Not to be Forgotten
- by Laura, January 26, 2009
I’ve never been one for the “look-at-all-the-fabulous-food-I-get-to-eat” approach to food writing. Many of my lunches are quick affairs--a melted cheese or salad eaten hastily at the kitchen counter. I’m a working girl and the deadlines call me back to my office.
However, somehow my life took an interesting twist recently when Lou brought me into the circle of the lunch club. It’s a quiet under-the-radar group that meets very occasionally. Perhaps I’ll reveal more in time. Or perhaps not. (I’m worried, in fact, that even this post may jeopardize my good standing.) It occurs during the off hours of a certain beautiful restaurant in town, hosted by a beautiful chef and attended by some wonderful cooks who bring gifts. Okay, that’s all I’m saying. Except that recently, at one of these lunches, I had the good fortune to taste my very first sea urchin.
Those who, like I, have lived their lives in sad ignorance of the sea urchin can see in the photo above that it is a spiny creature. Beneath those porcupinelike bristles is a shellfish, and you have to crack through underneath and then use a spoon to scoop out just a tiny sweet dollop of meat, which in this case (should I tell you this?--oh, okay) is the sex organs.
But really--just think of it as a cousin of the oyster. It has the salty fresh liquor of the sea. A great delicacy nowadays, though Lou tells me he ate them as a kid in Queens when his family had little money and his Italian mother was accustomed to using all aspects of fish that other people threw away. I’ve been looking around for a Chinese recipe for sea urchin, or a Japanese recipe. Something old. No luck so far.
Anyway, it’s been more than a week since my first encounter with the first sea urchin. I took its body home and have been letting it dry out on the porch. I keep wondering why it made such a big impression on me. My childhood had very little of the natural world, except our visits to the ocean at the New Jersey shore, where we were always happy in the salt and sand and bright light reflecting off the water, and I wonder if that’s why I love the taste of all things of the ocean? In her “A Book of Middle Eastern Food” (1970), I think Claudia Roden captures this feeling of humans coming to the sea and its creatures with a sense of joy. Just beautiful.
“Hunting for ritza (sea urchins) is a favourite pastime in Alexandria. It is a pleasure to swim out to the rocks, dive into the sea and discover hosts of dark purple and black, spiky jewel-like balls clinging fast to the rocks, a triumph to wrench them away, and a delight to cut a piece off the top, squeeze a little lemon over the soft, salmon-coloured flesh, scoop it out with some bread, and savour the subtle iodized taste, lulled by the rhythm of the sea.”
Masher
- by Nancy, January 19, 2009
Say congrats, because I’m having a show of my artwork, including lots of the pieces that grace Jellypress. Here’s a photo of me standing in front of the original banner painting hanging in the exhibit. Pretty exciting. And this exhibit is especially delicious because you can see all my kitchen and food-themed pieces as well as eat some wonderful food. It’s at one of my favorite restaurants in New Jersey, Orbis Bistro at 128 Watchung Avenue, Montclair. The exhibit will up for a month, January 20th through February 20th, and you can see it Tuesday through Sunday evenings (call for rez 973-746-7641) and enjoy some fabulous food too. It’s run by an accomplished and highly talented chef, Nancy Caballes - yep, two Nancys, double the fun. Laura introduced me to Nancy, and it was a real meeting of the minds.
Here’s the warm dining room (it’s got fabulous floor to ceiling windows) at Orbis with some of my work hanging. Orbis Bistro opened in December 1998 in a storefront at the corner of Watchung Avenue and North Fullerton in Montclair. Nancy confessed a love of cupcakes to me, and so of course I had to bake some for her. Check ‘em out - my tried and true Silver Palate Cookbook carrot cake recipe baked as cupcakes with Martha Stewart mascarpone frosting:
When I gave them to Nancy she literally jumped up and down with joy shouting “Cupcakes! Cupcakes! Cupcakes!” My sentiments exactly. We saved some room for them after we lunched on some of Nancy C’s over-the-top delicious Panko bread crumb coated chicken cutlets and green salad.
Orbis is worth the trip whether you’re near or far. So come on out, brave the cold, see some art, splurge on a painting or drawing to take home if you’re so inclined or simply enjoy the beautiful atmosphere of food like art — and art of food.
Masher
- by Nancy, January 16, 2009
Here is a new painting I did of the door that leads into my kitchen from the back yard. Portal. Boundary. The painting has such a sense of place that I often feel it looks more like the kitchen door than the real door. It’s the entry we use most in our house. If you are family or friend, if you belong here, you’re coming in the back straight into the kitchen. That’s the place, after all, where we live.
Masher
- by Nancy, January 12, 2009
Here I am with my snowblower which refuses to start at the moment, and my reward for all the shoveling I had to do as a consequence — this week’s One Badass Cookie, my Great Aunt Dotty’s Snowball Cookies. There are certain desserts that my ex, a chef, and I used to refer to as “secret weapons.” These were the ones that we baked off in big batches and then froze to pull out on those days when we couldn’t stand eating another healthful thing. The snowball cookies fit in that category which made a lot of sense if you think about it since real snowballs are weapons too. Speaking of which, my eleven-year-old son got me smack on the ear with a big icy one last night. Mom didn’t have much of a sense of humor about it. The snowball cookies are great though, but if you want to make them, baker beware. They are proven irresistible. Once you start, you cannot, I repeat, cannot stop eating them. A cookie that comes with a warning — now that’s One Badass Cookie. Read on for the One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week, the recipe, and more photos of these sugar-frosted walnut packed gems.
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One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: As a general guideline, toast nuts that will be incorporated into a dough or batter, but leave nuts that garnish unbaked goods raw so they will not burn when put in the oven to bake. To toast most nuts, place them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 - 10 minutes. Best rule of thumb to tell when they are perfectly done? Your nose. When they smell yummy, they’re ready.
Great Aunt Dotty’s Snowball Cookies
Makes about two dozen 1 1/2 inch diameter cookies.
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) sweet, unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour, sifted
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted and cooled.
confectioner’s sugar, enough for dredging baked cookies.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick pads and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or by hand. Add vanilla extract. Add flour all at once and mix only until incorporated then add nuts. Do not over mix the dough.
3. Pick up small pieces of dough and roll into balls. Place on cookie sheet about an inch apart.
4. Bake for 10 minutes or more until light brown. Remove from oven and while stilll warm roll in powdered sugar.
If you toast nuts on parchment paper covered sheetpans, it makes it easy to slide the nuts onto a wire rack to cool faster than on the hot sheetpan.
If the dough gets too soft to roll the balls, place it in the refrigerator for a while until it is firmer.
Warm and toasty looking, straight from the oven. Mmmmm.
Dredge the cookies in the powdered sugar right away while they are warm so it melts the sugar a little on the surface of the cookies and makes a soft, sweet crust.
Got a great cookie recipe for Nancy and Laura? Send it in to us using the “post a comment” links and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe on One Badass Cookie and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Masher
- by Nancy, January 10, 2009
Laura wrote in her last Thing of the Day post about her kids’ toys strewn around her kitchen and often landing in the cooking pot. So here’s my whimsical little kitchen troll who inhabits my counters, and a poem to go with her (with sincere apologies to the fabulous W. S. Merwin.)
So . . . that was the way it was, and in the fragrant light
that came in at the window, she was standing
still, that way, seeing nothing but the light
just the empty kitchen, with the smell of the over-ripe banana . . .
see also: Thing of the Day
Hands On
- by Laura, January 09, 2009
How great it is when I get feedback on a story or recipe. I always initially cringe with some apprehension. Did I get it right? Did it work? (Self doubt never entirely goes away, does it?)
Well, I’ve been really happy because t he pandolce story I wrote in December got some wonderful responses. Why this particular story? Don’t know. Perhaps because the idea of natural leaven has a certain magic to it--the wild yeast around us, the idea of a lump of living dough that gets passed down from one generation to the next--"mother yeast.” It’s just such an old technique. Or maybe it was simply that love so many of us have for Italy.
Ken Albala sent me this wonderful post from his blog about how he read my pandolce story in Saveur, and it inspired him him to make his own pandoro with a starter--and no recipe. The results look gorgeous, and he makes it so easy. Check it out. (Ken is an award winning writer and food scholar who tells me he plans to build a backyard bread baking oven this summer--and plans to do it all by hand.) You can see his story and pandoro picture here.
http://kenalbala.blogspot.com/2008/12/pandoro.html
Valerie Tassa from San Francisco initially wrote me asking where she could find fresh citron--not so easy in the U.S., but she triumphed, and found these, which she candied
to make this gorgeous thing,
.
and yes, she is a ravioli fan, too, and boy was I touched to find out she made Tessie and Adalgisa’s recipe from my book. Gosh.
Masher
- by Nancy, January 06, 2009
My ex-boyfriend, who broke my heart, mailed me something inconsequential that I left in his apartment along with a chatty little card. I found his coffee in the freezer. Did I send it to him with a chatty little card? No, I served it to my new beau.
He said, “I thought you only drank decaf. Why do you have real coffee?”
“To serve to you,” I replied.
see also: Thing of the Day
Masher
- by Nancy, January 05, 2009
Photo credit: My son, Max, one badass photographer
One Badass Cookie is proud to present its first Reader’s Recipe of the New Year! Congratulations to my friend, Michele Kishita of Philadelphia, Pa. for sending in her mother’s Raisin Cookies. Michele told me that her mother baked these cookies during Michele’s childhood and that they were so delicious she craved them all her life. Though her mother left her the recipe, Michele rarely bakes and hadn’t had the cookies in years. When I mentioned this to my own mother, she gasped in surprise. “Do you know?” she told me, “Those are one of my favorite childhood cookies too and I lost the recipe. I’ve been looking for it for thirty years.” So Michele dug out her mother’s original recipe, pictured below, and I started baking. I was thrilled to send a big container of the finished cookies to both Michele and my mom. A taste that lasts a lifetime — now that’s One Badass Cookie! I also found this link to a sister cookie that sounds fabulous too for those who like a bit of spice and zest with their raisins. Read on for the updated version of Michele’s recipe, more photos and the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does!
I like to use an old jelly jar to cut out round cookies.
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One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week:Brush cookies with egg white before baking for a shiny, professional looking finish. Sprinkle the egg white with sugar to add sweetness and crunch if desired.
Raisin Filled Cookies
Makes approximately three dozen 2 to 3 inch diameter cookies depending on size.
Note: Allow time to cook and cool filling mixture ahead of time.
For filling:
2 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups sugar or to taste
2 cups water
6 T. flour
For dough:
1 cup shortening (you may substitute butter but the original texture and taste of the cookie will be changed.)
2 cups white granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
1 t. baking soda
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
Egg yolk for sealing dough before baking, and egg white for brushing top of cookies if desired.
7 cups all purpose flour (or 6 cups for making drop cookies without filling if desired.)
1. Combine all filling ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan and cook until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens. Allow to cool.
2. Beat shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand with a wooden spoon, until creamy and fully incorporated. Add eggs slowly a little at a time, mixing well between additions.
3. Combine vanilla extract and milk and set aside. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Using lowest speed on mixer or gently by hand, add dries to shortening mixture in three additions alternating with liquid, beginning and ending with flour (1/3 of flour, then 1/2 of milk, then 1/3 of flour, then the rest of the milk, then the last 1/3 of flour.) Do not overbeat.
4. Divide dough into three disks, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled enough to roll out.
5. When dough and filling are ready, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, nonstick pads, or grease sheets and set aside.
6. Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick and use a round 2 or 3 inch cutter to cut dough. On 1/2 of the cookie rounds, place a large dollop of filling. Brush egg yolk or water around edge of cookie dough to help seal it, then place a plain cookie round on top and press to seal. Cut a slit in the top dough to allow steam to escape and brush cookie with egg white if desired. Continue until all the dough has been rolled, filled and seal. Place cookies on prepared sheet pans and bake for approximately 15 minutes or more until golden top and bottom. If you double your sheetpans under the cookies and rotate pans during baking top to bottom and back to front it will help ensure even baking. Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.
Leave a little margin of cookie dough around the filling so that the top dough can have enough room to seal properly.
Cutting a thin slit like this in the top of filled cookies helps steam escape but keeps the filling from burning or drying out.
Oh baby.
Here is Michele and her brother in a photo she sent me next to the cookies I made for her. How fun is this?
Got a cookie recipe badass enough for One Badass Cookie? Send it to us and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.
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Masher
- by Laura, January 03, 2009
Toys in the Kitchen
Stuffed guys on the kitchen counter again,
furry ones, just below those
spoons dangling on the hook
and ready, for measuring
coffee.
Graphic novel --little boxes of outrageous behavior-- and
plastic wrestler dudes entangled.
Dried up garlic bits,
origami lotus flower,
transformer in vehicular form.
I am old to this game, thirteen years now,
and the little one nearly 8.
Tonight, a Lego warrior came
so close to the frying pan.
I knew it would come to this someday.
When I was done, I just threw him and let
his pair of ragged claws scuttle across the crumbs.
Not to be Forgotten
- by Laura, December 30, 2008
Champagne Cocktail.
(Pint bottle of wine for three goblets.)
(Per glass.)
Take 1 lump of sugar.
1 or 2 dashes Angostura bitters.
1 small lump of ice.
Fill the goblet with wine, stir up with a spoon, and serve with a thin piece of twisted lemon peel. A quart bottle of wine will make six cocktails.
--Jerry Thomas
Bar-Tender’s Guide or How to Mix Drinks, 1862
What Is it About Bubbles?
Nancy called me all excited about her bubbly recipes--bubbly as in the champagne granite and champagne truffles she found from her wild young days as a pastry chef in NYC.
“Laura can you do a “Not to Be Forgotten Recipe” for champagne? And can you write a few lines and be a little deep, okay?
Sheesh. I’m still recovering from ravioli.
This recipe for champagne cocktail comes from the 1862 Bar-Tender’s Guide, book, which many experts say is the very first cocktail book ever published. It will come as no surprise to most of you that Americans first gave the world the invention (if you can call it such) of the cocktail. You can’t imagine the French adding sugar and ice and bitters to their beloved sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France, now can you? That said, this sure does seem very simple and fun, and I’m curious, just so long as the bubbles are still there.
Which brings me back to the champagne itself and its most important element: those bubbles, which get created after the wine is already made and then bottled. The trick is that a little yeast gets added to each bottle creating a second fermentation process. The yeast gets to work, eating up sugars and creating alcohol and gas--trapped inside the bottles. After a short time, the yeast dies away, but the fizz remains. Voila. Bubbles.
“What is it about bubbles?” I asked Nancy. “Why do we like them so much? And why on New Year’s Eve?”
“Because, bubbles are ephemeral,” she replied. “They represent that we are only beautiful and young once. Then it all pops . . . like a bubble.”
And then she sent me to this beautiful painting by Clara Peeters, a 17th century Flemish still life painter, who, using a convention of the era, painted an actual bubble into the air about her head in her self portrait. Take a look.
The bubble is to the right of her face against the back wall. The gold and coins scattered on the table are symbols of material wealth--not to be compared with spiritual wealth. She holds a watch to remind us that time is passing. And the flowers also suggest fleeting beauty.
“Check it out,” said Nancy. “Her strong forearms a and ruddy hands give her away. She’s an artist, not a pretty doll. The expression is serious. This is an artist posing herself and allowing us to gaze at her as an object in order to make her point. Very brave.”
So I say here’s wishing you some fun though ephemeral bubbles for New Years Eve, and more enduring happiness for 2009. And here’s to Clara too, brave painter.
Happy New Year. Now go get the champagne. Be ready. The fun has already started.
see also: Bubbly Recipes
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Masher
- by Nancy, December 30, 2008
Laura told me this morning as we were chatting on the phone that the Victorians loved to use pigs as a symbol of good luck and prosperity on their New Year’s cards and decorations (yes, this is really what we talk about which gives you an idea how jellypress was conceived . . .) Anyway, it makes sense, doesn’t it? If you had a pig, you had something to eat. These photos are just in from my brother, Bruce, an attorney and photographer, fresh from a recent trip to Madrid. These people are serious about their pigs.
This photo is a scan Bruce did of the restaurant Botin’s post card. Seems they made the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s oldest restaurant. Got a suckling pig anecdote? We’d love to hear from you. Happy New Year.
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Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
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Masher
- by Nancy, December 30, 2008
Champagne Granite (Sweet Champagne Ice)
Makes 8 cups (serves 12 - 15)
1 cup plus 2 T. water
1 cup plus 2 T. granulated white sugar
1 bottle Champagne
3 oranges, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1. Make simple syrup: Place water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil until the sugar is dissolved. Set syrup aside to cool.
2. Combine champagne, orange and lemon juices. Add cooled simple syrup. Stir well to combine. Pour mixture into an 8 x 16 inch, shallow, nonreactive pan and place in freezer for several hours or overnight. For best results, periodically stir the partly frozen granite during the freezing process. Stir gently to keep from breaking up the thin sheets of ice. To serve, scrape granite with a fork and layer in a champagne glass with fruit such as fresh raspberries or poached pears.
We love Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin’s Soap Bubble painting and our easy bubbly New Year’s recipes. Let us know if you try them.
Champagne truffles, rolled in cocoa and ready for their close-up.
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Champagne Truffles
Makes about 60 truffles
1 pound bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream or creme fraiche
1/2 cup champagne
6 T. unsalted sweet butter, softened
For dipping:
1 pound semisweet chocolate
2 cups unsweetened cocoa
1. Cut 1 pound chocolate into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Melt chocolate over simmering water or in a microwave oven. Set aside until ready to use.
2. Scald the cream and champagne and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
3. Mix in the soft butter and pour the mixture onto a sheetpan covered with parchment paper or a nonstick pad. Refrigerate until you can form balls with the mixture.
4. Roll small balls of chocolate. Keep them cold.
5. Melt the other pound of chocolate. Temper the chocolate (don’t know how? Let David Lebovitz show you.) When all the balls are rolled, put some of the melted chocolate into the palm of your hand. Roll a truffle in your palm, letting it roll off your finger tips back onto the sheetpan. Continue until all balls are coated with chocolate. Chill. When chilled and dry to touch, roll in cocoa powder. Keep stored in cocoa powder in the freezer or refrigerator.
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Masher
- by Laura, December 19, 2008
Well, it’s ravioli time, isn’t it. Christmas is next week. And we working women of the modern era, well, we like to have ours done about now and stocked away in the freezer.
I made mine this past Sunday with my sister Andrea, who came over eager to help.
So now while I’m in the ravioli spirit is a good time to tell you all that The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family has recently come out in paperback.
I really like this cover and—and hope the book will continue to reach people, as that’s what every author wishes for. In this new edition, there is a reader’s guide at the end of the book, and I will be making myself available in 2009 for book group invitations, mainly by phone but also the occasional in person visit. You can find out more, including my contact info, at www.lostravioli.com.
Back to ravioli….
This year, there was not a lot of torture over raw or cooked meat, as you can see in these photos of braising beef, veal, and pork.
There were all sorts of aromatics involved and the house smelled beautiful for two days.
I did NOT get all worried about the cream cheese, either. I added a package of it. Since my book came out a year ago, I can’t tell you how many Genoese descendants have told me they use cream cheese. In light of everything and I publicly apologize for my former snobbery
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and ask forgiveness.
As to rolling pin versus pasta machine? I used a machine this year simply because my board is now officially sagging and the pin is not meeting the surface. Very unpleasant. Until I get a new board, I’m using the machine. Well, actually, this is Andrea using the machine.
It might sound like all is resolved and peaceful. But some things never change. Of course I had to make a last minute run to Lou’s house for some extra 00 flour. What can I say?
Since The Lost Ravioli Recipes first came out in hardcover a year ago, a lot of things have happened.
For one thing, hundreds of Italian Americans have written to me or come to my author events to tell me about their families and their recipes, and their yearnings—whether for family or Italy, or some other form connection and continuity they can’t quite explain. I have been so honored and humbled to hear of the things people do for love and ravioli.
Some of my favorites: Bob (Schenone) Cole and his family in Philadelphia whose recipe matched mine just about exactly and told me his mother knew my great grandmother Adalgiza. A musician named Georgeanne who began with “I was a generation closer,” to describe her own Italian American twilight and shared an incredible tale about her own life. Then there was the NJ woman who wrote, “I don’t know where to begin,” and sent me a photo of herself sitting on a bench with a bunch of old Italian women in her ancestors town. She didn’t understand it—why was she always drawn back there?
I also made some videos of pasta rolling which have gotten a lot of response, such as this one on youtube, which over 4,000 people have watched. I feel very shy about this, video because I’m not exactly Rachel Ray here. But I am really touched by all the comments. So here’s the link. .
Writing a book about your own life changes your life. I guess that was my intention but I could never have expected some of the things, such as how over the last year, I slowly felt a burden lifted from my shoulders. Something I can’t explain. But I discovered I no longer feel as needful of my own past. Strange and oddly liberating. I’m far less often pummeled by memories. I am more in the present.
Finally, since the book came out, a number of readers have asked me how my sister is doing. They ask about her health and tell me they worry about her. For those who don’t know, the book included details about our strained relationship and her illness. Well, she is doing just fine. She has found that a radical diet of eating very non-inflammatory foods is helpful and reduces pain. But we still hope for the medical community to come up with some solutions for this condition she has, which is called adhesive disease, and millions of people suffer from it.
My relationship with Andrea continues to be good two years after writing my closing chapter. there have been no blow ups, no problems. We are friends, or maybe just sisters, as sisters should be. I don’t know if this would have ever happened if I didn’t write the book. When she read it she told me “I never thought you understood. Now I know you did.” I’d say that this was the best thing that ever came out of all my writing years.
Andrea even leans on my shoulder once in the while, as a younger sister might. Her husband took this picture on Sunday, and honestly it just breaks me up.
Here’s the filling we made. We will eat these on Christmas. I owe a debt to many many people for this recipe. I say grazie mille and buone feste
Ravioli Christmas 2008
For the Dough
6 cups flour, preferably 3 cups being 00 Italian style flour and half , about 3 cups being a higher gluten all purpose flour such as King Arthur’s.
3 eggs plus one yolk
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
enough water to make the dough elastic
For the filling:
1 bunch of borage (about 2/3 pound) or substitute spinach and/or escarole, boiled until tender, squeezed dry
½ cup olive oil
2/3 pound veal shoulder, or veal stew meat
1 pound beef, the type you would use for pot roast, such as chuck, trimmed of extra fat, or bottom round, or top round roasts, which are leaner but still braise well.
2 cloves garlic
1 stem of fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry white table wine
1 carrot, minced extremely fine
1 rib of celery, minced extremely fine
1 onion, sliced thinly
3 or 4 pieces of dried porcini, rinsed and reconstituted in warm water 30 minutes (reserve the water)
6 cups marinara sauce already made
1 tablespoon butter
½ pound pork, shoulder cut, trimmed of extra fat
2 teaspoons pignoli
1 4 oz package of Filadelfia cream cheese in silver foil
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 large piece (about three-inches from an Italian loaf) of stale white bread, soaked in warm milk
salt
pepper
nutmeg to taste
1 teaspoon of marjoram, minced
2 egg, plus 2 yolks
1. Make the dough and set aside covered in plastic. I’m assuming you know how to do this.
2. Boil the borage (or whichever greens you are using) five minutes in salted water. Let cool.
3. Heat the olive oil in a terracotta casserole or large heavy stainless steel pot. Add the veal and beef along with 1 clove garlic, rosemary, and 1 bay leaf. Brown the meat.
4. Add ½ cup of the white wine. When the wine evaporates, add carrot, celery, onion and mushroom. Cook with pot uncovered until vegetables are softened. Add a little hot water as necessary, to keep vegetables from scorching.
5. Put a cover on the pot, lower the flame to a very slow heat. Check the veal in 20 to 30 minutes. When cooked tender, remove the veal and put aside. The time will depend greatly on the size and cut of your meat.
6. Add six cups of tomato sauce to the pot with the beef in it. Continue to cook the beef on a slow heat until falling apart and tender. This can easily take two and a half more hours , depending on the size and quality of your meat. It will be tough for a long while. When it is finally fork tender remove meat. Save this sauce, which is one method for making tocco, Genoese for sugo or gravy. You will use it to dress your ravioli on Christmas Day.
7. Put the butter in a separate smaller pot. Add the pork, salt, pinoli, a bay leaf, a clove of garlic. Add one two or three tablespoons of white wine and put a cover on the pot. Turn heat down to low. Cook until tender and soft. This may take an hour or more, depending on your meat and how high your heat is.
8. When all the meat is cool, set up your meat grinder and fit it with a fine mandrill. Set a big bowl underneath.
9. Trim the fat off the meat and put it through the grinder. Add the reserved pignoli and a little of the flavorful fat and wine from the bottom of the pork pot.
10. Put your greens through the food grinder, followed by the soaked bread.
11. Okay now, go and whip up that that room-temperature cream cheese (with a mixer) and add it into your bowl of filling.
12. Put the parmigiano, marjoram, nutmeg, pepper, and salt directly into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon so that all is VERY well mixed.
13. Taste. Correct seasoning. Do you need more salt, pepper, cheese? If your mixture tastes dry you may wish to add some of your reserved porcini broth or marinara.
14. Add egg. Mix everything. Your filling is now ready.
15. If you are using a machine, roll out dough with your machine to the second to last setting. Spread filling on a half a sheet of dough. Do this thinly and evenly. Put the other half on top like a lid, then run over this with a checkered ravioli rolling pin. Finally, use a ravioli cutter to cut across the squares.
16. Let the ravioli dry a half hour on cookie sheets dusted with flour or cornmeal. Turn the over and let the other sides dry. (Yes, I’m serious.) Or put the tray directly in the freezer. Now go ahead and do the other 200. When the ravioli in the freezer are frozen solid, transfer to plaster bags and seal shut.
17. When ready to serve, put the ravioli in fiercely boiling salted water. Cook 3 minutes if your ravioli is fresh and 5 or 6 minutes if it is frozen. Taste to be sure.
18. Gently scoop out the ravioli with a large slotted ravioli lifter--or pour carefully into a colander, so the ravioli don’t break. Serve in a large bowl with the tucco—the red Genoese sauce you made earlier. Or use whatever tomato sauce you prefer. Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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Masher
- by Nancy, December 19, 2008
Too bad an empty box does not have the same allure as it did when we were two years old. I guess I’ll have to fill them with cookies before I mail them out! Read on for One Badass Cookie’s inexpensive yet beautiful way to package baked goods for gifts (and with some recycling too!) These boxes cost about 89 cents each, or, you can do what I did, which was ask my local CVS manager if I could just have the one on the right after they had unpacked and left it in a pile on the floor of the store. Lucky find! And free . . . That’s one badass way to snag a deal.
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Lined boxes are not that much fun either without the cookies, but I like to line mine with waxed paper first to keep the buttery cookies from staining the boxes.
For mailing I wrap the individual kinds of cookies in inexpensive clear cellophane bags (acid free and archival ones double for me as wrappings for my handmade art cards too) and tie with curling ribbons, available at most discount stores for about a buck a package. Individual bags like this helps keep the cookies fresh enroute. If you’re not mailing them, you can just stack them in pretty rows inside the waxed paper lined boxes. I sometimes stick gifts in with the cookies, like pix of my son or in the one on the right, a Zagat guide. Here are the boxes loaded up ready for their outer wrapping.
Don’t these look great? A dramatic and beautiful presentation from recycled boxes, inexpensive waxed paper, ordinary curling ribbon, stickers, and clear cellophane wrapping paper, and on the box on the right, a recycled greeting card for a tag (just cut off the front of greeting cards you get and punch a hole in the top - it’s as easy as that to save money and the planet.)
Got a badass cookie recipe or baking tip for Laura and Nancy? Send it to us, we’ll test it out and if it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe or tip and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Ginger Molasses Cookie
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Masher
- by Laura, December 17, 2008
I have an article in this month’s SAVEUR magazine. It’s all about pandolce, the holiday feast bread from Liguria--and the bread my great grandmother made long ago. I hope you all go out and get it because Saveur is a wonderful magazine. And the photos--such as the one above by Penny De Los Santos--are beautiful. In the meantime, since they don’t have the article available online, I’ll tell you a little about it. It’s the story of how last year at Christmas time, I went to a little town called Savignone north of Genoa to learn how to make a very very special pandolce with a 6th generation baker named Adriano and his wife Harriet. This is Savignone.
Adriano and his father built a little cabin with wood burning oven inside it, and this is where Adriano gave the lesson. Here we are in their little 12 x 12 cabin. This is Harriet and Adriano. And these are all the ingredients they had ready on the table when we arrived: flour, sugar, butter, raisins, candied orange peel, and pignoli.
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But the most important ingredient of all was this stuff called lieveto madre, or “mother leaven"--sometimes also called wild yeast. This is basically a form of sour dough that has been continually “kept going” for more than 100 years in Adriano’s family. It is a naturally fermented product--of the sort that people once used before there was instant dry active yeast. It’s more work to care for and feed it, but serious bakers love the stuff as it produces a far better tasting bread with a webby crumb.
(After I returned home, I started my own leaven at home so I could make my own bread. All you need is flour, water, and a little pinneapple juice--plus all the natural and wild bacteria in the air of your house. )
Here’s Adriano kneading all the ingredients--very hard work by hand.
And these are the pandolce all formed and ready to rest overnight.
The next day, Adriano made a fire in this oven and then, when it subsided, swept out the coals and put the pandolce inside. Then he shut the door.
This is what came out. It was a beautiful thing.
Adriano and Harriet will soon be opening a place in the mountains where they will bake bread and eventually offer bed and breakfast stays, perhaps some baking lessons too. I will keep you posted on this wonderful couple
Now here are the recipes. What I ABSOLUTELY MUST TELL YOU (and this is all explained in the article) is that there are two kinds of pandolce: “basso,” which means low and is crumbly like a scone, and “alto” which means high and is the yeasted bread.
Adriano’s basso recipe is extremely easy and you can put it together basically in an hour. His alto recipe is another matter and requires a bit of natural leaven. I’ve put it here for the gamers and true bakers. It’s worth the effort. Meanwhile, for those with less time to spare, the kitchen editors at Saveur magazine created an adaptation of pandolce alto using dry active yeast. Warning: Adriano’s recipes are still in “Italian,” meaning: you must use a kitchen scale and weigh everything in grams. Good luck!
Adriano’s Pandolce Basso
Easy to make and delicious, produces three large breads.
500 gr cake flour
500 gr bread flour
38 gr baking powder
8 gr salt
400 gr soft butter
340 gr sugar
1 egg
1 yolk
330 gr warm milk
2T orange blossom water
3 T fennel seeds that have been soaked twenty minutes in hot water and drained
700 gr best raisins you can find,
200 gr candied orange peel, best quality
100 gr candied citron, best quality
110 gr pinoli
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1. Heat the oven to between 325 and 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients.
2 Using a mixer, thoroughly beat the butter and sugar together. Add the egg, yolk, milk, orange blossom water, and fennel seeds. The mixture will be very wet. That’s okay.
3. Mix in the flour slowly until you have a sticky dough.
4. Work the fruit into the dough in batches using your hands either in the bowl or on a flat work surface. First add the raisins, then the candied fruit, then the nuts. Make sure all are distributed evenly.
5. Cut into three or four equal pieces, depending on whether you want large or small pandolce. Form into flat spheres like a dome, no more than 2 inches tall. Using a razor blade or a very sharp non-serrated knife, slash a cross on the top, not very deep. Lay on parchment paper on double cookie sheets. Bake 40 to 45 minutes in the center of the oven or until a stick comes out clean. Check the pandolce midway. If it is getting too dark, cover with foil to prevent burning.
Saveur Magazine’s Interpretation of for Adriano’s Pandolce Alto
Adriano’s Pandolce Alto
Made With Natural Leaven
Ingredients
180 gr water
150 gr sugar
500 gr bread flour
120 gr natural leaven* (taken from the recipe below)
190 gr butter
380 gr high quality raisins
190 gr candied orange peel
50 gr pignoli
1. Refresh your leaven three times over the course of ten to eleven hours. You can use Adriano’s schedule as follows:
At 8:30 am: take 120 grams of leaven and add 80 grams flour and 40 water. Knead until mixed. Cover and let sit.
At 12:30, repeat the refreshment. You will now have 240 grams of leaven. Add 160 flour and 80 water. Knead. Cover and let sit.
At 4:30 repeat again. You will now have 480 grams of leaven. Refresh with 320 grams flour and 160 grams of water. Knead, cover, and let sit.
2. At 7 pm, or whenever the third refreshment is complete and leaven has doubled for the third time, mix sugar into water until it is dissolved. If you are using a heavy-duty stand up mixer with a dough hook, put flour in the mixer bowl. If you are doing this by hand, spread out your flour in a circle on a clean work surface. Gradually pour the sugared water in the center and use your other hand to slowly work it in until you have a pasty dough.
3. Measure out 570 grams of leaven. Reserve the rest. Knead leaven into dough until thorough incorporated.
4. Add butter. If you are using a mixer do this on low speed and be patient. It will take a while for the butter to mix in. Knead on a low speed for 20 minutes. If you are working by hand, flatten out your dough into a rectangle. Put butter in center, and fold over. Begin kneading until butter is incorporated. Knead for a total of 40 minutes or until the dough is silky. It may take up to an hour.
5. Add raisins, then fruit and nuts. Do this by hand as a mixer will break the raisins. Lay out your dough on a work surface and flatten it into a rectangle about 1 ½ inches thick. Lay your raisins in the center and wrap the dough around them. Begin kneading. It will take time to incorporate all of this. As raisins fall out, just put them back in.
6. Let rest for five minutes. Then flatten out the dough again and cut into three equal pieces—use a scale to be sure. Each bread will weigh about 700 grams. Now, form each pandolce into a small ball about four inches tall. Place on parchment paper and let rise, uncovered, in a warm place (ideally 20 degrees) overnight, or until the breads rise by 35 to 40 percent in size. This will take least 12 hours—but as many as 16 hours or even more. A skin will form.
7. Just before baking, use a razor blade or the point of a very sharp non-serrated knife, to make a triangle in top center. Inspect your breads. Tuck in any raisins that are hanging too far out to avoid burning. Put breads in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 170 centigrade (between 325 and 350 fahrenheit), on double cookie sheets in the center of the oven. Check halfway. If it is beginning to get too dark, cover lightly with tin foil.
8. Do not even think of cutting this for four hours.
When well wrapped in plastic, both pandolce alto and basso last for three months.
Making Your Own Natural Leaven
You may not have access to Adriano’s hundred-year-old yeast, but you can begin one on your own. It will take a couple of weeks to get ready along, along with a good amount of patience for the process fermentation, which is inexact and varies from kitchen to kitchen. A digital kitchen scale is a must have.
My first efforts resulted in moldy leaven that smelled really hideous. Luckily, I found a coach. Peter Reinhart, master baker, leaven expert, and author of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and Whole Grain Breads “>The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and Whole Grain Breads was willing. (If you are any kind of serious baker you must have these books.)Peter tweaked my leaven recipe and coached me on. His secret was to use some pineapple juice. The acids prevent mold. And also to stir it every day to move those acids through the leaven. When I got my it to rise cheered me on. “You go girl,” he wrote. “Now make the bread”
Natural Leaven
100 grams organic pineapple juice (the acids work well to prevent mold)
200 grams high gluten flour or bread flour
70 grams water
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon, your hands, or with a stand up mixer. Cover and let ferment at a temperature of 75 degrees (ideally). This process could take anywhere from 5 to 10 days depending on your environment. It is very important that you stir the mixture once or twice a day, especially during the first three days.
2. Wait. Nothing much will happen the first few days. But then you will see your leaven bubble as natural fermentation occurs and yeasts build. When it doubles or when it has sat for 8 days (whichever comes first), you have the beginnings of your own mother yeast. It is fragile and must be fed.
3. Feed your yeast every day until it is strong enough to use. After that, you will need to do this only once a week. Here’s the method:
Weigh your dough. Add two thirds of its weight in flour (use bread flour or high gluten flour) and one-third of its weight in water. This is Adriano’s hydration formula. For example:
For every 150 grams of leaven
add
100 grams flour
50 grams water
Knead. If it is too sticky to handle, add a little more flour. Cover and leave out and wait. When it doubles in size, put it in the refrigerator covered tightly until the next day when you feed it again. As the yeast grows stronger, the rising time will accelerate. When your dough is able to double in about three hours, then it is strong enough to for use in pandolce or other breads. When you are not using it, keep it in your refrigerator.
Note: feel free to adjust the feeding formula if your dough is too sticky or too dry. It should be moist and springy. It will get better and develop more flavor and character over time.
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A James Beard Award winning book that tells a history of American women through food, recipes, and remembrances. Recipes and illustrations from prehistory to the present day.
Laura's memoir about a search for a recipe, happiness, and mythic Italy--with many unexpected adventures along the way.
In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm remembrances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion...