The real saltimbocca according to La Nina

Saltimbocca alla romana according to La Nina

Of course there really isn't any real anything, so if you're inventive, do it yourself or else follow this simple recipe WARNING!!!

This is for those who know how to cook, because there ain't NO measurements, folks, just ingredients!

So here's my version--real or not of saltimbocca the way I made it last night...

Assemble everything your require as in NEED: sliced Swiss cheese, grated parmigiano and sliced or slivered mozzarella, prosciutto crudo--not the salty one--but rather San Daniele or Parma!

Do not ask quantities--I warned you this would not be easy if you don't know what the hell you're doing in the kitchen.

Take thin sliced veal cutlets and dip them in seasoned flour and quickly saute in butter and a smidgen of olive oil.

Take them out of the big, as in huge, fry pan you're working with and set them aside.

After you finish cooking all of them set them back in the pan (not on the flame or heat) and garnish with all the goodies--ham and cheeses. Baptize with the wine and then cover and let it do its thing...melt...serve hot.

I made tiny fried peppers before hand with rock or sea salt and then served the veal with Brussels sprouts. REALLY nice with any veggie and a salad!

Ingredients
(these are in the range of--can be more, can be less--go figure):

2 lbs of thin-cut veal cutlets
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of oil
grated parmigiano
shredded or sliced mozzarella
Swiss cheese sliced
slices of prosciutto crudo to cover veal
about 1/4 cup of vino biancho (I tend to be generous)
salt, pepper, garlic powder or ganules to taste

Malfatti: spinach dumplings wiht sage

Malfatti

Literally this translates to badly made...because the shapes are not always uniform. Basically these are spinach and ricotta dumplings.

Severs 6-8 people, depending on appetites and what else you're serving~!
Important thing to remember is to drain the spinach tightly to get all the water out.

I use fresh spinach but you can use frozen, chopped. I cook the “cut leaf” spinach (some people discard the stems, but this is total nonsense…just cut them up small!) Place in a huge heavy fry pan with no water...only the water that's left from washing the spinach (and draining it as tightly as possible.

INGREDIENTS

¾ stick of butter, about 6 tablespoons
¾ cup minced onion
4 X 10 ounce bag of frozen spinach or or 4 lbs fresh
2 cups of ricotta
2 beaten eggs
1-1 ½ cups of grated Parmigiano
salt to taste…at least 1 teaspoon
black coarse ground pepper—to taste at least a teaspoon
nutmeg to taste, at least ½ teaspoon
fresh sage leaves a few for each plate
7-8 tablespoons of flour, and extra for the sprinkle on hands to form dumpings

DIRECTIONS

Steam spinach with the cover on a few minutes…take cover off and cook off any excess water. When cool squeeze the spinach so all the liquid is out. Use paper towels for this.

Melt butter and wilt the onion.

Add spinach.

Remove form heat and add ricotta.

Mix well.

Pour mix into a bowl and add eggs, cheese, and spices.

Fling in the flour—I sift mine.

Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. May be made a day ahead of time—just leave it overnight and it’ll be fine.

Roll in your floured hands about a tablespoon or a little less into fat finger-sized dumplings or croquettes.

Cook in boiling, salted water about 7 minutes. When they rise to the top, use a slotted spoon and take them out. When slightly cooled serve in a warmed bowl with butter, grated cheese…what kind? Parmigiano, of course! And top with a few leaves of fresh sage, if you have it.

May also be served with plain red red sauce…just don't drown the dumplings!

"Travels from My Laundry Room"

Malfatti (Spinach Dumplings) recipe to follow

Here's my poem "Travels from My Laundry Room, which was just published on the Northville Review:
http://northvillereview.com/?p=371


TRAVELS FROM MY LAUNDRY ROOM

In my pristine green wash room,
I turn a black wool sweater inside out,
so my hand beading will remain intact
when I gently rub-a-dub-dub.

My jeans are old and frayed,
but memories line their pockets.
I extract sunflower seeds from the seams,
and it seems I’m once again cheering
at a soccer game in Foro Italico
an upward view of Belsito balconies
aflutter with overburdened clotheslines.

Tossing the jeans
in the washing machine
I see the hems are worn
and remember Roman summers
when I was a fleet charioteer
guiding tourists in the Coliseum,
near the Ghetto whose narrow alleys
were tented over by hanging sheets.

Ashes on a skirt give vent to dreams
of volcanic danger,
walking the edges of Etna.
where peasant girls in headscarves
hang clothes to dry in Sirocco winds.

Ah! and here are Nike shorts and socks,
outfit of a marathon racer to win your love—
I’d follow you anywhere, travel-lover.
You romance my heart as no one else,
like nothing else on earth—
We cruise the Mediterranean,
while the shoreline fisherman mend nets,
and women soak their salt-encrusted clothes.

A color profusion, a muted peacock’s tail on silk,
speaks of beckoning coastlines;
haunting images race back to me,
sailing the world's wide open arms and finger lakes,
and I can picture still women in hijab
beating cotton robes upon flat rocks
on the banks of the Nile.

Open rock beach spaces
engorged by roaring surf
lead to fjords in Croatia,
and women rinsing soap from coverlets,
twisting towels of excess water.

Seas pilot us to tributaries of the Yangtze,
and evocative landscapes of river markets
as we travel on flat-bottom boats
in Bangkok and from the back of barges
wash tubs overflowing.

And always, always
women,
baptizing babies,
burying their dead in water graves,
women,
washerwomen,
women laundering
women cleansing away
the bloodstains of martyrs
in wars they never sought.

Tow poems: Grey Sparrow Journal

Here are two of my poems that have just been published online in the Grey Sparrow Journal

http://greysparrowpress.net/poems1.aspx


Two poems by: Nina Romano

The Moon and Me on Water-Heavy Nights

On a water-heavy nights like this, I’m caught between a think-piece
movie and sleep—the scenes replay as I fight sheet, blanket and pillow.

I stalk the house barefoot. Moonglow ignites the cool flooring, etching
a passageway to the kitchenette where I drink from the faucet and fret,

knowing, I need sleep as tomorrow’s a holiday and I have to cook.
Moonshadows cast beams through the window’s glass on this night,

water-heavy, when my mind, segueing the moon commandeering
the tides, floats in space then dives into aquatic depths,

seeking unsolvable solutions, asking questions scientists still dispute,
repeating lines from the movie I’ve lived before in another Universe.


A WINDOW VIEW IN WINTER

Looking out the window of my wash room,
snow swirls carpet the mountains.
I envision women swathed in white,
removing the burqa covering their faces
safe now from purdah, in the sanctuary
of a cave or grotto household.

As they kneel on woven rugs
washing clothes in buckets with chilblain hands,
so chapped and cracked,
the rinse water bleeds red.
Frozen hands, gnarled and knotted,
this frozen moment in time.

In the hush of my mountain home,
a prayer escapes my lips
for women in other mountain dwellings,
for women on washday,
everyday
throughout the year.

Pork Roast with Rosemary

Pork Roast With Rosemary

This is a nice dinner to make when you need two hours, say, to critique some poetry, write something new, or read and auto-critique your fiction manuscript, which the writer of this recipe is going to do. How many pages can I do in two hours? I've got 150 to go of a 400 page ms. I stink in math, so I'll let you know when I finish!

Oh, I'm serving this dinner with fresh beets and a salad of rughetta...arugala. For dessert there's ripe mamay (sapote), which is a delicious fruit that grows in the Caribbean or the tropics...brown on the outside and coral color pulp inside...yum.

INGREDIENTS


3 pounds pork tenderloin whole, or 5 lbs of 3 smaller fillets
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons dried rosemary or several sprigs of fresh
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup of white wine
1 lb fingerling potatoes, scrubbed
1 sliced onion…red is sweet, also Vidalia are nice
Paprika, if desired


DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Rub the roast OR tenderloin liberally with olive oil, then spread the garlic over it. Salt and pepper (and paprika). Place it in a 10x15 inch roasting pan and sprinkle with the rosemary.

Lower head and bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Let stand to cool about 5 minutes before cutting.

Salmon and Kingfish Quiche

So I'm into quiches and fancy baked pies, what can I say?

Here's another one:

Fish quiche

Ingredients:

3-4 ounces smoked salmon
3-4 ounces king fish (may use all salmon or another fish--this is what I had in the house!)
1 & 1/2 cups blanched peas
1 sliced onion wilted
in 2 tablespoons of butter
a little vino
a little cognac
pimento, cheese
2 cups mozzarella
1 tablespoon of shaved parmigiano
1 tablespoon of shaved Swiss

For the custard:
4 eggs and 1 & 1/2 cups of milk

Directions:
Wilt the onions in the butter and add the vino and Cognac--the alcohol burns off and the taste is sublime!

Mix together: cut up fish--but not the outside smoked part, add pimento, onions, peas, cheese (2 cups mozzarella). Place this in the bottom of a deep dish pie shell

Mix the custard of 4 eggs and 1 & 1/2 cups of milk. Pour this over the fish mixture.
Sprinkle with the shaved cheeses.

Bake 35 minutes in a heated oven at 350 and in case, another 5 minutes at 400 to make it golden on top.

Ricotta pie (sweet dessert)

Ricotta pie
(Makes 2)

Ingredients:
2 deep dish pie crusts
2 lbs. of fresh ricotta
3 eggs
1 cup of pinoli (pine nuts)
1 bar of unsweetened (Ghiradelli) chocolate (75%-85% pure cacao) broken, shaved bits
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
(may use 2 tablespoons of milk, if mix is too dense)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
(may use lemon zest, if desired)
a pinch of salt

Directions:
Beat eggs, and add ricotta. Blend till smooth. Add sugar, nuts and chocolate

Pour mix into pie shells and bake in a heated oven at 350 degrees for 40 t0 45 minutes.

If you wish to make your own, sweet crust for this, write me a note and I'll give you the directions. It's pretty when you criss-cross the dough on top...lovely for an Easter Sunday.

Quiche: broccoli and leek and asparagus, and ricotta pie

So here's what you do on Palm Sunday in preparation for Easter week. You bake.

You may also want to remove everything non-Kosher in preparation for Passover, and hope for the best.

Broccoli quiche
(Makes 2)

Ingredients:

2-3 tablespoons of butter (if using olive oil—use 1½ -2)
1 medium onion, minced
1-2 garlic cloves minced
2-3 cups chopped fresh broccoli (may use frozen if in a bind for time)
(or if you have leftover broccoli, then just chop it!)
2 deep dish 9 inch unbaked pie crust
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella
1½ shredded cheddar
½ cup of grated Parmigiano
If desired, ¼ cup of chopped ham, salami or both
4 eggs beaten
1 ½ cups of milk (may use half and half, or part milk and some cream)
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Over a medium/high heat melt butter in a heavy fry pan. Add onions, garlic and broccoli and cool for about 5 minutes. Veggies should not be mushy!

Beat eggs, and add milk and beat some more!

In the bottom of the pie crust arrange the veggie butter mix layer with the cheeses, then add the egg/milk mix over and smush all together gently.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes…and the last five minutes, at 400 degrees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leek and Asparagus Quiche

Ingredients:
(Makes 2 pies) Freeze one if you like.

Ingredients:
4 slices of bacon chopped (may also do this quiche meatless)
2 huge leeks sliced then, washed thoroughly and drained
1 skinny bunch of asparagus.
2 tablespoons of butter, or olive oil.
2 deep dish 9 inch unbaked pie crust
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella
1½ shredded cheddar
½ to 1 cup of cubed Swiss cheese or Gruyere
½ cup of grated Parmigiano
4 eggs beaten
1 ½ cups of milk (may use half and half, or part milk and some cream)
Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste (if you like a hint of garlic, use garlic powder)

Directions:
Cook the bacon and set aside. (Reserve fat for something delectable and fattening).

Melt butter and add leeks, add asparagus and cook till tender but not glunky!

Cool and add to bacon and line the bottom of the pie crust with this mix.

Add cheeses on top and then the egg /milk custard. With TLC (tender loving care, stir together.

Pop in the warmed oven for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees and if not golden enough on top, raise temp to 400-450 for another 5 to 10 minutes.


Ricotta spinach mushroom salami cheese pie
(Makes 2 pies)

Ingredients:
1 lb of ricotta
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
Any combination of grated or shredded Parmigiano, cheddar or Swiss equal to 2 cups
1 cup of mushrooms and onions wilted in 2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 minced garlic clove or a sprinkling of garlic powder (unsalted)
1 cup of cooked chopped spinach
¼ cup of cut up salami (use ham or prosciutto or any combination and may be 1/2 cup)
2 deep dish pie crusts
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 eggs
salt, pepper, or hot pepper, nutmeg to taste

Directions:
Mix ricotta, eggs and cheeses. Add spinach, mushrooms, onions, salami and seasonings. Fling into the pie crust and bake for 35 minutes…if needed to render the top a golden color, then give the poor darlings the heat!

Swordfish with picutre and a halibut recipe

Swordfish

I've given this recipe for swordfish before in a whole menu, but here it is with a picture I was finally able to access.

Below that is a quick and easy halibut recipe. Fish is healthy and delish...try some!


For the swordfish: use fish that isn't too thinly cut with the blood line taken out, if you prefer...I always cook the fish with the skin on. If you have a dog--he'll be delighted if you cut up the dark meat and skin and plop it into his plate of dry dog food. I'm sure cats would go for it in a big way, and as they say in Tennessee, Bless your heart!

Pour a little olive oil in the pan and then on each piece of meat add a little smidgen of olive oil a little bit tomato sauce, a little shot glass of vino, a little piece of sliced onion, a little minced clove of garlic a few teaspoons of some capers, a handful of black olives, or you may use green ones with pimento, a smattering of cilantro. (And a partridge in a pear tree!)

Instructions: Salt and pepper the fish--may use garlic powder, if desired. Heat the olive oil and cook the fish a few minutes on each side before adding all the ingredients. Remove and add the onions, garlic and fry till golden. Add vino. Add tomato. Cook down. Add the juices of the fish. Turn off and add: capers, olives (I use the squishy Greek ones and pit them...always pit olives! and cilantro. return the fish and simmer. Don't overcook it. Fish doesn't need a lot of cooking...I implore you. Poke it with a fork for doneness! Or flake off a small piece.

Halibut

1 & 1/2 lbs whole filet for 3-4 people. Use a heavy frypan.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of butter
1 onion sliced-long
2 cloves of minced garlic
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tablespoons of red sauce
chopped parsely, basil, if desired
salt & black crushed pepper to taste
a tablesopoon of capers
1/2 cup of anchovy stuffed olives, sliced

Directions:

Heat butter in frypan on a medium heat. Add onions and garlic. When wilted, add lemon juice and fish--I used a whole filet, but you may use chunks or slices. Cook for about 2 minutes and tthen add all the other ingredients. Cover and rraise heat for 3-4 4 minutes. Uncover and stir the ingredients and spoon onto the fish. Cover nad heat on high for another minute or two.

You may also make this without the sauce and add more lemon and some wine, or use wine instead of lemon, eliminate the anchovy stuffed green olives (may use pimento stuffed green olives or none) and add heavy cream.