Not Entirely Italian
Bread, Soup, Salad and more with a slightly Italian twist.
When I got interested in cooking – back in high school – the first real dishes I learned how to cook were Italian American classics. My dad taught me to make his one and only edible specialty, fettuccini alfredo, which he made with hand rolled noodles that were really more like polygonal dumplings than noodles. I cooked eggplant parmesan and ragu bolognese that I’d seen on various PBS shows like “Great Chefs.” I burned myself frequently. I burned red sauces even more frequently.
I still love red sauce style meals, the sort that makes you think of red and white checked tablecloths, raffia wrapped wine bottles, and big baskets of pillow-soft sweet bread drenched in garlic butter. However, over the years, I have also come to appreciate a more subtle style of pseudo-Italian cooking, an admittedly composite cuisine that takes some of the best techniques and traditions of different regional cuisines and melds them into something that’s satisfying and simple and sophisticated (well, I think it’s sophisticated, but I’m not… so take that assertion with a grain of salt. Preferably a large grain of good sea salt.)
This week’s meal borrows from flavors most Americans now identify as “Tuscan,” although I’m not striving for authenticity here. White beans, kale, rosemary, lamb, a subtle use of tomato, and bitter greens (which in this case aren’t green at all). These dishes alone or together are perfect for a changing season and wonderful on these first chilly Autumn evenings. Bread and Soup. Rich braised meat with herbs and aromatics, and bitter greens with bright citrus.
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Quick Ciabatta
I am a strong believer that bread makes any meal, and that homemade bread makes any meal better. Lots of folks have taken up baking in these past few months, and a lot of you have probably tried baking, or at least seen your social media feeds swamped with friends who are trying to bake sourdough bread. Naturally risen bread is wonderful, lasts longer, tastes better, and goes well with many meals – even this one. However, sourdough is a little fussy, requires preparation and planning, and sometimes you just don’t have a week to spend on a finicky starter, or two days to spend on a long, slow fermentation. This ciabatta is pretty much the opposite of all of that. It uses instant yeast, takes as little as two hours start to finish, and gives you delicious, fresh bread on the table without all the fuss.
This recipe uses a very high hydration percentage and a stand mixer to quickly develop the gluten needed to give the bread its light, bubbly structure. I nearly always use a digital scale for baking to measure the weight of ingredients, as the results are a lot more consistent than measuring by volume using standard metal cups. So, this recipe uses weight instead of volume.
Makes two loaves
2-3 hours, 30 minutes active
500 g bread flour
435 g lukewarm water
7 g instant yeast
10 g Kosher salt
Add the water, yeast, and roughly half the bread flour to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Mix at low speed until all ingredients are fully incorporated.
Add the remaining flour and salt.
Mix on high until the dough is shiny, has pulled completely away from the side of the bowl, and the dough starts to wrap up and around the paddle.
Remove the paddle attachment and scrape the dough free.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until tripled in volume – 35 minutes to 2 hours depending on temperature.
Preheat your oven to 450 °F
Punch down the dough and divide into two even pieces.
The dough will be very stick, so flour your hands generously and/or use a bench scraper to handle the dough.
On a lightly-floured surface, shape the dough into two even rectangles, folding the ends under to form low rectangular loaves.
Carefully lift the loaves onto a sheet pan lined with lightly-greased parchment.
Allow to proof in a warm, moist place for 25 minutes.
Bake at 450 °F until browned.
Cool.
Serve with olive oil scattered with herbs.
White Bean Soup with Kale
My memories of bean soup aren’t good. Let me explain. My alma mater’s hippie-packed cafeteria made some real horror-show attempts to provide vegetable protein to a student body with a large percentage of vegetarians. Most were downright awful. Some were worse than that, and don’t even ask me about the “Lentil Loaf” they served. There’s a reason I often ate three kinds of potatoes in one day. Now, both being older, fancier, and free of the constraints of tray based meal choices, I really enjoy bean soups. This dish, a simplified take on the classic Ribollita, has become a staple in our kitchen – sometimes spiked with sausage, sometimes with tomato added, sometimes made with leftover roast chicken. It’s satisfying, warming, and frozen and reheated ends up as a lot of fall/winter lunches.
Serves 4
3 hours plus overnight soak, 30 minutes active
1 cup dry small white beans
½ tsp baking soda
4 cups water
1 tsp Kosher salt
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 bunch Cavolo Nero (aka Dino Kale or Lacinato Kale)
¼ cup loosely packed celery leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flake
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 small bough fresh basil
1 bay leaf
Salt and black pepper to taste
Soak the beans overnight in 4 cups of water with ½ tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp salt. This will soften the skins and improve the texture of the soup.
Peel, trim, and mince the garlic.
Mince the celery leaves.
Add the olive oil to a heavy bottomed, lidded pot over medium heat.
Add the celery leaves, garlic, and 1 tsp red pepper flake.
Sauté until the leaves are dark, the oil is slightly red, and the garlic is soft, but do not brown the garlic.
Drain the beans and add to the pot along with the chicken stock.
Using a short length of string, tie the herbs and bay leaf into a bouquet garni. You can simply add them all to the pot but tying them up makes it much easier to fish out later. Add this to the pot.
Bring the pot to a low simmer and cook 1-2 hours, or until the beans are soft.
Separately, blanch the kale for 30 seconds in vigorously salted water, the shock in ice water. Drain he kale and squeeze out as much water as possible. Blanching is optional, but it will help keep the kale’s color and flavor.
Chop the kale into 1-inch pieces and stir into the soup.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve with chili oil and a sprinkling of fresh parsley or celery leaves.
To make chili oil, add 1 tbsp red chili flake to ¼ cup of oil and gently heat for 15 minutes or until the oil is red and fragrant. Strain, and use as a garnish.
Radicchio, Grapefruit, and Pistachio Salad
Radicchio is one of my favorite greens. Yes, I know it’s not green. Instead, most of it is an amazing splash of deep red and bright white. It can be bracingly bitter, but that bitterness hides a surprising sweetness, and when paired with another bittersweet element – in this case grapefruit – somehow the whole is balanced. This salad is a delicious counter to rich meats – and honestly, with the bright colors, it just looks fantastic
Serves 4
15 minutes plus soaking time
2 small heads of radicchio
2 grapefruits
¼ cup coarsely-chopped pistachios
¼ cup thinly-sliced parmesan cheese
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp Kosher salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Tear radicchio into 2 inch pieces, and soak in cold water for 10-15 minutes. Drain and refrigerate.
Supreme the grapefruit. Cut away the peel and cut out slices between the ribs. Set slices aside for later. Retain the core.
Squeeze the core into a bowl, extracting as much juice as possible.
Add 1 tbsp of juice to a non-reactive bowl.
Add salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and olive oil, and whisk until combined.
Toss radicchio, grapefruit slices, parmesan cheese, and nuts in the dressing.
Arrange on plates.
Braised Lamb Shank with “Polenta”
Lamb can be a contentious protein. Some people find it gamey – and if you’re one of those, you can make this dish with a pork shank – but If you like lamb, and I mean really like lamb, the shank is practically the king of cuts. Braised in a slow oven, surrounded by flavorful aromatics, and bathed in a stock that keeps it moist, the otherwise tough cut absorbs all those flavors and melts into a soft, luscious piece of meat that you can cut with a fork. The high collagen content of the meat thickens and enriches the broth. I serve it over “polenta,” which I’ve put in quotes because truth be told, I almost never use Italian-style polenta and almost always reach for its cousin – American-style white corn grits. The two are similar, but grits are milder and – I think – a better match for this dish. Also, to be completely honest, I buy bulk grits from Anson Mills and almost always have some in my freezer. Slow cooked and spiked with parmesan and butter, these grits are an amazing accompaniment to the rich lamb.
Serves 4
4 hours total, 30 minutes active
4 small lamb shanks
4 cups beef or lamb stock
4 ripe plum tomatoes
1 whole head garlic
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh oregano
1 bay leaf
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp fish sauce
Preheat your oven to 300 °F.
Season the lamb shanks with Kosher salt and black pepper.
Brown the shanks on all sides in an oven-proof pan. Remove the shanks and set aside.
Quarter the tomatoes and add to the fat in the pan, cooking for 2 minutes or until slightly softened.
Add the stock and fish sauce to the pan with the tomatoes and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom.
Return the shanks to the pot, and bring to a low simmer.
Cut the unpeeled head of garlic in half across all the cloves and add it all to the pan.
Tie the rosemary, thyme, oregano and bay leaf into a bouquet garni and add to the pot.
Transfer to the oven and cook for four hours, basting occasionally. Turn the shanks once halfway through the cook.
Remove the shanks and set aside. Strain the solids from the remaining stock, reserving tomato pieces for garnish.
Retain the liquid and skim off as much fat as possible.
Return the broth and lamb to the pan and keep warm until service.
Parmesan Grits Polenta
½ cup grits
¼ cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the grits according to the producer’s instructions. Stir in the parmesan and butter just before serving.
To serve the meal, spread a disk of grits on each plate, top with a lamb shank, and spoon that delicious sauce over both. Garnish with pieces of tomatoes and fresh herbs.
Orange Chocolate Budino With Dried Fruit and Nuts
Budino is pudding. Sure, it’s good fancy pudding you might find on the menu at a great restaurant, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still pudding. The good thing is that because there isn’t a whole aisle of Budino Cups and GoBudnio, or a freezer case of Budino Pops, we get to pretend it’s a very fancy adult desert and get to eat what is essentially a really awesome bowl of pudding.
This recipe is derived from a handful of sources and uses both eggs and cornstarch to thicken the pudding. This has the advantage of making a luscious product without as much fuss as you might get making a traditional egg-thickened pudding.
Serves 4
30 minutes
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch with 2 tbsp water
2 tsp orange liqueur or ½ tsp orange extract
¼ cup chopped nuts (any nuts)
¼ cup chopped dried fruit (apricots, cherries, raisins, currants)
1 oz brandy, bourbon or rum (opt)
If using, add the brandy, bourbon or rum to the chopped fruit and allow to soak while preparing the rest of the dish.
Scald the cream by bringing it to simmer in a thick-bottomed pot, then remove it from the heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate, stirring to completely melt and incorporate the chocolate.
Warm the milk to a low simmer and add the chocolate/cream mixture to the milk, whisking to combine. Do not add the cream and chocolate to cold milk, or else the mixture will seize.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl until light and creamy.
Temper the egg and sugar mixture by slowly pouring about 3/4 cup of the warm, chocolate dairy mixture into the egg and sugar mixture while continuously whisking.
While whisking, slowly pour the tempered mixture back into the larger pot.
Add the cornstarch and water slurry and liqueur or extract.
Bring to a low simmer, stirring constantly with a rubber or silicone spatula.
Cook until thickened, about 2 minutes.
Transfer the pudding to a bowl or other container to cool, covering with plastic wrap pressed directly against the surface (this will help prevent a skin from forming).
To serve, portion into individual bowls and scattered with chopped nuts and fruits, and a dollop of whipped cream, crème fraiche or yogurt.
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Hi Drew! What are your thoughts on replacing a cup of stock in the lamb shanks recipe with a cup of red wine?