With the beginning of the new year, Southern Italians have a tradition of "out with the old, in with the new" so if your traveling to Italy during the holiday season watch for falling kitchenware as you explore! What do I mean by this..Italians, especially Southern, bring in the New Year by throwing out old pots and pans (sometimes even appliances) into the streets. This act is said to dispel bad luck from the new year...so watch out for those pots and pans.
How many Panettone did you receive over the holidays? As many of you know, I was raised in a traditional Italian family, so over the holiday season we would have dozens of Panettone packages in our house. One of the many Italian traditions would be to bring a Panettone and a bottle of homemade wine when visiting friends and family. Panettone would last for months after that. After a while, just plain Panettone was boring, so we would try to come up with different ways of serving it. Below are some of the more common ways to serve Panettone.....
* Slice of Panettone served with a warm cup of coffee, tea or milk
* make French toast using a slice of Panettone, instead of bread. Serve with a nice syrup
* panettone bread pudding served with a rum sauce
Enjoy that left-over Panettone, brings back a lot of my childhood memories!
As many of you know, Tony and I spent three wonderful weeks in Italy, this fall. I will be sharing some of our adventures with you in the future weeks. We learned many things traveling to Italy, but nothing could of prepared us more than the warm hospitality and delicious food that the people of Italy shared with us! Oh the stories......
Every week we will showcase a different type of pasta that is made at Nicole-Taylor's Pasta Market, along with a recipe we hope you will enjoy. It's winter, so what a better pasta to begin with, Bucatini.
Bucatini are sometimes referred to as "garden hoses" not only for their hallow, tubular shape but because they are hard to control on a fork. I love their chewer texture. Great with a heartier sauce such as meat, mushroom or even carbonara. Below is a simple recipe for Bucatini All'Amatriciana (this recipe is an adaption from my favorite Mario Batali cookbook "the Babbo Cookbook").
3/4 lb. pancetta, chopped
3 garlic gloves, thinly sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
Kosher salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cup Nicole-Taylor's Marinara sauce
1 lb Nicole-Taylor's Bucatini
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
Pecorino Romano, for grating
*Boil water, add 2 Tablespoons salt, for pasta.
*Place pancetta, in sauté pan and cook over medium heat until most of the fat has been rendered from the meat. Remove, discard some fat, leave enough to coat garlic, onion and red pepper. Return pancetta with vegetables and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper, add marinara sauce, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
*cook Bucatini in boiling, salted water until al dente, about 4 minutes. Add to simmering sauce. Add parsley and toss to coat. Top with Pecorino. Serve immediately.
I'm excited about all the new projects that we are about to launch at Nicole-Taylor's within the next few weeks. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for further information.
On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers during my recovery from surgery. The good news is that my surgery was a success and no follow-up is needed!! I am back at the shop full time, so that makes me very happy, stop by and say hello.
Thank you all for your support and let's make 2014 a great year....I'm ready to have the Italian in me unleashed! Rosa
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