Sunday Sauce - Food Blog with Italian Recipes

Nikki's Bolognese Sauce

This is the bolognese ragu that Nikki whipped together in impromptu fashion last Sunday.  She combined three different recipes - one from Mario Batali, one from Lidia Bastianich, and one from the new Saveur magazine, which highlights bolognese recipes.  She didn't even have all of the ingredients, yet this dish was unreal.  Notice that she used the mafalda pasta that we featured about a week or so ago (scroll down).  It came out PERFECTLY "al dente". Nikki, jump in here now and tell the folks how you did it!

Issue #110 of Saveur Magazine: BUY IT!

From time to time we are asked what our favorite food magazine is. The answer, hands-down, is Saveur Magazine. From the gorgeous glossy photos, to the crisp, articulate writing, this magazine runs circles around the competition. We pick up every issue, but the latest one, Issue #110, is a MUST HAVE if you love Italian cooking (specifically pastas).

They have an assortment of articles dealing with Ragu sauces and they do an incredible job spotlighting the Italian city of Bologna, the birthplace of bolognese sauce. There are a bunch of different bolognese recipes, and they also found space to add in a recipe for cacciucco, which is a famous Tuscan seafood stew. Lastly, towards the end of the issue they review various tomato pastes, and we were pleasantly surprised to see Staten Island's own Pastoso (which is Mom B's place of choice to pick up most of her Italian food) as one of the finalists. We'll do a more in-depth entry over the weekend about this article.

Ciao!

Sunday Sauce Visits the Cheese Man

Sunday Sauce is proud to present to you the following 4 videos showing our visit to "The Cheese Store", a gourmet cheese shop that recently opened in Hoboken, NJ!  Our mission: to be introduced to a few Italian cheeses that most people wouldn't be familiar with.  That means no talk of parmiggiano, mutz or pecorino romano!  Join us on our journey by clicking on the videos below.  We look forward to your emails and comments. Ciao!

PS - "The Cheese Store" is a must-see in our fair Hoboken.  In addition to over 70 cheeses from myriad regions, they sell gourmet food products, meats and sandwiches made only with their gourmet ingredients.  Check them out at:

The Cheese Store
720 Monroe Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030
201-683-8162
www.thecheesestorehoboken.com
info@thecheesestorehoboken.com

Resident Cheese Expert & the First Cheese, "Piantino" from Tuscany

The Second Cheese, "Fiore di Sardo" from Sardinia

The Third Cheese, "Taleggio" from Lombardy

The Fourth Cheese, "Blu del Moncenisio" from Piedmont

Pasta, Mafalda-style

Posted by: Nikki

Want to go outside of your penne comfort zone for a pasta noodle that is perfect for scooping up your thicker gravies and sauces?  Then you must introduce Mafalda into your pasta repertoire!  "Mafalda," a.k.a "malfade," is a flat, ½ to ¾ inch wide ribbon pasta, somewhat similar to a narrow lasagna noodle, that has rippled edges on both sides.  Although this pasta can be found both in short lengths of about 1 ¼ inches and long lengths of 10 inches or more, our families prefer the longer noodle to aid in scooping up our Sunday sauce! 

Photo: Mafalda pasta (above) is Mom B's favorite to use with her famous Sunday Sauce. She mixes it with fresh mozzarella, ricotta and pecorino romano cheeses.

You'll especially set the rigatoni and spaghetti aside if you serve Mafalda alla Mom B's style, which is a luxurious mixture of fresh mozzarella, ricotta and grated pecorino romano cheeses that can be served either baked or unbaked. 

The baked version has the same decadent taste of lasagna with half of the effort!  Mafalda's ability to grasp onto chunky pieces of meat & cheese (due to its lovely rippled edges) that are found in heavier sauces and ragus, makes every mouthful a meal unto itself. 

Any way you serve it -- and especially Mom B's heaven-on-earth recipe below -- is sure to be a huge hit with guests and ideal for a holiday meal, which always calls for something a little special.

Photo: Mom B's Sunday Sauce over baked malfada pasta. Bravissima!

To prepare Mom B's "Sunday Sauce Special" with YOUR Sunday Sauce:

(serves 8-10 people or approx. 5-6 hungry Italians)

What You'll Need:

2 lbs. Mafalda pasta, cooked al dente
1½ lbs. ricotta cheese
1 lb. mozzarella cheese, cut into 1-inch pieces
1½ cups grated pecorino romano
1 handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 egg
a pot of Sunday Sauce, a.k.a., Sunday Gravy*

*We at Sunday Sauce the blog highly recommend eating "Sunday sauce" with Mafalda pasta.  Sunday sauce is a slow-simmered tomato sauce (or ragu), a basic version of which includes a combination of meatballs, sausage and pork (or beef) braciole. 

OK, Let's Do It!

In a large bowl mix the ricotta with the egg; then fold in the mozzarella, 1 cup of the pecorino romano cheese and parsley; mix well.

Cook 2 lbs. Mafalda pasta, al dente. 

Fold in cheese mixture to drained pasta and mix well, making sure all cheeses are distributed evenly.    Next, scoop in a few ladles of your favorite Sunday sauce, mix again and sprinkle with remaining pecorino romano.  Ready to serve!  For the baked version (featured in photo above) place pasta, cheese and sauce mixture in a baking dish and cook in oven at 350 degrees for approximately 8-10 minutes.  Cut & scoop out pieces as you would regular lasagna and serve in warmed plates.  Enjoy!

Is it Italian if an Italian Doesn't Cook it?

Another great article from the New York Times, discussing the trend in Italy where former immigrants are becoming chefs in Italian restaurant kitchens...and the flak they are receiving from certain constituents in Italy who don't consider the food they are cooking to be authentic "Italian"..even though they are following the recipes given to them by their Italian patrons. Silly, isn't it?
Does it matter who is making it, so long as they are following the traditions that have been established over the years?  The funny thing is, the article mentions that noted Italian food authority Gambero Rosso sought out Rome's best dish of carbonara, and the restaurant who took the title - Antico Forno Roscioli - has a Tunisian chef (pictured below)!

"I'll Take Some Mutz with the Baccala"

Thanks to Dad Barbaro for this exciting news find which dispels the draconian italian rule-of-law that you cannot, under any circumstances, put cheese on your seafood.

How many times have you been sneered at by an Italian waiter when requesting parmeggiano with your clams and macaroni or pecorino romano on that zuppa di pesce? Well, no longer do we have to endure being scolded at by grandma or scoffed at by the waiter because according to Robert Trachtenberg's article in the March 30, 2008 NY Times, cheese & fish have been culinary bedfellows in Italy since 400 BC!