#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR ROSIE GENOVA

A Jersey girl born and bred, national bestselling author Rosie Genova left her heart at the shore, which serves as the setting for her Italian Kitchen Mysteries. Her debut novel, Murder and Marinara, was named a 2013 Best Pick by Suspense Magazine and was a finalist for a 2014 Daphne Award. You can learn more about Rosie at her website.

My current release, A Dish Best Served Cold, not only features a cold case, but some cold recipes as well. One of them, the recipe I’m including here, has an interesting back-story—just like a good murder suspect!

The recipe comes from my friend Tom Ficarra, an enthusiastic foodie and pretty formidable home cook. (He also provided the inspiration for Father Tom, an important character in my story.) Italian dishes are his specialty, particularly those he samples in his yearly travels to Italy. The last time Tom visited Sicily, he stopped in a small town to fill up his rental car. He interrupted the gas station owner just as he was about to have his pranzo, or late day meal—pasta with arugula and fresh tomatoes that had been marinating in garlic. Served over hot pasta, the vegetables form a “sauce” that doesn’t require cooking.

As you can see, the measurements are not exact, and Tom’s original wording (“Chop the crap out of the tomatoes!”) has been, shall we say, adjusted, for public consumption. If arugula is not to your taste, you may use any green you like in this dish; the heat from the pasta will wilt it slightly. Also, if you find raw garlic a bit too pungent, do what I do: before marinating, lightly sauté the cloves in olive oil until soft but not browned.

The sweetness of the tomatoes really balance the bite of the greens. And here’s what else I love about this meal—your salad is on top of the pasta! All you need to add is some crusty bread and a medium-bodied wine for a complete meal.

Buon appetito!

Father Tom’s Cold Tomato Sauce

This recipe makes more than enough “sauce” for a pound of pasta. It’s also good the next day as a cold pasta salad—add olives, cubed cheese, and chickpeas for a different take on the dish.

approximately 10 fresh plum tomatoes

5 oz. package of fresh arugula or other hardy baby green

3/4-1 cup of olive oil 

1-2 cloves of garlic, depending on taste

salt and freshly grated pepper to taste

Chop tomatoes, arugula, and garlic well; place in large bowl and mix thoroughly. At this stage, I season with two generous teaspoons of sea salt and several twists of the pepper grinder. Before serving, taste and adjust seasonings to preference.

Pour olive oil over the mixture. Let the mixture marinate for at least three hours, taking care to stir the mixture several times. The arugula will soften and sweeten in the oil and juices from the tomatoes.

Serve over hot pasta of your choice (I used the double twists known as gemelli) with a generous amount of grated Romano cheese.

A Dish Best Served Cold 
At the Casa Lido, the end of summer means a party, and hit whodunit writer Victoria “Vic” Rienzi and her family are cooking like crazy for the restaurant’s seventieth anniversary celebration. As they chop onions and garlic, old family friend Pete Petrocelli stops by, saying he knows something that would make for a good mystery novel. Curious, Vic asks Nonna to elaborate on Pete’s claim and learns of a relative who mysteriously disappeared back in Italy…

The night of the party brings a crowd—and a full throttle hurricane. When the storm finally passes, everyone thinks they’re in the clear—until the first casualty is found, and it’s Pete. Remembering his visit, Vic isn’t certain Pete’s death was an accident and decides to dig deeper into his story. What she finds is meatier than Nonna’s sauce…

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook 

COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST COOK AND AUTHOR ROSIE GENOVA

It’s always a pleasure to welcome a fellow Jersey girl to Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. With us today is Rosie Genova author of the Italian Kitchen Mysteries. An English teacher by day and novelist by night, Rosie also writes women’s fiction as Rosemary DiBattista. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

There’s a moment in my book, Murder and Marinara, when things look particularly dark for the staff of the Casa Lido, the restaurant at the center of the series. The chef responds by making a frittata, an egg-based dish that is one part quiche, one part omelet. And while the characters’ problems aren’t solved for another hundred pages, at least they get a warm, comforting meal.

In real life, I’m a big fan of Italian food that might be categorized as cucina rustica, or as we say in English, comfort food. Particularly at this time of year, I turn to favorites like roasted sausage with peppers and polenta; pasta with pancetta; greens with garlic and white beans, and one I  recently served up: a lovely frittata rounded out with a green salad and homemade bread.

The frittata pictured came about at the end of a long day. I was tired, nothing was defrosted, and I didn’t want pizza. In the refrigerator were some leftover roasted potatoes with caramelized onions and a package of fresh mozzarella. I always have eggs on hand; ditto Progresso flavored bread crumbs, a staple no Italian kitchen is ever without. I sliced the potatoes thin, estimated how much cheese to slice (then added six more slices) and scrambled up some eggs with freshly ground pepper, salt, grated Parm, and the flavored crumbs, making sure to get every last piece of sweet browned onions in there. I started it on the stove in the cast iron pan and finished it off in the oven. While it set up, I threw together a salad and warmed up half a loaf of bread. With a glass of strong red wine, that meal was nirvana. And I put it together in just about the time it would have taken me to get to the pizza place and back. 

The recipe below is a more formalized version of my thrown-together version, but this is a dish with many variations:

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 quarter of a large Vidalia onion, thinly sliced

5 ounces of baby arugula (or baby spinach, escarole, or other tender green)

8 large eggs

¼ pound of fontina cheese cut into cubes (or fresh or regular mozzarella)

½ teaspoon of salt, or more to taste

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, or several twists of a grinder

Italian flavored bread crumbs and grated cheese for topping

1.             Pre-heat oven to 350°.

2.             Heat oil in a well-seasoned 10-inch cast iron pan or other heavy ovenproof skillet. Cook the onion over medium heat, separating it into ribbons until nicely browned. Add arugula and cook, stirring frequently until wilted, about 2 minutes.

3.             Whisk together the eggs, cheese, salt and pepper until frothy. Pour over arugula and onions in the skillet and cook over medium heat without stirring until almost set, about 5-6 minutes.

4.             Remove from heat and sprinkle bread crumbs and cheese over the top. Bake for about 15 minutes until edges are golden brown and center is set.

(You don’t have to be limited to this recipe, however. You can do as I did, and use leftovers, any other veggies of your choice, or meats such as crumbled cooked Italian sausage, sautéed pancetta, or ham.)

Murder and Marinara

Hit whodunit writer Victoria Rienzi is getting back to her roots by working at her family’s Italian restaurant. But now in between plating pasta and pouring vino, she’ll have to find the secret ingredient in a murder.... 

When Victoria takes a break from penning her popular mystery series and moves back to the Jersey shore, she imagines sun, sand, and scents of fresh basil and simmering marinara sauce at the family restaurant, the Casa Lido. But her nonna’s recipes aren’t the only things getting stirred up in this Italian kitchen.

Their small town is up in arms over plans to film a new reality TV show, and when Victoria serves the show’s pushy producer his last meal, the Casa Lido staff finds itself embroiled in a murder investigation. Victoria wants to find the real killer, but there are as many suspects as tomatoes in her nonna’s garden. Now she’ll have to heat up her sleuthing skills quickly…before someone else gets a plateful of murder. 

Buy Links

ebook

paperback