Food & Wine
Rejoice in the
Blessings of Christmas!
May they intercede for You and
Your Loved ones thoughout the
Holy Season and Beyond!
The Nacy Panzica Family
Nocino
Buon
Natale
a Tutti!
Alice Marotta
contributing writer
With Christmas fast approaching, our hearts are filled with
Italian-American
traditions.
One tradition close to my heart
is the making of Nocino. Nocino
is a walnut liqueur, traditionally
made on Saint John the Baptist
Feast Day, June 24. The aromatic spirit is made by steeping
green (unripe) walnuts along
with different spices, for exactly
six months. The finished elixir
is then filtered and bottled to
be enjoyed on Christmas Eve.
While indigenous to Emilia-Romagna, specifically Modena,
Nocino is also made in surrounding
regions.
Originally
created for its medicinal attributes, Nocino is now enjoyed
more as a digestivo. Each family
has its own recipe, slightly dif-
Famiglia
Famiglia
Cecchini
Cecchini
Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
contributing writer
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LA GAZZETTA ITALIANA | DECEMBER 2013
Nocino (adapted by Alicia Marotta
Linihan)
1 liter of pure, plain vodka (80
proof )
2 pints simple syrup
15 green walnuts, crushed with a
hammer
1 cinnamon stick
5 cloves
1 vanilla bean, split
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
1 whole nutmeg, crushed
3 star anise
*Mix all ingredients except
simple syrup, in a tightly sealed
glass jar. Let it steep for six
months in a dark and cool place,
such as your basement. When
ready, strain through a fine cheesecloth into a larger container (twice
the size). Gently stir in the simple
syrup and funnel into sealable glass
bottles. Clean, clear glass wine
bottles work very well. Enjoy one
to two ounces at room temperature
in a cordial glass. Buon Natale!
Christmas Ravioli
Andrea Fox
Gracious Italian provincial quarters provide a formal
setting for the finest Northern Italian cuisine. Entrees
include many seafood and veal dishes. In addition, the
chef will prepare other continental dishes on request. Reservations necessary. Major credit cards accepted.
ferent, but unique to their
tastes. The following is a simple
recipe of mine that can easily
be adjusted to your own liking.
So, on
Christmas
Eve,
after Mass and the Feast of the
Seven Fishes, relax, reflect and
enjoy a sip or two of Nocino.
Buon Natale and Cin-Cin!
LA GAZZETTA ITALIANA | DECEMBER 2013
During
the
holidays,
something as simple as a
ravioli can turn into a treasured
Christmas tradition. Growing up,
my family celebrated Christmas
Day at my Italian grandparents’ house in Pittsburgh. There
we had a large, multi-course
meal that always contained
my favorite culinary part of the
holiday, in the form of my grandmother’s homemade ravioli. I
could have ignored everything
else they served, and only
dined on the ravioli and sauce.
I loved the moment my aunts
brought the steaming trays of the
stuffed pasta out of the kitchen
to both ends of the room. I could
barely contain myself as we all
passed our plates to the uncle in
charge and had to answer the inevitable question, “how many?”
My younger self wrestled with
the answer and usually decided
on three, but if I felt really bold
or really hungry, I would request
four. My cousins always added
extra sauce and cheese, but I was
a purist, and ate my ravioli unadulterated. If we were lucky, we
got to bring some leftovers home
with us, and I could dine on
my favorite Christmas tradition
one last time until the next year.
As we got older, my grandmother got older, and soon she
was no longer capable of making
the ravioli on her own. Kids grew
up, cousins started families, schedules became a lot more complicated, and we stopped traveling
to Pittsburgh for Christmas.
I felt a part of my Christmas
experience
had
been
lost.
Five years ago, my mother
decided that we needed to start
making our own Christmas ravioli
from scratch. She recruited me
and my youngest brother Brad to
help her in this new-to-us venture.
She had pulled out her grandmother’s pasta maker from storage,
had received basic instructions
from her mother, and delegated
the filling and stamping to me
and Brad. We set-up and created
a ravioli assembly line that took
up the entire two room kitchen.
With the basic instructions, my
mother mixed the dough, and
while it sat, she mixed the filling.
We had to call my grand-
mother several times, because we
couldn’t seem to get the dough
quite right. Brad, who can be quite
impish, improvised ravioli shapes.
While I focused on using the traditional ravioli stamp, my brother
made triangles, diamonds, and “hot
dog” rolls. I found myself having
trouble getting the filling right;
I either overstuffed the stamped
pasta pockets or under filled them.
It took much longer than it should
have, but our first attempt yielded
150 ravioli and we had not only
enough to freeze for Christmas,
but some for Easter as well.
The tradition continued on,
and a parade of significant others
began joining us every year for
the ravioli extravaganza. My
favorite ravioli moment was when
Brad brought his not-yet fiancée
Kelsey to her first holiday dough
filled session. That year, there were
no oddball shapes, but instead
one carefully crafted heart. On
...continued on page 30
RECIPES MY NONNA T
AUGHT
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