Mangia Italiano!

A dear and close friend of mine is of Italian heritage. While on a trip to her family's home area in Italy last fall, she had the warm, comfort-food pleasure of a hearty dish of kale, potatoes, and white beans. This is her recreation of that dish.




IL TEMPLARI BOWL... MONT SANT'ANGELO

Ingredients:

• 1 qt good flavored vegetable broth
• 4-6 redskin potatoes, cubed
• 1 can cannellini beans
• 2-3 c chopped lacinato kale
• red pepper flakes
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1/2 t. sage
• 1 t. rosemary
• olive oil
• ½ c. chopped onion
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 c. parsley
• 2-4 T. basil
• hard crusted bread, toasted, buttered and cubed

Method:

In oil, saute onion, garlic, parsley, and basil. Add broth, bring to a simmer, and add potato cubes. Cook until almost tender. Add beans, kale and remaining ingredients. Cook approximately 8-10 minutes to finish potatoes and kale. Mixture should be thicker than a soup.

Place toasted, cubed bread in bottom of bowls, ladle soup over bread, and serve.

Mangia Italiano!


Notes:

I didn't have all the ingredients, so I made a few very small changes...

• I used curly kale rather than lacinato because that's what I had.
• I didn't have parsley so I left it out.
• I used Yukon Gold potatoes, because, again, it's what I had. I know, redskins hold up better with this kind of cooking, but I was using what I had.
• I cubed some challah bread and used it without toasting and buttering. I would love good crusty Italian bread with this but it's not to be had where I live at the moment.

I'm sure you could use other white beans but the cannellini beans are readily available so I used them. It was my first time trying them and all I can say is, yum! They're really tasty, slightly nutty in flavor, and are now very high on my comfort-food list.

The soup is excellent reheated.

The soft bread (and I'm sure the toasted, buttered bread) was a small extravagance but was less bread than I'd eat if I had a slice on the side (I used about 1/2 slice in the bowl) and definitely added to the comfort-food appeal of the dish. The flavorful broth soaked up in the bread and was delicious. The bread could be omitted, or you could brush the toasted bread with olive oil instead of butter if you like.

Also, this dish reminded me a bit of my mother's Southern roots, and I tried it with sweet potatoes instead of white, and cornbread on the side -- wonderful, flavorful variation that uses the much-more healthful sweet potato.

No matter how you serve it, it's a delicious, hearty cold-weather dish that satisfies and comforts.

As they say in Italy (unless my free on-line translator is wrong!), il cuoco, mangia, balla, ama!

Eggplant Lasagna

Ah. Here I am again! I'm having camera difficulties so there won't always be photos, but I decided to at least post recipes. Because good food is good food, photo or not!

Here's one that will be familiar to many...

Probably anyone who likes eggplant has tried some version of eggplant lasagna, and truthfully, it's hard to imagine a bad one. I made this one and although it wasn't perfect it was quite good, so I'm posting it along with my notes about what I think would make it even better.


EGGPLANT LASAGNA

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 c. ricotta
• apx. 8 oz. smoked Fontina cheese
  
• 1 T. rosemary, fresh, chopped
• 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1-1 1/2 c. pomodoro sauce

Method:

Peel eggplant (optional) and slice into 1/4" thick slices. Place the rounds on a greased baking sheet and brush very lightly with oil. Bake at 400 for about 5 minutes, turn, and bake about 5 minutes more. Set aside to cool.

In bottom of greased 9" square baking dish, put a thin layer of sauce, half the eggplant, some rosemary, half the ricotta, one third of the fontina, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, then spread a thin layer of sauce across the top, followed by a bit of grated fontina and some parmesan.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes:

As I said, the flavor was quite good. However, the dish was a bit soupy, even after letting it sit for 10 minutes, and it had no substance -- the eggplant softened up quite a bit so the whole thing was more like a sauce than a lasgana. If made this way again, I'd definitely serve it over pasta (angel hair pasta would be good). Or maybe thickening the sauce would help, or using less sauce. Clearly room for experimentation!

However, next time I'll most likely make it with lasagna noodles, two or three layers, in between the sauce and the eggplant. For purchased pasta, I like Barilla's uncooked lasagna noodles because they're thin and flat (not thick and starchy like some commercial brands) but my favorite will always be homemade.

When I try it again, I'll post any comments here. And if you try it before I do, please let me know how it turns out.

And don't forget to cook, eat, dance, love!

Ravioli with Brown Butter-Basil Sauce

Here's an easy recipe, although it's better (and considerably more work) if you make your own ravioli. Good alternatives to homemade are fresh pasta from a local pasta maker, or some of the fresh or frozen pastas from a good grocery. In spite of the butter, it's not an overly rich sauce (although it can be if you do more than drizzle it over the pasta). Serve with a fresh green salad and a chewy Italian bread for an easy, light meal!


RAVIOLI WITH BROWN BUTTER-BASIL SAUCE


Ingredients

1 T. butter per serving
1 T. olive oil per serving
fresh basil to taste (I used about 1/4 c. per serving)
1-2 T. walnut pieces per serving

cheese ravioli, amount to your liking/appetite per serving

parmesan cheese


Method

Have water boiling for pasta when you start the sauce.

In sauce pan, heat butter over medium high heat and cook until browned. Add olive oil and reduce heat. Toss ravioli in boiling water; toss walnuts into butter to brown lightly. Fresh pasta only takes a few minutes to cook so watch carefully.

As you're draining the ravioli, throw the basil in the sauce just to wilt. Plate ravioli and pour sauce over. Pass parmesan separately.

Other ideas: if you like more sauce on your pasta, try adding some chicken or vegetable broth to the sauce just long enough to heat -- a few tablespoons per serving. Try different herbs -- rosemary or sage are both excellent. Try different ravioli -- sweet potato or winter squash are good with sage.

And of course, cook, eat, dance, love!

Hearth Bread

This is one of the first yeast breads I ever made, over 30 years ago. I fell madly in love with it and it's still my favorite bread. The recipe has French origins -- to the best of my memory, it's also called la fouace aux noix ("the fouace" -- couldn't find a translation for that word so maybe I have it wrong -- "with nuts") -- and is excellent as a picnic bread with a good cheese and fresh fruit. It's also incredibly easy to make and I've never had a loaf not turn out well, so if yeast breads intimidate you, this is a good one to start with!




HEARTH BREAD

Ingredients:

• 4 c. unbleached white flour
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 T. salt
• 1 T. yeast
• 1/3 c. lukewarm water
• 1 c. lukewarm milk
• 3/4 c. coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Method:

Dissolve yeast in the warm water; let start for 5-10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the flours with the salt, then make a well in the center and add the softened yeast. Add milk and stir well to make a spongy dough. Mix in nuts and butter with a hard rubber spatula or your hands. The dough will be fairly stiff.

Place dough in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough so that the entire surface is oiled. Cover with a damp towel; set in a warm, draft free area to rise 1-2 hours or until double. I often use the inside of my oven (unheated, of course) for rising bread, especially in winter.

Punch down dough and knead for a few minutes. Form into a ball. Sprinkle a cookie sheet or pie pan with cornmeal, place the loaf on it and let rise 30 minutes, then turn the oven on to 425° F. When the oven is hot, slash a cross in the top with a very sharp knife. Put a pan of hot water on the lowest shelf of the oven, and the bread on the middle shelf.

Bake for 30 minutes; remove the water and turn the oven down to 300° F; bake for 30 minutes more.

Slice (or, if you're on a picnic, go ahead and just tear off chunks!) and enjoy!

And always remember to cook, eat, dance, love!

Yum Yum Lentil Pie

At last -- the lentil pie I promised a month ago. Hope you love this recipe as much as I do!


YUM YUM LENTIL PIE

Ingredients:

• 1 c. dried lentils (I like French lentils best but any will work)
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 t. herbs: mixture of thyme, basil, rosemary
• 1 15 oz. can tomato puree
• 2 T. soy sauce
• crust for 2-crust pie

Method:

Cook lentils in saucepan with enough water to cover; simmer until done, about 45 minutes. Drain.

Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender, 5-10 minutes. Add tomato puree, soy sauce, herbs, and lentils; simmer while completing next steps. (Or, you can prepare ahead up to this point; keep mixture in refrigerator until ready to use).

Preheat oven to 400. Line pie pan with crust. When oven is hot, pour lentil mixture into pie crust and cover quickly with top crust. Crimp edges and slash crust with knife.


Bake, 45-50 minutes, or until crust is golden.


Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Notes:

This is great with cooked carrots (gingered carrots, perfect!) or sweet potatoes, and a leafy salad.

It's a very hearty and savory dish with a tender texture and nice blending of flavors.

The pie can also be made in a casserole without the crust, and with mashed potatoes as a topping (like a shepherd's pie).


Life is great when you cook, eat, dance, love!!