Category Archives: Cupboard essentials

Pasta . peas . lemon and Parmigiano

March 28, 2021 By in Cooking with an Italian attiude, Cupboard essentials Tags: , , 1 Comment

This is a short story about a quick one-bowl lunch or supper, made with the greens of the season. 

Making a good meal with fresh ingredients doesn’t have to take forever. In fact in Italy as I know it, the making of a pasta can be defined as real fast food.  In my opinion the most enjoyable pranzo pastas, focus on a seasonal vegetable, combined with a fresh powdery grating of Parmesan or Pecorino cheese. Make this bowl of goodness to celebrate the joy of a new season, that goes by the poetic name primavera in Italian, which of course translates to spring. 

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Polenta . part vii . a summary of basic recipes

February 27, 2021 By in Cooking with an Italian attiude, Cupboard essentials Tags: , , Leave a comment

This post marks the fourth and last story on polenta planned for the wintry month of February. At the outset of the project, four savory and four sweet recipes seemed the perfect, compact number for a blog collaboration. And yet, as the project comes to an end, I promise that more recipes will be added to this collection.

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Polenta . part iii . “pizza gialla” revisited

February 13, 2021 By in Cooking with an Italian attiude, Cupboard essentials Tags: , , 1 Comment

Six years have passed since I first wrote a blog about polenta. The time spent writing the original looks  like the pages of a faded diary. The first version of this recipe came about by chance. A friend of mine was intent upon avoiding wheat, but simply could not stop dreaming of pizza.  The thought of a golden, crispy polenta crust, burnt perfectly around the edges by the flames of an open fireplace came immediately to mind.  This is how the idea and the name for “pizza gialla” was born.

It took a while to figure out how to emulate a pizza-like crust with polenta. That being said, the deliciousness of grilled polenta comes very close to the kind of comfort found in the pizza experience. Even though polenta stays soft in the middle, and cannot imitate the chewiness a slow-rise wheat dough can, the finished result is a perfect stand-in to the original.

As part of the polenta project I am engaging in at the moment, I tested my original recipe. A simplified version of the pizza gialla recipe I published in 2014, can be found below.

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Polenta . part i . minestra de farina zala

February 5, 2021 By in Authentic Italian, Cooking with an Italian attiude, Cupboard essentials, My culinary tradition Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

With winter in full swing, now is the perfect time to bring up the subject of polenta. It is an ingredient that sparks highly conflicting opinions. Many adore it, while others are convinced it is tasteless. That being said, I grew up in the Veneto. In this part of the world, polenta and risotto are not only food staples, they are food icons.

So to those who say polenta is inedible, I can only promise that they must try a bowl made by someone who understands how to make it. To those who love it, I feel a recognizable connection. All opinions aside, as with many foods it is a question of texture. Think of polenta as a soft, silky mash that replaces the potato for example; imagine it as the comforting neutral base to stews and thick, chunky minestrone style soups. I am convinced that like me, you will jump at the chance to have some.

Read the nostalgic recipe below, to learn how to make a creamy, pale yellow soup, known as minestra di farina zala, in Vicentino dialect. I believe it is the perfect starting point in the appreciation of simplicity.

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Orange peel paradise

January 4, 2021 By in Cupboard essentials Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Every cook has at least one obsession. A  clear preference for a certain preparation method, distinct focus upon specific kitchen equipment, or the fascination for a certain sort of ingredient are all telltale signs of what I like to call a cook’s character.

A unique personality manifests itself not only in what an individual cooks, but also in how they go about doing so.  Food memories, though different for each of us, are inevitably related to people we love, or moments in time of special significance. Our human experience comes together through the power of the senses.

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Zuppa !

October 12, 2020 By in Authentic Italian, Cupboard essentials Tags: , , , , 4 Comments

Zuppa is the Italian name for soup made with a mixture of vegetables, cooked in broth. The word zuppa can also describe any general mix-up of things outside the soup bowl or the kitchen for that matter . . . such as a chaotic meeting or a confusing conversation for example . . .  It is derived from the word inzuppare which literally translates as to drench or to soak. 

Now back to the story of soup. The wonderful thing about zuppa is that its composition is a free-for-all for individualists. A limitless possibility of ingredient combinations are open to interpretation, depending on the cook’s mood and the availability that comes with the season. Continue reading →

Savory oregano pastry

July 15, 2020 By in Cupboard essentials, My culinary tradition Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

This pastry has earned a prominent place in my kitchen repertoire because it is quicker to make than pizza dough . . . which by the way is a source of continuous experimentation at my house . . .

It forms the base to many a colorful vegetable torta, and even shapes the crust for my interpretation of the famous chard filled erbazzone. It is also the type of pastry I use to make savory crackers, flavored with anything from fresh rosemary and slivers of garlic, to grated Parmesan and coarse black pepper.

To make this pretty pastry only two things are needed:  good flour and butter, preferably organic and produced close to home

Mixing the cold butter through the flour with a gentle hand helps the end result to be perfectly crumbly and delicious.

Oh . . . did I say you can replace the butter with extra virgin olive oil ? See my notes for the explanation how to replace butter with olive oil.

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Sweet crumbly pastry

June 28, 2020 By in Cupboard essentials, My culinary tradition Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

When I started to cook for a living, baking was not my preference. Absorbed as I was with herbs and vegetables, working with sweet ingredients was an absolute afterthought. My desserts were simple and bowls of fresh fruit were invariably at the center of the table. In the summer, I topped fresh fruit (especially strawberries) with Marsala and honey mascarpone. In colder seasons, oven-baked fruits and homemade biscotti were an effortless alternative to cake.

My shortcrust pastry efforts failed on a regular basis, thus confirming an old bias that cooks are generally skilled in either the sweet or the savory. One day, I discovered the beauty of patience and of flour!

The process of mixing cool finely ground grains with cold butter and the richness of egg yolks became a fascination as well as an early morning ritual (because baking somehow still turns out best when it’s my first task of the day . . .)

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Elderflower water forever

June 10, 2020 By in Cupboard essentials, My culinary tradition Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

If given the opportunity I would probably wander the fields gathering blossoms and greens every single day of the year – only to take my discoveries home to study and create in the kitchen. These delicate elderflower blossoms were foraged for me. I found them at the organic market close to where I live. Once I got my stash of pale golden flowers home, I wrapped them in newspaper and put them in a jug of water for the afternoon to experience their delicate perfume.

It didn’t take long before I simply had to get cooking. I always try to work simply, adding more ingredients or complexer techniques only if necessary. I guess that sums up my idea about cooking — the closer I can stay to nature’s flavors the better. The effort required to make elderflower infused water is minimal and the result is more than worth the time. Continue reading →

Strawberry rhubarb romance

May 19, 2020 By in Cupboard essentials, My culinary tradition Tags: , , 2 Comments

I love it when things come together unexpectedly.  Even though it seems obvious now, I had no idea strawberries and an absolutely sour stalk of a vegetable make for a match worth obsessing about. . .

Strawberries hardly need an introduction — they are the luscious berry of family picnics and summer holidays — they are the sweetest and most universally loved fruit imaginable.  I would even go so far as to call them the poetic symbol of spring.

Rhubarb on the other hand is relatively unknown. It is grown mostly in North America, the British Isles, Scandinavia and northern Europe. It goes beyond tart, is practically impossible to eat raw and cannot be brought to the table without somehow making its way to the stove first. It’s most redeeming quality seems to be its brightly colored outer stalks.

What makes these two work so well together and why didn’t I know about this earlier I wonder?  Suffice it to say that my upbringing in Italy didn’t familiarize me with this particular ingredient. Incompatible in their raw state, when heat comes into play, these rivaling  ingredients suddenly melt together to form the perfect pair.

I have made this conserve over and over again in the last few weeks. I am even finding every excuse to drizzle it over the ingredients to every meal, from whole grain toast in the morning to my green salad with goat’s cheese and pink pepper for supper. In fact as I write these words, I am trying to ignore the urge to take the jar out of the refrigerator for just one more spoonful . . . Continue reading →