We were given an opportunity to try a new product from Montillo Italian Foods. Vino Cotto di Montillo is a a semi-sweet reduction of premium wine grapes that has been used in Calabrian cooking for generations. We combined the Vino Cotto with raisens and pine nuts creating a sauce that is not only unique but very satisfying. Even your most demanding gourmand will appreciate this rather simple presentation. As with our other recipes we try to develop new ideas with the home cook in mind. We strive to create a meal that takes 30 minutes or less in cooking time. This pork tenderloin recipe turned out great. The earthy richness of the polenta is a perfect compliment to the fragrant sauce.

You will need:
Pork Tenderloin – approx. 4 oz/serving
Sea Salt and fresh ground pepper
Olive Oil
Unsalted butter
Pine nuts – approx. 1 oz/serving toasted
Raisens – approx. 1 oz/serving (soak raisens in Vino Cotto – use enough to cover)
Vino Cotto di Montillo – approx. 5 TBSP/serving
Salt free chicken stock – approx. 2 TBSP/serving
Polenta – approx. 1/4 cup dry/serving.

Prepare the pork:
Remove any excess fat and silver skin from tenderloin. Cut into tournedos at least one inch thick, season with sea salt and pepper. In a sauté pan large enough to hold the tournedos without crowding brown until a nice rich crust is formed (about 6 minutes/per side). Don’t walk away from this step as to negate the possibility of burning. If your pan is not large enough you can brown the pork in batches. Remove pork from pan and place in oven preheated to 350° F and cook until internal temperature reaches 140° F. Remove from oven and keep warm. Remember that the pork will continue to cook while it rests and will come to 145 – 150° F for serving.

For the sauce:
Pour off any excess fat from the sauté pan. Heat the pan on high for about a minute then off heat add the chicken stock, return to heat and deglaze. Reduce the stock by about 1/2 then add Vino Cotto and soaked raisens. Bring to a rapid simmer then add 1TBSP cold butter and swirl into sauce. Return pork tenderloins to sauce to warm through. Add pine nuts just before serving. Cook polenta according to package recipe. Spoon polenta onto serving plate, top with Pork Tenderloin tournedos and spoon sauce over all.

You will get rave reviews with this one. Enjoy!

To purchase an 8.5 oz. bottle of Vino Cotto di Montillo for the low price of $15.95/bottle just send us a note.

This is a real simple recipe that anybody can prepare. I takes less than 30 minutes and you will be the toast of the town with your family and friends.

You will need:

Uncooked Shrimp – I used 30’s for this recipe however you can use any size as long as they have the shell and weigh approximately 1/3 to 1/2 pound/serving

Olive Oil

Unsalted Butter

Nutmeg – if you don’t have the whole bean do not use grated from the jar just omit. The taste will change somewhat but it will be just fine.

Heavy Cream – approx 1/4 cup/serving

Sea Salt/Pepper – I used white pepper here as to not speckle the final sauce but cracked black pepper will work just fine.

Romano Cheese – approximately one Tablespoon/serving

Parmesan Cheese – approximately one Tablespoon/serving.

Fresh or Dried Linguine – I used Linguine Fini for this recipe but you can use the larger pasta or substitute Fettuccini if you prefer.

NB: The sauce will take approximately 15 minutes to prepare, so be sure to cook the pasta so that it is finished when the sauce is ready.

Prepare the Shrimp – if the shrimp you purchased was not cleaned by the fish monger make a slit on the back cutting through the shell and clean out. In a sauté pan large, enough to hold the shrimp add some olive oil and heat to a high simmer (when the oil shimmers you know it is the proper temperature). If you do not have a large enough pan, you can do this in batches. Sauté shrimp on both sides until the shell turns a nice shade of pink (do not cook all the way through, as the shrimp will be finished in the sauce). When shrimp is done place in a bowl to cool enough to be able to remove shells. DO NOT clean the pan at this stage.

Prepare the sauce:
When shrimp is cool enough to work with remove and discard shells. Cut shrimp into bite size pieces. In the sauté pan you used to do the first step of the shrimp, heat olive oil and butter, it will be ready when the oil shimmers. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and add to the heated sauté pan. The time it will take to cook the shrimp will depend on the size you decided to use. When the shrimp is almost totally opaque add the heavy cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring the cream up to a simmer then add the cheeses. You cannot walk away from this sauce, as the cream will burn if you are not careful. Either swirl the cream by working the pan in circles or stir regularly until the cream and cheese start to thicken. It is done when the shrimp is firm to the touch and the sauce has noticeably thickened. Drain the pasta and spoon enough of the sauce over it to coat.

Plate the coated pasta then add the shrimp and balance of sauce. Grate a little more nutmeg over the plated pasta and enjoy.

Over the holidays I had an excess of pomegranate, and not wanting to waste them, I separated the seeds and froze them in a zip log bag. I knew that I would be looking for something different and just recently came up with this quick dish. Additionally, I had purchased a large quantity of pork loin cut into steaks, it was a deal, price wise, so I just couldn’t pass them up. You can substitute pork chops very easily.

You will need:
Pork Loin Steak – approx. 6 oz./serving
Olive oil
Fresh ground pepper
Kosher or Sea Salt
Pomegranate Seeds – approx. 1 TBSP/serving
Pomegranate juice – approx. 2 TBSP/serving (I used POM brand)
Beef stock – approx. 2 TBSP/serving
Unsalted butter – approx. 1/4 TBSP/serving

Prepare the pork – heat a sauté pan (oven-proof, not non-stick) over medium high heat, brush both sides of pork with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste (it is OK to be generous here). Sear pork to get a nice rich color on both sides, put into a pre-heated 350 degree F oven to finish (cook until temperature is 140 degrees)

For Glacé – when pork is finished remove from sauté pan, keep warm by covering it with aluminum foil. Deglaze the pan with pomegranate juice scrapping up the fond. When juice starts to thicken add beef stock, pomegranate seeds and butter. Heat through until butter is emulsified into the sauce, pour over pork and serve. If you don’t have the pomegranate seeds diced dried cherries will work. Enjoy!

Lydia P.

This recipe has been in my family forever. It comes from my father’s side of the family and my father and his siblings each inherited an enamel baking pan from my grandmother. These baking pans, 13 ½ inches in diameter, were from my grandfather’s bakery and had very, very long handles for use in my grandfather’s huge brick ovens. They cut the handles off of these pans for use at home.

You will need:
1-2 lbs ricotta cheese
2-4 handfuls of pecorino romano cheese (half a pound works better)
8 Italian sausage, cooked and sliced thin
1/2 lb perciatelli, broken into thirds
1 dozen eggs

Preheat oven to 350F
Fry the sausage. Boil the macaroni.
Beat the eggs, add the ricotta and romano cheeses to the egg mixture. When the pasta is cooked and drained, add that to the egg mixture. Slice the sausage, add to the mixture.

Grease the pan with the sausage fat. (13″ round enamel pan is best)
I took 3 tablespoons of sausage fat and greased the pan with that and did not add any more fat to the mixture. Pour mixture into pan and smooth it out on top so there is no macaroni sticking out of the top (unless you like burnt, crunchy macaroni).

Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean. (mine took 70-75 minutes) It will be brown (NOT burnt!) on top.
This can be served either hot or cold. It freezes well, too!

You can cut this recipe in half and bake it in a glass deep baking dish (13×9) as well.

When we prepared this recipe we used half the amounts stipulated. Not knowing the size of the handful of cheese mentioned we went with one full cup of Pecorino. It is difficult to determine link size when purchasing the sausage so we went with 2 pounds.

As you can see in the photograph of our version we used a football shaped baking dish which was sufficient in size to hold everything. Using the fat from the sausage to grease the baking dish hadn’t been tried before by us but really like the idea, it gives the dish a little added dimension.

Thank you Lydia and congratulations on being the first, of hopefully many, Guest Chef.

I like a good steak occasionally and although I, at times, like it with a little steak sauce [my latest favorite is A-1 Cracked Peppercorn] I decided to do something with mushrooms, onions and Marsala wine. It is simple, quick and easy and hits the spot. I served this with Baby Brussels Sprouts.

You will need:
Bone-in New York Strip steak approximately 8 ounces/serving.
Coarse Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
Olive Oil
Baby Brussels Sprouts approximately 4 ounces/serving
Butter (unsalted) approximately two tablespoons/serving.
Button Mushrooms, sliced, approximately 4 ounces/serving
Sweet Onion such as Walla Walla or Vidalia, sliced thin.
Dry Marsala Wine approximately 4 TBSP/serving.
Kosher Salt/Pepper

Rub olive oil on both sides of steak, season with sea salt and cracked pepper then grill or pan sauté to desired doneness. While steak is cooking pour olive oil into a sauté pan large enough to hold all ingredients add butter when oil is warm, add sliced mushrooms and onions, season with salt and pepper. Sauté until mushrooms lose most of their moisture and onions are translucent. Add Marsala wine and continue to cook until wine is absorbed.

While the steak and mushrooms are cooking place Brussels Sprouts in a pot of boiling water, make sure the pot is large enough to hold all the sprouts without crowding. Depending on the size of the sprouts boil, until they are fork tender then remove from pot and keep warm. In a small sauce pot melt butter until just foamy, add salt/pepper to taste, add a small amount of cornstarch or arrowroot to some water to form a smooth paste whisk into butter until slightly thickened add Brussels sprouts to coat.

Pasta with Five Cheeses and Pancetta

This is not your kids mac and cheese but they will love it too. You can adjust quantities according to your personal taste.

You will need:
Parmesan Cheese – shredded – 1/2 cup
Mozzarella Cheese – 1/2 cup (use fresh not smoked)
Asiago Cheese – shredded – 1/2 cup
Fontina Cheese – shredded – 1/2 cup
Gorgonzola Cheese – 1/4 cup
Whole Milk – 4 qts – heated
All purpose Flour – 8 TBS
Butter – 8 TBS
Fresh nutmeg
Pancetta – 1/4 inch thick slice – 1 or 2 depending on taste
Good quality Italian/french bread (use food processor to crumb) – approximately 1/2 cup
Salt/pepper – to taste (if you want a cleaner sauce use white pepper)
Olive Oil
Tubular or shaped pasta such as penne rigate, radiatore, farfalle, cavatappi or conchiglie – 1 pound

Prepare pasta by bringing large pot of salted water to a rapid boil, add pasta and cook until just below al dente. In a dutch oven or pot large enough to hold cooked pasta plus one quart liquid heat one tablespoon olive oil. Cut pancetta into 1/4 inch dice, when oil is heated add pancetta. Cook pancetta until crisp, remove from pot with slotted spoon and reserve. Pour off any fat left from pancetta add butter and flour and cook until combined scraping up brown bits from pan. Slowly pour heated milk into pot stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Bring milk to a fast simmer then add Parmesan, Asiago and Fontina cheeses stirring well to allow cheeses to melt. Add salt and pepper to taste and 4 or 5 scrapes of the nutmeg, stir well. Remove from heat, fold in cooked pasta until well coated, crumble gorgonzola cheese into mixture, combine well, cut mozzerella cheese into 1/2 inch chunks then fold into mixture

Butter a 9 x 13 oven proof dish, pour cheese and pasta mixture into pan and level top, combine bread crumbs with parmesan cheese and cover top. Bake in a 350° F oven until top is golden brown. This works well as a side dish or main course.

If you love lamb and Greek style cooking this delicious dish will satisfy your appetite.

You will need:
Loin lamb chops – approximately 1 1/2″ thick 3 or 4/serving
Olive oil
Fresh ground pepper
Kosher or Sea salt
Oregano Pesto

Heat sauté or grill pan, large enough to hold all the chops, until very hot. Coat both sides of chops with olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat oven to 400° F. Sear chops until a nice dark crust or grill marks appear turn over and repeat. Remove chops from sauté/grill pan and keep warm. Spread Oregano Pesto on one side of the chops, place on a sheet pan and finish cooking in the oven. Thickness of the chops and desired doneness will determine time. For medium rare, a thermometer inserted into the chop should read approximately 145 to 150 degrees. Remove from oven, tent with foil an let rest for 10 minutes. Serve with Rosemary Oven Roasted Potato.

This very simple, easy to make side dish enhances any meal. For a picture of these delights see Lamb chop recipe

You will need:
Red Potato “B” (standard size letter) – approximately 3/serving
Olive Oil – enough to coat
Kosher or Sea salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Fresh Rosemary approximately 1 tsp/serving

Heat oven to 400° F. Strip rosemary leaves from stalk then chop finely. Cut potatoes in half length wise, coat all sides with olive oil then season with salt and pepper to taste place on roasting pan cut side up then sprinkle with fresh chopped rosemary. Roast until fork tender.

A very simple alternative to the typical Basil Pesto.

You will need:
Fresh Oregano approximately 1 ounce.
Olive oil
Lemon zest from one lemon
Lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
Parmesan cheese
Pine nuts

In a dry sauté pan, toast the pine nuts just until they begin to brown. Break apart the parmesan cheese for easier chopping and place in a food processor and chop until coarse, add oregano and continue to process until oregano is well chopped. Drizzle in enough olive oil to produce a silky mayonnaise consistency product, add lemon zest and juice to taste (you can omit the juice if the product gets too moist, the zest will provide enough flavor). Remove mixture from food process and stir in toasted pine nuts.