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Archives for August 2015

Summer Pasta with Walnuts and Ricotta

August 28, 2015 by Barbara Leave a Comment

Easy Summer Pasta

Summer pasta with walnuts and ricotta is perfect to savor on a summer night.

I always think that photographs rarely do justice to lightly-sauced pasta dishes. Somehow if you can’t see the pasta covered in a sauce, you cannot imagine the taste. The summer pasta with walnuts and ricotta dish showcased here is light and tasty and perfect to serve in the summer months. It’s a variation of a DeCecco pasta recipe. Although I don’t always have it on hand, I like to use the DeCecco brand because the pasta is extruded from bronze dies, which create grooves in the pasta’s surface that help it hold the sauce better.

I don’t have any financial arrangement with DeCecco, I just love it and when I see it in the store always buy it in several shapes and sizes. When I made this dish with the walnuts, I thought I had some penne in the pantry but I didn’t so I used linguine. {Actually I did, but someone had used most of it.] Although the shape of pasta doesn’t alter the taste of what it’s tossed with, I think this recipe is made best with a shorter pasta such a penne rigate for even bow ties. I think a shorter pasta keeps those little walnut pieces from self-segregating at the bottom of the bowl.

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: pasta entree, pasta with arugula, pasta with fresh tomatoes, pasta with walnuts, summer pasta, walnut pasta

Handmade Tortellini in Arezzo

August 18, 2015 by Barbara Leave a Comment

The famous Arezzo Antique and Flea Market is held on the weekend of the first Sunday of every month.  Vendors arrive from all over Italy to sell…well, everything imaginable.  While Arezzo is full of wonderful restaurants, I like to have lunch at one of the outdoor tables of  Logge Vasari, a restaurant located under the loggia and facing the Piazza Grande, the epicenter of the market.  What a great place for people watching.

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But Logge Vasari doesn’t stop there.  They provide a show for passersby who wander under the loggia browsing vendor tables.  The restaurant stations a lady at its entrance who makes handmade tortellini on a marble-top table while you watch.  No better advertisement for the place.  A great way to lure customers.

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No Mess Baked Meatballs

August 10, 2015 by Barbara Leave a Comment

No-mess baked meatballs can be served over pasta with lots of grated cheese.

“Mamma mia, that’a spicey meatball-a.”

Back in the late ’60s, there was a hilarious commercial showing an Italian man tasting some meatballs that his doting wife had just placed before him. He famously remarked, “Mamma mia, that’s-a spicey meatball-a.”  And zap, that phrase entered the American lexicon. People all over the country were walking around imitating this man. The beauty of the commercial:  it was not trying to sell us spaghetti, meatballs or pasta sauce. The commercial was a spoof of a group of people trying to film a food commercial while the actor, in take after take, must taste the meatballs.  At the end of the spoof, we learn the real product being sold to us is…Alka-Seltzer.  I have no idea what was in those meatballs that was supposed to be giving that guy such heartburn.  I do know the meatballs from the recipe below won’t cause you to need Alka-Seltzer.

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: baked meatballs, Italian meatballs, meatballs, oven meatballs, oven-baked meatballs, polpette

Insalata Caprese

August 3, 2015 by Barbara 1 Comment

I guess I would be missing the boat, with a big picture of tomatoes at the top of this blog, if I didn’t post occasional tomato-highlight recipes.  Although this is the quintessential summer dish, I offer up this little recipe as a nod to spring time and warmer days to come. Insalata Caprese is so refreshing and so simple you can make it with your eyes closed.  But I wouldn’t do that because it involves a knife.  So keep your eyes open and your taste buds perked.  First a little background……

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: Recipes

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Hi. I'm Barbara Francis and I hope you like authentic Italian food as much as I do. It's simple, fresh, seasonal. What's not to like? And it's part of my heritage. So join me in the kitchen of Italian Food Made Simple. Just step right over the dog, she won't move even if you ask her.

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