I thought it might be fun for the brothership to share our favorite recipes. You know people by what they like to eat.

Here's something I grew up on, and to this day I prefer it for breakfast to almost anything else:

Mozarella en Carozza (aka Italian Toast)
Pronounced by the thalo family something like:
MootzarELL-en-GarOTZ

Ingredients:
Day old or stale good italian bread, cut into 1" slices

3 or 4 fresh large eggs, beaten with a splash of milk

FRESH mozarella cheese (the kind that comes packed in water, either cow's milk or bufala,) sliced.

Olive Oil for frying (usually NOT extra virgin. In our family it was always regular grade Filippo Berio (the one on the far right.)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Instructions:
Beat the eggs and milk. Soak the bread in the egg mixture. Heat a cast-iron skillet and add olive oil. Don't be too stingy with the oil, at least a Tablespoon or two. Add the egg-soaked bread. You're basically making french toast. When the first side is crispy golden brown, you turn and add the cheese slices to the top. Immediately COVER and slightly reduce heat while you cook the second side. You want the bottom as golden brown as the top, but you want the cheese to melt.

Serve immediately, with plenty of salt and pepper.

In a pinch, you can substitute regular rubber grocery store mozarella, but then I'd advice buying it shredded, or shredding it yourself.

Crap Settler's Pie

The crust:

Combine two heapin' spoonfuls of wishful thinking with as much dough as you can muster.
Add one teaspoon of RDF powder (baking powder will do in pinch) and let rise, balloon, and otherwise bloat.

The filling:

Lots and lots of sugar. Add in slices of any highly colorful fruit. Animated kiwi seems to work rather well.

Combine in a dish and half-bake in an oven for 12 years (remembering that hours are days and months are years).

[Seriously, thalo. I'm not much of a cook. But it would be interesting to see who the secret Magic Chefs are out there. You're obviously one of them.]

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Garnish with shiny glitter before serving.
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LMFAO!
Serve with chilled designer water.

Warning: eating crap settler's pie may cause anal leakage in digikids.

Thalo, your Mozarella en Carozza will be my dinner tonight. Thank's for this mouth watering recipe

If you where not such a bar cruiser, you could win my heart with great Italian cooking . My late husband was Sicilian and quite a cook, much better than I.

I also have a few recipes to share coming up soon.

This recipe sounds yummy.

quote:

Prosciutto-Wrapped Peaches

Time: 10 minutes

4 ripe peaches
¼ pound prosciutto.

Halve and pit peaches. Cut halves lengthwise into thirds. You should have 24 wedges. Tear prosciutto into 24 pieces (lengthwise is best) and wrap each slice around a peach wedge.

quote:

eating crap settler's pie may cause anal leakage in digikids.

Like they would notice?
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quote:

Cheese on cheese. Gee whiz...

Cheese Whiz?
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I don't have recipes, as such, but let me give you of few of my habits and idiosyncrasies concerning food. It may end up making me sound like Howard Hughs, but what the hell.

When I make cold cereal for myself (usually Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Life, or Raisin Bran) I put a couple of ice cubes in the bottom of the bowl because I like my cereal cold. I sometimes will even put the bowl in the freezer for a couple minutes for pre-chilling. And I keep the cereal boxes in the refrigerator.

I put a little plain yogurt (not always, but sometimes) over my rice and stir-fried veggies. Try it. You'll like it.

And surely a perversion to any Italian, I don't just pour the spaghetti sauce (Classico -- pretty good stuff in a bottle) over the spaghetti. I mix them both together thoroughly, then serve. I have an Italian aunt, so I know what is supposed to be proper...unless she was from a part of Italy that just did things their own way, and I suppose that would be very Italian as well.

I pour off most of the oil from Adam's peanut butter (the natural stuff) instead of mixing it all in. Yeah, sometimes that peanut butter at the bottom of the jar can turn into a paste, but it's still good.

Surely I'm not the only food freak.

Oh baby, I like the sound of those prosciutto-wrapped peaches. Gotta try that.

I use fresh figs, when they're available. But it's so hard to get them. The fig season is so short, and I can't get a straight answer from the produce guys when it is. Never thought to use peaches, which are more plentiful in summer.

thalo's Prosciutto wrapped figs

Ingredients:
6-8 Fresh ripe figs. That's fresh. Green. Soft. Not dried. Rinsed and blotted dry with paper towels.

1/4 lb. Prosciutto di Parma. Accept no substitute.

Instructions:
Cut prosciutto slices lengthwise in half.
Cut figs into wedges. Wrap with strips of prosciutto. Secure with decorative toothpick.

quote:

Thalo, your Mozarella en Carozza will be my dinner tonight. Thank's for this mouth watering recipe

If you where not such a bar cruiser, you could win my heart with great Italian cooking . My late husband was Sicilian and quite a cook, much better than I.

Let me know how it comes out, Sister Freebird! It's just a simple peasant dish, but if the ingredients are good, it's poetry.

Italian cooking is one of my passions. Way more than bar cruising, lol. But I'm irish-italian. The irish half has to find the occasional pint of Guinness and tell stories, the italian half has to cook and tell stories... with my HANDS, lol.

quote:

I pour off most of the oil from Adam's peanut butter (the natural stuff) instead of mixing it all in. Yeah, sometimes that peanut butter at the bottom of the jar can turn into a paste, but it's still good.

Surely I'm not the only food freak.

No, I do exactly the same thing with the natural peanut butter that I buy. If any of you have heard of the Trader Joe chain, their store brand is what I get. After I pour off the loose oil on top, I stir it up so whatever is left will be mixed in; then I put it in the fridge right away so any remaining oil doesn't drift upwards again. This makes it less dry at the bottom.

BTW, when you were kids, did any of you EVER hear of anyone who was allergic to peanuts? I NEVER heard of peanut allergies until the last few years. Can you believe that some schools have banned peanut butter sandwiches--a staple of American kids--because supposedly some kids can go into shock at the very smell of it? Did you ever hear of this when you were young?
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No, I do exactly the same thing with the natural peanut butter that I buy. If any of you have heard of the Trader Joe chain, their store brand is what I get. After I pour off the loose oil on top, I stir it up so whatever is left will be mixed in; then I put it in the fridge right away so any remaining oil doesn't drift upwards again. This makes it less dry at the bottom.

Good tip, Markle. And glad to see I'm not alone in my oil fetish. And really, the peanut butter doesn't loose a thing without all that oil, in my opinion. I recommend Smucker's strawberry jam, but no doubt there are some super-premium brands (or even home made) that are even better. I know one premium brand of jam that I've seen is Smass-wype. And you know what they say, with a name like Smass-wype, it has to be good.

BTW, when you were kids, did any of you EVER hear of anyone who was allergic to peanuts?

No, I never heard about anything like that when I was a kid. I ate peanut butter all the time and look how I turned out. Well, on second thought.

Food allergies are certainly a real phenomenon, but from what I understand, this part of this phenomenon is that people (including me) tend to eat the same foods over and over and over again. That is apparently one way to develop an allergy. Eat a variety of foods. That's the ticket.

I pour the oil in peanut butter off too. Just to cut down a bit on the calories. But I save it for stir-frying.

As for mixing sauce with pasta, no, that's the true italian way. You cook the pasta most of the way then drain and toss it in the sauce, OVER HEAT, to cook it the rest of the way, and let the flavors in the sauce absorb into the pasta. Just putting sauce on top is an advertising convention for TV commercials, nothing more. It's supposedly prettier.

The perversion to any italian, really, is sauce in a jar.

thalo's basic marinara sauce

Ingredients:
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes (Tuttorosso is a good brand, available at most grocery stores)
1 medium can tomato "sauce" (Hunts, Contadina, generic, whatever)
water
Olive Oil to taste
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
pinch fennel seeds
dried oregano to taste
fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped... to taste

Instructions:
Heat a large heavy saucepan, and cover the bottom with olive oil, don't be too stingy. Sprinkle in a pinch of fennel seeds.
Sautee onions until translucent and just barely starting to turn golden. Add garlic and sautee for a minute or two. Do not brown garlic.

Add tomato products and stir. Pour some water in one of the cans, about half a can, and rinse the cans, pouring the water back and forth between them, to get every bit of tomato. Add this water to the pot.

Season well with salt and pepper. Be sure to add enough salt. In doubt? That's what tasting is for.
Rub a palmful of dried oregano between your hands, and add, stir.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to LOW and cook for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. You can put a loosely-fitting lid on top to prevent spattering. Sauce should just barely simmer, not boil explosively.

About 15 minutes before serving, stir in the fresh parsley.

A versatile pasta sauce. Keep it on hand. Freezes well. Good for homemade lasagne and pizza too.

You can take a couple of cups of it, and throw in a can of clams with juice and a little more olive oil for red clam sauce. You can brown some chopped meat (beef and/or pork and/or veal) and add some of your basic sauce for a bolognese meat sauce. You can brown good italian sausages and cook them in the sauce for a while.

Soon I'll give you grandma thalo's meatball recipe. Out of this world.

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Here's a recipe for--of all things--FRUITCAKE, that came over the internet a few years ago. Must have been during the holiday season.


1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped nuts
1 gallon wine

Sample the wine to check for quality.
Take a large bowl.
Check the wine again to make sure that it is of the highest quality.
Pour 1 level cup and drink.
Repeat if you're not sure.
Turn on the electric mixer and beat 1 cup of butter in a large bowel.
Add 1 tsp sugar and beat again.
Make sure the wine is still okay. Cry another tup.
Turn off the mixre.
Break two legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Mix on the turner.
If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the wine again to check for tonsisticity.
Next sift 2 cups of salt, or something. Who cares.
Check the wine.
Sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add 1 table. Spoon. Of sugar or flour or something. Whatever.

Grease the oven.
Turn the cake pan to 350 degrees.
Don't forget to beat off the turner.
Throw one bowl out the window.
Check the wine again. Go to bed.
Who the heck likes cruitflake anyway?
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Oregano? I don't like oregano in a pasta sauce. It makes everything you put it on taste like a pizza. To me, it doesn't belong in a sauce meant for macaroni or spaghetti.

My grandmother on my mother's side was from Italy. She made a delicious sauce. Just perfect! It is basically your recipe, but flavored only with onions, flat leaf parsley, salt, and just enough sugar to kill the acidity without being able to taste any sort of sweetness from the sugar. Then you slow simmered it for a very long time, more than an hour, stirring and tasting until it tastes right. To avoid unwanted spices "sauce" makers throw in their products use tomato paste instead of prepared sauce.

To this day, because I've been so spoiled by my grandmother's sauce, whenever anyone serves me some bright red concoction and beams that "you can really taste the freshness of the tomatoes" I wonder to myself why they served me raw, uncooked sauce.

quote:

Originally posted by thalo:
As for mixing sauce with pasta, no, that's the true italian way. You cook the pasta most of the way then drain and toss it in the sauce, OVER HEAT, to cook it the rest of the way, and let the flavors in the sauce absorb into the pasta. Just putting sauce on top is an advertising convention for TV commercials, nothing more. It's supposedly prettier.

Correct! You figure that people started serving nude, unflavored pasta due to advertising? Probably. It's why they do everything else, including electing senators and presidents.

Oh yeah, feel free to swap the oregano for either just the parsley, or some basil. Even some fresh basil, though I'd add it near the end like the parsley. Personally, I'm crazy about oregano, it's one of my favorite herbs... but it's "to taste" which means you can leave it out if you want. Recently my uncle has gone on a no-oregano kick. I think it's because he is starting to eat in more cutting-edge italian restaurants than I do.

There's so many different kind of tomato sauces. What most "gourmet" restaurants serve now is called a "fresh" sauce... or a "fast" sauce. It's light, tends to be cooked very quickly, and be only flavored with garlic and maybe basil. It's nice, sometimes, but to me nothing beats a slow-cooked sauce. Restaurants prefer the fast sauce because it's cheaper to produce. But to me it always tastes uncooked too.

Actually, I think these lighter "garden fresh" sauces work better on pizza than they do over pasta. I like sauce without oregano on pizza. If I feel the pizza needs oregano, I'll sprinkle it on afterwards. But for myself, I tend to use my basic marinara for both pizza and pasta because I'm lazy.

A "Ragu" is a different animal. That's where you usually start with meat. It's a slow cooked sauce, and most people use some paste both as a thickener, and to give a more slow-cooked taste. My advice for paste is, use it sparingly, and always add extra water if you use it. Treat it like a concentrated tomato product, and sauce extender, which it is. It's basically sauce that's been "cooked down", reduced. A cheat. A way to add a reduction to your sauce, without slow cooking yourself. If you need a LOT of sauce, say for lasagne, paste and water is a good way to make a bigger batch, so your lasagne noodles aren't too dry.

I'll occasionally add a handful of sugar to my sauce, if the tomatoes are particularly acid, or my onions haven't released enough sweetness. But I consider that another cheat or shortcut. I'd rather find a brand of tomatoes with a consistent sweetness, or get the sugar from the onions.

I think the nude, unflavored sauce is a function of the restaurant business. Speed and economy of preparation, and the trend toward letting fresh flavors be a part of the taste of the dish. Old-school, slow-cooked things are too labor intensive.

Take vegetables, too. An italian family will cook the living crap out of sauteed peppers and onions (for sausage and pepper hero sandwiches)... they'll be cooked very soft, the onions will get color, there'll be color on the peppers. That's when they're perfect, melt-in-your mouth. But a yuppie California place will leave some crunch and freshness to them. They'd consider the peppers and onions the way my family does them as WAY overcooked.

But that's the italian way. Eggplant parmesan? You cook the eggplant to mush with lots of oil or forget it, don't bother having eggplant. If an italian or italian-american wants fresh garden veggies, they'll put them in a nice salad.

Brother Markle, The fruitcake recipe is a riot.

Oh speaking of wine, red wine can be used in tomato sauce to adjust acidity too. I think most people do it for show. I'd rather drink the wine while cooking. In my family we have a set of "italian wine glasses" which are totally rule breaking, anathema to the idea of drinking wine. A good wine glass needs a bowl for the aroma of the wine to collect in. It needs a stem. Which is why italians use these pitiful little juice glasses. I have no idea where that came from. Just to be different, maybe. If I ever wanted to crack a bottle of wine with grandpa thalo, he'd bust out the goofy little "italian wine glasses" and I'd be hunting for a more conventional wine glass. Now that he's gone, I sometimes drink the wine in the stupid little juice glass. Crap settler that I am.

thalo, the Mozarella en Carozza (aka Italian Toast), made for my dinner last night, came out scrumptious and most satisfying. I will certainly add this recipe to my list of comfort foods and quick meals.

Do also like your recipe for marinara sauce, (ah, I love fennel seeds and lots of garlic). Flat leaf parsley is aka Italian parsley being suited for individual tastes since some Italians prefer basil instead. I grow my own basil and to come is a simple pureed basil leaf sauce with olive oil, fresh grated parmesan cheese,olive oil and salt and pepper to serve over pasta.

The idea of using sugar to balance the acidity of tomato sauce is an excellent addition. Also a teeny pinch of cloves will give a nice flavor to the sauce.

Here is a simple Sicilian garlic bread recipe:

1 loaf of sourdough French bread
6 large peeled garlic cloves
1 cup of freh grated parmesan cheese, ( you may substitute the grated store bought, but the fresh is better)
1 cube of butter
1 cube of margarine

melt the butter and margarine together on very low.
Split the sourdough French bread lengthwise and toast to a deep golden brown in the broiler of your oven.

Take out the toasted two halfs of bread and rub into same the garlic cloves. They will melt and disappear into the bread. Continue by sprinkling the parmesan cheese equally over the garliced side of the bread, heat the margarine and butter until very hot and than pour slowly over the cheesed bread, until absorbed. Wait approximately 2-3 minutes and than cut the bread into slices and enjoy. Simply heavenly and fattening, but who cares at such a moment of bliss.

Am waiting for grandma thalo's meatball recipe. Was going to give mine, but I bet they are very similar. (is as an ingredient fennel seeds?).