Feb 19

Cookbook 120: Italian Moms: Spreading their art to every table

I supported Italian Moms: Spreading their art to every table on Kickstarter because it sounded so sweet.  A son helping his recently widowed mother put together a cookbook of her (and some of her friends’) favourite recipes in order to remain financially independent.  The book is peppered with stories about growing up in Italy, moving to America, love, family, food, and advice.  It really is quite delightful.

There are a few minor issues with the instructions in the book.  It is definitely for experienced cooks, and even then, experienced cooks who are willing to apply judgement to the recipes contained therein.  In some recipes that would have really benefitted from weight measurements (I’m thinking of the roast potato recipe specifically) that instruction isn’t there.  Consequently, they were very very salty indeed.  Also, when I was roasting the lamb, it came out WAY too rare for me.  I knew with that length of time that it would come out rare, and gave it an extra 15 minutes, but I had to put it back in for almost another 20 minutes before I thought it was edible.  Detail as to how rare the meat was likely to be with this cooking time would have been good. Also, next time I will halve the amount of oil in the recipes.  There was way too much oil.

These are all minor issues really, and ones that will fade with time and familiarity.  For a first time cookbook (and without experience of learning how important good instructions are), this is a fantastic project and I really love it.  Overall 3 stars out of 5.

Fagiolini Con Pomodoro (String beans with tomatoes)

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds (900g) fresh string (green) beans
  • 2 – 3 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 4 cups fresh tomatoes, sliced or 28 ounce (800g) tin of whole tomatoes
  • salt to taste

Method:

  1. Wash and clip off the end of the string beans.  Fill a medium saucepan with water.  Once water has begun to boil, drop the beans into the water and cook for 10 – 15 minutes.
  2. Remove beans and drain well.  In a saute pan, heat olive oil and garlic and fry for 2 – 3 minutes.  Then add the slices of tomatoes or can of whole tomatoes and drop the string beans on top of the tomatoes.  Cook together for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add salt to taste and serve.

Notes on this recipe:

  • Very tasty, I definitely could have used less oil, and a bit more salt.

Patate Al Forno (Roasted Potatoes)

Ingredients

  • 6 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • 1 cup of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C
  2. Peel and slice the potatoes.  Each potato should yield 6 slices.  Add the potatoes to a roasting pan.  Pour the olive oil over the potatoes and then sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper and mix together with your hands.  Place in the preheated oven and cook for 1 hour.  Poke the potatoes with a fork to check if cooked thoroughly.  Remove from oven and serve.

Notes on this recipe:

  • I don’t know how big Idaho potatoes are
  • This was a lot salty with 1 tablespoon of salt, I highly recommend using less salt
  • Also, way too oily
  • Tasty with the rosemary though.  With less salt and less oil, this would be a winner.

Agnellino Al Forno (Roast leg of lamb)

Ingredients:

  • 3 – 4 pounds (1.3 – 1.8kg) leg of lamb
  • 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup fresh rosemary
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of fresh parsley, chopped, including the stem
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • pinch of salt and fresh black pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C
  2. Rinse and wipe the leg of lamb (don’t actually do this).  With the point of a sharp knife make small incision all over the surface.  Place the lamb in a roasting pan.  Combine the wine, olive oil, rosemary, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl and beat well.  Pour the mixture into the incision and over the top of the meat.
  3. Cook the lamb for 30 – 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Notes on this recipe:

  • The garlic was left out of the instructions, I put it in the most logical place
  • If you like your meat quite blue, cook it for 30 minutes.  If you like it slightly less blue, cook it for 45 minutes.  If you like it cooked, go for about an hour and a half.
  • We basted this every 20 minutes
  • Still too much oil.  I’d recommend using about half.