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October 22, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

October is Pizza Month!!

October is Pizza Month, everyone’s favorite Italian food! Originally from Naples, where it was street food, pizza was brought to the American shores by the hordes of Napolitani that immigrated in the late 18-early 19th century. It didn’t spread to the rest of Italy until after WWII, but its cheesy goodness has found a home throughout the world.

In my family, every Friday night was pizza night. Mom made the dough in the afternoon and allowed it to rise, then punched it out onto a baking sheet, covered it with tomato sauce and Polly-O whole milk mozzarella, a sprinkle of basil and oregano and a drizzle of olive oil. Served with lentil soup, that was Friday night supper for years and years. And the leftover pizza sat on the kitchen counter all night and we ate it for breakfast Saturday morning! Simple and delicious.
Pizza can get really complicated outside Naples, but the traditional pizza is still the most honored in that food centric place: marinara with tomato sauce, oregano and garlic slivers; and margherita with tomato, mozzarella and basil leaves.
Pizza in Tuscany tends to be thin and crunchy, almost cracker-like. This is caused from rolling the dough flat with a rolling pin or a rolling machine, thus destroying all the bubbles formed by the yeast. In Naples and Rome, they punch the dough out or gently stretch it to form it or put it in the pan. This way the bubbles remain and when the pizza hits the hot oven, they expand and give a lovely chewy crust.
In Siena we have ciaccino, a very thin, double-crusted pizza, stuffed with a single slice of ham and a sprinkling of cheese.
When we were in Campania this past September with our culinary group, we ate pizza in two historic locations: Pizzeria Brandi in Naples, which invented the pizza Margherita in 1878 for a visit by the queen of Italy; and Pizza al Metro in Vico Equense, which invented pizza by the meter, or yard. Tell them whatever toppings you want, they make a pizza 3-6 feet long and put the toppings on it at intervals. Everyone gets the pizza they want and it’s served on a long trolley set by the table!
The great local red wine goes perfectly with pizza. Try an aglianico, a primitivo or a simple Chianti. Buon Appetito!

September 8, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Zucchini Omelet

You may be tired of reading posts on cooking zucchini. But you see, that’s the way zucchini is: relentless, never-ending, but delicious if you treat it right and give it a chance to make it, yet again, to the plate.

One of the most amazing egg experiences I’ve ever had, one that sent me into the kitchen to ask the cook how the heck she made that, was a zucchini omelet, redolent with fresh herbs and creamy with melted cheese. I was in college, the kitchen was at my parent’s home and the cook was my Mom.

The zucchini was firm and there were flecks of fresh parsley and basil. The egg was fluffy and light, filled with sharp and mellow notes of melted cheese. It seemed to be heaven on a plate but apparently just another of my mother’s clever ways to use up the zucchini left over from supper the night before.

Zucchini Omelet
3 eggs
½ cup cooked zucchini
1 tbsp chopped parsley and basil
¼ cup swiss cheese and parmigiano
Sea salt
Pepper

Beat the eggs, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Mix the zucchini, herbs and cheese into the egg. Butter a small non-stick saute pan and when the pan is hot add the egg and zucchini. Allow the omelet to cook a little, pulling the sides into the middle and allowing the raw egg to run out and under the cooked egg. Continue to cook until done to your liking then turn it out onto a plate and enjoy!

August 22, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Frying Zucchini Blossoms

All the members of the squash family – zucchini, squash, pumpkin – put out an edible flower, which in the summer in Italy is easy to find and not expensive to purchase. The zucchini flower is the hardiest and largest, making it ideal for stuffing, while squash and pumpkin blossoms tend to be more delicate and small.

The best time to pick the flowers is in the morning when they’re open. The flowers you want are the males on a long stem; keep a couple inches of the stem, it’s edible and is nice and crunchy when fried. Be sure to leave one male flower per plant to ensure continued pollination of the female flower.

The female flower will have a small zucchini attached to it.

Shake off any bugs or bees, remove the spikes at the base of the flower, and remove the stamen. The flowers will close up and slightly shrink after an hour or two and if you wait to remove the stamen you’ll end up having to rip through the flower to get inside. Be careful not to crush the flowers – I always carry a basket rather than a bag.

The flowers fried on their own are traditional and really delicious, but If you want to stuff them, do it immediately when you get home. Once the flower has closed up it will be difficult to stuff them without ripping the blossom. Just keep the stuffing simple so as not to overwhelm the delicate flavor of the flowers. Instead of stuffing the flowers, my grandmother always put a sprinkling of Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano cheese on top after they were fried!

This is a true summer treat and it’s not too late to find a farmer or a zucchini field to forage!

Fried Zucchini Flowers
Zucchini flowers can be stuffed with sage and chopped fresh pecorino for a delightful Tuscan flavour. A more southern Italian taste is mozzarella and a piece of anchovy. If you don’t wish to stuff them, just dip them in the batter and fry.
Zucchini flowers, cleaned 2-3 per person
Batter for frying (see recipe)
Peanut oil for frying
Clean the zucchini flowers by removing the spikes on the outside at the bottom of the flower and the stamen inside. It’s best done when the flowers are open in the morning, but if they are already closed when you get them, just be careful not to rip the flower too much.
For sage and pecorino, mince 2 tbsp pecorino and 3 sage leaves together in a small bowl and stuff the flowers with about a teaspoon of the mixture. For mozzarella and anchovy, simply put a small piece of anchovy on a long wedge of mozzarella and insert it in the flower.

Batter for Frying
2 cups AP flour
2-3 cups white wine
1 teas sea salt
Put flour and salt in a bowl, with a whisk begin adding the wine, whisking vigorously to break up any lumps, until the mixture is the consistency of a thin pancake batter. Allow to sit for a few minutes. Line a baking dish with paper towels.

Heat the oil on a high heat until a drop of batter fries and browns quickly. Dip each flower in the batter and drop in the hot oil. Using tongs, turn the flowers when they’re golden brown on one side. If they get too brown too quickly, reduce the heat. If they take a long time to brown, leave the pan empty while the oil comes back up to temperature (350′).

A generous sprinkling of grated Parmigiano is delicious. Serve with a dry cold white or rose’ wine!

August 13, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

How to eat a Zucchini

This zucchini series has gotten me thinking about my mother. So many of my food memories come from her as she was an avid gardener and accomplished cook. I have been surprised to see how many of my zucchini recipes come with a memory of Mom and started looking at the roots of these thoughts.

Mom grew up in the Depression, and like so many of her generation learned at an early age what it was like to have very little and to make the most of what you did have. Nothing was thrown away in our house until all possible use for it had been exhausted. Plastic bags were rinsed out and reused, especially after they invented Ziploc. Brown paper bags were saved to drain bacon or fried foods. Rubber spatulas were constantly called upon to scrape the least little bit out of a bowl or pan. Small bits of vegetables were saved to make stock or soup, and inedible scraps were composted to enrich the soil of the garden. In short, nothing was wasted. I carry that mantra with me and have met loads of people who grew up with the same generation of parent.

We always had a garden, it was one of mom’s hobbies, and we ate what she grew. So in the summer, when both her hopes and fears were realized as the zucchini plants began to bear fruit, and continued to produce beautiful dark green zucchini which doubled in size overnight, she did what any frugal Depression-age baby would do: she searched out and developed new ways to cook it.

For the most part she was hugely successful. There was a green-tomato-incident that I recall in which the entire family revolted; however, the zucchini dishes became family favorites that I still make today. Zucchini is forever linked with my mother in the memory of my family. And with the bounty I’ve found this summer I feel what she must have felt. An urgency to use what we’ve been given, to not throw away but to turn the abundance into a wonderful repast. Thanks Mom!