Italian Night!

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again." -George Miller

A couple of weekends ago, Adrienne (a fellow Blue Devil) and I caught a Saturday morning train out of the city and rode it all the way to Red Bank, New Jersey. We were visiting Deech (yet another fellow Blue Devil) and his parents. The three of us planned to spend all of Saturday and Sunday lounging by the pool, playing games, watching movies, and more or less being on vacation. What I hadn't planned for was Mrs. DiChiara, who, by being the matriarch of an Italian family of four boys (plus Dad), had evolved into the ultimate cooking machine. Seriously- I have never eaten so much delicious food in my entire life!

The beauty of the Italians is that they have a very apparent love for food. I think back to the best Italian meals I've had in my life: Mom's chicken parm, linguini alfredo a la Giovanni (a foul-mouthed Italian chef from Chapel Hill), Mrs. DiChiara's lasagna... and I realize something. What makes real Italian cuisine so damn delicious is that it comes at you full force: no counting calories or even thinking about leaving the table without seconds. Eat, drink, and be merry! And trust me- when you know how to make a dish that dances on your tongue with every bite, you'd eat the Italian way too.

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Speaking of awesome moms, K's mom (Mrs. H) was kind enough to make an awesome donation to New Chefs: an ICE CREAM MACHINE!

This sucker is from 1989. Read that again: NINETEEN EIGHTY-NINE. How completely awesome is this thing? New Chefs is proud to call the Oster Quick-Freeze our first ice cream maker :D (Thanks Mrs. H!)

So here Karl and I are: it's Sunday, and we've got nothing to do but plan our dinner. Could it get much better than this? After perusing Food Gawker for a bit, we came upon what looked like the most delicious sounding ice cream recipe ever: Nutella & Mascarpone Ice Cream with Hazelnut Praline. *drool* And following the DiChiara example, we decided to accompany dessert (yes, that's right: accompany it) with Stuffed Shells and roasted zucchini squash.

One thing I really like about making your own ice cream is that it requires patience- lots of patience. But with patience comes great reward. K and I started the ice cream making process early. By early afternoon, we were already shelling hazelnuts, the banging of the meat tenderizer and popping of the shells confusing the dogs terribly. As we waited for the sugar to melt into caramel on the stovetop, we practiced saying 'mascarpone' and stole secret tastes of the delicious cheese. By the time we were mixing in the cream and nutella, we could barely keep our fingers out of the bowl- the flavor had already reached a level of decadence unlike any ice cream I've tasted before. We hastily moved the bowl's contents to the ice cream machine and gave it about ten minutes of ice cold whipping before the motor began to roar with fatigue. However short, that little bit of whipping was all it needed before the cream went into the freezer. Then it was just time to wait...

The afternoon puttered along at a wonderfully slow pace. We lounged and played Yahtzee and napped and before we knew it, it was time for dinner prep. We had a lot ahead of us. Our first goal was to make meatballs- really good ones that tasted awesome just on their own. Then, we planned to stuff each of our giant pasta shells with ricotta, meatball, mozzarella, and a hint of basil. Lastly, we wanted to make a tomato and cream sauce to top the shells off. It was quite ambitious, but we had a vision!

I've come to realize that making a really good meatball takes a certain level of magic. There are so many variables in the cooking- egg to bread crumb ratio, how much you mix the ingredients, frying versus baking- that to get the meatballs just right is tough. That said, here are a few tips that may help: 1) don't overmix the ingredients (a rough mix is best); 2) baking is healthier and much easier than frying; 3) if you trust the source of your meat, I would recommend tasting a small piece of the mixture before cooking it. What better time is there to make sure it tastes just right?; 4) soaking your bread crumbs in a bit of milk before mixing them in will keep them from drying out the mix. And that's about it! Hopefully your meatballs will come out tasting as wonderful as ours did :)

Lucy waited patiently to have a taste of a meatball :)

Once the meatballs were done, we began to assemble the shells....

A spoonful of ricotta...

...meatball and basil...

...topped with mozzarella...

Until this...

became this...

The shells went into the oven (along with sliced zucchini), and K and I went right to work on the final element of the meal: the sauce.

Now this sauce recipe is one that any aspiring chef ought to know. This is probably one of the first homemade tomato sauce recipes that I ever came upon, and it has certainly stood the test of time- as evidenced by us using it for this meal! The idea is simple: saute chopped garlic and onions in a tbsp of butter or olive oil (or mascarpone in this case). Stir in a can of diced tomatoes and turn up the heat so the water begins to boil off. When there's only about 1/2 inch of water/juice remaining, add the cream and simmer. And of course, throw in appropriate spices (salt, pepper, oregano...). Super simple!

The final meal was fantastic. K and I stuffed ourselves silly, drank most of a bottle of red wine, and still managed to clean up afterwards. The stuffed shells captured that incredible lasagna flavor, but in a neat, "fine-dining" appearance. As we had hoped, layering the cheeses and meatball inside of the shells gave each individual flavor its opportunity to be tasted within the context of the whole bite. And the ice cream...? Oh heavens...I may never eat store-bought ice cream again. The sweet, creamy, decadence that was every bite of this ice cream made me want to melt with joy. I'm drooling just thinking about it!

So take a night and do it up Italiano style. (A bit of a warning though: if you tackle all of these recipes in one night, you're going to feel as full as a caterpillar's sock drawer.) Bon appetit!

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Nutella & Mascarpone Ice Cream with Hazelnut Praline

• 3/4 c whole milk
• 1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream (lightly whipped)
• 4 oz mascarpone cheese
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tbsp nutella
• 1/2 c hazelnuts (shelled)
• (another) 1/2 c sugar
• fresh strawberries

1. Heat the milk in a pan. While it warms, beat together 3/4 c of sugar, the mascarpone cheese, and the egg in a bowl.
2. Still whisking, pour the hot milk into the mixture. Return the entire mixture to the pan and cook over medium heat until it becomes a smooth custard. Once it's thickened, take it off the heat.
3. Pour the mixture into a bowl, allowing it to cool. Once cooled, add the lightly whipped whipping cream. Then stir in the Nutella.
4. Churn the mixture according to your ice-cream maker's instructions OR put the cooled mixture into a covered container. Place it in the freezer and whip it every hour for 3 hours as it freezes. You can whip it using either an electric whisk, by hand, or in a food processor.
5. Hazelnut praline: Roast the shelled hazelnuts for 8-10 minutes at 350 deg F on a foil-covered baking sheet. Rub the dark, outer skin off the hazelnuts once they have cooled. Meanwhile, put the sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat. The sugar will begin to caramelize; stir the sugar slowly and constantly, until it caramelizes into a medium amber and is completely fluid. Place the hazelnuts on a (lightly greased) sheet of baking paper and cover them with the caramel. Allow the caramel to set hard before breaking into fine pieces.
6. Serve the ice cream with a sprinkling of hazelnut pralines and fresh strawberries.

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New Chefs Meatballs

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 c chopped parsley
• 1/3 c parmesan cheese
• 1/3 c minced onion
• 1 egg
• 2 slices sourdough bread (toasted to dark brown, with crusts cut off)
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• salt, pepper
• oregano

1. Place the toasted sourdough bread in a plastic bag and seal tightly. Break the bread up until you've got just bread crumbs. Add the milk slowly, mixing the bread crumbs in it as you go. You want the breadcrumbs to be thoroughly wet, but not in so much milk it's like cereal.
2. In a large bowl, combine beef, parsley, parmesan, onion, egg, milk/bread crumbs, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tsp pepper. Mix roughly, spreading the non-beef ingredients throughout, but don't overmix. If you feel comfortable with the cleanliness of your meat-source, taste a small bite of the mixture. This is the best opportunity to make alterations to the flavor of your meatball, so make any changes you deem appropriate.
3. Mold the mixture into 1 1/2" balls, placing them about an inch apart from one another on a tin-foil-covered baking sheet. Bake at 375 deg F for 25 to 30 minutes.

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Tomato Cream Sauce

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tbsp basil, chopped
• 3/4 tsp white sugar
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 c heavy cream
• 1 tbsp butter

1. In a saucepan, saute onion, garlic, and olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, oregano, salt and pepper. Boil for 5 minutes. Add cream and butter, lower heat, and saute for 5 more minutes.