Three Pepper Parade

This week's post comes from Cleveland, where my brother used local meat, produce and pasta to create a most excellent photo and meal.

Hello blogger friends! This weekend I used a variety of ingredients from my Fresh Fork CSA basket and made a dynomite Italian dish.

I call it "Italian Three Pepper Parade," or stuffed bell and banana peppers over red pepper pasta. Here's how I did it:

Pasta Alla Norma

I took another trip to the farmer's market on Saturday...and came home with four more pounds of eggplant. This week, it went into pasta alla Norma.

Pasta alla norma is almost as old as the island of Sicily itself. Named after the heroine in Vincenzo Bellini's famous opera, Norma, the two-act performance tells the story of the Druid priestess Norma, whose husband Pollione tries to run away to Rome with the Adalgisa, another priestess. Out of loyalty to Norma, Adalgisa tells her about the affair. Norma considers murdering her two children but decides to leave them with Adalgisa instead. Adalgisa, however, then renounces her love for Pollione and urges him to return to his wife.

Infuriated, Norma calls a meeting with the Druids and declares war against the Pollione's Romans. The declaration requires a sacrifice, which conveniently presents itself when Pollione is caught entering the temple of virgins to visit Adalgisa and is subsequently sentenced to death. Minutes before Pollione's execution Norma, deeply saddened by the turn of events, decides to take his place. Inspired by her benevolence, Pollione rekindles his love for his wife and joins her in the pyre.

First produced in 1831, Norma was immediately hailed a success, so much so that people began using the title as a term of endearment. For example, one's favorite music could be called "musica alla Norma," the best poetry "poesia alla Norma." As the pasta became one of Sicily's most famous dishes, it became known as pasta alla Norma.

I don't know about you, but all this talk about lyric tragedies is making me hungry. Let's move on to the recipe.
The innumerable variations of this recipe typically include:

- eggplant, fried in oil before its added to the sauce
- tomatoes
- cheese
- pasta
-a spicy pepper
-fresh basil

Here's my take:

Pasta Alla Norma

vegetable oil 

olive oil

2 pounds eggplant, cut into 1/2" cubes

4 cloves garlic*

2 tsp salt 

crushed red pepper, to taste

1 big can of diced tomatoes or 2 cups Christopher Sauce or 2 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced

12 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

1/4 pound roughly-grated ricotta salata**

1 box short, tubular pasta, like penne or rigatoni

*If you're using a premade sauce (that already includes garlic) instead of tomatoes, consider reducing or omitting the garlic

**Ricotta salata is salted sheep's milk ricotta cheese. It's much more firm than regular ricotta. Substituting ricotta produces a smooth, creamy sauce that's different in texture but equally raucous. Another option is to substitute another firm, salty cheese like pecorino romano. 

1. Placed the diced eggplant and salt in a strainer with a bowl underneath, then put something heavy on top. Let the eggplant sit for an hour. During this time, the salt will pull the bitter juices from the eggplant pieces into the bowl underneath the strainer. 

2. Fill the bottom of a saucepan with 1/4" of vegetable oil. When the oil is hot (test it), add the eggplant.

3. Stir the eggplant frequently as it fries, being careful not to break the pieces. Add more oil if necessary. When the eggplant has turned golden brown, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate lined with paper towel to dry. 

**Note: now would be a good time to begin boiling your pasta water

4. Discard the vegetable oil from the pan. Wipe the pan clean and return it to medium heat. 

5. Add 2 tbs olive oil to the now empty saucepan. Just before the oil begins to smoke, add the garlic. As the garlic begins to brown, add the crushed red pepper and let simmer for 30 seconds.

6. Add the tomatoes and simmer until the sauce thickens, 5-10 minutes. 

7.  When the sauce has reached its desired consistency, add the eggplants and fresh basil and let the sauce simmer on low heat for 5 more minutes.

8 Serve the sauce over pasta and garnish with grated cheese and additional basil. 

All Hail the Tomato

Growing up in Iowa, summer really hit its stride when the tomatoes began to ripen. I knew they were ripe when I could smell the plants themselves - the earthy aroma of the vines - from the porch in our backyard, 50 feet from the garden. When the time came to pick them, my mom would take a basket and ask for my help. I'd look for the ripe ones, asking for her approval before picking the first two or three. After I got the hang of it I'd sneak away, find the biggest one on the vine, pluck it and eat it like an apple. The juices would run down my face and the seeds would stick to the collar of my shirt, but she'd only smile and encourage me.

"That's the best way to do it!" she'd say. "Eat as many as you can."

She wasn't as encouraging when I tried it with an expensive store-bought tomato in December, but it happened only once because I immediately learned that the two shouldn't even be in the same food group.

Now that it's tomato season, I urge you to do two things:

1. Pick a tomato off a vine and eat it like an apple. Don't wash it, don't bring it inside the house. Eat it right there, next to the vine, preferably barefoot.

2. Cook them as little as possible, if at all.

Fresh tomatoes are obviously great in salads and on sandwiches. They also make the best pasta sauces. Every year I buy upwards of 10 pounds of San Marzanos, core, peel and seed them and make old-fashioned sauce. This, however, takes quite a bit of time, both outside in the heat during the day acquiring them and later over the heat of the stove.

Most summer nights I'd rather eat them raw with pasta. It's a popular choice in Italy as well, often called "salsa fresca" or "salsa cruda." I dice the tomatoes, add olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs and toss it with the pasta as soon as it leaves the boiling water. The sauce is never cooked, but the pasta and residual cooking water heats everything just enough to blend the flavors.

I never measure the quantities of the ingredients I use in a salsa cruda, so it's hard to call it a recipe. However, NY Times food writer Mark Bittman provided a list of his favorite summer tomato recipes last week. One of his 12 very simple recipes is nearly identical to my own salsa cruda:

Mark Bittman's Salsa Cruda for Pasta (or Anything Else)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, light crushed

1/2 cup chopped basil

1/2 pound pasta

Preparation

1. Mash together tomatoes, olive oil, garlic cloves and chopped basil. 

2. Let sit while you cook pasta, then fish out garlic and toss (add some pasta-cooking water if necessary). 

3. Garnish with more chopped basil.

Caponata

There are great veggies in season at the farmer's market this time of year, like fresh onions, eggplant, tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. This also makes it a great time of year to make a huge supply of caponata.

Caponata is an ancient Sicilian relish. It's both sweet and sour, thanks to doses of sugar and vinegar, and goes great with bread as well as grilled meats and fish. Similar to pepperonata, the addition of meaty chunks of eggplant, olives, capers and dried fruit make it authentically Sicilian. It's also a great way to cool off a summer dinner, as its served at room temperature or colder.

A Most Interesting Experiment

Most foodies are familiar with the grass-fed beef debate by now. They're also familiar with the differences in price, quality and availability between grass and grain-fed meat. While families everywhere were making difficult decisions regarding the cost versus quality of the meat they eat every week, Amy Wattles made a very different decision.

Wattles had grown frustrated by the quality of grain-fed beef from industrial farms available at her local grocery stores, but she also didn't want to pay six dollars or more per pound for grass-fed beef for herself and her family. So, she visited a livestock auction, bought one cow, paid someone five dollars a month to keep in in a pasture, hired a local butcher when it was ready to be slaughtered and ended up with 500 pounds of high-quality, grass-fed meat that ended up costing her about $1.50 per pound.

She shared here experience at elitefts.com, which I've copied below: 

A Walking Fish Special Delivery

Walking Fish finished its summer deliveries last month while we were out of the country, so our shares of shrimp went to a friend. Of all the great seafood deliveries people rave the most about the fresh shrimp, so I was disappointed I missed it.

Luckily, Walking Fish offered a one-time shrimp delivery in July to appease those who couldn't wait for the white shrimp this fall. I jumped on it and cooked them as soon as I picked them up.

I remember my parents cooking fresh shrimp during our family vacations at the Outer Banks. They served them plain, with cocktail sauce or tossed in Old Bay seasoning and butter. Fresh seafood needs little, if any, seasoning, so I prepared mine using only what I had on hand at the house.

Land Locked Summer Shrimp

2 lb fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

6 tbs olive oil

1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lemon

12 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 handful fresh parsley

1. add 4 tbs olive oil to a very hot pan. Just as the oil begins to smoke, add the shrimp. Sear shrimp for about 3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Be careful not to overcook.

2. When the shrimp is cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside. In the now empty pan, add 2 tbs olive oil. 

3. When the oil is hot (beginning to smoke), add the garlic.

4. As soon as the garlic begins to brown, add the crushed red pepper (if you want it spicy). 30 seconds later, add the tomatoes. 

5. When the tomatoes begin to wilt, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from one half of it over the pan and stir. The lemon juice should deglaze the bottom of the pan.

6. Return the shrimp to the pan, add the parsley and stir. Season with salt and pepper.

We ate it with crusty bread and salad.

Carolina BBQ - Old School

My brother visited from Cleveland last weekend, and the July heat and humidity here in NC nearly made him shave his grizzly beard. After spending much of Saturday outside, I couldn't think of a better way to help him relax than showing him the southern tradition standing over a smoking grill for an hour and a half.

Without the time to barbecue a big piece of pork and a traditional meat smoker, we used a charcoal grill and chicken instead. Many steps, several hours and multiple cold beverages later, we reeked of smoke but didn't care because the food was awesome.

Here's how we did it.

Gluten Free Chicken Parm

One thing Indian and Italian families seem to have in common is the tradition of eating your way through family visits. Meals tend to be long, frequent and excessive, and after awhile you forget what it feels like to be "hungry." My brother-in-law, Manek flew down frown New York with his girlfriend this weekend, so we acted accordingly.

Manek's favorite Italian dish is Chicken Parmesan, so we make it at home every time he visits. These days, however, he's following a gluten and dairy free diet, so we had to get creative. I don't remember my family making Chicken Parmesan growing up, so I learned from Mario Batali. This time, we made a few adjustments, the most obvious one being serving it with polenta instead of pasta. We also only coated the chicken in bread crumbs and not flour - something I would change next time.

Regardless, it turned out pretty awesome.

Farmers in the spotlight

An article titled "Want to Earn More than a Banker? Become a Farmer!" in last week's Time caught my attention. Written by Steve Gandel, the article highlights an agricultural revival in the US that hasn't occurred in decades. Gandel also notes that the upswing could create opportunities in developing markets overseas:

"The average American consumes about 250 lb. (113 kg) of meat a year. The average Indian eats less than 10 lb. (4.5 kg) a year. In China, it's more like 100 lb. (45 kg). Which means there's a lot of room for growth. Half of U.S. corn production goes to feed cattle, pigs and poultry, which drives up demand for grain."

While it's obvious the two most populous nations in the world could consume more American meat, India's "room for growth" might be a lot more complicated than it appears. 

Gandel definitely did more homework on this topic than I did, but having just visited India and seen first hand the eating habits in Bombay, I don't believe Indians will be consuming even 50 pounds of meat anytime soon.

Arati's Chicken Curry

Tracking down family recipes isn't easy. The mothers who made the meals famous learned from their mother or mother-in-law over the course of many years of coaching and supervision, so that the technique becomes part of her DNA long before it's ever written down. Perhaps this is part of what makes "home food" so awesome, as it's about about the people and the place as much as the recipe. Try as we may to recreate it on the other side of the world, it's not always easy to replicate.

One morning, before the rest of the family was up and moving, I camped out in my mother-in-law's kitchen while she cooked the day's basic chicken curry - the same chicken curry she's prepared for lunch each day for the past 31 years - and wrote down her every step.