seasonal vegetables Archives - Page 7 of 10

August 5, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Zucchini Pancakes – Day Two

When I was growing up we always had a garden. My dad did the flowers, my mom did the vegetables. She’d compete with the neighbor to see who could grow the biggest carrots and it seems like she always lost. Mainly because I remember her competitive spirit. “That darned Larry Marks did it again! What the heck does he feed his carrots??” She composted and fertilized, weeded and sought out the best seeds. She really cared about doing the best job she could in raising the vegetables she planted and we always had a bumper crop.

Summers of my childhood are remembered by our chores in the garden: picking raspberries, knocking june bugs into cans of gasoline, weeding. But actually picking the vegetables was mom’s job, she didn’t trust it to anyone else.

With zucchini, bigger wasn’t necessarily better and you had to pick them before they were what grandma called “gagooz”, really huge ones that were only good stuffed and baked. Regardless of their size or number, Mom had a great repertoire of recipes to render them delicious. I remember best her zucchini pancakes. They made a perfect side dish to anything and we’d have them hot for dinner and cold the next day for lunch. They’re easy and delicious, filled with grated zucchini, herbs, parmigiano and onion. Held together with a little egg and a tablespoon of flour, fried in olive oil. Enjoy!

Zucchini Pancakes
2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs
½ cup grated Parmigiano
3-4 scallions, chopped
1 teas sea salt
1 tbsp each parsley and basil, chopped
Dash black pepper
2 tbsp flour
Grate the zucchini on a large grate into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir together well. Heat a saute pan or griddle with a little olive oil, add the zucchini batter in small rounds and fry. Flatten each pancake, flip when browned to brown the other side.

Don’t let the batter sit too long before frying as the salt draws water from the zucchini and becomes very watery, in which case you might have to add another egg and some flour.

August 4, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Eating with the Zucchini Season

In America we do a lot of talking about “eating with seasons”. But it seems to me we might need a review on what exactly that means.

In Italy it means that when zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and basil are in abundance in the summer, we eat them. Often. At every meal. Even in the large chain grocery stores, the locally grown vegetables are abundant and cheap. You don’t have to seek out expensive farmers markets. You know what’s in season by seeing mountains of it in the grocery store. And it’s beautiful and crisp and fresh and you’ve been waiting since last summer to make your favorite dishes and now it’s time.

In America, so many people are getting back to the land and tending gardens. Farmers markets are abundant and chic but can be expensive to shop for the week, so lots of people will go to the farmers market on a Saturday and buy one zucchini, one beautiful tomato. It’s hard to get tired of eating local fresh produce when you can’t afford to buy it. Abundance should mean the price goes down. And if the farmer can’t sell it, he leaves it in the field because no one will buy it.

I’ve seen that. It’s a sin.

It’s August 4th and we’re in the middle of zucchini season. Some of them are huge, but even the big ones are edible and are wonderful stuffed or made into zucchini relish. The flowers are hard to come by and I’m finding that I have to volunteer to go out to the field and pick them myself, but I’m willing to do that!

So since we’ll be eating zucchini every day, I’m going to share a great recipe every day on what to do with all the zucchini! Maybe you’ll be inspired, maybe you’ll buy more zucchini to try them all. Let me know if it works!

Today’s recipe: zucchini pasta! Join me tomorrow for zucchini pancakes!

Pasta con Zucchini
3 cups zucchini, sliced into rounds or half moons
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
1 tbsp mint or basil, chopped
1 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
Sea salt
Add olive oil, onion and garlic to a sauté pan, place over medium heat and sauté gently until garlic is softened, being careful not to brown. Add zucchini and parsley and continue to cook until zucchini is cooked through and soft, adding a little water and covering to steam, at least 30 minutes, adding salt to taste.

Save a small amount of the water you’ve cooked the pasta in, drain cooked pasta and toss with the sauce. The pasta will continue to absorb the liquid and if it appears dry add a little of the pasta water. Toss with additional olive oil, the chopped mint or basil and Parmigiano and serve. If you have some of the flowers, you can tear them up and add them to the dish; the orange color is beautiful against the green and the white!

Another option is to add a tablespoon of pesto when you’re tossing the pasta with the zucchini.

May 22, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

April showers bring May flowers

After all the cold rain of April we are rewarded with the burgeoning flowers of May. Poppies, roses and peonies cover the Tuscan landscape. Acacia is rampant along highways, turning miles of roads into soft white shoulders. Elder flowers dot dark elder bushes throughout the countryside and I’m preoccupied with how best to get at them while they’re in their prime. Both acacia and elder are edible and I love adding them to a simple fried antipasto along with baby artichokes and the big sage leaves that come out in the spring. It’s a brief, fleeting season and so we have to hurry.

Acacia smells beautiful, reminiscent of orange blossom, with white droplets bunched together like grapes, drooping from the branches. Acacia is everywhere and generally has branches that grow within reach, giving easy access to the flowers.

The elder (sambuco in Italian) has an unusual smell with large pale yellow lace-like flowers against dark green leaves. It is more difficult to pick as the bushes tend to grow on steep slopes on the sides of roads, maddeningly just out of reach.

I first fell in love with fried elder flowers when I was little girl in Italy and my mother learned how to fry them, which is common in the area around Verona. Not understanding the concept of seasons, I would bring flowers home all year long that I hoped were the right blossoms for frying. I was so often disappointed. Elder isn’t eaten or used much in Tuscany but in the northern regions they make tinctures and syrups of both the flowers and the berries.

The batter is the simplest thing in the world and you make just however much you think you’ll need for the flowers and leaves you want to fry. Put flour in a bowl with a little salt. With a whisk start pouring white wine and stirring to incorporate. Use just enough wine that you have a batter the consistency of crepe batter. Heat peanut or grapeseed oil on a high heat, dip your flowers into the batter and put them in the oil. Turn them when they’re golden brown, not too dark, and drain them on paper towels.

In the summer we have zucchini blossoms and sage leaves, but in the spring we celebrate the short season of acacia and elder blossoms. If you can’t find any flowers to fry, try small artichokes, zucchini slices and mushrooms. Buon appetito!

May 13, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Spring Artichokes

Stuffing an Artichoke

This is the season where we’re transitioning out of winter and into late spring and it’s the perfect time for artichokes. While in Italy we have a wide range of artichokes, from slender and purple to plump and green, in the US the most common is the globe artichoke and one of the best ways to enjoy them is stuffed.

The artichoke is actually the bud of the flower of a thistle plant and if allowed to grow on the plant they bloom into a thorny flower with a prickly purple center. Most of the artichoke is inedible and the only way to eat it is to make your way through the tough leaves to the cap-like center heart. In Tuscany we generally will clean the artichoke before cooking, cutting away, tearing off and scraping out the choke, then sautéing them with olive oil, garlic, lemon and parsley.

When you first begin to deal with artichokes, it’s difficult to throw most of the vegetable away, but once you embrace the reality that most of the leaves and the choke are completely inedible and tough and that you eventually have to throw it away anyway, they become easier to clean and prepare.

You can also find small artichokes right now, they come in packs of 12. These are the babies that grow on the plant late in the season. They are simple to prepare as they require less cleaning and there isn’t as much to throw away. Just cut off the top half of the artichoke, peel off the outer leaves until the leaves become pale green and yellow, trim the stem, and gently simmer them until tender, then stuff them. You would probably want two or three per serving.

Artichokes can seem intimidating but a little practice and you’ll soon be enjoying these delicious vegetables often! Stuffed artichokes make a lovely starter and are a delicious way to enjoy the bounty of the spring season.

Stuffed Artichokes

4 large globe artichokes

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp parsley, minced

1 tbsp basil, chopped

1 teas dried tarragon, or 1 tbsp fresh

3/4 cup grated Parmigiano

Sea salt

2 cups fresh bread crumbs

olive oil

hot pepper flakes

Cut the stem off the artichokes even with the bottom so the artichoke can sit up on a plate. Peel the stems, chop them and put them in a little water with lemon so they don’t brown. Cut the top off the artichokes about half way up and discard; with scissors, trim the tips of each leaf, discarding the smallest leaves that grown on the base of the flower.

In a pot big enough to accommodate all the artichokes, put enough water to come halfway up the artichokes, squeeze a lemon into the water, add salt, a garlic clove and 1 tbsp of dried tarragon. Place the artichokes in the pot, stem down, drizzle them with olive oil and bring to a boil. Boil 15 minutes and remove with tongs, putting the artichokes cut side down to allow them to drain. When cool enough to handle, open the artichoke flower and remove the hairy choke in the middle, scraping with a spoon. Place in a baking dish. (Or you can leave the choke inside and stuff them as is, discarding the choke and any inedible leaves at the table when eating.)

Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft, add the mushrooms and the chopped stems from the artichokes, and the hot pepper flakes. Sauté until softened, put in a mixing bowl and add the herbs, bread crumbs, Parmigiano, extra olive oil and salt. Stuff the artichokes with this mixture, packing it in the cavity as well as within each layer of leaves, drizzle with oil and bake at 400 for 20 minutes until browned.