If you've got vegans coming 'round for dinner, this is going to be way more substantial and comforting for everyone involved than just throwing together some Pasta Margherita.
To prep the beans for cooking:
Hopefully you can find these beans dried, gigantes are basically like large dried butter beans or large lima beans, or you can use dried fava beans. Pour your bag of dry beans into a large bowl of water and let them soak overnight, at least 12 hours or more. Simmer them in a large pot of water (not salted) for about 45 minutes. You can taste one after 30 minutes to see if they're done, you want them to be soft enough to bite into easily, but not super mushy like canned beans. When you're done you should have about 2 pounds of soaked, simmered beans. (You can weigh out and use canned or frozen beans if you must, but I wouldn't.)
After you drain the beans, put them in a lasagne sized pan, and then in the pot you used to cook the beans, put in:
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil. (Yes, all that oil.)
1 large onion, roughly chopped
Saute on medium heat for five minutes, then add:
1/2 small can (about 3 oz.) tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon salt
(add a pinch of thyme or rosemary if you want to be different)
Saute for another five minutes.
Pour in 2 1/3 cups of warm water or vegetable stock, then pour this pot of sauce over the beans that are waiting in the pan. Mix it all around a bit.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour, uncovered.The top bits and the edges should look a little brown and crunchy when they're done.
STOVE TOP: If you don't want to heat up the whole house with the oven, after you saute the onions, just add the tomato and spice, then use equal parts of water to beans, and simmer on the stove for one hour uncovered (this is in addition to the 45 minutes you already cooked them,) up to two hours depending on how soft you want your beans.
You can eat these hot, with big hunks of baguette, but I like to let them cool off a bit, then put them in the fridge and serve them the next day, they are more buttery and delicious served room temperature.
Here they are cooked on the stove top. No crunchy bits but still yummy!
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| stove top gigantes |
Ingredients:
4-5 medium sized yellow summer squash
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup olive oil (or more)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper pepper
2 cups of your favorite meat sauce recipe (or just add cooked ground beef, a whisper of cinnamon and extra oregano to a jar of tomato sauce if you're feeling lazy)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup shredded or crumbled sharp cheese (any kind)
Topping:
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 cup of whole milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pinch white pepper
1 egg
1 dash Tabasco
Slice the yellow squash lengthwise into three or four flattish pieces each, depending on how fat they are. I would say you want them about a 1/4 inch thick.
Coat the slices with the flour and fry them in about 1/4 cup of medium-high hot olive oil, in a non-stick pan. When they are brown on both sides (about a minute per side if the oil is hot enough) remove them from the pan to a paper towel to drain. I had to cook them in two batches, using my biggest frying pan.
When they come out of the pan, salt and pepper them well. You might need to add more oil for the second round, but if you don't want to waste this much expensive olive oil on frying, mix it half and half with some other oil like corn oil.
Yeah, mine is GMO corn oil, but corn oil is delicious. When they come out with organic corn oil at the grocery store (I'm looking at you, Whole Foods), I'll be the first to buy it.
Layer the bottom of a 9x9 inch casserole dish, the square kind works well, with some of the squash slices, trying to cover evenly. Spread about a third of the meat sauce on top and sprinkle with a third of the cheese and basil. Do this two more times, but leave yourself like a 1/2 inch of room at the top (squish things down if you have to) because you're going to a put some white sauce on top.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, fry up the tablespoon of butter and flour, stirring it with a whisk. (I use rounded tablespoons here actually). Add a pinch of salt and white pepper as well as a very tiny pinch of nutmeg (optional) and a dash of Tabasco. Pour the milk in slowly, whisking the whole time. Whisk frequently as it cooks, you know, like making gravy, and then when it looks thickened (it doesn't take long) take it off the heat and very quickly whisk in a beaten egg. Pour over the top of your squash dish and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the top gets some brown spots on it.
The picture up there is actually taken of a leftover piece, I love eating this cold.
Serves 4
I did very well at the Sacramento farmer's market on Sunday, everything looked beautiful, and was priced right. I found lots of good veggies and even some potted vegetables and herbs for the garden. Not all of my loot was for eating though, I also got this really pretty ornamental oregano called Kent's Beauty, I can't wait for it to get bigger (I'm an impatient gardener).
Check out the big green onions with the flowers on them, I think they look like little lit candles, I chopped them right up along with the stems!
The recipe today, a pie made with Swiss chard, is obviously a savory pie, it's very yummy served cold for lunch or cut in smaller slices for appetizer.
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| Right out of the oven |
Ingredients:
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch dill weed (chopped)
1 bunch green onions
1 cup walnuts
6 eggs
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon plus one pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (omit if you don't have it, don't use fresh)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sharp cheese for topping (amount is up to you, I used 2 oz feta)
Walnut oil and Balsamic vinegar for drizzling
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put a large pot on the stove on high with a few inches of water in the bottom. Chop the chard into small chunks and dump in the pan. Heat up just until the mass is wilted down, then drain immediately in a colander. Let it cool.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Chop walnuts until you have about a cup roughly chopped. Chop the green onions as well and then add both to the olive oil with a pinch of salt, and fry on high, stirring frequently.
After five minutes, remove the walnuts and green onions from the heat, and for ease of clean up, instead of using a fresh bowl, just use the pot you already used to boil the chard in as a bowl (dump out the water of course!). To that, add your fresh chopped dill, your eggs, cornmeal and spices.
Before adding the chard to all of this, take the cooled chard in your hands and squeeze the heck out of it until most of the liquid comes out. It's amazing how a whole bunch of chard now fits easily in your hands! Once everything is in there mix it all very well.
Rub oil all over the inside of a regular glass pie pan, and fill it with the mixture. Sprinkle the top with your favorite cheese and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Let it cool a bit before serving with vinegar and oil drizzled on top.
I would just like to say right off the bat, that normally I don't really eat peas, but this is one of the few ways of preparing them that I do like. Anyway, if you are neutral about peas, this recipe might get you more excited about them.
Now, yes, of course you can sit there and shell peas all day, but you'd better get really fresh-picked ones or they will be all starchy and mealy instead of nice and sweet. What I recommend is that you use a good quality brand of frozen peas (canned are right out).
Ingredients:
1 16 ounce bag of organic frozen sweet peas
1 large 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes (I like San Marzano)
1 large sweet onion, roughly chopped
1/2 a small head of green or red lettuce, roughly chopped
a big handful of Italian parsley, chopped
2 garlic cloves, each cut in half
1/3 cup olive oil
1 heaping tablespoon of dried dill (you can use fresh if you have it, but use lots more)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon butter
In a medium saucepan, fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat along with the salt and pepper until the onions look soft.
Add the frozen peas and continue to stir for a minute or two.
Add the can of crushed tomatoes, sugar and the dill, then taste for salt and pepper to make sure there's enough. Let it come up to a bubble, then turn the heat down to medium low and cover. Cook for five minutes.
Take the cover off and add the lettuce and parsley and butter. Stir them in, then turn down the heat to a lower simmer and and cook for another five minutes.
Serve the stew with french baguette and cheese, or you can serve over buttered rice or pasta. You can also just puree the whole thing in the food processor and serve it over thick crunchy pieces of buttered toast with fresh parsley and cheese sprinkled on top.
I'll admit it, I have to spell-check "zucchini" every time I write it. We could spell it zukini, as in, "Eat more zukini to fit in a bikini." No?
Well, bikini assonance aside, I do not mean to imply that the following recipe is in any way slimming, it's just a yummy way to use up the zucchini that your over-zealous gardener neighbor gives you every year.
Ingredients:
5 small/medium zucchini (or the one giant one that was growing sneakily at the back of the garden) grated (approximately 4 cups)
1/2 cup semolina flour, or whole wheat flour (fine corn flour if you need these gluten free)
3 eggs
2 green onions, finely diced
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 ounces soft goat cheese (chevre), crumbled
olive oil
a lemon, some Greek yogurt, and more Italian parsley to serve
Heat the olive oil in a NON-STICK pan over medium-high heat, using enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan well. (I had my stove on 9 then had to turn it down to 8 after the first batch.)
After you've grated the zucchini into your mixing bowl, the best thing to do is grab handfuls of it at a time and squeeze the heck out of it over the sink to remove some of the moisture. Mix the grated zucchini in with all of the rest of the ingredients and then drop rounded spoonfuls of the batter into the pan carefully, smooshing them flat as you go, so they look like little pancakes. Fry them in batches, cooking for three minutes per side. Don't crowd the pan too much because you don't want them touching each other, it makes it hard to flip them over. This recipe should make at least 12-16 patties. If your batter starts to look a little runny between batches, you can add a tablespoon more of flour and mix really well before continuing.
They can go into a warm oven until serving, or you can just enjoy them at room temperature. Serve with fresh lemon squeezed over, good generous dollops of Greek yogurt or sour cream, and roughly chopped fresh parsley.
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