Cook Here and Now

Risotto cooked in Spumante with summer squash, zucchini and basil

Buongiorno.
I know. You are also happy it's summer. Even in San Francisco, where the sun is as elusive as a sane ad on Craigslist's personals. But it is and those summer squash looked amazing this weekend. How could I resist?
This recipe is based on my Risotto. Start Here. post so use that as a guideline. As always, if you make it let me know how you liked it.

Ingredients:

All the ingredients from the Risotto. Start Here. post plus:

2 Tbs butter or Extra Virgin olive oil

3/4 lb. zucchini, diced

3/4 lb. summer squash, diced

2 cups of Italian Spumante or California sparkling wine.
Warm, NOT out of the fridge.

1 cup of basil leaves

1/4 cup of heavy cream (optional)


How do I do it?
You make the standard risotto recipe, but when you are cooking the onion at the beginning you also add the extra butter and the diced vegetables. When you are supposed to add the wine use 3/4 of a cup of the Spumante instead.
Half-way through the cooking use the remaining spumante to cook the rice as you would use the broth. It will impart a sweet and tangy flavor to the risotto, complemented by the zucchini and the squash and offset by the basil at the end.
Only when the risotto is cooked you add the basil as a garnish or tossed in right before serving. The oils from basil are very sensitive to heat. If you cook them too much, they will lose their aroma very quickly.

If you are using the squash in the photo, before dicing them slice their very top off and use it as a garnish. Even the eye gets its fill.
Have a fantastic dinner and serve with the remaining Spumante or sparkling wine.

A presto,
Marco Flavio

Trofie. The pasta pesto wants.

Buongiorno,
I'm always swapping information with Italian (and non) friends on where to find the one ingredient we thought we'd never find this side of the ocean with the glee of a 10-year-old on Christmas morning.
Sometimes they are false alarms, ghost hunts that lead nowhere: the ingredient is not quite right or of such low quality, it would have been better not to hear about it and get your hopes up. But sometimes we come across that elusive find that thrills us... and on it goes.

After my post on pesto my Italian friend from Naples, Ilaria, told me that she had just purchased at The Pasta Shop in Berkeley the kind of pasta they serve it with in Liguria: Trofie, pronounced like toffee with an r. It's a spiral shaped pasta with the thickness of a small straw and little nooks to catch that pesto and bring it to you.

Liguria is where pesto is from in Italy; for more information this is the Consortium of Genoese Pesto. (Unfortunately the site is only in Italian — for an amusing experience, translate it with Google Translate.)
Ilaria just gave me enough to try the full recipe... can't wait. If you want to use that beautiful Italian sauce and present a complete experience, go get yourself some at The Pasta Shop if you are in Berkeley or in Rockridge. If you'd like to try your hand at making them, here's the technique to really impress your friends and loved ones.

A presto pesto,
Marco Flavio

Milk, Part I. What to buy?

Buongiorno.
Milk is something we purchase on a weekly basis, whether to dilute the much-needed morning caffeine that allow us to face the day, or to turn an otherwise average pan sauce into the creamy wonder our meats and palate covet. When I arrived from Italy I thought purchasing milk would be an easy undertaking. Milk is milk, after all. Right? No. Not these days. There are a lot of options that have turned this simple choice into a bit of a maze.

Like many of you, I have been trying to do the right thing and buy food that is not filled with antibiotics, hormones and pesticides and still retains most of its nutrients. At the same time I would like my purchase to benefit the people and community that grow it, not pollute the environment (excessively) and ensure that the animals it comes from are treated in a humane manner.
These days that is quite the tall order.

But fear not: Here's some information I gathered for you, in the hope it will help you as it has helped me. Stay tuned for Part 2, where I'll examine the offerings and claims of readily available milk in Bay Area supermarkets.

Types of Milk

Whole milk:
1 CUP: Calories 149, Fat 7.7 grams, Calcium 291 mg
This is the milk to use for sauces and baking that has the most fat (aside from cream). In most recipes, where milk is called for, the fat is one of the reasons for its use. If you decide to use reduced fat or skim milk, your baked good may turn slightly dry and your pan sauce less creamy—so you may have to compensate with other ingredients. I say use the full fat and eat less of it. We only live once.

2% Milk:
1 CUP: Calories 121, Fat 4.4 grams, Calcium 296 mg
This milk works well for coffee drinks and it's fine for most baked goods. Try it and adjust the recipe as needed. For pan sauces it works also pretty well. Add a little flour (1tsp scant) to the pan to make your sauce thicker. I use it for baking muffins and reductions all the time. Go for it.

1% Milk:
1 CUP: Calories 104, Fat 2.2 grams, Calcium 312 mg
This has too little fat to bake or cook with. Use it for drinks or cereal, or wherever else calls for milk straight out of the carton, uncooked.

Nonfat Milk:
1 CUP: Calories 90, Fat 0.5 grams, Calcium 316 mg
Yikes! This is milk-flavored water.

Raw Milk:
This is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized. It has a deeper, stronger flavor.
There is a lot of controversy at the moment as not pasteurizing the milk can be unsafe due to the fact that salmonella and other harmful bacteria may not have been eliminated from it. Proponents of raw milk correctly assert that its flavor and nutritional values are superior. It's currently illegal in some states, but not in California. It's available at select groceries in San Francisco; Rainbow carries it. Go to Real Milk for more information. Note that the USDA discourages the consumption of raw milk.

(Nutritional information changes from producer to producer, as the various breeds of cows produce quite different milk. These are average quantities; read the Nutritional Label on your milk for specific information.)

Labeling

Pasteurized
Pasteurization is the process of heating up the milk in order to eliminate a large amount of the bacteria living in it. Unfortunately the process also eliminates part of the flavors, nutrients and vitamins. Hence the proponents of raw milk.
There are the two main methods of pasteurization:
HTST (high temperature, short time) is the most common. The milk is heated for at least 15 seconds at a temperature of 161.5°F. Most milk available in U.S. supermarkets uses this one.
UHT (ultra high temperature) The milk is heated for at least 2 seconds at a temperature of 280°F. This is used for milk that needs to be stored for a much longer period of time (it has a refrigerated life of 2 to 3 months). It tastes like old sneakers. Fortunately it is not very common, except in survival kits and in those single-serving containers they have in diners.

Homogenized
If you leave milk sitting around for a while, its cream will rise to the top and its fat will create a nice layer at the top, leaving an almost skim solution at the bottom. All you have to do is give it a good shake before serving. However, most consumers don't want to see this separation, so the dairy industry "homogenizes" the milk by passing the milk through a high pressure system; the fat droplets are broken into much smaller droplets and their surfaces become coated with protein more easily making it much more stable.

Vitamin D added
Vitamin D is actually not quite a vitamin but more similar to a hormone (see the definition). It aids the absorption of calcium. Milk is fortified with it so that people can actually absorb one of its most known nutrients.
Labeling the milk "Hormone-free" when Vitamin D is added is incorrect.

Vitamin A added
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble, antioxidant vitamin important in bone growth.

rBST
Bovine growth hormone re-engineered by Monsanto. This is a controversial hormone that regulates the production of milk in cattle. It can increase milk production from 10% to 40%. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require special labels for products produced from cows given rbST. When producers decide to label that their milk does not contain it, they must also state that by USDA standards there is no difference. However, hormone-free organic milk can be labeled as "hormone-free."
"Monsanto fought this labeling, and sued a small dairy called Oakhurst in an attempt to block organic dairies from labeling their milk hormone-free; they lost.
Demand for hormone-free organic milk in the US has increased 500% since Monsanto introduced their rbST product, and is the fastest growing sector of the organic food market." —Wikipedia

Organic
This is the USDA definition of organic: "Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.  Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.  Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation."
"Before a product can be labeled 'organic,' a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards.  Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too."
Sadly there is no mention of access to pasture, humanely raised or grass-fed. There is an ongoing effort to change these standards and how they are applied to livestock, specifically their access to pasture and a diet that is compatible with their digestive tract and therefore humane: Cattle do very poorly on an all-grain diet (I will resume this topic at a later date, meanwhile see Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and Eatwild.com).

So many choices, and in the case of organic, a bit of exploiting our best intentions to sell us something that falls quite short of what we imagine we are buying. But more of that in the next installment. Some producers make a superior organic milk. Some do not. The problem always comes back to the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. Oh, and profits.

A presto,
Marco Flavio

Blue potatoes, I swear they are blue. OK, purple.

Buongiorno a tutti.
At the Alemany farmers' market there is a recent vendor that has caught my attention. It's Shumei Natural Agriculture from Santa Cruz (though it is a Japanese company, with small farms in a few countries). They function according to their own approach to the land they call natural agriculture, a mix of organic, holistic approach to nutrition and a sense of place in the ecosystem we reside in.

You can read about it on their site (in 4 languages no less, including Italian. They get extra points for that, no one ever translates their site in Italian). Last week I looked carefully at their produce, which looked firm and the right colors and decided to purchase a couple of pounds of organic blue fingerling potatoes, for the reasonable price of $1.25 a pound.

First of all, let's start from the fact that potatoes are one of the vegetables that because of the way they are grown make the top 10 of the foods with the most pesticide residues.
Therefore they are one of those foods that are an organic must-buy.
They are rich in nutrients but let's face it, that is not why we eat them. We eat them because we have always eaten them and a fond memory carries more weight than all the advice in the world. The creaminess of mashers perfectly complements a roast and burgers alone are a lonely sight.
And these baby blues are just the ticket, as Frank Sinatra would say.

Organic baby blue fingerling potatoes braised in Sauvignon Blanc
and seasonal herbs
(Patate brasate al Sauvignon Blanc)

1 1/2 lbs. baby potatoes
3 Ts Extra virgin olive oil
1 cup Sauvignon Blanc
2 Bay leaves, fresh if possible, or a sprig of fresh rosemary, or 1/2 a sprig of dry one
3 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

First, check on the potatoes skin; scratch it, and if the skin is too thick and does not peel off right away with your nail, punch holes on them on both sides with a fork, so that the flavor can penetrate better.
Then get a a heavy-bottomed pan as we will be braising them.  Put the potatoes in, so that they fit snugly, but not cramped. There should be little space between them. Cover the potatoes halfway with the wine and as much water as necessary to cover them halfway; if you want, you can use all wine, the result will be deliciously tangy, too tangy for some, almost like lemon (this is  point of picking a pan that will fit the ingredients snugly is that you will be using the liquid efficiently, otherwise, should the pan be too large, 1 cup of wine will not come as high on the potatoes and a lot of water (or wine) will be needed, diluting the flavor or making it too tangy).
Add the oil, basil or rosemary, and the garlic cloves (after pressing them or squashing them with a blade on the counter top).
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cover, bring to a boil, then lower the flame and simmer covered for about 20-25 minutes, depending on size. 10 minutes into the cooking, turn them.
After 20 minutes, open the lid, and test them with a toothpick, if it can go through, they are ready. If they offer too much resistance, they need a few minutes more.
When ready, open the lid, and gently shake the pan, making the remaining  water evaporate and the sauce concentrate. Don't let it burn.
Plate them and pour the sauce on top of them, wich should be syrupy and very tangy.
Enjoy!

As usual, let me know if you try it, and how it went.
A presto,
Marco Flavio

Those strawberries look delicious...

Salve, it seems to me that one of the greatest advantages of living (and therefore eating) in San Francisco is the ubiquitous presence of organic strawberries usually grown in Watsonville (see this for their nutritional info, they are truly remarkable).
Strawberries are in full swing at this time of year, and I do recommend you buy them organic; there has been quite a bit of research on pesticide residue on them, and organic is a must (please see this for pesticide information, and download their wallet card for reference).
Now, with my advice on purchase out of the way, let's get to those organic strawberries. At Alemany they cost only $1 or $2 more for 3 baskets than the regular one, usually $5 for 3 organic baskets and are absolutely worth it.

First word of advice: when at a farmers' market sample the food you are about to purchase whenever possible. I know that for americans it is a bit of an unusual approach, but that is how the rest of the world does it, and it serves a specific purpose. Not all produce is the same, and just because they are selling it, it does not mean it is ripe or good.
Strawberries are a case in point; a lot of them can be underripe, tasting sour, like a green tomato, or overripe, in that case they have a deep red (almost maroon) color and are fragile, so they bruise terribly in transport and when served their consistency is way too soft. Taste them, and you will know. They must be sweet, flavorful and somewhat firm. You will figure it out fast enough, especially if sampling 3 or 4 different vendors in a row and having the possibility of a quick first-hand comparison.

Once you take it home, here is a couple of Italian ways of making quick work of them, adding something just to complement their splendid flavour (there is a reason why they are so popular):

Strawberries with balsamic vinegar syrup
(Fragole con sciroppo di aceto balsamico)

Wash them quickly in cold water. Cut off the top green part and slice them to a desired size.
Place them in the serving bowl and pour (or spray) the syrup on them. Trust me, there are few recipes as simple, but the rewards, I tell you, are plenty. The balsamic perfectly complements the sweetness of the berries, and it adds a savory and tangy touch. Just add to your liking and toss well. Now, you ask, where do I get the balsamic vinegar syrup? Well, it is easy, you make it and it lasts a long time.

Balsamic vinegar syrup
In a small sauce pan, heat up 2 Cups of balsamic vinegar and bring it to a boil. Lower the flame and simmer until reduced by half. Let it cool off, then put it in a spray bottle for ease of use, or a jar and spoon it when needed. Try to buy a good balsamic (but not the $20 and up for a small bottle), hopefully not the Trader Joe's. Whole Food carried the 365 line (about $5), that works really well. This syrup can also be used on meats, salads, even cheeses. I use it to top my portobello mushroom, carmelized onions and fontina pizza (that is for another posting). The slight sweetness and zing take the savory over the edge.
Enjoy!

Strawberries with lemon and brown sugar
(Fragole col limone e lo zucchero marrone)

My other favorite recipe my aunt in Roma used to make just for me, as the whole family just ate them with fresh whipped cream and a little powdered sugar (actually, that IS good...) is with lemon juice and brown sugar.

You toss the sugar to taste with the lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon for 2 servings).  Mix really well to melt the sugar in the juices and make a syrup that will coat the berries and your palate; the molasses in the brown sugar acts to add a little savory note, like the balsamic vinegar. After you are done, then toss in the berries and coat them thoroughly; if you mix it all at once, you may bruise the berries in an effort to mix the syrup.
Try it, you won't regret it.

If you make any of these, please let me know, and tell me how you and your guests liked them.
I would really like to hear about it. And if you have any questions, just ask away.
A presto,
Marco Flavio

food, strawberries, recipe, nutrition, seasonal, local, San Francisco, farmers' market, italian, balsamic vinegar, organic

Schiacciata (flat bread or focaccia) with roasted grapes

Hello, as the scope of this blog is to cook foods that are seasonal in our area, I thought I would give you a recipe for a schiacciata (flattened bread) I make frequently with grapes that are now readily available in our markets. The recipe needs an overnight rest for the dough, so a little planning is needed, but it works out really well on weekends. It's a different use for grapes than most people might be accustomed to, but a very rewarding one. It's a very old Tuscan recipe (it is said to be Etruscan, as we seem to have depictions of it on pottery) for the time of the grape harvest. I have found a great adaptation for local ingredients and it works marvelously with seedless Red Flame grapes (which are on the markets now) as they have a high sugar content (the sugars caramelize beautifully when roasted) and no seeds. By the way, the grapes (this and most varieties) can be roasted and used in many other ways; they taste great on cereal, pancakes or in many recipes where you would otherwise use raisins (just compensate for the extra liquid). Enjoy!

Schiacciata, Tuscan Roasted Grape Focaccia
(pronounced “ Ski ah cha tah”) adapted from Suzanne Dunaway’s No Need to Knead (a great book, if you wish to make focaccias, ciabatte and other common Italian breads).

Ingredients:
1 ½ c warm water minus 2 T
1 package active dry yeast
¼ c sugar
1 large egg, beaten (optional)
3 ½ c
½ c whole wheat flour
2 T rye flour (optional, but especially with retarding the dough in the fridge, it helps develop a more savory flavor)
¼ c Extra virgin olive oil
2 t salt
3 lbs. Red Flame seedless grapes
sugar to sprinkle on top

Roasted grapes
Wash and pull grapes off stems. Put on baking sheet with 2 Tb of olive oil and roast in 350 oven for 35 minutes, until they give up some of their juice. Pull pan out and let cool.

In mixer bowl sprinkle yeast over water. Add sugar and egg and beat. Add flour (1/2 a cup at a time), oil, and salt. Beat until dough is smooth and satiny and pulls away from sides of bowl.
You might have to add more flour but try to use as little possible. The stickiness will decrease as the dough rises.

Place in an oiled bowl, cover tightly, and refrigerate overnight.

Following day (you will need handy):

dough
roasted grapes
3 T sugar
13x18 baking sheet

Remove from refrigerator and let stand until doubled, about an hour.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Dislodge half of the dough onto oiled large baking sheet, 13-by-18-inch. Stretch it out to fill pan. If dough sticks to your hands, oil them or dip hands in cold water.
Dribble with olive oil.
Scatter half of the grapes over dough.
Roll out the other half of the dough on a floured surface, and gently layer it on top of the other half (like the top slice of a sandwich). Press the 2 halves together to eliminate air pockets.
Push with your fingers all the way through to the baking sheet, making holes in the dough and stretch the dough sideways, so that it fill almost the whole sheet.
Finally, sprinkle with olive oil, and the remaining grapes. You can sprinkle the sugar on top of it if you wish. Let rise about 15 minutes.

then:
Heat oven to 500. Bake for 5 minutes, then lower heat to 400 and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Watch that grapes don’t burn. Lay a sheet of foil over if they get dark. Transfer to large rack to cool. Serve (with a nice glass of red wine, a Chianti goes well with it).

roasted grapes, food, recipe, nutrition, seasonal, local, San Francisco, bread, italian, tuscan focaccia