Between her participation as celebrity chef at the Milwaukee Festa Italiana and at the Chicago Taylor Street Festa Italiana, Rossella Rago, the host of the online cooking show and food webisode series, Cooking with Nonna and the recent winner of the Food Network – 24 Hour Restaurant Battle - Battle Italiano, took the time to talk Apulian food with i-italy.
You chose: pasta
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Summer tomatoes, fresh basil, and milky mozzarella are all you need.
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Summer tomatoes, fresh basil, and milky mozzarella are all you need.
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Fettuccine literally means "little ribbons" and refers to the shape of the pasta. It's a flat, thick egg noodle popular in central Italy, and it is often eaten with ragù—a special, slow-cooked meat sauce. There are several regional variations of ragù in Italy, the most famous being Neapolitan and Bolognese. The one presented here is Bolognese, from Emilia-Romagna.
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In Italy "Gamberetti e zucchine" is one of the best known "mari e monti" dishes (Italian for "surf and turf"). Gamberetti cover the sea and zucchini come from the soil. This southern-Italian dish is very popular in the area stretching from Naples to the coasts of Sorrento and Amalfi, a very rocky coastline with mountains overlooking the sea.
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"Zucca", or squash, was imported from America to Europe, thanks to Christopher Columbus. For a long time it hasn't really been appreciated in Italy; it was used mainly by southern peasants and was considered "poor people's food." Over time, however, it became a very popular ingredient for pasta dishes and this variation, pairing squash with Italian sausage, is really a must.
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This celebrated Southern dish is comparatively young for Italian standards; its popularity spiked in the 1960s. It gets its name from the word "puttana", meaning (pardon our Italian) "whore." Nobody really knows where this name comes from, but some argue that it's a reference to the sauce's hot, spicy flavor. It's also a quick, cheap meal--not politically correct, but definitely tantalizing.
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Traditionally a Roman dish, "Cacio e pepe" is also popular in other regions throughout central Italy. The name "cheese and pepper" refers to the two basic ingredients of this simple yet tasty dish. But, as you will soon discover, there is a third "miracle ingredient" not mentioned in the name.
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"Fusilli alla Carbonara con Carciofi" is a variation on the better known "carbonara", a very popular traditional Roman pasta dish commonly made with eggs and bacon. Yet adding artichokes (carciofi) and replacing bacon with "guanciale" (or pork cheeks) makes this dish even more Roman. It has now become one of the most widespread national and international Italian dishes.
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Who said Italian cuisine has no vegetarian options? You can find this all-vegetable dish just about anywhere in the boot. However, it originally comes from central Italy -- especially the valley of the Tiber river, between Umbria and Lazio -- where you have so many woods to search for mushrooms and asparagus. Italians make this dish with both rice and pasta. Here, of course, we're going with pasta.