Memories of Ischia: The Food, Part Uno: Lunch on the terrace

Last summer, I spent a month in Italy. Two of those weeks were spent on the stunning island of Ischia, where I was studying Opera. When most people want to spend some time on a resort island in Italy, they often go the Amalfi Coast or nearby Capri, not even knowing of Ischia. Ischia looked to me as I imagine the Garden of Eden to have looked. My sole purpose of being in Ischia was to study, but of course, a girls got to eat. So one of the many perks of being on the island was the amazing, fresh food.

Lunch:

During the week, I would wake up, have a light breakfast, take a walk, go to lessons from 9-12, go back to the room for a swim, lunch on the terrace, take a quick nap, swim again, take a walk, shop and go back for more lessons from 6-9 and then have dinner, followed by another late evening stroll. It was heavenly.

One of my favorite things about our room was that we had a terrace overlooking the hotel’s pool, lounge area, palm trees and to the right, you had a stunning view of the mountains. Where better to enjoy lunch?  We would eat in our bathing suits with our sunglasses on, overlooking all the beauty that Ischia had to offer. It was sort of a picnic style lunch, but this was no standard picnic.

Most mornings before class my mother and I would take a walk to the local supermarket and shop for that day’s lunch, we wanted everything to be nice and fresh. We would get an assortment of meat, cheese, nuts, bread, tomatoes, beans, etc. This was a typical lunch for us in Ischia. Other days we went to the local cheese shop and got a mix of all the lovely cheese they had to offer for the day.

Come lunch time, we would open the terrace doors and set our table. Cheese on one plate, meat on another, a bowl of nuts, a tray of bread and a bowl of fresh tomatoes and beans and a small cup for pesto.

We would take from the mix and make our own plates. Fresh mozzarella on one side. When you cut into it, it was like butter. A small piece of smoked scamorza, which is similar to mozzarella, but dry. A slice of fresh ricotta, which we would eat spread on the tarillis. I have to admit, I became somewhat obsessed with these particular tarallis while in Italy. I have had them in New York, but never like this. Tarallis are a classic Italian snack food; they are a cracker similar in texture to a breadstick. They can be sweet or savory. These particular ones were savory, made with olive oil and almonds.

My mom would make a salad of cannellini beans, tomatoes, olive oil and herbs. The tomatoes we ate while in Ischia, were honestly the best tomatoes I have ever had in my life. So plump and juicy, they have spoiled me for anything else. There were all of these lovely little gourmet shops around Ischia that sold pasta, oils, cookies and these wonderful little packets of seasonings, which we used for the salad. We would put a little drizzle of pesto over all of the food. The fresh pistachios added a nice crunch to all of the creamy cheeses. And a small slice of Parma cotto rounded out the meal

Sitting out in the blazing sun (don’t worry, we always wore sunscreen), overlooking the view and eating the freshest, most delicious food was truly something I will not soon forget.

Buon Appetito!

P.S. If any of you have been to Ischia, I would love to hear from you or if you have a particular memory of a certain meal or food when you’ve traveled, let me know! Grazie!

Easter Pie: Part due

Ciao. Let me start by saying Buona Pasqua or Happy Easter. As soon as I had the idea for this blog, I knew I was going to post my Grandma Nettie’s Easter Pie. Pizza Rustica. Pizzaghena. Every family has their own name for it and their own special recipe. But no matter what goes into it, everybody feels theirs is the best. You know what, they’re right. Because more goes into this pie then just the ingredients.  For this post, I have my mother, Elvira, helping me out.

My mother has wonderful memories of her family baking the pies going back to when she was a small child. Days of preparation; shopping, cooking, chopping, baking, dozens and dozens of pies were made. My mother tells me how her mother and her grandmother before that would make the dough, roll out the pies and someone else would fill, a top crust would go on and into the oven they’d go. They had a large old stove and could fit as many as six or seven pies, at once, depending on the size. Small, large and even tiny ones that they would make for each child individually. The tins came in all sizes came from so many places, old bakeries that had the names stamped on the bottom. These were old, even when my mother was a child.

They’d start early on Holy Saturday morning and relatives would start filtering in around twelve, because everyone knew you weren’t allowed to eat any meat before you heard the noon church bells.   

A clean sheet was laid out over the bed, the windows opened, so as the pies came out of the oven, they could be laid out to cool, but not before each pie got an egg wash so it would be nice and shiny.


This is a picture of my grandma Nettie, myself and my brother

And then, the bells would toll; someone would go grab one of the largest pies and make the first cut. My mother told me that somehow everyone always felt that that first bite, from that first pie, that you waited a whole year for, was always the best.

By three or four in the afternoon, the baking was finished, the kitchen cleaned, the relatives on their way home, each with a pie of their own. My grandmother would wrap the cooled pies and put a little slip of paper with a nice designating who the pie was going to go to. She’d bring them to friends, neighbors and hand them out at work (she was a sewing machine operator.) But always, a good amount of pies would stay in her refrigerator and a few in the freezer to be enjoyed later on. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/04/08/the-miracle-of-my-mother-s-easter-pies.html)

By the time my mother was eight, she’d be helping. Maybe a little chopping, maybe a little filling and usually my mother was the one to brush the egg wash on the finished pies to give them a lovely sheen.

After time it was just my mother and her mother making the pies. But the same pattern of the relatives, the bells and the first bite would continue. By the time my brother and I came along, my grandmother felt it was too much work for my mother to have to come over with small children, so my grandma made the pies by herself.  

I999 was the last time my grandma made pies. My mother never wanted to bake the pies herself, even though I asked her many times. But this time she did. We made them together. The pies came out great. My grandma would be proud.

Easter Meat Pie

2 pounds of ricotta cheese
¾ pounds of hot sausage
¾ of a pound of smoked pork shoulder
8 eggs
¾ cup of grated parmesan or romano (we used a mix)
1 pound mozzarella (used fresh, chopped into little cubes)
Fresh Parsley, chopped
Freshly ground pepper
Salt

Boil sausage and pork shoulder for at least 3 hours, you want the meat of the pork to fall apart. Cool and chop coarsely. This can be done a day or two ahead. Empty ricotta into a large bowl, break it up. Add your eggs one at a time and blend. Add parmesan, mozzarella, chopped parsley, salt, pepper (these three ingredients are quanto basta.) Blend thoroughly. Fill your pie crust, top with another crust and bake slowly, 350-400 degress, depending on your oven, until a knife in the center comes out clean. It can be 45 minutes; it can be an hour and a half. Beat an egg; brush it over the top crust to give your pie a nice finish. Let it cool. These can be eaten warm or room temperature, they make a great picnic lunch. (This is one of those family recipes with no actually direction, just a lifetime of doing and remembering.)

Our crust was made differently than any traditional pie crust and it’s a recipe that remains in our family. But you can use any hearty crust to put your filling in. You can even bake this crust less, if you eat a gluten free diet or you can even fill an omelet or add more eggs and bake into a frittata.

Easter Pie: Part Uno

Ciao everyone. As I promised from the beginning, I will be sharing my Grandma Nettie’s Easter Pie recipe within the next few days. In the meantime, I would like to share with you an article that my loving mother, Elvira, wrote for Newsweek, all about the memory of my grandma and the Easter pies. Here is the original link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/04/08/the-miracle-of-my-mother-s-easter-pies.html

The Miracle of My Mother's Easter Pies

In early spring, my mother would make an announcement from her kitchen in Brooklyn. "I'm making the Easter pies," she would say. "Going to be busy, so nobody bother me."

The pie was an Italian specialty known as pizza rustica. Her mother had once made the same pies from a recipe her family brought to America from a small town near Naples, Italy. My mother had watched her mother prepare the pies for Holy Saturday, slicing the smoked ham and hot sausage into bits, filling the dish with fresh ricotta and Romano cheese, brushing the beaten egg wash onto the crust to give it a glaze.

By the time I came along, my mother and grandmother were making the pies together, so I never got a chance to taste one of my grandmother's original creations. I don't know if my mother followed her recipe exactly, or added her own touches. I do know that everyone in the family agreed that my mother's pies were the best they'd ever tasted, hands down.

My mother made 15 or 20 pies every April for more than 40 years. She would stand in our kitchen pressing the dough with her mother's 50-year-old rolling pin, her cheek smudged with flour, her hair in disarray. The resulting pies resembled two-inch-thick omelets—stuffed with cheese and flecked with meat, topped by a heavy, flaky, dimpled crust baked golden brown.

She wrapped the pies in foil and labeled them for their recipients. (The size of the pie you got was a measure of her affection for you.) The doorbell would start ringing at noon—Uncle Nick from Bethpage, Aunt Carmella and cousin Barbara from around the corner—all eager for a pie still warm from the oven. I was an only child, but each spring our house filled with family as relatives came from Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn to collect this family dividend.

Then, when she was 78, my mother went in for open-heart surgery. She suffered complications, and on a sweltering day in late June almost eight years ago, she died. My husband and I drove from the cemetery to her apartment and started the routine of going through her belongings. We emptied her drawers, cabinets and shelves, deciding what to keep, give away and throw out. We left behind her furniture, her clothes, and her pots and pans for the building's superintendent to discard or donate to charity. There wasn't much else. She had lived on next to nothing her whole life, so we weren't expecting hidden fortunes.

How mistaken we were. We opened the freezer and looked in, and there they were. My mother's pies. She had saved a few, including one for herself, labeled nettie. My husband and I looked at each other in surprise, saying nothing. Then we took out the pies from the icy mist and put each in a plastic bag.

In moments, we left her apartment for the last time and walked out into the hot, still afternoon for the drive home, holding the residue of my mother's life. That Sunday night, gathered with our 15-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter at our dining-room table, I brought in one of the pies, now steaming hot and emitting a savory aroma. I sliced a wedge for each of us, and we ate, scraping our plates for crumbs.

I'd eaten my mother's pies every spring my whole life, and they always tasted good. But now, flavored with grief, the pie somehow tasted better than it ever had. With each bite I recalled with fresh clarity everything Nettie had meant to me over the years, had meant to all of us. How she had raised me without a husband around, all the while toiling as a seamstress, and especially how she had lavished love and attention on her adoring grandchildren.

I'd never in my life felt so grateful to anyone. Through the pies she had expressed her love for family and friends, nourishing body and soul. Eating the pie that night felt almost sacramental, as if I could taste her very spirit.

Afterward, I waved our family into the kitchen. I opened the door to our freezer and pointed toward the back. And there it was: one last slice of one of Nettie's pies. The one labeled Nettie. "This one we're saving," I said.

And so we have. The slice has stayed back there, wrapped in foil, for almost eight years now, untouched, unseen, but never forgotten. Other families leave insurance policies behind, or furniture, or jewelry. But Nettie left us her pie. That's her legacy, her heirloom. We celebrate the holidays to remind ourselves that the past deserves a future. We'll never starve for my mother's memory as long as that single slice is in there. It will feed our hearts all year round.

Cacio e pepe, coffee rubbed steak and eggplant arancini

Ciao! Today’s enticing meal will be angel hair cacio e pepe, coffee rubbed steak and eggplant arancini.

Il Primo (first course)

Cacio e Pepe is a classic Roman pasta dish. It translates to "cheese and pepper" in Italian. This dish was made for someone who doesn’t have a lot of time, as its main ingredients are black pepper and Pecorino Romano cheese. It is typically made with a long, thin pasta, I like mine with angel hair. The sauce is nice and creamy from the perfect mix of cheese and starchy pasta water. 

Cacio e pepe

1 box angel hair

1/4 freshly ground black pepper

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated 

Bring 6 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Add pepper to a sauté pan and toast until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add oil and butter and stir occasionally until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat. Cook pasta al dente. Drain, saving about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water to the oil and butter mixture, then add the pasta and mix. Toss until the angel hair is well coated. Stir in the cheese (add a splash or two more of the reserved pasta water if necessary) and serve immediately. You don’t want the sauce to sit too long; it’s nice and fresh, so eat it now!

Il Secondo (main course)

I know what you’re thinking, coffee and steak? Sounds strange, no? But let me tell you, there is something about the way coffee and meat taste when combined that is just divine. There is enough of a coffee taste to flavor the steak but not overpower it. I also prepare my steaks with smoked olive oil, which adds to the intensity. Smoked olive oil and coffee flavored salt can be found at gourmet shops. If you can’t find these items, you can substitute regular olive oil of course and in place of coffee salt, you can use coffee powder.

Coffee rubbed steak

4 tablespoons of smoked olive oil

4 tenderloin steaks

Coffee salt

Prepare a flat grill with 4 tablespoons of smoked olive oil. Rub your steaks with coffee salt, use as much of as little as you like. Put on the grill. Some people like there steaks rare, some medium, some medium well, this part is up to you. You may cook them as long or as little as you like to get it the way you want. I am one of the few people that actually like my meat well done, including steaks.

Il Contorno (side dish)

Okay, so technically these are not arancini. Arancini are rice balls that are coated in breadcrumbs, stuffed with mozzarella and fried. There is no rice in this recipe, but they look just like arancini and there are similarities as far as taste. The middle of an arancini is creamy and cheesy, as is this. And the outside is crispy and crunchy. My recipe is made with seasoned eggplant, which is then shaped into a ball and then stuffed with cheese, breaded and fried. Have I won you over yet?

Eggplant arancini

2 large eggplants
1 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
Olive oil
2 eggs       
3/4 cup grated Parmesan  
1 1/4 cups whole wheat bread crumbs, divided
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons chickpea flour
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into little cubes

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut eggplants crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place on paper towels. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt; let stand 30 minutes. Brush 2 baking sheets with oil. Pat eggplant dry; put on prepared sheets. Brush lightly with oil. Bake until eggplant is tender and dry, about 1 hour. Cool slightly; chop coarsely. Whisk 1 egg, Parmesan, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, parsley, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in bowl. Stir in chopped eggplant (mixture will be soft). Spread 1 cup breadcrumbs on plate. Whisk 1 egg and chickpea flour in another bowl. Press and shape eggplant mixture into balls. Press 1 piece mozzarella into center of each ball, making sure eggplant mixture covers cheese. Dip balls into egg batter; roll in breadcrumbs. Pour oil into large skillet heat over medium-high heat. Add balls to skillet; sauté until browned, turning often, about 4 minutes. Move to paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

This is a lovely Sunday dinner for the family. Meat, pasta and “vegetables” (well, the eggplant kind of counts, right?). Buon Appetito!

Spaghetti Pie and Summer Squash

Ciao! For supper tonight, we will be having Spinach ricotta spaghetti pie and Italian summer squash.

Il Secondo (second course, main course)

Spaghetti pie is a wonderful dish to make to impress friends if you’re not that great in the kitchen. It is very easy to prepare but it tastes as if you spent hours in the kitchen. What’s so nice about spaghetti pie is, you can do so many things with it. Obviously, you are welcome to make any sort of baked pasta pie that you like best. You can add beef, sausage, broccoli, zucchini, the list goes on. It’s a nice way to sneak in some vegetables if you have a picky eater in the family; no one is going to mind the spinach when it’s mixed with creamy ricotta.  Making this is also a clever way to use your leftover pasta. Just add some cheese, egg and pretty much anything you like and bake it up!

Spinach ricotta spaghetti pie

1 bag of fresh spinach
4 tablespoons of olive oil (divided)
Red pepper
Garlic, chopped (to taste)
1 container of spaghetti
1 16 ounce container ricotta cheese
2 eggs
Salt
Pepper
Parsley

Preheat your oven to 350 degress and boil water for the spaghetti. Begin by chopping your spinach and cooking it in a small pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, red pepper and chopped garlic. Let cool. Add spaghetti to boiling water.

Mix ricotta, eggs, salt, pepper and parsley together. Add the spinach.

Drain your pasta and let it cool. Use a medium casserole size pan and oil with olive oil. Add the pasta to the ricotta spinach mix. Put the mix in the prepared pan and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Take out and let it sit for around 10 minutes before serving. You can eat this as is, but I like to eat it with a fresh chunky tomato sauce. You can find a recipe for my tomato sauce here.  

Il contorno (Side dishes)

The other night, I was making dinner for some friends, one of whom notoriously dislikes vegetables. By the end of the meal, he had changed his mind. He was raving about this dish. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it.  What I find so odd about this dish, is that for some reason, it reminds me (and others have said the same) of pizza. I know, it seems very strange. But to me it really does, there’s just something about the taste. I’ll let you be the judge.

Italian summer squash

3 summer squashes
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Garlic
Onion
Salt
Pepper
Parsley
Italian seasoning

Start with washing your squash and chopping it very thin. Heat a pan on low prepared with olive oil. Chop your garlic and onion very finely. Add to the pan. Add the squash. Season with salt, pepper, parsley and Italian seasoning. Let it cook on low heat for 45 minutes.

Let me know what you think of these recipes and anything you would like to share! I love to see what you have to say! Buon Appetito!

Baci Espresso Cookies

For today’s sweet treat, I will be featuring some decadent Baci Espresso cookies!!

Il Dolce (Dessert)

I absolutely adore chocolate, nuts and espresso. All together or separately, it makes no difference. So when I was in Rome this past summer and stumbled upon a gelato cafe right around Piazza Navona and saw “Baci Espresso” as a flavor, I knew I was in the right place.  Baci translates to kiss in Italian, but I bet if you think of Baci, you think of those amazing chocolates with the hazelnut center. The gelato had a deep chocolate espresso base with chunks of chocolate and hazelnuts. It was absolutely amazing. Come summer I plan to take out my ice cream maker and try to recreate some of the gelato I had in Italy (including the most intense chocolate gelato I have ever had, called nero fondente.) But, I’m not quite ready for gelato. So until then, I have recreated the taste and made these equally delicious Baci Espresso cookies. While they are not the prettiest cookies, they are certainly pleasing to the palette. They are fudgy, chocolaty and the hazelnuts add a lovely crunchy to an otherwise smooth cookie.

Baci Espresso Cookies

10 ounce of dark chocolate
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons espresso powder
1/8^th teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter.
1 ½ cups of hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, espresso powder and salt together. Stirring frequently, melt butter with chocolate. Whisk in the egg mixture. Stir in the flour and nuts. Scoop rounded tablespoons of batter on baking sheet.

Bake until the surface of the cookie looks dry and the centers are still gooey, around 11-13 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool. If you don’t eat them all in one sitting, store the leftover cookies in a tightly sealed container.

Buon Appetito!

Ragu Bolognese and Eggplant Cutlets

Ciao! What better to serve for a nice relaxing Friday night dinner then Classic Bolognese sauce over al dente penne and fried eggplant cutlets? I can’t think of anything, can you?

Il Secondo (second course, main course)
I’m going to let you in on something that a lot of people don’t know about me.

I used to be a vegetarian. I was even a vegan for a while. I know, shocking. But then something changed, I’m not sure what. I just needed meat. Therefore, I now eat meat. Not all the time, but enough. So when I really want something nice and meaty, nothing satisfies the craving better then a classic Bolognese sauce.
Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating from Bologna, Italy. In Bologna, they simply refer to it as ragù. Outside of Italy, Bolognese sauce is pretty much tomato sauce with meat and really bears no resemblance to Ragù alla Bolognese.

Ragù alla Bolognese follows the origin of ragùs in Italian cuisine. The first known reference dates to the very late 18th century and originated in Imola, close to Bologna. The first recipe for a meat sauce characterized as being Bolognese came from Pellegrino Artusi and was in his cookbook published in 1891. His recipe, Maccheroni alla Bolognese, is thought to have originated from the middle 19th century when he spent considerable time in Bologna.

Artusi's sauce called for lean veal filet with pancetta, butter, onion, and carrot. The meats and vegetables were finely minced, cooked with butter, then covered and cooked with broth. He further added that when the sauce was completely done you could add cream to make an even more decadent dish.

In the century-plus since Artusi recorded published his recipe for Maccheroni alla Bolognese, what is now ragù alla Bolognese has evolved with the cuisine of the region. Most notable is the preferred choice of pasta, which today is widely recognized as fresh tagliatelle . Another evolution of the cuisine over the past 150 years is the addition of tomato, either as a puree or as a concentrated paste. Both wine and milk make appearances in the list of ingredients and beef has mostly replaced veal as the dominant meat.

There are many variations and recipes among Italian chefs, as well as American ones. Some think the recipe registered by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina in 1982 is the most authentic. Everyone will have their own take on it.  

This is mine. Please enjoy.

Ragu Bolognese

4 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ pound of ground beef, at room temperature
6 Italian sausage links, casing removed
½ pound of chicken
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups meat broth, preferably homemade
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups concentrated tomato puree

Put garlic, celery, onions and carrots in a food processor and process until very finely chopped. Add oil and butter to a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Let melt. Add the finely chopped vegetables, sprinkle with half of the salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook until softened and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add the ground beef and sausage, breaking apart as much as possible. Sprinkle with the remaining salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook, stirring frequently, until the meat looks fully cooked, about 30 minutes.  Add the white wine and allow the liquid to reduce by half. Add the broth. Add the chicken and allow to cook for an additional ½ hour. When the chicken is cooked, take it out and chop very finely. Put the chicken back in the pan. Add the cream and tomato puree. Bring to a simmer and then reduce. Let the ragu cook 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning. You can allow it to sit as long as you have time for so the flavor really develops. Serve over al dente penne or whatever pasta you like best!  

Il contorno (Side dishes)

I love some sort of eggplant side dish when I am having pasta with red sauce. For me, it is the perfect combination. Tomato and eggplant, you can’t go wrong. I prefer to slice my eggplant really thin, so its fries up nice and crisp, but you are of course welcome to slice it however you want. I like to make a little “sandwich” and use the eggplant as base and put some ragu on the top. You’re combining the crunchy eggplant and the dense, meaty sauce.  So, so good. 

Eggplant Cutlets

1 large purple eggplant
Salt
2 eggs
Italian parsley, finely chopped
½ cup whole wheat bread crumbs
½ cup chickpea flour
Black pepper
1 cup of olive oil

Slice the eggplants into round slices, each about 1/2 -inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and then place them in a colander. Leave the eggplant for at least 1 hour. Don't rinse the eggplant, just shake off extra water.

When the eggplant is ready to be used, use a fork and lightly beat the eggs in a shallow bowl. Spread the breadcrumbs, chickpea flour and parsley in a baking pan. Season the eggplant to taste with salt and pepper. Lightly put each eggplant slice in the egg mix and then in the breadcrumbs. In a deep pan, heat olive oil. When the oil is hot enough, lay several eggplant slices in a single layer in the pan. Fry the slices until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. When they are cooked, remove from the pan to a serving dish using a slotted spoon. Repeat the cooking process until all of your eggplant is cooked. Let cool and then serve!!
This is the perfect dinner to end a work week. You will feel relaxed and ready for the weekend. Put on some soothing Rossini and savor a glass of your favorite full bodied red wine. Buon Appetitio!

P.S. I have entered my Italian Sausage burger in a recipe contest that ends tomorrow. I am currently in third place. It would mean so, so much to me if you would please vote. Grazie mille! http://italian.betterrecipes.com/italian-sausage-burger-with-pesto-aioli.html