Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia™

Mr. or Mrs. Eggplant?

There are those who have discussed ad nauseaum which version of eggplant is better, the male or the female.  Some claim that male eggplant is less bitter than the female because they have fewer seeds. A male eggplant, according to eggplant experts, has a round, small flowered end while the female is less round and smooth. 

I have no interest in whether eggplant is male or female, but on your next purchase of this wonderful vegetable, bring your magnifying glass and see if you can pick out the difference. 

I grow eggplant without regard to gender in my garden and have always found that if you pick it young, it will not be bitter.  So much for the gender theory.  Eggplant straight out of the garden is firm and shiny, not shirveled looking or spongy to the touch, which is often the case when choosing it in the supermarket.  

My favorite way to use eggplant is to stuff them or use them to make marinated eggplant in olive oil or classic caponata. To make stuffed eggplant, get a medium size one (male or female, your choice) and cut it into 8 length wise, 1/4 inch thick slices and sauté them very quickly in a little olive oil, just until they are wilted looking and start taking on a little brown color. 

Then let them cool while you make up your favorite meatball mixture. I use a pound of ground beef, but pork or veal is good too. Divide and spread the mixture on each slice of eggplant.  Roll up  each slice on itself to encase the meat. Place them in a casserole and pour 2 cups of tomato sauce over them. Add some grated cheese over the top. Cover with foil and bake in a 350F preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Delicious! 

And while you are enjoying them, you can ponder the gender question!

Soup's On!

How did fall sneak up on us so suddenly? 

I don’t know where you live, but here in New England the trees are starting to change colors already! That means I start thinking about soup.  Since it’s one of the easiet things to make, I don’t for the life of me understand why anyone would buy sodium loaded canned soup!  

One of the best incentves for making your own soup is to clean out your refrigerator. Those limp carrots and celery? Toss thiem into a soup pot with an onion. Got frozen peas? They can go in, too. How about potatoes? Sure! Herbs like parsley, basil, and thyme are great in soup. Chopped up skinned tomatoes will give flavor and added color, and chicken wings will provide protein and bulk. 

Once all these things are in the soup pot, cover the ingredients with water, and bring to a boll. Then lower the heat to simmer and let eveything cook gently for a couple of hours. Strain out the liquid, return it to the pot, and cut up the carrrots, potatoes and celery into bite size pieces. Remove the meat from the wings and put it in the pot. Season with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and you’ve got soup. 

For a beef-based soup use beef shank in place of the chicken wings. 

Other soup recipes can be found on the Ciao Italia web site under soups. Two of my favorites are tomato bread soup and Tuscan onion soup. Add a hunk of bread and life is good.

Ciao Italia Blog Exclusive: The Apple of My Pie

Up the hill near my vegetable garden stands an ornery, old apple tree, the only one I own. 

For years before I bought the property, it had been neglected until one day I stooped to pick up a withered apple near its trunk. Curiosity got the best of me, so I cut off the “bad spots,” and took a bite. I was pleasantly surprised. Here was a crisp, tart,  and juicy apple with a slight taste of  honey - just like the ones I had growing up. It looked like a Yellow Delicious but it had red and orange stripes on the skin. I decided to have it analyzed. It turned out to be an old German Gravenstein variety.  

I got to work: pruned it, sprayed it, prayed over it, and hoped it would forgive the years of neglect and shower us with appreciative love in the form of a bushel of apples. No such luck. But it does provide a profusion of perfumed white flowered branches each spring and a shady spot to sit under on a hot summer day. So when I want to make an apple pie, I buy my favorites from the  local farmers market.

Today we can find a dizzying array of apples: from apples for munching to apples for baking. I am partial to Cortland and Northern Spy both of which are good for pies, apple cakes, and apple sauce. Apples for baking need to be firm, not soft, so they hold up. For pie use Northern Spy mixed with Cortland, Granny Smith, or Rhode Island Greening.  

One of my favorite fall pies is apple fig. I hope you enjoy the recipe! What are your favorite pies? 

Apple Fig Pie

Filling

8 dried figs, stemmed 

8 large Corland apples, peeled, and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Pinch black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold butter cut into bits

1 tablespoon milk or cream

2 tablespoons sliced almonds

2 tablespoons coarse brown sugar

Olive Oil Pie Dough

1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup light olive oil

3 tablespoons cold water

Place the figs in a bolw and cover them with warm water. Allow them to plump up for 20 minutes. Drain off the water and cut the figs into small pieces.

Combine the apple slices in a large bowl with the figs and lemon juice. In a smaller bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and salt.

Pour the sugar mixture over the apple mixture and coat them well. Set aside while you make the dough.

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl or the bowl of a  food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pour the oil slowly into the bowl or through the food processor feed tube with the motor running. Combine until the mixture is coarse and looks like uncooked oatlmeal. Add the water a little at a time until a smooth ball of dough is formed. Do not add too much water or the dough will be tough. Just enough so that the dough holds together. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerat for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F

Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured board surface, roll out one piece to a 13-inch circle.. Line a 9 x 2 - inch pie plate with one rolled out sheet of pie crust. Trim edges. Spread the filling into the crust, packing it in well.  Dot the filling with the butter. 

Roll out the second piece of dough to an 11-inch circle. With a pastry wheel, cut the dough into 1/2-inch wide strips. Made a lattice top for the tart. Pinch the ends of the strips even with the pie pan edges. 

Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch an spilloves as it bakes.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or just until the top begins to brown. Brush the top with the milk or cream and sprinkle with the almonds and coarse sugar and continue baking until the crust is nicely browned.

Remove the pie from the oven and let cool completely on a rack.  Cut into wedges. Serves 8

Go Fig(ure)

I decided to try my luck at growing figs a few years ago when a good friend gave me a small cutting from his own fig tree. The thought of having my own supply of sweet-as-sugar figs was so exciting!

I planted the cutting in a small container and hoped for the best. I prepared to take it indoors when cold weather came, to wrap it in black plastic while it was dormant for the winter, and to avoid watering it at all costs.

That worked, and in the following spring, at the great unveiling, green shoots were sprouting!

I repotted the tree into a larger container, and moved it outside into a bright, sunny location. It seemed to like its new home. Through the years I have followed this ritual, and over time, in September, the tree would yield a small handful of ripe figs.

But this year, the tree is enormous with figs galore. The only problem is that none of them are ripe, nor will they be in time for me to harvest them before i have to bring the tree indoors again for its winter nap.

Even though I water the tree faithfully, the fruit is small and hard. Every book and blog I consulted reaffirmed that I did everything right from the get-go.
I will simply admire those hard, little figs from afar, and think of what might have been. Go figure.

Do you have a fig tree? Any tips?

Divine on the Vine

I knew this day would eventually come. I have been patiently waiting for a year for them to show up. They finally did; a bit later than usual, but nevertheless I rushed to see them. Those wonderful summer tomatoes that I crave and that last passed my lips at the end of last September (when the last of my vine-ripened tomatoes were no more) were finally ready for the picking.

I never buy tomatoes after the season is over. It is just a waste of money to try and fool yourself into thinking that any hot house vine ripened tomato available in the dead of winter is going to taste, well, like a tomato.

More often than not, disappointment is what you will taste because winter tomatoes, if I can call them tomatoes at all, are flat, hard, and thick skinned. So now is the time to get your fix!

If you have a garden, there are ways to experience the taste of real tomatoes in February. Here are two options: pick and freeze them, then use them to make sauce or add to stews and soups; or, dry them using a dehydrator (about 60 dollars) and put them in olive oil (see recipe for sun-dried tomatoes). Plum and cherry tomatoes dry well. Use them on bruschetta, in stews, with chicken (see recipe for chicken and sun-dried tomatoes), with pasta, or eat them right out of the jar!

Believe me, when the snow is flying, you will be munching on a taste of summer. Dried tomatoes in olive oil make great gifts from your kitchen, too.

What did you do with all the tomatoes that came out of your garden? Do you share with neighbors? Have your own farm stand? Or are you just overwhelmed with tomatoes?

Ciao Italia Blog Exclusive: Let Them Eat (Zucchini) Cake

I once owned a t-shirt that said, "Nuke the Zuke." We grew such enormous zucchini that my neighbors locked their doors when they saw me lumbering up to their driveways with club-sized veggies.

Like I've said, this year, my garden is producing a banner crop, too. This is surprising because nothing else is doing well due to the wretched weather we have had. I suppose I should be happy that when mother nature hands you zucchini there is always something to do with it, and I have tried all sorts of recipes to use up these prolific plants.

I have turned them into zucchini stew, fritters, fries, salads, soup, muffins, crepes, pancakes, bread, stir fry, and as a desperate last resort, chocolate zucchini cake. I didn't tell anyone that zucchini was in the cake. I just waited for their reactions. Seconds, anyone?

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350F

Spray a 9x13 inch rectangular pan or a 9x12 inch round cake pan and set aside

3/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cubs unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped semisweet chocolate

In a large bowl, beat together the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the olive oil mixture and combine well. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate.

Pour into baking pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.

Cool on rack. Remove from mold and dust with confectioners sugar or confectioners sugar glaze.

Variations: chopped pecans, coconut or candied ginger are also good in this cake.

Ciao Italia Blog Exclusive: Flower Power

Neither rain, nor hail, nor cold, nor Japanese beetles can deter or conquer my zucchini plants!

No matter what mother nature throws at them, they are survivors. They should have their own reality show!

Zucchini seems to defy all the forces that are the demise of their fellow plants. They grow at the speed of the internet, and can pack on the pounds, tipping the scales to double digits if you don't keep watch over them.

So my plan of attack is to pick them young (no longer than 10 inches). These are best just sauteed very quickly with onion in a little olive oil. But, if by some chance you forget to harvest them when small, the larger sizes are good just sliced and placed on the grill, or they can be stuffed with ground meat and baked.

The jumbos, which will have lots of seeds, are best thrown on the compost heap. Or, if you must, rush them to your neighbors, and with a joyous grin on your face, tell them that they make the best zucchini soup!

But, for me, the most fun when cooking zucchini is to harvest the female plants because they sport those gorgeous yellow flowers that Italians love to stuff or deep fry. I usually pick those early in the day, when the flowers are wide open.

They are delicate, so it is best to handle them with care. Rinse them and gently pat them dry. Spread the flowers open to remove the pistils, then conjure up all kinds of things for stuffing them like cooked rice, breadcrumbs, and cheese, chopped zucchini and tomato... the list is endless -- just like the number of zucchini plants that will keep giving until they literally wither on the vine.

Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

Serves 4

8 zucchini flowers, center pistils removed and discarded
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkline on top
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Salt to taste
Grinding black pepper
1 can prepared tomato sauce

Rinse the flowers, pat dry and set aside.
Grease a 9 inch casserole dish with butter and set aside.
In a bowl, combine the cheeses, egg, parsley, salt and pepper.
Carefully open up each flower and place some of the mixture in the center of each.
Spoon the tomato sauce over the flowers and sprinkle on additional cheese.
Bake uncovered at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Peeved in Produce

It isn’t easy being green in the produce aisle.  I started my campaign with the produce manager in my favorite supermarket years ago when sprinkler systems were installed to keep salad greens and other veggies, like celery, broccoli, and bok choy, “looking fresh.”

Here’s the problem: limp, soggy, rusty looking heads of lettuce that suffer from over-misting!  And they actually sell these!  Trying to get soggy lettuce to crisp up again once you get it home is an exercise in futility because after being sprayed to death frequently during the day, the cell structure of the leaves have had it!

So whenever I am in the supermarket, I head right for the call button in the produce department.  That usually summons a sleepy looking employee who would rather be somewhere else.  They're barely able to mumble, “May I help you?" before I start in on my rant about sprayed soaked produce.

It has gotten so bad that I try to time my arrival at the lettuce section, looking for the least wet head and snatching what I want seconds before the sprayer goes on again!

I know I am picky but that’s because in garden season, I have my pick of perfect lettuce from Guy's garden.  So when I have to buy lettuce in the supermarket, I do so begrudgingly!

My answer to all this is to only buy lettuce still attached to its root ball, like Boston bibb, and enclosed in plastic to protect it from drowning in the mist.

Or choose those plastic containers of mixed greens. Any loose, unwrapped heads of lettuce should be avoided because you’ll be throwing most of it away when you get home.

Now, my next campaign will be to ask how often the water hoses used to mist the veggies are cleaned and changed!

Mary Ann in Yankee Magazine

Check out the July/August issue of Yankee magazine for a great article featuring Mary Ann, Guy, and their amazing vegetable garden!

Yankee's food editor, Annie B. Copps, talked to Mary Ann and Guy about the food the grow and how they use it in their every day meals.

There's also a link to five recipes you can use with your own fresh-from-the-garden ingredients.

Bing Went the Strings of My Heart

When I was growing up, every July around the 4th, or thereabouts, my Dad would announce that it was time to pile the entire family into the big, blue family station wagon and head for Lockport, NY for the annual cherry picking outing.

Now I adore cherries, especially the big, firm crunchy Bing variety, but picking bushels of them as a child was beyond annoying.

Ours was a large family and my dad, being the generous and kind man that he was, took it upon himself (with the aid of child labor) to bring aunts, uncles, and grandparents a goodly amount of cherries.  That meant we spent the day climbing on ladders and hanging on tree limbs to get the best ones.  I hated this job.  To this day, when the first local cherries appear in the grocery store, I say a small prayer of thanks that I didn't have to pick them.

One year as a rebellious teenager, I decided there was no way I was going to be seen picking cherries. When the dreaded day arrived, I conveniently hid in my closet until the rest of the family was gone and then I settled in for a relaxing day of nothing to do.  Later, when everyone returned, I got the cold shoulder for not doing my part, and was denied access to the cherries!  Eventually all was forgiven and I sat on the back porch with everyone else munching away, but the lesson was learned.  You want the cherries, you have to chip in!

These days most of the cherry crops come from Michigan.  While the season is short, I make the best of it by buying large quantities to keep in the fridge. 

You can be sure I'll use a good sized portion to make one of my favorite desserts, cherry chocolate tiramisu.

As for you, I recommend you get to your favorite produce store, grab a handful, and find a hammock, because in the blink of an eye, they’re going to be gone.