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Peanut butter was pretty difficult to find when I first moved to Italy; even in Rome where there are a few “international food stores” (like Castroni), portions were small, expensive, and often brands I didn’t recognize.

Now it’s easier to find peanut butter, and even some bigger / normal grocery stores will carry a jar. I find that Skippy peanut butter is most common; I think that’s because the brand, while an American brand, is very popular in the Philippines and so it gets imported for them. But there are ingredients on the label I don’t recognize, so I don’t buy it.

I often stick jars of all-natural peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, or almond butter in my luggage when I come back to Italy from a trip to the US or UK. But as my trip schedule can be unpredictable, more recently I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own.

My cupboard is full of nuts and seeds – they make great toppings for yogurt, oatmeal, and salads; they make a great go-to snack while traveling or just in the afternoon. I started stocking up on raw, unsalted nuts when I realized some of my (used-to-be-favorite) nut brands include flavor enhancers like yeast extract to flavor them (read about why I think flavor enhancers should be avoided in my How to Make Chicken Stock & avoid MSG post). If you buy nuts, make sure the label says, NUTS and nothing else. A little salt is ok, but you might even enjoy it more if you salt them yourself – at least you can control the amount that way.

Raw, unsalted nuts mean I have a great raw material to cook with, to make into something else, and for normal snacking. Now when I snack on almonds, I don’t eat the whole bag. :)

So when my beloved almond butter was running low and there was no stocking-up trip on the near horizon, I decided to just do it myself. It’s so easy, it’s almost ridiculous to write up a recipe. The most important thing you need is patience – they will turn into butter! Try it yourself and let me know any variations you take on the recipe.

Homemade Almond Butter

Note: I think almonds with the skin on make the best butter, but it’s up to you. 

Unsalted almonds (if already toasted, skip step 1)
A food processor
Pinch salt, if desired

1. Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C. Spread the almonds in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roast for 10-15 minutes. Check halfway through and give them a shake / mix them up so they are toasted on both sides. Make sure they don’t burn, so keep an eye on them! Let the almonds cool for 30-60 minutes, until they are cool to the touch.
2. In your food processor, put the almonds in, set it to a medium or high setting, and let it do its magic! It will take time (even 10-15 minutes of continuous blending) so if you need to stop it every so often to let it cool down or to scrape the sides of the processor, do so. The almonds will go from powdery dry chunks to chunky clumps, and finally you’ll start to see a sheen as the oil in them starts breaking down. Depending on how chunky or smooth you want your almond butter (I like mine extra chunky) you’ll want to be extra patient.
   Here’s mine closer to the end – this is when I added just a bit of salt and tasted it after blending:

And when it was ready, I poured it into a jar that was almost empty and put it in the fridge! I suggest putting it in the fridge unless you’re planning to consume it quickly (within a week). I’ve had mine for about 2 months now and it’s still good; many sites suggest 3 months is max. You can also freeze almond butter, but I never have; so if you have let others know in the comments!

Will you try to make your own almond butter? Do you prefer another nut instead? 

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Panzanella is a very simple, moist and fresh bread salad from Tuscany. Panzanella is a great summer recipe because you don’t have to turn on the oven – no cooking is required.  Crunchiness doesn’t come from the bread but from the cucumbers and onions. Its fresh ingredients (and a little water) rejuvenate day-old bread, while keeping your house as cool as possible in the middle of the summer. This is the heart of this fresh salad!

I have seen several panzanella recipes around the internet that recommend toasting the bread or making croutons or perfect bread cubes, but I don’t. You shouldn’t have to – stale bread is already hard! Every time I’ve eaten panzanella deep in the heart of Tuscany, or made it myself, no one turns on an oven, and the only tool you need with the bread is your own hands.

Let me repeat that: you don’t need to toast your bread for panzanella! No croutons, please.

The most authentic bread to use is (unsalted) Tuscan bread. Since it’s made without salt, it took some getting used to when I lived there. If you’ve never tried unsalted bread, do. You’ll notice something’s “wrong” immediately. If you don’t have Tuscan bread on hand, you’ll want bread that’s not going to get soggy/mushy but will crumble when moistened.

Do you have a really good bottle of extra virgin olive oil sitting in your back cupboard you’ve been afraid to open but were waiting for a special occasion? This is the time to open it. The better the olive oil, the fresher the basil, the sweeter the tomatoes – each ingredient will make this salad more delicious.

The list of ingredients for the salad is quite short. What’s “missing” from this recipe? Nothing! Olives, cheese, capers, balsamic vinegar, bell peppers…you don’t need them! Of course, after you try traditional traditional panzanella the first time, you may want to add some more ingredients – but keep that oven off!

Panzanella Salad Recipe

Note: Remember that the bread should be the star of this dish, so keep its quantity higher than the other ingredients. Using unsalted Tuscan bread requires a little extra salt be put into the salad – make sure you taste it after adding the olive oil and vinegar to determine how much salt to add.

Day-old bread (unsalted Tuscan is most authentic)
Cucumber, peeled
Tomatoes (Roma/San Marzano/plum varieties suggested)
Basil leaves
Red Onion
Olive oil & vinegar
Salt & Pepper

Suggestions for serving two people: 4-5 slices of day-old bread (1/2 loaf), 1 cucumber, 4 (Roma / small) tomatoes (or 1-2 large), 5-10 basil leaves, 1/4 red onion.

1. Take the day-old bread, and lightly moisten it under the faucet. It should be moistened all the way through. If it’s too wet, gently squeeze excess water from the bread with your hands and set aside while chopping vegetables. The bread should crumble, not clump/collapse or get soggy.
2. Shred the bread into a large salad bowl. I like to keep some larger pieces of bread in my panzanella, but you can crumble the bread down until there are very fine pieces, or “breadcrumbs” that resemble more couscous.
3. Cut the cucumbers and tomatoes into pieces and add them to the bowl. Thinly slice a red onion and chiffonade the basil (or shred it with your hands).
4. Add vinegar and olive oil and mix completely (start with a small amount of each, like 1 T. of vinegar and 3 T. of olive oil) and add more to taste. Taste before adding salt and pepper.
5. The salad can be served immediately or chilled for 30 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

Have you had traditional panzanella? How do you make panzanella at home?

Some other links that embrace the traditional “panmolle” (soft bread) concept:

• Panzanella from Divina Cucina
• Panzanella from Epicurious
• Panzanella from Cook Almost Anything
• Clotilde from Chocolate and Zucchini addresses the panzanella “authenticity” problem in her own panzanella post

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The whole “dip” concept isn’t very popular here in Italy, but why not slice up some small pieces of french bread, toast them, and have them next to the “dip” to make instant crostini?

This is a dish that is going to be on my Italian aperitivo at home menu for the foreseeable future! It’s easy to make, and you can let people do the final assembly themselves so everything stays fresh.

The star of this dip is of course the basil pesto, which has a strong enough flavor that it’s going to take center stage and the other flavors should compliment it, which is why I’ve used mainly fresh, neutral Italian cheese and ingredients. Cannellini beans, a small white bean, makes a great light base for the dip and is a favorite for traditional crostini.

I find that the green and smaller, local olives, while delicious, have too much flavor and overpower the mix of these other ingredients, so I used a sweet, black olive. If you’d prefer to have a different flavor take center stage, swap out the basil pesto layer for chopped sundried tomatoes, capers or an olive tapenade.

If you’re really paying attention, below you’ll notice that I only really talk about 6 “layers.” And you thought this was a 7-layer dip! Well, it is. The last layer is one I call the “Wildcard” layer which I add on at the very end.

Since vegetables “sott’olio” (under oil) like are so delicious in Italy (try my eggplant sott’olio), they are the perfect addition to this recipe. I don’t add them directly to the mix since the oil can make things runny and throw off the balance. I suggest keeping your wildcard layer nearby for a final topping.

In this version, my wilcard layer is chopped Borettane onions sott’olio, and they are so sweet! Other wildcard layers I suggest: artichoke hearts, grilled eggplant, zucchini, or mushrooms.

7 layer dip, Italian style for Crostini

I recommend laying the bottom three layers as spread-out as possible so that you can chill the mixture before adding new layers.

2 large, 400g cans of cannellini beans, drained well
2 large tomatoes
1 can whole or sliced black olives
150g fresh basil pesto
Pine nuts
Italian cheese: crescenza/stracchino, ricotta or shredded parmigiano reggiano
the “Wildcard” layer: eggplant, artichokes, onions, mushrooms

1. Drain the cannellini beans very well. Pulse them a few times in a food processor with some garlic salt and a little olive oil (1 Tablespoon for every can you use), but you want to keep them pretty chunky and dry. Spread the beans on the bottom of your glass serving dish. Put it in the fridge to chill while preparing the other layers.
2. Take two large tomatoes, and cut them in half, horizontally. Remove all the seeds, and chop/dice into small chunks. Let the tomatoes dry sufficiently, resting them on a paper towel if necessary.
3. Prepare your pesto layer. I had bought some fresh basil this weekend so I made up a batch of homemade pesto to use. Gently spread the pesto on the cannellini bean layer and refrigerate.
4. Roughly chop the olives and your Wildcard layer: here Borettane onions.
5. Add your cheese layer. I used a crescenza which is a creamy, almost cream cheese-like consistency and it added a little tang to the mixture. If you’d prefer, use some ricotta or large shavings of parmigiano reggiano instead.
6. Add the tomatoes, olives and pine nuts, and garnish with some fresh basil if desired. Chill the entire mixture for 30 minutes or more before serving. Serve with pieces of toasted french bread.

So, to review, from bottom-up that’s: cannellini beans, pesto, Italian cheese, tomatoes, olives and pine nuts, with the addition of the Wildcard layer afterwards!

What would your Wildcard ingredient be? How would you make this 7-layer dip Italian style?

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I love Borettane onions, a small, flat Italian pearl onion which are usually served grilled or sott’olio as an appetizer. I thought it would be good to have them as center-stage in my soup. Of course, with Italian onions, I needed to pair an Italian cheese with it.

Italian Onion Soup Recipe

Note: I definitely recommend using homemade stock in this recipe. Check out Elise’s How to Make Chicken Stock or Kalyn’s How to Make Beef Stock for inspiration. It will make all the difference!

500g Borettane onions – if you can’t find these, use white or yellow onions
3 cups broth (turkey, chicken, beef, or vegetable) – I used the very last of my turkey stock from Thanksgiving and added a 1/2 cube beef stock.
3T. butter
1 splash rum, vodka or wine

For the “croutons”:
1 baguette or crostini
Grana Padano (or Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino)
Butter slivers

1. Cut the borettane onions in half, remove the outer skin and core them to remove the hard middle part. Heat the butter in a deep, heavy-bottomed (NOT non-stick) saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter starts to melt, place all the onions in the pan. Don’t stir! Now walk away.
   
2. After 15-20 minutes of cooking over medium heat, check if the onions have softened. Continue cooking until they are soft enough to break apart when prodded (this can be 30 minutes). Once they’ve reached this stage, gently break up the onions and mix so that each piece gets coated with the butter and juices in the pan. If it’s a bit black on the bottom, don’t worry – we’ll get to that in a minute.
3. Some people advocate adding sugar to help the caramelization but these didn’t need any. If you like, add a tablespoon of sugar and continue to cook. Once the onions have broken down quite a bit, are dark and very little liquid remains in the pan (from 45-60 minutes of cooking time), splash a bit of rum (I used Havana dark since I had it on hand) or vodka or wine into the pan. Stir quickly so that the pan is de-glazed and you pick up all the lovely dark juices from the bottom of the pan.
   
4. Add the broth to the onion mixture. Bring to a slow boil. Taste now and add salt/pepper right before serving.
5. While the soup is heating, turn on the broiler. Prepare small slices of baguette or pre-cut crostini rounds on a baking sheet. Add a sliver of butter and then fresh-sliced Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino. Broil until the cheese has melted.
6. Ladle the soup into bowls and add the croutons to each bowl, submerging them or ladling extra liquid on top to soften them. If you’d prefer, you can ladle the soup into individual, oven-safe bowls and put the bread into the soup and broil them together. I decided to add the bread to the soup after toasting.
   

So it’s not quite French onion soup, but it’s a delicious compromise. I definitely think it competed with some of the versions I had while in Paris, and I think due to the fact I used homemade stock. How would you make this version your own? What would you add/take away?

Other onion soup recipes to try – French Onion Soup by Simply Recipes, Onion Soup without Tears by 101 Cookbooks, and French Onion Soup by Nook and Pantry.

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