Sunday Sauce - Italian Recipes, Food and More!

A New Twist on the Italian Combo

I was at A&S Pork Store earlier this week and noticed one of the counter guys constructing one of the most beautiful and unique Italian combo sandwiches I had ever seen.

 

It consisted of:

- Hot Soprassata
- Cracked Pepper Turkey
- Hot Cherry Peppers
- Mozzarella
- Shredded Lettuce
- Oil and Vinegar (just a pinch)
- Pepper

I decided to try one for lunch on Friday and it was one of the better sandwiches I've had in recent memory. It  had the flavor of the traditional Italian combo b/c of the soprassata, oil/vinegar and peppers, yet it wasn't overly saturated with sodium so as to dehydrate you. It also wasn't as HEAVY b/c of the inclusion of turkey as opposed to other cured pork-based meats.

One piece of advice if you're going to order one of these: make sure to have an ice cold drink nearby as the combination of the cracked pepper turkey, hot soprassata and cherry peppers made this "fra diavolo". 

Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage

Here's what we've been eating....

On Wednesday I promised Nikki a pasta dinner so I revisited one of my trusty recipes  - orechiette with broccoli di rabe and sausage. The twist with this one was that I used mezze rigatoni instead of orechiette (be sure to use hollow tube pasta so it can capture the pieces of crumbled sausage). The other twist was that instead of using Italian sausage, I opted to use chicken sausage stuffed with roasted peppers.

Sunday Sauce's Cooking Season 2008-2009

Well folks, our favorite time of the year is here.

The air in the Northeast has that fleck of chill in it, the leaves are turning and Jonny Mangia is watching baseball playoffs while sampling fine microbrews and Italian reds. The turn from summer into the fall is a special time as it starts the advent of increased time in the kitchen creating more robust, heartier dishes to warm the soul. We're talking:
- Sunday Sauce/Gravy
- Braciole
- Osso Bucco
- Risotto varieties
...and many, many other dishes

Mom G's Lamb Osso Bucco Over Saffron Risotto

This is our favorite time and we hope you join us on our culinary adventure this fall/winter.
We promise more frequent updates and many recipes from our cucina.

Jonny & Nikki

John's Last Meal

Nikki's brother John was married last Sunday to his longtime sweetheart Jennifer. His last meal as a free man was spent at where else? Joe and Pat's of Staten Island where he ordered this large plain pie along with a meatball hero and a chicken parm hero as well. While we are sure he is eating like a king in Tahiti right now, for some reason we don't think the pizza out there can run with Joe and Pat's. Not to worry, we'll have hot pie ready for you guys upon your return!

Congrats again to John and Jen!

Best Pasta of the Year (so far)...Brioso's "Penne Saporite"

Posted by: Jonny

Best pasta dish that I've tasted this year?

That's easy.

It's Brioso's of Staten Island's "Penne Saporite".

I had tasted the dish last fall upon my first visit to Briosos with Mom and Dad B and I was knocked out. I had told Nik we had to come back in order to� try it again, and the time finally presented itself
as Mom and Dad B took us out for our 2-year anniversary last month. As I perused the menu my heart skipped a beat as on the first scan of the pasta dishes I didn't see it listed. After finding it near the bottom, the only question was whether I was going with a half portion as an appetizer, or a
full dish as an entree - I went with it as an appetizer and opted to run with the short ribs over polenta as my entree.

The Saporite sauce consists of:
- sauteed onion
- cognac
- pancetta
- smoked provola
- cream
- tomatoes
and......drum roll.....radicchio. Yes, that radicchio, the purple leafy thing that we normally eat in a salad.

The sauce is similar to a vodka sauce due to the color and consistency, but the pancetta and smoked provola add further sharpness and smokiness and the radicchio adds a slight bitterness, providing� a wealth of colors for your taste buds to explore. As I shoveled the dish down all I could say was how dumb I was for not ordering an entree-sized portion (as Mom B recommended).

We're going to try and replicate this at home, so we'll do a future post on what that outcome is.

Stay tuned.

ADDITIONAL VIEWING PLEASURE FROM BRIOSO:

Photo: Dad B's Friutti Di Mare over risotto.

Photo: Nikki's Sunday Sauce complete with penne,
sausage and meatballs.

Brioso
174 New Dorp Ln
Staten Island, NY 10306
(718) 667-1700
www.briosoristorante.com

Quick Pic: Nikki's Bolognese

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!

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!

Easter Week: Sanguinaccio

Easter season is upon us and that means chocolate bunnies, egg coloring kits, lamb and sanguinaccio.  Sangui-what?  Unless you had an Italian grandparent who would extol its wonders or had the fortune of living near an old-school Italian baker, you probably have never heard of this rare, Italian dolci. It is best described as a chocolate pudding with an interesting twist.  Traditionally created during Lent, it consists (with some variation), of chocolate, cinammon, candied fruit, milk, eggs and . . .pig's (or beef) blood(!) 

Photo: Dark and luxuriously rich, sanguinaccio is a must for chocolate lovers.

Hopefully, you're not cringing yet.  Though it is prepared throughout Italy, it is most often associated with Naples.  Some research on sanguinaccio revealed a few interesting takes on it.  The Food TV Network offered two versions that had been featured on Mario Batali's "Molto Mario" show, but both were watered down versions that lacked the pig's blood. I also found a person on Chowhound.com who offered their take:

"From my childhood, I remember this as the blood pudding made at Eastertime by Italians near Naples.  The pudding is chocolate, strong chocolate and is very rich and smooth, with pinenuts and citron and blood from either a pig or a lamb (I expect lamb, since there are lots of baby lambs slaughtered at this time" - Aaron, Feb 9, 2006

In addition to the recipes, we also found an insightful web page by Rose Albrizio, who offered tips on how to work with the blood if you are attempting to make your own sanguinaccio.  Her article, which actually reads like Vampirism-101 instead of tips on preparing an Italian desert, offers some of the following:

1. Gather the blood as it drains from the slashed throat of the pig . . .
2. It is preferred to use the traditional method of pig slaughter to gather blood. If you can't and have obtained blood from a slaughter house then be sure to strain it, before cooking.
3. Do not store blood more than 24 hours before cooking."

Read further for Rose's tips here: http://www.angelfire.com/or/orio/blood2.html#chi

We had never encountered a bakery that made sanguinaccio until we moved to Hoboken and started going to Giorgio's Pasticceria, located on Hoboken's main drag, Washington Street.  Giorgio is an old-time Neapolitan baker who not only is still making sanguinaccio, but he does so using pig's blood, which is considered superior to the more often used beef blood.  Giorgio's sanguinacci is made with cocoa powder, milk, eggs, cinammon, candied fruit and the "sangue" -- blood.  So we picked up a container, brought it home and had a "Sunday Sauce" tasting.  Verdict is: we both liked it . . . a lot!  Nikki loves her dark chocolate so she was swooning from the first spoonful.  She describes it as luxuriosuly rich, with the candied fruit lending sweetness, texture and a bit of a liqueur taste.  There was also a prominent taste of cinnamon riding up top.

We highly recommend sanguinaccio, especially for the chocolate-lover out there.  So when reaching for chocolate this Easter, bypass the bunny and snatch the sanguinaccio!

Book Review: "Con Amore" by Janice Therese Mancuso

Posted by: Nikki

A breath-taking oceanfront setting, a romantic refurbished inn, delicious Italian recipes, the history of Italy’s foods and...sexy Italian men. Sounds like a dream novel for your typical (female) fan of Italian food, doesn’t it?
This is the setting of “Con Amore”, food journalist and cookbook author Janice Therese Mancuso’s first novel which follows a young, attractive food writer on her adventures in food and love when she is invited to attend a prestigious weeklong conference surveying the history of Italian cuisine and its influence on American culture on the beautiful shores of Montauk, New York. I found myself anticipating each new day of classes at the conference where main character Janine Fiori’s flirty encounters and intense entanglements with other male conference members (here’s where the “sexy Italian chefs” come in) complemented a colorful history of how Italy’s meats, cheeses, grains and produce influenced American cooking and gave birth to Italian-American cooking.

Mancuso’s culinary background surfaces for the food-lover-in-you, as her story is dotted with dozens of unique Italian recipes that add a further dimension to Janine’s adventures. Not your average romance novel, “Con Amore” can serve as a reference guide to the indigenous foods of Italy’s many regions as well as a cookbook of savory Italian recipes.

Although I didn’t want “Con Amore” to end, especially because the utterly romantic backdrop of Montauk’s shores have for years been a weekend retreat for Jonnymangia and me, I am looking forward to preparing several of Mancuso’s unique recipes such as Polenta Torta with Proscuitto, Spinach, Red Peppers and Taleggio, Sausage Stuffed Tomato Croquettes and Stuffed Roasted Pepper Spirals. 

Check out future posts when we prepare and review these dishes!

You can purchase "Con Amore" at the following web sites:

Amazon

JTmancuso.com

Buy Books on the Web

Sunday Sauce Takes Hoboken - Fiore's Deli and the Antique Bakery

Sunday Sauce has finally hit Fiore’s Deli!

What’s Fiore’s you ask? Well, the shortened story is that this deli is regarded as making the most delicious mozzarella this side of....well…I don’t know. Maybe anywhere in the world if you listen to their fans (allegedly Sinatra used to come here all the time). This Hoboken institution makes their “mutz" on site and not only do they produce this famous product but they also offer a  roast beef, gravy and mozzarella sandwich (“sambo” in JonnyMangia parlance) that is unparalleled  (according to many I have spoke to). It’s standard practice for a line to file outside the door and down the block every Saturday morning as an assortment of Hoboken-ites – old school Italians, hung-over post College dudes with baseball caps pulled low, fireman and cops, yuppie families and construction workers  line up for sandwiches…with the roast beef and mutz being the most popular.

 I hit Fiore’s at about 3 pm last Saturday and it was definitely an old-school joint – tin ceiling, old time counter and yesteryear pictures of Hoboken on the wall and the smell of coldcuts and cheese that permeates Italian pork stores and delis. Unfortunately I was told that they has just run out of bread thus there was no roast beef and mutz to be had. The deli guy told me his partner had just run out to get more bread, and fortunately after a 15 minute wait outside next to a chain-smoker who was waiting for a sambo also (and seemingly going through roast beef and mutz withdrawal as he nearly fell to the floor when told they were out) the bread was replenished and I was soon out the door with a pound of fresh mozzarella ($9 and change) and a roast beef-mutz hero ($10).

Photo: Cross-section of Fiore's Famous Roast Beef, Mutz and Gravy hero

I unwrapped the sambo when I returned to Casa Mangia and was surprised at the brown mess (gravy folks) it was wrapped in. Thank God Nikki wasn’t around because she would’ve gotten sick as it wasn’t an appetizing site. I took my first few bites at room temp and frankly I was unimpressed. To me it was any old roast beef sandwich with slightly buttery mozzarella. Then, I decided to heat it up and the metamorphosis took place…

WHAM! This sambo came to life!

Photo: God Bless Fiore's Mozzarella!

The roast beef became lively, tasty, somewhat smoky as it embraced the gravy. And the mutz? Madonna mia, can you say re-incarnation? The mutz went under a complete transformation from a lifeless block to a bonanza of taste and texture -  soft, creamy and buttery with a hint of salt. This cheese was born to be melted.

So the verdict is in – though we never shy from taking the contrarian opinion, especially when it comes to debunking legends (if it’s deserved) , we both concur (Nikki affirmed my opinion later that day) that Fiore’s mutz is outstanding and simply the best we have tasted on these shores. And the roast beef sambo is something to behold as well -  just make sure to eat the sambo warm or it won’t offer the goods.

Fiore's Deli
414 Adams St
Hoboken, NJ 07030
(201) 659-1655

Antique Bakery

The next day Nikki and I continued our Hoboken theme as we stopped by Antique Bakery , one of the town’s venerable bakers who still make their bread on-site. We picked up a sausage and mozzarella bread (they also offered a sausage and pepper loaf as well as a pepperoni and mutz) as well as a

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Nikki  Improvises over Antique's focaccia, adding  Fiore's mozzarella and then drizzling with olive oil.

focaccia with tomatoes and a nice standard Italian loaf without seeds. When we returned to Casa Mangia Nikki the improviser cut a few pieces of Fiore’s mutz, placed them on the focaccia, and put it in the oven for 10 minutes then drizzled olive oil after it was out. We both felt this had transformed into an astounding Sicilian style pizza with tangy, lively tomatoes marrying with the creamy, buttery Fiore mutz and the thick ,doughy crust.

Photo: Stupid nice!

Unfortunately we couldn’t say the same for the stuffed bread. Simply put, it wasn’t stuffed with anything. Take a look at the cross-section photo and you’ll see with your eyes.

A Salute!

Antique Bakery
122 Willow Ave # A
Hoboken, NJ 07030
(201) 714-9323

 

Photo: Antique Bakery's bread allegedly stuffed with sausage and mozzarella.
Can you find the saw-zeetch?