Tag Archives: Recipes

Cherry Tomato Sauce

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Grape Tomatoes

After years of renting, buying my home meant that I could finally grow tomatoes and, for the first few Summers, I grew only Roma (plum) tomatoes. Come August, I’d start making pasta sauce using my very own crop. I never had enough of them to make a big pot of Bolognese, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make a sauce. Several years later, I started growing cherry tomatoes along with the Romas. I soon learned that these little tomatoes made a very good sauce and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Before getting to the recipe, let’s talk about some of the ingredients. The recipe starts off with the rendering of either bacon or pancetta. I keep both in my freezer door. If I wish to use bacon for this recipe, I unwrap one end of the bacon package and, with a sharp knife, cut three or four 1/3 inch strips off of the end. When cooked, these will separate into smaller pieces, similar to lardons. When I buy pancetta, I ask for two or three slices about 1/3 of an inch thick, but what I actually receive are slices anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. For this recipe, I use 1 or 2 pancetta slices, depending upon their thickness. Speaking of bacon, it is a source of salt for this recipe, as is the pasta water added in the end. This is why I do not salt the dish until the very end. Similarly, the red pepper flakes bring heat and I wait before using any pepper in the dish.  As for the tomatoes, I’ve used a variety of types with this recipe. The advantage of using cherry or grape tomatoes, however, is that they are relatively good tasting all year-round, unlike their normal-sized cousins. As for the rest of the ingredients, use as much or as little as you like. In other words, make the recipe your own. Vegetarians, for example, would omit the bacon/pancetta but may need to add another tbsp of olive oil. And lastly, as always, the wine is optional.

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Cherry/Grape Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe

total time: approx.  30 – 45 minutes

Ingredients

Grape Tomato Sauce

  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste
  • 2 – 3 slices of bacon, or, 1 or 2 slices of pancetta, diced large – omit if vegetarian
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 3 – 4 cloves garlic, diced or grated
  • 3 oz. (approx) red wine
  • 6 or 7 button or crimini mushrooms, sliced, or more to taste
  • 2 – 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 – 3 cups cherry tomatoes (approx 3/4 lbs), grape tomatoes may be substituted
  • 3 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped – more for garnish
  • grated parmesan cheese
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 1 lb pasta

Simmering Sauce

Directions

  1. Fill a large pot (at least 4 quarts) with water and place over high heat. Once boiling, add salt and cook your pasta, timing it to be ready when the sauce is cooked to your liking. The pasta should be slightly undercooked and will finish cooking when it is mixed with the sauce. Reserve 1 cup of the water in which the pasta was cooked.
  2. Place olive oil in a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.
  3. Add pepper flakes to frying pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bacon/pancetta and cook until fully rendered, about 6 minutes — less if not frozen.
  4. Add onions and cook until translucent, about 5 – 7 minutes.
  5. Add garlic and continue cooking for no more than 1 minute. Do not burn the garlic.
  6. Add the wine and reduce until most has evaporated.
  7. Add mushrooms and sauté for about 5 more minutes.
  8. Add tomato paste and sauté until the air is scented with the smell of roasted tomatoes, about 2 – 3 minutes.
  9. Add the tomatoes, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.
  10. Check the pan after about 5 minutes to see if the tomatoes have started to burst. When about 1/3 of them have burst, use a potato masher or broad wooden spoon to carefully smash all the tomatoes. The tomato juices are very hot and will burn if allowed to squirt on you.

    Pasta Fresca

  11. The sauce is now ready when you are. Its taste will vary depending upon how long you allow the tomatoes to cook.
  12. Add the basil and parsley and stir. If necessary, add some of the reserved pasta water so that your sauce has the consistency that you prefer.
  13. Season with salt & pepper, to taste.
  14. Add the cooked pasta to the frying pan, mix to coat, and cook until pasta is al dente, about 1 – 2 minutes.
  15. Serve immediately, garnished with parsley and parmesan cheese.

Variations

I’ve seen variations of this recipe prepared by a few of TV’s chefs. Rachael Ray added a twist that I first saw a few years ago. She roasted the tomatoes before adding them to the other ingredients. Although I do not remember her specifics, I pre-heat my oven to 425*, place the cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet, sprinkle them with a little olive oil, and mix them by hand to help coat them all with the oil. The tray is placed in the oven and the tomatoes roasted for about 20 minutes or until they burst. I then remove the tray from the oven and add its contents to the frying pan instead of the raw tomatoes. This is an alternative definitely worth trying.

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Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

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New ShellsLet me be clear about something. I love stuffed pasta shells. A cinch to make, they are the perfect blend of ricotta cheese, spinach, & pasta. I realize that some may feel that the same could be said for lasagna and they’d be correct, for the most part. My family’s lasagna recipe, however, doesn’t include ricotta, making it relatively unique, as far as lasagna goes. What’s more, we use very little ricotta in other recipes so these shells are a real stand out. In my last post, I described making ricotta and shared a recipe that yields about 2 pounds of the cheese. Well, that’s a lot of ricotta, as I soon found out. When all was said and done,  I had filled four 9 x 9″ aluminum cake pans with 12 shells apiece. (1 tray was destined for the oven; 2 for delivery to friends; and 1 was frozen.) I used that cooking experience as a guide for today’s recipe and halved the recipe, using 1 pound of ricotta. By the way, if you’re vegetarian or limiting red meat in your diet, use a marinara sauce instead of one with meat.

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Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells Recipe

total time: about 90 minutes. yield: about 24 shells.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound fresh ricotta (1/2 of home-made ricotta recipe)
  • 1 – 10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well-drained
  • 1 c grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 quart pasta sauce, marinara or meat-based
  • water
  • 1 box jumbo pasta shells, cooked following package directions, reserved in cold water.
  • 1 cup grated mozzarella, or more to taste

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350*. Butter one9 x 13″ baking dish/pan.
  2. Place ricotta, spinach, parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, and nutmeg into a bowl and combine, either by hand or using a stand mixer, until well-blended.
  3. Add about 2/3 of the sauce to the baking dish with a little water.
  4. One by one, fill each shell with 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of the filling mixture and place in the baking dish.
  5. When the tray is filled, drizzle remaining sauce over the tops of the stuffed shells. Sprinkle with mozzarella and cover with aluminum foil.
  6. Place on oven’s center rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 15 minutes more.
  7. Remove from oven, let rest at least 5 minutes, and serve.

Variations Instead of spinach, cooked & chopped Swiss chard or broccoli rabe (rapini) may be added to the cheese before stuffing the shells. For a cheesier dish, use a few tablespoons of chopped, fresh basil or parsley in place of the spinach.

Notes

Extra shells may be frozen using either of 2 methods:

  1. Perhaps the easiest way to freeze them is to place the stuffed shells on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Place the tray in the freezer and, after at least 2 hours, remove the shells and place in a container suitable for storage in the freezer. I wouldn’t suggest freezer bags because the pasta shells get rigid when frozen and bags may not offer enough protection. When you wish to cook them, treat the frozen shells as you would fresh and place them in a baking dish filled partway with sauce. Cover with foil, pace on center rack, and bake for 1 hour in a pre-heated 350* oven. After 1 hour, remove foil and insert tip of knife into the cheese of one of the shells in the middle of the tray. After a few seconds, remove knife and feel tip. If it’s just warm, cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. If the knife tip is hot, continue baking, uncovered, until the cheese on top is to your liking. If the knife tip is cold, the cheese isn’t heated. Put foil back onto the tray, cook for another 15 minutes, and test again.
  2. Alternately, you can prepare the shells in a tray as normal but put them in the freezer instead of the oven. Later, place them, covered with foil, in a 350* pre-heated oven for 1 hour. Refer to the prior note for testing the shells for doneness.

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Home-Made Ricotta Cheese

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One night in the Fall of 2009, I was having trouble sleeping so I did what I always do: I surfed the web. Eventually, I came across a cheese-making site, then another, and another. At the time, I had no idea that so many varieties of cheese could be made at home. While some – gorgonzola, cheddar, parmesan, etc. — are a bit too involved for me to attempt, I have made mozzarella, cream cheese, ricotta, mascarpone, and goat cheese, not to mention butter and herbed yogurt cheese. Although I’ve no intention of blogging about my cheesy exploits, earlier today I followed a recipe from a cooking show that produced a great batch of ricotta. Because of its simplicity and delicious results, I thought I’d devote today’s entry to the making of ricotta. For those interested in making cheese at home, I’ve listed below a few websites that I’ve used as sources for both information and supplies.

Yum!

Recently, I watched a program hosted by Boston’s Brass Sisters. They planned to make their special lasagna for the firemen of a nearby firehouse and needed to buy ricotta. They went to Capone Foods, where the owner, Albert Capone, not only sold them what they needed, he shared his recipe for making ricotta. I made some earlier today and it ranks among the best ricotta that I’ve ever tasted and is certainly the easiest to make.  Looks to me like it will be stuffed shells for dinner tomorrow night.

Before attempting to make this cheese or any within my recipe collection, please refer to my Cheesy Stuff page. Chock full of cheesy details, it provides information about ingredients, cleaning/sterilizing equipment, spices & seasonings, a few tips, and sources for supplies and information.

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Albert Capone’s Homemade Ricotta Recipe

total time: 30 minutes to prepare, at least 2 hours to drain.

yield: about 2 lbs. – recipe may be halved easily

Ingredients

  • 1 gallon whole milk
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp table salt
  • 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar

Directions

  1. Combine milk, cream, and salt in a large non-reactive pot over medium heat.
  2. Stir often to prevent scorching as you bring the temperature up to 185*.
  3. Add the vinegar, stir for 15 seconds, and heat for two more minutes before removing from heat.
  4. 15 – 20 minutes later, use a small sieve or slotted spoon to remove the floating curds and place them in a cheesecloth-lined colander to drain.  Place colander over a bowl in refrigerator and drain for at least a couple of hours or overnight.  The longer you allow it to drain, the more firm the results.
  5. Remove the ricotta from the cheesecloth, place in airtight containers, and refrigerate. Ricotta will last up to 2 weeks.

Note: Always be careful if you add fresh herbs to your newly made cheese. Although fine if served relatively soon, the fresh herbs may be a source of contamination and cause your cheese to spoil prematurely. Of course, if the freshly herbed cheese is then cooked, the “threat” is reduced.

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Cheesy Stuff

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Home-Made Fettuccine, Linguine, Capellini

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This is more an informational page than a recipe. As such, it only involves making the pasta noodles. Should you wish to see the pasta dough recipe, please refer to Mom’s Pasta Dough recipe.

Fettuccine

As was mentioned in the pasta dough entry, Mom cut the sfoglia by hand for much of my youth. Occasionally, I’ll do it myself although, to be honest, the width of my noodles aren’t nearly as consistent as were Mom’s. Whereas hers were perfect trenette, mine are more a collection of the various noodle sizes known to Man. Either way, thick or thin cut, you just can’t beat the taste of home-made pasta.

Although I follow Mom’s recipe for making the dough, I roll it into sheets using an attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, before using a hand-cranked machine to cut the noodles. Mom, as has been mentioned, used a machine with a hand-crank to roll out her dough and cut it into noodles. Both types of rolling devices work under the same principle. The dough is passed between 2 rollers, which are manually set at varying widths. Using the Kitchen Aid attachment as a guide, the no. 1 setting is where the rollers are at their widest, producing a very thick sheet of dough; no. 10 setting will produce an extremely thin dough strip. The relative thickness of the dough strips will depend upon their eventual use. When needed for lasagna, I stop after they’ve passed through the no. 5 setting. For noodles, I stop after setting no. 6. I use the same setting for large ravioli but will use no. 7 for small ravioli, where there isn’t so much filling. Zia, on the other hand, prefers to use no. 5 for her lasagna and noodles, with no. 6 being used for all of her ravioli. Again, let your own palate be your guide.

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Home-Made Fettuccine, Linguine, Capellini

total time: approx.  45 minutes (includes drying time)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs. fresh dough, made using Mom’s Pasta Dough recipe
  • extra all-purpose flour for dusting the work surface and pasta sheets

Directions

  1. Be sure the dough has been allowed to rest at least 15 minutes before starting to roll it.
  2. Using a knife or dough scraper, separate a ball of dough, roughly the size of a very large egg. With your hands, flatten the dough somewhat, making a square. Set your machine’s rollers to the widest setting and dust the rollers with flour.
  3. Place one edge of the dough between the rollers and turn the crank, causing the dough to grow thinner as it passes through the rollers. Lightly flour the dough, fold it in half upon itself, and pass it through the rollers again. Repeat this, without adjusting the rollers, a few times.
  4. Get another dough “egg” and repeat steps 2 & 3. In fact, get as many dough “eggs” as you are comfortable handling. Just remember to keep the remaining dough covered while you work with the “eggs.”
  5. Once you have rolled a few “eggs”, adjust the rollers to the next setting and pass each dough sheet through the rollers. If the dough is at all sticky, dust the sheets with flour. When all the sheets have been rolled, fold each in half and send through the rollers again.
  6. Adjust the rollers and repeat Step 5, again and again, until the strips are the desired thinness. You shouldn’t need to flour the strips between passes through the rollers.
  7. At this point, the dough strips will need to dry a bit before cutting. This could take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, or so. Much depends on your home’s temperature and humidity. If the strips aren’t dry enough, the freshly cut pasta will stick together and you’ll need to separate the noodles by hand. Just as strips that are too moist are a problem, so are strips that are too dry. In the latter case, the dough will crack & break during the cutting process. The dough strips need to be pliable.
  8. Once the sheets are suitably dried, pass them through the cutting rollers on your machine. Work the crank with one hand as you catch the noodles with the other. The freshly cut pasta may be lightly formed into bird’s nests or spread out on baking sheets, table tops, or floured towels. The pasta may be cooked immediately or allowed to dry completely, which should occur relatively quickly. If heat and humidity are a problem, freeze the freshly cut pasta to prevent mold from developing. Your pasta will store for weeks, whether dried or frozen, but the sooner used the better.

Variations

The steps outlined above use a machine to cut the fresh noodles. You can, if you like, try cutting them by hand. Take a strip of dough and fold it in half, thereby reducing its length by half. Fold it again in half, then again, and again, and again. The result should be a multi-layered dough strip about 2 – 3 inches wide. This is called sfoglia. Starting at one end and using a sharp knife, cut strips as thin as you like. Once the entire sfoglia has been cut this way, unfold the thin strips and these are your noodles.

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Mom’s Pasta Dough

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Hand-Rolling the Dough

Making pasta at home sure has changed a lot, just during my lifetime. For centuries, Italian women took a mound of flour, made a volcano-like cavity in its center, added a few eggs or some water, and slowly started combining the 2 ingredients. Eventually, a ball of dough would be formed, which they would knead before setting it aside to rest. (Let’s be clear: it’s the dough that rested.) Then, using long rolling pins, they rolled out the dough into huge sheets, 3 to 4 feet in diameter, and as thick as that day’s pasta required. The sheets would be laid somewhere to dry a bit before being folded repeatedly upon themselves to make sfoglia, which was then cut by hand with a sharp knife. It was the width of the noodle that determined the pasta — i.e., extremely thin: capellini (angel hair); somewhat thicker: spaghetti; a little thicker: trenette; a shade thicker: linguine; thicker still: fettuccine; etc. I think you get the idea. For generations, this is how pasta was made and our house was no different.  I have fond memories of the women of the house wielding their rolling pins; of wheels of dough drying on floured sheets covering tabletops, beds, and even the backs of chairs; of the family dog being banished while the dough dried; and, of the sound of Mom’s knife quickly cutting perfectly sized linguine, while holding a conversation with one of us or whomever entered her kitchen — and it was her kitchen. Then, about the time I entered high school, everything changed. Our family’s first pasta machine was purchased.

Sfoglia

Although relatively commonplace now, I’ve no idea how widespread their use was in the late 1960’s. I do know that Mom got her machine first and that things changed from that day forward. Mom’s long rolling-pin was all but retired. (She gave it to me a few years before she died.) Instead of round wheels of dough drying around the house, there were now strips of dough — and far fewer of them. You see, if you didn’t have to hand-roll the dough, you could do it more often and make less when you did. More change was to come when my sister and I bought Mom a food processor. Gone were the flour mounds and volcanoes, replaced by a 30 second whirl in this beauty built by Cuisinart.

Pasta Machine

Against this backdrop of technological advancement stood my Dad, a bit of a “pasta purist.” He insisted that he could tell the difference between pasta that was hand-rolled and that which was rolled by machine. As my sister lovingly recalls, if Dad noticed Mom preparing to make pasta that morning, he’d remind her of the benefits of rolling the dough by hand and ask that she do so. Mom would agree and a satisfied Dad would leave for work. Dad’s car was barely down the street when Mom went to the cupboard and pulled out the machine. (As I mentioned, it was her kitchen.) Later, at dinner, the hint of a wry smile would grace Mom’s face as Dad praised her “hand-rolled pasta.”

Pasta dough recipes abound on the internet. Just google “pasta dough recipe” and you’ll see what I mean. The one constant that all of the recipes share is that there is nothing exact about making pasta dough. For starters, not all “Grade A Large” eggs are created equal; some are larger than others. As for the flour, not only do you have to contend with differences between the kinds of flour, things like humidity and how you measure it will affect your dough, as well. These things may seem minor but you have to remember that as little as a tablespoon of liquid can make your dough too wet or, if it’s lacking, too dry.

Double Batch

Dough at Rest

This recipe was given to Mom by long-time family friend, Emilia, who had converted a few recipes for preparation using a food processor. (“Milia” and her husband were my brother’s god-parents.)  I follow this recipe because it uses a specific amount of liquid, thereby removing any variance resulting from eggs of differing sizes. Though flour-related variables may remain, at least we’re using a constant amount of liquid. Beyond that, one thing is certain: when making pasta dough, experience is the most important ingredient.

This post will only cover making pasta dough. Future posts will detail its uses.

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Pasta Dough Recipe

makes about 1.5 lbs

total time: approx. 45 minutes (includes 30 minutes rest)

Ingredients

  • 2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 whole large eggs + enough water to equal 1 cup of liquid. Egg should be allowed to sit on a counter for about 30 minutes before use.

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in food processor and mix until a ball of dough forms, about 30 seconds. Place dough on floured work surface.
  2. Dough should not be stick to your fingers but should be moist enough to form a cohesive ball.
  3. Begin kneading the dough, adding flour or water, in small amounts, as required. Knead until a smooth dough is achieved, at least 5 minutes. The longer you knead the dough, the better the pasta’s texture will be.
  4. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes or up to an hour. If dough is to be rested longer than an hour, place it in the refrigerator. When removed from the refrigerator, temper the dough by leaving it on a counter for 30 minutes before using.

Variations

  • I prefer to add a pinch of salt and a dash (about 1/8 tsp) of olive oil to my pasta dough.
  • For green (verde) noodles, mix a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped spinach with the flour before adding the egg liquid to the food processor. Zia recalls that, years ago, they used spinach baby food when making pasta verde. 

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Biscotti

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Like many households, the Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day holiday season at our house was a special time each year, complete with its own set of dishes and treats. These biscotti fit into that group, although I don’t know why. It’s not as if they’re festive-looking, like sugar cookies decorated to look like Santa or Christmas trees. Nor are they part of some widely accepted food tradition, such as eggnog at Christmas or turkey on Thanksgiving. Yet, the first of these biscotti would quietly make their appearance in our homes sometime around Thanksgiving and, come January, they would leave just as quietly. To this very day, Zia gives each of us some biscotti sometime during the holidays — and it wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

These two recipes came to the family via different paths. The first, Mom’s Pecan Biscotti, was given to her when I was a boy by a friend of the family who was, at the time, 90 years young. Our two families had ties that could be traced back to San Marino. The second recipe, Zia’s Anise-Flavored Biscotti, has been a part of Zia’s repertoire ever since she found the recipe in a Detroit News article some 50 years ago. Each year before the holidays, Mom and Zia would set aside one day for baking biscotti.  Mom would make the biscotti with pecans and Zia the anise-flavored. At day’s end, each would take half of  her biscotti and trade it for half of her sister’s. Generally speaking, we kids loved dipping the pecan biscotti into our milk, while the adults preferred to enjoy their anise-flavored biscotti with coffee after dinner. Should you decide to make both recipes at the same time, be sure to store the 2 kinds of biscotti separately. When stored together, it isn’t long before the pecan biscotti begin to take on the scent of anise.

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Mom’s Biscotti with Pecans Recipe

cook time: approx.  1 hour total

Ingredients

  • 8 eggs
  • 1 lb.  powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 lb. butter, softened
  • 2 heaping tsp baking soda
  • 9 cups of flour, sifted
  • Grated lemon rind from at least 2 lemons
  • Whole pecans (walnuts may be substituted)

Directions

  1. At medium speed, beat sugar and butter together until very light. Add eggs, one at a time, and continue beating until well-blended. At low-speed, add the lemon rind and baking soda. Gradually add the flour and mix well. The resultant dough will be pretty stiff.
  2. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Roll each into a rectangular shape, about 12 inches long. Line the center of each with the pecans and roll to form loaves that are about 11 inches long by 5 inches wide. Do not over-load with pecans because the loaves will crumble when you slice them later.
  3. Place the loaves on greased, floured baking sheets and bake in a pre-heated 350* oven for 30 minutes. Slice them while warm; they’ll crumble if you wait too long.

If you prefer to have them toasted, remove them from the oven after they have become a pale golden brown — usually in 15 – 20 minutes. Slice them, place them on their side, and return them to the oven for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Turn them over midway through the cooking time.

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Zia’s Anise-Flavored Biscotti Recipe

Note: Anise is a licorice-tasting herb common to the Mediterranean area.

cook time: approx.  1 hour total

Ingredients

  • 5 cups of flour, sifted
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt100_2314
  • 1 small bottle anise extract (approx. 2 tbsp)

Directions

  1. Sift flour, baking soda and powder together.  Set aside.
  2. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar on medium speed till creamy. Add eggs one at a time. When finished, add the anise flavoring.
  3. Slowly add flour mixture and beat at low-speed till well-blended. If the dough feels too stiff, add an extra dab of butter.
  4. Divide mixture in half and then half again. Form a loaf from each quarter and place 2 loaves on each baking sheet. Bake in a pre-heated 350* oven for 30 minutes. Slice them while warm; they’ll crumble if you wait too long.

If you prefer to have them toasted, remove them from the oven after they have become a pale golden brown — usually in 15 – 20 minutes. Slice them, place them on their side, and return them to the oven for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Turn them over midway through the cooking time.

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Vegetables (Verdure)

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While growing up, Mom introduced us to a number of vegetables, with varying degrees of success depending upon the person. (Yes, I’m looking at you.) For the most part, she used one method when cooking vegetables and it’s pretty much the same as is used throughout Italy. I mention this, particularly the latter part, because we Americans tend to like our vegetables to be cooked but with some crispness retained. Well, not to disappoint anyone, but I’ve eaten my way across Italy a few of times and I’ve yet to be served a vegetable that was cooked al dente. It’s just not done, I’m afraid, but that doesn’t mean that the dishes aren’t tasty or are any less desirable. Besides, some, like kale or rapini, may be a little bitter while others, like Swiss chard, may have ribs or stems that are a little tough. This method of cooking will cut some of that.

Rainbow Chard

Although the recipe below mentions Swiss chard specifically, it’s the technique and not the vegetable that’s important. Briefly, you bring a pot of salted water to boil, blanch the vegetable for a few minutes, and sauté it in garlic-flavored extra virgin olive oil. Now, if you’ve watched any televised chefs, you’ve seen them do this, or something very similar, but they will place the vegetable in cold water after blanching. This will insure that the vegetable retains its brilliant color and, if I’m entertaining, I’ll do it, too. But I don’t entertain every night and placing them into an ice bath just adds another step and more time to my dinner prep, not to mention another dish to clean. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t chill ’em if it’s just Max and me for dinner. Being color blind, he’s not likely to object.

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Swiss Chard

serves 2

total time: approx.  30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1  bunch of Swiss chard.
  • 1 small yellow onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Add olive oil and garlic to a medium-sized frying pan and heat at medium until the garlic begins to brown, a few minutes. Discard the garlic, add the onion, and sauté until it becomes fully translucent and before caramelization starts.
  2. While the garlic is flavoring the olive oil, fill a medium sauce pan with water and bring to a boil.
  3. Meanwhile, clean and prep the chard. Leave as much of the stems as you find palatable. Separate the stems from the leaves and chop the stems into pieces no larger than one inch long. Rough chop the leaves into pieces slightly larger than you would for a salad.
  4. When the water boils, add the salt and then the chard stem pieces. The length of time the stems stay in the pot depends on how crisp you like them. The less time they boil, the more al dente they’ll be. A little before the stems are cooked to your liking, add the chard leaves to the pot.
  5. After 2 minutes, strain everything out of the boiling water and add to the frying pan with the onion. Be careful: the oil may splatter when it comes in contact with the wet chard.
  6. Raise the heat to medium-high, season with salt and pepper, and sauté the chard and onions until cooked to your liking. Serve.

Variations

Rather than list variations, here are some of the vegetables that can be cooked utilizing this method: rapini, asparagus, kale, broccolini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, cabbage, and even brussels sprouts. Some, like rapini or kale, may need more time sautéing, while others, like brussels sprouts will, also, need a lengthier time in the boiling water. You should skip the blanching altogether when you’re cooking delicate greens, like baby spinach, frisée, or arugula. Whether to include onions or, as pictured, a little tomato, is up to you and learning to flavor olive oil with garlic before sautéing is a neat trick. So, go ahead and give ’em a try. Let Common Sense and your own palate be your guides.

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Turkey Stock

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At the time of this writing, Thanksgiving is upon us and I just spent a half hour in the kitchen, preparing a pot of turkey stock. Unlike this year, I usually host a small group for Thanksgiving and try to get as much done ahead of time as possible. Now, just because I’ve made other plans for this holiday doesn’t mean that I’ll be without turkey sandwiches after the holiday, for that just wouldn’t do. For me, the days following Thanksgiving are reserved for sandwiches –or sammiches, if you prefer — of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, stacked high and topped with lettuce and mayo, and surrounded by two slices of whatever bread struck my fancy at the bakery, if I haven’t baked something myself. As I’ve often told my Thanksgiving guests, those sandwiches are the reason for my hosting the dinner every year and I make sure that they all go home with enough leftovers to make at least one sandwich of their own. So, even though I’ve made other plans for this Thanksgiving, I’m going to pick a day and cook myself a mini-turkey dinner. Rest assured that while I’m dining on a small roast turkey breast, dressing, and cranberry sauce, I’ll be dreaming of the turkey sammiches that are sure to follow. Anyway, back to the turkey stock.

I’ve found that by making the stock a few days ahead, I free up a burner on my stove on the Big Day and it’s one less thing to worry about. Not only that but having a couple quarts of turkey stock sure does come in handy. I use some of it to make the gravy; I combine some with white wine and use it to baste the turkey the first few times; and I, also, use it when I’m preparing my stuffing/dressing. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I take a small amount, 1/4 to 1/3 cup, and heat it in the microwave. When I’ve finished carving the bird and all the meat is arranged on the platter, I use this bit of piping hot stock to moisten and re-heat the platter’s contents — but don’t over do it. The object is to moisten, not drench. Do it right and your guests will marvel at how moist the bird’s breast meat is.

Ready for the Freezer

Because I use it to prepare the gravy and stuffing, I want my stock to mirror the turkey’s flavoring as much as possible. To that end, I season the stock with the same spices that I use on the bird. I, also, sauté the vegetables and turkey parts in an attempt to mimic the flavor of roasting. Speaking of the turkey parts, I found out, years ago, that the turkey neck wasn’t large enough to give me enough stock. That’s when I began buying turkey wings and using them as the base of my stock. One package should be large enough to give you at least 2 quarts of stock. That’s more than enough for my purposes. (I usually freeze the leftover stock and make a delicious risotto on a cold day in December.) A couple of years ago, I began using smoked turkey wings (thank you, Tyler Florence!) and the stock has become all the more flavorful. If you can find them at your local market, by all means give them a try.

The stock that I made earlier today — that formed the basis of this recipe — used 3 smoked turkey wing sections, about 2 lbs., and 3 quarts (6 pints) of water. The resulting stock was fine for my purposes but, had it been weak-tasting, I would have reduced it further by simmering it a while longer. Lastly, salt and pepper were used sparingly, so that I can better control the seasoning in the “end-dishes,” namely the gravy, stuffing/dressing, and turkey basting liquid.

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Basic Turkey Stock Recipe

total time: approx.  3.5 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs turkey wings, smoked if available
  • 2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, cut into large chunks
  • 2 carrots, cut into chunks
  • 2 celery stalks, leaves included, cut into chunks
  • 3 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 4 – 6 parsley sprigs
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 1/8 tsp poultry seasoning
  • 1/8 tsp ground sage
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 3 quarts water

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, season lightly with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally while sautéing until the vegetables are lightly carmelized, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and reserve.
  2. Season turkey wings with poultry seasoning, sage, and lightly with salt and pepper before placing in the stock pot. Sauté until browned, about 4 – 5 minutes, turn over, and repeat.
  3. When the turkey is well-browned, add the garlic to the pan and cook for a minute or so. Add the cooked vegetables, the remaining herbs, and the water to the pot. Bring to a boil before reducing to a low simmer. Periodically skim the film off of the surface. After 2.5 hours, taste the stock and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Continue to simmer for an additional half hour.
  4. After simmering for 3 hours, take the stock off of the heat to cool somewhat. Remove the turkey wings and reserve. Pour stock through a fine mesh strainer and discard the cooked vegetables and herbs. Refrigerate the stock.
  5. Once the stock is well-chilled, the fat should have risen to the top and can be removed relatively easily. Remove the fat before storing the stock in air-tight containers in the refrigerator, for a few days, or in the freezer, for a few weeks.

Variations

Aside from using smoked turkey in place of raw wings, there are no variations to this recipe. There are, however, a few things that you can do with the boiled turkey meat. Once the bones are removed, it can be used, as-is, for sandwiches or added to a few other ingredients to make turkey salad. Of course, you can leave it on the bone and have a nosh later that night while watching TV.

Note: The day after Thanksgiving, remove all the turkey meat from the bones and use the carcass to make stock. There’s no need to add the herbs (rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning, or sage)  and you may need to use an additional quart of water, depending upon the bird’s size. Since the bird is already cooked, the soup will not need to simmer for 3 hours. I usually cook mine until the stock tastes “right.” That may mean allowing it to reduce a bit, depending upon the bird’s size and amount of water used.

The Last Word: Earlier, Max added to his already lengthy resumé when he “tasted” the turkey stock as it cooled atop the stove. He must have liked it because he returned to it as soon as I left the room. Needless to say, I’ll be heading to the grocer’s tonight and starting up another pot of stock tomorrow.

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Slow Cooker Beef Stew

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Yes, you read that correctly: beef stew is next on the agenda. We’ll get to that but first I’ve got some ‘splaining to do. One of Chicago’s grocery chains has closed selected stores around town, renovated them, and is now re-opening each in grand style. One such re-opening occurred recently in my neighborhood and, of course, I attended and brought a friend. While there, he took advantage of one of the sales, buying a 4 lb bottom round beef roast. As you may already know, this cut of beef is not particularly well-marbled and isn’t the most tender of cuts. As such, it responds well to stewing or braising and is perfect for slow cooker stew. My friend asked if I had a recipe and I sent him this one in an email. Since I have the recipe handy, I might as well include it here now rather than later.

Before I share the recipe, however, we should probably look at a few of the ingredients. First off, I tend to avoid the grocery’s beef that’s pre-cut into chunks and labeled “beef for stew”. When I make stew, I prefer pieces that are 2 – 3 inches in size and those that are pre-cut are usually about half that size. So, I buy a 2 – 3 lb chuck, top round, or, as already mentioned, a bottom round roast. Once I get home, I cut the roast into chunks the size of my choosing. Of course, if you prefer smaller pieces, by all means go for it.

Zia and six-month-old Max.

Next, let’s look at the vegetables. If you’re considering making stew in a slow cooker, chances are you’ll be setting it up before leaving for work. Unless you have a sous chef, the last thing you’ll want to do is spend time chopping and cleaning your veggies. That’s why I recommend a small bag of new red or Yukon gold potatoes,  frozen pearl onions, and organic baby carrots. Only the potatoes need washing and everything can be thrown into the slow cooker as-is. If you prefer, feel free to use any type of carrot, potato, and onion that’s available. Just be sure to cut them into approximately equal-sized pieces so that they cook evenly.

Last to be mentioned is the wine. Although I use a few ounces of wine in this recipe, it’s not necessary and can be skipped, if you like. This isn’t boeuf bourguignon, after all. If you live alone, like I do, opening a bottle of wine just to use a few ounces in a recipe isn’t practical. I certainly don’t want to drink the rest with my dinner and watching it degrade on a counter or in the fridge is not the answer. I’ve found that the mini bottles of wine — about 5.5 ounces each — are the perfect solution. Our supermarkets sell them in sets of four and offer a variety of grapes. I buy one set of red and another of white. If a recipe calls for wine, I can use one of these bottles and have little, if anything, left over. Granted, these wines aren’t going to be of the same quality as those found in my wine rack but, then again, I’m not about to open an expensive bottle of wine just so that I can pour a few ounces into a stew. I’ll leave it for you to decide whether to use wine and, if you do, which one to choose. A general rule of thumb, however, states that if a wine isn’t good enough to drink, one shouldn’t cook with it. So, avoid the “cooking wines” at your grocery.

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Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe

yield: 6 – 8 servings

prep time: approx.  30 minutes

cook time: 8 – 9 hours

Ingredients

  • One  2 – 3 lb beef roast, cut into 2 – 3 inch chunks (less expensive cuts of meat are fine for this recipe)
  • 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small package of new red or Yukon gold potatoes.
  • 1/2 small bag of organic baby carrots
  • 1 package frozen pearl onions
  • 1/2 package (about 4 oz) button or crimini mushrooms, quartered (more/less may be used according to your preference)
  • 1 small bottle (5..5 oz) red wine
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 – 4 sprigs of thyme
  • One 32 oz. box low-salt, fat-free beef stock
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Spray the inside of the slow cooker with your favorite cooking spray.
  2. Place olive oil in a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.
  3. Meanwhile, use paper towels to pat dry the beef chunks, season them with salt & pepper, and place them into the now hot frying pan. DO NOT CROWD. The pieces should not touch each other or they will steam and not brown. You may need to do this in batches. Do not disturb the meat. After 3 minutes, gently lift one piece to see if it has browned. If not, return the piece as it was and wait another few minutes before checking again. Once it is browned, turn it over, as well as all the other chunks in the pan, Repeat this process until all the meat is browned on all sides. Remove the meat and place in the slow cooker. If needed, add a little more olive oil to the frying pan before browning the 2nd, or 3rd, batch of meat.
  4. Remove the frying pan from the heat, add the wine, and return to medium heat. Use a wooden spoon to scrape off any residue from the pan’s bottom. Once the pan is “clean,” reduce heat to low.
  5. Sprinkle the flour on top of the meat in the slow cooker. Add the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
  6. Add potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms, in that order, to the slow cooker.
  7. Season with 1/2 tsp salt & 1/8 tsp pepper (more/less if you prefer).
  8. Pour the now-heated wine over the slow cooker’s contents.
  9. Add enough beef stock to cover the beef chunks. It’s OK if some of the mushrooms or carrots are above the liquid.
  10. Set slow cooker on “high” for one hour and then “low” for another 7 hours. Alternately, you can set your cooker on “low” and cook for 9 hours.
  11. Remove bay leaves & thyme sprigs before serving.

Variations

Although not really a variation, I have made this recipe but without the potatoes. I then serve it over a bed of plain rice or one of buttered, wide egg noodles. Before doing so, I check to see if the gravy is thick enough for serving this way. If not, I use a slotted spoon to remove most of the cooker’s content’s to a platter, leaving the liquid behind. Turn the cooker to “high” and while the gravy heats, mix a couple tbsp of corn starch into about a 1/4 cup water. Add to the slow cooker, stir thoroughly, and heat on “high” for 10  minutes before returning the stew meat & veggies to the cooker. By the time everything is heated through, another 5 – 10 minutes, the gravy should be thick and ready to serve.

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Pieda

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Located in the north of Italy, Emilia-Romagna is a collection of provinces, the southern border of which is shared with San Marino and Le Marche. Dad emigrated from San New Pieda 300Marino, Mom’s family from Le Marche. Pieda, today’s recipe, originated in Romagna but it came to our dinner table via San Marino.  It is a simple flatbread, similar to pita or tortillas, and, when folded in half, can be filled with lunch meat, cheese, or a variety of greens.  My family’s favorite was Swiss chard that had been blanched before being sautéed with a little sliced onion in garlic-flavored extra virgin olive oil . (See Mom’s way of cooking Vegetables.) No matter how you choose to fill them, pieda are best when served immediately after cooking.

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Pieda Recipe

makes 6 – 8 pieces

total time: approx.  50 minutes (includes 30 minutes rest)

Ingredients

  • 3 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup Crisco (vegetable shortening)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup milk

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in food processor and mix until a ball of dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  2. Remove a small amount of dough and, using a rolling-pin, roll it out until it is about 6 inches in diameter and no less than 1/8 inch thick.
  3. Cook in a hot, non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. It should only take a few minutes per side. Use a fork to prick any bubbles that may form during cooking. A side is done when it is mottled with brown spots of varying sizes.
  4. Place cooked pieda on a warmed dish in a warm oven until all are finished. Serve immediately.

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