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"Fatto trenta, facciamo trentuno." (Having made thirty, we should make thirty-one. Said by Pope Leo X on July 1, 1517, when he created 30 new cardinals.) Welcome to another recipe edition from Angela's Organic Oregano Farm!

This week's Italian recipes:
  -Olive Caper Relish
  -Penne with Chicken, Arugula, Roasted Tomatoes, and Mozzarella
  -Pork Loin Stuffed with Mortadella and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Enjoy your recipes with health and happiness!

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Yours Truly,              
Angela Reina       

Olive Caper Relish
Olive e Capperi Salsa

Ingredients:

1 cup pimiento-stuffed green olives (5 oz), rinsed well
2/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives (3 oz), rinsed well
3 tablespoons drained bottled capers, rinsed well
1 and 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano or thyme, crumbled
1/8 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes

Directions:

Pulse all ingredients together in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Makes about 1 and 1/2 cups.

That's it!

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Penne with Chicken, Arugula, Roasted Tomatoes, and Mozzarella
Penne con Pollo, Rucola, Pomodori Arrosto, e Mozzarella

Ingredients:

Three 12-ounce bags cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 large garlic cloves, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
2 cups shredded roasted chicken breasts without skin (from purchased roast chicken)

8 ounces Penne pasta

6 cups arugula leaves
1/2 cup crumbled mozzarella cheese (about 3 ounces)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 475°F.

Mix cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and crushed red pepper on rimmed baking sheet.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake until tomatoes are soft and beginning to brown in spots, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Transfer tomato mixture, including any juices, from sheet to large skillet.

Add chicken to skillet and simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until 'al dente', stirring occasionally.

Ladle out 1/4 cup pasta cooking water and reserve.

Drain pasta; return to pot.

Add tomato mixture, arugula, and reserved 1/4 cup pasta cooking water to pasta; toss over medium heat just until arugula begins to wilt, about 30 seconds.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer pasta to bowl. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and serve. Makes 4 servings.

That's it!

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Pork Loin Stuffed with Mortadella and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes
Lombo di Maiale Ripieno di Mortadella con Patate Arrosto

Ingredients:

For the Pork and Potatoes:
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
3 and 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
5 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 (3 and 1/2-lb) center-cut boneless pork loin roast (4 - 5 inches in diameter), trimmed, leaving a 1/4-inch layer of fat if possible
3 tablespoons black truffle butter*, softened
1/2 lb thinly sliced mortadella
4 lb small (2-inch) boiling potatoes (preferably yellow-fleshed)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For the Sauce:
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon black truffle butter

Special equipment:
Mortar and pestle
Kitchen string
17 by 11-inch flameproof roasting pan with an adjustable V-rack
An instant-read thermometer

Directions:

Prepare the Pork:
Preheat oven to 450°F.

Coarsely crush peppercorns and 2 teaspoons kosher salt with mortar and pestle, then add garlic and mash until a paste forms.

Stir in unsalted butter.

If pork loin has been tied, discard strings.

Put loin, fat side down, on a cutting board lined with plastic wrap.

Butterfly pork in a spiral cut:
Find beginning of a flap on 1 long side of loin (where bone was removed).

Starting at inside edge of flap, make a long cut lengthwise down side of loin with a very sharp boning or paring knife, stopping 1 inch from bottom (this is beginning of spiral).

Turn knife parallel to bottom of loin and begin to cut your way inward (parallel to bottom), keeping thickness of meat as even as possible, using your other hand to gently lift and pull top portion of meat away from knife, until loin is one long flat piece of meat.

Cover pork with a sheet of plastic wrap and pound to 1/2 inch thick with a smooth meat pounder or rolling pin.

Remove plastic wrap and spread 1 tablespoon truffle butter over pork.

Top with half of mortadella, slightly overlapping slices.

Spread 1 tablespoon truffle butter over mortadella, then top with remaining mortadella and spread with remaining tablespoon truffle butter.

Beginning with end that was interior of loin, roll up loin tightly and arrange, seam side down (fat side up), on cutting board. If fat layer is 1/4 inch thick, make very close crosswise cuts in it (about 1/8 inch apart; do not cut through to meat), then tie with kitchen string at 1-inch intervals.

Rub roast all over with peppercorn butter, covering fat layer well.

Put pork, fat side up, on oiled rack in roasting pan and roast in middle of oven 20 minutes.

Prepare the Potatoes:
While pork is roasting, peel and halve potatoes.

Parboil potatoes in a 5 to 6-quart pot of boiling salted water 5 minutes.

Drain in a colander 5 minutes, then toss with oil, rosemary, remaining 1 and 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and pepper in a large bowl.

Remove pork from oven and reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Add potatoes to roasting pan, turning them in pan juices to coat, then roast pork with potatoes until thermometer inserted diagonally 2 inches into meat registers 155°F, 45 to 55 minutes.

Transfer pork to a platter and let stand 25 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 450°F and remove rack from roasting pan.

Spread potatoes out in pan and roast in middle of oven, stirring every 5 minutes, until golden brown, about 20 minutes more.

Transfer to a serving bowl and keep warm.

Prepare the Sauce:
Skim as much fat as possible from pan juices.

Straddle roasting pan across 2 burners, then add broth and deglaze pan by boiling over high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, 1 minute.

Stir together water and cornstarch, then add to broth mixture and boil, whisking, 1 minute.

Remove from heat and whisk in truffle butter.

Discard string, then slice pork and serve with sauce and potatoes. Makes 8 servings.

That's it!

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"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:

Italy Housewives: Home Is Dangerous

Rome - January 13, 2009 - Home is a dangerous place, particularly for women and older people, the Italian housewives association, Federcasalinghe, warned on Tuesday.

Around 3.8 million people are injured annually and 8,000 eventually die as a result of accidents at home, said the association, pointing to statistics by the Institute for Workplace Protection and Security (ISPESL). Italian homes see around 4.5 million serious accidents each year, said ISPESL.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Italy has one of the lowest rates of female employment in Europe, women are almost twice as likely to be injured at home as men, accounting for two thirds of all accidents. Nearly a half of those injured are over the age of 65, said ISPEL, which based its conclusions on information from the national statistics institute, Istat, and government administrative offices.

The majority of injuries were fairly minor, with bruising topping the list at 40%, although Italians also reported fractures (23%) and burns (7%), according to Federcasalinghe. Hands were the body part most susceptible to injury (24%), closely followed by the head (20%) and legs (14%).

The figures were released by Federcasalinghe in a bid to raise awareness about the potential dangers at home and as part of its broader campaign to gain more recognition for the work homemakers, usually women, do at home. The association's president, Federica Rossi Gasparrini, urged the government to invest some of the 180 million euros it spends on accident prevention each year on tackling the problem.

Maria Rosaria Di Summa, of the national work institute INAIL, said there were currently around 2.3 million Italians insured for their work as full-time homemakers. But she said the government should do more to help prevent accidents and support people who choose homemaking as a life choice.

A separate study by economic think tank CENSIS recently concluded that some 4 million Italians suffer accidents at home each year, compared to a million at work and around 300,000 involved in road accidents.

According to the report, domestic risks stemmed mainly from shoddy building work, poor quality products and bad safety practices.

But the report also noted that nearly half of Italians (46.6%) had done something very risky or just plain stupid in the last three months.

"What am I doing?! I'm cleaning again! You came to help or 'rompere le palle'?!"

American women devote just four hours a week to household chores while Italians spend twenty-one on housework. There is just one small problem: Unsurprisingly, Italian housewives are hard to please and that's where part of the danger comes in.

You see, they believe they have to have a different product for every job. Italians ridicule the magical multipurpose cleaners, demanding one spray for windows and another for mirrors.

Six years ago, Unilever launched a spray that promised to clean any surface: FAIL! Procter & Gamble tried to promote a non-rinse anti-dust liquid: FAIL!

Cleaning the floor is an art form that only devoted people like Da Vinci and Michelangelo would understand. And Italy's housewives have no time for over-sophisticated domestic appliances that wash, dry, spin and give cooking tips all in one.

Dishwashers also fail to convince. 31% own a dishwasher...
"Huh? Dishwasher? No-no, grazie! I don't want to wash them twice."

The funny logic behind their complaint is they don't want to rinse the plates before putting them in the dishwasher.

The washing machine is an appliance that should be driven carefully...

It should wash without ruining fabrics!
It should spin, but not too fast! (Piano, slow down, cazzo!)
It should wash all kinds of clothes, but not at the same time!

Then there's the obsession with ironing...
80% of Italian women iron everything that derives from any kind of fabric, including socks, underwear and handkerchiefs.

In the end, Italians devote 21 hours a week to household chores, of which five are spent ironing. Cooking is not included in the total...and it is always healthy and wise to not ask when dinner is ready.

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