Multi-vegetable soup, Italian style, with some rough torn bread croutons on top. Missing from the photo: the tendrils of fresh basil and cilantro that were supposed to be sprinkled all over the top.

Ribollita. Sounds like it ought to be a girl’s name. The Italian word actually means “reboiled.” So if you lived in Italy you certainly wouldn’t want to be named Ribollita! Historically it’s a Tuscan soup – a method of re-serving minestrone soup – the next day – and making it different with the bread, beans and greens. Ribollita always contains cannellini beans and some greens like kale or Swiss chard. I’ve had this at restaurants now and then, but wanted to make my own. My friend Linda stopped by for dinner after having a crown put in, and she wanted something she didn’t have to chew. This fit that need very well. And it’s very healthy (only 14 grams of fat for a 1 1/2 cup serving). Mostly it’s vegetables, although I added in some ham cubes because I had them. You could also make this without the meat.

The preparation – you could probably make this soup in less than 30 minutes if you had all the vegetables ready to go. There is a bit of chopping and mincing involved (onions, carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, kale, Swiss chard, mushrooms, zucchini). I used my handy-dandy Alligator Dicer which made fairly quick work of the chopping. I also rely on my favorite broth made with Penzey’s soup bases. It’s just SO easy and no storing of those big cardboard boxes of stock on your pantry shelves.

The result? It’s worth the work. I read a variety of recipes for this soup and discovered that you can just about do your own thing. So I did. I added oregano – next time I’d add some rosemary, or maybe some Herbs de Provence. I added the ham and kale. I’d read a recipe in an old Sunset Magazine for this soup and it showed the rough torn bread cubes floating on top of the soup, so I decided to do it that way too. This may not wow your audience, but it was certainly delicious and healthy. The bread cubes are essential, so don’t eliminate that part – they provide aesthetics and some crunchy texture. I had ample to send a small care package home with Linda and enough for two portions to go into my freezer’s “soup library.”
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A year ago: Guacamole
Two years ago: Orange Jalapeno Vinaigrette

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There’s another photo of our wine cellar – different angle. With a few empty wooden wine boxes on the lower shelves (they did contain wine, but we just keep them there for the looks). And if you have sharp eyes you’ll see on the left side a couple of little boxes of ScharffenBerger chocolate. I really need to bring those upstairs because they’ve likely oxidized down there in the wine cellar.

Back in my early wine-drinking heyday of the 1980’s I did drink Chardonnay. But I never really liked it – it’s too acidic for me. With the exception of one label – Kistler. That’s it. The only one, and a bottle of Kistler Chard today will set you back about $50. I think we have one bottle in our wine cellar, and it’s about 15 years old. We should be drinking it. Soon.

I also like Sauvignon Blanc, particularly Cloudy Bay (from New Zealand). And Fume Blanc from Ferrari-Carano. My DH keeps reminding me that I have a stash of Cloudy Bay (a very fresh, clean white wine from New Zealand) in the wine cellar that I need to drink.

Once in awhile we will enjoy a Riesling, as long as it’s not too sweet or acidic. Grey Riesling can be very dry, actually, so you can run the gamut of sweet to tart and low to high acid in that wine type. You can also have a sweeter Riesling that has a lot of acid. The kind that almost gives me sores on the inside of my mouth like I’ve overdosed on fresh pineapple (that happened to me once when we were in Hawaii – I had no idea that eating too much pineapple could cause mouth sores, did you? I mean, I didn’t eat THAT much!). Anyway, I seem to have a narrow spectrum of wines that appeal to me. My hubby calls me a cheap date these days. Most often when we go out I don’t even order wine.

But then there’s champagne. But I’m going to write up a separate essay about champagne, or sparkling wine .  . .

So now, down to the subject at hand. What do I use when I’m cooking:

WHITE WINE: If we happen to have some open, I’ll use that. But usually we don’t, because neither of us drink much white wine. So I go to other options. If I don’t have Vermouth available, then I’ll go hunting in the wine cellar for something – generally we have some generic kinds of white – maybe a bottle of Chardonnay (usually because somebody gave it to us since we don’t buy it). That works. Fume Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc are both almost herbal wines – they’re made from grapes – that’s not what I mean – but when you stick your nose into the glass you’ll almost smell an herb garden. I won’t use Riesling in cooking – generally it’s too sweet, and since most Rieslings are on the acidic side (even though sweet) you can’t add lemon juice with that to make it so. Just don’t use Riesling in cooking. But here’s what I DO use:

DRY VERMOUTH: First of all, I keep a bottle of Vermouth quite close to my stove. It’s nothing very expensive – somewhere I was told that Trader Joe’s vermouth is actually quite good. The best thing about Vermouth is that even though you open the bottle, it doesn’t deteriorate – it stays the same forever. With a normal bottle of wine you’d have to drink it or use it within a fairly reasonable time. Most likely Vermouth has been stabilized with some neutral spirits so it doesn’t spoil. That’s why it has a long shelf life, even when it’s been opened.

SUBSTITUTIONS: If I had neither a generic white wine or vermouth, I’d use some chicken broth. Maybe with a little added fresh squeezed lemon juice. Or if the dish could handle it, I’d use half apple juice, half water with a little lemon juice. I store a container of frozen apple juice concentrate in the freezer just for things like that. I also keep small cans of pineapple juice in the pantry to use in marinades and things like that. The other option is VERJUS – (means green juice) an unfermented grape juice from under ripe grapes. A perfect solution, I think, although it’s a bit hard to find and not inexpensive. It contains NO alcohol. And it’s on the tart side (some cooks use it in lieu of vinegar), so be careful. Use less than the quantity called for in your recipe and taste it before adding more.

There are resources abounding around the internet on this subject:

Gourmet Sleuth

About.com: Home Cooking – this site has an amazing list of substitutions for oodles of alcoholic beverages, including liqueurs.

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The recipe came from a December, 2008 issue of Bon Appetit, in an article about the foods from the Fairmont le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec. I’m sure that’s why I stopped to read this recipe, because it came from that hotel – le Chateau Frontenac.

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Do you, by chance, have a package of fresh cranberries gathering moisture in your refrigerator – – – like I did? Leftover from the holidays? I’d stuck the package down in the bottom of the produce drawer and forgot all about it. I could have frozen them, but I thought I’d make this instead. A few berries needed to be tossed, but mostly the cranberries were still in good shape, considering that they’d been in my refrigerator for about 2.5 months! I’m embarrassed to tell you that I still have a package of cranberries left over from Christmas 2008 in my freezer. Shhhh.

And what an easy recipe this is. About 8-10 years ago I found this in the cookbook owned by a friend, Janet, called The Cranberry Cookbook by Beatrice Ross Buszek (it’s out of print). I also found it on the internet, though, so it doesn’t appear to be anybody’s “original.” I do like pudding cakes – my favorite being lemon. I have Marcel Proustian memories when I think about Rita’s lemon sponge pudding cake – they’re friends who live in England. But this one is cranberry, and what a festive dish this is. And easy to make besides.

First you cook up the cranberries in water (about 5 minutes), then you add sugar mixed with cornstarch, plus a little jot of freshly ground nutmeg, and cook it about a minute until it’s just nicely thickened. That gets poured into the bottom of a 8×8 glass baking dish. The cakey topping is flour, sugar, baking powder (no salt, interestingly enough), butter, milk, raisins (I used currants), dates (I didn’t have any so eliminated that part) and walnuts. Once that’s mixed up you kind of spoon small blobs of it on top of the cranberry part and into the oven it goes for about 55 minutes.

Above left, the cranberries on the bottom with the blobs of batter on the top, ready for the oven; right, just out of the oven, nicely golden brown.

Served with a bit of vanilla ice cream on top, this makes a very nice dessert. Homey. Comfort food. Probably more ideal for December, but it tasted pretty darned good in February. Don’t use any dish larger than an 8×8 pan as you’ll end up with more cake than pudding, and it’s the tart-sweet pudding part that makes this. I liked the chopped walnuts in it too – gave it good texture. It keeps for several days, although the topping won’t be as crispy as just baked. Ideally serve it warm.
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A year ago: Pear Cranberry (Vanilla) Crumble
Two years ago: Almond-Crusted Orange Roughy

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The above is our wine cellar. It’s about 10 x 8, I’d guess, with room for the small table you see, although we’ve yet to sit down there except to catalog some wine (the room is below ground) and sip something because it’s too gosh-darned cold. We have a special refrigeration unit that keeps the wine cellar at a consistent 58. There’s also a little low cubbyhole off to the left (out of view) that can hold about another 8 cases of boxed wine. The cellar itself (with more shelving over on the left side) holds about 900 bottles. You can see that it’s nearly full. Everything you see above is red wine. White is over on the left side, and it’s only about half full since we drink so little white wine.

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This is an oldie. But a goodie. It used to be a regular on my holiday menu – whether it be Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or even just for a dinner for guests. I’ve made it with fresh broccoli (like this time), but hey, it tastes just great with frozen chopped broccoli. So if you don’t feel like fussing with fresh, you’ll not be disappointed using frozen chopped. I decided to post it, in case you’re thinking about some easy, but different casserole to make for Easter dinner. It can be prepared ahead and popped in the oven when dinner is close. My recollection is this recipe came from an ancient Sunset Magazine. I searched their website but couldn’t find it. I got it from a distant relative, Gerry Black, a loo-ooo-ng time ago. But it’s weathered the ages. Well.

Somehow, we’ve gotten out of the habit of making cream sauce. Well, you know, maybe it’s not so good for us, especially if you use butter and cream. But, this one CAN be made with non-fat milk and a bit less butter if you want. It calls for mayo, so you can use non-fat mayo (Veganaise works well here_ if you want. So, you may alter the recipe any way it suits you.

There’s the dish, L-R: Mixing in the broccoli to the cream sauce; in the hot water bath ready to go in the oven; easy serving right out of the casserole.

A note about the onion. I think I’ve mentioned here on this blog before, that when I was a young woman and still learning to cook (this, when I was in my 20’s) I was a bit loose with the herbs and spices. I figured that if a teaspoon of thyme (one of my favorite herbs, still is) was good, then 2 teaspoons would be better. It probably worked fine with thyme, maybe not so well with curry powder. Time, age and humility have set in, though. I now use what the recipe calls for first. THEN, if I want to, I’ll diddle with the proportions. Hence with this and the onion. The original called for about a tablespoon of onion. Well, I don’t know about you and onions, but with me — who uses a tablespoon of onion, for heaven’s sake? So, I started using more. But then I noticed that it tasted more like an onion casserole with a green veggie in it, instead of a broccoli casserole. That’s the humbling part of it – I learned that this recipe really doesn’t like tons of onion in it. So be gentle. But I’ll tell you that the mayo is an important component – don’t skimp on it, be it full fat or low or non. Of course, it makes it delicious.
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A year ago: Bailey’s (Irish Cream) Cream Cheese Brownies (very rich, very sweet)
Two years ago: Warm Bean & Brie Dip (very easy, a quite delish)

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Why, oh why, don’t I go online before I try ANY recipe, to read what others have said? Well, I know why in this case . . . I’d read about piquillo peppers, a mild red pepper from Spain, and I had purchased a can of them (imported, mind you) a couple of months ago. I wanted to try them, assuming they were going to have a unique taste. Something different. Something more piquant than ordinary roasted red bell peppers. Having paid $5.00+ for the can, I truly thought they’d be extraordinary. Nope. Tasted like any old ordinary canned red bell peppers to me.

Here’s a photo collage of the peppers: clockwise from top left – in the box, the can, the whole peppers, and chopped.

The recipe came from the book Spain…A Culinary Road Trip by Mario Batali and Gweneth Paltrow. My friend Cherrie gave me the book a year or so ago for Christmas, and I had yet to try a recipe out of it. This recipe was also printed in Food & Wine awhile back, so you can read the story about it, if you so choose. Apparently the recipe is a common one in Spanish cuisine. The ingredients are simple (salt, onion, garlic, chicken, white wine and the piquillo peppers) and the preparation is also very easy. I just thought the dish would be more tasty than it was. Not that it wasn’t good – it was. It was moist, juicy. I liked the sauce. But . . . well . . . it was just chicken with red peppers.
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A year ago: Slow-Cooker Tamale Pie
Two years ago: Armenian Parsley Salad

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With our split pea soup dinner the other night, we surely didn’t NEED more carbs. But actually split pea soup is fairly low on the carb scale, believe it or not. And these biscuits were downright tasty – with a bit of minced-up ham (which could be eliminated if you didn’t have any) and some crumbles of goat cheese mixed through it. As with most quick breads, the least amount of stirring or kneading you can do will provide the lightest and flakiest texture. These are no exception. You can see a little blip of goat cheese in the closest biscuit on the lower right edge.

Obviously, this is a good choice if you happen to have a leftover ham (I did), some goat cheese (yes, I had that too), and some cornmeal (yup, that always lives in my pantry). These aren’t overly cornmeal-y, if there is such a word, but you definitely do get the granular kind of crunch of cornmeal with every bite. And a great accompaniment to a bowl of hot soup.
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A year ago: Steak & Mushroom Soup
Two years ago: White Lady (a tasty alcoholic drink)

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Is there anything much more comforting than split pea soup? I think not. I had a lovely ham bone that was just itching to provide some great flavor to something. And I had a hunk of pancetta that also needed using, so they were the flavor peak in this simple soup. With onion, leeks, celery, carrots, thyme, chicken broth and split peas there’s little else you need. The entire meal came together with about 30 minutes of simmering, but there was a bit of chopping and mincing going on – the pancetta and vegetables before, then the ham from the ham bone (plus a bit more). But I  now have several nights of hearty soup dinners in the freezer. Since the soup is thick to begin with, you can thin it down if you’d like – either with water or some added chicken broth. You can also not puree the soup as much as I did – that’s totally up to you. I like the texture contrast of the toast croutons (I just used a thick piece of whole wheat toast, toasted in the toaster, trimmed and very lightly buttered and chopped), then a little bit of green with the Italian parsley. And you’re done.
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A year ago: An explanation about Error Code 404
Two years ago: Cream of Cashew Soup

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It’s been about 3 years since I posted this recipe, back in May of ‘07. And “keepers” sometimes need to be repeated – those recipes I would encourage you to make. Over and over. Cooked carrots have a bad rap sometimes. Remind people of baby food, or something.  But these little gems have a burst of flavor – from garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. And a little bit of ground cumin and brown sugar. They’re especially good if  you make them ahead and allow them to sit overnight in the dressing (chilled, of course). I like to let them sit out and get to room temp. You just need to briefly cook the carrots – you’ll want them to be just barely tender, or you can make them more crunchy if that’s your preference. The dressing is very easy to make (good at this time of year with ripe lemons filling bowls in my kitchen) and just stir it all up and let the carrots marinate. This is best with some kind of highly seasoned dinner – don’t serve this with a filet of sole, for instance. Not unless you’re making it with garlic and lemon juice. This recipe could also be made with zucchini – or maybe better yet, do both and serve them side by side. Would make a very colorful side dish.

What’s in this: carrots, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, ground cumin, brown sugar and parsley. And a bit of salt and pepper too. That’s it. Click HERE for the write-up I did back in ‘07. I took new pictures of the carrots, and will insert this new one in the old recipe since this one is much closer and clear!

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A year ago: A list of the 50 top blogs
Two years ago: Sugar Snap Pea Tops

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