Three Traditional Homemade Recipes from Italy

My grandmother was born in a small town outside of Venice, Italy. When she was 7 years old, she moved to Canada with her parents and her siblings to have a better life. Her mother had brought down traditional recipes from generations before her. When my grandmother was 8 years old, she would learn the recipes to help out with her family and to make when she eventually had a family. My grandmother taught my mother and my aunts when they were growing up. Now it’s become a tradition to teach her grandchildren and ongoing generations to learn and make these recipes. 

 

 

When I was growing up, my grandmother dedicated one day out of the year to make large portions of homemade pastas, sauces, desserts, and more. She took a break from doing it due to health issues, but my mom and I, as well as some other family members, make those large portion meals. Half of these large portions are for upcoming holidays or family dinners. The other half go to food banks or families in need. The smell of the ingredients being mixed in a bowl brought me to a whole new world of scents. The flavours of different spices and other ingredients coated my tongue and boosted my taste buds. Seeing the food laid out on the dishes waiting for everyone to grab a plate feels like warmth. Hearing everyone cheering and thanking my grandmother for the amazing meals she cooked for us was an incredible experience. 

 

The traditional foods of my culture that my grandmother taught us makes me forever grateful. Now I’ll be able to share some recipes for the world to try and have a similar experience that I had growing up. Having people try different foods from other cultures makes me proud to share mine.

 

 

4 large eggs 

2 ½ cups of flour (semolina flour or all-purpose flour)

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

 

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the normal blade attachment

Pulse for about 10 seconds, or until the mixture reaches a crumbly texture

Remove the dough and form it into a ball with your hands, then place the dough on a lightly-floured cutting board

Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth and elastic (if the dough seems dry, add in an extra tablespoon or two of water. If the dough seems wet or strictly, just add in some extra flour, but keep the dough to be fairly dry)

Form the dough into a ball with your hands and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap

Let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes

Use immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day

Roll out the pasta dough into your desired shape, either by hand or using a pasta maker

Cook the pasta in a large pot of generously-salted boiling water until it is al dente, usually between 1-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pasta

Drain and use immediately

 

Once the dough has rested for 30 minutes and is ready to go, remove it from the plastic wrap and transfer it again to a cutting board

 

Use a knife to cut the dough into four equal wedges (like you’re slicing a pie), then set one wedge aside and immediately wrap the remaining three in the plastic wrap again to prevent them from drying out

 

Sprinkle the cutting board (or a large baking sheet) generously with flour, and set aside

 

Using your hands, shape the dough wedge into an oval-shaped flat disc

 

Feed the dough through the pasta maker on the widest setting (on my pasta maker, this is setting number 1)

 

Once the sheet comes out, fold it into thirds, similar to how you would fold a piece of paper to fit in an envelope

 

Feed it through the rollers 2 or 3 more times, still on the widest setting 

 

Then continue to feed the dough through the rollers as you gradually reduce the settings, one pass at a time, until the pasta reaches your desired thickness (I like setting 6 on my pasta maker)  

 

Whenever the dough starts to get a bit sticky as you pass it through the rollers, just pause and drape the dough onto the floured cutting board to re-flour, being sure to coat both sides of the dough 

 

Also, if your dough sheet starts to get too long to handle, just cut it in half with a knife

 

Once your dough sheet is ready to go, sprinkle it with flour once more 

 

Then connect the cutter attachment to your pasta maker (and transfer the handle to the cutter attachment, if need be) 

 

Feed the sheet through the attachment to create your desired shape of pasta 

 

Then transfer the cut pasta to a drying rack, or swirl it into little pasta “nests” and lay them on a floured surface to dry for 30 minutes 

 

Repeat with the remaining pasta dough

 

Be sure to let the pasta air out on a drying rack or on a baking sheet for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 hours)

 

Transfer to an airtight container and either refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 2 weeks 

 

To use frozen fresh pasta, transfer it to the refrigerator to thaw for at least 4-6 hours, then cook as directed below:

 

To cook fresh pasta, bring a large stock pot of generously-salted water to a rolling boil over high heat

 

Add in the fresh pasta, and then immediately begin to stir gently so that the noodles do not stick together

 

Continue to cook until the pasta is al dente (Keep a close eye on it - fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried pasta)

 

Strain the fresh pasta and use immediately 

 

The cooking time for fresh pasta will depend entirely upon the thickness of the pasta; be sure to check it regularly to see when it reaches the perfect al dente texture.

 

 

3 medium potatoes 

1 cup flour

1 egg

1 tsp salt 

¼ tsp pepper

 

Boil your potatoes 

 

Place the hot mashed potatoes in a mixing bowl

 

Blend in the flour a little at a time

 

Add the eggs, salt, and pepper 

 

Beat until smooth with whisk or mixer

 

Knead into a smooth, set ball

 

If dough is sticky, add a little more flour

 

Roll out the dough into long shapes

 

Cut into ¾” (2cm) pieces

 

With a floured fork, press each piece firmly

 

Cook immediately or freeze, if needed

 

To cook, boil water and a little salt

 

Drop gnocchi in a few at a time

 

Cook 5 minutes, remove and serve with sauce of your choice

 

 

1¾ cups warm water

2 teaspoons cane sugar

1 package active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons)

4 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sea salt

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for your hands

Flaky sea salt, optional, for sprinkling

Chopped fresh rosemary, optional, for sprinkling

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, stir together the water and sugar

 

Sprinkle the yeast on top and stir again 

 

Set aside for 5 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy 

 

If the yeast doesn’t foam, discard the mixture and start again with new yeast

 

Add the flour and salt and mix on low speed until a shaggy dough forms 

 

Increase the speed to medium and mix for 5 minutes 

 

A very elastic, sticky dough should form and begin grabbing the sides of the bowl

 

Brush a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil 

 

Transfer the dough to the bowl, using a spatula to scrape it out of the bowl of the stand mixer (it will be too sticky to transfer by hand)

 

Use your fingers to lightly brush any oil that’s pooling at the edges of the dough over its surface

 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, 1 to 1½ hours

 

Brush a 9x13-inch baking dish* with another 2 tablespoons of the olive oil 

 

Uncover the dough and rub your hands with olive oil

 

As best you can, slide your hand under one edge of the dough and fold it into itself

 

Continue working your way around the edge of the bowl, folding the dough into itself, until you have a rough ball that you can lift from the bowl

 

Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and turn to coat in the oil

 

Press the dough to the pan’s edges 

 

Let it relax and pull away from the edges, then press it to the edges again 

 

Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside to rise until the dough has doubled in size, about 45 minutes 

 

30 minutes into this rise, preheat the oven to 425°F

 

Remove the plastic wrap and drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the dough

 

Rub your hands with olive oil, then use your fingers to make indentations across the surface of the dough, pressing through the dough to the pan 

 

Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and rosemary, if desired 

 

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown