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Paella with Shrimp and Late-Summer Vegetables

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After a trip to Spain, I bought a paella pan and starting making this dish that is at once regional (in and around Valencia) and the country’s most famous dish.

I tried painstakingly traditional paellas and unorthodox ones such as Ottolenghi’s vegetable-laden paella. Usually I was cooking for a group–paella has a well-deserved reputation as a festive dish–so the quantities were fairly large. And the paellas tended to be elaborate, with many ingredients. The results were okay, but I was always tinkering with the amount of broth, rice or something else, and the timing seemed unpredictable.

The paella pan went onto a hook in our condo storage cage and pretty much stayed there.

Now the party’s over and I’m cooking mostly for just two (or occasionally for four, because we like leftovers). I pulled down the paella pan and gave it another twirl. I used less rice and broth, of course, and a few seasonal vegetables plus a protein.

At some point, I hit my stride and started turning out paella closer to what I’d tasted in Spain.

I realized that 1 to 1 1/2 cups of rice was the right amount for my 15-inch paella pan.  Given that rice is the star, I also cut back on vegetable quantities and spread ingredients into a thin layer that cooks properly in about 25 minutes.

I stir the grains in sizzling olive oil before adding broth, as with risotto, and follow the Italian dictum of covering but not drowning the rice in broth. The results do not resemble risotto because I’m using a paella pan instead of a saucepan.

I recommend buying a paella pan, although you can get by with a 12-inch skillet. The one I have is carbon steel, which starts to rust before your eyes if you don’t treat it right. What you have to do is clean and dry it thoroughly and then coat with a thin layer of oil. But it’s reasonably priced, conducts heat well and is simply the right vessel for the dish.

True to paella-making tradition, I don’t stir after adding broth, allowing the rice to come out drier on top than in the middle. The texture is notably different from risotto, which has a creamier, stickier consistency. Giving the pan a quarter turn occasionally as the paella cooks will promote even cooking. I can’t say I’ve achieved a perfect socarrat (the sought-after bottom crust), but that’s a goal to strive for.

One of the pleasures of cooking paella is arranging the final ingredients and garnishes over the rice. It’s a dish that, however simple the ingredients, insists on showing off.

Choosing the right short-grain rice is important. Bomba or calasparra rice, which you may have to order on line, works great, but so does the readily available Calrose rice used by Asian and Latin American cooks. It’s nice to treat yourself to Spanish ingredients–saffron, paprika, jarred piquillo peppers. Once you have them, you’re set for quite awhile.

I noticed in Spain that many paellas feature just one or two kinds of protein, not a smorgasbord. Yes, you could include several kinds of seafood in your paella, but shrimp on its own is perfectly fine. Plus whatever seasonal vegetables you have on hand. Right now we have another month of superb summer squash, peppers, tomatoes and corn, and they’re all in this recipe.

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PAELLA WITH SHRIMP AND LATE-SUMMER VEGETABLES
Prep Time
40 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
 
This is a relatively simple paella featuring shrimp and late-summer vegetables: zucchini, corn, tomatoes and peppers. If it’s some other time of year, it’s fine to substitute seasonal vegetables. The important things are a pleasing combination of colors and flavors and keeping the quantity of vegetables in a range of three to four cups.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Spanish
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 large Italian frying pepper (Cubanelle) or 1 small bell pepper
  • 3 scallions or 1 medium onion
  • 1 medium zucchini or large rib celery
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 ear fresh corn or ½ cup frozen corn
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 12 ounces medium or large shrimp peeled, tails on
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1½ cups short-grain rice such as Calrose, bomba or calasparro
  • 2 pinches saffron
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon sweet, smoked or hot paprika (preferably Spanish)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3½ to 4 cups salted vegetable broth or water or as needed
  • ½ lemon or lime halved and cut in thin half moons
  • ¼ cup snipped basil parsley or cilantro leaves cut in ribbons
Instructions

  1. Cut pepper in thin strips. Chop scallions, including green tops. Dice zucchini or sliver celery. (Combine these three ingredients in one bowl.) Core tomato and dice, keeping juices. Scrape corn off cob. Finely chop garlic or squeeze through a garlic press. Sprinkle shrimp lightly with salt.

  2. Place paella pan over one large burner or two smaller burners. Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add pepper, scallions and zucchini, spreading out over pan. Cook for a couple of minutes until softened but not browned, stirring once or twice.
  3. Add rice, stirring to coat with oil. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add saffron and paprika, stirring to tint the rice.
  4. Spread out pan contents and add broth to cover (if using water, salt to taste). Adjust heat so rice mixture simmers gently and cook for 10 minutes. Do not stir! Give the pan a quarter turn now and then to promote even cooking. If rice grains are uncovered early in that process, add a bit more broth.
  5. Distribute diced tomato, corn, shrimp and lemon slices over paella. Cook about 10 minutes longer (again, no stirring), turning shrimp half way through, until rice and shrimp are fully cooked. Garnish paella with basil leaves and let stand at least 5 minutes before eating.
  6. Set the paella pan on the table with a couple of serving spoons and invite everyone to dig in.

Easy Summer Ways with Fish Fillets

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Just about every Wednesday, you’ll find me at my local farmer’s market. I wait patiently in line with my fellow customers, six feet apart, until it’s my turn for an audience with the seafood vendor.

Typically he will have sea bass, tuna, cod, bluefish and half a dozen other wonderful choices. Most of these fish are freshly caught in regional waters as they migrate or pass through New England waters.

The Arctic char come from farther away, northern Canada. I’m eager for Alaska salmon– which will be frozen because it must cross the continent–this is usually the season for sockeye and king salmon. But the vendor tells me the pipeline is a little slower this year.

The whole point is keeping it simple, letting the seafood shine. So I just buy whichever fillets sound good and figure out how to prep it when I get home.

Here are three of my favorite ways, calling for a quick roast, broil or grill:

  • Season fillets and lavish them with tomato chunks, olives, capers and olive oil (recipe follows). This method works well with Arctic char, wild salmon, grouper, snapper or any fish that can stand up to oven heat. (see lead photo)
  • Mix coarse bread crumbs with chopped parsley, garlic and olive oil. Spread over fillets (same varieties as the first method) and roast until the crumbs brown (recipe follows).

easy summer fish dish

  • Smear fillets with a mustardy marinade and broil or grill. This is delicious with Arctic char, as shown here, but also with dark, flavorful fish such as Spanish mackerel or bluefish.

One of these days I’ll get around to making a more complicated dish such as seafood paella or a fish stew, but right now I’d rather spend that time rustling up some fresh corn or zucchini to go with my fish fillets, simply dressed and cooked.

easy summer fish recipe
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Fish Fillets with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
12 mins
 

This fish dish is delicious anytime, but especially when summer tomatoes are in their glory.

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: fish fillets, seafood
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 medium-thick white fish fillets such as cod, wild salmon, snapper or grouper (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes or diced fresh tomato
  • 1/2 cup Mediterrean olives Gaeta, kalamata, or Castelvetrano, pitted or not
  • 2 tablespoons capers soaked briefly in water
  • 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves snipped in small pieces
  • ½ cup white wine
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Drizzle olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan and smear it around. Rinse the fillets and, if there are pin bones, pull them out with fish tweezers or fingers.
  2. Place the fillets in the roasting pan, skin side down. Sprinkle on both sides with salt and pepper. Scatter the cherry tomatoes, olives, drained capers and half of the parsley over and around the fish. Drizzle generously with olive oil (2 to 3 tablespoons) and the wine.

  3. Bake until the fillets are just done, 10 to 12 minutes, depending on thickness. Sprinkle with the rest of the parsley.

  4. To serve: Transfer the fillets to shallow soup plates. Spoon the toppings and juices on and around the fish. Serve with country-style bread and, if you like, dressed arugula or other greens on the side.
easy summer fish dish
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Roast Fish Fillets with Parsley Crumb Topping
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
11 mins
 

Some people are leery of oilier, darker-hued fish such as bluefish and Spanish mackerel. But when they are perfectly fresh, there is nothing better. And these varieties can stand up to a big blast of heat, emerging moist and delicious from the oven.

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: fish fillets, seafood
Ingredients
  • 2 or 3 bluefish or mackerel fillets about 1 pound, preferably skin on
  • 1 or 2 slices semolina bread or country-style white bread*
  • Leaves from 2 or 3 Italian parsley sprigs
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Rinse the fillets and check them over, pulling out any bones with your fingers or fish tweezers.
  2. To make parslied bread crumbs: Tear the bread into pieces and place in a food processor bowl. Process until the crumb is fairly uniform; add the parsley leaves and pulse until the crumb is medium fine, with the parsley bits distributed evenly. Moisten crumbs with half of the olive oil.
  3. Place the fillets, skin side down, on a sheet pan or broiler pan. Sprinkle with salt and several grindings of pepper. Rub the fillets with remaining olive oil and top with parslied bread crumbs, pressing them firmly with the flat of your hand.
  4. Roast the fillets on a center rack until cooked through, about 12 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and, if the bread crumbs need to be browned more, move the pan to the top rack.
Recipe Notes

Note: Instead of making bread crumbs, mix chopped parsley and olive oil with panko and proceed as described.

Lamb Stew with White Beans

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It’s spring, Easter and Passover are approaching, and I feel the familiar urge to cook lamb. Not the roast leg of lamb with sides that I might cook for the whole family, but a lamb and vegetable stew just for me and my husband–my bunk mate of almost 48 years and now my bunker mate during the lockdown we’re all living through.

Like many others, I’m also craving the comfort of home-cooked beans. Along with pasta, rice and toilet paper, dried beans are commodities that vanished from supermarket shelves during the first wave of pandemic panic. But they’re back and I hope we’ll never take them for granted again.

In this recipe, large chunks of lamb are slow simmered to succulence with fennel and carrots. Bacon, thyme and a healthy dose of balsamic or red wine vinegar add layers of flavor. The stew, bathed in a sauce of its own making, is spooned over seasoned white beans. It’s a restaurant-style presentation, more interesting than simply mixing beans into the stew.

Working on this recipe, I used grass-fed American lamb from my supermarket that is plentiful this time of year. Lamb stew meat, leg of lamb or lamb shoulder are all fine, and this recipe would also work with similar beef cuts.

I had saved a bag of Rancho Gordo flageolet beans from my Christmas stocking for something special and it turned out to be this dish. Flageolets are the variety used for cassoulet and they are wonderful, but any white beans will work well. If you can’t find those, lentils cooked with brown rice would make a good base for the stew.

The recipe makes about six servings. That’s more than we need for one meal, but the stew and beans reheat beautifully and–now that we’re eating three meals a day at home–we are more grateful than ever for leftovers.

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Lamb Stew with White Beans
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time
2 hrs
 

This recipe calls for a flavor base (soffritto) of onions cooked to a deep golden, enhanced with a little smoked bacon and thyme. The chunky stew is served over separately cooked white beans.

Course: Main Dish, Piatto Unico (one-dish meal)
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 3 slices thick-cut bacon or pancetta
  • 2½ pounds lamb stew meat* preferably from grass-fed lamb
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • ½ cup tomato paste
  • 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar or ½ cup red wine vinegar
  • Leaves from several thyme sprigs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs
  • 4 large carrots
  • 8 ounces cooked, seasoned flageolets or other white beans**
Instructions
  1. With kitchen shears, cut bacon crosswise in ¼-inch strips. Trim external fat from lamb chunks. Salt and pepper generously.
  2. Cook bacon over medium heat in large saucepan (Dutch oven size) until cooked through but not to crisp stage. Remove to plate with slotted spoon.
  3. Add olive oil to bacon fat. Over medium-high heat, sear lamb until browned on all sides. Remove lamb to plate.

  4. Add onion to pan and cook, stirring, until golden verging on brown. Stir in garlic and cook a few seconds. Stir in tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, 1 cup water, thyme and bay leaves. Simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes.

  5. Return bacon and lamb to pan. Simmer, partially covered, until just tender, about 40 minutes. Add more water as necessary for a saucy consistency.
  6. Meanwhile, cut fennel in thin wedges (leave stem end intact so they will not fall apart). Angle cut carrots in short, thick chunks. Add fennel and carrots to saucepan. Stir well and simmer until cooked through, about 30 minutes.
  7. To serve: Spoon beans into shallow soup/pasta bowls; 1 cup is about right. Center lamb stew with vegetables on top; ladle a little of sauce on each serving.

Recipe Notes

* I happened to find "lamb stew meat" already cut up. If you do not, most cuts of lamb will work for this recipe: leg, shoulder or shank. 

** I usually cook a full pound of beans and use the remainder for other meals.

 

 

 

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.

Chicken alla Cacciatora, My Way

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It’s hunting season in the Tuscan countryside and we occasionally hear gunshots in the distance. Which, through a sequence of random associations, led me to thoughts of “hunter’s style” chicken alla cacciatora.

As the story goes, the hunter’s wife made chicken like this to feed her husband, returning from a long day in the woods.

It’s just a story, of course, and I’ve always thought of chicken alla cacciatora as an example of uninspired Italian-American cooking, bland and drowning in what might as well be a tomato-ey pasta sauce.

But, glancing through a popular Italian magazine called Cucina Moderna, I saw an article calling it a “classic” dish belonging to the home country’s canon.

Their recipes counterbalanced the sweetness of plum tomatoes with potent herbs–rosemary and bay leaves—plus a few anchovies. One version called for underpinning the sauce with black olives and another with dried porcini. None of that sounded wrong.

Digging a little more, I was surprised to find references tracing chicken alla cacciatora to Tuscany.  So I asked Maria and Letizia, friends who have lived in rural Tuscany for their entire lives, what they knew about this dish. It didn’t seem to be in the repertoire of either, but Maria ventured that it should have herbs—rosemary and perhaps juniper berries—and tomatoes. Don’t overdo it with the tomatoes, cautioned Letizia, whose hunter husband and son specialize in wild hare.

Unlike some dishes (say, pici al cacio e pepe), there don’t seem to be rules about chicken alla cacciatora that Italians would fight in the streets about. So I decided to go with my own instincts for coaxing chicken to deliver hearty autumnal flavors.

The Valdarno area south of Florence is known for robust chickens that spend their lives pecking for food among the vineyards. I reinforced that natural flavor by wrapping them in thin slices of rigatino–a Tuscan version of pancetta cured with salt, pepper and sometimes wild fennel–and added piney-tasting juniper berries and rosemary.

Letizia is right about the tomatoes, I think. Less is more. I used moderate amounts of pureed tomatoes and white wine to give body to a light sauce with chunky vegetable bits. By pureed tomatoes, I don’t mean the tomato puree sold in cans, but a simple puree of tomatoes (passata di pomodoro, in Italian); see recipe note for details.

Fall is also the season for wild mushrooms, so I surrounded the chicken, nestled on a bed of polenta, with sautéed pioppini mushrooms resembling dark enoki. Hen of the woods mushrooms, shiitake, cremini or a mixture would also be good choices. For the lucky mushroom-hunting souls who live in places like California or northern Arizona, porcini are an option.

Other birds have a better-deserved reputation for flavor than chicken, of course. I prepared quail in the same way and arranged the birds with their sauce on a bed of farro. With invigorating woodsy flavor, it delivered on the “alla cacciatora” promise.

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Chicken alla Cacciatora
Prep Time
40 mins
Cook Time
50 mins
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins
 

This recipe uses the robust flavors of pancetta, juniper berries, rosemary and tomatoes to make a classic fall dish. As with many braised meats, it tastes even better the next day. 

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 to 3 pounds bone-in chicken parts, preferably thighs or legs, skin removed
  • kosher or sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 ounces very thinly sliced pancetta or dry-cured bacon
  • 1 teaspoon juniper berries
  • leaves from 1 or 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 or 2 carrots diced small
  • 1 celery stalk diced small
  • 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup pureed tomatoes passata di pomodoro (see note)
Instructions
  1. Sprinkle chicken pieces lightly with salt and pepper. Wrap each with a single layer of pancetta. Crush juniper berries with a mortar and pestle or side of a cook’s knife, and chop finely with rosemary.
  2. In a large skillet, sauté onion over medium-high heat in 2 tablespoons olive oil until golden brown, stirring often. Add carrots, celery and garlic, stirring until softened. Scrape pan contents into a bowl.
  3. Add a little olive oil if needed to the same pan. Saute prepared chicken until golden brown, turning carefully.

  4. Return onion mixture to pan. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary and juniper berries. Add white wine and sizzle briefly before stirring in pureed tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer gently, partly covered, until chicken is fork tender, about 30 minutes. Add a little water as needed for a saucy consistency. 

  5. Arrange chicken pieces on a bed of polenta. Spoon sauce over them. Surround with sautéed mushrooms such as hen of the woods, shiitake or crimini.
Recipe Notes

Variation: Substitute bone-in or boneless quail for chicken. Serve with their sauce on farro boiled in water seasoned with salt. Garnish with black or green olives if you like. Note: Pomi is one brand of pureed tomatoes (passata di pomodoro). Alternatively, blend good-quality canned tomatoes in a blender. Do not use canned tomato puree.

 

 

Pork or Chicken Cutlets alla Milanese

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Meat cutlets, breaded lightly and fried. Germans call that schnizel. The Japanese name is tonkatsu. Italians cook meat this way, too.

The version I’m talking about, with Northern Italian roots, is cotoletta alla milanese, pounded as thin as you can get it. The meat is boneless, but if you substitute a bone-in chop, the name usually changes to costoletta. The breading mixture often includes regional hard cheese, grated, and it’s not wrong to throw in some chopped parsley or another herb.

Typically, the dish is showered with baby arugula, then surrounded by tomato wedges and–sometimes, deliciously–roasted potatoes.  The result: an easygoing and wonderful one-dish piatto unico.

The cutlets I’ve eaten in restaurants in and around Milan are ample in size, covering most of the plate. I find that going lighter on the meat—about ¼ pound—is more in line with the way my husband and I like to eat. Despite the license taken in my photo, which shows just a little arugula, I go heavy on the dressed arugula.

I’ve prepared chicken and veal cutlets alla milanese, but recently I tried pork cutlets, cut from the leg. Definitely recommended. We have vegetarians in our family, so I also fried eggplant in exactly the same way.

The reviews were good, and soon the meat eaters were clamoring for that, too.

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Pork or Chicken Cutlets alla Milanese
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
6 mins
Total Time
26 mins
 

Eggplant, breaded and fried in exactly the same way, is wonderful. For details, see recipe notes.

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 pound pork or other cutlets cut no thicker than ½ inch *
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups dried bread crumbs or panko or more if needed
  • ½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese
  • 1 or 2 large eggs
  • ¼ cup grapeseed oil or other vegetable oil or as needed
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • 8 cups baby arugula 5-ounce box
  • 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil or to taste
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or vincotto or to taste
  • 2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes halved
  • Roasted potatoes optional
  • 4 lemon wedges
Instructions

  1. Blot cutlets dry with paper towels. Unless the cutlets are already thin enough, use a smooth meat pounder or the bottom of a small, heavy saucepan to pound cutlets to a uniform thickness of about ¼ inch. If you can't get it quite that thin, don't worry. Use a firm, gliding motion to avoid tearing the meat.

  2. Measure flour onto a broad, shallow dish (pie plates or cake tins work well). In a second dish, mix bread crumbs with grated cheese. Break eggs into a third bowl, and beat with a fork or whisk.
  3. Coat cutlets with flour, patting off excess. Dip in egg and coat with bread crumbs (you may not need them all). The layer of crumbs should not be thick, but should cover the entire surface. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (this will help the crumbs adhere when the cutlets are cooked).
  4. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet until sizzling hot.
  5. Working in batches, fry cutlets until well browned on both sides and cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer with tongs to a platter lined with paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with salt.

  6. Place arugula in a shallow bowl. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, tossing well, and the balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Toss again, taste and adjust seasoning. The arugula should be lightly but flavorfully dressed.

  7. Place one cutlet on each plate. Top with dressed arugula. Garnish with tomatoes and lemon wedges and, if using, the roasted potatoes.
Recipe Notes

*Use thin-cut boneless pork chops or slice the cutlets yourself from a boneless pork roast (preferably from the leg).

** To prepare eggplant in the same way, choose one that is not seedy. Cut off the ends, leaving the skin intact. Cut lengthwise in ½-inch slices. Of course, there’s no need to pound the slices as you would with meat.

 

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.

 

 

 

Eggplant-Potato Stew and Other Syrian Recipes

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I’ve been spending time with a Syrian cook named Mayada Anjari. Not face to face, regrettably. Instead, I’ve come to know Mayada through reading her splendid cookbook, The Bread and Salt Between Us.

I cooked one dish, then another, and soon I’d made eight of Mayada’s beguiling recipes. Not that I’m through.

My favorite so far is an eggplant and potato stew that reminds me uncannily of the Southern Italian approach to vegetables: cooking them until they are soft and their flavors melt deliciously into one another.

Before sharing that recipe, I’ll say a little more about Mayada. Her story begins with growing up in Homs, Syria. She tells of learning to cook big Friday night dinners with her mother and sisters and of the first dish she made for her husband-to-be: a rice pudding that he still raves about. By the time civil war broke out, they had four children. The family fled and now lives in New Jersey.

Baked chicken redolent of kabsa spice–a mixture including coriander, cardamom, sumac and turmeric–was the first dish I tried. With it I served Mayada’s bulgur and vermicelli pilaf, a lovely side that lightens the earthiness of the whole grain with airy pasta strands, toasted before simmering with the bulgur.  Mayada advises buying fideos from Latin or Middle Eastern stores, but I used Italian vermicelli from my cupboard and it worked fine.

Mayada prides herself on her kibbeh and I can see why. The bulgur “dough” is held together with ground chicken and molded around a ground beef filling.  Thanks to Mayada’s detailed instructions, I acquired a new culinary skill.

One of our family’s favorites was fatteh, a kind of flatbread casserole. In the version here, chickpeas are spooned over fried pita pieces, then sauced with homemade hummus and yogurt. The components were familiar, but the dish itself? Not at all.

Back to that eggplant and potato stew I love so much. The genius of the dish is the placement of ingredients in a saucepan: onions, potatoes, eggplant, spices, tomatoes. Each layer is cooked for a precise amount of time before the next goes in. We don’t stir until Mayada gives permission. And, if you do it her way, the alchemy happens!

I will say that I cut the vegetable cubes smaller than Mayada does. And I admit to substituting olive oil for vegetable oil.

This is a recipe I’m pretty sure I’ll be making for the rest of my life.

Before I read this cookbook, the mention of Syria evoked only headlines of war and humaritarian crisis. Now I also know that olive and almond trees grow in Syria, that rich food traditions pass from one generation to the next, that we have many things in common. One point of connection is how Mayada cooks to please her children–I do the same, always looking for ways to coax my grandchildren into enjoying new dishes.

I could go on about Mayada’s story and her recipes. But a better idea would be to buy yourself a copy of The Bread and Salt Between Us: Recipes and Stories from a Syrian Refugee’s Kitchen. It’s a beautifully photographed and produced cookbook, and I was impressed to learn that all the professionals who worked on it, including publisher Hiroko Kiiffner and co-writer Jennifer Sit, donated their time. The profits go to help Mayada’s family and to a Syrian refugee relief fund.

Print
Syrian Eggplant Stew
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 

This is a slightly modified version of Mayada Anjari's recipe in The Bread and Salt Between Us.

Course: Main Dish, Side Dish
Cuisine: Syrian
Ingredients
  • ½ cup vegetable oil or olive oil
  • 1 medium onion coarsely grated
  • 4 russet potatoes about 2½ pounds, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
  • 2 large globe eggplants about 2 pounds, peeled and cut in 1½-inch pieces
  • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 teaspoons salt
  • ½ cup coarsely chopped parsley leaves and tender stems
  • 3 medium tomatoes about 1½ pounds, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
  • Parsley leaves for garnish
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium-high. Cook the onion for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Layer potatoes on top, followed by a layer of eggplant. Sprinkle with paprika, pepper and 2 teaspoons of the salt, then the chopped parsley. Do not stir. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
  2. Place the tomatoes on top and sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes more, until tomatoes begin to soften.
  3. Stir contents of pan, cover and cook for 15 minutes, until slightly softened. Give everything another good stir, cover again and cook for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the vegetables are tender, the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce has thickened.
  4. Top with parsley and serve.

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.

Curing the Salad Blahs

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When I was growing up, my mom often asked me to make salad for our family dinner. Invariably, it was iceberg lettuce or romaine, tomatoes and maybe one other thing, such as cucumbers. Usually I tossed it with an orangish Wishbone dressing.

Hey, it was the 50s. That’s how we rolled. Our supermarket’s selection of ingredients was limited and in the part of Texas where we lived, making an Italian-style dressing with extra virgin olive oil was as yet unheard of.

I was bored with that salad even then and I’m sure my mother was, too (which might have been why she assigned the task to me).

What a difference now! With our plenitude of ingredients, we could make exciting and unique salads every night. But the inspiration for those creations doesn’t always strike. So I’ve been stockpiling ideas, and maybe one will strike your fancy.

Like the warm asparagus and shallot salad with mustard dressing shown above. With poached eggs and prosciutto, it’s substantial enough for a meal, and sparkles with the flavor of toasted mustard seeds (see recipe).

Baby kale with marinated anchovies get their protein boost from hard-cooked eggs and white anchovies found in supermarket and Italian deli departments. Put a little garlic in your vinaigrette for this salad and, if you have it, a shot of anchovy-based colatura.

Caesar salad with oven “fried” chicken takes a classic beyond cliche. Or maybe it doesn’t, but the chicken is so delicious you won’t care. This salad could be made with leftover oven fried chicken. If you’ve never made that, here’s how: Season boneless, skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Dust with flour. Dip in beaten egg and coat with dried bread crumbs or panko mixed with grated parmesan and enough olive oil to moisten. Bake at 400F until browned and cooked through. Cool a few minutes and cut in bite-sized pieces.

There’s a bonus sardine in the photo–feel free to leave it out, but consider adding a few jarred anchovies to the mix (or, once again, a spritz of colatura to the dressing).

I ate this trio of perfect ingredients–burrata, zucchini and tomato–in a Pugliese resort called Masseria Torricella. It’s a Caprese salad tweak, of course, one that’s pretty irresistible. If you have a spiralizer (I don’t), you can make the zucchini noodles with ease. Or use the julienne setting on your mandoline. Or buy the packaged julienned zucchini available in some markets. Salt the zucchini and set in a colander to drain for an hour or two. Gently squeeze dry and dress all three ingredients with your best olive oil, along with a drizzle of your best balsamic.

Chickpea and tuna salad is one of my go-to meals when the larder is nearly bare. Usually I have cans of chickpeas and tuna on hand to combine with whatever crunchy vegetables and savory things might be in the fridge–for instance, green onions, bell pepper, fennel and olives. I drizzle olive oil and squeeze lemon juice right into the bowl, ending with salt and lots of cracked red pepper. I can make this salad in 10 minutes flat, and be assured I’ll love every bite.

Writing this post reminded me of an amazing Winter White Salad I once had at Al di La, in Brooklyn. On a frigid day, I ate lunch alone, with plenty of time to marvel over the snowy landscape outside and the equally wondrous whiteness of Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflower, turnip, parsnip, fennel, Belgian endive and salsify on my plate.

As you can see in the linked recipe, the vegetables are cut lace-thin on a mandoline and dressed in a champagne vinaigrette. Not the easiest salad to shop for or to make, but it means something that, years later, I’m still thinking about that salad.

Print
Warm Asparagus and Shallot Salad with Mustard Dressing
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 
This recipe was based on a dish by Chef Bill Telepan.
Course: Salad
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 4 shallots peeled and quartered (do not cut off root ends)
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil divided
  • Sea salt
  • 8 ounces asparagus cut in 2-inch pieces
  • 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
  • 2 teaspoons grainy Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 6 ounces frisee torn in pieces, or other microgreens
  • 8 slices prosciutto di Parma or San Daniele
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. In a medium skillet, sauté shallots in 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat until they begin to sizzle and turn brown in spots. Sprinkle with salt. Reduce heat, cover and continue to cook until just tender, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer shallots to a small bowl.
  2. Heat another tablespoon of olive oil over high heat in same pan. Cook asparagus, stirring, until lightly browned and barely tender. Return shallots to pan and warm over low heat.
  3. Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Toast mustard seeds for about 30 seconds until aromatic. Remove from heat and add a little water to prevent further browning. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, the grainy mustard and vinegar.
  4. Fill a deep skillet two-thirds full of salted water and bring to a simmer. One by one, crack eggs into skillet and nudge whites closer to yolks. Turn off heat and spoon hot water over eggs until whites are cooked.
  5. Meanwhile, place frisee in a bowl, toss well with dressing and tong onto 4 plates. Arrange warm asparagus and shallots on top.
  6. When eggs are cooked, lift each one with a slotted spoon and nestle on one side of plate. Drape prosciutto on the other side. Finish with a little black pepper.