(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)
Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the memoir Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.1 The book is a collection of 40 short essays, each centered on a specific food, ranging from fruit (lots of fruit, including rambutan, figs and mango), to spices (cinnamon, vanilla — cannella, vaniglia) to dishes, like lumpia and leche flan. Using the title food as starting point, each essay blends memories, meditations on aspects of life, and information about the food, in an evocative, lyrical language. The title aptly describes the way the book is presented and read.
Before selecting this book for our club, I knew and appreciated the author’s poetry, but was not familiar with her essays. I like how she uses a food to start a thread that weaves through memories with factual details sprinkled in. Reading most of the essays engendered a similar process for me. For example, the opening essay on rambutan made me travel to the Big Island and its wonderful farmers’ market, where, among many other fruit, you can find clusters of sweet, juicy rambutan.
The book doesn’t include recipes and rather than by one of the foods, I was inspired by the time of year and the food memory it elicited. To celebrate the New Year (Capodanno), I followed the tradition of eating lentils. My mother always prepared a pot of the delicious small lentils typical of my home region, lenticchie di Castelluccio. She cooked them with local sausages, another typical food.
I usually bring back a bag of lentils when I visit Italy. Besides the famous Castelluccio lentils, Colfiorito lentils are also grown in Umbria. They are likewise small, fast cooking and deeply flavored. Below is a photo from my favorite store in downtown Perugia, Antica Spezieria e Drogheria Eredi Bavicchi,2 where I purchase this and other specialty legumes.
Besides the lentils, the dish includes honeynut squash and an assortment of leafy vegetables. For the latter, I use what I find at the farmers’ market, trying to create a balanced mix of flavors. Examples include: rainbow chard, red beet greens, radicchio di Treviso. Having one component of the dish variable means each time I make the dish it tastes unique. Note that in the case of rainbow chard and red beet greens, I cook also the stems, which I particularly like.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Place all the ingredients for the lentils except the salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook on low heat, covered, until lentils are tender.
- Check after 20 minutes and estimate the time necessary to complete the cooking. If the lentils look dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of hot water.
- When the lentils are done, add the salt and stir. Remove from the heat, retreive and discard the garlic and bay leaf and set aside.
- Cut the leek in half lengthwise and slice into 1/8 inch / 3 mm half-moons. Rinse well in a colander, then place in a bowl and fill it with cold water. With your hands, swirl the leek to clean, then scoop out of the water with a sieve or slotted spoon and drain in a colander.
- Peel and deseed the squash. I use a sturdy swivel vegetable peeler to peel the squash and a grapefruit spoon to remove the seeds.
- Cut the squash into small bite-sized pieces, no more than ½ inch / 1.25 cm.
- Wash and drain the vegetables, leaving a bit of water clinging to the leaves. Separate the stems from the leaves of chard and red beet greens and chop the stems.
- Halve the leaves lengthwise, stack 5-6 at a time and cut them into 1-inch / 2.5-cm wide ribbons.
- Warm up a lidded 5-qt cast-iron Dutch oven. Add the olive oil. When hot, add the leek, stir well, cook for 1 minute, then turn down the heat. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 4 minutes, stirring often and making sure the pan does not become dry.
- Add the garlic and Harissa to the pan and stir well.
- After 1 minute, turn up the heat to medium, add the cut squash and stir well. Turn down the heat, cover and cook for 2 minutes.
- Turn up the heat to medium, add the chopped stems, stir well and cover. Turn the heat down and cook until the squash is just tender, 6 minutes.
- Turn up the heat to medium, add the sliced leaves and cover. Turn the heat down and let the leaves wilt for 1 minute, then stir well.
- Cover and cook the vegetables on gentle heat for 10 minutes or so, until tender, stirring every now and then.
- Turn up the heat to medium, add the lentils and their liquid (the amount should be small) to the pan and stir well. Cover and turn down the heat to low.
- Continue cooking for 4 minutes or so, until the lentils are heated through.
- Add the sea salt, give it a final stir and take off the heat. Serve warm.
Notes
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)
This dish brings me to my home region and makes me feel I keep alive an ancient tradition.
1 The book’s page on the publisher’s website
2 The Antica Spezieria e Drogheria Eredi Bavicchi
3 An unpeeled garlic clove is called uno spicchio d’aglio in camicia (where in camicia literally means: with the shirt on)
Click on the Play button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post
This is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by me, Simona of briciole. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)
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.