Rustic Italian Food

pSlow-cooked meats, homemade breads, flavorful pastas...these are the traditional comfort-food classics that Italians have been roasting, baking, curing, and making in their own kitchens for generations--dishes that people actually want to cook and eat. In iRustic Italian Food/i, acclaimed Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri celebrates the handcrafted cuisine of Italy, advocating a hands-on, back-to-the-basics approach to cooking. Home cooks of every skill level will revel in the 120 recipes, such as sweet Fig and Chestnut Bread, rich Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi, savory Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder, and fragrant Apple Fritters. Rustic Italian Food is also an education in kitchen fundamentals, with detailed, step-by-step instructions for making terrines, dry-cured salami, and cooked sausage; a thorough guide to bread and pasta making; and a primer on classic Italian preserves and sauces. Much more than just a collection of recipes, in this book Marc Vetri connects us directly to the essence of Italian food./p

hr size="1" / span class="h1"strongFeatured Recipe: Semolina Gnocchi with Oxtail Ragù/strong/span br / br / img height="326" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/merch/rh/a/nov/Rustic-Italian-Semolina-Gnocchi._V163996692_.jpg" style="float: right;" width="255" /strongMakes:/strong 6 servings pstrongOxtail Ragù/strongbr / 21/2 pounds oxtail, trimmed of fatbr / Salt and freshly ground pepperbr / Tipo 00 or all-purpose flour for dustingbr / 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or olive oilbr / 1/2 onion, coarsely choppedbr / 1 carrot, peeled and coarsely choppedbr / 2 large ribs celery, coarsely choppedbr / 3 peeled plum tomatoes (canned are fine, preferably San Marzano) br / 1 cup dry red winebr / 3 to 4 cups beef stock or waterbr / Sachet: 1 rosemary sprig, 5 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, 5 black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 1 smashed clove garlic, tied in a cheesecloth square/p pFor the ragù: Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper, then dust with flour. Heat the oil in a large roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add the oxtail and sear until browned all over, 10 to 15 minutes./p pRemove the meat from the pan and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the wine, stirring to dissolve the browned bits on the pan bottom. Return the meat to the pan and cook until the liquid reduces in volume by about half, 5 minutes. Add enough stock to come two-thirds of the way up the meat. Sink the sachet into the pan, cover, and cook in the oven until the meat pulls off the bone easily, 21/2 to 3 hours./p pRemove the meat and sachet from the pan, then pass the sauce through a food mill or blend briefly in a food processor./p pPick all the meat from the bones (discarding any large chunks of fat) and return the meat to the sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper./p p/p

pSlow-cooked meats, homemade breads, flavorful pastas...these are the traditional comfort-food classics that Italians have been roasting, baking, curing, and making in their own kitchens for generations--dishes that people actually want to cook and eat. In iRustic Italian Food/i, acclaimed Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri celebrates the handcrafted cuisine of Italy, advocating a hands-on, back-to-the-basics approach to cooking. Home cooks of every skill level will revel in the 120 recipes, such as sweet Fig and Chestnut Bread, rich Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi, savory Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder, and fragrant Apple Fritters. Rustic Italian Food is also an education in kitchen fundamentals, with detailed, step-by-step instructions for making terrines, dry-cured salami, and cooked sausage; a thorough guide to bread and pasta making; and a primer on classic Italian preserves and sauces. Much more than just a collection of recipes, in this book Marc Vetri connects us directly to the essence of Italian food./p