Ciao Italia Five Ingredient Favorites

I enjoy cooking when I have the time, but all too often, I just don't have the time.  I also have to admit that I don't like having to wash every dish in the kitchen after I get done cooking.  When Ciao Italia Five Ingredient Favorites became available as a review book, I requested one, figuring "How much mess can you make with only five ingredients?"

The first recipe I tried was for a lemon chicken.  The five ingredients were chicken, lemons, parsley, olive oil, and oregano.  The author, Mary Ann Espositio, doesn't count salt and pepper as ingredients, but most recipes call for them.  I enjoyed the lemon chicken as did my husband, but the kids said it tasted too much like lemon (go figure).

The book itself is visually attractive, with full-color illustrations.  However, there are far more recipes for which there are no photographs, than those for which there are.  The pages with recipes have a stripe on the outside edge which contains the ingredient list and then the instructions are on the inside of the page.  Sections include Antipasti, Soups, Pasta, Sauces, Meat and Poultry, Fish, Vegetables, Salads, Sweets and Five-Course Meals.

The nice folks at FSB Media, from whom I received a complimentary review copy of this book, have allowed me to share the following recipes with you.  If they look like your kind of food, you can buy the book from Amazon Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen

Spaghetti alla Carbonara 
Coal Miners'-Style Spaghetti
by Mary Ann Esposito,
Author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen

Just about everyone I know has a recipe for spaghetti alla carbonara. This simple but heavenly dish is said to get its name from the coal miners who could make it easily with readily available ingredients: eggs, cheese, and guanciale, cured and salted pig's jowl and cheeks. A likely story, but the fact is that this dish is easy to make, superb when made correctly, and a completely balanced meal. The eggs should be of the highest quality and at room temperature so they will mix well with the spaghetti. The cheese should be none other than the true Parmigiano-Reggiano, or pecorino Romano. Today, the more readily available pancetta is used in place of guanciale. And a pepper mill is absolutely essential for the right grind of black pepper.

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounce chunk pancetta, diced
  Fine sea salt
• ½ pound spaghetti
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature and lightly beaten
• ¾ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  Coarsely ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a small sauté pan, stir in the pancetta, and cook until crispy. Set aside the pancetta, still in the pan, and keep it warm.

Cook the spaghetti in 4 quarts of rapidly boiling salted water. Al dente means still firm to the bite but no uncooked flour is visible in the center when a strand of the spaghetti is broken in half.

Drain the spaghetti, reserving 2 tablespoons of the water. Immediately return the spaghetti to the pot and, keeping the heat very low, rapidly stir in the eggs, reserved water, and half the cheese. Toss to combine. Add the reserved pancetta and any pan drippings. Stir well. Add a generous grinding of coarse black pepper. Transfer the pasta to a platter and sprinkle it with the remaining cheese. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 

Polpettoni al Formaggio
Cheesy Stuffed Meatballs
by Mary Ann Esposito,
Author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen

Can you make a better-tasting meatball? Absolutely! Just stuff them with a creamy, melting cheese like Italian fontina! This may be a slightly unconventional way to make them, but the taste elevates the meatballs to elegant; they can be served alone or in a tomato sauce. To achieve great flavor, use a combination of ground chuck and ground sirloin. The fat in ground chuck is essential for moistness while the sirloin provides great texture.

• ½ cup good-quality dried bread crumbs
• ⅓ cup heavy cream or half-and-half
• ½ pound ground chuck
• ½ pound ground sirloin
  1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
  Coarsely ground black pepper
• ½ pound Italian fontina or mozzarella cheese, cut into 8 small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the bread crumbs in a medium bowl and pour the cream over them. Mix with a fork; the mixture will not be soupy.

Add the ground chuck, sirloin, and salt and pepper. Mix with a fork or your hands just to combine the ingredients. Divide the mixture into 8 equal pieces and roll each in the palms of your hands to make compact 2½-inch balls.

Insert your thumb into the middle of each meatball and push in a piece of cheese. Close the meatball, encasing the cheese, and smooth the top.

Place the meatballs on a rimmed, nonstick baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are nicely browned. Serve hot as is, or add them to a tomato sauce and serve them with pasta or as a second course.

Makes 8 meatballs 

The above is an excerpt from the book Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen by Mary Ann Esposito. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Mary Ann Esposito, author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen

Dessert Time!

You know, it really doesn't matter how pretty, or well-written a cookbook is. What really matters is how good the recipes are. Julie at FSB Media has given me permission to reprint this recipe from Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen



Tortine di Gianduja e Banana
Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Banana Tartlets
by Mary Ann Esposito,
Author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen

Nutella, chocolate hazelnut spread, is all the rage in Italy; "Nutellaphiles" eat it by the spoonful right out of the jar. And that may be as good tasting as it gets unless you decide to make these puff pastry tartlets. Nutella, mixed with mascarpone cheese and spread on top of banana slices in ready-made puff pastry is one of the easiest desserts I know.
1 sheet prepared puff pastry
1 cup Nutella
8 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 banana, sliced
Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Roll out the sheet of puff pastry onto a clean work surface and into a 12 X 14-inch rectangle; cut out four 6-inch circles from the rolled dough. Press and line each of the circles into four individual 3-inch tartlet pans with removable bottoms.

Place the tartlet pans on a baking sheet and poke each shell with a fork all over the surface to prevent puffing while baking. Bake the tartlet shells for 7 to 8 minutes, or until they are nicely browned.

Remove the tartlet pans from the oven and allow them to cool completely.

In a medium bowl use a hand mixer to whip the Nutella and mascarpone together with the sugar until well blended.

Place a layer of banana slices in the bottom of each cooled tartlet shell, then spoon the Nutella mixture into the shells. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.
Serves 4

Unlike many modern cookbooks, this one does not give nutritional information. My guess is that with this recipe, that's a good thing. Enjoy.

Holiday Cooking

To me, one of the main holiday chores is cooking. To me it just wouldn't be Christmas without certain dishes, so I cook (and if the truth be told, I LIKE to cook). My husband is 1/2 Italian so I try to make some Italian food for him, so when Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen became available for review, I grabbed it. I'm not sure what I'll be making yet, though I have my eye on a pasta recipe.

If you've never watched Ciao Italia on TV, the following article will give you an idea of the author's (Mary Ann Esposito) writing style.

Holiday Cooking, Simplified
By Mary Ann Esposito,
Author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen


Not to appear to be a Scrooge, but the holidays are coming faster than the next app for the iPhone and for many, the nemesis of the holidays is simply procrastination. There is just so much to juggle to make the merriest time of the year . . . merry. Gifts to buy and wrap, cards to write or email, cocktail parties to attend, trees to buy and decorate, cookies to bake, and . . . and . . . and.

But that's just the icicle on the tree; what about the big feast? This is where a lot of people have their greatest stress for the holidays; there is just no time to cook. But wait a minute. I have a plan for you; think of it as a personal gift -- below are four tips on how to simplify your holiday feast.

1. Take Survey of The Pantry: One of the first things I do, right after Thanksgiving, is take survey of the staples in my pantry and make a list of things to stock up on now for the holidays. You can lay in healthy snacks like dried fruits, drinks, wines, nuts, flour and sugar for cooking, and all the other dry staples you need.

2. Decide on a Menu: Next, I make a menu by deciding now if I want to do an easy buffet of hot and cold foods that everyone can help themselves to or do I want a sit down meal that will be served. Make a decision and then make a plan on the food items to be cooked, and keep it simple.

3. Involve Your Family and Guests in Preparations: Maybe it's time for new traditions like inviting your guests to participate in the preparation by bringing a neighborly dish to share. You might ask for sides, salads and desserts while you provide the main course like a baked ham studded with cloves and surrounded with sautéed apple rings. So doable, and the ham and apples will require minimum effort on your part.

4. Keep Things Simple: If that has no appeal, consider going the route of doing a number of make-ahead casseroles that can be prepared now and frozen, or made several days before and held in the refrigerator. Casseroles have the advantage of serving a lot of people inexpensively. Tried and true items like lasagna, shephard's pie and chicken tetrazzini are perfect foods to serve. Add a couple of interesting salads, platters of fresh fruit and cheese and a little bubbly, and you have a party!

Just recently my latest book, Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites, hit the bookstores and the premise of less is more is perfect for the holidays as well as any day of the week. I show you how with only five ingredients you can turn out some pretty nifty gourmet looking dishes without worrying if the stock market is going to crash. For instance, how about serving a sausage and lentil soup from the book and make it in a crock pot. Use the crock pot as your serving piece and let everyone ladle out their own. Or make the pork roast in Barolo wine in a slow cooker. The best part is that these recipes, and more like them in the book, can be made ahead, refrigerated and reheated. They will taste even better.

So simplify the holidays by starting early to make a plan, stock your pantry, decide on a menu, involve your family and guests in the preparations and above all, keep things simple. After all, this is meant to be the merriest time of the year and even Scrooge finally saw the bigger picture of what "merry" really means.

©2009 Mary Ann Esposito, author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen

Author Bio
Mary Ann Esposito, author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen, is the creator and host of the long-running PBS series Ciao Italia, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2010. She is the author of eleven successful cookbooks, including Ciao Italia Slow and Easy and Ciao Italia Pronto! She lives in Durham, New Hampshire.

For more information, please visit www.CiaoItalia.com.

To Purchase from Amazon.com: Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen