As usual, it was my husband who wanted to get this “gadget”, and as usual I’m glad he just went ahead and bought it.

The brand of the scraper which I’m featuring is OXO which I personally like.

I tend to like their products because OXO seems to do real well at designing products which are ergonomically pleasing – such as hand grips.

I also own an OXO cheese grater which is really nice and comfortable to use, but I’ll save that for another post.

This item meets those specifications with it’s ends tapered to make the grip more natural and comfortable.

First off, this pastry scraper does alot more than work with pastry.   I’m not a baker and my attempts to make homemade pasta a weekly routine seem to have fallen flat (not giving up though), but I’ve used it for other uses which I’ve listed a few below:

• Scraping up chopped or diced veggies in one big swoop.    Works especially great for onions which I want to get in the pan as quickly as possible.
• Scraping biscuits and yes pasta.   For the times I have done baking with pastry, this scraper has really helped lift the dough better than my fingers.
• Yes, it also chops!   Is it as good as a sharp knife?  No, not at all.  But it has helped with cutting through items like when I made some homemade pizza dough.   You know when making pizza dough, you typically divide the dough in half.   I used this chopper to do so and it worked great without getting stuck on the dough.

It’s currently $10, and I think it’s a good buy.   We keep it in our utensil drawer and it does indeed come in handy!  You can get it on Amazon and shipping is free when your order is $25 or more.

Enjoy!

Broccoli and Pasta

Let’s be honest, if you hate broccoli… I’d skip this recipe and instead visit my other Italian recipes.

Broccoli, although loaded with amazing nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese and folate, just doesn’t have that flavor that makes your knees go weak as you dramatically exclaim, “Oh Mamma Mia!” when you take that first bite.

That’s not saying broccoli doesn’t have flavor.  It sure does… it’s just that the flavor is… well, broccoli.   And either you love it, hate it, or are simply just okay with it.

This recipe is for anyone who doesn’t hate it and hopefully that includes you. With most broccoli dishes, you can’t pull one over on those who make revolting facial contortions simply at it’s mention… not an exaggeration, as my own father does this all the time.

I’ve pulled other goodies over on him, but never would I try broccoli.

Broccoli with Pasta – serves 6

As with most true Italian recipes, it’s the simplicity of the fresh ingredients that make Italian cooking really pop.   This recipe is no exception.

Just a few simple ingredients are involved and they are:

• 2 heads of broccoli cut into small florets
• 4 cloves of thinly sliced garlic (okay two for the more timid)
• Extra virgin olive oil (about 3 Tablespoons – just keep the bottle on hand)
• Grated Romano Cheese
• 1 lb Pasta (long or short)
• 1/4 cup Pasta water reserved
• Red pepper chili flakes (optional)
• Salt & Pepper

Time frame required:  20-30 minutes max

Follow these steps and you’ll have dinner on the table in no time:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil
2. Meanwhile wash and trim the broccoli and cut them into small florets
   TIP:  For some of the stalks, you can shave off the outer part and then dice them in small pieces
3. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan  (I used our 5.5 qt. Cuisinart French Classic Tri-Ply Stainless pan which I love!)
4. Add in the sliced garlic and saute for about 3 minutes until fragrant
5. Add in the broccoli and about 1/4 cup water (this is not the reserved water mentioned above)
6. Add a pinch of salt and stir occasionally
7. Add pasta to the boiling water and cook according to directions
8. Meanwhile, cook broccoli until tender – a bright green.  You do not want these mushy – you want them with some crunch
9. When the pasta is done, transfer pasta to the large frying pan and mix with the broccoli (if you have to drain the pasta – don’t forget to reserve 1/4 cup of the water!)
10. Serve on plates or pasta bowls, and top with the grated Romano cheese and pepper flakes for those who like some spice.
    TIP: Use the reserved pasta water if the pasta is too dry.

The Point of Reserved Pasta Water

This type of cooking of vegetables and pasta is very common – just look at pasta primavera for an example.   However, sometimes it’s easy to either cook too much pasta, or not enough veggies and the pasta can get too dry.

Therefore, adding the ”reserved pasta water” is key to adding some moisture, but not diluting flavor.  If you use regular water, you lose some of the flavor.

The pasta water has the pasta flavor because of the starch, so it blends nicely into the cooked pasta and vegetables without tasting too watered down.

Modifications

To add some variations to this dish you can include additional vegetables such as asparagus, red peppers, or anything else that might float your boat.

On the other hand, you can also cook up some chopped chicken breasts and add that in as well.  Just make sure to cook the chicken separately and add it to the broccoli only once it is cooked through.

 Side Dishes

Cherry Tomatoes

For this recipe, I’d recommend some fresh Italian bread along with a chopped tomato salad mixed with fresh basil and/or balsamic vinegar.

I hope you enjoy this recipe – and as always feel free to post your feedback!

For more recipes like this, make sure to visit our recipe box and sign up for my newsletter!

Molto Grazie!

Liz
www.simpleitaliancooking.com

Spring seems to pass by before anybody notices, blurring the chilly days of winter with the blazing heat of summer.

Children get out of school and are playing outside just in time for the ice cream trucks to begin making their rounds.  Even the smallest toddler quickly learns that the music blaring through loudspeakers means a treat is coming.

It’s Ice Cream Truck Season!

With very few exceptions, the options offered by ice cream trucks are fairly limited. Fluorescent ice pops and shaved ices, ice cream treats and the towering swirls of “custard” are familiar to all.

Novelty wins out over common sense the first few times the truck drives past.  Before long, the chemical aftertaste and inflated price sticker are the only things remembered.

Back to Basics

Vanilla is used as a synonym for boring by many people, but the truth is that good vanilla ice cream is the rule of thumb for testing an ice cream maker’s skill. Good vanilla ice cream should taste intensely of vanilla, ideally with flecks of vanilla beans and a sweet aroma.

A cone of filled with high quality vanilla needs no garnishing, but rolling briefly in Deruyter Chocoadehagel Puur (Dark Chocolate Sprinkles), is delicious. These imported sprinkles have a minimum of 35% cacao solids, guaranteeing a real chocolate fix in every bite.

Don’t Feel Guilty

Ice cream may be a treat, but there’s no reason it needs to be full of chemicals. Making homemade ice cream gives more control over the ingredients.

Consider using a gelato maker or simply using gelato as an ice cream alternative with its lower fat content.  Pastured cream and milk and fresh eggs with deeply orange yolks are full of fat soluble vitamins that are important for health, so there’s really no need to feel guilty about eating it in moderation.

One of the most entertaining parts of making homemade ice cream is having the ability to form the still soft dessert into different shapes before hardening.

Filling a pie shell, layering between cakes or making ice cream sandwiches with homemade cookies is infinitely easier when the filling is pliable.  The soft ice cream also adheres to the baked part of the dessert more easily than when hard ice cream is used.

Another Frozen Dessert

Gelato, the low fat Italian ice cream, is easy to make with a home gelato maker.  This ultra smooth frozen dessert gets its distinctive mouth feel from the high speed freezing process.

Quick freezing keeps the ice crystals small and prevents too much air from being incorporated into the mixture.  Fresh fruit and milk based gelato should always be eaten within a day or two of freezing.. what a hardship!

Ice Cream Beverages & Toppings

Ice cream or gelato floats are classic summertime drinks. Coke and root beer are perfect partners for vanilla ice cream, but there are more exotic pairings for the more adventurous. Ginger beer’s spicy kick goes nicely with mango ice cream. A scoop of chocolate ice cream in stout makes a refreshing adult drink with a thick, creamy head.

Don’t let summer by without indulging in ripe berries. Slice berries, lightly sprinkle with cane sugar and chill for a few hours. Serve the berries and syrup over sliced pound cake with butter almond or butter pecan ice cream.

Topping with freshly whipped cream and toasted, chopped nuts takes the classic dessert to new heights.

Ice cream – Italian or American – is delicious any time of year, but there’s nothing quite like eating it in the summertime.  Whether dessert is an elaborate layered dessert or a simple ice cream cone, ice cream is sure to please.

This was a guest post, if you would like to guest post, please send an email to:  contact(at)simpleitaliancooking.com.   You can view guest posting guidelines here.

The Meat Lover: teased by friends for needing meat with every meal, scorned by an entire community of vegans with bones so brittle they break when they laugh too hard, and tormented by doctors for having high cholesterol levels.

Meat Lovers are usually a bit more robust than others, and in a heartier way: they laugh harder, drink darker beers and finer wines, and are just a plain joy to be around.

After all, what’s more fun than hanging around someone who’d rather have a turkey leg in their hand than a cell phone?

Gregarious as they are, though, the Meat Lover is actually a sensitive soul, and is by very definition your good friend. They don’t like seeing you down, they hate sad movies, and if you ever need anyone to come to your defense, they’re usually the first in line.

But, the Meat Lover is a special breed. While they love all meat, to them, nobody does meat better than they do; they love nothing more than standing over a blazing hot grill or temp-controlled smoker on a Weekend Afternoon, smelling the smoke as the fat douses the coals beneath. That’s their Six Flags; their Mardi Gras; their… vacation and dream all wrapped into one.

They’re really not hard to please, so you can get them pretty much any gift come their birthday or anniversary. But, why not give them a gift that is near and dear to their hearts? Something that’s not a belt, or a package of undershirts, but a gift with some real meaning? Something like:

1. A MEAT GRINDER

Telling the Meat Lover in your life you trust them with grinding their own meats for sausages and hamburgers is unadulterated carnivorous flirtation: they’ve always wanted to grind their own meats, but were afraid to tell people, worried they’d be teased for going ‘too far.’

There is no ‘too far’ for a Meat Lover; they want to get down and dirty with their own meats, exploring as many new ways to cook and prepare them as possible, and getting them a grinder is your telling them, ‘Hey: Go for it!”

And with the grinder, be sure to include varying Meat Grinder Plates(the disks with the little holes through which the ground meat passes), a stuffing tube (the thing they use to push their cubed meat through to the grinding worm that drives the meat to the knife and plate), and some hog casings packed in salt.

Yes, fresh casings are preferred, but kept in salt, they last longer, and it will take some time for the Meat Lover to build the courage to actually try grinding their own meat.

2. A CHART SHOWING FROM WHERE THE CUTS OF MEAT COME

Meat is more than food to The Meat Lover, it is a passionate fascination and hobby; in fact, ‘Meat Enthusiast’ may be the more appropriate term.

Much like the grinding mentioned above, the Meat Lover will eventually entertain the notion of one day buying an entire side of meat and cutting it to their own liking. You can’t fight it; that’s just the natural progression of things.

Giving them a meat chart will allow them something to reference in case they ever decide to take that next step.

Plus, they don’t put this thing on their Christmas lists or tell anybody about it because they’re afraid people will think they’re crazy. If you give them one of these, this will be you telling them you understand, and they will forever love you for it.

3. A GIFT CERTIFICATE TO THE LOCAL BUTCHER SHOP

Getting your Meat Lover a fifty- or sixty-dollar gift certificate to the local butcher is better than giving a kid free range at a candy store.

True, gift certificates are usually the most impersonal thing you can do for someone, the equivalent of saying, ‘Here, you go get it.’

But with a gift certificate to a local butcher shop, they can go and get cuts of meat from right off the animal and talk to their Meat King – the Butcher – about different ways to prepare their fresh cut.

No other place offers Meat Lovers the opportunity to talk shop like this, and they are sure to get more out of it than a simple shopping trip.

Plus, there is the added bonus of the chance that the Butcher will… offer them a tour of the shop.

Showing them the process from pasture to plate is every Meat Lover’s Valhalla, and something they’ll never forget.

Even if they used to be Butchers themselves, the Meat Lover misses that job, as nothing else offers that kind of satisfaction to them.

Heck: it might even bring a tear to their eye.

4. A GOOD MEAT THERMOMETER

Internal temperature is everything to meat, as it determines its texture and the consistency of its fat content. All those different meat preparations – rare, medium-rare, etc. – are all separated by just a few degrees.

If someone says they like their beef steak medium-rare, they want it between 135 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit; let that sucker slip up to 141 degrees, and you’re playing with Medium Land, and a dinner of half-smiles and resentment.

A good meat thermometer takes out all the guesswork, and when inserted into the meat, leaves only a small, insignificant hole. Why’s that important? Well, Mister Vegetarian, that’s important because cooking seals in the meat’s juices, and the trick is to keep them in there without letting them escape.

If you cut into your steak to check its doneness, you break that seal, and allow the juices to escape. A simple hole poked into the top won’t free too much moisture, and it will give the cook an idea of precisely when to remove the meat for serving.

Affordable and practical, this is a ‘Can’t Miss’ item for any Meat Lover.

5. FLEUR DE SEL

French for “The Flower of the Sea,” this salt is simply sublime. Cultivated from the ocean, sea water is dried out in large salt pans and a salt begins to form. Fleur de sel is quite literally the cream of the salt, as it is hand-harvested from the top of the salt layer before it sinks to the bottom of the pan.

Salt

While it can be used in cooking, it is at its best when used as a garnishing salt over freshly grilled meats. Since it is already pretty moist, it won’t dissolve easily on the meat, leaving a slightly crunchy yet ever-so-lovely saltiness on the palate of the person lucky enough to be eating that steak.

The Meat Lover knows this, and is (or will soon be) well aware of its effects. While some Fleur de Sel salts are gray in color, some can be pink, and others are a wonderful snow white.

Whichever one you get them doesn’t matter; when using a pinch over freshly grilled or broiled steak, each will take the meat from sublime to ethereal.

So, there you have it: 5 things you can get any Meat Lover in your circle of friends that will make them feel special, and endear you to them forever.

(And get you a nice steak in the process…)

This was a guest post, if you would like to guest post, please send an email to: contact (at) simpleitaliancooking.com. You can view guest posting guidelines here.

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