Chicken Cutlets with Raspberries, Lemon Rice & Green Beans Gremolata + Valentines Day Dessert Ideas

Chicken cutlets with raspberry make a perfect entrée for an intimate evening, such as Valentines’ Day. I’ve paired it with lemon rice and Ina’s green beans gremolata for an easy-to-put-together dinner. If you also have in mind a fancy dessert but want to be able to prepare it in advance, I have three suggestions for you, starting with a decadent chocolate raspberry tart if you want to continue the raspberry theme, recipe here.  

Still on the thoughts of chocolate, the classic French chocolate mousse is always a winner, recipe here.

And of course you can never go wrong with Crème Brûlée, recipe here.

The chicken cutlets with raspberries recipe comes together very quickly by using thin cutlets, available in the poultry section of your market, saving you the time of pounding regular chicken breasts. Frozen raspberries work perfectly fine (no one will guess they are frozen, promise) for the sauce of red raspberries, but it’s nice to add a few fresh ones to garnish the finished dish. I always think rice is a nice addition to a dinner that contains a sauce. Lemon rice is an excellent dish when you need a delicate, fresh flavor with an important main course. And of course Ina’s green beans gremolata are so versatile and pair well with almost any chicken dish.

Chicken Cutlets with Raspberries
Slightly adapted from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso, serves 6
Printable Recipe

12 thin skinless, boneless chicken cutlets or 6 whole chicken breasts (12 halves), skinless, boneless, and pounded thin (1/4 inch)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
½ cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed if frozen
1 knob of cold, unsalted butter
Finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley for garnish
A few fresh raspberries for each serving as a garnish

Sprinkle both sides of chicken pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat and sauté the chicken, a few pieces at a time, in the butter just until browned on each side. Remove to a warm serving platter.

Pour the vinegar and wine into the pan to deglaze it. Stir in the raspberries and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until reduced by half. Remove from the heat and a knob of cold, unsalted butter and stir to incorporate into the sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken breasts and serve immediately. Garnish with chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and a few fresh raspberries for each serving. Serve with lemon rice.

My Mother’s Rice – method works every time
From My Carolina Kitchen by Sam Hoffer
Printable Recipe

My mother had a very easy but unusual way to cook rice and I’ll share her method with you. It always turned out perfectly, no lumps or sticky clumps, and no fancy cookers. She cooked the rice in lots of boiling salted water, the same way you cook pasta. Twenty minutes for white rice, 35 minutes for brown. After draining it well, she put the rice back in the pan, stirred in a pat of butter, and left it covered on the stove for up to twenty minutes before serving. Her preferred brand of rice was Uncle Ben’s converted rice and I’ve never used anything else, so I’m not sure how it would work with other brands. But I will add that this recipe has never let me down. Recently Cooking Light magazine recommended the same method.

Lemon rice: 
Inspired by The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso, serves 4 to 6

Proportionally for every cup of uncooked rice from recipe above, stir in 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest to cooked rice after is has been drained. Let the rice and lemon zest mixture stand together, covered, for 5 minutes in the pan. Add some finely chopped fresh herb of your choice (flat-leaf parsley or dill) along with a pat of butter, check for seasonings and serve immediately.

Green Beans Gremolata
Slightly Adapted from Foolproof, by Ina Garten, serves 4 to 6
Printable Recipe

1 pound French green beans, trimmed
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
3 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts (I used a mixture of toasted almonds, walnuts, and pistachios)
2½ tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and blanch them for 2 to 3 minutes, until tender but still crisp. Drain the beans in a colander and immediately put them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and preserve their bright green color.

For the gremolata, toss the garlic, lemon zest, parsley, Parmesan, and nuts in a small bowl and set aside.

When ready to serve, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Drain the beans and pat them dry. Add the beans to the pan and sauté, turning frequently, for 2 minutes, until coated with olive oil and heated through. Off the heat, add the gremolata and toss well. Sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and serve hot.

For better viewing, click photos to enlarge.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday , & Food on Friday at Carole's Chatter.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.  

Dream Destination Dinner in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in the South of France

Do you have a dream destination for dinner in a foreign city and if so, where would you choose? Paris perhaps or London, Rome or Madrid?  I would probably choose Paris because it’s such a romantic city and the choices of fine dining are plentiful. But how about it if I shake it up a bit and ask what foreign city would you choose if your dream was to prepare dinner for a couple of your friends.

Without hesitation my first choice would be Saint-Remy-de-Provence in the South of France. It is a bit laid back compared to big cities, but that’s what is so charming about the villages of Provence. In fact we are in the process of putting the finishing touches on our next trip there in the spring. St. Remy is in the Bouches-du-Rhône area of Provence in the Alpilles near Avignon, Arles and Aix-en-Provence and about an hour north of the old port city of Marseille. According to the local tourist department, St. Remy is bathed in sunshine for more than 300 days a year.

Since I chose to prepare dinner at home for some friends rather than dining out, it will encompass a bit of shopping. A natural choice for this dream dinner would be to serve a local Provençale Daube of Beef, accompanied by Le Macaronade, a macaroni gratin, and finish with simple dessert such as Julia Child’s cherry clafouti. Join me as we stop in St. Remy for a few things we’ll need.

Shopping in Provence is an adventure all into itself. There will be many stops along the way as you’ll see and everything is done in a leisurely style. Bring plenty of patience with you. I also suggest that you make sure to brush up on your French as many of the shop owners in small towns in Provence don’t speak English and if they do, it is un peu.

In fact if you’re game, I suggest you do a little research and write your grocery list in French. If I happen to look up a recipe on line and the directions aren't in English, I always find it easier if the website owner uses software to translate the website for me. While you’re doing your research, also jot down a few words and phrases that will help you as you shop. I guarantee it will be very helpful. I don’t speak French very well and I found that my written list came in very handy when my school girl pronunciation skills let me down as it often did. Contrary to what you’ve might have heard about the French, most all of them, especially in small villages, want to be very helpful, but it’s important that you do your part as well.

If we are to follow the lead of the locals, the first stop should always be the boulangerie for a freshly baked baguette, the first thing in the morning bien sur.

Tuck the baguette under your arm or put it in your straw shopping bag that you’ve brought along for the occasion. No straw shopping bag? No problem. There will be many to choose from at the local outdoor market in the square, where we’re off to next to pick up some assorted olives and nuts to munch on while we’ll sip a pastis, a popular aperitif in Provence, before dinner.

For the vegetables in our stew, we’ll stop at this lovely vegetable stand and also ask about local cherries for the clafouti.

Of course while we’re at the market we must pick up some flowers. Which ones do you like?

In Provence you never know what you might see at the local market. Perhaps a pet pour vous to take home?

Our final stop will be the boucherie for the meat for our daube. We’ll ask the butcher to choose the cut of beef for us while we chat with him about the weather.

As you can tell, shopping is a leisurely affair in Provence. Everyone must first be greeted with a friendly Bonjour Monsieur or Bonjour Madame as you enter their shop or approach their stall at the outdoor market and there’s always a polite au revoir or bonne journee exchanged as you depart. Oh, let’s not forget to pick up a couple of bottles of a local Cote de Rhone to serve with dinner while we’re out.

We’ve often said that if we had one more big dream left to follow it would be to live in Provence and perhaps find an old mas, the French word for farm house, to remodel. Unfortunately for us, we no longer have enough energy or youth to chase another dream. We already followed one big dream when we lived on a tiny private cay in the northern Bahamas for ten years. So now we visit Provence as often as we possibly can and rent someone else’s home for a couple of months and “pretend” we live there. Here’s our next “pretend” home for the coming spring just outside St. Remy-de-Provence.

When I was last in St. Remy I picked up some Les Olivades napkins at one of the local shops as one of the souvenirs of our trip. You’ll notice that I used them today when I set the table for dinner. Les Olivades is the last local company to continue the tradition of printing on fabric begun in Provence in Marseille in 1648 and they are still creating wonderful designs based on the original styles. Napkins and small things such as the local fleur de sel harvested in the nearby Camargue or charming burlap bags of herbs de Provence make nice gifts for yourself or your friends and they don’t take up any room at all in your suitcase.

The following recipe for daube looks very long, but if I were to leave out the details and the optional garnishes, it might read like this: combine all of the ingredients one day, cook them the next day, let them ripen one more day, spoon off any unwanted fat that rises to the surface, reheat, and eat. All this with only a single pot to wash.

Provençale Daube of Beef or Estouffade Provençale
Inspired by Cooking School Provence –by Guide Gedda & Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells 
Serves 6 to 8 and should be made two days before serving 
Printable Recipe

2 ½ pounds beef, cut into 1 ½” chunks (a butcher can do this for you), we used boneless bottom round
2 medium mild onions, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into ½” rounds
1 celery rib, minced
Kosher salt or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 bottle (3 cups) red wine, preferably Provençale, I used a Cote de Rhone
¼ cup marc de Provence or Cognac
1 bunch of fresh thyme
3 imported bay leaves
4 cloves, wrapped in a bag of cheesecloth
About a ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 strip of orange zest, about 2 inches, dried if desired (link to how to dry orange zest here)

As needed:
1 ounce baking chocolate, chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons local honey
A dash of red wine vinegar

Garnishes, optional:
More orange zest, chopped, for garnish
Fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley for garnish
Assorted fancy mushrooms, briefly sautéed in good butter & seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 or 4 fresh carrots, peeled, par-boiled and sautéed in good butter until they begin to brown, then seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Two days before serving the daube, combine all of the ingredients minus the garnishes in a large enameled casserole. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, bring the mixture to a simmer over low heat. Simmer gently until the meat is very tender, about 3 to 4 hours. Allow to cool down and refrigerate until the fat rises to the top and can be easily scraped off with a small spoon, about 12 hours or overnight.

At serving time, scraping off any additional fat. Reheat until the meat is heated through, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the thyme leaves, bay leaves, orange jest, and bag of cloves. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly. You may want to add the crumbled chocolate, honey and/or the vinegar if taste dictates. I added the chocolate and I thought it took away the slight bitterness of the sauce. If your sauce is too thin, see cook’s notes below on how to thicken with a beurre manié.

For garnishes, be sure to use freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley and chopped orange zest. Both bring an air of light freshness to the dish. If desired you can add additional garnishes, such as freshly sautéed fancy mushrooms and additional carrots.

If accompanied by a macaroni gratin (recipe below), be sure to reserve 1 cup of the sauce from the daube for the macaroni. Equally delicious is simple buttered noodles with grated Parmesan.

Cook’s notes: If your sauce is not thick enough (ours wasn’t), make a beurre manie by blending 3 T flour with 2 T softened butter to make a paste. Off heat, whisk in the beurre manié, then simmer the sauce for 2 minutes as it thickens. If you find your sauce is too tart (ours was), you can add some finely chopped good chocolate or a bit of honey and let it heat through the dish. I keep only dark chocolate on hand and honey, especially local, is a staple in any kitchen in Provence. If it needs a bit of spark, add a dash or two of red wine vinegar.

La Macaronade or Macaroni Gratin
Adapted from Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells – serves 4
Printable Recipe

To prepare authentic macaronade, you must first prepare a stew, either an Estouffade or a Daube, the traditional beef stew of the south of France.

Kosher salt
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 cup liquid reserved from Provençale Beef Daube
1 cup freshly grated imported Parmesan cheese

Preheat the broiler. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt the water and add the pasta and cook until tender, then drain. Spoon half of the noodles in a 2 quart gratin dish or individual serving dishes. Moisten the noodles with half of the stew liquid. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the noodles, then add remaining noodles, liquid and cheese. Place under the broiler and broil just until the cheese is browned and sizzling.

Julia Child’s Cherry Clafouti a la Liqueur
Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child – serves 6
Printable Recipe

3 cups pitted black cherries
¼ cup cognac
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Batter:
Liquid from the cherries and enough milk to equal 1 ¼ cups
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
An electric blender
A 7-8 cup lightly buttered, fireproof baking dish or Pyrex pie plate
Powdered sugar for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use fresh, black, sweet cherries in season and let them stand for 1 hour in the cognac and sugar.

Place the batter ingredients in your blender jar in the order in which they are listed. Cover & blend at top speed for 1 minute. Pour a ¼” layer of batter in the lightly buttered baking dish or pie plate. Put in the oven to let the batter set. Spread the drained cherries over the batter, then pour on the rest of the batter and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.

Place in middle position of preheated oven and bake for about an hour. It is done when it has puffed and browned and a needle or knife plunged into its center comes out clean. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar just before bringing to the table. It need not be served hot, but should still be warm. It will sink down slightly as it cools.

Au revoir for now from Saint. Remy-de-Provence in the South of Provence.

For better viewing, click photos to enlarge.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, and Weekend Bites at Simple Recipes.  

Have a great weekend everyone.

Orzo Salad – makes enough to feed a crowd

This orzo salad makes enough to feed a crowd and is perfect for entertaining because it can be made ahead and served at room temperature. For a more substantial meal, add some chopped grilled chicken breasts. I’ve come to love orzo because it cooks so much faster than rice and has a softer, creamier texture.

I don’t know about you, but I’m always a bit stymied when asked to bring a dish to a party. My criteria when choosing a party recipe is that 1) it must be pretty and 2) it must taste as good as it looks. This is especially essential if it’s going to sit on a buffet table with other dishes.

This salad fits the bill on both. There is a lot of color and flavors going on in this dish – smoky grilled red, orange and yellow roasted bell peppers with a little char, green English peas, crunchy grilled red onion, bright green fresh herbs from the garden and juicy ripe red tomatoes combined with al dente orzo and dressed with a lively mustard vinaigrette.

If you like dishes that can be made ahead, this salad is even more delicious the next day after the flavors have had time to blend together. I would advise that if you do make it ahead, add the fresh herbs at the last minute to retain their color and freshness.

We took this salad to a get-together over the 4th of July weekend and it was a real hit. It tastes as good as it looks and is also very pretty on a buffet table. I recommend taking a copy or two of the recipe with you because you’re bound to be asked for the recipe.

Orzo Salad
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma On the Grill, by Willie Cooper, serves 8 to 10
Printable Recipe

16 ounces (1 lb) dried orzo pasta
Kosher salt, to taste
1 cup fresh or frozen English peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 each red and white onion, cut into slices 1/2 inch thick
1 each red, orange and yellow bell pepper
1 cup of fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade, or minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, or a combination of both
12 small heirloom tomatoes, about 3 lb. total, cored and quartered or 15 or so grape tomatoes cut in half
Vinaigrette recipe below
Fresh basil leaves for garnish

Bring a large pot three-fourths full of salted water to a boil over high heat. Have a bowl of ice water ready. Add the orzo to the boiling water, stirring with a large spoon to prevent sticking. Return the water to a boil and cook the orzo until al dente (tender but firm to the bite), 10 to 12 minutes, adding the green peas during the last minute of cooking. You don’t want to overcook the peas. Drain in a colander. Pour the orzo and peas into the ice water and drain again. Transfer to a salad bowl. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate.

In the meantime, make the vinaigrette, recipe below. Combine the olive oil and grapeseed oil in a glass measuring cup. Whisk together the vinegar and mustard in a non-aluminum bowl. Add the oils in a slow steady stream, whisking constantly. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Prepare a hot fire in a grill. Brush and oil the grill grate and a vegetable-grilling basket. Brush the onions and bell peppers with olive oil. Arrange the onions in the grilling basket and place directly over high heat. Grill, turning once, until the onions are nicely charred on both sides, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate. Grill the bell peppers directly over high heat, turning occasionally, until nicely charred on all sides. Transfer to a bowl, cover and let steam for 10 minutes. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, using your fingers, a paring knife or a fork, peel them and discard the skins. Seed and dice the peppers.

Remove the orzo and peas from the refrigerator and add the vinaigrette, peppers, onions, basil or parsley and chopped grilled chicken (if using) to the bowl and toss to coat. Add the tomatoes, then taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. (I also added a couple of tablespoons of vinegar.) Can be served cold or at room temperature. Serves 8 to 10.

Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
1/2 cup grapeseed oil or other neutral tasting oil
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon good Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For a more substantial salad or with leftovers the next day, add some chopped grilled chicken breasts. As long as you have the grill on, throw some boneless chicken breasts on to add now or later.

For better viewing, click photos to enlarge. 

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, and Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes.    

Have a great weekend everyone.

Macaroni & Cheese with Spanish Chorizo & Grilled Chicken Tapas

Are you surprised to see macaroni & cheese on My Carolina Kitchen? Not nearly as surprised as I was the day I ordered it at a tapas bar. It just doesn’t sound like something I would do, does it? I normally go for healthy dishes like seafood and salads. Here’s how it happened.

One afternoon last month we went to see a simulcast of Puccini's opera La Boheme Live from the Met HD series and on the way home from the theater we stopped by one of our new favorite spots in Fort Myers, Cru in the Bell Tower Shops (the same place I discovered the fabulous Caesar kale salad featured a couple of weeks ago here). It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, but we joined the others in the bar for tapas. One of the tapas specials caught my eye - macaroni and cheese with Spanish chorizo and grilled chicken tapas.

For some reason lately and I don’t know why, I’ve been fascinated with chorizo. Do you ever get on a food kick and not sure why? Anyway, I ordered the macaroni and cheese tapas with the chorizo. It took only one bite and I was truly blown away. The flavors of the smoky chorizo coupled with the creamy macaroni paired very well with the grilled chicken and cheese. I insisted that Meakin try it (before I ate the whole thing myself) even though he kept telling me that he was busy with his two tapas - tuna tartare and short ribs. He basically ignored me until I nagged and nagged him. He finally gave in and had a taste. He was as impressed as I was and agreed that we should try to duplicate it at home. So here it is.    

I baked the macaroni in individual ramekins just as they did at Cru, but a large ovenproof casserole would work fine. Be sure to use the Spanish chorizo, a cured smoked sausage and not to be confused with the Mexican version of chorizo, a fresh ground pork sausage that must be cooked before eating. This is a very substantial tapas dish with 3 cheeses and 2 meats and serves six to eight. We served it with an arugula salad dressed in a lemony vinaigrette and called it lunch.

Macaroni & Cheese with Spanish Chorizo & Grilled Chicken Tapas
Inspired by Cru in Fort Myers, Florida 
Serves 6 to 8
Printable recipe

10 ounce grilled boneless skinless chicken breast
7 ounces of fully cooked Spanish style cured smoked chorizo sausage
1 pound of small corkscrew rotini or similar small pasta
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced
6 to 8 individual ceramic ramekins, depending on their size (I used 7 ounce ramekins similar to these but square)
Softened butter for greasing the ramekins

After the chicken has cooled, cut it up along with the chorizo into bite size pieces and set aside. Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to the package directions until al dente. Drain and rinse the pasta quickly to stop the cooking. Place in a large bowl and set aside while you make the sauce.

Sauce:
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

2 ½ cups milk
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups freshly grated sharp Cheddar cheese
½ cup freshly grated Havarti cheese
½ cup freshly grated Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook the milk with the bay leaves in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. In about 5 minutes or so when small bubbles appear along the sides, turn the heat off and let the milk stand.

In another small saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat. When the butter is foamy, add the flour and cook, stirring until the mixture browns, about 5 minutes or so. Remove the bay leaves from the milk and add about ¼ cup of the milk to the hot flour mixture, whisking all the while. As soon as the mixture becomes smooth, add a little more milk and continue to do so until all the milk is used up and the mixture is thick and smooth. Add the Cheddar and havarti and stir well to combine.

To assemble:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Pour the sauce over the cooked noodles, toss in the Parmesan, grilled chicken and chorizo pieces, stir until combined, then season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grease the custard cups with the butter and turn the noodle mixture into the cups. Top with slices of Gruyere cheese and bake the macaroni and cheese mixture in the oven (I put the ramekins on a sheet pan) until the Gruyere melts and the macaroni is heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

I highly recommend Cru if you find yourself in the greater Fort Myers / Cape Coral / Naples, Florida area.  It’s an upscale restaurant located in the Bell Tower Shops and reservations for the restaurant are a must during season, link here. Feel free to stop by their outside lounge or the bar inside any time you are in the area and no reservations are needed there. Or do what we did and enjoy their Tapas Bar, menu here plus daily specials, during Happy Hour from 4 to 7. Cru is a real happening place.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, & Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes. 

Have a great weekend everyone.

Marcella Hazan’s Spaghetti Frittata

The food world lost one of its greats on September 29, 2013, when Marcella Hazan passed away at her home in Longboat Key, Florida. It was Marcella Hazan who first introduced Americans to authentic Italian cuisine and forever changed the way we as Americans cook and perceive Italian food today.

An Italian newlywed, Marcella arrived in America in New York in 1955, speaking no English. When she encountered American Italian restaurants serving what tasted to her like overly spiced ketchup on spaghetti, culture shock settled in. With no cooking skills of her own, she was determined, as all of us are as newlyweds, to cook a proper meal for her husband. She learned English from watching television and, quite by accident, began to teach cooking classes after a course in Chinese food. The rest, as they say, is history. For more about her fascinating life and how she influenced Italian cuisine in America, I highly recommend this article in the New York Times, link here. Included in the article is a video of Mark Bittman’s visit with Marcella in her home where she relates her story of how she first started to write cookbooks. In the same article, Mario Batali is quoted as saying, “I didn’t pay attention to Julia Child like everyone else said they did. I paid attention to Marcella Hazan.” Lidia Bastianich calls Marcella “the first mother of Italian cooking in America.” High praise coming from some of our finest Italian cooks don’t you think.

Marcella’s recipes represent her love for simplicity and precision.  For that reason, I chose to remember her with this recipe for a simple spaghetti frittata from her cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. In the forward to this recipe, Marcella advises, “If you are making a pasta frittata for the first time, you will find this a good with to start with, to get the feeling, look and taste of the finished dish.”

Frittatas are very versatile and can be served sliced into wedges like a pie, or cut into pieces for an appetizer. Either way, they are delicious served warm or at room temperature, making them ideal for a buffet or party.

In this recipe, Marcella starts with freshly cooked spaghetti, slightly undercooked because it will undergo further cooking. We’ve been making spaghetti frittatas for years and often use left-over cooked spaghetti as the base of the our frittatas, but they require a bit more liquid than this recipe. If this is your first time to use pasta in a frittata, I suggest you follow her recipe to a T. Although the recipe calls for only Parmesan cheese and parsley as flavoring, I couldn’t help but improvise by adding a big handful of colorful sautéed sweet peppers for appearance. Once you get the hang of pasta frittatas, you’ll think of all sorts of ways to incorporate different ingredients from your favorite pasta dishes.

Marcella Hazan’s Spaghetti Frittata 
Adapted slightly from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marella Hazan – serves 4

1/2 pound spaghetti, we like to use thin spaghetti
Kosher salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 large eggs, beaten to blend and placed in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked spaghetti
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Added for color and flavor if desired:
½ cup finely chopped, sautéed red, orange, and yellow sweet bell peppers

Drop the spaghetti into 3 to 4 quarts of boiling, salted water and cook until firm to the bite. It should be a bit more al dente – more underdone – than you usually cook it because it will undergo further cooking. Drain and toss immediately into a large bowl.  Add 2 tablespoons of butter, grated cheese, and chopped parsley, sautéed peppers if desired, and toss well. Set the mixture aside to briefly cool to avoid cooking the eggs in the next step. In the meantime, preheat the broiler.

When the spaghetti mixture has cooled for a few minutes, add it to the bowl of beaten eggs and mix thoroughly, distributing the eggs evenly throughout the pasta.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a nonstick skillet with a broiler proof handle. Before the butter starts to color, add the spaghetti/egg frittata mixture to the skillet. Cook the frittata on top of the stove for 3 to 4 minutes without disturbing the pan. Then tilt the pan slightly, bringing its edge closer to the flame of the burner. Keep the pan in this position for about 1 minute, then rotate it at a shade less than a full quarter turn, always keeping it tilted so that its edge is close to the flame. Repeat until you have come around full circle. Take a look at the underside of the frittata, lifting the edge gently with a spatula, to make sure it has formed a lightly golden crust all around. If it has not, cook a little longer where needed.

Run the pan under the broiler until the top has formed a lightly colored crust. Remove and loosen with a spatula. Slide onto a cutting board and cut into serving wedges as you would a pie. Alternately, cut into pieces or squares and serve as an appetizer. Good either warm or at room temperature.

Printable recipe

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes, Foodtastic Friday at Not Your Ordinary Recipes, and Seasonal Sunday at the Tablescaper.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Original Pasta Primavera Recipe – Created By Ed Giobbi

An interesting story surrounds the origin of pasta primavera. Ed Giobbi, in his cookbook Eat Right, Eat Well – The Italian Way says, “I feel that something should be said about “pasta primavera,” perhaps the most popular pasta recipe in America today and certainly the most misunderstood. I would like to emphasize that the pasta primavera that is so popular in American today is not of Italian origin, but was created in Le Cirque restaurant.”

One of Ed’s claims to fame is that he invented the now well-know dish pasta primavera. Ed tells the story that in 1973 his good friends Chef Jean Vernges and restaurateur Sirio Maccioni visited his home to see if he would contribute a pasta recipe for their new restaurant, Le Cirque, in New York City. He put together a favorite pasta dish of his, “Pasta Primavera,” which was then unknown in New York City. It was a beautifully simple dish of unrefrigerated garden-ripe tomatoes cut into cubes, freshly chopped fresh basil and Italian parsley, very good olive oil, finely chopped garlic, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. and served it over spaghettini.

It turns out that the simple spaghetti dish with garden-ripe tomatoes that Ed whipped up that day for his friends was the forerunner of one of the most popular dishes in America – Pasta Primavera.

When New York’s Le Cirque opened in 1976 and popularized pasta primavera, Craig Claiborne & Pierre Franey called it “by far the most talked-about dish in Manhattan.” However, at least two other people other than Ed Giobbi have laid claim to its creation. In his memoir, Le Cirque’s owner Sirio Maccioni gave credit to his wife, and Chef Jean Vergnes, who doctored Giobbi’s version with cream and vegetables for the 4 star restaurant. It’s interesting to note that despite Chef Vergnes’ claim of inventing pasta primavera, he was said to hate it so much that he forced his cooks to make it in the restaurant’s hallway. Here is Le Cirque’s pasta primavera recipe, including all 10, as the New York Times calls them, pain-in-the-neck steps.

I have made Ed Giobbi’s original simple pasta primavera using three different colored vine ripe, locally grown heirloom tomatoes. & homegrown if you have them. In his cookbook Ed gives three recipes for pasta primavera. In one he recommends blending the tomatoes in a food processor so the spaghetti will be easier to twirl with your fork and at the same time pick up some of the tomatoes and basil. If you want to make it easier to eat, use any ordinary garden fresh tomatoes instead of the heirlooms. In my opinion whirling precious heirloom tomatoes in a food processor would be akin to putting a Chanel suit in the washing machine.
 

Ed Giobbi’s Pasta Primavera with Heirloom Tomatoes
Adapted from Eat Right, Eat Well – The Italian Way by Edward Giobbi –Serves 2, easily doubled - use homegrown tomatoes if you have them

½ pound thin spaghetti
Kosher salt for the pasta water
1-1/2 to 2 cups fresh garden-ripe heirloom tomatoes, at room temperature
2 small cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons slivered fresh basil, plus a few small leaves for garnish
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
Fleur de Sel (French sea salt) or any good fine grain sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Boil pasta in salted water, following package directions.

In the meantime, cut the tomatoes into slices parallel to the stem and discard the stem. Cut the tomato slices into ½” cubes and place in a colander to drain. About 2 to 3 minutes before the pasta is done, place the drained tomatoes in a large bowl with the remainder of the ingredients and stir very gently. Be sure to treat the heirloom tomatoes with care. They tend to bruise easily.

When pasta is cooked al dente, drain well by shaking the pasta in a colander so that all of the water drains off. In a large bowl, toss the hot spaghetti with the raw tomato sauce and serve immediately. Pass additional Fleur de Sel and freshly ground black pepper at the table.

Cooks note: Only make this when tomatoes are at their peak of freshness.

I am linking this to
Fresh Food Friday at La Bella Vita
Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable

Drop by and sample all of the goodies. You won't be dissappointed.

Mark Bittman’s Squid with Cilantro, Garlic, and Lime

Mark Bittman is one of the most popular cookbook authors of our time. On the tenth anniversary of his wildly popular cookbook How to Cook Everything, he’s published an anniversary edition with 2,000 simple recipes.  It’s a cookbook I go to all of the time for recipes as well as Mark’s good advice.

He’s also written another fresh and inspiring new cookbook that has become one of my current favorites - Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express, 404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less. 

In Kitchen Express Mark has taken a whole new approach from some of his other best selling cookbooks, which have formally written recipes. This book has one paragraph instructions and Mark talks you through the recipe, allowing you to do what you mother did - add a pinch here and there, and taste as you go. Don’t have an ingredient? Substitute what’s in your pantry or throw in some fresh herbs if you have them.

A perfect example of substituting ingredients is this recipe. In the cookbook it’s titled Shrimp with cilantro, garlic, and lime. Mark suggested squid as a substitute for the shrimp and that’s what I’ve done here. Don’t be afraid of using squid. It can be bought ready-prepared from your fishmonger, so you no longer have to clean it yourself.  Simply cut the white body of the squid into thin rings and, if you like, use the cute little tentacles as well. They are my favorite part of the squid. Be sure to dry the squid well before using and take care not to overcook it or it will taste like tough rubber bands.

Squid with Cilantro, Garlic, and Lime
From Kitchen Express by Mark Bittman

In a large bowl, combine a handful or so of chopped cilantro, some minced garlic, the zest and juice of a lime, a tablespoon of fish sauce, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. In vegetable oil, cook a pound of cut up squid (dry squid well first) until they are done, about  two to three minutes, taking care not to overcook. (Or use shrimp and cook for three to four minutes until pink and no longer translucent). Toss the squid with the cilantro mixture. Serve on angel hair pasta, over noodles or rice, alone, or even as part of a salad.

I’m thrilled that more bloggers are becoming interested in Mark Bittman and his brilliant cookbooks. A group of five fabulous ladies are now celebrating Mark with a monthly Bittman Blog Hop called Tackling Bittman. It’s on the first Thursday of each month and I’m submitting this recipe to the February blog hop. Please visit Alex at A Moderate Life (the lovely and talented creator of the blog hop), Christy at Frugality and Crunchiness with Christy, Dr Laura at Who is Laura?, Sue at Couscous and Conciousness, and Pam at Sidewalk Shoes to see the other wonderful Bittman recipes featured this month on Tackling Bittman.

What’s your favorite Mark Bittman recipe?