Caponata

Caponata alla Fuscà 

Caponata is a southern Italian eggplant side dish. The base typically includes eggplant, celery, onion, olives, tomatoes, olive oil, of course, and red wine vinegar and sugar which gives it its signature agrodolce (sweet and sour) flavor. Other ingredients can include pine nuts, sweet peppers and raisins. The Sicilians sometimes throw in tuna. It is always served at room temperature. 

It is perfect as part of an antipasti plate or side dish along side chicken or fish or on grilled country bread as bruschetta or on polenta or with pasta. Nice stuff! I think you will like it. The amounts in the recipe below are approximations. You might need to make it a few times to get the amount of ingredients and the timing right to suite your own taste. Like a lot of Italian food, this gets better over the next few days, so you can make it ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator. Don’t re-heat it though, just let it come to room temperature by itself.

Ingredients - 

   

2 large or 3 medium size eggplants  

1/2 - 3/4 cup of olive oil
2 cups of celery, sliced thin on a bias
3/4 cup of onions, chopped
2 cups of drained canned Italian plum or chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
9 - 11 large green olives, pitted and cut in half - use the good ones: Cerignola or Castelvetrano. In a pinch Kalamata olive will be OK but NOT grocery store green olives stuffed with a pimento.

2 tablespoons of capers – rinsed
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar

Handful of golden raisins
2 tablespoons of pine nuts – toasted
Pinch + Hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Basil – nice handful torn into pieces

salt and ground pepper to taste

Cut eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Sprinkle cubes of eggplant with salt and set them in a colander in the sink to drain. After 30 minutes, rinse them and pat dry with paper towels and set them aside.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in heavy non-stick skillet, sauté the eggplant in it, stirring and turning for about 8-10 minutes until they are lightly browned but not mushy. You might have to add more olive oil. With a slotted spoon transfer the eggplant to a bowl.

  

Using the same skillet, add about 1/4 cup oil to the oil that’s left in the skillet and add the celery and onions. Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until celery and onions are soft and lightly colored. 

Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, until caramelized and almost evaporated, 1–2 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes and continue cooking for 10 minutes. 

 

Stir in the olives, vinegar & sugar, raisins, capers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

 

Take off heat and add back the eggplant, add the pine nuts and basil. 

 

Stir it all together. Serve at room temperature.

 

Summer Uncooked Tomato Sauce

 

This is why you should have a vegetable garden, or at least grow a couple tomato plants and some basil even if you have limited space, grow them in containers. We are fortunate to have a nice flat back yard with a big garden that gets plenty of sun. This time of year here in Georgia so many herbs and vegetables are getting to their peak of flavor ready to be picked. I pulled three Cherokee purple tomatoes out of the garden this morning to make this uncooked raw tomato sauce. 

This simple tomato sauce is very aromatic with the individual ingredients keeping their identity. You can clearly smell and taste the separate components - the sweet/tart Cherokee purple tomatoes, the lemony fresh basil, the pungent raw garlic, the background heat from the Calabrese pepper and the grassy olive oil. 

Make sure to get the freshest tomatoes possible. You won't be disappointed. Don't even try this with pale supermarket tomatoes. If you don't grow your own tomatoes and basil, wait until you can find some heirloom tomatoes and good basil at a farmers market. This will be your go-to pasta sauce for special occasions every summer.

Ingredients for two people - adjust amounts for more:

3 ripe home grown or heirloom tomatoes finely chopped. (Let their juices go into the sauce too.)

3 large garlic cloves finely chopped, not minced

1 nice handful of fresh basil hand torn into small pieces

1/2 cup of a good quality extra virgin olive oil

Optional - small hot chili pepper finely chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper (and hot pepper if using) in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and then the basil. Make this several hours ahead of when you are going to use it. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature so the flavors can mingle and develop. Stir every now and then and taste. Do not refrigerate.

Use this with your favorite pasta along with a side of grilled Italian sausage and some sliced melon. Salty pecorino cheese is perfect on top. Yah!   

Or... as the tomato sauce for any summery dish - grilled/fried eggplant, zucchini, peppers, dollop on scrambled or fried eggs,  as a bruschetta topping and more. 

Moussaka

Moussaka

Maybe you've never had, let alone made, Moussaka (correctly pronounced - Moo-sah-KAH', by the way). But if you're reading this blog post you've most likely both had it at a Greek restaurant and made it at home. Here is our version. Like many old world dishes there are regional, local and inter-familial variations on how particular dishes are prepared and what ingredients and seasonings are used. Moussaka is no different, but basically it includes layers of eggplant, ground lamb seasoned with cinnamon and cloves, thin sliced potatoes, tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and topped off with a creamy fluffy béchamel sauce. What's not to like, right?

   

It's been described as a Greek version of lasagna.... But it really isn't, it just looks like lasagna on the outside, the ingredients are layered and it's cooked in a rectangular casserole pan. So there you go.

Ingredients

For the vegetables

2 - 3 Yukon gold or Russet potatoes sliced very thin

1 sweet onion chopped

2 medium Italian eggplants sliced thin

1 Tablespoon thyme

salt and pepper

For the lamb

1 lb ground lamb

1/2 onion minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground cloves

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup diced tomatoes

Salt and pepper

For the béchamel sauce

2 cups milk plus

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1/8 tsp nutmeg

Procedure - 

Lasagna

Lasagna...who doesn't love it? Just hearing the word "lasagna" takes your mind's eye immediately to a nice big square of cheesy, gooey, tomatoey, herby, meaty goodness. You can almost smell the savory aroma in your thoughts. Each part of Italy has their own regional take on this iconic dish. And here in America there are as many different ways to make a lasagna as there were Italian great grandmothers who their families claim made the best and most authentic lasagna - always from a special family recipe brought over from the Old Country. Well, this is not my great grandmother's lasagna nor is it a cherished family recipe from the Old Country. It is one we developed after eating and making different lasagnas over the years. We like it a lot and know you will too. 

Ingredients: for a 9" x 13"  x 3" casserole dish

Grape or cherry tomatoes

Lemon Zest

Garlic

Ground Chuck

Hot Italian sausage

Mozzarella shredded

Provolone shredded

Ricotta cheese

1/2 cup parsley divided

Fresh Basil

Salt and pepper

Roast the cherry tomatoes with the lemon zest in the oven for 30 minutes at 350

And of course you will need a good Italian red to go with this. We were able to get a Ciro' made in Calabria, a good earthy robust red. Or a good Sicilian Nero D'Avola would be good with this too.

Clay Oven #2

We are back in Georgia now but seven years ago we moved to Pittsburgh to take care of my aging father. We had to leave our cherished wood burning clay oven behind, hopefully though, to be enjoyed by the new owners of our house - Building a clay wood-fired oven. I knew I needed to build one in Pittsburgh. So... 

I got a slab poured in early summer and I worked on it off and on in no hurry which I regret now (November 10) because I am at a difficult point in the build with the weather getting colder. I only have the thermal layer built for the dome and it isn't drying well. I'm afraid when the temp gets below freeing at night the residual water in the clay will freeze and then thaw during he day and repeat the cycle over and over and possibly weaken the structure of the dome and have a collapse. I already screwed up the arch over the opening by rushing things. Today I put burlap soaked in clay slip over the dome hoping it will help prevent cracks. I watched a video of a guy doin this. It sounded logical. I hope it helps.

The pad has been poured and here I am playing with the basic layout and form. The oven will be on the left above and the opening on the right will be for wood storage -

You can always use a volunteer or two to help!

Building the supports for the oven

Used a piece of cement board to hold the insulation under the oven floor

Empty glass bottles covered with a mix of cement and perlite

Did a sloppy job on the arch. It didn't fit the way I wanted it to and had to force things together. I'll try to fix it and to a little face lifting later.

I bought an inexpensive little space heater to use to blow warm air into the oven to help dry it out because the weather has been damp and the temp in the low 40's. 

Well..... SHIT!!!