Melanzane in Teglia

I love eggplant Parmesan, so when Lidia suggested that her readers who love that Italian American classic try her baked eggplant dishes I knew that would be one I would try soon. So on Saturday 3/13/10, I went shopping for some eggplant. I went with this recipe because the other baked eggplant dish required a lot of fresh tomatoes and basil. I’ll revisit that idea when both are locally abundant.

Some looking around on the internet for Melanzane in Teglia recipes suggests that this is classic homey dish that has as many variations as there are cooks. It is near and dear to the hearts of Italian home cooks. After trying this dish, I understand why.

The recipe is essentially disks of eggplant layered with enhanced tomato sauce and Parmesan and Pecorino cheese and baked until the eggplant is creamy and the cheese is brown. It does take a while to make, but most of the work happens with little attention required. First I made the sauce, I went with Lidia’s Salsa di Pomodoro, a tomato sauce with carrot, celery and onion as the flavor base. This was a nice change of pace from the garlic based marinara sauce that I usually make. While this was cooking, I sliced and salted the eggplant. The salting removes some of the extra liquid and keeps the eggplant from becoming bitter while it cooks.

The sauce is then enhanced with oil cured black olives, thinly sliced peperoncini, capers and basil. I don’t know that I had ever tried oil cured olives before this and I think their flavor, so distinct from the brine cured variety, are definitely important to the dish. I need a better source for peperoncini. I bought the only brand in the supermarket that didn’t have yellow # 5 in it and they aren’t very good eating on their own. I’ve definitely had better peperoncini in the past. I used basil I had dried from my garden, which still has good flavor and aroma and some parsley, instead of fresh basil, which was really expensive in the market for some reason.

Then it was a simple matter of layering everything in baking dish and letting it bake for 45 minutes or so. Meanwhile, I cooked up some saffron quinoa to serve it over.

The result was divine. The creamy eggplant was coated in a sauce that combined flavors that I don’t think I have ever quite put together before, that were subtle and well balanced while they were unique. I will definitely make this again.

From here on out, I’m referring to eggplant as melanzane. That’s a much nicer name.

Spinaci alla Genovese

Vegetables alla Genovese are cooked up with garlic, oil, anchovies, sometimes with raisins as a counterpoint to  the savory flavors. Before cooking Lidia’s recipe for Spinaci alla Genovese, I had not had spinach, or anything else cooked this way. It was a recipe that was on my mind to try and when I saw fresh local spinach in the market last Friday, I knew the time had come.

Spinach!

The lovely mineral taste of the spinach is complimented by the salty anchovies and the garlic and then all of this is set into contrast when the raisins burst through. The pine nuts added an interesting crunch, but I think it would be just as good without them. I am looking forward to trying this with other veggies, mixed braising greens especially. I also think this would be a good way to cook frozen spinach and give it some life.

The recipe is reprinted here.

This strongly flavored dish went really well with my new favorite way to make risotto.

Torta di Patate e Funghi con Lenticchie

On 2/28/10 I was looking through Lidia’s book to find the next thing I could make, preferably without having to buy too many ingredients. I found a recipe for Torta di Patate e Funghi con Lenticchie: Potato Mushroom Cake with Braised Lentils. The only thing I had to buy especially for it was mushrooms and leeks, since I had everything else on hand. I used French lentils (the variety known as du Puy) rather than the traditional lenticchie di Castelluccio. I was also intrigued by the idea that the sauce was a braise of lentils—I had a feeling that this would be a useful recipe within a recipe that I could use elsewhere.

The recipe is constructed in two parts that are then brought together at serving. Finely chopped onion, celery and carrot are cooked with garlic in oil, along with tomato paste to form a base for the lentils, which can easily be eaten on their own as a soup. (The recipe left me with extra lentils and they made a lovely lunch.) Potatoes are boiled until just tender and sliced and combined with browned mushrooms, parmesean and leeks to form a rustic cake. I strayed from the recipe a bit, in that I finished the dish in the oven, rather than flipping it over to cook on both sides (I use a cast iron skillet, which is heavy so that makes that whole flipping business a bit precarious).

Torta di Patate e Funghi con Lenticchie

While this did take a while to make because of the separate cooking steps involved, a lot of it was able to happen with minimal attention from me, while I stayed nearby and attended to other business. The final dish was wonderfully complex–the browned mushrooms played beautifully against the lentils which is a combination I will have to remember. The vegetables provided sweetness, and the potatoes were very tender and velvety by the time they were done and provided a wonderful base for the other flavors. They also absorbed some of the sauce after being plated in the best possible way. Another success!

Canederli al Cumino

The next recipe from Lidia B’s collection I choose was Canederli al Cumino: Potato-Celery Root Dumplings, which I made on Saturday 2/27/10. I had actually seen the episode where these were made and this was one of the first recipes I looked for when I picked up the book. It comes from Trentino-Alto Adige in the north of Italy, which I have to say I’d never heard of before watching that particular episode.

I really like celery root and I also like any sort of little fried cake, so this recipe was a natural. It was also a good excuse to pick up that potato ricer I had been meaning to get. Passing the vegetables through this device made for a light and and almost fluffy dough, not at all what I would have expected from root vegetables.

An interesting technique in the recipe called for frying the cakes in a lttle oil until golden, draining and then finishing them in the oven. The result was light and delicious and not the least bit oily. I served them with salsa verde. Salsa verde in Italian cooking is a sauce of green herbs. The version I like best comes from Cook’s Illustrated and is very simple: Stale bread, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, capers, anchovies and lots of parsley whirled together to form a paste. It was the perfect condiment for the dumplings.

Sadly I have no decent pictures to share. This was another great recipe. It took a bit of time to cook, but I do think I will make it again.