Risi e Bisi, Risi e Bisi, Risi e Bisi

How much fun is it to say risi e bisi? Go on, say it ten times fast, this can wait.

For those not in the know, it's a traditional Venetian dish of soupy rice with peas. My understanding is that its seen as child-like comfort food, soft, easy to digest, easy to like. However, because it is so simple, all the ingredients must be top-notch.

Having the horrible problem of not being able to follow a recipe, even a traditional one, I tweaked it. Instead of peas, we used fava beans. While in season, we must eat them at least once a week. They're a pain to prep but if you and a partner tag team, its less time consuming. And you can say risi e bisi aloud while you're doing it.

Risi e Bisi (sort of), adapted from the Food of Italy by Claudia Roden

I hesitated posting this because the beans at the market were starting to get too big and starchy, but some new vendors came with young tiny ones. If you can find the small ones, use favas. If not, you can always use peas, fresh or frozen.

2 slices pancetta or bacon , chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 TB olive oil
6 cups stock, if you use fresh peas you can make pea stock
1 cup Arborio rice
chopped parsley
pecorino, if using favas or else use parmesan

Saute pork with onion and olive oil until onion is translucent and soft. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the rice. Season with a good amount of salt and pepper. When rice is almost done about 15-20 minutes, add the favas or peas. Once everything is cooked, stir in the parsley and cheese. Serve.

This is supposed to be a first course, but it could be dinner with a salad or used as a side. Venetian grandmas must be tut-tutting me.

P.S. Anyone out there who can give me some photo hints? When I try to post a vertical photo here, it gets flipped around. I use Picassa for photo editing and I tried using the Blog This function, but it happened anyway. Help, please!

It's Spring! It's Spring! (Boing! Boing!)

I cannot tell you what a boost it is to see things growing and blooming right now. At the market on Saturday, it seemed like everyone was in great cheer and I'm sure the extra sunshine had a lot to do with it. I love these first few tentative steps into springtime. There were the first of the season peas, strawberries and favas. The strawberries still need a few more weeks of warmth but the peas and favas are (were) great. We were also pleasantly surprised to see Barbara with her tomato plants and we spent about 20 minutes at her stand trying to pick out which lucky ones were going to go home with us. In the end, we chose Aunt Ruby's German Green, Royal Chico and a Sweet 100. Yesterday afternoon was spent in the garden, planting our new acquisitions which also included some more herbs and flowers for the rose bed.

Last night, we had a celebration of the changing of the seasons on the table. While my love affair with Bon Appetit is dwindling, they still manage to publish a few interesting recipes in an issue and I had my eye on the grapefruit-avocado salad. So there was that, as well as tagliatelle with favas, homemade ricotta and spring herbs then a meyer lemon-buttermilk sorbet. I was disappointed with the sorbet. It was almost overwhelmingly tart and the elderflower syrup that I snuck into it was totally lost, as was the meyer lemon. Ah well, they can't all be winners. We cracked open a bottle of bubbly some friends gave us and toasted the season. Hurray!

Grapefruit-Avocado Salad with Cassis Dressing, adapted from Bon Appetit

The original recipe calls for sherry vinegar, but we were out, so I subbed in the grapefruit vinegar from TJ's. Any mild vinegar would be fine here, champagne, perhaps, if you have it handy. A Kir Royal is an excellent accompaniment.

1 TB fresh ginger, finely minced
1 TB shallot, fine dice
1 1/2 TB olive oil
1 1/2 TB mild vinegar
1 1/2 TB cassis, black currant liqueur

1 pink grapefruit
1 avocado, sliced into eighths
1 small head of lettuce, or equivalent

Combine ginger through cassis in a bowl. Taste for salt and pepper.

Using a paring knife and working over a bowl, carefully remove all of the rind and pith from the grapefruit. Cut between the membranes of the fruit to loosen the segments. Set aside.

Line plates with lettuce. decorate with grapefruit segments and avocado. Taste the dressing again, if it's too sweet, you can add some of the grapefruit juice. Whisk dressing to reincorporate and drizzle over salad. Salt and pepper

Serves 2

Tagliatelle with Ricotta, Fava Beans and Fresh Herbs

If you decide to make your own ricotta, and I hope you do, you can have the leftover cheese drizzled with honey for breakfast the next day. It's what I eating right now, actually. The picture is what the dish looks like when everything is combined and tossed. The directions below make for a much nicer presentation.

2 lbs favas in pods, shucked, parboiled and peeled, you'll end up with 1 1/2 cups beans
8 oz tagliatelle, cooked, 1 cup cooking water reserved
fresh spring herbs, we used chives and green garlic
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 cups fresh ricotta (we use Heidi's recipe)
pecorino romano

Toss hot pasta with favas, herbs, zest, juice and enough reserved pasta water to help evenly distribute. Salt and pepper. Divide on plates. Dollop each portion with ricotta. Serve, passing pecorino.

Kir Royal

Special bonus recipe! You didn't think that I would hold out on you, did you?

sparkling wine
cassis

Method 1: Place 2 tsps cassis in the bottom of a champagne flute. Gently pour wine into flute.
Method 2: (My favorite) Gently pour wine into flute. Drop 2 tsps cassis into wine. Watch cassis sink to bottom.

A Birthday and a Confession

This is what I made for my friend's birthday dinner last night:


C's Birthday Dinner Menu:

Red Butter Lettuce Salad with a Pomegranate Vinegar-Olive Oil Dressing and Pomegranate Seeds and Chevre
Pork Stew with Butternut Squash and Fennel over Soft Polenta
Apple Slices Sauteed in Browned Butter and Brown Sugar over Cinnamon Ice Cream from here
and lots of sparkling wine (Jacob's Creek Chardonnay-Pinot Noir Cuvee NV; which we both enjoyed and highly recommend)

C is gluten-intolerant so we had the stew over polenta instead of noodles as the recipe suggests. I actually preferred it that way. The polenta soaked up the liquid far better than noodles and was heartier. I am looking forward to leftovers today.

Pork Stew with Butternut Squash and Fennel over Soft Polenta, adapted from Bon Appetit

1 1/2 lbs 2-inch pieces trimmed pork shoulder (Boston butt)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried rubbed sage
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 TB olive oil
1/2 cup chopped pancetta or bacon (not smoked) about 2 oz
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 cup broth (I used veg because it was in my cupboard, but the recipe calls for chicken)
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 large fresh fennel bulb; cut into 1-inch cubes, reserve fronds
15 1 1/2-inch cubes peeled butternut squash

Place pork in a bowl. Mix next 6 ingredients in small bowl; sprinkle over pork, turning pork to coat evenly. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F. Heat oil in oven-proof pot (that has a lid) over medium-high heat. Add pancetta/bacon and saute until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to medium bowl. Add enough pork to pot to just cover in a single layer, you may have to do this a few times; saute until brown, about 8 minutes. COOKING SCHOOL TIP: Do not move or turn meat until you can easily pick it up off the pot. If it sticks to the bottom, it means that the Maillard reaction (browning) has not finished. Wait until it has, your stew will be more flavorful this way. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to bowl with pancetta. Repeat with remaining pork. Add onions and garlic to pot, saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juices, broth, wine, and pork mixture. Bring to boil, scraping up browned bits (the fond).

Cover pot; place in oven. Cook 1 hour. Add fennel and squash to stew. Cover and cook in oven until pork and vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. At this point, my meat wasn't quite done but the squash was. I ended up fishing out the squash because I didn't want to end up with puree and returned the stew to the oven for another half hour. The I returned the squash to the stew. My stew was a little to thick, so I added a bit more liquid. The original recipe recommends that you thicken the liquid by removing the solids and cooking down the liquid, but I didn't need to. Your results, as always, may vary. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve over egg noodles or polenta. Garnish with reserved chopped fronds.

Serves 4

Easy Slow Cooked Soft Polenta

1 cup coarse cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
5 cups liquid (water, stock, or broth)
3 TB butter
Freshly grated Parmesan, to taste.

Preheat oven to 350F. Or if you are lucky enough to have an oven big enough for both the stew and the polenta cook simultaneously. I am not. Grease oven-safe pot. In pot, stir together cornmeal and liquid until there are no lumps. Add 1 TB butter. Bake in oven for 80 minutes. Remove from oven and stir in remaining butter, cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Easy, no? If you prefer your polenta softer, add more liquid. Firmer? Add less.

The Confession: I think I need to give up the ghost and admit I am now firmly re-entrenched in the omnivore category of human diets. The partner is still a pescatarian, so most recipe posts here will continue to be vegetarian and all though I am eating some meat in no way will it be everyday. I prefer a more flexible diet but I can't imagine making meat the center of most meals. Not only is it pretty selfish for humane, environmental and sustainability reasons, it's also boring and I enjoy meatless meals and like the challenge of creating them. For these reasons, any meat I do purchase needs to be humanely raised and organic. Yes, it is more expensive but since it's not something I am going to indulge in too often, it's do-able. And I do believe that meat ought to be an indulgence, not a requirement. What do you think about that? I'm planning on the reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, has anyone out there read it yet? What did you think about it? If you eat meat, how do you explain why? If you don't, why don't you? I'm all ears.

Bronzed Eggplant Pizza

This pizza is so good we've had it twice in the last two weeks. Both times we ate the whole thing in just one sitting. The only other meal that we've greedily eaten repeats of this summer is our home grown tomatoes on sourdough with mayonnaise (why did I never try this before? It's mind-boggingly delicious). Of course, we couldn't just follow the recipe as is though. We upped the eggplant in a major way (try three times as much) and included chilies from our garden, instead of using dried chili flakes. Do yourself a favor and try it at least once while eggplant is still in season. You won't be sorry. Here it is with our modifications:

Bronzed Eggplant Pizza, adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook

Procure:
your favorite pizza dough
2 lbs small-ish eggplant, cut into 1/3-inch thick slices
5 TB olive oil
salt
1-2 TB cornmeal
3/4 cup coarsely grated whole-milk mozzarella
1/3 cup Asiago or Parmesan
2 TB minced garlic
2 TB chopped chilies or 1/4 tsp dried red chili flakes

Preheat your broiler, or if you don't have a usable one like us, heat your oven up to 500F. If you have a pizza stone, leave it in the oven (if you don't all ready) so it can warm up. Arrange eggplant on a baking sheet in a single layer. You might need to use another sheet or do this in two batches. Brush eggplant with 3 TB oil and sprinkle with salt. Broil about 2-3 inches from the heat source(or bake), turning once, until golden brown and tender, anywhere from 6 to 16 minutes total. Set aside.

Heat remaining oil in a small fry pan and cook garlic and chili, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds to one minute.

Shape pizza dough to a 14-inch round. If you don't have a stone, roll it so it will fit on a large baking sheet (or you could make 2 smaller pizzas). Sprinkle evenly stone or baking sheet with cornmeal. Place dough on heated stone or baking sheet. Combine cheeses in a bowl. Sprinkle 1/4 of cheese on pizza, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Layer eggplant over the cheese. Pour garlic-chili oil evenly over the eggplant. Sprinkle pizza with remaining cheese. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Cut into wedges and consume. Try not to fight with dinner companion(s) over last piece.

RECIPE: Squash Blossom Frittata

This was our flowery lunch yesterday. We had zucchini blossom frittata with an arugula salad decorated with nasturium and chive blossoms from our garden. I feel a bit foolish that I spent $2 on 6 zucchini blossoms from the Very Expensive Farmer's Market Stand (tm) especially since if I had my dream garden, I'd be tearing my hair out over how many squash we have all ready and plucking the flowers off the vines just to hold back any more squash production. One day, I will have the garden of my dreams and on that day the heavens will open, angels will sing and I will curse my overabundance of produce. Today is sadly not that day.

Squash Blossom Frittata from Gardeners Community Cookbook edited by Victoria Wise

Gather:

6-8 squash blossoms
2 TB butter
2 small summer squash, sliced thinly
2 green onions, sliced thinly
4 eggs
1 TB milk
2 TB chopped fresh herbs, I used parsley but I think mint would also be lovely
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino

Wash blossoms extremely well. Buggies like to hide in them. If you're feeling particularly exact, you can pat them dry too. Guess what I did? Slice blossoms thinly.

Combine eggs, milk, herbs and salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well.

Preheat broiler.

Melt butter in oven-safe saute pan. Add green onions and squash. Saute two minutes. Add squash blossoms. Stir to combine quickly. Add eggs. Cook for three minutes, or until eggs are mostly set. Sprinkle cheese on top and run under broiler for three minutes, or until frittata is puffed and golden. Serve with flowery arugula salad and good toast with butter.

RECIPE: Delicious Dinner in Under 20 Minutes

Guaranteed or your money back!

When tomatoes are ripe, I eat this at least once every two weeks. It's well balanced, spicy, a bit salty, a little sweet, cheesey and mostly healthy. It's also a snap to put together.

Pasta with Tomatoes, Olives and Arugula

Adapted from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off

Gather:
8 oz dried long skinny pasta (spaghetti, fettuccine, etc.)
2 TB olive oil
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 chile, minced (or however much you like)
1/3 cup good quality black olives (I prefer Kalamata), pitted and coarsely chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved if large
4 oz arugula, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan or Pecorino, freshly grated

Heat a large pot of salted water over medium heat (This would be a good time to start prepping the veg). When water is rapidly boiling, add pasta. Cook until al dente, about 5-7 minutes.

While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large saute pan. When hot, add garlic and chile. Cook until fragrant. Add olives and tomatoes. Cook just until tomatoes begin to break down. If the pasta is not ready, set aside.

When pasta is done, drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. Add tomatoes and arugula. Toss until well combined. The heat of the pasta will wilt the greens. If dry, add some of the cooking water to moisten. Salt and pepper generously. Serve, passing cheese to grate over.

RECIPE: Meredith's Slightly Healthier, Slightly Easier Lasagne

Mmm, lasagne. Delicious combination of pasta, tomato sauce, cheeses, fakey meat and tofu. Here's how I do it:

Procure: two cans of TJ's Tuscany tomato sauce (about 1 lb each), garlic, onions, soft tofu, 1 lb ricotta cheese, a large bunch of parsley, 2 eggs one lemon, Parmesan cheese, a bag of fakey meatballs, 1 lb mozzarella, and a 1 lb box of no-boil lasagne noodles.

First: Doctor up your sauce with sauteed onions, garlic, a few sprinkles of dried oregano, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper for good measure.

Second: Break out your handy dandy food processor. Blend up your ricotta, soft tofu, parsley, lemon zest, as much Parmesan as your heart desires, salt and pepper. Dump out in a bowl, unless you have a monstrous processor, which could hold all of this. Mine cannot. Taste for salt, pepper and more cheese. Beat the eggs. Mix thoroughly with cheese-tofu mix.

Third: Defrost frozen"meat" balls in microwave. Cut into quarters. Grate or cut mozzarella into bits. Preheat oven to 350F.

Fourth: Cover a baking sheet in tin foil. You'll thank me later, promise. Put baking sheet in the bottom third of oven. Grease a huge glass dish. I use a 15x12x2 1/2 Pyrex. Pour a bit of sauce on the bottom to coat. Add a layer of the noodles. Put on a half of the cheese mixture, a half of the "meat" a third of the mozzarella. Pour on some more sauce. Layer with noodles going in the opposite direction from the first layer. Repeat layering of cheese-tofu, "meat" mozzarella and sauce. Layer with noodles going in the same direction as the first layer. Pour as much sauce as can fit over noodles. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella over and more Parmesan, if you like. Put dish on top of baking sheet. Bake for one hour. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with a green salad and some fantastic bread. Feeds a small army, a large dinner party or two people dinner for one week.

RECIPE: Tagliatelle with Asparagus, Brown Butter and Almonds

Looks like browned butter with nuts is my new party trick. I'd been eyeing the tagliatelle at TJ's for a while and I caved and bought a package. We had some asparagus that the boy's mommy sent us home with that needed to be eaten. Here's what I did.

I think that I started off with a pound or so of fat spears. My new asparagus trick is to snap off the ends instead of cut them off. The spear seems to know which part is good for eating and which part is good for stock. Then the spears were cut into quarter lengths. Boil up some salted water, threw in 8oz of pasta. While cooking the pasta, 8 minutes only , not the 10-12 the instructions said, I melted about 4 TB butter in a saute pan and added about 1/4 cup of slivered almonds. I let the butter and nuts brown a bit before taking the pan off the heat and adding the zest of a Meyer lemon. I would have preferred a Eureka for its tartness, but one works with what one has. Also, how ridiculous is it that I'm complaining about having too many Meyer lemons? I am spoiled. 2 minutes before the pasta's done, I added the trimmed asparagus. Drain the pasta and veg together, threw back in the pot. Salted, peppered, buttered squirted with lemon, and Parmesan cheesed.

I loved the texture of the pasta, very satiny. I felt like I was eating ribbons. Delicious! I will definitely make again, probably with more butter and nuts.

RECIPE: Easter Dinner Eggstravaganza!

After volunteering to make dessert for the boy's family's Easter supper, I ended up making the whole thing because I wormed my way into his mommy's kitchen, with her permission, of course. The best part is that we made it sans recipes (mostly) and in under two hours!

We had: Salmon Roasted on a Bed on Meyer Lemon, Brown Butter Orzo with Almonds and Dill, Steamed Asparagus and Broccoli and Homemade Ricotta with Balsamic Berries. Everything turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

For the Salmon: Preheat oven to 450F. Slice two large lemons (Meyer, if you've got them) very thinly and place half of the slices on a baking sheet. Rub a big piece salmon with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper on each side. Place salmon atop lemon slices. Put remaining lemon slices on top of fish. Bake until salmon is cooked through about 15-25 minutes depending on how big the piece of salmon is.

For orzo: Cook a pound of orzo in boiling salted water. While orzo is cooking, melt 1 stick of butter in a saucepan. Add 3/4 cup slivered almonds. Cook until butter and nuts begin to brown. Drain pasta. Toss with butter, nuts, and 1/3 cup snipped dill. Salt and pepper. Add the zest of one lemon and the juice of half of a lemon.

For the Ricotta with Honey and Berries: Make ricotta. While ricotta is chilling, prep about 4 cups of assorted berries (we had strawberries, raspberries and blackberries). Toss fruit gently with 3 TB sugar and 3 TB balsamic vinegar. Let sit for 45 minutes. Taste for more sugar or vinegar. Mix drained ricotta with 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 cup of honey. Mix well. Taste for salt and more honey if desired. In a bowl serve a dollop of cheese with the berries. A sprig of mint on top would be pretty.

RECIPE: Pasta with Chickpeas, Garlic and Parsley

This is my second favorite quick pasta recipe.

Add 1 lb orecchiete or farfalle to boiling salted water.

While pasta is cooking, heat 5 cloves chopped garlic and 3 TB olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. When garlic becomes fragrant, add 3 14 oz cans of drained chickpeas to pan. Cook until beans brown in places.

By this time the pasta shold be done. Save some of the cooking water and drain the rest. Return pasta to the pot and add the bean-garlic mixture, about 1/3 cup chopped parsley and lots of salt and pepper. If the pasta looks dry add some of the cooking water. You can add a few sprinkles of crushed red chili flakes here too, if you like. Serve with a chunk of Pecorino (or some other Italian hard cheese) to grate over pasta. Mmm, dinner in 15 minutes.

RECIPE: Sicilian-ish Pasta

Now that I'm eating last night's leftovers for lunch, I think that toasted pine nuts would be a good addition. For those keeping track at home, that means this dish would include red onion, cauliflower, tuna, anchovies, green olives, pimento, lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley, capers, red pepper flakes, fusili and the nuts. Sounds like it would be far too much, but actually pretty tasty. I especially like the slightly singed (on purpose) cauliflower. It almost looks like the pasta, so you don't notice it until you take a bite. Yum!