But the Spaghetti Toscana is omitted, for unknown reasons


There are heaps of decent recipes in Italian and German but only few in English. Here one in English

Pasta alla Toscana

• 1 package bow tie pasta, [COLOR=#993366 ! important][COLOR=#993366 ! important]cooked[/COLOR][/COLOR]
  according to package direction
• 4 tablespoon unsalted [COLOR=#993366 ! important][COLOR=#993366 ! important]butter[/COLOR][/COLOR]
• 1/2 cup pignoli nuts
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 vidalia onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 8 ounces spinach, washed and dried (1 package)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 pound fresh or frozen large shrimp. If fresh cleaned and deveined. If frozen, thawed
• Salt & freshly milled pepper to taste
• 3/4 - 1 cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese

METHOD

Melt butter in large skillet, sauté pignoli nuts until just brown and add garlic and onion and cook until onion is slightly caramelized.

Add wine.

Add spinach to skillet, which has been washed and dried. When spinach cooks down, add 1/4 cup lemon juice and shrimp and cook for 5 minutes (shrimp will be pink in color).

Add cooked and drained bow tie pasta to skillet and thoroughly mix until all ingredients are well blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh grated cheese.

Serves: 4- 6

I wouldn't give up on making pizza at home.

I don't have a pizza stone, but I get good results using a baking tray. I heat the oven as high as it will go and leave the tray in there to warm up. The pizzas I make a very thin and cook very quickly. It's not the same as wood fired oven, but they're better than most pizzas I've had in restaurants (partly because I can use very good quality toppings as well).

Not as easy as pasta perhaps (depending on how fussy you are with pasta...) but once you get the base the way you like them your own choice of ingredients make a homemade pizza hard to beat!

1. How high in C does your oven go?
2. Strong flour?

About 300 . . . but the key here is getting the baking tray really hot as well.

Yes . . . . use bread flour, but the strength is much less important than for bread. I just use Coop's own brand.

The thing I haven't adequately mastered is transferring the uncooked pizza to the oven tray.

Polenta. Works like ball bearings.

I use semolina flour as a peel, but it's my skills that are lacking.

Here is a good link about pizza peels and techniques.

http://www.fornobravo.com/brick_oven...zza_peels.html

I've improvised by first preparing the pizza on parchment paper then used a flat baking pan with no lip the help slide it onto the hot baking stone in the oven but a peel would be so much better.

Try raw polenta....the pizza just rolls off.