A Summer Treat—Pesto

By Patricia Winton

I’m writing this post under duress. Not duress, exactly, but under orders.

There’s a woman in Rome who’s been my student for the past ten years. We meet weekly just to talk, to help keep her English speaking skills honed. Last week, I checked the time just as I rang the bell and was horrified to discover that I was an hour early. When she opened the door, I offered to go away for an hour, but she ushered me into the kitchen. “I’m cooking,” she said and steered me to a chair.

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t cooking. She was preparing pesto. As she stripped the basil

leaves from the stalks and chunked the Parmigiano-Reggiano, I had a ringside seat. We chatted as we do about this and that. When she finished, I got to sample the finished product. And she said to me, “When you put this in your blog, you have to say it’s Olimpia Pallavicino’s recipe—not yours.” And so it is.

Olimpia didn’t measure anything; she just prepared it by instinct. I’ve tried to standardize the recipe, using American measurements (with metric equivalents in parentheses).

Pesto Milanese

2 cups basil leaves, lightly packed. Olimpia used the leaves from three stems.

1/3 cup pine nuts (40 grams) Olimpia stressed that you must use the best pine nuts you can find.

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (45 grams)

1/2 to 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (120-160 ml)

1 clove garlic (optional) Olimpia omitted the garlic.

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Olimpia did not grate the cheese. Instead she added it in chunks. She used a blender, and it took a while for the cheese to be completely pulverized. As a result, the pesto was very smooth.

Olimpia planned to serve the pesto with rice that evening, but for pasta she recommended using fusilli because there are so many nooks and crannies for the pesto to cling to.

Zuppa di Zucca

By Patricia Winton

We’ve been having gray, rainy days of late here in Rome, and my thoughts center on warming soup (zuppa). One of my favorites, pumpkin (zucca) and chick pea (ceci) soup, comes with many variations. It’s one of those dishes that can be made from scratch or cobbled together from canned ingredients. Either way, a little careful seasoning perks up the flavors, and the soup can warm you to your toes.

Traditionally, the soup begins the day before when the ceci are put in a bowl of water to soak. After about twelve hours, they’ve absorbed enough moisture to ensure fairly rapid cooking. Here in Rome another soup reigns on Friday, and market stalls offer bags of pre-soaked ceci each week. Those provide a great short-cut. The ceci go into a pot along with a couple of cloves of garlic, chopped carrot, chopped celery, and a sprig of rosemary. These are simmered until the ceci are almost soft.

In Italy, you buy pumpkin by the slice. The canned variety is never available except at a tony shop at Thanksgiving; you need a second mortgage to buy a can, too. The fresh slice is quite hard to peel, so I usually nuke it a few minutes and scoop out the pulp. The pumpkin joins the ceci, and the simmering resumes until all the veggies are soft. At this point, many people add rice or pasta, but I prefer it plain. I do like a dash of hot pepper, however. At this point, I remove the rosemary and puree the soup with the stick blender or food processor. I serve it forth with a bit of grated Parmesan.

Try this simplified version.

ZUPPA DI ZUCCA E CECI

2 cloves garlic

1 rib of celery

1 carrot

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cans chick peas

1 1/2 cups water

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

1 can pumpkin

pinch of ground red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

grated Parmesan

1. Chop together the garlic, celery, and rosemary.

2. Heat the olive oil in a pot, and add the vegetables. Cook until soft, but not brown.

3. Drain and rinse the chick peas and add them to the vegetables. Pour in the water, cook for about 10 minutes over slow flame.

4. Stir in the pumpkin. Add a bit more water if the mixture seems too thick. Simmer another 5 minutes.

5. Remove the rosemary, and add the red pepper. Taste for seasoning. Since the canned vegetables will contain salt, you may not need more.

6. Serve with grated Parmesan.

NOTE: You can dress this up by adding small pasta, rice, or even tiny shrimp. It’s also good with bits of sausage.

Italian Jam Tart‒Crostata

One of Italy’s favorite desserts, and one that is often made at home, is the crostata. The characteristic crust, the pasta frolla, resembles a butter cookie or shortbread. And to be a true crostata, the dessert must use this pastry dough. In its simplest form, the crostata is filled with jam and topped with a diamond-shaped lattice before baking. This lattice is often made of “ropes” of the pasta frolla.

It’s the quality of both the crust and the jam that can make this dessert something to swoon over or something to drop in the trash. A good crostata from a pastry shop can cost $15 to $20 for a modest-sized one while another of similar proportions can cost only 99 cents at the supermarket. A glance at ingredients reveals the reason for this disparity.

The most common jams used in the crostata are plum, cherry, and apricot, but I’ve had it with other flavors as well. I made some fig-blood orange jam a couple of years ago that was fabulous in a crostata.

And while the pasta frolla filled with jam appears most often on Italian tables, this lovely pastry dough can house pastry cream topped with fresh fruit. In this case, bake the shell empty and fill it after it has baked. To bake, line the dough with oven paper (parchment paper) and fill with dried beans or pie weights to keep the pastry from puffing up too much. The pastry cream recipe in the link makes too much for one crostata, but it freezes well.

You could  make other fillings with fresh ricotta, chocolate, and other ingredients as well. It’s quite a delightful dough and it’s simple to make.

Pasta Frolla

250 grams flour (1 3/4 cups)

1 grams sugar (1/2 cup)

Pinch of salt

125 grams butter (8 tablespoons-one stick in America-plus about a teaspoon more), cut into small pieces

Grated rind of a lemon (organic preferred)

3 egg yolks

The traditional way of making this and other types of pasta is to place the flour and pinch of salt on a bread board, spreading it around with your fingers to make a well in the center. Sprinkle the sugar into the well, then the pieces of butter. Finally add the lemon rind and egg yolks and mix with your fingers until an amalgamation is achieved.

Modern cooks can use the food processor. Put the dry ingredients in first, followed by the lemon rind, butter, and egg yolks. Process until just combined. DO NOT OVER PROCESS.

Form the dough into a ball. If it seems too dry to shape easily, wet your hands under the tap and use these wet hands to introduce moisture to the dough as you shape it into the ball. Do not get it too wet. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. It can be made the day before.

Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick (or even a little more). Line an 8 to 10-inch tart shell (I prefer those with removable bottoms). With this dough, you don’t have to do elaborate crimping of the edges. Just cut it off at the top of the tin.

For a jam crostata, prick the bottom with a fork and spread about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of jam over the surface. Take the remaining dough and roll into ropes about 1/2 centimeter (1/4 inch) in diameter and string over the jam in a diamond pattern. Bake for 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 190 C (375 F).

A Touch of Autumn

            Although the daytime weather is warm enough for women to wear sundresses, there is a little hint of autumn in the early morning air. You notice that fall is coming, too, in the markets. Summer berries have disappeared. A few peaches and nectarines linger, but they seem a bit sad. Luscious grapes lie in great mounds: big pink ones; sweet black ones; smaller, but no less sweet, white ones.

            They can be so sweet that it’s like eating candy. I remember once sitting at a seaside campsite in the south of Italy. My companion had taken the car to do some errands that included buying food. I was puttering around, enjoying the sun.

The only thing I had to eat was a bag of grapes. I ate a couple and turned over in the sand to bake my back. Ohhh. Those grapes were good. I ate a couple more, and turned again. I continued in this mode for a little while, then I just sat up and ate and ate and ate. By the time my companion returned, the grapes were gone.

            Grapes make a good ingredient for cooked dishes, too. I’ve tried various crostade (Italian pies) made with grapes, sometimes paired with other fruit, and lots of cakes as well. The list goes on: sorbetto, strudel, and a bread called schiacciata.

But grapes also go well with meat. Poultry, either duck or chicken, and grapes make a nice combination, and I’ve even seen a recipe for goose liver and grapes. Here is a quick and easy dish that introduces autumn changes to our diet. You might want to try it.

Sausage and Grapes

1 pound Italian sausage

1 pound of white grapes (my original recipe calls for 32 grapes!)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine

Salt

1.     Prick the sausages in several places with the tines of a fork.

2.     Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the sausages and let them brown, turning frequently.

3.     When the sausages are nicely browned, bathe them with the wine. (You understand that I wouldn’t measure the wine, nor would most Italian cooks. Just splash a good spray from the bottle.)

4.     Let the sausages cook for about ten minutes, turning from time to time.

5.     Meanwhile, wash the grapes and separate them from the stem.

6.     Add the grapes to the sausages and cook for another fifteen minutes.

7.     Add salt to taste, if needed.

A Lickety-split Lunch

I’m having one of my favorite lunches today: Bean and Tuna Salad. It’s quick and easy to make. The ingredients are always on my pantry shelf. And I really like the taste. What more can you ask of a dish? It also lends itself to some variations, and measurements don’t have to be precise.

When I first learned to make this dish years ago, the recipe called for cooking the beans from scratch. Well, scratch that. With canned beans, I can put it together in little more than ten minutes. On those days when I have a rumbling stomach at high noon and have made no plans for lunch, I make this lickety-split and can feel virtuous that I’m having a healthy lunch instead of a grilled cheese sandwich or other fatty foods.

The standard bean for this salad is cannellini, but you can choose another type if you wish. Italians tend to prefer dark tuna, so I make this dish made that kind, but you could use white tuna if you really like it instead. I use tuna packed in olive oil, but again, you can save some calories by choosing the type packed in water. 

The traditional recipe calls for red onion, which I favor, but you can use fresh spring onions, basic yellow or white as well. I think there’s enough salt on the canned beans, but you may add a bit if you think the salad needs some.

Pour something to drink and eat a piece of fruit. The perfect lunch.

Tuna Bean Salad

1 small red onion, chopped

1 15-ounce can cannellini beans

1 6-ounce can tuna

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 cup cherry or other small tomatoes, quartered

Black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil, to taste

Optional: capers (about 2 tablespoons), balsamic vinegar, black olives, salad greens, chopped basil.

1. Chop the onion first and put in a cup of cold water while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. Drain the beans and rinse under cold running water. Drain and place in a bowl.
3. Drain the liquid (either oil or water) from the tuna and add it to the bowl.
4. Drain the onion and add to the salad.
5. Add the tomatoes, parsley and black pepper. Pour over oil to taste and mix.
6. And it’s ready.

Variations: Add some chopped black olives and/or capers. Mix basil with the tomatoes before adding them. Add a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar with the oil. Arrange salad greens on serving plates and spoon on the salad.