Perfect Pasta

If there is one food that is quintessentially Italian, it's pasta. They eat it at lunch and dinner, usually every day, and with a variety of pasta shapes, sauces, and toppings. So you are probably saying, "You live in Italy, so why haven't you talked about pasta yet?"

Making good, interesting pasta is actually rather easy. For seasonings, I pretty much use garlic salt, peppercinis (the red pepper flakes that you find at Pizza Hut), onion powder, and basil (both fresh and dried). Start with an appropriate pasta base: penne or rigatoni for a meat sauce, spaghetti for chicken and/or vegetables. Then decide what kind of sauce you want. Tomato sauce is the heartiest, and with hamburger it makes a good meal in itself. An alfredo sauce is a little lighter and gives pasta a nice coating if you're topping it with chicken or vegetables. Another excellent option is olive oil with garlic salt, basil, peppercinis, onion powder, and pepper. I like flavoring my sauces: putting peppercinis and garlic salt in the tomato sauce and pesto or sauteed onions in the alfredo sauce.

Now for what to put on top. There's always the very traditional meat sauce with hamburger and onions in tomato sauce. Chicken also makes a good topper. Here are some chicken options: coated with bbq sauce and grilled, then sliced; breaded in flour and seasonings and cooked on the stove; and cooked in seasonings. Vegetables can be cooked or not, sliced big or small. Usually I use onions, green or red peppers, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and mushrooms. Use what you have and be creative with the colors and sizes. That way, your food can be pretty, as well as tasty.  Pasta is always better with cheese on top, no matter what else is on it. Parmesan, shredded cheese, or (if you want to be really Italian) mozzerella cut into chunks. Try different combinations, seasonings, and sauces; you never know what you might come up with!

Here is a pasta that we made at our Neopolitan cooking class:
Pasta of the 7 P's
Penne - 1 lb
Pomodoro (tomatoes) - 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
Pancetta (bacon) - 4 oz
Pepperoncino (red pepper flakes) - to taste
Panna (cream) - 1 cup
Prezzemelo (parsley) - a handful
Parmigiano (paremsan cheese)
Olive oil
Salt

In a pan, saute the bacon and pepper flakes in the olive oil until the bacon is cooked. Add the tomatoes and salt and cook for 15 min. Add the cream and parsley. Cook the pasta, drain, and add to the sauce. Serve with parmesan on top.

Buon appetito!

Peaches, peaches, peaches!

One day our hunger got the best of us, so we stopped and bought a case of peaches for 3 euro from a man selling them out of the back of his 3-wheeled pickup. So this begs the question, what would you do with 27 ripe peaches?

At first we ate them one by one, but that was too slow. There was no way we could eat them all before they went bad! So we decided to have peach milkshakes. These consisted of peeled peaches, ice, heavy cream, and milk. They were thick, fluffy (from the heavy cream), and very tasty. The second time I put in some vanilla when Tim wasn't looking and it was even better.

In an attempt to find something more interesting and because I was tired of washing the blender, I found a recipe for peach salsa. I chopped an onion and cooked it for a couple minutes with some diced jalapenos (from a can) and a little lemon juice. Then I quartered 3 or 4 peaches (white and yellow) and put them on the grill until they were soft all the way through and a little blackened. I cooled them a little, chopped them, and mixed them with the onion/jalapeno mix. I put it on grilled chicken that night, but the next day we had it with chips and I think it was better for having sat overnight. The flavors melded together, and it was sweeter and spicier at the same time. I didn't use all the peaches for the salsa, so we had leftovers. Even if you don't make salsa, grilled peaches are awesome.

Finally, the weather took a strange turn and cooled off enough to turn on the oven. Peach pie it is!

And if all this wasn't enough, we still had enough peaches left over to slice and put on our Belgian waffles with whipped cream. After all this, we discovered what Italians do with their peaches. They slice them and serve them in a wine glass with prosecco. The peaches sweeten the wine and also soak it up. The best part is at the end when you get to eat the wine-soaked peaches.

Now we need more peaches.