Dgourmac's Blog

One of the most soulful and satisfying vegetable dishes I know is Cianfotta (or Ciambotta) from Naples.  Tonight’s dinner was this luscious vegetable stew, from a recipe in Arthur’s Schwartz’s Naples at Table cookbook (a 1998 classic).

Even with its long, slow cooking time, it took only about an hour to prepare.  Ingredients are relatively simple, and preparation, straightforward.  A good pot — my sautéuse — was very helpful.

Here’s the write up and the recipe:

Completed in the pot, and served in the bowl:

Served with a glass of SilvaNigra (Pallagrello Nero) from Cantine Rao in Campania, it was superb and authentic.

Civilizations are built in layers.  The same can be said for memorable cooking.  Diversity and contrasts are important to both.

Today’s lunch is one small example.   Yesterday, I was at Clear Flour Bakery to buy some of their amazing breads.  Among the goodies I brought home was a loaf of Rustic Italian bread.  For lunch today, I started by pan frying two slices of that bread in olive oil.  Separately, I prepared a small Radicchio di Treviso, sliced in half lengthwise and simmered slowly in olive oil, with salt and pepper.  When the Radicchio was tender, I spread some sheep’s milk Ricotta cheese on the crusty bread, then topped it with Radicchio.  The contrasts of crisp toast, smooth and sweet Ricotta, and the bitter, silky Radicchio made a delicious first course.

Many of the  items came from the first shopping stop yesterday — at Eataly Boston.  I love the produce and cheeses there.  For the second course, I started with leftovers — some Cannellini beans and Cavolo Nero I’d cooked earlier in the week.  Food52 had an inspiring article today about braising beans, so I sautéed chopped onion and garlic, added the beans and some leftover broth from vegetable soup, and simmered them together for 15-20 minutes.  [It’s nearly impossible to overcook beans.]  Then I added the Cavolo Nero and cooked it for another 15 minutes, with a little more broth.

As the beans cooked, I was reminded of some Spanish and Portuguese recipes in which such a mixture would be used as a sauce for a roasted fillet of cod.  Instead of cod fish, I decided to used another vegetable — Arrowhead Cabbage.  This unusual and delicious Brassica (also known as Conehead Cabbage) was one I found at Eataly and wanted to try.  I had been told that it is sweeter and more tender than ordinary green cabbage, so last night I had roasted it in a hot oven and was happy with the results.  Today at lunch I decided that one of the leftover roasted cabbage quarters would be a suitable surrogate for the cod fillet.  It certainly was.

For the wine I had two open choices, and I chose the 2011 St. Joseph from Pierre Gaillard.  It was a fortuitous choice.

To finish the cooking for the day I once again turned to one of my Greek vegetable favorites — Briami Me Maratho.  It’s a little different each time I make it, and this was just right for tonight’s dinner.

Briami Me Maratho

As a vegan/vegetarian, I sometimes think that all I need is high quality fresh vegetables, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a good sauté pan.  Plus bread and wine.

The other night, it was late and I wanted to do something delicious and not too complicated.   Here is the step-by-step story of what came out.

Cut up 1/2 small onion into large dice.  Do the same with one large carrot and one zucchine (remember, this is just for me).  Add Portuguese olive oil (extra virgin always) to a sauté pan and cook until almost tender.

diced onion, carrot, and zucchine

Add fresh peas, chopped Italian parsley, dried oregano, salt and pepper, and chopped garlic.  Continue to sauté until slightly browned.

add peas and herbs

Take some thinly-sliced radicchio, add to the pan, and cook another few minutes.  Then add a few slices of pickled banana peppers (from Portuguese market in this case).   Stir to brown a little more and combine.

In the meantime, since you already had some radicchio in the refrigerator, I will assume there was 1/2 a head of frisée there, too.   Cut that up into 1/2″ wide strips, and sauté it until crispy/tender in a separate pan.  Or you can move the vegetables to a plate and use the original pan, if you wish.  Then add the cooked frisée to serving bowl, atop the other vegetables.

Slice some some homemade whole grain bread, and fry/toast the slices in olive oil in the already-used sauté pan.   Plate the vegetables with the bread, and pick your wine.  In this case I chose an Alvarinho Vinho Verde from the same Portuguese supplier, the Portugalia store in Fall River, MA, a short drive from Providence, RI.

Great, colorful, simple meal, Portuguese theme, but you can adapt the recipe to any style you like, using any vegetables available.