Vegivore Eats | Pasta Romanesco

Romanesco, in many ways, is nothing fancy.  It tastes like a cross between broccoli and a cauliflower.  The florets' cooked consistency is vaguely reminiscent of asparagus tops and the preparation nearly identical to other vegetables in the same family; clusters of buds on one main stalk.  Romanesco might be something you've never seen before, but is at once familiar, and is easy to use in place of other vegetables in recipes.  The real reason to snatch this up, however, is because it's perfectly and geometrically visually appealing.  Here is what makes romanesco fancy, a vegetable that begs to be photographed just as much as it does to be eaten.

"Imagine the psychedelic love child of broccoli and cauliflower with lime-green British punk hair, and you have something close to romanesco." -- Mario Batali (photo credit: The Village Voice)

This is fractal food at its finest.  The hybrid veggie with the natural chartreuse whorls was first documented in the 16th century -- one might say the romanesco is the traditional Brassica vegetables' elegant, grandstanding Italian cousin.

Romanesco probably only wears Versace.  Fancy, sassy b. (photo credit: Brooklyn Farmhouse)

 As usual, I recommend roasting for any first-time encounter with an unusual vegetable, as I think that the gentle caramelization brings out most natural ingredients' best flavors.  I didn't stray from this technique with this little head of romanesco (from Allandale Farm, Brookline), especially since I was already craving pasta and garlicky cream sauce and thought the oven-kissed florets would make a fine addition (and blog photo opp, huzzah). Especially when roasted together with some orange cauliflower, whole garlic cloves, strips of red bell pepper and French Citrus Fennel Sea Salt (from Saratoga Olive Oil Co., a gift from my Mom), this dish sang when it came together.  

Ready for the oven.

  For being so un-fancy in so many ways, roasting romanesco's spiky edible flowers adds something extraordinary to an otherwise pretty ordinary dish of cheesy pasta and veggies; sweet, exotic, tasting of the heat waves and cool nights associated with its short late summer season.

PASTA ROMANESCO

The perfect recipe for 1, maybe 2, whether it's for a regular lunch on the run...or for someone still unsure about trying something new-to-them like romanesco and wanting a "safe" vehicle in which to try it.

 1/3 lb head of romanesco, cut into florets

1/3 lb head of orange cauliflower, cut into florets

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

2 garlic cloves, skins on

olive oil

French Citrus Fennel Sea Salt*

freshly ground black pepper

 1/3 lb wide egg noodles

2 tsp cream

1/4c vegetable broth

1/8c + 2 Tbs finely grated Romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400.  Arrange the first four ingredients on a foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.  Toss to combine.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 mins (the romanesco should give easily when pierced with a fork but should not be in danger of falling apart).

In the meantime, cook the noodles til al dente in a pot of generously salted water.  Drain and set aside for the time being.

When your veggies are out of the oven, wait til the garlic cloves are cool enough to handle, squeeze them out of their skins and mash them.

Combine together the roasted veggies, garlic paste and pasta.  Add the cream and 1/8 c of cheese and add the broth in splashes, stirring in just enough to make a thin sauce.  Drizzle some extra olive oil over the top and scatter the last 2 Tbs of the cheese over the top.

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*PRO TIP: I realize that not everyone's Mom buys them seasoned salt, ha.  Substitute: kosher salt.  Stir in 1 Tbs lemon zest at the end.

Vegivore Eats | Creamy, Spicy Mushroom Soup

Sometimes with recipes (and everything else) it is just plain nice to simplify.  It is easy, when cooking without a recipe or riffing on someone else's, to end up with an ingredient list 25 items long...the result of adding a pinch of this, a pinch of that, adjusting with something else, adding one more thing, etc. Truly, though, the best recipes are high-quality ingredients, only a few of them, prepared well and beautifully.  That's all.  When I cook like this, I like to imagine I'm back in France, slowing down and savoring; preparing something so dressed-down and yet still so elegant.

What I envisioned with this simple-enough soup recipe was to create a bridge.  Labor Day has passed, wardrobes are starting to switch over (see also: long sleeves with shorts), and it's time to bridge the gap between summer and fall.  Mushrooms lend themselves beautifully to this idea, earthy and plump, reminding us that the bounty of the summer is nearly past but that the harvest isn't over.  This upcoming season is still about digging in the dirt: harvesting root vegetables, tilling old soil, keeping cold weather crops frost-proof until they're ready to pull around New Year's.  It's also a time when plants are beginning to die, returning to the earth from whence they came...and the opportunistic mushroom is there to partake and flourish in this decay. The fungi is also known to have medicinal properties; modulate immune responses, preparing our bodies for the onslaught of Indian summer cold season.  B vitamins, selenium, potassium.  Eat them cooked, eat them fresh: the perfect bridge, the mushroom.  Keep us healthy, keep us mindful.

I chose to use Cremini and Shiitake mushrooms (from Pennsylvania) in this 10-ingredient soup. The meatiness combined with the lack of huge gills made these a great candidate (as did the fact that they are only a few bucks a pound); I had these in mind long before hitting the market.  Especially with this recipe involving a long simmer -- they'll hold up and won't just brown and ick apart during the cooking process.
Vegetable stock and heat all together deepen the mushrooms' taste, and onions and Poblano peppers add flavor as well as bulk (and heat) to the broth.
Lemon thyme and oregano balance the darkness of the flavors I already had going on.  The brighter herb taste not only lightens the whole thing but also keeps us in the season we are in. ...Don't rush towards fall; let's linger a little right where we are, shall we?
A dollop of sour cream towards the end coooooools down this party, and a splash of the heavy cultivated wine, Amontillado sherry*, is excellent punctuation at the end.

Succulent, rich, creamy and lip-smacking good, your eyes might just roll back in your head at first taste.  And again with the notion of France, the food so welcoming and abundantly prepared.  Daydreams of Paris.  Serve with crusty bread for the full effect.**

Iggy's (Cambridge, MA) Francese bread.  OH MY GOD, SO GOOD.  Goodbye, loaf, I hardly knew ye. 

CREAMY, SPICY MUSHROOM SOUP

Serves 4

3 Tbs butter

3 Tbs olive oiil

large yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 Poblano peppers, seeded and diced

1 lb Cremini and Shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed and quartered (halve the little guys)

32 oz carton of vegetable stock

3 tsp lemon thyme***

1 tsp oregano

1/3c sour cream

2 Tbs sherry

salt and black pepper to taste

In a medium-sized pot, over medium heat, melt a tablespoon each of the butter and olive oil.  Add in your onions and stir occasionally for several minutes, softening them without browning them.  Add your diced Poblanos towards the end of this stage.  Don't worry, they'll cook.  Don't let your onions turn to mush, just move on after a minute.

Add your mushrooms and the rest of the butter and olive oil.  Turn your heat to medium-low. Let 'em sizzle in there, stirring, let that amazing Maillard reaction do what it does best: caramelize the mushrooms.  There's a lot of moisture in the mushrooms, so you're looking for the water to be released, you'll see that at the bottom of your pot.  Stir through this until the pot is dry and the mushrooms have taken on a gorgeous reddish-brown color.

At this point add 3 1/2 cups of the vegetable stock and the herbs.  Turn your heat to medium (or even medium-high) and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Then, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes.

Stir in your sour cream and then your sherry.  Take the soup off the heat and allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then use a blender/food processor/immersion blender/implement of destruction to puree the soup entirely.  You may have to do this in batches.  That's better than making a giant mess and/or burning yourself, so take your time.  Add broth to thin as necessary, blend thoroughly.

Season to taste.

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*PRO TIP:  Don't confuse cooking sherry (or way worse, sherry vinegar) with actual sherry.  You're gonna want to go real-deal with this recipe, since this ends up a predominant flavor.  Yes, it sucks to buy a big bottle of booze you may not just drink straight-up.  Therefore, I give you this, the Sherry Cobbler cocktail.  ...Indeed, that bottle will be used.  Try with lemonade instead of the sugar and fruit.  You're welcome.

**PRO TIP: Make this a complete meal by schmearing your bread with peanut butter.  The umami of the peanut butter and the mushrooms will actually go pretty well together, and you'll get protein to boot.

***PRO TIP: no lemon thyme?  Substitute with regular thyme, and squeeze some lemon into the near-finished soup -- after the long simmer but before the sour cream.

Making Late Night Snacks: The Creamy Noodle by Sarah Sparks

It's the time for another Late Night Snack with a visit from Large Curd Cottage Cheese and Leftover Fettuccine Noodles. 

During the late night hours, I have grown accustomed to finding fast and simple snacks.

I am keeping this short and sweet, because you know, it IS 4:21 in the morning, and I want to get my grub on fast and easy. My mission: find two ingredients to combine and consume in less than two minutes. 2:2

INGREDIENT #1

Leftover Fettuccine Noodles; Microwave 30 Seconds In Microwave Dish