I also want to tell you about two connected treasures/secrets. You get the treasure at the secret hiding place: Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. in Pittsburgh's STRIP DISTRICT. The website is: Pennmac.com they have all manner of Italian ingredients (in case you're not freaked out by imports--once again, I couldn't resist it).
The treasure is a cabernet sauvignon vinegar from Spain called Forum. My friend Susan says,"you could put this in a wine glass and drink it." I swear, you cannot get this vinegar ANYWHERE else. I've looked. It costs about $14. for a 12 ounce bottle, Penn Mac will ship it to ya.

no meat today

After yesterday's comments, I am going to relax with the greatest of all foods--beans and greens. Let me say that if you are a bean aficionado or wishing to become one, check out Rancho Gordo-- ranchogordo.com this gentleman is dedicated to the growing of heirloom beans. They are heaven.

So, in almost every culinary tradition there is some type of dish that uses beans and greens as a staple. I like to refer to these peasant dishes to the "cucina rustica" from my Italian heritage.

Method:

saute' a dice of carrot, celery,onion and garlic in olive oil with some sage and rosemary.* add 1-1/5 cups of cannellini or borlotti beans with the liquid they have been cooked in and heat them gently to allow the flavors to marry.

now, in another saute' pan, heat some olive oil and 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic. when the garlic renders some aroma add your washed, salted greens--(roughly chopped escarole, kale, broccoli, mustard greens your choice) and saute' until wilted. I usually don't do a mixture of the greens because sometimes I'm in the mood for broccoli, sometimes escarole.

Place the beans and greens side by side on a serving platter

or divide into pasta bowls to eat. This dish may also be eaten with a grain like short grain brown rice, polenta or, of course, pasta.
In summer, it's good with a Caprese salad and some crostini.

is nothing sacred?

My great friend Donna sent me an article from the New York Times (July 11) about a local "cook-off" here in Portland, Oregon where several chefs are presented with a pig to do with as they wish--cooking, curing, serving to the (I believe) $100. per ticket guests who decided to partake of this Roman Circus. That in itself, is not so goofy--in fact my friend Therese and I had actually thought about going since Portland is such a great meat town.
It turns out that two of the attendees got into an argument over what constitutes local--sustainable and all those other buzzwords that the food elitists seem to adore, which I sometimes am tempted to commit suicide (or murder) if I have to hear again. Apparently one or more of the pigs did not have the appropriate Oregon, Willamette Valley credentials and was actually, possibly from Kansas--God forbid. So these two pig headed (I couldn't resist it) bird brained, horses asses got into a fist fight!!! And guess what? That begged the question: what happens when California or Washington berries are added to supplement the local Oregon berries--they're thinking this ACTUALLY happened in some Portland restaurants! Throw those restaurant owners into jail next to Bernie Madoff or Charles Manson. God in heaven.
Enough. Let's just say that as an operating room nurse in a level one trauma center--those jerks
at the pig fest have no clue as to what anything means--if those kinds of arguments are the problems that constitute their lives--they have it made--I suggest that might have a cup of coffee, eat a bag of chips with a baloney sandwich and ponder their good fortune.

Seriously, you can eat the eggplant this way with a bit of Parmigiano sprinkled on it as a side dish,or as part of a fritto misto with other vegetables. To continue with this dish, arrange the fried eggplant in a baking dish and drizzle it with tomato sauce (the recipe I gave is fine). Sprinkle it with Parmigiano and heat it through in the oven for 15 minutes or so at 350.
If you like you can also use some mozzarella, but to my way of thinking it is not authentic.
In addition, when I mentioned Grana--it is a grating cheese similar to Parm, that contains some wheat--in this regard it makes the egg batter stick a bit better. What to do with the leftover batter? Fry it at the end like little fritters!!!
More about frying soon.

Eggplant parmigiano--this dish is either one of the best things anyone could ever eat--or a soggy mess. but, like piecrust, it's all technique. Always try to select medium sized, firm eggplants--i like to peel them in "stripes" so that you have some of the skin intact.Cut them into rounds, treat them with salt, and let them render their moisture as decribed in the last blog.

For the egg mixture you will need:

4-6 eggs

1/4 cup of finely chopped parsley

2/3 to 1 cup of grated parmigiano (or grana padano) i'll explain later

and salt and pepper to taste

Dredge the treated eggplant which have been blotted dry in a coating of flour--shake off the excess. Dip the eggplant into the egg mixture and fry until golden on both sides.

At this point you may just devour the eggplant without going any further, but get a grip!

Getting back to the eggplant rant--the best recipe for rattatouille is from Julia Child in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" volume one. As you can tell from the name, this is the (classic) French preparation of eggplant. Follow the recipe the way it is written--don't add a bunch of seasonings or herbs. Above all, the ingredients are cooked separately and combined to create a dish where all the components are discernable. Any cooking worth eating is worth the attention it requires. Eat this with roasted chicken or pork, or with any preparation of lamb, of course.
Next time I'll give you my method for eggplant Parmigiano--I'll gaurantee no one makes it better.

Salt and eggplants

Another thing I have been thinking about is eggplant--this is a vegetable, a melon, really, that gets a bad rap more often than not. There are a few reasons: it's a member of the nightshade family (although not everyone knows that) it's bitter--can be slimy and if not treated properly soaks up WAY too much oil and can become really fattening.

Not to be too egocentric about it, but more than one person has told me they have never eaten eggplant as good as I make it. Here's why---eggplant needs to be treated before it's cooked. By this I mean it needs to be salted so that its texture is essentially changed by eliminating the water that is mostly what this odd melon is composed of---

This treatment makes the eggplant a bit tougher, and eliminates the bitterness. In addition, it won't soak up so much oil in the cooking regardless of the dish you are making.

Cut the eggplant into the shape that you are wanting,(i.e. rounds for eggplant Parmigiana) and salt it --kosher salt is good for this. Let it sit on a wire rack or in a colander for at least a half hour( if you are dying to eat it and forgot this step) or as long as overnight if you are ahead of the curve! A couple hours is good. Now it can either be rinsed and patted dry or just patted dry, but REALLY dry it, either with a clean tea towel or paper towels. Now you are ready to make the best ratatouille, eggplant Parmigiana, grilled eggplant or eggplant salad on earth. I'll give ya the recipes next time--'til then, salt is your friend.

There's one other thing I didn't mention when I was writing about salt--that is: salt your salad greens in the bowl and let them sit a moment before tossing your salad with the dressing. I know, I know you're afraid they will wilt and become soggy. They won't. I learned this process form the French chef, Madeline Kamen--although I usually don't reveal my sources.
My friend Diane Starnick used to say the salads at my restaurant were so good because they had enough dressing--well, the idea here is that the salted lettuce takes the dressing in--this way you don't need as much and the flavor permeates the greens.
And, while I am on the salad subject--if you are using tomatoes in salad, cut them, add sliced onion if you are using it and some torn basil leaves--and some dried oregano. sprinkle with olive oil and salt. When you are ready to toss the salad, put the greens on top, salt them toss and then add the dressing--usually vinigrette for me.

dispelling the myths

Let's get to these ideas about cookng that are completely wrong.
Tomato sauce is not cooked for hours and hours--that only creates a sour acid sauce. One and a half to two hours is sufficent.
Salt doesn't kill you--just get rid of that iodized nonsense that the Morton hiers are living off of. Get some decent sea salt, Hain or the bulk sea salts you can find in places like Whole Foods or New Seasons. The mined pink mineral salt from Mexico has long been my staple.
Don't be afraid to use it.
Salt your pasta water--otherwise you end up with a bland pasta that requires a ton of parmigiano to correct it.
You also don't have to spend two fortunes on some of the designer salts that you might see in the above mentioned stores, but get familiar--the best cooks say, "change your salt and you will change your cooking" this is true.
Do not be afraid to salt beans as they are cooking--this is the way the flavor permeates the bean.
Remeber, before there ever was a refridgerator--salt was the main preservative.
Here's a folk tale: Attola the hun is credited with creating carpaccio-- they say that his band of maraurders placed the sliced beef under the saddles of their horses as they plundered in the carpathian mountains so that the salty sweat from the horses bodies preserved the meat.
Pretty ingenious, wasn't it ?
So, here's the tomato sauce recipe:
Two 28 oz. cans of plum tomatoes---I like Muir Glen the best
4-6 cloves of chopped garlic
a large handful of fresh basil
6-8 whole peppercorns
1/2 medium onion finely diced
2-3 tablespoons good quality olive oil
heat the oil in a sauce pan and add the garlic and onions and saute' until soft.
add the tomatoes and the torn basil leaves along with the peppercorns
bring to a simmer and allow this to cook for 1.5 to 2 hours
about 1/2 through the cooking, puree the softened tomatoes with and immersion blender or in the cuisinart and return them to thepan for the remainder of the cooking time.
correct the seasoning with salt at the end--tomatoes are acid and salty on their own that's why
it is added at the end--you may not even need it.
more later--strega

how is this possible?

It's possible because like any true craft, you understand the principles, you don't memorize the recipes. There are three generations of people in this country who can't cook. Wonder why we have an obesity epidemic? If you can't cook you will NEVER control your weight. So, my objective here is to give some good simple (note: I didn't say easy) ways to feed yourself, your family and your friends. You might want to read Micheal Pollens little tome called food rules to get started. As time goes on, I'm going to give you some serious opinions, help and ideas about what it means to us as individuals and as a community when we seriously consider what we eat.
I'm not talking about fru-fru presentations on a plate, or ordering hams from Spain, or deciding what $50. bottle of wine goes with what piece of bone marrow. I'm talking about the enjoyment of food and love of cooking that has sustained me for my entire life, the Italian family I grew up in.
I'm going to try not to rant, but that might be fun as well.
And yes, I have cooked professionally for over 30 years--but that's not what qualifies me here.
More soon.