Italian Frozen Pizza is Gusto!

This may be mind-blowing, since we’re not but twenty minutes from the best pizza place in the world, and a mere five minutes from Bar Fizz (which is a ristorante in the town closed to us, Lisciano Niccone, and which has darn great pizza), but we had frozen pizza recently. Nat had picked up our first Italian cold, and it had her sleeping achily most of one day and a good portion of a second (once the limeoncello is done, we probably won’t have to worry about colds, cause it cures them almost every time). Once she did finally feel like being somewhat up and about, she really wanted to just have a frozen pizza at home. Hey, I understand her feelings. Haven partaken of my share and then some of frozen pizza when growing up (from really young to a couple weeks before leaving for our pre-tirement), I can understand how it would seem comforting when sick in a way, and like home. When at the store, we had a number of frozen pizza choices, but went with the Sofficini brand’s basic Margarita model:

because it looked dandy, but even more because it had a lizard on the package, and it exclaimed that this pizza was gusto!

And you know what? It may have been the most gusto frozen pizza I’d ever had. The crust was actually crispy, the sauce had lots of flavor, and the cheese didn’t get stringy like most frozen pies (we added a little more fresh basil, and that didn’t hurt either):

Gusto! Indeed.

Cielo Chiaro Special: Penne e’ Noce

Though we plan on visiting many local restaurants (including Nestor’s pizzeria, which I already mentioned), we also want to take advantage of the scrumptious local produce, cheese, olive oil, and other products and make meals at home (not to mention enjoy the Italian shopping experience, and follow some semblance of a budget). I may not blog it up about every single morsel made at home—for example, I had an out-of-sight sandwich for lunch today, with radicchio, mozzarella fresca, these amazingly sharp little gerkins, and mayo (Italian mayonnaise is richer and yellower, if you wondered), but I didn’t feel the need to photograph it. However, I did feel the need to photo up and write out our first substantial meal made here at Cielo Chiaro, which was penne with walnuts. It was a great explosion of textures, with the al dente pasta and the crunch of the walnuts bouncing off each other, accented by rich local olive oil, freshly sautéed onions, and some just-grated wonderful Parmigiano Reggiano. Not only did Nat whip it together with aplomb, she also husked and cracked the walnuts after picking them up around the walnut tree in our yard. Here’s the end result, with the recipe below:

Penne e Noce

Ingredients:
500 grams Penne pasta (or 17-ish ounces)
Butter (approximately a Tablespoon or two)
Olive oil (also approximately a Tablespoon or two--see Note)
1 small onion, chopped
1 to 1-1/2 cups walnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Directions:1. Begin cooking the pasta according to package directions.

2. Add the butter and olive oil to a medium-sized sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted and bubbled, add the onion. Sauté, stirring regularly, until the onion is a golden color, 5 to 7 minutes (there should be a bit of an excess of oil and butter that the onion is wading in). Remove it from the heat.

3. When the pasta is done, drain it, and then toss with the onion/oil/butter mixture and the walnuts.

4. Spoon pasta into bowls and top with the cheese and with pepper (black or red as you enjoy) and salt if needed.

A Note: As mentioned, you want a little excess oil and butter as they, once infused by the onion, create a lovely coating for the pasta and mingle nicely with the walnuts.