Chicken Scaloppine (notice my Italian spelling of the American Scallopine, how’s that? lol). There’s no “recipe” for Scaloppine because it refers to the way the meat/poultry is cut. Thin Slices of meat/poulty in Italian are called SCALOPPA, and thinner ones are called SCALOPPINE. In Olde English Collops meant slices of meat so somewhere in Europe this word originated. Scaloppine in Italy generally means a veal dish as the chicken and turkey scaloppine in the US is an ItalianAmerican creation. Chicken Scaloppine could be the most popular of all, but any thin sliced meat or poultry can be used. Ok, enough with the food history. How and why am I blogging this version? Audience request! I made this one night for dinner after work using items in the fridge and then posted it on social media and…..WHERE’S THE RECIPE ??? comments started poking me with notifications. So..here’s how I made this Chicken Scaloppine with Mushrooms and Spinach. I served it over plain steamed white rice.
8 thin sliced and pounded Chicken Breast cutlets (boneless)
1/2 cup sifted flour
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp Granulated Garlic
1/2 tsp Hungarian Sweet Paprika
1/8 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 1/4 cup Chicken Stock
Olive Oil
1 1/4 cups sliced button or Cremini Mushrooms
3 sliced cloves of garlic
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups rinsed and dried baby spinach leaves
2 tbs. unsalted butter
Use your heaviest and largest skillet/pan for this. Add 2 tbs of Olive oil. Heat to medium. Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, paprika, granulated garlic. Dredge the cutlets in the flour on both sides, gently shaking off the excess. In batches saute’ the chicken for about 5 minutes per side. remove them to a platter loosely covered with foil when they are all done Do not stack, lay them out flat. Add the mushrooms and 1 more tbs. of olive oil to the pan. Raise the heat to medium high. Sprinkle the mushrooms with a little salt and pepper…Toss making sure all the mushrooms have been coated with the hot oil. Now saute’ the mushrooms till they start to take on color and are soft. Add the garlic. Saute for 2 minutes and then add the wine. Bring this to a boil and let it cook for 2 minutes. Now add the Stock and bring that to the boil. Stir well to combine all the pan ingredients. Let this boil for 3 minutes then lower to a simmer. In a cup or container add 2 tbs of the flour and then add , stirring while you add about 1/4 cup of the pan liquid. Keep stirring until all lumps are dissolved and you have a nice slurry. Stir the liquid in the pan and swirl in the slurry, keep stirring and gently bring the pan back to the boil THEN reduce to a simmer. It should be lightly thickened by now. Add the chicken back and top with the spinach. Cover the pan for 5 minutes. The spinach should have wilted and gently stir that into the chicken and mushrooms. Your chicken should be tender now and the sauce well blended and seasoned. Of course, check for seasoning at this point. Add any extra salt or pepper you think it needs, if any. Now add 2 tbs of unsalted butter to the pan and blend it into the pan. This adds a nice finish to the pan and extra flavor. Serve over Steamed rice. Happy Cooking!!!!
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.
GNUDI!!! pronounce it NYUU-DEE, an Italian food from Tuscany is as it’s name implies, sort of a Nude Ravioli. It’s a dumpling made with ricotta, eggs, spinach, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and just enough flour to bind it so it’s not quite a gnocchi but close. Italian cooking is wonderfully full of dishes that closely resemble each other but nuances in ingredient amount or region make them separate and unique. Fantastic!! Let me give a foodie PSA here while I have your attention. You know that TUSCAN recipe or dish you are eating in a restaurant or making at home? You know, that ULTIMATE TUSCAN soup, chicken, whatever? It’s more than likely NOT TUSCAN. Drives me crazy. As someone who shares food ideas and knowledge calling something TUSCAN when it’s not drives me insane. Imagine this for a minute…in Italy…at a restaurant or supermarket/store selling American foods…there’s an item called….NEW YORK CAJUN GUMBO….or KANSAS LOBSTER…or MIDWESTERN CLAM CHOWDER….clearly you get my drift. Louisiana gets the gumbo…Maine gets the Lobster…New England or Manhattan get the Clam Chowder. The term TUSCAN gets placed on any dish someone (usually a corporate boardroom) wants to for marketing purposes. People are attracted to that term thinking it’s bona fide Tuscan food, or the implication is that all Italian food is Tuscan, or that the American created dish is Tuscan. Let me do my part to promote real Tuscan influenced food by giving you this recipe I came up with using a Tuscan dumpling and some of the more common Tuscan ingredients..spinach, pumpkin, sage.
you are now ready to sauce them. Bring the pan of Pumpkin Onion Sage sauce up to medium heat and gently add the gnudi and make sure you coat all the gnudi with the sauce. TAKE NOTE: I’m saucing it in the Italian manner…as Lidia tells us..”Sauce is merely a CONDIMENTO, the star is the pasta!”…You always want the pasta to shine through, however I understand that most Americans are used to much more sauce on their pasta then they would have in Italy. Want more sauce on this? Simply double the recipe. Tutti i gusti son gusti!! (Everyone to their own tastes)…back to my recipe. After you’ve coated all the gnudi and it’s heated thru for a good 3 minutes remove from the heat and garnish with the chopped sage, nutmeg and grated cheese to taste. Serve. I’m starving now as I type all this. It’s such a tasty dish. 
As always, thank you for letting me into your kitchens….enjoy this little bit of Tuscany, I actually think the region around Siena is noted for their gnudi. BUONA CUCINA!!
Back to Naples for some inspiration and ideas, there is just so much there to choose from that become magic and a feast in your kitchen and dining room. FRITTATINE is one of those glories of the CUCINA NAPOLETANA. Basically it is a SPAGHETTI or MACARONI CROQUETTE, the cooked pasta is bound with a BESCIAMELLA Sauce, cheeses, enhanced with vegetables and cured meats, then formed and coated in a light batter and fried. Many versions add a bread crumb coating over the batter. My version is the breadcrumbed one. Why? Because anything fried in breadcrumbs usually rocks and it’s SO GOOD with this creamy molten center that you’ll agree after one bite to continue to use the breadcrumb version. Some background on this treat—-I’m always talking about my strong Napoletana heritage as it’s the city where my maternal grandmother lived for 10 years of her life, from 10 to 20. The New York City region is heavily influenced in it’s ItalianAmerican culture by the immigrant Napoletani culture and foods, take spaghetti, take Pizza, take Sausage and Peppers, take Mozzarella, take Zeppole…you get the idea. However, FRITTATINE never really made that leap across the Atlantic like many other Napoletana dishes did. Strange. Now Potato Croquettes (or as the Napoletane called them PANZAROTTI) definitely made the jump, think of all the restaurants that serve them as a side dish, or how many of our own kitchens recreate that treat. FRITTATINE? Never heard of them. Apparently I missed them on a trip to Naples as they are one of the most beloved and popular FRIED SNACKS in the Napoletana Fry shops known as FRIGGITORIE, the best places to sample Naples’ famous street food. One night in NYC at one of the the new wave of Pizzerias to hit the US, the PIZZERIE NAPOLETANE, pizzerias that adhere to a prescribed formula for making the unique Pizza Napoletana (of which the American NYC Pizza is based on) I encountered FRITTATINE. Don Antonio by Starita in Manhattan is a palace of simple Napoletana foods and pizza. A host of other pizzerie have opened in the last 7 years that follow the same certified formula. I ordered the FRITTATINE and was in love. Absolutely love croquettes and this creamy macaroni version made me swoon.Of course I needed to recreate them in my own kitchen and here we are.
Aren’t they beautiful? They taste as good as they look. Ones containing prosciutto cotto and peas, provolone and spaghetti or bucatini are the most popular. This is one of those recipes where, AS LONG AS YOU STAY WITHIN WHAT WOULD ORGANICALLY FIT INTO THE RECIPE, you have some wiggle room. Fine dice of cured italian meats….italian greens….italian cheeses…..that’s what’s allowable. I used Finely chopped chard and sopressata in mine. Spinach works too. Provolone, Caciocavallo, Scamorza, PrimoSale, Parmigiano, Mozzarella, Pecorino, Asiago some of the cheeses that work in this. No balsamic vinegar, sun dried tomatoes, or gorzonzola please, and no chicken. please. no chicken. One more rule..lol…No dipping sauce. No side of Marinara. They are rich and creamy and full of complex textures and flavors..no dipping sauce. Overkill. Let’s now fly over to sunny NAPOLI or just stay in your own kitchen and COOK WITH ME! Time to make the FRITTATINE, translates as small fried things, or Fried Pasta Cakes. Frittatine sounds best. FREE-TAH-TEEH-NAY.
You can use a 2 inch round cutter OR do what I did, and hand form about 20 of these frittatine. Once they are are formed, place back into the fridge for 10 minutes.
Seriously, how good do they look??? Make them even smaller for a party appetizer or passed hors d’ouevres. Just break up the pasta smaller or use small pasta for it
SPEZZATINO!!!! The Italian word for STEW…although the word STUFATO means stew also, don’t ask, I don’t have an answer for that. I think SPEZZATINO sounds nicer. On the island of Sicily they have a SPEZZATINO culture, over in the Palermo region where they stew meatballs with potatoes. Sounds like heaven. A few years ago my friend Rose Marie Trapani, a native of the Palermo, Sicily region talked about her Mamma’s Meatball and Potato stew. I had to make it. I loved everything about it. In Sicily they also use the term SPEZZATINO AGGRESSATO DI POLPETTE CON PATATE…more new Italian and Sicilian words to increase your culinary vocabulary!! I like!!! However, the stew I made last night was BASED on the principles of the Spezzatino Aggressato but I must drop AGGRESSATO from my recipe title. My meatballs in this recipe are made from Sweet Italian Fennel Sausage Meat. Into the stew I add Broccoli Rabe, Onions, Potatoes, diced Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Borlotti Beans and a nice red wine from Sicily, from REGALEALI, a NERO D’AVOLA. What flavors in this stew! Notice I say Sicilian Style only because I created this dish in my kitchen with things from my pantry and fridge that went well together, it’s not a bona fide Sicilian dish. I try to be careful about my Recipe titles. When I had a bowl of the Spezzatino the next day I added some ricotta to the mix. WOW. Not only did it taste better like all stews do the second day but the ricotta was a very tasty addition! I’d advise making this on one day, and serving it the next. Truly remarkable Italian-Siclian flavors. It has that “Grandma” taste..are you with me here? Capisci??? Good. Now we can start to cook.
Let this cook for about 10 minutes stirring frequently. Now add the tomato and the greens. Cook for 5 minutes, Add the garlic and when fragrant (about 2 minutes) add the beans.
Mix. Now add the wine first and bring to a boil. The aroma is amazing at this point. Stir and then add the chicken stock and add stir. Add the Sausage Meatballs and any of the liquid that has collected in the bowl of sausage balls. 
Gently stir and bring to a boil again. Then reduce to a simmer.
Now let this simmer until much of the liquid is reduced. You want a sort of thick stew here rather than a soup (and that’s why it’s a SPEZZATINO!!!). This process should take about 40 minutes. Keep an eye on this so it gets to the right consistency. Frequently stir the pot. When it’s done let it sit at least 3 hours before serving. Next day is even better.
A FOOD OBSESSION 