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recipe – GT Food & Travel
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GT Food & Travel

Tag: recipe

  • Torta di Mele – Apple Cake

    Torta di Mele – Apple Cake

    Who doesn’t like apple pie? Sweet and spicy scented clouds of crisp slices sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice bubble through a golden lattice crust. The smells that drifted out of Ma and Papa’s kitchen window linger in my mind. I’ve talked about Ma (my grandmother Louise) many times on this blog. I’d open her driveway gate and run past the apple, peach and pear trees to their back door to find her waiting, smiling. She was dressed in one of her many flowery housecoats with pearl tinted snaps. In her kitchen, there was always  homemade dessert.
    In Italy, I still make her apple pie but when I’m pressed for time, I turn to her apple cake recipe. It’s easy to make and not overly sweet. Enjoy it for breakfast, an afternoon snack or dessert served warm out of the oven or at room temperature.

    Ingredients

    • 6 tablespoons butter, softened plus extra for greasing the cake pan
    • 3 eggs
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 2 ¾ cups of self-rising flour plus extra for dusting
    • 6 small crisp apples, peeled, cored and chopped – I use mele annurche, honey crisp or cortland apples. 

    Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a cake pan with butter and dust it lightly with flour. Mix the eggs and sugar together until fluffy. Add the butter to the mixture and mix until combined completely. Sift the flour into the mixture. Add the apples and mix. Pour the cake mixture into the buttered and floured cake pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool or serve while warm. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, if you like.

     

  • Hazelnut & Dried Cherry Biscotti

    Hazelnut & Dried Cherry Biscotti

    With every season and holiday baking rituals arrive. I never thought much about them as a child. With each year that passes by, I cherish these rituals more and more. Easter is quickly approaching. Mom and I make bunny, egg, and lamb shaped chocolates, bunny shaped bread and various versions of ricotta pie and biscotti. The baking marathon starts on Good Friday and ends at the Easter table littered with a plethora of savory and sweet dishes.DSC_0133

    In anticipation of the Easter bake-off, my sweet tooth and fidgety hands are warming up in the kitchen making biscotti. Biscotti means twice cooked as these tasty cookies are cooked in a strips, sliced and then cooked a second time. This easy to make biscotti recipe can be easily adapted to include your favorite nuts, dried fruit and chocolate.

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1 stick of butter
    • 3 eggs
    • 3 cups flour
    • 3 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 tsp vanilla
    • toasted hazelnuts
    • dried cherries

    DSC_0120Combine sugar and butter.  Add well-beaten eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla.  Mix together. Add as many hazelnuts and dried cherries as you like. I added approximately 1 cup of each. The dough can be quite sticky. If it’s too sticky to work with add a bit of flour to the mixture. DSC_0126

    Form 3 strips approximately 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and slice.  DSC_0130Place under broiler to brown both sides (approximately 5 minutes per side).DSC_0132Remove and voilà! Your home will be full of aromas of roasting hazelnuts and you’ve got home-made biscotti. They are delicious served straight out of the oven or for breakfast dunked in coffee or as an afternoon snack. 

  • Bean-Potato Stew from Ma’s Kitchen

    Bean-Potato Stew from Ma’s Kitchen

    It’s lovely, how I still dream of her. I’m happy to meet Ma in my dreams and celery cut in uniform miniscule squares on a well-worn wooden board and any kitchen knife. Her hands were always manicured but she never wore nail polish. Her nail length was uniform too. Like the cutting board, her hands are worn from a lifetime of cooking, caring and chopping. Her hands tell many stories with each fine line. Ma wears the house coat I like best. It’s white with blue and yellow daisies. The buttons are a lucid shiny celeste. Piles of celery, a rainbow of forest and pastel green and white, lay waiting. The leaves are peppery and flat. She insisted in uniformity in the kitchen that is. Crunch, the knife moves through each stalk, mechanical movements which are uniform too, dice and move to the side.MA

    In December, Mom and I walked into Roberto’s, our neighborhood fruit and vegetable shop, where I happened over to a mound of pink pods speckled with white. Art by nature; they were the last borlotti beans of the season. Mom held open a brown paper bag and I scooped handfuls of pods into it. We grabbed a soil dusted bunch of celery with plenty of leaves. We never stop for an instant to question why Ma cooked with certain ingredients, shopped here or there and bought celery with lots of peppery leaves. It just was.celery

    Into the kitchen we go. I’m less patient and certainly not uniform like Ma when it comes to dicing, mincing and slicing. I like chunky bits of celery. Split, crunch, crack, cut, I’m in her kitchen chopping on her cutting board. There she is. Shuck the beans, peel and dice the potatoes, put them in a dutch oven pan with EVOO and plenty of oregano. Cover with water and simmer until cooked. Serve with crusty bread.beanspotatoes

    Measurements are hard with Ma’s recipes. If the beans are in the shell, use 3 to 4 pounds. If shelled use a pound. Peel and dice 4 medium size potatoes, add as much diced celery as you like, plenty of celery leaves and oregano and extra virgin olive oil.

  • Vinegar Peppers from Ma’s Kitchen

    Vinegar Peppers from Ma’s Kitchen

    Late summer and early autumn usher in canning time. From tomato sauce with bright basil leaves, to fig jam and peaches in simple syrup, it’s a ritual that I cherish. A ritual I have thanks to my grandparents and mom. Mom and I are adamant about carrying forward family traditions. This brings me oddly to a scary place…Ma and Papa’s – my maternal grandparents – basement.  It wasn’t so much the basement that scared me but the ill lit narrow stairway which led to the cold damp cavern. When I close my eyes and think of the stairs, I get goosebumps like when I watch Steven King’s “Salem’s Lot”. The basement held everything from rakes, a lawnmower and glass jars to wooden and concrete shelves stocked with canned tomatoes, peppers and concord grape jelly.papamaGFrom where I sit now the doorway to the narrow stairway is a magical entrance like the wardrobe door in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. It is a gateway to another land, a land of food, laughter and love and memories. I followed Papa around as he grabbed a rake to gather fallen leaves or as he pulled on dirt stained thick gloves to work in the vegetable garden. He’d wear a dark blue quilted jacket and sometimes a beaten up baseball hat. Ma would call to us from the kitchen window or back door to come in for a warm slice of midnight velvet cake layered with melting vanilla ice cream or steamy apple pie. She seemed to always be at the stove. cannedgreenpepper

    Back to the shelves packed with home made delicacies. September is the month when we put up vinegar peppers. My Aunt Virginia, Mom and Ma would meet around the kitchen table to prepare them. The green ones play a main role in insalata di baccala (salt-cod salad) which is one of the seven fish courses that we serve at Christmas Eve dinner. Three years ago I spent my first Christmas away from Mom and Dad. Stumbling upon the peppers in the Trionfale market was a joyful and tearful moment. Ma called them Saint Nicole peppers – I imagine because of the link to the Christmas and Saint Nicolas – or in dialect pupacchielle. In Italian they are pappacelle. 

    Ingredients

    • Saint Nicholas peppers – found in August and September
    • Apple cider vinegar
    • Dry oregano
    • Garlic cloves peeled
    • Salt
    • Water
    • Medium size sterilized canning jars

    greenpeppersredyellowpeppersWipe the peppers with a clean towel. Make sure the peppers are not bruised. Cut in pieces or leave whole. If cut in pieces remove the stem and seeds. If leaving whole remove the stem end.greenpepperprep prepredyellowpeppers2Place 1 tsp salt, 2 garlic cloves and oregano in each medium size jar. Pack half of the jar with peppers and repeat salt/garlic/oregano mixture. Fill the rest of the jar with peppers leaving 1/2 inch head space. Repeat salt/garlic/oregano mixture. prepredyellowpeppersAdd vinegar and water (3 parts vinegar to 1 part water).canredyellowpeppers

    Cover tightly. Turn upside down to mix well. Store in a cool place for at least 4 weeks before using. We use the green peppers in salad as they remain firmer and we use the green, yellow and red peppers in cooked dishes like pork chops, peppers and potatoes. My advice is use them as you like.

     

     

     

  • Caponata, Cooked Eggplant Salad

    Caponata, Cooked Eggplant Salad

    It is eggplant season. Market stands are piled high with the tear-shaped violet-purple-black vegetable. Caponata or capunata as my Sicilian grandparents would say is a cooked eggplant salad made with fried eggplant, celery and capers seasoned with vinegar and sugar. While variations of ingredients exist with some recipes adding raisins, potatoes and pine nuts and others including peppers, olives and carrots, I cherish my grandmother’s version.

    Caponata

    Ingredients

    • 2-3 pounds eggplant
    • 1 bunch celery
    • 1-2 sliced onions
    • capers to taste
    • green olives to taste
    • homemade tomato paste to taste
    • salt
    • Olive oil or vegetable oil for frying
    • sugar
    • 1-2 cups good quality red wine vinegar
    • black pepper

    Wash and dice eggplant. Sprinkle with salt and leave in a colander to drain for at least one hour. Squeeze to get rid of excess liquid. Deep fry in oil until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper. Clean and cut celery. Fry celery until golden. Saute onion in the same oil until translucent. Dilute tomato paste with warm water and add to the sauteed onion. Season with salt. Continue to cook for 10-20 minutes over medium heat. Add sugar, vinegar, capers, olives, eggplant and celery. Sprinkle with black pepper and simmer until done, approximately 15 minutes. Serve cold.

    Note: This dish tastes best the following day if you can wait!

     

  • Artichoke & Chard Savory Pie

    Artichoke & Chard Savory Pie

    In the U.S. when I hear the word pie the smell of baked fruit and cinnamon floods my nostrils. Visions of warm apples in a golden crust topped with melting vanilla ice cream come to mind. In Rome, I think of torta rustica or savory pie. It’s hard to imagine that the Romans made savory pie-like pastries during the Roman times and in Middle Ages. The crust was dense and hardly edible. Its main purpose was to keep meat moist during cooking.

    Thankfully, today’s crust is moist and flaky and stuffed with vegetables, cheese and salami. Every season, I try different vegetable fillings and work on perfecting the crust. Artichoke and chard is my latest and favorite combo.

    Ingredients for the filling 

    • 800 gr (28 oz) of chard, cleaned
    • 6 – 8 artichokes
    • 1 lemon
    • 4 tbsp olive oil
    • 1 onion, chopped
    • 150 gr (5 oz) parmesan cheese, grated
    • Salt & pepper to taste

    Ingredients for the dough 

    • 500 gr (5 1/4 cups) of flour
    • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    • Salt

    Preheat oven to 375°F/190 °C

    Filling

    Clean the chard. Parboil it for 5 minutes. Drain and let cool.

    Chop it.

    Clean the artichokes; discard the tough outer leaves. Slice thinly and place in water with lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

    Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a saute pan, add chopped onion, let cook for approximately 5 minutes. Add the artichokes, salt and pepper and cook for 10 – 15 minutes or until tender. Add the chard and let cook for 3 – 5 minutes.

    Add the parmesan and 2 tablespoons olive oil.

    Dough

    Mix the flour with olive oil, salt and a generous amount of water. You want the dough to be soft, elastic-like.

    Grease a round baking pan (approximately 24 cm (9.5 in) in diameter) with oil. Roll out half of the dough in the shape of a circle. Place in pan, add filling; covering the dough evenly.

    Top with the remaining dough in the shape of a disk or with strips in a lattice pattern. Seal the edges. If covering with a disk use a fork to prick the crust. In a pinch use pre-made dough.


    Place in preheated oven for approximately 45 mins or until the crust is golden brown.


    Let cool a bit before serving. Enjoy!

    If you’re in Rome, stop by Al Vino Al Vino (Via dei Serpenti 19) for a glass of wine and slice of Giacomo’s homemade torta rustica. Delicious!

  • Vegetarian Rosemary White Bean Soup

    Vegetarian Rosemary White Bean Soup

    When I found out that my good friend Elena would be going to NYC for three months, I immediately told her to block a day for lunch. With the chilly weather in Rome descending upon us, it was soup time, rosemary white bean soup to be precise.  I was inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe in the barefoot contessa cookbook. Here’s my version:Ingredients

    • 500 gr dried white cannellini beans
    • 2 large sliced yellow onions
    • Extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 garlic cloves, minced
    • Dried rosemary to taste
    • Approximately 2 litres vegetable stock
    • 1 bay leaf
    • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Soak the beans overnight. Drain. In a large pot over low heat, sauté the onions with the olive oil until they become translucent; approximately 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the beans, rosemary, vegetable stock and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil; lower heat and let simmer until beans are soft; approximately 50 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Place half of the soup in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until coarsely puréed. Return soup to the pot to reheat and add salt and pepper to taste.  

    Serve hot with a hunk of pane lariano (Roman bread made from whole wheat flour) and the company of friends; hearty, warm and filling and even better the next day!

     

     



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