Italian Simplicity

Very Berry-licious

2010-07-19T11:55:00.003-07:00

Twice this summer I’ve come across flats of berries that were too cheap and too beautiful to resist buying. We are lucky in this part of the world to have a plentiful supply of affordable berry goodness all summer long, but I’m never sure what to do with them when I have them in large quantities. As a family, we don’t eat a lot of jam and jam is a little labor intensive for me. I needed a quick, tasty recipe so I could enjoy the bounty of berries in my kitchen and thanks to the internet; I think I’ve found it! This cake is easy and uses very basic ingredients and is all mixed by a mixer. What more could you ask for?
Easy Blackberry Cake
Adapted from Sunset Magazine, May 1997
½ cup butter, cut into chunks
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups of fresh blackberries
1 teaspoon powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch spring form pan.
2. Using an electric mixer, blend 1 cup sugar and butter, then beat on high speed until well-mixed, about 3 minutes.
3. Add flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla. Stir to combine, and then beat on high speed until well blended. Batter will be stiff.
4. Scrape batter into pan and smooth top. Scatter berries evenly over and sprinkle remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake until cake just begins to pull away from the rim, about 50 minutes.
5. Run a thin-bladed knife between the cake and pan rim. Let cool for at least 10 minutes. Remove pan rim and dust cake with powdered sugar.
6. Cut into wedges and serve with or without whipped cream.

Behold the Power of the Cauliflower!

2010-02-24T15:37:00.003-08:00

It’s hard to get excited about eating your vegetables this time of year, but in the dead of winter, you can always count on the cauliflower to cheer you up a little in the kitchen. They are usually reasonably priced and are wonderful to have around because they can be used as a main dish, soup or side dish. One of my favorite soups is a super simple Cauliflower Soup. It’s so easy and so healthy, it’s hard for me to restrain from making it every day, so I try to limit it to a couple times of month so the kids won’t complain.

Easy Cauliflower Soup

2 tbs butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 head of cauliflower, shopped into small tree pieces

1 32oz container of chicken stock

In a large soup pot, melt the butter over a medium flame. Add the onion and sautee for about 3 minutes, not letting the onion turn brown, just golden. Add cauliflower pieces and cook with the onion for about 2 minutes. Add the broth the mixture and turn up the heat a bit to bring it to a boil. Once its bubbling, reduce the heat to medium low. Cook until the cauliflower is tender, about 30 minutes. Transfer the mixture (very carefully) to a food processor, or use a hand blender and puree the soup to your desired thickness. Return the mixture to the soup pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Heat mixture to almost boiling over a medium flame and serve with a drizzle of good olive oil.

Can You Have Too Many Tomatoes?

2009-09-24T10:52:00.008-07:00

If you garden in Western Washington, you know that you can never count on a big crop of tomatoes. You feel lucky most years if you get any to turn red at all. So, when my mom hauled down 15 tomato plant one day last spring, I didn't get too excited. In fact, I though it was probably a major waste of time and energy to try to raise that many plants, considering that last years crop was dismal to say the least. Little did I know that we would proceed to have our hottest summer in 20 years and that tomatoes would grow like weeds in 2009! I would not dare complain about having too many tomatoes, but I have been feeling pressure lately to use them all up before they get bad. I still have about 20lbs sitting in my kitchen right now and the clock is ticking, so if you live in the area, feel free to come pick some up.

I did discover a recipe last year that I loved for slow-roasted tomatoes. It is almost like sun-drying the tomatoes in your oven, but they stay juicy and are covered in olive oil and garlic. Once you roast the tomatoes, you can keep them in the fridge for a month. I've been putting them on sandwiches, pizza and using them as an appetizer with goat cheese. You can also make a divinely easy pasta sauce with them by just tossing them in the pasta of your choice with some additional olive oil and top with parmeggiano cheese or mozzarella.

The recipe I used was originally from Gourmet Magazine, but I have modified it a little to lighten up the garlic. I would also love any suggestions you might have on how to use up all my remaining red beauties.

Slow-roasted Tomatoes

4 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
4 garlic cloves, minced ( I put it in the garlic press)
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 200°F.

Put tomatoes, cut sides up, in 2 large shallow baking pans. Combine garlic and oil and spoon over tomatoes. Season tomatoes with salt and pepper and roast in oven 6 to 8 hours (tomatoes will be reduced in size but will retain their shape). Cool tomatoes.

Ribollita

2009-06-19T18:08:00.004-07:00

This recipe is a request from my Aunt Diana. It's not a hard request to fill, because this soup runs right along the lines of my philosphy of simple, but awesome food. Ribollita embodies this by taking simple, inexpensive ingredients and creating something that will make you crave it all the time. This recipe is adapted from "Regional Italian Cuisine" by Hess and Salzer. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in authenitic, regional cuisine, plus the pictures are enough to make you drool. This recipe hails from Tuscany and contains the Tuscan standby of white beans. It a dish that is healthy, hearty and easy to make, a winner for sure!

Ribollita

Vegetable Chowder

4 ounces or 4 slices of bacon

1 1/4 dried white Great Northern beans

1/2 fresh cabbage

1 small leek

2 stalks celery

1 sprig fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

11 ounces of day-old bread

8 cups of beef or chicken broth (original recipe calls for beef, but I prefer organic chicken broth)

6 tbs olive oil

Soak the beans in water overnight and then in the same water, simmer the beans for 1 1/2 hours.

Finely chop the leek, carrots, celery, onion and garlic. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and sautee' the bacon and vegetables. Add the stock and thyme. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Thoroughly clean the cabbage and cut it in to chunks and thick slices. Add to the other ingrediants in the pot and cook for an additional 30 minutes. With a food processor, puree half of the cooked beans. Add the bean puree and the whole cooked beans to the pot and bring to a boil once more before serving. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with thyme, salt and pepper. Serve with toasted bread slices.

Serves 6

I've been known to use canned beans in this and many other recipes for that matter. As long as you buy good quality beans and rinse them well, they should be fine to substitute for the dried white beans.

Bon Apetito!

Summer in Italy

2009-06-11T17:57:00.001-07:00

Summer 2008

2009-06-11T12:40:00.001-07:00

Rigatoni with Sausage and Cauliflower, yummy, yummy.

2009-02-11T16:52:00.007-08:00

I was a vegetarian for a quite a while, but there was always one temptress drawing me back into the meat world, sausage. Sausage is just awesome and I could seriously eat it every day if given the chance. It is the one thing that you can depend on to be at least edible no matter what terrible restaurant or backyard BBQ you find yourself at. It is also the one ingrediant that guarantees that your recipe will be popular, at least with those who eat pork. This recipe is no exception. After I made it the first time, it quickly became a popular request. It is a dish that is versatile, because you can use broccoli or cauliflower and inexpensive, because it only requires one or two sausages to make. It is also relatively healthy for a sausage dish. So come on and give it a whirl. I can almost guarantee this will be a crowd pleaser.

Rigatoni con la Salsiccia

Rigatoni with Sausage and Cauliflower (or Broccoli)

3/4 lb of Rigatoni

1 small cauliflower (or 1 lb of broccoli)

2 tbs of olive oil
1 small onion

1 clove of garlic

1/4 lb of sausage

1/2 cup of white wine

salt & pepper

2 tbs parmesan

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

If your using encased sausage, remove the casing. Clean the cauliflower (or broccoli )and divide it into florettes. Dice the onion and crush the clove of garlic.

Put the rigatoni into the boiling water and 4 minutes before the pasta is done, add the cauliflower. (If using broccoli, don't put in the pasta water).

While the pasta is cooking, saute the garlic and onion for a minute or two and the add the sausage and cook until browned. Add the wine, salt, pepper, 2 or 3 tbs of the water from the pasta (and the broccoli )if your not using. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every once and a while.

Drain the pasta and cauliflower when the pasta is al dente and add to the pan with the sausage. Let the flavors settle for a minute and serve with grated parmesan.

Results:Alway good, super yummy. I've made this with both broccoli and cauliflower and like it with both. I often substitute the rigatoni for orechetti when using brocolli.

Cook notes: Keep the peices of broccoli or cauliflower small. Feel free to put more sausage in the recipe and I've also substuted pancetta for sausage. If I have a package of sausages to use, I will use one for the recipe and cook the rest for a second course. I also use a good chicken sausage more often than pork.

Cauliflower Soup

2009-01-22T07:04:00.006-08:00

I just can’t eat enough soup in the winter time. It’s fun to make and most of the time it’s a guilt-free meal. I grew up eating mostly chicken based soups and chili’s, but after marrying an Italian, I got to experience a whole new spin on soup. Italians eat soup as a first course often and every region has their own way to make what we call Minestrone here. Italians also favor broths with different kinds of pasta, every kind of bean soup you can imagine and the occasional creamed vegetable soup. The following recipe falls in the last category. There’s no cream in the recipe, but the pureed potatoes give it a real rich flavor.

This recipe calls for the use of broth cubes, which are often used in Italy for soups and risotto. I prefer the natural brands that can be found in the natural foods section of the grocery store as opposed to the traditional Knorr ones that contain MSG and tons of sodium. If you really don’t want to use the cubes or don’t have any on hand, I would substitute the water with chicken or vegetable broth.

Cauliflower Soup

1 cauliflower
2 potatoes
1 clove of garlic
2 cubes of broth
6 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter
1 tbs chopped parsley
1 onion, chopped
2 cups of milk
¼ c grated parmesan
Salt & pepper
Clean the cauliflower and divide into flowerettes. Cut the florettes into small, bit sized pieces. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes.
In a soup pot, brown the onion in 4 tbs. of olive oil. Add the potatoes and cook 2-3 minutes on moderate heat. Add three cubs of water, milk and broth cubes and let simmer 20-25 minutes.
In the meantime, sauté the garlic, butter, parsley and cauliflower in the remaining oil. Let the mixture cook for a few minutes, then add salt and pepper to taste. Add 2 tbs of water and continue to cook over low heat.
Turn the heat off the potato mixture and puree the mixture in a blender or food processor (or with a hand blender if you have one) and return the mixture to the pot. Add the cauliflower mixture to the potato mixture and heat through. Serve immediately with grated parmesan cheese.

Recipe notes: Don’t worry too much about the size of your potatoes cubes because they just get pureed anyway. Keep the pieces of cauliflower small, otherwise it’s too awkward to eat.

Results: This is the second time I’ve made this recipe and everyone loves it. We’re talking about fights breaking out for the last spoonful kind of liking it. It’s definitely a keeper.

Lost in Translation

2009-01-12T16:24:00.004-08:00

Now that I'm no longer in Italy, I've decided to take on a new project to satisfy my yearning for authentic Italian food. When I left Italy, I brought back the ultimate souvenir. Well, two actually. The first is my dog Pluto, who hails from the hill town of Cortona and the second is the complete encyclopedia of Italian cooking. Collecting the 16 volumes of the encyclopedia was no easy feat. Each week I had to vigilantly buy the newspaper “La Repubblica” and then spend an extra 12 Euros on the next installment. Heaven forbid that I missed a week and then I had to spend the next 2 weeks tracking down a newspaper stand that had one left. Right before we left Verona, I found a little shop that had all the issues, so I left Italy with the compete collection! Yes, I was so happy. Who know how much it cost for me to ship them back here, but I don't care, I love these books so much! They contain recipe after recipe of real Italian regional specialties. The only problem is that they are written in Italian and the measurements are in metrics. This means that every time I decide to make one of these, I have to think a little bit. I've decided this year to translate one or two recipes a week and blog about it. So far, the recipes I've made have been mostly fantastic, so let’s see how it goes....
I’m starting off with a dish I love, but have never actually made myself. It is rich and super quick to make. The recipe does include raw eggs, so be sure to use fresh and clean eggs. Any bacon can be used in this recipe, but if you can find guanciale or pancetta, it will give the recipe a more authentic recipe.
This recipe comes from Lazio region of Italy.

Spaghetti alla carbonara
¾ lb of spaghetti
7oz of pancetta or good quality natural bacon
4 eggs
4 tbs of grated pecorino (parmesan can be used in a pinch)
½ tbs olive oil
Salt & pepper
Slice the pancetta in thin strips and brown in the pan with the oil. When the strips are browned, remove from the pan and with some kitchen tongs.
Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl then add the pecorino and some pepper.
In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted water. When the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta and save about ½ cup of the pasta water.
Put the spaghetti on a serving plate and add the pancetta and stir. Add the egg mixture and stir. If the mixture is too dry, add the pasta water that you saved. Stir and serve immediately.
Advice from the encyclopedia:
It is critical that you add the eggs at the right moment. If the pasta is too warm, it will cook the eggs too much (think scrambled eggs). Add the eggs at the very end and stir lightly and this will create harmonious ingredients and give the dish a creamy effect.
Serve the pasta with a dry white wine.

The Result: This was sooo good. Everyone was licking their plate, including my daughter who doesn't like eggs. The kids had no idea they were eating eggs! It was a hit, but it was really rich, so don't make the portions too big.

Try it!

Happy New Year

2007-01-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over, at least for a while, and now we’re back to all work and no play mode once again. That sucks and I always find January a little bit depressing, without much to look forward to, except of course, a good meal. Dinner is to me a little celebration every night. We can celebrate everything from “thank God the kids will be going to bed soon” or perhaps “tomorrow I can sleep in”. There’s always a reason for a good meal and good glass of wine, sometimes you just have to use your imagination a bit more to find it.

One of my favorite winter meals is baked pasta or Pasta al Forno as it’s officially known. This is a concept that is simple and can be prepared ahead of time and stuck in the freezer or fridge until you’re ready to bake. Baked pasta can be as fancy or as plain as you like and when you really go for it, it’s a guaranteed guest impresser. The sky’s the limit on this one! The concept is extremely simple as well. Just prepare your favorite tomato sauce, boil the pasta, but a few minutes less that usually required and prepare your add-ins. The add-ins are what make this a special dish. Traditionally, Italians add in cheeses such as mozzarella, parmesean and ricotta and small meat balls. I’ve also added in things like roasted eggplant and zucchini, chopped into bite size pieces, mushrooms, peas or sausage pieces. Whatever’s in season is the rule for me. This is also a good vegetarian meal if you exclude the meat balls or sausage.

Here’s a break down on how to put together a baked pasta.

You will need:
A double recipe of the basic tomato sauce
1 1/2 lbs of tubular pasta, like rigatoni, ziti or penne (although any past will work) cooked a few minutes less than required by the directions
½ cup of grated parmesan
9x13 baking pan or other large sized baking dish

Optional Ad-ins:
meatballs
1 cup fresh or shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
roasted or fried zucchini and/or eggplant, chopped into bite-sized pieces
sautéed mushrooms
boiled eggs, chopped (trust me, its good)
sausages, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Anything you want!

In the pan that you cooked the past in, combine pasta and tomato sauce. The pasta should be saucy, but not drowning in the sauce. The past will absorb some of the sauce as it bakes, so be sure it is generously covered.

Add a layer of the pasta in the bottom of your baking dish and then arrange part of your add-ins over it. Continue the process until the pasta fills the pan and the add-in are evenly distributed throughout. Sprinkle the parmesan on top of the pasta.

At this point you can freeze or refrigerate the pasta and just bring it to room temperature when you’re ready to bake.

Bake in a 350 oven uncovered for about 25-30 minutes. You want to monitor it’s progress to make sure the top isn’t getting too crispy. If it starts to brown too much, cover it with foil. You want to bake it long enough that it’s heated through and a little crunchy on top.

Bon Apetito!

Home for the Holidays

2006-12-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

I've been a bad blogger. I'm in the States now and I've been cooking up a storm, but since I'm out of my routine, I have been forgetting to write about it. Yesterday, I made a great cabbage soup and a few days ago, my husband made a fantastic baked pasta, so I'm going to try to blog them ASAP. We will also be doing a traditional fish dinner for Christmas Eve, so look for it soon after if you like fish. Happy Holidays to everyone and eat lots of good food!

I Love Red Peppers

2006-11-30T03:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot from our trip to Venice last weekend. It sounds so cliche, but it's a magical place. Everyone in my family is happy when we're there and believe me, that doesn't happen very often. We don't even care that we usually end up paying way too much for a mediocre meal while we're there, because we're in a magical land with canals instead of streets. Italians always tell us that there are good restaurants in Venice, ones that aren't way too expensive, but they always seem to tell us about them after we've come back. I think it's a conspiracy to keep these good and well-priced restaurants a secret, but as soon as I find one, I'll let you know.

On the home food front, I've been cooking up a lot of red and yellow peppers lately. I can't seem to get enough of them and my family seems to agree. They are easy to prepare, match well with a variety of meats and fish and are packed full of vitamin C. And don't forget that they're really pretty too. Here in Italy, they are widely available and affordable, but I know that's not always the case in the US. I guess it really depends where you live in the US. My lucky relatives in California probably have no problem finding them year round, but for those of you that can't, there are some pretty good roasted, canned peppers that you can use in a pinch.

Roasting peppers is an easy way to prepare them ahead of time and after they are roasted you can do a bunch of things with them. Our favorite way to prepare roasted red peppers is as follows.

Roast 2 red or yellow peppers and peel the skin off and deseed.

Chop the peppers into 1/2 inch slices and saute with a whole garlic clove and 2-3 tbs olive oil.

After the peppers are heated through, add 1/3 cup of black olives and 1/4 of plain bread crumbs. Saute until heated thoroughly, salt and pepper to taste.

Easy, huh?

Another super easy way to prepare peppers is to simply saute them with onions. I usually use a 2 pepper to one onion ratio. You could play with this depending on how much you love or don't like onions. The recipe goes like this:

2 red peppers, chopped thinly long ways

1 onion sliced into 1/2 moons

2-3 tbs olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, but not smoking, add the peppers and onions. Saute for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so it cooks evenly. When the peppers and onions are nice and soft, its done.

This is great served with sausages or to make a fritatta with the left overs. It's also really good to make sandwiches with. Oh, I'm getting hungry! Bon Apetito!

Something Fishy

2006-11-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

First of all, here's a picture of my two fish. This summer they started to grow gills, but now that the weather has turned cold, they seem to be back to normal.

I love to eat fish, but I really am not so hot at cooking it. I can do shrimp, clams and salmon, but beyond that I get a little lost and usually turn the cooking duties over to my husband, who is braver than I. Last weekend, the husband came home with this beautiful fish called an Orato here, but I have no idea what it is in English (please help me out if anyone out there has any ideas). Even he was stumped by what to do with the pretty fish, so we turned to the Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking and found a super simple recipe for cooking the fish in parchment paper. It was simple and delicious and I think that you could play with this recipe a lot.

Here's all you need to do. If your using a whole fish, insert lemon slices and tomato slice and what ever herbs you prefer, we used parsley, into the inside of the fish. My husband added some chopped olives to this and it was good. On top of the fish, layer the same ingredients and add a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap the fish up in parchment paper, similar to a present, and cook at 350 for about 50 minutes.

This recipe can be adapted for fillets of fish as well. Put lemon slices and tomatoes on top of the fillet. Salt, pepper and oil and wrap fillets in parchment. You only need to cook for about 10 minutes if your doing fillets.

Bon Apetito!

Here's Something to Get You Through the Weekend

2006-11-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here are a few wine recommendations. Please keep in mind that wine is a personal taste, one man's pleasure is another man's poison. In other words, don't hate me if you buy one of these and hate it. These are all pretty easy-to-find, decent priced wines. Salute!

Monte Antico-Red wine- this is a consistently good Sangiovese blend from Tuscany and you can usually get it for around $10

Bertani Secco Bertani Valpolicello- Red wine- pairs well with meats and poultry, its a great sipping wine

Bertani Due Uve- White wine- a blend of Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon blanc, its nice and crisp

Melini Chianti Classico Isassi- Red wine- a very approachable Chianti that pairs well with almost any kind of Italian food

Santa Anastasia Nero d'Avola- Red wine- My aunt's favorite wine, its a great value, packs in a lot of fruit and flavor for around $10

Argiolas Vermentino- White wine- pairs great with sea food

Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina-White wine- One of my all time favorite whites, it was meant to be paired with sea food, there's nothing better with pasta and clams

Zardetto Prosecco-Sparkling white wine- yummy bubbles that don't cost too much

Simple, but Good

2006-11-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, we just don’t have a lot of time or energy at the end of the day to make a well rounded meal, but we know we need to eat our veggies, don’t we? This time of year the problem seems to e compounded by the fact that the veggies that are in season can be less than inspiring. Gone are the beautiful tomatoes, asparagus, red pepper and other colorful veggies that made our mouths water. Now, they’ve been replaced by a less colorful palate of veggies, like cabbage, squash and cauliflower. Not to disrespect these delightful fall and winter vegetables, it’s just that it’s a little harder to make a quick and healthy meal with them. Here are a couple recipes that can hopefully help you with your post summer doldrums.

Cabbage with Prosciutto

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion (less if you’re not a big fan of them)
1 head of green cabbage
2 slices of prosciutto cut into matchstick sized pieces
salt & pepper

Slice the onion into ½ circle, thin slices. Remove the core and thinly chop the cabbage. Add the oil to a Dutch oven and heat on a medium flame. When the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté until they start to soften. Add the cabbage and continue cooking for about 10 minutes or until the cabbage is cooked, but not too soggy. If the cabbage starts to stick, just add a little water to the pan. Add the prosciutto and cook until it’s warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Pasta with Zucchini, mushrooms and tuna

3 tbs olive oil
1 clove of garlic, sliced into thin disc
½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 zucchini
6 mushrooms
1 can tuna (in olive oil is best, but in water will work too)
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley
salt & pepper
grated parmesan cheese
¾ package of pasta (spaghetti, linguine, there’s a lot that would work for this)

Put a large sauce pan full of water on to boil. Add pasta and cook for recommended time.
Drain pasta in a colander.

While the pasta’s cooking, quarter the zucchini long ways and slice very thinly. Slice mushrooms thinly. Add oil to a skillet on medium flame and when the oil is hot, add the garlic and pepper flakes. When the garlic turns a pearl color, add the mushroom and zucchini and sauté for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and the zucchini is translucent. Add the parsley and the drained can of tuna and heat until tuna is warmed through, but don’t over cook the tuna. Salt and pepper to taste. Combine the sauce and the pasta and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

The Lentil

2006-11-08T03:36:00.000-08:00

So small, but so mighty. They are easy and quick to prepare. They are versatile and are extremely healthy, full of protein, iron and fiber. As I was doing research, I came across an article that proclaimed the lentil “the world’s healthiest food”. You can’t beat that can you? Now I know some of you out there are thinking “She’s posting about lentils? Can you be more boring?” I have to respond that lentils aren’t boring. I could talk all day about them. It seems that almost every corner of the world has some way of preparing the lentil. They are even referenced in the Bible, so obviously people have been digging them for a long time now.

My experience in cooking lentils has mainly been with Italian recipes. Every region here has a different way of preparing them. Here in the Veneto, they are put into risotto and down in the south, they are made with tomatoes. All over the country they are put into soups and thrown into salads. Lentils are one of the few things that Italians agree on. On New Years Eve, Italians eat lentil for prosperity. The more lentils you can eat, the more money you’ll make the next year. I guess Giuseppe and I have proved that theory wrong, because we should be billionaires by now with all the lentils we’ve put down on New Years Eve…

Lentil are cheap, healthy and filling. There’s absolutely nothing better on a cold winter night than a nice bowl of lentil soup. I also enjoy the French recipe of putting fried eggs on top of a pile of warm lentil salad. It’s sublime. I found that recipe on Epicurious.com. Do a search for lentils and eggs. Oh I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Here’s a very basic lentil recipe. It makes a good side dish or sometimes I add some spinach and pancetta and it makes a nice lunch by itself. This is also a good base to a soup, just add some broth and some rice or even some sausage. I really could go on and on, but we’ll start with this. Bon Apetito!

Lentils with Tomato

2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chopped carrot
2 tbs chopped celery
2 tbs chopped onion
1 cloved minced garlic (optional)
1 cup tomatoes, I use passato, but if its not available use crushed or chopped
1 ½ cups lentils
parsley
salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the carrot and celery. Sautee for 3 minutes and them add the onion and garlic. Sautee for another few minutes, until softened and add tomatoes and about 3-4 cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and then add the lentils and parsley. Cook 35 minutes or until lentils are done and then salt and pepper to taste. If the lentils start drying up during the 35 minute cooking, just add about ¼ of water and repeat if necessary.

If you’d like to make a soup, double the amounts and chop the vegetables larger. Add broth instead of water and use your best judgment on amount. When making a soup, nice add ins are spinach, which you can add toward the end of the cooking cycle, cooked sausage, potatoes or brown rice. Serve the soup with grated parmesan.

Hello Sweetie

2006-11-06T05:15:00.000-08:00

Well, we've eaten our way through another weekend here in Italy. The weather has suddenly gotten cold and what better way to warm up than next to a warm oven. Better yet, a warm oven full of cookies! That's what I did Friday night. I haven't baked much since moving here, partly because I didn't bring all my baking gear with me and partly because delicious sweets are readily available here. I posted some pictures here so you can see for yourselves. Every where you turn here there is a bakery with a window full of goodies or and ice cream store filled with homemade gelato and then you go to the supermarket and there's aisles full of the most exquisite chocolates you've ever eaten. I've really tried to quit the sweets since I'm getting older and all, but its a bit like wearing a wool sweater on your Hawaiian vacation, it just doesn't seem natural!

I made the cookies from a recipe I found in the Denver Post ages ago. I used baking soda, peanut butter and chocolate chips that were brought over from the States, so there's absolutely nothing Italian about them at all. To be honest, baking Italian style intimidates me. They use a different method of measuring (grams instead of cups), different ingredients (potato flour is a common cake ingredient), different pans (they're very fancy here) and different leavening agents(it comes in little packages here and I have not idea what's in them). But I decided to take the plunge after a year of living here and I went to the supermarket and bought all these mysterious ingredients and the pan and tonight I'm going to do it! I'll try to document the occasion with some pictures and if it turns out OK, I'll try to translate the recipe for you and post it tomorrow. I believe its called "Cake of Yogurt and Chocolate". In the meantime, I'll leave you with my entirely American, super easy cookie recipe.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips, but I use more

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix the first 4 ingredients together in a small mixing bowl until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Using a teaspoon, space balls of cookie dough about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet before removing because the cookies will be very soft when they're first out the oven.

Finally, Some Good News

2006-11-03T05:32:00.000-08:00

When I checked the news yesterday on CNN's website, I was so happy to see this article about how wine is great for you. Yeah! One less thing to feel guilty about! I love wine and probably drink more than the average person, mostly due to the fact I'm around it more than the average person. My husband works for a wine producer here in the Veneto and it seems we are constantly talking about it, drinking it or hiking around vineyards and wine stores looking for it. It definitely plays a large part in our lives. Even our kids have begun to take a abnormal interest in it, but we think that's cool. They'll either be very sophisticated wine drinkers or raging alcoholics by the time they're 20, let's hope for the first one. Wine in our home is just about as important as the food we serve it with and I can't imagine having a nice dinner without a nice glass of wine to accompany it.

Yes, I drink wine almost every day and I cook with it a lot too. When I first started cooking with wine, I was really shy about now, but now I'm shameless, throwing it in when ever a sauce, soup or risotto call for liquid or starts to look the teeniest bet try. It adds nice flavor and I just love the smell when you first add it to your sauce. We invented this recipe this summer and we use quite a bit of wine in it, but if you don't drink or don't have wine on hand, you can substitute another liquid such as broth or water. This recipe is very much about what you have on hand, so just take it as a general idea and play with it all you want. It always manages to come out good.

Drunken Chicken otherwise known as Chicken with Vegetables

1 chicken, cut into about 8 piece, you could do more or less, just change the size of your pan
2 potatoes, 1/2 inch cubes
2 or 3 carrots, 1/2 inch chunks
1 onion, quartered and then sliced in 1/2
2 or 3 stalks of celery, 1/2 inch chunks
optional additions: artichokes, peas, shallots, leeks, parsnips, red or yellow peppers, what ever you have on hand or that's in season
1/4 cup olive oil
white wine or broth
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Arrange the chicken in a 9x11 baking pan. Arrange the vegetables artfully around the chicken pieces. Drizzle olive oil onto chicken and vegetables and then pour enough wine into the pan to fill it up about 1/3 up the sides. Salt and pepper. Put pan into the oven and cook for about and hour and a half or until the chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally.

If you are using peas or something that will cook faster than the vegetables, add them in later in the cooking time so that don't get overcooked.

Serve it with a glass of a light red wine, like Valpolicello or a Cotes d'Rhone.

How to Dress up a Green Bean Real Pretty

2006-11-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

Green beans are something that almost everyone likes. Even as children, we tolerated canned green beans and the slimy ones they served with school lunches. And who can say no to green beans at Thanksgiving with all those yummy crunchy things and soup concentrate in them (actually, I can). Here in the north of Italy, green bean season is just about to end. The ones you see in the market now just aren’t as pretty as the ones a few weeks ago and pretty soon you won’t see them around anymore. I’ll miss them because they are the one vegetable every member of my family likes and I don’t have to hear any whining when I serve them. On the other hand, green beans can become a little tedious. I always serve them with olive oil and salt or if I’m feeling wacky I’ll add some balsamic vinegar. Don’t you think the green bean deserves more than that? Sometimes I do and I dress them up real fancy, like the recipe I’ll share with you today and sometimes I even throw them into the tomato sauce recipe of yesterday and serve them over pasta or rice. There’s actually a lot you can do with them, you just have to get out of the rut. If anyone out there has other ways to fancy up a green bean (unless it’s that casserole thing) please share it with us. Three cheers for the green bean!

Green Beans Fiorentina
1 ½ to 2 lbs of green beans
2 cups of crushed tomatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
salt and pepper

Chop or break the ends off the green beans and put into a large pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Thinly slice the onion, leaving it in ½ circles. Put the oil in a large skillet or dutch oven and heat over medium heat and then add the onion. Sautee until the onions soften and them add the tomatoes and the green beans. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir it up and cover and continue to cook on a low flame for another 10-15 minutes. Add water if the pan dries up while its simmering. Serve it hot.

The original recipe for this calls for the addition of anise seeds. I personally can’t stand them so naturally I ignore that, but if you like them, throw in 1 tsp when you are adding all the ingredients for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

I also want to mention that cooking times for green beans always varies with their size and type. I like mine barely cooked, but the rest of Italy disagrees with me and likes theirs really cooked, so I guess its just a matter of personal preference. Keep an eye on them and use these cooking times only as a guide. Bon Apetito!

Yes, you can!

2006-11-01T02:31:00.000-08:00

You like the picture? That's a castle, there's a lot of those here. This particular one is on the island of Ischia and I think its fascinating the way it was built right onto the rock like that. The picture has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm going to post about, but I thought it was way more interesting than a can of tomatoes to look at.

I love fresh and seasonal produce, but unfortunately some vegetables are only at their peak for a short period of time. One of those is definitely the tomato. When its peak season, tomatoes are to die for, but the other 11 months of the year, they can be just OK. That's why its important to find a really good brand of canned tomatoes and you can have your yummy tomato sauce all year round. I know imported Italian tomatoes are more expensive, but when the sauce is the center piece of your meal, its worth the extra buck. San Marzano tomatoes are from the area around Naples and Mount Vesuvius. They are long and thin for a tomato and get their great flavor from the volcanic soils of that area. They are pretty easy to find at specialty and fancy markets all over the place. I highly recommend you at least give 'em a try and if you don't think they're worth the extra buck you can go back to your regular ones and I won't be offended.

I love tomato sauce. It's so versatile and easy to make. Once you learn to make it, you will never ever go back to that stuff in the jar. This simple sauce can be the platform for anything in the kitchen to jump off of and into your pasta or meat. That was corny, sorry. Seriously though, you can add other vegetables or meats and put it on pasta or rice. You can use it as a sauce for meats or vegetables to make something like eggplant parmesan. You can throw in a red pepper if your feeling spicy or a can of tuna if your feeling fishy. Isn't it great! Ok, here's the breathtakingly easy recipe....

Tomato Sauce
2-3 TBS Olive Oil
1 clove of garlic, sliced into thin disk
1 can of tomatoes, whole or chopped
2 tbs fresh parsley or basil (optional)
2 tbs wine (optional)
salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, but not smoking, add the garlic and sauté until it turns pearl colored. Add the tomatoes, carefully so the oil doesn’t splatter and turn up the heat a bit until the tomatoes are bubbling. Add the wine at this point if you want. Lower the flame to a simmer and add the herbs. Let the sauce simmer for at least 12 minutes and up to ½ and hour, stirring occassionaly.

Add ½ a tsp of red pepper flakes with the garlic if you want a little spicier sauce.

This is my Mother in Law

2006-10-31T04:31:00.000-08:00

I figured I should start at the beginning. I have always loved food and cooking, but it wasn't until I met my hubby that I learned to appreciate how the ingredients of a dish should be the true star of the show. And my hubby didn't teach me that, his mother did. Before we were married, I went to Italy for a few months and stayed with the family. I knew no Italian, they knew little English. I sat and watched his mother cook for a few months. I think I annoyed her at first, but once she realized that I might be responsible for feeding her son for a while, she didn't mind so much. During those early years I was the evil American responsible for taking her son away. After I bore the first grandchild, she started to warm up to me and started giving me lessons in the kitchen. Even now, after all these years, we only really communicate through food. Oh well, it works for me.

My MIL lives in the kitchen. She spends her whole day there, cooking, watching TV, sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes. Four of her five children have moved out, but there still always seems to be someone there for her to feed, usually the grandchildren, spouses and various relatives. She cooks with such ease, its a bit like breathing to her. Although I don't want to spend all my days in the kitchen like her, I would like to someday have the ease that she has while she's cooking and feeding the masses. Here's to the MIL, salute!

This is one my most favorite and most simple dishes she has taught me.

Pasta Cauliflower

1 large head of cauliflower
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp salt
8 oz of spaghetti, broken into pieces
grated Parmesan cheese

Put about 4 cups of water and the salt in a pan and bring to a boil. While the water is heating, chop the cauliflower into 1/2 pieces and add to the water, along with the oil and garlic when the water begins to boil. Boil the cauliflower until it becomes tender, about 30-40 minutes and then add the pasta into the pot with the cauliflower. Add more water to the pan if necessary and cook until pasta is al dente, about 9 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with lots of grated Parmesan.

Trust me, this is simple and delicious and it only uses one pan!

The Farmer's Market in Bolzano

2006-10-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

Last week I took the train to Bolzano to go see Otzi, the iceman at the Museum of Archeology. That was pretty cool, really, but since this is a food blog, I'll instead tell you about the market they have daily in Bolzano's Piazza dell'Erbe. There was stall after stall of fresh, beautiful and seasonable produce intermingled with stalls selling dried fruits and nut, cured meats and roasted chestnuts. It was truly a feast for the eyes! Nothing there was from other countries or out of season, the market is a daily celebration of what nature has to offer right then and there and it's incredible.
As you travel around Italy, you see that every region has a different specialty and different produce and cheeses. These regional specialties were created by using what grew best in the region and making it into something delicious. I think this is a concept that Americans in particular could learn from. We insist on having everything available to us at all times and this has led to super markets full of mediocre, foreign grown produce, sprayed with who knows what to keep it pretty and fresh. I won't preach anymore, I promise, but I just love the idea of locally sustainable agriculture and that's why I decided to start a blog about it. I hope you can at least enjoy the pictures while I figure out how to create a blog.

Here's a recipe to get us started. I made this up myself, so excuse the unprofessional measurements and directions, but you really can't go wrong with soup.

Autumn Minestrone

2 tbls olive oil

1 cup fresh or canned beans (whatever type you prefer)

1 small zucchini

1 onion

1 leek

1/2 a head of cabbage

1 cup of squash (any kind but spaghetti)

2 potatoes

parsley

8-12 cups of water or vegetable broth

salt & pepper

grated Parmesan cheese

Chop the onion and leek into small pieces, but not too fine. Chop the zucchini into quarters length wise and then into 1/2 in pieces. Chop the cabbage coarsely into 1/2 inch strips. Cube the potato and squash into cubes, roughly about 1/2 and inch.

Put the olive oil into the bottom of a soup pot and put it on a medium flame. When the oil is hot, add the chopped vegetables to the pot and saute for about 5 minutes. If there's any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, add some wine or water (1 tbsp) to deglaze. Add the rest of the water to the pan and increase the heat to bring it to a boil. Once the pot is boiling, add the beans and reduce the heat to medium low (a little more than simmering and less than a roaring boil). Cook for about an hour and a half and add salt and pepper to taste. When serving, top with a spoon full of the grated Parmesan.

Yummy and simple. Even my kids will eat it and its not easy to get them to rave about a bowl full of veggies. This recipe can definitely be played around with. Add whatever you have in the fridge or add some pasta or rice. Soup is good food, or something like that.