Pasta e Fagioli
In the song That's Amore, Dean Martin sings "When the stars make you drool, just like a pasta fazool, that's amore".
Pasta Fazool. So how did fagioli become fazool? Because, while the Italian word for beans is fagioli, the Neapolitan word is fasule. To make it even more fun, the Sicilian word is fasola. In Venetian, it is fasioi.
Many people do not realize that Italy is a country of dialects that were more or less united under a common language - Tuscan - in 1861 when Italy was unified. It wasn't, however, until television in the 1950s and '60s that Italy actually started speaking the same language - more or less. In rural areas and even within families, dialects still reign supreme.
In the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey area, it's common for the final vowel - always pronounced in Italian - to be dropped. It's also why it is often so difficult to find a recipe for a specific family dish based on what the family has called it or to find a dozen different names for the same basic recipe - the immigrants literally created a new language based upon all of their different dialects so they could communicate with one another. It is also believed that the "sauce / gravy" debate has its roots in early immigrant communication, but that's a story for another place and time.
And they say English is difficult to learn...
Regardless of what it's called, Pasta and Beans is a peasant dish served throughout Italy - sometimes with tomatoes, sometimes, not. Sometimes with meat, sometimes not. Sometimes thick, sometimes thin. A million variations on a theme - just the way I like to cook!
This is a dish I probably haven't had in 20 years. We were both trying to remember the last time either of us made it - and we're pretty sure it was in California - not Pennsylvania. That's a while ago.
And the whole thing started when an online friend of ours posted a picture and a recipe for Pasta e Fagioli that looked so good that we knew we had to make it! Michael is a great cook who delves into his Italian heritage to create some pretty spectacular dishes. We're always getting ideas. Tonight, however, we decided to follow his recipe and recreate his masterpiece - and masterpiece, it is!
Victor used fresh cannellini beans because I canned beans this morning, and we used the chicken stock I canned last week. Otherwise, this is the recipe we made!
Pasta e Fagioli
recipe by Michael Gottuso
Set up your food processor. Chop: 2 onions, 2 carrots (peeled first), 1 celery stalk, and 4 garlic cloves. Add them to the process bowl. Pulse until medium-fine chopped - DO NOT PUREE.
Add the chopped vegetables and 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil to a sauce pot. Season with a bit of salt and saute the vegetables until they turn soft - over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Do not let them turn brown.
Stir in 2 tablespoons tomato paste and peperoncino (crushed red pepper) to taste and cook for a minute or two, stirring. Then pour in a quart container of sodium-free chicken broth.
Drain two cans of cannellini beans and rinse them. Add half of the beans and 1 cup water to the processor bowl and pulse till the beans are pureed. Add the bean puree along with the remaining beans to the sauce pot. Bring it to a simmer and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
Stir in 1 cup ditalini and continue to simmer till the pasta is cooked, about 15 minutes.
Stir occasionally to ensure that the pasta doesn't stick to the bottom. Turn the heat off. Stir in 1 cup grated parmigiano cheese and a small handful of torn fresh basil leaves. Set aside for about 1/2 hour. When serving, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve with parmigiano and peperoncino.
Rich, thick, creamy - bursting with flavor. This is fall and winter food at its finest.
Thanks, Michael!
Ragu di Funghi e Finocchio
Victor mentioned a couple of days ago that he wanted to make some fresh pasta. Any time he wants to make pasta, I'm eating. End of discussion.
We were watching Lidia last night and she made a dish with mushrooms and chestnuts that really looked good - except neither of us are really all that crazy about chestnuts. It's more of a texture thing than anything else. I'll eat them in something small, but for dinner?!? There are other things we both like better. We talked about what we could do to the dish, and we both said "fennel" simultaneously. It's moments like that where we know we belong together!
And then Victor said he was cooking dinner, tonight!
He has the pasta-making down to a science. It's just perfection. And the tagliatelle he made tonight really was perfection! It was light and delicate, yet perfectly firm.
The pasta recipe is very simple.
Fresh Pasta
- 1 cup tipo '00' flour
- 1/3 cup semolina flour
- 2 eggs
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp water - maybe
Mix flour, salt, and eggs in food processor until fully combined. Knead on a floured board until smooth, adding a drop or two of additional water, if needed.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, and then roll out using pasta machine. You can roll this with a rolling pin, but a pasta roller is so much easier!
Lightly dust and then fold the pasta strips.
And then cut to desired width.
Unfold and place on a floured sheet pan.
Cook in boiling salted water for about 3 minutes. Then add to sauce and cook an additional 2 minutes.
The mushroom and fennel sauce was also something easy to put together.
Ragu di Funghi e Finocchio
adapted from Lidia Bastianich
ingredients
- olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 1/2 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 lb mixed mushrooms
- 1 tsp thyme
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup white wine
instructions
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil and throw in the the garlic, then the shallots and fennel. Cook and stir until almost tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms, thyme, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper. Cover, and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes.
Uncover, and increase the heat to reduce away the liquid in the pan, cooking about 2 minutes.
Make a space in the pan, and add the tomato paste. Cook and stir the paste in that spot until it toasts and darkens a shade or two, about 2 minutes, then stir into the mushrooms.
Add the wine and then about 2 cups pasta water. Simmer about 15 minutes and then uncover and increase heat to reduce the sauce, if necessary.
Add the pasta and stir and cook until the pasta is fully coated and cooked.
Serve with freshly grated pecorino.
This was one of those gastronomic heaven moments. Every single thing about this dish was right. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the mushrooms had a rich, meaty flavor, the fennel added a perfect sweetness in the background.
Victor cooked all of the pasta, thinking that half of it couldn't possibly be enough. We now have dinner for tomorrow night - and we'll put an egg on top!
Spiedini di Pollo, Fagioli, e Prugne
I get a daily email from La Cucina Italiana magazine - in Italian. It always has lots of recipes - also in Italian. My web browser automatically translates to English, but we all know how web translators can butcher a language. I think it's especially true with recipes. There's a nuance with cooking terminology that they just can't always get - they're still a bit too literal. Fortunately, I know how to cook and rarely follow recipes, anyway.
One recipe that I saw a few days ago caught my eye - Spiedini di Pollo, Fagioli, e Albicocche - Skewers of Chicken, Beans, and Apricots. I decided it was a must-try, even before reading the recipe. I'm an apricot fiend, so anything with apricots is sure to grab my attention.
Skewers of Chicken, Beans, and Apricots
INGREDIENTS
- 400 g a chicken breast
- 200 g chicken sausage
- 200 g boiled borlotti beans
- 80 g dry white wine
- 2 fresh apricots
- a yellow pepper
- a red pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
- garlic
- salt
For the recipe of chicken, bean and apricot skewers, reduce the chicken breast and large-sized sausage and cut the peppers into squares. Put the chicken and sausage meat dice in 4 wooden skewers alternating with the yellow and red pepper squares.
Heat a little oil and 2 cloves of peeled garlic in a large pan, and cook the skewers for 5 'each side, drizzling with the wine halfway through cooking. Remove the frying pan and season the beans with the apricots in pieces for 10 minutes, sprinkling them with a little water. Lightly salt the skewers and serve with the beans and apricots.
I changed the recipe around a bit...
The local Wegmans didn't have any apricots, today, and a single yellow pepper was $2.69. I'm doing a produce run down to Gentile's tomorrow, but that didn't help me, today. I bought a couple of over-priced plums, instead. No apricots. I know it's the end of the season, but...
You'll note that the recipe calls for 200gr - 7 ounces - of boiled borlotti beans. Borlotti beans are cranberry beans - a nice nutty, creamy bean. In theory, one could just boil them and toss them with a bit of olive oil - and that's probably how the recipe intended them - but I decided I wanted something a bit more flavorful. I cooked them with ham, a bit of bell pepper, and shallots - and a healthy splash of red wine - along with smoked paprika and garlic. There's enough left over for a side with lunch, tomorrow...
The skewers were a chicken breast, bell pepper, and a zucchini - no need for sausage on top of chicken breast. (My, how times have changed!)
I did cook them in the skillet as the recipe stated - and added the white wine halfway through. What I didn't do was add the plums to the beans. I tossed them into the skillet after taking out the skewers and served them atop the beans - not mixed in.
All-in-all?!? A really good meal.
Other than soaking and cooking the beans, it was a quick to put together dinner. We'll probably have variations for years to come!
Piadina
It seems that most cultures have a flatbread of sorts. I thought the Italian versions were pizza and focaccia - and then I learned about piadina. Piadina hails from the north of Italy - Emilia-Romagna - more or less between Florence and Venice. It is a simple bread of flour, water, lard, and often a bit of dairy - from milk to yogurt to sour cream - and dates from the 1300s. I used sour cream today, because that's what I had in the 'fridge.
Right out of the skillet, it is soft and feathery-light. I have no idea what it's like after it has set for an hour - we didn't let it sit for 10 minutes!
I had seen a sandwich on La Cucina Italiana made with piadina and thin slices of fried eggplant and even thinner slices of swordfish. My first thought was to fry up an eggplant, but then I thought of using Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer that I made, yesterday, along with some lettuce and hot peppers from the yard.
It worked. Really worked!
I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted two.
Piadina
adapted from Milk Street
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 cup lard, room temperature
Directions
In a food processor, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Process 5 seconds. Add the lard and process until combined, about 10 seconds. With the processor running, add the yogurt and then the water. Process until the dough forms a smooth ball, about 1 minute.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each into a ball, then cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your toppings.
Roll each dough ball into a 10-inch round. Poke the surfaces all over with a fork.
Heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium until a drop of water sizzles immediately, 4 to 6 minutes. One at a time, place a dough round in the skillet and cook until the bottom is charred in spots, 1 to 2 minutes. Using tongs, flip and cook for 30 seconds.
Transfer to a plate and cover loosely with foil.
This is another really quick and easy bread that really surpassed all expectations! I pretty much figured it would be good - but I had no idea how good it was going to be! The eggplant and the peppers really made for a spicy and flavorful sandwich - something I can see us having, again.
Limoncello
When life hands you lemons, it's time to make Limoncello!
As we all must surely know by now, Limoncello is an Italian cordial - but what we may or may not know, is that it's a relative newcomer to the game. There is no historical documentation regarding the use of Limoncello before the beginning of the twentieth century, and outside of a handful of families and social circles, few drank it before 1988, when the entrepreneur Massimo Canale of Capri registered the trademark “Limoncello di Capri.” The rest, as they say, is history.
The lemons of Southern Italy are what makes Limoncello so extraordinary... It is assigned the denomination of Indicazione geografica tipica (IGP), using the characteristic oval lemons from Sorrento. This lemon must be produced in one of the town districts of the area that spans from Vico Equense to Massa Lubrense and the island of Capri.
Who knew there were regulations on the types of lemons?!? But, unlike the USofA, Europe takes their food seriously.
This is one of those items that is relatively easy to make at home. You're probably not going to easily find fresh Italian lemons - although they are available in the USofA - so use a good organic lemon. Organic, because you're using the peel to make this and you don't want pesticides in your beverage.
**since originally coming up with this recipe in 2006, we have cut back the sugar tremendously. This is the revised recipe.
Limoncello
- 15 organic lemons, well scrubbed
- 1 1.75 liter bottle vodka (80 or 100 proof - higher proof=stronger)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
Wash the lemons well and pat dry. Carefully zest the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler so there is no white pith on the peel.
Step One:
In a large glass jar (1-gallon jar), add the vodka and the lemon zest. Cover the jar and let sit at room temperature for at least 10 days and up to 40 days in a cool dark place. The longer it rests, the better the taste will be. (There is no need to stir – all you have to do is wait.) As the limoncello sits, the vodka slowly take on the flavor and rich yellow color of the lemon zest.Step Two:
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar and water; cook until thick and syrupy, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Cool the syrup and then stir into the limoncello mixture. Allow to rest for another 10 to 40 days.Step Three:
After the rest period, strain and bottle: discarding the lemon zest. Keep in the freezer until ready to serve.
It's a process - and takes a couple of months to do it right - but it's well worth the wait!
It's also fun to make a lot of it and share it with family and friends!
I get my bottles and other supplies at Fillmore Container in Lancaster! Great prices and a great staff!
Orecchiette
Fun stuff in the 'fridge can often elicit a fun dinner - and a fun dinner is what we had!
The goal is to eat a bit healthier which means there's more fresh vegetables in the 'fridge - which means use 'em or lose 'em. We all know my thoughts on wasting food, so... it's use 'em! The joys of cleaning out the refrigerator...
By Sunday, the vegetable bins are becoming bits of this and that. In the winter, it's the perfect recipe for soup - throw it in a pot and make it hot. Summer requires a different approach. Usually, it's a salad of sorts, but the weather wasn't horrible outside and we've been doing a lot of salads, lately. A Sunday Pasta idea crept into my mind...
One fennel bulb, one leek, a small bunch of baby broccolini, half of a yellow and half of an orange bell pepper, a bit of leftover pasta sauce, and a couple of hot Italian sausages from the freezer made the sauce. A bit of orecchiette, and dinner was served in the time it took to cook the pasta.
I love to cook and love being in the kitchen, but even I don't want to spend all-day-every-day in there. One of my best learning experiences was in my early days of demo cooking. I'd come up with grandiose ideas and my friend and partner, Ruth, would smack me upside the head and say "I have two screaming kids who are hungry and 20 minutes to get dinner on the table - simplify that!" It was pretty much the exact opposite of everything I had done before - toasting spices to bring out their flavor and then crushing them in a mortar and pestle... building layers of flavor in a slow-simmering sauce... and dirtying every pot and pan in the kitchen.
Translating professional kitchen to home kitchen.
Putting dinner on the table every night can be a pain in the ass, sometimes - especially when there's a picky eater in the house. But cooking from scratch doesn't mean you have to spend all day in the kitchen or have special ingredients or tools - and it can be faster than thawing a store-bought entree or opening a box. Granted, there are tools out there to make preparation and cooking easier - I love my mandoline, for instance - but a good knife will also suffice. It's more about getting organized and learning a bit of technique.
I think too many people have been sold the idea that they don't have time to cook or that whatever they cook won't be as good as that frozen whatever. It's balderdash, of course. Yes, it is very difficult to replicate foods you get at restaurants - they have access to ingredients and cooking equipment and methods not readily available to the home cook - but that doesn't mean you can't cook a restaurant-worthy meal at home.
I read cookbooks like other people read novels. I look at recipes constantly - but I don't necessarily follow them. I use them for ideas, to learn technique. I think that may be one of the reasons I like Jacques Pépin so much - at least three of his cookbooks are all about technique. He takes the everyday and elevates it.
I took a bit of the sausage and sauce and set it aside for Nonna. I then sauteed the sausage, fennel, leeks, and peppers. I added some red wine, along with some fresh herbs from the garden, and made a more complex sauce for us. One dinner cooked two different ways - 30 minutes start-to-finish - and everyone was happy.
And... it was enough for two meals. Even better.
Salads and Fig Bruschetta
Ya remember those over-priced figs I bought on Friday? They became Fig Bruschetta on Saturday! And they were really good!
And really easy to put together. First, I sliced my crusty bread, lightly brushed it with olive oil, and then toasted it in the oven under the broiler. Next, I mixed up some ricotta cheese with some Boursin cheese.
I spread that liberally upon the toasted bread and then topped it with slices of fresh fig. That, in turn, was topped with a bit of shredded asiago. Under the broiler until hot and melty.
Totally outrageously good! One of those things one could eat quite a few of. We were, however, good boys. We saved some for Sunday Lunch!
To go along with the bruschetta, were simple salads with homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing.
Another fun meal...
Fregola
Close to 8 years ago, I bought a bag of fregola, cooked it up, wrote about it, and promptly forgot about it. Evidently, it didn't make an impression on me.
A few days ago, I was reading an article about Sardinia and it mentioned fregola. Intrigued, I decided to buy some - having completely forgotten about buying it once upon a time...
Looking at the package started a niggling feeling that I had seen this stuff before - but it eluded me until I did a search on the website and found the post! There are 13 years worth of meals on this site - not counting the cookbooks - and the search function is great at jogging my memory.
The last time I made it, it was a pretty heavy dish, from what I remember - and it was in August. I guess that may be the reason I let it fade away. While the weather, today, might as well be August for the heat and humidity, the dish, itself, was much lighter.
My original plan was to just cook it up with asparagus and lemon. Really simple.And then things changed - as they are wont to do around here...
Earlier today I roasted a chicken on the grill using a vertical roaster. I'm planning salads for dinner tomorrow night and wanted some cold cooked chicken. It was a big bird. I have enough chicken for half a dozen meals.
My asparagus and lemon became clean-out-the-refrigerator - one of my favorite meals!
I had 4 ounces of paper-thin sliced pancetta that came out of the freezer. 6 or 8 tiny sweet peppers, a couple of green onions, assorted mushrooms...
Time to play!
Fregola
- 4 oz thin-sliced pancetta
- 4 oz assorted sweet peppers
- 3 large scallions
- 8 oz assorted mushrooms
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 6 oz cooked chicken
- 6 oz fregola
- 1 cup white wine
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 oz Moliterno pecorino
- S&P
Dice pancetta. Fry in skillet until crisp. Remove and set aside.
Start cooking fregola - the dish will be done when it is cooked!
In same pan, add peppers, scallions, mushrooms, and asparagus. Saute until about half-done.
Add white wine and bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until vegetables are almost done. Stir in chicken and heat through.
Stir in butter, and then cheese.
Stir in cooked, drained fregola. Simmer 2 minutes.
Stir in reserved pancetta.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, desired.
This was much better this time around than it was last.
I bought a kilo, so there shall be a few more meals - and this time, I think I will remember them a bit better!
Lighter is better...
Polpettone Ripieno Uova E Spinaci
It's Victor's Birthday. His traditional birthday dinner is Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Peas. It's what he likes, it's what he gets.
Most of the time, I've just made my traditional meatloaf, but now and again, I've given it a twist. I made a Not So Basic Meatloaf 4 years ago, a Rustic French Meatloaf back in 2010 that had chicken livers, prunes, and pistachios in it - really really good and I've never made it, again... and even a Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf back in 2009 that was a heart attack waiting to happen.
Most of the time, though, it's been the basic.
Today, I decided to go Italian. We had seen a stuffed meatloaf made on one of the cooking shows and were intrigued because it was rolled and then cooked in the parchment paper. Neither of us could remember the show but it called for spinach, prosciutto, cheese, and hard boiled eggs.
I went to Chef Google but didn't quite find what I was looking for, but I got an Italian name and saw some basic steps to put it together.
I used a 50/50 beef blend of brisket and sirloin and a pound of mild Italian sausage.
Polpettone Ripieno Uova E Spinaci
Meatloaf Stuffed with Spinach and Eggs
Meatloaf
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 1/2 cups grated pecorino cheese
- 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
- 2 eggs
- garlic powder
- salt
- pepper
Filling
- 12 oz chopped spinach
- 4 oz prosciutto
- 4 oz shredded cheese
- 6 hard cooked eggs
Directions
Place beef and sausage in a large bowl. Add wine and break up and mix well. Add cheese and slowly add breadcrumbs. Add eggs and garlic powder, salt, and pepper, to taste. Mix everything well.
Place beef mixture on a sheet of parchment paper and form a rectangle. Cover with another sheet of parchment and roll even with a rolling pin.
Squeeze spinach dry and add a layer of spinach on the beef - keeping the borders clear.
Lay out prosciutto over spinach.
Sprinkle with cheese and then lay the eggs end-to-end along the top.
Using the parchment as a guide, roll into a cylinder, enclosing the entire filling. Crimp bottom and ends as best you can.
Roll tightly in parchment and twist end to completely seal.
Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for about an hour.
Let rest at least 20 minutes before slicing.
It came out stellar!
A couple of things I learned... I should have left a bit more room at the long edges to encase everything completely. The eggs weren't centered. Not a horrible faux pas, but...
The second thing is to let it set - wrapped - for about 20 minutes. I started unwrapping it as soon as it came out and had to quickly rewrap. That's probably because it wasn't fully sealed on what became the top as I put it together.
And... It's huge. 3/4 of this is going into the freezer for when we get back from California.
But the flavors were great. That's what's important!
Sausages and Artichokes
I am pretty certain my 23 and Me Ancestry is wrong. I'm Sicilian - pale, peeling, cancer-prone skin be damned. I mean... how else can you explain my gravitation to - hell, it's almost an obsession - with Sicily and Sicilian food? The only thing I don't do is watch The Godfather like it's home movies.
Tonight's dinner comes from another of my favorite Sicilians, Nick Stellino. We watch his show on PBS and laugh all the way through it. The guy is a showman, for sure. And a good cook. He's another person who takes a few simple ingredients and makes them sing - and that's usually how he is describing things.
It's my most favorite way of cooking. It's amazing that the cooking of my youth was moremoremore and how many more flavors can I get into this dish?!? In my dotage, I now appreciate letting ingredients speak for themselves.
And this dish speaks volumes! Nick served this as a side dish - with larger chunks of artichoke. I thought it would make for a great pasta dinner.
I used Martin's sausage made with white wine, garlic, and lemon. The flavors blended perfectly with the dish! Available at Reading Terminal Market.
I've copied the recipe here, because this is one of the free recipes on his website.
Braised Sausage with Artichokes
adapted from Nick Stellino
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced thick
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 6 large artichoke hearts, cleaned and cut into one inch pieces - fresh, preferred, but canned or frozen will work
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 lemon, zested in really thin long strips
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1½ pounds sweet Italian sausage, each link cut in half
- 1 cup white wine
- 1½ cup chicken stock
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- Freshly grated Pepatto Cheese
- 1 pound pasta, cooked and drained
Method
Time your cooking so you have pasta cooked and drained as the dish is finished.
In a large sauté pan set on medium heat, heat the oil until hot. Add the sausages and cook for three minutes browning them on each side. Take the sausages out of the pan.
Reduce the heat under the pan to medium low add the garlic, onion and red pepper flakes and cook until the onion is soft, about three minutes. Add the artichoke hearts, red pepper flakes, parsley and lemon zest then toss until well coated and cook for two to three minutes.
Increase the heat to high and add the browned sausages and cook for two minutes, stirring well. Now add the wine and cook until it has reduced by a third.
Add the chicken stock and bring it all to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 35-40 minutes until the sausages and artichoke hearts have cooked through.
Turn off the heat and add the softened butter stirring well until it has melted into the sauce.
Mix the sausages and artichoke hearts with the cooked pasta and place into a large serving dish. Top with lots of fresh cheese.
Buon appetito!
Things that stand out about the dish... The lemon zest... Every now and again you get a pop of fresh lemon. It's really mellow and not at all tart - just lemony. I don't own a real lemon zester so I just peel with a veg peeler and cut into really thin strips. A real wow.
Another thing is the garlic. Again, noticeable every few bites or so, but sweet and mellow. The butter at the end adds a silky richness - don't leave it out!
All-in-all, a very successful dinner.
Now to go see what else Nick has up his sleeve.....
The Weekend Food Fest
It doesn't get much better than having dear friends over for the weekend - especially when said friends are as enthusiastic about food as we are about cooking it. Definitely a friendship made in heaven!
Ann and Julie drove down from Rochester, taking a couple of days and meandering through Lancaster and the environs... Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse, Blue Ball... all the places with names that can get junior high school kids - or senior citizens - all in a twitter with double entendres.
Maturity is so overrated...
They arrived for dinner and the food-fest began!
Prosecco, of course, because... Prosecco. And a simple seafood dinner. Haddock with an Italian Salsa Verde, Potatoes and Savoy Cabbage, and Roasted Rainbow Carrots - and homemade bread, of course...
I picked up the haddock at Reading Terminal Market. I set it on lemon slices in a pan, added a bit of white wine, and put it in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes.
It was topped with a fresh herb sauce:
Salsa Verde
- 1 cup parsley
- 6 sprigs thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 8 leaves basil
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 1 lemon
- 3 anchovy fillets
- 2 tbsp capers
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper, to taste - if desired
- 1 cup olive oil
Place everything but olive oil into food processor and process until reasonably smooth. Slowly add olive oil.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and/or pepper, if desired.
It is really refreshing! Lots and lots of flavor going on.
The potatoes were cooked and mashed with savoy cabbage. This was Victor's idea. He generally dislikes cabbage, so when he suggested it, I ran with it! I love cabbage and just don't seem to get it often enough.
It was not unlike a Colcannon, but with an olive oil twist.
Mashed Potatoes with Savoy Cabbage
- 2 lbs russet potatoes
- 1/4 head savoy cabbage
- butter
- olive oil
- S&P
Peel and cube the potatoes. Chop the cabbage. Place both in a pot and cover with salted water.
Boil until the potatoes are tender. Drain.
Return to pan and mash with butter and a healthy drizzle of olive oil.
Season with salt and pepper and top with chives, if desired.
Really simple and they played well with the fish.
Another thing that played well was little rainbow carrots. Roasted in the oven with olive oil and thyme sprigs, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Really simple. Nothing overpowered anything. The flavors all spoke for themselves.
And a loaf of bread. Also simple.
Dessert was Panna Cotta topped with Blackberries in Sweet Marsala.
I didn't get a picture of it because I served it just as Lawrence Welk was starting. Lawrence Welk, you say?!? Yes... Lawrence Welk. We've had a long-standing tradition of watching Lawrence with Ann and Julie - us in Pennsylvania and them in New York. Texts flying back and forth with "My gawd, can you believe what she's wearing?"or "Rose must have been on drugs to come up with that outfit." It is a total hoot to watch a totally campy show with friends long-distance. I highly recommend it.
This is the most basic of recipes - and easier than easy to prepare.
Panna Cotta
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup half and half
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Soften gelatin in the 2 tbsp water in a small saucepan. Heat to dissolve. remove from heat.
Bring heavy cream, half & half, and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in gelatin and vanilla. Mix well.
Pour into 6 6oz ramekins. Chill until completely set.
To unmold:
Dip ramekin in hot water for a few seconds. Run a sharp knofe around the ramekin and unmold onto a small plate.
Top with your favorite topping.
Blackberry Marsala Sauce
- 8 oz blackberries
- 1/2 cup sweet Marsala
Rinse berries. Pour Marsala on top, and mash a few of the berries. Let macerate an hour. Spoon over panna cotta.
More fun, laughter, and Pistachio Liqueur, it was time to call it a night.
We started off Sunday with Brunch - a fritatta. It's simple to make. Mushrooms, leeks, eggs, asparagus, herbes d'Provence... It was served with Blackberries in Prosecco - because we had leftover blackberries and leftover prosecco. It's great when things work out like that. We also had roasted potatoes with thyme and fresh squeezed blood orange juice with seltzer. Yum.
Of course, I forgot to photograph all of that when it was being served. Oh well. here's what was left.
We sat around talking and laughing and all the tomfoolery that friends seem to do, when I noticed it was getting into the middle of the afternoon, so I headed off into the kitchen and whipped up a loaf of bread and a torta di mele - an Italian Apple Torte - while the kids were all occupied.
The bread is straight James Beard. I have been making it for years and years. It is a one-rise-into-a-cold-oven loaf. It never disappoints.
James Beard French-Style Bread
- 1 pk active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tbsp Yellow cornmeal
- 1 egg white mixed with 1 tbsp cold water
Combine the yeast with sugar and warm water in a large bowl and allow to proof. Mix the salt with the flour and add to the yeast mixture, a cup at a time, until you have a stiff dough.
Remove to a lightly floured board and knead until no longer sticky, about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary.
Place in a buttered bowl and turn to coat the surface with butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk..1 1/2-2 hrs.
Punch down the dough. Turn out on a floured board and shape into a long, French bread-style loaf. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal, but NOT buttered.
Slash the tops of the loaf diagonally in two or three places with a single edge razor blade or sharp knife, brush the loaves with the egg white wash.
Place in a COLD oven, set the temperature at 400° and bake 35 minutes, or until well browned and hollow sounding when the tops are tapped.
I use the microwave as my proofing box, nowadays. I boil a 2 cup measure with water, place it in the corner, add the bowl of dough and close the door. It drives Victor crazy because inevitably he wants or needs to nuke something, but the concept works great.
And then dessert... a Torta di Mele.
This is another simple dessert - but it looks impressive as hell.
Torta di Mele
- 4 apples - I used an assortment
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 7 tbsp butter
- 2/3 sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/8 cup Calvados
- 1 lemon - zest
- 2 tsp baking powder
- salt
Heat the oven to 390°F.
Cream sugar with butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and egg yolk. Add Lemon zest. Add milk and Calvados.
Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.
Peel and core apples. Slice half into wedges and chop half.
Stir the chopped apples into the batter.
Spread into a 10" springform pan that has been buttered and floured.
Arrange apple wedges around torta.
Bake about 30 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
I vacated the kitchen and Victor came in to make a baked pasta. Pasta with sausages, ricotta, five cheeses, and homemade sauce... Be still my beating heart. It was delicious. Even Nonna licked her plate clean.
There is something so comforting about ooey-gooey-cheesy pasta that is only made better when shared with friends. Then again, I think Italian food, in general, evokes family and friendship. There's just something about it that makes you want to eat, laugh, share, and talk for hours upon hours.
We never left the house. We simply moved from kitchen to living room to kitchen to living room.
So invite friends over for the weekend and just sit around and cook and eat. I highly recommend it!
Butternut Squash and Lobster Risotto
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by things falling out of the freezer, this morning.
It was 5:30ayem and I was rummaging around the freezer to see what I wanted to thaw for dinner. A little 2-pack of lobster tails took a nosedive onto the floor. I picked them up to put back and knocked a half of a butternut squash - and it fell to the floor. Did I mention it was 5:30ayem?!?
I looked at the two things and decided they weren't going back in - they were dinner. A recipe was born.
Risotto is seriously one of the easiest dishes to make. I think it got its difficulty reputation from restaurants that want to charge a ton of money for three cents worth of rice. Really. If you have 20 minutes, you have risotto.
And at it's core, it's just wine, broth, and rice. Everything else is just what you have on hand and want to add. Tonight, we added lobster and butternut squash. I tend to use either Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice for risotto because they are both very forgiving. They will maintain texture even as they get creamy and are almost impossible to overcook. Arborio is the rice you are going to find in the grocery store, so use it. I have a box of it, as well. In fact, I have about a dozen rices in the cupboard at any given moment.
I like rice.
Butternut Squash and Lobster Risotto
- 1 cup carnaroli rice (or arborio)
- butter and olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups clam broth
- 2 small lobster tails, chopped
- 1/2 butternut squash, chopped
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper, to taste
Saute the onion and pepper in the olive oil and butter until the onion is translucent. Stir in the rice and cook until the rice is coated with the oil and beginning to look translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a second or two.
Stir in the wine and stir and cook until it is absorbed.
Stir the clam sauce in 1/2 cup at a time, stirring regularly and adding the next 1/2 cup when the previous has been absorbed.
About midway through, add the squash.
Continue adding broth until it has been mostly absorbed and the rice is al dente.
Stir in the lobster and mix it well as it cooks. It will only take a minute or two.
Stir in the cheese, and then the parsley and oregano.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Twenty minutes.
I use a butter and olive oil mixture for flavor. You can use all of one or the other. Your dish. Your call.
You can switch out the clam broth for chicken, beef, or vegetable broth. Switch out the lobster and butternut squash for mushrooms, chicken - or just about anything you have lying about. Risotto is a great clean-out-the-refrigerator dish!
Have fun with it!