BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO

I am trying to lay off the dairy for a while. Well until Paulie Gee opens his pizza joint in Greenpoint that is. So why did I chose to make risotto, which is supposed to be a buttery creamy rice dish? Cause I am a damn fool. A damn fool who likes a challenge. I envisioned Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage and Shallots. I also envisioned buttery creaminess. You can't fake the funk with butter, but the butternut squash did a great job of giving the risotto a nice creaminess, while good extra virgin olive oil gave it a nice rich flavor. A truffle oil here would have been perfect. And butter!

I roasted the butternut squash with olive oil salt and pepper. Then I sauteed the shallots and fresh sage in olive oil and added the mashed up squash. I added some nutmeg salt and pepper. Then the risotto. Simmering in a pot was some vegetable stock which I added in ladlefuls as the risotto aborbed most of the liquid. And I kept stirring and stirring.

I kept tasting it as I was stirring and it felt like something was missing. (the butter!) So I started freaking out and adding things. I added a clove of chopped garlic (a giant clove). Cayenne Pepper. Fresh Grated Ginger. Brown Sugar. And lots of salt. More nutmeg. More olive oil. More sage.

In the end this Butternut Squash Risotto was ultra creamy, very garlickey really tasty and dairy-free, but it really could have used some B-U-T-T-E-R! Butter makes everything better.

LOCAL STRING BEAN SALAD

    This salad is the base ingredients for Salade Nicoise, which is Rocco's favorite salad. And its a french salad, although he will claim Nice is Italian. Caught you there, Rocco! You like French things! I will make a proper Salade Nicoise when I have all the ingredients together just to drive Rocco crazier than he already is.

    In the meantime, this colorful string bean salad is a perfect warm day meal. Boil some string beans, red potatoes and onions together for a few minutes, drain them and dress them with olive oil and red wine vinegar salt and pepper. Some fresh herbs and chic peas would be nice, too. Dress the salad while hot because it really absorbs the olive oil and vinegar flavor. Serve warm or cold.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER JOSEF!

BREAD SALAD AND BEET GREENS

    What to do with stale bread? Bread crumbs. Croutons. Wait for it ... Bread Salad! This is my first bread salad and I am delighted with it. It was a lovely day, Angie came over and the bread salad with a side of sauteed beet greens and bellini cocktails made a perfectly light girl's lunch.

    Bread salad, in Italian called panzanella, is a Northern Italian dish, something that I didn't grown up eating probably because down south my ancestors finished their bread like good hearty Sicilians. According to a really interesting website called Food Timeline, "The concept [of panzanella] is ancient, the practice is contemporary ... Why? Tomatoes are a new world food." Riveting.

    Angie was wondering whether it would hold up to eat the next day or get too soggy. I honestly ate it for about 5 days after and it held up really well.

Bread Salad

2-3 cups of cubed day old Italian Bread or Baguette (1 loaf of Italian bread or 1/2 long baguette)

1/2 tsp lime zest

extra virgin olive oil, enough to generous coat the bread

red wine balsamic vinegar to taste

2-3 cloves of garlic chopped

1/2 onion chopped (red onion is probably best)

salt and pepper

1/2 to 1 cucumber, chopped

2-3 vine or plum tomatoes, chopped

handful of basil leaves, torn

few sprigs of fresh oregano

Combine everything but the basil and oregano and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then add the oregano and basil and serve. Other ingredients you can add: capers, peppers, olives, goat cheese, grated cheese ... have fun!

Sauteed Beet Greens

A bunch of beet greens

extra virgin olive oil

1/4 onion sliced thinly

1 clove of garlic sliced

dash of peperoncino

1/4 C. toasted pine nuts

     Dry toast the pine nuts in a pan and set aside. Wash the beet greens thoroughly! They are very sandy and gritty, so rinse them and soak them in water to let the grit fall to the bottom. Repeat at least three times. Sautee garlic and onions in olive oil. Add peperoncino. Add the beet greens and sautee a few minutes then cover and steam until tender. Add the pine nuts.

SPELT PANCAKES WITH WHITE PEACH SAKE REDUCTION

     I am so excited about how these pancakes turned out so light and fluffy with a satisfyingly warm and soft bite and a really wholesome nutty flavor. I wanted to make use the new Whole Wheat Organic Spelt Flour I just bought so I figured I'd just substitute it for regular flour. The Farro in the Herb Farro Salad I made a few posts ago is also known as spelt. I remembered that Grandma had a whole wheat flour recipe called "Dorothy's Pancakes" in her recipe tin so I fished it out. Here is the original recipe. 

    I didn't have wheat germ, so I substituted almond meal, which has a really nice texture and nutty flavor. I used soy milk instead of buttermilk, but the buttermilk really might have taken these up another entire notch! I also added baking soda for the fluff factor and olive oil, just because well do I need to explain? I basically changed the entire recipe, for the good because these are the best pancakes I have ever made and I am sure you can just as easily substitute regular flour for spelt with great results. I also wanted to make use of the one ripe white peach I had, so I made a buttery sake reduction with a bit of cinnamon. 

    I really am finding that food photography for the blog is so difficult because my tendency is to rush through the shots because I am starving and Mike is always pacing around waiting for his daily rations. When its something more vegetable based, he usually stays away but pancakes, forget about it. He was hovering over me playing his guitar and I thought the hunger combined with the strumming was going to give me an aneurism. But the soft warm buttery spelt pancakes calmed my soul.

SPELT PANCAKES WITH PEACH SAKE REDUCTION

1 C. spelt flour

5 TBSP. almond meal

1 TBSP. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 TBSP baking powder

1 egg

1 1/4 C. soy milk

1 TBSP. extra virgin olive oil

Mix everything but don't over mix and let sit for 5 minutes. Cook on a warm griddle until golden on both sides. 

Serve with peach sake reduction.

PEACH SAKE REDUCTION

1-2 ripe white peaches, sliced

2 TSBP butter

2 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP sake

1/2 tsp. vanilla

dash salt

dash cinnamon

In a small saucepan simmer everything on low heat until reduced to a light syrup. Pour hot over warm pancakes.

Read more about why spelt is so good for you at the World's Healthiest Foods website.

PASTA WITH PEAS

This is maybe the simplest pasta dish. It is also a dish you can poach an egg on, like the Zucchini Stew I made a few posts ago. If you try this, it will be a real go to dish because it is fast and most people usually have some peas in the freezer and an onion lying around.

PASTA WITH PEAS

1 onion cut into thick slices

dash of red pepper flakes (optional)

olive oil

1/2 C. vegetable broth or 1 packet of liquid vegetable broth concentrate from Trader Joes or 1 vegetable bouillon cube (all optional, comes out great without it, too)

1 package of frozen peas (petite peas are good)

Enough water to cover peas

salt and pepper

1lb pasta

Sautee the peas and red pepper flakes in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the frozen peas and sautee a few minutes more. Add the water and whatever vegetable broth you have on hand if available. Season with salt and pepper. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve over pasta and garnish with lots of fresh ground black pepper and more fresh olive. This can serve 4 people with some leftovers. Halve the recipe for 2 people.

HERB FARRO SALAD

     Right off Rustichella D'Abruzzo's Whole Farro Cereal Grain package reads, "Farro is recognized as the first cereal grain to enter the human alimentation and dates back to the Latin period. The poet Virgilio even mentions it in the Georgics" (Book 1, Verse 73) referring to it as the "blond farro". It is a very rustic and hardy plant and so does not necessitate the use of either chemical fertilizer or pesticide treatments. Farro is a grain which is strongly coated with gluten, so to obtain a flour further stone milling and cleaning with fresh air ventilation is required." Sounds good to me.

   My brain is in whole food finding mode, after just finishing Michal Pollan's In Defense of Food and this grain is the perfect way to get on track to eating "real" food, as opposed to processed "food-like substances" as described in the book. Farro agrees with all of the rules for defining food. It is something my great great grandmother would recognize as a food, it does not contain ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number and it does not contain high fructose corn syrup. Last the packaging makes no health claims. Another score is that it was not treated with pesticide or herbicide. 

    And farro tastes fantastic, so nutty and gooey, and delicious prepared like a wild rice salad. Just go crazy and throw whatever fresh herbs and veggies you have around. And enjoy it while you are reading In Defense of Food. What? You haven't read it yet? Eat your farro then go to the library and get it. Its a super must read!

HERB & FARRO SALAD

1 lb. Farro cereal

2 big shallots

2 cloves of garlic

1 yellow (or any color) pepper

1 C. grape tomatoes cut in half

chopped fresh parsley

chopped fresh mint 

chopped fresh fennel fronds 

chopped fresh basil

lemon zest

1/2 C. raisins

1/2 C. walnuts (or any nuts, pignola would be great!)

Extra virgin olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

 

    Follow the directions on the package to cook the farro. First you soak it in cold water for about an hour. Then rinse it and put it into a pot and pour in just enough water to cover it. Add salt and olive oil. Bring it to a boil then simmer for about a half an hour uncovered until its soft and all the liquid is absorbed. 

   While the farro is cooking prepare the rest of the ingredients. Roughly chop the veggies and herbs and put everything together in the bottom of a bowl. Then pour the warm farro over it so all the flavors steam together. Zest an entire lemon on top and season with salt, pepper, lots of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, to taste. Enjoy warm or cold. 

VEGAN ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES

I had some vegan friends over and wanted to make some comforting treats. I headed over to 101 Cook Books for some inspiration and found a really simple looking Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe. I opted for Crunchy Almond Butter instead (I guess thats the Sicilian in me), and added some almond meal, plus almond milk (that Rocco brought back from Sicily) and instead of vanilla extract I added almond extract. They came out really moist and chewy, with a really nice almond flavor and the almond milk sweetened them nicely. Mike convinced me to try adding some chocolate chips to a few, but the chocolate took over and drowned out the almond, in my opinion. He agreed, but they were still yummy in an Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie way. Try these and you will not miss the butter or eggs (or the chocolate chips) at all!

VEGAN ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES

2 C. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 C. almond meal

1 C. agave or maple syrup (I used a blend of both from Trader Joe's)

1/2 C. almond milk - sweetened

1/2 tsp. almond extract

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl. In another bowl mix the almond butter, the syrup, the almond milk and the almond extract until combined. Add the flour to this mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the almond meal. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes then drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. (You can grease with cooking spray if you desire.) Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.