17,287. That’s how many days Barbara and I have been married, so far. There are many good reasons, but one is that she is a talented, creative and intuitive cook. Tonight’s example is a Cabbage and Potato Soup that she made up for dinner, with what was on hand in the kitchen. Nicely done, Dear.
Another 974 days will make it 50 years. But who’s counting?
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Actually, I will try the Polpicello tonight, so we will see if the streak stays intact. P.S. at 10:30 PM: It’s terrific! Rich, balanced Calabrian red wine, went beautifully with eggplant, tomatoes, chard and onions stewed and served atop a … Continue reading
The growing season is not very long in New England; yesterday was the last farmer’s market in our neighborhood. It was an opportunity to go there, as well as to the year-round farm stand nearby to stock up on the abundant Fall harvest.
One of the ways I love to extract maximum flavor from vegetables is by braising. I have a few favorite cookbooks on the technique, and my #1 is Molly Stevens’ All About Braising. The two recipes I chose were Cauliflower, Potatoes and Peas Indian-Style, and End-of-Summer Green Beans Braised with Tomatoes.
I also boiled some baby beets and braised several young leeks in olive oil and white wine, then made a cashew cheese-like spread from raw organic cashews, water, garlic, olive oil, nutritional yeast, sea salt and cilantro. These were all assembled into a first course salad, with fresh mesclun, topped with organic sauerkraut from the health food store.
I already had an open bottle of an Occhipinti (Lazio) Alea Viva, a light and luscious red wine — another beauty from Jan D’Amore — which matched beautifully.
We just spent two days on the island, closing up the house for the winter. Weather ran the gamut, from perfect fall afternoon, through rain showers and windy — the usual mix. This post is about the beach, and a very good vegetable soup with a friend for dinner — not related topics, but contiguous.
The beach itself was lovely, pristinely clean and attractively bordering sunsets and kitesurfers alike:
For dinner the last night, our friend, Steve, joined us. Barbara made a superb vegan vegetable soup, which is the main thing I wanted to share with you. This was preceded by spaghetti with parsley and garlic, and followed by a salad with green leaf lettuce, endive, and a farmer’s market tomato. Dessert was Sweet Inspirations’ chocolate-covered cranberries and pieces of dark chocolate butter crunch. Wine was my dear friend, Li Veli Salice Salentino Passamante, my go-to Negroamaro this fall. Here is the soup:
After cooking the gnocchi we ate that night (previous post), I froze an equal amount that the dough made, to save for next time. Here is what they look like after coming off the gnocchi board. They freeze well, and cook quickly, too.
Remember the roasted butternut squash last week, for the Cappellacci di Zucca? Well, I had some puree left, and I found a recipe for gnocchi in La Cucina di Lidia, so I decided to make some tonight. Note: I used the plain pureed squash, without the walnuts and corn butter that I had added to the filling for cappellacci. Making gnocchi is pretty easy, and it’s fun, especially if you happen to be in possession of a gnocchi board (cool, but not necessary at all). The technique is perfectly explained on this website, which includes a superb video clip.
I had about 2.5 – 3 cups of puree, to which I added one egg, and some bread flour (all-purpose flour is fine, but I read somewhere that high protein flour is a bit better for this, so I used what I had). I can’t tell you how much flour to use; you will need to gauge that by feel. It was probably 2 cups, but I am not at all sure of that. The keys to tender gnocchi are:
Many sauce alternatives are available. My choice for tonight was a riff on the classical butter-and-sage-leaf sauce. First, I picked a bunch of fresh sage leaves from my plant outside. Then I fried the leaves in about 1/3 cup of olive oil (still vegan this weekend), and removed them to a plate when crisp. I chopped 1/4 cup of organic walnuts and warmed them in the oil on low flame. As the gnocchi rose to the top of the pot, I scooped them out with a wire strainer and dropped them in the sauce. Added a little of the pasta water to the sauce (less than 1/4 cup) and boiled it down a bit. Serve in a pasta bowl:
For the wine, once more I turned to Jan D’Amore. An unusual wine — 2011 Alter Ego from Occhipinti in Lazio — 100% Aleatico (a red grape) vinified as a white wine.
I’ll tell you about the second course: Chinese stir-fry — with porcini-crusted tofu, Yu Choy, eggplant, mushrooms, and ginger-scallion sauce — another time.
Good friends of ours took the bold step of inviting us out for dinner tonight, but at the last minute, they had an unexpected water leak in their house and we had to reschedule to next month. We certainly missed their company and hospitality, and we were left to dinner on our own.
Fortunately, I am constitutionally prepared for such eventualities. Barbara was happy with her reheated butternut squash soup (to which I added a chopped tomato marinated in oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper), and reheated penne with pesto, accompanied by some steamed carrots.
I, however, have been itching to make the Broccoli Rabe I had bought recently on sale ($1.99/lb., about 1/2 price!). So I had a bowl of the soup, and then made the Broccoli Rabe, boiling it in the pasta water until just barely tender, then sautéing it in garlic, hot peppers, lots of salt and pepper, and about 220 g. of cooked Orrecchiette. The Calabrian hot red peppers I had purchased at Di Palo’s last week added a marvelous warmth and color without being overwhelming (especially since I removed most of the seeds). These were sauteed in olive oil with plenty of garlic, and then I added the cooked Orrecchiette plus salt and pepper, and more olive oil. Perfetto!
Since I was in an indulgent mood, I opened a bottle of 2008 Li Veli Salice Salentino Riserva, Pezzo Morgana, a great find by my local wine merchant, Stephen. Saluti!
It probably will not surprise you that — after seeing all those marvelous ingredients in New York last week — I couldn’t wait to cook again when I got back home. One night I cooked the Umbrian lentils with cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, celery, tomatoes and onion. It came out fine, and it was even better the next day with some cilantro purchased from the Asian gardeners at the Sunday farmers’ market. Sunday I also baked a very good Tartine bread with Semolina flour (70% semolina, 30% white bread flour).
Nor will you be totally amazed that some of my fantasies about all the terrific dishes I will cook at the next meal are totally unrealistic, given time constraints and my inefficient ways of doing things. Such was the case tonight: Columbus Day Dinner. Our friend Laura came for dinner, and my original menu was more ambitious that what we finally ended up with. However, the Cappellacci di Zucca, made from scratch with butternut squash from her garden, was my main target, and it was very successful. Here is the final menu, with the wishlist items crossed out due to lack of time and energy.
You can see from the original list of tasks where I ran out of steam and what got dropped.
The Cappellacci recipe was adapted from Bugialli’s cookbook on Pasta. I love using the fresh butternut from Laura’s garden, and I particular enjoyed reading the descriptions online and in my cookbooks about the origins of this dish in 16th century Ferrara, Italy, where the Jewish community flourished for a period and has been maintained to this day since the Middle Ages. Of course, one always starts a big cooking day with an espresso, made with Organic Tuku beans from Conscious Coffee in Boulder:
I roasted the squash at 425 degrees for an hour until tender. After it cooled a bit, I scooped out the flesh and put it through my Mouli with the medium sized holes in the disk. Then I added my own secret mixture, ground Rancho LaVina organic walnuts, grated lemon peel (no Citron readily available), and a tablespoonful of Corn Butter.
If you are really astute, you may notice that there are several shapes of stuffed pasta in the dish. The Cappellacci are the most interesting and intricate, but it took me 15 minutes to make a dozen of these, so I switched to Tortelli and Ravioli, which I could make more quickly with the same ingredients.
Appetizers included the fried Padron Peppers and toasted Semolina bread with chopped fresh tomatoes, marinated in olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Li Velli Verdeca was the right accompaniment.
The final discovery of the night was Porcini-Dusted Tofu, sauteed in olive oil and served with salt-roasted red potatoes and beets from Sunday’s farmers markets, plus a few turnip and beet greens salvaged from the tops of that produce used earlier. Porcini dusting is very easy if you have:
Results look like this:
A box of Poco Dolce Bittersweet Tiles with Burnt Caramel inside provided the perfect dessert with almost no effort. Once again I drew upon Jan D’Amore for the wine: a 2009 Dolcetto Superiore from Flavio Roddolo in Piemonte. It went beautifully with the pasta, the porcini, and the chocolate.
Anyone passionate about food and wine ought to spend some time in New York City. The breadth and quality of choices are magnificent. And that is why I took a three-day trip there this past week.
Normally, I would do a post for each day, to make digestible bites, as it were. However, blog formatting would have you read day 3 before day 2, etc., so I am making it one longer post (with sections) to preserve the integrity of the story.
Monday
The drive from my home to midtown NYC is less than four hours, as long as I avoid rush hour. I stay at the Hotel Giraffe, my favorite over the past few years. It’s busier and more expensive than it used to be (what isn’t these days?), but it’s a fine location and the room includes free Internet, a very nice breakfast in the morning and a wine-and-snacks offering in the late afternoon, so it is still a good value.
I arrived mid-afternoon, in plenty of time to check-in and to walk downtown to the Union Square Greenmarket. What a feast for the eyes! I was impressed with the range of produce and the general quality of much of the goods.
I couldn’t resist buying the Padron peppers and the Calaloo greens to bring home and cook. Fortunately, the hotel cooperated by placing these in their refrigerator so the products would still be fresh when I headed home. Good thing I purchased when I did; even though the market is also open on Wednesday, many of the vendors are different, so grab what you like when you see it — which is generally a pretty good philosophy for life.
After the market I had decided to locate the best pizza joint in the East Village. Having done my homework on SeriousEats, I determined that the choice was between Luzzo’s and Motorino. Even though these are Neapolitan style (vs. thin, crisp NY/Roman style crust), I figured it was worth a try. It was fascinating to walk down to that area, barely three blocks from where I had grown up 60 years earlier. It had changed a lot but was still delightfully multi-ethnic, and food had obviously risen in importance for the natives.
Both restaurants were pleasant and cozy, but I was more attracted to Motorino, so I went there. Knowing that I would be tempted to stray a bit from my vegan ways, I was prepared and promptly ordered the octopus salad with fingerling potatoes, celery and chili peppers as a first course. It was tender and delicious, and it was well-matched by a glass of Aglianico. For my pizza, I hoped to avoid cheese, so I went with the Marinara (tomato sauce only) supplemented with brussels sprout leaves. This seemed a logical choice, since I sometimes roast baby brussels sprouts in my wood-fired oven, and they come out caramelized and yummy.
Unfortunately, that was not the case that evening. As I slowly picked at the pizza, the store manager, Charlie, came over and asked if everything was to my liking, and I told him I was disappointed. He immediately offered to replace it with something else, so we chose a mushroom pizza instead. This was delicious: very thin slices of Cremini mushrooms (lots of them) and melted, imported mozzarella from Campania. A few Gaeta olives were thrown on for good measure.
I went to bed early, comfortable in the knowledge that I was off to a good start.
Tuesday
After some very productive, non-culinary errands in the morning, I was ready for a late lunch. I did a lot of walking that day (about three miles overall), even though it was raining, so I stopped back at the hotel to change to drier clothes and then went to explore a highly-rated tapas restaurant, Casa Mono. It was outstanding. Nice decor, good choices, fine wine and excellent food. I started with the Blackened Beets, Micro Greens, Salted Granola (and a little of the Cana de Cabra on the side), and a glass of Lopez de Heredia 2003 Bosconia Rioja. This combination was the highlight of my entire week.
One of the most celebrated dishes in the restaurant is the Razor Clams a la Plancha, so once again I choose a small detour (these are little plates, after all) in favor of another hit for my Vitamin B-12 supply. Accompanying these was a plate of Setas (Oyster Mushrooms) cooked with garlic, very fine, indeed.
Casa Mono may translate as “monkey house”, but it’s on my list of favorites now. Tuesday evening, I took the subway to Brooklyn to visit my friend Jan, an importer of superb wines from small Italian wineries. I have never had a wine from Jan that I did not fall in love with, so I was delighted to have a chance to learn about a few more of his selections. Since his mother was visiting from The Netherlands, he couldn’t join me for dinner, but he did suggest a new restaurant owned and managed by his landlord, so I went off to Aita for dinner. This is not an easy name to remember. However, since I am a fan of Giuseppe Verdi, the term “Aida” comes to mind, and I substitute a “t” for the “d”, to recall the restaurant.
The meal was very good. First course was a Roasted Cauliflower, Radicchio and Chili Vinaigrette, with a glass of Jan’s 2011 Occhipinti Alter Ego, a white wine version from Aleatico grapes — fresh, unusual, delightful. Second course was the Garganelli, with Roasted Butternut Squash, Oyster and Shiitake Mushrooms, and a Leek Sauce. For the finale, a cup of delicious Neapolitan espresso with a biscotto was perfect. The hostess, Julia, was very accommodating, the ambience was lovely, and the food was well-done.
Wednesday
The last day of my foodie adventure was the most complex. In the morning, I went back to the Greenmarket at Union Square, to see what the offerings were at midweek. For the afternoon and evening I was fortunate to have a good friend join me, to explore food and wine together — mostly new places. Most of the photos below are just from the market, including a bunch in one collage to save space; you’ll have to use your imagination to conjure up the images for the rest of the day, since I was too busy enjoying it to take pictures.
We had lunch at Candle Cafe West, an excellent choice for vegan food. Next stop was one of my favorite wine stores, Acker Merrall and Condit, great selection, knowledgeable staff. From there, we went to Little Italy, for some specialty products at Di Palo’s, at Jan’s recommendation. In addition to a small chunk of hard-to-find Montasio cheese, which I wanted to make a frico, I bought a small jar of Calabrian hot peppers and some excellent Umbrian brown lentils:
The final shopping venue was at The Meadow, a store specializing in all kinds of gourmet salts. Originally from Portland, Oregon, they have expanded to Manhattan and also sell via the web. In fact I had already bought some items from them before. We were pleased to have the opportunity to taste a dozen different finishing salts from all over the world. I chose three to bring home:
We relaxed after shopping with some of Jan’s Manenti Nero d’Avola from Sicily, probably the best I ever had of this grape. We finished the day with dinner at Gramercy Tavern. As always, the experience was top-notch, especially when we could have the benefit of Juliette Pope’s gracious hospitality and extraordinary knowledge of wine. I even was able to score a small plate of the chef’s pickled ramps as a starter — not on the menu, but never missed when the opportunity arises.
Thanks for plowing through this long exposition. I hope it was worth the effort for you, as it was fun for me to experience.
I’m on a roll this week. My turn to make dinner. I’ve been looking forward to using the block of tofu in the refrigerator, but I want Italian, not Asian style. As this dinner evolved, it had strong influences from Italy, Spain (Catalonia), Greece, and Costa Rica.
More inspiration from Food52, specifically Roasted Broccoli with Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette and Marcona Almonds. This recipe was easy to prepare and absolutely outstanding. It formed one of the cornerstones of the meal.
This summer I had used a lemon-infused Costa Rican pepper rub for making tofu with Italian flavors. Fortunately, I had replenished my stock and was able to marinate the tofu, after pressing some of the moisture out, with the pepper rub, garlic, and olive oil.
Seeking more protein and greatly enamored of canned giant Greek beans which I had found at Sevan’s Bakery in Watertown, I opened a can of the beans and sauce, added some steamed yellow squash, boiled a leftover half a package of Farfalle, and combined it all for the pasta portion of the meal, baking it a bit in the oven hot from the broccoli.
Finally, I grilled the tofu, plus one small local eggplant and a small bunch of broccolini, to complete the plate. In fact, this required a chop plate, larger than a dinner plate, so as not to feel crowded. Colors and textures were just right, except that I noted for next time that the pimenton sauce for the broccoli would be outstanding atop the tofu, as well. In fact the grilled tofu came out similar in looks and texture to a grilled lemon-pepper swordfish steak. See what you think.
Wine choices were Italian: first glass was a 2010 Dolcetto d’Alba from Elio Grasso in the Northwest; the second was a very good Negroamaro, a Salice Salentino from my friends at Li Velli in Puglia (Southeast), also a 2010. Even Barbara liked the meal.
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