Pasta Fagioli!

Pasta Fagioli!!! I will admit when you are on a budget but want to eat something comforting and yet impressive pasta fagioli with mussels is you answer! Made with beautiful cannelini beans that have been soaked over night ( or even canned ones) and a variation of mixed pasta, garlic, onions, a few little crushed cherry tomatoes for color, and mussels. This dish does not necessarily always have to have mussels but it adds intense flavor and you'll never want to eat it with out them again. My mother makes this with mussels and leaves them on the shell which is also very good but....my Zia Maria in Italy showed me an extra step that does basically knock your socks off!!!! She takes each mussel out after they have opened and once she has them all in a bowl without the shells once the pasta fagioli is ready to serve she takes a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil in a small pan and adds the mussels for a few second just until you here them sizzle!! Pour the pasta fagioli in the pasta bowl add the mussels with the delicious aromatic olive oil and some parsley and you have dish to remember!

Refreshing Salmon!

When I'm in the mood for salmon I can't think of a better match then pairing it with some fresh beautiful mint leaves from my herb garden on my balcony =) The sauce I created for salmon just made sense to me, in a food processor mix yogurt, garlic, dijon mustard, salt, lemon, and a generous bunch of mint leaves. Serving this sauce cold with seared or poached salmon is exactly what I crave during hot summer days!
P.S. I like to serve this in a deep dish with a spoon so that every single bite of the salmon is swimming in this mint yogurt delight! But of course thats just me  ;)

RAGU!!

AHHH RAGU!!!!! What can I say about this classic sauce!! There are so many ways to make this and with so many different meats, my favorite is short ribs or ox tail.  This is the kind of sauce that you want to start early and on very low heat all day! To make ragu you want to make sure you use strained tomatoes! Some people use onions and garlic others just use garlic and some use red wine or even white wine, again many different family recipes for ragu. The way I make it is with garlic, onions, and red wine.
To serve this comforting sauce my favorite pasta is paccheri pasta or rigatoni as shown. However, somewhere in the middle hidden there is a wonderful scoop of delicious ricotta cheese!!! Heaven!!!!!!!!!


P.S. When making ragu don't forget to make eggplant parmeggiana with this delicious sauce!!!

Roasted Peppers!!!

I can't even express how delicious & inviting my home smells when I put bunch of beautiful vibrant colored peppers in the oven to roast! I do this on Sundays when I make ragu, my husbands favorite. They're roasted until the skin is black so I could peel them. The natural oil and juices from the peppers are so incredibly sweet that with only a few ingredients (olive oil, garlic, olives, capers, & a hint of salt) you have tantalizing side dish that could make headlines on its own!

Spicy Shrimp and Cherry Tomatoes!

 I absolutely love this dish and every ingredient must be respected and have their center of attention when cooking! The garlic, the tomatoes, the shrimp, the peperoncino flakes, the white wine, and the parsley! I also cannot express the importance of investing in an aromatic beautiful bottle of extra virgin olive oil!

Limoncello!!!!

Limoncello, South of Italy's treasured drink!! Made from the most beautiful lemons I have ever seen. I love making limoncello, its a project we do as a family during holidays or even when we just run out. I am always looking for beautiful bottles to put it in as they are great gift for your friends. Made with 100% grain alcohol and the aromatic lemon peels (very important to invest in good quality lemons as unfortunately we do not have those famous lemons from the Gulf of Naples)! An absolute citrus delight after dinner!

Bolognese!!! Bolognese!!!

Ground sirloin, carrots, celery, garlic, onions, nutmeg, tomatoes and you have the base ingredients of comfort delight!!! Remember to add lots of Parmeggiano-Reggiano to this classic sauce originating from beautiful Bologna!!!

Linguini with Mussels???

Is there a rule that linguini must be married to clams??? Here, I have twist on the classic traditional dish linguini with clams.....instead why not with mussels? Quite exquisite I might add as well as appetizing to the eye!!!