Sagra della Zucchina: Focaccia with Zucchini and Fried Zucchini Fried Flowers

Fresh Zucchini Flowers

Last Saturday at the Woodstock Farmers' Market I could not resist buying a bag full of zucchini flowers (from Salute! farm and vineyard) and a nice big zucchini from a wonderful organic vendor of which unfortunately I didn't catch the name, but I will make sure to do that next week. I love zucchini, they are very versatile as I can make them with rice, pasta, quinoa or really with any kind of cereal, I can make zucchini frittata or just have them as a side dish, they are always good. Even more than zucchini I love zucchini flowers: first of all they are just beautiful with their bright orange color, they are one of those things for which you wait all year long, for they are available only for a short period of time, and since they spoil very fast you also have to cook them very quick. They are very popular in the roman cuisine, either stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy and fried or on pizza with mozzarella ( no tomato please!) they are always delicious. I think looking forward to have a food only on a specific time of the year is something beautiful that the industrial food culture is destroying. In Italy, even with supermarkets, we still appreciate the fact that there is a season in which some fruits are just not available, and in which some vegetables that are available all year long ( like tomatoes) just taste so much better. Moreover if I had fried zucchini flowers everyday I would get bored with them, having them once or twice a year makes them special, and it becomes a reason to celebrate. Another Italian food tradition that I miss here is that of the "sagra" that is exactly a celebration of a food that is in season or that is traditional from a certain town or area. For example in spring there are many "sagre" of the strawberry, or in the fall are very common the "sagre" of chestnuts. During these festivals many stalls sell products and dishes made starting from the ingredient that is being celebrated, and there is really no limit to the inventiveness of the Italians when it comes to food! Everything is of course accompanied by music, wine and more food. So, today I decided to have my own "Sagra della Zucchina" and I made a Focaccia with zucchini and onion and deep fried zucchini flowers. Both recipes are quite simple and very tasty!

Focaccia with Zucchini

Focaccai with zucchini before going in the oven

Ingredients

• 300 grams of flour
• 1 cup of lukewarm water
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 packet of active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 medium-large zucchini

Instructions

Last slice of Focaccia with Zucchini

1. Mix the yeast the water and the sugar and let the yeast get activated for a few minutes
2. Pour the yeast mix in the flour and the salt and mix. The resulting dough has to be a little sticky and not too easy to work with
3. Let the dough rise for 1-2 hours in an oiled bowl ( turn the dough in the bowl once to coat evenly with oil)
4. In the meantime dice the onion and slice the zucchini and cook them in a spoon of olive oil until they are soft and tender
5. When the dough is ready, spread olive oil on a pizza pan and then gently smash the dough on it working it with your fingers to form the typical depressions of the focaccia. Brush lightly with olive oil and salt.
6. Let the focaccia rise covered for another 30 minutes
7. Spread evenly the zucchini-onion mix on the focaccia and put in a pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the dough looks ready
8. Take the focaccia out of the oven and brush it lightly with a mixture of olive oil and water.

Fried Zucchini Flowers

Fried Zucchini Flowers

Ingredients

• Zucchini flowers
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of water
• salt
• vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Take the pistil out of the flowers being careful not to brake them (some people take the stem out too but I prefer leaving them since they are very handy when it comes to dip the flowers in the batter and even to eat them)
2. In a large bowl mix water, flour and salt. The resulting mixture should have no lumps and it should be liquid enough without being too thick or too runny
3. Put the mix in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes
4. In a large fryer heat the vegetable oil ( it has to be enough to deep fry the flowers). A trick to know if the oil is warm enough is throwing a little piece of bread in it: when the oil starts bubbling around the bread then the oil is ready.
5. Grab a flower by the stem, dip it in the batter then shake the excessive batter and put the flower in the frying pan. Repeat until the fryer is full.
6. Using a pair of tongs gently turn the flowers once while cooking
7. When the flowers feel "crunchy" remove them from the pan using the tongs and shaking the excess oil out. Place the flowers on a paper towel to dry the excess fat. 
8. Repeat the last three steps until the flowers are all fried.

Pasta Primavera : with Tomato Medley and Fresh Onions

Saturday at the Woodstock Farmers' market I bought this lovely box of mixed tomatoes from an organic vendor. The sign said there were up to 10 different kind of tomatoes, I am pretty sure I recognized 5 different kinds, I have no idea of their names but I have to say the orange ones tasted the best as they were very juicy and sweet. The same vendor also had a very perfumed basil and we had fresh onions from our weekly CSA box, so I decided to make "Pasta Primavera" , a recipe that to me tastes a lot like home. Very simple yet so flavorful if the ingredients are just right.

Pasta Primavera

Ingredients ( for 2 people)

• 1 small box of Fresh, local, naturally ripened cherry tomatoes
• 1 bunch of fresh onions
• 5-6 leaves of fresh basil
• 200 gr. of linguine
• Olive oil
• Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

1. Cut the onions discarding the green part
2. Cut the tomatoes in half or in quarters depending on the size of the tomatoes
3. Place everything in a medium pan with olive oil and cook on medium fire until the tomatoes are soft but not completely melted. Add salt to taste.Turn off and add the basil finely cut.
4. In a pot of boiling salt water, cook the linguine until "al dente"
5. Drain the linguine and add them to the pan, turn on the fire and keep stirring the linguine in the sauce while adding some Parmesan cheese. The key is to let the gluten of the pasta and the cheese "tie together" the sauce.
6. Serve with another spoon of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Underground Soup with Apple and Gruyere

I forgot to take pictures of this one, but my husband loved it so much that I had to put the recipe online. As the weather is getting colder everyday we really feel like having soup, which is great as there is no end to the number of healthy soups you can make with vegetables, especially in the fall with so many squashes around. This time though I was in the mood for some roots, so I went to the supermarket ( yep, the CSA boxes are over unfortunately!) and bought all the roots I could put my hands on and made soup.

INGREDIENTS

Celery root and parsnips

3 parsnips

3 parsley roots

1/2 celery root

3 turnips

3 potatoes

1 sweet potato

Nutmeg

1 apple

a couple of slices of gruyere cheese

RECIPE FOR THE UNDERGROUND SOUP

It is very easy, just peel the potatoes and the celery root then dice all the roots and put in a stock pot covered with water and salt. Cook until all the roots are soft and then use an immersion blender to create a cream.Add nutmeg. Pour the soup into a mug or one of those tiny soup pots they use for french onion soup and add some of the diced apple to it. Top with the slices of gruyere cheese and put in the microwave for one minute or until the cheese is melted and serve.

I served it with pork chops that I had stuffed with apple and gruyere and with a side of pureed parsnips with apple, so that the dinner was all "apple-themed". I bet cider would have been very good to drink with it. My husband loved it and it really felt very homey and heart-warming, but at the same time it was not as starchy as a potato soup or as sweet as a carrot soup. The celery root, the parsley root and the parsnips have a earthy but fresh taste and they really don't need much more spices or herbs added to them to achieve an awesome taste. I think it could be a good thanksgiving soup. The addition of sweet potatoes is important to have a beautiful orange color, otherwise I think the soup would be whitish and less appealing to the eye.

Black Olive Bread

About 5 months ago I bought a West Bend High Rise bread machine. It just broke. Thankfully the warranty was still valid and we are going to get a replacement in a month, but now I don't know that I would recommend it to anybody. Up until the breaking though it was a great bread machine and I made many wonderful loaves with it. I took most of my recipes from the book The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger which has hundreds of bread recipes, some great and some decent but I yet have to find one I truly don't like.

The one I am going to post here is absolutely my favorite, the only warning that I want to give you though is that this bread is so good you are just going to eat too much of it too quickly! 

INGREDIENTS FOR A 2 POUND LOAF

A

1 1/3 cup of milk

1/3 cup of olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoon of honey

3 1/4 cup of bread flour

3/4 cup of rye flour

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of gluten

3/4 teaspoons of salt

1 tablespoon of bread machine yeast

1 1/4 cup of pitted black olive pieces

PREPARATION

Place all the ingredients in the pan except the olives. 

Set the machine for the French cycle and the crust on medium.

When the machine beeps add the olives.

When the machine is done take the loaf immediately out of the pan and let it cool before eating ( if you can wait that long!)

An Italian Comfort Food: Stracciatella in Brodo

This is a very traditional Italian dish and it is ideal for a cold winter night, when you feel a little under the weather and need something to comfort you and make you feel taken care of, even if you made it yourself. The ideal would be to have a homemade chicken broth, but a good organic low-sodium broth will also work. In Italy this dish is traditionally recommended to nursing mothers as a way of increasing their milk supply, but also to infants for its easy ingestion. Although it is good also with American Parmesan cheese, I definitely prefer it with the Italian one. Whatever cheese you choose, at least take the time to freshly grate it for this recipe as it will taste a whole lot better.

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of organic low sodium chicken broth
4 eggs
4 tablespoons of freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of bread crumbs
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1 lemon ( for peeling)
salt

PREPARATION

In a large pot bring the broth to a simmer on medium heat.
In the meantime, in a bowl mix the other ingredients.
When the broth is hot enough throw the mixture in the broth whisking immeditaely to create little "flakes" of dough.
Cook for about 5 minutes and serve.

Chicken with Green Olives

I found this recipe very fresh and easy to make, but at the same time different from the usual. chicken can be very boring and bland so I welcome any creative way of serving it to make it more interesting, especially if it doesn't involve ours and ours of slow cooking or roasting. I am not usually a fan of cooking with olives, but in this recipe the slight bitterness of the olives is nicely contrasted by the freshness of the lemon peel and the sweetness of the raisins all perfectly brought together by the sweet acidity of the balsamic vinegar. This recipe is perfect accompanied by an Olive bread or a brown rice pilaf.

INGREDIENTS

2 chicken breasts
15 pitted green olives
3 shallots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
1 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 lemon ( for peeling )
1/3 cup of golden raisins
salt
pepper

PREPARATION
Cut the chicken breasts into long strips about 1/2 inch thick.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
In a large pan warm up the olive oil then cook the chicken strips until browned and cooked through ( about 3-4 minutes per side).
Put the chicken on a platter covered with tinfoil.
In the same pan add the shallots and garlic and cook until the shallots are translucent and soft, about 8 minutes  (time varies).
Add the olive and stir until warm for about 1 minute, then turn off the heat.
Add the raisins, the vinegar and the lemon peel.
Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

Super Easy Chocolate Walnut Brownies

A lot of the people I know make brownies from some box mix. Well, I just found this recipe and decided to try it and I have to say it is as easy as making a recipe from a box, plus the ingredients are not that hard to find in your pantry. I recommend anyone who has made boxed brownies before to try this one and tell me if they don't taste a lot better with the same amount of effort!

INGREDIENTS

1 and 1/4 stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of bittersweet cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon of flour
1 cup of chopped walnuts

PREPARATION

Turn on oven at 325.
Put foil inside an 8x8x2 inches pan leaving 2 extra inches on the sides.
Butter the foil or use non-stick spray if you have it.
Melt the butter in a pot on the stove until is bubbly and slightly browned. Remove from heat.
Add the sugar, the cocoa powder, the water, the vanilla extract and the salt while stirring.
Let cool 5 minutes.
Add the eggs while stirring vigorously then add the flour and stir 60 times.
Add the walnuts and mix.
Pour the mix in the pan.
Cook for 25 minutes.
Take out of the oven and let cool off. Then remove the foil from the pan and cut into 16 squares.

(This recipe was adapted by the February 2011 issue of Bonappetit Magazine)