Pesto Genovese

Kristin Melia
Recipes

I am a food romantic.  Before venturing to a new destination, I envision what typically regional dish I will eat, what sort of carefully paired spirit (there always seems to be some sort of alcohol involved in these ruminations) I will enjoy with said dish and most importantly what kind of effortless characteristic ambiance will surround me as I eat.  At times this overly calibrated romantic approach to dining leads to my inevitable disappointment or bemusement. 

Orata in Cartoccio (Sea Bream in Parchment)

Kristin Melia
Recipes

After a hair-raising drive down the Napoleon Route and through the Maritime Alps, Giuseppe and I arrived in Sanremo two days ago. Our half-baked travel planning resulted in a screwy journey through slushy conditions 1800 meters above sea level in the height of winter.  We had no snow chains, but we did have according to my count: exactly two bottles of Riesling, four walnuts and a block of foie gras.

Around the time my butt warmer stopped working and our old BMW convertible started swerving, I wondered if we might have a little Donner party situation on our hands. Giuseppe invoked the name of Saint Rita.  I contemplated fashioning a shiv out of a twig in the car.  And somehow, aided by Saint Rita, cigarillos and the plaintive crooning of Serge Gainsborg, Giuseppe maneuvered the car out of the Alps and finally to Grasse. 

Croque Signore [d.o.c]

Kristin Melia
Recipes

Inevitably, we always have bread on the verge of going stale in our kitchen.  Now that I am passing a brief spell in France, every morning I enjoy the clichéd French ritual of buying a fresh baguette.  I can emphatically tell you which boulangerie has the best baguette a l’ancienne, pain de campagne and galette des rois in a one, five and ten mile radius. (I will also add that one should never buy bread or pastry at Sesame or Carrefour!) Suffice it to say, we eat a lot of bread in our house and unsurprisingly there is always some sort of bread product threatening to go bad on us.  If there exists such as thing as an unforgivable sin in Napoli, it would be throwing bread away. More importantly, stale bread soaked in egg is so versatile (for both sweet and savory dishes) that there really is no reason to ever toss it.

Rock hard, stale bread is brought to life in countless recipes by soaking it in egg.  The French famously created ‘pain perdu,’ or ‘lost bread’ to make what we call French toast in America.  In our house, we prefer savory breakfast items so I regularly make this version of Croque Monsieur for weekend brunch. 

Arugula Salad

Kristin Melia
Recipes

“This was right around the time that arugula was discovered, which was followed by endive, which was followed by radicchio, which was followed by frisée, which was followed by the three M's -- mesclun, mâche, and microgreens -- and that, in a nutshell, is the history of the past forty years from the point of view of lettuce. ” – Nora Ephron

Not long ago, in an age before the internets, many of us in America were also living in the dark ages of iceberg lettuce. Fortunately, our palates have evolved and Whole Foods arrived to set us straight (though whether or not that development is fortunate is still debatable).  Regardless, I will take this moment to declare my earnest love of arugula.  It grows wild outside of our home in Naples, and while I am there, no meal is complete without a simple arugula salad.  I don’t mean to get all Go Ask Alice Waters on you.  Even if I did not have access to wild arugula, I would happily purchase it from the local grocery, and hence this recipe. 

Chicken Stew

Kristin Melia
Recipes

 read a lot of cookbooks as a child.  We only had five and they were like crack to me.  There was a Better Homes & Gardens cookbook from circa 1970. It was covered in clumps of dried flour (also likely from 1970) and had a prominent soy sauce stain after my childhood attempt at making rumaki. Why a seven year old wanted to make a dish consisting of chicken livers and water chestnuts is beyond me. I just knew I always wanted to order it from the local Chinese restaurant Gongs, and my mother would not allow it.  We didn’t eat chicken livers in our house. So I took matters into my own hands.  There was another book I remember well.  I believe it was zealously titled 1,802 Ways to Make Chicken Breast.  I tried cooking from that book.  I never really liked it.

Minestrone

Kristin Melia
Recipes

Around the beginning of the New Year, I generally feel that I am the ideal candidate for bankruptcy and/or gastric bypass surgery.  And for some unknown reason my desire for financial and dietary parsimony translates into my cooking dishes that consist largely of dried beans.  Last year I overzealously purchased 10 pounds of dried black beans at a cheap Mexican bodega and then mostly forgot about their existence for the rest of the year.  Then when I was preparing to move from my apartment, I cooked those black beans for days on end in efforts to rid myself of them.  Giuseppe said I was turning into a Tuscan ‘mangiafagioli.’ Tuscans are famous for the adoration of beans. And so am I.

Risi e Bisi (Rice and Peas)

Kristin Melia
Recipes

I am stuck in Grenoble now and the past week has been cold, rainy and somnolent. I miss the South of Italy! Aside from offering the exciting opportunity to wear my new electric orange Hunter rain boots, the grey weather has made it impossible to enjoy venturing outdoors.  Yesterday, I could not bring myself to leave the house in search of market ingredients. Instead, I decided to make this quick risi bisi style soup, and then watch ten consecutive episodes of Downton Abby. It was just that kind of day. Meaning ‘rice and peas’ in local dialect, risi e bisi is a culinary classic throughout Venice.

Pasta al Forno (Baked Pasta)

Kristin Melia
Recipes

In Naples, it is a sin to throw food away!  What remains from left over dishes in Giuseppe's family,  is either turned into new dishes (such as this Pasta al Forno) or fed to the family pig, which we turn into prosciutto every winter.  The family pig and I are on tenuous terms ever since I accidentally fed him a metal spoon several months ago so I prefer to take the former tract, and make Pasta al Forno.  Plus, why should the pig enjoy my lovingly braised ragu when all he does is glare and snort at me (I shall very much enjoy our winter sausage this year).  If you too suffer the same predicament, or don't happen to have a family pig, I suggest you make this recipe for Pasta al Forno.

Ragù alla Napoletana (Sunday Sauce)

Ragù alla Napoletana (Sunday Sauce)

Kristin Melia
Recipes

The first time I experienced Neapolitan Ragu was after attending a three hour long Sunday procession of the Madonna in Naples.  While I enjoyed the mass, this dish felt like the ultimate reward for my three hours of Sunday penance parading behind a very large, disturbingly life-like statue of the Virgin Mary.  Ragu is a typical Sunday dish throughout Southern Italy, and now that I have learned to make it, Giuseppe and his family have entrusted me with its preparation every Sunday. Of course what they don't realize is that making this dish is the perfect excuse for not attending three hour long masses.  I make the Ragu with Giuseppe's 88 year old mother and we watch mass on TV.  It's the perfect solution for everyone. The family eats, and thanks to the national television broadcast of Sunday mass in Italy, my eternal soul is not in jeopardy.