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Antipasti/Appetizers

Lightly Pickled Vegetables

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Italian-style vegetable pickles

We’re social distancing, but no reason for vegetables to do that! One of the best ways for them to mingle is the Italian garden medley called giardiniera. Your pickled vegetable choices are many: cauliflower, carrots, baby cucumbers, fennel, celery, bell peppers, beets, radishes.

I love pickled vegetables, but don’t want them to be overly salty or taste harshly of vinegar. My giardiniera carries a gentle tang without overpowering the taste buds. It’s made with generous amounts of lovely seasonings such as juniper berries, garlic and peppercorns.

I don’t have the need or space to preserve seasonal vegetables for winter. Instead, I leave them in the pickling solution for several days to build flavor, and then we eat the giardiniera over a period of about 10 days. It’s easiest, with all these vegetables, to make a sizeable batch. One jar stays at home and the remaining two go to family members or friends.

quesadilla with giardiniera

Making giardiniera wasn’t top of mind until I heard that our grandsons have taken to pickled vegetables. Unusual for little ones two and four years old, but definitely to be encouraged!

Our son-in-law told them my giardiniera was dessert. I doubt they were fooled, but they like it and so do the rest of us.

In Emilia-Romagnia, pickled vegetables are a foil for the fatty flavors of the region’s cured meats and cheeses. It’s also an ideal picnic food with, say, roast chicken, fruit and brownies.

I cut the veggies in larger pieces so they can be used as a side. Giardiniera also makes a delightful condiment for grilled sandwiches or quesadillas, and if that’s the plan, I chop the pieces smaller.

Keep a jar or two on hand and you’ll doubtless think of other delicious uses for giardiniera.

Italian-style vegetable pickles
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Lightly Pickled Vegetables (Giardiniera)
Prep Time
40 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
 

Old-fashioned Mason jars are the perfect way to show off your homemade Italian-style pickles. This gentle pickling solution brings out the best in almost any garden vegetable, from baby cucumbers to carrots to fennel. With veggies cut in large chunks, giardiniera serves as a side for many dishes, Chopped finer, it turns into a condiment for sandwiches or quesadillas.

Course: Condiment, Side Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 3 quarts, more or less
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 1 pound carrots
  • 1 pound baby cucumbers
  • 1 medium red, yellow or green bell pepper
  • 1 small fennel bulb or 2 ribs celery
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 cups white vinegar
  • 2 cups cider vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt or sea salt
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 teaspoons peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon juniper berries or whole cloves optional
  • 1 small fresh hot pepper halved and seeded, or ½ teaspoon hot red pepper, optional
Instructions
  1. Cut cauliflower in florets and similar-sized stem pieces. Halve carrots lengthwise if large; angle cut in 2-inch pieces. Cut cucumbers and bell pepper in similar-sized pieces. Cut fennel in thin wedges. Halve garlic cloves and peel.

  2. Combine white vinegar and cider vinegar with 3 cups water in a large saucepan. Stir in garlic, sugar, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, juniper berries and hot pepper (if using) and bring to a boil; stir, making sure sugar and salt dissolve.

  3. Reserving cucumber pieces, add cauliflower, carrots, bell pepper and fennel to boiling liquid, pressing to submerge vegetables. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cucumbers and simmer 5 minutes longer. Vegetables should be crisp-tender at this point. Remove from heat and cool in saucepan, uncovered.

  4. Transfer vegetables and seasonings to mason jars or ceramic containers, dividing evenly. Pour liquid over, making sure ingredients are covered (if not, add equal parts vinegar and water). Let cure in refrigerator for several days to develop flavor; keeps 2 weeks or probably longer.

  5. To serve: Remove quantity of vegetables you plan to use with a slotted spoon, leaving pickling liquid in the jar.
Recipe Notes

Notes

• Beets would taste great with the other vegetables, but unless you want them all tinted pink, pickle the beets separately and combine at serving time.
• If you want to store pickled vegetables for a longer period, process the mason jars in a water bath, following directions for canning.

 

Italians Eat Crepes, Too

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Mention crepes, and my mind leaps to the thin pancakes, filled with ham and cheese, that I tasted long ago in Normandy. But Italians eat savory crepes, too. Called crespelle, they are a lovely change from pasta and risotto.

The flavor and texture of crepes are improved by incorporating whole-grain flour into the batter. You could use buckwheat flour, as in Normandy, or whole-wheat, rye, chickpea or farro flour. One part whole-grain flour for two parts all-purpose are proportions that work as well for crepes as for regular pancakes.

It’s fun to make crespelle/crepes, and easy, too. The trick is to let the batter sit for a bit, allowing the gluten to relax. Heat the pan, brush with melted butter and get going. As with any other pancakes, the first one might be a dud. But soon you’re happily flipping one bronze-flecked disk after another.

I’m fond of a classic ricotta-spinach filling, with tomato sauce under and over the rolled crepes. They are similar to cannelloni (and filled tortillas, for that matter), but thinner and more delicate.

Many Italian recipes call for just a couple of tablespoons of filling per crepe but for plump ones, use at least a third of a cup. The exact amount depends on the size of your crepes, which in turn depends on pan size. Ideally, use a crepe pan, small and flat, with shallow sloping sides. Mine is about 8 inches in diameter. You could also use a small nonstick sauté pan.

As an alternative to tomato sauce, use cheese sauce with a béchamel base. For this recipe, I mixed cooked chicken with mushrooms. But your refrigerator probably harbors the makings of other delicious fillings. That leftover ragu you made for pasta, for instance. Or sautéed zucchini and peppers.

Crepes are for any time you feel like it. I learned this during our grad school days, when a friend invited my husband and me home for dinner on a whim.

Buzzi found some carrots and ground beef in her fridge, plus eggs, flour and milk for crepes. She handed us each a glass of wine and we chatted while watching her cook. She happened to be one of those people who make cooking look effortless, but I remember thinking at one point, “I could do this.”

At an impressionable age when my own repertoire of dishes was limited, this simple dinner showed me that a good cook can almost always come up with something nourishing and good. I filed away the idea of crepes as one of those options and now I’m passing it on to you.

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Crespelle (Crepes)
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
40 mins
 
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: French, Italian
Ingredients
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1½ cups milk
  • 3 eggs beaten
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour or 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole-grain flour *
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt or kosher salt
Instructions
  1. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in small saucepan over low heat; add to milk in measuring cup. Melt remaining 3 tablespoons butter in same pan.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk eggs. Add milk mixture.
  3. Combine flour and salt in a food processor or blender. Pulse to blend. Add milk. Process until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl once or twice. Scrape crepe batter into a bowl. Refrigerate for at least half an hour or overnight.

  4. Over medium heat, heat an 8-inch crepe pan or small sauté pan with sloping sides. Brush with a little melted butter. Off heat, pour about 1/3 cup batter into pan, turning to distribute batter over bottom. Cook until lightly browned, about 10 seconds. Flip crepe and cook for a few seconds until lightly browned. Transfer with a spatula to a plate.

  5. Repeat with remainder of batter, brushing pan with butter before cooking each crepe. Stack crepes on top of one another.

  6. Note: Crepes can be used right away or refrigerated for a day or two. To freeze: layer crepes between pieces of waxed paper, wrap well and freeze.
Recipe Notes

* The wonderful whole-grain flours available now include whole-wheat, rye, chickpea, buckwheat and rye. Any of these can be used in crepes. 

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Crepes with Spinach-Ricotta Filling and Tomato Sauce
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
45 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: French, Italian
Ingredients
  • 6- ounce box of baby spinach or mix of spinach and parsley leaves
  • 15- ounce container of ricotta or mix of ricotta and crumbled feta
  • 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 1½ cups grated Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino cheese
  • Kosher salt or sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 cups homemade tomato sauce or purchased marinara sauce
  • 12 to 15 crepes see recipe
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Wilt spinach by microwaving or steaming. Drain, squeeze out liquid and chop.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, wilted spinach, garlic and ½ cup Parmigiano Reggiano. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  4. Spread some of tomato sauce over bottom of a gratin pan or large Pyrex baking dish.
  5. To fill crepes: Spread one-third cup of filling along one end of crepe. Roll up and lay in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining crepes until all are filled.

  6. Spread remaining tomato sauce over crepes, making sure all are moistened. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese. 

  7. Bake until heated through and lightly browned on top, about 15 minutes.
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Crepes with Chicken-Mushroom Filling and Asiago Cheese Sauce
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
45 mins
 
Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Cuisine: French, Italian
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1½ cups milk or half milk and half chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup Asiago or Taleggio cheese
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black or white pepper
  • 12 ounces cooked chicken diced in ½-inch pieces
  • 8 ounces cremini or white mushrooms sliced and sautéed
  • 12 to 15 crepes see recipe
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. To make cheese sauce: Melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Meanwhile, heat milk in microwave.

  3. Blend flour into melted butte. Stir in hot milk, a little at a time, until smooth. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes until sauce is thicker but still loose. Stir in ½ cup cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  4. To make filling: Combine chicken and mushrooms in a medium bowl. Fold in half a cup of cheese sauce.
  5. Spread some of remaining sauce over bottom of gratin pan or large Pyrex baking dish.
  6. To fill crepes: Spread one-third cup of filling along one end of crepe. Roll up and lay in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining crepes until all are filled.
  7. Spread remaining cheese sauce over crepes, making sure all are moistened. Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup cheese. 

  8. Bake until heated through and lightly browned on top, about 15 minutes.

Fettunta (Bruschetta) with Cranberry Beans and Tuscan Kale

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Toasted bread, rubbed with cut garlic cloves and anointed generously with olive oil, is known most places as bruschetta (pronounced bru SKET ta, please). Except. If you are in Tuscany, the word for this treat is fettunta, or fett’ unta, meaning “oiled slice.”

My first memory of fettunta goes back to a simple Sunday supper many years ago. After a long country walk, our friend Elena toasted bread on a hand-held rack before rubbing the slices with garlic and ladling on warm white beans. At the table, we seasoned the dish to our own taste, adding salt, pepper and dense, peppery olive oil.

As with most simple dishes, the ingredients must be the best. Elena used coarse unsalted Tuscan bread. The beans had been simmering with sage all afternoon. The oil had been pressed from local olives.

Making fettunta, as I have for forty years, I try to honor those values. The version shown here is made with fat cranberry beans, grown in Maine, that came in a recent

CSA farm market basket.  I used whole-grain bread from Iggy’s, our favorite Cambridge bakery. For more vitamins and flavor, I added a layer of finely cut, blanched kale.

It’s possible to embellish more. For one make-your-own fettunta dinner, we laid out prosciutto and other cured meats, diced tomatoes and raw sweet onion slices in addition to beans and greens.

The only constant for fettunta is the ritual of toasting good bread and rubbing with raw garlic. And, of course, finishing with good olive oil.

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Fettunta (Bruschetta) with Cranberry Beans and Tuscan Kale
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 

This makes a perfectly balanced--and perfectly delicious--meal. 

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Cuisine: Tuscan
Ingredients
  • 1 small bunch Tuscan kale (laminate variety) or curly-leaf kale
  • 4 cups white beans with sage and garlic see following recipe
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Best-quality extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 large slices white or whole-grain rustic bread
  • 2 garlic cloves peeled and halved
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions

  1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400°F. Cut off tough kale stem ends. Cut leaves (including stems) cross-wise in shreds.

    2) Heat beans over low heat in a medium saucepan; season to taste with salt. Meanwhile, fill a medium saucepan with cold water; bring to a boil. Cook kale, reducing heat if it becomes too fierce, until stems are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain; season with salt.

    3) Toast bread until crisp but not browned. While still warm, rub both sides with garlic clove halves.

    4) To serve: Place toasted bread on plates. Ladle beans and a little of the cooking liquid on top. Spread seasoned kale over each slice. Season with pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil; pass a small pitcher of olive oil at the table for diners to add more if they like. 

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Cranberry Beans with Sage and Garlic
Prep Time
10 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 
Course: Ingredients, Side Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
  • 1 pound cranberry beans or other beans*
  • 1 large sprig fresh sage
  • 2 cloves garlic lightly crushed
  • sea salt or kosher salt
Instructions
  1. Soak beans in a large saucepan for several hours or overnight. Alternatively, bring to a simmer and turn off heat. Let stand for 1 hour.
  2. Drain beans and wash under running water. Return beans to saucepan and cover with fresh cold water to a depth of several inches above beans. Add sage and garlic.
  3. Bring bean mixture to a boil; reduce heat to a bare simmer, partially cover, and cook until beans are tender but still hold their shape, 1 hour or more. Season lightly with salt.
Recipe Notes

* The same method can be used for other dried beans, including white cannellini beans, chickpeas, and various kinds of heirloom beans; Tuscany’s prized zolfini beans require longer soaking, about 12 hours, as well as longer cooking, up to 4 hours.

 

Favorite Iberian Soups: Gazpacho and Caldo Verde

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A few weeks in Portugal and Spain wasn’t enough, for all kinds of reasons. Here’s one: I wanted to keep eating their soups. Sometimes chilled and refreshing. Sometimes warm and comforting. Sometimes thick and sometimes brothy. With deeply satisfying flavors, always.

In the end, my favorites were gazpacho and caldo verde. I knew these classic soups already, but the trip gave me a chance to experience their amazing variety.

A friend from Andalucia told me that her mother always serves a pitcher of gazpacho, red or white, for sipping at any point during the mid-day meal. During my trip, I also encountered salmorejo, thickened with enough bread to support an upright spoon. This gazpacho variation originated in Cordaba, site of the Great Mosque and an old Jewish quarter.

I prefer a runnier gazpacho like the recipe given below, but have garnished it with the hard-cooked egg wedge and pork traditional to salmorejo.

When yellow tomatoes are available, I make gazpacho that shows off their gorgeous hue. Sometimes that morphs into an Italian-inflected soup with yellow tomatoes, peppers, corn and squash.

At Cordoba’s Casa Pepe de la Judería, we also sampled ajo caldo blanco, a wonderful white gazpacho made with almonds and garnished with pear compote and pine nuts.

My other featured soup, caldo verde (“warm and green”), arrived time and time again with thin shreds of spring’s young turnip greens. I loved it every time. So simple and so nourishing.

 

The Madrid restaurant Ocafu’ served caldo gallego, a more robust version from Galicia, simmered with a ham bone and beans–but with the same potato-thickened broth and greens as caldo verde.

My preference during the summer months is a vegetarian version, with whatever dark greens are in season. Once the weather turns cold, a meat-and-beans caldo gallego will appeal.

At Casa do Alentejo, in Lisbon, our friend Barry ate what is definitely the breadiest bread soup I’ve ever seen.

He was not a fan, but it reminded me of Italy’s aqua cotta, showing the methods used by frugal cooks to extract nutrition and flavor from a few vegetables and seasonings.

A simple fideo and chickpea soup in Barcelona also reminded me of Italian soups.

Our lovely posada beside the Roman temple in Evora concluded one dinner with a traditional tomato soup that had nothing to do with gazpacho. It was hot and chunky with tomatoes, vegetables, pork and the eggs beloved by Iberian soup makers.

I haven’t even touched on fish soups, but I’ll stop here–in the hope you’ll be inspired to make caldo verde or gazpacho, soups for any season.

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Gazpacho Garnished with Egg and Serrano Ham
Prep Time
35 mins
 

This recipe is loosely adapted from one in Janet Mendel's excellent My Kitchen in Spain. I've chosen to give conservative quantities for salt, vinegar and cumin. Taste carefully once the gazpacho is made and add more seasonings to your taste. 

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Cuisine: Portuguese, Spanish
Ingredients
  • 4 ounces country-style bread crusts removed (about 4 slices)
  • 2 pounds ripe tomatoes about 4
  • 1 or 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
  • 1 cup peeled, seeded cucumber
  • ½ cup chopped sweet onion such as Vidalia
  • 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar or to taste
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Hot pepper sauce to taste (optional)
  • 6 to 8 hard-cooked egg wedges for garnish (optional)
  • 6 to 8 thin strips Serrano ham or prosciutto optional
Instructions
  1. Tear bread in pieces and place in a bowl; cover with water and soak for a few minutes. Meanwhile, set a strainer over blender container. Halve tomatoes and, using fingers, scoop pulp into strainer, pressing to push liquid through while leaving seeds behind.
  2. Pick up bread, squeezing water from each handful, and add to blender, along with garlic. Blend until smooth (add a little water if mixture is too dry to blend).

  3. Add cucumber, onion, salt and cumin. Blend until smooth. With motor running, add olive oil in a slow stream. Add more water as needed for the desired consistency, which could be runny or fairly thick.

  4. Taste, adding more seasonings (salt, vinegar and, if using, hot pepper sauce) as needed; blend briefly to incorporate additions.
  5. Garnish each serving with an egg wedge and artfully draped ham strip.
Print
Caldo Verde
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 

This recipe is adapted from The Food of Spain and Portugal, by Elizabeth Ortiz. To make a heartier version of the soup, called caldo gallego, cook ingredients with a smoked ham hock; discard at the end. Stir in 1 to 2 cups white beans or garbanzo beans.

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Cuisine: Portuguese, Spanish
Ingredients
  • 1 medium bunch kale, dandelion or young turnip greens
  • 1 medium onion finely chopped
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 pounds russet potatoes peeled and sliced
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt or as needed
  • Freshly ground black pepper as needed
  • 4 to 8 ounces fresh, cooked chorizo* or smoked chorizo* or other garlic-flavored sausage, sliced thinly *
Instructions
  1. Trim tough stems from kale and slice crosswise in thin pieces. Stack leaves, about 6 at a time, roll up and slice thinly.
  2. Place onion in a large, heavy saucepan and drizzle with oil. Saute over medium heat, stirring often, until onion is soft and translucent, but not browned. Add potatoes and sliced kale stems. Cook several minutes longer.
  3. Cover ingredients with water, and add 2 teaspoons salt and several grindings of black pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until potatoes are very soft, about 20 minutes.

  4. Fit a food mill with the medium sieve and force the potato mixture through into a bowl; alternatively, use a food processor or blender to puree.

  5. Return the pureed mixture to the saucepan and reheat gently, adding more water if too thick. Add kale leaves and cook just until wilted. Stir in cooked chorizo just before serving.
Recipe Notes

* Mexican-style chorizo is usually fresh. Cook it thoroughly in a little olive oil and cool before slicing. The cured chorizo used in Spain or Portugal (chourico) does not need additional cooking.

 

 

 

Two-Way Cauliflower with Savory Almond Granola

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Roasting is my go-to method for cauliflower. But what if you spoon the tender, bronzed florets onto a bed of creamy whiteness that also turns out to be cauliflower? Top that with savory granola? Finish with a fine drizzle of turmeric honey?

Whether this dish tastes better than roasted cauliflower on its own is a matter of opinion, but I will say it tastes different–and interesting enough to satisfy as my husband’s entire lunch.

We witnessed its creation in the Whitney Museum’s restaurant, Untitled. Counter stools offer a perfect view of cooks rapidly assembling clever dishes.

I asked a few questions on the spot, but felt confident enough to proceed recipe-less.

Roasting cauliflower: I know how to do that.

I simmered the part destined for pureeing, thereby preserving its snowy color, and added richness with a little heavy cream.

For the granola, I went heavy on almonds, stirring in oats, grapeseed oil and sea salt before crisping the mixture in the oven. My version of turmeric honey was limited to those two ingredients, shaken with a little water.

Besides adding an unusual dish to my vegetable repertoire, this exercise had other benefits. It proved that a pureed vegetable can serve as sauce for the same vegetable in roasted form. I hadn’t made a savory granola before but found other ways to use what was left over: as a topping for broccoli or green beans, vanilla ice cream or my morning fruit-and-yogurt concoctions.

For a touch of sweetness in one thing or another, I’ll now consider shaking up some turmeric honey.

Focusing on cauliflower reminded me of a trick a long-ago cooking teacher, with her frugal Italian-American roots, showed me. If the greens are in good condition, pull them off, simmer briefly in water, and season with butter, salt and pepper. Delicious.

What else can I say? Sit at the restaurant bar or counter if there’s some action worth watching. You never know when you’ll learn something.

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Two-Way Cauliflower with Savory Almond Granola
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 

This recipe is based on a clever lunch dish we sampled at the Whitney Museum's restaurant.

Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Servings: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 large heads cauliflower cored
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • ¼ cup heavy cream or half and half
  • Freshly ground white or black pepper
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • Up to 1 cup Savory Almond Granola for sprinkling (see recipe)
  • Turmeric honey for drizzling (see recipe)
Instructions
  1. Prepare cauliflower: Preheat oven to 400F. Break or cut cauliflower into small pieces. Reserve 4 cups to puree.
  2. Spread remaining cauliflower (about 16 cups) on two parchment-lined sheet pans. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast, turning from time to time, for about 40 minutes until golden brown and tender.
  3. Put reserved 4 cups cauliflower into a saucepan and barely cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and simmer until very tender. Drain, reserving ½ cup cooking water. Transfer cauliflower to a blender or food processor. Blend, adding the cream and enough cooking water for a creamy consistency (a little runnier than mashed potatoes). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  4. Assemble dish: Swirl pureed cauliflower on oven-proof platter or casserole. Pile roasted cauliflower on top. Drizzle with a little olive oil and the lemon juice.
  5. Sprinkle with Savory Almond Granola. Heat in oven until hot. Drizzle with turmeric honey.
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Savory Almond Granola
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
40 mins
 

Use this crunchy savory topping on any vegetable dish, including green beans, broccoli and cauliflower.

Servings: 3 cups
Ingredients
  • 2 cups old-fashioned oats
  • ¾ cup slivered almonds
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 300F.
  2. Mix oats and almonds on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Add olive oil and salt. Stir again.
  3. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring often, until lightly browned and crisp.
Print
Turmeric Honey Drizzle
Servings: 2 tablespoons
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
Instructions
  1. Combine honey with turmeric and ¼ cup water in a squirt bottle or small jar. Shake well.

Mushroom Tart, Fresh from the Woods

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My path to making a shiitake tart started with a walk in the North Carolina woods. It had rained and fungi had popped out. I wasn’t tempted to cook with them, but they were worth a look. Some were gorgeous and others just weird.


Toward the end of the stay, our friends took us to Deep Woods Mushrooms, where Greg Carter farms and forages for mushrooms that do belong in the kitchen.


Some of the foraged ‘shrooms looked as strange as those we’d seen in the woods. Indigo milk caps were new to me. Lion’s mane mushrooms were sweet and chewy, tasting a little like crabmeat. We also sampled thin raw slices of beefsteak mushrooms, known as “sushi of the woods.”

Among farmed mushrooms at Deep Woods, shiitake rule. “There are a blue million varieties, with different properties,” says Carter. “Some grow in the fall, others in spring.” His favored varieties grow outdoors (rather than in sheds used in large commercial operations), sprouting on logs positioned upright or in a tipi design.

An outdoor log can take more than two years to produce a fruiting body that results in mushrooms. Sometimes the logs can be stressed into picking up the pace–a whack with a sledge hammer might do the trick.

After eating mushroom pizzas from Carter’s wood-burning oven, we returned home with bags of dried shiitake and a sack of fresh ones. What to make? Pasta with mushroom sauce, risotto with mushrooms, polenta with sauteed mushrooms. All were considered. Morrison and David, our dear hosts, liked the idea of a tart so that’s what I made.

The dough for this tart is pasta frolla, made with a beaten egg as well as butter. It’s parbaked, which ensures a crisp crust when the filling is moist. I went heavy on mushrooms, using just enough egg and cheese to hold the filling together.

I’ve made this tart with all shiitakes and with a mixture including oysters and cremini. Both versions were excellent.

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MUSHROOM TART
Ingredients
Crust:
  • 2 cups flour, plus more for rolling
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in pieces
  • 1 egg, beaten
Filling:
  • 1 pound mushrooms, such as shiitake, cremini or oyster
  • 1 large shallot
  • 2 ounces pancetta in a thick slice (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • Kosher or sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • ¼ cup shredded sage leaves
  • 1 cup Italian Fontina, raclette or gruyere cheese, grated
  • 1/3 cup pecorino
Instructions
Prepare crust:
  1. Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Add butter and toss to coat with flour. Blend in butter with a pastry cutter (or, if you move quickly, your fingers). With a fork, moisten flour mixture with egg. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture holds together.

  2. Roll dough between two pieces of parchment paper to make a circle about 13 inches in diameter. Line a 10-inch tart pan and trim top edges with a knife. Fit parchment paper into shell and fill with weights (lightly oiled dry beans work well).

  3. Preheat oven to 375F. Cook tart crust for 10 minutes. Cool slightly. Remove paper with weights. Cook 10 minutes longer until lightly colored. Cool.

Prepare filling:

  1. Slice mushrooms, chop shallot, and cut pancetta (if using) in 1/8-inch dice. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Cook shallot and pancetta until golden. Scrape into a bowl.

  2. Melt butter in same skillet. Saute mushrooms, stirring, until softened and lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in shallot and pancetta. Cool.

  3. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with cream. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Assemble tart:

  1. Spread mushroom mixture over pastry shell. Sprinkle with sage leaves. Pour egg-cream mixture over mushrooms and tilt to distribute evenly. Top with Fontina and pecorino. Bake until filling is just cooked and cheesy top is browned, about 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Your Best Balsamic Vinegar–Use It Now!

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For lunch I ate a Fontina-and-tomato toastie, drizzled with traditionally made balsamic vinegar, the kind that costs $75 and up.

Dinner included a sauteed mushroom and peashoot salad, dotted with the same luxurious vinegar.

Dessert was salted caramel ice cream with peaches, strawberries, almonds sauteed in butter and–you guessed it–a little swirl of aceto balsamico.

Why am I using expensive balsamic vinegar as an everyday treat?

Here’s the story. Last fall I eagerly accepted my thoughtful friend Mary Anna’s offer to bring traditionally made balsamic vinegar from an acetaia in Modena, and ordered two bottles, one for me and one for daughter Kate. We compared notes not long ago and realized neither of us had even opened the box.

A whole year had gone by without so much as a taste of that delicious elixir!

Life is too short for that kind of behavior. So we’re fighting the impulse to hoard something special for an ever-receding perfect event or group of people. Instead, the new rule is to use real balsamic vinegar whenever we feel like it.

I started by mixing it into salad vinaigrette for relatives. After one taste, someone complimented the dressing. The only other ingredients were a decent but not outstanding Sicilian olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. So I’m pretty sure the vinegar gets credit for elevating that salad to the wow! category.

Before talking more about making the most of traditional balsamic, let’s review the basics. Balsamic vinegar can be made legally only in the regions of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The best begins with cooking juice from particular varietals (including lambrusco and trebbiano) to form a thick must that is then fermented. The long aging process calls for carefully transferring the vinegar to ever-smaller barrels. Eventually, it is packaged in a unique bulbous bottle with a narrow base.

The confusing thing is that lesser vinegars (priced as low as $4) that can also be labelled balsamic comes from these same Italian regions.

The most common type blends a mediocre wine vinegar with a trace of must, coloring the liquid with caramel. It has been splashed around menus in this country for so long that, if you’re like me, you’re thoroughly sick of its harsh flavor.

To make the situation even more confusing, there’s a middle ground: young, well-made, moderately priced “baby” balsamics made from 100% must but aged less, up to three years or so. Often these are labelled “condimento,” a vague term that nonetheless is attached to some excellent products, with a price range of $20-$40 or so.

I plan to write a post on choosing a good balsamic brand. In the meantime, if you have traditional balsamic or a good-quality condimento in your cupboard (or are willing to buy them), here are some ideas. In general, acidic foods such as fruit benefit from your best balsamic’s sweet complexity and so will rich ones such as meat, cheese or rich pasta dishes.

Vegetables: Drizzle grilled zucchini with good olive oil and your best balsamic. Or sprinkle droplets on and around a platter of asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.

Meat or Fish: Garnish a grilled or pan-seared steak, lamb chops or fresh tuna with a bit of good balsamic.

Ice cream or berries: Better yet, put them together, spooning berries over vanilla or custard ice cream and drizzling with balsamic. Peaches and mangos are other fruits that take well to a good balsamic.

Cheese and Tomatoes: For the ultimate Caprese, drizzle good olive oil over mozzarella slices and dot the tomatoes with good balsamic; finish with a sprinkle of sea salt. Improve a cheese platter by precision-dropping balsamic onto aged Asiago or Parmigiano Reggiano chunks. And don’t forget to try that open-faced cheese and tomato toastie I mentioned in the beginning.

A little good-quality balsamico goes a long way but do add enough for the lovely flavor to come through. For some dishes, such as two scoops of ice cream, a demitasse spoonful would be about right.

What will I do when the last drop of balsamico is gone? Buy more, of course, either from my favorite Italian deli or an online supplier. Or drop some hints for the holidays or my next birthday.

Spanish Tortilla (Tortilla Española)

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I barely recall what I ate last week but the memory of eating a tortilla española many years ago, one luscious bite after another, is indelible. It was the classic eggs-potato-onion variety and I ordered it late at night in a Madrid hotel restaurant, an alternative to going straight to bed after a long day of sightseeing.

No expectations, just a waiter’s recommendation, but the silky harmony of eggs, potatoes and onions–seemingly melted together–is a food memory that has lingered for decades.

After coming home, I followed a recipe or two for this kind of tortilla, failing to recapture that magic. The dish is usually translated as omelet or frittata, and I’ve certainly had many of those made with similar ingredients. My husband makes a frittata with onions, potatoes and pancetta, and it’s delicious, but nothing like that tortilla española.

Then Vivian Fueyo, who’s in a small cooking group I belong to, invited us to her seaside home to learn how to make one of her specialties. To my delight, it was tortilla española. Vivian is proudly Cuban, not Spanish, but her heritage includes dishes that migrated from Spain to Caribbean islands. She makes her version the way her mother and grandmother did.

There’s never a good place to insert a digression, but I’ll choose this moment to recap the difference between a Spanish tortilla and the much more familiar Mexican tortilla. “Tortilla” just means “little cake,” so the term is elastic enough to include an egg concoction as well as a versatile cornmeal or wheat flour flatbread.

Vivian started by completely covering a panful of thin potato and onion slices with olive oil and simmering until they almost fell apart. It was entirely different from the sautéing action that usually leads off the making of a frittata or omelet.

That’s when I had the aha! moment I’ve experienced so often with Italian cooking: It’s about the olive oil. It’s drained away but only after saturating the vegetables with flavor.

With the take-charge approach of her academic administration background showing through, Vivian directed us in the making of the tortilla. “The proportion of egg to onions and potato makes all the difference in the umami effect of the tortilla.” “No, wait until the pan is hotter!” “A neat edge to the tortilla is important. You must use a fork to tuck in the edges.”

We obediently followed Vivian’s directions and the reward was two presentable six-inch tortillas. They taste best when cooled to lukewarm, Vivian advised. Typically, a tortilla is eaten as a snack or hors d’oeuvre, but it is also great as a main dish with dressed greens.

Of course, there are many variations on the Spanish tortilla. Vivian shared a recipe for a Basque tortilla that includes chorizo, shrimp, bell pepper and asparagus in addition to the basics. On the simple side, she remembers her mother making tortillas with just peas and eggs, and her family does Caribbean-style tortillas with ripe plantains.

As with an Italian frittata, you can create your own combination with what’s in season or appeals to your fancy–right now I’m thinking of leeks, sauteed greens and a sharp cheese like pecorino.

But I recommend first mastering the method for a straight-up potatoes-and-onion tortilla. You won’t be sorry.

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TORTILLA ESPANOLA (SPANISH TORTILLA)
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
50 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 

Not at all like the Mexican tortillas we know so well, a Spanish tortilla is often compared to a frittata or omelet. But, as the directions reveal, it's different. 

Servings: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup thinly sliced (1/8 inch) Yukon Gold or other boiling potato firmly packed *
  • 1 cup thinly sliced (1/8 inch) onion firmly packed *
  • 1 heaping teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt or to taste
  • 1½ cups extra virgin olive oil plus more as needed
  • 3 large eggs beaten
Instructions

  1. Spread a layer of potato slices in a medium saucepan or skillet, followed by a layer of onions. Sprinkle with a little salt. Continue layers until potato and onion are used. Pour olive oil over vegetables, pressing gently to make sure vegetables are submerged.

  2. Bring mixture to a gentle simmer. Cook until potato and onion are fork tender, about 25 minutes. Cool mixture until warm. Strain oil through a strainer into a bowl. Turn vegetables into a second bowl and gently mix with beaten eggs. Push vegetables down into egg mixture with a spatula and let stand for 15 minutes.
  3. Pour 1 tablespoon of reserved olive oil into a cast-iron skillet 6 inches in diameter.** Heat over medium heat. Spoon half of egg mixture (about 1 cup) into skillet. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, pressing down with a spatula to help mixture brown and running a fork around tortilla edges to prevent sticking and form a nice edge.
  4. Lift tortilla gently to check bottom. Once browned and the top is mostly set, run a fork around entire outer edge and gently shake skillet to loosen tortilla. Cover skillet with a plate and invert tortilla onto plate. Slide tortilla back into pan to brown on other side. Using a fork, tuck in tortilla edges to make a smooth edge. Remove from heat. Invert or slide onto a plate and let cool for about 10 minutes.

  5. Clean pan. Using remaining potato-onion mixture, cook a second tortilla the same way.***

  6. Cut tortillas in wedges to serve.
Recipe Notes

* Use a mandoline, the planer on a box grater or the slicer attachment on your food processor, or a cook’s knife.

** Alternatively, use an 8-inch skillet to cook the entire mixture.

***Refrigerate the remaining oil in a jar to use for seasoning potatoes and other vegetables.

Risotto alla Primavera

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It’s still spring, to state the obvious. If you haven’t yet made risotto alla primavera, please do! This sublime dish borrows spring’s green hues to deliver fresh flavors that live up to the visual feast provided by nature.

In Italy the usual thing is to feature one or, at most, two vegetables that happen to be in season at the same time. But I like to break that rule (if it is one) by organizing a congenial meeting of at least three vegetables vying for the most beautiful tone of green. Even though I know risotto is about the rice, I think using an abundance of these vegetables allows the exuberant mood of the season to come through.

There are a few tricks that can make risotto seem intimidating to those who don’t often prepare rice this way. If you’re an experienced risotto maker, skip to the recipe. Otherwise, here’s a quick review.

Do your best with ingredients. If you find gorgeous local asparagus or zucchini, great. If not, don’t let that stop you. Lesser specimens, chosen carefully, can also be fine. Some vegetables, notably peas, are just about as good frozen as fresh. I find it convenient to use shelled edamame found in the refrigerated produce section. Arborio or another short-grain Italian rice, which oozes starch as it cooks, is the right choice.

Prep ingredients in advance. You already know this standard wisdom. But, with risotto, it’s essential. If ingredients aren’t added in orderly procession, the timing of the dish could be off. Which means undercooking or, more likely, overcooking. Which is bad.

Build a flavor base.  For delicate-tasting risotto alla primavera, sauté leeks or spring onions just until tender and translucent. Next the rice is sautéed for a minute or two. Then comes a large splash of white wine, a traditional touch. Why? For flavor, adding a bit of acidity to balance risotto’s richness. The herbs of choice (basil, parsley, mint) are mild, allowing the flavors of the vegetables to shine.

Good broth helps. Make a full-bodied vegetable or chicken broth if you can. If not, choose a decent brand. And make sure to keep it at a simmer throughout the risotto making.

Finish with a flourish. It doesn’t take long to make risotto–less than half an hour–but you’ve got to stick close to it. As the broth is absorbed, add what’s needed to cover the ingredients, stirring gently. When they are just tender, taste for seasoning, turn off the heat and let stand for five minutes. Now your risotto is ready for the final step, called mantecatura (“creaming”), which calls for stirring the butter and half the cheese into the risotto.

Risotto alla primavera can lead off just about any spring meal. Or it could be a side to broiled salmon or sautéed chicken breasts. Or follow my example and make a meal on just this risotto.

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Risotto alla Primavera
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
40 mins
 
Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
  • 8 cups seasoned vegetable or chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 leek or spring onion cut in rounds
  • 2 cups Arborio, Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice
  • 1 cup white wine or dry vermouth
  • 1 medium zucchini diced in ¼-inch pieces (1-1/2 cups)
  • 8 asparagus spears cut in ½-inch pieces (1-1/4 cups)
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen peas or edamame thawed
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut in small pieces
  • 2 cups grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese
  • ½ cup snipped flat-leaf parsley, basil or mint leaves
Instructions
  1. Pour broth into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.

  2. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or skillet. Saute leek until translucent but not browned.

  3. Add rice and cook over medium heat, stirring, until grains look translucent and smell toasty. Add wine and let sizzle, stirring, until almost evaporated. Add enough warm broth to barely cover rice, about 1 cup. Stir gently until most of the liquid has evaporated. 

  4. Stir in zucchini, asparagus and peas. Continue covering mixture with broth and stirring until rice is tender but firm. Stir in a final dose of broth (you may not need it all), turn off heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

  5. Gently but thoroughly stir in butter, half the cheese and parsley. Serve immediately, passing remaining cheese at the table.

Bresaola with Arugula and Other Italian Deli Salads

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When a student in a cooking class vows to make a certain dish that very night, it’s the ultimate compliment. There were several enthusiastic promises along those lines when I demonstrated a classic salad consisting of thinly sliced bresaola topped with a heap of arugula and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Everyone assembled their own salad, seasoning it with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper passed at the table.

The fact that you can make the salad in three minutes flat probably had something to do with its popularity. Also the fact that bresaola, an air-cured beef from northern Italy, is new to many people.

I ate a perfect version of this salad in a casual outdoor cafe overlooking Roman ruins in Fiesole. Supple slices of bresaola, tangy arugula, paper-thin slices of cheese so tender it crumbles under its own weight. It’s easy to bring these flavors back home. Just make sure the ingredients are the best and this salad will deliver, every time.

Here’s a deli salad with prosciutto di Parma that dishes up like a dream: frisee dressed with a mustard vinaigrette, with the prosciutto draped along the side and a poached egg tucked in the middle.

Sometimes it’s great to mix up all the good flavors normally displayed separately on an antipasto platter. That’s what happens in a chopped salad I like to make with cubed Genoa salami, mozzarella, black olives, pickled Italian peppers, chickpeas and chopped romaine or escarole–good things from the deli case plus a few fresh ingredients (recipe below).

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Bresaola with Arugula and Parmigiano Reggiano Shavings
Prep Time
10 mins
 

What a flavor pay-off, with minimal effort! 

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 3 ounces thinly sliced Bresaola air-cured beef
  • 4 ounces arugula or mixed micro greens
  • 12 grape or cherry tomatoes
  • 8 oil-cured olives optional
  • 2 lemon wedges
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Arrange Bresaola slices on two plates. Lightly top each with arugula. Place tomatoes and olives (if using) around edges. Garnish with lemon wedges.
  2. Pass olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper at the table.

 

Print
Chopped Italian Deli Salad
Prep Time
20 mins
 

Try this salad: crisp greens tossed with good things from the deli case. The recipe is from PIATTO UNICO, by Toni Lydecker. (Wrong photo: Sorry, can't seem to remove from the recipe template!)

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil plus more to taste
  • 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
  • ¼ cup snipped basil dill, chives or parsley leaves
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup fresh mozzarella cubes or halved bocconcini about 5 ounces
  • 2 to 3 ounces thick-cut Genoa salami cut in small cubes
  • 1 can chickpeas (19 ounces), drained and rinsed
  • 8 black oil-cured olives pitted
  • 2 or 3 pickled Italian peppers
  • 3 cups shredded crisp greens such as romaine escarole, or a mixture
Instructions
  1. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, basil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a bowl large enough to hold the salad. Add the mozzarella, salami, chickpeas, olives and peppers; stir until coated with the dressing. Place the greens on top. (At this point the salad can be refrigerated for several hours.)
  2. Toss the greens with the ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. Taste and add more olive oil, vinegar, salt or pepper if needed.
Recipe Notes

Note: This salad can be varied in keeping with deli ingredients you might have on hand or want to try. For example, thin strips of mortadella and small cubes of semi-soft Asiago or provolone could be substituted for the salami and mozzarella. Marinated artichokes or mushrooms could stand in for the peperoncini.