One Local Summer Week 8

This post will be a quick and light one. I'm currently on an older, slower desktop due to a mishap with a little boy, a glass of wine and a laptop.

Scaccia ai Broccoli (Double-crusted broccoli pizza)
adapted from: The Italian Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis

1 pound broccoli
Pizza dough (enough for 2 small pies)
8 ounces fresh ricotta (maybe homemade?)
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
Crushed red chilis
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Steam broccoli until tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Roll out the dough to a 12 x 24 inch rectangle. Make it as thin as necessary. Bring half of the dough onto the baking sheet. Spread the ricotta evenly over the dough that is on the baking sheet. Then sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper. Next, spread the broccoli evenly over the ricotta. Season again, this time adding chilis. Bring the dough resting on your work surface up and over the filling, pressing the edges together and lightly rolling the edges in. Brush the top with olive oil. Allow the scaccia to rest for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425F. Bake the scaccia for 30 minutes.

One Local Summer Week 7

Wow, 7 weeks already! The garden is nearly in full swing, and it is hard to keep track of the local food we've been enjoying lately. Our squash and peas are ready daily, and the broccoli and cauliflower are getting bigger everyday. I am trying to be patient before harvesting those, it would be nice to see how big they can get! Fortunately with the broccoli, after the first harvest, you still get the nice shoots they grow in after (and for which you pay a lot of money for at the grocery store). We have tasted one of our carrots, and one beet, but again, I'm trying to hold out and let them grow a bit more. The lettuce is still growing nicely, I suppose the one good thing from that long rainy month of June. I am certainly not happy about the fact that I am still waiting on our first tomato! (The sungolds should be ready in a day or two.)

We've been able to enjoy at least one or two locally grown (or garden grown) side dishes this past week. I am hoping this makes up for in a small way the terribly non-sustainable entree we had tonight: grilled swordfish. Oops. At least we served our own cauliflower and the potatoes we found growing in the compost pile.

One of my favorite dinners this week was pizza. Well, that's always my favorite. In any case, the dough this week was not the best we've ever used; I tried the no-knead version, and my husband had a difficult time working with it. It also didn't have quite the same texture that my usual recipe does. From the reviews I have seen of the no-knead recipe, it seems there must have been something I was missing. Luckily enough, the toppings made up for what lacked in the dough. We used some freshly harvested zucchini and squash blossoms, canned tomatoes, mushrooms, and some homemade mozzarella.



To make the pizzas, I used the no-knead pizza dough recipe found here. Because the dough was so soft, we decided to grill the pizzas a bit first before adding any of the toppings. We like to use a wooden peel to transfer the pizzas to the grill, so any toppings added must be done quickly otherwise the dough will begin sticking to the peel. The dough we used was so soft, it began sticking to the peel right away. After grilling the dough for a minute or two, we put it back on the peel and added the toppings. Then, back to the grill to finish cooking the dough and melting the cheese. Just be sure to have some great beer to wash it all down with!

One Local Summer Week 6

I'm so disappointed to have missed my post last week, but with all the rain making it hard to harvest local ingredients, and leaving early for our annual July family visit, I never got the chance to make a local meal. The closest I got in fact, was the Hummel's hot dog I ate on my way to Yankee Stadium on Friday. (By the way, if you have never had a Hummel's and you eat hot dogs, you need to make a point of getting to Connecticut to try one...there's nothing like it!) Thankfully we are finally seeing the sun again in New England (I may even turn on the sprinklers soon!) and I was able to get some great ingredients from our garden.

While in Italy some years ago, I had my first taste of squash blossoms. Unfortunately, once I returned to the States I was never able to find them again. One of the reasons we wanted to start our own garden was to be able to grow the ingredients we have not been able to purchase. When choosing zucchini to plant, I make it a point to find one or two varieties that claim to have numerous male blossoms (these do not produce fruit, but are needed for pollination) that are great for eating.

Farfalle with baby peas and squash blossoms

3/4 lb of farfalle (or any short dried pasta)
1 cup baby peas
12 male squash blossoms
2 Tablespoons European style butter



Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

If you have fresh peas, be sure to shuck them before cooking, you don't want snap peas in this dish.

To prepare the squash blossoms, rinse them gently under cold water to remove any debris. Carefully open the blossom, and pull out the pistil. Remove the blossoms from the rest of the stem. Chop the blossoms into fairly large pieces.

Once the water is boiling, salt it and add the farfalle. Cook the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. When the pasta has about 4 minutes remaining, begin to melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Do not allow it to brown. With 2 minutes remaining, add the blossoms to the butter and gently cook. Add the peas to the pasta pot when there is 1 minute left to cook. Drain the pasta and peas and add to the skillet. Toss the pasta, peas and blossoms together in the butter and remove from heat. Serve immediately with cheese - a fresh ricotta, feta or goat cheese is best, but you can never go wrong with a bit of parmigiano reggiano.

One Local Summer Week 4

Samplings from week 4 meals :

Squash sauteed with garlic scapes

2 summer squash or zucchini, sliced
1 garlic scaped, chopped
olive oil

Warm olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add squash and scapes. Saute until squash is browned, then turn over and continue to cook until all or most of the pieces are browned. Add salt (fleur de sel preferably) and pepper to taste just before serving. A pinch of pepperoncino is great too!

Boiled Lobsters

Fill a large stockpot with enough water to cover your lobsters and bring to a boil (feel free to use sea water if you have access to it!). Add a handful of water to the pot, and plunge the lobsters into the water (head first!). Bring the water back to a boil, and then begin timing the cooking according to their weight; 8 minutes for the first pound, 3 minutes per pound thereafter. When they are done cooking, pull them out and allow them to rest on a platter. Serve with melted butter, but great fresh lobsters don't really need anything!

Local cheeseburger (from Savage Road Farm), with Cabot Cheddar and a tomato from the Exeter Farmers' Market.

Homemade Cheese Ravioli (Serves 4)

Fresh pasta dough, rolled out into thin sheets (made from 3 eggs and 3 cups flour)
8 oz. fresh ricotta (ours was homemade from local raw milk) - this needs to be of great quality,
really smooth and creamy!
2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley
3 oz grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk
Pinch of nutmeg

Combine the filling ingredients (parsley, cheeses, yolk and nutmeg) in a mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Lay out two sheets of pasta side by side. Have a small cup or bowl of water nearby to help seal the pasta. Lay a tea towel onto a tray our cookie sheet and sprinkle with flour; you will need this ready when you finish cutting the ravioli. Scoop one tablespoon of the filling onto one of the pasta sheets. Continue to add the filling to the past at 1/2 inch intervals until the sheet is filled.



With your finger, take the water and outline the scoops of the filling, like you are painting the pasta. Lift the other sheet on top of the pasta and ravioli filling. Carefully press down, starting close to the filling, so you can press out as much air as possible.



Using a pastry or pasta roller, cut the ravioli into squares or circles.



Try to cut as close to the filling, without leaving too much extra pasta around the edges. The edges don't cook as quickly as the rest of the raviolo, and tend to be a bit firm. For the round ravioli (which I prefer, in order to avoid the thick edges and get more filling with every bite!) I used a large coffee scoop to imprint an outline before cutting with the roller. I'd love to find a mini cookie cutter to use from now on though!

Place the finished ravioli on the tea towel, and continue the process until you have used all of the filling. Most times you will have some pasta dough left over, which can be cut and dried to be used later. It does not save well without being cut first.

If you wish, the ravioli can be frozen immediately on the tray and bagged for use at a later time. To cook the ravioli, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a good handful of salt. Add the ravioli, and when the water comes to a boil again, lower the heat so the water is just above a simmer. Cooking these in boiling water will most likely cause them to burst. Check the ravioli often, they will float to the top, so I use a spoon to push them down while they cook. The ravioli will take about 5-7 minutes to cook, but I like to test them by taking a bit from the edges. Remember, the edges will be more firm then the rest, and should be cooked al dente. Drain the ravioli as soon as they are done.

These are great served with a butter and sage (fresh from the garden!) sauce or a light tomato sauce.





Local sources:

Cabot butter
Exeter Farmers' Market
Defiant Lobster Co.
Savage Road Farm
Magic Hat Brewery - Wacko

Taming the tomatoes

It seemed not too long ago that most of our tomatoes were not looking like they would ever grow more than a foot tall. We coaxed them a bit under the row covers longer than we first intended, but then again, this cool weather has lasted longer than we expected it to! Surprisingly enough the tomatoes have quickly grown to this state:




Slowly but surely, we're working out a system to tame these tomatoes. First, I had to get in there and prune the largest plants. Too many of them had branches and leaves on the ground, and because the stems were so heavy, much of the new growth was growing down instead of up. (I actually thought it was pretty cool that our heirlooms are the heartiest plants of the bunch.) We will be using a stake-and-trellis method, and instead of going out and buying new stakes, we decided to take some of the old branches from our burn pile. I am really loving the look of the branches, and after getting up some twine to hold up the plants I will be getting the longer branches up near the beans so that the scarlet runners can grow up instead of twisting around each other on the ground (when I hold them up, they are already about 4 feet tall!). And if that's not enough to have to catch up on, the weeds are out of control and we have a new pest to fend off around the squash and beans; black aphids. At least this time around, I won't kill the plants while trying to fight them. I'll be spraying that homemade hot pepper spray on a cloudy day.

One Local Summer Week 3

Maybe it was the rain this week, but for whatever reason, coming up with and cooking a local meal was really hard this week. By the time I even got around to cooking dinner on Thursday, I realized the short ribs we were going to be having were still frozen, and probably not going to turn out too well. And I was right. At least I cooked up some fine creamed spinach to go along with them...and some toasted locally baked multigrain bread to go along with it all didn't hurt either.


Easy creamed spinach:

1 Tablespoon bacon grease (we always save some from fried bacon and keep it in the fridge)
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup whole milk
1/8 cup sour cream
salt to taste

Wash spinach well, making sure to get out all the sand. Melt the butter and bacon grease over medium heat. Add the spinach to the pan and cover immediately so that the spinach will steam in the water still on the leaves from washing. When the spinach is cooked add the milk and sour cream. Stir well to combine, creating a sauce in the pan. Turn heat to low, and continue to cook until the sauce is to the desired thickness. Taste for salt and season as necessary (I found with the bacon fat and butter that none was needed).

As for the short ribs, they were braised in beet juice and honey. While the sweetness was nice, it would've been even better with a splash of vinegar to create a sweet and sour sauce for them.

Local ingredients:

Butter: Kate's Homemade and Vermont Butter and Cheese
Honey: Paradise Farm, Wilton, NH
Beet juice: Nashua Farmers' Market (frozen puree from last summer)
Short ribs: Savage Road Farm, Milford, NH
Milk: Fitch's Dairy Farm, Milford, NH (raw milk!)
Bacon grease: Garfield's Smokehouse, NH
Spinach: Locally Known, Maine, found at Trader Joe's in Tyngsboro, MA
Sour cream: Hood
Bread: The Good Loaf, Milford, NH

One Local Summer Week 2

First, I have to confess I kind of cheated this week...we spent last weekend in Connecticut, so I was able to pick up a few ingredients that weren't quite ready up in our local area. I was figuring that since we were down there visiting family anyway, it wouldn't really add to our carbon footprint, but was just really a good opportunity to expand our local food zone. Right? So, I picked up some peas, spinach (I used later in the week), soda (Foxon Park, out of East Haven, made with real sugar!) and we picked some fresh strawberries from our friend's garden. As soon as I saw the peas I knew exactly what I would make this week, a spin-off of a traditional Italian dish using some locally raised pork....

Spezzatino di Maiale (adapted from Marcella Hazan's Spezzatino di Vitello recipe)

1 pound pork steak (or shoulder, anything good for braising), cut into 1 inch cubes.
1 pound peas (pre-shelling weight)
1 small shallot, minced
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil

In a heavy pot or dutch oven, heat the butter and oil over medium heat. When the butter has stopped bubbling, add the shallot. Allow the shallot to cook until soft and almost browning, then add the pork. Brown the pork on all sides. Add the tomatoes, bring to a boil, then cover and turn the heat to low. The tomatoes should barely be at a simmer. Cook the meat for 1 1/2 hours. About 15 minutes before the meat finishes cooking, add the peas to the pot.



This dish is great served along side potatoes, or as more traditional in Italy, to be served after a risotto or soup dish.
Peas: Brookside Gardens, Woodbridge, CT
Pork: Savage Road Farm, Savage Rd. Milford, NH (link is a map, they have an outdoor freezer open on weekdays)
Potatoes: Maine
Gassosa Soda: Foxon Park, East Haven, CT
Salad Greens: our garden!