Chicken cacciatore is a simple recipe to prepare and uses just one pot (jump to recipe). I enjoy preparing this recipe as I can make it in advance and heat it up for dinner or refrigerate overnight, heat in the microwave and serve with cooked spaghetti or rice. You just need to add a salad and you have a complete meal to impress family and friends.
My Mother made this recipe often for our meatless Fridays or during Lent. She and my Dad would grow their own plum tomatoes, basil, oregano, and garlic. Needless to say, we had all the makings for homemade, fresh, and delicious tomato sauce.
When harvest time arrived Mom and Dad would be busy in the kitchen canning tomatoes, which they stored for the winter months. I remember watching them in the kitchen, boiling and peeling tomatoes. They placed them in Mason Jars and put the jars in a hot water bath. It was fun to watch them work in an assembly line. Mom would peel the tomatoes and add them to the jars. Dad would add a sprig or two of fresh basil and seal the jars with special lids and place them in the water bath.
My son, John, grew up enjoying homemade pizza since he was a toddler, had a few teeth, and could chew. Pizza became a staple in our home and I would prepare it every Friday night and whenever John had his friends over for dinner. The aroma of the sauce cooking and the sight of the dough rising brought everyone into the kitchen longing for the pizza to be ready. I would bake the pizza on a cookie sheet in a very hot oven.
A very versatile dish my Mother made on meatless Fridays was a potato, pepper and mushroom frittata. It is delicious hot or at room temperature and leftovers can be reheated in the microwave. Mom would often use eggs in place of meat or poultry as she knew eggs were high in protein and had always been labeled “nature’s most perfectly balanced food”. In fact, eggs have been the standard which all protein foods are measured.
A tradition in our home every Easter was to bake Easter bread. It is an easy recipe, but it is rather time-consuming. I use my Cuisinart food processor to mix and knead the dough, which made things a lot quicker and easier. This delicious sweet bread would be made into loaves, or bunny rabbits, individual little loaves,and even braided into baskets.
The true Italian Easter bread would have dyed eggs set in the braid. I found that when that method is used the dough sticks to the eggs after baking,making slicing difficult. However, when baked with dyed eggs it is very decorative and makes wonderful gifts for Easter.
A dish that our family loved, not only during the Lenten season, but also during the growing season for plum tomatoes. I call it Egg Jumble since I cannot spell the Italian name, but it is pronounced “Jum-bort”. What Italian family who has a little piece of land doesn’t grow a vegetable garden? They would grow bushel loads of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, basil and other Italian herbs. These vegetables would be picked fresh and cooked the same day or they would be jarred for the winter months.
I have tasted many versions of polenta, but nothing tastes as good to me as fried polenta. Mom made this often, especially when we were having Minestra (steamed mixture of greens and beans saute with olive oil and garlic). She would put the fried polenta in the bottom of the dish and spoon the greens over it. You would mix it through as you ate.
What is the definition of cannoli? It is a tube-shaped crispy pastry, open ended on each side, which is quickly fried, cooled and then filled with lightly sweetened ricotta cheese. A singe cannoli is called a cannolo, meaning “tube,” but many cannot eat just one of these amazing pastries; hence the term cannoli is heard more often. Cannoli was originally developed in Sicily, however, there are many variations of the original.
Growing up in an Italian family during the 40′s and 50′s I have some wonderful memories of our Sunday dinners.
My Mother was very inventive when it came to preparing meatless dishes. Being raised a Catholic, I remember meatless meals prepared during our Lenten season and for Fridays when we did not eat meat or poultry. Mom’s stuffed peppers is one that I remember and enjoyed.
The dish is not only delicious, but also easy to prepare and can be served hot from the oven, or room temperature and even cold. Mom did not buy deli lunch meat for sandwiches, whatever leftovers she could put into a roll or between two slices of bread is what we took to school for lunch.
