Strozzapreti with walnuts and gorgonzola

Strozzapreti (literally: priest-chokers) are a Neapolitan specialty consisting short lengths of pasta rolled like a twisted towel.


Traditionally, they are served with a meat sauce (presumably that's why the priest choked) but this is a delightful way of enjoying them.

Ingredients

2 cups strozzapreti

1 cup walnuts (roasted)
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano
2 cloves garlic (chopped coarsely)

1/2 cup parsley (chopped loosely)
1/3 cup gorgonzola (lightly crumbled)

extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Cook the pasta al dente.

Meanwhile, pulse the walnuts, garlic and parmesan in a food processor along with some olive oil.

Put it in a bowl along with the parsley, salt and pepper. Add the pasta and toss it all together. Then add the gorgonzola and toss again. (If you coat the gorgonzola with the walnut mixture to make it less sticky, you can do this in one step.)

Sorrel

This is a plant with soft, roundish leaves that have a tart lemony taste.

The sourness comes from oxalic acid which needs to be tempered. You need to strip the leaves if the stems are super thick and cook them.

It has a lovely tartness which is much desired in soups, etc. Also a killer pairing with eggs or potatoes.

Dinner

Arugula, walnut, orange and feta salad
♥
Cauliflower gratin
♥
Chocolate

Butternut Squash Soup

The CC thought he had blogged about this, but lo and behold, he hadn't.

Perfect for a cold winter's day, and simple as all out.

Ingredients

3 leeks (sliced)
4 cloves garlic (sliced)

2 butternut squashes
1 potato (diced)

olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Slice the squash lengthwise into two, and scoop out the strands and seeds. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over it.

Turn upside down on a tray with a little amount of water, and roast in a 350°F oven until soft (about 20 mins.)

Scoop the pulp out after it cools.

Fry the leeks and the garlic for 10 mins on a low heat Add the potato and fry for 6-7 mins. Add the squash, and let it fry for a bit. Add the salt and pepper, and some broth (or water) and let it cook for at least 15-20 mins.

Dump the whole thing in a blender, and strain it through a sieve. Depending on the texture you prefer, you may have to thin the soup further.

Butternut Squash Soup

Mac 'n Cheese

In these turbulent times, who doesn't crave the familiar?

To those that have only had it out of a box, this may come as a revelation. The textures and tastes make this dish a pure delight.

Even if think of this dish as quintessentially American, the actual roots of this recipe go very far back.

If you pull out Pellegrino Artusi's masterpiece from 1891, La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene, you see similar version of the recipe under maccheroni col pangrattato (macaroni with breadcrumbs), maccheroni colla balsamella (macaroni with béchamel), and very oddly enough as maccheroni alla francese (macaroni French style!)

In Ada Boni's masterpiece Il talismano della felicità published in 1929, you see a variant appear under maccheroni alla besciamella (macaroni with béchamel) in the section on paste al forno (baked pastas.)

Please note how the spelling has evolved and become standardized since the unification of Italy. Oddly enough, she does not consider it important enough to include the recipe in the English edition (which is barely a quarter of the size of the Italian original!)

What is presented below is pretty much identical to Artusi's maccheroni col pangrattato (with the small addition of nutmeg.)

Times have changed but our palates haven't.

Ingredients

4 cups penne

butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup gruyère (grated coarsely)
3/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano (grated coarsely)

breadcrumbs

nutmeg (optional)
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Cook the penne in heavily salted water until under al dente (somewhere around the 80% mark works great!)

Meanwhile make the béchamel sauce. Heat the butter and milk in a pan. When it nears a boil, add the flour in very small amounts while whisking continuously. The sauce will continue to thicken. Add the salt, black pepper and nutmeg (if using) and take it off the heat.

Preheat an oven to 375°F.

Combine the penne, the sauce, the cheeses in a oven-proof casserole. Top off the dish with the breadcrumbs (this is the real secret to success!)

Bake uncovered until the surface is brown, bubbly and crispy (about 30-35 mins.)

Administrative Note

If anyone is interested in receiving updates to the comments sections via email, let me know and your name will be added to the mailing list.

Climacteric Fruits

Say what?

When understanding fruits, there are two terms to understand -- maturity and ripening, and they are distinct.

Maturity refers to the development of sugar in a fruit.

Ripening refers to the process which makes the flesh softer and makes the fruit develop aroma and complex flavors.

Maturity stops the moment you pluck the fruit. There is no mechanism to make the fruit sweeter after that but climacteric fruits are ones that continue to ripen on their own off the tree. They give off ethylene which is basically a natural signal from fruit to fruit to start ripening.

In this modern world of homogenized agriculture, you are well served by memorizing the names of these fruits. Leave them to develop in a moderately warm environment. (Not too hot, they'll spoil.) Just wash and dry the fruit, and turn it once a day to prevent "spoil spots". You can put them in a paper bag to trap the ethylene but it's not really necessary. (Different fruits ripen at different rates. And tomatoes are included because they are technically fruits.)

The key point is that you can get great results with your supermarket produce if only you understand the process.

apples
apricots
avocados
bananas
muskmelons
figs
guavas
mangoes
nectarines
peaches
pears
persimmons
plums
quinces
tomatoes

Howto: Chicken Broth

This is laughably simple to make. All you require is time -- it doesn't even take effort. Far too many people are intimidated by what is actually absurdly elementary.

Please read this post if you haven't done so already.

The CC prefers to keep his chicken stock basic. No fancy flavorings so that he can control for that in whatever he uses it.

Ingredients

1 large onion (chopped coarsely, leave the skin on)
2 carrots
1 stick celery

chicken bones and parts

olive oil

1 tbsp black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
sea salt

Recipe

Chop the onions and carrots coarsely. Leave the skin on. It just doesn't matter.

Fry the onions languidly at a low heat. Add the carrots and celery and fry for at least 6-8 minutes. Add the chicken and fry for a while. Add the peppercorns and bay leaves.

Then, and this is the most important part, add a large quantity of cold water.

Let it heat up slowly. Simmer for at least 4 hours, skimming the foam that comes up periodically. You will have to keep skimming; this is the hardest part.

Strain the broth discarding the bones and solids. Add adequate salt to preserve it. Let the pot sit in your refrigerator overnight. The fat will come to the surface and solidify. Skim one last time, and you have your broth.

This freezes beautifully.

Gravity Nutcracker

Wonder if we can create a category for "less than useless". Enter the Gravity Nutcracker™.

With any instrument, there's only one interesting question. How does it behave in the limit case? As in, will it help me crack 100 walnuts or hinder the effort?

Given that this is German, the CC supposes we can classify it as a Hindenburg.

Oh, the humanity!

Buddha's Hand/Buddha's Fingers

Poetic name for a citrus fruit. Contains very little juice or pulp, and mostly used in candies and in places where lemon zest would be used (salads, etc.) since the pith is not very bitter (unlike lemons.)

Orecchiete with broccoli, lemon and almonds

Basic. Simple. Delicious.

(The "holy trinity" of cooking.)

Ingredients

orecchiete

1 large broccoli (cut into florets)
1 red onion (thinly sliced into semi-rounds)
2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
6 anchovies
1 lemon (juiced + finely grated rind)
1/4 cup slivered blanched almonds

olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

parmigiano-reggiano (grated)

Recipe

Pretty easy. Fry the anchovies followed by the onion, garlic, lemon rind. Add the almonds and fry for a bit. Then the broccoli, salt and pepper. Add a bit of water to cook the broccoli. Add the lemon juice towards the end.

Meanwhile cook the orecchiete until al dente.

Mix and serve with the parm and black pepper to taste.

Mushroom Madness

The CC has decided to stop being bored, and instead has joined a Mycological Society which teaches you how to forage for wild mushrooms.

When this was mentioned, a certain party remarked that it was because the CC was such a `fun guy'.

Hors d'oeuvres

canteloupe, prosciutto di parma, parmigiano di reggiano

Rotate on this!

We haven't had a good rant in here in a while.


Enter the Rotato Express™. Another member of the "special" Pantheon of the Useless™.

Bengali Five-Spice

The CC has trouble imagining Bengali food minus mustard and mustard oil but who knew that panch phoran (mixture of mustard seeds, nigella, fenugreek, fennel and cumin) didn't originally use mustard?

It used radhuni (wild celery) instead of mustard.

Butchering a Chicken

Time to move this blog back to its omnivorous roots. Some basic knife skills for leaner times.




(Courtesy: Mike Pardus of the Culinary Inst. of America.)