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My Grandmother’s Kitchen – GT Food & Travel
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GT Food & Travel

Category: My Grandmother’s Kitchen

  • Torta di Mele – Apple Cake

    Torta di Mele – Apple Cake

    Who doesn’t like apple pie? Sweet and spicy scented clouds of crisp slices sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice bubble through a golden lattice crust. The smells that drifted out of Ma and Papa’s kitchen window linger in my mind. I’ve talked about Ma (my grandmother Louise) many times on this blog. I’d open her driveway gate and run past the apple, peach and pear trees to their back door to find her waiting, smiling. She was dressed in one of her many flowery housecoats with pearl tinted snaps. In her kitchen, there was always  homemade dessert.
    In Italy, I still make her apple pie but when I’m pressed for time, I turn to her apple cake recipe. It’s easy to make and not overly sweet. Enjoy it for breakfast, an afternoon snack or dessert served warm out of the oven or at room temperature.

    Ingredients

    • 6 tablespoons butter, softened plus extra for greasing the cake pan
    • 3 eggs
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 2 ¾ cups of self-rising flour plus extra for dusting
    • 6 small crisp apples, peeled, cored and chopped – I use mele annurche, honey crisp or cortland apples. 

    Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a cake pan with butter and dust it lightly with flour. Mix the eggs and sugar together until fluffy. Add the butter to the mixture and mix until combined completely. Sift the flour into the mixture. Add the apples and mix. Pour the cake mixture into the buttered and floured cake pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool or serve while warm. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, if you like.

     

  • Baccalà with olives and capers

    Baccalà with olives and capers

    Baccalà (salt cod) is merluzzo (codfish) that is salted and dried. It is versatile and appears in a variety of dishes in the Aliberti-Tringali food repertoire. Baccalà salad is served on Christmas Eve as one of our seven fish courses while fried baccalà, baccalà in tomato sauce and baccalà cakes grace our tables throughout the year.
    Baccalà

    Baccalà is found in nearly every food market in Rome, Naples and Palermo hanging on boards or in water filled tubs waiting to be taken home, washed and soaked for 12 to 72 hours. It can sometimes be bought ready soaked. Soaking time varies based on the size and saltiness of the fish. I change the water two or three times per day. Leaving it for too little time will leave it super salty while leaving it for too long will leave it flavorless and spongy. Ask your fish vendor to recommend the soaking time required.

    The recipes that I cook, devour and cherish are from southern Italy and family recipes. Here is one of my simple favorites. Happy cooking!

    Ingredients (4 servings)

    • 2 pounds salt cod, soaked
    • 2-3 salted anchovies, cleaned
    • 2.5 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 onion
    • 1 cup dry white wine
    • 1.5 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
    • 1 cup pitted olives (black or green, choose olives that you love)

    Baccalà pieces

    Cut the baccalà into pieces. Remove the heads from the salted anchovies, clean them and place them in cold water for 15 minutes, then drain. In a separate bowl, rinse and drain the capers. Pit and chop the olives. anchoviesHeat the olive oil in a pan. Add the anchovy fillets mashing them as they cook over low heat.onions_anchoviesChop the onion and add it to the pan. Stir occasionally for 5 – 10 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Baccalà and onionsAdd the baccalà. Cook for 5-10 minutes on each side.

    baccala, olives, capers stewingAdd the wine, capers and olives. Simmer for 15 – 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve.

    Baccalà_plateI serve this dish as a second course. It’s delicious over potatoes too. Be sure to have crusty bread on hand to dredge through the sauce. Buon appetito!

  • Hazelnut & Dried Cherry Biscotti

    Hazelnut & Dried Cherry Biscotti

    With every season and holiday baking rituals arrive. I never thought much about them as a child. With each year that passes by, I cherish these rituals more and more. Easter is quickly approaching. Mom and I make bunny, egg, and lamb shaped chocolates, bunny shaped bread and various versions of ricotta pie and biscotti. The baking marathon starts on Good Friday and ends at the Easter table littered with a plethora of savory and sweet dishes.DSC_0133

    In anticipation of the Easter bake-off, my sweet tooth and fidgety hands are warming up in the kitchen making biscotti. Biscotti means twice cooked as these tasty cookies are cooked in a strips, sliced and then cooked a second time. This easy to make biscotti recipe can be easily adapted to include your favorite nuts, dried fruit and chocolate.

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1 stick of butter
    • 3 eggs
    • 3 cups flour
    • 3 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 tsp vanilla
    • toasted hazelnuts
    • dried cherries

    DSC_0120Combine sugar and butter.  Add well-beaten eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla.  Mix together. Add as many hazelnuts and dried cherries as you like. I added approximately 1 cup of each. The dough can be quite sticky. If it’s too sticky to work with add a bit of flour to the mixture. DSC_0126

    Form 3 strips approximately 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and slice.  DSC_0130Place under broiler to brown both sides (approximately 5 minutes per side).DSC_0132Remove and voilà! Your home will be full of aromas of roasting hazelnuts and you’ve got home-made biscotti. They are delicious served straight out of the oven or for breakfast dunked in coffee or as an afternoon snack. 

  • Vinegar Peppers from Ma’s Kitchen

    Vinegar Peppers from Ma’s Kitchen

    Late summer and early autumn usher in canning time. From tomato sauce with bright basil leaves, to fig jam and peaches in simple syrup, it’s a ritual that I cherish. A ritual I have thanks to my grandparents and mom. Mom and I are adamant about carrying forward family traditions. This brings me oddly to a scary place…Ma and Papa’s – my maternal grandparents – basement.  It wasn’t so much the basement that scared me but the ill lit narrow stairway which led to the cold damp cavern. When I close my eyes and think of the stairs, I get goosebumps like when I watch Steven King’s “Salem’s Lot”. The basement held everything from rakes, a lawnmower and glass jars to wooden and concrete shelves stocked with canned tomatoes, peppers and concord grape jelly.papamaGFrom where I sit now the doorway to the narrow stairway is a magical entrance like the wardrobe door in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. It is a gateway to another land, a land of food, laughter and love and memories. I followed Papa around as he grabbed a rake to gather fallen leaves or as he pulled on dirt stained thick gloves to work in the vegetable garden. He’d wear a dark blue quilted jacket and sometimes a beaten up baseball hat. Ma would call to us from the kitchen window or back door to come in for a warm slice of midnight velvet cake layered with melting vanilla ice cream or steamy apple pie. She seemed to always be at the stove. cannedgreenpepper

    Back to the shelves packed with home made delicacies. September is the month when we put up vinegar peppers. My Aunt Virginia, Mom and Ma would meet around the kitchen table to prepare them. The green ones play a main role in insalata di baccala (salt-cod salad) which is one of the seven fish courses that we serve at Christmas Eve dinner. Three years ago I spent my first Christmas away from Mom and Dad. Stumbling upon the peppers in the Trionfale market was a joyful and tearful moment. Ma called them Saint Nicole peppers – I imagine because of the link to the Christmas and Saint Nicolas – or in dialect pupacchielle. In Italian they are pappacelle. 

    Ingredients

    • Saint Nicholas peppers – found in August and September
    • Apple cider vinegar
    • Dry oregano
    • Garlic cloves peeled
    • Salt
    • Water
    • Medium size sterilized canning jars

    greenpeppersredyellowpeppersWipe the peppers with a clean towel. Make sure the peppers are not bruised. Cut in pieces or leave whole. If cut in pieces remove the stem and seeds. If leaving whole remove the stem end.greenpepperprep prepredyellowpeppers2Place 1 tsp salt, 2 garlic cloves and oregano in each medium size jar. Pack half of the jar with peppers and repeat salt/garlic/oregano mixture. Fill the rest of the jar with peppers leaving 1/2 inch head space. Repeat salt/garlic/oregano mixture. prepredyellowpeppersAdd vinegar and water (3 parts vinegar to 1 part water).canredyellowpeppers

    Cover tightly. Turn upside down to mix well. Store in a cool place for at least 4 weeks before using. We use the green peppers in salad as they remain firmer and we use the green, yellow and red peppers in cooked dishes like pork chops, peppers and potatoes. My advice is use them as you like.

     

     

     

  • Strawberry Shortcake from Ma’s Kitchen

    Strawberry Shortcake from Ma’s Kitchen

    strawberriesI’ve been eyeing strawberries at the Rome food markets for weeks. Ma (aka my grandmother) loved strawberries, sliced and sprinkled with sugar, over ice cream or in cake fillings. She made whipped cream and fruit filled shortcake for summer parties and birthdays, pineapple for my great grandfather Domenico’s, strawberry for my cousin Jimmy’s. On the 4th of July, she added strawberries and blueberries to layers of whipped cream. Ruby red, purple blue and porcelain white to celebrate Independence Day.wholecake

    On a whim Ma would replace the whipped cream with home made vanilla and chocolate pudding. Simple, comforting and delicious…here’s my version of Ma’s recipe just in time for the 4th of July!

    Ingredients for cake

    • 6 eggs
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1 cup flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla

    Ingredients for filling

    • 2 – 3 cups strawberries
    • 1 cup heavy cream
    • confectioners’ sugar or granulated sugar to taste

    Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Line the pans with wax paper, butter the paper and dust the pans with flour, knocking out any excess flour. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until they form peaks. In a separate bowl with the mixer on low speed combine the egg yolks, sugar, flour, baking powder and vanilla. Fold the egg whites into the batter. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I don’t have 2-9 inch round cake pans. My 13-inch springform did the trick. cakeoutofovenWhile the cake is cooling slice 1 to 2 cups of strawberries and put aside. In a mixing bowl beat 1 cup heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add confectioners’ sugar or granulated sugar to taste and beat until soft peaks return. Fold sliced strawberries into the whipped cream. If you used one pan like me you’ll need to slice the cake into two layers and top the first layer with the strawberry-whipped cream mixture. cakelayerPlace the second layer on top and garnish with whipped cream and whole or sliced strawberries. Slice and enjoy!cakeslice

     


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