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"Fuggi da Foggia no per Foggia ma per i Foggiani." (Run away from Foggia not for Foggia itself, but for the people of Foggia.) Welcome to another recipe edition from Angela's Organic Oregano Farm!

This week's Italian recipes:
  -Stuffed Mushrooms
  -Sausage and Cheese Manicotti
  -Veal Bocconcini with Porcini and Rosemary

Enjoy your recipes with health and happiness!

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Yours Truly,              
Angela Reina       

Stuffed Mushrooms
Funghi Ripiene

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
24 large (about 2 inch-diameter) mushrooms, stems removed and chopped, caps reserved
1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb
1/4 cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup grated Fontina cheese or crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh basil
1 large egg
Additional extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Brush 15 x 10 x 2-inch glass baking dish with olive oil.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat.

Add chopped mushroom stems, fennel, tomatoes, and garlic.

Saute until stems and fennel are tender and beginning to brown, about 12 minutes; transfer to medium bowl.

Cool 10 minutes.

Mix in cheeses, then basil.

Season filling to taste with salt and pepper.

Mix in egg.

Arrange mushroom caps in prepared dish, cavity side up.

Brush mushroom cavities lightly with additional olive oil.

Mound filling in mushroom cavities, pressing to adhere.

Bake until mushrooms are tender and filling is heated through, about 25 minutes, and serve. Makes about 24.

That's it!

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Sausage and Cheese Manicotti
Manicotti di Salsiccia e Formaggio

Ingredients:

For the Sauce and Filling:
12 ounces Italian sweet sausages with fennel seeds (about 3 and 1/2 sausages)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup dry white wine

One 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes with basil
1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
8 large fresh basil leaves, slivered

2 cups fresh whole-milk ricotta cheese or one 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 cup 1/4-inch cubes mild imported provolone cheese (Provola) or sharp domestic provolone cheese
2 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

For the Pasta:
1 pound manicotti (large tubular pasta)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Prepare the Sauce and Filling:
Pierce each sausage several times with tip of knife.

Place sausages in heavy large saucepan; add onion.

Cover; cook over medium-low heat 5 minutes.

Turn sausages over; stir onion.

Cover and continue to cook until sausages release some fat and onion begins to color, about 5 minutes.

Uncover; increase heat to medium.

Add wine and simmer until wine evaporates and onion is golden, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Fit food mill directly onto pan.

Add tomatoes with juices and puree through mill into pan, leaving only seeds behind and scraping all tomato pulp from underside of food mill into pan; or puree tomatoes with juices in processor, then strain out seeds and add puree to pan.

Add crushed red pepper.

Simmer very gently over low heat until sauce thickens and reduces to scant 2 cups, stirring sauce and turning sausages occasionally, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Add slivered basil and simmer sauce 5 minutes longer.

Using tongs, transfer sausages to plate and cool.

Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Place ricotta in medium bowl.

Mix in provolone cubes, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, and black pepper.

Cut sausages into 1/4-inch cubes; stir into cheese mixture.

Season filling to taste with salt. (Sauce and filling can be made 1 day ahead. Cover separately and chill.)

Prepare the Pasta:
Cook manicotti in large pot of boiling salted water until slightly 'al dente' and about 3/4 cooked, about 7 minutes (depending on brand).

Using tongs, carefully transfer manicotti from pot to foil-lined baking sheet and cool.

Brush olive oil over bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish; spread 3 tablespoons sauce over.

Using teaspoon, fill each of 12 manicotti with about 1/3 cup cheese-sausage mixture.

Arrange stuffed pasta in single layer in prepared dish and spoon remaining sauce over. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup Parmesan atop sauce.

Bake manicotti uncovered until heated through and sauce is bubbling on bottom of dish, about 20 minutes.

Let manicotti stand 5 minutes and serve. Makes 6 servings.

That's it!

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Veal Bocconcini with Porcini and Rosemary
Bocconcini di Vitello con Funghi Porcini e Rosmarino

Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 oz (30 grams) dried porcini (1 and 1/2 cups), rinsed
1 and 1/2 cups warm water
One 3/4 lb boneless veal shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
8 soft dried tomatoes (not packed in oil), cut crosswise into 1/8 inch-thick slices
1 (1 and 1/2-inch) fresh red or green Thai or Serrano chile, halved crosswise
2 (4 inch-long) fresh rosemary sprigs
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Soak porcini mushrooms in warm water in a small bowl until softened, about 20 minutes.

Lift porcini out, squeezing liquid back into bowl, then rinse porcini (to remove any grit) and cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

Pour soaking liquid through a sieve lined with a coffee filter or a dampened paper towel into another small bowl.

Pat veal dry.

Toss one fourth of veal in flour.

Heat olive oil in a 4 to 5-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then shake off excess flour and brown veal, turning, until golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl.

Coat and brown remaining veal in 3 batches in same manner.

Add wine to pot and deglaze by boiling, stirring and scraping up brown bits, 1 minute.

Stir in veal with any juices accumulated in bowl, porcini and soaking liquid, cream, milk, tomatoes, chile, and rosemary sprigs and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until veal is very tender, about 1 and 1/4 hours.

Discard rosemary sprigs and chile, then stir in salt. Makes 4 servings.

Note: Stew can be made 1 day ahead and cooled completely, uncovered, then chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before reheating over moderate heat, stirring occasionally.

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:

Mafia Boss Arrested While Listening to Bad Neapolitan MP3s

Palermo - March 13, 2009 - A love of Neapolitan music proved the downfall of a Sicilian Mafia boss on Italy's 100 most dangerous fugitives list who had managed to give police the slip for more than a year.

Investigators burst into an elegant apartment in Bagheria, near Palermo, to find Antonino Lo Nigro, 30, sitting at his computer in a tracksuit and listening to an mp3 file at full volume with his headphones on. Lo Nigro only realized the game was up when a policeman stood in front of him.

He had twice managed to flee from police, first when an arrest warrant for Mafia association was issued in January 2008 and again in July, when investigators caught up with him as he holidayed on the Calabrian coast with a girlfriend.

Police said they were alerted to his presence in Bagheria after noticing an "unusual" number of young people with criminal records visiting the apartment, which was being rented by a 29-year-old woman. The woman, who dropped off several bags of shopping for Lo Nigro minutes before the police bust, was arrested for aiding and abetting.

"Lo Nigro was among the main players in the attempt to rebuild the (Cosa Nostra) hierarchy and he was the boss of a strategic outfit for the Sicilian Mafia," said Senator Giuseppe Lumia of parliament's Antimafia Commission.

"Today's arrest confirms that police and magistrates will continue to work without cease to prevent Cosa Nostra from reorganizing itself".

After the arrests of leading Cosa Nostra figures in recent years including those of Palermo Mafia kingpins Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro in November 2007, police are on high alert for mobsters stepping in to fill a possible power void at the head of the organization.

'Fanculo, what a cacasenno! The battery in his MP3 player is brighter than him.

This goes to show there is a serious flaw with the list of the "10 Mafia Commandments" found at the hideout of a top Boss captured in 2007.

"Police said they were alerted to his presence in Bagheria after noticing an "unusual" number of young people with criminal records visiting the apartment,..."

In order to avoid a repeat of the incredibly intelligent blunder committed by disciple Antonino, whoever the mobster nicknamed "Moses" is will have to hold a counsel to discuss the obvious problem with the first commandment:

1. No-one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.

Hmmm...just imagine the entertainment that goes into worshipping this commandment: Befuddled mob members taking along other mob members as chaperones to visit...another mob member who happens to be a top Mafia boss on the run in a Sicilian city notoriously famous for Mafia activity!

"No, Toto, we weren't tailed...were you?"
"Well, cazzo, SOMEONE was being tailed!"

We would also like to add the illegal downloading of bad Neapolitan music couldn't have helped Antonio Lo Idiot keep a low profile.

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