Fiori di Zucca "Fritti" Pappardella

I have a love affair with Italy. I've already been to Italy 4 times in my life, and there's so much to love about it. I love the quiet mountains and unassuming castles of Sudtirol where Mediterranean cuisine meets German cuisine. Then there's the winding canals lined with colorful apartments that ultimately give way to massive baroque churches in Venice; I had one of the best meals of my life (a briny pasta dyed in cuttlefish ink and served with the freshest mussels imaginable) near St. Mark's Basilica. I love the sunflowers and terra cotta stands that stretch throughout Tuscany and the multiple dinner courses made of wild game. And how can you forget the gelato sundaes and amazing iron work by Pisano and Ghiberti in Florence?

My love does not extend to Rome.

I find Rome to be unnecessarily busy and crowded and loud. Not to mention dirty. And covered in bombastic buildings. But what I found most disappointing about Rome is that (while tasty) so much of the traditional Roman food feels uninspired. I found one notable exception-- Roman Jewish food.

Roman Jews were once confined to a walled-off ghetto near the river. Because they lived in such poverty, they created dishes out of cheap and easy-to-grow ingredients. These included lots of fish because they could be gathered from the river, and lots of artichokes and zucchini because they grew plentifully in the Roman soil and climate. The area is now known as possibly the most culinarily exciting in Rome.

Okay, okay. So SOMETIMES Rome is pretty.

One of the best-known summer delicacies of Roman Jewish cuisine is fiori di zucca fritti: zucchini blossoms stuffed with mozzarella cheese and anchovies and then battered and deep fried. The recipe below is adapted to capture the flavors of this dish without the unhealthy parts. I heavily borrowed from this Orangette blog post but changed the recipe to incorporate the savory-umami anchovies and crispy fried texture. This meal was so deeply satisfying that I have already made it twice. Plus it uses up an abundance of summer CSA zucchini.

Fiori di Zucca "Fritti" Pappardella

Ingredients
     1 1/2 lbs. zucchini or yellow summer squash
     1 tbsp. table salt
     1/2 red onion
     1 carrot
     1 stalk celery
     Leaves from 10 stems Italian parsley
     12 zucchini blossoms
     1 tbsp. + 1 tbsp. good quality olive oil
     1 tbsp. ground flax
     1 tbsp. almond meal (or 2 tbsp. almond meal if you don't have ground flax)
     Pinch red pepper flakes
     1 tsp. + 1 tsp. kosher salt or maldon salt flakes
     6 anchovy fillets or 1 1/2 tsp. anchovy paste
     Pinch (6-10 threads) saffron
     2 cups + 3 tbsp. good quality chicken stock
     1 large egg yolk
   

1) Make your zucchini papparadella.
     a) Slice squash in half lengthwise.
     b) Using a mandoline set to 1/16", slice cut side of squash lengthwise to make long, wide noodles.
     c) Cut noodles in half again lengthwise.
     d) Place noodles in a colander and toss with 1 tbsp. salt.
     e) Let noodles sit for 20-30 minutes to drain liquid.
     f) Rinse noodles thoroughly.
     g) Dry noodles between two paper towels.
     h) Put noodles back in the colander and place uncovered in the fridge until you're ready to use.


2) Prepare your veggies.
     a) Cut carrot and celery into quarters.
     b) Place red onion, carrot, celery, and parsley leaves into food processor.
     c) Pulse 20 times, scrape down sides, and pulse 10 more times until finely chopped. (Alternatively, you can finely chop all these ingredients by hand.)
     d) Roughly chop zucchini blossoms into quarters or eighths.

These are zucchini blossoms. They are usually only available late June-late July and can be found in specialty grocery stores or your local farmer's market.

3) Make your fried topping.
     a) In a small pan, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat.
     b) When oil is hot, add ground flax, almond meal, a pinch red pepper flakes, and a pinch salt.
     c) Stirring constantly, toast your seed/nut meals until dark brown and, well, toasty.
     d) Put on a plate or in a small bowl and put to the side until later.




4) Make your sauce.
     a) In a larger pan, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium-low heat.
     b) While oil is heating, in a small pan over low heat, warm the 3 tbsp. chicken stock.

I used anchovy paste

Here you can see the paste entirely
dissolved into the hot oil

     c) In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk with a fork.
     d) When oil is hot, add anchovies or paste. Cook until the fish is dissolved into the oil.
     e) Add chopped onion, carrot, celery, and parsley. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
     f) Add zucchini blossoms, a pinch salt, and the saffron. Lightly crush the saffron between your fingers while you add it.
     g) Stir, turn heat up just past medium, and then add 3/4 cup of chicken stock. Stir again.


5) While your sauce is cooking, make your pasta.
     a) Heat another frying pan with 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat-low heat.
     b) When oil is hot, add the zucchini pappardella.
     c) Cook zucchini pasta for 3-5 minutes until starting to lightly brown.
     d) Set aside until ready to use.


6) Finish sauce.
     a) Once the chicken stock has started to boil off of the sauce, add the rest of the chicken stock a splash or two at a time and stir in. This process should take about 8-10 minutes.
     b) The sauce is done when the chicken stock has reduced down to a thin layer on the bottom of the pan.
     c) Whisk the warm 3 tbsp. chicken stock into the beaten egg yolk. This will make a pale yellow liquid.

Add the chicken stock sloooooowwwly
so it doesn't cook the egg

     d) Remove the sauce pan from the heat and add in the egg yolk mixture. Stir well to coat vegetables and mix into liquid.
     e) Using tongs or a pasta spoon, lift the zucchini noodles and add them to the sauce mixture.
     f) Return to heat and cook 30 more seconds, stirring constantly. You want the sauce to cover the noodles.


7) Serve.
     a) Divide zucchini pasta and sauce onto 2 warm plates.
     b) Top with 1 tbsp. each of the fried seed/nut crumbs.

At its simplest, this is what the meal
looks like. Not the most appetizing thing, eh?

Suggestions to make this a meal:
     a) Fry some guanciale (cured pig jowl meat). Remove meat from pan, and instead of cooking your veggies in olive oil, cook them in the meat oil. Add the cooked meat back into the mix along with the zucchini noodles at the end to make it taste like a veggie-heavy pasta carbonara.
     b) Serve alongside a seared veal cutlet.
     c) If you are not lactose intolerant, make it more similar to Roman Jewish Fiori di Zucca Fritti by adding some torn up pieces of buffalo mozzarella like I did here. Yum!
 

Add some parsley, tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella and it's suddenly beautiful! Delizioso! Translation: nom nom nom

Kicky Beet Salsa

Oh Trader Joe's. You are truly the love of my life. I can go hog-wild buying stuff I don't actually need (every kind of nut seasoned with wasabi? Don't mind if I do) and never break $100. So when I saw these Horseradish-Cheddar Kettle Chips, I had to have them. It doesn't matter that I'm not a huge chip fan. It doesn't matter that I'm not really a snacker.

I. Had. To. Have. Them.

I grinned like a crazy person bringing my treasure out of the store. Then they sat on my self. And sat some more. They were still sitting a month and a half later.

Every time I looked at those chips I felt guilty. I felt like I was being a horrible partner to Trader Joe's. Every time I went in that store I could swear all the happy people in Hawaiian shirts would suddenly stop smiling and glare at me knowing that I wasted one of their marvelous creations without even trying it. They knew. Just like grandmas always know when you don't wear the sweater they knit for you, Trader Joe's knew.

It was time to remedy my guilt. So for a girl's scrapbooking night I came up with this salsa recipe to complement the chips. The two were delicious together. But here's a little secret: the salsa is delicious without the chips, too. The salsa was delicious on top of tilapia. It was delicious with lamb. Heck, it was delicious off a spoon when I waited too long to cook dinner and was ravenous before the timer went off.

It has the perfect amount of kick to it from the horseradish, but the beets lend plenty of earthy sweetness. So here's a recipe to "kick it up a notch." (I hate myself for saying that.)

Kicky Beet Salsa Instructions

yield: about 4 cups
   
1) Roast your beets

     Ingredients:
     4 small to medium beets

     Directions:
     a) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
     b) Slice off beet greens and wash beets.
     c) Place beets together in an aluminum foil packet. Place packet on a baking sheet.
     d) Bake packet for 50-60 min until the beets give slightly.
     e) Let beets cool enough that you can comfortably touch them.
     f) Rub off skin with your fingers.
     g) Roughly dice.

2) Mix your salsa

     Ingredients:
     3 tbsp. grated fresh horseradish or 2 tbsp. prepared horseradish
     1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
     salt to taste
     2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
     2 tbsp. minced shallots
     1/2 green apple (roughly diced)
     2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

     Directions:
     a) Place diced beets and all other ingredients in a food processor.
     b) Pulse in 1-second intervals about 20 times, stopping every 5 pulses to scrape down the sides.
     c) Alternatively, you can do all this without a food processor by chopping very finely.
     d) Empty into a container, cover, and chill at least 2 hours before serving.

3) Serve with chips, on fish, on chicken, on steak, on celery, on a spoon...

For a less messy (but perhaps not as pretty) salsa, you can use golden beets instead of red beets. It will taste the same.

Te'meitov Pai (Tomato Pie)

This summer (in addition to traveling to Egypt) I had the unique opportunity of getting to go to Israel to present research at the International Society of Political Psychology Conference. That's right-- somehow academics have convinced universities that preparing and giving a 30 minute research presentation is enough work to justify the university paying hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket, hotel room, etc. After my presentation I got to lay on the beach in Tel Aviv. Suckers.

Not to say that it was all play. I certainly sat in my fair share of talks, learned a lot about Middle Eastern politics, traveled to various parts of Israel and the West Bank to learn about the politics firsthand, and I did lots of research. For this blog. Food research.

One of the places I went was called Blackout Restaurant. It's in Old Jaffa in Tel Aviv, and it is a restaurant run entirely by blind people. It is also one of those restaurants where you eat in the dark. Pitch black. It's meant to help you pay more attention to your senses of taste, texture, and smell, but if you need to go to the restroom during the meal, you're screwed.

The view of Old Jaffa from Tel Aviv

As were many restaurants in Israel, this restaurant was kosher, so a meal could either have fish in it for 2 courses (and no dairy in the dessert) or cheese in it for 3 courses (and no meat products). I opted for 3 courses of cheese (because...cheese). One thing I loved about this restaurant is that although they provided a menu, one could also request "chef's choice" and was likely to get food that was not on the menu at all. In this case, the waiters and waitresses loved making guests guess their food after eating it.

My first course consisted of a delicious savory pastry; fresh, warm tomatoes; a handful of fresh herbs; and a soft, melted cheese. It turned out to be a potato and cheese latke with quick marinara sauce. I have to admit that I had no idea the pastry was potato, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I love potatoes and would have been happy with the potato tasting like a potato. And when I cook I want potato to taste like potato. 

So here's a recipe where I tried to recreate the flavors and textures of that first course. Instead of trying to make the original latke, I channeled my memory of that meal into baking this traditional Southern tomato pie.  Southern Israeli tomato pie.

Te'meitov Pai Instructions

Time beginning to end: 2.5-3 hours

1) Prepare an olive oil pie crust. I used a recipe from the book Gluten-Free on a Shoestring by Nicole Hunn, but the recipe is also available here. To make this pie crust, I used King Arthur gluten-free all purpose flour, but I ran out of that halfway and used the Trader Joe's gluten-free all purpose flour in addition. The King Arthur flour is preferable. If you are not gluten-free, there's a pretty decent oil pie crust recipe from allrecipes that you could use instead (but make sure the oil is extra virgin olive oil). Make sure the pie crust is super thin when you roll it out (definitely divide the recipe into two pieces and only use one piece) because otherwise instead of being flaky the crust is just hard as a rock. 

     Ingredients

     2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour

     1 tsp. xantham gum

     1 tsp. kosher salt

     5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (Greek ones tend to be closer in flavor to the stuff from Israel)

     1 1/2 tsp. white wine vinegar

     1/2 to 3/4 cup cold water

Three years ago I dated a guy that was completely spoiled by his mother and grandmother. Because of their doting, he became a homemade pie fanatic and a pie crust snob. I hate using my rolling pin, but finding these pie crust rolling bags saved my life in the quest to make a pie crust he wouldn't complain about. We broke up before I did that, and I happily abandoned my quest. However, the bags are really helpful for making gluten-free crusts because they let you roll the perfect size, they let you roll a very thin circle, and they are non-stick.

One more word of caution: the pie crust will likely break. Don't be afraid to piece it back together in the pan. Squeeze the broken pieces in together and use a wet finger-tip to seal seams.

You can see here how it breaks. Use leftover bits to fill in any gaps.

2) Pre-bake the pie crust. Prick the crust all over with a fork to allow ventilation. Cut a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper in a circle and put on the bottom with rice, beans, or pie weights to weigh down the crust. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Set aside on a wire rack to cool.

3) Prepare your filling. I adapted one from the blog frommaggiesfarm.

  

     Ingredients

     2 lbs. of ripe tomatoes (cherry and campari work well) in multiple colors

     salt

     1/3 cup chopped red onion

     1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

     1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

     2-3 minced garlic cloves

     2 tbsp. lemon zest

     1 tsp. sumac (available at a Middle Eastern grocery store or on Amazon.com)

     1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

     Directions

     a) Slice tomatoes to about 1/2 inch thick. Layer them in a colander. Lightly salt each layer. Allow collander to sit in the sink for about 30 minutes.

     b) Chop other ingredients while you wait.

     b) Rinse the tomatoes and dry them thoroughly with paper towels. You want to squeeze the tomatoes as you dry to get the seeds and goopey insides out. Soggy tomatoes=soggy pie.

If you look closely, you can see tomato guts all over. For the yellow cherry tomato halves, I actually had to squeeze the innards out of each one as though you're popping a pimple (gross, I know, but now you can imagine EXACTLY what it should look like) and then blot with the paper towel.

     c) Toss the tomatoes, red onion, mint, parsley, garlic cloves, lemon zest, sumac, and pepper together in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.

     d) Arrange the tomatoes in the pie crust. You can layer them to make them look pretty, or you can dump them in, making sure to leave a crater in the middle of the pie to accommodate your cheese topping.

This was meant to illustrate the crater in the tomatoes which you will fill with cheese mixture. Not sure it really did that, but it looks pretty!

4) Prepare your topping.

     Ingredients

     1/2 cup feta cheese (I like one available at Trader Joe's-- it is made in Israel and uses sheep's milk)

     3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (nonfat works fine)

     1/4 olive oil mayonnaise (Here's a great recipe to make your own, but olive oil mayo is now widely available at normal grocery stores as well as health food stores)

     

     Directions

     a) Combine all ingredients.

     b) Spread on top of the pie, leaving a 1" circle of tomato visible around the edges

5) Bake the pie at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes until the cheese starts to brown and bubble. You may want to cover the crust halfway with a pie shield or aluminum foil.

6) If desired, pit some Souri olives (or substitute for more commonly found Calabresi olives) and put on top of the pie. Just don't ever feed canned olives to an Israeli because Israelis take their olives seriously. Plus all Israelis serve in the army, so you don't want to tick of an Israeli with crappy olives.  Serve pie warm if possible, but this pie is still quite tasty cold.

I took this to a BBQ where one of my friends in attendance has celiacs.  She really appreciated having food she could eat, but everyone else there raved about it, too. No one could tell it was gluten-free!

Taiym!  Translation: nom nom nom.