Wednesday at Lupa

One of the first restaurants Michael and I went to when we moved to NYC over 10 years ago was (at the time) the fairly new Lupa http://www.luparestaurant.com in Greenwich Village.  We fell in love with the Roman style Italian food, the brainchild of Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich, who went on to open other Italian restaurants in the City, Los Angeles (Osteria Mozza), and Las Vegas.  What impressed us the most was the quality was always great, every time we returned.  It's not cheap, but for NYC, not outrageous either.  We hadn't been in quite a while (because of our eating at home quirk) but went a few weeks ago, and vowed to return more frequently. 

Let me admit that one of the ways we discover new dishes is to copy as best we can what we eat out and love.  Today's food was a bit more than we will undertake at home except for one dish, the celery root-apple-kale salad.  Here is what we had minus the photo we missed taking of the Apician dates each stuffed with an almond, sitting on a little bed of marscapone and a port sauce extraordinaire. 

Oh, and we had 2 carafes (little 1/4 liter ones) of wine.  A great lunch, and a lovely day. 

Later. 

Broccoli Rabe with lemon zest and some kind of cheese

Agnoletti stuffed with squash in a butter-balsamico sauce

celery root/apple/lemon zest/EVO/kale/bitter greens

With the Superbowl and all . . . . .

Just to let you know, I'm still around.  Life has been hectic in our house the last few days.  You know, the Superbowl, our first SB party (and our last).  We weren't meant to watch the game of football (or probably any other sport) with others.  Michael and I (my opinion) held back on our normal rowdy behavior and constant discussion of what the next play should be, what went wrong (or right) on the last play, whether the last play was a good or bad coaching decision and more.  It's hard to watch the game with other people!! 

Michael has done a guest blog for me tonight.  If you want to actually make this incredibly delicious kale salad, which gets even better after a day or even two, let me know by commenting and I'll post the recipe.

Later. 

Melissa's kale salad with anchovy and dates

Devera's husband here, as a guest blogger.

We try to eat raw veggies, as much as possible, so this recipe is a nice addition to our raw options.   This recipe comes from Melissa's latest book: Cook this Now.

Ingredients:  kale, olive oil, anchovies, dates, garlic, lemon and orange zest and red wine vinegar

I stemmed, cut up and cleaned three bunches of kale.  It produced about a pound, which is about six or seven servings of 75 grams.

Garbanzo Beans - or Beans in a Bakery?

Not everything comes out right.  We soaked some garbanzo beans, maybe 14 hours, cooked for 2 hours, and still were not soft, so we put it in the oven at 350 for 2 hours.  Oy, still a little crunchy.  We judge how garbanzo beans are supposed to taste by how they tasted in Florence a few years ago.  During the shopping for our ingredients for a cooking class with Judy, we needed beans (but not canned), so how to get them freshly cooked (because we certainly didn't have time to soak them beforehand or even to do the quick soak)?  She took us to the local forno (bakery), spoke some beautiful Italian,  the owner goes into the back kitchen and comes out with a pot of steaming garbanzo beans!  Why would you find beans in the bakery, you ask?  It's just a thing some bakeries do:  They keep the pot of beans in the baking oven for the steam!!

The taste of perfectly cooked garbanzo beans:  put the bean on your tongue and press upwards on your palate.  The bean should sort of "pop" against your palate, and be very light textured.

BTW, I emailed my Rancho Gordo peeps last night to find out what could have been the problem.  Susan at RG said we soaked them too long (14 hours instead of 4-6 hours).  These were beans picked in late summer/early fall.  Also most supermarket beans could be 10 years old when you buy them, although we've had good luck with Goya.  If you do buy canned (5 thumbs down), wash a couple of times in clear, cold water and drain before you use them. 

What did we do with our beans?  Michael made a meatloaf (ground chicken) with 1/2 of the beans.  Just the ground chicken, some fresh (from our window pots) chopped rosemary & sage, minced garlic, the beans, and an egg.  The meatloaf could have used a little of bean liquor.

Later.  

More on pantry contents + a recipe for roasted baby potatoes

After my first post yesterday, I realized how much I left off the pantry list.  Michael has diverticulosis (and has never had an attack of diverticulitis, probably because our diet is so high in fiber.  We try to avoid white bread, pasta, and rice, and eat whole wheat bread, farro pasta, but we love those fresh new potatoes that are dug out of the ground in late summer and in the spring, the baby potatoes that are so easy and quick to make.  Preheat oven to 450°, rack in middle.  Wash, dry, put in a bowl, pour a couple of tablespoons of EVO over, sprinkle some Kosher salt and chopped up rosemary, or the Erbe Toscane, mix up to coat and then spread out on a baking or cookie pan.  Should be done in 30 minutes, because you're doing this to fresh, small potatoes. 

Wow!  Quite a digression from the pantry list!  And the high fiber diet!  Oy. Back in my single days, I was frequently called "Rosanne RosannaDana".   If you know this character (my beloved Gilda), and you know me and my digressions, that nickname will ring true.   More on the pantry:  always have on hand some canned San Marzano tomatoes, both the whole ones, and the crushed, particularly in the winter.  In the summer, you can make your own.  Different kinds of beans and lentils. 

More on foods always on hand:  I always keep a container of mixed, pitted olives in the refrigerator.  Plus fresh feta from the farmer's market.  

I'm working hard figuring out this blogging thing.  I know it will eventually get easier.

Later.   

A Californian in NYC - What? No lettuce in January?

Like I really have time for a blog!  Ha!  Anyhow, who is going to actually read my blog?  We live in a city where ordering in, and going out is comme il fout.  Michael (my husband) and I cook.  It's a really big deal for us, trying in our late 60's (me, in my 70th year) to stay healthy.  Plus we lucked out in the 1990's, locating our cooking teacher, Judy Witts Francini, in Firenze, who is a supreme teacher of technique, and simplicity.   We thank her every day for the lessons she has taught us.  

I have good intentions to post often, what we had for dinner, lunch, how it was all made, and the time involved.  If one reader starts to cook more frequently, that would be incredible! 

But first, a few basics:
      1.  We eat seasonally.  That means no tomatoes in the winter! Really.
      2.  When you see leeks (or occasionally fennel) in a recipe, it's our substitute for onion, a food which hates my digestive tract, and which Michael despises!  So if you like onion, by all means use an onion instead.
      3.  Pantry items which you really do need to have:  EVO (extra virgin olive oil), plain Greek yogurt (we use 0%, remember we are concerned with fat), erbe Toscane (here is the link to our guru Judy's recipe: http://www.divinacucina-blog.com/2010/12/simply-divina-tuscan-herbs.html), fennel pollen, Kosher salt, and non-food items like a mezzaluna, and a mandoline.  Most kitchen stores will have the hardware.       


 As our friend Tim says,


Later,

mezzaluna

mandoline