1. Wash the potatoes, put them with their peel on in a pot with enough cold water to cover amply, and bring to a boil.
2. Trim, soak, boil, and drain the green beans. They will undergo considerably more cooking in the oven later, so drain them when quite firm.
3. Chop the beans very fine, but not pureed, in a food processor, or pass them through the largest holes of a food mill, and put them into a bowl.
4. Preheat oven to 350°.
5. Drain the potatoes when tender, testing them with a fork, peel them, and pass them through a food mill or a potato ricer into the bowl containing the beans. Do not use a food processor because it makes potatoes gluey.
6. Break the eggs into the bowl, add the grated Parmesan, salt, a few grindings of pepper, and the marjoram. Mix thoroughly to blend all ingredients uniformly.
7. Lightly smear the baking pan with olive oil. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the entire inside surface of the pan, then turn the pan upside down and rap it on the counter to shake out excess crumbs.
8. Put the bean and potato mixture into the pan, distributing it evenly and leveling it with a spatula. Top with a sprinkling of bread crumbs and over them pour a thin and evenly spread stream of olive oil. Place in the upper third of the preheated oven, and bake for 1 hour. Allow to settle for a few minutes, then run a knife blade all around the pie to loosen it from the pan, invert it over a plate, then again over another plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Ahead-of-time note You can complete the recipe several hours in advance. Do not refrigerate. Finish and serve it the same day you start it.
Green Beans with Yellow Peppers, Tomatoes, and Chili Pepper
For 4 to 6 servings
1 pound fresh green beans
1 sweet yellow bell pepper
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion sliced very thin
⅔ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped coarse, with their juice, OR fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut up
Salt
Chopped hot red chili pepper, to taste
1. Snap both ends off the beans, soak them in a basin of cold water for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. Wash the pepper in cold water, split it lengthwise along its creases, remove the seeds and pulpy core, and skin it raw, using a swiveling-blade peeler. Cut it into long strips less than ½ inch wide.
3. Put the oil and onion in a saute pan, turn the heat on to medium, and cook the onion, stirring, until it becomes translucent. Add the strips of pepper and the chopped tomatoes with their juice. Turn all ingredients over to coat them well, and adjust heat to cook at a steady, but gentle simmer for about 20 minutes, until the oil floats free of the tomatoes.
4. Add the raw green beans, turn them over 2 or 3 times to coat them well, add ⅓ cup water or less if you are using fresh tomatoes that turn out to be watery, salt, and chili pepper. Cover and cook at a steady simmer until tender, 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the youth and freshness of the beans. If the cooking liquid becomes insufficient, add 1 or 2 tablespoons water as needed. When the beans are done, if the pan juices are watery, uncover, turn the heat up to high, and rapidly boil them down. Taste and correct for salt and chili pepper, and serve promptly.
Ahead-of-time note The dish can be cooked through to the end several hours in advance and gently reheated before serving. Do not refrigerate.
Green Beans Pasticcio
A pasticcio can be one of two things in Italian. In everyday life it means a “mess,” such as in “How did I ever get into this pasticcio?” When produced intentionally by a cook, however, it is a mix of cheese and vegetables, meat, or cooked pasta, bound by eggs or bechamel, or both. Sometimes it is baked in a pastry crust, sometimes not. The one given below could be made in a crust, but it is not and I think it is both lighter and better for it.
For 6 servings
1 pound fresh green beans
3 tablespoons butter
Salt
Béchamel Sauce, made using 1¼ cups milk, 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour, and ⅛ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Whole nutmeg
A 6- to 8-cup soufflé mold
½ cup unflavored bread crumbs, lightly toasted
1. Snap both ends off the beans, soak them in a basin of cold water for 10 minutes, drain, and cut into pieces about 1 inch long.
2. Choose a saute pan that can contain all the beans snugly, but without overlapping. Put in 2 tablespoons butter, the green beans, 2 or 3 pinches of salt, just enough water to cover, and turn on the heat to medium high. Cook, turning the beans from time to time, until all the water has simmered away. Continue to cook for a minute or two, turning the beans in the butter, then take off heat.
3. Preheat oven to 375°.
4. Make the béchamel sauce, cooking it to medium density.
5. Beat the eggs lightly in a mixing bowl, and swirl in the grated Parmesan and a tiny grating of nutmeg—about ⅛ teaspoon. Add the green beans and the béchamel, mixing thoroughly to obtain a uniform blend of all the ingredients.
6. Smear the inside of the soufflé mold with the remaining tablespoon of butter, and sprinkle with enough bread crumbs to coat the bottom and sides. Turn the mold upside down and give it a sharp rap against the counter to shake away loose crumbs. Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the mold.
7. Place the mold on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven, and bake until a light crust forms on top, about 45 minutes.
8. To unmold, run a knife along the side of the pasticcio while it is hot, loosening it from the dish all the way around. Allow it to settle for a few minutes, then cover the mold with a dinner plate turned bottom up, grasp both the plate and the mold with a towel, holding them together tightly, and turn the mold upside down. The pasticcio should slip out onto the plate easily, with at most a little shake. Now you want to turn it right side up onto another plate. Sandwich the pasticcio between two plates and turn it over. Allow to settle for several minutes before serving.
BROCCOLI
We have come to expect broccoli to be in the market all year, but it does have a natural season, from late fall through winter, when it is at its best. When buying it, the florets or buds are the best guide to its freshness: They should be tightly closed, and their deep blue-green or purplish color must show no hint of yellow. The meatiest and tastiest part of the vegetable is its stem, which only needs be trimmed of its tough outer skin to become eminently edible. The leaves are also excellent, with a taste like that of kale, and in Italy, where broccoli comes to the market freshly picked and enveloped by its leaves, they are highly prized. Unfortunately, they are also highly perishable, and in North America the packer strips them away. If you grow your own, try the leaves in a vegetable or bean soup.
Sautéed Broccoli with Olive Oil and Garlic
THE TECHNIQUE illustrated by this recipe—sautéing blanched green vegetables in olive oil and garlic—is analogous to that used for spinach and Swiss chard, and it is one of the tastiest ways to prepare broccoli.
For 6 servings
1 bunch fresh broccoli (about 1 to 1½ pounds)
Salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic chopped very fine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1. Cut off about ½ to ¾ inch of the butt end of the stalk. Use a sharp paring knife to slice away the tough dark-green skin that surrounds the tender core of the main stalk and the branching-off stems. Dig deeper where the stalk is broadest because the skin is thicker there. Split the larger stalks in two or, if quite large, in four, without detaching the florets. Wash in 3 or 4 complete changes of cold water.
2. Bring 4 quarts water to a fast boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and as the water returns to a boil, drop in the broccoli. Adjust heat to maintain a moderately paced boil, and cook until the broccoli stalk can be pierced by a fork, about 5 minutes, depending on t
he vegetable’s youth and freshness. Drain at once when done.
3. Choose a saute pan or skillet that can accommodate all the broccoli without crowding it too tightly. Put in the olive oil and garlic, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a pale gold, then add the broccoli, salt, and the chopped parsley. Turn the vegetable pieces over 2 or 3 times to coat them thoroughly. Cook for about 2 minutes, then transfer the contents of the pan to a warm platter and serve at once.
Ahead-of-time note Prepare the broccoli up to this point several hours ahead of time on the same day you will be serving it, but do not refrigerate.
Variation with Butter and Parmesan Cheese
For 6 servings
1 bunch fresh broccoli, trimmed, washed, cooked, and drained as described above
3 tablespoons butter
Salt
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Choose a skillet or saute pan that will contain all the broccoli pieces without crowding them tightly, put in the butter, turn the heat on to medium, and when the butter foam begins to subside, add the cooked, drained broccoli and salt. Turn the broccoli over completely 2 or 3 times, and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the grated Parmesan. Turn the broccoli over again, then transfer the contents of the pan to a warm platter and serve at once.
Fried Broccoli Florets
ONLY THE FLORETS are used here because they lend themselves best to frying. The stalks are too good to throw away, however; after trimming them, use them in a cooked salad, or a vegetable soup, or saute them with garlic and olive oil.
For 6 servings
1 medium bunch fresh broccoli (about 1 pound)
Salt
2 eggs
1 cup fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
Vegetable oil
Note The batter used here consists of eggs and bread crumbs. Another excellent batter for the florets is pastella, flour and water batter, used for fried zucchini.
1. Cut off the florets where their stems meet the stalk. Set the stalk aside, trimming it of its hard outer skin, and use it in another dish as suggested in the introductory remarks above.
2. Wash the florets in 2 or 3 changes of cold water. Bring 2 quarts water to a fast boil, add a large pinch of salt, and as the water resumes its boil, drop in the florets. From time to time, submerge any part of a floret that floats above the water line to keep it from turning yellow. When the water comes to a full boil again, retrieve the florets with a colander spoon and set aside to cool. When they are cold, cut the larger florets lengthwise into pieces about 1 inch thick. Try to have all the pieces more or less equal in size so that you can fry them evenly.
3. Break the eggs into a soup plate, and beat them lightly with a fork.
4. Dip the broccoli, one piece at a time, in the beaten egg, letting excess egg flow back into the plate, then dredge it in the bread crumbs, turning to coat it all over and patting it with your fingertips to cause the breading to adhere securely. Put all the dipped and breaded pieces on a plate until you are ready to fry them.
5. Pour enough oil in a skillet or frying pan to come ½ inch up the sides, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the oil is very hot, slip in as many pieces of broccoli florets as will fit in at one time without crowding the pan. When they have formed a nice golden crust on one side, turn them and do the other side. Transfer them to a cooling rack to drain or to a platter lined with paper towels. Do another batch, and repeat the above procedure, until all the broccoli pieces are done. Sprinkle liberally with salt and serve at once.
Smothered Cabbage, Venetian Style
ANY VARIETY of cabbage—Savoy cabbage, red cabbage, or the common pale-green cabbage—works well in this recipe. It is shredded very fine and cooked very slowly in the vapors from its own escaping moisture combined with olive oil and a small amount of vinegar. The Venetian word for the method is sofegao, or smothered.
For 6 servings
2 pounds green, red, or Savoy cabbage
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1. Detach and discard the first few outer leaves of the cabbage. The remaining head of leaves must be shredded very fine. If you are going to do it by hand, cut the leaves into fine shreds, slicing them off the whole head. Turn the head after you have sliced a section of it until gradually you expose the entire core, which must be discarded. If you want to use the food processor, cut the leaves off from the core in sections, discard the core, and process the leaves through a shredding attachment.
2. Put the onion and olive oil into a large sauté pan, and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it becomes colored a deep gold, then add the garlic. When you have cooked the garlic until it becomes colored a very pale gold, add the shredded cabbage. Turn the cabbage over 2 or 3 times to coat it well, and cook it until it is wilted.
3. Add salt, pepper, and the vinegar. Turn the cabbage over once completely, lower the heat to minimum, and cover the pan tightly. Cook for at least 1½ hours, or until it is very tender, turning it from time to time. If while it is cooking, the liquid in the pan should become insufficient, add 2 tablespoons water as needed. When done, taste and correct for salt and pepper. Allow it to settle a few minutes off heat before serving.
Braised Carrots with Parmesan Cheese
I KNOW of no other preparation in the Italian repertory, or in other cuisines, for that matter, more successful than this one in freeing the rich flavor that is locked inside the carrot. It does it by cooking the carrots slowly in no more liquid than is necessary to keep the cooking going so that they are wholly reduced to their essential elements of flavor. When cooked, they are tossed briefly over heat with grated Parmesan.
For 6 servings
1½ pounds carrots
4 tablespoons butter (½ stick)
Salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1. Peel the carrots, wash them in cold water, and slice them into ⅜ inch disks. The thin tapered ends can be cut thicker. Choose a saute pan that can contain the carrot rounds spread in a single snug layer, without overlapping. Put in the carrots and butter, and enough water to come ¼ inch up the sides. If you do not have a single pan large enough, use two smaller ones, dividing the carrots and butter equally between them. Turn on the heat to medium. Do not cover the pan.
2. Cook until the water has evaporated, then add salt and the ¼ teaspoon sugar. Continue cooking, adding from 2 to 3 tablespoons water as needed. Your objective is to end up with well-browned, wrinkled carrot disks, concentrated in flavor and texture. It will take between 1 and 1½ hours, during which time you must watch them, even while you do other things in the kitchen. Stop adding water when they begin to reach the wrinkled, browned stage, because there must be no liquid left at the end. In 30 minutes or a little more, the carrots will become so reduced in bulk that, if you have been using two pans, you will be able to combine them in a single pan.
3. When done—they should be very tender—add the grated Parmesan, turn the carrots over completely once or twice, transfer them to a warm platter, and serve at once.
Ahead-of-time note The carrots can be finished entirely in advance, except for the Parmesan, which you will add only when reheating, just before serving.
Braised Carrots with Capers
For 4 servings
1 pound choice young carrots
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
2 tablespoons capers, soaked and rinsed if packed in salt, drained if in vinegar
1. Peel the carrots and wash them in cold water. They ought to be no thick
er than your little finger. If they are not that size to start with, cut them lengthwise in half, or in quarters if necessary.
2. Choose a sauté pan that can later accommodate all the carrots loosely. Put in the olive oil and garlic, and turn on the heat to medium high. Cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a pale gold, then add the carrots and parsley. Toss the carrots once or twice to coat them well, then add ¼ cup water. When the water has completely evaporated, add another ¼ cup. Continue adding water at this pace, whenever it has evaporated, until the carrots are done. They should feel tender, but firm, when prodded with a fork. Test them from time to time. Depending on the youth and freshness of the carrots, it should take about 20 to 30 minutes. When done, there should be no more water left in the pan. If there is still some, boil it away quickly, and let the carrots brown lightly.
3. Add pepper and the capers, and toss the carrots once or twice. Cook for another minute or two, then taste and correct for salt, stir once again, transfer to a warm platter, and serve at once.
CAULIFLOWER
How to buy A head of cauliflower must be very hard, with leaves that are fresh, crisp, and unblemished. The florets should be compact and as white as possible. If they are yellowish or speckled, it is preferable to look elsewhere or do without.
How to boil
• Detach and discard most of the leaves, except for the small, tender inner ones, which are very nice to eat if you are serving the cauliflower as cooked salad. Cut a deep cross into the root end.
• Bring 4 to 5 quarts of water to a rapid boil. The more water you use the sweeter the cauliflower will taste and the faster it will cook. Put in the cauliflower and when the water returns to a boil, adjust heat to cook at a moderate boil.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Page 53