Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia™

Hail Kale

Sturdy. That’s what kale is. A leafy green vegetable that belongs to the cabbage family, but unfortunately is often overlooked because not too many people know what to do with it.

I am sure that you have seen this long, imposing vegetable in your grocer’s store or at farmers markets. It is commonly called curly or ornamental kale. I like to grow it in my garden for making a classic Tuscan soup known as ribollita.

Kale is known as cavolo nero  (black cabbage) in Tuscany because the leaves are almost midnight black and thick and quilt-like in their appearance. When you buy it, look for crisp leaves and stems - not wilted ones with soft stems. Smaller leaf kale is more tender with a milder flavor. But all varieties of kale have some bitterness to them that is tamed a bit by boiling the greens uncovered.

And now that we are really into fall, kale is one of those foods that can march us through winter’s wrath. It is a great source of fiber and calcium and contains phytonutrients that some medical experts say may reduce the occurrence of some types of cancers. However, more research needs to be done. Kale is loaded with vitamins A and C and an added bonus is that it is low in calories and has no saturated fat. So go ahead and eat all you want.

Use kale in soups and stews. Try it sautéed with onion, garlic and black olives as a side dish. Steam it and combine with tomato sauce atop your next pizza or mix it into whole wheat pasta and sprinkle it with Pecorino cheese.

Bones Of The Dead

This year, the National Retail Federation expects that consumers will  shell out a record $5.07 billion on costumes, cards, candy and decorations for Halloween. It seems as though Halloween is becoming as big a holiday as Christmas and the Super Bowl!

In Italy, Halloween signals the night before All Saints Day (November 1st) known as Ognisanti and is a national holiday. On November 2nd, Il Giorno dei Morti, All Souls Day, Italian family members visit the cemeteries to honor their deceased loved ones. They sweep and clean away debris from tombs, say prayers, light candles, arrange lots of flowers and have a picnic lunch.

Most likely they will eat ossi dei morti (bones of the dead). These are hard, brittle cookies often shaped in the form of bones, and every region of Italy has a recipe on how to make them.

They are rarely made at home anymore since every pasticerria (pastry shop) sells them. And although ossi dei morti are a sobering reminder of our own mortality, they taste heavenly! Happy Halloween (aka) All Hallow’s Eve.

Little Piglets

One of the glories of the fall season in Italy is mushroom hunting. It's a tradition that funghi lovers take very seriously.

This year a combination of hot weather and lots of rain has led to a bumper crop of the king of mushrooms known as porcini or, "little piglets". Meaty, nutty and woodsy in flavor, Italians will go to astounding, secret lengths to find the brown beauties, even searching woodlands in total darkness so as to keep their “territory” safe from other mushroom hunters.

Porcini belong to the Boletus genus of mushrooms and grow in a symbiotic relationship with certain types of trees, especially chestnut, pine, beech and oak. A tell-tale sign in searching for them is to look for small mounds of earth near the base of these trees with dead leaves and pine needles.

Porcini can be found worldwide. I have foraged for them in the woods near Cortona as well as in the hills overlooking the Napa Valley of California. But, whether you forage for them or just buy them fresh, the one thing to remember is to cook them right away, otherwise they can become worm infested.

Grilling is the best way to cook them. Italians love them with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, some parsley and coarse salt. They are also delicious fried or sautéed and used as a sauce for pasta or to top slices of crusty crostini.

Dried Porcini are popular in the states because they are readily available. They have a much more concentrated flavor than fresh. Buy them from a reputable company, and be sure that you are not buying a bag of stems and bits of mushroom caps. Dried porcini need to be re-hydrated in hot water or broth before using. One of the best uses for them is in risotto, a very welcome dish for fall.

Risotto ai Funghi Porcini Secchi
Risotto with Dried Porcini Mushrooms
 
Serves 4
 
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms (one ounce package)
2 large shallots, peeled and minced
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups hot chicken or beef broth
1/2-cup dry white wine such as Pino Grigio
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1/4 cup minced parsley
Fine salt to taste
Grinding black pepper
Put the porcini in a bowl and pour a cup of boiling water over them. Set aside for 10 minutes.
 
Melt  1/4 cup of the butter in a heavy-duty two-quart sauce pan. Add the shallots and cook them over medium heat until they begin to take on a light brown color. At that point transfer them with a slotted spoon to a dish.
 
Add the rice to the saucepan and stir it over medium heat until it becomes translucent and the rice begins to make a crackling sound. Do not let the rice brown; it should look translucent.
 
Return the onions to the saucepan and add the wine. Stir until the wine has evaporated. Begin adding the broth a ladleful at a time and allow the rice to absorb it while stirring.
 
Drain the mushrooms and reserve the soaking liquid. (Sometimes the liquid needs to be strained again to remove any bits of sediment).

Chop the mushrooms and add them to the rice along with the reserved liquid. Stir occasionally to keep rice from sticking.
 
Continue adding broth a ladleful at a time until the rice is creamy, al dente (still firm but cooked through) and has tripled in volume.

Turn off the heat and stir in the parsley, remaining butter, half the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Risotto should be free flowing off your spoon, not a congealed ball of rice. Practice makes perfect.
 

Serve hot and pass remaining cheese on the side.

Recipe from www.ciaoitalia.com

Tomato Paste With Attitude

In Sicily, I learned the art of making estrattu, a very dense and concentrated tomato paste that no Sicilian cook of any merit would be without.

To give you an idea, to dehydrate and concentrate enough estrattu to fill one jar takes about 10 pounds of the sauce! And the flavor is very intense. Think of it as tomato paste with an attitude.

The handmade paste is a backbreaking, hot summer job. First, you must start with fresh plum tomatoes with skins and seeds removed. The tomatoes are cooked into sauce with the addition of onions, local herbs like oregano and basil and salt and spices. There is no standard recipe since the method varies from place to place and every cook will tell you that his or her method is the tried and true one.

The sauce is spread on long boards or placed in shallow tin pans, topped with screens to keep bugs away and placed in the searing Sicilian sun where it is frequently moved back and forth by hand with small implements resembling paddles to help it dry and remove the excess liquid. This process takes days. The whole idea is to wind up with a very paste-like consistency that is called estrattu, strattu or strattu ri pumaroru, i.e. tomato paste.

Radical differences in climate between Sicily and New England, where I live, make it impossible to recreate estrattu here. But there is a way to make something similar by using a dehydrator. I have done this many times, and although it is not exactly the same taste as estrattu, it makes a really good substitute. To do it, use ripe plum tomatoes that have been washed, dried and cored. Cut them in half lengthwise and place them cut side down on the dehydrator and dry them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Remove them when they are the consistency of dried apricots. This could take a day or two depending on the dehydrator and the size of your tomatoes. No dehydrator?  Place the cut tomatoes on racks placed over baking sheets and place them in a 250F oven. This could take even longer.

Place the dried tomatoes in a food processor and puree them into a paste. Through the feed tube add just enough extra virgin olive oil to smooth out the tomatoes but don’t add too much. The mixture should remain thick like the consistency of peanut butter.

Transfer the paste to a bowl and add salt and a grinding of black pepper to taste. Fill jars with the paste, cap and refrigerate or freeze. Then add it to your recipes in small amounts to really beef up the cooking flavors. A little goes a long way in soups, stews, pasta and in sauces.

Last Call For Summer Tomatoes

If you are inundated with tomatoes right now, I feel your joy! In just a few short weeks, the taste of summer tomatoes will be just a pleasant memory.

We have had such a fantastic growing season this year with all the warm weather, and I have been trying to freeze and dry as many tomatoes as I can.

One of my very favorite things to make with an excess supply of the red beauties is this delicious tomato tart.

I start with a sheet of already prepared puff pastry that I roll out to fit a tart shell.

Next I brush the pastry with about 1 tablespoon of a grainy mustard.

Then I sprinkle about 1 1/2 cups of grated Asiago cheese (use whatever cheese you like).

Then I layer of tomato slices on top of the cheese and I make a minced topping of 1 large clove of garlic and some parsley and basil leaves. Add a little salt to taste.

Drizzle the top with olive oil and bake in a preheated 425F oven for about twenty minutes. Let stand a few minutes before cutting into squares or wedges.

You will love this fabulous and so easy to make tart that I am sure it will become a favorite of yours as well. Until next summer, savor the flavor!

Melon Madness

Watermelon, cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, persian, cranshaw, whew!

There are so many kinds of melons to choose from right now at the height of summer, and with the hot spell of weather we have been having, melon is a very refreshing way to cool down.

High in Vitamin A and C and low in calories, eat them while you can because the season is ever so short. I have to admit that most times I pick a dud when it comes to flavor. Choosing them by smell, shaking them or looking for soft spots do not make for good detective work when trying to choose a good melon.

Once a melon is plucked from the vine, it's all over. It will ripen no more. So it is the luck of the draw I guess. I usually choose one that feels heavy in my hand and bring it home to sit on the counter for a few days.

Don't refrigerate them before cutting because the cold will not add anything to their flavor. Once they are cut, then you must refrigerate them.

There are so many ways to use melons in your cooking besides just having a ho hum slice all by itself. How about a refreshing melon ball fruit salad with sparkling wine.

Ingredients

2 cups honeydew melon balls
2 cups cantaloupe melon balls
2 cups watermelon balls
4 tablespoons warm honey
Asti Spumante

Directions

Toss all the fruits together in a large bowl with the honey. Divide and fill 8 goblets or wine glasses with the fruit mixture. Just before serving, pour Asti Spumante, a sparkling dessert wine, into each glass or goblet. Serve immediately.

Rhubarb and Fig Pie!

It's rhubarb season, and you either love it or hate it!

I can't get enough of it, and my favorite dessert is rhubarb and dried fig pie! The combination is fantastic and you must try it, just once. The dough is easy to make in a food processor, and you can prepare the rhubarb filling a day ahead of time.

Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, you'll forget all your troubles.

The best pies are made in glass pie plates like Pyrex.

Rhubarb and Fig Pie

Serves 8

Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into bits
8 tablespoons Crisco shortening
Grated zest of 1 lemon
5-6 tablespoons ice water


FILLING
1 1/4 pounds rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
8 dried figs stemmed, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, drained and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon  lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
In a food processor or in a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and shortening and pulse, or cut in with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add, lemon zest, and pulse for a couple of seconds. Add the water slowly through the feed tube using a little at a time until the dough begins to come together. Do not overprocess. You should be able to see bits of butter in the dough. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place the rhubarb in 2 quart saucepan. In a bowl combine the sugar and cornstarch, then add to the rhubarb. Slowly add the water and stir to combine ingredients. Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Stir in the figs and lemon juice.

Meanwhile, make the filling: In a medium saucepan, combine the rhubarb, sugar, and water. Cook, stirring, over low heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the figs and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate at least a couple of hours or make the filling the day before.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one half into a 12-inch round and fit it into the pie pan.

Spoon the filling evenly into the pan. Roll out the second half of dough and fit it over the filling. Trim the edges and use your fingers to pinch the edges closed or use a fork to make tines all around the dough .

Use trimmings to make a decorative design on the pie like stars or flowers.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until  the pie is nicely browned on top and bottom. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a rack. Cut into wedges to serve.

Your Storage Freezer: Food for Thaw

Probably like you, one of my least favorite jobs is cleaning out the freezer.

It’s a big job because in my line of work as a chef I need a lot of freezer space. So, I actually have three of them! Two are no bother to maintain because they are self-defrosting, but I made the mistake of buying a non- self-defrosting one to keep in the basement for extra storage and now I regret it.

Twice a year, spring and fall, I grab pails, pots full of hot water, a chisel and lots of paper towels to help me chip away at the arctic ice buildup.

The first thing I do is remove all the food and take a survey of exactly what is in the freezer. If you are like me, you discover things that are way outdated. I found bags of basil leaves from 2005! They went to the trash.

Wedged on a shelf in the back I found Christmas cookies from last year and an uncooked Thanksgiving pie that never made it to the oven for baking. That’s the problem with a freezer; you tend to forget what’s in there.

As I took out the brick hard packages, I looked at their freezer dates and if there was anything over a year, I tossed it out.

I think it is a good idea to take a monthly survey of what is in your freezer because that old curmudgeon known as “freezer burn” can sneak up on you unexpectedly and cost you cold hard cash if you have to throw out foods that have stayed too long.

How to avoid all this?

1. Be sure to mark food packages with the date you store them and use them within 6 months to a year.
2. Use really good heavy-duty plastic bags and press out all the air.
3. Rotate older items to the front of the freezer as you store items.
4. Know what kinds of food store well; for instance zucchini, green beans and eggplant will not do well and turn to mush when defrosted.
5. Use containers like plastic, or glass.

Swiss Chard: A Rainbow of Taste

Have you seen them in your grocery store? Beautiful bunches of Swiss chard with their shiny, dark crinkled leaves?

This very nutritious vegetable is related to beets, and the stems come in a variety of colors. I like Bright Lights, a variety with a rainbow of colors from yellow to pink, orange and red.

Many people overlook this vegetable or if they cook it, it is mostly steamed or boiled and served as a side veggie. Swiss chard is available all year long but it is best from June until early fall. If your family is like mine, sometimes you have to do a magic act to get them to try things that are good for them. I wanted to give Swiss chard a new lease on taste and make it more exciting, so I decided that stuffing it with a tasty ricotta cheese filling was the way to go.
If you like surprising your family with something new, try this. Even the picky eaters will like it, and it is a perfect dish for vegetarians. And for those who need something a bit more robust, try stuffing the leaves with your favorite meatloaf or meatball mixture.

Bietola Ripiena
Stuffed Swiss Chard

Serves 4

One 15 ounce container ricotta cheese (skim or whole milk)
1 egg
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese Salt to taste
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 small onion, diced
8 large whole swiss chard leaves with stems washed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 350F

In a bowl combine the ricotta cheese, egg, 1/4 cup of the grated cheese, salt and parsley.  Set aside.

Cut away the stems from the swiss chard and thinly slice them.  Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add 1 teaspoon salt. Add the whole leaves and blanch for 10 seconds. Carefully remove the leaves with a slotted spoon and allow them to cool.

Meanwhile heat the  olive oil in a sauté pan. When the oil is hot add the onion and stems and cook them over medium heat until the stems soften. Cool the mixture slightly, then add to the bowl with the ricotta cheese mixture.

Lay each swiss chard leaf flat and spread  1/4 cup of the cheese mixture down  the center of each. Starting from the end nearest you roll each leave up to encase the filling, folding in the sides as you go.

Spread 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce in the base of the casserole.

Place the swiss chard rolls in a  single layer in the casserole and spread the remaining tomato sauce over the tops of each.

Sprinkle the tops with the cheese.

Cover the dish tightly with aluminium foil and bake for 35 minutes. 

Uncover and  serve immediately.

Farro with Sausage Recipe

Have you tried farro? Lots of people are just discovering the wholesomeness of this ancient grain as it makes a culinary comeback.

Farro looks like wheat berries and is the original grain from which all others derive. Farro has a chewy texture, and it is a remarkably healthful food. It can used in so many ways: added to soups, as a stuffing for vegetables or used in casseroles like this one.

In this recipe it is combined with Italian sausage and mushrooms for a hearty main dish. Farro is available in grocery and specialty food stores and online. One cup raw farro will yield 2 ½ cups cooked.

Farro with Sausage and Mushrooms
Serves 6
 
1 cup farro
3 cups water
1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
¼ pound pancetta, minced
½ pound button or oyster mushrooms, caps cleaned, stemmed and cut into small pieces
1-pound pork sausage, casings removed and meat crumbled
2 1/2 cups tomato juice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup dry red wine
½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Fine sea salt to taste
 
Place the farro in a 2-quart saucepan and cover with the water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
 
In the same saucepan heat the olive oil over medium heat and cook the onion and pancetta until the pancetta starts to brown. Stir in the mushrooms and cook until they soften. Stir in the pork and cook it until it looses its pink color.
 
Return the farro to the pot and stir to combine well.
 
In separate bowl, combine the tomato juice, tomato paste and red wine. Pour the ingredients into the pot and stir the ingredients well.
 
Cover the pot, lower the heat to medium low and cook about 20 minutes, or just until the liquid is almost absorbed and the farro is cooked through but still chewy.
 
Stir in the cheese and salt to taste and serve hot in soup bowls.
 
Pass extra cheese on the side to sprinkle on top.