Category — Good Eats

After weeks of eating and drinking far too much and too often, Charles and I decided that a little austerity would be a good thing for a change.  Since January 2, we’ve been eating very simply.   Poule au Pot might sound elegant, but it’s just the French way of saying Chicken in the Pot, a recipe in The French Slow Cooker.   I decided to make it the other night when the sudden cold snap had us craving something comforting.

Basically, Chicken in the Pot is a one-dish dinner with chicken and vegetables steaming in a bit of broth.  I bought a nice fat chicken and put it in my slow cooker on a bed of leeks, carrots, celery and rosemary, added some chicken broth and turned on the heat.  That’s about it.
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A few years back, my friend Donna and I decided to make cassoulet, a hearty French bean and meat stew.  First we made stock, then we soaked and cooked the beans, marinated the meats, made duck confit, then simmered it all together.  It took several days to get it ready and along the way we scrubbed a mountain of pots and pans.  The finished cassoulet tasted great, but neither of us attempted to make it again.  It was just too much work.  Until it dawned on me one day that cassoulet was a perfect dish for the slow cooker!

A slow cooker (also known as a Crock Pot, though that is a proprietary name belonging to the Rival Company) is ideal for simmering, stewing, and braising.  If you start by using good fresh ingredients, you are sure to have delicious results.   Since a slow cooker cooks with gentle heat over a long period of time, it gives all of the flavors a chance to blend together.  For my slow cooker cassoulet, I put the beans, broth, meats, and flavorings into the pot, skipping the traditional marinating step since everything would be cooking together for hours.  I put the cover on and set the timer.  There was nothing else to do, so I went out for the day.

When I got home, I closed my eyes and inhaled.  Enticing aromas filled the air.  I felt as if I had arrived at the farmhouse kitchen of the French grand-mere I never had!  The meat was fall off the bone tender.  The beans were creamy-soft and had soaked up all the flavors of the meats, garlic and herbs.  Best of all, it was just as good as the classic version.  We had a great meal and since cassoulet is so simple to put together in the slow cooker, I don’t have to wait for a special occasion to make it again.

French food has a bad reputation for being fancy and difficult and that may be true for some restaurant fare.  But in my new book The French Slow Cooker, you will find recipes for simple, rustic food, the kind of things that French home cooks make every day.   No special equipment or tricky techniques, and all of the ingredients are available in a well stocked supermarket. Add a little French flair to chicken soup and try my Chicken Bouillabaisse.  Or how about Short Ribs braised with dark beer and shallots.  The Meatballs Bayonnaise simmered in a spicy sauce make a great sandwich on cold afternoon, maybe even Super Bowl Sunday.   For a party, impress your guests with a country-style paté — which is no more difficult than making a meatloaf, or rillettes, French style potted pork to spread on a crisp baguette.  And don’t miss out on the delicious desserts, like Raspberry Bread Pudding or Lemon Creams.

I’ll be posting some of the recipes over the next few weeks and I hope you will give them a try and let me know what you think!

Several years ago, I was signing my book A Fresh Taste of Italy at the Greenmarket in New York’s Union Square.  A man stopped by and told me he was looking for a recipe for vecchiarelle, meaning little old ladies.  He explained  that they were something like struffoli, only shaped like gnocchi and flavored with red wine.  As he described them, I began to remember the struffoli my godmother Jean would bring us every Christmas.  Somehow, I had forgotten all about them, even though my family loved them.  We always called them Red Wine Struffoli.

As soon as I could, I called my mom to ask her if she had a recipe.  She’d forgotten all about them, and she might have had a recipe at one time, but couldn’t find it anywhere.  Disappointed, I mentioned the incident to my sister, who thought she had once had it, but couldn’t find the recipe either.  One day, she was visiting our Aunt Millie and mentioned that she was looking for the recipe.  Aunt Millie remembered them too, looked in her recipe book and there was the recipe, carefully handwritten by my mother on pink notepaper more than 30 years ago.   When I finally got the recipe I knew how lucky I was since I hear stories all the time about family recipes that are lost because no one took the time to write down.

Vecchiarelle or Red Wine Struffoli

So here’s the recipe for Vecchiarelle, Little Old Ladies, or Red Wine Struffoli.  Copy it, put it in a safe place, and I hope it inspires you to write down your family’s treasured recipes for future generations to enjoy and think of you.

 LITTLE OLD LADIES

Vecchiarelle

 Serves 8 – 10

4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

3/4 cup robust red wine

1/4 cup olive oil plus more for frying

1 cup honey

Colored candy confetti

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg, wine and 1/4 cup oil until blended.  Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.  Stir until the flour is moistened.  Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
3. Cut the dough into 8 pieces.  Roll each piece into 3/4 inch thick ropes.  Cut the ropes into 1/2 inch lengths.
4. Holding a cheese grater in one hand, use the thumb of your other hand to press and roll  each piece of dough over the medium holes to roughen the surface on one side and form an indentation on the other side.
5. Heat about 2 inches of oil in a deep, heavy pot until the temperature reaches 370° F. on a deep frying thermometer or use an electric deep fryer.
6. Carefully lower just enough of the pieces into the pot so that they form a single layer and are not crowded.  Cool, stirring occasionally, until they brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Remove the pieces with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels.  Repeat with the remaining dough.
8. Heat the honey in a large pot just until it warms and thins out.  Remove from the heat.  Add the fried pieces and stir well until the honey is cooled and the struffoli are coated.  When completely cold, scrape the struffoli into a cookie tin and seal tightly.  Sprinkle with the candy confetti just before serving.

Every year about this time, I hear from cooks with questions about struffoli.  These little honey covered nuggets of fried dough are made in many places in Italy, but are most popular in Naples and the South.  To many Italian Americans and Italians, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them.  Making struffoli is a great tradition to pass on to the next generation.  I have given the recipe before, and it is in several of my cookbooks, but  if you don’t have it, here is a link.  This is a recipe from my book 1,000 Italian Recipes.   http://michelescicolone.com/struffoli-christmas/

Now that you have the recipe, I thought I would pass along a couple of tips. [Read more →]

Last week Charles and I taught cooking and wine classes aboard the Crystal Serenity on a 12 day cruise around the Eastern Mediterranean.  This magnificent cruise ship, which has often been named the best in the world, has everything you could want — great accommodations,  activities, classes, entertainment, a spa, restaurants, bars and amazing food. I say the food was amazing because I read somewhere that during the course of one voyage, as many as 10,000 meals are served!  

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Of all the regional cooking styles of Italy, none is so misunderstood as Tuscan.  Traditionally,  Tuscan food is as simple as can be — a handful of good ingredients and simple techniques add up to memorable eating.  I was reminded of that last week at a dinner hosted by the Sada Family of Fattoria Carpoli with a menu prepared by Emanuele Vallini of Ristorante La Carabaccia in Bibbona, Tuscany.

We began with a passed fritto misto of coccoli, fried bread dumplings, zucchini flowers, and sage leaves accompanied by the Sada family’s fresh and citrussy Vermentino Toscana IGT 2010.  The fritti were perfectly fried and charmingly presented in cones of brown paper, so they were easy to enjoy as we stood around and sipped our wine.

In the dining room, Davide Sada told us about how he founded the winery in 1998 in the beautiful coastal region of Tuscany known as the Maremma.  He spoke with pride about the food of the region and introduced the first course, pappa al pomodoro, a thick soup made with stale bread, ripe tomatoes, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.  He explained that in Tuscany, stale bread was either fed to the chickens, or used to make pappa.  The beautifully orangey-red soup was delicately spicy and also matched well with the Vermentino.

Farro della Garfagnana, spelt cooked with pancetta and leeks, was molded into a disk and served on a sweet bell pepper cream and topped with frizzled leeks.  The smoky bacon flavor complemented the sweetness of the peppers and crisp leeks.  With it we drank the Integolo Toscana IGT 2009, a blend of 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% Montepulciano, which Mr. Sada said he had developed as an everyday drinking wine.  At under $15 per bottle, I could see enjoying this wine with a wide variety of foods.

Tuscans are great soup eaters, so our next course was another classic of the region.  According to Signor Sada, Caterina di Medici brought the recipe for Florentine onion soup with her to France and taught the cooks at the French court to make this classic dish.  I think I’ve heard that one before!  The slow cooked red onions were sweet and tangy.  The crowning touch was an egg yolk in its shell to add or not, as you preferred.  It brought a creamy richness to the  luscious soup.  With that we drank the Baldoro Toscana IGT, a robust wine meant for aging.

The filet of pork in an an herb and walnut crust was the next course.  Pork filet is not the tastiest cut, but the flavorful crust enhanced it and the meat was cooked to rosy perfection.  It went beautifully with the Carpoli Toscana IGT 2006.  This was Mr. Sada’s Super Tuscan wine, and it had big ripe red fruit flavors.

Dessert was a masterpiece of simplicity:  a luscious cream of mascarpone, blended with crumbled cantucci, the classic Tuscan almond dipping cookie and a few berries.  The finishing touch was a glass of espresso to pour over the dessert as you wished.  I loved the combination with the sweet and concentrated Vermentino Toscana IGT 2008, a late harvest dessert wine.  What could be simpler, or more elegant?

Signor Sada told us that this is the kind of food they eat and wine they drink in Tuscany every day.  He added that he firmly believed that if you work in quality, you will be happy.  After a dinner as good as this one, I think that he must be very happy indeed.