Blog Posts by Chow Ciao

Fabio whips up easy pasta and an even easier meatball for an ultimate Italian meal that the whole family will love.

Tips:

• Sausage is an easy way to make a "lazy meatball," packed with flavor. Use turkey or chicken sausage for reduced fat and calories.
• Meatballs are small, so they're perfect for kids. To make it even easier for kids, go with a short-cut pasta, like a wheel or ditalini, so they can eat with a spoon.
• Fresh vs. dry pasta: fresh isn't necessarily better than dried; it's richer because of the addition of egg. But it's got a shorter shelf life than dried and pairs nicely with heavy meat sauces. However, dried pasta is more economical, has a longer shelf life and is believed to hold sauces better because of its starchier texture. Either can be used in this recipe!

Pappardelle with Lazy MeatballsPappardelle with Lazy Meatballs

Recipe by Fabio Viviani

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

6 sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed

2 cups Fabio's Marinara Sauce

1 cup chicken stock

Read More »from Pappardelle with Lazy Meatballs

Fabio reveals the secret to make perfectly textured Sloppy Joes that not only melt in your mouth, they stay on the bun! His one-pot, easy family dinner is a sure-fire crowd pleaser that's destined to become a regular player at your house. Before trick or treating this Halloween, fuel up first with a good meal.

Tips:

• Texture and flavor secrets! Be sure to use a small dice on your peppers in order to make even-sized bites for your sandwiches. Using thin slices of steak instead of ground beef helps keeps the sandwich together without sacrificing any flavors.
• Sloppy Joes, or any messy sandwich, don't necessarily have to be a sloppy headache for parents. Wrap the sandwiches in parchment and make it portable. This also helps to keep the good, sloppy, stuff inside rather than on your kids' clothes or on the floor.
• Grill your buns for added flavor, and to help your sandwich from sogging out.

Not-so-sloppy joes

FABIO'S NOT-SO-SLOPPY JOES

Recipe by Fabio Viviani

Yield: 4 large or 6 small

Read More »from Fabio's Not-So-Sloppy Joes

Eggs are made easy in Fabio's simple cooking primer, where he gives easy instruction on how to pick and poach 'em. He goes on to make an easy homemade Hollandaise sauce for the ultimate Eggs Benedict. This breakfast, spoil yourself.

Tips:

• Secrets to poaching: Cook eggs at a low boil, not a rolling one, to avoid breakage.
• Easy, fail-safe way to poach an egg: using the handle of a wooden or metal spoon, create a whirlpool in your pot of simmering water. Gently drop the cracked egg into the vortex (or very middle) of the whirlpool. The "current" will automatically wrap the egg whites around the egg, keeping the egg compact.
• Hollandaise tricks: If your sauce "breaks," you can save it! Whisk an egg yolk with a tablespoon of cold water or heavy cream, then slowly beat the "broken" sauce into it. It won't be perfect, but it will still be delicious. This technique can also be used to reconstitute leftover Hollandaise sauce with similar results.

Eggs BenedictEGGS BENEDICT

Recipe by Fabio

Read More »from Easy Secrets to Cooking Eggs: Fabio's Eggs Benedict

From his own restaurant, Fabio shows off professional techniques to help the home cook. One great trick to get you ahead of schedule is to batch-cook, which Fabio proves with his easy Italian pudding -- a delicious and classic panna cotta.

Tips:

• Pre-cook any sauces or components that can stand up to a reheat.
• Chop, dice, grate, or otherwise prepare every ingredient before you start assembling the plate. You can prep and store veggies for later use.
• Batch cook ahead. Cold desserts are great for this. Easy puddings can be prepared in the same dish you serve them in for maximum efficiency.

Panna Cotta

Easy Italian Pudding (Panna Cotta)

Recipe by Fabio Viviani

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups whole milk

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup granulated sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 vanilla bean, split in half, with seeds scraped and pod reserved

4 teaspoons unflavored, powdered gelatin

12 strawberries, quartered

Balsamic vinegar, for

Read More »from Secrets of Top Chefs: How to Prepare Your Kitchen

Our Top Chef reveals all! Looking at the menu in his own restaurant, Fabio presents tips and tricks to creating a restaurant-quality meal in your own kitchen.

TIPS:

• Simple food done well is the goal. The trick is to have quality ingredients.
• Presentation is the difference to turn an ordinary $3 pork chop into $15 meal. An easy way to achieve this at home is to pick the right garnish for your plate (grilled citrus is easy), then slice your meats and arrange them with edible herbs.
• Brining (placing meats in a simply flavored salt bath) is a great way to bring restaurant quality to your home table, because you really can infuse your meat with astounding flavor. Just because they do it faster in restaurants, doesn't mean you have to sacrifice taste.
• For the serious home chef, a vacuum-sealed water cooking bath is available, but by making a simple adjustment in method to allow more time to brine (about 4 hours) and then searing off in cast iron and finishing in the oven,

Read More »from The Best Pork Chop You Ever Made

Fabio visits a Beverly Hills Steakhouse to learn about dry-aged beef and their world famous steak sauce with tips about how to make similar preparations at home… you really can fake it!

Tips:

• Secrets to aging without aging: Loosely wrap a thick marbled steak in cheesecloth and place it on a cooling rack over a baking sheet. Leave it on the back shelf of the fridge for 4 days and it will approximate the steakhouse taste. Even air flow really helps the process, so if possible minimize the amount of time you open and shut your fridge!

• Secrets to perfect pink: Sear the crust at a very high heat, preferably in a cast iron skillet. Remember to get a nice seared crust on both sides. Finish the steak off (skillet and all) in the oven. If you use steaks that are 1.5" to 2" thick, it will take 8 minutes or so at a very high heat for a perfectly red/pink center.

• Secrets to using oil and butter: These are great flavor additions that keep your steak from sticking to the surfaces used to

Read More »from Secrets of Signature Steakhouses

Fabio goes to Philadelphia to take on his favorite sandwich with the locals, a true Philly cheesesteak 'wit' onions.

Tips:

• Use rib-eye steak for the best flavor. Slice it as thin as possible. For easier slicing, put the rib-eye in the freezer for 20 minutes to par-freeze it. Don't salt the steak: you'll draw out too much moisture and dry out your sandwich.
• Cheesing your Steak: Slice, shred, grate, or cube cheese before melting it: a block of cheese is not going to melt well at all. Soft cheeses melt best.
• A quick cheese primer: Cheez Whiz: a thick, bright orange, processed cheese sauce. American: a mildly flavored processed cheese that melts easily and is often used in sandwiches. Cheddar: a hard yellow or white cheese originating in England. No Philadelphians use Cheddar on their cheesesteaks…that's near blasphemy. Provolone: a white, semi-hard Italian cheese made from Cow's milk and originating in Southern Italy. The only cheese of choice, according to

Read More »from Fabio's Philadelphia Cheesesteak

An out-of-control, restaurant-quality Osso Buco (Italian for "hole in the bone") is easier than you might think. Fabio shows how to sear a meat shank in a cast iron pot and braises his masterpiece to a glorious finish in the oven.

Tips:

• Secrets to braising. Sear the meat first! Crispy caramelization on the outside of the meat makes every bite worthwhile. Whether you use veal, pork, or beef shanks, you should only braise meats when there is a good amount of marbled fat in between the muscle. Braising a filet mignon would be ridiculous! Cooking the meat low and slow lets the proteins break down to tender perfection.
• Osso Buco sauce: the sauce of kings. Because you use a bone-in cut, the bone marrow helps create collagen during the cooking process, which add silkiness to the sauce. Because braising makes strong flavors more mild, be bold with the seasoning! Ingredients like orange peel and lots of garlic add to the density and complexity.
• Never allow your braising liquid

Read More »from Fabio's Osso Buco