butternut squash soup

This is the time for taking advantage of the great squash explosion in our markets. Butternut squash is an obvious favorite.

Here is a great butternut squash soup recipe we have adapted from Faith Willinger's "Red, White and Greens." The original recipe is from Fabio Picchi, chef at Cibreo in Florence.

We add a little cream to the soup at the end, which he doesn't. Take your pick. Any sort of squash will do -- acorn for example -- butternut is our favorite.

Here is the link to the recipe, found at www.classicpasta.com:

http://www.classicpasta.com/butternut_squash_soup.htm

While you are at the classicpasta site, check out the recipe for butternut squash ravioli -- another terrific seasonal favorite. (click on ravioli, in the pasta section).

Squash, anyone?

eating italian

For our regular comments and updates on eating and cooking Italian, please check out or related blog:

www.eatingitalina.blogspot.com

where, for example, you can find out about a recipe we discovered for using scraps of pasta -- magliati.

enjoy! . . . . pietro

ravioli and agnolotti

On our companion blog: www.eatingitalian.blogspot.com, we talked about our favorite rich filling for ravioli (or agnolotti depending): a meat filling coming from the Piedmont area.

Check it out: you will like it! And for more details on making and serving ravioli, see: www.classicpasta.com and click on pasta and then ravioli.

risotto

We have posted several new recipes, and comments, on risotto: check them at our companion blog site: www.eatingitalian.blogspot.com.

Included is a piece on "easy stir" risotto.

Italian wines in Santa Barbara

Traveling through the Santa Barbara region last week, we were delighted to find two wineries that are featuring wines from Italian varietals. If you want to try the risotto al Baolo of the previous post, here are two places to get those Piedmont grapes in the U.S.

One is Palmina: www.palminawines.com. Christina crafts some very special and highly regarded wines from her Italian grapes. She does a Savoia -- a combination of Nebbiola, Barbera and Syrah, plus a Nebbiola and a Barbera by themselves. And a Dolcetto.

Mandolina is in the village of Solvang, "Sideweays" country, and they actually do a pinot nero. They are located at www.LLwine.com. They do a beautiful set of Italian varietals: Barbera, Sangiovese, Dolcetto, and a fine Nebbiola. Plus a pinot grigio. A wonderful find!

The evening before the wine excursion, we had a lovley pasta dinner in Santa Barbara, at a small, charming trattoria, Bucatini. Located on lower Ocean in Santa Barbara, it is within a block or two of the ocean, and is well known, deservedly, for its fresh mussels. We had mussels and spaghetti in a red sauce: simple, perhaps, but the perfection of all the parts made it memorable. The mussels, as fresh as any could be, were arranged in a circle around the outer edge of the plate, and the spaghetti and red sauce, steaming, were in the center. The wonderful treat was that the tomato sauce was a sweet, buttery one, not a sharper marinara. It was the kind of sauce we call Marcella #3, and can be found at www.classicpasta.com, under sauces.

Give the sauce a try. And if you are in Santa Barbara you know where to find your pasta dish. And Italian wines.

risotto al Barolo

We had a perfect winter dish last night: risotto al Barolo. The concept is simple: the wonderful arborio rice from Lombardy in northern Italy combined with Piedmont's Barolo wine. Even though we subsituted Piedmont's Dolcetta wine, somewhat less expensive than the luxurious Barolo, the results were at the top of the charts in tastiness and as a perfect winter comfort food.

The basic recipe requires only arborio, meat stock, an onion, olive oil and parmesan, and one and one-half cups of Barolo. There is an alternate, with herbs and ground beef and pancetta that is equally wonderful.

Both recipes, in easy to follow detail, are at "classicpasta.com/risotto". Worth the try.

off to Italy

We are taking a long-anticipated three-week trip to Italy starting Tuesday, May 16: Rome, Positano, Siena and southern Tuscany, and Florence. We expect to be posting notes on our travels, especially restaurants and pasta presentations that we have found and love -- and to add to our recipe collection.

To check out that current compendium of pasta recipes, go to www.classicpasta.com.