Allora…

Sighted: Crocuses crocusing outside my front door.

When u buy a pack of wanton wrappers to make dumplings you end up with about 75 wrappers too many. So I tried to come up with ways to use them. What resulted was good in most ways, but could possibly be the most un-photogenic food out there. especilly the raviolis!

I’m going to the list these in order of tastiness.
1) Chicken Dumplings
2) Butternut Squash Ravioli
3) Don’t make this-”Wanton wrappers are not the same as puff pastry or filo dough, Alisa”-Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Things.

Chicken dumplings:
FIlling: ground chicken, garlic, ginger, scallions, soy sauce, sriracha. Dipping sauce is literally all the same ingredients minus the chicken and plus sesame seeds. Served it w/ sauteed broccoli, mushrooms, and peppers. Good stuff.

Butternut Squash Ravioli:
Filling: Defrosted butternut squash puree, mozzarella, parmigiano, salt and pepper. Needed LESS butternut squash and more cheese. Simmered these after filling them and pressing them shut. These look pretty bad, but they’re not. they just aren’t photogenic.

Weird things:
These look good – and the filling is – its cream cheese, sour cream and cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla. but the shell ain’t right, y’all. Don’t make them.

I think I have probably talked about my admiration/adoration of Lidia Bastianich in previous posts, but I’ll stress again, if you don’t have any of her cookbooks – get Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy. If you have an interest in the history, anthropology, and geography of Italy and how they relate to the type of food cooked in that region, this will be your encyclopedia.

I was watching her the other day on PBS – she had her grandkids on, and they were calling her Nonni (and saying it ‘nawnee’) which is what my Mother called her grandmother. My mom’s nonni/nauni/nawnee was from the insanely tiny island of Ilovik in the adriatic. (when she was there, it was part of Italy and today is considered part of Croatia). Lidia’s family is from a part of Italy which is now I think part of either Austria or Croatia. Another reason why I am related to Lidia (at least in my dreams).

Tonight I made Chicken with Olives and Pine Nuts (Pollo con olive e pignoli). A fantasti recipe full of flavor. The recipe comes from the region of Italy called ‘Le Marche’ (pronounced ‘Lay Mark). The region is north of Bari, along the Adriatic. The region’s cuisine features a lot of seafood and then also a lot of chicken and game as you head inland. The area is also covered in olive trees – which contributes to this particular dish (so explains Lidia).

I made a few modifications to this dish. I added pepper (how can a recipe call for salt, and not pepper??!), crushed red pepper, and a couple lemon slices. I also used different olives than the kind she calls for (Ascolane or Cerignola). I used some spanish green olives and some cured black olives. You need to be careful with the amount of salt you use – the olives add a lot of salt, and it is easy to over season this dish. I also used dried bay leaves instead of fresh. Who buys fresh bay leaves, Lidia?

Read Lidia’s recipe.

To accompany this, I made a favorite that my mom used to make. Really simple – Boiled potatoes with string beans. Boil your potatoes, with 5 mins to go, put green beans in. drain. dress with olive oil, a little vinegar (i used red wine v), salt, pepper, and i added paprika (mom didn’t add that back in the day). It is so stupid simple, it doesn’t seem like it’d be any good – but trust Mom – this is the best. And it is better the 2nd day. Also this is a case where I like the potatoes a little overcooked. It’s just the way its got to be.

This is from over a year ago, and I recently figured out how to get the pics off my phone. Hoooray me! This a light way to make eggplant parm. After baking the individual slices of eggplant, you can store them separated in a plastic bag until u want to assemble them. So you could freeze it without assembling the sauce and cheese. This is good if you are cooking for one , or two and want to assemble something quickly.

So, first make (or open a jar, or grab it out of the freezer) some spicy marinara:

Then wash and slice eggplant into 1/4″ slices. lay on paper towel and sprinkle with salt. place a paper towel on top. This draws out any excess water so u dont get soggy eggplant. Some people say this also makes the eggplant less bitter, but I am not sure if that is fact or fiction.

Set up dredging plates – egg and seasoned breadcrumbs:

Bread slices of eggplant and place on baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for 20 mins or until golden and crispy (pretend you just fried these!).

Top with sauce and cheeses. Make a NORMAL portion size and then put the rest of the eggplant slices and sauce in the freezer so u don’t overeat.

recognize those plates, mom??? they are still alive and kickin’