07/01/08 Fettuccine with Chicken and Bell Pepper Cream Sauce from CookiesFromItaly.com |
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"A buon intenditor poche parole." (Few words to the good knowledgeable. A word to the wise (is sufficient).) Welcome to another recipe edition from Adriana's Italian Bakery!
This week's Italian recipes:
-Fettuccine con Pollo e Salsa di Peperone
-Pasta con Salsiccia, Melanzane e Basilico
-Costolette di Vitello con Salsa di Pomodoro e Basilico
Enjoy the recipes and the complimentary news article report from "Only In Italy.com".
Arrivederci!
Yours Truly,
Adriana Ciccarello
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Recipe: Fettuccine con Pollo e Salsa di Peperone |
Fettuccine con Pollo e Salsa di Peperone
Fettuccine with Chicken and Bell Pepper Cream Sauce
Ingredients:
12 ounces skinless boneless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon butter
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 and 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 cup chicken stock or chicken broth
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
8 ounces fettuccine pasta
Additional grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add chicken and cook until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate.
Add green and red bell peppers and onion to same skillet and saute until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
Add minced garlic and crushed red pepper to skillet and saute 4 minutes.
Add whipping cream and chicken stock.
Simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 8 minutes.
Cut chicken into strips and add to sauce. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes. Add basil and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese to sauce, stirring to incorporate. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain and return to pot. Add sauce and toss to coat. Serve, passing additional Parmesan separately. Makes 4 first-course servings.
That's it!
Recipe: Pasta con Salsiccia, Melanzane e Basilico |
Pasta con Salsiccia, Melanzane e Basilico
Pasta with Sausage, Eggplant and Basil
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon salt
7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 pounds spicy Italian sausages, casings removed, meat shaped into 1 1/4-inch meatballs (about 46)
1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 and 1/2 Serrano chilies, seeded, finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
1 and 1/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 pound cavatelli or Penne pasta
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves, torn into 1/2-inch pieces
2/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
Additional grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Toss eggplant with 1 tablespoon salt in large colander.
Place over bowl and let stand 30 minutes.
Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
Working in batches, add eggplant; saute until golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
Working in batches, cook meatballs until brown, about 5 minutes.
Transfer meatballs to paper-towel-lined plate. Wipe out skillet.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in same skillet over medium-high heat.
Add tomatoes, garlic and chilies; saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Add meatballs, broth and cream.
Simmer until meatballs are cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Add eggplant and simmer 1 minute.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until 'al dente'. Drain. Transfer to large bowl.
Toss pasta with sauce and 1 cup Parmesan cheese.
Mix in basil and pine nuts. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve pasta, passing additional Parmesan cheese separately. Makes 8 servings.
That's it!
Recipe: Costolette di Vitello con Salsa di Pomodoro e Basilico |
Costolette di Vitello con Salsa di Pomodoro e Basilico
Veal Cutlets with Tomato and Basil Sauce
Ingredients:
1 pound veal cutlets (about 8 small)
All purpose flour
6 tablespoons (about) extra virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
Two 14 and 1/2 to 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
Directions:
Sprinkle veal with salt and pepper; dust with flour to coat lightly.
Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
Working in batches, add veal to skillet and saute until brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer veal to plate.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to same skillet.
Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add tomatoes with juices, basil, parsley, oregano and dried red pepper. Bring sauce to boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until flavors blend and sauce thickens slightly, scraping up browned bits, about 8 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Arrange cutlets atop sauce.
Top each with cheese. Cover; simmer until veal is tender and cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Makes 4 servings.
That's it!
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Only In Italy! |
"Only In Italy" is a daily news column that translates & reports on funny but true news items from legitimate Italian news resources in Italy. Each story is slapped with our wild, often ironic, and sometimes rather opinionated comments. And now, for your reading pleasure:
Why Italians Can't Master the English Language
Rome - June 21, 2008 - The chief examiner of Italy’s equivalent of A levels has been dismissed over "grave errors" in examination papers, including an English test taken from a Namibian website that critics described as "almost incomprehensible" in places.
Students taking English as part of the maturita exam were given questions on an unlikely text: an online interview by a Yemeni journalist with the German-born owners of a resort at Swakopmund in Namibia. The text, provided for examiners by the State Tourism Institute, was entitled Feel of Home at Villa Wiese - Swakopmund Namibia, described as a "funky guest lodge". It omits definite and indefinite articles and inverted commas, uses have when has is needed, spells budgets as budges and has only a passing acquaintance with good style.
"Pity us poor Italians," said Sergio Perosa, Professor Emeritus of English literature at Venice University. "No wonder so few Italians speak English properly." The errors were spotted by Jean Woodhouse, a veteran teacher of English in Italy who was formerly private tutor to Marina and Piersilvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister’s children by his first wife.
"If the examiner had been one of my pupils I would have failed him or her," Miss Woodhouse told Corriere della Sera, which published the exam paper with her acid comments. She said that she had only highlighted "the most glaring" errors and infelicities. "Frankly the text should have been thrown in the wastepaper basket."
Students were also asked to explain why the desert was "named as" the West Coast Recreational Area, which Miss Woodhouse corrected to "known" or "called". She also censured the examiner for allowing a sentence beginning with "and" and letting through the tautology "a visit to the Cape Cross Eal Colony is worth a visit" - not to mention failing to spot the missing S in seal.
She was also scathing about a question asking candidates to describe similar places they had visited "using your imagination", when the places were presumably either real or imagined, but not both. Miss Woodhouse scrawled furiously at the end: Gravamente insufficiente! ("Seriously inadequate!") Professor Perosa said that the text had been taken off the web unchecked, and as a result the exam was couched in "a kind of pseudo-English, or what was once called pidgin English. Even the average waiter in Venice speaks English more correctly than this."
Mariastella Gelmini, the Education Minister, said: "I apologize to the students, even though I am not directly responsible for the errors."
"Che cazzo significa, funky guest lodge?"
Sta pippa, what a mess! Only Siegfried and Roy can clean up the Italian public school system.
Look, we're the furthest things from Oxford professors, but watching a typical Italian high school student do a simple math problem makes you want to run out of the classroom and drive your scooter off a cliff.
Basically achievements in a typical school course are measured by a year-end examination ("esame di profitto"). Most such exams are oral, which can be frustrating and intimidating, and are graded from 0 to 10 by three incredibly brilliant and compassionate examiners who majored in olive picking or astrology.
What? Che cosa?
Our grandfather says kids are stupid today because they don't go to school.
"They're always on a plane, they go to Monte Carlo, they go to Paris!"
(The kids are going to Monte Carlo instead of school!?)
We asked our grandfather if he went to school:
"I went to school until I was 13 years old, after that my father said it was over!"
(You know, if you read between the lunacy, our grandfather makes a lot of good points.)
"Vaffanculo, this exam is a festival of ignorance."
You need a pencil?
Who do you think you are, Macchiavelli?
"When do they go to school? Those imbeciles!"
"You are not too bright; you have to go to work because you are not going to be a genius!"
"Go to work and produce something!"
"And he was right!"
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