Baked Pumpkin and Brussels Sprouts Rigatoni

This time of the year I find I am drawn to write more about recipes as I spend more time at home trying out new recipes that there never seems to be enough time for in the summer. I also find that many recipes are predicated by what's on hand or what is begging to  be used up. The garden provides a fair amount of winter veggies in such abundance that new recipes are definitely in order. Back in the autumn when I saw this recipe on one of my favorite TV cooking programs,  for what seems to me to be an adult version of macaroni and cheese, I knew I was in. I just happened to have an excess of pumpkin and this years crop of Brussels sprouts was abundant, which just happened to be two of the main ingredients of this pasta al forno, which is what oven baked pasta is called here. 

I do like creamy cheesy baked pasta, but  the thought of replacing some of the cheese with pumpkin or winter squash for a creamy and rich sauce that's not too much. This version is a tad lighter yet satisfyingly scrummy. I find this is a great way to use up odds and ends of cheeses and different varieties of pumpkin or squash. Its just good if you have a soft disintegrating variety of pumpkin and one that holds its shape, for added interest in this mix. Caciocavallo cheese is very much like provolone and yet I found other cheeses work quite well also. So if you don't have  the exact ingredients, don't hesitate to sub something that you prefer or have on hand. That's most of us do anyway, so feel free to use this as a framework for making a comforting pan of cheesy pasta and vegetables. I am sure you will agree. 

Mix and adjust the pasta to your taste

The pumpkin seeds add a great dimension of texture and flavor

Baked Rigatoni with Winter Squash and Brussels Sprouts 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

10 oz / 300 g pumpkin Kabocha or other meaty winter squash, cut into cubes 1 leek, cut into slices

2 bay leaves

3 T olive oil, extra virgin

1 3⁄4 c / 400 ml milk

10 oz / 300 g pumpkin Delicata, cut into pieces

4 T pumpkin seeds, divided in half

3.5 oz /100 g parmesan, grated

10 oz / 300 g cacio bucato or caciocavallo or provolone or whatever cheese you would like

7-8 oz / 200g ish Brussels sprouts, trimmed, washed and cut in half. 1# / 500 g of rigatoni

Pumpkin oil

salt

Method:

Place two tablespoons of olive oil and leek, in a saucepan.

Saute` slightly and then add the Delicata pumpkin pieces and season with some salt. Cover and cook over low heat, until the pumpkin is soft.

In another saucepan, place the pumpkin pieces with milk, half of pumpkin seeds, salt and bay leaf, Simmer for about 12 minutes on medium heat until the pumpkin is soft.

Remove from heat and keep warm.

Mix with an immersion blender, ( I would do this after the pasta is done)

Stir in half the cheese and half the grated parmesan.

Cook the pasta in salted water, I cooked about halfway before adding the brussel sprouts.

The original recipe add them together at the same time. I just preferred the sprouts to not be overcooked.

to which will be added also sprouts

Drain the pasta al dente, Toss the pasta and sprouts in a bowl with the the pumpkin cream.

Add the pumpkin stew and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Mix well.

Place it in a 9x13 baking pan (I lined the pan with parchment paper )brushed with pumpkin oil. Top the pasta with the grated cheese and sprinkle the other pumpkin seeds

Bake at 375* -400*F (200 °C ) till bubbly and top has browned.

Adult Mac and CheeseDon't you just love the crispy bits on top? I do.

Hazelnut and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Here's an easy condiment that you can whip up in minutes when you have all of the ingredients on hand and will be such a welcome addition or finishing touch to so many dishes, you might just want to have a jar of it in the refrigerator at all times for adding that little pizzazz that lifts your dish from ordinary to extraordinary. Really!

Red, White and Blue Crostini

I came across the recipe as an addition to a grilled cheese over at "Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet" blog  and it was love at first bite. Since I live in the land of hazelnuts here Piemonte, and they just happen to be my all time favorite nut, it didn't take me long to whip this pesto up.  I am able to get soft and salty sun dried tomatoes at our Pinerolo market, straight from the producers in southern Italy. They are a delightful treat that I find more versatile than the ones in the oil. Naturally if you don't have access to hazelnuts, almonds or walnuts can step in with a different twist but tasty no less. If using the tomatoes in the oil, I would drain the oil and measure it for the oil that you would be using in the recipe and maybe use a bit less. 

Chunky version hazelnut tomato pesto

The first time I made this I blended the tomatoes with the oil and everything else but the nuts first to a rough stage before adding the hazelnuts so that I had larger pieces of nuts, which I found to be an unexpected crunch that I really appreciated. This last time  when I made it I chucked everything into the small hand blender's food processor attachment and blended it all up making a very smooth paste. Not sure which I prefer. It's a bit like smooth or crunchy peanut butter. Sometimes one is preferable and other times you just want the other. 

Ricotta and Hazelnut Tomato Pesto Farinata 

I have used it on top of a celery stick filled with a bit of mascarpone cheese, farinata (which is a chickpea pancake Ligurian specialty) that has had ricotta smeared on top and the pesto on top of that, crostini, with ricotta or other soft spreadable cheeses and as a great substitute on your favorite burger, meat or veggie or lifting an ordinary sandwich to new heights. The list is endless. I have yet use it on pasta cause I am usually too busy dunking my grissini in it. It is a perfect picnic addition as we found out one afternoon.

Picinic fare

When the weather isn't cooperating, all you need is to make a batch of this pesto and it'll feel like the sun is shining on your palate and what could be better than that?

The smooth pesto version 

I've slightly adapted the recipe and you should too to what ever you have on hand, but if you can find hazelnuts, or filberts, the domesticated American variety of hazelnuts, you will find them worth seeking out. Now get in the kitchen and mix up a batch!

Hazelnut and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Ingredients:
3/4 cup raw, whole hazelnuts, shelled
3 ounces sun-dried tomatoes, cut up
1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons light brown sugar
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Optional: a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to brighten the flavors slightly, being carrel not to add too much so that it covers the subtle hazelnut flavor

Instructions:
Preheat a small skillet over medium-high heat. 
Add the hazelnuts.
Toast the nuts in the dry heavy skillet, tossing occasionally, until they start to pick up color and are fragrant, approximately 7 minutes. 
Remove from heat, allow to cool without picking up too much color and set aside.
Combine all the other ingredients in a food processor and process until relatively smooth. Add the reserved hazelnuts and process further until the hazelnuts are chopped, but the "pesto" maintains a chunky texture.
Cover and refrigerate for a few hours before use to give the oil time to rehydrate the tomatoes. 
Stir before use. 
Will keep, refrigerated, for well more than a week. 

Chunky style

Cheese every which way

Calling all cheese lovers!
If you have a special place in your heart for all things creamy, sharp, pungent, smelly, gooey, crumbly, unusual and downright intriguingly tasty; then the Slow Food Festival of Cheese, held in Bra, Italy every other year, is for you!
We enjoyed the extravaganza of cheesey offerings this festa had to offer. If you could wade through the mob to get to the samples, there was plenty to keep you wondering just how there be so many variations on such a simple list of ingredients, milk, cow, sheep or goat, a curdling ingredient or two, some flavoring from the vast array that nature has to offer and only seems to be limited by one's imagination or sheer necessity. The depth and breadth of the types of cheeses makes me proud to live in a country and region in particular that takes it's food so seriously. It is certainly a celebration of diversity.
It was a great day out and we made a sweep down to the Barolo wine region to see a bit more around, and add a few richly flavored Piemonte wines to compliment all of the wonderful cheeses after our outing. Nothing like the Barbera, Nebbiolo and Barbarescos wines to help balance and digest all those rich cheeses. Piedmont has so much to offer.

One other highlight of the day was getting to meet Rowena of the always interesting blog,
Rubber Slippers in Italy, her charming husband and the adorable and very photogenic Maddie. Rowena even was wearing the famous Hawaiian style slippers of the blog. It was all too brief trying to meet and play tour guide to my family in a very crowded festival. Perhaps we'll meet up again sometime when we're on our own.

So mark your calender for 2009 for a not to be missed edition of "Bra Cheese Festival'!

Club Papillon hosts "Golosaria" at the Stupinigi

Or........how to make a glutton of yourself yet again!

On a warm and slightly hazy grey type Sunday afternoon, what better way to enjoy your day than a food festival Italian style. Yesterday we made our way to the Stupinigi Hunting Palace heading in from the mountains to just outside of Torino. We were off to see and sample yet more of Piemonte's delicacies as well as see our friend Enrico, be recognized again by the "Paniere" designation, guaranteeing that his families very wonderful Bernard Mountain Elixirs, Genepy and Barathier are the superior products that they are and a typical product of the Provincia of Torino. Our B&B Bella "Baita" (beautiful mountain house/cabin) is located in the mountains of our good sized "county" if you will, looking across the valley to Val Germansca where the Bernard family have been making their tasty products for over 100 hundred years supporting their family and the mountain culture that surrounds these highly alcoholic mountian flower and herbal infusions. All the locals swear by the restorative powers of these drinks, good for absolutely everything that ails you, as well as a good ole welcome drink or after dinner digestivo that this part of the world is so very fond of.
There was a great turnout for this event and it has continued on today showcasing so many wonderful gustatory treats. Hand made pastas, salamis, cheeses, cookies, spreads of of everysort, grissini breadsticks and my personal favorite, a very long crispy flatbread named, "lingue di Suocera" or mother in laws tongue. We enjoyed a bit of Christmas shopping that we know will be appreciated.









"Club di Papillon"(or club of the Bow Ties) who hosted this event, is an organization dedicated to the preservation, education, promotion and support of typical Italian cuisine. The guiding energy behind and out front of this organization is the highly regarded journalist, author, TV food critic and "bon vivant" Paolo Massobrio, Mr. Bowtie himself. He opened the event with a splash of celebrity with the grandson of the Ferrari car designer, Pininfarina and a bevy of dignitaries helping to cut the opening ribbon. (so that's who was driving the beautiful Ferrari parked out front!) The drinking and eating had already been well underway but now continued on to a new level of frenzy. Later, sated with oh so tasty samples of just about everything and washed down with delicious Barbera and Dolcetto wines, some of the darlings of Piedmont varieties, and groaning under the many purchases, we made our way home. Too tired to have a tour around the hunting lodge, although there was a steady stream gathering every hour to see how the royal "Savoy"family lived way out here in the country all those years ago. From the looks of all the old businesses just around the lodge, I don't think they wanted for any of their "golosso" (greedy) urges to go unsatisfied. Apparently 5,000 visitors yesterday didn't either! The gluttony continues on today till 6 pm.. Not to be missed.

More Tales about Slow Food /Terre Madre

As I was searching for a Terre Madre link I found a web site from University of Maine "Enviromental Sustainability Project"They had delegates go to Terre Madre in Torino and filed a lovely story about their "farm stay"
while they were attending the conference. It's a great story and for me exemplifies what the whole experience is about in the words of an attendee/delegate.
They also did a fine job describing Terre Madre and it's aspirations and how it fit into their vision. I am quoting their statement about how they view the Terre Madre endeavor.
"Terre Madre was the first meeting of "world food communities". The idea of Carlo Petrini and others at Slow Food was to bring together food communities producers, artisans, distributors and retailers of high quality sustainable produced food ... people working together with the goal of trying to create sustainable food systems. Over 5000 farmers from 131 different nations came together to discuss the benefits of local food systems. The overriding message of the meeting was that small sustainable organic farms provide quality food, keep the money in the local community, and maintain the landscape, all key goals of the Environmental Sustainability Project." For me another memorable quote was from Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame and pioneer in her Edible Schoolyard Project. Speaking about her efforts to bring about a similar project to Italy's Salon del Gusto in the US and calling it "Slow Food Nation"(obviously as a counterpart to "Fast Food Nation"), she said (and I'm paraphrasing) that we need to get the message out that "Slow Food" is not a exclusive high end dinner club, but a viewpoint and lifestyle about sustainabilty thru how and what we eat, purchase and live our life.
The 300 Presidia products on hand for the show are defended and promoted by the Slow Food Foundation's "Ark of Taste" commited to preserving biodiversity. These were some of the most fascinating products I've seen.

"The mission of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is to organize and fund projects that defend our world’s heritage of agricultural biodiversity and gastronomic traditions.

We envision a new agricultural system that respects local cultural identities, the earth’s resources, sustainable animal husbandry, and the health of individual consumers."

Ruby red aubergine the size of tomatoes and Seras cheese born in and still made in the Torre Pellice valley next to ours ,that is distinctive for is natural wrapping of grass, just to name a couple. The colorful peppers of Carmagnola just out on the plains from us that we so enjoy all winter in our brightly colored bottles of agrodolci pepperoni and the highly aromatic pepperonata that is so dear to Fabrizio's mothers heart!

More "Slow Food" Pictures

Terre Madre

The Slow Food movement has grown over the years and shifted its focus more and more to an international stage, moving in several different directions trying to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we live. They have established a university to further the educational opportunities to encompass many of the slow food princlples, preserving and ecouraging food diversity and heritage foods on a global scale. Terre Madre was born out of a desire to facilatate bringing far flung people and food communities together to work towards a connectedness thru common goals of preserving superior quality foods and sensible economic growth thru systems that are sustainable for the planet and its inhabitants. This second edition brought together approximately 5, 000 people from around the world to share their ideas and connection to strengthen the network of food communitites. Many guests from remote corners of the world were sponsered to make this trip to participate and share their native products and methods. It was a bazaar of colorful foods and peoples from all over the globe. A feast for all the senses. There were representatives from 5 continents in festive native costumes and fascinating traditional foods from their homelands. Latin America was represented with colorful potatos and tubers sliced into very tasty crispy chips. I particularly enjoyed the Yak cheese from Tibet made by the monks. It was flavorful with great texture and aroma. Another personal favorite of mine is the vanilla from Madagascar. Aromatically tantalizing, what pastry enthusiast can be without it?
Many of the groups brought handicrafts to display and sell. It was really almost overwhelming to take it all in, but I didn't mind trying. Continuing on to the Presidiums area, it was fascinating to see all the foods that Slow food is trying to help defend and preserve their place in the world market place. Many foods were familiar but there were quite a few that I had never seen or heard of before. I loved these samll brilliant red aubergine/eggplants the size of a medium tomato. I've never seen anything like it. It was a food lovers dream to wander about sampling and chatting about so many diverse foods all in one place. What can I say, you might want to try and make a trip to the edition in 2008. And of course, you might even want to stay with us at Bella Baita Mountain Retreat up in the mountains outside of Torino for a bit of diversity as well. Oh well time to contemplate that for another 2 years.....