Anjou Pear & Gorgonzola Salad with Pomegranate Dressing
Tonight we finished the last of my Dad’s – Mario Belotti, famous Anjou pears. He proudly grows delicious produce and shares it with family, friends and neighbors. A few weeks ago I prepared this salad on Sacramento & Co a local TV show.
Watch the video here.
Cook, Eat, Laugh…Claudia
Salad Ingredients:
6 cups mixed greens, about 5 ounces, rinsed and dried
1 Anjou Pear, sliced thin
1/2 cup Mandarin orange segments
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Garnish:
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup candied walnut halves
Dressing:
1/4 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
dash freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
To Prepare Dressing
Pour juice and vinegar into a small bowl. Stir in salt and pepper. Whisking continuously, slowly add the olive oil until it is thoroughly blended.
To Prepare Salad
Place salad greens in a large bowl. Add pears, Mandarin segments and cheese. Toss with one third of the dressing. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Add more dressing as needed. Plate and garnish with pomegranate seeds and walnut halves. Serve immediately.
Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto
A couple of weeks ago I did this recipe for the TV show Sacramento and Company. It was a great hit!
Follow this link to see it: http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=158661
Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto
3 lb butternut squash
6 cups chicken broth
1 medium onion, chopped finely
4 tablespoon butter
1 pound Vialone Nano or Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
3 leaves sage (optional)
Roast squash:
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Halve squash lengthwise and seed. In a baking pan pour a cup of water, place squash cut side down, and roast about 1 hour or until tender.
With a spoon carve squash pulp and discard skin.
Prepare rice:
In a medium saucepan heat broth over low heat. Keep it simmering.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté 2 to 3 minutes.
Add rice and sauté until each grain is coated with butter, stirring. After 2 minutes, add wine and stir until liquid has evaporated.
Add squash pulp, stir, add salt then add broth to rice a couple of ladleful at time – stirring after each addition. Allow liquid to evaporate then add another ladleful (about 1 cup) of broth. Repeat.
When rice is tender, but before it becomes mushy, about 18 to 20 minutes, remove from heat and stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter and the Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately with additional Parmesan cheese if needed.
Suggestion: for a more flavorful risotto add the sage leaves half way through the rice cooking process.
Cook with your heart.
Rima
Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
Thank you to Ethan Howard, pastry chef at Cavallo Point in Sausalito for sharing his recipe for this Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. It is baked in a chocolate cookie crust and is enhanced with melted chocolate swirls. I decorated mine with chocolate leaves and will share it today with friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving! Cook, Eat, Laugh…Claudia
Apple Pie Weather
It’s a great time of year for baking for friends and family. Make this easy and delicious Apple Pie Crumble with a combination of apples either picked from your tree, your neighbor’s tree or the local farmer’s market! Honey Crisp Apples, Pippin and Granny Smith all have that tart-sweet flavor profile that blends well together when baked in a pie.
Serve warm with a generous scoop of Vanilla or Caramel Pecan ice cream.
Apple Pie Crumble
1 pie crust -
6 large apples, rinsed, peeled and sliced thin.
1/4 cup Port wine
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into fourths
Preheat oven to 350*F.
Line a round 9-inch baking pan with the pie crust. Prick with a fork. Bake it empty for 8 minutes. KITCHEN TIP: The tart dough on page 43 of our Cooking Dinner Cookbook makes a great crust. You just need 1/2 the batch.
Place sliced apples in a large bowl. Sprinkle with port, sugar and cinnamon and toss to mix. Layer slices in the bottom of the crust.
Stir together flour, whole wheat pastry flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Add butter and “cut in” with 2 knives or a pastry blender until it is crumbly and the butter pieces are the size of peas. (Alternatively, use a food processor fitted with a steel blade.)
Spread topping evenly over apples. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until top is light brown and the apples are tender when pricked with a fork.
Beans and Rice
Fresh, Dry Beans – an oxymoron? – No just the way you should get dry beans…try to buy them locally after a recent harvest. They rehydrate quicker and taste better. This recipe features Black Valentines from my friend Steve Smith and the Mohr-Fry Ranch in Galt. Check out his website Chili Smith. “These beans are reported to be one of the most nutritionally rich foods on the planet. Kids love them and the fiber is almost three times that of normal beans – powerful little packages of energy!”
I soaked them overnight, drained and rinsed them, boiled them for 2 hours, then sautéed them in olive oil with chopped onions, carrots, celery, garlic and a bay leaf. I know it is easier to open a can of beans…trust me I buy my carrots, onions and celery already chopped haha….but these Heirloom beans taste so good, they are worth the time! Add sea salt to taste and mix equal parts with cooked brown, Basmati rice. In celebration of my eldest daughter’s mission trip to Tanzania and her daily meal of beans and rice, I seasoned the mixture with ground cloves, cardamom and nutmeg.
Cook, Eat, Laugh…Claudia
At the Table Together
Why do we work so hard to have regular family meals while our kids are growing up? Because even when they are away from home they are nurtured by the family well-being and togetherness fostered at the kitchen table. As so many of our children go off to college and beyond, trust that your love will give them a solid foundation from which to learn and grow and thrive.
Cook, Eat, Laugh…Claudia
from Brooke Reynolds blog:
inchmark
Potatoes or Potato Chips
What are you eating? Potato Chips at $11/lb or Roasted Potatoes for $1/lb…
Paolo de Croce, President of Slow Food International recently addressed members of Central Valley Slow Food. He brought to our attention the importance of considering what you are eating, how much does it cost and who is preparing your food!
In the mood for that satisfying salty taste sensation? It takes two minutes to wash and cut some fingerling potatoes. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sea salt and pepper. Then roast for about an hour turning occasionally. For the complete recipe look at page 189 from Cooking Dinner: Simple Italian Family Recipes Everyone Can Make!
Cook, Eat, Laugh…Claudia
Baciccia Beans
What do you do when a good friend delivers a case of your favorite vegetable to your doorstep?
Give him a big kiss of course and
follow up with a tasty meal.
A BIG thank you to John Dentoni
for this great surprise!
Many people are not familiar with the wonderful Baciccia Bean. It is a long green bean that grows on a short bush. Like other fresh beans it is a warm season vegetable and is harvested all summer to early fall. Unlike other fresh beans it is classified as an heirloom plant which means that is has been reproduced for generations without cross-breeding. In fact, the Baciccia Beans that my husband grows in our garden are from seed plants that were brought from Italy by my grandfather!
The wonderful sweet taste and velvet texture make this a very likable bean. Because of our “late” summer you can still find these delectable treasures at your local farmers’ markets. Steam them for just a few minutes and enjoy while bright green and crisp-tender, or incorporate into your favorite green bean recipe or watch the video and try this Italian summer favorite.
Cook, Eat, Laugh..Claudia
Penne with Eggplant and Mozzarella
This morning while on walk with girlfriends I heard them say how tired they were of the same old pasta sauces and wanted something fresh, in season and new. I mentioned that another friend, who is being overwhelmed by the ripening eggplant growing in her vegetable garden, just gave me some. With the eggplant I made a delicious pasta sauce. Everybody loved it so I am making it again tonight! In case you want to try it here is how I made it.
Penne with Eggplant and Mozzarella.
You will need: 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 onion finely chopped, one eggplant peeled (I like it peeled but peeling is optional) and cut in 1/2 inch cubes, 2 ripe tomatoes peeled and cut in 1/2 inch cubes or 1 small can good tomato sauce, 1 small bunch of fresh basil and 1 fresh mozzarella cut in small cubes.
Directions: In a medium sauce pan sauté onion in half the oil for 3-4 minutes. Add rest if the oil and sauté the eggplant for 5-6 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, the tomato. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add basil and remove it after a minute. Meanwhile boil the Penne. 3 minutes before the pasta is cooked, with a slotted ladle, pick up the penne from the boiling water and add it to the sauce. Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. Serve in a large serving dish, sprinkle top with mozzarella and serve immediately. Buon appetito 
Cook with your heart. It nourishes more than just the stomach! Rima
Farinata
Have you ever heard of FARINATA? What about CECINA? Ok then, what about CALDA CALDA? No? Never? I knew it! These are just different names for the same dish. The name changes depending on the region but the dish is the same. Many Italian dishes have been exported, redone, in some cases abused. Despite this fact, there are still dishes that are well known to the average Italian but remain unknown outside of the Italian borders. This is the case of Cecina.
Cecina takes the name from Ceci, Italian for garbanzo beans. It is one of the many poor man’s dishes that are part of every old civilization. It is made of garbanzo beans flour, water, salt and olive oil. It’s a thin torta baked in a wood oven at high temperature in large round metal trays. It can be traced back to the time of the Etruscans, big lovers of garbanzo beans.
It’s a typical Mediterranean dish, not only Italian, but it is made especially well in the Tuscan and Ligurian regions. In Massa, where I grew up, it is called Calda-Calda (Hot-Hot) and it is sold only in winter time. I ate it many winter afternoons for “merenda” the afternoon snack. It is usually sold in Pizzerias. The only limitation to this delicious, simple delicacy is that it needs to be eaten hot right out of the oven; if it gets cold it loses its soft, chewy consistency and delicious flavor. I always ate it stuffed inside a piece of freshly baked focaccia, but it can be also eaten by itself.
This summer my friend Elena took me to her friend Antonella’s restaurant “Il Timone” in beautiful Portovenere. By the way, let me tell you, I hear so many American people are so impressed by Le Cinque Terre, but if they ever discovered Portovenere, a little seaside village just a stone throw from Le Cinque Terre, they would be blown away from the simple, ancient beauty of this hidden jewel.
Anyway, off we went to Il Timone, 
we were seated all snugged on a beautiful old wooden table with ceramic tile and the dishes started pouring out of the kitchen. To my surprise, for appetizers we were served slices of Farinata topped with Gorgonzola cheese, Stracchino (soft Italian fresh cheese), and more topped with Pesto. Totally unexpected but incredibly fun. That is how I found out that Farinata can also be topped with different flavors!
If your summer plans include a trip in the Tuscan or Ligurian region, I really suggest a trip to Il Timone. Tell the owner, Rima sent you and enjoy!
Ps: for desert order the Crema calda con Nutella. Wow! to die for!
Crema calda con Nutella
If you don’t get to go to Italy this summer don’t despair, guess what? I have not tried it yet but you can now buy Farinata mix at local stores. I even saw it at Podestos in Stockton!