Valtellina is a beautiful Alpine valley that borders Switzerland in Northern Italy. Famous for Bresaola it’s also known for its cheeses, in particular Bitto and Valtellina Casera. These cheeses used to be difficult to find outside of the region, but now they are generally available everywhere in Italy. So I thought I’d try this typical Valtelline recipe.

It’s an earthy dish made with Pizzocheri pasta which is made from a mixture of buckwheat and regular flour. They are similar in shape to the tagliatelle though shorter. The recipe calls for few simple ingredients that are cultivated and produced in the valley starting with the buckwheat flour for the pizzoccheri, savoy cabbage, butter and Valtellina Casera cheese from the Alps.

Ingredients:

For the pizzoccheri
7 oz./ g. 200 buckwheat flour
1.7/ g. 50 all purpose flour
3/4 cup lukewarm water
a pinch of salt

For the condiment
10.5 oz./ g. 300 savoy cabbage or chard
10.5 oz./ g. 300 potatoes
7 oz./g. 200 Valtellina Casera or  Bitto cheese*
3 oz./ g. 90 unsalted butter**
5 fresh sage leaves
1 clove of garlic peeled
salt and black pepper

Instructions:

1. In a bowl whisk together the two flours until well combined. Make a well in the center and slowly add the water and mix until you have a firm and playable dough. If your dough becomes too tough add small amounts of water until it gets softer.
2. Sprinkle some flour and roll the dough possibly in a rectangular  shape. Cut it with a sharp knife in vertical slices 2 inches/5 cm. wide then horizontally 1/2 inch/1 cm. long.
3. Peel and cut the potatoes in small cubes, slice the cabbage in thin stripes.
4. Bring the water to a boil in a large pan then add the cut vegetables cook them  for 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the pizzoccheri and cook them for 5 minutes or until soft but still firm. Strain the pizzoccheri and vegetables.
6. Flatten the clove of garlic. Then in a skillet melt the butter together with garlic and sage.
7. In a oven-proof dish spread a layer of pizzoccheri and vegetables  and then a layer of Valtellina Casera cheese thinly slices or grated and a drizzle of  butter. Continue with a layer of pizzoccheri then butter and cheese. Finish with the butter.
8.  This dish gets cold quickly so I like to leave it few minutes in the oven at 300°  until the cheese melts better and then I immediately serve it.

Notes:

* Valtellina Casera or Bitto cheeses are typical from Valtellina if you don’t find them you can substitute them with Fontina cheese.
** This dish calls for a lot of butter, I used less but feel free to add or subtract to your tastes.

Strangozzi, stringozzi, strangolapreti, strozzapreti all these names and many more to define this rustic home made pasta typical from Umbria. Strangozzi seems to refer to stringhe which means shoe laces, while strozzapreti means to strangle priests. Umbria in fact was under the papal domain for centuries and there was an anticlerical sentiment among the population.

The typical condiment for strangozzi made in the Spoleto area  is tomato sauce with red hot pepper and parsley and this is how I made it here. This pasta is so quick and easy to prepare that I keep making it again and again. It is quickly becoming a favorite in my kitchen even if I didn’t know how to make it not so long ago.

Ingredients:

For the strangozzi:
1 1/2 cups/ g. 200 all purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp./ g. 100 semolina flour
a pinch of sea salt

For the tomato sauce:
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 big or 2 small cloves of garlic peeled
1.3 lb. / g. 600 canned plum tomatoes
salt to taste
red pepper flakes (optional)
finely chopped parsley for topping
freshly grated aged Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

Serves: 4

Instructions:

1. Sift the flours and make a well. Slowly add the water until mixed. Work the dough for about 5 minutes until pliable. Cover it with a plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Sprinkle some semolina flour on your working surface and roll the dough in a round shape until it becomes 1/8 inch. thick.
3. Fold the dough around a long and wide knife without pressing it. If you don’t have this kind of knife sprinkle the pasta sheet with a little bit of semolina flour then gently fold it.
4. Cut the strangozzi 1/2 centimeter wide and gently unroll them right away so they don’t stick together.
5. Spread them on the kitchen table or on a wooden surface and  sprinkle a little bit of semolina flour to keep them from sticking.
6. To prepare the tomato sauce heat the oil in a nonstick pan then add 2 small cloves of garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Pour in the canned tomatoes roughly chopped and cook for about 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
7. While the tomato sauce is cooking heat up abundant water to cook the strangozzi and add a handful of coarse salt.
8. When the water boils add the strangozzi and cook them until they’re al dente.
9. Add the strangozzi to the tomato sauce pan and mix until well combined. If it’s too dry add few spoons of the pasta water. Add the parsley and mix again.
10. Serve immediately and sprinkle with Pecorino cheese. Buon appetito!

Pasta with zucchini flowers and baby zucchini is definitely a colorful and tasty late spring-summer dish. It only takes few minutes to prepare and it’s ready to be savored. I use baby zucchini because they have a sweeter and more delicate taste and zucchini flowers for complementing the flavor and to give more consistency to the dish.

Zucchini is considered a vegetable and mainly used in delectable dishes, but in reality it’s the immature fruit of the female zucchini flower. The female flower is a golden blossom on the end of each zucchini while the male flower grows directly on the stem of the zucchini plant on a long stalk. Both flowers are edible and can be eaten fried, stuffed and baked or in risotto. They are an irreplaceable part of the cuisine in my home as I cook with them as long as I can get good fresh flowers.

Ingredients:

1 lb. cavatappi or other short pasta
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 scallions thinly sliced, light green part too or white onion, about 1/4 cup
4 baby zucchini, thinly sliced 1/2 heaping cup
14 zucchini flowers
sea salt to taste
freshly grounded black pepper (optional)

Yields: 4 to 6 servings

Instructions:

1. Warm up the oil in a skillet then add the scallions and saute them for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. If they get too dry add few spoons of water.
2. Add the zucchini and cook for 2 more minutes, mixing often with a wooden spoon.
3. In the meantime remove the pistils from the zucchini flowers, slice the flowers coarsely and add them to the zucchini. Cook for 3 more minutes and salt to taste.
4. Cook the pasta as directed and when ready drain it setting aside a few spoons of the water.
5. Heat up the skillet with the vegetables and pour the pasta in. Quickly combine it and if it’s too dry add few spoons of the reserved pasta water.
6. Scoop the pasta on the plates, drizzle with olive oil and a dust of black pepper (optional). Garnish your pasta with the softer green part of the scallions chopped and serve.

This is one of the most famous Italian pasta dishes of all. A classic from Roman cuisine: Pecorino romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper. It seems almost too simple to be so good until you taste it. Sheep cheese has a distinct and strong flavor that perfectly blends in with black pepper. Every time I eat it I’m captured by its overwhelming taste and aroma. Typically spaghetti is used for this recipe, however I personally prefer short pasta which is also easier to mix.

Ingredients:

1 lb. penne or spaghetti pasta
4,5 oz. freshly grated Pecorino romano cheese
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Cook the pasta and in the meantime grate the cheese.
2. In a warm pasta bowl, I simply warm it up with hot water and then I dry it, mix the grated cheese with few spoons from the boiling pasta water until creamy, it will resemble ricotta cheese. If the temperature in your kitchen is cold just leave the bowl close to the stove.
3. Set aside 1/2 cup pasta water.
4. Strain the pasta when al dente, pour it in the bowl and quickly combine it well with the Pecorino cream and a generous grind of black pepper. Add few spoons of the pasta water you set aside if it’s too dry and serve immediately.

This famous pasta recipe can be found at the table of most any Italian home. I had to learn this dish by myself because my mother wasn’t interested in it as she preferred risotto more than pasta. Since then it has become a regular at our house.

Ingredients:

1 lb. spaghetti
3 XL pasteurized eggs*
1 Tbsp. heavy cream (optional)
1 1/2 cups guanciale or pancetta** cut in cubes
2 Tbsp. fresh grated pecorino romano cheese***
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt to taste

Instructions:

1. In a large nonstick skillet cook the bacon just enough to melt the fat but not so much that it becomes crispy. If the bacon is fat drain of the excess grease.
2. In the mean time prepare the spaghetti as directed. Don’t put too much salt in the water because the bacon itself is already salty.
3. In a bowl add the eggs, the heavy cream, the parmesan 1 pinch of salt and a good pinch of pepper. Beat all the ingredients with a fork until well mixed.
4. When the pasta is ready add it to the bacon, the skillet should be still warm. Quickly add also the eggs mixture and mix until well coated. Be careful not to cook the eggs, the sauce should be creamy.

Notes:
*If you are worried about the health risks from eating uncooked eggs I suggest that you ask your grocer for pasteurized eggs. I know that in the U.S. you can purchase them in a carton.
** guanciale is cured and unsmoked pork jowls. If you don’t find it use pancetta which is bacon but unlike bacon is not smoked. It’s cured in salt and spices and aged for few months. I don’t know if it’s imported but you can find the American-made pancetta in Italian markets and specialty stores.
*** If you don’t find the Pecorino romano cheese you can substitute it with Parmesan cheese. Please don’t buy the cheese in the box, buy genuine Italian Parmesan.

Ingredients:

1 lb. spaghetti
3-1/2 oz. anchovies packed in salt*
3-1/2 oz. black olives
1-3/4 oz. capers packed in salt
2 cups tomato sauce
1 clove garlic
1 fresh red hot pepper**
1/3 cup olive oil
salt to taste

Instructions:

1. In a large fry pan sauté the garlic cut into thin slices along with the red hot pepper sliced too in the olive oil.
2. Meanwhile clean the anchovies by removing the spine the tail and washing them well. You should rinse the excess slat away from the capers as well.
3. After the garlic and red hot pepper have cooked for few minutes add the anchovies, capes, olives and tomato sauce.
4. Cook for another ten minutes.
5. Meanwhile prepare the spaghetti as directed.
6. Once the spaghetti are ready, drain and add to the sauce.
7. Mix well and serve hot.

Notes:
* If you can’t find anchovies packed in salt then you can use anchovies in oil, they aren’t as good but they’ll do.
** If you don’t have a fresh red hot pepper you can use a dry one, just break it up into pieces

Ingredients:

2 lbs. fresh clams
1 lb. spaghetti
3 cups chopped canned tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 cup dry white wine
pinch of red hot pepper
1-2 Tbsp. fresh chopped Italian parsley
salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Cover the clams with cold water in a bowl and add a fistful of salt. Let them stand for 30 minutes.
2. Then rinse the clams well under cold running water discarding any clams that are open.
3. Heat one cup of dry white wine in a pan and then add the clams. Cover and cook at a high heat for about five minutes or until they open.
4. Once they’ve opened remove them from the heat and then scoop the clams out from their shell and set them aside, leaving a few in the shell for decoration.
5. Filter the liquid the calms were cooked in and set it aside. I filter it by putting a paper towel in a small strainer and then pouring it through to be sure to catch any fine grains of sand.
6. In a large pan put the olive oil and a pinch of red hot pepper and cook it for a couple of minutes and then add the clove of garlic finely chopped, the tomatoes and the liquid from the clams.
7. Simmer uncovered until it starts to thicken and salt to taste if necessary.
8. Meanwhile prepare the spaghetti as directed.
9. When the sauce has thickened up add the clams and the parsley to the sauce and simmer for another two minutes.
10. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Mix and serve.

Notes:

Choose small clams. Make sure that you discard any clams that are already opened

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups flour
3 eggs
Meat broth

Instructions:

1. Put all the flour in a pile in your work area.
2. Use your hands and make round hallow in the flour, like a bowl.
3. Break the eggs into this bowl of flour and beat them with a fork.
4. Using the fork start pulling in a little flour at a time until you start to get a soft dough.
5. Start working the dough with your hands. Knead it gently until all the flour is worked in. Use a dough scraper if you like.
6. Now that you have a nice ball of dough you can start to kneading the dough more aggressively. Fold it over, push it down and turn.
7. Continue for 8 to 10 minutes adding flour if the dough begins to stick to your hands or the work area.
8. The dough should be compact and smooth when it is ready.
9. Roll the dough out into thin sheets using a rolling pin.
10. Lay them on kitchen towels to dry for a while. Drying time will depend on how humid your kitchen is and how thick the pasta is.
11. Once the pasta has dried a bit, about an hour, you are ready to cut it. Note that it doesn’t have to be so dry that it cracks when you fold it. It should arrive to the point where it isn’t sticky anymore.
12. Sprinkle some dry polenta (corn flour) onto the sheets to keep them from sticking while you cut them. Gently fold them in half and then, starting from the folded edge, fold the pasta about 2-1/2 inches. Continue in the same direction until they are about 2-1/2 inches wide one way and as wide as the roll the other. A long rectangular role.
13. With a sharp knife start at one end and cut the pasta into 1/8 inch strips. Once you’ve made your way through the roll, fluff the pasta up with your hands so that it separates and dries better.
14. The pasta is ready for cooking. It is easiest to prepare it the night before you actually need it.
15. Prepare a good broth like in my Boiled Meats recipe. Remove the meat and strain the broth. Bring to a boil and add the Tagliatelle. They cook quickly, usually in 5 minutes or less. Serve hot with a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan.

This is definitely not a dieters dish but it sure is good. If you like walnuts you’ll love this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti (bigoli)
1-1/2 cups cleaned walnuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
pinch of sugar
pinch of black pepper
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. dry ground bread crumbs

Instructions:

1. In a mortar grind the walnuts down to tiny pieces.
2. Add the black pepper cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg and work them a bit more with the pestle.
3. Now put the mixture in a bowl and mix in the olive oil and salt to taste.
4. In the mean time put on the water for the pasta. Also put the butter in a small pan and heat it until it starts to foam then add the bread crumbs, mix and brown them just a bit. No more than 20 or 30 seconds.
5. Put the bread crumbs in a fine mesh strainer and let the excess butter drip way, then spread them on a plate to cool.
6. When the pasta is almost ready take a couple of tablespoons of water from the pasta and mix it into the walnut sauce.
7. Drain the pasta and place it in a large bowl with the sauce. Mix well and serve adding a sprinkle of bread crumbs to each dish.

Notes:

If you don’t have a mortar you can try with a food processor. Don’t blend constantly of it will turn to a cream . Hit the on switch for a second or two at a time until they are chopped finely.

Ingredients:

1 lb. spaghetti
1-1/2 lbs. cherry tomatoes
4/5 fresh basil leaves
4-5 Tbsp. olive oil
fresh ground Parmesan
salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Halve the tomatoes and cook them for 3 or 4 minutes in a a large nonstick skillet with the olive oil and chopped basil, salt to taste.
2. In the mean time prepare the spaghetti as directed.
3. Once the tomatoes start to soften remove them from the heat and set aside until the pasta is ready.
4. When the pasta is ready strain it and add it to the tomatoes.
5. Mix it in well and cook for a couple of minutes in the skillet. It it seems too dry add few spoons of water from the pasta and combine well.
6. Serve hot with fresh ground Parmesan.