Aroma Cucina

Cult of the Prugnoli: A Secret Mushroom

 

I swear I’m not trying to rub it in, but unless you are in central Italy, right now, and unless it rains again, you probably won’t be able to taste the elusive prugnolo mushroom.

There is a prugnolo cult in Umbria. Small signs pop up on restaurant windows simply announcing ‘prugnolo’. Nothing more. No dish is mentioned, no hint that it’s a spring mushroom; it’s an insider thing. That would be an insider who is willing to pay for her pleasure.

They were in the market the other day, slyly seducing me, pretending they were just another white button mushroom. Sprawled about in a basket, they lolled around waiting to be noticed. My favorite vegetable seller got a big grin on her face when I asked, “Prugnoli?”  Now, the smile could have been because she liked the mushrooms, or it could have been the thought of a big sale that put the glint in her eye.  Regardless, I was curious and wanted to play with those mysterious mushrooms.

As I was selecting my mushrooms, she admonished me to eat them whole, not to slice them. Then in a fit of possibly guilty generosity, she threw in two stalks of leek and told me to use them in the sauce.

l wasn’t really sure what to do with them but I thought a simple pasta with melted leek and sautéed prugnoli might be the perfect dressing to show off our funghi’s special flavor.

The leeks were thinly sliced, gently cooked in white wine and olive oil. The mushrooms were given a light cleaning and tossed into the warm leek mixture, cooking them just long enough to become tender. A final dusting of parsley and a swirl of sweet butter and the prugnoli came to our dinner table.

Did they live up to their hype? My first bite was .... disappointing. Maybe I was expecting the punch of a porcini mushroom, but instead it was a subtle sensation. The little mushrooms have a distinctive tooth: almost a crunch. The flavor is delicate, gently fragrant and it takes my jaded palate a moment to cool down and embrace that understated, yet complex flavor.

As I’m pondering my prugnoli pasta, I look up at my dining companions and we all realize we finished every last drop of pasta in our bowls, and that would be the definition of tasty!

Buon apetito for whatever is in season in your corner of the world!

Springtime is Fava Bean Time

It's fava time in Italy, and pretty much everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere. Italians are passionate about fave because it means spring has officially arrived when those giant pods show up in the market.

Fave beans. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee raw.
I love thee in salads.
I love thee paired with soft white cheeses.
I love thee as 'maro'.

And just to clear up any fava - fave confusion: fava is one fava bean, fave (fav-ay) is more than one fava bean. Italian is pluralized with an "i" or "e", depending on whether the noun is feminine or masculine. And there is your Italian lesson for today.

 

I love thee raw.
As I've learned, eating a pile of raw fava beans is an Italian spring tradition. Peel and eat, with a small pile of salt for dipping.

I love thee in salads.
If serving your guests a pile of raw beans pods doesn't make your heart go pitter-pat, try tossing them into a garden salad. 

 

I love thee paired with soft fresh cheeses.
A small pile of warm, peeled fava beans with some melted soft, fresh young cheese is a little pile of spring indulgence.

I love thee as maro`, a type of fava and mint pesto.

Maro, Fava Pesto
1 pound or 1/2 kilo fresh fave beans
1 chunk of pecorino cheese, fairly fresh, not overly aged
4 cloves of garlic
8 mint leaves
Olive oil, salt


Shell the fave beans. This is somewhat labor intensive and has the potential of burning your fingers, but its still worth the trouble.
Bring a medium size pot of water to boil. The pot should be big enough to fit a colander  because you are going to steam the fave in their pods. This makes them easier to shell. Working in small batches, squish the  fave out of its thick pod, then remove the tough outer shell of the fave, leaving only the bright green inner kernel.
If the pods are too long to fit in the colander, snap them in half. 

While you are shelling the fave, place the unpeeled cloves of garlic in a small roasting dish and roast at 325F/165C for about 20 minutes. Which is about how long it takes to shell a pound of fave.

Take your raw fave beans and place them in an overproof dish and toss with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, let them roast for about 10 minutes.

At this point, you can set the table, slice some prosciutto, take a sip of wine, but don't check your email, because it totally ruins the vibe.

Once the fave have roasted a bit, add them to the blender, with the now peeled roasted garlic cloves, the mint leaves, the pecorino and another glug of olive oil. Puree until smooth. If you are totally feeling the ancient roots vibe of this recipe you could pound the ingredients smooth with a stone mortar and pestle, but I'll let you make the call on that one.


Use a soft egg noodle pasta like fettucine, not a regular spaghetti pasta.. Its a very delicate sauce and it needs the gentler egg pasta and a wider noodle.

Cook your pasta and toss with a few tablespoons of the maro` sauce. Serve with lots of fresh cracked pepper.

A note on the cheese: it's really hard to find fresh, Italian style pecorino in the States.  But an Italian chef friend of ours says that manchego makes a good substitute and its easy to find in the US. The cheese in the photo is an unusual blend of cow, sheep and goat milk and didn't have a name...it was just called 'formaggio per le fave", or cheese for fava beans. Go figure!

In case you have some leftover maro`, you could spread it on a cracker and be very happy munching away on this springy treat.
Or you could try pairing it with baccala, which is what we did the other night. We sauteed a few pieces of baccala, laid it on top of room temperature maro` and finished it with a few fave beans and some lemon zest.  I'm sure this would work well with any other dense meat white fish like fresh cod or halibut.

This is the moment for fresh fave, so what are you waiting for? Add them to your market list and have some fun.

Update on the Olive and Grape Compote

Robin Maxwell, author of Signora da Vinci, emailed me this morning on the olive & grape compote recipe and she asked: “Without the oil (you use only a splast) and balsamic vinegar to create a "juice" to simmer in, does it come out dry, or do the grapes produce a juice?  Lately, I've been suggesting using even more oil and vinegar than is stated in the recipe, and also cooking it longer.  One of my readers who tried the recipe used a potato masher to mash the compote after cooking, so that the grapes and olives don't fall off the bread.”

 

My grapes were juicy and tart so I didn’t really need the vinegar and I used a clay pot to roast the compote so things stayed juicy, but I’m going to revise the original post and recipe to include Ms. Maxwell’s comments because this is the kind of recipe that evolves over time as everyone puts their own spin on it.

 

Ms. Maxwell also told me about her upcoming book, O. Juliet, so if you are a fan of historical novels, Florence, romance, Romeo, iambic pentameter, then you should take a look at her new blog.  I’m trying to talk her into coming to Montone where the spirit of our own Braccio Fortebraccio could be the next inspiration for a project.

 

 

Olive & Grape Compote Da Vinci Style

A recipe handed down through the centuries, emerging from the swirling mists of Tuscan history drifted into my kitchen. OK, maybe not really, but I did get inspired by the olive and grape recipe found in “Signora da Vinci” a fictional novel about DaVinci’s mama. If you can suspend belief and surrender to the central concept that it’s written from Leonardo’s mother’s perspective, it’s a fine read. Who wouldn’t enjoy spending some time with the Medici’s and their friends?  All through the book there is mention of this wonderful olive and grape compote and at the end, the author, Robin Maxwell, kindly supplies the recipe.

 

I tweaked it a bit, and it’s a good thing to have a batch stashed in the fridge for visitors, a quick snack, apperitivo time, a holiday cheese tray or a midnight nibble.  Guess you could call it versatile.

 

Olive & Grape Compote

½ pound of red seedless grapes

¼ pound black pitted Kalamata style olives

1 fresh thyme sprig

2 cracked cloves of garlic

1 tiny chili pepper (optional, if you go the chili pepper route, you want just a wisp of heat to mingle with the sweet and salty, it’s all about balance now isn’t it?)

Olive oil, salt, balsamic vinegar

 

Slice the grapes in half; rough chop the olives and place in a roasting dish. Remove the skins from the garlic and give the cloves a good smushing crack with the side of your knife, and toss in with the fruit. Add the crumbled dried chili pepper if you are using it. Strip the thyme branch of its little leaves and sprinkle over the grapes and olives. Add a tiny sprinkle of salt, splash of olive oil and roast in a 325F/165C oven and bake until the grapes and olives have collapsed, about 40 minutes.

*Edit to add: As per Ms. Maxwells' suggestion: add some balsamic vinegar to the compote if it needs a little acid or if it seems dry, add extra olive oil and a bit more vinegar. 

I roast this compote in a a clay pot so it tends to stay juicer and if you're grapes are tart...be careful with that vinegar.

 If you pack the hot compote into very clean canning jars you can then store the compote in the fridge for a few weeks to have on hand for emergency feedings. Or put into a regular jar and eat it quicker.

 

To serve:

Warm up the compote by placing it in a small oven proof dish in a cold oven, turn the oven on to 250F/120C and remove when it’s warm….about 10 minutes, depends on how quickly your oven heats up.

Serve on thin slices of toasted garlic bread. Slice the bread, and place in the oven at the same time as the compote. When the bread is crisp, remove, lightly rub with a peeled garlic clove and drizzle the bread with a bit of olive oil. Serve on the side with the compote.

A bit of soft goat cheese would be pretty tasty with this compote.

 

It’s delicious and think how happy Leonardo would be knowing you made his mama’s compote?

Tomato Tart

  We have officially reached critical mass in the orto. This means that for the first time, I hauled in more tomatoes than we could eat in a day! The tomato plants are actually taller than me, although that's not really a lot to brag about given my 'stature'!  Our first ‘cuore di bue’ or oxheart tomatoes were ready, a bunch of San Marzanos, and a ton of the little guys. The small cherry and ‘pachieri’ tomatoes are literally so sweet that they taste like dessert, which made me just itch to make a tart.

 

Very Simple Tomato Tart

Lots of little tomatoes, enough tomatoes that when you slice them in have, you have sufficient to fully cover the crust

1 very thin layer of thinly sliced onion

Salt, Pepper, Drizzle of Olive Oil

 

Pate Brise type crust

Click here for a basic Pate Brise recipe. I can buy very good quality pate brise, meaning it has no funny ingredients, already rolled out. I keep it around for quickie tarts and treats. Find a good source and stick with it, stay away from anything with hydrogenated oils, it leaves an oil slick on the roof of your mouth besides other nasty stuff.)

After you’ve rolled out the crust, very, very thinly slice the onions, thin as a sheet of paper, and lay them on the crust, next arrange your cut tomatoes, cut side facing up, small sprinkle of salt, a few twists of pepper and a tiny drizzle of olive oil. That’s it. Resist all temptation to add anything else. No basil. No oregano. Stop right with the tiny touch of salt and pepper!

Bake in a 350F oven until the crust is brown, about 25-30 minutes.

 

I served this with a ricotta and basil ‘cream’. Take fresh ricotta, throw in some basil leaves and puree until smooth and creamy.

 

When the tart comes out of the oven a few drips of good quality, syrupy balsamic vinegar would taste very nice. But only use that really expensive, thick as molasses balsamic or you’ll just have a warm tomato salad on your hands!

 

The tart was as good as I wanted it to be, and it was made all the better because the tomatoes came from our orto. My Dad would be so proud….he was the Tomato King!

 

 

A salad by any other name....

Summer is the season of the salad, when cooking and turning on the stove seems like an act of pure masochism, akin to enjoying a root canal. But after you’ve been making different salads every day, do you start to get salad fatigue? I know I do. I mean I love cucumbers, but not every day, ok? And even if our orto has turned into this massive lettuce producer, I still need a break from all those leafy greens.

Fortunately, those clever Italians are used to hot weather and having tons of good vegetables around, so they get pretty innovative.

I love ‘pinzimonio’ which is nothing more than combining extra virgin olive oil (because you wouldn’t ever use anything else, right?) salt, ground pepper and perhaps a splash of balsamic vinegar in a bowl and then dipping cut pieces of raw vegetables such as fennel, carrots, artichoke, celery, green beans etc into the bowl. Whatever you have around, dip it into the oil, sip some fresh white wine, munch on a little bread and you have a light, clean antipasto dish.


Bagnacaoda, which is Piemontese dialect for warm bath, is an anchovy based variation on the pinzimonio. Using a small ceramic cook pot, over low heat, add about ½ cup olive oil, 6 cloves of minced garlic and let the garlic soften in the oil for about 10-12 minutes. Then add about 8 preserved anchovy fillets (either preserved in oil or salt, if using salt, remember to wash off the anchovy and remove all the bones first). Let this simmer until the anchovies break up and you have a warm garlicky mush. Serve the warm bagnacaoda along with a tray of raw and/or steamed vegetables for dipping. Traditionally cardoons should be served with a true bagnacaoda, but this is summertime and the cardoons aren’t in season, so don’t stress about them, ok? Just because I need to share, look at the cardoon flowers that have appeared in our orto…they are amazing! Bright purple spikes sitting on top of little alien pod thingies that balance on top of a really long stalk and are apparently irresistible summer homes for wasps. Who knew! 

Or you could try the Italian way of serving vegetables at room temperature, marinated in a bit of olive oil.  Here in the land of no air-conditioning, the trick is to get up early, boil a little cauliflower, sauté slices of eggplant and zucchini, roast the onions and peppers, steam the beans, then arrange everything nicely on a plate, cover and set aside mealtime. You did all the work during the cool morning hours and now you can relax and not have to worry about cooking vegetables when the kitchen is fireball hot.

You can also mix up the raw and the cooked. Warm, steamed flat beans that are tossed with a vinaigrette dressing, raw tomatoes and flecks of red onion is an excellent salad. You get the unexpected contrast of warm and cool, the still crunchy bean and the soft yielding tomato, what could be better?

However, I am not advocating that you use bottled vinaigrette! Make your own!  I do believe that bottled salad dressing could possibly be the root of all evil, or at least the root of our problems with climate change. See, they take up a ton of space in the fridge, so if you didn’t buy them, you could have a smaller fridge and require less refrigeration which would reduce carbon gasses and global meltdown. So, you see, if it wasn’t for salad dressing refrigeration, the recent G8 conference would have been a relaxed gathering of world leaders instead of a climatic showdown.

Just in case: a general vinaigrette rule of thumb is 3 to 4 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. What oil or vinegar you use depends on your personal taste, the size of your wallet and what you currently have stashed in the cabinet. I have heard it said, that a woman who wants to keep her man, never gives away the secret to her vinaigrette.  Since I’m married for around 150 years, I’ll share some of my secrets (not all…I’m not that crazy!). I use extra virgin olive oil almost exclusively, unless I use a nut oil.  I keep a good supply of different vinegar flavors on hand because each vinegar has a different flavor and acidity and I like mustard so that shows up a lot when I make a salad dressing. But, please experiment, see what you enjoy and throw out those bottles of icky, old salad dressing that you have lingering in the fridge. If you think they are still good after 6 months….stop and ask yourself, what the hell did they put in it if I can still eat it?

I’m now getting off my soapbox and pondering what nibbles I can get from our orto to make tonight’s salad… I’m thinking a bagnacaoda would be pretty good for dinner.

Caciotta

Caciotta (Ka cho ta) is a soft, white cow cheese, that melts beautifully. It's my go-to cheese when we don't have anything else in the house, and we're hungry, as in hungry NOW.
I can't find caciotta in New York City, even DiPaola's on Grand St, who has one of the best Italian cheese selections in the city, looked at me cross eyed when I asked him for caciotta. It's an everyday cheese, so I guess it' just not special enough to import. Fools. You can substitute unsmoked scamorza and it's pretty close.

We like caciotta best when I slice it up, cover the slices in fennel pollen and throw it into the oven until it melts. Fennel pollen is vastly under rated as a seasoning. It adds an earthy, nearly floral note to roasted meats, especially poultry.  If you can't find fennel pollen or flowers, grind up the seeds into powder.  Sprinkle on, heat in the oven until the cheese is melted bubbly and it's sort of like an instant fondue. 

We eat it with a fork, all dripping off the fork, or sometimes we dunk some bread into the melted goodness. Make a salad, pour a cool white wine. End of story.

Avocado Creme

Now this is a ‘foam’ that I know works. I’ve made this lots of times, usually as a foil for spicy shrimp, but last night this crème was delicious, just eaten on a piece of Belgian Endive.
And you know I’m eating avocados now, because when I go back to Italy….no more guacamole fore me. The Umbrians don’t believe in avocados.

Here’s the recipe for avocado crème:
1 ripe avocado
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Pinch of salt, pinch of smoked adobe chili and a few squirts of lemon juice
½ t chopped shallots, marinated in red wine vinegar

Make the whipped cream.  Start with a chilled bowl, a chilled whisk and very cold cream. It will all whisk up in a med-firm cream in just a few minutes of whisking. Quit your whining, it’s a quick upper body workout. 
Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit (there must be something that you can do with those pits, there are so nice and smooth and round, but yet, they don’t bounce very much).
Mush ½ of the avocado into the cream and whisk together.
Squirt the lemon juice on the other half of the avocado and mush it into the pulp, then add it to the cream and whisk everything all together.  I worry about the lemon juice and the crème not getting along, so that’s why I combine it with the avocado pulp first.
Add some salt, little chili powder, give it a mix, garnish with the marinated shallots, and you are good to go.
If you want to try this with shrimp, combine some bay leaves, garlic, hot chilies, salt, pepper, and whatever other spices are talking to you at that moment. Leave the shrimp in their shells.
Heat a cast iron pan, with out oil. When it’s hot, add a small amount of oil, then the spices, then and the shrimp. Quickly toss and coat the shrimp with all the spices. Serve them in their shells, with the avocado crème on as a dipping sauce. It’s cools down the spices and just is an addictive combination.

Old Favorite

It's sort of like going closet shopping. You know when you go to the back of the closet and dig out some forgotten gem? 
We were hungry. There wasn't much around in the kitchen. What to make for lunch?
I had eggs, a bit of swiss chard and a leek.
Sformata! I had forgotten all about sformatas! They are savory baked custardy Italian treats.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Take some eggs, break them into a bowl. Add a small fist full of cheese. A small shot of cream, salt, pepper and whisk all together.
Saute some  swiss chard and leeks.  Blanche the swiss chard first..it needs to be cooked twice to tame some of the bitterness.
Let the vegetables cool down a bit, and then whisk together with the egg mixture. Ladle into individual muffin tins.  I use a silpat form...very easy and not much will ever stick to them.
Bake in the oven in a bain marie (water bath) until firm, about 25-30 minutes.
I garnished these with some crispy parsley leaves, and a shot of balsamic vinegar.
Enjoy!

Carmelized Onion Sformata

Caramelized Onion Sformata (or this dish could be called: "What do I make for lunch when all I have is some eggs, an onion, maybe some asparagus and a little bacon?)

Sformata
4 eggs
2T of milk
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
salt, pepper

Sauce and Garnish
4 oz. gruyere, comte, caciocavalle, ribiola or other mild cheese..no, not Velveeta, that's not a cheese
4T milk or cream
1 slice of bacon, or the equivalent amount of pancetta
Possible Topping Variations: Roasted asparagus, Frizzled leeks, sautéed spinach, drizzle of balsamic vinegar, sliced fresh tomatoes

A "sformata' means a little custardy, savory, muffin type thingy. It's a loose category of savory custards, popular in northern and central Italy. They have lots of eggs and cream around, so it's logical that they would invent a dish like this.  You will need a muffin pan, or some sort of baking cup. I use a silicone form. These things are great, they take high temperatures, almost nothing sticks to them. And they come in very cool colors.

Preheat oven to 400F.
Fry the pancetta or bacon until it is crisp.  Remove from pan and place on absorbent paper.
Sauté the chopped onion in the bacon fat. Remove from heat and sprinkle a few drops of balsamic vinegar on the onions. Be careful, it will splatter.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until they get frothy. Add a pinch of salt and a twist of pepper (you're using your pepper mill, right?). Add the onions and whisk again.  Pour the egg mixture into a lightly greased muffin pan or your silicone mold.  Take a roasting pan that is big enough to accommodate the muffin mold, fill it half way full with hot water. Place the muffin pan in the water...you've now created a 'bain marie' or water bath. Place the bain marie in the oven and bake until the eggs set, about 15 minutes.

Topping
Use your imagination. Go look in the fridge. Little bit of asparagus? Some leek? Some spinach?  Sauté it, or roast it or slice it and have it ready to put on top of the sformata when they are done.
I like roasted asparagus. Taking the same little cast iron pan that I cooked the pancetta in, lay thin slices of asparagus stem and tip in the pan, add a little olive oil and put in the oven along with the sformatas.

Sauce
On low heat, warm up 4T of milk or cream. Gradually add the cheese and whisk until it melts. If you let this come to a boil, it will coagulate and look gross. It will taste fine, but it will not be pretty. Consider yourself warned. Don't get scared; just be careful.

When the sformatas have set, they will be firm to the touch and they are ready. Carefully turn them out onto a plate, arrange some salad around them, add the cheese sauce, the roasted asparagus and pancetta. Have a glass of wine and enjoy.