recipeworld

In general, the way that I invent new recipes is to start with something that I know really well (for example, polenta or pasta) and then to embellish it with flavors that I like.

I used to make polenta quite often, but I hadn’t in a long time until this Peachy Polenta. Having the bag of cornmeal out inspired me, though.

I have made Parmegiano-Reggiano polenta before, as a side dish, but I wanted to make it more filling, as something I could have for my whole dinner. I had some fresh zucchini in the fridge, and so this polenta came to be!

I always have plain yogurt in the fridge: I eat it for breakfast, but I also throw it into some dishes that should be creamy but that I don’t want to make higher in calories and fat. You really shouldn’t cook plain yogurt, unless it’s strained, or it will curdle, but tossing it into something that’s already been cooked is a nice treat.

Polenta with Zucchini

¼ cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
2 tsp. olive oil
1 zucchini, sliced
½ onion, diced
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 small container plain yogurt

Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat or in a microwave until hot, but not boiling. Add the cornmeal, stirring constantly until the polenta has thickened to a porridge consistency. You may need to add water as it cooks. Stir in half of the parmesan cheese as well as some salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover.

In a frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Add the sliced zucchini. Cook on one side until browned, about two minutes, and then flip and cook the other side. Add the yogurt to the polenta, and then stir the zucchini and onion mixture into the polenta. Serve with the extra cheese on the side.

In my quest to find new recipes and new styles of cooking, I sometimes forget about the old, faithful dishes that used to work so well when I was just starting out as a fledgling cook. One of my favorite things to cook when I was just starting was chicken piccata: chicken cooked with lemon juice and white wine and often capers. When I was deciding what I would make for dinner this week, with just a hot plate to use, I remembered my old standby, and I was surprised at how easy it was compared with how I remembered it.

It was just as tasty.

Chicken Piccata

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup white flour

1 lemon

½-1 cup white wine

salt and pepper

8 oz. spaghetti

1 cup thawed frozen spinach

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Dredge first in flour, then in egg, allowing the excess to drip off, and then again in flour. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts.

Heat the olive oil in the skillet until hot but not smoking. Lay the chicken breasts in the pan and allow to sear, two minutes on each side. For optimal browning, do not move the chicken while it is browning.

Turn the heat down to medium low and add the wine to the pan. Allow to cook, making sure that there is always liquid in the bottom of the pan so that the chicken does not burn. Turn once.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in the boiling water until al dente, about six minutes. Drain, reserving about a cup of cooking liquid, and add the spinach to the pasta.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the chicken, and then remove to a separate plate. Add more wine to the pan if necessary, and scrape up all of the bits on the bottom. Whisk together and add to the spaghetti. Add the juice of the other half of the lemon.

Serve the chicken over the spaghetti, with cheese on the side if desired.

I used to really, really hate the combination of sweet and salty. Sweet should be dessert, salty should be in the meal. Salt caramel, duck à l’orange, sweet peanut butter with Thai noodles… all of these these combinations that I now love were completely off limits.

It took a pretty extraordinary cheese plate to change my mind. The cheese course at Napa restaurant Tra Vigne features several delicious cheeses along with whole honeycomb and blueberry preserves. Something about the presentation, the fact that I had just tried lentils for the first time in my life and loved them, and the fact that the whole cheese plate came on a lovely marble slab and just looked so appealing made me venture to try it: a little bit of goat’s cheese with some of the fresh honeycomb on walnut bread… and I was hooked.

Now I love to mix sweet and salty. Some of my favorite salads venture into this realm, combining honey and warm goat’s cheese, like I did that first day, or ham with dried fruit. I love this salad, which combines sweet figs and honey in the dressing with salty prosciutto and gorgonzola cheese.

Fig, Gorgonzola and Prosciutto Salad

Assemble the salad ingredients on a plate. Put all of the dressing ingredients in a jar (except the olive oil) and shake to combine. Whisking with a fork, stir the dressing while pouring the olive oil in in a thin stream. Dress the salad and serve immediately. 

The idea of eating something before a full meal is popular all over the world. In France, it’s an apératif: the focus is on the drink, but there are also biscuits or crackers served. In the States, it’s the famous cheese and cracker or chips and dip. In Mediterranean and Middle Eastern societies, mezze take the stand with little bites of things such as cheese, tomato, cucumber and dips like hummus and baba ghanouj. In Spain, it’s the famous tapas. In Italy, the food of choice is antipasto.

In my family, antipasto is a much bigger deal than it is back in Italy, as I imagine it must be for a lot of Italian-American families. Whereas in Italy, the food you eat is always of the same quality as the antipasto, for us, antipasto is a time to bring out the real deal: the good Italian soprasetta and mozzarella from the Bronx with Sullivan Street bread. I have been in charge of the antipasto platter for years, so I’ve decided to give you some hints on how to assemble your own.

Antipasto Platter
Meats
Salami
Prosciutto
Soprasetta
Mortadella
Pepperoni

Cheese
Buffalo mozzarella
Mozzarella (fior di latte)
Bocconcini
Parmegiano Reggiano
Asiago
Pecorino Romano

Vegetables
Deep-fried zucchini flowers
Stuffed cremini mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes
Roasted red peppers
Jarred giardiniera
Jarred peperoncini
Jarred mushrooms
Jarred artichoke hearts
Sautéed green beans

Keep extras on hand for replenishing the platter. Serve with toasted bread rubbed with garlic (also known as bruschetta).

I come from an Italian-American family, where food is possibly the most important thing. I was required to be home every night for dinner (usually with guests in tow to taste my mother’s incredible cooking), and even now, when I’m home from school, I hardly ever want to go out, because I get restaurant-quality cooking at home.

I try my best, but I don’t know if I’ll ever cook like my mom. For one, she has access to Zabars in New York and an insatiable food budget. All I have is the measly budget I set for myself and some fine but not great cooking tools.

The one thing I inherited my mom is an understanding for flavor and texture. I might not be able to make something with foie gras or porcini mushrooms every night of the week, but I know how to take simple ingredients and pull them together to make something tasty. Maybe it’s the Italian in me.

The American in me, however, knows how to improvise. Like this tortilla pizza. When I want pizza, I’m not going to make pizza dough. I’ve been known to make a pizza out of any bread product that will sit still: English muffins, bagels… heck, I’ve even made pizza on split baked potatoes. There’s something about the combination of tomatoes, garlic, oregano and basil, and of course the melty cheese, that I need to have, even when the only crust I can afford is a whole-wheat tortilla.

Note: The tortilla for this actually crisps up quite well: if you like thin-crust pizza, you’ll love this.

Stovetop Tortilla Pizza
1 tsp. olive oil
1 whole-wheat tortilla
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 oz. shredded cheese
basil (Note: I love basil and use it as an extra topping, when really it should be a garnish. Use your discretion with how much you like.)

Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. When the oil is heated, place the tortilla in the oil to fry for thirty seconds. When the edges begin to brown, flip it over and turn the heat down to medium-low. Spread the tomato paste over the tortilla. Top with the oregano and cheese. Cover and allow to cook until the cheese melts, 1-2 minutes. When the cheese has melted, add the basil.

This is a recipe from a long time ago. I was in the mood for pasta primavera, but since it wasn’t primavera yet, I had to improvise with what I had.

A grill-pan is great for bringing out the flavors in veggies, although a roasting pan will do the trick nicely. If you decide to go the roasting route, there’s no need to save the extra dressing: the veggies will release their juices, and you can just “rinse” the pan with a few tablespoons of pasta cooking water to make sure you get all the good flavors in your pasta instead of on your pan.

Pasta Primavera nel’Inverno

spinach spaghetti for two people

1 zucchini, sliced into rounds

1 red onion, sliced

salt and pepper

juice of one lemon

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

parmesan cheese for serving

Cook the pasta to al dente, reserving some of the pasta cooking water. Heat a grill pan over high heat. While the pan is heating, toss the remaining ingredients (except the cheese) in a large bowl, ensuring that the vegetables are well-coated. Using a spaghetti spoon, lift the veggies from the dressing, allowing excess to drip to the bottom of the bowl. Save this for later.

Grill the veggies until charred on one side, about two minutes, and then turn to cook the other side. When the vegetables have finished cooking, return them to the bowl of dressing along with the pasta. Toss with a few tablespoons of cooking water to ensure the dressing coats the pasta. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Note: You could marinate chicken in the same dressing and toss it with the pasta for more protein, but be sure not to return the final dish to the same bowl you marinated the raw chicken in.

Sometimes the best things are simple.

When I was younger, I had a good friend whose mother was from Italy. She used to invite groups of us over for long, multi-course lunches of real Italian food. One of my favorite things was a cucumber salad she used to make. She peeled cucumbers and sliced them very thin, or sometimes into long sticks, and then she salted them. I could never figure out why this was so good, until I bought some flaked sea salt. The crunchiness of the salt flakes really adds to the dish. You’d never expect something so simple (or so healthy) could be so good.

Cucumbers and Salt

1 English cucumber, sliced thin

2 teaspoons of flaked sea salt

Arrange the cucumbers on a plate and evenly distribute the salt over them. Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes so that the salt crystals begin to dissolve in the water.

When I was 14 years old, I came to France for three months. I lived in the North, which is not a very touristy location. It gets dark early in the winter, and it rains almost every day. Luckily, I had a warm and welcoming host family who gave me fluffy slippers to wear around the house, lent me a rain jacket when I realized I had left mine at home and, maybe most importantly, introduced me to a recipe for gratin dauphinoise.

Gratin dauphinoise is real winter food. It warms you up and keeps you full. Since leaving the North, I only make it on special occasions, usually at Christmas. I tinkered with the recipe a bit… mostly because I forgot some of it, and partly because I’m not so picky about peeling potatoes first. My version may not be 100% authentic, but it’s the one that my aunt and uncle beg for every year at the holidays.

Gratin Dauphinoise

5 or 6 large yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced (Note: you can keep the potato slices in a bowlful of warm water with a squeeze of lemon while you slice them all, so that they don’t become brown.)

3 cups of grated swiss or emmental cheese

1/2 cup of grated gruyère cheese (Note: you can use all gruyère if you want to. It will bring the best flavor, however emmental or swiss are tasty as well, and not quite as expensive.)

1 egg

1 cup each whole milk and heavy cream

nutmeg, salt and pepper

Grease a glass baking dish with butter. Place one layer of potatoes along the bottom of the dish. Overlap slightly so that the entire bottom of the dish is covered. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the potato layer, and top with a layer of grated swiss cheese.

Follow with another layer of potatoes, this time sprinkling the layer just with black pepper. Continue alternating layers (potato, pepper and cheese) until you reach the last layer of potatoes. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the top layer of potatoes. Set aside, keeping the grated gruyère for later.

In a saucepan, heat the cream and milk together until hot but not boiling, and add another sprinkle of nutmeg. Temper the liquid with the egg, and pour the entire contents of the pan over the gratin. Top the gratin with the reserved cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 F until the potatoes are soft, about half an hour. Remove foil and turn up the oven to 425 F. Bake until the top layer of cheese is golden brown. Cool for half an hour before serving in order to make slicing easier.

Note: recipe can be prepared and baked at 350 and the last step can be reserved until just before serving.

Of all of my recipes, I am most often asked for two: lasagna and guacamole. I’m not sharing either of those with you today, but I’m not telling you this to torture you, rather to make a point. In generations past, what was cooked by a person was usually directly related to their family background. Italians knew how to make a mean pasta, but probably couldn’t roast a chicken to save their lives. The French, on the other hand, were all over roast chicken, but wouldn’t be able to make chicken fried rice to save their lives.

Today, a lot of that has changed. In my cooking repertoire, I have recipes from all over the world. However, at the end, the recipes that work best, the recipes that are trustworthy and go-to recipes, are usually those that are connected to my background as an Italian-American.

The odd thing is, none of the Italian recipes I make were passed through generations or anything like that. Maybe I just have an innate feel for the ingredients, for the technique, for the theory of Italian cooking. It is often said that French cooking is all about making something incredible with not-so-great ingredients, while Italian cooking is about bringing out the best in amazing ingredients: simple preparation is best. While I can make a bearnaise sauce with the rest of them, my heart lies in this simplistic theory of Italian food.

So here, I offer my recipe for eggplant rollatini, invented purely by yours truly with only the many, many eggplant rollatini I have tried in the past. It’s simple, but it’s tried and true, and truly incredible.

Eggplant Rollatini

three large eggplants

1 cup flour, for dredging

two eggs, beaten with a tablespoon of milk

1 cup Italian breadcrumbs (if you can’t find Italian breadcrumbs, then combine one part grated Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese to three parts regular breadcrumbs, and add one teaspoon each dried ground oregano, dried parsley, dried basil, and dried garlic powder)

2 cups ricotta cheese

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

2-3 tablespoons grated Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese

ground black pepper

fresh basil

Slice three eggplants lengthwise into strips about a quarter inch to a half inch thick. Make sure they’re all the same size. Dredge each slice in flour, then beaten egg, then Italian breadcrumbs. Place the dredged slices on a greased baking sheet, and bake for ten minutes on each side at 375 degrees.

In a bowl, combine equal parts ricotta cheese and grated mozzarella. Add a few tablespoons of parmegiano reggiano to taste, and season with black pepper and a chiffonade of fresh basil. Line the eggplant slices up so that one of the narrow sides is facing you. Place about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture at the end of each of the eggplant slices, and roll. Place them, seam side down, in a glass baking dish. When all of the rollatini have been rolled, cover with tomato sauce and bake at 350 until the cheese is melted.