Nonna Elena

03/27/2023

Coming soon! join us next week, Tuesday April 4th.

12/12/2022

Want to learn to make clams over pasta? Vongole con spaghetti? It's pretty good...

Cooking lessons are back! First class is January 9th at 9am ends around 1p after lunch! 3-4 courses, depending on difficulty.

Demonstration only, max of 4 people. Sign up to join this class or bring your own group and pick the date and the menu! DM me or call 617-529-0469 for details.

Gift certificates make a great Christmas Present!

09/10/2022

Dear Nonna Nation!

We're back in Sicily for the first time since covid derailed everything in 2020. We have been so looking forward to this trip....

Week 1 Letojanni
Week 2 Trapani
Week 3 no tour, we rest!

So, go on over to Nonna Tours and follow us there. I will post every day. See you in Sicily!!!!!

06/09/2022

Ok, June Box is ready to ship! If you would like one, go to NonnaElenasBox.com and subscribe. If you have questions, give me a yell!

03/10/2022

March Box is ready for you!

If you have been paying attention, you know by now that we have new products from a vendor in Sicily. I was so excited to see the pasta, etc that I decided to scrap my already-planned March box and do the whole thing from Sicily.

Sicilia Naturalmente means Sicily, of course! and describes my feelings about our March box. The other day I made a dish of pasta for dinner using rigatoni and cauliflower with oil and garlic and pepperoncini. I hated it when we were kids and Ma made me eat it anyway. I’m older and wiser now, and Joanne and I are trying to be better about the amounts of meat that we eat. We went to the grocery last week and found cauliflower that was heavy, and bright white, and I couldn’t resist it. Normally I would roast it with carrots and onions and garlic, but this dish came to mind and I thought I would try it again. I’m so glad I did!

In case you’re not a fan of cauliflower, I’m sending you a jar of Sugo alla Norma. We had this all over Sicily with our rigatoni! Alla Norma is a tomato sauce with fried melanzane (eggplant). Sooo good. It hails from Catania, and was named after the Bellini opera “Norma.” You could call it “George” for all I care – melanzane is one of my favorite veggies, and I could eat it every week!

I’m so happy with this pasta, that I’ve added another: fusilli. The little corkscrew shapes are perfect to carry a pesto, but not just any pesto. This one is Sicilian – made pretty much like Ligurian pesto, except that it has almonds and pistachios in it.

Speaking of Catania, every time we are in Sicily, we head for the fish market in Catania. It is open every day and the fish from that area is amazing! I will never forget watching the fishmonger (fish butcher?) filet a fresh tuna, he cut the head off and sat it on the table in front of him! It was funny at the time, and it looked as if the head was watching him cut up the rest of its body. At any rate, in the box this month are a can of Flott tuna and a tube of anchovy paste. I love Flott tuna, packed in olive oil; it is first quality yellowfin. The anchovy paste is what I use to create a little umami in my sauces. A little sq**rt of paste (yes it comes in a tube) in an aglio, olio sauce (garlic and olive oil) makes a tremendous difference in the flavor, and very few people will realize that there’s anything fishy going on there!

The one holdover from the March box that I scrapped is the Partana extra virgin olive oil. I’ve had a few phone calls from folks asking if I were going to put it in another box soon, or did they have to just flat out order it separately. So, it’s in here. And to make sure you realize that I haven’t abandoned my Sicilian theme, the Asaro Family produces this oil in the town of Partana, Sicily in the province of Trapani. We will visit the frantoio in September during the second week of our Sicilian tour. I can’t wait!!!

The last item is fittingly, the finale to meals all over Italy. We had these after dinner one night the first week we were in Sicily a few years ago, and when I found them, I bought a “few” bags. They are called Glitterati and they are tiny little hard candies with flavors like Amaretto, Limoncello and Sicilian Orange.

That’s it! To summarize:

2 pastas (rigatoni and fusilli)
2 sauces (alla Norma and pesto)
2 fish (tuna and anchovy paste)
1 tin of Partana Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bag of Glitterati

Now, I know that there will be a couple of you who may not want the tuna or the anchovy paste, no matter how much I tell you that I love them and use them ALL THE TIME! So, just this month, if you give me a call, I’ll substitute something else for just those items.

We are always eager to hear your comments and suggestions and will answer any question you leave on any of our FB pages. Thanks for being part of Nonna Nation!

Go to NonnaElenasBox.com to order this month's Box.

02/08/2022

We just added Pasta Boxes!!!

Nonna Elena's Box

01/30/2022

February's Box is all ready to go, as soon as we get shoveled out! Let me know asap, so that you'll get it before Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and we've got just the Box to help you celebrate!

Valentine's Day reminds me that I need to be thankful for all of the Valentine's in my life: not only my wife, but the many friends that I know who have always been there to support me, and those dear folks that I would do absolutely anything for. So, this box is my way of giving you something to share with your Valentine, no matter who they are.

For dinner on Valentine's Day, Joanne and I don't generally eat much, because we save room for her major addiction in life: chocolate!

One of my go-to drinks is a Bellini: White peach puree and prosecco. Now, you can always wait for white peaches to be in season, make the puree with the sugar and lemon juice and sugar, strain it, and then clean up after yourself, or you can just open a bottle of Cipriani Bellini mix, add the prosecco and ecco! The bottle holds 6 oz of this magic solution and will make two alcoholic drinks 1:1 prosecco and mix. Oh, I almost forgot: there’s a jar of Amarena cherries in there, just to gild the lily a bit!

I love an appetizer of shrimp cocktail, mostly because we get the absolute best shrimp from our friends at The Lockdown Seafood Cartel. If you don’t know the story of the Cartel, let me refer you to Rule #1: Fresh fish has no smell, from my book There Are Rules: Notes from my Italian Kitchen. Making the cocktail sauce is going to be super easy this year: in
the box is a bottle of Mutti Italain Ketchup. It’s not that super-sweet tomato-y stuff that is sold in grocery stores, but, rather, it has a nice vinegar-y composition. I use it on hamburgers, meatloaf and fries. I used to keep a bottle at the BAH for my fries, (but you know, COVID…). With the ketchup, we included a bottle of prepared horseradish. I know, I know, it’s not Italian, but you really need it to make the proper cocktail sauce, and I decided to just provide it!

Dessert for my Valentine is always going to be chocolate, and so there is Chocolate Hazelnut cake from Piemonte, and a brick of Lavazza coffee ideal for drip pots. (If you have an espresso machine and would rather have the espresso grind, just let me know).

There is chocolate, and then there is chocolate! Majani makes this amazing little cube of chocolate and hazelnut layers, called a cremino and Perugina makes a bar of chocolate and cappuccino chips. And then, there are people like me, who will gladly eat chocolate when it is offered, but….a good bar of Torrone is gluten free, with nougat and almonds or hazelnuts or pistachios.

In summary…In the box you will find

Ciprini Bellini mix
Amarena cherries
Mutti ketchup
Horseradish
Chocolate hazelnut cake
Coffee
Chocolate cappuccino bar
Cremino cubes (five!)
Torrone bar

If you would like to start your own subscription for a Nonna Box, go to www.NonnaElenasBox.com and order it. We'll get it out to you within 24 hours. If you want some of these things, but not the whole box, you will find individual items there also.

You know how this works: sign up for a subscription box and you'll be in line first to get next month's box. We'll send you a note when they are ready to go, and if you don't want it, just let me know. Or, maybe you want two of them (to send one to a friend). Or, maybe you want to stop by and pick it up. Or, or or or....the answer is always going to be give me a call and we'll chat.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

01/06/2022

Our January Nonna's Box is ready! Here's what's in it!

Heeeeeey Nonna Nation!

It's January, and we just finished up making and sending out our boxes for the month. It's time to offer y'all the few that are left of our January Italian Food Comfort Box.

In our house, January is the time of year when Joanne starts making requests for “comfort food,” and the first request has been for Pasta e Fagioli -- macaroni and beans! I especially like the borlotti beans, although you can certainly use other dried beans like cranberry. The pasta can be something small like a tubetti or ditalini. We’ve included farfallini because they are cute and will jazz up your bean soup. My favorite recipe is the one that I wrote into There Are Rules: Notes from my Italian Kitchen.

Pici is pasta that is found in Siena. It is like a thick spaghetti, rolled by hand, and made with only flour and water. I have made it, and it is easy enough to do it, but it is difficult to do it the right way, so that each strand is the same thickness. It reminds me of one of my favorite childhood pastas, Bucatini, except that there is no hole in the middle. I have chosen a puttanesca sauce to go with the pici and added a small jar of salted capers. I find that no matter which puttanesca sauce I use, I’m always looking to add additional capers to the sauce. Don’t forget, if you use the capers, you must rinse them first or you will think the sauce too salty. Look for a future Pasta Box with the Puttanesca sauce, where I will explain the origin of the sauce.

Caponata is traditionally from Sicily, and can be used to make a Pasta alla Norma type of sauce, if you’d like. Or, just do as we do, open the can and put it on grilled bread as a really nice (and easy) appetizer.

I want you to try the Partana Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Sicily. It is my go-to oil for cooking almost everything. It is rich, and buttery, and has a nice peppery finish. It is not a delicate oil that can only be used to drizzle on soups -- it will hold up well to the heat of trying or sautéing.

The last thing in the January box is Brutti ma Buoni, Ugly but Good, cookies from Piemonte. They are made with hazelnut flour and are rather crispy and very tasty!

So, In the January box you will find:
Borlotti Beans
Mini Bow Tie pasta (Farfallini)
Pici from Siena
Puttanesca sauce
Salted Capers
Caponata from Sicily
Partana Extra Virgin Olive OIl
Brutti ma Buoni, hazelnut cookies from Piemonte

If you would like to start your own subscription for a Nonna Box, go to www.NonnaElenasBox.com and order it. We'll get it out to you within 24 hours. If you want some of these things, but not the whole box, you will find individual items there also.

You know how this works: sign up for a subscription box and you'll be in line first to get next month's box. We'll send you a note when they are ready to go, and if you don't want it, just let me know. Or, maybe you want two of them (to send one to a friend). Or, maybe you want to stop by and pick it up. Or, or or or....the answer is always going to be give me a call and we'll chat.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

12/24/2021