Here are some stuff I cooked lately. Its spring and I thought it would be nice to focus more on healthy (or somewhat healthy) food for now. I'm actually surprised at how good they are. Not that I'm bragging but I never expected healthy food to be good- I mean look at the cows who only eat grass, do they look happy? (mooooooo). Anyways I made a promise not to write that much for now, will just let the pictures do the talking....enjoy all you foodies out there....

Seafood Risotto






Mushroom Risotto

Polenta with Beef and Tomato Ragu


Fritata Breakfast

Eggplant Timpano Before the Oven

Eggplant Timpano after Visiting the Oven (topped with tomatoes)

More food to come soon.....

The seas and the oceans of the world is home to more species of animals and plants than land. In fact our planet is called the blue planet because it is covered mostly by water. So it is no wonder that the sea is also a source for so many great ingredients and can be an source for a lovely Italian meal.

I am a self confessed meatatarian- I do not usually eat vegetables and seafood. To me leaves and something that does not walk are boring. But again I was dead wrong. Seafood ingredients need to be treated the Italian way- always fresh coming into the kitchen. There is nothing better than tasting the pacific ocean on your tuna steak or the sweetness of the alaskan shores with your scallops. This is what makes fress ingredients great- you do not have to manipulate the flavor that much because it is already rich in its naturally fresh flavor.

Taking on seafood was a bit of a challenge for me and both an eye opener in the end. It allowed me to hone my skill on some cooking methods I don't usually use with meat like baking and pan searing. It also allowed me to practice my knife skills in filleting. I found out cooking seafood is not that hard and not boring at all. The one thing to remember is to make sure your sauce (if ever you are using a sauce) does not over power the taste of your fish, shrimp, scallop or whatever seafood because this defeats the whole purpose of preparing the dish. Seafood ingredients make for a fun dinner also because of the many flavors you can prepare it with. I have tried a very lemony and mild flavored dish, I also tried a tomato based dish and also a balsamic based sauce on a scallop dish. Another thing I realized while cooking these dishes was that my dislike for seafood was based soley on ignorance- i always thought seafood was all about fried fish and steamed crabs but it is more than that. It is way way more than that.

Cooking seafood is about brining out the bounty and the beauty of the sea. It is about showcasing the magic that it holds through the stunning flavors of your dish and the endless platting ideas you can come up with. Since I started cooking seafood dishes I have more respect for those who can do magic with a fish.

What I love to do with pork is braise it...braise it with anything: wine, milk, tomato sauce, broth or any other liquid concoction that enhances its flavor. Braise it until it is tender or until the meat falls off its bone. As a Filipino, I grew up loving pork but only in very limited varieties- mostly the elusive lechon (roast pork), or the pork adobo and pork asado. I never knew though that Pork could be more than lechon or adobo.

Pork may not be in the same level as beef but it does most of the things beef can do. I would not consider it though as a poor man's substitute for beef because there are a lot of pork dishes that are as elegant and expensive as most beef dishes. One thing I like most about pork is how easy it is to manage the meats tenderness. It does not take as much time as beef to achieve the same tenderness. In Italian cooking pork is very common as most peasants find it more affordable than beef. There are also a lot of game variety for pork in Italian cooking.

When you are setting up dinner for friends and family and want to be safe but still impress, then pork is the way to go. The meat is an easy fill for those who are hungry and the sauces you can incorporate with it will satisfy those who are particular about flavor- hell you can even impress your crush with some savvy plating.

The pictures here are some of the pork dishes I have already made before.

Most professional chef's consider chicken as the food of choice for the indecisive. Some even go far as saying that chicken is a boring ingredient. But why? mainly because its just a big piece of white meat with feathers with no real distinct taste/flavor.

The chicken that you eat in Mc Donalds will taste the same as the chicken you eat in your Michelin starred restaurant- let me be clear on this: I mean the chicken itself the meat not the chicken dish. It is not like fish that has so many varieties and each one has its distinct flavor and texture. Hell even beef has its distinct varieties- depending on how it was fed, raised and buthcered.

Chicken on the other hand is plain and simple- thigh, drumstick, wing, breast. This is why chicken has both its mass appeal and its sorry reputation inside a professional kitchen. But I love it.

To me the simplicity and plainness of chicken is what gives it its mass appeal. For someone who loves home-cooking chicken is my best friend because I know from the beginning what the final taste will be. This, however, does not mean that there is no room for creativity with chicken- that is a very bad misconception.

Chicken, due to its simplicity, can carry different kinds of flavor allowing you to be very creative in your sauces. It also gives you room to play around with texture depending on how you cook the meat and with what you baste it with. You can have a very simple Chicken Cacciatora or a very elegant Whole Boned chicken with Beef and Parmesan Stuffing (i will try this soon). There are also hundreds of dishes that incorporate game birds on the dish widening the variety of flavor one can create with chicken or birds. The spectrum of flavor and texture is so wide that I find it so hard to understands why many chef's (even anthony bourdain) find chicken as boring.

The pictures here are some of the chicken dishes I have already made- notice the variety of the sauces incorporated in the different dishes- chicken is a great ingredient, and it can create magic in your kitchen.

Yes, I just called Risotto "food for the gods" and rightly so. No other dish is as simple yet magical as risotto. It is versatile beyond your imagination, it is simple in preparation yet it requires patience and passion. It takes time to cook, but when you eat it you will feel like time stops allowing you to absorb the spirit of its creamy essence. Yes risotto is one of those dish that moves you into an experience- not a meal. It is one of those experience where simple words are not enough to convey its meaning- but you are forced into a prose;

Inside the sweltering heat of the kitchen,
an insolent fool looms over a smoking pot...
stirring, pouring, stirring, pouring- repeatedly.
This cycle of madness religiously followed
without pause, without reflection...
He is driven by the need to follow
to conform to tradition...
Every grain needs to be coated
every drop of flavor reduced to its very essence
until he says- "al dente".
He stops his maddening cycle- in one graceful move
The Risotto is in a plate-
piping hot
every grain of rice rich with cream
the scent announcing its boldness
proudly proclaiming itself king!
The foolish cook stares at its work and says;
this is why I do what I do.

Yes, Risotto is not just rice! Hell rice is not even the main attraction- although it is vital. Risotto is a combination of the type of rice, the cooking method, and the flavor base. It is one of those dishes that I consider as a true reflection of Italian cooking. It is simple yet diverse- you can make meat based risotto, fish based risotto or even fruit based risotto. I have tried many and none is superior over the other. It can have different textures- but the rule of thumb is always that risotto should not be too runny. How will you know if it is the right texture? The cream should still be able to hold the rice together- when your rice is floating your risotto is wrong and when your rice is sticking your risotto is also wrong. The cream should coat the rice grains well and it should be when gives the rice its body.

Now, I keep mentioning cream- please do not get the bright idea that in making Risotto you have to add cream in it. Adding cream in your recipe is dead wrong and an abomination- although some cook-books do suggest it- the author is either stupid or lazy, for sure not Italian. The cream I kept on mentioning is a natural consequence of the cooking method and the rice used. First of all you should only use these types of rice "arborio, vialone, roma and carnaroli." Secondly during the cooking process you have to keep stirring and flipping the rice in your pot to squeeze out its natural cream. This is very important because the cream becomes the vehicle for your flavor base- if you do not successfully bring out the cream your flavor is lost. You have to keep adding broth until the essence of your flavor base is extracted fully. This process is physically tiring that's why some lazy cook-books suggest adding cream- but never listen to them. Like I said earlier about pasta- if you are too lazy to follow tradition then you have no right to cook Italian- just order a take out or go to McDonalds.

The tittle says it all....I love pasta and making pasta is a labor of love.

Now, in Italian cooking you can basically use two types of pasta- homemade pasta or you can opt for factory made pasta. Choosing one over the other depends solely on the pasta sauce you are using. If someone tells you one is always better than the other, that person does not know what they are saying. There are certain sauces and sauce bases that works well with factory made pasta and not so well with homemade pasta and vice versa.

What is the rule of thumb then?

- Factory made pasta works well with sauces that have olive oil as their vehicle, such as seafood sauces and a variety of light, vegetable sauces and some butter-based sauces.
- Homemade pasta works well with most butter-based sauces and sauces that use cream because it absorbs the sauces better than factory made pasta.

This rule should be followed strictly if you want to respect the ingredient and if you want the dish to turn out right. The thing that most people do not understand is that in a pasta dish, the sauce is just the condiment and the pasta the main dish (I heard this from one of my idols Mario Batali). That is why when you are in Italy do not order Meat-ball spaghetti but Spaghetti with Meat-balls (with the meat balls on the side not tossed with the pasta). This very simple idea is the main reason why you have to pick the right pasta for the type of sauce you are using. You should not let the condiment (the sauce) ruin the main dish (the pasta).

Some people say there is really not much difference in the final dish- well to someone not educated enough about Italian cuisine that may be true- but we should all be educated. Most people opt for factory made pasta for all types of sauces simply because homemade pasta is hard to make- my answer to this excuse is "if you do not have enough patience and passion to sweat it out in the kitchen then you have no right calling your dish Italian!" Italian cooking is about passion and patience and respect. Yes I admit homemade pasta is really really really hard to make but at the end of the day it is all worth your time.


Making your own pasta allows you to prepare the dish right because you can adjust the consistency of your pasta to suit your sauce, it also allows you to adjust the thickness of your pasta, and most importantly you are respecting the recipe and doing it right! If you are too lazy to make homemade pasta and the recipe your are planning on making calls for it you have two choices- 1. chose a different dish or 2. go to your local Italian delis shop and buy pre-packed homemade pasta (its the lesser evil).

When you finish cooking the pasta "al dente" do not let it sit in your colander! Most people make this mistake thinking they have to let the pasta cool before adding in the sauce- this is wrong! It is wrong because once the pasta cools it is going to be harder for you to allow the sauce to coat the pasta all over because most of them are already sticking to each other. Secondly a cold pasta does not absorb your sauce that well anymore. When you are preparing your pasta, make sure your sauce is ready and once the pasta is done toss them together right away and serve them hot. It is better for you to prepare the sauce ahead of time and just heat them once the pasta is ready- not the other way around- remember the pasta is the main dish not the sauce. Once served, you have to eat the pasta right away- do not wait for it to turn cold. In Italy it is bad manners to let the pasta cool right in front of you.

These are some of the reasons why this blog is tittled Pasta Amore because you have to treat it with love and respect both as a cook and as a diner.

This post is dedicated to my favorite ingredient- TOMATO. This red plump veggie-full-of-goodness does wonders to your dish. It can accommodate any of your whims in terms of texture, taste, smell and even the look of your final plate. It can be prepared in any way and can be Incorporated in any part of your meal. Tomato is also widely viewed as a staple for Italian cooking so you will see a lot of tomatoes in this blog in the future- this is why it is important to know its history.

Tomato
- scientific name: "Solanum lycopersicum".

Tracing the history of Tomato, one will find a very big surprise- it is not Native in Europe where it is used so much in Italian cooking and Spanish cooking- in fact it is a Native of South America. They say that genetic evidence shows that the modern Tomato's progenitor were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit with a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru. In fact early Aztec writings show that tomato was consumed by their society and was usually prepared with pepper, corn and salt.

There is large disagreement as to how Tomato ended up in Europe, some say it was the explorer Cortez who first brought Tomato to Europe after he colonized the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan (Modern day New Mexico) in 1521. Some say that it was Christopher Columbus, an Italian working for Spain, who first brought back the fruity vegetable as early as 1493. So clearly there is a tug-of-war between Spain and Italy as to who brought it to Europe first, but one thing is settled though, it was Spain who distributed it through-out the world. Using its armada and trading power, Spain distributed tomato through out its colony from the Caribbean to the Philippines. It also became widely used in European cooking because it grew well in the Mediterranean climate. The first cook book to feature tomato as an ingredient was discovered in Naples dated 1692, but even here there is still uncertainty- some people claim that the author got the recipe fro Spanish sources. In Florence tomato was first widely used as a table-top decoration and was not incorporated into their dish until early 18th Century! Imagine eating Tuscany's Ossobuco without Tomato- that would be weired- although they did before they decided to use that tabletop decoration as an ingredient.

Tomato has two very basic flavors- sweet or sour (acidic). Now neither one is better than the other because it will all depend on what you want to achieve in your dish- but most commonly used is sweet. To get the sweetness out of the tomato the best approach is to grill it first before you puree it. Grilling takes away the acidity and leaves you only with its lovely sweetness. It is also a great ingredient to use for braising meat- like ossobuco. If using tomato as braising agent do not grill it, just chop them into small pieces and let it dissolve its juices in your pan. Tomato can also be eaten raw like in many salads. It has so many uses in so many different culinary traditions allowing it to become so widespread.

So, in short, tomato is a vegetable not a fruit.


***References:
- Wikipedia
- Marcela Hazan "Classical Italian Cooking"
- Antonio Carluccio "Simple Cooking"