Ribollita

Ribollita, an "Everyday Italian" recipe, is a spin on hearty vegetable soup. Although it's full of veggies, the olive oil and pancetta lend it a savory heartiness. You probably already have the ingredients for it in your pantry and freezer! I made many ingredient substitutions (as noted in parentheses), but this recipe is very flexible and you can fine tune it according to your palate. My father makes a similar tomato-based vegetable soup; his mother handed the recipe down to him.

I refrigerated the leftover soup and reheated it for lunch the next day. This would also keep well frozen for up to a month.RIBOLLITA

makes 6 to 8 servings

1/4 c extra virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling on bread
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped (I cut up baby carrots)
4 oz pancetta, chopped (I used a little less)
2 cloves garlic, 1 minced and 1 whole
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs tomato paste
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 lb frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (I used frozen petite peas)
1 (15 oz) can cannelloni beans, drained (I used frozen corn that had been sliced off the cob)
1 tbs herbs de Provence (I added thyme, marjoram, and basil to taste)
3 c chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 (3") piece Parmesan rind (I added a few tsp of grated Parmesan to taste)
4 to 6 ciabatta rolls, halved lengthwise or 1 loaf, sliced
Grated Parmesan, for serving

Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, pancetta, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook until the onion is golden brown and the pancetta is crisp, about 7 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until dissolved. Add tomatoes and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release all the brown bits. Add the spinach, beans, herbs, stock, bay leaf, and Parmesan rind. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Drizzle the ciabatta halves with olive oil. Toast until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and rub the top of the toasts with the whole garlic clove. Place the toasts in the serving bowls and ladle the soup over the toasts. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve immediately.

Peach Bread Pudding

Today, I made Peach Bread Pudding, a recipe from my Moosewood dessert book. I chopped up 6 peaches and used 1 tbs of Appleton Estate rum, which my sister brought back from Jamaica last year. For the bread cubes, I used 2 slices of Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Raisin bread and half of a loaf of homemade cinnamon raisin bread.

The Moosewood Collective recommends serving this with raspberry sauce, rum custard sauce, and/or a dollop of whipped cream. It would also be delightful with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!PEACH BREAD PUDDING

serves 8 to 10

5 c French, Italian or cinnamon raisin bread or challah, cut into small cubes
4 c milk
4 large eggs
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 c packed brown sugar
3 c chopped, peeled fresh or frozen peaches
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbs rum (optional)
2 tbs butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla, and 1 c of the brown sugar. Pour over the bread cubes, stir lightly, and set aside.

In a separate bowl, toss the peaches with the remaining 1/4 c of brown sugar and the cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum, if desired. Stir into the bread mixture. Melt the butter right in a 9x13" baking pan in the oven and when the butter has melted, tilt the pan to coat.

Pour the bread and peach mixture evenly into the buttered baking pan and bake until puffed and golden, about 50 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

2 Variations on Banana Bread

This particular recipe comes from "The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day."

I made two large loaves: one with 1/2 c of chopped pecans and the other with 1/2 c of semisweet chocolate chips. The photos depict what remains of the chocolate chip banana bread loaf!

BANANA BREAD

makes 1 large loaf or 4 small loaves

1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9"x5"x3" loaf pan or several smaller pans.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well.

Sift the dry ingredients together and combine with the butter mixture. Blend well. Add the bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir well. If using, stir in the nuts or chocolate chips and pour into the prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Fruit with Cardamom Yogurt

I've been making recipes from my Moosewood dessert book quite a lot as of late, and this is an unusual spin on fruit-and-yogurt. The cardamom is an unexpected flavor profile. You could serve it as dessert, a side dish, a snack, or breakfast.

According to the editors, "We suggest cubed melon and seedless grapes, but this sauce is also delightful with blackberries, peaches, pears, or bananas. For an interesting change in texture, try adding chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans, or shredded coconut."

FRUIT WITH CARDAMOM YOGURT

serves 4 to 6

1 c yogurt (I used lowfat plain yogurt)
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs frozen orange juice concentrate (I used regular orange juice)
1/2 tsp freshly grated lime peel (I used orange peel)
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
dash of salt
2 c cubed cantaloupe or honeydew melon (I omitted this)
2 c green or red seedless grapes (I used 4 c red seedless grapes)

In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, orange juice concentrate, lime peel, cardamom, and salt. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Combine the melon and grapes in a bowl. Pour the yogurt mixture over the fruit and toss gently. Serve chilled.

Baked Apples

As it transitions into fall, I begin to crave doughnuts, pumpkin and pecan pies, and apples in all forms. There are many variations on a baked apple recipe; this one comes courtesy of Mireille Guiliano's "French Women Don't Get Fat."

BAKED APPLES

serves 4

1/3 c chopped walnuts (I substituted homemade maple-glazed walnuts)
4 apples (Cortland, Golden Delicious, or Rome Beauty are recommended)
4 tsp butter
4 tsp sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbs water

Place the walnuts on a baking sheets and toast them in a 250 degree oven for about 5 minutes, until they are fragrant. Set aside.

Wash and core the apples. Place them in a baking dish. Combine the butter, sugar-cinnamon mixture, and toasted walnuts.

Fill the cavity of each apple with the mixture, dividing it evenly among the 4 apples. Pour the water into the bottom of the baking dish.

Bake the apples at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve warm. You can make the dessert more festive by pouring 1 tsp of heavy cream over each apple just before serving, garnishing with a sprig of mint for color, or placing an edible flower on the side.

Sugar Cookies

I made about 5 dozen sugar cookies last Friday and individually decorated them with a confectioner's sugar-based icing and various sprinkling sugars. Sadly, we've eaten most of them by now, and I only snapped photos of a few paltry remnants. The following may not have been the prettiest of the batch, but they still taste quite good with a mug of homemade cocoa!

An elephant and two rhinos:
Two ice cream cones and a guitar:

White Nectarines and Pate Brisee Stars

When I made my Fourth of July Blueberry Pie (see separate entry), I had several leftover stars cut from the pie crust. Rather than let them go to waste, I used them in a quick summer dessert of my own creation.

In a shallow ovenproof container, I formed concentric rings of white nectarine slices. I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top of them. Then, I overlapped the pate brisee stars atop the fruit. With a pastry brush, I dabbed a mixture of 1 tbs heavy cream and 1 large egg yolk all over the dish. I baked it at 350 degrees until the nectarines became soft and tender and the stars turned a flaky golden brown.This recipe enabled me to use up both ripe fruit and leftover pastry scraps!

Envirosax

Billions of plastic bags clog up landfills every year. Worldwide, around 200,000 plastic bags are added to landfills every single hour. To combat wastefulness, it's important to tote your own reusable water bottle (I prefer the Sigg brand) and have several lightweight reusable grocery/storage bags at the ready. Reduce, reuse, and recycle, right?

For the past year, I've relied on Envirosax Reusable Grocery Bags, which I purchased from one of my favorite websites, www.delight.com. These Australian bags are available from many purveyors and catalogs, and you can purchase them individually or as a set of five (a set usually costs around $33-$40, depending on your source). In Cambridge, my favorite local bookstore even sold them at the cash register. I have the Flora set pictured below:Each Envirosax arrives all snapped up into a lightweight little package, but, with the flick of your hand, it unfurls into a very large bag that you can easily sling over your shoulder. The material expands to hold whatever odds and ends you need to tote, and the bag is 5x as strong as a regular plastic bag. And...it's definitely more fashionable than any old brown paper bag!

As you can see, Envirosax come in many colors and sets, so if you prefer a more gender-neutral design or something a little less bold, there's a bag to suit your whim:
Evidently, Cameron Diaz is also a fan of Envirosax:Finally, many stores will offer you a small discount if you bring your own bags. For example, Whole Foods will deduct $0.05 for every reusable bag you fill up at the checkout counter. I always toss two or three Envirosax in my luggage and two in my everyday leather shoulder bag. They're also great for storing in your glove compartment. Envirosax are easy on the environment and easy on your eyes!

Fresh Coconut Cake

My mom purchased this book at the recent annual book sale of our public library:The Junior League of Hampton Roads, Inc. (aka Richmond) published it way back in 1975. It's filled with traditional Southern recipes that have been handed down through the generations.

Last week, I made the Fresh Coconut Cake. The editors note that this recipe has been around for at least four generations. The shiny white icing resembles nothing so much as Marshmallow Fluff! From above, the entire cake looks like a Hostess Sno Ball:
I omitted the black walnuts and baked the batter in two 9" cake pans instead of the recommended three.

FRESH COCONUT CAKE

For the cake:

6 eggs
2 c sugar
1/2 c butter or margarine
1 c hot milk
2 1/2 c flour, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 c black walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Separate eggs. Reserve 4 egg whites for icing. Beat egg yolks, 2 egg whites and sugar at medium-high speed on electric mixer until light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Melt butter in hot milk. Add 1/2 c flour to eggs and sugar mixture, beating slowly. Add half of the hot milk mixture, 1 c flour and remaining hot milk. Then add the rest of the flour, vanilla, baking powder and nuts. Pour into three 9" greased or lined cake pans. Bake 20 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from pans.

For the icing:

1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c water
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c fresh coconut, shredded

Boil sugar and water for 2 minutes. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until eggs stand up in stiff peaks, but are not dry. Pour boiling syrup into egg whites, beating at highest speed on mixer. When icing becomes stiff enough to spread (2-4 minutes), add vanilla. Spread between layers, on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with coconut.

Dark Chocolate Pudding with Bananas

This lightning-fast recipe comes courtesy of the "Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts." It's a great way to use up ripe bananas, and you can probably make it with ingredients that you already have in your pantry. I didn't go through the trouble of caramelizing the bananas, but they would add a decadent touch to a dark, dark chocolate dessert. I plan to make this a second time this week, albeit in my sister's New York galley kitchen!

DARK CHOCOLATE PUDDING WITH BANANAS

serves 4

For the banana layer:

2 ripe bananas
1 tbs butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs sugar

For the pudding:

1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 c sugar
3 tbs cornstarch
dash of salt
2 c milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Peel the bananas and slice them lengthwise into halves. In a heavy skillet, melt the butter on medium heat. Cook the bananas for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until golden and just beginning to brown. Transfer the bananas to a bowl and lightly mash them. Stir together the cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle over the bananas, and set aside.

In the saucepan, combine the cocoa, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. On medium heat, gradually add the milk, stirring briskly until the cocoa has dissolved. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes, until the pudding is boiling, thickened, and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

To assemble individual servings, pour about 1/4 c of the pudding into the bottom of each of the dessert cups, spoon in 1/4 of the mashed bananas and cover evenly with the remaining pudding. To present the dessert in a serving bowl, layer half of the pudding in the bottom of the bowl, evenly spread on all of the bananas, and top with the rest of the pudding. Serve chilled.

VARIATIONS:

For plain chocolate pudding, make this recipe without the cooked banana layer.

For a quick variation, layer the pudding with sliced raw bananas (sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, if you like).

Fourth of July Blueberry Pie

Although the people over at Martha Stewart deemed this a Fourth of July Blueberry Pie, I made it for Labor Day and it was a wild success. My grandmother--who turns 80 this weekend--wolfed down her entire slice in a few minutes flat. The decorative pie crust process is a bit tedious, but it's totally worth it for the showstopping results.FOURTH OF JULY BLUEBERRY PIE

all-purpose flour, for dusting
Pate Brisee (see recipe below)
8 cups (about 4 pints) fresh blueberries, picked over
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c cornstarch
1 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tbs heavy cream

On a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll out one disk of dough to a 12" round. With a dry pastry brush, sweep off excess flour; fit dough into a 9" glass pie plate, pressing it into the edges. Trim dough to a 1/2" overhand all around. Fold edge of dough over or under, and crimp as desired. Roll out remaining dough in the same manner; transfer dough (on parchment) to a baking sheet. Chill pie shell and dough until firm, about 30 minutes.

Place blueberries in a large bowl; with your hands, crush about 1/2 of the berries, letting them fall into the bowl as you work. Add the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice; stir to combine. Spoon mixture into chilled pie shell, mounding berries slightly in the center. Dot with butter. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Using a 2 1/2" star cookie cutter, cut out about 25 stars; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and cream. Lightly brush rim of chilled pie shell with egg wash. Arrange the reserved stars in a circular pattern on top of the fruit (with the tips touching), gently pressing over the berries, until covered. Brush the entire surface of rim and stars with egg wash, being careful not to let it pool. Freeze or refrigerate pie until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, with the rack in the lower third.

Place pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until the crust begins to turn golden, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking, rotating sheet halfway through, until the crust is deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling and have thickened, 40 to 50 minutes more. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool completely. The pie is best eaten the day it is baked, but it can be kept at room temperature, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for up to 2 days.


PATE BRISEE

makes enough for one double-crust or two single-crust 9" pies

For the flakiest crust, make sure all ingredients (including the flour) are cold before you begin.

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/4 c ice water, plus more if needed

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add the butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (To mix by hand, combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry blender.)

With the machine running, add the ice water through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until the dough holds together without being wet or sticky. Do not process more than 30 seconds. Test by squeezing a small amount of the dough together; if it is still too crumbly, add a bit more water, 1 tbs at a time.

Turn out the dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half, and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into flattened disks. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.

KitchenAid Cook for the Cure Measuring Cups & Spoons

I've had an OXO set of measuring cups and spoons for the past few years, but I recently upgraded to a KitchenAid Cook for the Cure set. True, the KitchenAid set performs the same basic function. But here's the difference: it's PINK!If you're not familiar with it, through the Cook for the Cure Program, KitchenAid donates 10% of the retail sales price for each pink item that is purchased and registered to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In total, the company donated over $1 million to the charitable foundation last year.

Although my KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer is a neutral Chrome Metallic shade, my 7-speed hand mixer is also part of the Cook for the Cure line and therefore pleasantly pink as well:At times, my kitchen really does resemble Barbie's Dream House!