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"Casa sporca, gente aspetta." (A messy house invites unexpected guests.) Welcome to another recipe edition from Angela's Organic Oregano Farm!

This week's Italian recipes:
  -Vegetable Broth
  -Tagliatelle with Scallops, Cream and Saffron
  -Potato Gnocchi with Pesto Sauce

"Buona sera!" Yes, it's been a tough winter but spring is just around the corner, folks. We're slowly getting it together but we'll soon be ready to hit our farm fields! And yes, it's good to be alive! Enjoy this week's recipes.

Thanks again for subscribing!

Yours Truly,              
Angela Reina       

Vegetable Broth
Brodo Vegetale

Ingredients:

3 carrots
3 celery stalks
2 medium zucchini
2 tomatoes
1 large onion
10 cups water
Salt to taste

Directions:

Wash vegetables, peel onion and cut the vegetables into small pieces.

Add vegetables to a medium pot with water and place on medium heat.

When water begins to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered about 1 hour.

Season with salt.

Line a wire strainer with paper towels and strain broth, a few ladles at a time, directly into a large bowl. Makes about 2 quarts.

Note: If you are not planning to use broth immediately, cool it at room temperature. It can then be refrigerated for a few days or it can be frozen.

That's it!

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Tagliatelle with Scallops, Cream and Saffron
Tagliatelle con Capesante allo Zafferano

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound scallops, the smallest you can get
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups whipping cream
Pinch of powdered saffron
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 pound Tagliatelle pasta

Directions:

Melt butter with the olive oil in a large skillet.

When butter foams, add scallops.

Saute over medium heat until scallops are lightly golden, about 1 minute.

With a slotted spoon transfer scallops to a plate.

Add garlic to the skillet and stir once or twice.

Add wine and cook until the wine is almost all reduced.

Add cream and saffron.

Cook, over medium heat, 4 to 5 minutes.

Season lightly with salt.

Return scallops to the skillet and cook 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Stir in parsley.

Meanwhile fill a large saucepan two-thirds full with salted water.

Bring water to a boil and add the pasta.

Bring water back to a boil and cook pasta uncovered until 'al dente'.

Drain pasta and place in skillet with the sauce.

Toss pasta with the sauce over medium heat and serve at once. Makes 4 servings.

That's it!

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Potato Gnocchi with Pesto Sauce
Gnocchi di Patate col Pesto

Ingredients:

2 lbs prepared potato gnocchi
1/2 cup pesto sauce
10 whole walnuts
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano cheese

Directions:

Chop walnuts very fine.

Fill a large saucepan two-thirds full with salted water.

Bring water to a boil.

Add olive oil and gnocchi.

When gnocchi come to surface of water, cook 10 to 12 seconds.

Remove gnocchi with a slotted spoon or strainer, draining against side of saucepan.

Place on a warm platter.

Add butter, Pesto Sauce and chopped walnuts; mix gently.

Serve immediately with Parmigiano cheese. Makes 8 servings.

That's it!

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Dolce per la Festa! This gift of great Sicilian taste is sure to please. Our cookie tray is filled with a scrumptious assortment of our best selling Italian and Sicilian cookies arranged on a golden cookie tray (Santo Trio Almond, Sicilian Orange Almond, Pistachio, Amarena, Buccellati and Sesame Seed Cookies). No preservatives, additives, artificial colors, or flavors. "My mouth is already watering... Last time, I was bringing some to party, but due to weather, it was rescheduled for a month later... I froze the cookies and took them out the day of the party. The cookies never made to dessert time... Everyone kept sneaking into the kitchen to steal them and by the time dinner was over...no more cookies! Thanks for making such a great product." Michele N. (Howell, New Jersey) Come visit the bakery at CookiesFromItaly.com!

"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, a sample of today's edition:

Italian TV Anchor Records Foreign Correspondent Blues Album

Naples - February 24, 2012 - A veteran Italian television news anchor with a passion for the blues released an album on Friday in which he riffs on his assignments from the Iraq war to the Madrid train bombs to protests in Iran.

Neapolitan Sandro Petrone, a former folk singer in the 1970s who now works for public television channel RAI 2, has filled his album "Last Call: Notes from a Correspondent" with blues, swing and ballads looking back at his career.

"I want to see the world from the mountains of North Tehran, I want to cry blood on the tracks of Atocha, I want to spit sand on the streets of Nassiriyah before the time comes," he sings in one number entitled "Coming Home Blues".

The 12 songs contain extracts from reports and letters by the correspondent from various parts of the world, including Brazil, Iran, Iraq and Liberia.

Petrone returned to music "to express more clearly what he wants to say about lands in tumult, about men and women in tumult, about himself in tumult," said his website filled with pictures of the crooner performing.

"Maybe journalism is more powerful but the art of music can finally reach some hearts," the note said. "When he left music and Naples to be a correspondent and not a singer, the music stayed with him as a companion."

Eh, no offense but we can't stand Napolitano records...which should be of no surprise to any of our readers. (No, sorry. We did not soul search during our extra long hiatus.)

We always get these Napolitano CDs as cheap presents (or as a goof) and we have to constantly throw them out. In fact, my hand hurts from constantly throwing these CDs out.

And, "minchia", why do all Napolitani songs sound exactly alike? We don't know why they put pauses between the songs. It should just be one giant song about Mamma, misery and death.

However, in all fairness, "Last Call: Notes from a Correspondent" must be a brilliant compilation of hits. It had to be produced by the Napolitano, George Martin. Unfortunately, we won't be able to find the time to buy and critique the songs (not even at gun point).

"Petrone returned to music "to express more clearly what he wants to say about lands in tumult, about men and women in tumult, about himself in tumult..." Hmmm...sounds like he is referring to Iran, Iraq and Naples. We've heard about plenty of tourists in tumult after visiting the third land in particular.

And what a coincidence. Foreign correspondents from these countries felt the same way when they came to do a news piece on Naples. One of them had to be inspired to write a blues record too.

"Last Time: That This Correspondent Visits Naples"

"I want to see the world from the mountains of garbage..."
"I want to cry blood after eating hot chili peppers and taralli..."
"I want to spit sand on the streets when I see her with more food caught in her teeth...than I eat the whole day..."
"La-laaa, La-laaa..."

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Recipes

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 Cauliflower and Lamb Pie
 Couscous with Vegetables
 Gnocchi with Mushroom Sauce
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 Orecchiette with Red-Wine Veal Sauce
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