"Let's Eat!"

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.

Sure, everyone has their family recipe for Sunday gravy, well that is if you were of Italian heritage, others would refer to this as Spaghetti Sauce. Well I’ve made many a Sunday Gravy, had some failures and some great successes, this recipe has always proved to be one of my best.

This recipe will make approximately 20 cups of gravy.

For the gravy you will need:
Four 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
One small can tomato paste
Two cups beef stock
One medium size sweet onion
Carrots – enough to equal the volume of the onion
Four or five sprigs fresh oregano
Four or five garlic cloves
Fresh ground pepper
Kosher salt
Two pounds country ribs
Two pounds Italian Sausage (your choice of sweet or hot)
Two pounds ground chuck
Two pounds ground pork
Enough stale bread (I used leftover Italian bread) to equal the volume of the ground meats
Two cups milk (or more if necessary)
Two cups shredded Parmesan cheese
Two large eggs
Olive oil
Vegetable oil

In a heavy bottom stock pot heat four tablespoons olive oil until shimmering. Place carrots, onion and garlic in a food processor and run until the vegetables are of a paste consistency. Thoroughly brown the country ribs (in batches if necessary) until a nice brown crust forms, remove and set aside. Pour off any liquid from the stockpot, add four tablespoons olive oil, reheat until shimmering then brown the Italian sausage until a nice brown crust forms, remove and set aside. Pour off any liquid, add two tablespoons olive oil, and reheat until shimmering. Place vegetable past along with tomato paste to the stockpot and cook until the mix is somewhat dry. Deglaze pot with the beef stock scraping up all the fond at the bottom of the pot. Add the four cans of crushed tomatoes, the sprigs of oregano and the ribs and sausage to the stockpot. Reduce heat to very low, place lid over pot and simmer for 5 or 6 hours. To reduce the possibility of the gravy burning I take one of the unused burner grates, place it on top of the burner you are using, make sure that it is firmly in place, put the stockpot on that tiered burner. Stir the gravy every occasionally to insure a good mixture.

While the gravy is simmering make the meatballs. Break up the stale bread into medium to small chunks, but into a bowl large enough to hold the bread and both meats. Pour one-cup milk into the bowl, as the bread starts to absorb the milk using a fork start to mash the bread. If there is not enough milk continue adding more until you can mash the bread into a paste. Add the parmesan cheese, the eggs, the meats, salt and pepper (to taste) and using very clean hands or hand covered with rubber gloves and work the mixture until it is thoroughly combined. Form the mixture into equal balls (I like mine large). In a sauté pan large enough to hold the meatballs, heat approximately one-quarter cup of vegetable oil until shimmering. Carefully lower meatballs into oil, do not crowd, work in batches if necessary, and cook until a nice brown crust forms rotate balls until all sides have that same rich brown crust. Set aside meatballs until cooled enough then place in the refrigerator. During the last one to one and a half hours of cooking the gravy, add the meatballs submerging them to cover. During the last half hour taste the gravy for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Once the time used in this recipe is completed, cool to room temperature.

Remove the meatballs, sausage and ribs from the gravy and portion two cups of the liquid into quart freezer bags for future use. Similarly portion out the meatballs, ribs and sausage into quart freezer bags for future use.

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 received, for lack of a better word, a loaf of ground venison from a friend and wanted to use it in a way I hadn’t done before. I’ve prepared Rack of Venison before but never had the opportunity to work with ground product. Being wild caught I knew that the ground meat would be a tad gamier so I needed something that would take advantage of that fact without totally masking the taste. I immediately thought of doing a chili but the recipes I have would almost surely obliterate that fact that my guests would be eating deer meat. I went through my library of recipes and decided on the one I have for turkey chili adjusting it to taste. This recipe will make enough for six people.

You will need:
One pound ground Venison
One medium Vidalia or Walla Walla onion diced.
One medium green pepper diced.
Olilve Oil
One 14 ounce can diced tomato.
One 14 ounce can white beans such as cannellini, drained and rinsed.
Chicken Broth – approximately 2 cups.
Tomato Paste – approximately 2 TBSP.
Garlic – approximately 2 cloves diced finely.
Chili powder – approximately 2 TBSP
Ground Cumin – approximately 2 tsp.
Ground Cinnamon – approximately 1 tsp.
Ground Allspice – approximately 1 tsp
Dried Oregano – approximately 2 tsp.l
Salt/pepper to taste
Good quality bittersweet chocolate – approximately 2 TBSP grated fine.
Grated Sharp Cheddar cheese

In a hot dutch oven add 2 or 3 TBSP of olive oil – remember venison is very lean – sauté ground meat until just browned, add tomato paste, garlic, onion, green pepper continue to sauté until vegetables soften, add all the spices/herbs and continue to cook for approximately three minutes. Taste for balance of seasonings adjust to your personal taste. Add chicken broth, diced tomato and beans stir to combine. Turn heat down to a simmer, cover dutch oven and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Check again for seasoning balance and adjust if needed. Stir in grated chocolate, serve immediately topped with some of the grated cheddar cheese.

I had a taste for seafood but really did not know what I was going to prepare. I visited my local fishmonger to see what was available. The usual fare was there, nothing seemed to tickle my fancy. I was about to consider something else to have and then she brought out some bay scallops and shrimp. They looked so fresh although I knew they were recently thawed and ready to be displayed. At first I thought to do the usual shrimp scampi but just couldn’t resist purchasing both.

My mind started to envision how to put these two items together and what else to add to make an interesting combination. I walked around the produce department and saw some sun dried tomatoes they were snatched up quickly to add to my growing recipe. I considered what I had in my larder at home and knew that I had some heavy cream and garlic along with half a box of fettuccini.  My meal was set. You will find that this is a quick and simple dish to prepare.

You will need :

Bay Scallops – approximately ¼ lb/serving
Shrimps – approximately ¼ lb/serving [16 21's or smaller]
Sun Dried Tomatoes – approximately ½ oz/serving – I used dry packed but olive oil packed should work as well.
Fresh Garlic – to taste
Tomato Paste – approximately 1 tsp/serving
Hot Pepper Flakes – to taste
Heavy Cream – approximately ¼ cup/serving [add more if you like a soupier sauce]
Romano Cheese – grated – approximately 2 TBS/serving

In a stock pot large enough to hold the pasta bring water to a rapid boil. Add pasta and prepare to just al denté. Peel and de-vein the shrimp, combine with scallops lightly salt and pepper. In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the ingredients add a good quality olive oil and heat to a simmer. Finely dice garlic add to sauté pan along with tomato paste and pepper flakes.  Once the garlic is translucent add shrimp and scallops. Cook seafood until shrimp starts to become opaque tossing occasionally to distribute evenly. Add heavy cream and Romano cheese to the shrimp/scallop mixture cook until the cream starts to thicken. Add pasta to the sauté pan and stir into the seafood sauce. Serve immediately.