February 25, 2023
Italian Winter Soup (scroll down for recipe) Pics: finished soup, making the soup base - chicken stock, cooking dry garbanzo beans to be pureed and added into soup.
Bookclub Potluck - Italian Dinner
My bookclub joined together for an in-person Italian potluck feast, after reading Oil & Marble, by Stephanie Storey. Every cousrse was beautiful and yummy, and we also enjoyed some delicious Italian wines! (see recipes below!)
MENU
Charcuterie Board
(made by Kathy)
Arugula salad with Roasted Red Pepper and Caper Dressing
(made by Celia)
Italian Winter Soup
(made by me, Jamee)
see recipe below
Bracciole & Rigatoni
(made by Leslie)
Orange-Pistachio-Almond Cake
(Recipe from Every Last Bite, made by Cheryl)
see recipe below
Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti
(made by Leslie)
RECIPES
Charcuterie Board
(From the Kitchn.com, made by Kathy)
Italian Winter Soup
(From Auberge Babette, made by Jamee)
Serves 10-12
Ingredients
10 cups homemade chicken broth
28oz can organic san marzano tomatoes
1 cup each --> dried garbanzo beans & dried cannellini beans, soaked in water overnight (separately)
12 slices bacon
1 lb hot italian sausage
2 cups each --> medium diced onion, carrots, celery
8 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 bundles of thyme and 2 bay leaves
3 zucchinis, chopped thick
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp ground rosemary
1/2 tsp fennel pollen, or ground fennel
1 bunch parsley, chopped
2 tbsp oregano
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Farfalle (bow-tie) pasta, cooked and tossed with a drizzle of good olive oil
Block of Parmesan, grated
Process
Night Before - Place the beans in 2 separate bowls and cover with water...leaving a couple inches between top of beans and water level. If you don't already have homemade chicken stock in your fridge/freezer, start it the night before. I generally let mine simmer for about 20 hours.
Day of -
1. Rinse the beans and place in two separate small pots. Cover with homemade chicken stock and add 1/2 bundle of thyme to each pot. Start this early as it can take 3+ hours. Just keep checking and add water (not broth) as needed, to keep the beans fully submerged in liquid. When soft, turn off heat. In a Bullet, food processor or blender, puree the garbanzo beans with their cooking liquid. Add the puree to a large stock pot, along with cannellini beans and their cooking liquid. Use some of the remaining chicken broth to rinse out your blender and get all the remaining bits of garbanzo bean puree. To the stockpot, add remaining chicken broth and canned tomatoes. Using a fork and knife, cut up the tomatoes. Keep the heat off for now, letting everything come to room temperature.
2. Cut up the bacon in small batons, and cook over medium heat until very crispy . I use a large cast iron saute pan. Be careful to stir the bacon pieces often with a wooden spoon so they don't burn. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to drain on some paper towels. To the leftover bacon fat, add the onion, celery, carrots, additional bundle of thyme and bay leaves... and cook until soft. As the onion, etc. cooks, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, getting up all the yummy brown bacon frond. Add the garlic toward the end and stir until the vegetables begin to brown. With a slotted spoon, transfer cooked veggies to the stock pot and discard the thyme bundle and bay leaves. Add the raw zucchini and bacon to the stockpot as well. In the saute pan, there should still be a little bacon fat left. Add the sausage and cook until almost done. Add in the herbs and seasonings with the sausage and cook a little longer...until browned and very aromatic. Add the seasoned meat to the stock pot.
3. Turn the heat to med-high under the stockpot. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to simmer. Taste and season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Add half of the chopped parsley. (If you'd like to add kale, which I often do, now is the time to do it.) Simmer the soup for about 30mn.
4. While the soup is simmering, cook the Farfalle in well-salted water, then drain and toss with a little good olive oil. Set aside. Shred or grate some parmesan to use as garnish. Set aside.
To Serve
In each bowl, place a little pasta (omit this for your GF guests) then some soup, and top with a little parmesan (omit this step for your DF guests). If you have fresh warm sourdough bread on hand...it's great for dipping or wiping up the last bits of liquid from the bowl!
Bracciole & Rigatoni
(Recipe from NYT, made by Leslie)
Orange-Pistachio-Almond Cake
(Recipe from Every Last Bite, made by Cheryl)
Ingredients
2 oranges
3 eggs
2/3 cup honey
1 cup ground pistachios
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
Topping
1 orange*
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp honey
Process
Rinse the oranges and place them in a pot. Cover with water and simmer on low heat for 1 hour.
After 1 hour drain the pot and place the oranges in a blender. Blend for approximately 1 minutes until the oranges have formed a puree
To make the ground pistachios place them in a coffee grinder or food processor and grind until there are no chunky pieces and everything has ground down to a fine powder.
Preheat oven to 175 degrees celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Grease a loose bottom cake pan
In a bowl combine the orange puree, eggs, honey, ground pistachios, almond flour, vanilla extract and baking soda. Pour into the greased cake pan
Bake for 1 hour. If the top begins to brown too quickly, cover with tinfoil. The cake will be done once a cake inserted into the top comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, in a small pot combine 1/2 cup orange juice with 2 tbsp honey and allow to reach boiling point before reducing the heat to simmer. Allow to simmer until the amount of liquid has reduced by approximately half. Remove from the heat and set aside until the cake has come out of the oven.
Once the cake is out of the oven, brush the orange and honey mixture over the entire surface. Top with the slices of dried orange. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen before unclasping the outer ring.
NOTES *If making the dried orange slices from scratch, wash an orange and using a sharp knife thinly cut it into slices no thicker then 0.5cm. Place the slices on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for one hour at 150 degrees Celsius, flipping half way through baking to ensure they don't burn
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