The season for soups

So, suddenly, it is December.  The Christmas festivities have already started here and there is a hectic feel to every day life.  At this time of year I try (and often fail!) to make sure that there is always something to hand to provide a quick meal as we all rush around, so soups are perfect.  With ingredients like winter squash, cabbage and 'cime di rapa' bitter greens in the weekly veg bag, there is plenty to make into some warming soups.

Squash, cabbage and misto brodo

In recent weeks our vegetable delivery has included a bundle of 'misto brodo' - carrot, celery, onion and parsley.  While all of these can be finely diced and used as the 'soffritto' base for many Italian recipes (in the same way that many British recipes start with 'fry a chopped onion', most Italian ones start with the 'soffritto'), they are also the basis for making a 'brodo' or 'broth' for soups. It is very common to have brodo with just the addition of some small, shaped pasta ('pastina'), tortellini or small ravioli.  You can also just make the brodo then freeze it to use as a base for other soups.

At its simplest, a 'brodo vegetale' vegetable broth can be made by adding the coarsely chopped  'misto brodo' vegetables and parsley to around 2 litres of water in a large pan or stock pot with salt and pepper. In addition to this you could add any combination of large chunks of tomato, leek, courgette or greens (not the bitter type) if you want to, along with a few peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves and some salt.  Leave everything to simmer and bubble away for at least 2 hours then strain, taste and reduce further if you want a stronger stock or flavour.

A very traditional meat-based 'brodo' for cooking tortellini in, for example, would see the addition of chicken bones or a joint of chicken still on the bone (although the carcass from a roasted chicken is great for this!) and a piece of stewing beef or shin of beef on the bone thrown into the stock pot alongside the vegetables. You can ask the butcher for 'carne per fare il brodo' for an appropriate cut! This gives a far richer 'brodo di carne', perfect for the addition of tortellini or ravioli served with a smattering of parmesan cheese. This is a very traditional first course for Italian festive meals at Christmas and New Year!

Other ideas for soups...

Minestrone - chop or cube into small pieces the 'misto brodo' vegetables along with a variety of what you have available at home, eg squash or pumpkin, shredded cabbage or other mild greens, carrots, potatoes, courgettes, tomatoes, french beans, peas.  Add all of these to simmering stock of your choice, then leave to cook uncovered for around an hour.  Season as required.  At this stage you can add small pasta shapes or snapped lengths of spaghetti and let this cook in the soup.  You could also add cooked beans (eg borlotti) at this point for a heartier soup.  Minestrone is delicious served with a generous dollop of pesto.

Squash or Pumpkin - add lightly sauteed ingredients to stock of your choice, then blend, these are a couple of soup combinations that work well:
- with garlic, mixed herbs, red onion, red lentils
- previously roasted with chili powder or paprika and garlic, add minced ginger to the stock

A great recipe for a herbed squash soup with parmesan croutons from Jamie Oliver is here:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/superb-squash-soup-with-the-best-parmesan-croutons/#twXYvTPe0pyBo8JQ.97

Cabbage
Another recipe from the Jamie Oliver website, submitted by a contributor, is for a cabbage, cannellini bean and bacon soup (you can use cubed pancetta):
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/member-recipes/recipe-detail/2047/#SwvTxV0Zh54k8iAD.97

For more ideas for cabbage, there are some great ones here including roasted cabbage and a variety of 'slaw' side dishes:
http://www.marthastewart.com/1109578/cabbage-recipes

Cime di Rapa
For a cime di rapa, potato and bean soup:

Boil the trimmed greens (remove stalks so you are left with the leafy and 'broccoli' type parts) for about 10 minutes. In a separate pot, sweat some potatoes with a finely chopped onion until softened, adding garlic if you would like to, then some sliced chilli to taste (or you can leave this out). If you are using frozen or fresh beans, these need to be cooked until they are soft, or you can use tinned cooked beans - cannellini work really well here, using a 400g tin as an idea of quantity. Add the greens and half of the beans to the potatoes with enough stock to cover well.  Simmer for 5 minutes and season  to taste.  Remove from the heat, blend to a smooth soup then add the remaining beans, heating through again if necessary. Serve with a swirl of good extra virgin olive oil and crusty bread.

The recipe for a very hearty sausage and cime di rapa soup is here:
http://www.foodidude.com/foodidudes-kitchen/zuppa-di-broccoli-di-rapa-broccoli-rabe-soup

Winter salads and plentiful apples...

Autumn is definitely upon us, later than we are used to 'back home' but we are feeling the first of the cold weather just as we come to the end of November.  This week's bag has given us plentiful greens in the shape of broccoli, lettuce (lattuga), swiss chard (bietole) and escarole (scarola).  Some recipe ideas for these, from Italy and the UK, have been shared in previous posts, all of them giving you the possibility of cooking up some warming, wholesome dishes!

As well as cooking escarole, it is wonderful in winter salads, to serve alongside roasted or grilled meats and fish, or as a starter. Here are ideas for some:

• Toast a generous handful of walnuts, tear up the washed escarole leaves, thinly slice a small red onion, shave some parmesan and make a dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Toss all the ingredients together with the dressing.
• Mix the torn leaves with a white wine vinegar, dijon mustard and olive oil dressing, seasoning to taste.  Crumble in blue cheese such as gorgonzola or roquefort. Take a firm but ripe pear, peel, core, halve and cut into thin slices, then add this to the salad with either toasted walnuts, pecans or croutons, or any combination of these.  Toss together and serve.  
• Feta cheese can also work well in these recipes, as can the addition of some crisped pancetta or streaky bacon.

'Scarola' is also used widely in local recipes here in Naples and southern Italy.

• In a bean soup: http://www.scordo.com/…/…/escarole-and-bean-soup-recipe.html
• In a 'pie' using bread or pizza dough: http://memoriediangelina.com/…/pizza-di-scarola-escarole-…/…
• As a side dish or antipasto: http://www.grouprecipes.com/…/scarola-tiepida-con-uvetta-e-…

The small, red 'melannurca' and delicious organic apples

Apples have been a talking point this week, as we have been discovering the 'mela annurca' (also knows as 'la melannurca campana'), a small, red apple grown in the Campania region and which has 'IGP' (protected geographical provenance) status.  It reminded some of apples they had eaten straight from the tree in their childhood and it has a distinctive taste, small size and many claims to health-giving benefits!  We have had wonderful, organic apples in the past few weeks, so here are some recipe ideas shared within the community and a few more (see also the previous blog post with Italian Apple Cake recipes).

• With thanks to Emma Greenhill, here is the 'Best Ever Apple Crumble' recipe from Delia Smith http://www.deliaonline.com/home/Print-Recipe.html?PID=5900
• Apple Snow is a lovely dessert, this 'luxury' version uses cream: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/applesnow_66346  and this one doesn't: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/10449887/Apple-snow-recipe.html
• For a simple apple sauce that you can freeze and serve with roast pork http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/applesauce_1310
• If you are feeling festive, here is an apple-based Christmas Chutney recipe from Nigella Lawson http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/christmas-chutney
• Assia Miale Colturi shared an Italian Apple Pie recipe: 

You will need 200g brown sugar, 350g plain flour, 3 eggs, 150ml of flavourless oil, 125g plain yoghurt, 16g sachet of 'Pane degli Angeli' style dried yeast for cakes, 5 or 6 small apples, a tsp of cinnamon and a lemon.  

Thinly slice the apples, place in a bowl with the lemon juice and some extra sugar. In another bowl, add all the other ingredients apart from the yeast and mix well.  Dissolve the yeast with a small amount of milk then add to the rest of the ingredients. Add the apples and cinnamon, give it all a final mix then put the mix into a greased and floured round baking tin and bake for 30 or 40 minutes at 180/200 degrees depending on your oven.

Comfort Food for the Family...

As the sunny days are turning into slightly chillier nights, it feels like time to be thinking about wholesome and nourishing comfort food. This week's wonderful delivery of vegetables brought some fantastic ingredients for a few Italian autumn treats.  We have looked at ideas for 'scarole' (escarole greens) and 'zucca' (squash) in previous blog posts, but this week we had 'cime di rape' (turnip top greens - nothing goes to waste here!) and more delicious apples.  Both of these immediately made me think of a couple of favourite recipes, a pasta dish and a traditional cake...

'Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa' is a well-known pasta dish from Puglia, using orecchiette pasta named after the 'little ears' they are meant to resemble.  While this is traditionally made with orecchiette, you can,of course, use other pasta that you already have at home, such as penne or fusilli.  Orecchiette are traditionally made with 'semola di grano duro', which is semolina flour, readily found in Italian food stores and delis.  You can make your own (recipe and tutorial here: http://www.marthastewart.com/925955/step-step-orechiette ) or buy them as fresh or dried pasta.  Any version will do, it just depends on how much of a food snob you want to be!

Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa (adapted from 'Bocca Cookbook', Bloomsbury 2011)

500g cime di rapa
300g fresh orecchiette or 250g dried
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed dried chili flakes
freshly grated Pecorino cheese to serve (optional, or use parmesan if that is what you have)

This recipe serves 4 as a starter and 2 as a main, but increase according to numbers and appetites!

-Prepare the cime di rapa: pick the leaves off the stem, leave any under 10cm whole, whilst larger ones should have the tough midrib removed. Rinse well.
- Set a large pan of salted water on to boil and then add the greens, cooking for around 10 minutes until fully tender with no crunch to them (keep checking after about 8 minutes).
- You can boil another pan of salted water simultaneously for the pasta, which will probably cook in the time it will take you to make the cime di rapa sauce.  Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions, probably 4 to 5 minutes if fresh and twice that time if dried.
- Drain the greens thoroughly in a colander while you heat a frying pan over a medium heat, adding the garlic and oil, frying until the garlic is starting to colour. Add the chilli, then a few seconds later the drained cime di rapa and mix it in to infuse the greens with the flavours.
- Drain the pasta, saving a few tablespoons of the pasta water.
- Add the pasta to the pan of cime di rapa and saute the pasta and greens together, seasoning with salt and pepper, then adding a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.  Cook together for a minute, and serve with the grated pecorino (or parmesan) if you wish.

For other 'cime di rapa' ideas:
Braised with chilli - http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/recipe/braised-cime-di-rapa-with-chilli-20111018-29wqn.html
Served with parmesan - http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2011/11/cime-di-rapa-al-parmigiano.html

Italian Apple Cake - Torta di Mele

Different to English apple cakes, this really is something to try out now that all the gorgeous new season apples are on their way to us.  Here are a few recipes to choose from:

The Nigella Lawson recipe:
http://www.muffinandcoffee.com/torta-di-mele-italian-apple-cake/

A recipe by Anna del Conte, Italian food writer of great note, using olive oil:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/apple-cake-anna-del-conte-51712411

A version from Tuscany, with pine nuts:
http://www.organictuscany.org/recipes/torta-di-mele/

Autumn flavours southern Italian style...

This week's veg bag has arrived during a very sunny start to November, much welcomed by those of us who ventured to more northerly climates over the half-term holidays!  Two ingredients are very typical of southern italian households, friarielli (a type of bitter broccoli) and cachi (persimmons or sharon fruit).

Friarielli are a bitter broccoli, known in the US as 'broccoli rabe'.  They are delicious but can be an acquired taste. To cook them, trim the tougher, lengthier stalks so that you are left with tender, leafy greens then simply boil until soft to the bite and drain thoroughly.  The traditional, local way to eat them is to warm up some olive oil, thinly sliced garlic and chili flakes then to toss the friarielli in this mixture, seasoning with salt to taste.  Even more traditional is the cooking method of preparing the oil mixture with plentiful olive oil, then to cook the broccoli in the oil until tender.  A recipe for this method  is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/dining/292mrex.html?_r=0


Persimmons in particular have always reminded me of Italian Autumn and my parents used to seek them out in the international markets in London. Once ripe, they can quite simply be eaten as an everyday fruit (just leave them in the fruit bowl for a few days to ripen further). Wash them thoroughly, remove the stem, cut a small cross into the top of the fruit then try to peel back the thin skin with a sharp knife (or your fingers when they are ripe) and eat the flesh inside. You can also just cut it into wedges and while the skin is edible, it can be very bitter and leave a 'fuzzy' feeling in your mouth!  The other method is to cut off the top and scoop out the flesh with a teaspoon, just as if you were eating a boiled egg.

Some ideas for persimmon recipes, such as a starter with bresaola (cured beef); roasted with pork; in salads; grilled as a dessert; in a white chocolate bread pudding or steamed pudding, can be found here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/275469/persimmon-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide

You can also use persimmons to make a pickle, for salads, with mascarpone and cured ham or with cheese.  This recipe is from "The Modern Preserver" (Vintage Books, 2015):

Ingredients:
4 persimmons
240ml white wine vinegar
120ml rice vinegar
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
a pinch of saffron strands
1 tbsp of sea salt

These quantities make 3-4 250ml jars

Method:
Top and tail the persimmons and peel off the skins. Slice into 1cm-thick discs and then cut each into 6 wedges.
Put the rest of the indgredients into a medium, stainless steel pan and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt.
Pack the persimmon wedges into warm, dry sterilised jars then pour in the warm brine to fill to about 5mm below the rim.
Gently tap out any air bubble and top up with more brine if necessary.
Seal, leave to cool and store in the fridge.
Keep in a cool, dark cupboard for 3-5 days before opening.  Keeps for up to 6 months unopened and needs to be refrigerated and eaten within 4 weeks once opened.

Green Goodness

Chard, courgettes and fennel

This week’s organic vegetable selection brought some fantastic shades of green to us in the shape of ‘bietole’ (swiss chard), ‘finocchio’ (fennel) and courgettes.  Fennel is a fantastic vegetable that can be used in many ways.  It is great raw, particularly in the last of the hot weather, just discarding any outer sections that look damaged and trimming the root and the fronds.  As a very simple snack or pre-dinner nibble, it can be sliced vertically then into manageable pieces (for eating with fingers!), spread out on a plate and given a generous drizzle of great olive oil, some freshly-squeezed lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt. If it is sliced quite thinly (or with a mandolin slicer if you have one), you can make a very simple salad of raw fennel, orange segments, olive oil, salt and pepper. Delicious as a side dish or piled onto bruschette! This is really good with smoked fish, too.  The green fronds on top of the fennel are fantastic chopped up and added to a bean salad, made with cooked beans such as cannellini, borlotti or haricot, some olive oil, seasoning and some lemon juice, adding pieces of fennel if you wish.

You can also roast fennel, very simply by slicing it or cutting it into chunks and tossing with oil and seasoning then roasting in a hot oven, alone or as part of a tray of mixed vegetables with herbs of your choice.  Braised fennel is delicious and can be cooked on the hob or in the oven.  Use a pan or roasting tin large and deep enough to take layers of thickly sliced fennel. Season, drizzle with olive oil, then add vegetable or chicken stock, a good glug of white wine if you want to, so that the fennel slices are well covered.  Leave to simmer on the hob or to cook in a medium hot oven, keeping an eye out to make sure that the liquid reduces right down but that the fennel doesn’t burn. It can be used to make a quick pasta sauce, cooking off some finely chopped onion and fennel in olive oil, adding a heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds, tomato puree, then a splash of wine if you have it.  When it is all tender, add some crumbled Italian sausage meat (without the skin), cook it through, then add chopped tomatoes and season to taste. 

Tips on how to prepare and cut fennel, with photos, are coming up, so look out for them! (Thank you Emma Greenhill!)

If you are stuck for what to do with your courgettes, try them finely sliced and raw in a salad with olive oil, lemon, seasoning and some dried chili flakes, adding mint or basil to taste.  Cooked beans go well in this too, or you can mix it all into some couscous for a more substantial salad.  Courgettes also work really well in cakes, such as this courgette and lemon loaf cake shared on the Clandestine Cake Club website: http://clandestinecakeclub.co.uk/2011/09/26/courgette-lemon-cake/?no_frame=1

There are some great recipes for swiss chard from Riverford Organic Farms that I have used back home in the UK as they were a common feature in our weekly veg box and I have given links to these below.  Otherwise, use it as you would spinach, or mix it up with spinach or other greens. You can very simply boil or steam, season and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, or mix in some butter, then top with some grated parmesan for a very simple side dish.  Trim just the ends of the white stalks, the rest should become very tender on cooking.

Here are the Riverford recipe links:

chard and anchovy gratin (also great without the anchovies): http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/swiss-chard-and-anchovy-gratin

chard and onion tart (you can buy the pastry!):http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/swiss-chard-and-onion-tart

     chard and ‘bacon’ (use pancetta) pasta sauce, very simple and creamy:

http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/chard-bacon-pasta-sauce

chard, carrot and chickpeas to have as a side dish for meat or

fish (you can use tinned chick peas – I’m making this today to go with some spiced grilled lamb):

http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/chickpeas-with-carrots-swiss-chard

Zucca and other 'veg bag' inspiration...

My local community is very lucky to be part of an organic 'veg bag' scheme which has given us all some challenges in using up an abundance of lovely, seasonal fruit and vegetables.  Today's bag is starting to give us a hint of autumn approaching, even if the heat here in Naples isn't!

'Zucca' is a common Italian squash, somewhere between pumpkin and butternut with a very distinctive but fairly mild flavour. Apart from making soup or roasting as a side dish, you can make this into a pasta sauce.  In Campania, a sauce made from ‘zucca’ with shellfish added is very common with a type of pasta called ‘paccheri’, but you can use any type you like.  Pureed roasted squash can also be added to a plain risotto half way through cooking, or even mixed into a béchamel/white sauce to get some extra vegetables disguised for fussy children like mine!

To make a pasta sauce, start by boiling or steaming the squash until very soft, then puree and season it.  Soften some finely chopped onion or shallot in good olive oil.  If you are adding sausage, use some Italian style sausage meat (just split a couple of sausages open and remove the meat!) and fry it off once the onion has softened.  You can add a splash of white wine and let it cook off. Add the pureed squash, check for seasoning then toss your cooked pasta into the sauce, adding parmesan to taste as you do so.  For a seafood version, you just create a sauce without adding anything, then toss in some cooked or sauteed small prawns (gamberetti) or clams (vongole).

Other ideas for other ingredients:

Peppers – roast these in wide strips, in olive oil, then toss with ripped mint leaves and capers (or basil leaves and garlic), we had these often on a recent trip to Puglia as a side dish or antipasto, served at room temperature

Aubergines and celery leaves – make a Sicilian Caponata to use these up, a really good recipe is here: http://www.antonio-carluccio.com/Caponata

Plums – you could use some of these in a ‘streusel’ cake, adapting this recipe, which works really well for any stone fruit: http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/nectarine-streusel-coffee-cake/

Peaches – if you haven’t tried it already, do what my ‘Nonno’ and many southern Italians do. Slice some peaches, put them into a jug, add sugar if you want to, pour over some ‘smooth’ red or even white wine, chill. Eat the peaches for dessert and drink the wine! Little cantuccini biscuits on the side for dunking into the wine while eating the peaches an optional extra but good…

Beautiful Borlotti

A trip to Vomero food market yesterday brought the welcome surprise of one of my favourite Italian fresh ingredients, borlotti beans.  I have always associated these with my Italian family, where they are grown in gardens, cooked in season and preserved or frozen for the winter months.  My mother always used to set aside bags of them in her deep freeze as she knew how difficult they were to come by fresh in England,  and was known to bring them over to us in the UK on more than one occasion - gently defrosting en route!  While she often makes 'pasta e fagioli' with them, I prefer them as a side dish.  Just gently soften finely chopped onion and garlic in good olive oil then add some fresh chopped ripe tomatoes.  Boil the podded beans separately for about 20 minutes (when they lose their beauty and turn a dull light brown), adding a bay leaf or bouquet garni if you wish, then drain and add to the olive oil mixture, seasoning to taste.  Lovely warm, at room temperature or even in a salad with big flakes of good quality tuna fillets (the type you get in jars with olive oil).