Italian Comfort Food Ideas With Celebrity Chef Joe Borio

Syracuse, NY, October 12, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​When we think comfort food, we often think meat loaf, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, or pancakes to name a few. However, when it comes to comfort food no one does it better than the Italians. "I think Italians originated comfort food," says Celebrity Chef Joe Borio, host of the YouTube Italian cooking show, Cooking Italian with Joe. "You want to fill your stomach with warm deliciousness and head into food coma heaven with a blanket and the feeling of love? Well no one loves you more than mama, and no one takes care of a hungry child better than an Italian mother or grandmother (nonna)."

So when you think of the cold damp fall days when the wind is blowing and the air is damp and you are hungry it is time to look at the Italian menu of celebrity chef, Joe Borio and start to warm up with some love. Too many to list for sure, but here are a few to get you warm and a tummy filled with love.

First in the line-up is polenta. Often viewed as the twin of American mashed potatoes, but let me tell you, these are no mashed potatoes. First, you take 6 cups of chicken broth and bring to a boil, add two cups of polenta or corn meal and cook on a low simmer for 20 to 30 min. When thick and soft add 4 tablespoons of butter and one and a half cups grated Asiago cheese and stir all this goodness in. Serve on a plate, or bowl as is, top off with some sauce, or make it a side to anything you want like my next recipe.

Ossobuco, or bone with a hole is one of my favorite and most delicious recipes to fall asleep with after eating on a fall day. Take a cast iron pot and add 4 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup olive oil and get it hot. Now add four veal shanks, season, flour with seasoned flour, and sear in the cast iron pot for 5 to 6 min. Remove and plate to the side. Add 2 onions chopped, 3 garlic chopped, 4 oz of pancetta, ½ cup chopped carrots, ½ cup chopped celery, and cook down on a medium simmer to caramelize. Deglaze with 1 ½ cups of a soft white wine. Then add 1 teaspoon of rosemary and thyme, and a ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, with 2 cups of veal or beef stock, and two cups of san marzano tomatoes while returning the 4 veal shanks back to the pot. Set oven at 325 degrees and place pot with top in oven for 3 hours. Bam! Serve a shank with the sauce over a plate of polenta and you are in warm food coma heaven.

Spaghetti and meatballs goes without saying and the best is the left over bowl from last night's dinner, reheated with a side of toasted garlic bread topped with mozzarella cheese, served warm on the couch with a blanket! Are you kidding me! Where is the remote and my favorite pillow?

Last and most popular is the Italian classic, pizza! Nothing says I love you better than a stomach filled with carbs, meat, sauce, some basil or arugula, and some caramelized crust, topped off with some gooey melted cheese. All washed down with something warm, like hot chocolate, or eggnog, or warm milk.

Man, I am expecting a few times on the couch where a loved one is going to have to give me a shake to see if I am still alive after one of these meals.  

You can spend time with Celebrity Chef, Joe Borio and "Cooking Italian with Joe" on YouTube, cooking in his very own kitchen at his home in Cazenovia NY, or in his Italian villa and very own olive farm in Puglia Italy and see exactly how the old school Italians make magic in the kitchen. Also, benefit from generations of cooking experiences, to bring you the best Italian cooking tips, travel tips, and what to love about Italy, for your family for years to come.

Join "Cooking Italian with Joe" on www.facebook.com/cookingitalianwithjoe/, Twitter, YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/joecookingitalian our blog at cookingitalianwithjoe.tumblr.com, Instagram, and at Pinterest, or on our website, www.cookingitalianwithjoe.com, to share in our videos, recipes, stories of family, and love of Italian life. Celebrity Chef Joseph Boriois an olive oil producer and offers for sale, Extra Virgin Italian Olive Oil, named after his two sons, Vito & Joe’s Extra Virgin Italian Olive Oil, available for purchase at www.cookingitalianwithjoe.com or on www.amazon.com.

Source: Cooking Italian with Joe