The Last Three Days

I’ve been on a roll. In the last three days I have developed and deepened my repertoire

The fall out from reading Marlena De Blasi’s book “A Thousand Days in Tuscany,” continues to waft down onto my dinner table.

I’ve served up Rapini with Pasta, Stuffed Sweet Pepper Roll Ups, and Crepes with Three Cheeses. All three meals qualify as vegetarian if you use a very sloppy definition, and substitute the Salami in the Crepes recipe with sun-dried tomatoes. Nevertheless, I reduced my intake of meats, without missing them.

I’m a born Englishman. You have to travel very far in deed to escape Sunday Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pud, not that there is anything wrong with that meal, except the extend to which the poor roasts is cooked.

So if I where to somehow, horror of horrors, become a vegetarian I could live, quite comfortably, by eating Italian. (How many words did it take to invoke the sacred word?).

Italians seem to have an instinct for what to do with vegetables. Partly this has to do with the country’s rural roots. At one point, nearly everyone was a farmer and nearly everyone faced adversity when necessity forced whole families to scour the countryside for something to put into the pot. They even have a phrase for it, which means a meal out of nothing.

Yet, to let it lie there would be a mistake. The England into which I was born was a rural country as well. Though they do have a fondness for vegetables, their repertoire doesn’t even begin to approach the Italians in creativity or spirit. So why the difference?

Perhaps climate plays a role. With the milder, sunnier chimes of Italy, the farming of vegetables is more rewarding due to the enormous variety available. After all, in much of England the only way to grow a tomato is under glass.

That very same climate accounts for the wider variety of herbs, many of which grow wild in the Italian countryside. Rosemary, oregano savoury, basil, thyme. The English in comparison have mint and sage. I’m serious. The only herbs I was familiar with were mint and sage. I didn’t enjoy my first heady scent of Basil until I escaped to New York City from Toronto! (Oh, how the world has changed.)

Perhaps it is human nature. The Italian’s flamboyant Latin flare compared to the stiff reserve of the English. In England, you did what was proper. Roast Beef on Sundays.

It Italy you did what the spirits moved you to do with the ingredients at hand. Out of that came a cuisine of passion, riotous flavours, bold colours, and genius.

Yet the British boasted an Empire that spanned the world: places so rich in food like India, parts of Asia, and the vast plains of Africa. The Empire had to fall and fade to pale memory before curry could be come the number one dish in England.

Why did Italy climb up the culinary ladder, at times eclipsing France as the custodian of cuisine, while richer England reaped ridicule for their food.

“Cook it until its dead,” seemed to be the rallying cry of the British.

While the Italian shout from rooftops, “how much life can we endow in our food.”

See how I’m edging from food to politics.

What other comparisons can we form from just viewing the difference in cuisine? To this day people make pilgrimages to the shrines of food adulation from Paris to Florence, to Venice to Nice, to Provencal, and Tuscany. Just calling out the names, sparks magic scents and aromas and the sense of culinary adventure. London, Manchester, evoke no like excitement.

I have long buried the stiff, I’m-not-going-to-try-that, stuffiness, for the love, passion, and creativity of the moment. Of course that runs to what happens in the bedroom too, but we will avoid that subject all together.

Back to why I love to cook Italian, simple, ingredients used in extraordinary ways.

Of the three recipes, the Crepe with Three Cheeses is the most complicated dish; even then, it’s the clever combining of a few simple ingredients that brings this dish to life. The other two dishes are so easy to prepare, they are a joy to make.

Rapini or Broccoli Raab:

Rapini’s rapid growth in popularity in North America lags far behind its stellar position in both Italian and Chinese cuisines.

Rapini originated in the Mediterranean basin and in China where it is a descendant of a wild herb. Any relation to Broccoli is just in the name. A cruciferous vegetable, Rapini is closely related to the turnip, displaying a more pungent, slightly bitter taste than broccoli. Acquiring a taste for Rapini may take a few tries, but addiction follows quickly. I’ve kissed broccoli goodbye in favour of the flavour and added versatility of Rapini. No more watery heads of broccoli that cool more rapidly than anything else on your plate.

Rapini is also a powerhouse of wholesomeness. Rapini, loaded with vitamins A, C, K, Iron calcium and fibre, boasts virtually no sodium or fats.

If you can’t find rapini at your local green grocer, try growing it yourself. In our mild climate it does well.

Here is the recipe I made the other night.

This is easy, is fast and ready in about 20 minutes.

Again, as in everything Italian the ingredients are few and simple.

Pasta with Rapini or Broccoli Raab

What You Need

I pound of Rapini or Broccoli Raab

½ cup extra virgin olive oil. (Again do not cheat, use extra virgin olive oil)

4 gloves a garlic chopped

6 anchovies filets. (I use the ones that come in a can packed in oil. Stay away from anchovy pastes and other messes.)

I dried chilly or ½ a teaspoon on chilli flakes. (You can add a little more for additional hotness, but remember you are striving for that knife-edge balance of ingredients and you don’t want one to blast away all the other flavours.)

1 pound of pasta, penne, rotinni, bowties. Spaghetti and the like are not suited to this recipe)

I cup of freshly grated Pecorino Romano. (Again, buy quality cheese. It may cost you a few pennies more per measure but it last longer in you refrigerator so you save on waste. Please do not buy cheese in shakers…please! I told you I was a snob.)

How to throw it together.

Remove the tough stems of the Rapini discard any yellowed leaves, then wash carefully, drain and chop into 1 inch pieces. Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Do not salt the water until the water begins to boil. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Add the garlic and cook to just turning colour, (do not over cook the garlic or it becomes bitter). Once the garlic is ready, add the anchovies, crushing them into the garlic and oil. The anchovies will dissolve into the oil and garlic. Set the sauté pan aside but keep warm.

Once your pasta water is boiling and salted (I use the coarse Kosher salt its milder) add your pound of pasta and cook for about 7 or 8 minutes, till it still has a little hard bite. Now, this is what I love, cause you don’t mess up another pot, throw the Rapini into the cooking pasta and cook for about three minutes. Amazingly, the pasta and the Rapini will be cooked at the same time. Drain the pasta Rapini saving a little of the salted water. Toss the pasta in the warm anchovy oil, fold in the cheese, and serve. Bingo, all done.

Serve with a chilled glass of white wine, and have candles at the table, make eye contact with your partner and have a great evening.

Roasted Bell Pepper Roll Ups.

This is one of Mario Batali’s fabulous recipes from his book “Malto Italiano”. The added comments are entirely my own.

This recipe serves four. This is in the Antipasto section of Mario’s book but I made it a main course just by adding a salad.

What you need:

3 medium bell peppers. A mix of colours but not green.

7 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. (Get it, extra virgin. Don’t go cheap on me here!)

1 ½ tablespoons of capers chopped. (You can buy them in brine in most grocery stores. You can’t leave them out, and they should be part of your pantry along with anchovies.)

1 ½ tablespoon of pine nuts. (Buy them in small quantities 100 to 200 grams at a time, and refrigerate them in a glass bottle with a tight fitting lid. They are very fragile and go rancid quickly if left un-refrigerated.)

1-½ tablespoons of raisins soaked in warm water for 15 minutes.

4 anchovy fillets finely chopped

½ cup of toasted bread crumbs. (Don’t throw out your {good quality} old bread. Leave it to dry, food processor it to crumbs, or freeze, cause you’ll need it.)

I heaping tablespoon of Italian flat leaf parsley. (I have a rant here: what’s with all this curly stuff they still carry in supermarkets? Berate the grocery clerk and the store manager; it’s time this changed. Small green grocers usually carry it.

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper. (Note freshly ground pepper. Trade in you shaker of that pre-ground stuff which often has fillers and grind your own. Come on, you gotta do this right, remember I’m a snob.)

How to throw it together

The biggest pain for this recipe is roasting the peppers. I use my barbeque for this, even if it means freezing my…off during winter, but you can broil them in your oven. Rub them all over with three tablespoons of olive oil; get them black and blistered all over, then let cool. Very gently rub off the skins. You don’t want to tear or split the peppers. Remove the stem by carefully tugging on the stem. A lot of the pepper innards will come out as well. Cut the peppers into 4 equal quarters and clean out any remaining ribs and seeds. Now you’re just about ready to roll. (sorry)

Pre heat the oven to 425º F.

In a bowl combine all the remaining ingredients, plus a little salt and pepper, stir and then add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Lay the peppers out flat, skinned side down and divide the filling between the quarters putting the filling at the widest part of the pepper. Roll up and put seam side down in an 8X8 or similar size casserole dish. You can use toothpicks to hold the rolls together but I didn’t find that necessary.

Bake peppers for 15 minutes, until the peppers are just colouring. Serve with a fabulous green salad, and a crisp white wine. Include candles and friends.

Finally, the most fussy recipe but well worth the effort to make.

Crepes with Three Cheeses: From a recipe by Mario Batali and of course adapted with comments.

What You Need:

A crepe pan, this should be a 6 inch non stick pan. If you follow the instructions for seasoning it should last you a long time, especially if you use it only for tasks like crepe making.

1 ½ cups of unbleached all purpose flour

4 large eggs

½ teaspoon of sea salt

2 cups of milk. (This is a high calorie recipe, use at least 2 % milk.)

Make this first so that it can rest while you make the filling for the crepes.

How To Throw It Together

Put the flour in a bowl, break the eggs over the flour, and whisk together. Add the salt, then whisk in the milk a little at time. Let rest for 20 minutes.

The Filling

What You Need

A buttered casserole dish 9x 13.

2 ½ cups of ricotta cheese.

8 oz of fresh mozzarella. The tub of Tre Stelle Bocconcini, (www.trestelle.ca), contains eight balls each about an oz. They work perfectly for this recipe.

1 cup of grated pecorino—Thank the Sheep.

8 oz of salami cut into ½ inch dice. (Sub something meaty like mushrooms or sun-dried tomatoes if you’re vegetarian.

½ teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg. Don’t use the pre-ground stuff. It is cheaper to buy a few nutmegs and crate as needed, and you get a much fresher taste.

Mix all the ingredients together. Reserve ¼ cup for the topping.

Make the crepes one at a time, by heating the crepe pan on medium, brush with olive oil then add 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons of the crepe mixture, swirl to cover the bottom of the pan and then flip when the crepe just begins to colour. You can do the chef thing and flip from the pan, a good time to practice or just use your fingers to pull the crepe off the pan and turn. It takes about a minute to do each one. You should end up with from 16 to eighteen crepes. Just stack them on a plate until you’re done, or as one cooks fill one you have all ready made.

To fill the crepes place 3 tablespoons of the filling at the centre of the crepe then gently fold over and place in the casserole in two rows over lapping each crepe slightly. When they are all in the pan, spread the remaining mixture over the top of the crepes.

Cook in a hot 450 º F oven for fifteen minutes or until the tops begin to colour and get crispy.

I served this will a fresh green salad, and a nice chilled white wine. They are filling and hearty on a cool rainy winter day. And if your guests aren’t too piggy, you’ll have

leftovers to enjoy the next day.

Good Eating, Good Living. Nick