January 2012

A New Year and two new cookbooks! How much fun was it to cook from Lidia’s Italy in America and Time for Dinner. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but I have made a few recipes from the book and I know from the photos and reports that it was a great one to pick.

First up is Margy’s Lentil Soup (Pasta e Lenticchie). It was very easy and she decided to switch it up as a vegetarian offering. Omitting the ham could have been a big risk, but she ad libbed a few extra spices and used a flavorful vegetable broth and it was just delicious.

Next was Lisa with the Sausage, Bread and Pepper Frittata (Frittata con Salsiccia e Peperoni) and she also commented on how easy it was to pull together this recipe. She loves the cookbook and will be making a lot of dishes from it for her very fortunate family.

Colleen made the Italian Ice Cream Cake (Cassata). She mentioned that though it was fairly easy, it was really messy!!! (Sorry Lisa, Colleen got the exclamation points this time) She ended up using her hands dipped in water to smooth the ice cream layer, but added they are the most useful tool in the kitchen anyway.  The most time consuming part of the recipe was shelling all the pistachios, since she couldn’t find them already shelled. Seems it was well worth the effort since it got rave reviews!!!

Brenda made the Fusili with Spinach Walnut Pesto (Fusili al Pesto de Noci) and everyone really liked it a lot. She toasted the walnuts to bring out the flavor and used a bag of fresh spinach that she blanched. She allowed that it might work with frozen spinach too. She observed that there seem to be a lot more fried dishes in this particular book, where a lot of Lidia’s other books have very little fried foods.  She really liked the background stories for each section too.

Toni also thought the cookbook was great. She made the Braised Fennel with Sausage (Finocchio Brasato con Salsiccia) and it too got rave reviews. She took the sausage out of the casing and cooked it with the onions and tomato paste, and added the fennel, salt, pepper and a little bit of pepper flakes. From all reports, this was very popular and a lot of people said they would plan to make it at home for their own families.

Sharon made the Almond Pine Nut cookies (Amaretti con Pinoli) and they turned out to be the most expensive cookies she has ever made. Half way through mixing the dough, smoke started seeping out of the motor on her mixer!!!(Hey  Lisa, Sharon got a couple of exclamation points too!!!) Fortunately, she was able to finish mixing them before any further excitement. The recipe called for 1 ½ to 2 cups of pine nuts, which can be a little pricey even with the added expense of a new mixer, and the dough was a little sticky to work with, and the recipe only made 21 cookies, but even with all of those considerations the end result was bliss.

Janet wasn’t sure she was going to make it, she had a prior commitment, but she was a trouper and not only brought wine, she even added great bread with olive oil and a very yummy spice blend from Tastefully Simple to put in the oil. It was absolutely the perfect addition to the other goodies.

Marianne made the Spinach Custard Cups from Time for Dinner, and though she didn’t have enough ramekins, she had a lovely set of matching coffee cups that worked perfectly! Fresh thyme and whole milk with the spinach resulted in a creamy delicious concoction that everyone loved.

Kati made the Crab, Celery salad, and really liked the recipe despite what she felt was a disappointing quality issue with the crab itself. She also opted for cherry tomatoes since there isn’t a decent regular sized tomato to be found in January in our area and felt that this recipe would really sing in August when all the ingredients would be at their peak

All in all, everyone really liked the cookbook and liked not only the recipes that were made, but found many more that they are looking forward to sharing with family and friends. A winner!