This recipe was inspired by this article in The New Yorker. The author, Judith Thurman talks poetically about pine nuts, her secret ingredient.

Our secret ingredient, instead, is Salted Anchovies. And EV Olive Oil, and pasta... Any kind of short pasta will do for this recipe, for some reason, we think that Caserecci was the best match. It serves 5-6 people.

 

Ingredients

500 gr. (1 bag) Caserecci Pasta
1 cauliflower head, medium size
6 whole salted anchovies (12 fillets)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 chopped medium onion
1 cup broth or water
1/4 cup rasins; 1/4 cup pine nuts; 1/4 cup homemade breadcrumbs

Instructions

1. Steam cauliflower florets for about 5 minutes
2. Rinse the anchovies (see GustiBasics)and then set them aside.
4. Coat the bottom of a large skillet with extra virgin olive oil and sauté the onions until they become translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the anchovies by slicing each fillet into 1/2 inch pieces over the skillet. Using a fork, mash the anchovies and add the cauliflower. Let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add a few tablespoons, or more if needed, of broth or hot water. Mix well. Add the raisins and pine nuts, mix well and turn off the fire.
5. Cook the pasta and combine with contents of the skillet. If the dish seems dry, add a few spoonfuls of pasta water and mix well. When the dish has reached its desired consistency add breadcrumbs.
6. On your plate drizzle some EVOlive Oil and sprinkle with additional breadcrumbs.

A few weeks ago New York City hosted The Greater NY Dental Meeting, the huge annual dental conference. The reason we are talking about it here is that this conference featured Pasta Faella!  Guest speaker, Dr. Sabino Aquino, is from Gragnano and he arrived at the conference with Pasta Faella in tow to share with his fellow dentists. At first we thought, isn't this such a random novelty? Then,  we realized it makes perfect sense! As Pasta Faella pointed out on our Facebook page, "Who better to judge the goodness of pasta when cooked Al Dente? In fact, in Italian "Al Dente" means "to the tooth". A dentist knows a good pasta when they sink their teeth into it. Bravo Faella!

Mario Batali uses his super-foodie E.S.P. to give us a heads up about our edible future. Kate Krader, Food & Wine's restaurant editor summed up Batali's food trend predictions for 2013 on the CNN Eatocracy blog and we are thrilled that there is a place for the hand-made in his gastronomic crystal ball. To be exact, Krader reports Batali is predicting a trend in: "Hand-made food in all forms. Skip all the processed foods in favor of non-processed tortillas, cakes, pasta, jams, breads, sausages and salumi".

For Gustiamo, hand-made is already pretty darn trendy. There is a food artisan's hand in every product that we import from Italy to the USA. Just to name of few, our food makers hand-harvest crocus stamens (saffron, if you don't know), handpick Frantoio olives to press with a traditional granite millstone, hand wash and peel oranges for marmalades, hand-cure anchovies with sea salt harvested by hand, and handpick Real San Marzano Tomatoes.

Let's hear it for a hand-made 2013!

At Gustiamo we love focaccia. We especially love focaccia with olives, Bella di Cerignola Olives of course. Pitted and cut into pieces, these gigantic olives are a perfect match for focaccia. This outstanding recipe for focaccia comes from our friend Paola Lovisetti-Scamihorn who is a passionate cook and food writer dedicated to spreading the word about true Italian food culture. To read her full focaccia post and learn more about Paola vist her blog.

INGREDIENTS

500 g (3 cups) high-gluten flour (Manitoba)
350 ml water (1 cups + 5 tablespoons) at 45°C, 110 °F
130 ml (9 tablespoons) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
10 g (2 teaspoons) coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 package (7 g;1 heaping teaspoon) dried yeast or 1 cube (25 g; about 1 ounce) fresh yeast
150 g (1 cup) green Cerignola olives

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small pitcher dissolve salt in warm water, then add 40 ml (3 tablespoons) olive oil.  Mix well then dissolve sugar in it. Sugar is the so called “nourishment” for yeast. 
2. Pour the liquid in a large glass bowl and combine with half of the flour. Stir well until you have a smooth batter.
3. Add yeast to the batter stirring well. Remember never add yeast directly to salt because it will prevents the yeast from rising.
4. Add the remaining flour to the batter. Mix well until you have a smooth and even dough, but still a little bit sticky.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface; knead briefly for about 1-2 minutes. Do not add too much flour otherwise the dough will get tough.
6. Lightly oil (with about 3 tablespoons) a 25×35 cm (10×14 in.) baking sheet; place the dough in center of the pan and cover with a cotton towel. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place (about 30°C, 86°F) for about 60-90 minutes until doubled in size.
7. Preheat oven to 220 °C (425°F).
8. Pat the dough into the baking sheet, filling it completely. Brush the dough with oil and sprinkle with some coarse salt.  Let it rise for about 30 minutes at 30°C (86°F) until increases its volume.
9. Press some deep holes into the dough with your finger tips, covering the entire surface
10. Drizzle with about 3 tablespoons olive oil (cover all areas of the dough) and wet the top with some water, using a spray-bottle, to keep focaccia soft. Add the olives.
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and cool on a grid.

Paola's Focaccia Notes:

You can add two tablespoons of semolina to the flour, this will make the crust crunchier.

The type of water is very important; the pH should be around 6.  I usually use bottled drinking water to avoid having too much chlorine in the dough.

The rising temperature is critical too, therefore place the dough in a warm draft-free place and do not open the oven during baking.

Another important information is to never mix salt and yeast directly, because salt inhibits the action of the yeast.

Focaccia can keep for about two days wrapped in plastic wrap, but I suggest to eat it fresh, just out of the oven, to fully enjoy its fragrance.

@Paola