Cold weather food, Italian style

You've probably seen these pictures already, but they are pretty amazing, so I thought I would repost them. I don't know how much of a news story this has been back in the states, but Italy has been undergoing a pretty severe winter storm. The canals of Venice are frozen; there is snow on the Colosseum. The rail system is a mess. Almost every place around Florence has been hit with enough snow to make getting around difficult -- the Dean of the Gonzaga campus couldn't make it from Panzano for one day, and then had to stay in Florence the following night because he couldn't make it back home. Strangely, Florence itself has gotten almost no snow -- just a few flakes here and there. We have, however, been cold for the last week and a half. Really cold. Like, difficult to walk around town cold. To be fair, it has really only hovered around freezing, and I know that, back home, that could be a warm spell for this time of year. But, were I in Spokane, I would have ski pants, long johns, Gortex gloves, and a car with a heater. I packed none of those things. Plus, we have had a strong, Siberian wind whistling through the canyon-like streets, which has brought the wind-chill factor down considerably. So, the impact on us has been pretty noticeable.

The result of all this is that we have been staying fairly close to home lately. We walked to Santo Spirito last night, and felt nearly hypothermic when we got there. We've been cooking in the apartment a lot, taking advantage of the great fresh pasta and produce at the market. Seriously, can someone explain how they still have baby zucchini with the flowers attached in the middle of this storm? I suppose there must be commercial greenhouses not too far away. I'm not complaining -- just confused.

Cooking in Italy always feels a little bit like cheating. The basic ingredients are just so good that you really don't have to do much to put something really tasty on the table. Lately, I've been loving the salsiccia -- sausage. All sausage in Italy is Italian, although you can find variations: with fennel, spicy, regular. Well, really, I've only seen those three variations, and spicy is actually pretty rare. The salsiccia from the butcher in the market has more seasoning than the stuff from the supermarket, but both are pretty darn good. I've also been cooking a lot with these dried red chiles that are pretty ubiquitous here. They are called peperoncini, and are not to be confused with the pickled peppers that go by the same name in the states.They are super hot for how tiny they are, and they add a wonderful warmth to whatever they touch. Mostly, though, I love how easily they crush in your hand -- it's a very satisfying tactile experience, one that communicates a kind of directness that is lost in a lot of American cooking. I'm not sure I've ever seen them in an American supermarket, but red pepper flakes are the same thing. You just don't get to crush them yourselves. Finally, we are going through the grana like it is manna from heaven. It's a hard cheese, and one that tastes a lot like parmesan, but without the high price tag. Parmagiana here is pretty intense, and  is usually enjoyed on its own as a tasting cheese rather than as an ingredient. Even at Super 1 back home, a block of Grana is available, cheaper than even bad, domestic parmesan, and perfect for these kind of uses.

Here are two recipes with pretty similar ingredient lists, but very different results. Both are quick, easy, and both rely heavily on salsiccia, peperoncini, pasta, olive oil, and grana.

Minestra di Salsiccia and Pomodoro

Salsiccia (sweet Italian sausage)
zucchini (the flowers are unnecessary for this one)
a packet of verdura per bollita (in other words, a carrot, a small onion, a rib of celery, and some flat leaf parsley. I love that they sell that all together here!)
Garlic (optional)
Wine
A can or jar of crushed tomatoes
One bullion cube
Peperoncino
Dried oregano
some sort of small pasta
Olive oil
Parmesan or Grana
Basil (optional)

Slice the zucchini into bite sized chunks, and sauté in olive oil until you have a lot of good, brown color. Take out of the pan, and sauté carrots, onion, and celery until similarly brown. Take out of pan, and add sausage (out of the casing), until that too is brown. By the way, you can brown these ingredients in any order you want -- just make sure there is always enough oil in the pan that nothing burns. Put all your browned ingredients back in the pan, add garlic if you want and about 3 crushed small red peppers, and deglaze with a cup or two of wine. I've used both red and white, and both work just fine. Once the wine has reduced, add the crushed tomatoes, enough water to make the whole thing soup consistency, the bullion cube, oregano, and parsley. Simmer for twenty minutes or so, and throw in the pasta to cook in the soup. If you are using basil, throw in the ripped leaves at the very end of cooking. Serve topped with olive oil and grated cheese.

I love the bullion sold in the stores here. Clearly, they have not changed their label since the early sixties. It tastes good, though -- it doesn't have the metallic taste I remember bullion having. Of course, one should probably just use chicken stock, were such a thing handy. The stores here do not sell pre-made broth or stock, so either one makes one own (an expensive proposition, given the price of whole chickens) or one uses bullion.  We've been making this soup with leftover fresh orecchiette, or ear-shaped pasta, that we have been buying at the market. The texture of it is amazingly chewy and delicious. It is, in fact, my preferred pasta for the following dish as well.

The next dish is actually based on a dinner I had in the states, the first time I met Will and Anna, my ex's half brother and his then girlfriend, now wife, who live in the Bay Area. They had found the recipe in an Italian cookbook, and it may be the first time I realized that the real heart of Italian pasta was the pasta, not the sauce. In fact, you might be dissuaded from trying this recipe because it seems dry. It isn't. Especially if you add enough good olive oil, which is one of the keys of this dish.

Pasta with Salsiccia and Broccoli Rabe

Salsiccia
Broccoli Rabe
Peperoncini
Pasta
Olive oil
Parmesan or Grana

Get your water boiling for the pasta first -- this dish goes fast! Brown the salsiccia in a little olive oil, breaking it up as you go. It's important for this dish that the sausage gets fully dried out and nicely brown. Take the sausage out of the pan, and add the cleaned, chopped up rabe. Put a lid on the pan to let it steam a little if you need to, but don't let it over cook. It should be soft but not mushy. Somewhere in here, you should add your pasta to the water. Turn off the rabe if you need to so that the timing works out. When the pasta is about two minutes from being done, turn the heat back up under the rabe. Add the sausage back in, and break up a couple of peperoncini to add in. Add a little salt, but leave the whole thing a touch under-seasoned. What you are hoping for is that the sausage and rabe will be sizzling just when the pasta is done. Add the pasta to the sausage, letting some of the pasta water come with it. Toss everything together, and plate. Then add a healthy (or unhealthy, I suppose, depending on how you look at it) amount of olive oil, and top with a lot of cheese. Simple, but so good -- you get meatiness, chewiness, the sweetness and bitterness of the rabe, a little spice, all brought together by the cheese and oil.

Stay tuned for future entries -- I have so much to write about! Cookies and sandwiches and incredibly kind Italians, not to mention an amazing meal we had last night at Osteria Santa Spirito. Thanks for the recommendation, Erik, although after those gnocchi, I may never need to eat again!