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August 5, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Zucchini Pancakes – Day Two

When I was growing up we always had a garden. My dad did the flowers, my mom did the vegetables. She’d compete with the neighbor to see who could grow the biggest carrots and it seems like she always lost. Mainly because I remember her competitive spirit. “That darned Larry Marks did it again! What the heck does he feed his carrots??” She composted and fertilized, weeded and sought out the best seeds. She really cared about doing the best job she could in raising the vegetables she planted and we always had a bumper crop.

Summers of my childhood are remembered by our chores in the garden: picking raspberries, knocking june bugs into cans of gasoline, weeding. But actually picking the vegetables was mom’s job, she didn’t trust it to anyone else.

With zucchini, bigger wasn’t necessarily better and you had to pick them before they were what grandma called “gagooz”, really huge ones that were only good stuffed and baked. Regardless of their size or number, Mom had a great repertoire of recipes to render them delicious. I remember best her zucchini pancakes. They made a perfect side dish to anything and we’d have them hot for dinner and cold the next day for lunch. They’re easy and delicious, filled with grated zucchini, herbs, parmigiano and onion. Held together with a little egg and a tablespoon of flour, fried in olive oil. Enjoy!

Zucchini Pancakes
2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs
½ cup grated Parmigiano
3-4 scallions, chopped
1 teas sea salt
1 tbsp each parsley and basil, chopped
Dash black pepper
2 tbsp flour
Grate the zucchini on a large grate into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir together well. Heat a saute pan or griddle with a little olive oil, add the zucchini batter in small rounds and fry. Flatten each pancake, flip when browned to brown the other side.

Don’t let the batter sit too long before frying as the salt draws water from the zucchini and becomes very watery, in which case you might have to add another egg and some flour.

August 4, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Eating with the Zucchini Season

In America we do a lot of talking about “eating with seasons”. But it seems to me we might need a review on what exactly that means.

In Italy it means that when zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and basil are in abundance in the summer, we eat them. Often. At every meal. Even in the large chain grocery stores, the locally grown vegetables are abundant and cheap. You don’t have to seek out expensive farmers markets. You know what’s in season by seeing mountains of it in the grocery store. And it’s beautiful and crisp and fresh and you’ve been waiting since last summer to make your favorite dishes and now it’s time.

In America, so many people are getting back to the land and tending gardens. Farmers markets are abundant and chic but can be expensive to shop for the week, so lots of people will go to the farmers market on a Saturday and buy one zucchini, one beautiful tomato. It’s hard to get tired of eating local fresh produce when you can’t afford to buy it. Abundance should mean the price goes down. And if the farmer can’t sell it, he leaves it in the field because no one will buy it.

I’ve seen that. It’s a sin.

It’s August 4th and we’re in the middle of zucchini season. Some of them are huge, but even the big ones are edible and are wonderful stuffed or made into zucchini relish. The flowers are hard to come by and I’m finding that I have to volunteer to go out to the field and pick them myself, but I’m willing to do that!

So since we’ll be eating zucchini every day, I’m going to share a great recipe every day on what to do with all the zucchini! Maybe you’ll be inspired, maybe you’ll buy more zucchini to try them all. Let me know if it works!

Today’s recipe: zucchini pasta! Join me tomorrow for zucchini pancakes!

Pasta con Zucchini
3 cups zucchini, sliced into rounds or half moons
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
1 tbsp mint or basil, chopped
1 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
Sea salt
Add olive oil, onion and garlic to a sauté pan, place over medium heat and sauté gently until garlic is softened, being careful not to brown. Add zucchini and parsley and continue to cook until zucchini is cooked through and soft, adding a little water and covering to steam, at least 30 minutes, adding salt to taste.

Save a small amount of the water you’ve cooked the pasta in, drain cooked pasta and toss with the sauce. The pasta will continue to absorb the liquid and if it appears dry add a little of the pasta water. Toss with additional olive oil, the chopped mint or basil and Parmigiano and serve. If you have some of the flowers, you can tear them up and add them to the dish; the orange color is beautiful against the green and the white!

Another option is to add a tablespoon of pesto when you’re tossing the pasta with the zucchini.

July 30, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Tuscan Summer Dinner Series – Louisville

Tuscan Summer Dinner Series with Chef Gina Stipo
Join Chef Gina Stipo for three authentic Tuscan summer dinners showcasing fresh local produce, fresh pasta and Italian products at two long-standing Louisville institutions: the historic Pendennis Club downtown and Kathy Cary at Lilly’s Bistro on Bardstown Rd. Chef Gina has recently relocated from Tuscany to Louisville and is thrilled with this opportunity to share her love for great Italian food and wine.

The Pendennis Club
218 W Muhammad Ali Blvd
584-4311
August 16, Saturday at 6 p.m. ** Featuring wines by Banfi Vintners
Antipasti Misti – fried zucchini blossoms, zucchini and Parmigiano ribbons w balsamic,
Caprese salad
Tagliatelle con Limone e Timo – fresh made pasta ribbons tossed with lemon cream & thyme
Gallina con Vin Santo – Cornish game hens braised in Tuscan wine
Verdure del’estate Arrosto – roasted summer vegetables with fresh herbs
Insalatina del Orto – fresh garden salad
Torta della Nonna – “grandmother’s cake” – rich vanilla custard baked in a crust
topped with toasted pine nuts
Cost: $65 members
$75 non-members

Lilly’s Bistro
1147 Bardstown Rd
451-0447
Wednesday August 27th and Thursday August 28th at 6 p.m.
** Featuring extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegar from Oliva Bella
Antipasti Misti – panzanella, prosciutto with figs, pecorino toscano, pinzimonio
Ravioli alla Maremma – homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta, tossed with a
butter sage sauce
Porchetta – roasted pork loin, shoulder and belly seasoned with Tuscan herbs
Verdure del’Estate Arrosto – roasted summer vegetables with fresh herbs
Insalatina – garden salad with lemon and herbs
Pannacotta di Lavanda con Pesche e Aceto Balsamico – lavender cream with fresh peaches
and balsamic vinegar from Oliva Bella
Cost: $80

June 17, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Cooking an Octopus

When cooked well, octopus is exquisitely delicious. Eaten all thru the Mediterranean region, it is both plentiful and economic. I’ve been eating it around the coast of Italy for years, but the best I ever had was in Puglia. Fresh from the sea, grilled over wood coals and dressed with olive oil and lemon, it was easily one of the best things I’d ever eaten.
As simply as octopus is prepared, if you cook it wrong it is inedible, and for years I was afraid to tackle it. I’ve seen fishermen beating octopi on rocks, trying to soften them. I’ve heard of how octopus must be boiled with a cork in the water. Or boiled five times, or maybe dipped in boiling water five times, I don’t know. Or frozen. Cooked badly it can be tough and rubbery, like chewing on a tire, and the first time I attempted it that’s exactly what happened. Disappointing enough that I didn’t try it again for a long time.
Then my friend, Oriana, gave me a recipe with solid assurances the results would be nothing but tender and delicious, provided I use a pressure cooker. While pressure cookers are back in style in the US, they never went out of fashion in Italy and are widely used by many women. But going out and buying a pressure cooker seemed like too much trouble just to cook an octopus.
Yet I was intrigued by both the simplicity of Oriana’s recipe and her effusive description of how truly delicious the dish was. It starts with frozen octopus.
Apparently the freezing breaks down the tissue and makes the octopus instantly tender. Which I had heard before but never from someone who could confirm the results. The ingredients are two potatoes, a frozen octopus, a cup of white wine and to finish the dish, really good olive oil. It sounded simple enough.
So I tried it and it was one of the easiest and most delicious things I’ve ever made! I mean, this is one of those dishes so truly delicious that you talk about it for days! So here is the simplest way to cook octopus. You can leave out the potatoes and put it with shrimp and mussels in a seafood salad with lemon juice, parsley and olive oil, or you can throw it on the grill with some lemon and olive oil and drink some cold white wine and pretend you’re on the beach in Puglia. But try this way first, with some really great olive oil, and enjoy. Buon appetito!
Octopus with Potatoes and Olive Oil
1 lb octopus, frozen
2 large potatoes, skin on & washed
1 glass white wine
Put everything in a heavy pot with a firmly closed lid (I tie mine down with string to assure that no steam leaks out). Put the pot on a medium heat and cook it an hour and a half.
Take the potatoes out and chop them, putting them on a serving platter. Take the octopus out and remove the purple skin. The skin is edible but I don’t like the gelatinous consistency, so I discard it. Chop the octopus and toss it with the potatoes. Drizzle the whole thing with some really good olive oil and eat it! You can put a sprinkle of fresh parsley on if you like or you can toss it with some arugula.