escarole

Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten¹. I am aware Garten is a popular cookbook author and food TV personality. I don’t watch TV (of any kind) so don’t know her. The book’s style is lively and if you are interested in the author, you will probably enjoy reading it.

There was a long wait list to get the book from the library, and when I finally started reading it and doing some research on her recipes, I got sick, in a way that made experimenting in the kitchen out of the question for a while. I am finally better, but also short on time and not yet comfortable in straying far from foods I know I can consume. I had made the recipe below a few times while reading the book, before getting sick and I made it again after I got better, as it belongs to the “safe” category. Adjusting to life happening,I may say.

bunches of daikon radish at the San Rafael farmers’ market
(my favorite are the purple ones)

Spring brings to the farmers’ market ingredients I enjoy using, including red spring onions, spring leeks, purple daikon. I still remember the day, a few years ago, when a farmer at the Temescal market in Oakland, suggested I try purple daikon: it’s become a favorite, both raw and cooked. And as with other root vegetables, its greens are edible, so when you purchase a beautiful bunch like those in the photo below, you get two vegetables.

Beside daikon radish (daikon), as root vegetables I used carrots (carote) and red radishes (ravanelli), plus another favorite vegetable escarole. It a type of endive, slightly bitter, and delightfully so. In the photo above you see the curly variety of escarole. like to use the outer leaves (foglie esterne) in a cooked dish, while I add the inner, tenderer leaves to salads. Using carrots and escarole in the same dish creates a delicious bittersweet combination.³

Sometimes, when unwell, I crave a specific food: I like to interpret this as my body telling me what it needs, so I listen. This time it was baked tofu. I decided to purchase it already prepared, which makes the dish quite quick to prepare, another nice feature when energy is low.

If using only olive oil, the dish is vegan. I like to substitute 1/2 tablespoon of the oil with butter (unsalted), which goes well with the carrots.

Print-friendly version of briciole’s recipe for Root vegetables and escarole with tofu

Ingredients:

3 ounces / 85 grams carrots
3 ounces purple daikon radishes OR a combination of purple daikon radishes and red radishes
3 ounces / 85 grams escarole leaves
2 tablespoons / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
3 ounces red spring onion, clean weight, diced small
¼ teaspoon Harissa spice mix
Leaves from 4-5 thyme sprigs
2 tablespoons / 30 ml hot water
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
1 ¾ ounces / 50 grams baked tofu, sliced thin and each slice halved

Scrub the carrots well and scrape the surface to remove a thin layer of skin, then grate them using the extra-coarse side of a hand grater.

Scrub the daikon radishes and red radishes (if using) then grate them using the extra-coarse side of a hand grater.

Wash and drain the escarole leaves, halve them lengthwise then slice them crosswise into 1/2-inch / 2.5 cm strips.

Warm up the olive oil in a 10-inch / 25-cm skillet.

Add the onion, lower the heat and stir, then after 1 minute, add the grated carrot and stir, sprinkle the harissa spice mix, add the thyme, and stir well. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add the daikon and radishes, if using, to the skillet and stir. Add the hot water and stir, then cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the escarole to the skillet, stir well, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring a few times.

Uncover, sprinkle the sea salt and stir.

Distribute the tofu on the vegetables and allow it to warm through, 2 minutes or so. Fold the tofu into the vegetables (as in the top photo) or leave it on the surface (as in the photo below).

Before removing the skillet from the heat, taste to ensure the vegetables are tender to your liking.

Remove from the heat and serve warm.

Serves 2.

You can add more tofu, if you wish. I find the amount given in the recipe a good balance with the vegetables for a side dish (contorno).

¹The book’s page on the author’s website
² The brand of baked tofu I like [this is not a paid link]

Click on the Play button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems]

Cook the Books logo This is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by Debra of Eliot’s Eats. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

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mixed vegetable with thyme
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge¹. In post-war Paris, a woman is found murdered in the basement of the building where Paul and Julia Child live, and the murder weapon is a knife from Julia’s kitchen. If this brief introduction sounds intriguing, you’ll probably enjoy the book. I’m afraid I didn’t find the novel believable.²

The narrator, a young woman named Tabitha, lives with her grandfather not far from the Childs and befriends Julia. He grows a variety of herbs (erbe aromatiche) in his greenhouse:

There were rows of planters in the dome-shaped room… filled with herbs like tarragon, chervil, rosemary, thyme, basil, and of course, catnip. (dragoncello, cerfoglio, rosmarino, timo, basilico, erba gatta)

Thyme is probably my favorite herb and I use it with abandon, most recently on the first summer vegetables that have made their appearance at the farmers’ market.Usually, I strip the leaves, but sometimes I add the sprigs (rametti) whole, and remove the almost bare stems at the end, before serving. The tenderest ones blend with the vegetables and are undetectable when eating.

Last month, I spent a week in Los Osos, a town on the Central Coast of California, south of Morro Bay. The Monday farmers’ market there is one of my favorite: small, but offering a rich variety of produce. Also, with respect to the markets in Northern California, it was ahead of time in terms of summer vegetables. As a result, while there I ate the first zucchini (zucchine) and tomatoes of the season and even some sweet peppers. I also found glorious bunches of carrots (carote).

bunches of carrots at the Los Osos farmers’ market: irresistible

At the San Rafael farmers’ market, I recently scored the first eggplant (melanzane) of the season and at the Arcata farmers market, I put in my bag a beautiful head of escarole (scarola): it a type of endive, slightly bitter, and delightfully so. I like to use the outer leaves (foglie esterne) cooked with other vegetables, as in the recipe below, while I add the inner, tenderer leaves to salads. Using carrots and escarole in the same dish creates a delicious bittersweet combination.

summer vegetables are here!
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO

The dish is easy to make and cooks fairly quickly. I finish it with some flavorful creamy white miso³ from a local producer. As is, the dish is vegan. You can enrich it with eggs, cheese or, to keep it vegan, nutritional yeast.

Print-friendly version of briciole’s recipe for Mixed vegetables with thyme

Ingredients:

3 ounces / 85 grams (2) carrots
3 tablespoons / 45 ml extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces / 112 grams red spring onion, diced small
1/4 teaspoon Harissa spice mix
A handful of thyme sprigs
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces / 113 grams eggplant (1 small)
2 tablespoons / 30 ml hot water
4 ounces / 113 grams escarole leaves
8 ounces /225 grams zucchini (Black Beauty, Costata Romanesco, Magda, etc.)
1 tablespoon white miso or 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste

Scrub the carrots well and scrape the surface to remove a thin layer of skin, then grate them using the extra-coarse side of a hand grater.

Warm up the olive oil in a 10-inch/25-cm deep sauté pan.

Add the onion, lower the heat and stir, then after 1 minute, add the grated carrot and stir. After 2 minutes, sprinkle the harissa spice mix, add the thyme, and stir well. Cook on low heat for another 2 minutes, stirring often.

In the meantime, trim top and bottom of the eggplant, cut into 1/4-inch / 6 mm slices lengthwise, then cut each slice into small dice.

Add the minced garlic to the pan and stir. After 1 minute, add the diced eggplant and stir, then add the water and stir. Cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes, stirring a few times.

Wash and drain the escarole leaves, halve them lengthwise then slice them crosswise into 1-inch / 2.5 cm strips.

Add the escarole to the pan, stir well, cover and cook for 4 minutes.

In the meantime, trim the zucchini, then grate them using the extra-coarse side of a hand grater.

Add the zucchini, turn up the heat to medium and stir well. Cover the pan, lower the heat and cook for 4 minutes or so, until the zucchini are just tender.

Uncover, add the white miso and stir until well blended (or sprinkle the sea salt and stir).

Remove from the heat and serve warm.

Serves 3-4.

I have already prepared this dish several times and I see myself doing it often this summer.

¹The book’s page on the publisher’s website
² Review on Kirkus Reviews
³ From Palmer Creek Farm’s Instagram feed: photo of the white miso, made with rice koji and white beans. To learn more about koji, miso, and what Richard Wagner makes, you can read the article I wrote for the North Coast Journal, which peeks from under the containers of miso in the photo.

Click on the Play button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post

Cook the Books logo This is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

briciole

Simona Carini serves recipes and Italian words related to food

root vegetables and escarole with tofu / ortaggi a radice e scarola con tofu

mixed vegetables with thyme / verdure miste al timo