Roasted vegetables with ricotta salata and Italian parsley
Japanese turnips, summer squash, new potatoes and cherry tomatoes tossed with a bit of salt and olive oil, then roasted at 350 F for 1 hour. Sprinkle with ricotta salata and chopped Italian parsley before serving.
I’m not much of a fruit person, otherwise I’d have bought some. At $4 a pint, they’re not cheap.
This week’s Greenmarket haul: fromage blanc, cow’s milk ricotta, tomatoes, bread, cavolo nero, Japanese turnips, herbs, eggs, butter, cod, potatoes, radishes, summer squash and FAVA BEANS!!!
I’m in the process of drafting this week’s menu. Stay tuned.
Well, raw, but not in the way you think. 
Spaghetti con salsa di pomodoro*, radish and sugar snap peas with ricotta salata and herbs
*Otherwise known as “thin spaghetti with uncooked tomato sauce” — Yellow Jersey tomatoes, shallot, summer squash, salt, pepper, lemon zest, tarragon and extra-virgin olive oil. Dice the tomatoes, shallot and summer squash. Combine in a glass or nonreactive bowl. Add a pinch of kosher salt, some freshly milled black pepper, the lemon zest and some chopped herbs (basil is best but tarragon or marjoram will do in a pinch). Drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil over the vegetables. Stir and check seasoning. Pour the sauce over cooked spaghetti, toss to coat and serve immediately.
Use only the freshest in-season tomatoes when making this dish.
Click here for the radish salad recipe.
The Spamwise Chronicles first began life as an LGBT blog and with this post, I return to my roots. No food-related content; that can wait for another day. Instead I’ve captured a little bit of the Pride march this afternoon. Today marks the 40th anniversary of Stonewall — a very special day indeed.
Polpetti, served with angel hair pasta, summer vegetables and herbs
Outside of Italy, meatballs are most often served with spaghetti, but in Italy, they are presented quite differently. They make an excellent antipasto cooked in a tomato or wine sauce, or coated in bread crumbs and served plain. Here, I’ve poached them in chicken stock and paired them with angel hair pasta, summer squash and sugar snap peas. This is lovely, served either as a primi (or first course), or as an entrée.
Sautéed kale with garlic and extra-virgin olive oil, poached farm egg, baguette
I had planned on making a tomato risotto tonight. Had a change of plan though and opted for panzanella instead.
Panzanella
There are several famous Italian bread salads such as cialedd from Apulia and insalata di pane con peperoni (bread salad with roasted peppers) from Sicily. In this salad, the primary ingredients are tomatoes (although I have added seedless cucumber and oil-cured olives because I had those on hand). The success of this salad depends on the quality of the bread. It should contain no added sugar or eggs and must be chewy and substantial, not light and airy, in order to stand up to the dressing. An unsalted, peasant bread is perfect, but it must be stale — preferably one or two days old.
You’ll be tempted to add balsamic vinegar when making the dressing. I implore you not to. I feel that balsamic vinegar, like white truffle oil and sun-dried tomatoes, is an ingredient that’s outstayed its welcome. I confess that I have a bottle in my pantry; however I rarely use it, because it tends to overwhelm a dish when used injudiciously. True aceto balsamico tradizionale is a thick, glossy, deep brown, syrupy liquid that’s been aged for a minimum of twelve years in several wooden barrels of successively smaller sizes. It has a complex flavor that balances the natural sweet and sour elements of the cooked grape juice with hints of wood from the casks. In the United States, a bottle of aceto balsamico tradizionale will cost anywhere from $100 to $400 for a few milliliters. The “balsamic vinegar” that you see in supermarkets is really red wine vinegar with some caramel coloring and a bit of sweetener added — a far cry from the real thing.
If you must use “balsamic vinegar”, then add 3 or 4 tablespoons in place of the sherry vinegar. That’s a sufficient amount in my opinion.
Ricotta gnocchi with golden beets, summer squash and garlic
According to Wikipedia, the word gnocchi means “lumps”, and may derive from nocchio (a knot in the wood), or from nocca (knuckle). It has been a traditional Italian pasta type of probably Middle Eastern origin since Roman times. It was introduced by the Roman Legions during the enormous expansion of the empire into the countries of the European continent. In the past 2000 years each country developed its own specific type of small dumplings, with the ancient gnocchi as their common ancestor. In Roman times, gnocchi were made from a semolina porridge-like dough mixed with eggs, and are still found in similar forms today, particularly in Sardinia (where they do not contain egg, however, and are known as malloreddus). One variety, gnocchi di pane (literally bread noodles), is made from bread crumbs and is popular in Friuli and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. Another variety from Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol is spinach gnocchi, called strangolapreti. This translates to “choke the priest.” The use of potato is a relatively recent innovation, occurring after the introduction of the potato to Europe in the 16th century.
Most people are familiar with potato gnocchi (which seem to be the most ubiquitous). However, ricotta gnocchi have been in vogue for quite a while. Ditto for chestnut gnocchi, made from chestnut flour.
Recipe and demo after the jump.
The most common excuse I hear when people say they’re not into cooking is “I don’t want to slave for hours on end in the kitchen just to make something to eat”. That could be a legitimate excuse but the reality is that you can make something tasty in a fraction of that time and it doesn’t even have to be complicated, as these two dishes prove. I think the real reason why people make excuses when it comes to cooking is they either don’t want to expend any effort or they don’t know how to cook. And we wonder why fast food and obesity are the issues they are today.
Thin spaghetti with mustard greens, garlic, pine nuts and golden raisins — This is an adaptation of a dish at Contigo, a restaurant located in Noe Valley in San Francisco. The original uses fava greens instead of mustard greens and doesn’t contain pasta.
We’ve been having so much rain lately, it’s starting to make me think I’m living in Seattle. Hmph.
Radishes — Serve these thinly sliced, with bread, butter and a little salt. Heaven in three bites. Also good roasted with some olive oil, chopped mint, salt and pepper.
Contributions to the Fellowship