Proud Italian Cook

Pumpkin Pastina

October 20, 2008 by Marie 70 Comments

In many Italian households children are first introduced to pasta by way of pastina. Pastina literally means “little pasta”. Today you can find shapes of many different forms, from tiny dots to stars, alphabets, and many more. My own kids grew up with pastina, simply made with a little butter, and grated cheese, but this recipe takes it over the top with a beautiful presentation in a pumpkin, hence the name pumpkin pastina.

To this day it’s the kind of comfort food that my family and I still crave today.

When I first saw this recipe in Michael Chiarello’s cookbook…The Tra Vigne… all my fond memories of pastina came rushing back, I just had to make this!

Tiny pastina cooked in a warm broth flavored with onion, & thyme, adding to that, creamy parmesan cheese, and roasted butternut squash.

I can barely describe how good this is, it almost didn’t make it to the table, I’m warning you you’ll be tempted to eat it right over the stove with a spoon!

By all means, you don’t have to serve it in a pumpkin like it’s featured here, but the presentation is so eye catching and very festive for this time of year, and besides, you have to roast your butternut squash anyway so why not do it all on the same baking sheet.

This recipe serves four, and the pumpkin I used was on the small side about 6 or 8 inches round. I was going to use the green one in the photo as well but decided against it.

Just cut the top, scoop out the seeds, oil it inside and out, and season with salt and pepper. Place the lids back on the top when baking.

For the butternut squash, I just cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, oil it inside and out add salt and pepper, and then place it cut side down on baking sheet.

Both will cook at 375F for about 40 min’s. You want your pumpkin still firm enough to stand up, so depending on what size you use, you might want to keep checking it.

NOTE: Do all of this earlier in the day to get it out of the way, the pastina cooks up fast.

This has nothing to do with the recipe at all, but I just wanted to show you the beautiful colors that were on these leaves that I saw when I was taking a walk the other day, I just love the fall colors!

Michael added turkey in his recipe and cooked the pastina like risotto, adding the broth little by little. I didn’t do that.

You certainly could add turkey to it if you like, for a more heartier meal. I didn’t do that either. I might however, use his suggestion to chiffonade some chard or spinach into it next time.

FOR THE PASTINA:

In a pot, sauté about 1 cup of onion in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and fresh thyme.

Pour in 4 cups of stock (I used chicken) and bring to a gentle boil.

When stock is boiling pour in 3/4 lb. of your dry pastina or any tiny pasta.

When al dente, fold in about 1 cup of your roasted butternut squash that has been scooped out, and 1/2 cup of good parmesan cheese. Season it to taste with salt and pepper.

The consistency should be loose, so you might want to add more stock to it, so have extra on hand if need be.

Pumpkin pastina is the perfect meal to make this fall.

Buon Appetito!

Savory Vegetable Ricotta Pie’s

October 15, 2008 by Marie 71 Comments

I’ve made many things using ricotta on this blog, obviously we love it here, and I always have some in my frig! Ricotta is such a versatile cheese that works very well in sweet, and savory dishes alike! It bakes wonderful with any kind of veggie or herb that you put with it. I often make these pies for a light dinner, lunch, or brunch.

You can bake them with a crust, or without. Below I used a 10″ pie pan, and above I used a 10″ spring form pan. Basically the ingredients are the same. About 1lb. of ricotta, 1/2 lb or less, of your favorite shredded cheese, here I used a mixture of provolone, asiago, and mozzerella. 1 cup of grated parm or romano, 3 beaten eggs, garlic and onion. After that, you can add in whatever veggies you want!

You can use shredded zucchini which has been squeezed of its moisture, frozen spinach that has been thawed and squeezed of all water, chopped artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, various pesto’s and herbs for flavorings. You can get very creative with all your favorite flavors!

Just start out sauteing your onion and garlic in olive oil, then add your veggies. Have your eggs and all your cheese whipped up together in a separate bowl, and then combine it all together. I bake them at 350F, till golden and firm in the middle, not wet. It could take 30 to 50 min’s. It depends how good you get the moisture out of everything, the ricotta included. Cool them down a bit before you cut into them, so everything stays together.

Serve them with a salad or some fruit, for a complete meal thats light, satisfying and full of flavor! You’ll find that the leftovers are just as good as the day you made it!!

Buon Appetito!!!

71 Comments Filed Under: Savory Tarts Tagged: brunch food, light meal, vegetarian ricotta pie

He Did It!!!

October 13, 2008 by Marie 39 Comments

As promised, I said I was going to share some photo’s of my son Tony running in the Chicago Marathon yesterday. 26.2 miles through the city of Chicago. There were 4500 runners and over
one million people attending the event. This photo was taken right before the race was about to begin.

The horn blew and we cheered him on! He gave us a wave as he took off!

Because the route was 26 miles, we had to jump on the elevated trains, the subways and taxi’s, to get to the different cheering stations, we were walking or riding on public transportation throughout the course. You couldn’t possibly move your car.

He wore a chip, that would give us a text message on our cell phones to tell us what mile he just passed through, so it was easy to figure out when he would be arriving at a certain mile marker, because we all knew how fast he could run a mile. Very high tech stuff!!!

Here he is at the 12 mile marker, my DIL, had two star balloons attached to her backpack so he could spot us as we were all yelling ” TONY!!!” He’s still smiling at 12 miles and looking good!

Here he is at the 21 mile marker, high fiving us all, as we were cheering him on. Still looking good with only 6.2 miles to go!! Needless to say he finished the race! I have no pictures of him crossing the finish line, as you couldn’t even get near it with the mobs of people around. Fortunately he’ll get a professional one taken from the marathon.

This is the shirt my Granddaughter wore, and it really sums up how we all felt! Great job Tony,