Never stop learning. Never stop looking for new ideas from traditional places. I’m always reading and learning about the World’s cuisines.. IT’S SO BIG how could you not? I’m terribly obsession (hence my on line name) with everything about food, especially Italian. One of the points I try politely to get across to people on line who follow me is that what was made in your family’s kitchens is never indicative of the entire scope of a country’s cuisine. Italian cuisine is no different. Case in point, ALLO SCARPARIELLO. Now here’s where Italian cuisine gets confusing, especially for ITalian Americans as we have our own nomenclature for certain dishes in both Italian and ITalianAmerican food traditions. SCARPARIELLO at its heart is a Napoletana word that means pertaining to a Shoemaker. In ItalianAmerica it’s a name given to a baked or sauteed and braised Chicken dish with wine, garlic, onion, peppers, onions, potatoes, sausage…any or all of those ingredient. There no “one” Chicken Scarpariello. In Italy Scarpariello is a sauce for Pasta that was created in Naples. Originally it was leftover Sunday Sauce that no longer had any meat in it as the week went on. To make a quick meal for the shoemakers they would cook pasta in the leftover sauce and then add a very generous amount of grated cheese to it compensating for the lack of meat. Another legend is that since so many of the Shoemaker’s customers were quite poor they would pay in Cheese instead of money. Are those great reasons to want to make this dish in your home? But I have more little info for you. As is the case in ITaly and NEVER argue with an ITalian about food, there are withiin the same region different stylesof Pasta Allo Scarpariello. How’s that? In Napoli it’s the basic…a sauce of Datterini or Cherry tomatoes melted down in olive oil or lard, garlic, peperoncino, the hot pasta is finished in the sauce along with a hefty amount of grated PARMIGIANO and PECORINO. After a little cooking time it’s served with lots of fresh basil around the plate. Go only about 1 hour and 1/4 East of Naples to the city of Benevento. There Pasta Allo Scarpariello has the addition of a little Cream at the end. Drive 45 minutes south from Napoli to the city of Salerno and you’ll find the same sauce as Naples but with fresh sausages, either whole or crumbled. This post will show you how to cook the one with Sausage from Salerno. I know you’re going to like this!! In Napoli Garlic goes in the sauce, for this Salerno version with Sausage, red onion is used.
PASTA ALLO SCARPARIELLO TIME: 1 HOUR SERVES:4
1 lb PASTA (THE TRADITIONAL SHAPES ARE PACCHERI, which i used, SPAGHETTI, BUCATINI, FUSILLI) COOKED AL DENTE ACCORDING TO THE PACKAGE
1 1/2 LBS CHERRY TOMATOES, SLICED
3 TBS EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
3 FRESH SWEET FENNEL ITALIAN SAUSAGES, REMOVE THE MEAT FROM THE CASINGS
1 MEDIUM SLICED RED ONION
1/2 TBS PEPERONCINO
1/2 CUP OF MIXED GRATED PARMIGIANO AND PECORINO ROMANO CHEESE, EQUAL AMOUNTS OF BOTH MIXED TOGETHER.
6 BASIL LEAVES
SEA SALT
In a large heavy pan heat 1 tbs. of the Extra Virgin Olive oil…(the most authentic recipes used the same amount of Lard for this). Then add the sausage meat, peperoncino and let this cook until the sausage is no longer red. Add the onion and when the pan is fragrant, add another tbs of olive oil and cook until the onions are soft. Add the tomatoes, pinch of salt, and toss the tomatoes in the sausage, onions, and olive oil. Then reduce to a simmer and COVER the pan. Let this cook for 15 minutes. The tomatoes should melt down into the sausage. While this is happening you will make the Paccheri or Pasta just till al dente. Drain reserving 2 tbs. of the starchy cooking water. Add the pasta to the pan of sauce and mix well. A drizzle of the remaining olive oil then the cheese. Quickly mix the cheese into the pasta and sauce and let this cook for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat…The cheese should make the surface of the pasta a little “creamy”. Now tear up all the basil over the top and serve. That’s it. A more “authentic” version would be to leave the sausage whole but the loose meat really flavors the sauce. ENJOY!!!
Stuffed breads are Iconic Italian-American food. They are sold everywhere ItalianAmerican live and then some, sometimes known as one of their most popular names “STROMBOLI”. Food Legend says the Stromboli was invented as the American cousin of the PIZZA IMBOTTITA, the Stuffed Pizza, also part of the CALZONE family. In true ItalianAmerican fashion there’s a bunch of cousins, they are all related yet they are all different. Strombolis usually have Italian Cold cuts and cheeses with a thinner rolled out dough, then rolled up (jelly roll style) and baked. It’s sliced in thinner pieces or in half for serving. Pizzeria culture in American serves it with a dipping sauce, usually a marinara. Homecooks make these stuffed breads in any one of a few popular styles. My Sausage, Peppers and Onions stuffed bread is somewhere between the Stromboli and Calzone style. I like a thinner bread to hold the sausage and peppers in . The last thing you want is a stuffed bread that’s just…bread. Or too thick and you don’t taste the filling. Balance. Pane Imbottito (Stuffed Bread) is popular in Campanian/Napoletana Cuisine. Often the filling is distributed through the dough, sometimes it’s thinly rolled out then spread with the filling and tightly rolled (Rottolo di Pane) and often a thicker dough with the filling tucked inside. Italian food=many variations. ItalianAmerican communities are known for homecooks and businesses that specialize in all variations of these stuffed breads. My favorite of them all is when I make it with a filling of chunky roasted Sweet Fennel Pork Sausage, fried onions and Cubanelle peppers, olive oil, pinch of oregano, pinch of Peperoncino, dash of Red Wine Vinegar, small dice of Provolone. When baked in a delicious dough it’s amazing. Let’s make a stuffed bread with Sausage and Peppers…oh the things I learned in my Mom’s kitchen.
A hearty one pan Italian Stew made with Sweet Italian Sausage, Cannellini Beans and Spinach is just waiting for you to make it. Read on and I’ll tell you how to create this dish of Italian Comfort Food. About the most difficult part of this dish is taking the sausage out of the casing. It’s pretty simple but tastes like you are eating something that took all day to cook. Pretty cool huh? SALSICCE E FAGIOLI CON SPINACI, looks better when you say it in Italian. I can’t tell you how often my mother would pop open a can or two of beans and suddenly the house was filled with amazing aromas and we just couldn’t wait to sit down and enjoy one of the many dishes she created from her kitchen, or from her mother’s. File this under CAST IRON COOKING (although it’s not a requirement) as it’s one of my favorite cooking pieces to use. Hold heat. Evenly cooks. Durable. Perfect for this dish or use any other high sided heavy bottomed pan. Sometimes I sit back and can’t believe all I remember that came out of our kitchen in Staten Island, NYC. Often I take those memories and dishes and build on them always staying true to the original and respecting it. So let’s get started on this fairly “quick” dish which draws on my Southern Italian-American roots.
More meatballs…can one ever have too many meatball recipes? Imagine a world where instead of eating the same meatballs at every cocktail party, you know….the frozen bag of balls added to a slow cooker with Ketchup and Grape Jelly….those ones or added to brown gravy..those ones too? Imagine if there were different meatballs..all the time. A world of so many meatball recipes and styles you could eat a different one every day of the year. That’s my goal. To give the home cook ideas to move out of the same old same old. Ok, sounding harsh here maybe but not my intent. Variety. Mix it up. Like getting new clothes or a hair cut. Bringing a fresh idea to a food type that everyone loves especially at parties. I created this meatball recipe for a party where they wanted sausage and peppers but didn’t want big links, or the rolls, or slices, or the mess associated with eating Sausage and Peppers at a party. An appetizer party where everything is small, compact and can be juggled with a drink in one hand and a small plate in the other. Thinking outside of the old box. I thought…put all the components of the Sausage and Peppers and Onions dish into a meatball. There. Done. Easy. The chopping of the peppers and onion and the rolling of the balls might be the most work involved. Not sloppy. Compact. East to handle AND DELICIOUS. Get the flavor of a serving of Sausage and Pepper in a small meatball. Are you excited? I’m excited. Let’s go into the kitchen together and get this party started!!
Rich, Earthy, as tan and brown as an Umbrian landscape, I give you Pasta Alla Norcina. Let me start
Let me introduce you to one of my many styles of making STUFFED PEPPERS. This version uses Italian Frying Peppers also known as CUBANELLES. They are a sweet variety that when cooked are even more flavorful I think than a cooked Bell Pepper. When possible these are the pepper I use for my Sausage and Peppers and Onions because of their intense taste. The stuffing is a mix of Sweet Italian Fennel Sausage, toasted and olive “oiled” breadcrumbs, Parsley, diced Cured Black olives, capers, garlic, and Provolone plus a bit of tomato paste to add some dramatic color. One point I try to make when people speak to me about their cooking is to be creative and open minded. There is no one “stuffed pepper” recipe. All these stuffed vegetable dishes most likely were created by a thrifty or impoverished home cook who needed to stretch what they had in front of them to feed a family. When cooking regionally you can come up with dishes that evoke an area by using ingredients that are common to that region’s cuisine. I’m dipping into my favorite region of Italy with these “PEPERONI IMBOTTITI” (stuffed peppers) and that region is Napoli, the city of Naples and its surrounding towns. Sweet Fennel Sausage, peppers, capers, breadcrumbs, tomato, cured black olives, Provola…even stuffed vegetables…they all are part of the Napoletana kitchen. My Mom made a few versions of Stuffed Peppers, some I still make, some I’ve created from my years of cooking, traveling and researching food. I’ve never met a stuffed pepper I didn’t like so let me introduce you to this one….PEPERONI IMBOTTITI CON SALSICCE, Peppers Stuffed with Sausage.
BROCCOLI RABE, SAUSAGE AND PIZZA. Sounds amazing and it is and it’s a classic. Long before the tomato was introduced from the Americas to Europe Pizza was made using whatever the cook found in their pantries and gardens. Most pizza reflected the local ingredients and this pizza we will make is one of the oldest Pizze in Napoli. Naples, storied home of the modern pizza (tomato, mozzarella, basil) is also the land of the FRIARIELLI which is grown all around Naples is almost revered with a religious fervor. I’ve never been able to ascertain whether it’s the same as our American Broccoli Rabe or a member of the family of similar greens (Cima di Rape being another one used in Puglia and Basilicata, Broccoletti in Rome) but in the USA I’ve never seen it marketed as Friarielli. The popularity of Broccoli Rabe in America is due to this religious cult of worshiping the delicious bitter greens that the Italian Americans from Southern Italy, Naples and Puglia in particular brought with them during the great Immigration from 1880-1930. Every ItalianAmerican grew up with Broccoli rabe, marketed by the Andy Boy Corp who planted the seeds in California and began a huge business off of his forms of Broccoli. Look at the label on your broccoli rabe. Most likely it’s the Andy Boy brand, named after one of the founder’s sons. The founders were immigrants from Messina, Sicily, Stefano and Andrea (Andrew) D’Arrigo. The family still owns the company. We owe our American broccoli and broccoli rabe eating to them. 
There’s a 95 year old photo of Andrew D’Arrigo, “Andy Boy” the face on the familiar label. 
How many of those labels did I see my mom take off of the Broccoli Rabe or Broccoli before she washed (and washed, and washed and washed) them prior to slicing them down for her various dishes. That bitter, sulphury aroma of broccoli rabe cooking with garlic, peperoncino and olive oil is one of my most favorite sentimental food smells. Brings me back to Mom’s kitchen with the first whiff. Friarielli grow in certain regions around Naples and up into Avellino and Benevento, neighboring Provinces. They are hallowed in those parts and great care and pride is taken with their preparation for eating. This pizza is part of La Cucina Napoletana, the great cuisine of Naples which has given birth to much of what is part of the global and the Italian American cuisines. Sausage and Broccoli Rabe pie Naples style traditionally is without tomato. That proves it’s an ancient dish. The ingredients and preparation are simple and straight forward. 
The Broccoli Rabe (Friarielli).
The Fall Season seems to turn even our foods in to rust, red, orange and muted green colored fantasies. Seasons also affect my recipe development as was the case on a blustery autumn day when there was Italian Sweet Fennel Sausage, Calabrian N’duja(a chile spike Calabrian spreadable salami), fresh sage sitting in my fridge. Grey and chilly outside meant something warm and fall-ish needed to be cooked in the kitchen and I came up with making sausage patties with the ingredients plus some pantry items like a bag of Dried Cranberries. The pairing of savory minced meats with sweet dried fruits is a gift from the Arab countries and was brought to the Western Mediterranean during their conquests of those areas. Raisins, currants, pignoli, almonds and so forth show up in ground meat and fish dishes quite often in places like Italy and Spain. I pooled those resources to develop this VERY tasty SAGE AND CRANBERRY SAUSAGE PATTY. There’s flavors from Southern and Central Italy here but I’m modifying the recipe for the blog since N’djua is a ridiculously tough food to find for most people. Instead I’m going to use Spanish Pimenton (Smoked Paprika) and Peperoncino (Italian dried hot pepper) to replicate the flavors in the Calabrian N’duja. A little finishing of the cooked patties with Marsala or Sherry nicely rounds it all out.I’m such a fan of the sweet /savory foods. This is one of them. Serve with bread, or a vegetable or even rice.
Now form into 4-6 patties. In a pan, add 2 tbs of olive oil and place on medium heat, and cook the patties until crusty and golden brown on each side, about 6 minutes per side. Remove the finished patties to a platter and lightly cover with aluminum foil. Add the rest of the olive oil to the pan and deglaze it with the remaining Marsala or Sherry. Add a little more olive oil and then return the patties to the pan and simply heat them up in the pan sauce, about 2 minutes. Done. Garnish with dried cranberries and, although I didn’t when I made them in the picture, I’ve toasted almond pieces and garnished with them too. Sweet, savory, hot, porky, Mediterranean, herby, and with the almonds, crunchy. This is when food talks back to you and you response, GRAZIE or Thank you. Happy Cooking!!
A FOOD OBSESSION 