Italian Food Lovers

As we announced yesterday, we have a full schedule of gourmet recipes for your Thanksgiving meal, provided by the great Chefs who joined our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network. Today we start the series of blog posts with a delicious recipe by Chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia Restaurant in Chicago: Cappellacci di Zucca con Salvia (Pasta Hats with Pumpkin and Sage).

The recipe is included in Tony and Cathy Mantuano’s cookbook “The Spiaggia Cookbook – Eleganza Italiana in Cucina“, which is available online at Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Chef Mantuano customized this recipe for us adding a few gourmet products from the Academia Barilla Italian food specialty collection, as you can see from the ingredients’ list below.

As described by Chef Mantuano in the Spiaggia cookbook:

This dish may well become a family favorite, especially at Thanksgiving, when pumpkins are in season. The filling has a sweet-and-savory flavor that pairs well with turkey, goose, or duck. Whenever we serve this dish to customers and friends who have never tried it, the raves are loud and clear. This stuffed pasta yields hearty portions, and we suggest serving it with a robust red wine.

CAPPELLACCI DI ZUCCA CON SALVIA – PASTA HATS WITH PUMPKIN AND SAGE
A recipe by Chef Tony Mantuano
(serves 6 to 8)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 pie pumpkin, about 2 pounds (about 2 cups purée after roasting)
- 1/3 cup mostarda, coarsely chopped (see notes)
- 1 1/4 cups dried bread crumbs
- 1 1/4 cups grated Academia Barilla Parmigiano Reggiano
- 1 cup amaretti cookies, finely ground
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- Academia Barilla Natural Sicilian Sea Salt with Orange Zest and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- basic pasta dough (you can also use premade pasta sheets from your local grocery store)
- 2 cups unsalted butter
- 16 fresh sage leaves
- more grated Academia Barilla Parmigiano Reggiano, for serving

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. To make the filling: Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds.

Arrange, cut sides down, on an aluminum foil-lined or nonstick baking sheet roast until very tender, 20 to 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and place in a blender or food processor. Add the mostarda and process to a purée.

Transfer to a bowl and add the bread crumbs, cheese, cookie crumbs, and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Roll out the pasta dough into thin sheets. Working with one sheet at a time, cut the pasta into 3-inch squares. Place each square on a lightly floured board or cloth and let dry 5 minutes.

To fill, place a dough square in front of you on the diagonal, so you are facing a diamond shape. Place a teaspoon of filling in the middle of the diamond. Lightly spray the pasta with water and bring the bottom point of the diamond to the top point.

Press the pasta together to form a triangle, working out from the filling. Trim the 2 unfolded sides of the pasta triangle with a crimped pastry wheel, and then fold the side points of the pasta forward and press to join them together in a “bishop’s hat” shape. Repeat with the remaining dough and filing.

Stand the finished cappellacci to dry for about 5 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted with flour.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat; do not let the butter brown. Stir in the sage leaves. Set aside and keep warm over very low heat.

Add the cappellacci to the boiling water and cook until al dente (tender but firm to the bite), 3 to 5 minutes after they rise to the top.

Remove with a slotted spoon and carefully transfer to the warm butter and sage sauce. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes to allow the pasta to marry with the sauce and absorb some of it.

To serve, divide the cappellacci among 8 warmed plates and top with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve immediately.

CHEF TIPS

Mostarda is a candied fruit, such as pears, apricots, and cherries, mixed with white mustard and sugar syrup. More sweet than piquant, mostarda adds dimension to the pumpkin filling. It is also used with boiled meats and in confections. You can find mostarda in Italian specialty stores or online.

The cappellacci can be assembled in advance and frozen. Arrange them, not touching, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted with flour. Freeze until hard, about 20 minutes. Transfer to zippered plastic bag and freeze for up to 1 month.

Thank you Chef Mantuano for your delicious recipe and for the precious Chef tips. We know Chef Tony Mantuano is getting a Christmas recipe ready to be served to our Italian food lovers next month, and we look forward to it!

Don’t forget to stay with us all week for daily gourmet Thanksgiving recipes from our Chef Network!

Last week we published a couple of gourmet recipes using chicken as a main ingredient, Chicken Breast stuffed with Herb and Cheese, and Chicken Scaloppine with Lemon and Caper Sauce, but since this is Thanksgiving week, we switch to turkey, the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Today we share with you a traditional recipe for your Traditional Thanksgiving Turkey that we found browsing the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library in Parma, Italy. The cookbook we found is “America e la sua grande cucina” (America’s Great Cuisine), by Philip Stephen Schulz, published in Italy by Rizzoli in 1990.

Cookbook author Philip Stephen Schulz explores in this cookbook the traditional cuisine of all US States and, when it comes to the culinary traditions of Connecticut, he proposes the traditional local recipe for Roast Thanksgiving Turkey with Cornbread Stuffing.

Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen!

ROAST THANKSGIVING TURKEY WITH CORNBREAD STUFFING
A recipe by Philip Stephen Schulz
(serves 8-10)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 (22 lb) fresh turkey
- 2 large crushed garlic cloves
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

INGREDIENTS FOR STUFFING

- 3 bacon strips, chopped
- 1/2 cup dried white wine
- 4 cups water
- 1 onion
- 1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
- 3 parsley sprigs, plus additional sprigs for garnish
- 1/4 tablespoon salt
- 4 black peppercorns
- 1 1/2 tablespoon flour
- 1/4 cup cream

PREPARATION

Preheat oven at 330°F. Remove giblets from turkey and if desired set aside for the gravy. Clean turkey inside and outside with a wet kitchen towel and rub with 1 crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper. Fill cavity of turkey with stuffing. Tie it. Wrap up the breast with bacon.

Place turkey in a roasting pan, cover with a netting previously soaked in wine. Pour some wine onto it. Cook in oven for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, put the giblets (not the liver) in a large saucepan, add water, onion, celery, the remaining part of garlic clove, parsley, salt and peppercorn. Boil, then turn the heat down and simmer, without lid, until the broth reduces to 2 cups. Sieve.

Dip the turkey in broth and keep cooking by adding broth every 30 minutes, until drumsticks are easy to move up and, if you prick the meat sauce comes out, cook for about 5 1/2 - 6 hours totally. During the last 30 minutes of cooking time, remove the netting by sprinkling it with wine.

Heat oven to 375°F in order to obtain a crisper skin. Remove the turkey from oven and let it cool down for 15 minutes. In the meantime, sieve the sauce of the turkey, skimming off the fat if necessary.

In a saucepan melt butter over medium-low heat. Add flour continuously mixing. Cook for 2 minutes by keeping mix. Add cream and simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish turkey with the remaining part of parsley. Serve with the sauce and the stuffing.

CORNBREAD STUFFING
(Cornbread has to be prepared 1 or 2 days before Thanksgiving)
Ingredients for a 22 lb turkey

- 8.75 oz sweet Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 large onion
- 2 celery stalk, minced
- 1 little red or green pepper, removed from seeds and minced
- 1/2 cup parsley, minced
- 2 cups open oysters, not drained
- 1 corn bread squarely (7.9 inch)
- 1 tablespoon fresh sage minced or ¼ tablespoon sage powdered
- salt and freshly ground black pepper

CORNBREAD STUFFING PREPARATION

In a large saucepan brown the sausage over medium heat for 10 about minutes, by mixing until sausage washes and is of a golden-brown colour. Put in a stock pot.

From the same saucepan remove the sausage fat. Add 1/4 cup melted butter, onion, celery and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes by keep mixing. Remove from heat and add parsley. Pour forth the oysters keeping the liquid, then add to vegetables.

In a mixing bowl crumble the corn bread with the sausage. Add vegetables and oysters, sage, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add slowly the oysters liquid and the remaining part of butter, keep mixing until the dough results humid, not wet. Let it cool down, then stuff the roast turkey.

Thank you to the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library team for providing us with this traditional Thanksgiving recipe. This week we will publish more Thanksgiving recipes also from the gourmet Chef of the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network; stay tuned with us this week for more gourmet Thanksgiving recipes every day!