A Simple Italian Supper and Memories of the Amalfi Coast

What can be more comforting on a cold winter's day, than a hot, baked pasta dish? Looking through my vast collection of cookbooks, I pull one of the shelf, remembering a past trip to Italy.

Back in 2003, I was lucky enough to go on a tour of the Amalifi Coast with Arts Boston (they no longer do tours). The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline running along the southern coast of the Sorrentine Peninsula in Italy. The land route runs from Vietri sul Mar to Positano (25 miles of windy roads). This lovely area is known for it's famous limoncello (from the cultivation of lemon groves on the terraced, steep hillsides), hand-made paper (bambagina) and, of course, the beautiful ceramics of Vietri.

The gorgeous hillside of Positano.

View from a restaurant in  Ravello.

Villa Cibrone in Ravello.

Pottery from Vietri with the fabulous lemons.

View of the terraced lemon groves.

One of the things I enjoy about traveling is collecting cookbooks from the places I travel. Sometimes I will even pick one that is in the native language (I picked up two on this trip; one in Italian, and one in English).

Our tour stayed in a hotel close to the center of the town of Amalfi. One of the highlights of Amalfi is the beautiful cathedral, Saint Andrews Cathedral (or Duomo).

Cattedral di Sant'Andrea.

While I was in Amalfi, Helen Hunt was making a movie (available on Netflix streaming) called "A Good Woman". Some of my lady friends and I were down by the duomo when she was filming a shot with the young male lead. I can't remember if the scene made it into the final cut of the movie. I do remember we were all giddy about watching the rather handsome Stephen Campbell-Moore in a tuxedo  We also watched part of the filming down by the water across from our hotel one evening where they were shooting a night scene on a large wooden ship.

View looking towards my hotel.

Being that it's a chilly 13 degrees here in Northern Virginia, I am thinking of something hearty and some pasta and homemade foccacia bread would fit the bill. The following two recipes are from the cookbook Passione The Italian Cookbook by Gennaro Contaldo (who mentored Jamie Oliver) that I bought on this trip.  Contaldo was born in Minori on the Amalfi coast and started working in the local restaurants when he was 8 years old. This cookbook features beautiful photographs of the Amalfi coast and the book title is taken from the name of  his restaurant in London, Passione (that closed in 2009, a victim of the poor British economy).

The photographs in this book and recipes take me back to a lovely vacation in Amalfi.

Ingredients for the simple pasta dish.

 CONCHIGLIONI RIPIENI AL FORNO (Baked pasta shells filled with cheese)

Ingedients:

16 large pasta shells

1 recipe Salsa di Pomodoro (below)

3 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 ball of mozzarella cheese, sliced

For the filling:

5 oz ricotta cheese

1 ball of mozzarella cheese, very finely diced

2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

16 large fresh basil leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cook the pasta shells in lightly salted boiling water until al dente. Drain well and leave to cool.

To make the filling, mash the ricotta with a fork, stir in the diced mozzarella, Parmesan, and some salt and pepper to taste and mix well. Shape the mixture into 16 balls, wrap each ball in a basil leaf and place in a cooled pasta shell.

Pour a layer of tomato sauce over the bottom of an oven proof dish and place the filled shells on top. Pour the remaining tomato sauce, sprinkle over the Parmesan and top with slices of mozzarella. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and baked uncovered for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Notes: I used 2 balls of mozarella, about 2 1/2" in diameter for the filling . I used one of those small scoops to make the balls. I ended up with 13 mozarella balls total, not 16, and I don't think they were exceptionally large or anything. So I did not try to make them in to 16 balls since there were only 2 of us eating, not 4. Also, if you buy a large can of tomatoes, only one is required. I also weigh all my ingredients, as is in the recipe.

Fresh basil smells amazing!

Mozarella balls.

Finished mozarella balls.

Stuffed pasta shells, ready for their tomato bath!

SALSA DI POMODORO (Basic Tomato Sauce)

Makes enough for 4 servings of pasta

Ingredients:

4 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes

A handful of chopped fresh basil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan, add garlic, and sweat until softened. Then add the tomatoes and basil, season with salt and pepper and simmer gently for 25 minutes.

Simple tomato sauce.

Ready for the oven.

Let's get this on the table!

  

FOCACCIA  CON AGLIO E ROSMARINO (Focaccia with garlic and rosemary)

Ingredients:

11 oz of all-purpose flour

7 oz semolina, plus extras for sprinkling

2 tsp salt

½ oz fresh yeast

12 fl oz. lukewarm water

For the topping:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

Needles from 3 fresh rosemary branches, finely chopped

1 tsp flaky sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for the dough.

Preheat the oven to 465. You will need a baking sheet, about 15” x 11”.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, semolina and salt together. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and pour into the flour. Mix well until you obtain a soft, but not sticky, dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead well for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place dough on a clean tea towel, brush the top with some water to prevent it from drying out, then cover with another tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place till doubled (I let the dough rise an hour).

I am lazy and used my Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook to knead the dough; this worked perfectly fine.

After removing the dough from the mixer, I gave it a few twirls on a floured silicone mat to shape.

 

I had room on my cookbook shelf which is near a sunny window and I put the dough here to rise.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll the dough out into a rectangular shape the same size of the baking tray. Warm the baking tray in the hot oven for about 10 seconds, then sprinkle with semolina. Place the rolled out dough on the tray and pour the olive oil in the middle. With your fingers, spread the oil all over the dough. Leave on for 5 minutes, then poke the dough all over with your fingers to make indentations.  Sprinkle the garlic and rosemary on top, followed by the sea salt (I crushed mine slightly) and some black pepper. Leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Make sure you sprinkle more semolina flour than this on the sheet pan!  I didn't use enough and it stuck a bit.

Chopped garlic and rosemary (smells amazing) . I didn't use all of this, I thought it might be too overpowering for my husband's taste.

Lovely flaked sea salt from Mallorca given to me by my daughter-in -law that she bought on a trip there

.

Ready for second rise.

Bake for 15 minutes, until evenly browned.  Check the focaccia from time to time to make sure it is baking evenly, turn the baking pan accordingly. Once cooked, remove from the oven and immediately drizzle some olive oil all over. Leave to cool, then cut into squares.This bread is best eaten the day it is made, but will keep for a few days and can be freshened up in the oven just before serving.

 Focaccia with Garlic and Rosemary straight out of the oven.

 Notes: The focaccia bread can easily be made into several meals (I froze half of it) and would be great for sandwiches. You can also serve it warm with an herbed olive oil for dipping.  Before baking, you can add other ingredients (olives, tomatoes, etc...) to make it your way. Oh, and the stuffed shells....my husband had two servings, so I know it was good!

Some more recipes from the author can be found online on Contaldo's website .

For my favorite dessert cookie made to go with this meal, I recommend Giada's Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze .

What is your favorite meal on a cold winter's day?