What You need:

3 medium size heads of Escarole

1 medium size head of Savoy Cabbage

8 Cloves of Garlic

About ¼ cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Stick to Stick and a half of Hormel Pepperoni depending on your taste

3 small cans of goya (or other brand) cannellini beans

Fresh Cracked Pepper


Fresh Ground Sea Salt

To Serve: Hard Crust Italian bread, red pepper seeds-freshly grated parmesan cheese.

This dish may seem a little involved, but really it's not. You get to make a whole bunch of it for the week and give it out to friends. My father and I go nuts over this dish. Served with nice hard crusted Italian bread, it is a meal all by itself. This is a signature dish of my late Grandma Ann.

Step One:

You MUST soak the escarole. Simply rinsing it is not enough. Now, this may seem a little strange to some folks but here is how you clean the escarole. . .Make sure your kitchen sink is spic and span clean. That means free soap too. Put the drain stopper in. Take the escarole and rip the head into three or four pieces. Throw it in the sink. Yes that's right. Escarole grows in the dirt, so believe me you are doing it a favor. When you buy it is loaded with sand and dirt. Ok, once all your escarole is in the sink, turn on the cold water and fill sink to the top. Let escarole just sit there and soak while you prepare the other items. Make sure it's all submerged. What's happening is the sand and dirt is falling from the leaves and to the bottom of your sink while the escarole floats to the surface.

Step Two:

While the escarole is soaking, start dicing all of your garlic. Nothing fancy. Just chop it up into pieces.

Step Three:

Put garlic aside, and start cutting up pepperoni. Cut sick of pepperoni in half lengthwise, then start slicing pieces of it until it's all sliced. Thickness of slice should be about 1/16 of an inch or just as thin as you can get it with a knife. Put pepperoni aside.

Step Four:

Cut head of Savoy cabbage in quarters. Slice up quarters. Not to thin, about ¼ inch or so. Put cabbage in strainer and rinse. Put aside.

Step Five:

Heat up Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the largest sauce pot you own. (The reason why I say this is because all the escarole and cabbage may not fit at first. It will reduce in size by about half once cooked. Once it cooks down you can add any remaining ingredients. You need a big pot at first). Once oil is hot on a medium flame, put in the garlic and cook until golden brown. DON'T BURN GARLIC.

Step Six:

As garlic is cooking, take escarole off the surface of water, place as much as you can in strainer, rinse thoroughly and quickly throw it into the pot with the garlic and oil. Throw some cabbage on top along with some garlic and pepperoni sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Repeat this in layers until pot is full or ingredients are finished.

Step Seven:

Pour Three cups of water over top, cover pot ant let simmer on medium / low for 90 minutes. Toss/ Stir after 45 minutes.

Step Eight:

After 90 minutes of cooking. Pour in all the beans (the entire content of the cans). Stir well from bottom to top until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Cover pot and let cook on medium/low heat for another 45 minutes.

Step Nine:

Turn off flame let sit for ½ hour. Stir thoroughly again. Spoon contents of pot into serving bowl, top with parmesan cheese and red pepper seeds. Serve with Italian bread.

SUBMITTED BY: Jeff Spicoli

"Dates are stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped in bacon and baked until crisp. These are delicious and very easy to make for a party. You can serve them at room temperature, so it is okay to make a few hours in advance!"

PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 40 Min
READY IN 1 Hr

INGREDIENTS
1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half
1 pound pitted dates
4 ounces blue cheese

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Slice dates in half, and open them up. Pinch off pieces of blue cheese, and place them into the center of the dates. Close the halves of the dates, and wrap a half-slice of bacon around the outside. Secure each one with a toothpick. Arrange in a baking dish or on a baking sheet with sides to catch any grease.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bacon is crisp. Turn dates over after the first 20 minutes for even cooking.

Tip: sometimes the cheese melts away before the bacon gets crispy. so, cook the bacon in the microwave halfway before wrapping for shorter "in oven" time resulting in crispier end result.

3 large ripe tomatoes quartered
10 Cloves of minced garlic
Handful of fresh oregano chopped
10 Basil leaves ribbon cut
1 cup of white wine
table spoon of butter
¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil

Toss all above ingredients into mixing bowl and let sit at room temperature for about an hour.

Soak a one-pound of scallops and one pound of shrimp in salt water for about an hour in fridge.

Drain water, pat dry scallops in shrimp with paper towels and then coat with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Grill over hot wood coals at high heat for about five minutes. Turn while cooking.

Take scallops and shrimp off grill and toss into mixing bowl with all other ingredients.

Heat up empty dry saucepan until very hot. Slowly pour mixture in hot pan. And toss frequently.

Cook at high heat for about 5 to 7 minutes. Shut off flame and let sit.

Boil one pound of linguini, drain and coat with half the shrimp and scallops.

Toss well, pour the remaining shrimp and scallops on top.

Squeeze on a little fresh lemon juice and serve immediately.

Note: The reason why I heat up an empty saucepan to high heat is so when mixture hits the surface, browning flavor occurs immediately. You will hear an nice sizzle and immediately smell and intense aroma. At the same time, you do not want the mixture to cook all the way through either (as noted 5 - 7 minutes tops).

Great Italian American Recipes to come!