Tuesday: Philharmonic Picnic in Central Park

One of my favorite New York City traditions is going to Central Park to hear the philharmonic perform. It's the one night of the year you feel safe in the park after dark since tens of thousands of people are crowded on the Great Lawn (and nearby areas) to eat, drink, relax...and, in some cases, actually listen to the music! While there are those that go low key -- a bottle of wine, perhaps a take out pizza -- others stage quite elaborate picnics, complete with tables, candles and an assortment of food and drink. My friends fall into the later camp.

This year, we schlepped blankets and mini coolers, along with citronella candles and a battery-powered lantern, and food...lots of food. From the standard cheese and crudités (gussied up in a Pampered Chef Chillzanne) to soppressata and tabbouleh. My contributions included mini cans of Sofia Blanc de Blanc (so cute) as well as a tuna niçoise pasta salad.

The beauty of this salad is that it's mayo-free, but still chock full of interesting flavors and textures. And although the recipe calls for some fresh ingredients, the others are easy to keep in your cupboard to have on hand when inspiration strikes...or when an impromptu picnic is on the agenda!

Tuna Niçoise Pasta Salad For this recipe, I used shallot, tomato and basil from the farmers market. The other ingredients were from, you guessed it, Trader Joes.

Ingredients

8 oz. Dried pasta (I used farfalle)

1 Can Tuna in water

1 T. Capers

3 T. Olives, quartered (if you cannot find niçoise olives, use Kalamata)

1 Med. Tomato, roughly chopped

1 C. Haricot vert, roughly chopped

1 T. Dijon mustard

1 Lemon, juiced

3 T. Olive oil

1 Shallot, minced

1/4 C. Feta cheese, crumbled

3 T. basil, Chiffonade

Salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Method

Cook pasta to package directions; rinse drain and cool.

Add drained tuna with next four ingredients (capers to haricot vert).

In a small bowl, combine mustard, lemon juice, shallot and olive oil; blitz with immersion blender until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Toss dressing with tuna pasta mixture; add feta and basil.

Season with a little salt to taste (remember that capers, olives and feta are salty!) and ground pepper.

Monday: A New Twist on the Boiled Dinner

Technically, New York is not in New England. But that doesn't mean we don't enjoy the boiled dinner every now and again. Particularly when it's too hot to turn on the oven, but just cool enough to stand in front of the stove for 12 minutes or so. And particularly when you're boiling pasta, shrimp and fava beans instead of meat and potatoes. I've apparently led a sheltered life since the first time I had fresh fava beans was a few months ago while on vacation. Ever since then, I've been looking for them in the market. Fava beans are supposed to be spring vegetables, and given the cool and wet summer we've been having, I guess it's no surprise that I just found them. Some people complain that prepping the beans is a lot of work. It is a multi-step process: 1. First, split the velvety pods to unearth the beans 2. Then, sort the beans by size (small, medium, large) to help facilitate even cooking 3. Next, throw the beans in boiling water (first the large ones, then, after about 30 seconds, the medium beans, and then the little guys) 4. Drain the beans and shock them in some ice water to stop the cooking process 5. Finally, pinch off the outer membrane using your thumb nail to uncover the bright green prize inside Unless you're cooking for a crowd and have a mound of beans to get through, it actually doesn't take too long. Especially if you fish the beans out using a skimmer/strainer, and bring the water back up to a boil to cook your pasta, and then repeat the process to cook the shrimp. Finished with some olive oil (or in the case of last night, sundried tomato bruschetta), a little crumbled goat cheese and mint and voila, dinner is served in far less time than it would take for pizza delivery.

Fava and Shrimp Pasta for One

I used Lemon Pepper Pappardelle from Trader Joes, but if you want to use plain pappardelle or another pasta, consider adding a bit of lemon zest to the recipe. The shrimp, goat cheese and bruschetta were from TJs as well, but the fava beans and mint were direct from the greenmarket.

Ingredients

2 oz. Uncooked pasta

8 oz. Fava bean pods (or 3/4 c. of beans)

8 large raw shrimp, defrosted

1 t. Olive oil or 1 T. tomato bruschetta

1 T. Goat cheese crumbles

1 t. Spearmint, chiffonade

Salt

Pepper

Method

Bring a small pot of water to a boil.

Separate fava beans from pods, sorting by size.

Add large beans to boiling water, followed by medium and small beans. Cook for a minute or so before removing from pot with a skimmer and shocking in ice water.

Bring the water back to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, remove outer membrane from fava beans and place bright green beans into a medium sized bowl.

Using tongs, remove cooked pasta from water, drain well and toss with fava beans, oil or bruschetta and goat cheese.

Bring the water back to a boil and cook shrimp for two minutes.

Toss warm cooked shrimp with pasta/fava mixture, sprinkle mint on top before serving.

Mangia Bologna: Cooking with Carmelita of Cook Italy (Part 2)

Four weeks ago, I was shopping in cooking in Bologna, Italy. My how time flies. Fast forward one month, and some of the seasonal ingredients I found in the markets in Italy are finally available here in New York State, including the first asparagus of the season! Sadly, I have yet to make it to the Union Square Greenmarket in time to buy some (sells out too early). But regardless, I thought it was high time I shared some more photos from my Bologna adventure. When we last were in Bologna, I had: gotten up at the crack of dawn; walked to the Milan train station in the foggy, semi-dark; boarded a high-speed train to Bologna; navigated my way through the city to meet Carmelita; slurped down a cappuccino; wandered through the back streets snacking on chocolate and pork; tried to follow as Carmelita exchanged remarks with shop owners, in rapid Italian, literally and figuratively over my head; and, after poking around a butcher shop that displayed its wares au naturale, half contemplated becoming a vegetarian.

Too soon, we were at Carmelita's darling apartment to begin cooking. In fact, I admired her sun-filled flat so much, I think she should seriously consider entering Apartment Therapy's Small Cool contest next year.

Side note: I entered mine the first year of the contest, and while it was small, it was deemed neither cool nor cute. This was before I realized how design-savvy AT readers are and how architecturally-savvy and creative other entrants would be. Sadly, I have made just a few improvements in the years since, but what can I say, my apartment suits me! At least until September, as my goal is to move once my lease is up.

But I digress. Carmelita's apartment is very cool with a large window overlooking a nearby church and a tricked-out kitchen running almost the length of one wall. The large prep table also doubles as her dining table, with bench seating tucked underneath.

First on the agenda was making the pasta dough. I had never made pasta. I may never make pasta again. I don't know if I have the patience to get the dough just so (something about folding and kneading and avoiding pleats). But in case I do get ambitious, Carmelita did make me write down the correct proportions: 100 grams of [cake or pastry] flour to 65 grams of egg.

With the dough tucked in the fridge, it was on to the other prep. Like shelling fava. I had never shelled fava beans before either. Nor would I have known that you can/should peel the skin off the individual beans.

We blanched the asparagus with the fava (since they were going to be pureed together), as well as boiled the hollowed-out round zucchini. Apparently, Italians do not like their veggies cooked al dente, as we left both pots on the stove much longer than I would have at home. But eventually, the zucchini was drained and cooled and half of the fava and asparagus blitzed together with olive oil to make a bright green sauce.

Once cooled, we stuffed the zucchini with a luscious mound of ricotta (which had been pushed through a potato ricer) mixed with the tiny shrimp (which had been cooked and coarsely ground with a mortar and pestle), olive oil, salt, pepper and freshly ground nutmeg. Garnished with larger shrimp (which were kind of mangled as I was not really good at slicing them lengthwise) and served on a bed of citron, I was pretty impressed -- this four ingredient dish looked like something from a food magazine.

However, eating would have to wait as the work wasn't over! Although the clams had been soaked and cooked, we still needed to shuck them, not to mention chop the parsley and garlic that would join the clams to make a simple sauce for the pasta. Plus there were morels to clean.

But once all that was complete, we took a quick break and popped out to Carmelita's corner wine shop, which just happened to be the famous Enoteca Italiana, to get a nice chilled white to drink with lunch.

The shop, which I later learned is in all the guidebooks for Bologna, is quite small but has a nice upfront area perfect for sipping a glass of wine and people watching. The shop also has a really interesting and well-priced selection of regional and Italian wines, but I could not face the thought of dragging wine bottles with me the rest of the afternoon (Unfortunately, I somehow got lost and couldn't find the shop when I tried to return later in the day. Oh well - another reason to return!).

With wine in hand, we returned to the apartment to cut the pasta. I was not a natural, by any means, but after folding and flouring and rolling and flattening a few times, I started to get the hang of it.

While the noodles dried, we combined the shucked clams, reserved clam liquid and olive oil. Once warmed through, we removed the pot from the heat and added the garlic and parsley.

Then, it was finally time to start eating. We as we cut into the stuffed zucchini, Carmelita threw the pasta in boiling water, deftly flipping the cooked noodles into the clam sauce mixture just as I licked the last shmear of ricotta from my knife.

While I twirled the pasta and simple clam sauce (and debated if I should break the no-cheese-with-seafood covenant and ask if Carmelita had any parmigiano reggiano), she was back at the stove lightly sauteing the morels (which gave off a lot of liquid) before cooking the fish fillets using a kind of steam fry method.

Once cooked, Carmelita plated the fillets on a pool of the green asparagus-fava puree, surrounded the pool with the remaining fava and asparagus and topped the fish with morels (kind of apropos as I learned some refer to morels as a "dryland fish"). One last drizzle of olive oil, and it was done.

I begrudgingly left some pasta and clams behind in the bowl so I would have room to enjoy the fresh, clean flavors of the vegetables and the flakiness of the fish. Despite my best efforts, I was only able to eat half the fillet, but made sure I downed all of the spring vegetables. After all, I knew it would be a while before I saw any for sale in my local markets.

Before I knew it, it was after 3 p.m. After more than six hours of walking, shopping, cooking and learning, it was time for me to teeter off in search of a caffeinated beverage in hopes of reviving from food coma. I needed a second wind to explore Bologna.

If you plan to visit Bologna in the near future, I encourage you to check out Cook Italy. And if you cannot get to Bologna anytime soon, here is a rough overview of the ingredients and method for the dishes I enjoyed. Buno appetito!

The Springtime in Bologna Menu

Round zucchini stuffed with ricotta and shrimp, served on sliced citron

Ingredients

2 softball-sized round zucchini

1 c. Ricotta cheese

Palmful of small shrimp (approximately 1/2 c.)

5 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

Olive oil

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Method

Slice stem and top from zucchini, cut approximately 1/4 inch from stem.

Using a melon baller or paring knife and spoon, hollow zucchini; chop and reserve flesh for filling.

Boil hollowed out squash and lids in salted water until soft; scoop from boiling water, drain and cool.

Bring water back to a boil, add small shrimp and remove as soon as they turn opaque (e.g., less than a minute!).

Bring water back to a boil for a third time, add larger shrimp and remove as soon as they turn opaque (approximately 2 minutes).

Grind/mash/blitz small shrimp until they are at a chunky, paste-like consistency.

Combine shrimp paste with reserved raw, chopped zucchini flesh, ricotta and a glug of olive oil.

Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Mound filling into zucchini, garnish with cooked jumbo shrimp that has been sliced in half lengthwise.

Fresh pasta served with a sauce of clams, garlic and parsley

Ingredients

Little neck clams

Fresh pasta

Garlic

Parsley

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Shamefully, the method we used is a bit hazy (early wake up call + walking + wine = haze) but Cook's Illustrated's version, although calling for a few added ingredients, looks close. Not a subscriber? Try this link.

Fried steamed fish topped with morels served over an asparagus and fava puree

Ingredients

Fish fillets

Fava beans, shelled with waxy skin removed (or not, your choice!)

Asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

Morels, cleaned

Olive oil

Salt, pepper

Method

Again, I blame the haze, but do remember the method being quite simple: cook shelled and peeled fava beans and asparagus until tender; reserve half, combine the other half with a glug of olive oil and blitz using an immersion or standard blender; saute the morels in a dry pan, set aside; fry steam the fish until opaque; serve on a pool of the puree, surrounded by the reserved fava, asparagus and morels.

Waiting for Spring

Spring officially started yesterday, but you’d never know it by looking out the window. Yes, big fat snow flakes in NYC on Friday. Bright but still cool today. I am really looking forward to spring – and asparagus season at the green market. There are more hints of spring in Union Square – the hydroponic tomato basil had green beans today! But with spring approaching, the downside is that I start using my oven less and less until the day comes that the heat is too much and I end up either eating salads or “cooking” solely via microwave until the weather cools. So as a sort of farewell to winter, I made a huge pan of lasagna last week. Based on a recipe originally published in Moosewood’s Low-Fat Favorites, the dish is chock full of vegetables. As written, the recipe is pretty low fat, but I like to use full fat mozzarella and part-skim ricotta, which makes it “part-fat” or “2%” or something. Given the season, all but the shallots came from Trader Joes versus the farmers market. But, given the temperature is still in the 40s, there may still be time to do a spring vegetables version before summer (and the heat) really sets in.

(Not really low fat) Veggie Lasagna Adapted from The Moosewood Restaurant This recipe freezes very well when cut into individual portions and bundled in plastic wrap. Don’t bother cooking the noodles in advance – there’s enough liquid in the recipe so they will soften as the dish bakes. You may be need to add extra sauce when serving, depending on your preference. As an added nutritional bonus, I like to serve this with broccoli. Ingredients 1 T. olive oil 12 oz. sliced mushrooms 2 diced shallots 1 cup cubed red bell peppers .5 cup shredded carrot

1 cup cubed zucchini 1 cup cubed eggplant

14 oz can diced tomatoes

Dried oregano, to taste Dried basil, to taste Red pepper flakes, to taste

1 cup frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained

2 cups part-skim ricotta

2 cups grated low-fat mozzarella cheese, divided

.25 cup grated Parmesan cheese

32 oz. jar of tomato sauce

16 oz. lasagna noodles Method Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté mushrooms in olive oil until they start to brown. Add shallot, red pepper, carrot, zucchini, and eggplant, sauté for five minutes. Add diced tomatoes and spices, simmer for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine spinach, ricotta, one cup of mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese. Spread .5 c. of the jarred tomato sauce on the bottom of an 8 x 13 pan. Add layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Top noodles with 1/3 of cheese mixture. Top cheese with 1/3 of vegetable mixture Add second layer of noodles. Top with 1/3 of remaining sauce. Add second layer of cheese and half of remaining veggies. Add third layer of noodles. Top with 1/2 of remaining sauce, along with the rest of the cheese mixture and veggies. Add last layer of noodles and top with remaining sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes. Top with additional sauce, as needed, and remaining cheese.