Siren Song Farm Newsletter
Volume 9
Hello wonderful CSAers!
This week I am sharing recipes from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Susan in Italy. Susan is an American teacher in Italy who writes the “Porcini Chronicles.” I stumbled upon her blog last year when I was desperately searching for a decent recipe for real sourdough bread. Her recipe is simple but comes out amazing. If any of you want to try it I will make some sourdough starter up for you. I hope you enjoy the Italian recipe theme of this week’s recipes. The heirloom tomatoes are just coming on so in the coming weeks we can all experiment with some fun tomato recipes.
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather.
Jen
Bruschetta di Melitsanosalata
Here's an Italian style way to eat a summery Greek salad or dip: Bruschetta, of course is a snack of grilled Italian bread topped with something yummy. In this case it's melitsano(eggplant)salata(salad).
This Greek eggplant salad is the best I know if. I’m not a fan of the Italian sweet and sour eggplant caponata, but this Greek dish really has me. Try it on some grilled Italian bread. Yum!
1 medium-sized eggplant
1 small roma tomato, minced
½ cup minced red or yellow onion, soaked in cold water then drained**
1 clove garlic, mashed
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
**I think dishes with raw onion taste better if the onion is soaked in cold water and drained first. The bright, zingy onion flavor remains but the overpowering, sometimes acrid taste is washed away before it ever gets the chance to ruin your dish.
Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Leave the eggplant stem attached but pull the excess leafy-green cap off so that all of the eggplant skin is exposed. Prick the skin in several places with a knife so that steam can escape without the eggplant exploding in the oven. Place the eggplant on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 1 hour. Cook until the eggplant is uniformly soft and the skin has turned from purple to brown. Remove from oven. Let cool slightly. As soon as you can handle it, slice the eggplant in half longways. Scoop out all the meat with a large spoon, chop roughly, salt and place in a large mesh strainer over a recipient. Cover the eggplant with a plate and weigh it down. I use a full glass of water on top of the plate as a weight. Let stand for at least another hour until the eggplant has let go of a lot of it’s juices. Meanwhile chop, mince and mash the other ingredients. When the eggplant is ready, add everything together in a serving bowl. It tastes best after macerating together for at least an hour or 2. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
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Horta (Wilted Field Greens With Lemon and Olive Oil)
The basic recipe for cooking these greens goes like this:
2 pounds of cleaned but not chopped dark greens
1/2 lemon
2 tbsp the best extra virgin olive oil you can find*
1 tbsp salt plus salt to taste
Bring pot of water to the boil
Add the greens in bunches.
Cover the pot and bring back to the boil.
Boil until tender (3-4 minutes )
Drain and serve hot or room temperature with salt, extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
*This is a great chance to appreciate the flavor of great extra virgin olive oil as you just drizzle it on at the end and never let it touch heat!
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Pasta alla Norma
Dinner for a hungry 2 or primo piatto for 4:
1 medium-sized eggplant
1 tbsp salt
5 tbsps olive oil, total
2 med. garlic cloves chopped fine
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp oregan dried, of course
1 lb fresh or canned roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 pound (250 grams) spaghetti
5-7 medium fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata (a dry, pressed version of fresh ricotta, similar to feta (but drier) in texture.
First cut the eggplant into a 1/2 inch dice and place in a collander, sprinkled with salt. Let stand for 1 hour. Meanwhile, prep all the other ingredients.
Place 2 tbsps oil in a large frying pan. Sautee the garlic for less than a minute until it turns blonde, no darker. Add tomatoes, oregano and red pepper flakes and simmer until the tomatoes break down into a chunky sauce, about 15 minutes. At this point take them off the heat.
Put the remaining 3 tbsps of oil in another frying pan and add the drained and towel-dried eggplant pieces. Fry them on all sides, about 7-8 minutes. Transfer eggplant to the tomato sauce.
Boil the spaghetti according to package directions and add it to the sauce once it's al dente. Flip the pan a few times to distribute the sauce onto all the spaghetti, sprinkle on the basil and ricotta salata and serve piping hot. Enjoy!
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Torta di Zucchini e Ricotta
Ingredients:
2 lbs zucchini, diced very fine
1 onion diced, very fine
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp pesto sauce*
250 grams (about 8 ozs) of whole milk ricotta cheese
1 package of puff pastry
Heat the oil over medium and add the onion. Sautee until translucent then add the zucchini. Cook until it has rendered it's juices and they have evaporated. Take off the heat and cool. Mix in the pesto (or herbs) and ricotta. Taste and correct for salt and pepper. The end product will be tastier if you do this ahead of time and bake the next day.
Line a pie tin with the puff pastry, dock and add the filling. Bake in a 350F pre-heated oven until the crust is browned and the filling is set.
*You can vary the herbs you put into this dish
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Best Tiramisù
I often find Tiramisù to be too overwhelming, too heavy too sweet, too alcoholic. My version has just the right balance of flavors to leave you satisfied, not overfull at the end of a meal. The combination of the great creaminess of mascarpone and the salty creaminess of cream cheese give this dish a pleasant roundness of flavor. I also much prefer a small amount of sharp liquor like rum or grappa for this dish rather than a large amount of sweet marsala or Kahlua. Most of the sweetness in this dessert comes from the ladyfinger cookies themselves. Here are the ingredients:
3 very fresh eggs, separated
8 ozs mascarpone cheese
8 ozs cream cheese
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp granulated sugar
¾ cup espresso, cold
2 tbsp rum or grappa
18 ladyfinger cookies
pure cocoa powder to sprinkle on top
Whip the egg whites until they reach the hard peak stage (when you pull out the beaters, the egg whites make a peak that stays straight up and doesn’t fall over). In a separate bowl, mix the mascarpone, cream cheese, egg yolks and powdered sugar to form a smooth cream. Add the whipped egg whites and fold them in until the mixture is smooth and uniform. Spread 1/3 of the mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 shallow baking dish. (At least that’s what I use. This will NOT be cooked so you can put the Tiramisù in any kind of container, even plastic) Dip the ladyfingers one by one in the coffee mixture then nestle them into the cream on their sides making sure to leave very little room between cookies. Also, be careful to dip the ladyfingers very quickly, do not let them sit in the coffee mixture or the dish will end up soggy. You want only the outside of the cookie to be saturated at first, the interior will slowly soften in the refrigerator as the dish sets. Continue until you have used up all 18 ladyfingers or have filled the bottom of the dish completely. On my 9x13 baking dish, I fit exactly 18 cookies set on their sides. Toward the end of the process, many must be broken before dipping to fit into the spaces available. Once you have filled the dish with one layer of ladyfingers, add the rest of the cream mixture and let it nestle in between the cookies. Even out the top with a spatula, cover and refrigerate (ideally) overnight or at least 4 hours. Before serving sprinkle the cocoa through a mesh strainer onto the top of the Tiramisù (some of the brown coffee may have stained the white cream and the cocoa provides great camouflage, not only great flavor).
Volume 9
Hello wonderful CSAers!
This week I am sharing recipes from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Susan in Italy. Susan is an American teacher in Italy who writes the “Porcini Chronicles.” I stumbled upon her blog last year when I was desperately searching for a decent recipe for real sourdough bread. Her recipe is simple but comes out amazing. If any of you want to try it I will make some sourdough starter up for you. I hope you enjoy the Italian recipe theme of this week’s recipes. The heirloom tomatoes are just coming on so in the coming weeks we can all experiment with some fun tomato recipes.
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather.
Jen
Bruschetta di Melitsanosalata
Here's an Italian style way to eat a summery Greek salad or dip: Bruschetta, of course is a snack of grilled Italian bread topped with something yummy. In this case it's melitsano(eggplant)salata(salad).
This Greek eggplant salad is the best I know if. I’m not a fan of the Italian sweet and sour eggplant caponata, but this Greek dish really has me. Try it on some grilled Italian bread. Yum!
1 medium-sized eggplant
1 small roma tomato, minced
½ cup minced red or yellow onion, soaked in cold water then drained**
1 clove garlic, mashed
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
**I think dishes with raw onion taste better if the onion is soaked in cold water and drained first. The bright, zingy onion flavor remains but the overpowering, sometimes acrid taste is washed away before it ever gets the chance to ruin your dish.
Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Leave the eggplant stem attached but pull the excess leafy-green cap off so that all of the eggplant skin is exposed. Prick the skin in several places with a knife so that steam can escape without the eggplant exploding in the oven. Place the eggplant on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 1 hour. Cook until the eggplant is uniformly soft and the skin has turned from purple to brown. Remove from oven. Let cool slightly. As soon as you can handle it, slice the eggplant in half longways. Scoop out all the meat with a large spoon, chop roughly, salt and place in a large mesh strainer over a recipient. Cover the eggplant with a plate and weigh it down. I use a full glass of water on top of the plate as a weight. Let stand for at least another hour until the eggplant has let go of a lot of it’s juices. Meanwhile chop, mince and mash the other ingredients. When the eggplant is ready, add everything together in a serving bowl. It tastes best after macerating together for at least an hour or 2. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horta (Wilted Field Greens With Lemon and Olive Oil)
The basic recipe for cooking these greens goes like this:
2 pounds of cleaned but not chopped dark greens
1/2 lemon
2 tbsp the best extra virgin olive oil you can find*
1 tbsp salt plus salt to taste
Bring pot of water to the boil
Add the greens in bunches.
Cover the pot and bring back to the boil.
Boil until tender (3-4 minutes )
Drain and serve hot or room temperature with salt, extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
*This is a great chance to appreciate the flavor of great extra virgin olive oil as you just drizzle it on at the end and never let it touch heat!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pasta alla Norma
Dinner for a hungry 2 or primo piatto for 4:
1 medium-sized eggplant
1 tbsp salt
5 tbsps olive oil, total
2 med. garlic cloves chopped fine
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp oregan dried, of course
1 lb fresh or canned roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 pound (250 grams) spaghetti
5-7 medium fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata (a dry, pressed version of fresh ricotta, similar to feta (but drier) in texture.
First cut the eggplant into a 1/2 inch dice and place in a collander, sprinkled with salt. Let stand for 1 hour. Meanwhile, prep all the other ingredients.
Place 2 tbsps oil in a large frying pan. Sautee the garlic for less than a minute until it turns blonde, no darker. Add tomatoes, oregano and red pepper flakes and simmer until the tomatoes break down into a chunky sauce, about 15 minutes. At this point take them off the heat.
Put the remaining 3 tbsps of oil in another frying pan and add the drained and towel-dried eggplant pieces. Fry them on all sides, about 7-8 minutes. Transfer eggplant to the tomato sauce.
Boil the spaghetti according to package directions and add it to the sauce once it's al dente. Flip the pan a few times to distribute the sauce onto all the spaghetti, sprinkle on the basil and ricotta salata and serve piping hot. Enjoy!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torta di Zucchini e Ricotta
Ingredients:
2 lbs zucchini, diced very fine
1 onion diced, very fine
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp pesto sauce*
250 grams (about 8 ozs) of whole milk ricotta cheese
1 package of puff pastry
Heat the oil over medium and add the onion. Sautee until translucent then add the zucchini. Cook until it has rendered it's juices and they have evaporated. Take off the heat and cool. Mix in the pesto (or herbs) and ricotta. Taste and correct for salt and pepper. The end product will be tastier if you do this ahead of time and bake the next day.
Line a pie tin with the puff pastry, dock and add the filling. Bake in a 350F pre-heated oven until the crust is browned and the filling is set.
*You can vary the herbs you put into this dish
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Best Tiramisù
I often find Tiramisù to be too overwhelming, too heavy too sweet, too alcoholic. My version has just the right balance of flavors to leave you satisfied, not overfull at the end of a meal. The combination of the great creaminess of mascarpone and the salty creaminess of cream cheese give this dish a pleasant roundness of flavor. I also much prefer a small amount of sharp liquor like rum or grappa for this dish rather than a large amount of sweet marsala or Kahlua. Most of the sweetness in this dessert comes from the ladyfinger cookies themselves. Here are the ingredients:
3 very fresh eggs, separated
8 ozs mascarpone cheese
8 ozs cream cheese
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp granulated sugar
¾ cup espresso, cold
2 tbsp rum or grappa
18 ladyfinger cookies
pure cocoa powder to sprinkle on top
Whip the egg whites until they reach the hard peak stage (when you pull out the beaters, the egg whites make a peak that stays straight up and doesn’t fall over). In a separate bowl, mix the mascarpone, cream cheese, egg yolks and powdered sugar to form a smooth cream. Add the whipped egg whites and fold them in until the mixture is smooth and uniform. Spread 1/3 of the mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 shallow baking dish. (At least that’s what I use. This will NOT be cooked so you can put the Tiramisù in any kind of container, even plastic) Dip the ladyfingers one by one in the coffee mixture then nestle them into the cream on their sides making sure to leave very little room between cookies. Also, be careful to dip the ladyfingers very quickly, do not let them sit in the coffee mixture or the dish will end up soggy. You want only the outside of the cookie to be saturated at first, the interior will slowly soften in the refrigerator as the dish sets. Continue until you have used up all 18 ladyfingers or have filled the bottom of the dish completely. On my 9x13 baking dish, I fit exactly 18 cookies set on their sides. Toward the end of the process, many must be broken before dipping to fit into the spaces available. Once you have filled the dish with one layer of ladyfingers, add the rest of the cream mixture and let it nestle in between the cookies. Even out the top with a spatula, cover and refrigerate (ideally) overnight or at least 4 hours. Before serving sprinkle the cocoa through a mesh strainer onto the top of the Tiramisù (some of the brown coffee may have stained the white cream and the cocoa provides great camouflage, not only great flavor).
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