Nonna's Kitchen 6 - Verdure: Vegetable Side Dishes

The Preamble:
I love Spring! There are obvious reasons, like warmer weather, blue skies instead of gray, and longer daylight hours to spend on a bicycle, in a kayak or out in the yard. But, there are the smaller things, too – like affordable asparagus! Sure, you can get asparagus at the store year ‘round in these days of global markets, but who wants to pay seven bucks a pound for the stuff? Starting in early to mid- March, you can find asparagus for around $1.49 per pound, making it an everyday dish instead of a splurge. It’s by far my favorite vegetable, and lately I’ve been eating it two or three times a week. This abundance of green, combined with a recent comment from a reader who wondered if I was ever going to do anything other than meats and pasta dishes, inspired me to share a few of my family’s favorite vegetable recipes.

I don’t have kids, so I’m hardly the authority on getting one’s children to eat their vegetables. Still, I’m always surprised when my friends complain about their kids’ poor eating habits. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a choice – you ate what was on the table, and you tried everything, or you went to bed hungry. As a result, I LOVE vegetables! Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, squash, even Brussels sprouts and parsnips – I can’t actually think offhand of a vegetable I dislike. I now realize that much of this is because we lived pretty frugally when I was growing up, and vegetables are cheap if you eat the ones that are in season. They’re even cheaper if you grow them yourself, and a couple of these recipes in particular lend themselves to veggies that you have an overabundance of, like spinach or Swiss chard that has bolted, or zucchini in the late summer. Like many of the previous recipes, these can serve as a framework – a cooking method to be adapted to the vegetables of your choice. Enjoy, and think Spring!

The Recipe:
Oven Roasted Asparagus
Serves 4

This barely qualifies as a recipe, it’s so easy. Works especially well for Brussels sprouts (my second favorite vegetable), or for mixed veggies like onions, peppers, potatoes and zucchini – adjust cooking times as necessary, and season however you wish.

Total prep and cooking time: 15-20 minutes, depending on your desired level of doneness

Ingredients:
2 lbs. young green asparagus (roughly the diameter of a pencil)
2-4 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Wash the asparagus, and break or cut off the woody parts of the stems. Pour the olive oil on a sheet pan or cookie sheet with edges, spread out the asparagus, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper, then toss with your hands to coat all of the asparagus. Spread them out evenly on the sheet pan, then bake 8-15 minutes or until done to your liking. I like them still slightly crisp, but with browned and blistered skin. Don’t use fresh garlic with this recipe, as it will burn at these temperatures and lend an off flavor.

Variations:
If you like your asparagus particularly browned, try this under a hot broiler, reducing cooking times to 5 minutes or so. You can add herbs of your choice – rosemary and Herbes de Provence are particularly good. A liberal sprinkling of Parmesan cheese is also great (eliminate the salt.) If you don’t want the cheese to brown, add it halfway through the cooking time.

This also works quite well on a barbecue – substitute fresh garlic if you like, and toss all ingredients in a baking dish or a large plastic bag to coat. Turn the asparagus at least once when cooking on the grill. Serve hot, room temperature or cold, and feel free to add a dash of balsamic vinegar for a change. We’ve served these at the Spring Art Walk several times, to rave reviews.

The Recipe:
Cauliflower and Egg
Serves 4 as an appetizer or side dish

My favorite way to eat cauliflower. The egg makes this richer and more flavorful than Fritto Misto – the Italian version of tempura, used for fish and vegetables. This works equally well with broccoli and zucchini, but I use it pretty much exclusively for cauliflower. This is also quite good served room temperature or cold and unlike most of the things I cook, the flavor benefits greatly from a healthy sprinkling of salt. If you’re feeling particularly decadent, serve with mayonnaise flavored with fresh garlic, parsley or chopped sun dried tomatoes for dipping.

Total prep and cooking time: about an hour

Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower
2-3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil or vegetable oil for frying

Wash the cauliflower and cut into florets roughly two bites large – say, golf ball sized. Smaller is fine if you prefer, but you’ll end up wasting more of the stem parts. Steam the cauliflower for 2-4 minutes, either on the stovetop or in the microwave. You want it to be a little softer, but still have that raw flavor – it will finish cooking when you fry it. Cool until you’re able to handle it without burning yourself. Heat three to four inches of oil to about 375 degrees in a deep saucepan or deep fryer – I prefer cooking grade olive oil for the flavor, but you can use any oil you like if you’re on more of a budget. The larger your pan, the more cauliflower you can fry, thus shortening cooking time (but using more oil, obviously.) Mix the flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and beat the eggs in another small bowl – start with two, and add the third if you need it later. Dredge the cauliflower pieces in flour, shake off the excess, then give a quick dip in the egg and drop into the hot oil. Cook until golden brown – roughly four minutes – working in batches. Drain the cooked pieces on paper towels and sprinkle liberally with salt to taste while still hot. Eat with your hands!

The Recipe:
Peperonata
Serves 4-6 as a side dish

A classic Italian recipe with nearly infinite variations. This is my mother’s version, simple and excellent eaten at any temperature. Leftovers are especially good with eggs for breakfast!

Total prep and cooking time: 30-60 minutes, depending on desired doneness

Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion
2-3 bell peppers, any color (we always used green, but red will sweeten the dish significantly)
1 globe eggplant
2-3 zucchini, depending on size (about ½ lb. total)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or sauté pan with a tightly fitting lid. Cut the onion into large dice – roughly ¾” – and add to the pan. Stir occasionally – you want the vegetables to sauté, but not to brown too much. Seed and dice the peppers into roughly the same size as the onion, add to the pan, toss or stir to incorporate. Cut the eggplant into ½” dice, add to the pan, stir. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise (and half again if you’re using giant late summer zukes), then cut into ¼” slices, add to pan, stir. Drain the liquid from the tomatoes, then add them to the pan. Bring everything up to temperature, add salt and pepper to taste, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for up to 45 minutes – my grandmother always cooked this until all of the veggies were soft and shapeless, but I prefer if the zucchini still retain their shape. Correct the seasoning (this will take more salt than you might think, especially if you’re using organic no salt added tomatoes.)

Variations: Red pepper flakes sautéed with the onion add zing. Season with dried basil to taste, or add a handful of basil roughly torn fresh basil leaves near the end of the cooking time. Fresh minced garlic is a nice flavor – add with the tomatoes so it doesn’t brown and get bitter. I make a greatly simplified version of this using either just onions and zucchini, or onions, zucchini and peppers, and reduce the cooking time to as little as ten minutes, resulting in bright, crisp veggies – quick and easy. The versions without tomatoes and eggplant also lend themselves to adding eggs directly to the cooking pan – either stir them in and cook to desired doneness, or fry directly on top of the veggies for a great brunch or light supper entrée.

The Recipe:
Cassaoun
Serves 4 as an appetizer or side – approximately 4 per person

A classic dish from my grandmother’s family, these are basically very large fried spinach ravioli. I think it’s by far the best possible way to eat spinach or Swiss chard. Like last week’s indorata, nobody knows how this is spelled – it’s probably a word in some dialect from San Marino or Rome, and is pronounced to rhyme with “the noun.” No references anywhere, and nothing like it in any cookbook I’ve ever seen. Not that this makes them any less enjoyable! These are perfect served room temperature or cold at a picnic, and the flavor is particularly good when using rainbow chard – it’s much more complex than spinach. My mother and grandmother always made this with fresh egg pasta, but I’m totally lazy, and I go for the egg roll wrappers every time. The texture is a little different, but they’re still a huge hit, and last time I made them for my grandmother, she commented on the excellent quality of my dough!

Total prep and cooking time: one hour

Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion
1 large bunch spinach or Swiss chard, or 1 large bag frozen chopped spinach
1 recipe fresh pasta dough (see Nonna’s Kitchen 1) or 1 package refrigerated egg roll wrappers
fresh grated nutmeg to taste
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for frying

If you’re using fresh spinach, wash it thoroughly and drain in a colander, then chop roughly – stems and all. For chard, wash and drain, roughly chop the leaves and slice the stems into ¼” slices. For frozen spinach, thaw in the microwave then squeeze out as much water as possible using your hands and a mesh colander. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Cut the onion into ½” dice and sauté in the oil for 4-5 minutes, along with the stem pieces if you’re using chard. Add the leaves and cook until thoroughly wilted (or heated through, if using frozen) – roughly 5 minutes more. Season liberally with freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, stir to incorporate and remove from heat. Transfer to a large colander placed over a bowl to drain any liquid, cool to room temperature.

Heat 2” of olive oil over medium heat in a large high-sided saucepan. If you’re using fresh pasta, roll it out to the thinnest setting – approximately 1/16” – and cut into 5” rounds using a small plate as a guide. Place roughly 2 Tbsp. of the spinach mixture into the center of a round, moisten the edges with water, then fold over to make a half moon shape. Press out all of the air and distribute the filling to about ½” from the edges, then seal the packet by crimping with the tines of a fork. Fry two at a time in the oil, flipping once, until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels, and try not to devour them while you’re cooking the rest!

Note: if you’re using egg roll wrappers and you can’t find round ones, you can either trim square wrappers into circles, or be lazy like me and just fold them crosswise to make triangles instead of half moons – they taste just the same!

Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!