A Winter Cheat: Roasted Tomato Soup

Just about this time of year, I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. The symptoms are all there: lack of energy and the ability to concentrate; slow, lethargic movement; social withdrawal; irritability. Except the cause is not what you might think. I'm perfectly fine with grey skies, and every day after the winter solstice gets reassuringly longer.

No, it's not the weather, tempting as that may be to blame. The cause of my winter doldrums is quite simple. No tomatoes. After the glory of late fall's harvest, I'm left leaden by the hard and unyielding, artificially red orbs in the produce section. Mexico's harvest doesn't tempt me, and even the baby tomatoes that grow up in greenhouses seem somehow wrong and out of place next to the kale and cabbage.

While it's noble to wait until the seasons spin around again, I still imagine there must be some easy way to extract a kernel of flavour from what's at hand. And just as the secret to a summer tomato is the heat of the sun, so too is heat the trick to bringing life to the seemingly lifeless winter tomato. This delicious soup almost manages to make you think that the sun shining outside is smiling down on leafy tomato plants and not a blanket of snow.

Roasted Tomato Soup
from Gourmet Today
serves four to six

4 lb tomatoes, halved lengthwise
6 garlic cloves, left unpeeled
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped
½ tsp dried oregano, crumbled
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
½ cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

2. Place tomatoes and garlic in one layer on a rimmed cookie sheet, tomatoes cut side up. Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Roast for one hour, and allow to cool.  Once garlic is cool enough to handle, peel and set aside.

3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over moderate heat.  Add onion, oregano, and sugar and sauté, stirring frequently, until onion is softened, about five minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic, and stock and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

4. Let soup cool slightly and then purée in batches.  Put the soup through a sieve, discarding solids, and place in a medium saucepan. Stir in cream and salt and pepper to taste and simmer two minutes.  Sprinkle with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano, if desired, and garnish with a fresh sprig of basil.

The addition of cream gives this soup an almost carroty colour

If the thought of using winter tomatoes still doesn't appeal, wisely do what the Italians do and use canned tomatoes, sourced at their height of juicy goodness.

Simply Supreme: Blood Orange Marmalade with Star Anise and Ginger

   

Cooking is full of oddities.  Funny measures, like a a pat of butter or peck of peppers.  Archaic techniques and even stranger ways to describe them.  Baking a pie crust blind.  Bringing water to a rolling boil.  Coddling eggs. 

I love the specificity of these words, carrying with them the collective wisdom of hundreds of hands doing the same task, perfecting them and capturing their meaning in a "just so" way.  And like an amateur sleuth, I ferret out new methods and the words to describe them, collecting them like so many shells along the shore.

Here's my latest acquisition.  Supreming. A lovely word to describe a rather onerous and mundane task: that of separating the pesky membrane from a citrus fruit.  Not so bad if you're making a smallish fruit salad but a bit more daunting when faced with several pounds of citrus waiting to be transformed into marmalade. 

I first made blood orange marmalade last winter, and with the last of the jars scraped clean and a new crop of the beauties at the grocers, I wanted to try my hand at it again.  Serendipity in the form of Food in Jars smiled upon me, with this brilliant and time saving method that eliminates the need to supreme the fruit.  I added my own twist in the way of exotic spices that heighten and complement the sweet and slightly mysterious deep red oranges from way down south.  While you may not need supreme the fruit, I can assure you the results will still be quite divine.

Blood Orange Marmalade with Star Anise, Ginger and Cardamom
adapted from Food in Jars
yields approximately 6 ½ pint jars

The secret to this brilliant technique that eliminates the need to supreme is an overnight soak of the citrus fruit.  This breaks down the pith, and softens the fruit, with glorious results.

2 lbs blood oranges

2½ lbs sugar (about 5 cups)
3 star anise pods
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thick slices
5 green cardamom pods
8 c water

1.  Wash the oranges well.  Trim each end, exposing the fruit, and cut in half.

2.  Using a very sharp knife, cut out the orange cores, removing any seeds at the same time.  Preserve both cores and seeds.

3.  Cut the orange halves into thin slices, and cut each half into three segments. You want the fruit to be as thin as possible, with small bite size segments.
 

4.  Take the reserved cores and seeds and tie them up securely with kitchen twine in cheesecloth.

5.  Put orange segments and cheesecloth bundle in a large bowl and cover with water. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.  If time and life interfere and you need to soak the fruit longer than a day or two, do so with impunity.

6.  To cook the marmalade, remove the cheesecloth bundle with the cores and seeds and discard. Place the fruit and water in a non-reactive large pot (preferebably wide and shallow), and stir in the sugar. Place the star anise, fresh ginger and cardamom in cheesecloth, and tie securely so that none of the spices escape.  Tuck the spice bundle amongst the fruit.

7.  Bring the marmalade to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the marmalade is reduced by half or reads 220 degrees F on a candy thermometer (about 40 minutes).  Test the marmalade to ensure that it has "gelled".  Ladle marmalade into prepared jars, wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Enjoy this delightful marmalade in a variety of ways, and not just on toast.  Try it on roast pork or as a side to a cheese plate too.

Sweet Valentine's Treat: Lucia's Amazing Walnut Bars

There are some things that are genetic.  Loud laughter.  Blue eyes.  Dark hair.  An insatiable love of figs. 

And then there are some things that, sadly, are not.  Being organised, for instance.  My oldest sister Lucia, despite her claims to the contrary, is the most organised person I know.  Label maker: check.  Jewlery sorted by colour and type: check.  Pantry laid out to a T, shopping list at the ready to capture an item that needs replenishing: well, of course - check. For all my semblance of a well-ordered life, I missed out on that particular part of the gene pool.

I was reminded of this recently when we gathered for our family Christmas celebration. The beach house she found for all 11 of us was perfect.  Christmas dinner was served on her special holiday china, carefully packed and brought just for the occasion.  The informal open house she hosted so her friends could meet her far flung family was planned to the last hors d’oeuvres.  And she baked up several batches of her delicious walnut bars, at once sweet and chewy and crunchy; a holiday tradition and family favourite.

Best of all, she made a tin for each of us to take home: a sweet reminder of a wonderful week together, beautifully orchestrated, the hard work and planning evident only in the lists occasionally glimpsed throughout the week.  As I carefully tucked the precious tin in my bag, I realised I had gotten it wrong.  Lucia was right to say that she wasn’t organised.  Organization makes things happen.  Love and thoughtfulness makes things great.  

So, as you celebrate Valentine's Day with your favourite sweetie, whip up a batch of Lucia's walnut bars.  Four simple ingredients, almost sure to be in your house.  To make them especially good, add her secret ingredient: loving kindness.  It will put them over the top.   

      

The dark hair is gone but the blue eyes and love of figs remain! 

Lucia's Amazing Walnut Bars
makes 25-30 squares
  

1½ sticks butter (either salted or unsalted)

1 cup brown sugar (slightly packed)

1½  cup finely chopped walnuts (or pecans) 

20-24 whole graham cracker wafers

1 Preheat oven to 350F

2.  In a medium sauce pan, Heat until all is melted.  Set aside to cool slightly.

3.  While mixture is cooling, place foil on a 9x12 rimmed cookie sheet.  Spray lightly with non stick spray.  Lay whole graham crackers on the cookie sheet, ensuring that there aren’t any spaces between each cracker.  You may need to trim some crackers to have the whole tray set flush.

  

4.  Spread nut mixture on and level with a spoon or spatula, making sure to reach all of the edges of the crackers.

5.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until mixture is bubbling.  Be careful not to bake too long, so that the sugar doesn’t burn.

6.  Carefully lift foil out of pan from one side and slide on to counter/cutting board.  Cut into 1½ squares.  These cool very quickly so it’s better to cut while still hot. Let cool completely.  Place in airtight container, using wax paper between layers. 

Can be made ahead although they won’t last for long! 

Holiday Open House Countdown Part Three: It's the Little Things

Every year, when I’m cooking dozens and dozens of hors d’oeuvres for the Open House, I’m reminded of Mrs. Flax, the mother in the movie Mermaids.  Played brilliantly by Cher, Mrs Flax only cooks finger food because anything else, she proclaims, is too much of a commitment.

I know what she means.  A marshmallow kebab is assembled in a matter of seconds, while a lasagne takes time, patience and love. 

But a funny thing happens when you’re making hors d’oeuvres in bulk.  The same time, patience and love that you commit to a full blown meal works its way into every dip or meatball, every fondue and tapenade. 

We’ve done pretty much everything we can do now.  Dishes made ahead are defrosting; table set, serving dishes labelled and at the ready.  The servers will be here in less than five hours, the guests hot on their heels, hungry and happy and full of holiday spirit. 

As I share one more recipe and five more favourite Open House tips with you, I know that every dish we’ve laboured over, sprinkled with a lot of patience and seasoned with love, is worth the time and commitment we make to this seasonal celebration.  May your own holiday celebrations be just as meaningful, and just as much fun.

Arancini
adapted from Martha Stewart Hors d’Ouevres Handbook
makes 3 dozen

These little risotto balls (arancini means "little orange" in Italian) are delicious warm or room temperature and can be made ahead.  I've adapted the recipe by adding a savoury meat filling that makes these little bites even more satisfying.

For the risotto

4 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 large shallots
1 c Arborio rice
½ c dry white wine
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 oz Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
½ cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup yellow cornmeal or fine dry breadcrumbs
2 quarts peanut oil, for frying

1. Bring stock to a simmer over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low and keep warm.  

2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, and cook the shallots until translucent. Add the rice and the salt, stirring frequently to coat all of the grains, until the edges of the rice become translucent. 

3. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until nearly all of the wine is absorbed into the rice. Add 1 cup of the stock and cook, stirring constantly, until nearly all of the stock is absorbed.

4. Continue adding stock, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly, until the rice is creamy but still firm, about 20 minutes. Season with pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley and Parmesan.

5. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl. Allow the rice to cool completely, stirring occasionally. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm and thoroughly chilled. The mixture must be cold before proceeding with the recipe.

For the meat filling

¼ c olive oil

1 each small onion, carrot and celery stalk, finely chopped

¼ lb each ground pork and veal, mixed

1 c Marsala

½ c beef stock

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp minced parsley

1.  In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until softened. 

2.  Add the meat, stirring to break up, and cook until just browned; do not overcook.  Add the Marsala, and turn heat to high; scrape up browned bits as you deglaze the pan.  Reduce liquid by half.

3.  Add the three remaining ingredients, turn heat to medium and simmer until thickened, about 15-20 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4.  If the risotto is chilled, proceed with recipe, otherwise the meat filling can be stored in the refrigerator overnight.  Reheat gently to release juices before proceeding with recipe.

5.   Place 1 generous tablespoon of the risotto in the palm of your hand, pack it lightly and make an indentation in the centre.  Place a teaspoon of the meat mixture in the centre of the rice.  Enclose the meat with the risotto to form a ball.  Don't worry if the meat is not perfectly centred in the ball. Repeat with the remaining risotto and meat, placing finished arancini on parchment-lined trays.  The arancini may be covered and refrigerated overnight at this stage.

6.  Place the flour in a small rimmed baking tray.  Place the eggs in a shallow bowl and the cornmeal or breadcrumbs in a small rimmed baking tray.  Roll the arancini first in the flour, gently shaking off any excess.  Dip the balls into the egg mixture, being sure to let any excess egg drip off before rolling in the cornmeal.  

 

7.     Heat the peanut oil in a large deep skillet.  Carefully slip as many arancini as will fit comfortably in the pan into the hot oil, and fry until golden, 2 to 4 minutes.  Repeat until all of the arancini are cooked.  Drain the arancini on paper towels and keep warm until ready to serve.

 

The arancini can be prepared and cooked one day in advance and reheated in the oven before serving, or formed and refrigerated, uncooked, two days in advance. 

Five Tips For Prepping a Party For a Crowd

1.  Do what restaurants do: sear your meat in advance and finish cooking a la minute.  Lamb chops are an Open House standard for us.  We marinate the racks and sear the meat in advance.  On party day, all that's left to do is the final broil.

Marinated...

...and seared, ready to be finished the next day 

2.  Don't limit yourself to hors d’oeuvres recipes.  Rethink your favourite main course dishes and think about how you can downsize them.  Have a killer lasagne recipe?  Make it, cook it, cool it, precut into little squares, freeze it and presto - lasagne "bites" that you can reheat on party day. 

3.  When we host a dinner party, I always seem to buy too much bread.  With a food ethic that says "never throw anything away",  I slice those half baguettes and freeze them.  Then, whenever I'm throwing a party, I thaw out the slices and toast for crostini/bruschette bottoms.  For the Open House, I also make my own.  One large baguette yields more than two dozen crostini and cost a couple of dollars; a fancy box of crostini yields far less than that, some of them broken, and cost $5.49.  You do the math.

4.  While I do have an extra fridge and freezer in the basement, I also use every available space to keep things cold.  The garage doubles as a giant fridge at this time of year, as does the back porch.  Especially handy for beverages (see tip #5).

5.  We always serve a delicious non-alcoholic punch that both adults and kids love.  I prep four batches in advance in empty extra large cranberry juice bottles, combining everything but the carbonated ingredients.  On party day, I pour a batch into the punch bowl, add the remaining bubbles, stir and serve. 

I'm off to do my last minute prep.  Wishing you a lovely Sunday, wherever you may be.

Holiday Open House Countdown Part Two: Gingerbread Cookies

 Holiday Pop Quiz:

Gingerbread originated in which country?

a.  Sweden

  b.  Armenia

c.  France

If you’re anything like me, random facts, stats, historical footnotes and unusual bits of information intrigue and stick with me. For some reason, I can conveniently forget to pay the phone bill but miraculously remember that the name Wendy was made up for the play Peter Pan, or that Canadians eat more Kraft Dinner per capita than any other country in the world.

I especially love knowing those random and fascinating facts about food. Why mint with lamb? Is Greek yogurt really of Greek origin? And, as I baked more than 17 dozen gingerbread cookies this past weekend for our holiday Open House, I wondered - just where does gingerbread come from?

You’ll have plenty of time to decide if it’s Sweden, Armenia or France while you bake up a batch of my favourite, go-to gingerbread cookies. I’ll admit I’ve tweaked the recipe quite a bit over the years, adding more spices and heightening the ginger-to-molasses ratio. Before you do your own tinkering, try the original version below, from LCBO’s Food and Drink magazine.  And if you really need to know the answer about where gingerbread comes from before you break your first egg, scroll to the end of the post.

Gingerbread Cookies

from LCBO Food and Drink magazine

yields approximately four dozen*

*NB: The yield is entirely dependant on the size of the cookie cutters used.  Naturally, the smaller the cutter the greater the yield, but you are also limiting your ability to later personalise the cookies.

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt
1 tbsp powdered ginger
4 tsp cinnamon
6 c unsifted all purpose flour
1 c vegetable shortening

1¾ c brown sugar

1¼ c white sugar

4 tsp molasses

3 large eggs, room temperature

½ c milk

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

2.  Sift together the baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and flour.  Set aside. 

3. In a stand mixer, cream together the shortening, the two sugars and molasses until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time and continue to cream until incorporated.

4.  Add a little of the flour mixture to the creamed ingredients, incorporating fully before adding more.  When the dough begins to stiffen, begin alternating flour mixture with milk, until both are incorporated.  Mix until a dough is formed.  Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least one hour.

5.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface, about a ¼ inch thick.  Cut out gingerbread with cookie cutters.  If you intend to use the cookies as ornaments, form a hole at the top of the cookie using a straw or chopstick, about a ¼ inch from the top. 

6.  Bake cookies until golden brown at the edges, about 20-25 minutes.  Cool on racks and store until ready to decorate.

Five Tips for Baking Gingerbread Cookies

1.  Start early.  Gingerbread is hardy.  If well cooled and stored in an airtight container, the cookies can be baked weeks in advance.

2.  Sift dry ingredients ahead of time.  If you`re making lots of cookies, sift the dry ingredients for each batch ahead of time and store in Ziplock bags.  It`s an extra step done and makes the work go much more quickly.

3.  Make the dough and prepare the cookies sheets in batches too.  Because the dough has to rest for at least an hour, I spend one evening making the dough and store it in the fridge and then do a massive baking the next night.  Instead of popping every tray in the oven as they're full, I do five full sheets at a time, eliminating the need to constantly open the oven door.

4.  Use chopsticks to form the holes...both before and after baking.  The holes tend to lose their shape during baking; a quick turn in each cookie ensures you`ll be able to thread ribbon through much more easily.

Reinforce ribbon holes in still-warm cookies

5.  Buy extra oven racks and use the convection setting.  I only really bake en masse once a year, but even so that one time made it worth it for me to buy three extra oven racks from my oven manufacturer for mass baking.  Plus, I`m able to use those extra racks for reheating hors d'oeuvres during the Open House.  I also started using the convection setting on my oven, shaving about 10 minutes from the baking time of each batch.

Click here for a super Royal Icing recipe that`s perfect to decorate these brown beauties.

*******

So, where did gingerbread originate?  According to Wikipedia, gingerbread was brought to France via Pompeii in 992 by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis.  The recipe later spread to Sweden and to the nether regions of Europe, every country adding a twist to make it their own.  The constant is the spicy heat from ginger and the abundance of spices in general, reflecting the tendency to use the most rare and coveted ingredients for the Christmas feast.

Holiday Open House Countdown: Part One

I used to adore Christmas. I was the one who got up before all my siblings, going down the stairs on my tippy toes to scope out the presents piled high beneath the tree, checking to see if the milk and cookies were gone, biting down a squeal of delight if there was magical snow on the ground. My older, wiser sisters slept more peacefully, knowing that the thrill of anticipation is best cultivated by waiting, waiting, a little bit longer for gratification.

The obligatory beauty shot with the Christmas tree, pre-Santa visit

Invariably a gift or two was forgotten. There would be a wayward box tucked high in the closet, perhaps with new pyjamas, or maybe, if I was especially lucky, a new doll. New dolls being a rarity in a house with two older sisters and frugal, hand-me-down parents. My mother would suddenly slip away, coming back with the errant package, hastily wrapped and “forgotten” by Santa. Even when I was old enough to catch on, these last minute random gifts seemed somehow special, apart from the rest, and those pyjamas, that doll, treasured all the more for almost having been missed.

Those Christmases of a lifetime ago seem almost as mythical as Dickens. Nowadays, Christmas is a very different affair. My parents are both gone. My sisters and I, although still very close, live many miles and lives apart. And, as hard as we’ve tried, we just can’t seem to interest our cat in either new pyjamas or dolls (although a brand new catnip toy does garner more than passing interest). Time for new traditions, new ways of celebrating and sharing a spirit of joy during the Christmas season.

And thus was born our annual Holiday Open House. An iron-clad tradition, it started as a modest affair with 30 friends and family popping by to nibble on hors d’oeuvres and share a convivial hour or two. Sixteen years and three kitchens later, it is the bellwether for us that the season of giving has truly arrived, and with it, a chance to reconnect, relax, share and celebrate all that is good about Christmas.

With more than 80 people now regularly in attendance, and all of the food prepared by us, I modestly think we’ve become somewhat expert at throwing a ‘do. One that we know is as eagerly anticipated by all who come as it is by us who plan it.

As we begin the four week countdown to the big day – December 18 this year – I thought I would take you along on the journey, sharing tips, tricks, recipes and survival tactics for how to throw a party with aplomb, verve, passion and enthusiasm. Because I do firmly believe that even the most disastrous of events can be salvaged with a bit of verve and a lot of enthusiasm.

Five Tips for a Memorable Holiday Gathering

1. Send proper invitations. By that I mean in the mail. You remember mail, right? When it was exciting to receive a beautiful silver envelope amongst all of the junk and the bills? People still get excited by personal invitations and for the little bit more time and effort, it makes a wonderful impact. Yes, I know I know; you can’t keep track of RSVPs electronically; you can’t automatically send reminders; you won’t know who FOR SURE is coming and with whom – but do you ever really anyway? For years we even made our invites by hand but time and common sense in the form of my husband prevailed. Do what we do and look for beautiful invitations on sale after Christmas. Plan ahead for the next year (but remember where you put them!).

From the complex to the silly: handmade invites of Open Houses past

2. Hire help.  For goodness sake, don’t be a martyr. Hire people to help you serve/clean/clear/take coats. Even if the gathering is small, hire a local college student (or pay your older kids) to pitch in and help. Even better – if there’s a local culinary or hospitality school, post your party there. You’ll get someone who’s enthusiastic about food. You’ll be more relaxed and more importantly you’ll be able to spend time with your guests. For our annual do, we hire five wait staff: two to do last minute prep for food, and three to do the rest.

3. Simplify your food choices. Finger foods are fun easy to prepare and many can be made and frozen in advance. I also stick with all savoury. Introducing sweets means coffee, tea, etc etc.

Pastry cirlces for mini meat pies that can be baked, frozen, and pre-heated as needed

4. Remember it’s the season of giving. Amidst all of the bounty, we try to remember those who have less than us. Every year we accept donations to our Daily Bread Food Bank. With the abundance on the table, it makes us feel great to collect those boxes and boxes of food.

The generosity of our guests in full evidence

5. Give everyone a little something special to take home. Every year we make each guest a personalised gingerbread cookie. It’s probably the most laborious thing we do, but perhaps the most satisfying. I love seeing the look on the kids’ faces when they’re handed a cookie with their name on it. And nothing beats the smell of gingerbread baking.

Stay tuned for more as we gear up and count down. This is truly one of our favourite things – perhaps it will become one for you too.

Plate to Page - Eating and Drinking in la Bella Toscana

How many days does it take, I wonder, to get perfectly accustomed to having wine at every meal? In la bella Toscana, it seems the answer is barely two. Just days into the Plate to Page workshop and already I’m anticipating the wine we’ll have with lunch at Il Salicone winery.

Il Salicone is not your typical Tuscan winery. It’s an artisanal operation, producing small batch Sangiovese blend wines that are more likely to find their way into demijohns for local purchase as they are to be bottled and sold at retail. There’s no proper restaurant; tables are set outside, mismatched glasses and plastic utensils belying the feast that’s to come. The three signore preparing our meal smile and say “buon giorno” as we walk through the kitchen and out onto the simple terrace.

There couldn’t be a more perfect day for it, with the sun so blazingly hot it feels more like July than October. There’s barely a whisper of a breeze and even the birds seemed fooled into thinking it’s summer, singing like crazy as they scramble for stray crumbs. The meal is brought out and almost offhandedly laid before us. Platters abound: chicken liver crostini; cheese with acacia honey; simple salume. Ribollita¸ a slow cooked soup of day old bread and seasonal vegetables are here, along with a choice of fritatte: cheese, pancetta or leeks. The Poggioalcanto we’re drinking is just right with this Tuscan spread: full and fruity, without the rough edge that many Sangiovese wines seem to have.

We sit back, sated. And then la signora comes out with one last bite – a plate of cantuccini, traditional Tuscan almond cookies. Twice baked to draw out the moisture, cantuccini are deliberately hard and dry, to store them for long periods of time, as was the original intent, or better yet, to dip them into our wine. I move to a shady spot to savour this last bite.  As I dip the cantuccio, it absorbs the liquid like a sponge, transforming it from buttery yellow to a deep plum, and softening it just enough to take a resounding bite. Sweet and acidic, soft and hard, the conflicting sensations combine somehow in the most satisfying way.

I drain the last sip in my glass, thankful that the next meal – and next glass of wine – is only hours away.

************

This blog post was conceived and written at the recent Plate to Page Tuscany workshop, in partnership with Marta Majewska, who blogs at Princess Misia.  Marta is a fantastic photographer, and shot the first and the last photo in this post, while I captured the words that described our experience, and the biscotti in the middle.  Thanks, Marta, for being an amazing assignment partner and a great roommate to boot! And hugs to Valentina Jacome, our other roomie, who blogs in Portuguese at Trem Bom.

And if you are passionate about food and blogging, and you haven't heard of Plate to Page Tuscany, get thee to their website.  The four organisers are not only truly successful food bloggers; they are absolutely delightful, and the very best hosts for an intensive, engaging writing and photography workshop.  The next Plate to Page is taking place in Somerset, Engalnd; be sure to register your interest!

With thanks to the P2P rock stars: Ilva Beretta of Lucullian Delights, Jeanne Horak-Druiff of Cook Sister!,Meeta Kurana Wolff of What's For Lunch, Honey?, and Jamie Schler of Life's a Feast.  Watch this space for more P2P posts!

La Bella Italia: Panzanella Salad from la cucina povera

Always the freshest produce at the Italian market

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

Born to Italian immigrants, I saw this first hand growing up. We reused and recycled long before it was fashionable; everything was saved and nothing went to waste. Nowhere was that more apparent than around food. The parmigiano rind went into the soup, adding depth and richness of flavour. Drippings were carefully strained and preserved. Coffee grinds and egg shells made a rich compost, the better to grow our tomatoes, zucchini and peppers.

That is also how the most delicious of Italian dishes have been born. La cucina povera – literally the poor kitchen – is represented by those dishes where a little had to go a long way, a piece of meat was precious, scarce and longed for, and nothing ever went to waste. Pappa al pomodoro – bread and tomato soup. Risi e bisi – rice and beans. Acquacotta – literally “cooked water” soup, into which all of the day’s scraps were combined to make a warming (and delicious) broth.

Rolling Tuscan hills as far as the eye can see at Fattoria di Montalbano

The view at breakfast - an idyllic spot to start the day

We began our recent two week Italian holiday in an agriturismo just south of Florence – Fattoria di Montalbano. We had rented Il Trebbiali, a six bedroom villa on the grounds of the Nustrini farm. Charming, comfortable and with a big homey Tuscan kitchen, I had visions of cooking up a storm of Italian delicacies. As it happened, dinner was more often than not a gorgeous plate of salume and cheese, accompanied by delicious Chianti.

Enjoying a sundowner at Il Trebbiali

On our last night at Il Trebbiali, we planned to use the last of what was in the fridge. And so it was that I experienced firsthand la cucina povera. Upon inspection, there wasn’t much left, but I knew what was there would be great. I’d assemble a plate of the remaining finocchiona, prosciutto and pecorino; the fresh sausages we bought at the local marcelleria would be grilled, and we’d finish with perhaps my favourite of the cucina povera repertoire: panzanella – a tomato, bread and cucumber salad that humbly combines a handful of ingredients into a splendid dish.

Panzanella Salad
serves four comfortably, and two greedily

A half a loaf or more of good quality day old Italian bread. The bread must be old; this is not the time to use a fresh loaf
Olive oil
One garlic clove, cut in half
6-8 really ripe but firm tomatoes. Forget the hard tasteless fruits of winter and greenhouses
1 English cucumber
4-6 leaves fresh basil, torn
More olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Slice the bread into thick pieces. Rub the cut clove over one side and generously brush both sides of the bread with olive oil. Grill the bread over a charcoal grill, turning the pieces until both sides are browned and toasted. Set bread aside to cool.

2. Roughly chop the tomatoes and put them in a large serving bowl. Some recipes for panzanella call for the tomatoes to be peeled and seeded; I say - this is a rustic salad. La mamma would have dispensed with such niceties when trying to feed a hungry family.

3. Trim the cucumber and chop into bite sized pieces. Add to the tomatoes. Add the basil.

4. Cut the bread into large crouton-style cubes. Add to the tomatoes and toss all three ingredients until well combined.

5. Add a generous amount of olive oil (at least 2 tbsp) and salt and pepper to taste. Toss, taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

The salad can be made ahead, enough so that the juices develop and the bread absorbs some of the tomato flavour but not so much that you have soggy bread.  If you are making ahead, add the basil just before serving and give a final toss to combine ingredients.

Serve at the end of a Tuscan meal, preferably during sunset, and finish with a delightful bottle of Chianti.

Buon appetito!

La Bella Italia

It's been so long since I've updated duckandcake, but it's not a shortage of stories that's stopping me.  In between life, which has been full tilt and non-stop busy, Richard and I escaped to Italy for a blissful two week holiday.  Stay tuned as I share stories, great places to stay and visit, recipes and most of all our wonderful food experiences. 

Pranzo in Spoleto and a taste of posts to come...

A presto, amici!

Just Peachy: Homemade Peach Salsa

I can’t believe it’s already September. It’s the time of year that becomes measured by the retail count-down calendar. Back to school is barely over before Halloween candies and Thanksgiving turkeys creep into the grocery aisles. And when I hear that first Christmas carol on the radio, I know that snow and short dark days are not far behind.

But I know I'll forget all of that when I see what’s at the farmers’ market today. An embarrassment of tomato riches. Ripe peaches and plums. Early apples, mouth-puckering tart. Glorious corn. It’s when I wish we had a houseful of kids so that I can buy bushels of produce.

A year after I discovered the joys of canning and preserving, I’m itching to buy those bushels anyway and lock summer in a jar.  The sad truth is that I just don't have the time.  It’s the choices around time that are the hardest ones to make of all.  I’ve been away from home for far too long and too much these past three weeks to buy three bushels of tomatoes and lock myself in the kitchen making sauce.  Striking the balance between what feeds our soul and what feeds our relationships is a constant struggle.  So, right now, I'll spend my weekend reconnecting with my husband, my house and my life, satisfied in the knowledge that I managed to make the most of some gorgeous summer peaches three weeks ago.

Peach Salsa
makes about 8 8-oz jars

Although I have several cookbooks devoted to canning and preserving, my go-to is the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving.  I use it more as a guide than a step by step, especially when it comes to sugar quantities.  This is my version of the Bernardin peach salsa, modified to let the peach flavour really shine.

½ c white vinegar
10 c peeled and chopped peaches
1 chopped red onion
2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
¼ c chopped cilantro
2 tbsp honey
½ tbsp cumin
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

1.  Put all ingredients in a large non reactive pot and stir gently to combine. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat and bring to a rolling simmer for five minutes, continuing to stir until the salsa is thickened slightly.

2.  Ladle hot salsa in prepared jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.  Remove jars from water, check for proper sealing, cool and store.*

Use this mildly piquant salsa with with pork, fish or grilled meats

*If you haven't canned before, refer back to my post on Italian Plum Jam, which includes a step-by-step pictorial and some great links to preserving websites