briciole

zuppa di broccoli e zucchine

broccoli and zucchini soup

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

Hot soup in the summer? Not a surprising menu item, if you are along the California coast, home of the natural air conditioning system called "the fog." Denizens of the areas affected by this fascinating natural phenomenon know how to handle it. For example, if you are outside in the late afternoon and evening, you need to have something warm to put on, or you won't be comfortable.

I know this and dress accordingly. However, last week, one afternoon, I went to an outdoor event, and although I was wearing my warm polartec sweater, I got a bit chilly. During my drive back home, I had a vision of hot soup. At the same time, the radio was talking about temperatures above 100 F in the eastern part of the US. I got home and warmed up the soup I had seen in my vision. It was a dream rooted in reality, since I knew that in the fridge I had a container with soup: broccoli and zucchini soup.

I recently wrote about a simple broccoli salad that I love to prepare. This is another way of using fresh broccoli from the farmers' market:

cavolo broccolo

or the so-called romanesco broccoli:

cavolo broccolo romanesco (also called romano or cimoso)

The soup is also a way of consuming zucchine (zucchini) plentiful at the farmers' market and also present in my CSA box.

The final ingredients are fresh red onion (cipolla rossa), either the round or the torpedo kind, also from the farmers' market, a leek (porro) and fresh basil (basilico).

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for zuppa di broccoli e zucchine

Ingredients:

• 8 oz fresh red onion, chopped
• 1 medium leek, white and light green portion (keep the dark green leaves to make broth or stock)
• 1 lb broccoli or romanesco broccoli
  
• 1 1/2 lb zucchini
• olive oil
• 4 cups homemade light chicken stock or vegetable broth
• water, as needed
  
• 12 fresh basil leaves, or to taste
• sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste

Cut the leek in half lengthwise, then slice crosswise and rinse carefully in a colander to remove any dirt. Wash and cut broccoli heads into florets. Peel the tough outer layer of the stalk, quarter if very thick, and cut crosswise into short lengths. Wash and slice the zucchini.

Warm up some olive oil in a soup pot and add onion and leek. Stir to coat and after a couple of minutes, cover the pot and let the vegetables cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Add broccoli, zucchini and stock, then enough water so that the vegetables are almost, but not completely, covered: you should still see a bit sticking out of the liquid. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then lower to a lively simmer and cook until the vegetables are soft. Check after 25 minutes. When done, remove from the heat and add the basil. Purée with an immersion blender. Given the watery nature of zucchini, I find this soup liquid enough, but you can certainly add more water, if needed, to make the soup reach the desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper to your taste.

The result is a mild-flavored soup that you can enjoy as is or enrich in various ways: cheese (freshly grated or crumbled, depending on the kind of cheese you choose), cooked grains (like hull-less barley or quinoa), chopped onions cooked with poppy seeds (semi di papavero). The latter, featured in the photo above, were left over from another recipe that I hope to feature soon. If you don't add grains to the soup, accompany it with some nice bread, maybe homemade.

This is my contribution to edition #294 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Anh of A Food Lover's Journey.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

zuppa di broccoli e zucchine

or launch the zuppa di broccoli e zucchine audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

soup, broccoli, zucchini

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Per i lettori italiani

Zuppa bollente d'estate? Per chi vive lungo la costa della California, patria del sistema di aria condizionata naturale che si chiama "la nebbia," non è una sorpresa. Gli abitanti delle aree affette da questo affascinante fenomeno naturale sanno come gestirsi. Per esempio, se uno è fuori il pomeriggio tardi o la sera, deve avere qualcosa di caldo da indossare.

Questo lo so bene e mi vesto in modo appropriato. Però la scorsa settimana un pomeriggio sono andata ad un evento all'aperto e anche se avevo addosso il mio maglioncino di polartec bello caldo, mi sono un po' infreddolita a stare ferma. Mentre ero in auto verso casa, ho avuto una visione: un bel piatto di zuppa bollente. Nello stesso momento, alla radio parlavano delle temperature elevate (40 C) nella zona est degli USA. Sono arrivata a casa e ho scaldato la zuppa della mia visione: era un sogno ancorato nella realtà dal momento che sapevo di avere nel frigorifero un contenitore con della zuppa di broccoli e zucchine.

Di recente, ho scritto un post su un'insalata di broccoli che mi piace molto. Questo è un altro modo per utilizzare il cavolo broccolo:

 

o anche il cavolo broccolo romanesco (detto anche romano o cimoso)

Questa zuppa è anche un buon modo per utilizzare le zucchine che in questo momento sono dappertutto, compresa la mia cassettina settimanale.

Gli altri ingredienti della zuppa sono: cipolla rossa fresca (tonda o lunga), un porro e del basilico fresco.

Ingredienti:

• 225 g di cipolla rossa fresca, tagliata a dadini
• un porro medio, la parte bianca e verde chiaro (utilizzare la parte verde scuro come ingrediente per brodo)
• 450 g di broccoli (del tipo preferito)
• 700 g  di zucchine
• olio d'oliva
• un litro di brodo di pollo leggero o vegetale fatto in casa
• acqua
  
• 12 foglioline di basilico
• sale e pepe nero macinato fresco a piacere

Tagliare il porro a metà per lungo poi a fettine e sciacquare con cura. Lavare e tagliare i broccoli a cimette. Pelare il gambo, tagliarlo in quattro per lungo se molto grosso, poi tagliarlo a rondelle spesse. Lavare e affettare le zucchine.

Scaldare dell'olio d'oliva in una pentola capiente e aggiungere cipolla e porro. Mescolare e dopo un paio di minuti minuti, coprire e far cuocere per 8 minuti, mescolando di tanto in tanto per evitare che si attacchino al fondo.

Aggiungere broccoli, zucchine e brodo, poi acqua abbastanza per arrivare quasi a coprire le verdure, ma non del tutto: le verdure devono affiorare un po'. Coprire e portare ad ebollizione, poi cuocere a fuoco dolce fino a quando le verdure sono tenere. Controllare dopo 25 minuti. Quando le verdure sono cotte, togliere la pentola dal fuoco e aggiungere il basilico. Ridurre le verdure a purè con il minipimer. Data la natura acquosa delle zucchine, questa zuppa per me ha la consistenza giusta, ma potete certamente aggiungere acqua, se necessario, per ottenere una zuppa della consistenza desiderata. Regolare sale e pepe a seconda del vostro gusto.

Il risultato è una zuppa dal sapore delicato che potete gustare così o arricchire in vari modi: con formaggio (grattugiato o sbriciolato, a seconda del tipo scelto), cereali cotti (come orzo mondo o quinoa; quest'ultimo non è un vero cereale, ma viene utilizzato come tale), cipolle a pezzettini cotte con semi di papavero. Quest'ultima opzione è ritratta nella foto in alto: le cipolle erano avanzate da un'altra ricetta che spero di mostrare presto. Se non aggiungete cereali alla zuppa, servitela accompagnata da del buon pane, magari fatto in casa.

Questo è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 294 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana da Marta di Mangiare è un po' come viaggiare.

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

fare il formaggio (in bianco e nero)

making cheese (black and white)

After letting the curds settle on the bottom of the pot, I drained the whey and then pressed the curds into a slab, which I then moved onto a board for cutting. Whey is slowly oozing from underneath.

The cheese of the photo is currently in its aging phase. I hope to feature it in an upcoming post, so I won't reveal its name quite yet.

This is my submission to week #3 edition of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event, recently launched by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.

The photo was shot in color and then converted to black and white.

This post contains the gallery of photos submitted to the event.

pane di segale ai fiori di timo e di erba cipollina

rye bread with thyme flowers and chive blossoms

For the current edition of Cook the Books, we are reading Sarah Addison Allen’s novel Garden Spells. Not unlike a book I discusseda few months ago (Blessed Are the Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch), Garden Spells is a fairy tale, and like all good fairy tales, it is a satisfying reading.

My favorite character of the novel is the good fairy, a.k.a. Evanelle. She accepts herself the way she is and also accepts other people the way they are, without trying to change their attitudes, actions or beliefs. What she does is giving them "things they may need" and she does so in the open. There is no hidden meaning in her actions, because she has no idea what specific need the "thing" will answer.

From the garden of the title, Claire, one of the two sisters who are the protagonists of the novel, gets herbs and flowers. She uses them in the preparation of dishes for her catering business and of drinks and preserves. Some of this products are meant to influence the eater/drinker. In this, then, Claire is different from Evanelle.

I am not a gardener, but I have a small space where I conduct experiments with varying degrees of success. Small and irregularly tended as it is, my garden is always a place of magic, though not of spells.

I have a set of foxglow plants (digitale) that are taller than the house^₁, a dark pink sweet pea (pisello odoroso) that is blooming with enthusiasm, sprouting radishes and red Russian kale, leaf lettuce, various members of the allium family, red and purple poppies (papaveri), a number of other culinary herbs (erbe aromatiche)

and chocolate sunflowers (girasoli)

I have never really used flowers in my dishes and reading Garden Spells made me want to perform a small-scale test. As I mentioned in my most recent post, I am trying to become better at using rye flour (farina di segale), which I get as part of my share in a grain CSA. My first rye bread adventure, a few months ago, did not go well, but as I was perusing a recent King Arthur Flour catalog, a recipe caught my attention: Canapé Pumpernickel Bread. I halved the quantities and shaped the dough into a 13-inch baton. I really liked the result: the flavor is complex, the texture rich with whole grains but still smooth.

I thought that this rye bread would lend itself to be enriched with flowers, so I harvested and added the following to the dough: the flowers of three sprigs of my lemon thyme, two chive blossoms and a few flowers of winter savory (santoreggia).

Chive Blossom — ensures you will win an argument. Conveniently, also an antidote for hurt feelings.

flowering lemon thyme

I don't know if thyme flowers have any special power (the Waverley Kitchen Journal at the end of the novel does not include an entry for thyme), but I am officially in love with the bread I made. The flavor of thyme is there and a light hint of onion. I think that next time I will be a bit more daring and increase the quantities.

This is the list of ingredients I used to make the bread. I am reporting the "volume" version, but I actually looked at the "weight" version, converted ounces to grams, then halved the quantities and weighed the ingredients accordingly.

• 3/4 cup [80 g] whole-grain rye flour (see my previous post)
• 3/4 cup [90 g] all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 cup [55 g] whole-wheat flour (I get this also as part oof my CSA grain share)
• 1/2 cup [30 g] large flakes of rye bran that I sift off the stone-ground flour (see my previous post) [note that this is not the same as rye chops, but my approximation using an ingredient I have at hand]
  
• 1 tablespoon [14 g] gluten flour
• 1 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3/4 teaspoons sea salt
• 3/4 cup [175 ml] lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 [45 ml] tablespoons olive oil
• flowers from three springs of lemon thyme, two chive blossoms (florets separated) and a few flowers of winter savory

I followed the instructions as stated in the original recipe, except that I made one baton and let it rise on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I heated the oven to 375 F with an empty baking sheet inside and when the bread was ready to be baked, I sprinkled its surface with a bit of water, moved it with the parchment paper on the hot baking sheet and put it in the oven.

Slices of this rye bread are great served with spreads (like my roasted pepper and almond dip in the top photo) and cheese.

Back to Garden Spells, towards the end of the novel, there is a sentence that I really liked and I hope I won't forget:

When you're happy for yourself, it fills you. When you're happy for someone else, it pours over.

I think the same can be said about sadness. I spent a fair amount of time in my garden during the weekend, trying to focus on small tasks, as a reaction to the pouring over of sadness caused by reading news and watching images coming from Norway. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love Norway, I think that nature-wise it is the most beautiful country in Europe. Many times during my two visits, I felt like I was in a magical kingdom. It is difficult to grasp the reality of such an enchanted place being visited by unspeakable horror. I hope what happened will not change Norway. The country and its people are special and they will always have a special place in my heart.

¹ As Lori Lynn mentions in her comment, foxglove is poisonous. It is very common around here and reseeds itself. I keep it for two reasons: it's a beautiful plant and deer don't like it.

This is my contribution to the current edition of Cook the Books, hosted by Rachel of The Crispy Cook. You can find the guidelines for participating in the event here, and here is the announcement.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

I am also contributing this post to the July edition of Healing Foods, the event created and organized by Siri of Cooking with Siri and hosted this month by Simona of briciole (that would be me). I chose the theme of the month to be whole grains and whole-grain flours.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

pane di segale ai fiori di timo e di erba cipollina

or launch the pane di segale ai fiori di timo e di erba cipollina audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

rye flour, bread, thyme, chives

torta di segale e mela

rye apple cake

As member of a grain CSA, I receive a monthly share that includes various stone-ground, whole-grain flours, like wheat, barley and rye flour.

Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat but is longer and more slender and varies in color from yellowish brown to grayish green. It is generally available in its whole or cracked grain form or as flour or flakes that look similar to old-fashioned oats. Because it is difficult to separate the germ and bran from the endosperm of rye, rye flour usually retains a large quantity of nutrients, in contrast to refined wheat flour. (source: the world's healthiest foods)

I have been admittedly slow at taking up rye flour (farina di segale), but recently I have found two recipes that are fantastic. This is the first one, and it comes from Dan Lepard, whose book The Handmade Loaf is one of my most used bread baking books. You can tell by the amount of flour that hits your face when you open it on certain pages.

When I read his recipe for rye apple cake, I knew immediately that it would be great. I have made it three times and three times I managed to take so-so photos of what is really a nice, moist, deep-flavored cake. On the other hand, I like the photo of the rye flour.

I made a few adjustments to the original list of ingredients, mostly to reduce the amount of sweetener, and the end result is as follows:

• 1 apple (about 175-180 g) [I have used Gala apples, since this is the best quality I am finding now: I will switch to using locally grown apples as soon as the new crop arrives]
• ground cinnamon (cannella), for dusting the apple pieces
• 50 g / 1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon almond meal
• 25 g / 3 tablespoons sliced [flaked] almonds (mandorle)
  
• 150 g / 1 1/2 cup minus 2 tablespoons whole-grain rye flour [see note 1 below]
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 70 g / 2.5 oz. unsalted butter
• 25 g / 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon agave nectar
• 25 g / 1 tablespoon honey (miele) [see note 2 below]
• 25 g / 2 tablespoons sugar (zucchero)
  
• 75 ml / 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon milk (latte)
  
• 1 egg (uovo)
  

Note 1: the original recipe does not specify the type of rye flour. The flour I get is stone ground and some of the bran is in large flakes. I sift them out, toast them and add them to yogurt.

Note 2: I weighed the ingredients and made the conversion to volume for the post. One tablespoon of agave nectar or of honey is less than 25 g, so I added 1 teaspoon of agave nectar to balance out the weight.

I followed the instructions as stated in the original recipe except that I did not need to grind the almonds, since I had almond meal and did not dust the cake with sugar before putting it in the oven.

A great cake for a sweet breakfast or to go with a cup of tea (una tazza di tè).

This is my contribution to the July edition of Healing Foods, the event created and organized by Siri of Cooking with Siri and hosted this month by Simona of briciole (that would be me). I chose the theme of the month to be whole grains and whole-grain flours.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

torta di segale e mela

or launch the torta di segale e mela audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

rye flour, apple, cake

lenticchie nere ennesi con tonno

black lentils from Enna with tombo

The beautiful black lentils on the right are lenticchie nere delle colline ennesi, black lentils from Enna hills (Enna is a city in the heart of Sicily), an old cultivar that came close to extinction under the pressure of mechanized agriculture. I purchased some of those lentils in Italy and prepared lenticchie nere ennesi con tonno (black lentils from Enna with tombo).

You will find more information on this special legume, the recipe and the accompanying audio file in the guest post I wrote for My Legume Love Affair 37 — Year 4, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by the creator herself.

It is a very special honor to contribute to the celebration for My Legume Love Affair, an event in which I have participated 16 times before this one — starting with the very first edition — and which I have hosted three times.

Many thanks to Susan for continuing to bring together bloggers from around the world around the table of this beautiful event.

lentil

carote in bianco e nero

black and white rainbow carrots

I love the mix of colors in the bunches of rainbow carrots now available at the farmers' market. I even got some seeds and planted them in a space of my little garden. As of this morning, I don't see any sign of a future crop. I am trying to remain optimistic about the future. 

This is my submission to the week #2 edition of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event, recently launched by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.

I have never taken a photo in black and white and Susan's event will provide me with the motivation to do so. However, I decided to start with something else I had never tried: transforming one of my color photos into a black and white one. The original of the photo can be seen in my recent post on carrots with cumin sauce.

This post contains the gallery of photos submitted to the event.

gelato di fragole arrosto all'aceto balsamico

roasted strawberry ice cream flavored with balsamic vinegar

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

a lovely summer dessert

Strawberry season is in full swing and one of the recipes in which the beloved berries shine is Strawberry ice cream flavored with balsamic vinegar from my one and only ice cream book Frozen Dessert by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir. My version, which I have been making for a while, includes a few small adjustments to the original recipe.

However, when I read a recent post by Val of More Than Burnt Toast about using roasted strawberry to make ice cream, I knew the time had come to push the tried-and-true recipe in a new direction. Val was inspired by Jerry of Jerry's Thoughts, Music and Rants!, who got the idea of roasting strawberries from Zoë of Zoe Bakes. That's what I love about blogging: the flow of information, the suggestion that one day finds the right situation for realization.

My first attempt showed that I had not planned properly for the consequences of roasting juicy fruit. I spread the strawberries on a large baking sheet lined with a silicone mat and some juice ended up under the mat. Still, the ice cream I made with the roasted strawberries was good, so I made it again.

For my second try, I used a smaller baking sheet: the silicone mat came up on the sides and kept the juice contained. I also shortened the baking time to 30 minutes. I really liked the result, so for now this is going to be the main gelato di fragole at our house.

Ingredients:

• 18 oz. strawberries
• 1/2 cup ultra-fine sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar of good quality
• 1/2 cup whipping/heavy cream (panna da montare), possibly organic

Wash strawberries and carve out stem. Place in a bowl, add 1/4 cup sugar and balsamic vinegar and toss gently but thoroughly. Heat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat that is wider and longer than the sheet, so no juice can escape from any side. Place strawberries on the sheet on a single layer. Use a spatula to clean the bowl so all the sugar and vinegar gets into the oven with the strawberries. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let strawberries cool.

Spoon strawberries in the food processor and add the rest of the sugar (1/4 cup). Again here, use a spatula to made sure all the juice produced during the baking period is transferred into the food processor. Purée until smooth. Pour into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

When ready, add the cream to the strawberry purée and stir well. Pour into the ice cream maker and churn until it has the consistency of gelato. Spoon into serving bowls and serve immediately.

After plating the ice cream, do not leave what is left over in the machine, but transfer it into a plastic container, cover the surface with wax paper, then put on the lid. Place in the freezer. Take out of the freezer half an hour or so before eating, so the gelato has time to soften.

Last minute update. The photo above is of early this morning and is not as good as the one at the top, but I decided to add it just before publishing the post to show how the color of this batch of the gelato is darker than of the previous due to the deeper red of the strawberries I used. When I churned this batch last night, it was too late to take a photo with natural light. This morning I let the frozen leftover gelato soften before photographing it, so you can also see a difference in the texture.

This is my contribution to edition #292 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Rachel, The Crispy Cook.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

gelato di fragole arrosto all'aceto balsamico

or launch the gelato di fragole arrosto all'aceto balsamico audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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gelato, ice cream, strawberry

Per i lettori italiani

È stagione di fragole e una delle ricette nelle quali esse splendono è quella del gelato di fragole all'aceto balsamico dal mio amato libro Frozen Dessert di Caroline Liddell e Robin Weir. La mia versione, che uso da un po' di tempo, comprende alcuni cambiamenti apportati alla ricetta originale.

 Ma quando ho letto che Val di More Than Burnt Toast ha usato fragole arrosto per fare un gelato, mi sono decisa a spingere la ricetta verso una nuova direzione. Ad ispirare Val è stato Jerry di Jerry's Thoughts, Music and Rants!, il quale ha preso l'idea di mettere le fragole in forno da Zoë di Zoe Bakes.

Il mio primo tentativo ha dimostrato una certa mancanza di pianificazione accurata. Ho disposto le fragole su una una lastra da forno foderata con tappetino di silicone e un po' di succo di fragole è finito sotto il tappetino. Ma il gelato che ho fatto con le fragole arrosto è venuto buono, percio l'ho fatto di nuovo.

Per il mio secondo tentativo, ho usato una lastra da forno più piccola: in questo modo il tappetino di silicone copriva anche i lati e il succo non poteva scappare. Ho anche diminuito il tempo di soggiorno in forno da 40 a 30 minuti. Il risultato mi è piaciuto molto e quindi per ora questo è il gelato di fragole che si mangia a casa nostra.

Ingredienti:

• mezzo chilo di fragole
• 100 g di zucchero finissimo, divisi
• 5 ml (1 cucchiaino) di aceto balsamico
• 120 ml di panna da montare, possibilmente bio

Lavare le fragole e privarle del picciolo. Mettere le fragole in una ciotola e aggiungere 50 g dello zucchero finissimo e l'aceto balsamico. Mescolare bene con delicatezza. Scaldare il forno a 175 C. Foderare una lastra da forno con un tappetino di silicone che sia più lungo e più largo, in modo che il succo prodotto durante la cottura in forno non finisca sotto il tappetino. Disporre le fragole sulla lastra. Con una spatolina pulire bene la ciotola in modo che tutto lo zucchero e l'aceto vengano trasferiti insieme alle fragole.

Mettere in forno e cuocere per 30 minuti. (La temperatura in gradi Fahrenheit che uso io, 350, è un po' al di sopra di 175 C e un po' al di sotto di 180 C. Ho deciso di specificare la temperatura più bassa poiché preferisco essere cauta. Potete lasciare le fragole in forno qualche minuto in più, ma fate attenzione che il succo non bruci.) Lasciar raffreddare le fragole.

Trasferire le fragole nel robot e aggiungere il resto dello zucchero finissimo (50 g). Di nuovo, usare una spatolina per pulire la ciotola in modo che nemmeno una goccia del succo prodotto durante la cottura vada persa. Frullare fino a ridurre le fragole ad una crema omogenea. Versare in una ciotola, coprire e mettere in frigorifero fino a quando non sia completamente freddo.

Quando siete pronti, aggiungere la panna alle fragole e mescolare bene, poi versare la miscela nella vaschetta della gelatiera. Fate andare la gelatiera fino a quando vedrete che la consistenza del contenuto sia quella del gelato. Preparare le porzioni e servire immediatamente.

Se avanza del gelato, non lasciarlo nella gelatiera: metterlo subito in un contenitore di plastica, stendere un pezzo di carta oleata sulla superficie, coprire e mettere nel congelatore. Togliere dal congelatore mezz'ora prima di mangiarlo in modo che si ammorbidisca.

Ho scattato la foto qui sopra stamattina presto e non è molto buona, ma ho deciso di aggiungerla al post prima di pubblicarlo per far vedere la differenza di colore con quello in alto dovuta al colore più scuro delle fragole che ho usato. Quando ho tolto il gelato quì sopra dalla gelatiera era troppo tardi per fare una foto con la luce naturale, cosi potete vedere anche una differenza in consistenza.

Questo è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 292 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di Briggis recept och ideer, che questa settimana funge anche da ospite.

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

mezzelune con ricotta e bietola

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!  

You can find the information and the recipes Steph provided on this page. Serendipitously, I have recently written two posts on fresh egg pasta: tagliatelle with ricotta (both homemade) and tagliatelle with tomato sauce and fava beans. The posts include my recipe for the pasta all'uovo itself and for three dishes. In them, I explained also how I always make the pasta dough by hand and sometimes use the rolling pin (matterello), sometimes the pasta machine to roll out the pasta: the ingredient in the latter case is called olio di gomito (elbow grease).

For the challenge, I decided to make stuffed pasta. First, I selected the filling ingredients: my homemade ricotta and baby rainbow chard (bietola novella) from my little vegetable garden. Then, I decided that I would cut the past with my 3-inch fluted round biscuit cutter and then fold each round into a mezzaluna (half moon).

If you have never made stuffed pasta before, my recommendation is to start small. Make one egg of pasta all'uovo and prepare the filling below. You will have some leftover filling. When I was a kid, my task was to fill and shape cappelletti. My mother prepared the filling and the pasta and cut the pasta for me and I took it from there. Sometimes I felt like the pasta and the filling would never end, no matter how many cappelletti I shaped. So now I am careful about making the task small so it looks manageable. Anyway, enough with advice.

The recipe I use to make pasta all'uovo is here. I have recently run out of the type of flour mentioned in the post, so I am now using a blend of all-purpose flour and durum flour that I brought from Italy.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 50 g cooked baby chard (I weighed it after I cooked it) [you can use tender chard leaves instead]
  
• 150 g [homemade] ricotta
• a dash of nutmeg (noce moscata)
  
• a pinch of dried lemon zest
• a bit of salt
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated homemade Montasio or Parmigiano-Reggiano

Additional ingredients to finish the dish:

• salted butter
• freshly grated homemade Montasio or Parmigiano-Reggiano, to taste
  

Wash the baby chard and put it in a pan with some water still clinging to the leaves. Cover and cook until tender, checking often to make sure the pan is not dry. If you do this carefully, there is no need to squeeze the leaves dry (something I can't bring myself to do in any circumstance).

Chop chard finely. With a fork, mash the ricotta into a cream. Add the chard and mix well. Add the seasoning and incorporate. The filling is now ready to be used.

Cut the pasta, place a small amount of filling on each round, fold it in half, and carefully seal the edge. I am afraid I must renege on my recent "enough with advice" statement. Start with using less filling than you think is needed: it is easy to put too much filling on a round and then get into trouble when you try to seal the mezzaluna. On the other hand, you want to end up with a nice, soft pillow.

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Add some coarse salt and stir. Drop the mezzelune into the water, making sure they don't crowd, and bring back to boiling. Cook the mezzelune several minutes, until done. The amount of time needed depends on a few factors, so the best way to handle this is to watch attentively and taste a corner.

While the pasta is cooking, in a ramekin, melt a tablespoon of salted butter for each 10-11 mezzelune. This quantity is my idea of a portion and you should get two portions from one egg of pasta all'uovo. Add a few leaves of fresh basil finely chopped (or chiffonade) and stir. Grate the cheese of choice. Drain the mezzelune and place them on plates. Pour some of the butter & basil, sprinkle cheese on top and serve immediately.

You'll be loved.

You can see many variations of the theme of handmade pasta, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Steph for an interesting and fun challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

mezzelune con ricotta e bietola

or launch the mezzelune con ricotta e bietola audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

stuffed pasta

Novel Food #13: the finale

First came the announcement, then the various contributions arrived in the mailbox, and finally, today it is time for the roundup of the 13th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I created in 2007. Novel Food is about literary works (prose or poetry) that inspire the preparation of dishes. Like all its predecessors, the current edition of the event includes an interesting set of readables and edibles.

Please, follow me on a short literary/culinary tour. For each contribution, I will offer a small bite to whet your appetite for more: follow the link to read the details of the inspiring work of literature and of the inspired recipe. I hope that by the time you reach the end of this post, you will have a nice reading and cooking list to be used in the near future.

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As a child, Ruhama of rumahama loved Dominc by William Steig: the book has inspired her to prepare Baby back ribs with a special rub

"Dominic is a dog with ambition. He's ready to see the world, so he sets out to do just that... Almost immediately, he runs into the Doomsday Gang, who plague him (as well as everyone else he meets) for the rest of the novel. He also makes several new friends, as well as inherits a vast treasure. This is a tale with several adventures, fun characters and makes you think about your approach toward life."

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Cara of Due Spaghetti was inspired to make Madeleines by Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog

"a fascinating and profound story about identity and personal conflict. The story takes place in Paris, where the heroine Renée, a French concierge in an apartment building full or aristocrats, keeps her intellectualism hidden from the outside world and assumes the appearance of a common, uneducated woman. Her only friend, Portuguese Manuela, is in on her secret."

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Jo of Not An Everyday Circumstance read Random Harvest by James Hilton and was inspired to make Eton Mess

"Once you've read the book, you should definitely make it a point to see the 1942 film adaptation with the marvelous Ronald Colman as Charles Rainier/Smithy and the luminous Greer Garson as Paula. Yes, Random Harvest was made into a movie, just like James Hilton's other famous novel, Goodbye, Mr. Chip." [also starring Greer Garson]

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Corina of Searching for Spice was inspired by The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad to prepare Afghan Lamb and Spinach Stew and Aubergine in Yoghurt

Seierstad, a journalist, goes to Kabul just after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. She moves in with a bookseller and his family and lives with them for five months to write a book about them. Her book "reads as a novel, rather than as non-fiction." A wedding feast provided inspiration for the two dishes.

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Sandi of Whistlestop Cafe Cooking read Beyond the Pasta by Mark Leslie and prepared a summer treat: Basil Gelato

"Every year [Leslie] travels to Italy and lives to eat his way through every plate of pasta and cone of gelato... He does a beautiful job of filling this book with the flavors and scents of Italy... This a novel and a recipe book all rolled into one delicious read."

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Adele of tales of the basil queen found inspiration in The Tutor, a short story by Nell Freudenberger, and prepared Cacio e pepe

"Sometimes the stories we love best are not those that teach us something about other lives, but those that echo our own. These are stories in which we meet characters we know, and see our own thoughts laid out on the printed page. Stories in which we find that a stranger has described us better than we could describe ourselves."

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Paz of The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz read The Empress of Ice Cream by Anthony Capella and made Chocolate Sauce for ice cream

"a historical fiction about ice cream and two people [a handsome, Italian ice cream maker and a beautiful but poor, French lady-in-waiting] caught up in the political climate between France and England in the 1600s and the wills of the two kings... Who knew that the subject of ice cream combined with 17th century French/English politics would be so fascinating?" 

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Simona of briciole read The King's Gambit and The Catiline Conspiracy by John Maddox Roberts and prepared Carrots with cumin sauce

The novels are mysteries set in ancient Rome. Reading them "was like revisiting knowledge I had acquired when studying Roman history and art history, and Latin language and literature, but with a different perspective... I really like to imagine Rome as it was then (I century BCE), with locations and buildings I know from art history and from visits to the Eternal City.

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My special "thank you!" goes to the event's participants. The next edition of Novel Food will be in the fall: I will announce it here and on The Food Blog Diary, so stay tuned. The Food Blog Diary is the lovely event announcement site created and maintained by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes. Visit the site to read about current events and let her know about your event and she will post it on her well-organized site. Thank you, Jacqueline!

In the meantime, here's my customary parting words: read good books (maybe with the next Novel Food in mind), cook good foods, and otherwise savor life's local and seasonal offerings. Arrivederci!

Novel Food #13: carote con salsina al cumino

Novel Food #13: carrots with cumin sauce

[cliccare il link per andare alla ricetta in italiano]

Some time ago, during a visit to one of my favorite bookstores, Dark Carnival in Berkeley, I bought The King's Gambit by John Maddox Roberts (1990). The novel is the first of the SPQR series, 13 (so far) mysteries set in ancient Rome whose protagonist is Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger. [SPQR means Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Senate and the Roman people) — I like the way this person explains it.]

Reading the book was like revisiting knowledge I had acquired when studying Roman history and art history, and Latin language and literature, but with a different perspective. The novel is written in first person, so reading it was like paying a special visit to ancient Rome. For people who are not familiar with ancient Rome or need to refresh their memory (as I sometimes do), there is a very useful glossary at the end of the book, which explains relevant elements of Roman life and political organization. 

The plot intrigued me and the presence of well-known historical characters, like Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare) and Cicero (Cicerone), made it particularly interesting. The narrative includes descriptions of daily activities, like going to the baths, and also of meals:

Sergius's "bite of lunch" consisted of a banquet that would have done the Senate proud at the reception of a new ambassador. There were pickled peacocks' tongues and sows' udders stuffed with Libyan mice, deep-fried. There were lampreys, oysters, truffles and other rare, exotic delicacies in endless profusion.

Reproducing such a lunch would not be easy and to be honest not a single item listed appeals to me. I could easily get local oysters, but I must confess that I don't like them.

I enjoyed the reading so much that the next time I passed the bookstore, I went in and asked for SPQR II, The Catiline Conspiracy. That episode of Roman history is seared in the memory of Italian students of Latin, because they all had to read parts of Cicero's famous Orationes in Catilinam (speeches against Catiline). Cicero was consul at the time of the conspiracy.

In The Catiline Conspiracy, there is a description of a triumph, the public celebration of a general's military achievements, in this case of Lucullus (Lucullo):

The great event of the season was the triumph of Lucullus. He had returned to Italy almost four years earlier and had petitioned the senate for permission to celebrate a triumph.

The celebration ends with a huge party in which food plays an important role.

Lucullus had always been noted for his taste for luxury, but this was the first of the banquets for which he became even more famed than for his victories. These were noted not only for the excellence of the food, but for their theatrical effects. The first platter set before me and the diners near me, for instance, consisted of hard-boiled and baked eggs of many species of birds in a framework of pastry, ascending tier upon tier, forming a model of the great Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria. Perfumed oil burned in a bowl at its crest.

The succeeding dishes continued the nautical theme. A trireme sailed by rowed by roast suckling pigs, which slaves dressed as sailors transferred to the table. Roast fowl were brought, with their feathers replaced so that they appeared to be alive, but they had been cunningly joined to the bodies and tails of mullets, so that they looked like mythical, hybrid sea creatures.

Lest we starve between these imaginative servings, the tables were heaped with more prosaic eatables: breads, cheeses, nuts, olives, tiny grilled sausages and so forth. All of this was washed down with excellent wines, any one of which would have been the showpiece of an ordinary banquet.

I enjoyed the second book as well, and often forgot that I knew the ending from history. I am planning to read SPQR III soon. I really like to imagine Rome as it was then (I century BCE), with locations and buildings I know from art history and from visits to the Eternal City.

Though the novels did not prompt me to look for pickled peacock's tongues, or to create hybrid sea creatures, they motivated me to do something I had had in mind for a while: try a recipe from those days. We have some sources, the most famous of which is Apicius. First I actually tried making libum, whose recipe is in Cato's De Agricultura. I made it twice, according to the recipe at the bottom of this page, using my homemade ricotta, and half spelt and half whole-wheat flour. I was not impressed with the result: it was edible, but nothing to write on the blog about, so I went back to the drawing board.

I got interested in this recipe for carrots with cumin sauce for two main reasons: I had never prepared a side dish with just cooked carrots, and I have a big plant of lovage (if you have never seen lovage, there is a photo in this post; the photo below shows a sprig, together with some parsley flowers and some of my lovely sweet pea flowers). The fact that bunches of freshly picked carrots are available at the farmers' market sealed the deal.

You can read the original recipe on this page: section XXIX of the first chapter includes two versions of cuminatum for shellfish. Then, section XXI of chapter III says that carrots or parsnips can be dressed with the same cuminatum previously described (see numbers 39 and 40 for a translation).

After looking around further, I found a more detailed recipe for the same dish and decided to use that to guide my experiments. I eliminated the honey from the ingredient list, because our carrots are plenty sweet. I used anchovies¹ melted in warm oil instead of Roman garum as recommended in the recipe (Vietnamese fish sauce nuoc nam being another alternative and the modern garum recipe on this page being yet another).

I used fresh mint instead of dried, because I have plenty of it in my herb garden (together with lovage and parsley), and I did not use salt, since the anchovies are quite salty. I reduced the amount of cumin. I know, this is supposed to be a cumin sauce, but I didn't want cumin to overpower the other ingredients. And in any case, the original recipe has no quantities, so I felt I could adjust all of them according to my taste.

I made the recipe three times, playing a bit with the details, including using some parsnips (pastinache) together with carrots (top photo). The result was a very interesting dish, which includes many flavors, all detectable. It is not a Wow! dish, but one that subtly captures your attention and invites your palate to explore its complex landscape: before you know it, you are reaching out for a second helping.

Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for carote con salsina al cumino

Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh carrots, possibly of different colors; you can also substitute one or two carrots with parsnips of the same size
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lovage leaves (levistico)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves (prezzemolo)
• 3-4 small leaves of fresh mint (menta), finely chopped (I used orange mint)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (toast seeds and grind them right before using)
  
• freshly ground black pepper
• a dash of ground cinnamon (cannella)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil of good quality
  
• 2 anchovy fillets preserved in oil (filetti di alici sott'olio)
• 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Scrub carrots, scrape off skin with a knife, rinse, then steam until tender to taste. Let cool, then slice into rounds (1/8-1/4 inch thick) and place in a serving bowl or dish.

Pile up on cutting board the herbs, cumin and cinnamon. Turn the pepper mill a couple of times over the small pile, then with a blade, mince more finely and mix at the same time.

Warm up olive oil in a ramekin and add anchovy fillets cut into small pieces. Stir until anchovies are melted. Add balsamic vinegar and stir. Add the minced herbs and spices and stir well: this is the salsina al cumino.

Pour sauce over carrots and toss. Serve.

Feel free to adjust the quantity of the various ingredients to please your palate. In particular, you may want to try increasing the amount of cumin. I may do so in the future: for now, though, I am enjoying the dish as described above. If you get carrots or various colors, the result is quite pleasant for the eyes.

This, as you can imagine, is my contribution to the 13th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I have started some time ago (this time I am hosting solo as Lisa is taking a break from blogging).

This post contains the roundup of the event.

I am also sending this post to Tin Can Recipes, a monthly event that will run until the end of this year. The organizers are Ale, Fra, Sere and Paola of Il Giardino degli Aromi and Brii of Briggis recept och ideer and Briiblog in English. The rules for participating are detailed on this page.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

carote con salsina al cumino

or launch the carote con salsina al cumino audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

¹ The can of anchovies in the photo is for information only: it is not an advertisement. I do not have a business relationship with the product's company.

carrot, cumin

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Per i lettori italiani

I due libri che mi hanno ispirato a cercare ricette della Roma antica non sono disponibili in italiano. Sono i primi due volumi di una serie intitolata SPQR dello scrittore americano John Maddox Roberts. I romanzi sono interessanti perché fanno vedere Roma e vicende storiche che conosco dalla scuola.

In entrambi i romanzi ci sono diversi riferimenti a cene e al cibo che viene servito. In particolare, nel secondo volume (intitolato La congiura di Catilina) c'è la descrizione del banchetto che segue il trionfo di Lucullo. I piatti descritti sono un po' troppo elaborati e alcuni sinceramente non molto allettanti, però la lettura mi ha stimolato a fare delle ricerche. La mia attenzione si è fissata su una ricetta tratta da Apicio.

Potete leggere l'originale su questa pagina: la sezione XXIX del primo capitolo comprende due versioni del cuminatum. La sezione XXI del capitolo III (dedicato alle verdure) dice che si possono condire carote o pastinache con il cuminatum descritto in precedenza.

Dopo ulteriori ricerche, ho trovato una ricetta con maggiori dettagli ed è questa che ho usato come guida per i miei esperimenti. Ho eliminato il miele perché le nostre carote sono dolci abbastanza. Ho usato alici sciolte nell'olio caldo al posto del garum, come raccomandato nella ricetta. Ho usato menta fresca invece che secca, perché ne ho in quantità nel mio orticello, insieme a levistico e prezzemolo. Se non avete mai visto il levistico, in quest post potete vedere una foto della mia pianta. La foto qui sotto mostra un rametto di levistico, dei fiori di prezzemolo (una delle mie piante sta fiorendo) e alcuni fiori di pisello odoroso per una nota di colore¹.

 

Non ho aggiunto sale, poiché le alici sono alquanto salate. E ho ridotto la quantità di cumino: mi rendo conto che questa è una salsina al cumino, ma non volevo che la spezia la facesse da padrona in termini di sapore. In ogni caso, la ricetta originale non specifica alcuna quantità e quindi mi sono sentita libera di adattarla ai miei gusti.

Ho preparato la ricetta tre volte, giocando un po' con i dettagli. Il risultato è un contorno molto interessante, nel quale i vari sapori sono tutti individuabili. Non è un piatto che stupisce al primo assaggio, ma uno che cattura l'attenzione e invita il palato ad esplorare la sua complessità. Senza accorgersene, si allungano le mani per servirsi un'altra porzione.

Ingredienti:

• mezzo chilo di carote fresche, possibilmente di vari colori; potete sostituire una o due carote con pastinache delle stesse dimensioni
• 2 cucchiai (30 ml) di foglie di levistico fresco a pezzetti (prima tagliate e poi misurate)
• 2 cucchiai (30 ml) di foglie di prezzemolo fresco a pezzetti (prima tagliate e poi misurate)
• 3-4 foglioline di menta fresca a pezzetti
• 1/2 cucchiaino (2.5 ml) di cumino (tostare i semi, ridurli in polvere e poi misurare)
• pepe macinato fresco: 2-3 giri di macinapepe
• un pochino di cannella in polvere
• 2 cucchiaini di olio di oliva
• 2 filetti di alici sott'olio
• 1/2 cucchiaio (7.5 ml) di aceto balsamico

Lavare bene le carote, raschiare la pellicina con un coltello, sciacquare e poi cuocere al vapore. Far raffreddare, poi tagliare a rondelle spesse 3-6 mmand e mettere su un piatto da portata.

Ammucchiare erbe aromatiche, cumino, pepe e cannella sul tagliere. Con un coltello, tagliare finemente e mescolare allo stesso tempo.

Scaldare l'olio in una ciotolina e aggiungere i filetti di alici tagliati a pezzetti. Mescolare fino a quando le alici si sciolgono. Aggiungere l'aceto balsamico e mescolare. Aggiungere il battuto di erbe aromatiche e spezie e mescolare bene: questa è la salsina al cumino. Versare sulle carote e mescolare. Servire.

Adattate le dosi dei vari ingredienti al vostro gusto. In particolare, potete provare ad aumentare la quantità di cumono. Magari in futuro lo farò anch'io, ma per ora mi gusto il contorno così come l'ho descritto. Se trovate carote di vari colori il risultato è piacevole anche agli occhi.

Questo è il mio contributo alla 13ma edizione di Novel Food, evento letterario/culinario che Lisa di Champaign Taste ed io abbiamo creato un po' di tempo fa, come potete vedere sulla pagina della collezione delle edizioni precedenti. Stavolta ospito l'evento da sola dal momento che Lisa si è presa un po' di vacanza dal blog.

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

Contribuisco anche questo mese all'evento Tin Can Recipes dedicato alla celebrazione dei 200 anni del cibo in scatola. L'organizzazione dell'evento è di Ale, Fra, Sere e Paola del blog Il Giardino degli Aromi e di Brii che scrive Briggis recept och ideer e Briiblog in English. Le regole per partecipare le trovate su questa pagina.

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

¹ La scatoletta di alici sott'olio nella foto è solo a titolo informativo: non è una pubblicità. Non ho alcun rapporto commerciale con l'azienda produttrice.