I think that good food should be simple :: semplice. You don’t need to complicate your life to eat well. Just follow this one basic rule: buy fresh wholesome ingredients based on the season.
Here in Italy, I’m picking the last tomatoes off the vine and clearing out the basil pots to make homemade pesto to freeze. This is my farewell recipe to summer before making way for Continue Reading
Last weekend I was invited to Umbria (a region in central Italy) along with six other wine, food, and travel bloggers, to participate in a three day educational tour. You can read about this incredible experience and get some travel tips :: consigli di viaggio from my previous post about Umbria. Now, let’s talk about a delicious traditional dish I tried called Scafata. Oh my, if you haven’t tried this Italian stew with fava beans :: fave you are in for a treat!
Fava beans, or broad beans as they are often called, are the oldest known beans. Like lentils, they are used in various European and Mediterranean dishes. Fava beans grow in a soft fuzzy pod :: baccello, but are much larger than peas. In France and America it is custom to peel the transparent skin off the bean, but here in Italy, we just shuck them from the pod and eat them raw, or cook them in various dishes.
Fava beans are the main players in this dish. From here you can toss in a variety of seasonal vegetables. I’ve used a sweet Tropea onion, freshly shelled peas and a large bunch of Swiss chard :: bietole. Asparagus would work well, which I unfortunately didn’t have on hand.
Scafata is good when eaten warm right after being cooked, but like many great Italian dishes, it becomes absolutely darn right mouthwatering when made a day or two ahead and eaten cold or heated up. The traditional recipe doesn’t call for cheese :: formaggio, but Mr. Italicano tried it with grated Parmesan as well as a spoonful of Burrata, which were also great variations.
It’s a sunny :: soleggiante February Monday morning in Rome, but I am in an over air-conditioned Italian TV studio. I find my hands shaking and my stomach fluttering with butterflies as my lips tremble in an awkward, unnatural smile towards the various cameras pointing at my caked on make-up face. Why am I so nervous to return on the La Prova del Cuoco? I was on this live Italian TV show for an entire week in September. Get it together, Cindy. I tell myself.
I woke up at 4:30a.m. with a startling nightmare: I was watching myself on stage, my mouth was opening but no words in Italian would flow out. I’m still tired even after having drunk three espressos; that wasn’t the best idea, I feel jittery :: agitata. Stay calm, Cindy. Stay calm and breath. The show is about to start. I squint my eyes at the bright lights and try to hold my lips wide so they don’t noticeably shake. My eyes are becoming irritated—too much eyeliner and mascara. I hate TV make-up. All of Italy is about to watch me, criticize my thick American accent and grammatical mistakes and judge my every move as well as my recipe choice. Oh, God. Why did I choose to make Salmon Wraps with Kale Chips? They’re absolutely delicious…but no match for my competitor’s dish…mouthwatering Phad Thai. I would vote for her dish….I love Phad Thai. I mean really really love Phad Thai. It’s the first thing I eat when I go back to America to visit family and friends. Oh man, I’m going to get schooled. I place my hands on the counter, trying to appear relaxed as I wait for Antonella Clerici, one of Italy’s most famous presenters, to introduce me to the home audience.
My knees begin to shake :: tremare. I already know I’ve lost. Don’t be melodramatic, Cindy. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses, you’re on the most popular Italian television cooking show! That in itself is quite an accomplishment that most new bloggers don’t get. My inner positive voice says trying to cheer me up, but it’s a little too late; I’ve lost my focus. All the questions and key phrases I rehearsed the days before disappear. All of my reminders of talking slow, giving short responses and communicating interesting information get disregarded like streamers after a party—stuffed in bag and thrown in the trash, never to be seen again.
So I do what I do best when I’m nervous: talk too much and extremely fast. Actually, I do that normally; I am quite the chatterbox :: chiacchierona. Yet, this time on TV, it wasn’t just chatterbox Cindy, but turbo speed Cindy….in Italian. Oh dear. Poor poor home audience, I feel sorry for you.
Long story short: I didn’t do my best, I lost the competition, and I self pitied myself for half a day lounging around the house in pajamas eating Nutella on toast and watching funny American sitcoms; then I got over it. Don’t get me wrong, losing sucks; but, that wasn’t the cause for my downer mood. Losing is part of the game, any former athlete knows this. The thing that stings my pride is that I know that I didn’t do my best. Regardless if the judges :: giudici liked my recipe, I know I could have expressed myself better in Italian on live TV. On a positive note, I now know what to work on, and this experience will only make me a better on-camera presenter.
Plus, I can’t complain, there were many other exceptional things that came out of the day: I met two amazing and talented bloggers, Vatinee Suvimol, my competitor and blogger at A Thai Pianist and Natalia Cattelani, one of the judges and blogger at Tempo di Cottura; I got to cook again with the sensational Antonella Clerici; I worked with the wonderful staff on the show (thank you Valeria and Nicoletta) and I got to hang out with my two girlfriends photographer Michelle Aschbacher and life style blogger Sara White who are expats like me and live in Rome. Talking of amazing gals, Vatinee also introduced me to an incredible group of new girlfriends, Le Bloggalline, a group of over 400 women food bloggers who got each others backs. I am still overwhelmed with gratitude on all of the sweet and kind messages many of them left me. Women are the salt of the earth. A big thanks to everyone who voted and supported me.
Although, these salmon wraps didn’t win on La Prova del Cuoco, they are still winners in my mind. This recipe showcases a lighter version of some of my favorite Pacific Northwest flavors: salmon and tartar sauce. I despise mayonnaise so I’ve lightened it up by using greek yogurt. Sitting on a bed of spinach and cuddled by some avocado slices is a delicious herb-rubbed salmon topped with crunchy almond slivers for a delicious and satisfying good ol’ American wrap.
Every find yourself looking for an appetizer that is elegant to present but takes just minutes to prepare? Well, look no further, stuffed figs with balsamic vinegar to the rescue!
Figs are such an elegant fruit. They remind me of avocados; they give a dish an instant gourmet-factor. These tear drop beauties are the star of many recipes: slice them up and toss them on a pizza along with some gorgonzola cheese, load them in a caramelized onion and asiago panino, or add them to a fresh mozzarella salad. And, then of course you can use them for salsas, jams, pies and marinades—oh, how I love you figs and your versatility.
I like to use figs as edible containers for creamy Italian cheeses like ricotta, stracciatella and goat cheese. Of course, good balsamic vinegar drizzled on top is a natural companion. If you like a little crunch, you can also add a few caramelized walnuts.
One of the best parts about this recipe is how you can put it together in just a few minutes. I love having a few recipes up my sleeves for unexpected guests. Bring out these stuffed figs on a platter with a bottle of good red wine and your friends will start calling you the next Martha Stewart. *Although, beware…that just may mean you’ll have more people dropping by in the future!*
If you have never tried roasting tomatoes, you are in for a delicious surprise. This recipe for paccheri with roasted tomatoes and ricotta is one you won’t want to miss.
In the States, I have vivid memories of buying plump red tomatoes that were picture-perfect but tasted like…well, nothing. I remember my continued disappointment! Of course, if I took some from my mother’s garden or hit the farmers market, I usually had better luck, but, let’s face it—these days it’s sometimes hard to find a tomato that tastes like a tomato. Even in Italy, where I usually do find juicy and flavorful tomatoes, sometimes I find some duds. In these cases, I have a natural remedy: roast them. If you never have roasted tomatoes, you are in for a delicious treat. Roasted tomatoes concentrate the tomato taste leaving them bursting with robust flavors. They makes every dish pop and are the star in this recipe for paccheri with roasted tomatoes and ricotta.
Ever since I have discovered roasting tomatoes, I have found myself adding them to a variety of dishes because they are an easy and healthy option to add flavor to most savory dishes. I used them as the base in this delicious roasted tomato and basil soup and as a topping for these double baked kale potatoes and breakfast bruschetta. In this roasted tomato and ricotta paccheri recipe I pureed them so they blended perfectly with the ricotta cheese then used the rest to line a dish with a few spoonfuls of sauce.
Roasting tomatoes and then freezing them is a great way to preserve tomatoes for use in the fall and winter months when tomatoes are out of season. They will last for about 4-5 days in the refrigerator and up to 6 months in the freezer. I like to freeze them in small portions and whip out a bag at a time to make a quick pasta sauce or bruschetta with fresh herbs. There are some recipes that say to roast tomatoes at a low temperature for up to 2 hours; however, I’ve found that roasting tomatoes for around 40-50 minutes at a higher temperature is just as sufficient to draw out their intense caramelized flavors. (Sometimes, I even roast them for less time if I am in a hurry. Even at the 20-30 mark, they still have a strong flavor.)
