Scarola Ripasatta - Savory Sauteed Escarole

We've used escarole for years in Beans & Greens  (https://ourgardenandtable.blogspot.com/2015/11/beans-and-greens.html) and as a side dish sauteed in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes. But just watched this video by Pasta Grammar where they made several dishes using sauteed escarole with garlic, olives, capers, pine nuts, chili peppers, anchovy filets, and raisins. Yes, all those amazing flavor ingredients. The video made this look so tasty that we had to make it at home. Here is a link to the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53QO0zsMkuE. This was so good that I'm still thinking about it a week later so we will probably make it again tomorrow. 

Here is how it's done. Not complicated at all. 

Ingredients:

Two heads (approx. 2 pounds) escarole 

Salt

2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic roughly chopped

10+ capers, or to taste, diced

10+ Kalamata olives, or to taste, roughly chopped

1 to 2 dried or fresh chili peppers, chopped (optional)

2 anchovy filets in oil, drained

1/3 cup  raisins

2 tablespoons pine nuts

 

Cut the heel of the escarole head(s) off and separate all the leaves. Wash them under running water.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it generously. Add the escarole leaves and boil for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Drain the escarole and roughly chop.

In a large pan, heat the olive oil, garlic, capers, olives, chili pepper, and anchovies over medium/low heat. Cook and stir until the anchovies have completely dissolved, then add the raisins, pine nuts, and drained escarole. Stir all together.

Partially cover the pan and let the escarole cook, stirring occasionally, until the excess water in the pan evaporates completely—about 10 minutes.

We served it along side home made Italian sausage. It was the perfect companion but this would also be great with roasted chicken, pork or fish.

Serve, Bon Appetito!

Spaghetti with Walnuts - Al Capone's Favorite Pasta Dish

According to his grand niece, there was a particular pasta dish 1920's Gangster Al Capone loved - Spaghetti Con Salsa di Noci - spaghetti with walnut sauce. This may seem odd to many people used to spaghetti with tomato sauce but this is a typical "peasant" dish from the Campania region of Italy where Capone's family roots were. There are various versions of  Salsa di Noci with different flavor details but the basic ingredients are - chopped walnuts, minced garlic, Italian flat leaf parsley, Parmesan cheese and olive oil. Other flavor ingredients might include - hot red pepper flakes, lemon zest and juice, anchovies and oregano. 

That said, I am using the recipe Al Capone's grandniece wrote in her book about him. 

It is a simple dish but with a lot going on - earthy flavor from the walnuts with a little brightness from the lemon juice, heat from the red pepper flakes and buttery saltiness from the Pecorino cheese. Save this recipe for the nights you want an easy, delicious comfort meal. You will love it!

Ingredients:

- Spaghetti

- Walnuts

- Garlic

- Fresh Parsley

- Hot Red Pepper Flakes

- Lemon Zest and juice

- Pecorino cheese

- Olive Oil

- Salt

Chop the walnuts - 

Mince the garlic -
               

Chop the parsley -

Heat some good olive oil in a pan over low heat. Add the chopped walnuts, garlic, fresh parsley, red pepper flakes and lemon juice.

Stir everything together so that it's all well-coated in the olive oil and cook until fragrant.

Meanwhile cook the Spaghetti until al dente. Reserve some of that salted, starchy pasta water for the sauce later.

Add the spaghetti and toss until the pasta is well coated in the sauce. Add the reserved pasta water and bring to a simmer until it starts to thicken.

Fold in grated Parmesan cheese and add a final drizzle of olive oil before serving.

Add more cheese to your taste

Fall-off-the-Bone Baked Chicken Wings

Who doesn't love chicken wings? They are the perfect party or game watching treat. After eating 10 times our body weight in chicken wings over the years, we have found what we feel is the perfect method to make them. You are totally welcome to tell us, that no, no, no! You, or your dad or your cousin from Buffalo, has absolutely the best way to make them. This is just a simple technique, let your favorite home made or store bought sauce make them shine. 

INGREDIENTS  

3 pounds Chicken Wings separated into drums and flats

1 tablespoon roasted garlic powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp Salt

Olive oil

1 tsp black pepper

1 - 2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 cup sauce of your choice for basting

How to -

1 - Spray or dribble olive oil on the wings as a binder and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and thyme. Gently massage seasonings into the wings.

2 - Spread wings evenly on a baking sheet and put in the fridge, uncovered, for 3 - 4 hours to marinate and dry.

3 - Remove wings from fridge and let set at room temperature for 20 minutes. 

4 - Preheat the oven to 250° F.

5 - Sprinkle the wings with 1-2 tablespoons of non-aluminum baking powder toss to coat each wing lightly.

6 - Place wings on top of a cooling rack inside a baking sheet. You want the fat to fall away from the wings. You don’t want to cook the wings in the fat.

7 - Bake the wings, uncovered, on the top rack of your oven for 40 minutes at 250°.

8 - Remove from the oven and turn oven up to 450° F.

9 - Once the oven is ready, put the wings back in oven and cook on the top rack for 30 minutes - rotating half way (at about 15- 20 minutes).

10 - After 30 minutes remove from the oven and brush wings with your home made sauce or store bought.  Place back in oven (top rack) for another 10 minutes or until crispy. 

11 - Let rest for 5 -10 minutes after done cooking and serve with blue cheese dressing.

Roasting Figs in Fig Leaves

If you like figs, you will really enjoy this post. I found the pic below of roasted figs wrapped in fig leaves that chef Alex Guarnaschelli posted on her Facebook page recently. She described them this way - "These are baked figs from Italy. They are wonderfully chewy and seedy and sweet and taste like candy and dirt and earth and diamonds and emeralds and cake." 

Besides the taste description, what a cool look they have wrapped up in fig leaves! I knew immediately that I had to try to duplicate them at home. We love figs, and in fact, have two fig trees in our backyard. Fig season is winding down but there were enough ripe ones to pick to make this experiment do-able.

There's not much information available on the exact process but basically fresh figs are baked in a warm oven (170 - 200 degrees) for 12 hours where their flavor is concentrated and they become very sticky. Then they are pressed together into a ball and wrapped in fresh fig leaves to be baked again for several hours in a warm oven. I figured the fig leaves would add to the unique taste but was unsure if any herbs, spices, flavorings were added. And maybe wine or a liqueur of some kind? Since there is no information available on these kinds of details, I decided to add a few that made sense - a pinch of ground fennel seeds, a drizzle of honey, orange zest and a splash of red wine.

I also found this interesting video that shows a commercially made fig ball being opened - 

Here are our figs after being roasted overnight in a covered ceramic crock with the fennel, honey, orange zest and wine. They shrunk quite a bit but they did not dry out and become hard. The kitchen smelled great by the way -

I picked and washed 9 good looking fig leaves, fanned them out in a circle and piled the figs in the middle with their juices. 

Wrapped the leaves around the figs and tied with some cotton yarn (thanks Lisa). And placed the "ball" back into the crock for the second low and slow roast. 

The fig ball back out of the oven after a 5 hour bake - 

Here is the fig ball being opened. The figs were plump, moist and chewy. The taste was everything I had hoped for - earthy, sweet, figgy with hints of orange and anise, maybe not the "diamonds, emeralds and cake" that chef Alex described but that's OK, because I'm glad they didn't taste like cake. Really very nice and will definitely make more next year.

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.