Italian Beef Sandwich - Chicago Style

There are things that people do when they travel. You can call them traditions or habits or even superstitions. We’ve all seen photographs of the Pope, kissing the tarmac upon descending from an airplane. For me, it’s about food. (I know, who’da figured?)

Nonna’s Italian Giardiniera

Giardiniera is a staple condiment found anywhere in Chicago where you can get an Italian Beef sandwich. You can usually choose a hot or mild version of this delicacy depending on your tolerance for heat. My recipe is pretty much right in the middle. Aside from a sandwich condiment, Giardiniera can also be included in Antipasto or just served as a side for just about any dish hot or cold.

Butter Toasted Orzo

The Italian word “Orzo” translates literally as “barley”. It is also the name of a small cut pasta roughly the size and shape of a large grain of rice. Orzo is most often used in soups, and I do occasionally substitute Orzo for barley in some soup recipes but here we’re preparing Orzo as a pasta side dish.

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Sometimes you are asked to bring “something simple, like a salad” to a cookout or potluck. Please, please make it yourself! Unless you get that request while you’re driving to the party there is no reason to bring store-bought. Pasta salads can be as varied as your imagination allows, but all too often they end up tasting the same, so let’s put some punch in our pasta.

Frittata pro rata

I say Frittata, you say... Frittata. Any way you say it, it’s a simple to make complete meal that makes sure that all of the yummy ingredients are proportionally distributed. (Pro rata as in the Latin adjective, meaning “in proportion”.)

Antipasto Pinwheels

Antipasto is served primo del pasto; before the meal. We call them appetizers. While there are many, many ingredients that can be included in Antipasto, these are traditionally represented in various forms: meats, cheeses, and marinated vegetables.

Baked Rigatoni with Sautéed Fennel

You’ve invested a lot of time into making homemade Red Sauce, at least you should have! (See: Essential Red Sauce with Meat) Now it’s time to reap the rewards of your efforts with a pasta dish that takes only minutes to prepare.

Lasagne Imbottite

Confused with spelling and the overall recipe name? Well, Lasagne is the dish and lasagna are the noodles. Imbottite means “stuffed” or more literally “padded” and is the perfect description for my over the top version.

Having clarified that, I want to tell you a story...

Meatballs from Heaven

Wouldn’t it be great if each time it rained, it rained meatballs from Heaven?  I know the song lyrics say “pennies”, but pennies would hurt!  These meatballs are soft puffs of melt in your mouth goodness. Way better than pennies!

Essential Red Sauce with Meat

Really, lots of meat... no seriously, I mean a whole lot of meat! The foundation for this recipe came from one of the best ever Italian cooks, my Polish mother-in-law!

My own version is seriously heavy on the meat and cooks for hours with the intention that it be used for a variety of Italian favorites. Make this sauce early in the week and have some that night with spaghetti and a few of the simmered meatballs. Don’t fret about running out of sauce – this recipe makes enough to feed your family with the aforementioned spaghetti plus at least three more killer dishes which I will be posting shortly.

White Asiago Pizza-ish Food

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, “pizza” meant two things; either thin with a sweet sauce, fennel-y sausage and browned melted cheese on top from any number of store-front shops; or deep pan, one slice is a meal but I’ll take two with buttery crust cradling layers of cheese, garlicky sausage, and chunky tomatoes from downtown restaurants. We left the north siders to their thick-crust variety and would certainly eat it when visiting, if necessary to maintain cross-town friendships, but we’d talk about the winning advantages of our south side thin crust pies all the way home.

Chicken Cacciatore

 
This wonderful chicken dish is a big favorite at our dinner table the year 'round! The tender chicken bathes in an intensely flavored tomato base filled with firm mushrooms and tender red bell pepper that is absolutely delicious! Side this dish with a green salad, and pasta or polenta for a satisfying meal everyone will love.