This afternoon I cooked a favorite Sicilian meal of ours. I thought I would share in detail so that if you were interested in having an authentic Italian meal you could try these recipes at home. I am breaking it up into three or four post so that it does not get inundated with photos. I’ll begin first by posting the recipes as follows:Tomato and Basil Bruschetta:
1 loaf of French bread
3 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
¼ cup of snipped fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
½-1 tablespoon of olive oil
¼ teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees then arrange bread slices on flat baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown
In small bowl combine tomatoes, basic, pressed garlic, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Mix and spread over bread slices. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.
Parmesan Crisps:
1 cup of coarsely grated parmesan cheese ( use the biggest holes on a box grater)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Evenly space tablespoonfuls of parmesan on a large, nonstick or parchment-lined cookie sheet. using a small spoon or your gingers, spread the parmesan so that each small pile becomes a thin circle roughly 3” in diameter. Bake for exactly 5 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and bubbling and light golden brown. Be sure not to brown too much or they will taste bitter. Let crisps cool a minute, then slip a thin spatula or dinner knife underneath each one and remove to a rack to cool completely before serving.
Homemade Tomato Sauce:
In a large saucepan, slowly cook six cloves of thinly slice garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for five minutes over low heat. Add two, large fresh basil leaves and stir for one minute. Add two 28 oz. cans of whole, peeled tomatoes along with their juice and two more whole basil leaves. Bring the sauce to a boil, turn down the heat, season with salt and pepper and let it bubble away on low heat for 45 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.
Penne Arrabiata:
1 pound of penne
2 cups of homemade tomato sauce
1 long red chili cut into quarters
2 tablespoons of olive oil
½ cup of firmly packed, finely grated pecorino cheese (or your favorite cheese)
Boil penne for two minutes less than the package tell you to. Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce and with the pieces of chili in a large frying pan over low heat to infuse the chili into the sauce. Reserving about a teacup of boiling water from your pasta pot, drain the pasta and add it to the frying pan with tomato sauce. Stir the pasta and sauce with olive oil and let it cook on low heat for about 2 minutes. Adding a bit of reserved boiled pasta water if necessary. Turn off the heat, remove the pieces of chili, stir in the pecorino and serve.
