Majella Home Cooking

Elevation

Musings & Anecdotes, Recipes April 23, 2013 Comments: 2

A pot of unimaginably creamy fagioli all’uccelletto simmering on the stove

Travelers to Italy are always amazed by the sublime simplicity of the food. Because Italian cuisine is driven by ingredients rather than technique, Italians are committed to using only the highest quality fresh and local ingredients. Last night, I prepared the Tuscan peasant dish, fagioli all’uccelletto, adapted from a recipe I learned long ago from Judy Witts Francini of Divina Cucina, a dynamic and charismatic American expat and food blogger living in Tuscany who teaches cooking classes and leads culinary tours. I took a fantastic market class in Florence with Judy years ago and regularly rely on her cookbook for inspiration.

Fagioli all’uccelletto consists of five basic pantry ingredients – cannellini beans, olive oil, sage, garlic and and peeled tomatoes. So how did I elevate this simple dish and transform it into nothing short of a “masterpiece” (to quote my husband)? By using the highest quality ingredients I could get my hands on.

Cannellini beans – I used Rancho Gordo Runner Cannellini Beans. I swear, when a friend recently turned me onto these beans, she changed my life. These heirloom beans from the Napa Valley outfit are as creamy as any I’ve ever tasted in Tuscany. They positively melt in your mouth. A few tricks I use to make them extra creamy: I rinse the beans with cold water and then soak them for at least 24 hours. I then cook them directly in the water in which they soaked.

Olive oil - I used the perfectly grassy and herbaceous Pianogrillo olive oil from Sicily available from www.gustiamo.com

Sage - I picked the first branches of sage sprouting from my garden. However, even if you don’t have an herb garden, try to rely on fresh herbs rather than dried. In order to make them last longer in your refrigerator, wrap fresh herbs with a dampened paper towel and place them in a ziploc bag. They will keep for a week or longer.

Garlic - When choosing garlic, make sure that the head of the garlic is tight and that the skin doesn’t easily flake off.

Peeled tomatoes – Every August, my family buys countless bushels of local New Jersey tomatoes and jars both ready-to-use tomato sauce and peeled tomatoes to last us through the year. However, there are some amazing canned tomatoes available out there. Choose a local brand that you trust or an imported DOP San Marzano tomato.

Judy’s recipe for fagioli all’uccelletto contemplates that you have pre-cooked your beans. She then makes a tomato sauce flavored with oil, garlic and sage and adds the beans to the sauce. My adaptation of her recipe adds the peeled tomatoes to the pot of just-cooked beans and simmers everything together until the tomatoes break down. I’ve tried both methods to incredible results – it just depends on which happens to be easier for you on a given night!

Fagioli all’uccelletto

Recipe by Majella Home Cooking as adapted from Judy Witts Francini

1 lb of dried Cannellini beans (I recommend Rancho Gordo Runner Cannellini)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed with the back of a knife
1 branch of fresh sage leaves
3 tablespoons of good-quality extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
1 tablespoon of sea salt
2 cups of of good-quality whole peeled canned tomatoes

Rinse the beans with cold water and place them in a heavy-bottomed stainless steel, cast-iron or clay pot. Add water to cover by an inch and allow the beans to soak overnight, but preferably for at least 24 hours. Without changing the water, add sage, olive oil and whole peeled garlic cloves, cover and allow to reach a slow rolling boil. (If the beans appear to have soaked up a lot of the water, add another cup or so of cold water before you start cooking). Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook slowly, with the lid sitting slightly askew. Stir frequently and be careful not to scorch the bottom. Cooking time will vary anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours and will depend on the freshness of the beans. (Tasting is the only way to know that the dish is done.) Add salt in the last 10 minutes of cooking time (adding salt before then will make the beans tough.)

You can stop right here and simply drizzle some more olive oil and enjoy the beans with bread. However, to make these beans all’uccelletto, add 2 cups of whole peeled tomatoes directly to the pot of beans and allow them to cook over low heat until the tomatoes break down, about 20 minutes or so, stirring frequently. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with crusty bread. Buon appetito!

Spring Candles

Food History, Random Things, Recipes April 16, 2013 Comments: 7

Candele from Pastificio Faella in Gragnano, a town south of Naples and purportedly the birthplace of dried pasta-making. Pasta from Gragnano was awarded IGP status in 2010.

Last week, I ventured across the bridge to visit the Bronx warehouse of Gustiamo, a purveyor of artisanal Italian foods sourced from small producers that continue to stay true to traditional methods. I purchased several bottles of new harvest extra virgin olive oil and a rather intriguing package of 21-inch candele pasta produced by Pastificio Faella, a family business that has been making pasta since 1907. Candele, named for the long, thin white candles once used in liturgical processions in Southern Italy, are extruded through bronze dies and dried for a whopping 60 hours at a very low temperature. Prior to the emergence of modern machinery that facilitated the cutting of smaller shapes, all tubular and strand pasta, including candele and spaghetti, were left to dry in long forms and broken into smaller pieces prior to cooking.

Artisanal Faella pasta is available at http://www.gustiamo.com

The charming founder of Gustiamo, Beatrice Ughi, informed me that I was the first person to bring home the slightly rough-textured candele and assigned me the task of creating an Abruzzese-inspired recipe for this unique pasta shape. My initial thought was to prepare a spring lamb ragu’, but when I realized I’d forgotten to defrost a package of baby lamb that I had frozen from Easter, I decided to consult the brilliant Encyclopedia of Pasta by preeminent Italian food historian Oretta Zanini De Vita for inspiration:

“[C]andele is considered more or less synonymous with ziti or zite [but] the latter is the term most frequently adopted by the modern pasta factories. In reality, ziti are slightly thinner. Candele are broken up for the preparation of some typical dishes, such as timballi or pasticci with a crust.”

Taking my cue from Prof. De Vita, I foraged my refrigerator and created a baked spring pasticcio (quite literally, a mess) of asparagus, leeks, tomatoes and a blend of cheeses. Buon appetito!

Pasticcio di Candele agli Asparagi

Recipe by Majella Home Cooking ©

1 pound of candele pasta
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 leeks, trimmed, white and light green parts only
1 32-oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, crushed in the food processor or by hand
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lb of mozzarella (I used what I’d characterize as a “semi-fresh” mozzarella. The texture and firmness were somewhere in between the processed Polly-O stuff and the still-quivering fresh mozzarella from my local Italian deli.)
3 large eggs (or 2 jumbo eggs)
2 lbs pencil-thin asparagus, ends “snapped” at their natural breaking point
1 pint of grape of cherry tomatoes, halved
A handful of torn basil leaves
1 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Prepare Sauce and Filling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice leeks in half length-wise and rinse under cold water to remove the grit. Dry with a clean kitchen towel and chop crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces. In a heavy-bottomed pot or deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium-low heat until shimmering. Add leeks and a pinch of salt and stir frequently, until the leeks are soft and caramelized, about 8 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, raise the heat to high and bring to a boil (slosh the bowl that contained the tomatoes with a half cup or so of water and add to the pot as well). Reduce the heat to medium low and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes, until slightly thickened. Turn off the heat and add salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, add the mozzarella and eggs to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture becomes a creamy paste.

Cook Pasta

While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Break each candela into four equal pieces. Add the broken candele to the pot and allow to cook for 5 minutes. (The candele should be very al dente since they will continue to cook in the oven.) Thoroughly drain the pasta and drizzle with a bit of olive oil to prevent them from sticking while you’re assembling the pasticcio.

Assemble Pasticcio

Lightly grease a 9X13 ceramic or metal baking dish with butter or olive oil and ladle enough tomato sauce to coat the bottom. Insert an asparagus stalk in each candela and add the filled candele to the dish in a snug single layer, as pictured below, rolling in the sauce as you go.

Ladle additional sauce onto the candele layer until it is covered. Scatter half of the tomatoes and some of torn basil leaves onto the sauce.

Next, with a spatula, spread half of the mozzarella cheese mixture evenly over the sauce and sprinkle 1/3 cup of Parmigiano over it.

Repeat, layering again, first with the asparagus-filled candele, followed by the tomato sauce, then the tomatoes and basil and then the remaining mozzarella and another 1/3 cup of Parmigiano. Add a final thin layer of sauce and sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano on top.

Place the tray in the middle rack of the oven and allow to bake for about 35 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the top of the pasticcio forms a nice golden crust. Remove from the oven and let “rest” for about 10 minutes prior to cutting. To serve, cut along the length of the candele, into rectangular servings consisting of two layers of six or so candele .

Buon appetito!

Pasticcio di Candele agli Asparagi

Ordering Information: You can order Faella candele and other exemplary Italian products at http://www.gustiamo.com.

Lucky Coins in a Hilltop Town

Food History, Musings & Anecdotes, Recipes April 14, 2013 Comments: 2

Zuppa di Lenticchie

Santo Stefano di Sessanio, host to the Let’s Blog Abruzzo conference that I’m attending in June (www.blogaway.org), is a quaint mountain village in Abruzzo that was largely abandoned when its impoverished inhabitants left in search of work in the years following World War II. In the early 1980s, a Danish developer launched Sextantio Albergo Diffuso, a hotel converted out of historic buildings with the intent of reviving and preserving the remote village and welcoming tourists without sacrificing its physical and cultural identity.

I was first introduced to Santo Stefano in the September 2004 issue of Gourmet magazine, which lauded Sextantio’s preservation efforts and extolled the virtues of the town’s primary crop, lentils. I finally visited the village last summer and while my middle son, Stefano, was thrilled to explore the labyrinth of narrow streets and tunnel-like passages of the town that shared his name, I was eager to finally sample its delicate lenticchie. I brought home several kilos of the tiny, extraordinarily tender legumes and enjoyed the last of my stash for a feast of cotechino con lenticchie to ring in the New Year (garlicky sausage over a bed of lentils traditionally enjoyed in Italy on New Year’s Eve to bring prosperity and fortune in the coming year. The lentils are said to represent the coins soon to befall all who consume the dish within an hour of midnight.)

The picturesque village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio

My son Stefano climbing the walls of Santo Stefano

The lentil is thought to have arrived in Santo Stefano at the time of the Roman settlement, Sextantia and derives from an old and rare species that is cultivated only in the poor terrain found high in the mountains. These tiny, dark brown legumes are iron-rich and have skins that don’t separate during cooking. The harvest generally occurs during the last weeks of August and the Sagra delle Lenticchie festival takes place in Santo Stefano every September.

My lentil soup recipe isn’t traditional to Santo Stefano di Sessanio, but is a great vehicle for small lentils. To my knowledge, lenticchie di Santo Stefano aren’t yet widely available outside of Italy, but Castelluccio lentils from Umbria or French Puy lentils are good substitutes.

Zuppa di Lenticchie

Recipe by Majella Home Cooking ©

3 salt-packed anchovies (see notes below for cleaning directions)
2 shallots or 1 red onion, finely chopped
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling at the end
10 cups of water
2 bay leaves
2 heaping cups of small lentils such as Castelluccio or Puy, rinsed and picked over
2 carrots, chopped
1 teaspoon of sea salt and several grindings of freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley

Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed stainless steel or enameled cast iron pot and set over medium-low heat until the oil is shimmering. Add the chopped anchovies to the oil, lower the heat and, stirring frequently, allow them to cook until they seem as if they’ve dissolved or become part of the oil. Add the shallots, celery and garlic and sauté until the vegetables become soft and golden (if the anchovies start to seem too “crunchy”, add ¼ cup of water to the mixture). Add the water, bay leaves, additional 2 tablespoons of olive oil, black pepper and the lentils and raise the heat to high. When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low and allow to gently simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes, add the carrots and salt and keep simmering for about 15-25 minutes more, tasting as it cooks to check for doneness. If the soup becomes too thick, add water a cup at a time (lentils absorb a lot of water, even after you’ve turned off the heat, so chances are, it will become too thick before it becomes too liquid.) When the lentils taste smooth and creamy, turn off the heat, adjust the salt and pepper, stir in the parsley and drizzle with your best olive oil (see notes below). Buon appetito!

Extra Two Cents: A peppery oil such as La Quagliera from Abruzzo would add a wonderful finishing touch to this rustic soup – http://www.gustiamo.com/cgi-bin/front_end/prodotto?id=76289). Also, homemade olive-oil croutons are a terrific accompaniment to the lentils – simply cut day-old bread into small cubes, drizzle with olive oil and toast in the oven at 375 degrees until they’re crunchy.

Preparing Anchovies: Hold the anchovies under cold running water and gently rub off the salt with your fingers. Pat them thoroughly dry with paper towels and transfer them to a cutting board. Using the tip of a sharp paring knife, make a small incision along the side and run your knife along the length of the anchovy. Gently peel back the top portion of the anchovy to reveal the backbone on the bottom portion. With the tip of your knife, gently remove the backbone and cut off the tail. Finely chop the anchovy fillets.

More Information about Santo Stefano: Here are a few other articles about Santo Stefano di Sessanio and its tasty lentils:

An Adventure in the Making – Let’s Blog Abruzzo

Musings & Anecdotes April 9, 2013 Comments: 2

An Adventure in the Making – Let’s Blog Abruzzo. Why fly across the Atlantic for a 4 whirlwind 4-day trip to attend a food & travel conference? Check out a few of my reasons.

An Adventure in the Making – Let’s Blog Abruzzo

Musings & Anecdotes, Random Things April 8, 2013 Comments: 10

http://www.blogaway.org – Signora Italia di Felice, the icon for Let’s Blog Abruzzo

After months of hopeful indecision, last week, I booked my tickets for the first ever Let’s Blog Abruzzo food and travel blogging conference, which will be held in the Medici hilltop village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio on June 1^st and 2^nd. As a new food blogger, I could have arguably waited another year before leaving my three young children (something I NEVER do – they’ve never even had a babysitter other than their grandparents) to fly across the Atlantic for four days (again, not exactly part of the day-to-day mommy routine) to attend a bloggers’ conference (something completely foreign to me until a few months ago) in Abruzzo (where I’m headed for six weeks only a month after the event). So why go?

Although I started my blog and am managing well enough, the blogosphere remains somewhat of a mystery to me. I follow a number of other Italian food blogs and am in awe of their sophisticated design, inspired photography and impressive following. I need some help taking my little blog to the next level and believe that Let’s Blog Abruzzo can help me get there.
I don’t know how to tweet, I barely know how to pin, I’m not quite sure how to press , I haven’t linked in and I have no clue how to tumbl (if that’s even a word). In short, except for Facebook, I’m a lone social media virgin in a brothel of experienced bloggers. I hope that Let’s Blog Abruzzo’s impressive panel of speakers (including Rome food expert Katie Parla, whose blog, http://www.parlafood.com, I’ve been stalking for years) can help me become savvier to the social networking world.
Whenever I say my dad is from Abruzzo, most Americans have no idea where it is. At the same time, I’ve realized just how little of this magnificent region I actually know. In attendance at Let’s Blog Abruzzo will be local wine producers, food tour operators, specialty food artisans and people in the hospitality industry. I truly believe that Abruzzo is on the precipice of being discovered by the world and these are the people working tirelessly to put their region on the travel map. I’m incredibly excited to meet them and brainstorm ways to help further their mission.
Although I could have met the organizers and a number of the event’s attendees individually this summer, you can’t put a price tag on gathering together a group of people with common goals and interests in the same room.
The profits from Let’s Blog Abruzzo will be donated to charities dedicated to recovery efforts from the 2009 earthquake that devastated so much of the area. I visited the conference site, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, only last summer and was sobered by the image of the fallen medieval tower, the very symbol of this charming village.
I spent years feeling regret – that I stayed in law school even though I knew it wasn’t right for me; that I went into corporate law (big $$$) rather than pursue an area of law that might have been more satisfying; that it took me nearly 10 years before I left; etc, etc, etc. I knew full well that if I didn’t go, on June 1^st, I would log in to Facebook and see photos posted by Let’s Blog Abruzzo’s attendees and be awash with regret. I’m done with that. (And the irony that a friend from law school in need of a break from work is joining me on this adventure is not lost on me.)

So there they are – what I believe are worthy reasons for flying across the Atlantic for a food and travel blogging conference. I guess the fact that yesterday, at our sons’ little league baseball game, a good friend referred to me as, “a rock star mom who goes to Italy on business for four days” doesn’t hurt either! ;)

Here's my photo submission for a contest being held by the organizers of Let's Blog Abruzzo. The challenge was to incorporate the photo of Signora Italia Di Felice, the symbol of the conference) in a unique way. The winner will receive a free pass to the event. Here I am as a modern-day Signora Italia across the Atlantic. Please vote by pressing "View Entries" at the following link - https://www.facebook.com/blogAway.org/app_448952861833126

Here’s my photo submission for a contest being held by the organizers of Let’s Blog Abruzzo to win a two-day pass to the event. The challenge was to incorporate the photo of Signora Italia Di Felice in a unique way. Here I am as a modern-day Signora Italia across the Atlantic. Please vote by clicking on “View Entries” at the following link – https://www.facebook.com/blogAway.org/app_448952861833126

For more information on the Let’s Blog Abruzzo conference, visit www.blogaway.org. Hope to see you there! Ciao!

The Medici Tower, the symbol of the the medieval hamlet of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, collapsed during the 2009 earthquake that destroyed Abruzzo's lovely capital L'Aquila.

The Medici Tower, the symbol of the medieval hamlet of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, collapsed during the 2009 earthquake that destroyed Abruzzo’s lovely capital of L’Aquila.

A Spring Secret Revealed

Musings & Anecdotes, Recipes April 2, 2013 Comments: 9

Polpette di Asparagi – a micro-regional specialty from my mom’s town of Caltabellotta, Sicily

There are certain recipes that I’m simply unwilling to share – my family’s large-batch jarred tomato sauce (my mother would kill me and besides, anyone crazy enough to do all that work in the late-summer heat has their own way of making sauce); family heirloom recipes for pizzelle (Nonna Irma’s waffle cookies from Abruzzo) and pasticciotti (Nani’s Sicilian jam or custard-filled pastries); my crostata di pignoli e miele and sticky balsamic ribs (best-sellers for my catering business – my clients might not call me for them anymore!); and my caponata and zuppa di farro e fagioli (I’m saving these for my cookbook one day!). I think my reasons for withholding these personal treasures are pretty legitimate, but there are a few recipes of which I am unreasonably protective, among them, my mother’s polpette di asparagi. The thought of others preparing these asparagus fritters honestly unsettles me a bit. There is nothing magical or transformative about them, but they are unique and unexpected. A specialty of my mother’s hometown of Caltabellotta, Sicily, where they’re made with the bountiful wild asparagus that grows in nearby meadows, most people who’ve tasted them tell us they’ve never had anything like it. Asparagus, eggs and breadcrumbs formed into patties, then pan-fried and simmered in tomato sauce, these incredibly moist polpette are yet another example of the simple genius of Southern Italy’s cucina povera. So in the spirit of Easter and in celebration of spring finally peeking through, I’m sharing with you (albeit with some hesitation) one of my most treasured and beloved family recipes. Buon appetito!

Polpette di Asparagi

Makes approx. 16 polpette

2 cups of thin asparagus (tough ends trimmed) cut into ¼ inch pieces
1½ cups breadcrumbs seasoned with a clove of minced garlic and a handful of fresh herbs of your choice (i.e., basil, parsley, mint)
6 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons of salt and several grindings of freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil for pan-frying
3 cups of homemade tomato sauce (I obviously use the aforementioned jarred sauce that we make every August)

Bring the tomato sauce to a gentle boil in a wide pot or deep sauté pan and maintain it at a low simmer. In a large bowl, combine the asparagus, breadcrumbs, eggs, salt and pepper until you have a wet mixture that is firm enough to stay together when you form the polpette. Heat 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a wide skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Scoop up two tablespoons of the asparagus mixture into your hand and form an oval, slightly flattened patty. If the patty is too soft and won’t hold together, add another tablespoon or two of breadcrumbs to the mixture; if it feels too dense, add a few drops of milk. (You may want to fry your first polpetta before forming the others to make sure it holds.) Without overcrowding, add the patties to the shimmering oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side (they should be nicely browned). Carefully remove each polpetta from the oil with a spatula and transfer them into the simmering tomato sauce. Repeat with the remaining mixture until all of the patties are in the sauce. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the polpette to “rest” for a few minutes prior to serving. The polpette are just as good (if not better) the following day. Buon appetito!

Note: My mother and grandmother always made these polpette with these few simple ingredients. However, I imagine that the addition of chopped scallions or chives and grated Parmigiano would be delicious as well.

Torta al Testo

Food History, Musings & Anecdotes, Recipes March 26, 2013 Comments: 7

Torta al testo filled with stracchino and arugula

Torta al testo is a traditional flatbread sandwich from Umbria stuffed with vegetables, cheeses and cured meats. The torta is cooked on a heavy testo, a circular iron griddle placed directly on the stovetop (long ago, the disc was made from clay and placed over coals in the fireplace).

An iron “testo” or “panaro”

When I was a student in Perugia with about 10,000 Lira per day to spend on food (about $5 USD back in the pre-Euro days), I regularly frequented a hole-in-the-wall Forno on a narrow cobblestone street near the university that specialized in this savory regional specialty. Each day after classes, I ordered a torta al testo for lunch and brought it up to Corso Vanucci, the wide pedestrian-only promenade in the centro storico that was ideal for people-watching. My favorite filling for these fluffy, oiled flatbreads was peppery arugula , sweet pacchino tomatoes and creamy stracchino cheese. Last summer, during a mini-break from Abruzzo, we visited Umbria, and I returned to Perugia for the first time since 1997. I dragged my husband and three sons around the maze of backstreets behind the university for nearly half hour in search of my beloved Forno. I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t find my old haunt, picked up some pizza al taglio for my hungry kids and set off for Gubbio, where we were staying for a few days. The next day, as we were exploring the lovely medieval town, I asked a local shopkeeper from whom I purchased a testo (called a panaro in Gubbio) where we could enjoy a good torta al testo (which, incidentally, is called crescia in Gubbio) for lunch. They sent us to Osteria dei Re, a charming osteria and wine bar with al fresco dining in a picturesque piazza, where we were treated to the torta al testo of my memories.

Here’s an easy recipe that you can prepare in your favorite well-seasoned cast-iron skillet. Prepare the dough in the morning and enjoy them for lunch or refrigerate the dough overnight and simply bring it to room temperature prior to griddling the flatbreads (the uncooked dough stays very well – How do I know this? Because I was in the process of making the flatbreads for a play-date luncheon when my five-year old broke his collarbone! The remainder of the dough went in the fridge and I prepared it the following day with his favorite filling of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes!). Once griddled, the flatbreads should be enjoyed very soon after you prepare them. They tend to become stale rather quickly. If you need to wait, wrap them tightly in plastic after they cool off and reheat in a whole oven prior to serving and filling. When this crazy Northeast weather finally warms up, I’ll try to cook them on the stone piastra I have for my outdoor grill.

Torta al Testo

Serves 4

For the Torta:

1 tsp. active dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sea salt
2-3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Ideas for fillings:

Stracchino or taleggio cheese and baby arugula
Sauteed greens (spinach, chicory, chard, broccoli rabe, etc.) with grilled or pan-fried sausage
Tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil
Grilled vegetables
Italian oil-packed tuna and sun-dried tomatoes
Speck and fontina
Prosciutto and shaved Parmigiano or mozzarella di bufala
Mortadella
Nutella and bananas (find me something with which Nutella doesn’t pair well!)

In a small bowl, stir together yeast and ½ cup of hot water. Let it sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. Combine flour and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Stir 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the activated yeast mixture and with the food processor running, pour it in. Process until a dough forms (i.e., when the ingredients no longer adhere to the sides of the bowl – if the dough is too dry, add some additional cool water, one tablespoon at a time until this happens). Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a large oiled bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for about 1½ hours in a warm place.

Punch the dough down (the dough should have doubled in size) and divide it into two balls. Lightly flour one piece of dough and, using a rolling pin, roll it into a 9″ disc. Place the disc on a floured baking sheet, poke it all around with a fork (this will prevent too many air bubbles during cooking) and repeat with the remaining dough.

Rolled-out torta dough

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a 10-12″ cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, cook each dough disc, flipping occasionally, until light brown on each side, about 8-10 minutes total.

Griddling the torta

Lay one of the flatbreads on a cutting board, add your desired filling, place the other flatbread on top, and with a serrated knife, cut the torta into 8 wedges. Drizzle with a little bit more oil and serve.

Buon appetito!

Torta al testo with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella

Majella Home Cooking

Elevation

Spring Candles

Lucky Coins in a Hilltop Town

An Adventure in the Making – Let’s Blog Abruzzo

A Spring Secret Revealed

Torta al Testo

About Majella Home Cooking

Michelle Capobianco