Italian "DUMP DINNERS" | Easy, Convenient & Delicious Recipes

We are back today with sort of an unplanned sequel to last week's video. If you didn't see last week's video, I'll try to briefly explain what happened. Basically, I had found these cookbooks from a woman named Kathy Mitchell. You might've seen her infomercials. And basically this cookbook that we tried some recipes from, it was called Dump Dinners. And the basic concept was that using one pot or pan, you would just sort of be able to dump some ingredients into it with very little preparation or effort and sort of just cook it with as few steps as possible and make a dinner for your family. We went in that video with a good approach. We weren't expecting the food to be like amazing, but you know, we get it. Like people are busy and you know, it's maybe a convenient thing for people. Edible. Yeah, well, you know, what it ended up being was some of the most horrific, just terrifying food we've ever seen. It's a week that I have nightmare about that big, giant pot of broken feet. Yeah, so it was pretty bad. So at the end of that video, we decided that we would come back this week with some Italian dump dinners, as much as you hate that term. I hate the term, but the concept is that they are dishes that they don't need a lot of preparation. You don't have to spend hours and hours in the kitchen. Something very easy that they will cook by themselves more or less, so. And use one dish. And use one dish, one dish, one pan. One pan, one pot, baking dish. Yeah, whatever. So you don't have also to spend time then to wash all the rest. And hopefully, whatever can come up with, we'll bring the convenience of Cathy Mitchell's dump dinners but without the, like, I don't know, cans of super processed pre-made soup and seasoning packets and garlic powder. I was forgetting how bad was the smell of the garlic powder. All right, well, we tried some of Cathy Mitchell's pasta recipes, so I think it makes sense to start with a dump pasta. Okay, something is clearly wrong here. There are no cans of, like, processed soup. There's no, like, store-bought, you know, salad dressings and sauces. These are all just, like, good ingredients. What's going on here, Eva? I thought this was a dump dinner. This is a dump dinner, but it's a dump dinner Italian style where all those strange cans are not involved at all. Here we are going to cook a pasta that comes from Puglia, and the name is spaghetti arricanati, which means spaghetti with oregano. It's a dinner that you can cook just in one baking tray, baking dish, all together, not fussy. You don't need any other pot. You don't need a colander. You don't need anything. Even the pasta? Even the pasta, Harper. Okay. I'm intrigued. We start with cutting our cherry tomatoes. So, what you need to do with your cherry tomatoes is make a layer of them at the bottom of your baking tray. Then you season with olive oil, pepper, salt. The ingredients that give the name to this pasta dish, which is dried oregano, and be sure that it is a good oregano. Or you could just use a packet of Italian seasoning dressing powder. Some basil. And then we need our pasta. So, what you need to do is... I can see what you're about to do. This is what I'm going to do. Wow. This is the way in which this pasta is made. Well, it kind of makes sense, because you're baking it. You're baking spaghetti. I'm going to use some very dried mozzarella, a generous amount of Parmigiano, olive oil. Don't forget salt, because we are not going to boil our pasta. And then another layer of tomatoes. Now what we do is repeat what we did before. We need to spread some more oregano, otherwise, why this pasta is called pasta arreganata? So, be generous with the oregano, because actually it's what give the unique taste to this amazing dump dinner. A little bit of salt. Basil. And of course... What do I need to say? It's kind of like baked pasta all'oscarpariello. It's like I'm baked Italy, because that's the color of Italy. Our last ingredient for this dish is some water. And why we need water? Because the pasta that is dried to be cooked needs to absorb some liquid. We have a bunch of cherry tomatoes. But the liquid released by those cherry tomatoes are not enough, so we are going to add a half cup of water. We cover it with aluminum foil. We bake it at 410 Fahrenheit, which is around 200 degrees Celsius, for about 30 minutes. Then, after those 30 minutes, we remove the aluminum foil, and we keep it cooking for 30, 35 minutes, until on top there is the cheesy crust, and the pasta is all the way through, all the way cooked. Cooked. Well, this is going down in my mind as one of the most surprising things I've ever seen you cook. Yeah, because the Italian cuisine is full of surprise. It is. You think that you know everything, but no, there is something that will always surprise you. And the smell... Smells very good. Is amazing. Smells like oregano, which it should, considering it's called oregano spaghetti. Where'd you say it was from? Puglia. Okay. Wonderful region of Puglia. Well, they know a thing or two about pasta. They also know a thing or two about breaking the rules of pasta. Absolutely. Pasta l'assassina. Exactly. In this plate, on this dish, there are all the amazing flavor of Italy, because when you think about Italian food, you think to all these flavors that are here. Basil, tomatoes, pasta and cheese, olive oil, oregano. They are all here. It really is a dump dinner. Just dump and bake. Well, layer and bake. Layer and bake. Now you cut. You cut it? Certo. Okay. It's weirding me out, because it's spaghetti, you know? It doesn't matter, but it's a pasta al forno. You see how it's easy? Buon appetito. That's it. That is surprising me again. Because you didn't expect that it would be so good, though? I did not think it would be that good, honestly. Obviously, this is not the traditional way to cook pasta, so I thought maybe that there would be some sort of, I don't know, trade-off for the convenience of this. It's definitely different than a normal pasta, but it's really, really good. And actually, it's kind of funny that you mentioned pasta all'assassina before, because this has some of the sort of crispy edges of the spaghetti that I've only really ever experienced with spaghetti in pasta all'assassina. It's so simple to make, so easy. To me, the result is 10 times. Today, I can't speak English. Not that the other days I can. Today? I was gonna say. Not that the other days I can, but today, maybe. Your English is better than my Italian. Anyway, I was saying that the result of this pasta is 10,000 times better than when you made it. The work that you put in, the effort that you put into it, yeah. Oh, the cheesy top is so good. It's delicious. It's really good, good, good. It's addicting. The more I eat of it, the more I want it. But we should move on, because I know that you have another dump dish to show me. Harper, I have a meat dish that is very, very simple. It takes, I don't know, maybe two minutes of preparation. It's famous all over Italy, because I bet wherever you want that every single Italian, at least once in their life, or maybe once a week, they have this kind of dish. All right, so I take it that this recipe is for all of my fellow meat and potatoes people. This is a very simple recipe, and in Italian, it's called polle e patate, chicken and potatoes. It's quick, easy, it's not fussy. Not fussy? Si, not fussy at all. You don't have to spend hours in the kitchen like the lasagna to prepare. And the ingredients are pretty simple, because here we have chicken thighs, but you can use also chicken legs. I wouldn't recommend the chicken breast, because it's very dry, so the result will be not the best one. Then we have potatoes, garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. I don't know how to use a peeler, as you can see. I was gonna say, it's very odd for you to use a peeler. It's like something against nature, okay? Can I use it? Why are you using a peeler? I don't know, I don't know, I will take a knife. Actually, I will- I don't know what you were expecting. I don't know. You can never use a peeler. I know, and I can tell because I don't know how to use it. Is it dumping time? It's dumping time. Place the potatoes in the baking tray. We have the garlic. Here you have two choice. Or you can peel the garlic, or you can leave the garlic with the skin on. Personally, I think that this time I will leave the skin on, but I will just crush it a little bit and goes inside. Then you place some rosemary inside. You place the chicken. Seasoning time, which means black pepper, salt, olive oil. The last thing that you need to do with your hands, you need to massage the potatoes and chicken. Cover it with aluminum foil and bake it for about 30 minutes at 410 Fahrenheit. Then after 30 minutes, we can remove the foil and keep baking it for about 30, 35 minutes until the skin of the chicken is crispy and the potatoes are a little bit brownish. It's very important that every now and then you remember to stir your chicken and potatoes and baste them with the juice that is released in the pan. Oh, classic. Chicken and potatoes. You can't go wrong with it, which is why, obviously, this is not something that's unique to Italian cuisine. Like, chicken and potatoes, it's an amazing combination everywhere. All Italian mothers, when they don't know what to give to the children, they make some chicken and potatoes and the children, they are always happy. Even me, that I'm not the biggest fan of chicken, when I have a plate of chicken and potatoes. It's also funny, too, because probably without a doubt, the most famous Italian chicken dish is polo alla cacciatora, but this is a far more common dish in Italy than polo alla cacciatora. Absolutely, absolutely. Much more common. You will find this over that all the time. Shall we dig in? This smells really good. I'll start with the chicken, even though everyone knows that, actually, the best part are the potatoes that have soaked up the chicken fat. I was going to start with the potatoes, but then I said, okay, let's... It's like the dessert. You save that for after you've eaten the chicken. Buon appetito. Not that the chicken's bad, though. No, it never disappoints me. Nope. It's the perfect comfort food. Ah, but the potatoes. And then you go with the potatoes. I don't know why. Why do you never see animal fats that people cook with, for instance, right? You know, whether it's lard or beef tallow. Duck fat is like a really big thing now. Duck fat's amazing, don't get me wrong. But how come you never see them selling chicken fat? In Italy, there is a place where actually they start to extract the chicken fat and cook it with the chicken fat, the cornetti. Cornetti with chicken fat? Yes. Instead of butter, instead of lard, they use chicken fat. But it's still sweet? It's still sweet. The cornetto, cornetto dip in the cappuccino. It's a very pretty, famous bakery in Rome. Right now, they do once a week, just Saturday morning. Okay, next time we're in Rome. Next time we're in Rome, we are going to this very famous, famous bakery, pizzeria in Rome, and we are going to try the chicken cornetti. Because chicken fat is really, really good. And that's what makes this so good, is the potatoes and stuff. And that's why, as you said, you can't use chicken breast. It just will not work. Chicken breast doesn't work, I'm so sorry. Legs, thighs, drumsticks, all that. All right, we've had a meat and potatoes dish, which makes me think that we should probably balance this out a little bit with a really good vegetable dish, but a vegetable dump dish. And I have an idea in mind that I think qualifies, and it's one of my favorite dishes that your mom makes. I know what you're talking about. Okay, this is looking familiar. Got a potato, bell pepper, some zucchini, an eggplant. I feel like there's one thing missing that your mom would add, though. Yes, we are missing the Calabrian spicy pepper, but- Fresh Calabrian spicy pepper. The ones that grow just in Calabria, it's impossible to find outside of Calabria. Now, what you can do if you like your dish to be a little bit spicier, or a little bit spicy, what you can do is use one or two jalapeno peppers, because they can do the job. But it's also good not spicy. Tea is always good, no matter what. It's a mom-and-rosary, I suppose. Have you ever had a mom-and-rosary recipe that is bad? No. So basically, the only prep you need to do is just chopping up these vegetables. Tea is the only thing that you need to do. Don't you think it would be better if you used some canned potato soup or something? No, Alberto, absolutely not. We need to pour some olive oil in a pan. And this time, when I say some olive oil, we need some olive oil. This is a mom-and-rosary recipe. Medium-high temperature, and we can start with dumping potatoes and pepper. Yes, you're not adding them, you're dumping them. I see, because I said that then, dumping them. Now, while they are start to bubbling, drizzling, cooking, cooking, we can start to chop zucchini and eggplants. I was about to criticize you for this not really being a dump dinner, since you don't add all the ingredients at once, but I just realized most of Kathy Mitchell's recipes, we had to cook multiple things at different points, so I'll give you a pass on this. Thank you, Alberto. It's like I'm still in the challenge here. Now, one thing that I suggest you to do with the zucchini, because let's be honest, those are not the best zucchini in the world, is to remove the inside part, because this will be very, very mushy. After five minutes that potatoes and pepper are cooking, we can dump in zucchini and eggplants. And to help them to shrunk... Shrink. Shrink, shrunk, shrunk. To help them to reduce their space in the world, in my pan, what we can do is salt. Honey, I shrunk the eggplants. Have you ever seen that movie? No. Honey, I shrunk the kids with Rick Moranis. Now, the only thing that we need to do is keep an eye on them and every now and then, stir. That smells so good. I know, it smells like my home in Calabria. But you're not done yet. I'm not done yet, but when the potatoes are tender and all the vegetables look nice and brown, like mine in this moment, we need to add the last two ingredients, which are a very good wine, wine, vinegar? White wine vinegar. White or red vinegar, it doesn't matter. Important is that it's really good. And by good, you mean strong. Good means, yes, you need to taste the vinegar. This we get at a local Mediterranean market and it's awesome, but try to look for something that's pretty strong. You don't want some weak, yeah. And a good bread crumb, preferably homemade. Pour some vinegar in your pan. No, you dump it. See, dump some vinegar in your pan. And when all but the vinegar start to evaporate, you dump in some bread crumb. And you mix. Now it's worth pointing out that while you can eat this hot and fresh, it's really better cold if you let it go cold. Absolutely, because like that, all the flavor comes together. So what I suggest is do this a couple of hours before you are going to eat it. Even a day before, it's okay. Yeah, you can make it the day before and keep it in the fridge and that's great. Smell like my mama. Not like my mom. No, like your mom's kitchen. My mom's kitchen, yes. Yes, yes, caponata di mamma rosa. That's what I call it. What do you call it? No, it's like my mama, she called this caponata because now a lot of people say, but it's not a caponata. Now, I need to clarify here a moment at this point, because in the south of Italy, we have a ton of dishes made like that, which means mix all the vegetables together. And in each region, it has its own name. You can find the canazzo, you can find the caponata, you can find the caponata siciliana that is eggplant, celery, and tomatoes. You have dishes like that in Basilicata, in Puglia, in Calabria, in Sicilia, in Campania. For us, all of them are under the name of caponata, so. Yeah, it's kind of a broad term for mixed vegetable dishes like this. But this one is particularly easy to make. It is super, super good, and it is always one of the favorite dishes of guests who we have come for the week in Dassa, and when they eat Mamma Rosa's caponata. I think this is probably the most requested recipe. Like, people are asking how to make it. I would love to give a shout-out to two friends of ours, Andy and Kelly. We're obsessed with it. Every time that they come to Dassa in one of our tours, Mamma Rosa is ready with a big bowl of this. Yes, all right, shall we? See, we know how it tastes, Harper. Well, actually, I don't know. This is the first time I've had you make it, so, you know, no pressure or anything, but I'm used to Mamma Rosa herself. As we say in Italy, la mela non cade mai lontano dall'albero. Do you understand? Yes, we have that safe saying. Okay, but you say it a different way. Yes, we say it in English, in a different way. Buon appetito. Oh, okay, well done. Mamma Rosa can be proud. Oh, Mamma Rosa can be very proud. Oh, well done. Very, very good. It has that, at the beginning, the round taste of the potatoes and the egg, cleansed of the olive oil, but then it kicks in acidity of the vinegar. Yeah, it's kind of sweet and sour because the peppers give it some natural sweetness, but then you have the tartness of the vinegar and the breadcrumbs, which give it just this amazing texture. It's so phenomenal. The only thing that can make it better, truly, are the Calabrian peppers, which are so amazing. The problem is that the ones that you want are the fresh peppers, which you can't just buy fresh Calabrian peppers here. So maybe you can grow them yourself if you can find some seeds. We've had tons of people ask us about where to get Calabrian pepper seeds. Honestly, we don't know. We've never tried buying seeds here, but the ones you want are the round peppers, not the long, pointy ones. They kind of look like tomatoes. The size of the tomatoes. Yeah, it looks like a tomato. Not the small one that you usually stuff. Yeah, they look like a tomato. No, they look like a tomato. And they can be green or they can be red, and they are super, super good for cooking. Unfortunately, you can't really find them, but I do think that if you put one or two jalapenos in to give it some spice, it would still be good. What is amazing also like that. More you have, more you want. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you the same thing that I tell Mama Rosa every time. However much you think you should make of this. Double. Double it, and then double it again, and then you'll be close. Thank you guys for watching. We hope we gave you some inspiration for some very easy one-dish recipes that you can whip up and with very little time and effort. No, no cans of Campbell's soup, or packets of chemical seasoning, or anything like that. No strange combination, nothing like that. Please, please. Just grab some good pasta, good vegetable, good chicken, potatoes, and you have the most amazing dinner that you can imagine. Speaking of dishes that are amazing because of just good, simple, delicious ingredients, this pasta grammarian made pasta alla norma, which is a Sicilian eggplant pasta recipe. I wouldn't define as Sicilian. I would say the- The Sicilian. We actually chose this recipe to be the cover of our book because in our opinion, it is objectively- The best. The best pasta in the world. It is perfect. Doesn't mean it has to be your favorite. Like, we each have personal favorites, but if we have to pick one that just is put on a pillar as the platonic ideal of a pasta, it's pasta alla norma. So thanks for trying the recipe from the cookbook. It looks great. If you try any of these Italian dump dinners, if you try any of them, tag us in a picture on Instagram or Facebook, at pastagrammer. Be sure to include the hashtag, hashtag Italian dump dinner. No. All right, guys, we'll see you next time. Ciao. Ciao. Now, back to important business. Every time, you forget how good it is, but once you try, all the good memories are coming back.