Mario, Marcella and Italian recipes

Hope you're having a great day. Mine, so far, has been a blast.

I just got off the phone with Mario Batali.

I love Mario and his rapid-fire way of speaking. I've interviewed him several times over the last few years and he is just as he is on TV - very blunt, very smart, very, very funny. (The photo to the right was taken by News Journal photographer Fred Comegys outside of Mario's Otto restaurant in New York.)

We talked about Italian food (naturally), the upcoming season of "Top Chef", (he won't be a judge) Dover Downs ("home of the Moooonnnnster Mile"), Iron Chef (he'll be back, but took off some time to open a restaurant), his recent food jaunt to Washington, D.C., (He loves Jose Andres Minibar) and Mario's new series "Spain....on the Road Again."

Check out this delightful new PBS series. It airs at 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

My story comes out Wednesday.

Over the weekend, I spent time in the kitchen with Marcella Hazan. Well, actually cooking several Marcella Hazan recipes to gear up for an Oct. 7 talk with her at 7:30 p.m. at the Free Library in Philadelphia.

Had the whole gang over on Saturday- to celebrate the Phillies NL East win, yahoo! - and here are two winners from "Marcella Cucina" (HarperCollins, 1997):

Involtini stuffed with tomato, capers, anchovies, and Parmesan

For this earthy, savory, fragrant dish, you can substitute the veal scaloppine with turkey scaloppine, which is readily available in most supermarkets. Adapted from Marcella Hazan's "Marcella Cucina" (Harper Collins, 1997.)

2 or 3 fresh, ripe, firm plum tomatoes
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons capers
2 or 3 flat anchovy fillets
1/4 cup chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
1 pound veal scaloppine (or turkey scaloppine)
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
Flour, spread on a plate
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh
1/3 cup dry white wine
Sturdy round wooden toothpicks

Peel the tomatoes raw using a vegetable peeler with a swiveling blade. Cut them lengthwise in half and scoop out the seeds without squeezing them. Cut them lengthwise into wedges 1/4-inch wide. Chop the garlic, capers, and anchoives together to a very fine consistency, reducing the anchovies to a pulp. Add the parsley and chop it briefly together with the other ingredients. Lay the veal (or turkey) slices flat on a work surface, and coat them with the caper and anchovy mixture, distributing it thinly and uniformly. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon Parmesan on top of each scallop and over it place one or two wedges of tomato. Roll up the scallop tightly and fasten with a toothpick or two. Choose a skillet where all the scaloppine can subsequently fit in one uncrowded layer, without overlaps. Put in the oil and butter and turn on the heat to high. When the butter foam begins to subside, turn the scallops in the flour and slip them into the pan. Brown them on all sides, adding salt and pepper; then transfer them to a plate. Add the wine to the pan, and any juices that may have run onto the plate with the veal. White the wine bubbles, scrape loose the browning residues from the bottom of the pan. When the wine has cooked down, forming a little dense sauce, return the scallops to the pan. Turn them for just a few seconds in the sauce, then transfer the entire contents of the pan to a warm platter and serve at once. Makes 4 servings.

AHEAD-OF-TIME-NOTE: You can cook the scallops an hour or two in advance. Leave the pan as it is. When reheating, before putting in the wine, warm up the pan with about 1 tablespoon of water, loosening the browning residues. When the water has evaporated, add the wine and proceed as described in the recipe.

Baked cauliflower Tuscan-style

2 to 2 1/2 pounds cauliflower
2 tablespoons butter plus butter for smearing the baking dish
Bechamel sauce made with 1 tablespoon butter, 1 1/2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup whole milk
2 extra-large eggs
1/4 pound boiled, unsmoked ham, cut into narrow strips (optional)
Salt
Black pepper ground fresh
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly ground Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Trim away most of the cauliflower's outer leaves and cut off a thin slice from the butt end. Wash the cauliflower in cold water. Bring to a boil enough water to amply cover it and drop in the cauliflower. (You can cut it half to fit more easily in the pot.) Cook about 20 minutes. Drain when it feels tender but firm when prodded with a fork. When the cauliflower is cool enough to handle, cut into small pieces, the root end into smaller pieces than the rest. Choose a skillet that can subsequently accommodate the cauliflower pieces in a single layer without overlapping, put in 2 tablespoons of butter, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the butter foam begins to subside, add the cauliflower pieces, turning them over for about 1 minute to coat them well. Transfer the cauliflower to a bowl and let it cool completely. Turn the oven to 400 degrees. To make the bechamel: Put 1 cup of milk in a saucepan, turning on the heat to medium low. Cook until the milk is just short of boiling, reaching the point when it begins to form a ring of small, pearly bubbles. While heating the milk, put 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium saucepan, turning on the heat under it to low. When the butter has melted completely, stir in the 1 1/2 tablespoons flour, using a wooden spoon. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Do not allow the flour to become colored. Remove from the heat. Add the hot milk from the other pan, 2 tablespoons at a time, to the flour-and-butter mixture. Stir continuously. As soon as the first 2 tablespoons of milk have been incorporated into the mixture, add 2 more, continuing to stir. Repeat the process until you have put in 1/2 cup of milk. Then, add the remaining milk all at once, stirring steadily. Place the plan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce is as dense as thick cream. If you find any lumps forming, dissolve them by beating the sauce rapidly with a whisk. Set aside.Break the eggs into a dish and beat them lightly with a fork. Put all but 3 or 4 tablespoons of bechamel into the bowl with the cold cauliflower. Add the beaten eggs, the optional strips of ham, salt, liberal grindings of black pepper, grated nutmeg and 2/3 cup grated Parmesan. Turn over all ingredients thoroughly with a spoon. Thinly smear the inside of an 7-by-11-inch baking dish with butter. Empty into it the contents of the bowl with cauliflower pieces, leveling them off with a spatula. Spread the remaining 3 or 4 tablespoons of bechamel over the top, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan. Bake in the upper middle level of the preheated oven until a light golden crust forms on top, about 30 minutes. Let it settle for several minutes after removing it from the oven. Makes 4 servings.

AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: You can prepare the dish a few hours in advance up to the time it is ready for baking. Cover with plastic wrap and, if refrigerated, bring to room temperature before putting it in the oven.