Giuliano Hazan Minestrone

I have probably written about this before but it is worth writing about it again.

The recipes that get me excited are those that are simple and delicious. Both Marcella's and Giuliano's recipes aim for this. I suspect that this is the approach of Italian cooking in general, but I have noticed that the Hazans take it a step further than other, respected Italian cookbooks, which sometimes have one or two or even more ingredients than the equivalent Hazan recipe.

I'm over complicated. I cooked Thai for 5 years. That's bloody complicated. Simple honest flavours that emphasise or make delicious the ingredients I'm cooking is what I am after.

Anyway, back to the meal I just had. It is winter where I live. Soup weather. The soup I make the most often is the french style vegetable puree soup, with just 1 or 2 veges. Usually with homemade stock but sometimes just water.

I haven't really cracked the equivalent technique in Italian cooking. You develop the base I guess, onions, and possibly carrot and celery, and then add the ingredients in the order in which they need to be added in order to cook. Meat broth tends to be added instead of chicken stock.

I haven't really gotten into a routine of cooking meat broth.

Then the other difference seems to be that the ingredients aren't pureed once they are soft. For clarity, Marcella said in Cucina. It is for clarity that they keep their shapes.

Clarity or not, as I said I haven't really worked out a generic technique for Italian soups in the same way I have for french. Although perhaps it is similar and just as I described above. I need to get more into a routine of the broth. I just find it hard to order a kilo of meat from the butcher and put it in a stock pot.

But back to dinner. I've made it before but I've forgotten how good it is. Giuliano Hazan's minestrone soup from Every Night Italian. It only has vegetables in it, and salt and pepper and olive oil. Just vegetables! Topped with a little parmesan, and eaten with bread. It is so delicious.

No meat broth. Just vegetable goodness and water.

It certainly hit the spot tonight in the cold. Warming and comforting. Full of goodness, but that is neither here nor there. It's so delightful and satisfying. You can imagine generations of cooks, around the world really, preparing a similar soup in the hearth using local and seasonal vegetables for dinner.

And I can whack it in the fridge and munch on it for days.

Mid week feast

I left work early today to see a doc about a cough. While waiting for my prescription I picked up a kilo of chopped lamb pieces as well as some extra rosemary and parsley. Home a little early I was able to whip up a mid-week feast, which pleased my dining companion no end when she arrived home at 7.

The feast was:

- Bruschetta with basil and tomato;

- Giuliano Hazan's Lamb Stew with Olives and Parsley from his How to Cook Italian: I know I keep cooking this dish but that's because it is so good and so easy. I cook it with red wine as I never seem to have white around.

- Marcella's Potato Salad from Marcella's Italian Kitchen, with olives and parsley (WARNING: olive overload but come to think of it they aren't even in the recipe);

- Boiled Broccoli with Salt, Olive Oil and Pepper (Neil Perry);

- Baked eggplant slices (Alice Waters)

Well I can tell you I am as full as a fart now. The stew was delicious; the potato salad was a little full on (simpler would have been better); the eggplant was a touch underdone and the slices could have been bigger.

The broccoli was the star. So creamy and delicious.

One thing I noticed was that I did seem to be suffering from salt overdose by the end of it. Everything had a lot of salt and olive oil on it. Brings out flavour, says Marcella, and makes food taste of itself. No need to hide behind trickery like the Thais for example.

I get that, and can see how it all works, but here there was just a bit too much salt in all my dishes. I'm not sure what could have broken that up. Dump the potato salad perhaps, or had a real salad instead of a vege dish.

Anyway, all good. I'm stuffed as I said, mainly on veges. Can't complain about that. And lots left over for tucker during the week.

Smothered Onion, Tuscan tbone, Roast chicken

I've cooked these dishes before but I thought I'd mention them again as I had them for dinner.

Hunger dictated I cooked the steak first, with the cracked pepper, salt, garlic rub and olive oil. Marcella would not be pleased to hear the olive oil went on before the steak was cooked but I had already put oil on my new fancy steak pan.

Due to popular demand I also cooked the Smothered Onion pasta. The first time I cooked this is was possibly the best thing I've even eaten, but I was a bit ho-hum about it the second.

This was the third.

All went well. The wine I'm using isn't the best for cooking. It has a sharp tang.

I didn't go mad for it, although it was well received. I think I want to cook it a fourth time with better wine and reserve judgement on whether or not I want it to be something I cook regularly until then.

I also cooked Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic from Giuliano Hazan's How to Cook Italian. We'll eat that tomorrow or the next day.

Tomatoes stuffed with Salmon and Fricassed Chicken with Cabbage

I'm back to Marcella tonight. The old master returns.

For a first course we had baked tomatoes stuffed with salmon, parsley, capers, olive oil and breadcrumbs. This is a recipe from Marcella Cucina. I made the breadcrumbs fresh, as I do now.

I've made these little blighters before. I had two halves. I think I preferred the smaller one, which means that I think I like them a bit crunchier. I'm not sure if this is because I'm not a great salmon fan.

I want to make these again cooking them say for another 5 or 10 minutes over the 35.

Visually they were very attractive.

For our second course, we had the Fricasseed Chicken with Red Cabbage, served with Italian potato mash. This is probably the best dish of Essentials so far for me and I have written about it on this blog before. It is truly delicious, and is my winter fricasseed chicken (summer being the white wine rosemary tomatoes and olives from Cucina). Every little scrap of it and its sauce was devoured by the three of us.

I'm pleased to report I used a little nutmeg and parmesan in my mash and it is growing on me. I think I use less butter and salt this way so it all works out.

PS - I wanted to point out I browned the chicken in the same pan I cooked it in. The only difference was I poured out most of the chicken fat (not all!) as there was so much. Worked perfectly.

Spaghettini with Eggplant

I'm fond of eggplant. You can barbeque it, fry it, bake it or pretty well do anything with it. All you need is a little salt and olive oil. It is a very cool vegetable to eat.

I've made eggplant pasta a bit before. Patricia Wells has a recipe in her Italian book. When I've pulled that off it's been delicious. It involves frying eggplant chunks in a little oil (not a lot) and then adding them to the tomato sauce.

Sometimes it has been a bit of a dud, but when it came off it came off.

Anyway, tonight I was back in my favourite pasta book, Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta.

I was intrigued by Giuliano's approach of simmering the eggplant rather than frying it. He also adds basil and uses fresh tomatoes. That sounded delicious. I didn't like the fact he peeled the eggplant, but I dutifully followed the recipe, as I should the first time.

It didn't work for me. I think I missed the fried chunks of eggplant. It just tasted too light and dare I say healthy, but not in a way I found satisfying. It was edible but not amazing.

To recap the pasta that has really worked for me from this book so far:

- tomato and basil;

- butternut pumpkin;

- tomato and olives.

I didn't go for this one or the Puttanesca, which is a damn shame as I want to find a Puttanesca that works for me. And a reliable Eggplant Pasta. There are heaps of others I want to try in this book (pretty well all of them) so all in good time.

Dinner

I thought I'd post what I had for dinner, even though I've written about it before. I cooked Giuliano Hazan's Parmesan Encrusted Lamb Rack from his Every Night Italian, and ate it with Alice Water's Potato Gratin and a salad with nice lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes, mint and left over bread crumbs from the lamb rack.

It didn't go as well as I would have liked.

I've had the Lamb Rack before. It is excellent. Tonight it was just off the mark. I don't know why. Perhaps it was the quality of the lamb. It's hard to see how you get the rest wrong. The bread crumbs were a delight - I just baked them for 10 minutes or so with a little olive oil.

Anyway, the lamb rack didn't reach the dizzy heights it did last time. I'm going to persist though, because I know how good it can be.

Now the potato gratin. It's one of the tastiest things I can cook. It is so simple, and so delicious. This time I tried to embellish with some tyme that had dried in my kitchen, and I also was self indulgent and put some parmesan in. I don't know why I messed with something great.

Anyway, it too was a bit of a flop. It has never failed me before. It seemed a bit undercooked, and milky. All I can think is that the lamb rack tray blocked the heat and didn't let it cook. I also forgot to pat it down after 30 minutes.

The only thing that saved me was the salad. Beautiful lettuce leaves and tomatoes, with the cheeky breadcrumbs and mint, because I had some. I dressed it in the Italian fashion - olive oil, salt and red wine vinegar, and it was delicious. It was the tastiest part of the meal.

I haven't gone mental however, as I also cooked Giuliano Hazan's Lamb Stew from his How to Cook Italian. It is a favourite, and did not let me down today. I used red wine instead of white, and had to cook it for an hour or so longer than he suggested to get it tender. I guess that's the common sense part of cooking.

I did not eat it of course. I'll have that for dinner tomorrow with a vegetable.

Bruschetta

Well, everyone knows about Bruschetta. But if this is the case then why is it that something so delicious is always so shit in restaurants?

The bruschetta I just ate for breakfast was proper italian style bread toasted with a little tomato cut up and mixed with little slithers of fresh basil, lots of salt, pepper, and lots of quality extra virgin olive oil.

Sounds trite but so so good. Nothing like the crap served up most places.

It was only as I was eating it that I thought I didn't put garlic on it. Often I do, but this didn't need it, and was perhaps more fresh without it. Bruschetta does not need garlic rubbed on it to be bruschetta.

Having said that, the most common bruschetta I eat is the most ancient - simply garlic, salt and oil. It is fine enough. Sometimes I sprinkle some finely chopped rosemary on top.

Be generous with the salt and oil.

The worse bucetta ever was these huge bits of toast with, I swear, a tomato chopped into the most enormous slices, put on the top of it, like the crudest tomato on toast you could imagine. It was horrific, and I just think, why. Why they do this, when the real stuff is so easy, and so tasty. And how ignorant are we to eat that crap.

Don't get me started on so-called garlic bread, Mt Cootha style. The horror.