The start of the school year makes me think of cozy sweaters, red wine and apples. There are good things about the end of summer and those are three of the best.
It is also the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and a little comfort food is in order.
Cannellini beans have come to the rescue a couple of times this week – once when I needed something to take across the street to dinner that would show off one of the tomatoes we grew in our backyard and then when we had a mom and kid playdate and I wanted a quick addition to a snack-y type table, along with hummus, veggies, crackers, grapes, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese.
These little white beans are tasty right out of the can, so you are only seconds from a hearty snack when you have it in your pantry. I think I’ll be using this recipe a lot this winter to add dash and protein satisfaction to otherwise ordinary salads.
A delicious salad that makes a meal. Look at those glorious tomatoes.
Quick Cannellini Bean Salad (great with tomatoes!)
1 15oz can cannellini (white) beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 onion, peeled and minced (red onion preferred, but use what you’ve got)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
¼ -1/2 tsp red or white wine vinegar
¼ – ½ tsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp oregano/Italian herbs/your favorite dried herb. Double the quantity for fresh chopped herbs.
Pinch salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
(optional, small chunks of tomato, seeded)
Place beans and minced onion in a bowl. In a separate bowl or cup, whisk together oil and vinegars (you can adjust vinegars to your personal taste). Pour over beans, add remaining ingredients. mix thoroughly and serve.
This was the year I would start preserving and canning…at least that’s what I swore when I laid down the money for a canning pot and associated equipment at Walmart a couple of months ago (Walmart being the new Woolworth’s; it is where you will find a lot of the old-fashioned domestic arts type of stuff that Woolworth’s used to carry back in the day).
Well, canning with heat didn’t happen, or at least hasn’t happened yet and doesn’t look like happening any time soon. But I have still been making an effort to preserve some of the flavors of summer for the colder months in a less time-consuming and sweaty way. Regular visitors will remember a creole tomato sauce I made and froze for later, for example https://hotcheapeasy.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/fresh-tomato-sauce-criollo-style/.
But at this time of year, with all the vegetables we have and the time to work with them running short due to school, I had to shorten even the shortcuts. So I blanched and froze sauce tomatoes for later.
All you have to do is
1) take your farm fresh, ripe tomatoes, wash and core the stem area (you don’t have to go all the way down; just take a cone out),
2) throw them in boiling water for a minute (until they start to split)– 30 seconds for smaller tomatoes — and then
3) plunge them in ice water for about five minutes for large tomatoes and a couple of minutes for small.
Et voila! Freezer-ready tomatoes. Some people peel them at that point; I sometimes do and sometimes don’t. You will have to do it when you thaw them later, as the skins get chewy in the freezer. Some people don’t even blanch them, but I do like to set the flavor and freshness and I think blanching does that pretty well. Anyway, once they are cool, all you have to do is
4) put them in a freezer bag (quartering them is optional), squeeze out the air, seal and label them. Stick them in the freezer and they will keep 6-8 months and will be suitable for sauces and soups (not salads, as the texture will get mushy over time.
Right now I have a few pounds of San Marzanos, a pound of plum tomatoes and about four pounds of whatever yellow tomatoes it is that I am getting from the farm. I am going to be soooooo, sooooo, sooooo happy to make fresh sauce or minestrone with them in the dark days of February when my arms are about to fall off from shoveling snow!
Recommended tomatoes are Roma, Brandywine and plums, as they make great sauce!
There is a certain complication to being a food writer. People assume you know a whole lot more about food than you actually do or that you have a recipe file in your head with complete access to what-to-do with every ingredient in nano-seconds.
So some unusual vegetable comes up at CSA distribution and folks want to know what to do with it, like, right now, as I am trying to divide 3/4 lb of string beans in my head and talk to Allison and keep track of my four-year-old fireball, who has to go potty. Now.
Uh…em…of course: I don’t effen know! Rachael and Martha and Alton have legions of minions to make them look all-knowing. Me? Nada…
So this time it was Steve (known as Farmer Steve around here) who got me with the broccoli rabe while a handful of other CSA members cocked an ear. Bus-ted.
I haven’t cooked with this stuff in a while (and not regularly since I lived in Italy back in the days of the Empire) and gave my stock answer: “When in doubt, saute in garlic” and went home to investigate.
So I found a few recipes, including the following one that I adapted from Giada De Laurentiis (who is a dead ringer for my dear friend Gabrielle Paese – there, I’ve said it publicly). Giada uses pine nuts, but, in addition to having a staff, she has a budget and I don’t, so I use walnuts — a less expensive alternative.
Interesting thing I learned from my investigations is that the “broccoli rabe” we get at Restoration Farm is more like “rapini” because it’s all leaves and none of those little heads. Either way, we’re talking about a bitter, zesty green that my friend, Marianne, finds too chewy, but that I actually love for that reason. The fun of this recipe is that the raisins the raisins provide sweet bursts.
So this one’s for you, Farmer Steve!
Broccoli Rabe with Walnuts and Raisins
IMPORTANT – this is a recipe for a small amount of broccoli rabe, which, like so many leafy greens, cooks down to nothing in no time. My recommendation? Triple or quadruple this recipe in order to have a nice fat side serving for four people – only increasing the oil, garlic and red pepper by two.
1 bunch broccoli rabe (about 12-14 oz) cleaned and stems trimmed
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch (1/8 tsp) hot red pepper flakes
1/4 Cup raisins
Salt to taste
1/4 cup roasted walnuts*, broken up
Have a bowl of ice water ready And be ready to reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid. Place broccoli rabe in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes until bright green and slightly wilted. Reserve ½ cup cooking liquid. Drain and put greens in ice bath to stop cooking.
Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, heat olive oil until fragrant and liquid and add garlic. Cook for 1 minute and add pinch of pepper flakes. Add broccoli rabe and stir to coat. Add raisin and reserved cooking liquid and cook at medium until broccoli is fairly tender and raisins are plumped up (5-10 minutes), stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste and walnuts and serve.
*To toast walnuts, simply toss them into a hot pan and stir until they are fragrant and warm, but not burned. Cool while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Things in the kitchen are speeding up for me as I return to teaching, Leandro returns to daycare, and the summer harvest continues to be really bountiful. Ironically, almost everyone I know who would usually help me prepare/eat all this food has been away, including Allison, with whom my family splits our farm share.
So I’ve been going nuts trying to cook or preserve it all while also gearing up for the new semester. Yeah, I am overwhelmed.
But, I am also compelled to share recipes and this one is a goodie – a simple yet sophisticated roast chicken (I am very fond of roast chicken) that comes out subtle and juicy and really showed off the fine qualities of the pastured chickens Trisha Hardgrove has been producing at Restoration Farm. The texture and grain of these birds is far superior to anything I’ve had from a supermarket or specialty store (including expensive organic or “natural” birds). They even look cleaner and healthier that a commercial bird when plucked and when I am cutting into them.
Since I believe in packing the oven whenever possible, I made Slow-Roasted Cherry Tiny Tomatoes https://hotcheapeasy.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/slow-roasted-grape-tomatoes-for-pasta-bruschetta-or-sandwiches/at the same time. This dish would also be very fine with string beans (now at distribution at our CSA) or roasted summer squash (abundant right now).
I made this ahead of Hurricane Irene and brought the chicken and tomatoes over to the kind neighbors who had us sleep over their house on the night the storm hit (I got spooked by the banging on the roof). It made a terrific cold lunch when the power was out. Hot or cold, roast chicken brings comfort.
Rosemary and Lemon Roasted Chicken
1 roasting chicken (4-5 lbs), giblets removed
Olive oil for rubbing
4 cloves garlic, minced into a tsp coarse salt
Juice of two juicy lemons (Meyer lemons are recommended, but if you haven’t got, be prepared to add ½ tsp sugar or a tsp of orange juice to the rub), squeezed lemons reserved
¼ Cup coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves (may add another ¼ Cup fresh, or supplement with a smaller amount of dried rosemary) plus 8 rosemary sprigs
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Coarse salt
Preheat oven to 375°F and place rack in the center. Rinse and dry the chicken with paper towels, trimming and discarding extra fat.
Place chicken breast side down on roasting pan (you may also use roasting rack to good effect) and rub the oil and half the garlic onto the skin. Pour half the lemon juice on the back (along with sugar or orange juice), as well as half the chopped rosemary and half the cayenne.
Turn the chicken over and gently separate the skin from the breast, leaving skin on. Insert on rosemary sprig on each side. Then repeat the rub with more oil and the remaining garlic, lemon juice, rosemary and cayenne. Sprinkle on additional coarse salt to taste.
Tuck a rosemary sprig under each wing and the remaining four sprigs in the cavity with the squeezed-out lemons.
Bake the chicken, breast side up, basting once or twice, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh (without touching bone) registers 170°F (1 to 1.5 hours).
Before serving, let the chicken rest, covered loosely with aluminum foil, for 20 minutes.
(This recipe was inspired by”Kathy’s Rosemary-Roasted Chicken” in Food To Live By, by Myra Goodman –the Earthbound Farm lady!)
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