Spring Vegetable Soup

Spring Vegetable Soup - Artichoke, Pea, Asparagus

Spring Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

1 leek or spring onion, diced
1 carrot, fine dice
1 liter or 4.5 cups of vegetable stock or brodo
couple cloves or garlic
olive oil
3-4 leaves of mint, chopped
small handful of parsley, chopped
optional: 2-3 slices of prosciutto, thinly sliced & then chopped.
salt & pepper
about 2 cups or 2 large handfuls total of cleaned prepped veggies. Use whatever spring vegetables you have: asparagus, artichoke hearts, peas, fava beans (double shelled), leafy greens, spinach, kale, etc.

In a pot over low heat, sweat the garlic, onion & carrot in olive oil for about 10 minutes or so - without color.
Season with salt and pepper. Then add the vegetables in the order to cook, ie: artichoke hearts would go in first as they are the hardest vegetable, followed by peas, asparagus & fava, then spinach, etc. Add in the stock, bring up to simmer for 15-20 minutes until all the vegetables are cooked properly. Skim any oil that has floated to the top.
Finish with the chopped herbs. Check your seasonings and adjust if needed.

Serve with toasty bread and finish with extra virgin olive oil atop each bowl of soup.

Chicory Salad with Anchovy Dressing - Puntarelle alla Romana

Chicory with Anchovy Dressing

Until fairly recently there was a certain amount of discussion outside of Rome as to what puntarelle are. Turns out they're chicory shoots of a variety known as Catalogna, picked while still young and tender. Slightly bitter, crisp and fresh this pairs perfectly with salty anchovies and a squeeze of lemon.

Chicory with Anchovy Dressing
puntarelle alla romana (salsa di alici)

1 head of puntarelle, chicory, radicchio, endive or any winter lettuce.

Prepare the puntarelle: Remove the spindly outer dark green leaves to reveal the heart. This resembles a weird looking bunch of white asparagus tips. Remove the stalks from the center core, slice in half length wise and wash. Spin dry thoroughly.

Dressing:
1 spoonful of lemon juice
3 spoonfuls of olive oil
1/2 clove of garlic, minced finely
1/2 - 1 anchovy filet
salt & pepper

This recipe is really simple and can be expanded to make as large as a quantity as you want - just follow the three to one ratio.

In a bowl or mortar and pestle combine the garlic, lemon and anchovy. With either a fork or pestle make sure everything is pulverized and mixed together well. Once you are ready, continuously stir, drizzle in the olive oil. Give it a good stir until the oil has fully incorporated.  Taste and adjust the salt & pepper and acid to oil ratio.

Make a tiny bit or enough to feed an army - it’s easy & delicious!

Braised Escarole with Pancetta

Braised Escarole and Pancetta Recipe

Serves 4

1 head of escarole
5-6 thin slices of pancetta or guanciale, prosciutto, speck
half a glass of white wine
2 cloves of garlic
couple of stems of thyme - leave in tact & no need to chop (it makes it easier to remove)

Start by cleaning the escarole. Cut it into six wedges, leaving the core intact. With a piece of kitchen twine, tie the wedges into bundles to prevent them from separating.

In a pan, rosalare or lightly brown 2 cloves of garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Raise the heat, add the escarole and a crack of salt and pepper.  Cook for a couple of minutes until the greens begins to wilt. Then give everything a turn. Add in the thyme sprigs and lay the slices of pancetta over the top. In goes the white wine. Cover with parchment paper, lower the heat and allow to braise on the stove top or in a 350/175 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the escarole is tender.

To serve, cut off the twine, remove the thyme and cloves of garlic and discard (unless you love them).

Rustic Tart with Wild Greens

Rustic Tart of Wild Greens
Torta di Erbe Selvatiche

Pastry Dough
Ingredients:
2 3/4 Cups (250 gr) all purpose flour
3/4 Cup (150 gr.) butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
2-3 Tablespoons ice water
pinch of salt

Method:
Sift flour into a mound, add the butter & pinch of salt. Rub together with your fingers or food processor. When mixture resembles crumbly coarse sand incorporate the egg & water. Knead 2-3 times.
Form into a disk, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Filling
Ingredients:
2 Cups (400 gr) of cooked, drained and squeezed dry greens (mix of wild greens or chard, spinach, escarole, etc.)
1 Cup (250 gr.) sheep’s milk ricotta cheese
zest of half a lemon
generous handful of Parmesan
2-3 slices of prosciutto, chopped
salt & pepper
1 egg, separated

Method:
Cook your greens in boiling, salted water depending on the toughness (spinach may only need 20-30 seconds, chard needs 3-4 minutes).  Drain and squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the greens. Combine the greens in a bowl with the ricotta, parmesan, lemon, prosciutto, salt & pepper. Taste & check your seasonings.

To Assemble the Tart:
Preheat oven to 350 F/ 185 C

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and split in half. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch or 1/2 cm thickness and line the bottom of a tart or pie pan. (We use 9-inch or 25 cm but you can make individual tarts as well.) Make sure to have enough dough to fold the edges back over the the top.

Once pastry is lined in pan, brush with egg white then fill with a generous amount of the chard mixture (filling in evenly).

Brush folded over part on the top with egg yolk as well.

Place in oven, bake 45 minutes - 1 hour until pastry is golden brown & filling is bubbly. Serve warm or room temperature.

Sauteed Spring Greens (Liscaro) with Garlic & Olive Oil

Liscaro has more aliases than an escaped convict - in our neck of the woods it is called liscaro, but travel outside our valley and it goes by agretto, lischi, roscano, baciccio, barba del negus. Just another example of how regional & local the cooking (& language) is in Italy! If you like spinach then you will love liscaro (or whatever you prefer to call it) - the flavor is a bit more subtle than spinach & not as irony. Even though it looks like blades of grass, I assure it tastes nothing like it (and yes, I've eaten grass!) 

Sauteed liscaro makes a delicious healthy side-dish, filling for an omelet or fritatta, tossed into salad - basically anywhere you'd add a leafy green veg, you can add liscaro - but nothing is better than simply sauteed with olive oil & garlic!

Sauteed Liscaro

serves 4

2 bunches of liscaro, pick of the roots  tough woody stems until you reach the softer leaves, wash 2-3 times.
2-3 cloves garlic whole, skin removed
olive oil
salt
chili flakes
lemon

In a big pot with boiling salted water plunge in the cleaned liscaro for 3-4 minutes.

While it is cooking in the water, get a pan & on low heat cover the bottom with olive oil.  Toss in the garlic and cook gently until lightly brown. Then remove the garlic & discard.

Once the liscaro is finished boiling, drain & throw it in the pan with the olive oil and sautee on med heat for a couple (2-3) minutes. Season with salt & chili flakes to taste.

At the very end, add a good squeeze of lemon on top & give it a mix. Serve.

Savory Chard & Prosciutto Tart

Eating your greens, never tasted so good: Savory Chard & Prosciutto Tart

Nutrient rich swiss chard goes by many names (bietola in Italian), found in many colors and is a cousin of kale. Chard is a hearty green with a nice bitter bite, holding up better than spinach when cooking. Its fibrous leaves wilt nicely into soups, perfect simply sauteed with garlic & olive oil or elevated to more than just a leafy green when mixed with prosciutto and packed into a savory pie shell!

Garden Tip: Chard is a regenerating plant meaning you can cut it to eat & it will reproduce more leafy greens.

Chard Tart Recipe
Torta di Bietola

Pastry Dough
Ingredients:
2 3/4 Cups (250 gr) all purpose flour
3/4 Cup (150 gr.) butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
2-3 Tablespoons ice water
pinch of salt

Method:
Sift flour into a mound, add the butter & pinch of salt. Rub together with your fingers or food processor. When mixture resembles crumbly coarse sand incorporate the egg & water. Knead 2-3 times.
Form into a disk, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Filling
Ingredients:
2 Cups (400 gr) of cooked, drained and squeezed dry greens (chard, spinach, escarole, etc.)
1 Cup (250 gr.) sheep’s milk ricotta cheese
zest of half a lemon
generous handful of Parmesan
2-3 slices of prosciutto, chopped
salt & pepper
1 egg, separated

Method:
Cook your greens in boiling, salted water depending on the toughness (spinach may only need 20-30 seconds, chard needs 3-4 minutes).  Drain and squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the greens. Combine the greens in a bowl with the ricotta, parmesan, lemon, prosciutto, salt & pepper. Taste & check your seasonings.

To Assemble the Tart:
Preheat oven to 350 F/ 185 C

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and split in half. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch or 1/2 cm thickness and line the bottom of a tart or pie pan. (We use 9-inch or 25 cm but you can make individual tarts as well.)

Once pastry is lined in pan, brush with egg white then fill with a generous amount of the chard mixture (filling in evenly).
Top with the other half of the dough, rolled out to the same thickness. Pinch the edges, closing the tart securely. Brush the top with egg yolk. Cut 2-3 slits to allow  the steam to escape.

Place in oven, bake 45 minutes - 1 hour until pastry is golden brown & filling is bubbly. Serve warm or room temperature.

Ravioli Stuffed with Greens in Butter & Sage

Photo: La Tavola Marche

  Homemade Ravioli Stuffed with Greens in Butter and Sage Recipe

Egg Pasta Dough Recipe

Pasta

Serves 1
100 grams (or 1 scant cup) of tipo 0 flour (high quality AP flour)
1 egg
pinch of salt

Pour flour onto the table in a mound.  Make a well in the center & crack the eggs into the well.
Slowly incorporate the eggs into the dough using a fork - pulling in the flour to the center of the well. Form into a nice dough, knead for 5-10 minutes until you have worked the dough well & it has a nice shiny outside.  Let stand for half hour to hour & then roll out.


Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

Filling
1 cup (200 gr) (greens (chard, spinach), boiled, drained, squeezed
salt in the water
1/2 cup (125 gr) of sheep’s milk ricotta
1/4 cup (50 gr.) of grated parmesan
squeeze of lemon juice
salt & pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. The mixture/filling must be dry - a moist filling you will have difficulties closing the ravioli with too much moisture in-between the pasta sheets.

Mix it all up - use to stuff cappelletti, tortellini or ravioli.

Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

To stuff your ravioli ~

    •    Roll out a sheet of pasta to 2-3mm thickness -the thinner the better.
    •    Evenly space out small mounds of filling.
    •    Lay another sheet of pasta over the top.
    •    With your fingers gently smooth out any air bubbles, making the basic form of the ravioli.
    •    Cut out ravioli - either squares with a pizza knife or ravioli cutter or a shot glass for circular ravioli. Most importantly making sure the sides are closed without any trapped air.

Tip: To avoid having ravioli from bursting in the water - do not overfill. Too much filling makes the dough over-stretch

Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

Ravioli with Butter & Sage
    •    In a pan slowly melt a couple of tablespoons of butter & gently fry a handful of sage leaves for 1- 2 minutes.
    •    Raise the heat, toss in your cooked pasta with a bit of pasta water.
    •    Season with salt & pepper & serve.

Photo: Stephania Hua, Lick My Spoon

Tip: Ravioli can freeze well in a single layer on a baking sheet, then transferred to a freezer bag. Will last for a few weeks in the freezer. To cook frozen ravioli toss in the boiling water frozen. Allow to cook 2-3 minutes and then try one to make sure the filling is not still cold in the middle.

Photos taken during a pasta class at La Tavola Marche Cooking School in Italy by Stephanie Hua of Lick My Spoon.