Beat the heat with Cannoli Ice Cream

"Again with the variations on cannoli?" You say. Well, you might say, I suppose, but those of you who are like me and can't get enough of anything even vaguely related to these particular pastries will really enjoy this one, I'm sure.

Ever since acquiring an ice cream maker last winter, I have been experimenting with a variety of different ice cream flavors: strawberry-basil, peaches and cream, fresh mint chocolate chip, etc. Last weekend, though, I found myself with extra ricotta cheese and an idea: if Ben and Jerry's can do it, why can't I?

I scoured the internet in search of recipes, but none seemed to both fit my ice cream maker and appropriately approximate what I personally felt was the right taste for cannoli. I ended up blending a few together and came up with a lovely mixture.

It doesn't taste like cannoli filling, which is what I was going for, but it became something else entirely, something of its own. It tastes rather sweet, but not too sweet. There's a hint of spiciness that I think that comes from the addition of cinnamon and nutmeg. Why not try it for yourself?

Cannoli Ice Cream

[What you need]
2 cups whole milk
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 T vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
To taste: chocolate chips, chopped pistachios, and/or dried apricots*
pinch salt

[What to do]

1. Whisk milk, salt, and granulated sugar together until slightly frothy.
2. Add cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and spices
3. Put in refrigerator for at least an hour, but it's best overnight
4. Follow your ice cream maker's instructions or! use this method.

*My ice cream maker instructs you to add "mix-ins" chocolate, nuts, fruit, etc at the last 5 minutes of the process, but your method may vary.

Cannoli Tarts! [The Cookbook...sort of]

[This post is a little belated. I started it a while back after my birthday, but life intervened. Here is it, a month late, but still good! You can make them for San Giuseppe Day tomorrow! Enjoy!]

Another year. Another birthday. Another treat to take in for the coworkers. After last year's casata disaster, I decided to keep things a little more on the simple side this year: I would make cannolis! Little did I know that cannolis were quite possibly the furthest things from simple I could have possibly chosen.

The plan was to whip up a batch of filling according to Bisnonna's recipes and use it fill up store-bought shells. Unfortunately, the weekend of my birthday, as I scoured the grocery stores in my area (ultimately going to 4 different stores), I learned that store bought shells aren't as readily available as I thought they were for some reason. I could have sworn that grocery stores, at least where I grew up, carried boxed cannoli shells, but around these parts, they are definitely less accessible.

So there I was, shell-less with all the filling ingredients and out of treat ideas.For some reason I couldn't get the idea of cannolis out of my mind. Making my own shells was out because my madre has Bisnonna's shell molds. I was stumped. And then I decided to search the internet to see if there was some sort of cannoli shell mold DIY out there (pinterest has DIYs for everything after all) and I found my inspiration: Cannoli Bites! When I saw this recipe, hope rushed back to me. I could adapt Bisnonna's cannoli recipe to suit this new form of shell mold and save the day!

Bisnonna's Cannoli

Bisnonna writes: 1 2/4 c. flour, 1/2 c. crisco, 3T sugar 1 egg, 3oz sherry wine or 6 T

Filling: 2# ricotta, about 1 c powder sugar or more or less, 4 almond chocolate bars cut up, about 12 cherries cut up, 1/2 c. nuts, 1/2 container of Cool Whip. Mix together and put in shells.

Amy's version: I mix up the shell dough with her exact ingredients, except I used 3 oz of red wine and vegetable shortening instead of crisco. The instructions for making the shells are at the Cooking Classy. As for the filling; again, I follow Bisnonna to the letter except instead of Cool Whip, I just used regular whip cream. I find the specific name brand usage in some of Bisnonna's recipe cards very interesting. Surely she didn't always have these brands. Crisco may been around her whole life, but Cool Whip wasn't around until 1966. I'm sure that her recipe was likely adapted from some older recipe after much trial and error; and just like that, the life cycle of the recipe continues.

Tabbouleh: Sicilian Style

There is a fair bit of Middle Eastern influence in Sicilian cuisine. It's most obvious in classics such as cassata, the use of couscous, and a fondness for apricots. This dish, which started as a way to use up an absurd amount of parsley from our garden, plays off those influences.

Sicilian Tabbouleh

inspired by Ina Garten with a lot of random additions by yours truly

[What You Need]

1 cup toasted wheat berries

3 cups water

2 tomatoes

1 cup roughly chopped parsley

1/2 cup roughly chopped mint

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/4 cup crushed pistachio

3 T. olive oil

3 T lemon juice

[What To Do]

1. Boil wheat berries in 3 cups boiling water for ~1 hour. They should soak up all the water much like rice.
2. Throw the pistachios in the blender if they're not yet crushed.
3. Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl.

It's that simple and it's a great dish for summer potlucks!

Cream cheese candies [Prozia Margaret]

I was first introduced to these beauties at a cousin's bridal shower. I recall being floored by their delicate appearance and flavor. I also recall being happy to learn of my great aunt Margaret's relatively simply recipe for creating these masterpieces.

Now, I warn you, my recipe may not be 100% exact to her original. This is my attempt to recreate it without calling any relatives. I may have made these very late at night. Additionally, Prozia Margaret's candies were made in beautiful candy molds creating lovely rose shapes, which I did not have on hand. I'm sure you can find similar ones online. These were made very much on a whim and, again, very late at night.

Cream Cheese Candies

via Prozia Margaret

[What you need]

1/4 cup butter

1 8oz block of cream cheese

5 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp flavoring of your choice (I used peppermint as it was what I had on hand, but I recommend almond or anise for a more authentic touch)

a couple drops food coloring in preferred color.

[What to do]

1. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cream cheese and stir until softened and mixed with butter.
2. Slowly, a cup at a time, mix in powdered sugar until the mixture forms a firm and moldable dough
3. Add in food coloring and flavor of choice. Or if you wish to do multiple, separate into bowls and do as many different flavor and color combinations as you wish. Mine were "Patriotic Peppermints" for the World Cup as well as upcoming Fourth of July holiday.
4. Roll into balls. At this point, you can either put them into molds and allow them to set this way or use a fork sugar cookie style if you find yourself sans molds like I did.

Arangini (Rice Balls) [The Cookbook]

I know it's been a while since I've presented a recipe straight from The Cookbook, which was the original purpose for this blog, but I hope to present quite a few of them soon. This week, I challenged myself to a classic bit of Roman street food, and it definitely was a challenge. Not that it was particularly difficult once I figured out how to put it all together, but simply because, unfortunately, many of Bisnonna's recipes are not written as clearly as I would like. Someone are only a list of ingredients. Others...a vague set of steps. It makes following them difficult.

This one falls into the vague set of steps category, but it was actually kind of fun trying to sort it out.

Why can't I ever make anything that looks half as good as it tastes?

Arangini (Rice Balls)

via The Cookbook

Bisnonna Writes: 1# rice, a little salt

cook and cool. Add 1/2 c. of Romano cheese. 4 T. melted oleo. 3 eggs well beaten, a little tomato sauce

Brown 1# hamburg, 1 clove garlic crushed, 1 onion chopped, 1/4 of tomato paste or 4 T. sauce, 1 c. water. cook 20 mins. dip in well beaten egg.

roll in bread crumbs and fry

Amy interprets and makes a few alterations:

[What You Need]

1 cup of cooked rice

1/2 cup of Romano cheese

1 lb hamburger

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

tomato paste

1 cup water

Well beaten egg

Italian bread crumbs

[What to do]

1. Brown hamburger, add garlic and onion to mixture and sauté for a few minutes. Add 1/4 can (about 2 tablespoons) of tomato paste and a cup of water. Cover and simmer about 5 more minutes.
2. Combine rice and cheese, them add hamburger mixture.
3. Form balls, dip in well beaten egg and them roll in bread crumbs
4. At this point you can either fry them for a more authentic street food take or cook them for ~1/2 hour at 350, which is what I did

Leek and Fennel Soup

Coming home to 50 degree Michigan from 80 degree Puerto Rico was a bit of a shock to my system. Not going to lie. 50 probably would have felt like a tropical heat wave just a month ago, but to me, this weekend, it feels like it does in September: soup weather. I suppose that's not a bad thing. It gives me a chance to display a spring vegetable soup! (And don't worry, I'll be waxing rhapsodic on the amazing cuisine of Puerto Rico soon enough.)

This soup is also, unfortunately, another in the "it doesn't look pretty, but I promise it tastes good" vein.

Well, it looks pretty before you blend it, at least.

Leek and Fennel Soup

(Inspired by these two recipes from Food52)

[What You Need]

2 leeks

1 bulb of fennel

Olive Oil

5 cups vegetable broth

1 cup buttermilk

Several big handfuls of fresh parsley

Parmesan cheese

Black pepper

[What to do]

1. Chop up fennel, leeks, and parsley. Set the parsley aside and saute the leeks and fennel in the olive oil.
2. Add stock and buttermilk. Bring to a slow boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. CAREFULLY blend the soup until creamy.
4. Serve with a spoonful or two of Parmesan cheese and black pepper

Paczki Day!

"I'm going to make pączki."
"What's that?"
"They're...like...jelly doughnuts, but...a million times better."

I know a lot of this blog is mostly dedicated to my Sicilian heritage, but there's a lot of Polish going on in my background too, and I am just as proud of, if not nearly as knowledgeable about, it. Pączki (plural of  pączek, fyi) are a Polish doughnut of sorts, a deep fried treat for Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Tuesday), and one of my favorite things in the world. I seek them out annually. I make sure that I get one of these babies every year on Pączki Day. This year, I decided to make my own.

They are -fattening-, not even slightly healthy. However, as far as I'm concerned, that's okay. Pączki are not meant to be eaten every day. They are meant to be a moment of joy before 40 long days of fasting and contemplation. Sometimes you need a little dose of joy.

I warn you, this is an endeavor. It takes all day. But it's worth it. It's so worth it.

Whether you're celebrating Fat Tuesday tomorrow or you're just looking for a delicious treat, this recipe is just the thing you need.

Pączki 

inspired by traditional recipes in the Polish American Journal and this one from Serious Eats

[What You Need]

2 cups whole milk (full fat)
4 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup + 1 T. sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup rye flour (optional - if you want you can just use 5 cups of all purpose)
4 eggs yolks
1 whole egg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 oz. rum
1 tsp honey
Oil for frying (I used canola because it was what I had on hand, but anything with a high smoke point should work)
Filling of choice (optional)

1 cup powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
orange rind (optional)

[What to do]
1. Melt butter and set aside to cool.
2. Heat milk to ~115 degrees F.
3. Stir in yeast and give them a tablespoon of sugar to eat. When you see the yeast is active, stir in 2 cups of flour, cover with a moist dishcloth and set aside for 30 minutes. (Essentially, you are creating a starter here)
4. Whisk the eggs together with the rest of the sugar, honey, vanilla, and salt.
5. Add melted butter and egg mixture to starter, combine slowly and stir only as much as needed to combine the ingredients.
6. Finally, slowly add the rest of the flour. It will form a very sticky, but soft, smooth dough. Cover and set aside to rise for 1 1/2 hours.
7. On a floured surface, knead the rum into the dough (the alcohol content keeps the oil from absorbing too deeply into the dough while frying), then roll it out until ~1 in thick.
8. Cut out circles of dough. For me, this recipe made about 30 circles, but if you roll it out thinner, it may make more. Set the circles aside to rise for an 1 1/2 hours.
9. Heat oil for frying: I keep a small amount of dough to test for this.
10. Fry the circles (which will have risen to twice their size) and let them cool.
11. (optional): using a pastry filling pipe, fill with your choice of filling (traditional fillings [filling is controversial, though] include rose custard, plum, etc. I used raspberry for 1/2 and did not fill the rest.)
12. (optional): fill a shallow bowl with powdered sugar and/or orange zest and roll pączki in it to cover them. (I used sugar for unfilled and zest for raspberry to distinguish the two types.)

So there you have it. My most complex recipe to date. Enjoy! Happy Mardi Gras!

Kale and Conchigliette (Shells)

[not as ambitious as what I wanted to present (homemade pasta), but we'll keep that one for when I get it right]

This one's easy, but definitely worth the trouble, and while not spaghetti a decent follow-up to our last time excursion into the world of pasta history. (speaking of which, I've found a really fun infographic discussion pasta shapes. It's helpful for knowing the names of the wide variety out there: http://www.charmingitaly.com/different-types-of-pasta/ - It's how I knew what shells are actually -are-)

Kale and Shells

by Amy (inspired by a pasta casserole recipe in Cheesy Cheesy Quick and Easy)

[What You Need]

1 bunch lacy kale

1 package shell pasta

2 eggs

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

1 egg

8 oz ricotta cheese

16 oz sauce of choice (I used a garlic and leek marinara)

mozzarella cheese for sprinkling

[What to do]

1. cook pasta according to instructions (one thing I've learned from this process is that pasta times vary)
2. mix egg, parmesan, ricotta, and kale (torn into small pieces) in a bowl
3. layer sauce, cheese mixture and shells in a well greased "lasagna" pan
4. cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour
5. remove cover and bake for 5 more minutes.

Torrone

Picture, if you will, your favorite childhood candy. Maybe, like my madre, your mind goes to miniature Tootsie Rolls or, like my sister, you're thinking of the ever allusive Zero bar. For me, there are two candies which make my mouth water with nostalgic joy. One is dark chocolate. One is nougat. Both involve almonds. I really don't know if I can stress enough how much I love almonds.

One of these can be found in just about any corner of the world. The other...I have only ever seen in grocery stores that specifically market themselves as "Italian". Because of the lack of such stores in the little nook of the world I find myself in, I've decided to whip up a batch on my own for the holidays.

It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

The recipes I found were simple enough. The problem was: it takes a long time and a lot of patience, two things I never really seem to have in spades. If I had to watch a bunch of thermometers and jump back and forth between pots like my other candy making adventures require, I actually might have found this easier. In reality, making Torrone is a highly meditative chemistry lesson ideal for the day I had this Saturday when we snowed in anyway.

Torrone

Adapted from Dellalo and Food52

[What you need]
12 oz of honey (about 1 1/2 cups)
4 cups of whole almonds
3 egg whites
flavoring to taste (a box of Torrone from the store will come with vanilla, lemon, and orange. Lemon is my favorite so I used it exclusively, but feel free to get creative.)
1 1/4 cup powdered suger (optional: for the impatient among us.)
2 sheets ostia wafer paper (which can be found here - honestly, I just used rice paper for my first batch. I mainly include the more traditional detail for the fun story my madre tells in which she and her sisters used to peel the paper off the nougats and "play communion" when they were young.)

[What to do]
1.Set up a double boiler system and pour in the honey. Cook until it is clearly of a liquid consistency, stirring frequently. This took me around an 1 1/2 hours.
2. In the meantime, roast the almonds. Put them on a rimmed baking sheet in the oven (at around 350 degrees F.)  for 10-15 minutes.
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. This step is crucial, do not rush it. The eggs are the binder that bring the whole thing together.
4. Fold the egg whites into the honey. Continue folding until the mixture becomes thick and somewhat caramel-like. This step, also crucial, takes a long time. I, personally, almost gave up on it, thinking that it would never set. Don't panic. Just stir. (If you find that you can't deal with this any longer, add the powdered sugar. It will help thicken things up; however, the candy will no longer be authentic.)
5. Fold in the almonds and flavoring. The mixture should be thick enough that the almonds don't all sink immediately.
6. Line a baking dish with wafer paper and pour the mixture in. Place another wafer paper on top and press down with your hands or other weight. Set aside for at least an hour while it firms up; it may take longer.
7. To serve, flip it over and cut the nougat into squares.

Polenta

You're about to walk into some contentious territory, so I suggest you prepare yourself.

Polenta is one of those foods that can be found pretty much anywhere (I mean, it's essentially cornmeal mush), but what you put on it drastically varies by region. Fry it and cover it with milk based beef gravy and you've done it Pennsylvania Dutch style. A tomato sauce? Northern Italian territory.

I know, I betraying my Sicilian roots here, but Polenta is tasty and I think it's status as a "peasant food" to the point where I know people ashamed to make it make it a little less of a betrayal.

There are Polenta stories in my family, though most of them involve my mother carefully explaining to me that my bisnonna would probably have never made polenta

All of this aside, I really enjoy the dish. It is a hearty and warm meal that reheats well and is a perfect dish to make large quantities of on cold night as we approach winter.

Polenta

[adapted from Food52]

[what you need]

4 cups ricotta whey (you can get the whey by making this recipe)

1 cup ground cornmeal

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons oregano

1 tablespoon parsley

1 tablespoon basil

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

[what to do]

1. Set up a double boiler. (several cups of water in one pan with another pan or bowl overtop)

2. Put whey, cornmeal and seasonings in the top of the double boiler. Stir carefully.

3. Cook until polenta is thick. This should take between 30-45 minutes.

4. Stir in cheese

5. Either top with gravy/tomato sauce and serve or separate into containers for storage and top with choice toppings later. I like to make large batches ahead of time for hearty lunches.

Baked Whitefish with Tomatoes

I was struck by the lack of fish in The Cookbook. I've been taught that fish is pretty much a staple of Southern Italian cooking, but there wasn't a single recipe that involved fish within the collection my mother had gathered.

I think it has something to do with Madre not being a big fish fan as well as the expense of fish in general. An interesting aspect of Bisnonna's cooking is how influenced it was by the Great Depression. Lots of the recipes she used sub out the traditional meats or other items for those that could be obtained more cheaply.

So, there were no fish recipes, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. Beside, I ended up with a lot more fish from the farmer's market than I actually meant to buy...[Farmer's Markets make me nervous, what can I say?] So I concocted something of my own based on what I had around and some guidance from Giada DeLaurentis and the BBC.

I do love fish. And in the Great Lakes, whitefish is -the- fish. Whitefish, of course, refers to a variety of fish so far as fisheries are concerned, but the fishery we go to uses the term to refer to Lake Whitefish. As always, when choosing fish, remember to shop sustainably.

Baked Whitefish With Tomatoes
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis and BBC's Good Foods Magazine

[ingredients - serves 4]
2 Whitefish fillets (or other sustainable fish for your region)
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 large tomatoes
Basil, Parsley, Black Pepper to taste

[What to do]

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Drizzle some of the olive oil in the bottom of a glass baking pan.
3. Season the fillets and add them to the pan. Cover in rest of oil, lemon juice and tomatoes cut into smaller pieces.
4. Cover baking pan (I used tin foil) and bake for 25-30 minutes

I served this fish with some brown rice sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.