By Maria Filice • March 9, 2010 
On Saturday, I gave my first talk about my book “Breaking Bread in L’Aquila” pub date 4/6/2010 at The New York Independent Center which hosts its annual Small Press Book Fair. It was great!
As part of my prep and prop presentation (say that a dozen times), I wanted to bring a couple of props but then decided, another time. With my luck, it would have been a disaster if I put “Pepé Le Pew onions” next to the biscotti. It would have been a clash of flavours!
But seriously, I wanted to make a point about my relaxed style of cooking. For example, how do you pick a medium? What if you don’t like the medium? What if you like two smalls or a large?
In some of my recipes, I didn’t show a conversion ie. one medium = 2 cups. Why? It’s against my philosophy of strict rules but more relaxed and by adding a little more of this or that is fine.
I want you to embrace the concept of using more or less of an ingredient and what you and family enjoy. It won’t ruin the taste when taste is in the eye of the beholder!
ps – we’ll get to desserts later!
By Maria Filice • January 29, 2010 
I remember as a child, when my mother made soup, I would ask “who’s sick”… We always complained about soup and my dad would tell us that one day we would appreciate soup. He’s right, zuppa soupa is one of my favorites. Whenever papa visits, I always make soup, one of our many food bonds.
If you were following me this week, I had soup every night using basic ingredients and then adding a little of this and a little of that. Tonight, after a brisk walk and before tackling a few things in the office, I dropped by Russo’s and bought a fresh mozzarella and fresh pasta (armoniche rigatoni). It’s a short cylindrical pasta and ridged. ps – I love this pasta with a rich sauce or pesto – the sauce nestles in the ridges for the perfect bite!
Printable Recipe
Ingredients
1/2 cup of fresh pasta (armoniche rigatoni)
a nice chunk of mozzarella, approx. 2 tablespoons cubed and well, I ate the rest standing!
grated parmigiano cheese
Bring a small pot of water to boil, add some salt to water and cook the pasta for three minutes.
Strain the pasta (it’s almost al dente) but you are cooking for a few more minutes in the soup and the pasta will be perfect. Add the pasta in the pot and add the chicken broth. Bring the soup to a boil (3-4 minutes), and now it’s ready to serve.
Add the mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of parmigiano.
It’s also good with shaved pieces of parmigiano (for another time – I ran out of parmigiano). Here’s another meal in less than 15 minutes. Again, one pot!
Buon Appetito!
By Maria Filice • January 27, 2010 
This is a quick and easy side dish using three ingredients. I love peas, so versatile and a great leftover to prepare the next day. Oh yes, I loved The Princess and the Pea but always questioned the pea……
Ingredients:
1 lb. of frozen peas
2 onions (finely chopped).
1 clove of garlic (sliced)
½ lb. of mushrooms (sliced) – I used button mushrooms but use whatever you like!
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
Salt and black pepper (to taste)
In a medium pan, medium heat, sauté olive oil, butter, garlic, onions for 3-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and peas. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Saute for 5-7 minutes.
This side dish is delicious with roasted sausage but perfect with other meats!
As mentioned, if you have left over peas, I would serve it the next day with fresh pasta.
Tip: in a medium pan, medium heat, add 1 tbsp. of tomoto paste, 1 tbsp. of butter, 1/2 cup of water and add the left over peas. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Prepare your favorite pasta and add the peas. Add a few red chili flakes and fresh parmigiano cheese! Delicious! You just prepared a tasty meal in less than 15 minutes!
By Maria Filice • January 25, 2010 
What a day……..rainy days and Mondays always call for soup… I just had an espresso and now thinking about lunch (it’s part of my DNA). Since my two interns were coming into the office today, I thought it would be nice to have a nice bowl of soup for lunch.
I thought I would recycle last night’s escarole soup. OK..let’s get creative…….In my freezer, I had a package of chicken breasts (bone in). In my refrigerator, I made eye contact with left over baby carrots from last week’s party. The only vegetable in my refrigerator and ps, I was not motivated to run to the market in the rain…..
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (bone in)
3 cups of baby carrots
4 cloves whole garlic
Sea salt, black pepper (to taste)
Fill medium pot with cold water, medium heat. Add all ingredients: chicken breasts, carrots, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cover enough water to the ingredients. Cook for two hours.
Let me oven roast some crostini with parmigiano and curred black olives:
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
6-8 sliced Italian bread
Extra virgin olive oil (drizzle over the bread)
Parmigiano grated cheese (1 cup)
Curred black olives (1/2 cup) (optional)
Red chili flakes (optional)
Set oven at 400 degrees.
In a pan, lay the Italian bread and drizzle with olive oil, grated parmiagano cheese and curred black olives. Bake in the oven for approx. 10 minutes, until the bread has a nice golden crust.
In a soup terrine, add chicken breasts (cubed), left over escarole soup and fresh chicken broth.
For plating, add two pieces of the crostini in each dish before adding the fragrant soup! It was delicious!
By Maria Filice • January 6, 2010 
Meet one of my tasty garnishes: the basil top hat
I believe that garnishes are an important component of your dishes. If it looks good, it already tastes good. I had so much fun prepping my dishes before the spotlight and using my creative touches in my book.
Here’s one. I call this creation my “basil top hat.” It’s a tasty garnish made from a fresh leaf of basil topped with roasted or sundried tomatoes. Be creative and “hats off” to my basil top hats!
More to come!
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