Tag Archives: Parmigiano-Reggiano

The don of meatloaf


One thing I realized my site does not have is my meatloaf recipe. It is the don of meatloaves. There’s lots of goodies in it. Bits of bacon mixed in, there’s chunks of feta, olives, onions and garlic.

 

Soak the sliced italian bread in the milk for several minutes in a large mixing bowl. While it is soaking turn the oven onto 200 degrees F.  Place the ground meat, garlic bacon, eggs, salts, pepper, parsley, cheeses, olives, and onions into the soaked bread. Mix by hand until it all comes together and is well mixed. Turn out onto pan and shape into 4 loaves. (I have a cooling rack that is nothing more then a chunk of 1/4 inch thick steel with 1/3 inch holds drilled in it. I place it over a turkey roasting pan 1/2 full of water. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING THIS.) Place into oven and let cook 8-12 hours. After the 8-12 hours has passed apply your favorite sauce ontop of meatloaves and turn to 350 degrees F and allow to bake for another 15 to 30 minutes.

When it is done it will be sticky on the outside, and so moist and tender inside that you can microwave it the next day and not have it dry out on you which most meat loaves others have made for me tend to do. The onions will be clear, the garlic soft and delicious, the bacon flimsy yet delicious. The best thing of all, it’s a great meal that one can cook all day. No longer do you have to rush to get a meatloaf done, you can set it, and forget it.

Typically I use a apple bbq sauce with burbon in it.

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Italian zucchini flowers fried


That’s right! Zucchini flowers stuffed and fried. Delicious. What do they taste like you may ask? Well they don’t really have much flavor at all on their own. In Italy they are very popular that at any market there is always a few stalls selling just zuccini flowers. I love stuffing them with many things. I try to make combinations of things to stuff them with. Sometimes they leak out some of the stuffing but that’s perfectly ok. If you really wanna make sure it don’t fall out. Refigerate after stuffing for an hour, toss with flour first then the egg, then the breading. Here we go!

 

72 Fresh Zucchini Flowers
9 ounce Log Goat Cheese
9 ounce feta cheese
16 Tablespoons Finely Chopped Chives
3 Cup Ricotta Cheese
Sea Salt & Pepper
12 Large Eggs
1 1/2 Cup Milk
9 Cups italian Breadcrumbs
1 1/2 Cup Grated Pecorino or Parmesan Cheese
1 pound pancetta sliced thin
Oil For Frying

Gently rinse your flowers and pat dry with paper towels and remove the inner bits from each.
Mix together the ricotta, feta, chives and goat cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Put ricotta mixture in a small plastic bag and clip off one bottom corner.
Place some thin strips of pancetta into each flower.
Squeeze a good teaspoonful of the mixture into each flower.
Toss the flowers in the flour now.
Beat the eggs with the milk until light and foamy.
Dip the flowers into the egg wash and allow it to drip off.
Roll the flowers in the breadcrumbs and place on a tray.
Repeat with all the flowers.
Refrigerate for at least one hour.
Heat oil in a wide saucepan until very hot (375 degrees F.)
Fry the flowers in batches on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.
Place the fried flowers on a platter covered with a couple of layers of paper towels to absorb the excess oil.
Once all fried lay on a plate sprinkle a bit of sea salt and put on the side some marinara sauce.

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pecorino romano from scratch


Pecorino Romano and a glass of wine

Image via Wikipedia

Homemade pecorino romano. Yes you need a curing chamber, you need a lot of milk. The difference in the breeds of cattle will show in the end product. The tempratures are in celsius!

Pecorino romano

Raw materials- whole milk, fat from 7% to 7.6%, 10% acidity ph/100; of race in Sicily, Sardinia Comisana. Power supply (Think food supply): 90% pasture, 10% forage (grain and fodder).
Processing technology- cleaning and pasteurizing 63 to 68 degrees; pelleted lamb rennet. After breaking the curd is cooked at 45 degrees. After these operations, stop the mass in serum with the clot broke for half an hour. The mass is pressed and left to rest for about 24 hours. Salting is dry with salt, make on average for a period of 90 days, and expressional entrusted to specialized factories. It matures in about 90 days, in sheds moisture from the air-conditioned ‘80%. Yield: 18%

Seasoning– from 10 months to a year in an environment of 8-10 degrees with humidity of ‘80%. When the cheese is matured in salted water and a wash on the crust of a preservative is added as an outer casing of thin black plastic for food.

Characteristics of the finished product- Height: about 20 cm, weight: 33 kg approx; form: full cylindrical faces: crust: smooth, pale yellow with green reflections; dough: grainy, fat, 38-40%; flavor: spicy characteristic

Production calendar- From November to June

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