Sunday Sauce - Food Blog with Italian Recipes

Recipe: Penne Filetto di Pomodoro

This is in response to a request from one of our loyal readers: the recipe for Penne Filetto di Pomodoro. Nikki based this on a recipe from Lidia Bastianich. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion sliced thin
- 6 oz. bacon strips cut in cubes
- 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
- salt to taste
- 1 35oz can San Marzano whole plum tomatoes
- 1 lb penne
- grated cheese, preferably pecorino romano

Directions:
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat
- Add onion and cook until wilted, about 5 mins
- Add bacon and cook for 2-3 minutes
- Add red pepper and tomatoes and bring to a boil
- Lower to a lively simmer and lightly season with salt
- Stir occasionally and cook at simmer for about 20 minutes
- Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water
- Drain pasta when al dente, return to the pot and pour in 1/2 the sauce, bring sauce + pasta to a boil and pour in the remaining 3 tablespoons oil.
- Add reserved pasta cooking water + stir, add salt if necessary
- Remove from heat and serve in bowls
- Top with remaining sauce and grated cheese

Savoring Italian Beer

There's more to Italian beer than Moretti and Peroni, the brands that Americans would typically associate with (if they are even aware that they drink more in Italy than red wine in straw-bottomed bottles!).
The New York Times Travel section takes us on a journey throughout Italy describing the new phenomenon of locally-crafted beers. As the author Evan Rail writes:

"Around Italy, a craft beer scene has sprung up, bringing well-made specialty brews into haute cuisine dining rooms and elevating the fare served in brew pubs, creating an attractive destination for beer lovers who also love great food."

 

You can find a great photo gallery capturing not only the suds but some of the dishes that the restaurants mentioned serve.

The Mobile Pizza Brick Oven

Only in America would we see such ingenuity. From today's New York Times, a homemade brick and concrete oven, used to perfect  pizzas influenced by the works of art produced in Naples. We might have to get one of these for our new house!

Dave Scarlow and his homemade pizza oven. Photo
courtesy of the New York Times.