Ciambotta (or Giambotta) con Salsicce

Ciambotta is a vegetable stew popular in Southern Italy, particularly in Calabria. It is similar to ratatouille which is made with eggplant, summer squash, sweet peppers and tomatoes. My Ciambotta has a few additional items that are not traditional (mushrooms, sausage) plus the very traditional ones potatoes which I'm not especially fond of in a tomato dish) which also can vary depending on the season and what one has on hand.

 

In the photo below, clockwise from top left: 2 cubed eggplants, sliced portobello mushrooms, fresh peeled garden tomatoes, chopped onion and sweet peppers, chopped garlic and crushed hot red peppers, 3 medium cubed zucchini, center stage 2 diced potatoes.

 

 Whoops, almost forgot the parsley and sweet basil

 

Also added some sweet grape tomatoes and of course extra virgin olive oil, 1 can of tomato paste, one can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, a splash of red wine

 

Simmer the  garlic and hot pepper in the olive oil 

Add the onion and sweet peppers and saute for several minutes

Add the potatoes and continue to cook on medium heat

Add the zucchini

The crushed fresh tomatoes and grape tomatoes went in next

Then parsley and plenty of basil

In a separate skillet saute the eggplant in olive oil. Note: eggplant will soak up oil like a sponge so it will be necessary to add a bit more olive oil, but just enough to get the bottom of the pan slick.

Saute on medium to low heat until the eggplant begins to brown slightly.

 

 Add the eggplant to the ciambotta

Add more olive oil to the skillet and saute the mushrooms. Mushrooms will soak up oil but not as much as the eggplant. 

 

When the mushrooms give up some juices, add a little black pepper and a splash of red wine

Add half the can of tomato paste and let it simmer on low for a few minutes.

 

Transfer the mushrooms to the ciambotta and add the rest of the tomato paste and a full paste can of water to the skillet. (Note: I only added half a can of paste at first because I thought a full can might be too much...but decided the whole can would work).

 

Saute some Italian sausages; I then sliced them and browned the slices a little before adding them to the ciambotta.

 

Here is the ciambotta simmering on low for the next hour or so. This dish will be even better tomorrow or portions can can be frozen for another day. A big loaf of Italian bread and a glass of wine. Buon appetito!

You can also serve it over pasta, but the crusty bread is quite enough for me.

 I use a heat diffuser under my big pot to keep it heating evenly without burning.

 

Homemade Italian Bread of course...gotta soak up all that good sauce.

A little parmegiano reggiano.

First Greens of the Season

 Sometimes food makes me happy. Especially when it comes from the garden. 

Especially when gardening here in New Mexico is such a challenge, what with the cold nights, the extremely hot days, the poor soil, the drought, the squirrels, the insects. Did I mention the blistering sun?

Today I was able to gather a good bunch of assorted greens: Swiss chard, kale, and spinach. This was all a substitute for my usual escarole. With a little variation, the Italian bean and pork hock minestra was excellent. 

At the last minute I decided that homemade potato gnocchi would go well with the soup. 

And, yes, it made me happy. 

Spinach, Swiss chard, kale. Extra virgin olive oil, garlic, peperoncini (hot pepper). cooked together. Pork hock, boiled. Cannellini beans, ceci (garbanzo beans), black pepper. Simmer for a couple of hours or more.

Potato gnocchi.

Serve together. Be Happy.

Something Different for Dinner

 Sometimes when I have ingredients that need to get cooked, I have to be creative. On Wednesday I bought two cartons of 18 eggs each, not realizing I had more than two dozen at home. When I got home I decided to hard boil eight or ten of the eggs for a salad perhaps.

I also bought asparagus among other veggies. Had a half carton of sliced portabella mushrooms in the fridge....and so tonight's dinner:

Into the frypan: olive oil, one clove of garlic, four cut-up slices of prosciutto di Beretta from Costco, chopped portabella mushrooms, black pepper. 

Sautéed the mushrooms with the prosciutto and added the trimmed asparagus and cooked it briefly. Cut the hard boiled eggs in half and placed them in the pan with fresh ground black pepper, turned off the heat and covered the pan to let the asparagus steam and the eggs warm.

Sliced some homemade Italian bread, cracked open a Birra Peroni and we enjoyed a simple and very scrumptious dinner.

 Sorry, the photos are what was left in the pan after we had already dug into our plates.

And some plain bread cinnamon rolls with orange zest, walnuts and dried cranberries for dessert.

Casarecci con Pesto

 Decided to make pesto this evening as I have a good bit of basil growing already. For some reason, I didn't think that Leon would like pesto so I rarely, if ever, make it. 

Of course I had no pignoli* nuts so used walnuts and a small food chopper (the horror of it) but it came out pretty good. Leon liked it.

The Casarecci are from Costco - a premium imported pasta that come in a 6-pack (6 pounds) with two other varieties/shapes (two of each kind).

*Finding Italian imported pignoli nuts is difficult and New Mexico piñon are highly recommended as being as good or better than pignoli. But I was dismayed to find "pine" nuts at Costco labeled "product of China" and I would not even consider that. I may just stick with walnuts.

Pesto: hand-full of fresh basil leaves, two garlic cloves, Kirkland extra virgin organic olive oil (about 1/4 cup, salt, imported parmigiano reggiano, (pignoli) walnuts. Blend with a mortar and pestle or food processor.

We have garlic breath. Time for a cup of decaf and something chocolate.

Pizza Night - Saturday

Made four pizzas...some for Saturday night, some to freeze for another night.

I've posted my bread dough pizza dough on other posts before.  Basically 4 coffee mugs of water, 2 tsp. dry yeast, 3 tsp. +/- salt, and enough all purpose or bread flour (King Arthur or other high quality flour) to make a dough that is just barely still sticky, so has a fairly high hydration. Let it raise in the fridge for 8-12 hours.

Toppings, mix and match: Italian sausage, tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes, basil, ricotta, anchovies, mushrooms, parmigiano reggiano, mozzarella.

My Version of Chili Con Carne

This is easy comfort food for a winter day.

Pork loin, olive oil, garlic, diced onion, diced jalapenos or chili peppers, hot pepper flakes, chili powder, oregano, canned beans, crushed tomatoes. (I use canned beans because no matter what - soaking overnight, not putting in salt, using baking soda, dry beans will NOT COOK for me. Is it the Cochiti water?)

Saute the veggies and meat in olive oil, add tomatoes and spices and beans and simmer for a couple of hours, more or less.

Serve with a good bread or over rice.