seasonal vegetables Archives - Page 4 of 10

August 21, 2015 by Gina Stipo 3 Comments

Summer Tomatoes

There is nothing better than a ripe, deep red summer tomato, fresh from your garden or the local farmers market. They were late to market here in Louisville KY, where I moved from Italy last year, but when they finally arrived they were a joy.

As good as they are, however, they can’t match the sweetness of the little tomatoes grown in the volcanic soil of Sicily and Napoli. Anyone who has visited me for a cooking class in Italy has tasted them; small grape tomatoes bursting with juicy sweetness, when they’re heated through for a simple fresh tomato basil sauce or warmed in the oven to top goat cheese-stuffed zucchini blossoms, they are virtually vegetable candy!

Much is made of San Marzano tomatoes from the Campania region and for good reason. Grown in the volcanic soil on the slopes and in the valley of Mt Vesuvius, one of Italy’s many active volcanoes, they are meaty and sweet with a particular flavor not found in any other tomato. Several brands are found on the market but it’s best to get the ones from Italy that have a DOP stamp, designating them as officially inspected by the consortium of San Marzano DOP and a guarantee of origin and quality. Gustiamo out of NY has some great product they bring from Italy.

My grandmother had San Marzano seeds from her hometown in Campania and grew the tomatoes in her garden in the heart of Brooklyn. I remember the canned filets of tomato she put on her pizza and have been trying to recreate that taste for years. These tomatoes make a wonderful pizza sauce, the less they’re cooked the better.

There are a number of different kinds of tomatoes in Italy. None of them are called “heirloom” because growing them isn’t a lost tradition, it’s a continual way of life that extends back centuries.

There are a host of American Italian tomato sauce recipes that call for sugar, which is an ingredient much less widely used in Italy and never ever found in a tomato sauce. The origins of sugar in Italian “gravy” (I shudder to use the word) come from the acidic canned tomatoes that the Italian immigrants found when they arrived in the 1900’s. Sugar in the form of sucrose was needed to replace the natural fructose that the US tomatoes lacked. That’s not necessary in today’s market when you can get delicious tomatoes right from Italy in any number of good brands.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes using luscious summer tomatoes. They’re simple and with just a few ingredients. In fact, they’re identical, one is heated and used as a sauce for pasta and the other is served fresh in a salad, with a good loaf of bread to sop up the juices.

Happy tomato season and Buon Appetito!

Sugo di Pomodoro e Basilico Fresco (fresh tomato and basil)
2 cups fresh roma or grape tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
Sea salt
Olive oil
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped or torn
Gently sauté the garlic in olive oil until soft, add chopped tomatoes and sauté a few minutes, adding salt to taste. Add the chopped basil and toss with cooked pasta, topping with Parmigiano before serving.

Fresh Tomato Salad
3 large ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, whole
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped or torn

Toss all ingredients together and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes. Fresh ground black pepper can be added, although a good quality Tuscan olive oil should be peppery enough. Serve with great bread for sopping up the juices.

July 3, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Summer salads for light dining

Whether you’re celebrating the Palio of Siena or American Independence Day, early July means it’s summer, it’s hot and cooking over a hot stove is the last thing you want to do. In Italy, where air conditioning is rarely used, there are many summer dishes that are light salads filled with seasonal summer vegetables and herbs. Basil, parsley and tarragon are wonderful summer herbs that brighten up fresh salads and additions like pasta, farro, chicken or tuna turn a salad into a complete light meal.

The classic Tuscan summer salad is panzanella, my personal favorite but you need the right bread to make it correctly. Hard saltless bread is soaked in water until you can squeeze it like a sponge. It doesn’t get sticky or gummy, but is dry and crumbly like coucous, which makes a nice substitute. Then it’s tossed with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, lots of basil and parsley and great olive oil and sea salt. I never get tired of eating it and when I came back from Tuscany I broke two big loaves with me so I could make it in Louisville!

A favorite in our family was fresh summer tomatoes from the garden, cut into slices and tossed with fresh basil, olive oil, garlic slices and salt. The juice that forms in the bottom of the bowl was delicious scooped up with bread.
Most of these salads are best served at room temperature and since there is no mayonnaise you don’t have to worry about spoilage if left out of the refrigerator for several hours. Add a little fresh mozzarella or maybe some salami slices and you have a lovely summer meal. These dishes are perfect for dining outdoors or taking on a picnic. Happy fourth of July and buon appetito!
Insalata di Tonno, Cannellini e Cipolla Rossa (tuna, white bean & red onion salad)
1 large can of tuna, water packed
1 can cannellini or white navy beans
1 small red onion, sliced thin
¼ cup flat leaf parsley, torn or rough chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Mix all ingredients together, drizzle generously with olive oil and sea salt to taste.

Insalata di Radicchio, Bresaola e Parmigiano
Bresaola is beef that is salted and cured much like prosciutto, available in most delis.
2 small heads of radicchio
¼ lb bresaola, thinly sliced at the deli
1 cup parmigiano shavings
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Cut the bresaola into thin strips. Slice the radicchio into thin shreds. Mix all ingredients together and salt to taste.

Insalata di Farro (farro salad)
1 lb farro, boiled in salted water until puffed and tender
1 can artichoke hearts, chopped
1 cup green olives, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
½ red onion, chopped
2 tbsp basil and parsley, fresh and chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

April 30, 2015 by Gina Stipo 1 Comment

Pasta Primavera – Spring Peas and Onions

I think we take fresh peas for granted. With sugar snap and snow pea pods in the produce section of any grocery store all year long, it’s easy to do. Seeing peas all year long removes us from the fact that peas are a spring vegetable. What we should be seeing now, in April and May, are piles of fresh English pea pods. But sadly they’re difficult to find. I asked the produce manager at the local Kroger here and he looked at me with a puzzled expression and pointed out the packaged snow pea pods. They’re nice too, but nothing says “spring” like a big crate of English peas.

Unless it’s the spring onions, sweet and juicy, the fresh garlic, with its soft, new skin and light flavor, or new arugula and lettuces! Spring means breaking away from heavy winter greens and going light and easy and fresh.

In Tuscany, fresh peas, in the form of the classic English pea pods which you have to shell, are available only in the spring and only for a short period of time. The arrival of English peas at the corner vegetable store or produce section means spring is in full swing and summer isn’t far away! Once they’re gone, you have to wait a whole year to eat them again.

In Venice, they make a soupy risotto called risi e bisi, which uses both the fresh peas and the little green pods they come in. There is a tough membrane on the inside of the shell, protecting the peas, which is carefully peeled away to free the tender, sweet outer pea pod. The pieces of pod are sautéed with butter and onion, the rice goes in and is cooked with a light vegetable stock made with the inedible parts of the pods. Nothing is thrown away, everything is appreciated and savored. After all, they’re only here for a month in the spring! Then the fresh peas are tossed in towards the end of cooking. Finished with Parmigiano or grana and butter, it’s a delightful spring dish.
We recently made one of my favorite spring pastas in cooking class and I was reminded of how lovely fresh peas and spring onions taste together in a dish. In the US, scallions are available all the time, but in Italy the spring and early summer bring luscious spring onions with a large white bulb and thick green tops. They too are the harbinger of warmer weather. And if I can find some green garlic, I’ll toss slivers of that in with the onions!
I’m looking forward to getting back to Tuscany for our culinary tours in May and June and can’t wait to see what spring vegetables are in the garden! I hope I haven’t missed the peas!
Sugo di Piselli, Pancetta & Cipollini (spring peas, pancetta & new onions)
1 cup diced pancetta
2 spring onions, chopped, or 8 scallions
1 ½ cup fresh peas
Extra virgin olive oil
6 fresh sage leaves, torn in two
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
If you can’t get English peas, get sugar snap peas and slice them 1/4 “ thickness on the diagonal.
Gently sauté the pancetta and onion in olive oil until soft, adding freshly ground black pepper if the pancetta has been cured without it (which is usual in the US). Add the sage leaves and fresh peas and sauté a few minutes, adding salt to taste, until the peas are just cooked through. When the pasta is al dente, toss it with the sauce, adding a little of the pasta water and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Top with grated Parmigiano before serving.

January 17, 2015 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Parmigiana di Melanzane – eggplant parmigiana

Last September, we took a lovely group of people on a food and wine tour of Naples and Campania, one of my favorite regions. It might be because my grandmother came from a small town, Montella, in the mountains to the east of Naples and so the food and language feel familiar to me. But it’s more likely that the fresh seafood, mozzarella, easy-drinking wines, fried food and local pastry like baba and sfogliatelle have won my heart. Not to mention my stomach.

I have made some wonderful friends down there. They are open and fun and love a lively discussion about food. One of the highlights of our trip is always a cooking class with my friend Concetta where we learn the myriad ways of making parmigiana di melanzane – eggplant parmigiana.

A word about the name: while it sounds like a referral to the parmigiano cheese that is put in the dish, many incorrectly assume that it’s a dish originating in the city of Parma, in the northern region of Emilia Romagna. Actually,the origins of parmigiana are neither related to the city of Parma nor to the fact that you might use Parmigiano Reggiano cheese as an ingredient. As my good friend and master chef Odette Fada points out:

“The confusion has been generated by the name. Parmigiana in this context, doesn’t come from Parma or Parmigiano, it comes from the Sicilian language: palmigiana or palmisciana. Sicily was the region where the eggplant first arrived in Italy and from there spread to the entire Peninsula. Parmigiana most likely was born in Sicily, where palmigiana or palmisciana mean “shutters”: “the louvered panes of shutters or palm-thatched or tile roofs that the layered eggplant slices are meant to resemble”. Sicilians have a peculiar way of pronouncing the “r”, which can be confused with “l” and vice versa. And the “chee”
sound frequently becomes a “gee” in southern Italy. For this reason the palmisciana became parmigiana in Italian. This hypothesis is shared by the majority of food writers, either Italian as Eugenio Medagliani or not, as the American Mary Taylor Simeti.”

Eggplant is a summer vegetable and is most commonly used in southern Italy during the hot summer months, almost replacing meat in Campania. There are several different kinds grown, and I’ve been astounded at the variety found in the markets and grocers during august and september, but it seems the favorite in Campania is the long, slender dark purple kind that have few seeds. These are the best to cook with if you can find them.

There is nothing an Italian likes discussing more than food and how to make it, and the proper way to make parmigiana di melanzane, like any good food discussion in Italy, frequently becomes so heated you expect at any moment it will come to blows, dissolving into a real food fight! The biggest bone of contention is whether the eggplant should be dipped in egg and bread crumb, or just fried straight, and family’s split down the middle and take sides over the issue!

Salting is also apparently an option. Some do, some don’t. The point of salting the eggplant is this: an eggplant is made up of tiny cells or chambers, like a sponge. When you salt it, the chambers collapse, releasing water; thus the chambers are prevented from filling again with oil when frying. Some cooks in Campania say that if you get the long, skinny and firm variety, it’s not necessary to salt it. Just slice them thin and proceed with the frying stage. If you are using the big, spongy eggplants, you’ll want to slice them and then salt them well. Put them in a colander in the sink with a heavy weight on top for at least 5 hours if not overnight. Once they’ve given up their water, rinse the salt off well and dry them on paper towels. Then you can continue with frying.

A third option is to blanch the slices in salted water. While this may be a healthier alternative, boiling anything is never as delicious as frying it. End of discussion.

Everyone does agree that the only five ingredients are: eggplant slices, a simple red sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano or grana padano, and basil leaves.

Concetta likes the simple method: slice the eggplant and then fry it immediately. Her mother in law insists that the eggplant should be dipped in egg and flour before frying, and Concetta’s husband agrees. Luckily for us, Concetta is also a scientist and the proposition that we make both kinds and taste for ourselves which we was best was met with enthusiasm on her part.

Once the two parmigianas were made and baked, we sat down to eat. With slices of each in front of us, we tasted and discussed which we liked best. The lighter of the two was the one without all the egg and flour and was voted the best; we all raised a toast to the cooks and to the lesson and continued on with our lunch.

After a little while, I turned from my students to listen to the discussion my Italian friends were having at the other end of the table. They were still talking about the eggplant parmigiana and which method was best. Food discussions in Italy have no beginnings and no ends; they’re continuations, just like life.

Parmigiana di Melanzane – Eggplant Parmigian

4 eggplants, peeled and sliced thin
Peanut oil for frying
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour
Simple tomato sauce
Fresh basil leaves
1-2 lbs whole milk mozzarella, sliced
2 cups Parmigiano

To make the red sauce, heat good quality olive oil in a pot and add tomato sauce and salt. Allow it to simmer 30 minutes.
Heat the peanut oil to 375 degrees. Either fry the eggplant straight out, or dip each slice into the beaten eggs and then dredge in flour and fry each slice until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Prepare a large baking dish with a drizzle of olive oil and a light coating of tomato sauce. Place a layer of fried eggplant in the pan, pressing down firmly. Add a light coat of tomato sauce, some whole basil leaves and a layer of mozzarella and a sprinkle of Parmigiano. After each layer, press the mass down tightly. Continue to layer in this way, making sure that you consistently press the eggplant slices firmly into the pan. In this way, once it’s baked you will be able to slice it and it will maintain its shape.