Polpette.  This was a short month but long on good flavors and favorite meals. With my course teaching completed for the Spring Term, I had much more time to cook, and to enjoy Barbara’s creations, as well. One of her best dishes features Calabrian eggplant meatballs, as good or better than the ones made with real meat, Here’s her Spaghetti and Meatballs with Tomato Sauce, followed by the recipe PDF from the book, My Calabria.

Sliced eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, fennel, and onion, plus a single plum tomato, chopped up and added (before it went bad) provided the intense flavors.  The dish was so good, I ate it all before I took a photo of the bowl.  Use your imagination, if necessary.

Grilled Vegetable Quesadilla.  Fortunately, I saved the remainder of the vegetables (the risotto did not require very much of them).  That gave me an opportunity to make a quesadilla with them a few nights later.  Flour tortillas and grated Colby cheese, plus black beans, salsa and cilantro were all I needed.  I was delighted with the results, starting with a Cuban or Caribbean take on an Italian risotto, and ending with a Mexican or Tex-Mex version of a quick quesadilla, successfully accompanied by a red wine from Puglia in Southern Italy  — a cross-cultural event indeed.