Happy New Year 2018!
Celebration as I like it..filled with music and food ..food and music… in the kitchen on TV -the Concerto for Capodanno (New Year’s Concert) from Venice from the Teatro de la Fenice to serenade us as we prepared the food for today’s dinner and then in the dining room on TV- the Concerto for Capodanno from Vienna, Austria that entertained us as we supped on our New Year’s Pranzo…it doesn’t get better than that.. And this year Ricardo Muti conducted the Vienna Philharmonic….doesn’t get any better than that!
Sharing delicious food and great music with family and friends was a great way to spend the first day of the New Year. This year I decided to make Paccheri Pasta with Calamari sauce for our main course.
But the Raditzky’s March signals the end of another New Year’s Day concert, and the start of another New Year of great food, recipes and places to discover.
Paccheri Pasta with Calamari Sauce
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 handful freshly chopped Italian parsley
1/2 pound of cleaned squid (calamari)
4 ounces dry white wine
16 ozs canned San Marzano tomatoes (or 1 lb of fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded and diced)’
1 lb of paccheri or rigatoni pasta
Soak cleaned squid in salt water for 5 minutes then rinse with water, set aside. Place olive oil in saute pan and place whole garlic cloves in pan, place on medium heat, saute till garlic cloves begin to turn golden. Place in squid, saute for 2 minutes, then pour in wine. Saute 3 minutes or until liquid is almost evaporated. Then pour in tomatoes. Saute for 10 minutes. Cook pasta per package directions, but cook for 1/2 of the cooking time. Drain pasta but reserve one scoop full of pasta water. Place sauce on high heat and let boil, place in one scoop of pasta water from pasta pot and pasta, cook pasta for remaining cooking time, stirring frequently.
Serve and top with freshly chopped parsley. A glass of dry white wine, like Est!Est!Est! or Falenghina makes a great acompaniment!
For more recipes get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays and Special Occasions-2nd edition 
*January 19th 7:30-9 PM_Join me at Altomonte’s Italian Market for my DaVinci Style 4 course dinner and wine sampling from The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: DaVinci Style. Registration is limited. $85 includes a 4 course dinner and wine sampling. A book signing will follow. Call Altomonte’s at 215-4389-8889 to register!
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