High quality imported tuna packed in olive oil works well with these sauces. Pick a brand that has no additional ingredients. Remember, this is seafood, so please, no cheese.
Tuna Tomato Sauce
Put the pasta water up to boil. Sauté the 1st 6 ingredients and then deglaze the pan with wine. Stir and add the tuna and tomatoes and simmer. Don’t overcook. Add the scallions to the sauce and when the pasta is almost done, add it to the sauce to finish cooking.
Pasta Con Tonno e Piselli
Sweat onion in oil. Add peas and 1 cup water, season with S&P. Simmer for 15 min and add 1 jar imported tuna (8oz). Add chopped parsley and serve with small pasta.
I used to order Pork Chops and Vinegar Peppers every time I went to Patrici’s on Kenmare St. in Manhattan. I got this recipe from my sister Nicki when they closed.
Season pork chops and bring to room temperature. Fry them in a little oil and remove from pan when browned. (If you want, you can also use boneless and cut into bit size pieces). Fry the potatoes, season and remove from pan. Fry the onion and add the peppers.
Put the cooked chops back in the pan and the potatoes, onions and peppers back on top of the chops. Add the red wine vinegar and liquid from the pepper jar. Sprinkle oregano on top. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes more.
If you can’t get vinegar peppers locally, they’re available on line.
I mentioned Annabel Langbein in a previous post – Annabel’s Apple Cake. She’s come up with another easy to-do cake. Her show, The Free Range Cook, from New Zealand, is still on PBS. Check it out. Here’s another of her recipes. She calls it Orange Lightning Cake because its so quick to make. Like her Apple Cake, it’s simple and perfect for dessert or breakfast.
Annabel Langbein
( grams and centigrade converted to US equivalents)
Preheat oven to 325°. Grease an 9-inch-diameter cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
Cut the orange into quarters, remove the seeds and whizz in a food processor until finely chopped. Dissolve baking soda in ½ cup water and add to the food processor with butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and flour. Whizz to combine. Add golden raisins and walnuts and stir with a spoon to just combine (don’t whizz them or they will break up).
Pour into prepared cake tin and bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean (about 1 hour).
Pörkölt (pronounced per-kelt) is a stew made with beef, pork, game or even tripe. In its simplest form it would be just onions, paprika and meat. This recipe is more elaborate and calls for beef. Everyone’s grandmother makes it a little bit differently. Pörkölt is similar to goulash but not as soupy.
Preparation:
Heat the lard in a pot over medium-high heat. In batches, so the pot isn’t crowded, brown the oxtails and beef. Remove from the pot.
Add the onions to the pot and cook until lightly browned. Stir in the garlic, Remove pot from the heat, add the paprika and stir. Then return the meat and drippings to the pot. Add the peppers and tomatoes, if using, sauté briefly and add the wine and water,
Raise the heat and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. Add water if it gets too dry. Check for seasoning and serve with sour cream and spätzle or pasta.
Here’s pörkölt at its most basic – just onions, paprika, meat and water, and still very good.
Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise and arrange cut side up on an oiled baking tray. Mix oil with chopped garlic and red pepper flakes (optional – basil) and spoon over tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with some more oil. Roast in a pre-heated 400o oven for 45 minutes. In a bowl, mash about ½ of the roasted tomatoes, add some pasta water & oil if necessary to get to the right consistency. Mix with pasta and then add 2 or 3 of the un-mashed halves to each dish. Serve with grated cheese.
Roasted Tomato Sauce Northern Style
A northern friend (Norther Italian, that is) gave me this recipe. Why else would there be butter in tomato sauce instead of olive oil? Try not to think about that when you eat it. It’s really very good.
Pre-heat the oven to 425o. Mix all the ingredients (except pasta) in a baking dish that’s been coated with oil. Roast 20 minutes, mix and add some hot water if it’s too dry. Roast for another 15 minutes, add about ½ cup of pasta water and mash to break up garlic and tomatoes. The sauce should be thick and concentrated. Add 1lb cooked pasta, mix and coat. Serve with grated cheese.
Yesterday, Saturday, May 14th, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church had its annual festival. Good Greek food and music and on West 91st Street and West End Avenue, it’s just one block away from where we live.
A kitchen was set up on the sidewalk and food served under a tent.
A whole roasted lamb right on 90th Street – not something you see every day.
Traditional Greek dancing and songs throughout the day.
Basilico is a beautiful plant and although pesto is very tasty it’s just not a pretty sauce. I even tried making it with purple basil – still didn’t look terrific but tasted good.
Preparation:
Put all the ingredients but just 1/2 of the nuts, in a food processor or blender. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts chop them coarsely first).
Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the second half of the nuts and pulse briefly leaving them in a larger size.
2. Sicilian Pesto
This is similar to the standard pesto but the main differences are the addition of tomatoes and there is less basil. This is one of the special sauces that is traditionally served with only one particular type of pasta – bussiate. It’s made by wrapping pasta dough around a round, skewer-like piece of wood, in Italian called a buso, to form a spiral. It makes a short cork screw shape that’s good for holding onto the pesto. If you can’t get bussiate, try gemelli, spiralini or even short fusilli.
Preparation:
Put the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and finely chop. Then pour the chopped tomatoes into a strainer and drain the liquid and discard. Put the tomatoes with all the other ingredients back into the blender or processor until finely ground.
For both of the above recipes:
The sauce just needs to be at room temperature, not cooked. If it’s too thick, thin it with a little pasta water and then mix it with the pasta. Tear a few fresh basil leaves and sprinkle over the pasta before serving. Serve with extra cheese.
FYI – Pesto doesn’t have to made with basil. It’s simply a sauce made using a mortar and pestle (pestello in Italian), or it’s modern equivalent, a blender or food processor.
Not everyone likes tripe and I suppose that’s understandable. Some people just eat the potatoes and dip bread in the sauce and that’s OK. It makes a very tasty sauce.
Maybe it’s something you had to grow up with. I was just a kid the first time I ate it and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t ask and my mother didn’t tell me. For some people, their mother’s meatloaf is comfort food. For me it’s tripe.
Preparation:
Slowly cook the onion in ¼ cup of oil, salt and pepper, until soft and transparent. Add the tripe (cut it into 1 ½ by ½ inch strips), mix with the onions and let simmer for a few minutes. Add the wine and simmer for a few more minutes. Add the tomatoes and bay leafs, stir and check for seasoning. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, add the potatoes and simmer for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Serves 4 as a main dish.
Note: Buy cleaned beef honeycomb tripe. Rinse it thoroughly in cold water. Place it in a pot and cover with water and add one onion cut into wedges. Boil it slowly for 2 hours. When tender, run it under cold water and cut it into 1 ½ by ½ inch strips.
Subs, hoagies, grinders – that’s fine but in New York, it’s a hero. Sandwiches Italian-Style doesn’t necessarily mean 8 different kinds of meat and cheese and a bunch of other things, where each flavor cancels out the next. It shouldn’t be that complicated.
For a good Italian-Style sandwich the most important thing is the bread. On the right bread, cream cheese and Welch’s grape jelly can be something special. Then comes basic but high-quality ingredients. After that, the main condiments are simply salt, pepper and maybe a few drops of olive oil. Here are a few standards.
Sausage & Peppers – Fry some bell peppers and an onion. Then fry the sausage in the same pan. Simple
Tuna with Lemon and Onion – Use imported tuna packed in olive oil, add some thinly sliced lemon (with skin) and onion. A little romaine if you like.
Ricotta on a Roll – Scrape some of the bread out of the top of the roll to make room for the ricotta so it doesn’t squeeze out.
Mootz & Tomato – Fresh cold mozzarella with sliced tomatoes and basil if you have it.
Escarole – Add just washed and still wet escarole leaves to a pan where you’ve sautéed some garlic in oil. Simmer until it wilts. It’s as easy as that.
Note that only one of these sandwiches contains meat, another fish and the last three are vegetarian. That says something about the Mediterranean Diet.
The photo at the top of this page is from Medonia Brothers Bakeryon Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.
Skin-On Chicken Breast is similar to and simpler than doing the duck breasts from my last post. Have your butcher remove the bone from the breast leaving the skin in place or you can do that yourself.
Put them on a cutting board and cover with Saran. Pound them to an even thickness – about ¾ inch.
Blot them dry and season with salt and pepper and refrigerate uncovered for at least 1 hour. Bring them to room temperature before cooking.
Add a little oil to a cold pan. Put the breasts in skin side down and turn the heat on to medium. Weigh down the breasts so the skin makes full contact and browns evenly – it should take about 6 – 8 minutes.
If you can’t get vinegar peppers locally, they’re available 
