Spaghetti alla Chitarra con Vongole e Pescatrice and Millefoglie ai Frutti di Bosco

Welcome to The Marches, Abruzzo, and Molise.

Regions of Italy

The Marches, Abruzzo, and Molise are located in central Italy, along the Eastern edge, bordering the Adriatic Sea.

In The Marches, they eat a lot of fish. A typic dish is Brodetto, a fish soup with over ten different kinds of fish. They also stuff and deep-fry olives to serve as an antipasto. They produce pecorino cheese in this region, along with mushrooms and truffles. They make fresh pasta, but not stuffed pasta.

In Abruzzo and Molise, they eat mostly lamb. They produce the best pasta. They use pepper and saffron in their dishes. For holidays they make Crespelle di Vincingrasso, crepes with cheese and covered in meat stock.

We made:

Spaghetti Chitarra with Clams and Monkfish, and

Torte with Cream and Berries

. . . Clams?

. . . Monkfish?

Hello, new foods.

First, let's talk about this Spaghetti Chitarra. It's the coolest thing ever. First, make your basic pasta dough. (flour, eggs, pinch of salt, drizzle of olive oil; mix it till it's smooth and elastic) Wrap it in plastic wrap. Let it rest 30 minutes. Then, get out this tool that looks like a loom or a musical instrument but is, in fact, a pasta maker.

What? You don't have one of these things at home?

Cut off a piece of your dough. Roll it out thin on a floured surface. Then, place it on the musical-instrument-looking-pasta-maker.

Pasta on Loom Looking Thing

Use the rolling pin to roll it out / squash the dough down through the wires.

Rolling the Dough through the Weird Tool

Dough turning into Noodles

The wires cut the dough into noodles!

Noodles!

So that's how you make the pasta. But while you're in the process of making it, start on the clams and monk fish.

Soak the clams in cold salty water for 30 minutes.

Soaking Clams

Then wash them very well many times. Put them in a pan with 1 whole garlic clove and a little bit of oil. Cover and let them open, using a high flame. Take out the garlic clove. Keep the clams and the liquid.

Next, I introduce you to my friend, Monk Fish.

Look at those eyes.

Gross. Clean him up. (We didn't clean him; our teacher did.) When you're finished, he should look like this:

Much Better

Chop 2 cloves of garlic. Saute in oil. Add salt and a chopped hot pepper. Add about 200 grams of cherry tomatoes cut in half, and then half a glass of white wine. Cook for a little bit; then add the cubed monk fish. Cook 5-10 minutes on a low flame. Add salt if needed, and chopped parsley and chives.

Sauted Monk Fish

Boil a big pot of water. Add salt and noodles. When the noodles are done (3-5 minutes), drain them and add them to the pan with the monk fish. Add the clams. Saute it all together. Then dump it out onto a serving plate.

Finished!

Did I like it?

It wasn't bad.

The clams were a little strange, texture-wise. The monk fish didn't really taste like anything. The pasta was a little bland. But it was kind of good!

Not as good as this, though:

First, buy a package of butter dough. I think it's the same as puff pastry. We would have made it, but it takes like hours and hours to make.

Cut out 2 circles. One bigger, one smaller. Poke holes in the circles with a fork. Beat an egg yolk with a tablespoon of powdered sugar and then brush it onto the dough circles. Bake them 10 to 15 minutes at 205 degrees C. We forgot to check ours. They burned a little.

A Bit too Golden

Wash about 300 grams of your choice of berries. We used blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Mix them with 30 of grams powdered sugar and about a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Leave them alone for a while.

Whip 200 grams of fresh cream with 50 grams of powdered sugar until it turns into whipped cream.

Place the bigger crust on a serving plate. Put a layer of whipped cream and a few berries on top. Cover with the other crust. Place more cream in the middle. Add more berries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve.

Mmmm. . .

I could have easily eaten the whole thing. So light and fluffy and sugary and delicious, not to mention easy to make!

Now, I'd like to take this moment to brag about something besides food! On April 20, "Total Request Live" has its grand finale in Florence! It's some MTV concert awards thing, I think. It's going to be in Santa Croce square. And here are a few of the celebrities that are going to be there:

Lady Gaga

Eminem

Britney Spears

Shakira

We're going. If we can't get into the square, we'll stand on a street nearby and listen. It's going to be awesome!

(And I thought it was cool that Jersey Shore is coming to Florence in May; this is even better!)

To all my Missouri friends/family (which is most of you), another thing to be jealous about: Apparently when the weather in Florence gets nice, it stays nice. We've been sunny in the 70s for a week now, and the forecast doesn't predict anything else!

I love it here. Come visit. You'll love it, too.