Easy Italian Pt. 1: Simple Seasoning

We north Americans, as a culture, approach Italian cuisine all wrong. We eat it in the ritziest restaurants we can find, decorated ornately with white table cloths and multiple forks per place-setting and we match the food we order to the decor: fettucini Alfredo with an insanely rich sauce, ravioli each filled individually with the latest fad vegetable, etc. etc. And if that weren't enough, we add a romantic connotation to the whole experience, just to add a little more pressure. Either that, or we take it to the other extreme: spaghetti and meatballs--simple, meaty, bland.

For a long time, I was ambivalent about Italian food, it was either too rich or too meaty. The dish that turned me around (which I shall blog about next time I make it), was neither of these extremes, instead it was bright, flavorful and satisfying, without being heavy, or too rich--and it was *simple*. And therein lies the key to *real* Italian cooking: fresh ingredients and simple recipes. Almost always, with Italian food, less is more, and you will find that the dishes that taste the best are also the easiest to make. BTW, this is not news, Jamie, Nigel, and David Rocco have been trying to educate the world on this one for a while.

Today, because it's late March and not a whole lot is *fresh* at the moment, we'll talk about the simple seasonings part. The more Italian you cook, the more trend you begin to see in seasonings. For example, there's often a salty component (anchovies, pancetta, proscuitto etc.), vinegary flavors are common too (balsamic, red wine vinegar, red wine, etc.), and there's almost always an herb and a good cheese. Once you begin to see the patterns, you can start creating them yourself (which is the best part of Italian cooking: there are no "chemistry" rules to follow).

Drunken Spaghetti

This one came from David Rocco's website. There's also an excellent video on the web of him making it for friends.



1 lb. spaghetti (454 g)
3 to 4 anchovy fillets, chopped (I used ~1 tsp anchovy paste)
2 cups of red wine (474ml) (I used an Italian valpolicella)
1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino cheese (125 ml)
Small bunch of Italian parsley, finely chopped
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (60ml)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 dried chili peppers, crushed (optional)
Salt to season

Method:

1.Bring salted water to boil in a large pot. Add spaghetti and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, pasta should still be a little firm in the middle (just before pasta is al dente).
2.In a saucepan, heat extra virgin olive oil. Add garlic, anchovy fillets and chili peppers and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
3.Add spaghetti to the pan and toss well.
4.Pour in red wine and cook until it has reduced and spaghetti has finished cooking.
5.Add freshly chopped parsley and grated pecorino cheese to pasta and toss well.
6.Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Spinach, Tarragon, and Feta Fritatta

A fritatta is Italy's version of the quiche. To me, it's the perfect combo of quiche and omlette (eggier than the quiche, not as eggy as an omlette). It is also a flexible dish, meaning once you have the process down pat, it will take just about any veggies/cooked meats that happen to be idling in your fridge. This recipe comes from food and wine mag.



Ingredients

1. 2 tablespoons butter
2. 2 scallions including green tops, cut into thin slices
3. 10 ounces spinach, stems removed, leaves washed and cut into thin strips
4. 1 1/2 teaspoons dried tarragon, or 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
7. 8 large eggs
8. 1 tablespoon olive oil
9. 3 ounces feta, crumbled (about 1/3 cup)

Directions

1. In a 12-inch ovenproof nonstick frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over moderate heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the spinach, dried tarragon, if using, and 1/8 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Remove the spinach mixture and let cool. Wipe out the pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the remaining 1/8 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Stir in the spinach mixture and fresh tarragon, if using.
3. Heat the broiler. In the same frying pan, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter with the oil over moderate heat. Pour in the egg mixture and reduce the heat to low. Sprinkle the feta over the top and cook until the bottom is golden brown and the top is almost set, 6 to 7 minutes. Broil the frittata 6 inches from the heat, if possible, until the eggs are set, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Lift up the edge of the frittata with a spatula and slide the frittata onto a plate (I usually put in in a pie pan, for easy storage purposes). Cut into wedges and serve.

Dead-Easy White Artichoke Pizza

This one was all me =) I was craving artichoke pizza, and so decided to experiment a little, with great success.



Ingredients:

1. A jar of preserved artichokes (buy the nice ones in a jar, rather than a can, because you can use the oil they're preserved in to coat the pizza dought)
2. 1/2 a red onion, sliced
3. 3/4 cup fontina cheese grated
4. 1/2 cup gruyere cheese grated
5. a few sprigs fresh thyme
6. thinly sliced eggplant (you want to slice it pretty thinly so that it will cook through when you cook the pizza)
7. One bag-o-premade-pizza dough (I usually get mine at Trader Joe's)
8. flour

Method:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchement paper, and preheat the oven to 450 C.
2. Let the pizza dough come to room temp. (it will be easier to shape it this way) then, on a well floured cutting board/counter, stretch/roll the dough to the desired size. Mine never ends up perfectly round or square, it doesn't really matter, as long as its of a fairly even thickness all around.
3. Brush the dough with the oil from the artichokes (or, if you'd rather, olive oil).
4. decorate the pizza with the artichokes, onion slices, and eggplant. This step is open to interpretation: you can be as liberal as you'd like with any of the toppings, or add some of your own, but note that an overdressed pizza will require a fork and knife to eat.
5. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the pizza. I chose fontina for texture (it melts to a nice gooey stringy pizza cheese) and gruyere for flavour. Again, experimentation is encouraged =)
6. Sprinke the pizza with the thyme. I added a couple full sprigs (stem and all) for garnish, and then the leaves (no stems) from about 3 sprigs, for further flavour.
7. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until the bottom of the pizza is golden.
8. Let cool for 5-10 min, cut, and serve.

If you have a pizza stone hanging about, feel free to use it, but I have found that a hot oven and well-rolled out dough works fine.

Vancouver: The Foodie Way

I have not been cooking much lately. Mostly because the past two weekends (weekends are my primary cooking time) have been spent north of the boarder, bird-watching on Vancouver island and watching the paralympics in Vancouver. So, in the spirit of my all-time favorite food-blog An Endless Banquet, I thought I would give the foodie's summary of our adventures in Vancouver. Sadly, the camera decided to eat half of my pics from the trip, so this post will be rather sparsely illustrated

1. Banh Mi: Everytime I try to explain Banh Mi to someone who's never had it, the reaction is the same: "a sandwich is a sandwich is a sandwich". But banh mi is so much more than a sandwich. Its a delicious marriage of French and Vietnamese cuisine, a baguette dressed with homemade pâté, vietnamese cold cut meats, cilantro, pickled vegetables, and should you desire it (and you should--it makes all the difference!) hot peppers--and a magical mystery sauce. These seemingly simple flavors combine to make a sandwich so light, and so tasty, that once you've had a good one, you will never look at Subway the same again. In fact, some people take banh mi so seriously that they conduct formal experiments
   to find the best one. We made use of the research and visited the top ranked banh mi bakery: Tung Hing on our way into town, to replenish us after our long drive, and also on the way out of town, to stock up for lunch purposes.



2. Oysters! Oysters have been on my list of "things-I-should-really-be-taking-advantage-of-on-the-west-coast" for a while now. So when we happened upon a popular, reasonably priced oyster house in Yaletown, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Rodney's was buzzing when we came in, and packed by the time we left. We enjoyed an excellent plate of pan-fried oysters, and a small sampling of raw oysters (Kusshi and Kumamoto), all were very tasty. One of these days though, I'm going to get to an oyster-house with an oyster-afficionado, who can teach me all the secrets.



3. Quebec-ness: Yes, I know, you're supposed to eat sushi and dim sum and so forth in Vancouver, not cheese, bols du café au lait, and chocolatines. But you have to realize that we're talking about two deprived ex-pat Montrealers here. Anyways, after oysters, we headed to our favorite Vancouver pub, The Alibi Room, which, in addition to an excellent selection of beers on tap, and a lovely IPA on cask (I cannot pass up a cask ale--I blame London), had a Quebec cheese plate that evening--yum!
   
   The next day, the Quebecness continued when we found ourselves out in Kitsilano, for a lovely breakfast at Coco et Olive before making our way to the Canada v. Sweden Sledge-hockey match (Canada won, 10-1). But the highlight of the morning for me was not the game, but the coffee... Coco et Olive was positively Parisian, complete with paninis, buttery pastries, "bols" of câfé au lait with strong espresso and steamed milk, and toasted baguettes with cheese. Of course, such places are a dime-a-dozen in both Montreal and Paris, but we were pretty desperate for a fix, after suffering 6 months of Starbucks-saturation.
   



4. On to Italy: It had been raining off and on all weekend, and by Saturday night, between the rain and the hour and a half spent in the cold arena watching Curling, I was ready for something warm. We decided to take a cue from the experts at Food and Wine Magazine, and hit Nook, a small understated pizza joint on Robson street. Nook is not the place to go if you want the choice of 70 different pizza toppings. Instead, they have a selection of about 10 different pizza options, each with 3 or 4 well-paired toppings. Unable to make a decision, we ended up with 2 pizzas: the special, with pancetta, roasted onions and hot peppers (which was quite spicy but in a good, warm-you-from-the-inside-out sort of way) and a classic vegetarian pizza with olives, tomatoes, roast garlic and ricotta. We also enjoyed Nook's Italian wine selection. So much so that as we were leaving, and the restaurant was closing (we dined fashionably late), we asked the staff for a recommendation for a good place to go for a glass of red. They pointed us to Uva, a cosy little hide-out where we finished the evening.
   
   



5. At last, Asian: We had big plans to go for dim sum before leaving town Sunday morning. We even had a place in mind, that had been recommended to us by two completely separate sources. (When this happens in a city with as many good restaurants as Vancouver has, its rarely a coincidence). However, when we showed up there, hungry after our morning jog and eager to give it a try, we found it closed for renovations =( Instead, we wandered aimlessly along Broadway, in search of a reasonable substitute, only to find Sha Lin Noodles. The reason Sha Lin caught my interest was that it was filling up, before noon on Sunday, which, seeing as it didn't do dim sum, was pretty impressive. So we ventured in. We were still in dim sum mode, so we ordered a disproportionate number of dumplings for 2 people (we are still working our way through them). But the clear winner here was the noodles: 4 different types of homemade, hand-cut (or dragged, or shaved or rolled) noodles, available with a variety of meats, veggies and sauces. Since we had just ordered a metric ton of pork dumplings, we stuck with vegetable, shaved noodles (shaved meaning you shave chunks of noodle dough off a block with something resembling a vegetable peeler). The noodles were gingery, garlicy and delicious, but the best part of the meal was watching as the cooks made the noodles.
   

Restuarants

• Tung Hing: 1196 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5V 3C8, Canada‎ - (604) 875-3394‎
  
• Rodney's: 405-1228 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 6L2, Canada‎ - (604) 609-0080‎
  
• Alibi room: 157 Alexander Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1B8, Canada‎ - (604) 623-3383‎
  
• Coco et olive: 3476 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6R 2B3, Canada‎ (604) 736-7080‎
  
• Nook: 781 Denman Street, Vancouver, BC V6G 2L6, Canada - (604) 568-4554‎
  
• Uva: 900 Seymour Street Vancouver, BC V6B 3L9, Canada - (604) 632-9560‎
  
• Sha Lin noodle house: 548 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1E9, Canada‎ - (604) 873-1816‎o
  

Victory over Whole Foods (sort of)

There are few premade items in the grocery store that still tempt me. I'm pretty much turned off by the entire frozen section these days, and am getting increasingly less enthused about the baked goods. And ever since hearing horror stories about chickens injected with salt-water solution, marinaded meat seems suspect too. Indeed, these days, the mantra has been: buy the raw ingredients, assemble it yourself.

That said, there is one aisle that still tempts me: the salad bar. Not so much the make-your-own-green salad part, but the variety of pasta, rice, couscous, noodle, vegetable etc. salads that they offer. However, after falling prey to this trick a few times, I have come to 2 conclusions: 1. Pasta salads are not to be trusted (they always look and smell more interesting than they taste) and 2. Everything else, tasty as it may be, is a damned ripoff, and should only be purchased under duress (i.e. when your lunch options consist of this or Subway). You only realize the rip-off part when you go to buy quinoa, and realize that you could eat lunch for a week for the same price it costs you to buy one serving of quinoa salad.

Of all the salads the overpriced salad bar has to offer, I have become most addicted to the Asian noodle salad. And so, after studying the ingredient list which the folks at Ballard Town and Country market kindly display on their salad bar, I decided to try to reconstruct it. The bits and pieces seemed easy enough: noodles, carrots, cashews, garlic, scallions, and soy sauce and sesame oil for the dressing, the challenge would be assembling them. This is what I came up with:

Whole Foods Inspired Asian Noodle Salad

(Based loosely on this recipe.)
For the salad:
- 1.5 lb cooked noodles (I bought a 2lb package of precooked yakisoba noodles and used it all. 2lbs was a little much, and probably buying dried noodles and cooking them yourself is a wiser choice, as they don't stick together quite so much)

- 3-4 carrots chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/2 - 1c cashews (unsalted)
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 1 can chopped baby corn, drained (or other asian veggie of choice: bean sprouts, snow peas etc.)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil

For the dressing:
I used about 1/4 c each of hoisin, soy sauce and sesame oil. But you can tweak the proportions as you see fit (and add more of anything after the fact, if it doesn't taste quite right)

-Hoisin sauce
-Soy sauce
-Toasted Sesame seed Oil
-lime or lemon juice (about 1 lime/lemon's worth)
-A little bit of siriachi sauce or crushed red pepper flakes
(rice vinegar would probably be a welcome addition, but I didn't have any)

Assembly:

0. Cook noodles according to directions and drain.

1. In a large skillet, over med-high heat, heat vegetable oil. When oil is hot, add garlic and stir for about 1 min.

2. Add chopped carrots to skillet and saute until they start to soften, then add coarsely chopped cashews, and saute until golden, and slightly soft (Carrots should be completely soft by this time)

3. Add baby corn, sautee for 1 min.

4. Pour noodles into a large bowl, along with stir-fried veggies and scallions, and toss to combine

5. Assemble dressing ingredients in a small bowl, and pour over noodle mixture. Toss to combine.

6. Taste, and adjust the dressing as needed.

7. For best results, assemble the night before, and let salad sit in fridge (covered) overnight. Serve cold.

And just in case you're the sort who believes that a salad does not a meal make, here's something else you can do the night before, to make the meal a bit more substantial:

Asian-style Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

-2 small (about 2/3 lb each) pork tenderloins

Marinade:
-2 small or 1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
-1" ginger, peeled and grated (or minced)
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
-2 scallions, chopped
-2-3 tbsp hoisin sauce
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-2-3 tbsp chinese cooking wine (or some other suitable liquor--whiskey works)
-2-3 tbsp soy sauce

1. Assemble all marinade ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine.

2. Rinse the tenderloins in cold water and pat dry

3. Place tenderloins in a large resealable ziplock bag, and pour marinade over top, turn to coat the tenderloins thoroughly. Seal the bag and let rest in fridge for a few hours (or ideally, overnight)

4. preheat a grill to medium high heat, and grill tenderloins, over indirect heat (so turn on one side of the grill and put the loins on the other) for 30 minutes, and direct heat for the last 10 -15 minutes until cooked through, to give the meat a nice outer crust, without burning it.


The great thing about this meal is that you can do almost all of it in advance. Just come home, chuck the meat on the grill, haul the salad out of the fridge, and dinner is served.