Italian Food

It amazes me as to what some people consider as good Italian food. Folks in northern New Jersey are incredibly spoiled by the amount of quality Italian restaurants we have at our disposal. And a short hop into the city broadens our choices even more. When I travel to other parts of the country I am always very skeptical of the "Best Italian Restaurant" in town. If they were to open in our neck of the woods, they wouldn't stay in business for six months. Mushy pasta with canned sauces just don't do it for me.
I love to cook Italian recipes at home, and it is a passion of mine to collect Italian regional cookbooks. I currently have around 50 different books and I am always on the look out for new ones. I especially like regional cooking that we don't often seen prepared in our local restaurants. Cooking from Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Le Marche, Sicliy and others, contain recipes that use their local ingredients and their own unique flavors. The food in different regions is as different as the wines from different regions.
The vast majority of Americans think of spaghetti and meatballs as Italian food. One of my favorite movies is "The Big Night", about two brothers from Italy running a struggling restaurant serving traditional food. The following clip from the movie shows how they deal with the typical American customer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URdCltP8rqA
Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub deliver great performances in this movie. I owe my friend "Mr. Meatball" credit for this clip, as he has used it on his very entertaining blog. I strongly recommend you visit him at;
http://mistermeatball.blogspot.com/
He never fails to get laugh from me, as well as teach me something new.

The New Jersey "State Meat"

T.E.C.  Taylor Ham, Egg, and Cheese sandwich

Anyone from New Jersey knows about the virtues of Taylor Ham (A.K.A. Pork Roll), and it's curative powers. The pictured sandwich paired with a chocolate milk is the best cure to a hangover known to man. You may ask "what exactly is pork roll composed of?"  Don't bother going there. Just enjoy it's tangy, salty, porky flavor. John Taylor first sold his pork product in 1856, and Case pork roll began in 1870, offering a hickory smoked taste. There are several other manufacturers in Trenton, NJ and southeastern PA., but Taylor and Case are by far the best. Supermarkets often sell a "store brand" pork roll, which should be avoided at all costs. If you see the large log of  "Goodies" brand in a deli meat case, run out of there quickly. This cheap imitation is more like an inferior bologna.
I recently found a good site to buy it direct. There are numerous web sites re-selling Pork Rolls at twice the price of supermarkets, however Case actually takes orders directly at very reasonable rates.   Link is:
http://www.emartshops.com/caseporkrollstore/Case=27s_Pork_Roll_Store_Product_Ordering.html
The big "club  stores" like Costco and B.J.'s sell a 6 pound log for around $20.00, but it's the "Trenton Brand", which doesn't have a lot of flavor. It's also difficult to prevent it from going bad. I will cut it in 6-8 sections and freeze them in zip lock bags, but you still have eat it in a month or two. If I ate 6 lb.s of pork roll a month, I probably would be scheduling a bypass operation. Case offers 1.5 lb rolls which are in the cotton sack and shrink wrapped. They freeze very well until ready for the skillet.

Another wonderful use for pork roll is the "Jersey Burger".  Barbecue a  homemade beef patty, and a thick slice of pork roll on a hot grill, melt american cheese on both, assemble on hard roll with ketchup, salt and pepper. Won't exactly help your tri-glycerides level, but that isn't the point. The combo of pork and beef juices and gooey cheese is heavenly. New Jersey may have the highest taxes in the country, but we can get pork roll in thousands of diners, delis, and stores. The rest of the country has to eat Spam.