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).