MINESTRA DI PASTA E FAGIOLI

Several years ago, I brought a cookbook back from San Francisco for my father who is of Italian descent.  It was from the restaurant Fior di'Italia, touted as America's oldest Italian Restaurant, established in 1886.  He gave it back to me a few days ago because he told me I'm cooking so much these days I should try some of the recipes and bring them over for him and my mother to try!  It was sitting on my desk the other day and I opened it up. I came across a recipe for a hearty Italian soup, and true to my mission to use what I have on hand, checked out my cabinets, fridge and basket to see what I had in stock.  I had pasta, anchovies, olive oil, parmesan cheese, some stalks of kinda old celery, cans of diced tomatoes and cannellini beans, stock, onions and garlic. I just needed to run out for some fresh sage and pancetta.

I had some swiss chard and the remains of a large bag of Chinese spinach (lasts a long time if stored in a plastic bag, unwashed, in the fridge drawer), so I took that out to add to the recipe.  Here's the recipe:

ON THE CUTTING BOARD:



Pasta, onions, garlic, celery, fresh sage, olive oil, organic beef stock,
diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, parmesan cheese, anchovies,
pancetta, swiss chard (Chinese spinach was an afterthought), butterleaf
lettuce and an orange bell pepper for a salad.

STEP ONE:



This recipe calls for a lot of chopping. I found it easier
to get it out of the way up front.  So...finely chop 2 onions,
3 stalks of celery and 6 garlic cloves (the recipe called for
4, but I added more!) and sage. Chop the pancetta and
anchovies.

STEP TWO:



In a large, heavy soup pot, heat 2 T. of olive oil
over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook,
stirring, for 1 minute.  Add the celery and onion
and cook until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add the anchovies, garlic and sage and cook for
another couple of minutes.

STEP THREE:





Add the stock and tomatoes and bring to a boil,
then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add
the pasta that has been cooked to barely al dente
and cook for another 5 minutes. I had corkscrew
pasta on hand. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

STEP FOUR:





Heat a T. of oil in a wok (olive, grapeseed or
canola) and when it's very hot, throw in some
hot red pepper if you like the heat and add the swiss chard
and spinach (or any greens actually) along with a
few cloves of smashed garlic (I had a bunch of
barberries on hand, so I threw some of those in too).
Stir fry on high heat until barely wilted. Turn off the heat
and squeeze the juice of half a lemon on the greens and
douse with a generous grind of black pepper. Throw in
a pinch of seasalt and toss.

STEP FIVE:





Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with grated parmesan
cheese and a drizzle of good olive oil.  Top with the
greens and serve with garlic bread and a salad.

Enjoy this low-fat, healthy meal that takes under an hour from start to finish!

ALLA VOSTRA SALUTE!

A LOBSTER HANGS WITH A SAUSAGE AND SOME HORSERADISH LEAVES

They walk into a bar...sounds like the beginning of a joke, but there's no joke with this dish! I saw the lobster and bought the lobster, took it home and then looked in the fridge and the cabinets to see what I could make with it.  I had been doing some shopping at an Asian market called The Great Wall and found horseradish leaves. What a score! Never had these before. They tasted similar to arugula. This is what happened:

ON THE CUTTING BOARD:



Two lobster tails, a chicken sausage, noodles, cauliflower,
red pepper, Chinese spinach, red chillies, horseradish leaves,
scallions, garlic, lemon, ginger, dill, black bean sauce.

STEP ONE:



Heat oven to 350 degrees and bake lobster for 20 min.
accompanied by about 10 cloves of garlic soaked in olive oil.

Cook sausage in a small skillet.

Cut cauliflower into florets.

Chop the red pepper, scallions, garlic, ginger and horseradish
leaves (after defrosting -- they were frozen). Roughly chop the
Chinese spinach. Throw everything but the garlic and spinach
into a wok that's been heated with about a T. of canola oil.  Stir
on med-high heat.

STEP TWO:



Add spinach and hot chilies to wok with the garlic
and stir. Add two T. black bean sauce (or to taste). Mix well,
turn up heat and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Turn heat
down.

NOTE: the hot chiles are there for heat and color.
DO NOT EAT THEM (unless you're a die-hard hot chili
fanatic)

STEP THREE:






Remove lobster and garlic from oven and take the
meat out of the shells.

STEP FOUR:


Add the lobster meat and cubed chicken sausage to the
wok and mix well.

STEP FIVE:



Ready to serve. Squeeze the juice of one lemon
into the wok and top with chopped dill.  Can serve with
noodles, rice or any grain. I served with noodles again
because I have a lot on hand and need to use them.

ALLA VOSTRA SALUTE!