Pasta

Sausage and WInter Squash Ragu

November 15, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Sausage and Winter Squash Ragu

I got this recipe from a northern friend (her grandparents are from Tuscany). You can use any kind of hard winter squash. I used butternut but acorn or even pumpkin would do it.

Sausage and Winter Squash Ragu

Ingredients:

3 cups peeled and diced squash
Olive oil for basting and frying
Salt and black pepper
1 lb. Italian hot or sweet pork sausage casing removed
1 medium onion diced
1 cup diced mushrooms – your choice
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 sliced garlic cloves
1 lb. short pasta like ziti, rigatoni, etc.
½ cup chopped parsley

Start a pot of salted water for the pasta.

Heat the oven to 450^o and roast the peeled and diced squash with oil and salt and pepper for 15 minutes.

Sauté the mushrooms and onion in oil in a pot until they’re soft. Remove from the pot. Add the sausage and break it up and cook until it’s brown. Return the mushrooms and onion to the pot, then add the tomatoes and garlic. Cook on a medium flame for 5 minutes and then add 1 cup of water, stir, and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning.

Cook the pasta until almost done and add it to the pot and mix it with the sauce. Add some of the pasta water if it looks too dry. Now, add the roasted squash and parsley. Mix and serve. (My friend said it can be served with grated cheese but I think that would overpowers the sweetness of the squash.)

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Seafood

Cod Fish Cakes

November 8, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Cod Fish Cakes

Here’s another recipe adapted from The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook. This one is for cod fish cakes. It was created by Ena Forde-Findlay of Brooklyn, New York.

The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook

Hailed as “One of the year’s more engaging cookbooks...” by the New York Times, the book has sold well over 100,000 copies.

“…a one of a kind collection of heartwarming stories and authentic recipes that you’ll want to have for your cooking library…these recipes recall special memories of far away lands or of dearly loved relatives…much more than a recipe compilation, it is a personal journey with stories and reminiscences that will touch your heart.” ~ Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Club

Cod Fish Cakes – adapted from the Ellis Island Immigrant Cook Book

The cod fish needed for this recipe is preserved by salting. Before cooking, the salt has to be removed by soaking. The amount of soaking depends on how the codfish you bought was preserved. Goya sells it in 1-pound packages and I find this brand is the easiest to use. Some other brands come salted, dried and as stiff as a board and require more preparation. It’s your choice. Besides cod you can also use salted pollock.

Goya’s instructions:

After de-salting boil the fish for 30 minutes. Drain and let it cool then shred it by pulling it apart with 2 forks. Finely chop the peppers, onions and scallions. Saute them on medium-low until they are soft but not browned.

Add the vegetables to the fish in a large bowl. Scramble and add the eggs to the mix. Blend the flour, baking powder, black pepper. and paprika and then add it to the cod mixture, alternating with the water. Continue adding the flour mix and water until you come to a pasty consistency.

Pour an inch of oil into a pan and heat to 375^o. Scoop up some of the cod mix with a table spoon and scrape it into the oil with another tablespoon. Turn over when golden brown on one side, then brown on the other side. Add oil as you need it. Drain on paper towels and serve with lemon and/or hot sauce.

Get a copy of the The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook HERE.

Get information on Save Ellis Island’s Hardhat Tours HERE.

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Sides

Biscuits and Gravy

November 1, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Biscuits and Gravy

I may be a native New Yorker but I’ve always loved Southern food. I got this recipe in the New York Daily News. Even if you don’t want the sausage gravy, it’s still a great biscuit recipe.

For the Biscuits –

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups flour
2 tbsps. baking powder
1 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
4 ozs. butter
1 cup buttermilk
Melted butter

Pre-heat the oven to 425^o.

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl. Grate in the butter into the bowl and blend. Add the buttermilk and stir until it comes together like a rough dough. Sprinkle some flour on your counter and knead the dough by folding it in half a few times. No need to over do it.

Roll out the dough into a one-inch layer. Use a biscuit cutter (I use a glass) to cut 2 to 3 inch diameter biscuits. You should get about 12. Put the cut outs on a buttered baking sheet. Brush the tops of each with melted butter and bake until golden, about 15 minutes.

For the Gravy –

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. oil
1 lb. pork breakfast meat (or remove sausage casings)
4 tbsps. butter
½ cup flour
3 – 4 cups chicken broth or stock.
½ cup heavy cream
Salt and black pepper (easy on the salt if the broth is salty)

Brown the sausage meat in the oil in a frying pan. Remove the meat leaving the oil and some brown bits. At medium heat, add the butter and when it melts and stops foaming quickly stir in the flour. Don’t let it brown. This is a light-colored gravy.

Raise the heat and whisk in the chicken broth. When it thickens and becomes smooth, return the cooked sausage meat to the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Heat the cream, add it to the pan and mix. Taste for seasoning. Serve it hot, spooned over the split biscuits.

The biscuits are pretty good with butter and preserves too.

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Miscellaneous

Bike MS New York City 2019

October 25, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Bike MS New York City 2019

I’ve been doing the Multiple Sclerosis ( #BikeMS ) charity bike ride every year since 1999. They have a few different routes you can take – 2 of them go from the starting line on 48^th Street and the West Side Highway through the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey but my favorite starts at the same place and goes around the 30-mile border of Manhattan island.

It’s still dark when we start to lineup. They serve a breakfast of protein bars, bananas and water. I have coffee at home. The sky is just starting to brighten when we take off downtown toward Battery Park. NYPD keeps all the roads closed so it’s just you and about a 1000 other cyclists.

After we make the turn at the southern tip of Manhattan the sun is coming up over the East River. Then it’s straight up the FDR and Harlem River Drives to a rest stop at Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan.

Inwood Hill is a great location – including bike repair, porta-sans, water, protein bars and apples. I usually make a stop about a mile before at the Jimbo’s Hamburger Palace on 207^th Street for a ham and egg sandwich and coffee to go.

From Inwood Hill it’s a little over 10 miles to the finish on Pier 92-94 with it’s beer garden and hamburgers.

You can make donations here.

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Pasta, Vegetarian

Red Pesto Pasta

October 18, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Red Pesto Pasta

This is adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit.

Ingredients:

6 anchovies
3 smashed garlic cloves
¾ cup olive oil
½ cup raw walnuts
1 – 6 oz. can tomato paste
½ red bell pepper, sliced *
3 oz. Parmigiana cheese
2 oz. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsps. butter, cut into pieces
1 lb. small pasta (ziti, penne, gemelli, etc.)

* If you like it spicy use red serranoes instead of a bell pepper.

Put a pot of salted water on the stove for the pasta. By the time the water boils and the pasta is cooked, the sauce will be ready.

Cook the anchovies, garlic, and walnuts in the oil until the garlic starts to color. Add the tomato paste and the sliced pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Let the mixture cool for a few minutes and scrape it into a food processor or blender. Add the cheese, lemon juice, and salt. Blend until smooth and pour the mixture into a heated serving bowl and add the butter.

When it’s done, add the pasta and ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to the bowl, more water if the sauce is too dry. Serve Red Pesto Pasta with Parmigiana cheese.

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Restaurants

Hollywood Grill

October 11, 2019 robiulo 2 Comments

Hollywood Grill

One of the things we like about Hollywood Beach is the choice of restaurants within walking distance of our hotel. There’s Mexican, Turkish, Greek, Peruvian, etc. in addition to good Italian restaurants, and American seafood.

We recently noticed the Hollywood Grill, which serves Armenian food. Not being too familiar with the menu the first time there, we ordered things we knew, like shishkababs, and salad.

Everything we ordered was good but as we ate, we noticed that the tables around us were covered with platters of unfamiliar things that looked delicious.

We went back the next night and told our waitress, Aisha, that we wanted to be adventurous and order some authentic Armenian dishes. She helped us order and explained how each dish was to be eaten.

Aisha is from Uzbekistan

The recipes were all traditional and from the Caucasus – Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Over the course of our next 3 meals there, we had Georgian wine and Armenian beer, hot borscht, kharcho (lamb and rice soup) and hummus. We had a communally served platter of soft cheese that we rolled up in a bread something like thin pita with radishes, tomato and hot peppers, dolma (stuffed grape leave) that looked Greek but weren’t, broth filled dumplings, mussels, and something Aisha called Armenian pizza. All this with a view of palm trees and the ocean.

Too full for dessert but the coffee was perfect.

After 4 visits, we didn’t even get through half the menu. We told Tara, the manager, that if they opened a branch in New York, we’d be regulars.

Tara

Chef

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Drinks

Coffee in Naples

October 9, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Viva ‘a tazzulella: Naples and her love story with coffee and tradition

by FRANCESCA BEZZONE, JUL 16, 2019

Coffee in Naples

The relationship between caffé and the city of Naples can only be called love. La tazzulella di caffé is the way Neapolitans welcome the day, recharge throughout it and show friends they enjoy their company. It is the occasion to socialize, share opinions and discuss about the latest news and gossip.

La relazione tra il caffè e la città di Napoli non può che essere d’amore. La tazzulella di caffé è il modo in cui i napoletani accolgono il nuovo giorno, si ricaricano e mostrano agli amici che amano la loro compagnia. E’ l’occasione per socializzare, condividere opinioni e parlare delle ultime notizie e fare pettegolezzi.

Read the whole article here.

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Miscellaneous

The West 97th Street GreenMarket

October 4, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

West 97th Street Greenmarket

There are greenmarkets all over New York City and mine is the West 97th Street Greenmarket. You can get baked goods, meat, seafood, eggs, honey, seasonal produce and more throughout the year and it’s all local.

From flowers to seafood.

One morning’s shopping – semolina bread, corn, peaches, apple pie, mako steaks, blow fish, and black fish filets.

From their website:

Greenmarket was founded in 1976 with a two-fold mission: to promote regional agriculture by providing small family farms the opportunity to sell their locally grown products directly to consumers, and to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to the freshest, most nutritious locally grown food the region has to offer. . .

West 97th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue

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Seafood, Soup, Vegetarian

Mrs. Fisher’s Fish Chowder

September 27, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking – on Amazon

Mrs. Fisher’s Fish Chowder

I came across this recipe for fish chowder while browsing through an old cookbook on line. The book’s title is What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. It was published in 1881 and written by Mrs. Abby Fisher. Mrs. Fisher was a former slave and her cookbook is believed to be the first ever written by an African-American.

The fish chowder recipe appealed to me. I decided to try to make it although Mrs. Fisher doesn’t give very precise instructions, ingredient amounts, or cooking times. Onion, butter, cayenne, and salt were easy but I had to Google ‘sea cracker’ and eventually found a modern equivalent. She doesn’t say what kind of fish so my choice was hake, an inexpensive white fish For ‘Irish potatoes’ I used Idaho and instead of ‘salt pork’ my substitute was pancetta. I added some olive oil and paprika. I think Mrs. Fisher wrote this book for people who knew how to cook. so she was able to make some assumptions. This recipe worked for me and I’ll definitely make it again.

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. pancetta cut in one inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 & 1/2 lbs. fish cut into one inch pieces
1 large, peeled and cubed Idaho potatoes
3 ground Pilot Bread Crackers
3 pats of butter
1/4 tsp . cayenne
1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
salt to taste

Cook the pancetta on a low heat until it ‘s brown and the fat rendered. Then remove it from the pot.

Also on low heat, in the same pot, lightly brown the onions and removed them.

As Mrs. Fisher says, “Having all now prepared,” add 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil to prevent sticking to the rendered pancetta fat if the pot appears to be too dry, then put in the fish. Next add the pancetta. Then a layer of potatoes and then the onions with the sprinkled cracker crumbs. Dot the butter on top of that, sprinkle the cayenne and paprika and that’s it. Cayenne is pretty spicy so be careful how much you use.

Add 2 cups of water, cover the pot and simmer for one hour on a low heat – don’t stir it and disturb the layers. Check it occasionally and add water if it starts to dry out. Use a ladle when you serve it and be sure to get each layer.

Pilot Bread substitute for sea crackers

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Desserts

Arancia Frittelle (Orange Fritters)

September 20, 2019 robiulo Leave a comment

Arancia Frittelle (Orange Fritters)

I got this recipe from a Sicilian friend. I confirmed with his mother that olive oil was used for frying and not something lighter. She said to use olive oil, but warned me about letting it get too hot.

Whisk together the first 7 ingredients.

Heat the oil in a small pot. Adjust the heat so it doesn’t get hot enough to smoke. Pick up a tablespoon full of batter and scrape it into the hot oil with another tablespoon. Give it a minute and turn the frittelle over.

When golden brown on both sides, drain on paper towels and let them cool. Arrange the frittelle in a dish and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

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Sausage and Winter Squash Ragu

I got this recipe from a northern friend (her grandparents are from Tuscany). You can use any kind of hard winter squash. I used butternut but acorn or even pumpkin would do it.

Sausage and Winter Squash Ragu

Ingredients:

Start a pot of salted water for the pasta.

Heat the oven to 450o and roast the peeled and diced squash with oil and salt and pepper for 15 minutes.

Cod Fish Cakes

Here’s another recipe adapted from The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook. This one is for cod fish cakes. It was created by Ena Forde-Findlay of Brooklyn, New York.

The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook

Hailed as “One of the year’s more engaging cookbooks...” by the New York Times, the book has sold well over 100,000 copies.

Cod Fish Cakes – adapted from the Ellis Island Immigrant Cook Book

After de-salting boil the fish for 30 minutes. Drain and let it cool then shred it by pulling it apart with 2 forks. Finely chop the peppers, onions and scallions. Saute them on medium-low until they are soft but not browned.

Add the vegetables to the fish in a large bowl. Scramble and add the eggs to the mix. Blend the flour, baking powder, black pepper. and paprika and then add it to the cod mixture, alternating with the water. Continue adding the flour mix and water until you come to a pasty consistency.

Biscuits and Gravy

I may be a native New Yorker but I’ve always loved Southern food. I got this recipe in the New York Daily News. Even if you don’t want the sausage gravy, it’s still a great biscuit recipe.

For the Biscuits –

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups flour

2 tbsps. baking powder

1 tbsp. sugar

½ tsp. salt

4 ozs. butter

1 cup buttermilk

Melted butter

Pre-heat the oven to 425o.

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl. Grate in the butter into the bowl and blend. Add the buttermilk and stir until it comes together like a rough dough. Sprinkle some flour on your counter and knead the dough by folding it in half a few times. No need to over do it.

Roll out the dough into a one-inch layer. Use a biscuit cutter (I use a glass) to cut 2 to 3 inch diameter biscuits. You should get about 12. Put the cut outs on a buttered baking sheet. Brush the tops of each with melted butter and bake until golden, about 15 minutes.

For the Gravy –

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. oil

1 lb. pork breakfast meat (or remove sausage casings)

4 tbsps. butter

½ cup flour

3 – 4 cups chicken broth or stock.

½ cup heavy cream

Salt and black pepper (easy on the salt if the broth is salty)

Brown the sausage meat in the oil in a frying pan. Remove the meat leaving the oil and some brown bits. At medium heat, add the butter and when it melts and stops foaming quickly stir in the flour. Don’t let it brown. This is a light-colored gravy.

Raise the heat and whisk in the chicken broth. When it thickens and becomes smooth, return the cooked sausage meat to the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Heat the cream, add it to the pan and mix. Taste for seasoning. Serve it hot, spooned over the split biscuits.

Bike MS New York City 2019

It’s still dark when we start to lineup. They serve a breakfast of protein bars, bananas and water. I have coffee at home. The sky is just starting to brighten when we take off downtown toward Battery Park. NYPD keeps all the roads closed so it’s just you and about a 1000 other cyclists.

After we make the turn at the southern tip of Manhattan the sun is coming up over the East River. Then it’s straight up the FDR and Harlem River Drives to a rest stop at Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan.

Inwood Hill is a great location – including bike repair, porta-sans, water, protein bars and apples. I usually make a stop about a mile before at the Jimbo’s Hamburger Palace on 207th Street for a ham and egg sandwich and coffee to go.

From Inwood Hill it’s a little over 10 miles to the finish on Pier 92-94 with it’s beer garden and hamburgers.

You can make donations here.

Red Pesto Pasta

This is adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit.

Ingredients:

6 anchovies

3 smashed garlic cloves

¾ cup olive oil

½ cup raw walnuts

1 – 6 oz. can tomato paste

½ red bell pepper, sliced *

3 oz. Parmigiana cheese

2 oz. fresh lemon juice

½ tsp. salt

2 tbsps. butter, cut into pieces

1 lb. small pasta (ziti, penne, gemelli, etc.)

* If you like it spicy use red serranoes instead of a bell pepper.

Put a pot of salted water on the stove for the pasta. By the time the water boils and the pasta is cooked, the sauce will be ready.

Cook the anchovies, garlic, and walnuts in the oil until the garlic starts to color. Add the tomato paste and the sliced pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Let the mixture cool for a few minutes and scrape it into a food processor or blender. Add the cheese, lemon juice, and salt. Blend until smooth and pour the mixture into a heated serving bowl and add the butter.

When it’s done, add the pasta and ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to the bowl, more water if the sauce is too dry. Serve Red Pesto Pasta with Parmigiana cheese.

Hollywood Grill

One of the things we like about Hollywood Beach is the choice of restaurants within walking distance of our hotel. There’s Mexican, Turkish, Greek, Peruvian, etc. in addition to good Italian restaurants, and American seafood.

We recently noticed the Hollywood Grill, which serves Armenian food. Not being too familiar with the menu the first time there, we ordered things we knew, like shishkababs, and salad.

Everything we ordered was good but as we ate, we noticed that the tables around us were covered with platters of unfamiliar things that looked delicious.

We went back the next night and told our waitress, Aisha, that we wanted to be adventurous and order some authentic Armenian dishes. She helped us order and explained how each dish was to be eaten.

After 4 visits, we didn’t even get through half the menu. We told Tara, the manager, that if they opened a branch in New York, we’d be regulars.

Viva ‘a tazzulella: Naples and her love story with coffee and tradition

by FRANCESCA BEZZONE, JUL 16, 2019

Coffee in Naples

Read the whole article here.

West 97th Street Greenmarket

There are greenmarkets all over New York City and mine is the West 97th Street Greenmarket. You can get baked goods, meat, seafood, eggs, honey, seasonal produce and more throughout the year and it’s all local.

From flowers to seafood.

One morning’s shopping – semolina bread, corn, peaches, apple pie, mako steaks, blow fish, and black fish filets.

From their website:

Mrs. Fisher’s Fish Chowder

Pilot Bread substitute for sea crackers

Heat the oven to 450^o and roast the peeled and diced squash with oil and salt and pepper for 15 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 425^o.

Inwood Hill is a great location – including bike repair, porta-sans, water, protein bars and apples. I usually make a stop about a mile before at the Jimbo’s Hamburger Palace on 207^th Street for a ham and egg sandwich and coffee to go.