Priest Stranglers and a Tiramisu Cheesecake

Happy Sunday!! 

    
    First of all, we want to thank you all for welcoming us to Blogland so enthusiastically. Every day I open my email and find the nicest notes from new friends. We love hearing your stories and are so happy that you enjoy ours.

     Since it is Sunday, I thought I could show you a recipe that had some sort of religious background story.
     And since I'm a little warped at times, the first thing that came to mind was Strangolaprete- roughly translated as Priest Strangler. Apparently this was a little joking jab at local priests who would come to dinner and gobble down so much of the family's food, they would strangle themselves with gluttony . I've also heard it as Strezzolopretti or Strezzoprete, depending on the local dialect.  You will sometimes find them on restaurant menus as Spinach Gnocchi, but how boring is that! Traditionally served with sage butter, they can also be topped with a Bolognese or Ragu, but I believe those sauces overwhelm the delicate flavors. These little dumplings make a great side to a simple roast chicken or meat dish.

      
        Local dialects are a source of great pride in Italy. A true Italian can meet a stranger and know immediately where he's from- if not the exact town, at least the general vicinity. The dialects vary so greatly as to become almost a completely different language going from North to South in the country.


    Then there's what I like to call "immigrant dialect". When my Grandma Josie and her sisters came over from Sicily as young girls, they had to learn to adapt to the ways and language of their new country, but still keep their heritage intact. My Aunt Katie, the oldest sister, never did learn as much of the English. She was older when they came and married an Italian, so there was not the great need. She got by in her lifetime very well with her broken English and her great spirit. My grandmother Josie was a bit younger and had to go to work. Out of necessity, she learned the language, but, as did most of the immigrants around her in her Brooklyn neighborhood, she "melded" the American ways and the English language with her native tongue.
      
       One great example of this (that any Brooklyn Italian knows) is the word "bakowsa" which means the "potty". Apparently, when the earliest immigrants came over, indoor plumbing was still a rare luxury. They were taught by their American neighbors to use the "back house" or outhouse. In the typical Italian way, they simply added a vowel- in this case an A- to back house. Hence, back-house-a.

Bakowsa.

Simple.

And so the Italian language evolved

Aren't they too cute?!

    My parents got married in Italy where my Dad was stationed in the Army and met my mother. 

He cut quite a figure

My Sicilian grandparents in Brooklyn were unable to attend at the last minute, because my grandfather had suffered a mild heart attack and was unable to travel. 

For the first few months of their married life, my parents lived in her family's house in Vicenza while my father worked at the Army base

My Dad with some of the family at an outdoor trattoria

Six months later when Dad's tour of duty was over, they were to head back to the States to live. My mother was a 21 year old new bride, who did not speak a word of English and had never left her parents' home. Due to Army regulations, my father was forced to travel by ship and Mom flew to NY to be met by her new family.
     
         Keep in mind that this meant that approximately 65 rowdy Sicilians were standing at the airport terminal with a small photograph in their hands. This family was not known for being discreet
   My mother walked out into the terminal to be greeted by my diminutive but VERY domineering grandmother and promptly threw up on her feet and passed out cold.

Great first impressions abound in this family.

Come to find out she was pregnant with me and had no idea

Surprise!

So it's now dinnertime and Mom is trying very hard to impress this group and be helpful. They've basically been communicating in sign language all day. Grandma is washing dishes and Mom decides to help by drying and putting them away. She manages to ask my grandmother where they belong


"Een da cabineto" (cabinet + o= cabineto)


One problem here- in Italy where my mother grew up speaking the King's Italian, cabineto is bathroom.

Right. 

There stands my mother holding a stack of dishes in the basement half bath and wondering what kind of family she married into that keeps their dishes in the bathroom. Here comes Grandma Josie in a tizzy- what kind of girl did her son marry that thinks my dishes belong in the bakowsa??


It's amazing they lived together for 15 years. 


And they both survived.


I'm also adding in a recipe for my Tiramisu Cheesecake because I happened to make it for today's dessert and it's REALLY good. Enjoy!
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Pattie's Strangolapreti

1 large bag spinach, steamed, squeezed dry and chopped OR 8 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 cup whole milk ricotta

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 day old, stale roll, diced, soaked in warm milk and squeezed dry

1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, beaten together
4 rounded tablespoons (app.) flour

good pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

I have taken to using an immersion blender and mixing the half spinach and all the bread crumbs, then adding the rest of the ingredients, but you may choose to skip that step

Flour your hands and form small ovals of mixture-place on floured wax paper. Drop in rapidly boiling, salted water. When they float to the top, remove with a strainer (do NOT dump in a colander!). Drain off excess water and place in a casserole dish. Cover with sage butter, sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of Parmesan and broil for  a minute or 2 just to brown the top

SAGE BUTTER- Melt 1/2 stick of butter with about 6-8 sage leaves and simmer 1 minute
** The ricotta is not truly traditional in this recipe, but I prefer it to just flour which sometimes results in a heavy, gummy dumpling

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Pattie's Tiramisu Cheesecake

Brittle

2 Tblsp butter

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

In a medium saute pan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in hazelnuts, sugar, and water. Cook for approximately 5-7 minutes until the nuts are toasted and the syrup coats the nuts evenly. Spread on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and  separate with a fork. Cool completely. This will harden and you can then crumble it if necessary.

Crust
Cookies, Biscotti, or Ladyfingers processed to fine crumb- total 2 cups (I like to use my biscotti, especially if I have chocolate!)

3-4 T. butter, melted 

2 T. Kahlua

Cheesecake

2 8 oz. packages cream cheese

1 C. sugar

16 oz. mascarpone cheese

3 eggs

1 heaping Tblsp. cornstarch

2 T. Kahlua or espresso 

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Using a food processor or blender, process the cookies until they are  fine crumbs.

In a small bowl, melt the butter, add 2 T. of the coffee flavored liqueur or espresso and add the crumbs. Mix to moisten the crumbs. Press the crumb mixture into a 9 inch springform pan.

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, and sugar until very smooth. Add 2 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur or espresso, and mix. Add the eggs and cornstarch and mix on slow speed until just smooth. Pour batter into crust and place pan on the middle rack of the oven. Pour in boiling water around springform pan to about an inch up the side
Bake at 350°F for about 45 minutes, or until just set.

Let cool by opening the oven door with the heat off for about 20 minutes. Let the cake continue to cool and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight, before serving. 

Slide a thin knife around edge of pan and remove sides. Place cake on platter and slip strips of parchment or waxed paper under the edges. Press hazelnut brittle onto sides and carefully remove strips of paper. Serve with shaved or powdered chocolate on top
 

**Just a note- When I went to buy the mascarpone, I found a flavored version with chocolate and coffee in it! Tiramisu mascarpone- brilliant!! I used this for the first time today and just cut back the Kahlua in the cheesecake to 1 tablespoon

  

As Always,

  

Buon Alimenti, Buon Amici,

Pattie and Allie