my hands.  I recently read a great tip!  Just before you are to pour your hot sugar mixture out onto your marble slab or aluminum foil, peel a potato and cut it in half.  Once the candy is out of the pot, use the faces of the potato to spread it all out.  Pure Genius!

If you are cooking gourmet gifts and including Croccante, be aware that this stuff is VERY hard and one could easily break a tooth with this.  For that reason, I am going to include a second option that contains butter and is therefore not quite as hard as the original recipe.

First you want to toast 1 1/2 cups of whole blanched almonds in a 450 degree oven for about 6 minutes – until golden brown.  Watch them carefully.  When cool, pulse the nuts in the food processor until they are about half the size of a grain of rice.

Put 1 heaping cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a small pan.  Melt this over medium-high heat without stirring.  Tilt the pan once in a while.  When the mixture turns a light, gold color, add the chopped nuts and stir constantly until you have a deep golden brown color.  Now pour RIGHT AWAY onto a greased marble slab or greased sheet of aluminum foil.

Now grab your potato halves and spread as fast as you can to a thickness of about 1/8 of an inch.  If you like, you can cut the candy into diamonds or any other shape before it cools or you can just break it once cool.  If you would like to try the softer version, just add 1 1/2 tablespoons each of butter and lemon juice.  Croccante can be pulverized in the food processor and used as an Italian dessert topping. 

Watch an Italian chef cutting up his chocolate version of croccante here!

Mangia Bene!

photo by Dominick Hundhammer

Everyone has heard of Italy’s incomparable Gorgonzola cheese being used in cooking gourmet dinners.  This is primarily made with cow’s milk and it is a wondrous creamy, piquant cheese that originated around 879 in a little town outside of Milan named … You guessed it!  Gorgonzola!  Today Gorgonzola is a suburb of Milan.

Although the cheese dates back to the 9th century, it wasn’t until about 200 years later than that greenish/blue mold was introduced to the cheese making process quite by accident.  The green veins are actually penicillum glaucum.  Really, the mold in gorgonzola is more green than blue.  The London Stock Exchange is lined with green marble and they refer to it as “Gorgonzola Hall”.

When cooking gourmet Gorganzola sauce, you can try substituting domestic Gorgonzola or some other type of blue cheese, but you must try to find the best quality Gorgonzola that you can.  I found a site online that has been winning some very impressive top awards in international cheese competitions.  They are out of Denmark, Wisconsin and their specialty is creating Italian cheese within the United States. If you would like to learn more about them, click here.

In your heavy pan that will be big enough to hold all the pasta, put 4 ounces of gorgonzola, 1/3 cup of milk, 3 tablespoons of butter and 2 teaspoons of salt.  Turn the heat on to low and mash the gorgonzola with a wodden spoon and mixing everything together.  Cook for about a minute until it is nice and creamy.  Stir in 1/4 cup of heavy cream.  Add your fettuccini that has been cooked in boiled, salted water and toss with the sauce.  Then add 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and mix it into the pasta.  Serve directly from the pan since this must be served as soon as it the dish is finished.  I always serve have a little extra bowl of grated Parmesan cheese on the table, and of course some good rustic Italian bread!    You’ll be cooking gourmet gorgonzola cheese sauce again after you taste this, I’m sure.

Watch Chef Jay Washington make his delicious version for you right here!

Mangia Bene!