Pasta Fagioli

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This is something I grew up on, BIG TIME. This is my family's recipe. In Italy this was considered a peasant food. It translates to pasta and beans. In "Jersey Italian",  it is often called Pasta Fazool. Yes, we have our own Italian slang, don't make fun of us. It can be made red or white. I like white. 

Ingredients:

1-2 Whole Pepperoni (Depends on how meaty you want it. I used 2)

A handful or 2 of chopped carrots (I used 2)
A handful or 2 of chopped celery (I used 2)

Whole medium onion

About 6 cloves of garlic (chopped)

½ lb to ¾ lb of small shells

2 cans of cubed potatoes (fresh potatoes will mush)

2 cans of cannellini beans

At least 32 ounces of veggie broth (Have an additional 32 on hand)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Oregano to taste

Preparation:

Sauté celery, carrots, onion, garlic and pepperoni in olive oil.

Add beans (one can with water and other without) and half of the broth.

Season with salt, pepper and oregano.

Add potatoes and remaining broth.

Let simmer for 15 minutes.

Add more broth by eye.

If you want to thicken, make a roux and add by eye. That's what I did.

Serve:

Garnish with fresh grated parmesan and chili flake if you desire.

In the picture I added fresh celery leaves on top to make it pretty.

Salsiccia Rigatoni

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Gimme Some Info: Salsiccia is Italian for sausage. So, here we have "Sausage Rigatoni". The word rigatoni comes from the Italian word rigati, which means “ridged” and is associated with the cuisine of southern and central Italy.

This is a fantastic family-style dish. Along with the pasta and sausage, comes sweet green peas, cherry tomatoes (although you can use various types of tomatoes as long they are in season, i.e, grape, campari and even heirloooms, but they would need to be on the smaller side), cannellini beans (which are white Italian kidney beans) and portabello mushrooms.

Preparation: To start this off, I added garlic and shallots to olive oil. Next, I browned the sausage, then sweat out the mushrooms. In the meantime, I am boiling the rigatoni to slightly less than al dente, set the pasta to the side and preserve a bit of the pasta water. Next, I add vegetable stock, pasta water, tomatoes, then cover with lid. A few minutes before the tomatoes are about to burst, I add the pasta, peas and cannellini beans (they add a great texture to every bite) and allow it to cook in the sauce. Once heated and tomatoes burst, I add chili flake, toss and serve.



Frutti di Mare

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For The Shell of It: Frutti di Mare is Italian for "Fruit of the Sea", representing a dish with a myriad of seafood flavors that is popular along the coast of Italy. While this dish can include all types of seafood, the most popular seem to be shellfish. Remember to clean and scrub the shells!

Preparation: In this particular dish I prepared it with shelled extra large fresh shrimp, large scallops and Cherrystone clams (named for Cherrystone Creek, Virginia). The seafood is prepared with garlic, shallots, white wine, pasta water. Next, sweet cherry tomatoes were added. Lastly everything is tossed with fresh basil, chili flake and angel hair pasta. Oh, and Italian bread is a must to help soak up that delicious broth.