This Maple Almond Sole with Blueberry Compote is the perfect New Year’s recipe for an easy and elegant dinner at home with friends.
About 10 years ago my oldest brother Cliff was approached at a supermarket :: supermercato in New York by a cameramen who was asking shoppers for their favorite recipes. Cliff recounted the sole almondine recipe that our mom often cooked and a few weeks later was invited on Joan Lunden’s cooking show to demonstrate how to prepare the recipe.
When I was preparing recipes for my 5 day national T.V. appearance on the Italian cooking showLa Prova del Cuoco, I immediately thought about this sole almondine recipe which is made with flour, butter, heavy cream :: panna, almonds and lemon. I loved that recipe growing up, although when I tested it in my own kitchen I was surprised at how much my taste buds have changed over the past few years as I’ve adopted more of a healthier and lighter approach to cooking, and for me the butter and cream was too heavy for such a delicate fish.
Therefore, I decided to lighten up the original recipe by topping the fish with a blueberry compote instead of cream and butter and I enhanced the flavors by using maple syrup and cinnamon :: cannella. It may sound like quite an unusual combination for fish, but the end result was fantastic. Both Mr. Italicano and I couldn’t stop raving on how flavorful and delicious this maple almond sole with blueberry compote was. Thanks to my mother-in-law who is the atypical Italian cook and likes to experiment with various ingredients, I am lucky to have an Italian husband who is open to unique recipes…just as long as I don’t disturb him while he eats!
This Maple Almond Sole with Blueberry Compote is the perfect New Year’s recipe for an easy and elegant dinner at home with friends.
Serves: 2
Ingredients
For the blueberry compote:
1 cup (168g) blueberries, mashed
4 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon cornstarch
8 spoonfuls of water
2 dashes of cinnamon
2 pinches of lemon zest, freshly grated
For the sole:
2 soles cleaned, without skin (or 4 fillets)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Whole wheat flour, as needed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons (20g) almonds, slivered
Instructions
In a small saucepan, cook the blueberries, honey, cornstarch, water, cinnamon and lemon zest over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
In the meantime, salt and pepper the fish then dip both sides into the maple syrup then the whole wheat flour. Add the extra virgin olive oil to a medium skillet and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side.
During the last 5 minutes, add the almonds slivers to the side of the pan or another small skillet and cook until slightly toasted, stirring often.
Remove from the heat and top with the blueberry mixture and toasted almonds.
These spinach balls are the perfect no fuss side dish for your upcoming holiday gatherings or for a weekday dinner when you want something nutritious in a matter of minutes.
This time of year in Italy the outdoor farmer’s market always has crates piled high with bright green spinach leaves. Because they wilt down to nothing, I always buy about 2 kilos (4.4 pounds). If you are rushed for time, you can definitely buy the prepackaged washed spinach, but I find cleaning spinach a relaxing affair—just like shelling peas or shucking corn :: mais. Even though my agenda is filled with countless things to do, I don’t want to forget my upbringing and the feeling of doing things by hand.
It’s important to clean the spinach well. I often fill up my sink with water and give the spinach a good clean soak, then empty the water with the main dirt residue. I then fill the sinks up again and add some baking soda. My mom always washed her vegetables from the garden with just plain tap water, and that’s what the FDA recommends as well; however, since living in Italy, almost every Italian cook I’ve come across washes his vegetables with bicarbonato :: baking soda. The research I’ve done online leaves me with inconclusive data as to whether this step is truly necessary. What is your opinion on the use of baking soda to wash vegetables?
Spinach :: spinaci is considered to be one of the most nutrient-dense foods and has advantages of being eaten both raw and cooked. In America, I often ate raw spinach salads topped with caramelized pecans, pears and shaved pecorino cheese. In Italy, I hardly see people eat raw spinach. What is typical here are cooked spinach balls. If you go to any fruit and vegetable store, they usually have spinach balls for sale which are simply steamed, sautéed or boiled then rolled together in a ball.
Typically these balls are just made with cooked spinach and are eaten plain with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. I like to give them a bit more flavor by adding garlic, green onions :: cipollotti, spices and cheese.
Using a chive stem isn’t necessary to keep the balls intact, but I like the presentation; it reminds me of a little personal present :: regalo ready to be unwrapped. What a great little side dish to fit in with the holiday spirit.
These spinach balls are the perfect no fuss side dish for your upcoming holiday gatherings or for an weekday dinner when you want something nutritious in a matter of minutes.
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
4.5 pounds fresh picked spinach or prepackaged spinach
3 dashes of ground nutmeg
5 cloves
3 dashes of dried rosemary
3 dashes of dried oregano
3 pinches of salt
2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Pluck off the spinach roots and wash the spinach at least 3-4 times in cool water. Add baking soda if desired during the 3rd soak. Use a salad spinner to thoroughly dry the spinach leaves.
In a large skillet, add the extra virgin olive oil and sauté the garlic and green onions for 1-2 minutes over medium low heat. Add the spinach and cover until slightly wilted. You may need to add the spinach in batches if your skillet isn’t large enough to hold all the leaves at once. Just wait 30 seconds until the leaves of the first batch have wilted and add more spinach. Repeat if necessary.
Add the nutmeg, cloves, rosemary, oregano, salt and Parmesan cheese. Continue to cook for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and any liquid has evaporated. Serve warm in a bowl or wait until cool and roll into balls and serve cold. They are a great side dish that can be made a day in advance, and reheated before serving or served cold.
For me, no Christmas would be complete without a layer of freshly fallen snow, houses adorned in twinkling lights, a tree decorated to the brim and these freshly baked whole wheat ginger snaps.
The traditional recipe calls for white sugar and white flour. I replaced most of the white sugar with brown sugar and substituted all of the white flour for whole wheat flour. Using whole wheat flour in some cookie recipes leaves the cookie dense and hard. Not in this case at all. In fact, I couldn’t even tell that a substitution had been made. These whole wheat ginger snaps were slightly crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside and burst with delicious Christmas time spiced flavors.
I made these cookies twice: the first time without chilling the dough and the second time I had placed the dough in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour. I highly recommend chilling your dough first because if you don’t will be flatter, a bit crunchier and don’t have the characteristic cracks on top. (As seen in the photo. Unfortunately when I made the second batch, they got eaten up before I could take new photos.)
This year Mr. Italicano and I will spend Christmas in America with my family and friends. I’m currently writing this post as we fly over Greenland and in only 5 more hours we’ll land in beautiful Seattle. To get me in the Christmas spirit I already know my first stop: Starbucks! I am craving one of their holiday lattes.
Mr. Italicano has never spent Christmas in America. Our traditions are similar to those in Italy, but not exactly the same. I will definitely keep you up-to-date on all the holiday festivities and specifically the gastronomical differences. I will be posting at least one recipe a week here on the blog, but for all updates on my travels, check out my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages where I will be posting daily.
Our holiday festivities start with Christmas Eve dinner, which is usually light and consists of oyster soup with freshly baked bread, followed by family photos in front of the tree with everyone dressed up before we all head off to church. Later in the evening family friends stop by for some cookies and holiday drinks. After we wish them a farewell, we change into our pajamas and start to open presents, a family tradition, while the stockings from Santa Claus are opened in the morning. When I was a kid, all of my friends envied me because they had to wait one more day.
The thing I love most about our tradition of opening presents, is that we take time to watch each person open their gift. For me, it’s a magical Christmas moment as I get to watch the face of the person light up when they open my gift. It’s simply priceless. The following day while the kids play with their new toys, the adults are busy at work: preparing the grand Christmas lunch.
These whole wheat ginger snaps are slightly crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside and burst with delicious Christmas time spiced flavors.
Serves: 30 cookies
Ingredients
2 cups (240g) whole wheat flour
1½ (6g) teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (3g) baking powder
2 teaspoons (3g) ground ginger
¾ teaspoon (2g) ground nutmeg
1 (2g) teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon (1g) ground cloves
Pinch of salt
½ cup (115g) butter, softened
¼ cup (50g) white sugar
½ cup (80g) brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
¼ cup (78g) molasses
¼ cup (70g) maple syrup
Cane sugar, as needed
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Put parchment paper on one or more cookie sheets.
In a bowl combine the whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars for about 4-5 minutes on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can do this and the following steps by hand or with an electric mixer.)
Add the egg and continue to beat until smooth. Add the molasses and maple syrup and mix until blended.
Pour half of the flour mixture into the stand mixer and mix for 1-2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a spatula. Then add the rest of the flour mixture and continue to mix until the dough has been combine.
Refrigerate for ½ hour.
Roll the dough into balls the size of a walnut, then roll them in the cane sugar.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the tops are cracked and the cookies have spread.
*Note: I advise you to put the dough in the refrigerator for at least a half an hour before making the cookies, however, if you are in a rush you can simply use a gelato scoop to form the little balls as the dough is too soft and sticky to do it with your hands. The cookies will have the same flavor but will be less soft in the middle and will not have the signature ginger snap cracks on top.
Living in Seattle, Washington, I had the advantage of finding delicious fresh raw oysters at Pikes Place Market or in the various seafood restaurants. I always ate them plain or with a squeeze of fresh lemon :: limone fresco. This time, I wanted to give them an Italian twist by serving them with a fresh vinaigrette made from good extra virgin olive oil from Liguria, a little fresh lemon I picked up in Lake Garda in the region of Trentino Alto-Adige, salt from Cervia near the Adriatic sea and black pepper.
Using this vinaigrette on seafood and vegetables is quite common in Italy. There is an appetizer called pinzimonio that is simply raw vegetables (usually fennel, carrots, radicchio, tomatoes and celery) served with the vinaigrette. In Sardinia, a common recipe is Crostacei alla Catalana :: Catalonia Crustaceans. (In the past, Sardinia was dominated by Catalonia.) It is a mix of shrimp, prawns, lobster and crab that are boiled then served with the vinaigrette and often times, pinzimonio. It is usually eaten as an appetizer or main course.
This simple Italian vinaigrette is a perfect alternative sauce for raw oysters :: ostriche crude. It is fresh with a subtle zing, a smooth finish and doesn’t cover the ocean taste of the raw oysters.
This simple Italian vinaigrette is a perfect alternative sauce for raw oysters.
Serves: 2
Ingredients
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1-2 pinches unrefined salt
1-2 cracks of freshly ground black pepper
1-2 squeezes of lemon
9 fresh oysters, cleaned and opened
Instructions
In a small bowl, mix together the extra virgin olive oil, unrefined salt, black pepper and lemon. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Serve alongside the oysters.
For foodies, the varied and plentiful gastronomic festivals in Italy are a dream come true. Throughout the year there are countless celebrations that take part in big cities as well as small countryside towns. Cobblestone city squares are filled with numerous stands offering passersby the opportunity to taste and buy artisanal products specific to the festival’s theme. From wine to cheese, pumpkin to risotto—you’ll find numerous festivals :: sagre that promote local beverages, vegetables or typical Italian dishes.
A few weeks ago Mr. Italicano and I went to the sagra di tartufo :: truffle festival with 20 some friends in Cavola, a small country town in the region of Emilia Romagna. We spent the warm Autumn morning touring the stands that were selling truffle oil, truffle cheese and of course truffles straight from the ground. Although the white truffles were out of my budget (around 300 euros a piece!), I picked up a small paper bag full of black summer truffles.
We then headed into a large community hall where over 500 people packed in for lunch with a set menu: truffle rose pasta and truffle risotto for the first course; roasted pig and roasted potatoes for the main dish followed by fruit tarts :: crostate di frutta. That lunch reminded me of the pancake feeds the Lions Club put on in the small town where I grew up in Eastern Washington.
There are different kinds of truffles but the three most common are:
White Truffle—The most prestigious and expensive truffle that is found in Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and France.
Black Truffle (or Black Périgord Truffle)—The second most valued species and is native to Southern Europe.
Black Summer Truffle—More economic than the first two truffles but still highly prized.
Black summer truffles ::tartufi neri estivi are extremely versatile in the kitchen. They are often shaved fresh over a dish or infused into sauces to add depth. In this kale and truffle tagliatelle recipe I grated them into the mixture as well as topped with some shavings.
I like strong flavors and therefore added a dash of truffle oil. Even at the truffle festival lunch they used a concentrated truffle butter and freshly shaved truffles to create a rich flavorful dish. If you already have black summer truffles on hand, this is a great recipe to try; for those who don’t, you can simply use truffle oil or truffle butter :: burro di tartufo instead.
12 ounces (350g) tuscan kale (or other kale variety), center ribs removed, leaves chopped
5 summer truffles (45g, 1.5 ounces), washed and scrubbed
1-2 teaspoons truffle oil
1 cup rice cream (or heavy cream)
Knob of butter
Salt
Instructions
Bring a medium pot of water to boil.
Add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to a medium skillet and sauté the garlic over medium low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped kale and continue to cook until the kale is wilted; 3-4 minutes.
Put the mixture into a blender or food processor, add 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and blend until smooth.
Return the mixture to the pan and add the grated truffles, truffle oil, cream, butter and salt. Cook on medium heat until warm.
When the water is boiling, add coarse salt and cook the homemade tagliatelle for 2-3 minutes or according to the instructions on the package. Drain the pasta and mix with the sauce. Top with a few pieces of freshly shaved truffles.
About 10 years ago my oldest brother Cliff was approached at a supermarket :: supermercato in New York by a cameramen who was asking shoppers for their favorite recipes. Cliff recounted the sole almondine recipe that our mom often cooked and a few weeks later was invited on Joan Lunden’s cooking show to demonstrate how to prepare the recipe.
When I was preparing recipes for my 5 day national T.V. appearance on the Italian cooking show La Prova del Cuoco, I immediately thought about this sole almondine recipe which is made with flour, butter, heavy cream :: panna, almonds and lemon. I loved that recipe growing up, although when I tested it in my own kitchen I was surprised at how much my taste buds have changed over the past few years as I’ve adopted more of a healthier and lighter approach to cooking, and for me the butter and cream was too heavy for such a delicate fish.
Therefore, I decided to lighten up the original recipe by topping the fish with a blueberry compote instead of cream and butter and I enhanced the flavors by using maple syrup and cinnamon :: cannella. It may sound like quite an unusual combination for fish, but the end result was fantastic. Both Mr. Italicano and I couldn’t stop raving on how flavorful and delicious this maple almond sole with blueberry compote was. Thanks to my mother-in-law who is the atypical Italian cook and likes to experiment with various ingredients, I am lucky to have an Italian husband who is open to unique recipes…just as long as I don’t disturb him while he eats!
