Zen and the Art of Roasted Peppers

If I didn't have my kitchen, I'm pretty sure I would be a Tibetan monk by now. I get more and more breathless as I age.  Enter my breath again as I lean over my kitchen counter in one of my favorite yoga di cucina positions: reaching for the eggplant with one hand while extending my fingers to grasp the cutting board with the other. I'm pretty sure this is because I feel the need for school to start again.  Routines are good.  They can lead to enlightenment. 


And so for now, I'm practicing deep breathing in my Kundalini Kitchen.  Here, I am one with the Universe without even trying. Other favorite kitchen yoga positions: dropping handfuls of pasta into boiling water after I've mindlessly stirred my sauce one more time, or nursing a morning frittata til it's fluffy and just done. Without those rituals keeping my chakras open, it's Tibet here I come. And I won't be stopping to pack my prayer shawl either.

This week, I maintained Universal Consciousness by canning a bushel of roasted red peppers, though I admit I was out of breath by the time I had finished.  Still,  it was worth it as was the trip to our local farm, a place I love to visit this time of year.  We will go often from now til the end of Tomato High Holy Season in September. It is Zen at its finest for me.


Before I share my red pepper recipe with you, here are a few pictures of my favorite farm stand, about half an hour's drive from our house. 

I took one of these bellezze home with me this week. Aren't they beautiful?

I'll be going back for these soon and some fagiolini and melanzane 

Peppers tempting visitors to preserve even more 

You know you're aging when you're more interested in the arrival of vegetable preserving season than the high-healed pumps you fell in love with at the mall!  And now...how to roast and preserve red peppers: clean your jars thoroughly, ensure you have the proper amount of jar lids and rims and prepare all your canning equipment. Wash and dry peppers. Rub with a little olive oil and place in a roasting pan or heavy baking tin. Grill on your BBQ or broil in your oven until blackened on one side; turn and repeat. When peppers are mostly blackened, place them in a large bowl and cover with a plate.  Let them sit for about 20 to 30 minutes while they steam in their own juices. Using a large bowl covered with a plate will help you catch and preserve all the pepper juices.

When cool enough to handle comfortably, remove the stem, skins and seeds.  Resist the temptation to run the peppers under water.  Those seeds are malandrini...harder to remove than bread crumbs in butter...but if you run your peppers under water all your efforts will be undone.  Keep the flavor and run your hands under running water from time to time instead to eliminate seeds. Remove as many of them as possible. The work you put in now will result in a better tomato and red pepper sauce or pizza topping down the road.

When each pepper is cleaned up, cut into half-inch by four-inch strips and drop them into another bowl. After you've cleaned and cut up your last pepper, drizzle the juices from your tin and first bowl to this bowl.  Season with salt, olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, chopped up garlic and mix thoroughly. I use roughly three to four cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of oil to one tablespoon of vinegar for each 10-12 pepper batch.  Preserve in Mason Jars following proper canning instructions. If you've never preserved food in Mason Jars before, this is a good web site to begin with:  http://canning-food-recipes.com  

I boil the jars for 10 minutes.  Once cool, I keep them on my counter undisturbed for 24 hours so I can check the seal one last time before placing them in my cantina, another place where I am well, happy, calm and peaceful.

Sicilian Orange Salad with a Twist

We were all home for two weeks and-- when we weren't getting on each others' nerves--  it was very nice.  As my mother often said when she tried to get us all moving in the same direction: Ogni Testa e Tribunale.  Roughly translated:  Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians.  What can you do?  Family. Can't live with them...can't live without them.


We hung out mostly in and around our backa yarda and shared lots of laughs and food with other family, friends and neighbors.  We also discovered Torroncino, a new gelato.  Mannaggia. Between rounds of gardening, the Torroncino whispered to me and the hot sun whispered back.  A break is what you need right now.  And something icy cold.


We had Aunt Josie's chocolate cake when she came for dinner, Mr. BBQ's peach cobbler when family was here, and for neighbors:  a dish of Torroncino gelato topped with two tablespoons of freshly brewed espresso, two tablespoons of brandy, a chocolate biscotto and a few brandied cherries preserved by nonna last summer.  I've had more sugar these past two weeks than I've had since Christmas. We can't do this anymore. Sitting at my kitchen table this morning browsing through a cookbook, I came across this quote from a woman named Judith Viorst: "Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands-- and then eat just one of the pieces."  Uh-huh.  Holidays and strength just don't go together.  But it's time to get back to the way we normally eat around here or someone is going to get sick.  I haven't had a Sicilian salad yet this summer and since I'm alone all day today for the first time in a very long time, I made one for lunch. 

Here's my recipe. Work in layers from bottom to top:
6 to 8 leaves,  Romaine lettuce
Two handfuls, sunflower sprouts
A handful of chopped red onion
A handful of cherry slices, walnuts and sunflower seeds
Top with slices of half a large orange 
Dress with a mix of olive oil, organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, a little orange juice and organic sea salt


The Torroncino is all gone. I'm cooking lots of vegetables for dinner.

Is That a Bread Crumb or Al Pacino in There?

It's peak salad season, no question about it.  At my house, we've been munching on raw veggies like bunnies in the fields at night.   Unlike bunnies, though, we've had baskets full of crusty (and non-crusty) bread, crostini, taralli, tarallini...Name your favorite gluten, it's been here. Salads, crunchy grains and, of course, Mr. BBQ's fare. My great griller of meats uses a mix of marinades, sauces and flavored butters.

Which got me thinking about our butter dish this week, how it's a magnet for gluten offspring, and what to do about it. Look into your butter dish. Can't you just hear those helpless little breadcrumbs calling out to you all-Al-Pacino-Godfather-Three-like as you dip your butter knife in?  "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!!!"  Listen to them bursting in there. They're stuck and try as we might to help them out, they...just...slip...back...in. Well this was the week I decided enough is enough.  Fuggeddaboudem.  I'm onto something new. 

I'm mixing up some flavored butters. Why?  Because, much as I love olive oil, we still use lots of butter around here. These savory little butter cakes are easy to whip up and creative fun in a butter-as-play-dough kind of way. Not to mention, it feels so good to look into our butter dish and see stuff I wanna see! Here's what you need to make the flavored butter shown here:

• 4 oz butter, room temperature
• Herbs and other flavors
• Wax paper 

Place softened butter in a small bowl.  Add flavors, roll in wax paper and set in fridge.  How much flavor are you looking for? Experiment to see what works for you. I used one heaping teaspoon of black peppercorns, two teaspoons of chopped fresh chives and a teaspoon of lemon for my first go here as I didn't want too much punch. I found it wasn't enough so next time, I'm going heavier on the flavor. Here are a few combinations I think might work and what I'll be trying next in my cucina:

• 2 tablespoons each tarragon and chives and half a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons each sun dried tomato, roasted garlic and finely grated parmigiano
• 2 tablespoons each roasted garlic, fresh rosemary, thyme and basil 
• 2 tablespoons each hot pepper seeds, parmigiano and roasted garlic

(To roast garlic, wrap several bulbs in foil and bake in a 375F oven for 20 minutes.  Freeze unused portions for other dishes.)

Keep refrigerated and slice roll just before serving.  On hottest summer days when eating al fresco, cut, rewrap and place in freezer half an hour before dinner. Try these combinations or create your own.  Let your taste buds guide you...and say arrivederci, ciao, ciao to unwanted crumbs in your butter dish.

I'm taking a break to work in my garden for the next couple of weeks. I hope you're enjoying your summer. I look forward to "seeing" you again soon.

And now for something completely different

Chickpea salad with ricotta salata and sun-dried tomatoes

I woke up to a rainy day today and it felt great.    The heat we had this past week was distracting.   It had been too hot to cook inside and too hot to cook outside.  Too hot to breathe just about.  I'm not complaining.  I'm just saying, it was soooo nice to have a cool, rainy morning.  Extreme heat meant green salads have ruled at our house.  They're refreshing, nutritious, and easily digestible-- an absolute must--  especially when the air conditioning can't even take the edge off hot-as-pepper temperatures.  But it's time for a change-- at least until the next deep heat sets in.

What to make that's nutritious but doesn't require turning on the stove?  My kids know how much of a health freak I am.  They've endured enough of my what-to-eat, what-not-to-eat speeches over the years as have my friends.  I've been on them like bread crumbs on butter.  Sorry, carissimi, but I nag because I care.  In any case, I'm sure my arteries have narrowed nonetheless with all the worrying I've done over junk food and it's too-big-a-presence in our world.  

When I shop for groceries, I'm on a health mission.  So when I saw the chickpea, quinoa and lemon dressing salad at my local grocery store this week, I thought I'd create a chickpea number with an Italian twist at home.  I'm sharing my first-go recipe with you. I used fresh chives from my garden but wasn't too happy with the results. It was a little too wimpy.  This is a lesson I keep repeating.  Do you have any ingredients you wrestle with? 

I like chives but they just don't have the kick I'm looking for most of the time.  Great with bread, good with egg, but it's mostly a miss when I try them elsewhere.  I suggest using white or red onion for more punch. If you enjoy a very mild onion flavor, chives are the way to go.  

Simple Chickpea Salad

• One 28 oz can (796 mL) chickpeas
• Dice up and include one cup each of the following:  softened sun dried tomatoes (soak in warm water a little to soften), ricotta salata, celery, cucumber, tomato (seeds removed), and red or white onion
• For the dressing:  mix approx. 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, 2 large cloves minced garlic, salt, pepper and peperoncino to taste.  Add a handful of sesame seeds if you wish

Toss all ingredients and dressing in a non-reactive bowl.  Mix well and refrigerate. Sample after the first hour or so and adjust dressing if you need to. Allow the flavors to blend for a few more hours before serving.  Nice on a bed of lettuce. Yummy with a serving of multigrain bread.

If you're a green salad lover, look up the Strawberry Panzella Salad on http://www.poorgirleatswell.com   Really nice.