Food & Drink

Make Your Pasta the Simone Way

 

Learn how to make tagliatelle by hand with our good friend Chef Simone Proietti-Pesci, owner of Le Delizie del Borgo restaurant in Bevagna, Italy.

Chef Simone quarantined with us in the US for nearly six months when his early spring return to Italy following his annual winter pilgrimage to the US was delayed.  We made good use of the time together, including putting together this instructional video shot in our kitchen during the lockdown.

Enjoy!

Screen Shot 2020-06-10 at 3.40.51 PMChef Simone makes pasta!

Chef Simone makes pasta Read more

  Learn how to make tagliatelle by hand with our good friend Chef Simone Proietti-Pesci, owner of Le Delizie del Borgo restaurant in ...

Michael Ruhlman’s Classic Five-Layer Lasagna with Bolognese, Bechamel, and Mozzarella

Editor’s note – This lasagna recipe was taken from Michael Ruhlman’s From Scratch cookbook, which was reviewed recently by Lindsey Menard. To read her review click here.

Lasagna (1)

The thing people often forget about lasagna is that while the end result is one beautiful bite of pasta, the lead up to that result is three to five individual, time consuming recipes that are all layered together to create that bite. There is no reason that you can’t skip some of those steps by buying dried pasta and fresh mozzarella, using store bought bolognese (gasp!), or substituting the bechamel for a blend of cheeses that will melt down to mimic the flavor, but there is definitely something satisfying about going through the motions of creating each of those components yourself from scratch. Taking a bite of lasagna, any lasagna, simply means more, becomes more special once you have made it once from scratch, as you learn how to decipher the different parts that have been layered together and acknowledge the hard work of the person serving it to you.

For our purposes we set out to make our lasagna mostly from scratch in that we wanted to use the shredded mozzarella we already had on hand rather than wait until we could seek out the ingredients (citric acid, rennet) that were missing from our pantry. We opted to make ricotta instead to balance the need for a creamier cheese to top our lasagna. We made the ricotta first because it’s one of the few steps you can’t hurry along by turning up the heat if you get impatient.

Lasagna 015
Lessons learned from making ricotta: It is incredibly simple. It also uses way more milk than you’d think.

 

Making pasta from scratch is one of the most rewarding things you can do, and is also something that gets far easier the more you do it. There are no real tricks to making pasta, you just have to take your lead from the ingredients you’re using and work at it until you learn the feel for what is correct and what needs adjusted. Having a pasta machine helps but isn’t necessary- the only thing that’s necessary is having the time and patience to work your dough until it’s done.

Lasagna 016 Lasagna 017

Lessons learned from making pasta: Always make more than you think you’ll need because there is absolutely no downside to having fresh pasta stored in your freezer for later on in the week.

 

Next come the sauces. Yes- sauces, plural. The first step, one you can absolutely skip if pressed for time but definitely enhances your feeling of accomplishment at the end is making your own tomato sauce as a base for the bolognese. This step is not complicated- it merely requires sauteing onions in olive oil (or butter) and then simmering them in pureed tomatoes over low heat for about an hour. If you’re using high quality canned tomatoes, you can definitely skip this step (and you can do so even if you aren’t) but embracing it lends a depth of sweetness and flavor to your bolognese that makes the added time worth it.

Lasagna 018
Lessons learned from making tomato sauce: don’t use an immersion blender in a short container- make sure whatever you’re blending has enough room to splash around without staining your favorite shirt.

 

Once that tomato sauce has simmered, or while it’s simmering if you have enough functional burners to run two things simultaneously, start to work on the Bolognese. Again, there’s nothing fancy here- Bolognese is simply a pot of chopped vegetables cooked for a long time with alternating choices of liquids starting with milk and wine, and ending with your beautiful tomato sauce. The most important thing about cooking the Bolognese is patience- let the individual pieces cook as long as they need to before moving on to the next step- there are few benefits to rushing them.

Lasagna 019
Lessons learned from making Bolognese: Precise knife cuts matter less when you’re cooking something over a long period of time. Also that there is milk in Bolognese- who knew?

 

The final component to make before you get to stacking is the Bechamel. Making Bechamel is basically an intricate dance of applying heat and creating motion so as not to let it become too hot. As I’ve said many times (twice) the two main ingredients of Bechamel are milk and a spoon.

Lasagna 020
Lessons learned from making Bechamel: Use a long handled spoon because it gets really hot really quick over the burner. Make sure you buy a ton of milk before setting out to make lasagna- seriously the dish is apparently mostly milk.

 

The next and final step is arguably the most fun. Take all of these delicious ingredients you’ve made and start stacking them together. Tomato sauce first, noodle second, bolognese and bechamel third, and repeat until your dish is nearly full and then sprinkle as much cheese as you can possibly fit on top. The lasagna needs to bake for an hour and then sit for forty-five minutes before it’s ready to serve so that it holds its shape which gives you plenty of time to let your mouth water over the sight and smell of a perfectly browned lasagna.

Lasagna 021

Lessons from making lasagna: Make sure you carve out enough time and space to make all the components. Many of them can be made days in advance and can be reheated to assemble when you’re ready. You never need as many noodles as you think to build your lasagna but leftover lasagna noodles make a great maltagliati later in the week. There are very few ways to irreparably ruin a lasagna.

Lasagna made "From Scratch" Read more

Editor's note - This lasagna recipe was taken from Michael Ruhlman's From Scratch cookbook, which was reviewed recently by Lindsey Menard. To ...

Tagliatelle with Fava Beans

Tagliatelle with fava beans, peas, guanciale,  and pecorino means spring is officially here.  
TAGLIATELLE WITH FAVA BEANS
INGREDIENTS

4 oz shucked and blanched english peas

3 oz shucked and blanched and peeled fava beans

2 garlic cloves, sliced thin

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 T sage, julienned

4 oz guanciale, diced

4- 4oz portions Tagliatelle

     DIRECTIONS

In a saucepan, cook the guanciale on med high heat in oil. Slowly caramelize and brown.  Add the English peas, favas, garlic and slowly saute. Add the sage and crushed red pepper. Saute for another 2 minutes.While cooking, boil salted water for pasta. Add tagliatelle to pasta water.
Add 2 cups pasta water to the guanciale mixture. 2 T of butter, 1 cup grated pecorino, salt and pepper. Drain pasta, and add to this mixture. Finish with more pecorino, EVOO and black pepper.

 

A taste of Spring Read more

Tagliatelle with fava beans, peas, guanciale,  and pecorino means spring is officially here.   TAGLIATELLE WITH FAVA BEANS INGREDIENTS 4 oz shucked and blanched english ...

Blue, Blue, My Cheese is Blue

Newsletter 20190411 2This week, or weekend, rather, Suzy and I headed west to visit our son who lives in Oakland.  Preferring to escape the city for the weekend, we headed north to Sonoma wine country, with a too-brief visit to beautiful Point Reyes on our first day.

About an hour’s drive from San Francisco and Oakland, Point Reyes seems far more distant.  The seashore, which is a national park separated from the mainland by the Tomales Bay, is actually part of the Pacific continental plate, nestling against the North American continental plate in the narrow bay.  The landscape is breathtaking, mountains giving way to estuaries and beach, the Pacific Ocean churning in the distance.  We made a quick visit to the National Park and were able to see baby elephant seals warming their bodies on the sandy beach with their mamas.  Not your typical DC vista.

We also took in a visit to nearby Marshall and celebrated our arrival on the west coast with an outdoor lunch of raw oysters, pulled from the Tomales Bay just in front of us by the Tomales Bay Oyster Company.

But the highlight of our first day in California was our visit to the nearby Giacomini dairy, the family owned home of the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company.  We spent the better part of a couple of hours touring the farm, learning about their cheeses, their herd, their philosophy.  It was a great start to our west coast sojourn.

The Point Reyes Farmstead is open for public visits, but only by prior arrangement.  A sign announces the Giacomini Farm, but gives no hint that the farm is associated with the well known and even better regarded Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company.  From the main road, the Route 1 that meanders along the Tomales Bay, you see only rolling farmland, verdant green at this time of the year but burnt brown during the summer.  Wandering along the private drive you eventually summit a hill below which extends the farm in all of its glory, hidden from sight of the highway, occupying a vast expanse of pasture and numerous sheds, ponds, cheesemaking rooms and offices and a visitor/education center. This may be a family run business, but it is a vast enterprise.

Our hourlong tour of farm focused mainly on the stars of the show, the herd of 900 or so cows that provide the milk that is made into Point Reyes’ dozen or so cheeses.  The cows are health and happy – lovingly cared for in a facility that is clean, tidy and odor free.  It is hard to imagine that you are actually on a farm.

Sustainability and environmental sensitivity are incorporated into all aspects of the business.  Of particular interest is the methane recycling system that turns the cows’ solid waste into energy that powers the vast majority of the operation before being returned to the fields as fertilizer.  It is just one of the smart, one would say elegant approaches to this business that shows it is being managed from the heart as well as the mind and ledger.

But the real proof is in the pudding, or in this case cheese.  We have long been fans of Point Reyes’ blue cheese, their flagship offering which is still made entirely on premises at the family farm.  Our swag bag that we were sent home with included a healthy portion of blue but also their delicious gouda among others.

That evening, after we had checked into our lodging for the night, we enjoyed a home made cheese board (apologies to our cheesemongers back in DC who are a bit more artistically inclined) featuring our samples from the tour, as well as a few others we picked up in a local market.  It went down oh so well, rewarding us with great flavors that were bolstered by the excellent memories of our visit to the Giacomini’s dairy.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy

A tour and tasting at Point Reyes Farm Read more

This week, or weekend, rather, Suzy and I headed west to visit our son who lives in Oakland.  Preferring to escape the ...

Simone’s Christmas Tortellini

Simone’s Christmas Tortellini is an explosion of flavor.  Light pasta stuffed with sausage and ricotta served on a potato puree.  A holiday indulgence.
SIMONE’S CHRISTMAS TORTELLINI
INGREDIENTS

for the dough:
10 eggs
2lb type 00 flour

For the sauce:
1 pound loose sausage cooked
1 cup ricotta
3/4 cup grated parmigiano

For the puree:
1 lb gold potatoes cubed
1 small onion chopped
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

 

     DIRECTIONS

Add the flour on a flat service and make a hole in the middle.  Add the eggs and mix well until you have a smooth dough.  Let the dough sit for 1 hour.

Saute sausage and mix with ricotta and parmigiano until smooth.

Using a rolling pin, stretch the pasta into a flat, thin sheet.  Cut into 2″ squares. Place a small ball of the stuffing in the square and fold into a triangle and then pinch the two edges together.

Drop in boiling salted water – when they float to the top they are finished.

In a large pot saute the onions in olive oil.  Add potatoes and water and simmer until soft.  Use an immersion blender to make a puree.

Toss the tortellini with butter, sage and parmesan.  Make a thin layer of the potato puree on a serving plate and top with the tortellini.  Add sage for garnish.

 

Sausage stuffed Tortellini Read more

Simone's Christmas Tortellini is an explosion of flavor.  Light pasta stuffed with sausage and ricotta served on a potato puree.  A holiday ...

White Truffle Parmigiano Sformato

White truffle flan is a great way to start off a holiday meal and represents everything that is great in Italian regional cooking.  A simple preparation, with relatively few but pristine and highest quality ingredients and the perception of a difficult undertaking that none of your guests need to know about.  The magic of white truffles.

 

Yields 8 – 4oz. souffle cup portions

 

WHITE TRUFFLE PARMIGIANO SFORMATO
INGREDIENTS

1 quart Heavy cream
2.5 Cups Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
½ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 T white truffle paste (optional…but preferable!)
4 whole eggs
4 T all purp. Flour
Salt to taste

White truffles, fresh (avail. at Via Umbria) to garnish

     DIRECTIONS

Heat Cream in a saucepan, add the cheese and blend. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, crack eggs, whisk, add the flour and whisk some more until combined. Add the truffle paste to cream mixture and slowly pour cream into egg mixture. Add the nutmeg and adjust seasoning with salt.

 

Meanwhile, get souffle cups, and spray with non stick spray. Ladle in the mixture. On top of stove, pour approx. ¾ ” of water into a shallow stove top-ready baking dish. Place souffle cups in the water bath and cover the whole pan in plastic wrap. Cook on stovetop at medium high heat for about 30 minutes, steaming the flans. They are done when the mixture does not jiggle like jello. Serve warm. Unmold from dishes if desired.

 

Shave white truffles on top of the sformato and serve with crostini and aged Balsamico.

 

Great way to start off a holiday meal Read more

White truffle flan is a great way to start off a holiday meal and represents everything that is great in Italian regional cooking.  ...

Simone’s Savory Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving isn’t an Italian holiday but Italians really romanticize it.  It fits perfectly with their love of family, food and tradition.  Our friend and practically adopted son, Chef Simone Proietti-Pesci from Umbria makes an annual pilgrimage (no pun intended) to Washington to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Menard family and to do some special guest chef appearances at Via Umbria and as a private chef in customers’ homes.
This is Simone’s delicious take on turkey that uses a few fresh ingredients to bring out the flavors in a turkey.  And this recipe is best enjoyed with a special bird.  Try it with one of our local, cage-free Fields of Athenry Farms turkeys.  You can order yours online and pick it up on the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving!
SIMONE’S TURKEY RECIPE
INGREDIENTS

14-16 lb turkey
Pork lard
Rosemary, Sage, Bay Leaves, Juniper Berries, Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Peeled Chestnuts

     DIRECTIONS

Mince together the herbs and garlic and mix into the pork fat.  Season the turkey with salt and pepper on the skin and inside.  Rub the turkey with the pork fat – on the skin and under the skin.
Place the turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan surrounded with olive oil and peeled chestnuts.
Roast the turkey at 325* for 15 minutes per pound.
Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.  Serve with the roasted chestnuts.

 

family, food and tradition Read more

Thanksgiving isn't an Italian holiday but Italians really romanticize it.  It fits perfectly with their love of family, food and tradition.  Our ...

Suzy’s Chicken Farro Soup

There’s nothing like a hearty soup to keep your belly full and spirits high as the weather gets chillier. With Via Umbria’s grab-and-go stock of pantry essentials and dinnertime lifesavers (we’re looking at you, oven-roasted chicken!) it couldn’t be easier to get dinner on the table. This week, tuck into a humble but delicious chicken  farro soup bolstered by flavorful parmigiano and garlic.

SUZY’S CHICKEN FARRO SOUP
INGREDIENTS

1 c farro
3 c water
1 small onion diced
1 carrot diced
1 celery stalk diced
1 garlic clove
1 c cooked chicken diced
2 T tomato sauce
EVOO
Parmigiano

     DIRECTIONS

In a medium saucepan add farro, water, onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until farro is soft.

Add more water if necessary. Add chicken, tomato sauce and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a shaving of Parmesan

 

couldn't be easier Read more

There's nothing like a hearty soup to keep your belly full and spirits high as the weather gets chillier. With Via Umbria's grab-and-go stock ...

Lemon Ricotta Ravioli

These ravioli stuffed with a zesty lemon ricotta mixture are going to be your new favorite meal. All you need is patience and a bit of confidence—your reward will be a plate full of citrus-y, creamy deliciousness.

PASTA DOUGH 
INGREDIENTS

200 g semolina flour

200 g type 00 flour

4 eggs

     DIRECTIONS

On a large wooden cutting board, make a well with the flour. Crack eggs into the well. Using a fork, slowly beat the eggs and mix in the flour, being careful not to break the walls of the well.

After most of the egg and flour is incorporated, begin to knead the dough. Knead for at least 10 minutes, until very smooth.

Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for 15-30 minutes
before rolling.

LEMON RICOTTA RAVIOLI
INGREDIENTS

2 c ricotta

Zest of 1 lemon

1 c ground pecorino or parmigiano

1 egg yolk

Salt and pepper to taste

Pasta dough (above)

     DIRECTIONS

Combine ricotta, lemon zest, pecorino/parmigiano and egg yolk. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Roll out pasta dough until paper thin. Dollop the ricotta mixture onto your pasta sheets. Cover the mixture with another sheet of pasta, sealing around each dollop to encase the ricotta tightly.
Cook in boiling water 2-3 minutes until ravioli rises
to the top of the pot.

 

citrus-y, Read more

These ravioli stuffed with a zesty lemon ricotta mixture are going to be your new favorite meal. All you need is patience ...

Suzy’s Staples

It was Friday night at Via Umbria—the cafe was full of patrons enjoying dinner, guests in the wine room were engaged in our Weekly Somm tasting and a Birthday celebration was due to start upstairs shortly.  Bill and I looked around and realized that we had a great staff on hand and that if we left now we could sit outside on this perfect September night and enjoy dinner and a relaxing evening at home- so run away we did.  A few minutes later as we inched along Wisconsin Avenue, we realized that we had no groceries at home. Not just ‘nothing we wanted to eat’, but after weeks of late nights and travel – not a single thing that qualified as edible.  As we got closer to the Safeway and started discussing strategies for running in quickly and what we could make – a last minute U-turn was made and we and headed straight back to Via Umbria to pick up our staples.

While there are definitely some benefits to the enormity of a store like Safeway, the idea of being able to avoid the chaos and dash into Via Umbria to grab a few excellent products from farms we know and love seemed like the obvious choice.

We often describe Via Umbria as an “Italian Village under one roof” but in many ways it would be simpler and just as accurate to describe our store as a one-stop market in Georgetown for high-quality pantry staples and top-notch food.

With the idea of ‘who knows what tomorrow brings,’ here is my express list of groceries and pantry staples we grabbed and how I plan to use them:

  • Oven Roasted Chicken
  • Meatballs
  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Lemon
  • Onion
  • Farro
  • Lentils
  • Pasta
  • Jarred Tomatoes
  • Parmigiano
  • Cheese
  • Baguette
  • Wine
  • Franciacorta – delicious sparkling wine
  • Caviar
  • Salmon

For the record—lentils and farro are my go to last-minute dinner staples.  Why?

  • They don’t need to be soaked
  • They can cook unattended
  • They cook in under 30 minutes
  • They are super versatile
  • They are delicious and nutritious

Now, faced with a bevy of incredible ingredients, dinner was simple. We cut the chicken in half and put it in the oven to warm up, set a pot of lentils, carrots, and onions to simmer on the stove, and made a bright and fresh salad of lettuce with olive oil, lemon juice and a hint of shaved parmigiano.  

In less than the time it would take to have a delicious, greasy pizza delivered we were sitting outside on a perfect fall night enjoying a glass of wine and a favorite cheese from the Pennsylvania-based Farm at Doe Run while our dinner was happily cooking.

That’s just half of my express shopping list.  What else is on my menu for this week?

  • Pasta with tomato sauce,  parmigiano and a green salad
  • Farro soup with onions, carrots and chicken
  • Baked Meatballs with lentils and roasted carrots

And for the night I really don’t want to cook at all?  I’m opening a bottle of Franciacorta, cracking open a tin of caviar and enjoying some locally cured Smoked Salmon from DC Smokehouse.  If I had really been thinking ahead I would have grabbed some yogurt, a dozen eggs and a pack of bacon—then I wouldn’t have to wake up on Saturday morning wondering what’s for breakfast!

 

These are a few of my favorite things... Read more

It was Friday night at Via Umbria—the cafe was full of patrons enjoying dinner, guests in the wine room were engaged in ...

Braised Green Figs and Fennel

Figs are in season here in Italy and we’ve eaten them every day with no signs of slowing down. We used green honey figs straight from the garden for this simple side dish.

BRAISED GREEN FIGS AND FENNEL
INGREDIENTS

Figs, about 3 per person

1 medium fennel bulb

Generous knob of butter

Thin slice of lemon, peel on

One dried Italian hot pepper, whole

Dry white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Pecorino, shaved large for garnish

     DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400.

Slice the fennel into 4-6 segments.

Place the butter, whole lemon slice, and hot pepper in an oven safe pan and sauté until fragrant. Sear the fennel wedges on both sides, don’t be shy about giving it good color. Add the figs whole and leave on high for a minute or two, before adding a generous pour of wine and transferring to the oven.

Cook until the fennel is just tender, but not falling apart.

Top with fresh ground pepper and good pecorino.

Enjoy!

 

simple side dish Read more

Figs are in season here in Italy and we’ve eaten them every day with no signs of slowing down. We used green ...