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"Non affoga colui che cade in acqua - ma affoga chi male incappa." (Who falls in water doesn't drown - but who falls badly will.) Welcome to another recipe edition from Angela's Organic Oregano Farm! This week's Italian recipes:
We sincerely hope all our subscribers and their families enjoy their recipes. Thanks again for subscribing! Yours Truly,
Linguine with Calamari and Garlic
Ingredients: Directions: Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until 'al dente', stirring occasionally. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Meanwhile, heat reserved oil from anchovies (about 2 tablespoons) in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add calamari and toss just until opaque, about 1 minute. Add garlic, crushed red pepper and crushed anchovies with capers and stir 1 minute. Add white wine; boil until sauce is slightly reduced, about 3 minutes. Mix in basil. Add pasta to mixture in skillet. Toss until heated through and sauce coats pasta, adding reserved cooking liquid by tablespoonfuls if pasta seems dry, about 2 minutes. Divide pasta and calamari between 2 plates and serve. 2 servings; can be doubled. That's it!
Shrimp and Crab Cannelloni
Ingredients: For the Cannelloni
1 and 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
Directions: Prepare the sauce:
Add onions and garlic and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Mix in fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes with their juices, basil, thyme, oregano, bay leaves and crushed red pepper and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced to scant 5 cups, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Working in batches, puree sauce in blender; return to same pot. Add cream and vinegar and simmer 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate. Prepare the cannelloni:
Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; saute until onion is tender, about 6 minutes. Add shrimp; saute just until opaque, about 3 minutes. Stir in basil, oregano and crushed red pepper. Cool. Mix ricotta, provolone, and Parmigiano cheeses, crabmeat and shrimp mixture in bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in egg. Butter 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread generous 1 cup tomato cream sauce in bottom of dish. Drain lasagna noodles; trim to 8-inch lengths. Spread scant 1/3 cup shrimp filling over each noodle, leaving 1/2-inch border on all sides. Starting at 1 short end, roll up each noodle jelly roll style. Place in prepared pan, seam side down. Pour remaining sauce over cannelloni. Cover with foil. (Can be made 1 day ahead; refrigerate.) Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake foil-covered cannelloni until heated through, about 45 minutes. Serves 8. That's it!
Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons hot water
Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Blend flour, brown sugar, cornstarch, 1 tablespoon espresso powder and salt in processor. Add butter and vanilla. Using on/off turns, process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add nuts; blend until finely chopped. Transfer dough to floured work surface. Knead just until dough comes together. Divide dough in half. Press each half into 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Bake until deep golden brown, about 25 minutes. Transfer shortbread to rack; cool 2 minutes. Remove pan sides. Cut each shortbread round into 24 wedges. Cool completely. Mix 2 tablespoons hot water and remaining 1 teaspoon espresso powder in small saucepan. Add chocolate. Stir over medium-low heat until chocolate is smooth. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Drizzle chocolate mixture over cookies. Let stand until chocolate sets. (Can be prepared ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week, or freeze up to 1 month.) Makes about 4 dozen. That's it! Printer Friendly Version :: Submit Your Thoughts
"Only In Italy" is a daily news column that translates and 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, a sample of today's edition: Tomb Raiders Resume Shoveling Rome - October 14, 2008 - Tomb raiders have made a surprise comeback on the Italian art trafficking scene, art police said Tuesday. Presenting a report on thefts and recoveries in the first nine months of 2008 to Culture Minister Sandro Bondi, art police chief Gianni Nistri said that after years of decreased activity, tomb raiders had illegally dug up relics at 53 archaeological sites in Italy this year. But Nistri said that the number of thefts was nevertheless down since 2007, with a provisional total of 13,403 culturally important items stolen and 784 thefts of artworks reported. The nine-month period showed an "extremely considerable" improvement in the recovery of stolen artifacts with over 48,000 items seized both in Italy and abroad, Nistri said. The value of goods retrieved also increased compared to 2007, at around 80 million euros for artifacts of cultural relevance, 30 million euros for counterfeit works and another 16 million for other types of confiscation. Congratulating the art police on their work, Bondi said they deserved their international reputation and served as "a model for other countries". "Sta pippa", it's amazing the leaning Tower of Pisa hasn't been dismantled and smuggled out of the country yet.
Unfortunately, the illicit trade in stolen Italian antiquities is allowed to flourish because dealers, collectors and museum curators have persuaded governments around the globe to turn a blind eye.
Italy's tomb raiders, the "tombaroli", with their shabby clothes and broken fingernails, wait for dusk to ramble through the hills and valleys of northern Lazio and Sicily, scanning the terrain for a bulge, an indentation, a type of flower, anything that might give a clue to the ancients. The most important tools of their trade are:
- matches (to test for the presence of toxic gas in the tombs),
They probe the earth, and where it hits something solid, they dig.
The "Nonno" (grandfather) of Lazio's tombaroli is a 66-year-old, mint-sucking, chain-smoking, Viterbo native called Antonio.
Nonno Antonio: "I am not a criminal," he said. "I find things and I sell them. You should not judge us - without us, these things would stay underground." Antonio has, he estimates, ransacked 2,200 tombs in his career - "mostly Etruscan, they're shallower - the Romans I'm leaving to future tombaroli".
The Italian keystone cops: "The only way to stop those guys is to hide a man behind every bush every night, and we can't afford to do that. To convict, we need to catch them red-handed, which is almost impossible. If the tombaroli see us coming, they drop everything and say they were out for a walk." His superiors felt that, in the absence of better resources, it was more productive to concentrate on burglaries and speeding tickets than on the elusive tombaroli.
WARNING: Tourists looking for black market bargains have been known to be conned by tombaroli who lead them to tombs where they place cheap vases two months earlier.
"What a magnificent amphora, Signore Antonio! - Grazie! Thank you! Merci! Danke!"
"Uh, what is the cultural significance of the symbols "P.R.C." on this amphora...you grandissimo figlio di una meretrice?"
"Only In Italy" Subscribe for free and day in and day out, 5 days a week, you'll have laughter, tears and intelligent commentary all blaring at you from your stupid little monitor. Click Here to Subscribe!
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