The first time I ate codette was in 1994, at Ristorante Plistia, in the National Park of Abruzzo, during a trip to Italy with my husband and my parents. The word codette translates to “little tails,” but when the restaurant’s proprietor, Cicitto Decina, brought a platter of these emerald green beauties to our table, we thought the plate was piled with steamed green beans! What a delicious surprise when we tasted the tender-chewy strands of spinach pasta freshly made by Cicitto’s wife, Laura del Principe, and demurely dressed with a sauce comprised of local sausages and peas. From that moment, Plistia became my favorite restaurant. It still is.
Put the sauce on the table so that diners can serve themselves, or portion it out in advance for serving.
Instructions
From Yotam Ottolenghi: Whenever I walk into a bookshop I find myself in the cookery section within seconds; it's an urge I can't control. On a recent visit to a secondhand bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, the capital of bookshops, I came across a real treasure, Classic Turkish Cookery by Ghillie Başan, published in 1995. This book offers a fantastic introduction to one of the world's most accomplished cuisines and it is packed full of recipes you just know you must try. It is there that I came across this unusual savory cake originating from the Turkish part of Cyprus. It makes a substantial snack or a light starter. Serve with Burnt Eggplant with Tahini.
When raising three rowdy boys, Daisy Kushino often made this classic Japanese American dish: it was a cinch to make and an easy dish to feed them while they were sitting in a highchair or at a picnic. Mochiko chicken is probably adapted from tatsuta age, Japanese marinated fried chicken, and is very versatile: serve small pieces as finger food or cut the chicken into bigger pieces for a main course. Flour made from Japanese sweet rice (which is similar to glutinous rice) is called mochiko flour or sweet rice flour and can be found in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets. Look for Koda Farms Blue Star Brand which comes in a white box.
A favorite dish from an old teacher, this is a Chinese pasta with meat sauce. The noodles evolved from two of my favorite recipes by Chinese cookbook author, Gloria Bley Miller.
Vietnamese restaurants taught us to love the fresh roll-up—a cup of lettuce, some cunningly spiced meat, raw vegetables and leaves of basil and fresh coriander—what a way eat, especially now. You can stretch a little bit of this and that into a generous, lovely little feast of Asian-style finger food.
While most Italian recipes represent the foods and traditions of one town or region, this one from Le Marche has elements of Italian cooking from various parts of the country and is a good example of how Italy's cooking changed when it became a nation in 1861. The central Italian region of Le Marche is a crossroads that uses typical flavors of north, central and southern Italy. The reason for this is that Le Marche, until Italian unification, were papal lands that belonged to the Vatican but were also traversed by people traveling north and south on the Italian peninsula. This recipe uses veal and pork (found in northern and central Italian cooking), chicken livers (most common in central Italy) and tomatoes, the iconic flavor of the south. The grated cheese of choice is pecorino romano, very much part of the tradition of southern Italy. Despite the name, maccheroncelli (the pasta used here) is not macaroni used in southern Italy, but thin egg noodles. You can skip the effort of making these, if you wish, and purchase a good Italian brand of dried egg pasta such as tagliatelle or tagliolini.
Stir-fried pork with kimchee is a beloved Korean dish.
If I had to choose one dish alone to represent my childhood, it would be this.