I had not planned to write this, hence the paucity of photos but with the heat wave upon us, I changed my mind. This is the easiest pasta sauce imaginable. It requires a minimum of ingredients and even those can be switched out to suit the taste of the chef. I had a box of grape tomatoes, some basil and a box of medium shells. Red wine vinegar, olive oil. That’s it.
dDirections? 1/2 hour before you plan to put the water on to boil and depending on whether you are using cherry or grape tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in either half or quarters. Add to a bowl along with a splash of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to sit. Boil the pasta according to box instructions. Drain. Add olive oil to tomato mix and toss. Add pasta and basil and eat. Can even be served at room temperature. If you want, you can add things like chopped anchovies, chopped capers, chopped onions, but all that requires more work and when you are too wilted to cook, chopping just becomes another heat producer. Swap out tomatoes for grated zucchini if that is your pleasure. You are only limited by your imagination!
Isn’t this a picture? I prefer the shape pastas to the long pastas for this recipe. And I love the way the shells capture the tomato pieces. Enjoy!
This is a great quick preparation for carnivores, pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans. Gluten free. Dairy free. And in the next month or so, they will be everywhere! Can go on toast, pasta, fish, meat, in eggs….getting the picture? 4 ingredients unless you really want to jazz it up. I bring you ZUCCHINI BUTTER. To make, you will need
Note. One of the ingredients is a piece of equipment. That everyone has. In some way, shape or form.
To make. Grate your zucchini on your box grater using the largest holes. If you want to break out the food processor, just pulse a few times to get the size shown below. Do not over process, you are not making soup, you are making butter. It should be mentioned that any color of zucchini or summer squash can be used. I think, as the product arrives at markets or in stores, the smaller varieties would be better because they are sweeter but do not let lack of small vegetables deter you from making this. Your grated product should look like this.
Chop shallot and add to zucchini bowl. No shallots? Use onion. Use scallion. Use garlic, but sparingly. You want to taste zucchini.
Heat your pan, and after heated, add olive oil. If you are using non stick, add olive oil and heat pan at the same time. Toss in zucchini and shallots, salt and pepper and let cook down. This is halfway through the process.
The water from the zucchini will cook out and the zucchini will soften. The edges may get a bit brown just continue to toss, the whole process will not take more than 15 minutes.
This is the finished product. Allow to cool and you will see that your zucchini has become spreadable, you get it, just like butter! And that’s all there is to it. If it needs more salt, add salt. If you like it a bit more fiery, add red pepper flakes or my favorite Calabrian Chili past. Want basil? Just throw it in. More acidic? A squeeze of lemon. The world is your zucchini!
Now what? Below is the simplest way to use. Toast a piece of bread and spread the butter. Eat.
I made breakfast with some leftover pasta and threw a bit of the butter in the eggs and I give you this.
And there you have it. Keep it in the fridge and remove just before spreading. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
After spending a wonderful and food filled 10 days in Spain, I find that I am drawn more than ever to small bites. Not that I needed that much in the way of encouragement, but the Spanish seem to have developed the final word on yumminess in small plates. So with that in mind, I give you my spin on Pan Tomate. Normally, Pan Tomate is a piece of toast rubbed with some tomato and topped with something. This is an upgraded riff on that-easy, involves no cooking unless you call toasting bread cooking, only a bit of hands on time (think less than 5 minutes) and can be used in a myriad of ways. Perfect for your next happy hour nibble. What you need are these items:
Notice, two of the 6 items are “utensils”. I had a beefsteak tomato that was sitting unused and decided to employ it for this appetizer. Also shown are salt, bread, and oil. I am using Spanish olive oil, use what you want or what you have. The bread is an olive loaf, again, use what you want or have. For you gluten free folks, substitute the olive bread with your gluten free fave. Grate the tomato on the largest holes of the box grater. It may smush if you have an overly ripe tomato, if that occurs, you can chop down the larger pieces, but by and large the tomato will grate easily and you will end up with this.
Pour your what is now tomato puree into a strainer placed over a bowl , salt lightly, and allow the tomato to drain. Like so.
The more liquid part of the puree will seep into the bowl below and you will be left with a spreadable product. Don’t worry about the seeds. In Spain, I saw seeds everywhere, even in a 2 Michelin Star restaurant surrounded by the gelatin which holds the seeds in place. They are delicious. A bit tangy.
Now the fun part. Take your bread, toast it slightly, and and then “butter it” with the tomato. I will show you two different iterations. The first was part of a tapas dinner on a Sunday night. The second was a breakfast toast with avocado.
In Madrid, they call this a matrimonio. A combination of white and grey anchovies for anchovy lovers. I love anchovies, but admit that there are haters out there. Maybe you should give them another go??
This is tamer. Both were delicious. Topped with a bit of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Pepper if you want. Parsley or cilantro.
So what else can you use? Top with thinly sliced manchego. Top with tinned tuna or another tinned fish. Top with a slice of sweet onion. You can even top with a fried egg. You are only limited by your imagination!
Now what to do with the tomato water that filtered out. Martini lovers, I am looking at you! Add to some chilled Vodka, skewer a small piece of Mozzarella and a leaf of basil. Not your grandmother’s Caprese!
I hope you make this. Like I said it is so easy to prepare, inexpensive, and so many ways to enjoy!
I am currently visiting family in Chicago. This visit always turns into a food-a-thon, and that is great fun. While going through the pantry looking for something, I happened upon a sleeve of large rice paper wrappers which had seen better days. We had had a salad the night before and there was some fresh spinach left. I had to do a run to the grocery store and picked up some curly kale for another salad. While putting things away into the fridge, I saw a half block of feta and some unopened dill and realized that there was enough of everything to make filling for spanakopita and figured I would try it with the rice paper bits for Happy Hour nibbles. It worked. Lo and behold, I give you rice paper treats.
The fixings. This made 12 squares.
First, I chopped the spinach and kale really finely. You can probably do the same in a food processor, but I didn’t want to take out another appliance. Get the greens as fine as you can and then squeeze out as much liquid as you can to get a dry mix.
Chop the scallion, garlic, and dill and add to the spinach/kale bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix.
Add the egg and stir all together.
Crumble the feta (use as much as you want, I used about 1/4 block) and add to the entire mix. Stir to combine. If you want to taste, make a small patty and cook to make sure you have all the seasonings ok. A grate or two of nutmeg would go really well with the greens, I forgot to add but you will do better.
Now, set a dinner plate aside and add some water. Take a second dinner plate or a tray and spray or brush with oil. Take a rice paper sheet and place on the water plate for a few seconds. Flip the sheet and let sit for another few seconds. Take out and place on your board. Add a spoonful of the mix to the part of the sheet closest to you like so.
You can see that the paper is damp. That is what you want. The damper it is, the easier it is to roll. Starting at the bottom, fold the paper over the mix, then fold the two sides over and roll and flatten, much like you would do with a burrito. Place on the oil plate. Repeat until you have finished the filling or run out of paper. I forgot to take a foto of the wrapped square, but you will see in the finished product below.
Oil a non stick pan and place the squares over medium heat. They will get crispy and the interior will cook. Flip after a few minutes, that depends on how brown you want the exterior or how many people are hovering over you as you cook. I made 12. As I was taking them out of the pan, they were eaten. I had to move fast to get a finished picture!
I made a quick dip with some yogurt and the scallion tops that were left and that was it!
Why do I love this and why will I make it again? It’s easy. It tastes good. I always have rice paper sheets and you should too, they can be used for so many things, cooked and uncooked! Everyone loves hot crispy things. And it is so much easier than making with phyllo because you do not have to wait 24-48 hours for the phyllo to defrost. You don’t have to keep the rice paper sheets covered while you work. It’s gluten free for your gluten free friends. It took about 15 minutes to put the whole thing together including taking fotos to show you. Did I say it tastes good? I hope you try it. If you do, let me know how it goes!
I was testing a recipe for pork spareribs for a Lunar New Year party that we are having in my building. I found the pork recipe I wanted, but as I was making the ribs for dinner, I needed a side veggie to go with the pork and rice. I had some fresh broccoli in the fridge, so that became my side and the inspiration for this post. The good thing about this prep is that the seasonings can be used for a roasted side or a steamed dish. And the ingredients are probably things you have, but I am including some two items that you may want to keep on hand for future use. Both of these items can be stored in the fridge for a bit, so it may make sense to add them to your everyday larder. Or not, you do you.
To prep the broccoli for either steaming or roasting, break down the florets into smaller pieces and peel the stems and cut them into coins. Here I have two small broccoli crowns; you can see the before and after.
If steaming, just add to your steamer and cook to your liking. If roasting, which I prefer, toss with a bit of neutral oil and add to roasting pan. Don’t crowd pan or your broccoli will not crisp up and I like my broccoli with crunchy edges. I set oven to a pretty high heat, 400-425 for about 15 minutes. After that, toss and keep an eye on the pan, burnt isn’t good. Roast to your preferred taste and remove.
To finish the dish, you are ready to season. Simply, toss with lemon juice and chili flakes, salt and pepper to taste. Or you can bougee the dish with these ingredients, and these make a big and tasty difference.
Notice the use by date on the peppers. Once you get accustomed to using these peppers, you will go through them long before the use by date. The preserved lemons are a pickle by another name and last for a long time as well. See sentence regarding peppers and repeat.
With both of these ingredients, a little goes a long way so taste as you go. The peppers have a bit of a kick and the lemons are salty. A scant 1/2 teaspoon of the peppers will suffice for the amount of broccoli shown if you want just a bit of heat. The lemons are soft, again I use scant 1/2 teaspoon to start and toss with chilis and broccoli and taste for seasoning. That’s it. Either dish can be served hot, at room temp, or chilled for a salad. If taking from fridge, remove about 10 minutes before serving to let the flavors come back to life.
Want another idea on how to use? Crostini. Toast some bread, rub with a clove of garlic, chop the broccoli a bit finer, and top the toast. Drizzle a bit of olive oil to complete the dish. Serve with a glass of red wine. Enjoy!
After a bit of a hiatus, you know, Covid (blame everything on Covid), life, laziness, the usual, I am restarting my bitty blog about nibbles. Those of you who subscribe may be happy (I hope so), hopefully some new followers may appear. With a New Year and resolutions pushing at me, the time seems right. So without further ado, let’s get started
RED WINE MUSHROOM RAGOUT.
This will be an easy start. I made this mushroom ragout with an excess of what I purchased for my duxelles for Christmas Beef Wellington (another post). Fairly simple, but so delicious, I served it along with chicken cutlets coated with garlic breadcrumbs which were made with leftover bread for the same holiday. You can serve it on toasts, topped with an egg for a Sunday brunch , or toss in pasta. The world is your mushroom!
Back to the mushrooms. I had an assortment. In addition to chopped and shredded mushrooms, I minced a garlic clove and a scallion. You can use shallot or onion, I had some scallions left so I used them before I lost them. A sprig of rosemary or thyme A bit of chicken stock or just water and 1/2 cup red wine whatever you have. I had some Beaujolais and I used that. Salt and pepper to taste.
Heat skillet over medium high and then add some neutral oil along with some butter (you can use any fat, but add a bit of neutral oil like grapeseed or canola to raise the heating point). Toss in the mushrooms taking care not to crowd. If you can see some space between the shrooms, you are ok. Otherwise, they will steam and not brown (thank you Julia Child).
As soon as the mushrooms start to brown (about 5 minutes or so) add the garlic and scallion. Waiting after the cooking process has started will prevent the garlic from burning. Allow the scallion and garlic to soften and flavor the mushrooms. Toss in the chicken stock or water to deglaze and then add the red wine and the rosemary. It should look like this.
Let the red wine cook down until the sauce becomes a purple color and thickens the dish. Salt and pepper to taste and that’s it.
Not the best photo but you can see the purple hue of the finished product. The wine has cooked off and all you have is the flavor.
So there you have it. Nibbles and Bits.2 for 2025.
In my never-ending attempts to connect with my Italian roots, and in my continued efforts to be a good citizen and not waste anything, I have concocted this recipe after looking at several sites to come up something doable. It is a bit time consuming but read on, it will be so worth it, I promise. Besides, what else are you going to do? Binge watch yet another series on MHZ? Clean another closet? And the beauty of this project is that has a real Zen effect, for me anyway. When was the last time closet cleaning had that effect?
Back a bit ago (September 2018, I guess more than a bit), I did a post on making tomato sauce from scratch using the end of summer greenmarket bounty. This is a kind of an epilogue to that post. I have taken to removing the skins from the tomatoes before actually cooking them down to make the sauce because after doing the pureeing, there was a big mess of skin and seeds and it became sort of a PITA to clean up. The last few times I made sauce this summer, I sliced a cross in the end of the tomato and removed the core at the top and blanched them in boiling water for 10-15 seconds. After that time seconds, I removed the tomatoes and placed them in a bowl of ice water to cool. The skins came off without an iota of trouble, and my cleaning mess was halved.
after blanching, skins on pan ready to cook, dried product
But then I started thinking, there must be a use for those skins. So searched the web and found a myriad of ideas. This encapsulates all of them. After removing the skins, place them on a sheet pan covered either with parchment paper or a Silpat. Try to keep them as separated as possible. If you have blanched them right, the skins will come off in sheets and that will make it easier for you. Place the pan in a 250 degree oven and let them dry completely (the whole process will take 45 minutes to an hour (if you use a convection oven, slightly shorter). The skins will shrink, check them periodically so that they do not burn and rotate the pan occasionally (Some suggested to use the microwave, that procedure did not work for me). Make sure the skins are dried, think Cape Cod Kettle Chip dry. When completely dessicated, let them cool and put them into a food grinder, or use a mortar and pestle to grind. Add a touch of salt if you want. There you have it, powdered tomato topping. With the dregs of the tomato made by your own hands, and the satisfaction that comes from doing good for the earth. Plus the added benefit of sauce which you can freeze for those cold months to come.
Its uses? It is a seasoning. Sprinkle it atop of linguine with white clam sauce for a touch of color. Sprinkle atop sliced mozzarella with a bit of oil, cheater Caprese. Sprinkle in eggs to add zing to omelets.
Or……rim glasses for Bloody Mary’s. Your guests will thank you!
August. The top month for produce. Everything coming into the green markets. All those gorgeous tomatoes, the fruits, eggplants of every shape and size. And peppers. So many shapes. So many sizes. So many colors. So many types. I love roasted peppers. Roasting peppers was the first cooking skill I learned. Put peppers under broiler, turn when blackened, take out of oven, put in paper bag to steam, clean skin, put in jar, eat. From opening the oven door to ingestion, probably an hour of mindless work, but so satisfying. But seriously, how many roasted peppers can you eat?
I saw an article on seriouseats.com about shishito pepper cream. I love shishito peppers but the only way I have eaten them is dry roasted on a cast iron skillet until softened and topped with coarse sea salt. Mind you, that is a really delicious nibble, but again, how many times can you eat them (especially if your other half doesn’t eat them)? This cream thing intrigued me so I gave it a try. Delicious. For eight medium sized peppers you will need a sliced clove of garlic, a sliced shallot, a tablespoon of olive oil, 1/4-1/3 cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon of Parmigiano Reggiano (more if you love cheese), and grated nutmeg. Thinly slice the peppers crosswise. Heat the olive oil over medium flame. Add the peppers along with the garlic and shallot and saute until softened. (A nod to Jacques Pepin, I add a bit of water to the pan at the start when sautéing vegetables. It melts the vegetables before they brown too much and when the water has evaporated, the veggies are softened enough so that they are perfectly cooked. The man is a genius.). When the mixture is done, add the heavy cream and turn the heat up a bit, you want to boil the cream down with the peppers to make a sauce. How thick or thin is a personal choice, I went thicker, will explain why in the next paragraph. When the mixture has reached your desired consistency, take off heat, add cheese and nutmeg. Stir. It can be used right away or refrigerated.
saute
cream added
finished!
Now I have this thick beautiful and creamy butter like sauce. How to use you ask? Well, I had also bought Nardello peppers (https://blog.gardeningknowhow.com/tbt/jimmy-nardello-italian-peppers/) and had some green shishitos left over so I dry roasted both. I also had ciabatta bread which I grilled rubbed with garlic topped with a light brushing of olive oil. I then buttered the bread with my thickened shishito pepper cream and topped with the roasted and chopped Nardello and Shishito peppers. Can be used as a spread for any sandwich. Think grilled eggplant. Think sliced tomato. Think whatever you like!
There you have it. And it being August, open a bottle of Rose’ and be happy.
It is a beautiful Saturday here in quarantined Brooklyn. Totally Spring. And in a sign that some normalcy is trying to return, my dry cleaner was opened so I was able to ransom garments that I dropped off a month ago, like having a new wardrobe. Our Greenmarket is open on Saturdays as well, so I walked up to see if anything was available. Lo and behold, green things are starting to appear as nature does its thing with or without face masks.
One of the vendors had beautiful bunches of broccoli rabe and for the first time in 6 weeks I had a craving for something that wasn’t a potato chip or a bottle of wine. This has to be the easiest, freshest, and tastiest thing to make on the spur of the moment.
aren’t they beautiful?
So before you I have presented the ingredients. Rapini (or broccoli rabe), garlic, crushed red pepper. You will also need olive oil and flaky sea salt to taste. Everything is QB (quanta basta, or as much as you need or want). First blanch the rapini in boiling water for about 5 minutes. This will soften the stems. Refresh in ice water and drain. Heat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is heating, slice the garlic as thinly as you can. Cover a rimmed sheet pan with aluminum foil (read easy cleanup) and place the rapini on the pan alternating stems and tops for even cooking. If necessary, use two pans, you don’t want to crowd the pan. Add the olive oil, the shaved garlic, the crushed red pepper, salt to taste, and toss. Roast 10-15 minutes. That is all there is to it. If the stems are still tough, cut them from the tops, and place back into oven covered with some aluminum foil to finish. Add lemon juice if you want, or a splash of red wine vinegar. That’s the healthy part.
the healthy and the not so healthy
When I was growing up, my grandmother would make me a sandwich on our Sunday visits. Kaiser roll, some pork cracklings from the rendered fat back used to fry the meatballs for Sunday gravy, and some broccoli rabe. As I was roasting the rapini, I thought of that dish. I had some bacon in the fridge which I chopped down into small pieces and fried. Dipped a Martin’s potato roll into some of the bacon fat, added a few pieces of crispy bacon, a few slices of shaved pecorino cheese, some of the garlic slices from the rapini and toasted my grandmother. Not so healthy, but oh so delicious.
Other things you can do: chop it, add some of the cooking oil and bacon and toss with pasta; top with fried egg; serve at room temperature as a side or salad adding some lemon zest; chop and add to omelettes.
So grab your mask, go for a walk, enjoy the day, look for the rapini, and be grateful for another spring.
This is a riff on that beautiful appetizer seen so often in the South of France. If you have ever been, you will know that radishes are served with fresh butter and flaky salt (and a bottle or two of Rose’).
I was looking for a different side vegetable for my Easter dinner, and I had some radishes in the fridge which were a bit tired looking, so I decided to reinvent that appetizer to serve as a vegetable for my meal. 4 ingredients including the water and the salt. The other two are radishes and butter. The whole process start to finish takes 10 minutes max. The result is a colorful and sweet vegetable that will surprise even the pickiest of eaters (read my husband).
Start with clean, clean, clean radishes. They are always very dirty when you purchase them, rinse them in several changes of cold water to remove the grit. Remove the greens and set aside. I like to leave the little squiggle things at the end and a bit of the green stem, but you can remove as you like. Try to keep them all the same size, if need be leave some whole and some sliced. It will make the cooking more even. Place your radishes in a sauce pan that has a lid, add butter (depending on how many radishes and how much you like butter, this is a very free flowing recipe) and a 2-3 tablespoons of water. Cover and bring to simmer over medium heat. When the radishes are softened so that a knife or cake tester goes through with some resistance, remove the cover and raise the heat to boil. The water will boil away and leave only the melted butter which will cause the radishes to brown. When finished, remove from pan, sprinkle with flaky sea salt and serve. That’s it. If you really want to go over the top, and you happen to have it on hand, you can replace the butter with either chicken or bacon fat, or my personal favorite, duck fat which I always have in the fridge because, well you never know when you want duck fat potatoes. Photo start to finish below.
the whole process
Now about the greens. They can be served with a simple red red wine vinaigrette as a green along with the radishes and your meal. Or you can puree them with some walnuts and olive oil, a bit of red pepper flakes and a clove of garlic and make a sauce. Use them, they are tasty, peppery and a bit like arugula.
Nibbles and Bits 