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December 21, 2015 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

Feast of the Seven Fishes

The holiday celebration of the Feast of the Seven Fishes is considered by many non-Italians to be the quintessential Italian Christmas Eve festivity, but in fact it’s much more of an Italian-American tradition. The custom of having no meat comes from the Catholic church’s restrictions on eating meat during advent, and with the abundance of fisherman and fish from the coastal regions of the peninsula, the last day of advent being Christmas Eve, the tradition took hold of eating an elaborate fish dinner before meat returned to the table on Christmas Day.

Since a great majority of immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries came from the coastal cities of Naples and Palermo, the custom of eating fish morphed into a feast of many courses of fish and seafood and entered the Italian American vernacular as the Feast of the Seven Fishes, the accepted way to celebrate the holiday in Italian style.

In my family, where my grandparents came from mountainous areas of southern regions (Potenza in Basilicata and Avellino in Campania), we celebrated with cheese ravioli in tomato sauce followed by a large baked fish and finished with platters of fried pastries. Christmas Eve to me meant my grandma’s fried struffoli drizzled with honey and fried chestnut and cocoa ravioli drenched in powdered sugar. Outside grandma’s house, my family has always celebrated with a huge platter of spaghettini tossed with seafood: rock shrimp, lobster or shrimp, roasted in garlic and herbs – all accompanied by copious amounts of wine!
This year in my new osteria in Louisville, At the Italian Table, we will be celebrating the Feast of the Seven Fishes in the days leading up to and following Christmas. Tiny fried shrimp and calamari, scallop shells baked with seafood, bread crumbs and herbs, drizzled with great Sicilian olive oil; mussels steamed in white wine and tomato, served on toasted bruschetta doused in the new Tuscan olive oil; baked snapper or branzino, drizzled with lemon and orange olive oil from Sorrento – a full evening of delicious southern Italian fish dishes and crisp wines to complement them.
Here’s my recipe for Calamari Arabbiata – squid simmered in tomato and hot peppers – delicious served with bruschetta! Buon Appetito and Buon Natale a tutti!!

Calamari o Polpo con Sugo Arabbiata (squid or baby octopus in spicy tomato sauce)

2 lbs squid, cleaned and sliced into rings and tentacles; or baby octopus

3 garlic cloves

olive oil

hot peppers flakes to taste

2 cups crushed tomato

1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced

1/2 cup white wine

Sauté the garlic in the olive oil gently, add the hot peppers and half the parsley and cook a few minutes, being careful not to brown the garlic. Add the squid or baby octopus and sauté until coated with the garlic and parsley. Add the wine, allow it to cook off and then add the tomato and simmer for 30 minutes, salting to taste. Sprinkle the remainder of the parsley over the dish and serve with bruschetta.

Bruschetta: toast slices of heavy country loaves (the best in the US is Tuscan Pane from Trader Joe’s) until golden brown, gently drag a single clove of garlic over the toast and drench in great extra virgin olive oil.

November 8, 2015 by Gina Stipo 2 Comments

An Osteria is born

Osteria – Italian, from oste – innkeeper; from Latin hospit-, hospes- host, stranger, guest; a small establishment serving food and wine in a hospitable, communal environment.

Before I opened At the Italian Table in Louisville this past summer, I designed the open kitchen and dining area as a space where I could cook and serve food, hoping to serve dinners but unsure what the community would embrace. There was a local desire for cooking and pasta-making classes, and having owned a cooking school in Tuscany, I knew we could plan and execute that. Having shipped two containers of furniture, decor and tableware with me from my years in Italy, I wanted to recreate a warm, Italian environment. At the two long refectory tables, I dreamed of serving meals family-style in a communal setting, emulating dinners in Italy. I wondered if to interest the locals and get them in the door, I would have to offer some retail of table and kitchen items from Italy – sea salt, olive oil, kitchen towels – and so set aside a retail area. And I figured if I only ended up catering, at least I was cooking in a licensed kitchen.

Much to my delight and amazement, Louisville has decided that At the Italian Table is an osteria and has embraced it with open arms!

The idea of casually dining on several courses of simple yet delicious food, in a lovely warm setting, with a convivial, familial and communal atmosphere, has struck a chord with local diners. In Italy, an osteria was historically a small dining establishment, often in someone’s home, where wayfarers could get great local food and wine, reasonably priced and enjoyed in a communal setting with others. The fact that the Frankfort Avenue train often passes by only enhances the travelers setting!

People arrive as singles, in pairs or in groups and are all seated together. The synergy around the tables is amazing and we rejoice in our open kitchen to hear the chatter and laughter of people enjoying good food and wine in each others’ company!

With two large communal tables full four nights a week, we are serving up beautiful wooden boards of sliced Tuscan salumi, lovely fresh pastas, and grilled or roasted meats, to enthusiastic diners! The addition of Italian wines from a selective list of reasonably priced wines from all over Italy, along with after-dinner grappa and amaro, has completed the atmosphere of an osteria.

My hats off to Louisvillians for understanding and embracing this convivial way of dining! It is what I dreamed At the Italian Table could be and, along with my excellent and accomplished staff, Angelina and Don, we’re thrilled to be a part of a new way of dining in this great city!

Buon Appetito! See you at the Table soon (call for a reservation! 883-0211)

October 23, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Winter Squash in all its Golden Glory

I think winter squashes are glorious. They come in beautiful sleek packages and when you cut them open they are a glorious golden orange – alive and shining! And we have so many varieties now: butternut, acorn, spaghetti, delicata, Hubbard, pumpkin – both jack-o-lantern and pie – and some intriguing ones I don’t know the names of. Lots of pumpkins are sold in October to make into Jack-o-Lanterns, but they are delicious on the table as well.

In Italy they grow winter squash and the relatively new pumpkin as big as possible and then sell them at the market by the slice, allowing you to buy just how much you think you need. This certainly eliminates waste and encourages use. But I’ve noticed that here in the US they cultivate smaller sizes – people don’t want to purchase more than they’ll eat.

My all-time favorite squash is the Hubbard because there’s so much meat and it’s so versatile: you can make delicious soups and stuffed pastas, but it’s also great just roasted and pureed.

My new favorite this year is delicata! Elongated and striped, it’s a beautiful little squash, just right for one or two people. I cut them in half long-wise and roast them in the oven cut side down with a little water and olive oil in the bottom of the pan. When they’re soft, scoop the meat out and dress it with sea salt, butter or olive oil, and a good grating of nutmeg. What more could you want on a chilly fall evening!

A really luscious stuffed pasta is the traditional Tortelli di Zucca of northern Italy. Made with roasted and pureed squash, nutmeg, salt and parmigiano, it’s perfect in a simple butter sage sauce. Once you’ve pureed the pumpkin just be sure to wrap it in a cloth and squeeze all the water out; otherwise your stuffing is too wet and will destroy its pasta wrapping.

Enjoy the bounty of the fall season and Buon Appetito!

Ravioli di Zucca Gialla con Burro Salvia (winter squash ravioli w/ sage butter)
2 cups butternut or acorn squash
3/4 cup Parmigiano cheese, grated
1 egg
½ teas ground nutmeg
½ teas sea salt
pepper
bread crumbs, finely ground
Bake the squash in a 350° oven until soft. Let cool, scoop it out and mash it with a fork in a bowl until smooth. Place the pulp in a cheesecloth or linen towel, twist the ends together and squeeze as much water out as possible. Add remaining ingredients, mixing well;add bread crumbs if the mixture is still wet. It’s important that the filling not be wet or the ravioli will be more difficult to handle. Cook the ravioli for 2 minutes in boiling water that has been well salted.

Burro Salvia
1 stick unsalted butter
10 sage leaves
½ teas sea salt
Melt the butter in a sauté pan while the ravioli are cooking, add the sage leaves and salt. When the ravioli are cooked, scoop them out and place them in the sauté pan, stirring gently to coat. Serve with a generous garnish of grated Parmigiano cheese and be sure to eat the sage leaves.

October 9, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

…and jumping straight back into summer!

The reason autumn is my 3rd favorite season is that it gives you a little taste of lovely cooler weather, and then snaps you back into the beautiful heat of summertime! Which is exactly what happened here in Louisville this past week. I love that.

I’m confused about the produce cycle in the US. So often when I’m looking for a seasonal vegetable or fruit, none are to be found. There is the constant cycle of everything all the time. Piles of apples and oranges in June when there should be mountains of apricots and cherries. In August, at what should have been the height of its productivity, I was desperate for an eggplant. One large grocery store had none; another smaller market had exactly 3 soft ones at $3.99/lb. I was so disgusted I posted it on Facebook.

Now it’s October and eggplants are two for a dollar. That’s 50 cents a piece. Go figure.

So I bought them and in honor of my 2nd favorite season, Indian Summer, I’m putting eggplant parmigiana on the menu all weekend! It’s a bit labor intensive but is so worth the effort and really the ingredients are simple. Just a matter of putting them all together. The recipe is below.

I would serve it with the last of the rose’ wine. Buon appetito!

Parmigiana di Melanzane (eggplant parmigiana)

4 eggplants, peeled and sliced thin
Peanut oil for frying
Simple tomato sauce (olive oil, whole garlic, tomato puree, salt)
Fresh basil leaves
1-2 lbs whole milk mozzarella, sliced
2 cups pecorino romano, grated

Slice the eggplants thinly, lengthwise and salt them in layers, leaving them for several hours to release their water. Rinse them and pat dry with paper.
Heat the peanut oil until 350 degrees and fry each slice until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Prepare a large baking dish with a drizzle of olive oil and a light coating of tomato sauce. Place a layer of fried eggplant in the pan, pressing down firmly. Add a light coat of tomato sauce, some whole basil leaves and a layer of mozzarella and a sprinkle of cheese. Continue to layer in this way, making sure that you consistently press the eggplant slices firmly into the pan. In this way, once it’s baked you will be able to slice it and it will maintain its shape. Bake at 375 til bubbling. Serve with a salad.

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