Holidays and Celebrations – Maria's Italian Kitchen

Maria’s Secret Stuffing Recipe

I40Group — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:17:11 +0000

Maria’s Stuffing Recipe serves 12-16

Divide recipe in half for smaller crowd unless you LOVE leftovers

Ingredients

1 lb. Breakfast Sausage (Jimmy Dean Country Sage) optional

1/2 stick Butter (optional)

1 cup Chicken Stock

2 cups Celery, diced

2 cups Onion, diced

1 bag Maria’s Croutons or 2 boxes Cornbread stuffing mix

½ cup Apple Juice or Cider (add more for moister stuffing)

3 leaves Fresh Sage, chopped

1.5 tsp Poultry Seasoning (DIY: Equal parts thyme, dried sage, marjoram & white pepper.

8 oz. Apple Sauce (Chunky) – or Apple Pie Filling

Directions:

Sauté the sausage until browned in a pan – remove sausage from pan keeping some rendered fat to sauté the celery & onion. Sauté celery & onion till translucent.

Add herbs, juice, chicken stock, apple sauce & poultry seasoning incorporating all ingredients together.

(This will deglaze the pan for extra flavor)

In a separate mixing bowl (large enough for ALL ingredients) combine Maria’s croutons & browned sausage with the mixture. Mix well.

Transfer mixture to a 9×13 baking pan or Pyrex & bake at 350 degrees for approx. 45 minutes.

Alternative methods:

- For a moister stuffing add more chicken stock/ For a drier stuffing use less chicken stock

- Substitute portabella mushroom for breakfast sausage

- For additional flavor and texture add 8 oz cooked chestnuts

Why Our Italian Kitchen Cooks Passover Seder Meals

I40Group — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 11:02:33 +0000

Passover 2022 begins at sundown on Good Friday, how perfect is that?

ITALIAN OR JEWISH…The Kitchen is where my family’s cultures come together.

I get asked all the time, “Why does Marias Italian Kitchen prepare Passover meals?” and many are surprised by my answer.

It is because I celebrate Passover. I was raised by an Italian Catholic mother, I married a Jewish man and my son attended Jewish day school until he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. In my home we celebrate all holidays, Easter and Passover with great food prepared with love. It’s that simple.

In fact, the most famous fresco “THE LAST SUPPER” painted by Leonardo da Vinci depicts a Passover Seder and it resides (actually it is painted on the wall) in a church in Milan. My mother Maria and I visited that small church in 2000. There was a long line to get in, but somehow my mother’s charm got her in. She had tears in her eyes at the site of that fresco (painted while the mortar was wet so it set and that is why it is still visible for centuries.) It is a part of the Church.

I am not alone in my multicultural attitude, especially when it comes to food. Evan Kleiman wrote an essay in the LA times titled, Cross Cultural Cooking, and shared how she grew up in a Jewish home but fell in love with Italy, the food and the people. In fact she shares that she had been looking for a grandmother he whole life and “found her in kitchens all over Italy.” Evan sounds more like my mom when she speaks of Italian food than I do. They both share Passion and Soul to food culture.

Plant-based chopped liver is totally vegetarian and once you taste it you will think you are eating the real thing, made with peas, walnuts and eggs it is smooth and creamy I like to serve it at room temperature.

Our Brisket is simmered for hours with onions and carrots. It is moist and the gravy has just a hint of sweetness. I serve it with creamy mashed potatoes. Our Roasted Chicken is my all-time favorite comfort food. Roasted with potatoes, carrots, Italian parsley, olive oil, herbs and smothered by onions. Our version of Tzimmes.

What in the world is Tzimmes (pronounced SIM-MESS )? My dad who was 100% Italian would say any time my mom would start yelling “Hey don’t make a Tzimmes out of it,” which means a big deal or fuss. I did not know what that word meant and I asked my Dad why he would use it. He told me that when he was visiting his aunt in Brooklyn he earned 25 cents to turn on the lights at the Rabbis house and he would hear them speaking Yiddish. He heard “SIM MESS” said often then asked what it meant. He grinned and said it was a perfect word to use in our crazy Italian family.

Last by not least are our handmade Coconut Macaroons dipped in Callebaut Belgium chocolate. We dip them right down the middle so you can choose whether you want to eat the plain side or the chocolate side.

They are so light that you’ll want to eat more.

An Italian Bowl of Luck

I40Group — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 03:27:28 +0000

How about a bowl of luck? Eat lentils on New Years Eve 2021!

My mother Maria would tell us to eat lentils on New Years Eve. Why you ask? The answer is very simple, because her mother Luisa said that it is an Italian tradition in Naples. Just as Food and Love is the same thing, so are Lentils and good luck.

Each year my mother Maria would make a big pot of lentils on New Year’s eve. She would take out a big stock pot and start simmering lots of chopped onions, carrots and Celery (mirepoix) with either pancetta (Italian bacon) or Italian sausage for flavor. Once the sausage was

browned and the onions translucent, she would remove the sausage and serve it later on the side. Then she would add homemade chicken broth, cleaned lentils (she would stand over a colander cleaning the lentils to make sure there were no little pebbles mixed in), strips of canned pomodoro tomatoes, and cubes of cleaned potatoes. I am not sure what made her lentil soup taste so delicious,

Was it was her singing over the simmering stock pot? Or the shared memories of her mother making this special traditional dish?

Today we want to share this family tradition with you. With a vegetarian twist on her original recipe… no sausage or pancetta.

We make it purely vegetarian, using freshly make vegetable stock, and only fresh local vegetables with cleaned lentils.

Being the inquisitive kid that I am, I researched in many of my mothers cookbooks (pre internet) why Italians eat lentils on New Years.

The lentils, with their coinlike shape, represent luck and prosperity.

We all need a big yummy bowl of lentils to warm our tummies and our hearts with hope of a better year to come. Food and Love, Same Thing.

Wishing you and your families a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Hopeful for 2022

Maddy Alfano

History of Valentines Day

I40Group — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 03:52:26 +0000

Did you know that St. Valentine was Italian?

St. Valentine was a Christian martyr who lived in the third century A.D. His basilica stood just opposite the gate of the Holy City; the gate itself was called after St. Valentine, before it became known as the Gate of the People. It was in Rome during the fifteenth century that St. Valentine’s feast day became the day devoted to affianced couples. Italian emigrants took the tradition to America, where it became the feast day of lovers.

It has been suggested that St. Valentine’s Day be adopted as Italian Restaurant Day for a number of reasons. Firstly, to commemorate the Italian origins of this holiday. Secondly, because the whole ethos of the food, wines, desserts and atmosphere of Italian cuisine is traditionally geared to being together, to friendship and love. Lastly, because there has never been a love story which did not, at least once, involve a visit to an Italian restaurant.

So How could you have anything but Italian food for Valentine’s Day?

We have created a very special complete Dinner Kit for Two, which you can view here.

Set your table, light the candles and you can pick up or we will deliver a romantic Italian meal to you.

Please order two days ahead as these meals will sell out fast.

This menu will be prepared for Friday the 12th, Saturday the 13th, and Sunday the 14th.

(If available, you may order these special menu items on our Ala Carte menu)

We will be taking orders early because we anticipate they will sell out fast.

It’s Delicious!

It’s Amore!

Its Maria’s Italian Kitchen