Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook by Teresa Giudice Page B

The Quickie Tomato Sauce ( page 22 )
½ cup pitted and coarsely chopped Kalamata olives
8 ounces vermicelli or thin spaghetti
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
⅓ cup (1 ½ ounces) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup ricotta cheese
½ cup (2 ounces) shredded fresh mozzarella cheese (partially freeze the cheese for easier shredding)
    1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 9- to 9 ½-inch (6- to 7-cup capacity) deep-dish pie plate.
    2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the ground sirloin and garlic and cook, stirring often and breaking up the meat with the side of the spoon, until it loses its raw look, about 6 minutes. Add the sauce and olives and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.
    3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the vermicelli and cook according to the package directions until al dente. Do not overcook. Drain well in a colander. Transfer to a bowl. Add the beaten eggs and melted butter and mix well. Add the grated Parmigiano, salt, and pepper and mix again.
    4. Pour the vermicelli mixture into the pie plate. Spread the mixture with your fingers to form a thick shell, like a piecrust. Spread the ricotta in the bottom of the shell. Top with the tomato sauce.

     
    5. Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and continue baking until the mozzarella melts, about 5 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.
    ***     I Don’t Wanna Call You Honey . . .     ***
    Y ou know you’re close with someone when you know their nicknames. So here are ours, Baby Doll. I call my husband “Juicy Joe” because he’s so delicious and juicy. (“Joe” is a nickname too; his real name is Giuseppe.) He calls me Tre (“Tree”). My parents call me Tere (“Tah-RAY”). And while I don’t have a specific one for each of my girls, I do have tons of pet names I call them all: Baby Doll, of course, Pookie, Gorgeous, Sweetie, and believe it or not, Honey. I really do mean Honey as a term of endearment because I am nice like that.
     
    When in Rome . . .
    Vermicelli = ver-mih-CHELL-ee
     

     

     
     
     
    ***     Juicy Bits from Joe     ***
    N ot a lot of people know this, but I’ve been making my own wine for years. Me and my father, we started making wine as a tradition when I was a kid. Now Gabriella helps me. All the girls help out, but Gabriella loves it. She comes in, cleans the bottles for me. She’s a great helper.
    To make your own wine, you need a good wine room. It’s the first room I built in my house. If you have a good temperature controlled room with the right stuff, you don’t need to put sulfites in your wine, and that’s good because it’s the sulfites that give you the headaches.
    You need grapes of course. You can get whatever type you like. I do Chilean grapes, California grapes, and Italian grapes. I mix it all up. It’s hit and miss. Sometimes it’s incredible and sometimes it’s just OK. It’s a little gamble you take. But if you use good grapes, more than likely it’s all gonna come out good.
    So you take your grapes and you de-stem them and crush them and let them ferment in a tub for about three or four weeks. Then you press it in the wine press, put the juice back in the tub, and let it sit, and ferment. You have to keep passing the wine back and forth into different tubs actually so the sediment sits at the bottom, then you can put it in oak barrels. The longer you leave the wine in the tub though, the darker it will be. I like the darker color, the deep red wine color.
    The whole process takes about a year. I probably do about 350 cases a year. My dad, he does about 250 cases. My friends come over and help me out