recipe: whole-grain risotto with tomato and sage (risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia)

April 18, 2014 | Simona

Whole-grain risotto with tomato and sage

by Simona Carini

Prep Time: 10 minutes + soaking time

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Keywords: boil pasta gluten-free soy-free sugar-free vegetarian rice tomatoes Italian

Ingredients (Serves 4)

2 1/2 cups / 600 ml vegetable broth, possibly homemade
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup / 4 tablespoons minced onion
5-6 leaves of pineapple sage, slivered (see Note below)
4 oz. / 123 g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on their size)
1 cup / 200 g whole-grain Carnaroli rice
2 tablespoons / 30 ml white wine, not cold
1/2 cup / 120 ml water
1/4 cup of myzithra or ricotta salata, grated
Sea salt, to taste

Instructions

Note: The quantity of sage depends not only on your taste, but also on the intensity of flavor of the kind you use and on the size of its leaves. The leaves of my pineapple sage are fairly large.

Soak the rice for 5-6 hours.

Bring vegetable broth to a simmer in a small saucepan and maintain it at that temperature.

In the meantime, in a larger pan, warm up the olive oil, then add the onion and sage. Cook on low until the onion is translucent, then add the cherry tomatoes.

After 3-4 minutes, add the rice, drained, and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add the white wine and stir. Let the wine evaporate, while stirring the rice, then start adding the simmering broth, a ladleful at a time, and letting the rice absorb it.

Keep the risotto at a nice simmer and stir it at regular intervals. Make sure it never gets dry.

When you pour the last ladleful of broth, bring to simmer the water and add it as needed until the rice is cooked (35 minutes in my case, consistent with the information on the label, which says 30-35 minutes). The texture will be different from risotto made with regular Carnaroli rice, a bit chewy, instead of creamy: take that into account when tasting it.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the cheese of choice, adjust the salt, stir, then let the risotto rest, covered, for a few minutes while you gather the guests around the table.

Serve and enjoy.

Go to the full post on risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia / whole-grain risotto with tomato and sage

recipe: beans in cashew and tomato curry (curry di fagioli con pomodoro e anacardi)

March 13, 2014 | Simona

Beans in cashew and tomato curry

by Simona Carini

Prep Time: 20 minutes + soaking beans

Cook Time: 20 minutes + cooking beans

Keywords: boil entree vegetarian sugar-free soy-free low-carb gluten-free beans tomatoes African Italian

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

For the beans

1 cup / 200 g / 7 oz. canario or cannellini beans or other beans of choice that are good for stews [see below how to cook beans with aromatics]
A small onion (or half of a medium one), quartered
A bay leaf
One large or two small cloves of garlic, sliced
A few sprigs of fresh parsley
A couple of leaves of sage, optional

To complete the dish

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
A generous pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup / 70 g raw unsalted broken or split cashew nuts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced lengthwise (I used a Rossa di Milano onion)
2 carrots, grated using the extra-coarse side of your grater
2 small turnips, grated using the extra-coarse side of your grater
1 one-inch / 2.5 cm piece fresh ginger, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup strained roasted tomatoes
Fine sea salt, to taste
1/3 cup /50 g cashews in larger pieces (see Note below)
1/4 cup / 60 ml fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

Instructions

Note: I purchased raw cashew pieces (rather than whole) and selected smaller pieces to grind for the sauce and larger pieces to toast for the topping.

How to cook dry beans

The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use four cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are tender, but possibly a few minutes from being completely cooked: they will finish cooking in the sauce. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

How to prepare the sauce

Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Dry roast the ground spices (cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, coriander and pepper) and pepper flakes for 1 minute. Let the spices cool down, then add them to the broken cashews and place in a food processor. Grind to a fine paste. Do not rinse the skillet.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and stir to coat. Turn the heat down to medium-low. After a couple of minutes, add the carrots, turnips and ginger and stir. After a couple of minutes, add the garlic and stir.

Cook the vegetables on gentle heat until tender, stirring often.

How to finish the dish

Drain the beans and measure 1/2 cup / 120 ml of the cooking liquid.

Turn up the heat to medium-low and add the cashew paste. Stir well, then add the beans and continue to stir for a minute.

Add the strained roasted tomatoes and reserved bean cooking liquid and stir well. Bring the sauce to a boil. Turn down the heat to low. Cover the skillet and simmer until the beans are well cooked and the sauce has thickened a bit.

In the meantime, dry roast cashew pieces in the small skillet previously used for the spices.

When the beans are ready, adjust salt, then add toasted cashews and parsley.

Give a final stir and serve immediately over cooked whole grains of choice.

Go to the full post on curry di fagioli con pomodoro e anacardi / beans in cashew and tomato curry

zuppa di verza e cavolo riccio per Anna / Savoy cabbage and kale soup for Anna

February 7, 2012 | Simona

Savoy cabbage and kale soup

Since I started writing (mostly about food), I look at memories and memoirs with a different eye. I grew up with a father who was constantly narrating stories and a mother who basically never did. When I was a kid, I listened to my father, but I was not fully aware of how important such transfer of information was. Now I have a different perspective.

A little voice inside me has been saying that I should record my father's stories. The voice grew firmer after I read Anna, Heart of a Peasant, by Carol Marie Davis. Ms. Davis is Anna's granddaughter and is also Rachel's mother and Rachel writes The Crispy Cook and co-hosts the Cook the Books Club.

Anna's story is different from that of any member of my family, since none of them traveled half-way across the world and started a new life in a place utterly different from the one in which they had grown up. My maternal grandmother moved from Croatia next door to Italy after marrying, but I have no idea what she thoughts of her adoptive country. I guess I did move half-way across the world, and I can tell you that it was not an easy transition, although I had several advantages over Anna, not the least of them the fact that I spoke the language and I had someone waiting for me in California. Anna was sent away from her native village in Byelorussia (now Belarus) following a terrible accident (I am trying not to give away too much here) and after a brief interlude, she boarded a ship headed towards America.

In the first part of the book, Ms. Davis recreates the life of Anna's family in the countryside of Byelorussia, a life steeped in popular traditions that coexist with religious faith. In the second part, we see Anna holding on to the traditional knowledge her grandmother had transmitted to her, while adjusting to the ups and downs of life in the US (having arrived in 1914, Anna experienced, among other things, the Great Depression).

The book follows Anna as she gets married, starts a family, moves into a house, raises children and grandchildren in Hastings-on-Hudson (NY). The last chapter includes a moving photograph of Anna and her husband, saying goodbye to each other on the grounds of a nursing home. The photo was taken by Ms. Davis and I want to think that it represents how she remembers her grandparents: looking at each other, holding hands. Together, they've gone through a lot.

The last pages of the book contain a set of recipes, a tribute to Anna's cooking. When I read them, I had no doubts about my choice: cabbage soup. Interestingly enough, the same recipe caught the attention of other readers of the book. In particular, Rachel, Anna's great-granddaughter, has made the soup and I refer you to her post on the topic for the original recipe. I made a number of changes to adapt it to my taste and ingredients I have available. I used a lovely purple Savoy cabbage, locally grown, and Red Russian kale from my garden. I added a bit of celery and thyme to the garlic, onion and carrot base, used fire-roasted crushed tomatoes instead of puréed tomatoes, omitted the sugar and cut down the lemon juice. Finally, I topped the soup with homemade kefir instead of sour cream.

purple Savoy cabbage

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pound Savoy cabbage sliced into 1/2-inch ribbons
3/4 pound Red Russian kale, thick ribs removed and sliced into 1/2-inch ribbons
olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic (aglio)
1 large onion (cipolla), chopped
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 large carrot (carota), chopped
half a celery rib (costa di sedano), chopped
1 quart (4 cups) homemade light chicken stock or vegetable option
1 28-ounce can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato paste (concentrato di pomodoro)
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly milled black pepper
homemade kefir (optional)

In a large soup pot, heat oil and sauté garlic for a couple of minutes, then add onion and thyme and sauté for a few minutes, then add carrot and celery and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring often. Add stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, and bay leaf and simmer for 10 minutes or so, until carrots are tender.

Take out the bay leaf and discard. Purée with an immersion blender. Add lemon juice, cabbage and kale, and 3 cups of water. Simmer until cabbage is cooked (in my case it was about 45 minutes). Add more water, if needed, to obtain a soup of the desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper and serve topped with some homemade kefir.

kale everywhere

Kale grows plentiful in my little vegetable garden and it reseeds itself, mostly due to the fact that I always let one or two plants go to seeds and then the seeds end up in my compost, so spreading the compost means spreading kale. I am not complaining: above you can see a corner of the garden where kale is a cover crop.

I am adding my thoughts on Anna, Heart of a Peasant to those of other bloggers, as you can see in this post, where Rachel of The Crispy Cook has gathered all the reviews. Thank you, Ms. Davis, for a very interesting read, and thank you, Rachel, for sharing your mother's book with us.

And I am sending this hearty soup to Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays, a weekly event created by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen (another co-host of the Cook the Books Club).

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

zuppa di verza e cavolo riccio per Anna

or launch the zuppa di verza e cavolo riccio per Anna audio file [mp3].

[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.]

FTC disclosure: I have received a free review copy of the book mentioned in this post. I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for discussing the book on my blog. The views expressed in the post are my own.

cabbage, kale, tomato, soup

cucinare in trasferta: fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro / cooking while away: fresh pinto beans in tomato sauce

September 27, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

In my previous post, I talked about our trip to Milwaukee and visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum and Fondy Farmer's Market.

At the market, among other items, we bought fresh shelled pinto beans. As you can see from the photo, they were sold next to borlotti (cranberry beans), and in both podded and shelled version (pinto in the pink buckets, borlotti in the purple ones).

The plan was to prepare the beans with a tomato sauce and I could have bought some tomatoes at the market for that, but they were sold is largecontainers and I was also not sure I would find a grater in the apartment where we were staying to make crushed tomatoes, so I relied on a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes¹ to help me prepare the dish. What I made is losely related to fagioli all'uccelletto.

I like the depth of flavor of the fire-roasted tomatoes, which I think goes very well with beans. The bowl in the background contains a mix of polenta and corn meal (farina di mais) that I brought from home to prepare polenta. It was one of the food items I packed. Others were two containers of homemade cookies (more on those in an upcoming post), my homemade caciotta cheese (already mentioned in this post) and a supply of chocolate.

Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Fresh pinto beans in tomato sauce

Ingredients:

a cup of shelled fresh pinto beans
a bit of olive oil
a large shallot (scalogno), finely chopped
a 14.5 oz. can of organic diced fire-roasted tomatoes
sea salt, to taste
basil (basilico) chiffonade, 5-6 leaves

Put the beans in a small saucepan and cover them with water (I used two cups). Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and cook the beans gently until just tender.

Warm up a bit of olive oil in a saucepan. Add the shallot, stir well to coat, then cook for a few minutes. Cover and continue cooking until the shallot is soft and translucent. Add the tomatoes, stir, bring to a gentle bubble, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes. If you want, mash some of the tomatoes with a potato masher or spoon.

Drain the beans and add to the tomato sauce. Again, bring back to a gentle bubble and cook for 15 minutes, or until the beans are cooked to your liking. Take the pan off the heat. Adjust the salt, if needed (the canned tomatoes contain salt), then add basil, and stir well to distribute.

Serving option #1: place a portion of beans in a bowl and distribute on the surface thin slices of caciotta or similar cheese. Cover the bowl and let stand for a few minutes, so the heat from the beans softens the cheese. Serve accompanied with toasted slices of country-style bread (pane casereccio).

Serving option #2: serve beans with a side of soft polenta. I will write more about my polenta soon. Suffice here to say that I added to it some of my caciotta cheese at the end of the cooking time. Again here you can experiment with other cheeses.

This is my submission for My Legume Love Affair 39, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Cathy of What Would Cathy Eat?

This post contains the roundup of the event.

I am also sending this post to Tin Can Recipes, a monthly event that will run until the end of this year. The organizers are Ale, Fra, Sere and Paola of Il Giardino degli Aromi and Brii of briggishome. The rules for participating are detailed on this page.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro

or launch the fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro audio file [mp3].

[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.]

¹ The can of tomatoes in the photo is for information only: it is not an advertisement. I do not have a business relationship with the product's company.

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bean, corn, tomato

cucinare in trasferta: fagioli pinto freschi al pomodoro

Nel post precedente ho parlato del nostro viaggio a Milwaukee e della visita al Milwaukee Art Museum e al Fondy Farmer's Market.

Al mercato abbiamo comprato, tra gli altri prodotti, un secchiello di fagioli pinto freschi sgranati. Come potete vedere nella foto, i fagioli pinto erano in vendita vicino ai borlotti, sia nel baccello che sgranati (i pinto nei secchielli rosa, i borlotti in quelli viola).

L'idea era quella di preparare i fagioli coi pomodori e per attuarla avrei potuto comprare dei pomodori al mercato, ma erano in vendita in cestelli piuttosto grossi e non ero sicura che nell'appartamento dove abbiamo alloggiato avrei trovato gli attrezzi per preparare la salsa, quindi ho deciso di comprare una scatola di pomodori arrostiti sulla fiamma a pezzi¹. Il piatto che ho preparato si ispira ai fagioli all'uccelletto.

La ciotola in secondo piano contiene farina di mais per fare la polenta che mi ero portata da casa (di fatto è un misto di quello che qui chiamano polenta, a grana piuttosto grossa, e cornmeal macinato a pietra, a grana più fine). Altri generi alimentari che avevo messo in valigia sono: due contenitori di biscotti fatti in casa (prossimamente su questo blog), la mia caciotta fatta in casa (già menzionata in un recente post) e una scorta di cioccolato (mai viaggiare senza!).

Ingredienti per i fagioli al pomodoro:

una tazza (240 ml) di fagioli pinto freschi sgranati (vedi Nota in basso)
un po' di olio d'oliva
uno scalogno piuttosto grosso, tagliato fine
una scatola da 410 g di pomodori arrostiti sulla fiamma a pezzi
sale, q.b.
5-6 foglie di basilico tagliate a chiffonade

Nota: non ho pesato i fagioli per mancanza di una bilancia, quindi ho solo il volume.

Mettere i fagioli in una piccola pentola e coprirli con acqua (io ho usato 2 tazze, 480 ml). Portare a ebollizione, abbassare la fiamma e cuocere a fuoco dolce fino a quando i fagioli sono appena teneri.

Scaldare un po' d'olio in una pentola, aggiungere lo scalogno, mescolare e lasciar cuocere per qualche minuto. Coprire e continuare a cuocere fino a quanto lo scalogno è tenero. Aggiungere i pomodori e mescolare. Portare a lieve bollore e far cuocere per 10-12 minuti. Se volete, potete schiacciare parte di pomodori con un cucchiaio.

Scolare i fagioli e aggiungerli ai pomodori. Portare a lieve bollore e far cuocere per 15 minuti o fino a quando i fagioli non siano cotti secondo il vostro gusto. Togliere la pentola dal fuoco, correggere il sale, se necessario (i pomodori in scatola contengono sale), aggiungere il basilico e mescolare bene.

Ho servito i fagioli in due modi:

1. Mettere una porzione di fagioli in una scodella e distribuire sulla superficioe delle fettine fine di caciotta o formaggio simile. Coprire la scodella e lasciar riposare per qualche minuto, in modo che il calore dei fagioli ammorbidisca il formaggio. Servire con fette di pane casereccio tostate.

2. Servire i fagioli con della polenta morbida condita con caciotta. Anche in questo caso potete usare altro formaggio di vostro gradimento.

Con questo post contribuisco all'evento Tin Can Recipes dedicato alla celebrazione dei 200 anni del cibo in scatola. L'organizzazione dell'evento è di Ale, Fra, Sere e Paola del blog Il Giardino degli Aromi e di Brii che scrive briggishome. Le regole per partecipare le trovate su questa pagina.

Questo post contiene la raccolta dell'evento.

Contribuisco anche all'evento My Legume Love Affair 39, edizione corrente del popolare evento sulle leguminose creato da Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, e ospitato questo mese da Cathy di What Would Cathy Eat?

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

¹ La scatola di pomodori nella foto è solo a titolo informativo: non è una pubblicità. Non ho alcun rapporto commerciale con l'azienda produttrice.

insalata di pomodori, avocado, cetriolo limone e melone / tomato, avocado, lemon cucumber and cantaloupe salad

August 28, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

Remember the beautiful Blush tomatoes from my recent roasted corn salad? I didn't use the whole basket then, so I came up with another combination where the pretty pomodori could shine. The suggestion came from this week CSA box, where once again I found some lemon cucumbers (they are pretty too, aren't they?) and a perfectly ripe cantaloupe.

A short detour. Since I heard the word cantaloupe for the first time, I have been curious about its origins. An online search returns a lot of pages, but a couple of sentences recur like a refrain, which always makes me a bit suspicious. This is one: "The cantaloupe was named after the commune Cantalupo in Sabina, in the Sabine Hills near Tivoli, Italy, a summer residence of the Pope." Cantalupo is indeed in the Sabine Hills, but is not near Tivoli. My father was born and grew up in Poggio Catino and my mother grew up in Casperia. As you can see from the map below, both villages are very close to the pin labeled A which represents Cantalupo. To find Tivoli, you have to go down and to the right, above the blue mark SS5. And why use Tivoli as a reference when Rome is equidistant?

Also, if Cantalupo had been "a summer residence of the Pope," I believe the fact would be mentioned on this page, which summarizes the history of the village, or on this page, which details the history of its palace (I consulted also another document on the same subject). It isn't and therefore I consider the claim unsubstantiated¹. Note that Cantalupo, like a good portion of central Italy, was part of the Papal State for several centuries, until the unification on Italy in 1861.

It is true that a group of melons (Cucumis melo) is called Cantaloupensis. However, according to this page and others, the European cantaloupe is different from the North American cantaloupe:

Taxonomically, Cucumis melo is further divided into different groups. Cantaloupensis is the true cantaloupe, which is medium sized, warty or scaly, common in Europe, but not grown commercially in America.

The Reticulatus group of melons—the most commonly grown—is easily identified by its netted skin and is called netted or summer melon. This group includes Galia and Charentais melons as well as what we call cantaloupe. In America, the terms "muskmelon" and "cantaloupe" are used interchangeably, yet "cantaloupe" is more common. When ripe, these melons are aromatic and the vine "slips" off from the fruit.

Back to Cantalupo, I am still wondering why I had never heard about the connection between the village and melons. After all, as a child and teenager, every summer I spent a month in my father's village, during melon season. We had melone e prosciutto quite often for dinner. Maybe the answer is simply that I don't remember.

In the Tuscan Horticultural Society Bulletin of 1887, I have found a clue suggesting that maybe there is nothing wrong with my memory. In the paragraph titled Origin of the Cantaloup Melon, there is this sentence: Ora di questo popone, così ricercato in Francia, a Cantalupo non hanno neppure la memoria (Now, of this melon so sought after in France, in Cantalupo they have no memory). The paragraph that precedes this statement has at least one historical error, which casts a bit of a shadow on this source. So, I end up where I began: skeptical and wondering. In the meantime, Cantalupo seems to have remembered its connection with a prized fruit, and both last year and this year, at the end of August, a festival dedicated to the fruit was held in the village.

If you have information that can help shed some light on my quandary, let me know. End of the detour.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Tomato, avocado, lemon cucumber and cantaloupe salad

Back to the salad, here are the ingredients I used:

10 Blush tomatoes
an avocado
a lemon cucumber
10 oz. cantaloupe — half of a small cantaloupe
sea salt
freshly squeezed lemon juice (succo di limone)
basil chiffonade

In this salad, I paired tomatoes and cucumbers, a classic combination, though the varieties of both elements made it already "special." Cut each Blush tomato in half lengthwise and then cut each half into three pieces crosswise. Peel and dice avocado. Peel and slice lemon cucumber. Cut cantaloupe into slices, then remove the rind from each slice and cut into bite-sized pieces. Put all the ingredients in a bowl.

Because of the flavors involved and of the avocado, I decided that this salad needed no olive oil. A little sprinkling of salt, a nice squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of basil chiffonade is all that I added, then tossed. The result was refreshing and tasty to the palate and pleasant to the eye.

This is a simple dish that I share mostly as an invitation to be creative with available seasonal ingredients. Look at what you have in your CSA box or what is available at the farmers' market nearest to you and start experimenting with salad compositions. Have fun!

¹ The current summer residence of the pope is Castel Gandolfo, in the area near Rome called Colli Albani. According to this page the first pope to use the palace as a summer residence was Urban VIII Barberini (1623-1649). Thanks to Frank for his note reminding me to add the information.

This post is my contribution to edition #298 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Rinku of Cooking in Westchester.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

insalata di pomodori, avocado, cetriolo limone e melone

or launch the insalata di pomodori, avocado, cetriolo limone e melone audio file [mp3].

[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.]

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avocado, tomato, cucumber, melon, salad

insalata di pomodori, avocado, cetriolo limone e melone

Vi ricordate i bellissimi pomodori Blush che ho usato di recente in un'insalata di mais? Per prepararla non ho utilizzato tutto il cestino e quindi ho inventato un'altra combinazione per loro. Il suggerimento è venuto dalla mia cassettina dove ho trovato di nuovo alcuni cetrioli limone e un meloncino maturo.

Nella versione in inglese del post parlo un po' del nome del melone che ho usato, che qui si chiama cantaloupe. I vari tipi di melone sono divisi in tre gruppi, uno dei quali si chiama Cantaloupensis, nome derivato dal paese di Cantalupo in Sabina. Questa cosa mi ha sempre incuriosito un po' perché entrambi i miei genitori sono sabinesi e da ragazzina passavo il mese di Agosto a pochi chilometri da Cantalupo, ma non mi ricordo di aver mai sentito parlare del melone di Cantalupo. Il che naturalmente non vuol dire che non sia vero. Ho fatto un po' di ricerche su internet e ho scoperto che il melone di Cantalupo non viene coltivato commercialmente in America, per cui il nome cantaloupe non è applicato correttamente.

Ho anche trovato una nota in un paragrafo dedicato alle origini del "popone Cantaloup" nel Bulletino della Società toscana di orticultura del 1887 che dice: Ora di questo popone, così ricercato in Francia, a Cantalupo non hanno neppure la memoria. Il paragrafo precedente contiene almeno un errore storico, quindi prendo l'affermazione con un po' di beneficio d'inventario. Certamente mi piacerebbe andare a fondo nella mia ricerca e se avete notizie da contribuire, fatemelo sapere.

Questi sono gli ingredienti che ho usato per l'insalata:

10 pomodori varietà Blush
un avocado
un cetriolo limone
280 g melone — metà di un piccolo melone
sale fino, q.b.
succo di limone
basilico tagliato a chiffonade

In questa insalata ho sposato pomodori e cetrioli una coppia classica, ma le varietà particolari che ho usato la rendono speciale. Tagliare ciascun pomodoro Blush a metà per lungo e poi tagliare ogni metà in tre pezzi per largo. Sbucciare e tagliare a dadi l'avocado. Sbucciare e tagliare a pezzi il cetriolo limone. Affettare il melone, rimuovere la buccia e tagliarlo a pezzi. Mettere tutti gli ingredienti in un'insalatiera.

In base ai sapori e alla presenza dell'avocado, ho deciso che questa insalata può fare a meno dell'olio. Un pochino di sale, una bella spruzzata di succo di limone e del basilico è tutto ciò che suggerisco di aggiungere come condimento, poi mescolare. Il risultato è rinfrescante e gustoso per il palato e piacevole alla vista.

Questo è un piatto semplice e lo descrivo più che altro come invito ad essere creativi con gli ingredienti stagionali che sono a vostra disposizione. Fate esperimenti nella preparazione di belle insalate e buon divertimento!

Questo post è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 298 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana da Kris di Tutto a occhio.

Questo post contiene il raccolto dell'evento.

insalata di fagiolini viola e pomodori / purple wax bean and tomato salad

August 26, 2011 | Simona

Last Saturday at the farmers' market, I made a number of nice purchases. I have already talked about the beautiful Blush tomatoes. I also got pretty purple wax beans. Unfortunately, the photo, taken before I washed the beans, does not really do them justice: the color, described as "dark mauve," is brilliant and intense. And, as you can see, the inside is bright green. When I plunged the beans into the boiling water, however, the original color disappeared almost immediately and the beans turned green.

I contemplated a traditional combination with potatoes (albeit ones with red flesh), when the tomatoes in the CSA box made me change my mind. I selected a yellow one and one that is red and green, with a nice layout of the two colors. I then decided that toasted sesame seeds would provide the right note of flavor and a bit of texture contrast. Finally, a hint of basil rounded off the simple vinaigrette of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (I am aware that not everybody likes the idea of vinegar on tomatoes, but I do. I grew up eating panzanella and various types of tomato salads all including vinegar.)

Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Purple wax bean and tomato salad

Ingredients:

1 lb purple wax beans
heirloom tomatoes of your choice, the number depending on their size
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (semi di sesamo), toasted in a dry skillet until golden and fragrant
sea salt, to taste
olive oil (olio d'oliva) of good quality
balsamic vinegar (aceto balsamico) of good quality
basil chiffonade, to taste

Trim the beans (I topped and tailed them) and wash them. Cut them into approx. 2-inch pieces. (I did this after cooking them, but it is better to do it before.) Plunge them into a pot of boiling salted water, bring back water to a boil and cook until desired tenderness. Drain, place in a salad bowl and let cool thoroughly.

Wash and slice the tomatoes, and add to the beans. In a small jar, measure olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt to taste. Screw on the lid and shake well. Distribute on the salad and toss gently. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and toss again, then serve.

There was quite a bit of juice released by the tomatoes in the bowl, so we used pieces of my homemade challah to fare la scarpetta. We had also another salad for dinner, but that is a story for another post.

This is my submission for My Legume Love Affair 38, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Preeti of Relishing Recipes.

This post contains the first part of the roundup of the event, and this post contains the second part.

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

insalata di fagiolini viola e pomodori

or launch the insalata di fagiolini viola e pomodori audio file [mp3].

[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.]

wax bean, tomato, salad

prima variazione sul tema insalata di mais arrosto / variation I on a theme of roasted corn salad

August 21, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

This week, I received four ears of corn in my CSA box. I bought two more from the same producer (Neukom Family Farm) at the farmers' market yesterday and then roasted all six of them (I call this being energy-efficient). I used the kernels (chicchi) from two ears to make a second batch of the salad I wrote about recently (the rest will be turned into a soup: more on that in an upcoming post). Of course, I didn't make the salad exactly the same way.

First change: instead of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, I used some beautiful Blush tomatoes. I had never seen them before setting eyes on them at the Green Fire Farm's stall: They are excellent and, as you can see, quite photogenic. If you see them at a market near you, give them a try. On this page you can read:

The 2" long 'julienne cherries' have an unforgettable tropical sweet flavor reminiscent of pineapple and are ready to pick when the pink blush starts to appear over the yellow background.

For the record, some of the tomatoes in the basket I got were 2.5-inch long. If you read the whole description and wonder what "indeterminate" mean, you can find an explanation on this page.

Second change: instead of dill (aneto), I used shiso (Japanese name of perilla), which I have been growing in my garden. I bought a seedling at the beginning of the summer from Flying Blue Dog Farm & Nursery, which has always interesting plants. This one caught my attention because of the beautiful shape of the textured leaves and their pretty color, green on one side and purplish red on the other. A bit surprisingly, the plant likes to be in my garden, even though it ended up being in the shadow of a tall sunflower. There are several varieties of shiso and I am growing the one called Britton. (Other varieties are green and red shiso.)

Shiso has a pleasant flavor of delicate mint with a hint of basil. As you can read on this page, it is used not only in the kitchen, but also for its medicinal qualities. I like having it in my herb garden because it is a really pretty plant.

The leaves grow in pairs, each pair orthogonal to the one above and below. I let the plant grow a bit before starting to harvest the tender leaves at the top of each branch, which I have used in green salads. Yesterday I added it to the corn salad and I am glad I did.

Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Roasted corn salad (original and variation I)

In summary, the list of ingredients for the first variation of my roasted corn salad is as follows:

2 ears of corn (pannocchie di granturco¹), still wrapped in their husks (if they aren't, wrap them in foil before roasting them) and with their silks attached
2 hearts of palm (I used canned)
8 yellow Blush tomatoes
1 lemon cucumber
sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons drained yogurt (see below)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (senape di Digione), or to taste
shiso (perilla) Britton chiffonade, to taste (use tender leaves at the top of a branch)

The instructions to prepare the ingredients and assemble the salad are the same as described in this post (which includes instructions to make drained yogurt), with the following changes pertaining the two different ingredients:

Cut each Blush tomato in half lengthwise and then cut each half into three pieces crosswise.
Sprinkle shiso on the salad and toss well.

We liked this version of the salad as well. The roasted corn was excellent, and so were the Blush tomatoes (I still have half of the basket, but I wish I had bought more!). The shiso complemented well the ensemble of flavors. A winner in our household and a recipe I recommend, in either variation.

This post, Blush tomatoes, shiso Britton and all, is my contribution to edition #297 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Chris of Mele Cotte.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

prima variazione sul tema insalata di mais arrosto

or launch the prima variazione sul tema insalata di mais arrosto audio file [mp3].

[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.]

¹ Both mais and granturco mean corn in Italian.

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corn, tomato, cucumber, salad

prima variazione sul tema insalata di mais arrosto

Questa settimana ho trovato quattro pannocchie nella mia cassettina, poi ieri al mercato ne ho comprate altre due dallo stesso produttore (Neukon Family Farm) e le ho cotte al forno tutte e sei. Ho usato i chicchi di due di esse per preparare una seconda volta l'insalata che ho descritto recentemente (col resto ci farò una zuppa: poi vi racconterò). Naturalmente, l'insalata non l'ho fatta proprio uguale.

Per prima cosa, invece dei pomodorini Sun Gold ho usato dei bellissimi Blush. Non avevo mai visto questa qualità prima di imbattermi negli esemplari della foto al banco di Green Fire Farm: sono lunghi 5-6,5 cm, sono buonissimi e come potete notare, anche fotogenici. Su questa pagina potete leggere che questi pomodori "hanno un dolce sapore tropicale che ricorda l'ananas e sono maturi quando un leggero arrossamento comincia ad apparire sullo sfondo giallo."

Poi, invece dell'aneto ho usato dello shiso, nome giapponese di una pianta che si chiama perilla, che ho piantato all'inizio dell'estate nel mio giardino. L'ho comprata perché la forma, la superficie e il colore delle foglie (verdi da un lato e rosso bordeaux dall'altra) mi avevano colpito. La pianta si è adattata bene, anche se è finita all'ombra di un alto girasole. Ci sono diverse varietà di shiso e quella che ho io si chiama Britton.

Le foglie hanno un sapore delicato di menta con accenni di basilico. Come potete leggere su questa pagina, shiso è utilizzato non solo in cucina ma anche per le sue proprietà medicinali.

Le foglie crescono a coppia, ciascuna coppia in posizione ortogonale rispetto a quella sopra e sotto. Ho lasciato crescere un po' la piantina prima di cominciare a raccogliere le foglioline tenere in cima ai rametti. Ieri, ne ho aggiunte alcune all'insalata di mais e sono soddisfatta della scelta.

In totale, la lista degli ingredienti della prima variazione sul tema insalata di mais arrosto è la seguente:

2 pannocchie di granturco ancora con le foglie (se non ci sono, prima di infornarle avvolgere le pannocchie nella pellicola di alluminio)
2 cuori di palma (io ho usato quelli in scatola)
8 pomodori varietà Blush
1 cetriolo limone
sale e pepe macinato fresco, a seconda del gusto
2 cucchiai (30 ml) di yogurt drenato (vedi Nota sotto)
1/2 cucchiaino (2,5 ml) senape di Digione, o a seconda del gusto
foglioline di shiso (perilla) varietà Britton tagliate a chiffonade, a seconda del gusto

Le istruzioni per preparare gli ingredienti e comporre l'insalata sono le stesse descritte in questo post (che comprende istruzioni per drenare lo yogurt), con i sequenti cambiamenti relativi ai due ingredienti diversi:

Tagliare ciascun pomodoro Blush a metà per lungo e poi tagliare ogni metà in tre pezzi per largo.
Distribuire la chiffonade di shiso sull'insalata e mescolare bene.

Anche questa versione dell'insalata e molto buona. Il mais arrosto è eccellente e altrettanto lo sono i pomodorini Blush (avrei dovuto comprarne un altro cestino!). Lo shiso complementa bene l'insieme dei sapori. Una ricetta estiva che vi raccomando, sia l'originale che questa prima variazione.

Questo post sul mais, lo shiso e i pomodorini Blush è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 297 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana dalla stessa Brii.

Questo post contiene il raccolto dell'evento.

insalata di mais arrosto con cuori di palma, pomodori ciliegia e cetriolo limone / roasted corn salad with hearts of palm, cherry tomatoes and lemon cucumber

August 18, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

As a child, I ate corn at most once a year, if we happened to visit a family of friends, who grew some in their garden, on harvest day. They would build a fire and we had roasted corn for dinner. I was an adult the first time I had a salad made of corn; the other ingredients were hearts of palm and diced Emmenthal cheese. So, in today's recipe, I pair the two memories I just described: roasted corn and a corn salad that includes hearts of palm.

The center of attention of the salad is roasted corn. Fresh, sweet corn is available at the farmers' market and this week, I got some in my CSA box. Roasting corn still wrapped in the husks is a great way of obtaining a flavorful ingredient not only for salad, but also for soup.

Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Roasted corn salad

Ingredients:

2 ears of corn (pannocchie di granturco¹), still wrapped in their husks (if they aren't, wrap them in foil before roasting them) and with their silks attached
2 hearts of palm (I used canned)
2 dozens cherry tomatoes (I used Sun Gold)
1 lemon cucumber
sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons drained yogurt (see Note below)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (senape di Digione), or to taste
fresh dill (aneto), to taste

Note: I used non-fat yogurt, but you can also use low-fat and full-fat plain yogurt. Line a small colander with a piece of cotton cloth and spoon some yogurt of choice in it. Place colander on a bowl to catch the whey. Let drain in the fridge overnight, then store in a container. Use as a base for spread or dressing.

Roast corn in the oven at 450 F for 20 minutes. Let cool briefly, then remove the husks. Working on a shallow bowl or pyrex dish, use a knife to separate kernels and scrapings from the cob. This page from bon appetít describes precisely the way I do this with the knife. (Save the empty cobs to make stock or broth.) Let corn cool thoroughly.

Rinse hearts of palm and slice crosswise. Cut cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise. Peel and dice lemon cucumber. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, add salt and pepper and toss gently.

In a ramekin, mix together drained yogurt and Dijon mustard, then spoon on the salad. Snip dill on the surface of the salad and toss well. Serve and enjoy.

You may want to use more or less of this or that ingredient. But make this salad: it is really nice, refreshing, filling and cheerful (yes, there is such a thing as a sad salad: this one is the polar opposite).

Update: in this post, I describe a variation on this salad.

In the photo, I put a couple of tomatoes of odd shapes. The one in the right was actually a case of Siamese twins (gemelli siamesi). The mini-shears are part of a gift I received recently and are very handy to snip herbs. On this page you can read information about the sustainable cultivation and harvesting of the hearts of palm I bought.²

¹ Both mais and granturco mean corn in Italian.

² The can of hearts of palm in the photo is for information only: it is not an advertisement. I do not have a business relationship with the product's company.

This is my submission for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays, a weekly event created by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen.This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

insalata di mais arrosto

or launch the insalata di mais arrosto audio file [mp3].

[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.]

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corn, tomato, cucumber, salad

insalata di mais arrosto con cuori di palma, pomodori ciliegia e cetriolo limone

Il centro dell'attenzione in questa insalata è il mais cotto al forno. Al mercato in questo periodo si trovano pannocchie di granturco appena colte e questa settimana ne ho trovate alcune anche nella mia cassettina. Il mais cotto al forno è un ingrediente ottimo non solo per insalate ma anche per zuppe.

Ingredienti:

2 pannocchie di granturco ancora con le foglie (se non ci sono, prima di infornarle avvolgere le pannocchie nella pellicola di alluminio)
2 cuori di palma (io ho usato quelli in scatola)
2 dozzine di pomodori ciliegia (io ho usato la varietà Sun Gold, dalla mia cassettina)
1 cetriolo limone
sale e pepe macinato fresco, a seconda del gusto
2 cucchiai (30 ml) di yogurt drenato (vedi Nota sotto)
1/2 cucchiaino (2,5 ml) senape di Digione, o a seconda del gusto
aneto fresco, a seconda del gusto

Nota: io ho usato yogurt magro, ma si possono usare anche altri tipi di yogurt bianco. Coprire con un pezzo di cotone un colino di dimensioni adeguate e versateci dello yogurt. Mettere il colino su una ciotola per raccogliere il siero che drena. Lasciare drenare una notte nel frigo e poi mettere in un contenitore. Usare come base per creme da spalmare e/o condimento per insalata.

Cuocere le pannocchie in forno a 230 C per 20 minuti. Farle intiepidire un po' poi rimuovere le foglie. Appoggiandosi all'interno di una ciotola bassa o di una teglie di pyrex, usate un coltello per separare i chicchi dal tutolo.¹ Questa pagina dalla rivista bon appetít (in inglese) descrive il procedimento che uso anche io per sgranare il mais col coltello. (Mettere da parte i tutoli e utilizzarli come ingrediente per fare il brodo vegetale o di carne.) Sciacquare i cuori di palma e tagliare a fettine. Tagliare i pomodorini a metà per lungo. Sbucciare il cetriolo limone e tagliarlo a dadi. Mettere tutti gli ingredienti preparati in un'insalatiera, salare e pepare a piacere e mescolare delicatamente.

In una ciotolina, mescolare yogurt drenato e senape e poi versare sull'insalata. Sminuzzare l'aneto, spargerlo sulla superficie e mescolare bene, poi servire.

Potete usare più o meno di ognuno degli ingredienti, a seconda dei vostri gusti. Ma vi consiglio di preparare questa insalata: è davvero buona, rinfrescante, saziante e allegra (esistono insalate tristi e questa è l'opposto).

Aggiornamento: in questo post, potete vedere una variazione sul tema di questa insalata.

Nella foto, ho messo un paio di pomodorini di forma buffa. Quello sulla destra di fatto è un caso di gemelli siamesi. Le forbicine piccole sono parte di un regalo ricevuto di recente e sono molto comode per sminuzzare le erbe aromatiche, come aneto ed erba cipollina. Su questa pagina (in inglese) potete leggere informazioni riguardanti la coltivazione e il raccolto sostenibili dei cuori di palma che ho acquistato.²

Contribuisco anche all'edizione di questa settimana dell'evento Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays, creato Deb di Kahakai Kitchen. Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

¹ Ho appena scoperto che questo è il nome del torsolo della pannocchia.

² La scatola di cuori di palma nella foto è solo a titolo informativo: non è una pubblicità. Non ho alcun rapporto commerciale con l'azienda produttrice.

piattoni al pomodoro / stewed romano beans with tomatoes

August 7, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

romano beans

Italian flat beans or romano beans are a kind of snap beans that are wide and flat. In this context, piatto is Italian for flat, and the suffix -one indicates a large size, so fagiolo piattone (plural: fagioli piattoni) means flat and large bean. The word fagioli is usually omitted and that's how we arrive at piattoni.

My aunt Lucia used to prepare piattoni with tomatoes, so piattoni always remind me of her. The recipe below is my own, but when I put a forkful of piattoni in my mouth, I am transported back in time to the flavors and smells of my aunt's kitchen (in this village in central Italy).

If you have never had romano beans, I recommend you give them a try. In Italy, I always had the green variety, and the ones I bought at the Temescal farmers' market (Oakland) last Sunday were also green. However, at the Arcata farmers' market yesterday, I bought a mix of green and yellow ones. For the tomato part, I roasted some ripe tomatoes (of a kind locally grown called Trinity) and puréed them.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Stewed romano beans with tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 lb ripe tomatoes (pomodori)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 1/5 lb. Italian flat beans, a.k.a., romano beans
4 oz. fresh red onion (cipolla rossa), either the round or the torpedo kind, thinly sliced (with a mandoline or other tool — I use the "thin" side of my mandoline)
2 oz. shallots (scalogno), thinly sliced (same as for onion)
olive oil
1/2 cup (or as needed) homemade light chicken stock or vegetable broth
sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste

To make roasted strained tomatoes, cut tomatoes in half crosswise, distribute them, cut side up, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat, spray olive oil and sprinkle thyme leaves on them.

Roast the tomatoes for 70 minutes at 350 F. Once cooled, ran the tomatoes through a food mill. Make sure you squeeze out all the pulp, so that only dry skins and seeds are left behind.

Snap off the stem end from each bean, then slice beans into roughly 2-inch pieces. Warm up some olive oil in a deep sauté pan, then add onion and shallot. Stir to coat, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add roasted strained tomatoes and stir. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Add beans and 1/4 cup of liquid of choice. Bring to a lively simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. Stir several times and add more liquid as needed to keep the beans moist.

When the beans are cooked (tender, but not mushy), remove from the heat, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, give a final good stir, then serve.

Much as I like snap beans, I'd choose piattoni over them any time. They require a bit more work to bring them to the table, but they reward you with a satisfying flavor and texture. If you have never tasted this kind of beans, I hope I have piqued your curiosity. And if you want another suggestion on how to prepare them, check Haalo's recipe for braised romano beans.

My camera output was not as satisfying as the dish, so you'll have to trust me when I say that the piattoni in the photo are excellent. Here's my favorite shot of the day: the underside of the food mill (passaverdure), as I am processing the roasted tomatoes.

When you process the tomatoes, the liquid component goes through first and gathers in the bowl. Continue turning the blade and look underneath to see the thick tomato pulp. I scrape it with a spatula and stop milling when no more pulp is produced.

This is my contribution to edition #295 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by me, Simona of briciole.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

piattoni al pomodoro

or launch the piattoni al pomodoro audio file [mp3].

[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.]

beans, tomato

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piattoni al pomodoro

Mia zia Lucia cucinava i fagioli piattoni coi pomodori, perciò questo piatto mi fa tornare indietro nel tempo ai sapori e agli odori della sua cucina (in questo paese del Lazio) ormai da diversi anni purtroppo vuota. La ricetta che segue è la mia, ma è ispirata a quella che mia zia faceva per me quando andavo a trovarla.

Negli USA, i fagioli piattoni vengono chiamati Italian flat beans (cioè, fagioli piatti italiani) oppure romano beans. Di recente li ho trovati in due mercati, sia verdi che gialli e mescolando i due colori viene una combinazione carina. Per quanto riguarda i pomodori, adoro cuocerli al forno per concentrarne il sapore.

Ingredienti:

450 g pomodori maturi
alcuni rametti di timo fresco
700 g fagioli piattoni
115 g cipolla rossa tonda o lunga tagliata fine (con la mandolina tagliaverdure o altro utensile)
55 g scalogno tagliato fine (vedi il punto precedente)
olio d'oliva
120 ml (o quanto basta) di brodo di pollo leggero o vegetale fatto in casa
sale e pepe nero macinato fresco a piacere

Per preparare la passata di pomodoro, tagliare i pomodori a metà e adagiateli colla parte tagliata in alto su una lastra da forno foderata con un tappetino di silicone per forno. Spruzzare un po' di olio d'oliva e le foglioline di timo sulla superficie dei pomodori.

Cuocere i pomodori in forno per 70 minuti. La temperatura in gradi Fahrenheit che uso io, 350, è un po' al di sopra di 175 C e un po' al di sotto di 180 C. Se usate pomodori piccoli, selezionate la temperatura più bassa, altrimenti quella più alta.

Qualche minuto dopo averli tirati fuori dal forno, passare i pomodori col passaverdure. Spremere bene la polpa in modo da scartare solo buccia e semi.

Mondare i piattoni e tagliarli a pezzi lunghi circa 5 cm. Scaldare dell'olio in una pentola bassa, poi aggiungere cipolla e scalogno. Cuocere per 5 minuti mescolando spesso. Aggiungere la passata di pomodoro e mescolare. Coprire e cuocere per 5 minuti, mescolando un paio di volte. Aggiungere i piattoni e 60 ml del liquido scelto. Portare a leggero bollore, coprire e cuocere per mezz'ora. Mescolare diverse volte e aggiungere liquido quanto basta per mantenere i piattoni bagnati.

Quando i piattoni sono cotti (teneri, ma non sfatti), togliere dal fuoco, aggiustare sale e pepe a seconda del gusto, mescolare bene e servire.

I fagiolini verdi mi piacciono molto, ma se dovessi scegliere uno dei due come contorno, la mia preferenza va ai piattoni. Richiedono un po più d'impegno per portarli a tavola, ma ripagano col loro sapore.

Le foto che ho fatto non sono molto soddisfacenti, quindi dovete fidarvi della mia parola quando dico che i piattoni erano ottimi. Questa è la mia foto preferita del set: una sbirciata sotto il passaverdure mentre sto passando i pomodori arrosto.

Quando passate i pomodori, la parte liquida filtra rapidamente. Continuate a girare la lama e guardate sotto per vedere la polpa dei pomodori. Io la rimuovo con una spatolina e smetto di girare quando devo che non c'è più polpa.

Questo è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 295 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di briggishome, e ospitata questa settimana da Simona di briciole (che poi sarei io).

Questo post contiene il raccolto dell'evento.

crostini con pomodori ciliegia arrosto / crostini with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes

June 3, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

As I mentioned in my previous post, recently we spent a weekend in Shelburne Falls, MA. We then drove to Atlanta, taking four days to cover the distance. One place we visited to which I'd like to go back one day for a longer time is Asheville, NC. We arrived there in the evening and after checking in at the bed & breakfast, we walked to the downtown area for dinner. The morning after, we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped to hike to the Upper Falls at Graveyard Fields. The trail was beautiful, flanked by rhododendrons in full bloom.

We then continued to Atlanta, where we arrived at exactly the right time to avoid being on the road during this intense storm. As I write, we are still away from home, and I am not cooking. While in Shelburne Falls, though, I cooked a bit. One evening, I made my zucchini frittata and my caprese salad with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes. I didn't use the tomatoes in the photo above: those are flavorful Isis Candy tomatoes from last summer, which I am very much looking forward to enjoying again this year.

Once you start roasting pomodori ciliegia¹ (cherry tomatoes), you will find many uses for them. One use that has been particularly appreciated in our household is as a topping for crostini. Let me clarify my use of the word crostini with respect to bruschetta. I grew up eating bruschetta, a dish made up of toasted slices of bread brushed with garlic and drizzled with very good quality olive oil. The recipe section of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina website contains three recipes for bruschetta (in Italian), all along the lines just described. Any other combination of ingredients atop a slice of toasted bread to me makes a crostino (plural, crostini).

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Crostini with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes

This is another recipe where I don't give precise measurements: you should adjust the quantity of tomatoes and bread as needed to make enough crostini for the prospective commensali (guests at the table). Try roasting a pint of cherry tomatoes and see how many crostini you can make using your bread of choice.

Ingredients:

cherry tomatoes
olive oil (olio d'oliva)
sea salt, to taste
fresh thyme (timo)
slices of a kind of bread that will go well with tomatoes, like sweet sourdough or whole wheat; I would not used a bread with strongly-flavored added ingredients

Heat the oven to 350 F. After removing the stem (if present), cut each tomato in half lengthwise and place in a bowl. Toss the tomato halves lightly with a bit of salt (alternatively, you can sprinkle some salt on the tomatoes once they are placed atop the bread) and of olive oil and the leaves of a few sprigs of thyme. (I like my tomatoes without salt, but I don't expect people to agree with me.) Arrange the tomato halves in one layer, cut side up, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat and bake them for 45 minutes. Check after 40 minutes.

A few minutes before the oven timer is set to beep, toast slices of the bread of choice. As soon as the tomatoes come out of the oven, spoon them on the warm toasted bread. Optionally add a touch of olive oil. Serve immediately.

To make the crostini portrayed above, I used my rendition of maize bread from Dan Lepard's "The Handmade Loaf" (a book I reviewed for The Daring Kitchen). Don't you think that the warm color of this bread goes well with that of the Isis Candy tomatoes on top?

¹ In Italy, cherry tomatoes are also referred to as pomodorini ciliegia and pomodori ciliegini.

This is my contribution to edition #286 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Huan of Eat.Read.Live.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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

crostini con pomodori ciliegia arrosto

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crostini con pomodori ciliegia arrosto

Come ho accennato nel mio ultimo post, abbiamo trascorso un weekend a Shelburne Falls, nel Massachusetts. Siamo poi andati ad Atlanta in auto, coprendo la distanza in quattro giorni. Un posto che abbiamo visitato e nel quale mi piacerebbe tornare per una visita più lunga è Asheville, nel North Carolina. Ci siamo arrivati di sera e dopo aver lasciato i bagagli nel bed & breakfast, siamo andati a piedi in centro per cenare. Il giorno dopo, abbiamo percorso la Blue Ridge Parkway e ci siamo fermati a fare una passeggiata alle Upper Falls di Graveyard Fields. Il sentiero era molto bello, fiancheggiato da rododendri in piena fioritura.

Abbiamo poi proseguito per Atlanta, dove siamo arrivati giusto in tempo per evitare di essere per strada durante un nubifragio. In questo momento siamo ancora lontani da casa e non sto cucinando. Durante il breve soggiorno a Shelburne Falls, però, ho cucinato un po'. Una sera ho preparato la mia frittata con le zucchine e la mia insalata caprese con pomodori ciliegia arrosto. Non ho usato i pomodori della foto: quelli sono dell'estate scorsa: la varietà si chiama Isis Candy ed è una delle mie preferite. Non vedo l'ora di trovarla di nuovo al mercato.

Una volta che cominciate a cuocere al forno i pomodori ciliegia, troverete molti modi per usarli. Un modo particolarmente apprezzato a casa nostra è come ingrediente per fare dei crostini.

Questa è un'altra ricetta nella quale non specifico le dosi: preparate abbastanza pomodorini e pane tostato per i crostini in base al numero dei commensali. Provate a cuocere al forno una confezione di pomodorini e vedete quanti crostini vi vengono col pane che avete scelto.

Ingredienti:

pomodori ciliegia
olio d'oliva
sale marino, q.b.
timo fresco
fettine di pane del tipo che preferite e che pensate si sposi bene con i pomodorini

Scaldare il forno a 175 C. Dopo aver tolto il picciolo (se presente), tagliare i pomodorini a metà nel senso della lunghezza e metterli in una ciotola. Aggiungere un po' di sale (in alternativa, salare leggermente i pomodori dopo averli messi sul pane) e di olio d'oliva e le foglie di alcuni rametti di timo e mescolare delicatamente. (A me i pomodori piacciono senza sale, ma non mi aspetto che gli altri siano d'accordo con me.) Disporre i pomodori in unico strato con la parte tagliata in alto su una lastra da forno foderata con tappetino di silicone per forno e cuocere in forno per 45 minuti. (La temperatura in gradi Fahrenheit che uso io, 350, è un po' al di sopra di 175 C e un po' al di sotto di 180 C. Ho deciso di specificare la temperatura più bassa poiché in questo caso preferisco essere cauta. Se utilizzate 180 C, controllate i pomodori dopo 40 minuti.)

Qualche minuto prima che il contaminuti suoni, tostate alcune fettine del pane scelto. Non appena tirate fuori dal forno i pomodorini disponetele sul pane caldo. A piacere, aggiungere un goccio d'olio d'oliva. Servire immediatamente.

Per i crostini della foto in alto, ho usato il pane di mais preparato secondo la ricetta del libro "The Handmade Loaf" di Dan Lepard (libro che ho recensito per il sito The Daring Kitchen). Siete d'accordo con me che il colore dorato del pane e quello dei pomodorini Isis Candy vanno benissimo insieme?

Questo è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 286 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata da Brii di Briggis recept och ideer, e ospitata questa settimana da Marta di Mangiare è un po' come viaggiare.

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.