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What’s Cooking Wednesday: Pasta with Tuna and Lemon
Ever since I posted a recipe for Rigatoni with Tuna and Christine mentioned doing that sauce without the tomatoes, I’ve been wanting to try this “in bianco.” P finally gave the nod the other day, and boy do I love the results.
This is a super-fast dish (and easy easy easy), so you’ll want to put on the water to boil for the pasta before you even start cutting anything up. I did this with penne, P’s favorite short pasta, but you could do this with pretty much any kind of pasta and it would work just fine.
I’m going to try it with linguine next, in fact, since as I was eating this I realized it’s kind of a Poor Man’s Linguine with Clams.
Pasta with Tuna & Lemon
- 2 small cans of tuna packed in olive oil
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 peperoncino, chopped
- fresh chopped parsley (save some for garnish)
- splash of white wine
- lemon juice (I used half a lemon)
- salt to taste
In pan, heat olive oil drained from tuna cans over medium heat. If your tuna isn’t packed in olive oil, use two tablespoons or so of the good stuff.
Add onions and garlic and sauté until translucent without burning.
Mix in tuna, parsley, and peperoncino. Let cook for a few minutes, then add the splash of white wine and let it cook off.
Add a small ladle-full of pasta water, squeeze the lemon juice into the mixture, and leave pan on the heat just long enough for the flavors to mingle. Add salt to taste.
Toss with pasta of your choice.
Told you it was easy.
Buon appetito!
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[tags]tuna, pasta, lemon, tuna with lemon, tuna recipes, pasta with tuna, what’s cooking wednesday, recipes[/tags]
Finding Ravioli and Other Book Recommendations
Last week I received an awesome surprise in the mail from one of my very favorite artists and bloggers, Karen Cole of Artsortments (and I’m not just saying that because her self-portrait from her college days could’ve been done of P’s sister Pina):
That’s a copy of Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family underneath Karen’s card, which shows one of her assemblage sculptures she made while in Cortona in 2006. Isn’t it gorgeous?
FYI, I’m loving the book so far; I’m only a couple chapters in, but I’m relating to so much of what Schenone went through in her search for family heritage vis à vis Genovese ravioli–from the basic lack of interest on the part of her American family to her pilgrimage to the Old Country.
Grazie mille Karen!
I’m also reading two other books that were sent to me by She Who Blogs blogging buddies:
from Karina of Candid Karina and Creative Karina
and
from Qualcosa di Bello of Piacere, Write Away, Dog Blog, and Snap 366.
These books are both *fantastic* reads (as are those blogs–check ’em out!). It’s taking me a while to get through all these books just for lack of spare time, but I’m truly savoring every stolen moment I have with them.
I can’t thank my book fairies enough–as I’ve mentioned a few times, English-language books are just not easy to come by around here.
But I even have an Italian-language book fairy! Back for my birthday Shelley of At Home in Rome sent me the Italian version of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (L’Alchimista), which I finished last week.
Ya’ll I read the WHOLE thing. In Italian! And it took me well under a year! Woohoo!
Plus? I *loved* it. I can’t wait to read the English version now too.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think?
And what are you reading now?
Come on! This is as close as I get to browsing through a bookstore these days.
philadelphia going to the birds
Last week, a high school in my former adopted city of Philadelphia was closed for a day while personnel cleaned up after 85 Rhode Island Reds.
For the fowly-challenged, those are hens.
On Sunday, February 10 around 9:30 p.m., four unidentified males entered Northeast Philadelphia High School and let the birds loose, supplying them with plenty of chicken feed throughout the hall. For some reason, no alarm sounded upon their entrance and the hens weren’t discovered until hours later when the “school building engineer” showed up for work.
Can you imagine that guy’s face?
School was, not surprisingly, canceled that day, and the incident is under investigation by the Philadelphia School District, the Philadelphia police, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Students returned to the bird-free zone the following day. Here’s one them, senior Laura Weiszer, with a t-shirt commemorating the hen invasion:
“I’m into chickens ya’ll” is what’s written on there.
As for the hens, they were taken to nearby Fox Chase Farm. Sorry, but I can’t help wondering about the wisdom of letting the hens in the foxhouse. Hah!
The Philadelphia School District has two farms and will keep some of whatever hens aren’t claimed by their rightful owners.
I have to admit that I thought this was all pretty funny when I read it–especially after I was assured that the pranksters left food for the hens.
Even school officials saw the humor; in reference to the fines that those responsible will have to pay, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said, “It’s not going to be chicken scratch.”
See, if this happened in Italy, all the hen droppers would need to do is come up with a motive behind the “protest” and they wouldn’t have to pay anything.
And really, wasn’t this *so* much more inventive than simply throwing some balls down the Spanish Steps?
A whole lot messier though.
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[tags]philadelphia, hens, rhode island reds, northeast philadelphia high school, fox chase farm[/tags]
surviving long distance relationships: guest blogger cherrye’s call for stories
In addition to the 1st of the Month Featured Bloggers, another one of my fancy ideas for the new and improved Bleeding Espresso is to invite someone to come in and guest post on the 15th of every month.
There won’t be many guidelines for my guests–see I’m not a control freak no matter what anyone says–so if you’re interested in posting here, do leave a comment or drop me a line.
You don’t even have to have a blog to guest post, by the way, so send in your idea! Don’t be shy!
The first guest blogger is my fellow American in Calabria who you’ve heard about before, Cherrye of My Bella Vita.
If you haven’t visited Cherrye at her place yet, you should as she’s always good for an enlightening, entertaining story about her Calabrian husband, her oh-so-Calabrian father-in-law, their bed and breakfast, the building of their house, or sometimes, when we’re really lucky, her adorable nephew Cole or small friend of the family Mario (son of Antonino).
I can assure you that Cherrye’s just as funny and lovely and genuine in person, so if you’re ever in southern Italy, you should also think about booking a room at the newly renovated Il Cedro Bed & Breakfast in Catanzaro.
And now here’s Cherrye, keeping with our love theme this week:
A lot has been written about passion, romance, and the quest for true love. So much, in fact, that I hesitate to write this at all. I’ve shared our story, and truth be told, to see it through someone else’s eyes, I do, indeed, see the fairytale.
A tall, dark, handsome knight rushes in to rescue the fair maiden from a life of total hum-drum boredom and her 9-5, bound-for-corporate-hell, day job.
Ah, if it were only that simple. By all outward appearances everything seemed perfect. Two young lovers meet in the City of
The end.
But, life isn’t that simple. Relationships aren’t that simple. Everyone who has even been in love knows this. Relationships are difficult when Boy meets Girl, Boy lives in same city as Girl, Boy speaks same language as Girl, Boy doesn’t have strange, and sometimes impossible to comprehend non-verbal cues that confuse Girl…need I go on?
Now, multiply those difficulties by
Lost in Translation was not just a movie to me. It was my life. And, like all good girls trying to survive a long distance relationship, I called in reinforcements. Many of my “why-is-he-doing-this-let-us-over-analyze-together-or-die” sessions with my girlfriends went the same way.
“Is it because he is a boy?”
“Is it because he is Italian?”
“Is it because (gasp!) something is wrong with us?”
Who knew?
We sure didn’t.
But, we did learn a few things along the way.
So, my question is this:
If relationships truly are hard, which we have established they are, and a couple must commit to working on that relationship day after day, then why did we win the golden ticket?
Many of the problems that arose throughout our five-year relationship were issues ordinary couples see. Sure, we had our jealousies and insecurities, but no more than Same-City Boy and Girl. We argued here and there. Again, no more, no less than the norm. But, we made it.
According to the Center for the Study of Long Distance Relationships (yes…this is a real place!) the average couple in a long distance relationship lives
Whoa!
I’d have thought I was living with the boy if I’d have seen him that often.
I want to talk about loooooooooooong distance relationships. Like I had. Like many of you had. Like some of you still have.
How do you make those work?
And, that, my friends, is where you come in. After some consideration, a small debate, and, yes, I must admit, a wee bit of “the nag,” Peppe and I have decided to write a book.
A book!
Or, rather a His and Hers Survival Guide to Looooong Distance Relationships. And, we need your help.
Send us your stories, your tips, and your techniques on how to have a successful long distance relationship.
Tell us how far you were. How far you came. How you made it.
Heck! Even if you weren’t in a long distance relationship, send in your ideas and tips for comparison value. Ask your other, notice I did not say better, halves.
While the book is still in the early stages, we know there is a void of this information in the marketplace. I know. I looked. I look forward to hearing from you!
Please send all inquiries, stories, ideas, and tips to:
mybellavita[dot]cicina[at]gmail[dot]com
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[tags]long distance relationships, center for the study of long distance relationships, call for stories, italy, calabria[/tags]
The Heart As Symbol for Love and Valentine’s Day
Ever wonder how the heart became a symbol for love and especially for Valentine’s Day? Well here you go.
Read on...
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
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