The Sardinian pasta called fregula has been making its mark in the pasta panoply. This crossover code-switching recipe moves it eastward with some Middle Eastern flavors. It is vegan of its own accord, not by design, with a balance of flavors and textures that will make the dish one you will want to come back to.
This creamy velouté of sweet chestnut and leek - laced with the sensual aroma of truffle butter and punctuated by a melting morsel of foie gras paté - had my guests glancing around as if looking for voyeurs while they ate in John Cage silence, accompanied only by the arrhythmic clatter of spoons on porcelain.
How many of you have run out of ideas for your curly vegetable cutter? You know, the one that make spirals out of your zucchini and carrots? It got twee pretty quickly, didn’t it? Well, this recipe will bring the two of you back together in the kitchen again! Healthy, cheap, easy, fast and delicious. Ticks all the boxes.
Antidepressant biscotti - the all natural pick-me-up for the lockdown blues. Crystalized ginger joins forces with pumpkin, walnut and spices in a toothsome cookie powerful enough to take on a broad spectrum of moods from mopey to pissy, grumpy to anxious. Proven clinical trials on actual family members.
I live in Italy, have for 30 years, and as an immigrant with no particular national reference of origin other than the US (though I did take the Ancestry DNA test recently…!), I feel that part of my role here, indeed, part of my purpose in life, is to bring my international culinary experience into the food that I make in Italy. Although Italian food projects an aura of timelessness, it has undergone vast changes on its long trajectory because human beings have always been curious about culinary novelties and the inherent possibilities in each foodstuff.
And I want to be part of that wave.
I’d like to dive into some of those supposedly timelessness Italian foods and contrast it with the changes that have taken place along Italy’s culinary timeline, but I would never get this post out and I promised it for today.
The last thing I want to say before I get to the recipe is that I had not planned on putting this on the website and so do not have a full photo display as I do for other recipes, just the final product.
Friarielle go by many names in Italy. I believe that this name is having a heyday in the US at present. They are also called broccoletti, rapini and cima di rape. Whatever name you prefer - they are fabulous.
There isn’t too much kale here in Italy, so I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but I suppose if you cannot find friarielle, kale will do in a pinch.
1 k turnip greens (preferably with little broccoli like heads)
[grind to a paste]
1/3 cup garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small onion, quartered
3cm young ginger (so that it is not too stringy)
[“porridge”]
1 cup water
1 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp mirin, hoisin sauce, or brown sugar
[other]
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup chili flakes (or a combination of fresh red chili and dried) to taste
1/2 cup diakon, julienned
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 large bunch fresh coriander, leaves, minced
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Wash the vegetable (do not dry), salt it well, and leave it sit in a plugged sink for 30 minutes. Toss and leave another 30 min (or more while you are preparing).
Bring the water to a boil and add the porridge ingredients. Stir until thick, about 10 minutes.
Rinse the vegetable lightly. Mix it with the “other” ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix the paste with the porridge and pour it on top of the vegetable.
If you are well seasoned in the kitchen, mix the contents of the bowl well with your hands, lifting it, shaking it, and letting the strands drop into the bowl.
Press it tightly into a jar and put a plastic press under the lid so that the liquid is covering the vegetable.
Leave out for about four days. When it starts to get active (a bit sour, a bit bubbly) transfer it to cold storage or the fridge until it is right for you. The longer it sits, the more sour it will become. You can eat it at any point along the way.
A not on ingredients: add more or less of anything according to your taste. The spiciness of chilis will vary, but I recommend using a slightly milder one so that you can add a lot to get a good red color. The spiciness should just arrive at the threshold of your tolerance.
:맛있게 먹어
buon appetito!!!
Post script - I went back to my post on the Fermentation group page and posted my website page with the recipe. Without explanation, I was immediately and permanently blocked from the group. It stung for a while and I was hurt and confused, but I’ve joined another group. Life goes on.
Tiberian original: Roast Pheasant Terrine. Are you one of those people who likes laborious challenging cooking, who doesn’t shy away from recipes that take days to execute, including several hours of hand-on work, requiring non-standard equipment and ingredients, and cannot be eaten until the day after cooking?
Well, have I got the recipe for you! Armchair chefs welcome. This is a journey.
Dario Cecchini created a technique for preparing pork shoulder that gave it the appearance and mouthfeel of canned tuna. He called his creation Tonno del Chianti - Chianti tuna. I wanted to come up with a recipe of my own for this faux tuna, so I moved the recipe further south to my own region of Umbria and personalized it as a Tiberian dish, using bolder flavors to distinguish it from its Tuscan cousin.
If you are a bread maker like me, you are probably always looking for creative ways to use leftover bread. I like to bake more frequently that I am able to consume the loaves I make, so before it gets too hard, I cut the remains into croutons, dry them out, and when the occasion arises, I toast them up for soups and salads. It is not just about economizing; the bread was so good when it was fresh, it would be a shame to turn it into bird feed. Nothing against birds.
I make candied citron peels annually as soon as they appear at the market so that I can extend the enjoyment of their unique flavor throughout the year. They make an unusual garnish, can be chopped and added to anything from salads to pasta to stuffings, or just eaten on buttered bread instead of jam.
