Ratatouille Tartine

"Ratatouille tartine" sounds fancy. But a tartine is just an open-faced sandwich. And ratatouille is a French dish of cooked vegetables.

Ratatouille usually includes eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic and herbs. If there’s a “right” combination of vegetables and a “right” way to cook it (and given that ratatouille is French, I’m sure there is) then I don’t know what it is. I do know that almost any combination of vegetables piled on top of luscious ricotta cheese and crusty bread is going to be delicious.

I first made this in August. It was a perfect summer dish. Warm veggies on cool ricotta and grilled toasts.

I made it again last week. And now it feels like the perfect fall dish, with eggplants, zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes all in season.

I'm guessing it's going to be just as good in the winter and spring.



Gather your vegetables. Grab whatever looks good.

Start chopping and sautéing. Cook a couple of vegetables at a time, so they have enough room to get tender and golden. Salt and pepper each vegetable as you cook it. I started with bell pepper and red onion.

As the veggies cook, put them into a large bowl.

Zucchini next.

Then yellow squash.

Finally, the eggplant. I like to do the eggplant by itself, to make sure it's completely tender.

Mix the cooked vegetables until they are well combined. Allow them to cool slightly.

To the mix of vegetables, add minced raw garlic and fresh thyme.

Then add uncooked tomatoes. Mix well and taste for salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, mix ricotta cheese with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. This gives the ricotta more flavor. (And makes it so delicious you want to eat it straight from the bowl.)

Toast the bread or grill until it's light brown. Top with ricotta cheese and veggies. Enjoy!

 

Ratatouille Tartine

Recipe from The Garlic Press

olive oil

1 red bell pepper

1 red onion

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 eggplant

1 tomato

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 pint whole milk ricotta cheese

salt

pepper

baguette or other crusty bread

1.    Chop the vegetables, all the same size. (A small dice gives you a nice combination of flavors in each bite.) You can chop all the vegetables at once, or chop as you cook.

2.    Put olive oil in a saute pan. Add one or two vegetables, then a little salt and pepper. Don't crowd the pan or the veggies will steam. Once each vegetable is golden brown and tender, add it to a large bowl.

3.    Continue until the bell pepper, red onion, zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant are cooked. Mix the vegetables together and allow them to cool slightly. Add the chopped raw tomatoes, minced raw garlic and fresh thyme leaves. Add salt and pepper if needed.

4.    In a separate bowl, mix ricotta cheese with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.

5.    Toast the bread or grill until light brown. Top with ricotta cheese and vegetables.

Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer or 4 for dinner.

Creamless Creamy Vegetable Soup

  

On the one hand, I’m so ready for spring. We enjoyed our share of sledding, snow tubing and skiing. But this was one of the coldest, snowiest winters I can remember. I’m ready to walk down the sidewalk without slipping on a patch of ice. I’m ready to leave the house without snow boots, a down coat, hat and mittens. And I’m so ready to put away the shovels and ice scrapers.

But I’m not quite ready to get into shorts and a t-shirt. Blame the hearty stews. The rich pastas. The creamy hot chocolate. That “it’s okay, spring is months away” mentality seems really convincing when there’s two feet of snow on the ground. But I really need to be a little more grounded in reality when the calendar says it's March.

So what to do when the calendar demands healthier, lighter eating but the thermometer suggests that comforting winter dishes are still in order?

Start by making this soup. The creamy texture fools you into thinking you’re eating something rich and indulgent. But you’re not. It’s just tons of veggies simmered in water or stock and then pureed into a creamy soup.

Have a bowl of this soup for dinner. Or have a bowl right before dinner. It’ll fill you up so you won’t eat as much of everything else. Before you know it you’ll be ready for those shorts and t-shirts.

Just please don’t mention bathing suits.

Potatoes give the soup some substance. Other than that, you can really use whatever veggies you have in your fridge. Butternut squash, parsnips, turnips and cauliflower would all be great. This time I used potatoes, zucchini, carrots, leeks and a couple of tomatoes. 

Chop up the veggies and put them in a large saucepan. 

Add enough water, vegetable broth or chicken broth to cover. (I also threw in some thyme.)

Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

Use a regular or immersion blender to puree to whatever consistency you like. I like a smooth puree. But you can leave it a little chunkier if you prefer.

Serve hot.

Creamless Creamy Vegetable Soup

Recipe from The Garlic Press

2 potatoes

2 zucchini

2 leeks

2 carrots

2 tomatoes

(or whatever combination of vegetables you like, in addition to the potatoes)

1 sprig fresh thyme other herb

6 cups (approx.) water, vegetable broth or chicken broth

Salt

Pepper

1.   Chop up vegetables and place them in a large saucepan.

2.   Add enough water or broth to cover.

3.   Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

4.   Remove thyme sprig (if using). Puree using an immersion blender or regular blender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6 to 8

Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta e fagioli. Pasta and beans. We all know the rhyme about beans and what they're good for. But while we tend to remember the second part of the rhyme, we often forget the part about them being “good for your heart.” Beans are naturally low in fat and high in fiber, iron and protein. And they're filling, delicious and easy on the wallet.

This time of year, I can't imagine anything much more comforting that a bowl of beans and pasta. This pasta e fagioli recipe is a little unusual. I think. Not being an Italian grandma, I can’t say this with absolute certainty. But in my (limited) experience, pasta e fagioli is a brothy soup with beans and pasta.

This recipe calls for pureeing half of the beans, which results in a thick, almost stew-like texture with whole beans and pasta mixed throughout. I prefer this texture, particularly in the midst of a Polar Vortex. In the spring or fall, I'd probably leave all of the beans whole, and make this more of a soup. You can also go for a texture that's somewhere in between by adding more broth or pureeing a smaller portion of the beans.

Soak the beans overnight.

The next day, transfer them to a large pot with onion, bay leaf and garlic cloves.

Simmer until tender.

In the meantime, cook bacon in a large saucepan, then remove.

In the same saucepan, lightly brown onion, carrot and celery.

Add thyme and saute for another minute.

Add half of the cooked beans.

Then the chicken broth.

And the diced tomato.

Puree (or mash) the remaining beans with their cooking liquid.

Add the pureed beans to the tomato/bean mixture in the saucepan, along with the pasta.

Give everything a good stir and cook until the pasta is tender.

Stir in the bacon and serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

Pasta e Fagioli 

Recipe slightly adapted from De Lallo

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb dried cranberry beans

4 slices bacon, cut into small pieces

2 onions, 1 halved and 1 chopped

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

8 oz ditalini or other short pasta

Salt and pepper

1.    Rinse and soak dried beans in a large bowl of water overnight.

2.    The next day, drain and rinse the beans again, then transfer to a big pot and add enough cold, unsalted water to cover the beans by 3 to 4 inches. Add one onion, cut in half, one or two bay leaves, and a couple of cloves of garlic, and bring to a boil. Cook briskly for 10 minutes, removing the foam that comes to the top. Reduce the heat and cook the beans gently, uncovered until they are tender. This will take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

3.    In a large saucepan, heat bacon until it is cooked and renders its fat. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

4.    Wipe the pan with a paper towel and heat olive oil over a medium flame. Sauté onion, carrot and celery, until vegetables begin to brown. Add thyme spring and saute for a minute.

5.    Add half of the drained, cooked beans to the saucepan, maintaining a low heat on the remaining beans. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to the saucepan, and cook on a high flame. Add the chicken broth. Next, add the canned peeled tomatoes and stir continuously.

6.    Purée or mash the remaining half of the beans and cooking liquid in the big pot. Add the mashed beans to the soup.

7.    Add the ditalini pasta to the boiling soup. Turn down the heat and simmer until the pasta is cooked. (If needed, add more chicken broth. You may have to cook the pasta longer than the cooking time on the box.)

8.      Once pasta is cooked, stir in the bacon. Cook for another few minutes. The soup will be thick.

9.      When you are ready to serve the soup, top with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Note: You can easily make this soup vegetarian. Just omit the bacon and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Serves 8

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

I'm going to guess what you're thinking. "It's the week before Thanksgiving. Why on earth is she posting a recipe for chicken stock? Why not turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes. Or even gravy, for the love of God?!"

I'll tell you why. Because chicken stock is going to be the backbone of nearly everything on your Thanksgiving table. It's going to moisten the bread in your stuffing. It'll be the foundation of your soup. And you'll reduce it down and add turkey drippings to it to make your gravy. Even my green bean recipe uses a cup of chicken stock.

To put it simply:

delicious chicken stock = delicious Thanksgiving spread

The recipe is here a bare bones, basic chicken stock. It's made with chicken wings (great bone/meat ratio), water, onion, garlic and salt. The flavor is pure chicken. It's a wonderful base for chicken noodle soup, gravy, or any other recipe in which you want the chicken flavor to really shine through.

You can modify this recipe to suit your needs. If you want a more intensely flavored stock, roast or saute the bones first. Or transfer the stock to a saucepan and reduce it down until it's strong enough. (A word of caution: if you think you might reduce the stock, be conservative when adding salt. As the stock reduces down, it will get more and more salty.)

There's also plenty of room to personalize. If you like a more complex stock, add celery, onion, peppercorns and/or a bay leaf. If the stock is destined for matzoh ball soup, throw in some dill. If you're going to use it for an Asian soup or curry, consider adding fresh ginger or star anise.

The recipe is as spare the list of ingredients. Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and turn it on. Ten hours later, strain it. That's it. You're done. This recipe is perfect for the days before Thanksgiving when you're already running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (sorry -- couldn't resist)!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, we haven't finalized this year's Thanksgiving menu yet. But here's what we're thinking, a mix of old favorites and new recipes we're dying to try:

Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Turkey

Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Fennel

Mark Bittman's Make Ahead Gravy

Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Fuji Apple

Sweet Potatoes TBD

Mashed Potatoes TBD

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Super Pumpkiny Pumpkin Pie

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie

Place the chicken wings in your slow cooker.

Add onions, garlic and salt.

Add water and turn the machine on. I cooked the stock on low for 10 hours. And had to be very patient. After 5 hours, it didn't look all that different than it did at hour 1. I started to doubt. 

I shouldn't have. Because at hour 8, it suddenly started to look like this.

And by hour 10, it looked and smelled divine. Okay, I lied. It didn't look divine yet. But it did smell divine.

 Strain out the wings, onions, and "bits."

And you'll have this.

And if you're lucky, a bowl of this.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated

3 pounds uncooked chicken wings

2 1/2 quarts water

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, smashed

2 tsp salt, or more to taste

1.    Place all ingredients in a slow-cooker. Cook on LOW for 10 hours or HIGH for 5 hours.

2.    Strain out chicken parts, onion and garlic. (I strained it twice. The first time, I used a "spider" to remove the chicken pieces and onion. The second time I poured the stock through a sieve lined with a paper towel to catch the little bits that I don't want floating around in my stock).

3.    Use right away, or freeze.

Yield: about 3 quarts

Notes: This stock is not very fatty. But if you'd like, you can refrigerate the stock for a few hours. The fat will congeal, and you can remove it. Also, you can portion the stock out into 1 quart zip loc bags, freeze them flat in your freezer, and use as needed.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

I love the flavors of chicken piccata. As far as I'm concerned, the chicken is an afterthought. It's the sauce I'm after. Rich with garlic and shallots, bright with lemon juice and capers.

capers

Capers are the edible flower buds of the caper bush. When you bite into a caper, it releases a little burst of salty, pickle-flavored juice. The flavor of capers is the defining flavor of chicken piccata.

In addition to piccata dishes, you'll find capers in pasta puttanesca, remoulades and vinaigrettes. You might recognize them as the dark green, pea-size spheres you see next to the lox and cream cheese on a bagel spread. 

Traditionally, chicken piccata is served as a breaded cutlet topped with its defining lemon-caper sauce, and served on a bed of pasta.

This variation takes the essential components and turns them into a one-pot meal. It's lighter because rather than dipping the chicken in an egg wash and breadcrumbs, it's just lightly dusted with a bit of flour. I used mini penne, my son's current favorite pasta shape. But use any short pasta you like.

Gather your ingredients.

Set pasta to boil.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Toss lightly with flour.

Lightly brown chicken in hot butter/oil mixture. Remove chicken and set aside.

Add shallots (I used sliced red onion, but will use chopped shallots next time), garlic and thyme to the same pan. Cook until shallots are tender.

 Add flour, stir to coat shallot mixture, and cook for a minute or two until the flour is golden brown.

Whisk in lemon juice and chicken stock. Let simmer for a couple of minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.

Add the capers...

Chicken...

And pasta. 

Serve warm.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

Minimally adapted from A Spicy Perspective

1 lb chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces (you can also use breasts or tenders)

1 lb pasta

4 Tbsp flour, divided

2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup chicken stock

3 ounces capers, drained

Salt

Pepper

1.    Place a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring to a boil.

2.    Meanwhile, salt and pepper the chicken liberally and toss with 2 tablespoons of the flour.

3.    Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add butter and oil.

4.    Drop the pasta in the boiling water and cook as instructed on the package then drain.

5.    Once the butter is melted, place the chicken pieces in butter/oil mixture and saute for 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown and just cooked through. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to dry.

6.    Add the garlic, shallots and thyme to the same pan and saute for few minutes, until the shallots are tender. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons flour until it turns a light golden brown. sauce.

7.    Then whisk in the lemon juice and chicken stock.

8.    Once the sauce is simmering again, toss in the capers and chicken. Mix in the pasta and serve warm.

Serves 6.