Recipe: Veal Burgers

For 4th of July this year, since I currently live in Italy, I decided to be a little non-traditional for my "barbeque".  There are a couple of reasons for this: the main one being that since Italy does not celebrate 4th of July it seemed silly to try to replicate a traditional American 4th of July when I was missing some key ingredients. Mainly fireworks! Without fireworks, the 4th seems like a normal barbecue.
Also in Italy I can't find some of the traditional ingredients at the supermarket.  I would have loved to have corn on the cob, but here in Rome (at least by my house) there is no corn to be seen.  There's also no barbecue sauce either.
So I decided to veer even further and decided that traditional burgers weren't necessary. However, I did want some kind of burger to venerate the day, even though I was celebrating on my own.  I had originally wanted to make turkey burgers (again, but my Spinach Turkey Burgers are to die for...) but while running around the supermarket, I couldn't find ground turkey.  I did, however, find ground veal. So I decided to be somewhere between Italian and American about my 4th of July. I did something the Italians would never do, I decided to make burgers with my ground veal and in the end they were delicious and extremely simple to make.  I even topped them with asiago cheese which really added to the amazing taste. From there I kept it simple and served with a side salad and some hot dogs (just for tradition's sake).

Veal Burgers 
Ingredients
1/2 kilo ground veal (about a pound)
1 egg
1/2 large shallot (or a whole small one)
1/4-1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbs Paprika
Asiago cheese (or any cheese of your preference)

Dice your onions into small pieces.  I didn't cut mine super finely because I wanted more crunch in my burger. I love the contrast of textures, so remember the thicker you cut your

I love that you can see some of the onion!

onion, the more crunch you will have in your burger.
In a large bowl, mix the ground veal, egg, bread crumbs, onion and paprika with your hands. Blend well because you want a little onion in each bite.  If you aren't thorough you run the risk of getting a large mouthful of onion in one bite, and none in the next!
When well blended, form into patties. I always make my burgers on the larger (i.e. thicker) side because they shrink slightly as they cook. This time I slightly exaggerated, and it became difficult to cook the burgers through because the veal doesn't shrink as drastically as beef burgers do.
I decided to try and get grill marks on my burgers and used an indoor grill pan for the attempt.  For the record, I don't love indoor grill pans because they get quite messy and don't grill things as evenly as an outdoor barbeque thanks to hotspots from the flame below.  That being said, for the 4th of July I needed to at least attempt to get those chargrilled marks so I slightly oiled my grill for easier cleanup and got started.
I didn't get grill marks but I did get delicious

burgers. I cooked the burgers over a medium flame and kept an eye on them as they grilled. Since I made my burger so thick I had to flip them twice to ensure they cooked all the way through without burning.  If you are making a normal sized burger you should only need a couple of minutes on each side, just until they've gotten golden on each side.  Mine took longer than that.  -.-
When they were just about done, I decided to add asiago cheese on top to melt, but you can add any cheese of your choosing. Since I was already going for the non traditional asiago was a great twist but traditional cheddar would've worked just as well.
Then I had my burger on a sesame seed bun that I grilled for a minute on the grill pan.  I ate my burger with fresh tomato, lettuce, mustard and some mayo.  It really hit the spot and was delicious. And I have leftovers, so I ate one of Saturday night and will probably have another for lunch or dinner today!

It was quite the mouthful and scrumptious

Celebrating the 4th of July in Italy

Well Happy Belated 4th of July everyone!!

I meant to post this last night, but sadly in the middle of writing I fell asleep! Actually, I hadn't even started writing, I only successfully opened the page.  I guess that just means I'm exhausted from work and the heat... or quite possibly that I should sleep more!

But I hope everyone had a great day yesterday and that the fireworks didn't get too delayed thanks to the rain I heard about.

Here in Rome, it was beautifully sunny and quite hot all day, but it definitely didn't quite feel like a holiday because I left for work at 7:45 am and then stuck around until 5:30 doing various planning and projects for next week.  And there were definitely no real fireworks for me! :(

Homemade Strawberry Jam Tart

That being said I had a wonderful day because although I started early, I got to work with four great
kids (2 Americans and 2 Italians) for a 4th of July themed English lesson (the 2 Americans were my assistents). We had fun talking about the 4th and playing games. And one of the girls brought in a homemade strawberry tart that she had helped her mother make!
But the most fun for me was all the crafting.  We made Statue of Liberty Crowns and FIREWORKS!! That's right, but don't worry, they weren't the exploding kind.

My firework! I wish I had photographed the kids' projects!
Theirs were amazing!

Although, we also went outside and exploded coca cola and mentos!  They had a lot of fun and so did I!

My beautiful 4th of July grilled dinner

Then after work I took a trip to the super market and got the workings of a non-traditional Italianized
4th of July meal.  When I think 4th of July, I think of hot dogs and hamburgers, pasta salad, potato salad and corn on the cob.  So I made a regular salad, a couple of mini hotdogs (I have no idea why they're so small but they taste like real hot dogs), and veal hamburgers with Asiago cheese.  I originally wanted to make turkey burgers or regular burgers, but I didn't find either at my grocery store, instead I found ground veal and thought it would be a fun

I even found sesame seed buns

experiment.
Let me tell you, it was a delicious experiment that worked out quite well!! I think I'll definitely be making veal burgers again so I'll have a separate post up with the recipe soon.  I made them quite simply and found sesame seed buns in the store as well.  I took out my indoor grill pan and grilled up my burgers and hot dogs and served it up beautifully with ketchup, mustard and mayo on the side.  And I had half a beer, delicious for only 87cents.  I wanted to drink the whole beer but I fell asleep before I could. It was definitely a long day!!
And then I had a plate of cold cherries and peaches all while watching Doctor Who in Italian and then in English (on my computer).  All in all, it was a good 4th of July!

Such gorgeous color

Restaurant Review Rome: Taverna de Pasquino Pizzeria

La Taverna de Paquino 

A couple of months ago Endira was telling me about a really good restaurant right by her house, so finally one evening in November we decided to go so I could try it out. We'd walked passed it dozens of times on the way back and forth to the grocery store and to various other bars in her area, so I was extremely curious to see how it is.

Beautiful Table settings

From the outside you can see that it is quite charming and small,. It doesn't look like much surrounded by
graffitied metal, but it is worth a second look. It has a very old school feel with lots of wood. We decided to sit outside because of the lovely weather even though the entire was very clean with lovely low lighting and atmosphere.  The outdoor seating consists of a couple of tables under a couple of small trees that lend beautifully to the ambience. It is set up with umbrellas, lights, colorful tableware and menus. I thought it was quite fun.
The menu was small but had quite a nice range of

La Bruschetta

dishes, those traditional and slightly more un-traditional. We decided to share a couple of dishes: bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, cicoria ripassata (our favorite Roman vegetable dish), a traditional matriciana dish using bucatini and an untraditional veal meatball dish served in a lovely lemon sauce.
The bruschetta was quite good, simply done and very traditional but it packed a lot of flavor especially because the tomatoes were so fresh. Fresh tomatoes have such a lovely texture and flavor. They're not mealy or grainy but crisp and tender and the flavor bursts in your mouth with every bite.

La Cicoria

I was a big fan of the cicoria as well because it packed quite a lot of fresh flavor as well and wasn't overly
heavy on the garlic.
The matriciana was good but not my

The Matriciana was pretty good

favorite I've had since being in Rome. It was good and had a lot of flavor but the sauce was a little too runny for me. The sauce needed a little something to pep it up. Next time I go to the restaurant I would like to try one of their more non traditional pastas to see how it stacks up.

Veal Meatballs in a lemon sauce

My favorite part of the meal (and I think Endira would agree) were the veal meatballs. They were unique and amazingly light with a wonderful consistency. They were not dry even though they weren't cooked in the sauce. I'm not sure if they were baked or sauteed on the stovetop, but they were cooked perfectly and the slight gaminess of the veal was counteracted by the sweet and sour of the lemon sauce.
At some point I would definitely like to go back for the food and also because the waiters were quite friendly.