Italian Cooking Forum with Paolo Villoresi

Pasta is the daughter of the sun, water and the workmanship of the Mediterranean men who learned how to trans-form a simple grain into a product that is made into formidable, tasty and healthy dishes all over the world. Frombread to pizza to gnocchi to spaghetti, all are created with a humble and small grain. The ancient Greeks, the Etr-uscans and then the ancient Romans made and ate pasta since B.C. The Arabs produced dry pasta on a large scale in Calabria more than 100 years before Marco Polo’s voyage. Pasta can be dividedinto four large groups: long pasta, short pasta, filled pasta and pasta for soups. I added another group that lendsitself to be eaten with a spoon during parties and buffets that I have called party pasta. A good pasta recipe is apleasure for the palate and the spirit and the pairing with the proper wine makes it divine.

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Gourmet Dossier is a series of online books each targeted to a group of practical, nice and simple recipes with beautiful pictures and step by steps. An elegant gift for family and friends that can even be read on your smart phone!

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I decided to create a collection of crostini, finger foods and other easy dishes to offer to our readers and to my children, and to my daughter, Cristina, in particular, who always tells me, “I don’t have time to read magazines or look in books, but if you send me some recipes by email, I’ll find the time to read them and use them.”

Here they are! The four Gourmet Dossiers include Fabulous Party Pasta, Fabulous Party Foods, Fabulous Finger Foods and Fabulous Party Sweets. Each one includes over a dozen recipes with helpful kitchen tool descriptions and step-by-step instructions.

With these e-dossiers, I hope to help those who are busy with work and travel, as my daughter is. I hope that you’ll use these quick, easy recipes with success and write to me to ask for more. In the meantime, I am giving you a recipe from one of the dossiers to try.

Mozzarella Crostini with Green Olives
(from Fabulous Finger Foods)

8 thin slices Italian bread, lightly toasted
1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄2 pound buffalo mozzarella, diced (or substitute regular fresh mozzarella)
1 8-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into strips
1⁄2 cup green Sicilian olives, pitted and chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons Grana Padano, grated
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place the slices of bread on a nonstick cookie sheet and brush lightly with olive oil. Top the bread slices with the diced mozzarella and arrange the red pepper strips on top so that they form an “X”. Add the chopped olives. Sprinkle with the oregano and Grana Padano. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the mozzarella begins to melt and the edges become golden. Serve immediately. Serves 4

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