Dad's Chicken Marsala Recipe

Saturday, August 28, 2010
Chicken Marsala is an Italian-American dish of golden pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a rich Marsala wine sauce.



Born August 28th, 1912-1995 RIP Dad this was his signature dish






Dad's Chicken Marsala Recipe

  1. 1- 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts thinly sliced and pounded 1/4 inch thick.
  2. flour (usually around 2 cups)
  3. salt pepper to taste
  4. 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
  5. 3 tablespoons salted butter 
  6. portabella mushroom sliced or use another kind you prefer
  7. 4 cloves garlic minced
  8. 2 tablespoons flat-leaf Italian parsley
  9. 2/3 cup of chicken broth
  10. 1 - 1/2 cups of dry marsala wine
  11. Optional: dad use to  add 1 cup of chopped prosciutto in the mushroom step

Pound the chicken to 1/4 inch in thickness.

Coat the chicken with flour.

Heat your pan to medium-high heat with oil and garlic. (we use a cast-iron skillet)


Saute the chicken turning once until golden brown.
This should only take about 5-6 minutes.

Add the mushrooms.

Cook until the mushrooms begin to crisp up.

Add a pinch of salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of chopped parsley to taste.

Stir in the Marsala wine and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium, add chicken stock, and bring to a gentle simmer, until sauce has thickened. (this can take up to 10 minutes)

Garnish with more parsley, salt, pepper to taste.

Serve with a favorite cooked pasta.
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Crimini Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

Crimini Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe is a great meal for all alfredo and mushroom lovers


The mushrooms were delicious in this fabulous creamy sauce, just amazing, creamy alfredo with lots of mushrooms and the fettuccine pasta so tender.


This is not a dieter's dish.


The little pink color in this dish was added tomato paste, which was a perfect addition to the color and taste of this dish. Served with plenty of long shreds on top of grating cheese, lots of garlic toast and antipasto salad will be a perfect meal!






1 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
2 clove  finely minced garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons pecorino romano cheese grated in long shreds more for garnish
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
freshly ground pepper
12 ounces dry or (fresh preferred) fettuccine pasta

Cook the pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in butter for (around 5 minutes) add garlic after three minutes in olive oil over low heat. Mix in tomato paste, butter, heavy cream, cream cheese; bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat, and simmer while stirring until cream cheese has melted and mixture has thickened.

Drain pasta. Pour sauce over pasta, and toss with cheese to coat. Serve with freshly cracked black pepper and more grating cheese.

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Our Western Caribbean Trip and Risotto Prawn Recipe

Wednesday, August 25, 2010






































Risotto Prawn Recipe


1 to 1-1/2 cups chicken broth, hot
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced shallots
1/2 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper
8 large Tiger fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined, and halved lengthwise
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Minced fresh parsley leaves, for garnish
In a small saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to very low, cover, and keep hot.

Put 2 tablespoons each of the butter and olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the garlic and shallots and saute, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until soft but not yet browned, about 3 minutes.

Add the rice and saute, stirring, until the rice grains are well coated, about 1 minute. Add the wine and boil it, stirring until it has been almost completely absorbed by the rice, about 3 minutes.

Using a large spoon or ladle, add about 1/2 cup of the hot broth to the rice. Still over medium heat, stir constantly until the broth has been absorbed and the rice looks almost dry, about 3 minutes. Add another spoonful and repeat, stirring after each addition until it has been absorbed, continuing just until most of the broth has been used and the rice is tender surrounded by a creamy sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the remaining butter and the Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and, if the risotto seems a little dry, stir in the last of the broth.

Immediately heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Season the shrimp with salt and white pepper and saute them until they turn white and firm, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle them with lemon juice.

Spoon the risotto a bed on 2 serving plates and arrange the shrimp attractively on top. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
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Homemade Manicotti Italian Stuffed Pasta

Friday, August 20, 2010
Homemade Italian Manicotti Stuffed Pasta is a family old recipe making a filling tubular shaped pasta then baking in the oven with tomato sauce and lots of shredded mozzarella.

These baked rolls are pretty similar to a crepe batter then filled with whatever you like from meats, cheese, or vegetarian styles.

Mom made these only around the holiday as they were a special treat and I would watch her intently as she made these small round thin pancakes and stacked them.

The filling recipes are very basic and you can find the original Homemade Manicotti Shell Recipe mom made here.


Very easy to make and again you can stuff these rollup style pasta shells with whatever you like.




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Slow Cooker Dulce de Leche Homemade

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Unfortunately I don't have as much time to devote to delicious recipes like milk caramel that takes quite awhile to make from scratch. I would like to make everything from scratch, as that is always the best. This time I took the easy way out, being a career working woman, you sometimes have to find new ways to make great tasting desserts. I love this one, because it doesn't require alot of time in the beginning, perfect for summer. I love my crockpot, and I use it for so many things that I never dreamed would come out so good, and continue to experiment with things that shock me on how good they end up. This one here is another example of it. I loved this idea and it worked like a charm. Making something at night before I go to bed, then viola, the next morning magic is made.

Slow Cooker Dulce de Leche Homemade


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The Story of Peaches and Chianti , What's Cookin' Inspiration

Monday, August 2, 2010

Featured picture, Peaches and Chianti. Fresh peaches with Chianti poured over them.....the wine bottle was our Grandma Victoria, who past on at the age of 94 in 1975. The bottle is over 88 years old..... I still have it in 2013 my cherished possession and always will, until it's passed on to my kids.





So this is where it all began the "familia" My hometown was in Utica NY. Many called it Little Italy. Fabulous restaurants, with years of experienced cooks from all over Italy had made their roots there and the food still after the early 1900's remains a memorable experience of traditional cooking of Italian foods.

My family originated in Rome Italy. My grandmother and grandfather couldn't speak a word of English or write. Her cooking was amazing. I still remember the round loaves of dense delicious homemade breads, fantastic egg noodles, and fried dough. Her polenta was full of wonderful flavor topped with ragu style sauce. Then my favorite, she would make a chicken and pea's in a large fry pan, the sauce would stick to your fingers when you picked it up and if you used a napkin it would rip off and stick to you hand too, but talk about finger lickin good sauce, it was so amazing, I've never been able to duplicate it,and neither did my parents. My mom was from Bari, she cooked a whole different Region of foods, nothing like my grandmother, but were fabulous but different. Amazing how two people could make sauce with the exact same ingredients and not taste anything alike. I am sure you all know what I mean, its a mystery!
Every Sunday would be pasta day in our Italian home. After dinner as tradition goes, on a hot summer day, our dad would cut up fresh peaches in the height of the season and pour Chianti over them for dessert. This was after the espresso and sambucca.. Cheers to the memory of our dad Carmen.
 
Here's our story.....would love to hear  about all your traditions you have passed down to your family. All comments welcome.
As it goes, there are stories to tell in every family background. Our Italian heritage growing up and still today continue to be strong on what we did as children in our family households. My brothers and I have instilled these traditional values down to our kids, and they remain proud to carry on the legacy of Italian cooking and in our case has still become key to keeping the memories of where it all started, still alive in our kitchens....It wasn't a Sunday without fried meatballs for breakfast first...and then someone had to grate the fresh cheese, which was my eldest brother John in our case. Then there was brother Luke, testing the sauce to see what spice was missing by ripping off fresh bread and dipping that hot loaf of crusty bread in the pot of sauce.We would start our dinner with soup with escarole in it, then a huge antipasto, pasta of some kind, usually ziti or rigitoni....then meatballs, sausage, braciole would accompany .....It all started early on a Sunday, every week all day. Mom and Grandma would cook so much food, you were comatose and ready for nap from eating so much! The family would pile in at around 10:30....and we would eat until 7:00pm until we would all felt we were so stuffed we couldn't move and got our full share.... by taking home all the food left over was enough to feed the entire block plus  we all had enough food to take home for a week!!!!!!!.....great memories still live on. That sauce taste lingers in your mind forever. The way the sauce stuck to the meat, the meatballs frying, the smell of  freshly grated cheese, soup simmering, and of course dad preparing his peaches and Chianti for dessert.  The conversations,  our love for each other and closeness has separated through only miles, but there's not a week  that goes by without keeping in touch,  talking, emailing and now texting or Skype or now face time on Iphone and the list goes on!

 The families sure have grown since those days. The best part is the children have a deep understanding of traditions and family to pass on to their families. They all want to  keep in touch and learn about those good ole days, and when we all are together, it was just like we never left that table in the old days, we keep the memories and traditions going from generation to generation.  Hope this gave you all a smile on how good life is with passing on your families traditions.....we all have them in Italian families.

If you would like to make Peaches and Chianti, all dad would do is sprinkle sugar over some sliced peaches and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. When he was ready for this special treat, he poured the Chianti over the peaches then leave them at room temperature for a few hours. That's it. Oh and when they had extra money, strawberries would be added!   Enjoy!  Thanks for reading!

+claudia lamascolo  Author


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