easy Archives - Very EATalian

Hello friends,

Long time no see! A lot has happened in the past month. We’re back in the US after a whole year spent in Italy, near my family. I can say our hearts and bellies are happy and full: so many shared moments with people we love; such familiar and unforgettable flavors! Oh, I miss everything and everybody so much already.

We ended up gravitating around Northeastern Italy, only stepping once outside the Italian border (to eat at a restaurant in a little Slovenian village). Even if we initially thought we’d travel more, our year in Italy was very rich (and enriching) , regardless!

We loved being close to the sea and to the Alps! The opera in Verona, a weekend in Milan, our summer vacation in a luxury hotel in Alto Adige, a week at my favorite beach, getting lost in Venice for the hundredth time were just some of the highlights of our time there. The most cherished moments, though, were the simplest of all.

I’m thinking of something as simple as getting a brioche and a cappuccino at a local cafe or riding our bikes through the quiet roads around the house, just before the sun disappeared behind the mountains. I loved our dinners under the porch — lately they were on high demand because Olivia loved the colorful string lights. Seeing old friends, eating gelato & pizza, strolling around markets, foraging for wild herbs, shopping at my favorite shoes stores…the list goes on and on! Lastly, the best thing of all was seeing Olivia growing up close to her nonni, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She had lots of attention and love coming from all over the place…I’m not sure how I can replace that, but it was a real blessing! During our time there, she grew into a chatty, smart, and curious toddler.

Now we’re off to a new start and we’re slowly getting used to our new life here in Alexandria, VA. Readjusting this time is a bit harder because of all the restrictions related to COVID. Thankfully, we still have friends here and we also found a house we’ll soon move into. I can’t wait to settled and get all my kitchen stuff back! In the meantime, I have some recipes that have been in the back burner for a long time.

Pasta with Tuna and Lemon is definitely a classic in Italian cuisine. This recipe is a keeper and also a lifesaver because it’s easy, quick, and tasty. We resorted to it on multiple occasions during our last weeks in Italy and even here in our temporary apartment. The quality of tuna is really important, so make sure to use the best you can find. I love to add luscious and creamy stracciatella to this dish: it goes so well with the zesty lemon and it balances out the heat from the chili peppers.

Just in case you’re not familiar with it, stracciatella is the soft, delicate and creamy center of burrata — it’s basically what makes burrata so good! This heavenly and pillowy soft cheese is a mixture of shredded fresh mozzarella curd and cream. I know it’s gaining popularity outside of Italy, so I encourage you to look for it at your local specialty store. If you can’t find it, you can easily replace it with her more famous sister, burrata.

This recipe can be enjoyed any time of the year, but I particularly love it for the summer. It’s so fresh and so tasty!

SPAGHETTI WITH TUNA, LEMON, AND CREAMY STRACCIATELLA CHEESE

Total Time 15 minutes

Author Very EATalian

Ingredients

320 g (11.5. oz) spaghetti
extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 organic lemon juiced and zested
crushed red pepper flakes OR a fresh red hot chili pepper (seeded and sliced)
300 g (10.5 oz) good-quality tuna in extra-virgin olive oil drained
1 Tbsp fresh parsley chopped
stracciatella cheese in desired amount, at room temperature

Instructions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti and cook until al dente. While pasta is cooking, prepare the “sauce”.
In a wide sauté pan, over medium heat, add a drizzle of olive oil and a clove of garlic. Let it become fragrant and then add chili pepper sliced (or red pepper flakes), lemon zest and 1/4 cup of cooking water from the pasta pot. Cook briefly and let the liquid evaporate. Then add the tuna and the lemon juice, and cook for just a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and let the flavors mingle until the pasta is ready.
Drain the pasta and transfer to the pan. Turn on the heat, toss the pasta in the tuna/lemon sauce, until coated, for a minute or two. Remove the clove of garlic.
Serve in bowls along with 1 or 2 tablespoons of stracciatella. Sprinkle with parsley. Before eating, make sure you stir in the stracciatella with your fork so that you obtain a nice creamy sauce.

I’ll start off by admitting that Pasta e Fagioli isn’t the sexiest soup around (and I can assure you it was quite hard to photograph)…BUT it definitely makes up for its humble (and messy) appearance with a world of flavor and goodness. It’s peasant food, made with cheap ingredients — it only needs few veggies and pasta. It was a staple dish on my grandparents’ table and it’s still a dish we cook quite often around here.

We love it because it’s incredibly versatile: you can eat it warm or cold; you can use different pasta shapes (as long as it’s small dry pasta); you can make it more or less liquid. If you’d like to have it cold, just throw in some torn radicchio and lightly dress it with vinegar, for a nice touch of acidity. If you want to be really old school, you can do what my grandfather used to do — instead of vinegar, just pour a dash of red wine in it…better if straight from your glass!

The recipe is courtesy of my mom: it’s definitely simpler and lighter than many other versions that include pancetta, lard or pork rind. The cooking time depends on the type of beans you are using: we typically use fagioli borlotti (cranberry or Roman beans). Many people like to add shaved cheese on top — we only add a bit of good-quality extra-virgin olive oil and a couple of crostini as a final touch.

Mmmm. Che bontà! So good!

Pasta e Fagioli Soup [Pasta and bean soup]

Author: Very EATalian

Serves: 4

Ingredients

200 g (7 oz) dry cranberry beans, previously soaked in water for at least 24 hours*
1 celery stalk, cut in big chunks
1 carrot, cut in big chunks
1 onion, halved
2.5 lt (10 cups) water
150-200 g (5.2-7 oz) short dry pasta (ditalini or elbow macaroni are perfect!)
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil
(optional) crostini*

Instructions

Pour water in a pot and add carrot, celery, onion, and beans. Add some coarse salt (like when you cook pasta). Bring to a boil and cook on medium-low heat for 50 min-1 hour or until beans are cooked through.
Take out some cooked beans and, if you like, some carrots; these will be added back in the soup at a later moment.
With a hand-held blender, blend together all the ingredients contained in the pot. Add pasta in it and cook according to package instructions. Stir often as pasta will tend to stick to the bottom.
Once pasta is cooked, add beans and carrots (cut in smaller pieces) back in the pot. Keep in mind that pasta will thicken the soup. Depending on the density you like to achieve, you can make it less liquid by adding boiling water or you can make it thicker by cooking it a little longer. Add more salt, if necessary.
Serve warm with crostini, some freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Notes

* When you soak your beans, it's a good idea to change out the water a couple of times.
* To make your own crostini (croutons), cut a pieces of bread in slices and then in small squares. Drizzle bread squares with extra-virgin olive oil and pan-roast them until golden.