Paul Canonici shares recipes from his new cookbook, So Italian.

Stuffed Eggplant
3 round eggplants
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup pancetta or lean bacon, diced
1/2 lb. ground beef
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups stock
1 small can diced tomatoes
Olive oil
4 T butter, divided
Parsley, chopped
Basil, chopped
1 T chopped capers
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
Grated Parmesan

Cook pancetta/bacon and garlic in 2 tablespoons butter. Add meat and stir well. Add wine and cook over high heat, until wine has evaporated. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, tomatoes and warm stock. Cook over low heat for an hour or longer, adding stock or milk as necessary to maintain a dense, fluid consistency. This is the sauce.

Cut the eggplants in half and carve out about two-thirds of the pulp. Chop the pulp and cook with parsley and basil in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and some olive oil. Add salt, pepper and capers.

Moisten the bread crumbs with milk. Squeeze out excess milk and add the eggplant pulp. Add 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese and the eggs. Mix well. Fill cavity of eggplants with this pulp mixture.

Put the stuffed eggplants in a baking dish. Cover with meat sauce and plenty of Parmesan. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until eggplant shells are cooked.

Large zucchini may be prepared in the same manner.
Region: Puglia

Pumpkin Tart
Makes two or three tarts
3 cups cooked butternut squash or some other sweet squash such as the Japanese Kabocha
2 cups apple (1 apple), peeled and very thinly sliced
1 cup white raisins
6 T butter, melted
6 eggs
3/4 cup sugar (or Splenda)
3/4 cup liqueur (Amaretto, Frangelico, brandy, rum)
Pinch of cinnamon
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 cup apricot marmalade
Flour, about 1 cup or less

Cut the squash in half, remove seeds and boil in a big pot with a little water, skin side down. Boiling water should not cover the meat of the squash. Squash may be baked. Cook until tender.

Combine the meat from the squash, apples, raisins, butter, eggs, sugar, liqueur, cinnamon, marmalade and yeast. Sprinkle a little flour at a time while stirring, until flour is throughout the mixture.

Butter three shallow pie pans. Pour into mixture to thickness of about 1/2 inch. Tarts should be thin. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. May be sprinkled with powdered sugar when tarts are removed from oven.

Tiramisu
9 eggs, separated
9 T sugar
1 cup brandy or sweet Marsala, divided
1 cup strong espresso coffee, divided
1 lb. mascarpone cheese at room temperature, divided
2 pints heavy cream
2 packages Savoiardi or ladyfingers
4 T grated semisweet chocolate, divided

Make a zabaione by beating the egg yolks and add sugar gradually in the top of a double boiler until ivory colored. Add 3/4 cup brandy and whisk over simmering water until mixture begins to thicken. Let cool.

Stir 1/2 cup espresso coffee into mascarpone. Whip heavy cream to soft peaks. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the zabaione.

Arrange Savoiardi (ladyfingers) in a single layer in the bottom and on sides of large trifle bowl (10 or 11 inches) or rectangular dish (10x7x3). Sprinkle ladyfingers, until soaked but not soggy, with mixture of the remaining brandy and espresso (1/2 of each).

Over the Savoiardi (ladyfingers), layer half the mascarpone, then half the zabaione and 1/3 of the whipped cream. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the chocolate. Repeat layers, finishing with remaining whipped cream and sprinkle with remaining chocolate. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Serves 12 to 15.

Kathy Starr’s Mississippi Delta Jelly Cake
Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, Kathy Starr learned more than recipes from her grandmother, Miz Bob, whose culinary memories stretched back three generations, to the time of the Civil War. Miz Bob raised children and grandchildren and ran a thriving café. She instilled in her granddaughter a pride in her people and her place in the world, and a joy in cooking for family and friends. Ms. Starr’s extraordinary culinary memoir, The Soul of Southern Cooking (University Press of Mississippi, 1989), includes this recipe for a classic jelly cake, a yellow cake filled with jelly or jam between its layers and iced with more on the top. Ms. Starr stirs confectioners’ sugar into berry jelly for a ravishing jewel-color on a simply charming cake.

1 teaspoon salt
3 1/3 cups sifted flour, preferably cake flour
1 cup (2 sticks) plus 1 teaspoon butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Dash of baking soda
2 2/3 cup sugar
1/ 2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
One 12-ounce jar strawberry jelly, or blackberry or raspberry jam

Heat the oven to 325ºF, and grease and flour three 8-inch or two 9-inch round cake pans.

Combine the salt with about 2 2/3 cups of the flour in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. Combine the baking powder, baking soda, and the remaining 2/3 cup of flour in a small bowl, and stir well.

Cream the butter, sugar, and oil with a mixer at medium speed until creamy, with no gritty signs of sugar. Add the eggs, beating for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the flour-salt mixture in 3 batches alternating with the milk. Gently fold in the flour–baking–powder–baking soda mixture, and stir just until the flour disappears.

Pour into the prepared pans. Bake at 325ºF for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched lightly in the center. Cool in the pans on a wire rack or a folded kitchen towel for 10 minutes. Then turn the cakes out onto wire racks or plates, and place them top side up to cool completely.

To finish the cake, combine the confectioners’ sugar and jelly in a medium bowl and stir with a fork until all the lumps disappear. Place one layer, top side down, on a serving plate or a cake stand, and spread a third of the jelly icing over it thickly. Repeat with the second layer. Place the final layer on the cake, top side up, and ice it with the remaining jelly icing. Do not ice the sides of the cake. Serves 8 to 10.

Creole Bloody Mary
This recipe is adapted from the popular drink at the Under-the-Hill Saloon in Natchez, Mississippi—a 200-year-old riverside establishment legendary for its colorful history of serving gamblers and floozies. Nowadays, longtime bartender J.D. Montgomery—standing just a head above bar height—fills tall orders for this zesty drink, which is almost always made to the tune of blaring rhythm and blues. Outside the joint, mammoth rocking chairs await your presence on cool evenings, where you can kick back and watch the Mississippi River glide past.

6 cups tomato juice
2 cups vodka
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Garnishes: pickled okra pod, long green bean, or carrot stick
Add all ingredients except the garnish to a pitcher. Stir well, and chill until needed. Pour the mixture into eight wide-mouth glasses filled with ice. Sprinkle with extra Creole seasoning, and garnish as desired. DM