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"Buon Giorno! Come sta?" Greetings to all our special subscribers from Angela's oregano farm!

This week's Italian recipes:
  -Antipasto Pasta Salad
  -Bruschette con Chickpea Puree e Arugula
  -Gamberi e Piselli Risotto

Give them a try this spring season!

We hope you enjoy the recipes in this week's issue and the complimentary news article report from "Only In Italy.com".

Thanks again for subscribing!

Yours Truly,              
Angela Reina       

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Recipe: Antipasto Pasta Salad

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb rotini (corkscrew pasta), freshly cooked to tender, rinsed under cold water, and drained
1 (12-oz) jar marinated artichokes, drained and chopped
1 (12-oz) jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
1/2 lb mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 lb thinly sliced sweet soppressata or salami, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 lb Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and chopped (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Directions:

Whisk together red-wine vinegar and olive oil in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature. Makes 6 main-course servings.

That's it!

Recipe: Bruschette con Chickpea Puree e Arugula

Bruschette con Chickpea Puree e Arugula

Ingredients:

For toasts:
6 (3/4-inch-thick) slices of bread from 1 (7- to 8-inch) round country loaf
2 tablespoons olive oil

For topping:
1 (19-oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (2 cups)
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Chopped arugula salad

Directions:

Make toasts: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Arrange bread slices in 1 layer on a large baking sheet and brush top of each with 1 teaspoon oil. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes.

Make chickpea purée: Slip off skins from chickpeas with your fingers (discard skins). Blend chickpeas, water, oil, lemon juice, and salt in a food processor until very smooth (mixture will appear whipped).

Assemble bruschette: Spread toasts with chickpea purée and serve topped with arugula salad.

Cooks' note: Chickpea purée can be made 2 days ahead and chilled in an airtight container. Bring to room temperature before serving. Makes 6 first-course servings.

That's it!

Recipe: Gamberi e Piselli Risotto

Gamberi e Piselli Risotto

Ingredients:

3/4 lb medium shrimp in shell (31 to 35 per lb), peeled, deveined, and shells reserved
7 cups water
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup thawed frozen baby peas (5 oz)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups Arborio rice (9 oz)
3/4 cup dry white wine

Directions:

Bring shrimp shells and 7 cups water to a simmer and keep at a bare simmer, covered.

Toss shrimp with 1/2 teaspoon salt, then chill, covered.

Toss together peas, chives, zest, and pepper in a bowl. Cook onion in butter with remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt in a wide 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add rice and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Increase heat to moderate, then add wine and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in 1/2 cup simmering shrimp broth (pour through a sieve, then discard shells) and cook, stirring constantly and keeping at a strong simmer, until most of broth is absorbed.

Continue cooking and adding broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until rice is tender and creamy-looking but still al dente, about 18 minutes total.

Add shrimp and pea mixture and continue to cook, stirring and adding more broth as necessary, until shrimp are just cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. (You may have some broth left over.) Season with salt and serve risotto immediately. Makes 4 main-course servings.

That's it!

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Only In Italy!

"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:

Italians Told to Stop Moaning.

ROME (Reuters) - January 30, 2005 - Italy's transport minister has refused to take the blame for traffic chaos which has caused misery for hundreds of people stuck on snow-blocked motorways, and has told people to stop complaining.

Some people were trapped for days as an unusually strong snowfall brought parts of southern Italy to a standstill. The opposition accused Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi of failing to deal with the problem and called on him to resign.

Lunardi rejected such calls on Sunday and said Italians should stop complaining and blaming the state.

"We need to cure the Italians of their childish illness -- moaning," he told Libero newspaper.

"The state cannot prevent exceptional snowfalls, even if Italy is the country of the sun and people think they have the right to have the snow melted immediately by the authorities."

Although Deputy Prime Minister Marco Follini apologized on Friday on behalf of the government, Lunardi said he would not say sorry. "I am not apologizing. The government has managed the emergency well, there have been no victims."

By Sunday, the authorities finally reopened a major motorway between Salerno and Reggio Calabria which had been blocked for four days as snow continued to fall.

"Looney Lunardi" This is a man who doesn't understand he has trouble understanding.

The Italian infrastructure gospel according to Lunardi:

In a novel road safety measure Italy aims to raise the speed limit on some motorways to 93 mph, despite having one of Europe's worst records for accidents. The transport ministry says higher speeds improve traffic flow and help motorists pay attention. Lunardi: "All psychologists and doctors say people who go faster drive better and are more careful," Only 9% of fatal accidents were caused by speeding, he noted. "Where it is safe to go faster, it is the right thing to do." He's absolutely right but how do you get a Fiat 500 over 50 mph.?

After 2000 years of uncertainty, Italy committed itself to building the world's longest suspension bridge, a mega-span linking the mainland to the island of Sicily across the torrid straits of Messina. Lunardi declared that the first stone of a bridge dreamed of since Roman times would be laid by the end of 2004, or perhaps early 2005. Lunardi: "The whole thing should be done within five or six years," Lunardi said of a project set to cost 4.6 billion euros ($4.3 billion) and described by some as a white elephant in waiting. Five to six years? Even the Mafia in Sicily and Calabria are scratching their heads trying to figure out how they'll pay off politicians, threaten people, siphon off the construction funds and build the stupid thing in such short time.

The Mafia is expected to take its usual 5% or 10% of the billions of dollars that the Italian government plans to spend on contracts to improve road access to southern Italy. Lunardi: "The Mafia has always existed and will always exist, unfortunately it's there, and we have to learn to live with it," he said. This is a minister that would have been best friends with Emperor Caligula!

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