01/14/09 Shrimp and Crab Cannelloni from OreganoFromItaly.com
Italian Cookie Gifts Shipped Worldwide! Imagine the look on that special someone's face when they receive your homemade Italian cookie gifts, made to order, fresh and…straight from Italy! These gifts of great Sicilian taste are sure to please.
"I received my cookies and they are wonderful. I've been serving them to my friends and they think they're the best they've ever had. I served some to my 91 year old uncle who is Italian (as we all are) and he ate as many as he could and took the rest home. He said that at Christmas he doesn't want cigars, he just wants a box of your cookies. Ciao!" Mary Lou K. (Binghamton, New York)
"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:
-Linguine with Calamari and Garlic
-Shrimp and Crab Cannelloni
-Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread Cookies
Thanks again for subscribing!
Yours Truly,
Angela Reina
Recipe: Linguine with Calamari and Garlic
Linguine with Calamari and Garlic
Linguine con Calamari e Aglio
Ingredients:
1/2 lb linguine
4 rolled anchovies with capers, from 2-ounce tin; anchovies crushed, oil reserved
1/2 lb cleaned calamari (squid), thinly sliced crosswise
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves or 1 tablespoon dried
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!
Recipe: Shrimp and Crab Cannelloni
Shrimp and Crab Cannelloni
Cannelloni con Gamberetti e Granchi
Ingredients:
For the Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 and 3/4 cups chopped onions
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 lbs plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
One 28-ounces can Italian-style tomatoes
1/3 cup (packed) chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
For the Cannelloni
16 lasagna noodles (preferably 3 to 4 inches wide)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 and 1/4 cups chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
12 ounces uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, chopped
5 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 and 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
3/4 cup grated provolone cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
6 ounces fresh crabmeat
1 egg, beaten to blend
Directions:
Prepare the sauce:
Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat.
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:
Cook noodles in pot of boiling salted water until almost tender. Drain. Cool in bowl of cold water.
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!
Recipe: Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread Cookies
Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread Cookies
Biscotti di Nocciola e Caffe
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons hot water
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
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
"The bowls have arrived. They take my breath away. So beautiful! Thank you so much for your above and beyond effort to make our wish come true." Marie and Richard F. (Phoenix, Arizona)
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:
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),
– a torch,
– a shovel and
– a "spiedo" (a thin iron rod which is inserted into the earth at an angle and twisted until it hits something solid).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?"