Mediterranean Insalata!

Insalata
Who said salad had to be boring? How about making a salad as the main meal and adding a little of this and and a little of that? This is quick, easy and a medly of mediterranean mixers! Perfect for serving at last minute Oscar Party pot luck or anytime!

Serves 4-6

Tips: perfect for next day sandwiches!






Ingredients:
1 cup roasted peppers (sliced)
1 avocado (sliced)
1 fresh mozzarella (cubed)
1 cup grape tomoatoes (or cherry)
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives
1/2 tsp. red chili flakes
1 cup fresh basil (sliced in ribbons)
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and serve on a platter. Garnish with fried artichoke hearts. Here’s a quick and easy recipe:

Fried Artichokes =
1 can artichoke hearts, drained (8 1/2 oz can)
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
fresh black pepper

In a medium frying pan, medium heat, sautee olive oil, garlic and artichoke hearts for 5-7 minutes until they are golden brown on all sides. Add the artichokes to the salad and serve!

Serve with fresh crusty italian bread!

Antipasto Tenor

Antipasto Tenor

Mixing up your favorite of your antipasto ingredients can produce a tenor of flavors! It held it’s own at one of my dinner parties and it will have you singing for more! Adding a little of this and that makes it your signature!
Ingredients:
1 can of artichoke hearts (in water), halved (8 1/2 oz can)
1 cup of green olives (monzanilla or your favorite)
1 cup of black cured olives (or your favorite)
1 cup sundried tomatoes (in oil)
2 cups fresh mozzarella balls
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of red chili flakes
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp. dry oregano
salt, to taste
Easy preparation: mix everything in a bowl and serve. How difficult was that? Serve as a buffet. If this is a sit down dinner, serve this in “fun” martini glasses and crostini’s!
A few leftover tips:
Toss over spaghetti and add a drizzle of olive oil.

or….

Grill some chicken breasts and then place the breasts in a baking dish. Top the antipasto and bake for 10 minutes (400 F) and serve.
or add the tenor to boiled potatoes and you made a tasty potatoe salad!
buon appetito!

Costolette or Cotolette?

veal cutlets

sear that !

In my upcoming book “Breaking Bread in L’Aquila” pub date: April 6, 2010, we are in the final phases. One of the recipes in my book is the classic “veal cutlet”.

As a nice finishing touch, I have the titles of my 49 recipes translated in Italian having them both in both English and Italian.

Since Italian is not my first language and to complicate matters, speaking dialect makes it more challenging. In this example, growing up, we always referred to veal cutlet as “cotolette”. When I was proofreading last night, and read it as “costolette”, I thought to myself, “could this be a typo”?

Another recipe in my book are “grilled lamb chops”. Chops are not cotolette, cutlets are cotolette! Growing up, I don’t remember ever hearingthe word “costolette”? After a long deliberation with Fran (she’s fluent in Italian and yes, Calabrese too)? She checked her Italian dictionary and other references, and yes…… I learned something new! The results:

Veal Cutlets = Costolette di Vitello

Grilled Lamb Chops = Cotolette d’Agnello alla GrigliaWould you agree that the tasty photos speak for themselves = no deliberation here!