Mario is participating in Barilla pasta’s “Share the Table” which is a program that helps to “improve the time you spend with your family around the table”. Register here, for expert advice on why family dinners are important, more pasta recipes with photos, and your “Guide to Making Family Dinnertime More Meaningful,” with exclusive recipes from Mario Batali.  And for each person who promises to “Share the Table,” Barilla will donate $1 to Meals on Wheels Association of America.

Brrr….it’s getting chilly here in Colorado, and we have nothing but soup on our minds.   From the kitchen of Master Chef Tom Catherall, his Italian restaurant recipe is a complete meal by itself:  simple, savory, and very comforting.  This Tuscan soup is made with onions, leeks and pancetta, and is topped with rustic crunchy garlic bread and shaved Wisconsin Parmesan cheese.   It serves approximately 4 people,  or 2 very hungry people!   We served the soup and toast alone, but it would be great with a salad, steamed greens, or roasted vegetables.

Read on for the recipe

Recipe used with permission via the Wisconsin Cheese Board:

Chef Tom Catherall
Here to Serve Restaurants
Atlanta, GA

Tuscan Onion Soup with Pancetta and Shaved Wisconsin Parmesan

Soup:
3 lbs. white onions (3 or 4 large)
4 medium leeks
4 oz. pancetta, in 1 piece (aka “Italian Bacon”, pancetta is dry cured but not smoked pork belly.  You should be able to find this in most grocery stores or Whole Foods Market.  If you cannot find it, absolutely try the recipe with bacon, it will simply have a smokier flavor.)
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
6 c. chicken stock
3 to 4 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
3/4 to 1 c. fruity red wine, such as Merlot or Beaujolais
Salt and pepper, to taste

Bread:
6 slices rustic country-style bread
2 garlic cloves, peeled, halved

Garnish:
3 oz. Wisconsin Parmesan cheese, in 1 chunk
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

Cooking Directions:
Soup:
Peel onions and cut in half lengthwise. Thinly slice crosswise. Trim leeks and cut in half lengthwise. Slice crosswise in 1/4-inch slices, using 3 inches of pale green. Place leeks in cold water and rinse to remove dirt. Drain. Reserve onions and leeks.
Dice pancetta into 1/4-inch pieces. Heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and cook until some of the fat has been rendered, about 5 minutes. Add onions and leeks. Sauté 20 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add stock and simmer 30 minutes.
Stir vinegar, wine, salt and pepper into soup. Cook until thoroughly heated.

Bread:
Toast bread slices in the oven and rub with peeled garlic clove halves.

Final Preparation:
Spoon soup into soup bowls. Float bread slices in soup.  Add 4 or 5 shavings of the Parmesan cheese on top of each serving. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve immediately.

We also offer a more traditional French Onion Soup video recipe, and many other delicious soups here.  Enjoy!

Buttero, painting by Giovanni Fattori, public domain image

Acquacotta or Acqua Cotta in Italian literally translates to “cooked water”.  From Italy, it is a soup with origins from the rural area of southwestern Tuscany and morthern Lazio known as Maremma. It began as a peasant soup for cattle and sheep herders known as “buttero”, who threw whichever fresh seasonal vegetables they had into hot water.  As such, this one pot meal has many variations, many of which include a poached egg and a side of crusty rustic bread.

Our version of Acquacotta today comes to us via our friends at Great Chefs, and is demonstrated by chef Jody Adams.  Jody won a James Beard “Best Chef” award in 1997, and previously was named one of Food & Wine’s “Best New Chefs” in 1993.  Currently, Jody’s delicious edibles are being consumed by the lucky patrons of Rialto restaurant in Cambridge, MA.

Chef Jody’s comforting Acquacotta consists of a porcini mushroom Marsala broth served over polenta and Pecorino Romano cheese, and topped with a poached egg and truffle oil.  If you love this dish as much as we did, please consider purchasing Chef Jody’s cooking videos on DVD at Great Chefs.

Read on for the recipe

Recipe Via Chef Jody Adams, used with permission via Great Chefs
Acquacotta Tuscan Porcini Polenta Soup

Serves 4

Porcini Broth
2 tablespoons dried porcini mushrooms
3-1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dry Marsala wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Polenta
3 cups water
1/2 cup polenta (coarsely ground corn meal)
2 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Poached Eggs
1 tablespoon vinegar
Pinch of salt
4 extra-large eggs

Topping
Four 1-ounce slices Taleggio or Teleme cheese
Truffle oil or extra-virgin olive oil

To make the broth: Soak the porcini mushrooms in warm water to cover for 1 hour. Strain the liquid through a fine-meshed sieve and reserve; chop the mushrooms. Combine the mushroom water, chicken stock, and Marsala in a medium saucepan. Add the mushrooms to the pan and bring the broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

To make the polenta: Bring 1-1/2 cups of the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the polenta to the remaining cold water. Slowly whisk the polenta mixture into the boiling water, lower heat, and continue to cook for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the cheese and season with salt and pepper.

To make the poached eggs: Fill an 8-inch saute pan or skillet with water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer. Add the vinegar and salt. Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a saucer and slide them into the simmering water. Poach for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the cooked eggs gently from the pot with a slotted spoon. Transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water and set aside until needed.

To serve: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Put 4 heatproof shallow soup bowls on a baking sheet. Spoon 1/2 cup polenta into each of the bowls. Press 1 slice of cheese into each serving of polenta. Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese begins to melt into the polenta, about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, reheat the broth.

Reheat the poached eggs in the hot broth for 30 seconds. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place on top of the cheese. Divide the broth among the bowls and drizzle the truffle oil or olive oil over it.

Note: The broth may be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered. The polenta may be prepared and the eggs may be poached up to 3 hours in advance. Reheat the polenta over low heat, stirring constantly.

Some recipes are incredibly simple to make but somehow give the impression that you’ve spent hours slaving over them.   This would be one of those! In the video, chef Alessandro prepares an Italian salmon carpaccio with oranges served over arugula.  Head over to their site to view the written recipe, browse around a bit and pretend you’re a student in an Italian culinary school!

Tiny bites of ingredient education:

1. Carpaccio is defined as an appetizer using thinly sliced raw fish or meat.
2. The peppercorns used in the recipe are brined, Whole Foods should have them, you may need to look in the  area where jarred pickles are.
3. The recipe calls for the greens “rocket”, and rocket = arugula!

And Top Chef Lovers unite! Bravo will premier a new show, Top Chef Masters in June! And guess who our favorite Colorado competing chef will be?  None other than Lachlan himself!

In this video, Chef Lachlan prepares a boneless leg of lamb with glazed radishes, and an arugula salad with a pesto and pickled shallot vinaigrette.   He completes the meal with his recipe for Gubana, a traditional Italian strudel-like Easter bread with raisins, walnuts, almonds, and pine nuts.

Watch CBS Videos Online

The written recipe may be found here. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Bologna, Italy

Originating in Bologna, Italy, Bolognese sauce refers to an Italian meat based sauce, with a minimal amount of tomato. Bologna is within the region of Emilia-Romagna in Italy, the native home of classic culinary ingredients such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, delicious Balsamic vinegar, Mortadella, and Prosciutto di Parma.   Italy, as you know, is a country that takes their food very seriously, and the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, which is the Italian Gastronomic Society, has strict requirements on what dishes can be classified as Bolognese. Their strict ingredient requirements are confined to to beef, pancetta, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, meat broth, red wine, and as an option,  milk or cream, although traditonal Bolognese dishes frequently include ground pork or ground veal.   Here in this video, our beloved chef Mario Batali shares his technique for Ragu Bolognese, a meal close to his Italian roots.  This classic Italian pasta dish is simple and requires minimal prep time, but will require an hour and a half  of cooking time, and having made it more than once, we can honestly say that it  is worthy of every minute.  Absolutely give this recipe a try, you will not regret it.

Read on for the recipe!

Ragu Bolognese, courtesy of Mario Batali

5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp butter
1 carrot, finely diced
1 medium onion diced
1 rib celery finely diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 lb ground veal
1 lb ground pork
1/4 lb pancetta or slab bacon, ground
1/2 tube of tomato paste
1 cup milk
1 cup dry white wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmigiano-Reggiano, to grate

In a 6 to 8-quart, heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and garlic and sweat over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the veal, pork, and pancetta and stir into the vegetables. Add the meat over high heat, stirring to keep the meat from sticking together until browned. Add the tomato paste, milk, and wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and remove from the heat.

When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate amount of hot ragu Bolognese, and tossed so that the pasta is evenly coated by the ragu.

Chef Fabio Viviani recreated these mysterious gems in his Top Chef winning beef carpaccio recipe, and Lee Anne from the French Culinary Institute in NYC shows us his technique in this video.

We also found an interesting post here from the chefs at the Ideas in Food blog, where they discuss encapsulation, play with chemicals, and create yogurt orbs. Is this type of food preparation natural? Not really. Is it fun and incredibly creative? Absolutely!

Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio with Arugula, Roasted Pine Nuts, Aged Parmesan Cheese, Spherical Kalamata Olives and Aged Balsamic Vinegar
Chef Fabio Viviani

Prep Time: About 2 hours
Serves: 3-4

Directions:Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio:
1. Slice the meat.
2. Display and season the arugula, shaved cheese, toast the pine nuts.

Kalamata Olives:
1. Mix first three ingredients together, let rest for three hours.
2. Mix water and algimate together, let rest for 3 hours.
3. Scoop first mixture into second mixture.
4. Let rest 3 minutes.

Note: Xanthan gum is not strictly necessary, but it can be used as a thickener. You can also use a thicker puree and it will work as well. Without the gum you will have to keep the olive in the solution for longer, around 5-6 minutes.

1 lb. tenderloin.
4 oz. parmesan, aged 5 years
6 balsamic vinegar, aged 6 years
8 oz. arugula
8 oz. pine nuts
olive oil
salt and pepper
kalamata olives

Spherical Kalamata Olives:
400 grams olive puree
1.8 grams Calcic Acid
1.3 grams Xanthan Gum
1.5 liters water
7.5 grams Sodium Alginate or Algin

In this video recipe, Chef Luciano prepares a hearty Italian roasted chicken with vegetables, a simple dinner which takes only 15 minutes. Ingredients you will need are 2 chicken breasts (preferably free range), olive oil, butter, leeks, yellow and red bell peppers, garlic, and rosemary. You may view more of Chef Luciano’s delicious videos at the ChefLive site here.

And here we find the origins, and fables, of Bruschetta.

The most common bruschetta legend is that olives harvested in November and December were taken to the local central Italian mill for pressing, the mill having a burning fireplace. The presenters to the mill brought local Italian bread, grilled it on the fireplace and rubbed it with garlic. The toasty bread served as a canvas to test, and to show off their prized oils.

Or a less romantic story is from “The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink” by writer John Mariani, stating “”Bruschetta. Toasted bread, often rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Also schiena d’asino, soma d’aj in the south, and fettunta in Tuscany. Bruschetta has always been a way to salvage bread that was going stale by adding oil and seasonings. Sometimes the bread is entirely immersed in oil, but usually the oil is poured on the top after the bread is rubbed with a garlic clove. In recent years adding toppings, particularly chopped onions and tomatoes, has become popular in restaurants.”

Rumors and legends aside, Bruschetta wins our heart. Tuscan Chef Gabriele Corcos with his beautiful wife Debi Mazar have won our heart as well, with their delicious video version of Bruschetta with a surprising twist!

Check out all of their delicious recipes and fall in love with them here, at Under The Tuscan Gun.

BRUSCHETTA WITH SAUSAGE, BRIE CHEESE AND FRESH HERBS
Gabriele Corcos – Under The Tuscan Gun

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 5
Cooking Time: 15 min. for the sausage sauce + 5 min. in the broiler

Ingredients
6 slices of bread
2 pork sausages (mild or hot according to taste)
¼ Lb of Brie Cheese (or other semi-soft cheese)
¼ Red Onion
1 Handful of Rosemary
1 Handful of Sage
½ Glass of White Wine
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper

How to:
-getting ready-
Chop the Onion finely and rinse the herbs thoroughly. Chop the sage finely.
Slice the bread.
Pop the wine open and start sipping!
Cooking your dish
Open the Sausages and sauté the meat with the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 5 minutes in a medium sized non stick pan, until the meat starts browning.
Add the half glass of wine, the rosemary and the sage.
Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until the wine has been completely absorbed, take off the fire and set aside.
Toast your bread on a fire grill, in a toaster or on the barbecue; do not use a sandwich press, otherwise you will make crackers.

Note: the correct pronunciation of bruschetta is “broo-sketta”. If the video was not clear enough, here is a sample sound clip from an Italian female that should help you say it the right way: