Zucchini Parmesan

It's been five months since I wrote my last post!

Since then, John came to New York from Atlanta with his swing band from The Lovett School

John, Second from Left

to perform in the 2010 Essentially Ellington Competition at Lincoln Center,

Clarke

left to study in China for fourteen months, an experience he's sharing in his blog,

and a cold spring turned into a very hot summer, followed by what seems to be an early fall.

Whew!

John, Vic, and Clarke at Sea Island 1997

I didn't stop cooking during all this time - no, not at all. I was just extra-busy at work and took a break from writing.

I think this recipe was worth the wait.

Last year's blight stopped even one tomato from rearing its head in the garden,

Summer 2009

but this year five tomato plants yielded enough fruit for us to eat lots of tomatoes for the last six weeks of summer and also make a few quarts of plain homemade tomato sauce.

We put in a couple of zucchini plants so they would be ready with the tomatoes, and when I found a locally-made whole milk mozzarella at our local farmstand, The Berry Patch on Route 22 in Stephentown, New York,

I started thinking about the surprisingly delicious zucchini parmesan Peggy and I ate in a restaurant on West 27th Street for lunch one day.

Before I opted to make it the same way I make eggplant in the summer, I checked to see if Marcella had any ideas.

It turns out she has a recipe called "Zucchini, Parmesan Style" in Marcella's Italian Kitchen.

This is my favorite Marcella book after Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, which is basically a consolidation of her first two books, The Classic Italian Cookbook and More Classic Italian Cooking (neither of which you could persuade me to give away as all the recipes did not make it into the combination).  Essentials is a primer on Italian cooking; Marcella's Italian Kitchen is the way Marcella cooks in her home.

In this recipe the zucchini is cut lengthwise rather than across into rounds, and instead of breading the pieces of zucchini, they are fried with no coating

and layered with thin pieces of whole-milk mozzarella,

a sauce made from tomatoes, onions, and parsley,

and - this is brilliant - a mixture of eggs beaten with parmesan cheese and a little black pepper.

I promise you - this one's a keeper!

In this recipe, Marcella Hazan suggests using unpeeled zucchini and soaking them in water for 20 minutes to loosen any grit that is on them.  However, I peel my zucchini to eliminate this problem.

Zucchini Parmesan
Adapted from Marcella's Italian Kitchen by Marcella Hazan

1-1/2 pounds zucchini, peeled
Vegetable oil for frying the zucchini (I use grapeseed)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1-2/3 to 2 cups canned Italian peeled plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice or 2 cups plain homemade tomato sauce
Salt
Pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano (real aged Italian parmesan cheese)
10 ounces whole-milk mozzarella, cut into thin slices

Trim the ends on both sides of each zucchini, and cut lengthwise into slices 1/4-inch thick. If any zucchini is extremely long, cut that across into pieces that will comfortably fit into the bottom of the frying pan you are going to use.

If you have zucchini that has lots of seeds in them, slice until you get to the part that has tons of seeds and then don't use any more.

Put enough vegetable oil into your skillet to come 1/2 inch up the side of the pan. Heat the oil until it is hot, then cook the zucchini slices on both sides until they turn a light golden brown. Don't crowd the pan while you are frying. Remove the zucchini slices, and blot on a paper-towel-lined plate.

I must warn you that when I fry the zucchini, it does splatter all over the top of my stove. I don't think you can avoid this so just be prepared to clean up when you are done. This recipe really is worth it.

While the zucchini is frying, in a separate small saute pan or small saucier, heat the 4 tablespoons of olive oil, and cook the chopped onion until it turns pale gold. Add the parsley, stir, add the tomatoes or homemade tomato sauce, salt if not already salted, and turn the heat to low. Cook until the sauce thickens and the oil floats free, about 20 minutes.

Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Add all but 1-1/2 tablespoons of the grated parmesan cheese to the eggs, add some pepper, and beat.

Spread a little tomato sauce over the bottom of a baking dish. Here I used a rounded Pyrex dish that I estimated would hold all the zucchini. You can use a rectangular dish - probably around a 2-quart size - but please estimate that for yourself remembering the contents of the pan will bubble up while it is baking.

Next, add a layer of the fried zucchini, cover the zucchini with slices of mozzarella - keeping in mind that it will cloak the zucchini as it melts, so the slices of cheese don't have to touch each other. Smear some tomato sauce over the mozzarella, and then add some of the egg and cheese mixture, spreading it with a spoon.

Repeat this procedure in the same sequence, ending with a layer of zucchini lightly covered with tomato sauce over which you sprinkle the reserved 1-1/2 tablespoons of grated parmesan.

Bake in the uppermost level of an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Let the dish sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Italians don't favor food as piping hot as Americans so Marcella suggests that this dish is also excellent when served at room temperature.

Print recipe

Walnut Brandy Cake

Adapted from :pastry studio

Related post from :pastry studio

I have been busy at work and at home and, consequently, remiss about posting. But I've decided that not every post has to tell a story, especially when I have a recipe I want to share.

Since I last wrote, our bleak winter

turned into glorious spring,

and last Saturday was Ice Cream Day.

My contribution to it was walking through the Park eating a sugar cone topped with Crema di Grom - custard gelato studded with pieces of Italian biscuits and chocolate chips.

My contribution to losing ten pounds was that the cone was small.

The food I yearn for changes with the seasons.

Right now I'm eating

salmon

asparagus,

artichokes, and

lamb.

I'm also thinking about what's to come next - especially summer sun-drenched local strawberries.

I started to dream about strawberries when I saw this recipe for Strawberries and Cream Ice Cream.

I know there are a lot of wonderful food blogs out there, and I wish I had time to find and read them all. But I don't. So I only read a few regularly, and :pastry studio is one of the blogs in my Google Reader.

And no wonder.

I favor outlaw pastry - simple, fresh, custom, minimally sweet handmade objects of desire formed in an open space where nothing comes between the art and the practice.

from about :pastry studio

The writing is sensual; the pictures are beautiful; and the recipes are divine - spare, very, very elegant - and they work!

This cake is a favorite of mine. Rather plain. But not like Jane. More like your basic black dress. It's great to have hanging around your kitchen. But it won't be there for long because it's eminently snack-able at all times of the day and night

It's particularly good around 4:00 p.m. with a cup of tea. After dinner you can cut a slice into fingers and serve it with whatever ice cream sounds good to you - perhaps vanilla, coffee, or a nut-studded one (depending on what nuts you used in the cake).

And maybe a small glass of brandy?

Walnut Brandy Cake

Adapted from :pastry studio

6 ounces unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar - I use Florida Crystals Organic

3 large eggs at room temperature

3 tablespoons brandy

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup coarsely chopped toasted nuts - walnuts, almonds, pecans, or hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Oil an 8-1/2 x 4-1/4" loaf pan. Cut a piece of parchment paper large enough to line the bottom of the pan lengthwise with a lengthwise overhang.

Toast the nuts. :pastry studio stays the nuts can be toasted "in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until they are only slightly darkened and give off a toasty aroma."

Cream the butter, then add the sugar slowly, and beat in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until flight and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time. Don't add the next egg until the one before it is incorporated into the batter.

Put the milk in a small bowl or cup, and add the vanilla and brandy.

In another small bowl mix the flour with the baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Then sift this mixture onto a piece of aluminum foil.

Add a third of the flour mixture to the butter and egg batter followed by half of the milk mixture, and beat together. Then add another third of the flour mixture and the other half of the milk mixture, and beat again. Finally, add the last third of the flour mixture, and beat until it's just incorporated into the batter. At this point switch to mixing the batter by hand, folding the nuts in after a minute.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and bake until a cake tester comes out clean. This will take 45 to 50 minutes depending upon your oven.

Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack. After about 30 minutes, remove the cake from the pan and let cool.

Print recipe.

Head over to :pastry studio to check the site out. In the meantime, I'm waiting for strawberry season. The Strawberries and Cream Ice Cream is on my menu for the Fourth of July.

Spaetzle (or Spätzle)

Walter and Margaret are first generation Americans.




Their parents moved to New York




from Budapest on April 19, 1939.




- with a short foray in London,




where they were married, in between.




They were absolutely gorgeous.




Walter, Sr., was 6 feet 3 inches tall and better looking than Errol Flynn.




Giselle, nicknamed Gizi, was 5 foot 2, blond and beautiful




- as pretty as any World War II pinup.




She had been educated in a Swiss boarding school




and was more exotic-looking than the suburban Westchester housewives who surrounded her.




She kept a Victory Garden,




worked outside the home, designed and crafted beautiful needlepoint,

Needlepoint Designed and Executed by Gizi



Needlepoint Detail

and founded Modern Knitting magazine.

Margaret on the Cover of Modern Knitting Magazine wearing a Gizi Design
Photo Courtesy of mkdesigner at Etsy

She was also a fantastic cook.




I didn't meet Gizi until she was in her eighties, but I was lucky enough to spend two weekends at the farm with her learning how to cook some of her family's favorite dishes. Together we made her chicken paprikash,





which has more tomatoes in it than any recipe I have seen elsewhere, her goulash, a delicious dish made with yellow summer squash and sour cream, and, of course, what she called nockerli and what most everyone else calls spaetzle.

Gizi made the nockerli by mixing up the batter and flecking off small pieces of it from a little board, using a small paring-size knife that she would dip in water as she went along. Fleck, fleck, fleck, fleck, fleck - at a rapid-fire pace. Walter has the little board in a drawer at the farm. The first time I used it by myself, the nockerli were too big. Almost the size of gnocchi. Totally unacceptable.

So I went on a search for a spaetzle maker. Paprikas Weiss was still open at the time, and I thought I would have luck there. But I didn't. The spaetzle makers I got just didn't work. I really have no idea why, but the results were less than successful until I found this spaetzle maker,





at the time available from King Arthur Flour. It was more expensive than the others, approximately $40. It turned out to be worth every penny. I don't know why I had success with this one; it certainly looks like two of the other spaetzle makers I went through. But all I can say is this one is high quality, it works, and is a tool worth having. It's available now at Chef's Gadget, and if you're interested in making spaetzle - and who wouldn't be - I highly recommend you get one while you can.

Spaetzle is easy, delicious, and versatile because iit goes well with many dishes. Hungarians serve it as a side dish, drained then tossed with butter, salt, and pepper.




Germans drain it then cook it in a skillet in butter, sometimes in butter in which onions have already been sauteed. It's excellent both ways, but I only cook it in a pan with butter when it's left over.





This is not really a recipe. It's a set of instructions. Once you make it, you will get the hang of it.

For 4 servings

1 egg
A pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
Water - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
A walnut-size lump of butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the egg in a bowl and beat it with a little salt.





Add the flour,





stir with the egg, then add water until you get a batter - looser than bread batter but not so loose that it would pour off a spoon.






It has to be thick enough that when you put it into the spaetzle maker, it doesn't fall through the holes on its own. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

Put water into a pot, making sure the spaetzle maker spans the diameter of the pot, bring the water to a boil, and lightly salt it.

Put all the batter into the shuttle of the spaetzle maker,





put the spaetzle maker over a pan of boiling water, and very quickly (so the steam from the pan of boiling water doesn't clog the holes) start to move the shuttle back and forth over the water until all the batter is in the water. The nockerli - or spaetzle - will quickly float to the surface.






Cook for about a minute then pour into a strainer. Shake the strainer to remove some of the water.

Put the nockerli back in the now-drained pan off the heat, and add the walnut-size lump of butter. Stir while the butter melts, then add a little salt and black pepper to taste.

The Hungarian Way

Obviously, you can also cook it the German way in a skillet with butter and the optional sauteed onions once you have drained it.

The German Way

Print recipe.