Day: July 22, 2013

Risotto – Better prepared In U.S. than any Pasta dish. I have no idea why this is, but, I can guess.

For one, Risotto is surprisingly easy to make.  Despite all the hoopla and magic surrounding it any fifth grader can prepare Risotto with ease.  Another reason is that Americans are accustomed to eating steamed rice. That’s much chewier than boiled rice.  Most Pasta experiences Americans have are overcooked versions. That lends itself to bland, gooey aberrations of traditional flavors.

Risotto lends itself to endlessly different flavor combinations. The delicious, creamy, yet nutty blandness of Arborio rice is a perfect transfer medium.  Growing up my favorite Risotto was one my mother, Lucrezia, made. She used Asparagus, pancetta (bacon), and Gruyere Cheese in the Risotto.

Here’s how to make Lucrezia’s incredible Risotto with Asparagus, Bacon, and Gruyere Cheese:

Asparagus Risotto – serves  6 people

• Asparagus – 2 large bunches
• Bacon – 1lb. plain, non-smoked
• 2 cups Arborio Rice
• 2 Medium White Onions – chopped very fine
• Gruyere Cheese – 1/2 lb. grated
• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper

Broil the pound of bacon in a drip pan until crunchy brown.  Set aside on paper towels and let dry.  Save all the drippings.

Boil one bunch of asparagus in about two quarts of water until very soft. Takes about 15 minutes. Remove the hard, tough ends with a knife before cooking.  Remove and drain well.  SAVE all the cooking water and the drained water.

Next, blend or food process the overcooked asparagus until you have a nice smooth slurry of asparagus. Add some of the cooking water, OR STOCK, if necessary to get a smooth, runny mix.

In a large pan (the more surface area the faster and better the Risotto will cook). Over a high heat, sauté the two medium onions and the 2 cups of Arborio Rice. Sauté them in some of the bacon drippings until golden brown, stirring the whole time.

Pour in the blended asparagus and begin stirring the rice.  Add two or three large cooking spoons of the asparagus cooking water as needed. Stir until it is absorbed by the rice mixture.

Add a few pinches of sea salt and plenty of coarse black pepper. Do this as you continue to stir. Make sure not to over salt the mix.

Keep adding asparagus STOCK to the rice. It needs to reach a tender, but still firm texture. And has thrown off its creamy starchiness to the mix.

Then add the second bunch of asparagus. Be sure to trim all the tough end pieces and cut up into two inch sections. Stir the chopped, fresh asparagus in for about two or three minutes. Stir until tender, using a spoonful or two of cooking water if necessary.

Just before serving crumble up the crunchy bacon into bits and add to the mix.  Then add the 1/2 lb. of grated Gruyere Cheese to the Risotto and stir.  Top each serving with a spoonful of bacon drippings and additional grated Gruyere. Serve immediately as the dish will continue to cook while it sits.

Before we get to this wonderful Pasta and Eggplant recipe let’s first discuss a little bit of Italy …

Despite its tiny size, Italy has a number of disparately different climates. That’s good for growing specific food crops in each of the climates. Climates range from desert hot in Sicily in the south to mountainous cold in Torino in the north. Regional dishes like Pasta and Eggplant are deeply influenced by Italy’s various climates.

One common example of this geographic difference is the more common use of olive oil in the southern part of the country and butter and cream in the north.  Olive trees need long, warm, dry seasons to produce abundant amounts of quality olives which are then pressed for their oil.  Cows need land and a whole lot of grass to make milk.  Sicily has little of either. But in the Northern mountainous regions bordering Switzerland there’s more land area and plenty of grasses.  This local availability of crops translates to local availability of quality ingredients in each area.

While there are many subtle and not so subtle differences in ingredients and recipes throughout the twenty regions of Italy there are many common and authentic techniques that are prevalent throughout. One of them is browning or sautéing.  Americans are more apt to sauté or broil something lightly. And most Italians enjoy a much darker, crunchier finished product.  Pasta in Italy is invariably prepared just before serving, not cooked in advance and then reheated.  Most of Italy enjoys its pasta al dente or extra firm. And Americans have been conditioned to eat pasta that is soft and mushy. Not very authentic and a true crime in my opinion.

Here’s an authentic, simple and unforgettable Pasta and Eggplant recipe. They’re perfect for the Sicilian harvest season since the eggplants in this recipe are grown there. And yes, you could substitute.

Pasta and Eggplant (very crunchy) – A recipe for 4

• Baby Sicilian Eggplants – 6 the size of your fist
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper
• Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

Partially peel and then cut the eggplants in half.

Spray eggplants with olive oil on both sides and grill them under a high heat until they are very dark brown, almost burnt.

Mash eggplants together in a bowl with two large cloves of finely chopped garlic, more olive oil, sea salt to taste, and black pepper.

Cook 1 lb. of thick linguini extra firm, or al dente, drain, add to the eggplant mix and toss well until all the pasta is covered in oil and eggplant.

Serve your Pasta and Eggplant dish immediately and top with Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese.

This process shouldn’t take more than one half hour from when you start peeling the eggplants to sitting down with your favorite glass of extra cold white wine with your finished Pasta and Eggplant dish.

Start by heating the pasta water while you grill the eggplants.  By pairing specific dishes, like Pasta and Eggplant, with the best locations of crops, like eggplant (in this case, Sicilian eggplant), insures that the ingredients and flavors are optimal.  By the time the eggplants are crispy golden brown the water is boiling and ready for the pasta.

Remember to cook your pasta at least several minutes less than the pasta box directions call for.  The pasta manufacturers assume Americans prefer their pasta softer.

Don’t be fooled.  Pasta is at its nuttiest and tastiest best when extra firm or al dente.

Another version of Pasta and Eggplant calls for topping it with ample amounts of room temperature Marinara Sauce which every Italian has in the refrigerator and Pecorino Romano Cheese instead of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Yet another incredible version of Pasta and Eggplant is to add large dollops of warmed ricotta AND Marinara Sauce to it,  stirring lightly in the serving dish.

I say try it all three ways . . . this is authentic Pasta and Eggplant at its finest!

Experience the ultimate, the healthiest, Mediterranean Diet Pasta Sauce Recipe of them all – Salsa di Pomodoro Cruda or Raw Tomato Sauce.

I bought beautifully ripe, locally grown, on the vine tomatoes for .99 cents a pound yesterday, so this is a Mediterranean Diet recipe anyone can afford.  It’s also so easy to make you’ll scratch your head and ask why you’ve never tried it before.

As we discussed in a previous blog the most recent scientific consensus is that the Mediterranean diet, full of fresh vegetables, fruit, grains and olive oil, can greatly reduce the risk of disease and lead to a longer, healthier life.

Also, Pasta itself is an essential part of the Mediterranean diet. A recent analysis of The Mediterranean Diet, using the NHS as a basis, concluded that it reduced the risk of heart attack almost 30% and strokes by 13% as compared to conventional diets. Furthermore, study participants whose diets most closely matched the Mediterranean diet, that includes Pasta, were typically very healthy. And had a 39% reduction in combined coronary heart disease and stroke mortality. That’s compared to women whose diets least matched it.  Teresa T. Fung, Sc.D., lead author of the Mediterranean diet study and associate professor at Simmons College and adjunct associate professor in nutrition at Harvard was quoted: “Those are dramatic results.  We found that women whose diets look like the Mediterranean diet are not only less likely to die from heart disease and stroke, but they are less likely to have those diseases.”

Salsa di Pomodoro Cruda / Raw Tomato Sauce is the perfect combination of those elements, and completely uncooked. This particular version is a sublimely delicious Mediterranean diet concoction.

We would make a Salsa Cruda or Raw Sauce, in some shape or form, almost every day during tomato season when I was growing up.  There are dozens of variations of this raw, heavenly Mediterranean diet mixture.  The one described below is one of my favorites.

My father farmed many acres of specialty vegetables, including a half dozen varieties of both heirloom and hybrid trellis tomatoes.  My hands would be so green by the first week in September from tending tomato vines and picking and packing tomatoes all summer that I would be embarrassed to go back to school each fall.

Don’t blink while you’re reading or you’ll miss it.  Here’s how easy this Mediterranean diet recipe is.

Salsa di Pomodoro Cruda – Raw Fresh Tomato Sauce – serves 4

• Ripe Tomatoes – 4 large chopped into small cubes with juices and skin
• Garlic – 4 or 5 medium cloves chopped extra fine
• Basil – two large handfuls of basil leaves, no stems, chopped VERY fine
• Olive Oil – 8 tablespoons of Extra Virgin, preferably a nice dark green oil
• Sea Salt – 1 tablespoon or to taste
• Black Pepper – 1 to 2 tablespoon extra coarsely ground
• Pecorino Romano Cheese – 8 heaping tablespoons, grated
• Spaghetti or Macaroni – 1 lb.

Mix all of these ingredients (except for the pasta, naturally – just checking to see if you’re paying attention) into a large high sided bowl and allow them to marinate while you cook your pasta.

Stir the mixture well so that the tomatoes begin to macerate and watch to see if it thickens.  If it doesn’t, add a bit more olive oil at a time until it does.  A shallow dish will not do for this.

Cook your pasta, until it is extra firm, in well salted water.  The second it is done, drain it well, and throw it into the raw tomato mixture. Then stir or toss like you would a salad, making sure every bit of pasta is covered with the mixture.

Serve immediately with an additional dusting of Pecorino Romano cheese if you like. An extra cold, sparkling white wine goes perfectly with this dish.

Obviously taste has a lot to do with it, but there has to be more to it than that. Something else in our psychology must draw us to Italian food in such great numbers

According to a recent Harris Poll more people in the United States choose Italian food when eating out than any other.   When you subtract fast food from the equation and consider only sit down, menu type restaurants, the percentages are even higher, by far.

My best guess is that we are all programmed by Nature to eat as many things that are good for us as possible. That’s despite the best efforts of the food processing industry to narrow everything we eat down to highly processed corn or soy products.   Italian cuisine lends itself to this anthropological need to eat a large variety of foods in many ways.

In a perfect world it is every cook or chef’s dream to walk out the back door of their kitchen and harvest, with their own hands, all of the ingredients for the meals they prepare.  At one time, even in the U.S. this was a distinct possibility.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the number of farms peaked in 1935 at 7 million.  By 1997 that number had fallen to 1.7 million.  This meant that locally grown, harvested that day food, is fewer and farther between everywhere in the U.S.

The deluge of nutrition information thrown at us every day is incredible.  Just about every newspaper has a food and cooking section touting “healthful” recipes.  And Italian food is among them. We are reminded constantly by email and everyone from Dr. Oz to PBS specials about how important healthy eating is.  That we should be consuming more unprocessed, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, lean meats, monounsaturated fats, nuts, whole grains, and foods rich in anti-oxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids.

What we know as Italian cuisine evolved, beginning in the 4 th century B.C., on the Italian peninsula, which has one of the most perfect growing climates on earth. Consequently, this (Italian food) food does naturally just about everything that most modern scientific evidence suggests we should do to remain as healthy and disease free as possible.  The most recent results of the comprehensive Nurse’s Health Study suggests that The Mediterranean Diet (mostly Italian food) reduces the risk of heart disease and many cancers by up to 30%.

The number of pasta recipes alone that qualify as healthy are staggering.  You can prepare no fat or very low fat pasta, vegetable, fish, or meat dishes and not repeat yourself for a year.  Any vegetable from broccoli to zucchini can be prepared with pasta in a vast array of ways.  But unlike most highly processed low fat foods, that leave you hollow and wanting more, Italian food delivers the goods. Italian dishes such as pasta with broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil or chicken and Ziti with broccoli not only have great flavor but have that “stick to your ribs” satisfaction we all crave.

Another important nutritional aspect of Italian food is olive oil.  The medical world has been telling us now for years that we need to replace saturated or animal fats in our diet with monounsaturated fats like olive oil.  Since olive oil is one of the foundations of Italian food it too is a perfect complement to a healthy diet. It provides both the taste we crave and the right nutrition.

So, is Italian food popular because we love the taste or because those tastes have been genetically programmed into us by Nature?  That question we’ll have to leave up to anthropologists and geneticists.