FRESH LEMON HERB PASTA
A refreshing pasta dish for hot summer days, you’ll feel like you’re sitting in a fragrant garden while you eat.
1 pound spaghetti (or any pasta of your choice)
2 lemons
1 cup olive oil
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon kosher salt
One-fourth cup parsley or mint leaves – minced
10-12 large basil leaves torn in bite size pieces
Nasturtium flowers or basil leaf cluster for garnish (optional)
Juice lemons and combine with oil, cheese and salt. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain in a colander, place in a heated serving bowl and toss with sauce. Stir in parsley and basil. Grate rind of one-half lemon on top of pasta and garnish with flowers or leaves. Serve hot or at room temperature.
You may have bought scallops at the market because they looked so fresh and plump. You broil them and after 2 minutes find them sitting in a pool of water; they won’t pick up any color and have little flavor. Those big plump scallops are often injected with water and frozen. The key is to buy “dry scallops”.
Have the rest of your dinner ready to put on the table. The scallops take about 4-5 minutes to prepare and cook.
1 pound (9-12) dry scallops
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
one lemon
Pat scallops dry w/ a tea towel or paper towel and season with salt. Heat a sauté pan over medium high flame or heat. Add butter, pick up the pan and swirl the butter while it melts, place back on heat, let the butter heat back to sizzling and add scallops. Don’t touch or move for 3 minutes (depending on your heat source you may have to increase or lower the heat). Turn scallops over, the tops will be a beautiful golden brown, tip pan to one side and use a soup spoon to frequently ladle butter mixture over scallops to finish cooking, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice. You can add a sprig of tarragon, rosemary, basil, or another herb to the butter mixture for added infused flavor. Serve immediately.
These three vegetables are a magical combination of blended flavors.
4 ears corn on the cob
1 bulb fennel
1-2 leeks (depending on size)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
One cup stock or water
1 teaspoon salt – or to taste
Few grinds of black pepper
Prepare the vegetables before you begin to cook. Place each vegetable in a separate bowl. Scrape corn off cob, then scrape again to squeeze the milk out of the cob. You can use most of the fennel stalk as well as the bulb. Bite into the stalk to see where the texture becomes woody, you can use the stalk below that point. Remove the fronds (the feathery greens) and set aside for garnish. Slice the fennel stalks in thin pieces and the bulb in bite size pieces, about 1 inch square. Cut the leeks open lengthwise and wash well to remove sand and dirt. Slice on a diagonal in quarter inch pieces.
Heat a large sauté pan over a medium heat, add the butter and oil, when it begins to sizzle add the leeks, stir well, turn down heat to medium low, cook 4-5 minutes. Add fennel and cook another 4-5 minutes, then add corn, salt, one cup stock, stir well to combine, cover, turn flame to low and cook undisturbed for 10 minutes, add remaining stock if liquid evaporates. Uncover, check seasoning, you can add more salt, another spoon of butter to make a shiny glaze, grind black pepper on top just before serving.. You can prepare ahead and re-heat before serving. You can also prepare extra and freeze some for another meal.
You can prepare this recipe any time of year. Bring a summer treat to your winter dining table; Trader Joe’s has delicious frozen corn and it works well in this dish.
Here is a perfect appetizer to serve guests on warm summer evenings as you sit on a porch or at the beach sipping tall cool drinks.
2 medium eggplants (about 2 cups cooked flesh)
one-half cup Tahini
2 cloves garlic (size – to your taste)
1 teaspoon salt
2 – 3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil (to your taste)
Sprigs of fresh oregano and mint – torn at last minute Pita bread and optional – tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet onion
Prick unpeeled eggplants with a fork 8-10 times (so they won’t explode while grilling) and place on a hot grill or on the burner of a gas stove with the flame on medium high heat. Turn the eggplant with tongs so they are charred on all sides. It will take about 15 minutes; remove from heat to a platter. Let cool slightly, slice in half lengthwise and scoop out flesh, discard skin. Dice eggplant. Combine 1 cup of the eggplant with the tahini, garlic and salt in a blender or food processor fitted with metal blade. Blend until smooth. Add this mixture to the diced eggplant, mash lightly with a fork to mix and mingle the flavors, taste and season with lemon juice. Let sit at least 30 minutes and up to one day to allow flavors to combine.
To serve: Spread Baba-ganoush out on a plate about one inch thick, drizzle with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, garnish edge of serving plate with torn herbs. Dip any of the following into the baba-ganoush, heated or grilled Syrian bread, tomato wedges, cucumber spears, iced sweet onion wedges. To round out your appetizers serve sliced feta cheese, a bowl of olives and Hummus. Buy a container of hummus; there are many interesting varieties in grocery stores.
Variation:
Baba Ganash. Follow the same recipe and use one cup plain yogurt instead of Tahini. This dish has a delicate taste. You can add one-fourth cup olive oil when you blend the yogurt and eggplant for a richer flavor.
July Fourth Flan Serves 8-10
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Close your eyes as you take the first spoonful and you’ll think you’re sitting at an outdoor café on the Costa del Sol with a glass of sherry nearby. You’ll be brought back to the USA by the red (raspberries), white (creamy flan under the caramel), and (blue) blueberries. More subtle than crème Brule, flan is a luscious summer dessert. It is a wonderfully rich dessert and easy to prepare. You’ll need to use the oven so plan to make the flan early in the day or the day before.
one-fourth cup water
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
4 cups heavy cream
one-half cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon rind
pinch of salt
1 pint raspberries
1 pint blueberries
Spray or lightly butter a 9 inch round glass or ceramic baking dish, or use 10 individual ceramic ramekins (4 ounces each).
Carmelize sugar. Stir water and sugar in a saucepan, cover and cook over a medium high heat for about one minute or until the sugar dissolves.
Uncover and stir constantly until the sugar syrup turns golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, could take up to 5 minutes. Immediately pour the syrup into the buttered pan and swirl to distribute the liquid sugar evenly. Flan is not a dessert to prepare on a hot humid day, the sugar just doesn’t want to set-up (…the voice of experience).
Mix the eggs with a fork just to blend the whites and yolks, then mix in the sugar. You don’t want froth or bubbles. Add cream, vanilla, lemon rind, salt, and mix just to blend ingredients. Pour into prepared pan or cups. Place the flan on the middle oven rack in a pan of hot water, bain-marie about one-fourth inch deep. Bake 45 minutes or just until set. Insert a knife into the middle of the custard, when it comes out clean, the flan is done. Remove from oven and hot water bath, and cool on a wire rack.
Refrigerate flan when it cools to room temperature, remove about a half-hour before serving.
To serve: Invert onto a large platter and serve with berries heaped around the sides.
Variations: Substitute orange rind for lemon and gently toss berries with one-fourth cup Cointreau about 15 minutes before serving. Or, substitute one-half teaspoon almond extract for vanilla and toss berries with one-fourth cup Amaretto.
Gazpacho Serves 4 – 6
The secret to great Gazpacho is adding bread crumbs. It balances the acid of the tomatoes and holds the fresh flavor of the vegetables.
1–28 oz.can Pastene whole peeled tomatoes
4 –6 fresh plum tomatoes
2 ½ lb. cucumbers – peeled and seeded
1 yellow pepper (optional)
one-half cup bread crumbs or Panko
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or bouillon reduced to 1 cup one-half cup bread crumbs or panko
3 tablespoons vinegar (rice vinegar or white)
2 teaspoons Kosher salt or to taste
Garnish: a few cilantro leaves (optional)
Cube tomatoes, cucumber and pepper. Reserve 1/3 cup each for garnish. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. You can leave it a bit chunky or make more of a puree.
Let sit at least an hour before serving to let the flavors combine. You can keep gazpacho refrigerated for a day, then it begins to lose its pizzazz.
Spoon into soup bowls and garnish with the reserved tomato, cucumber and pepper.
For an additional kick, sprinkle with hot sauce just before serving. For an even bigger kick, swirl a shot of iced vodka into each cup as you serve. Absolut Citron or Pepper are fab!
Dandelion Greens Salad
This is another gem of a recipe I learned from my mother-in-law Susan Bellicchi. Like roasted peppers, when I suggested including it on a menu for visiting family she was horrified. “This is peasant food, we’d never serve it to guests, especially family. “It would send the message we can’t afford to buy our own food.” Growing up it was a job for the kids to forage dandelion greens for salad in early spring before the plant flowered.
Dandelion greens, one of the first crops of local produce to show up in the spring, are now available all summer long in many grocery stores. Bitter greens cleanse the blood of toxins. The egg tames the bitter green in this hearty salad!
Check the greens for sand and grit, wash well if needed; use the green portion and discard the lower white part of the stem (the milky liquid inside the stem is very bitter). Slice greens with a sharp chef’s knife on a slight diagonal in thin — about one-eighth inch pieces. Rub a salad bowl with garlic, add greens.
Hard boil eggs. Place eggs in cold water to cover with one teaspoon salt in a small sauce pan, cover, bring to boil over medium heat, turn off flame, let sit for 10 minutes. Pour off cooking water and run under cool water for 1 minute, peel eggs immediately (this prevents the edge of the yolks from turning green). Mince eggs, strew over greens.
Cover salad and chill until ready to serve.
Dressing
1 small clove garlic
One teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
1 teaspoon maple syrup (sweetener of your choice)
one-half teaspoon kosher or sea salt (or to taste)
one-half cup olive oil
Use a mortar and pestle or small blender. Mince garlic, add mustard and process with pestle to mash garlic. Add vinegar, lemon, sweetener, and salt, mix well. Add oil slowly in a stream while whisking constantly to emulsify.
Add dressing about 10 minutes before serving, mix lightly and let sit, do not mix again.
You can also use mizuna greens, arugula, spinach, or other hearty salad greens instead or combine with dandelion greens.
A similar salad was on the menu of a French restaurant in Bangkok, the chef was from Budapest! He told us his mother made this salad for him on hot summer days. It is soooo refreshing.
You can prep the salad ahead, dress just before serving.
Coming soon… a video of this recipe – watch this space
Dressing
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon + 1-2 teaspoons lime juice
one-third cup olive oil
one-half teaspoon kosher salt
Rasped* lime rind
Flatten garlic clove with the side of a chef’s knife or the butt of your hand. Rub salad bowl with garlic, discard (save for another use). In a small bowl combine lime juice, salt, and thread in olive oil while whisking constantly.
Cut watermelon in 1-inch squares or use a melon baller, keep in a separate bowl in the fridge until you’re ready to prep salad.
Salad
8 cups (1 bag/box) arugula (you can also use baby spinach, or mesclun greens)
6 cups seedless watermelon pieces
When you’re ready to serve, lay arugula on a large platter and toss with a little more than half of the dressing. Strew watermelon over greens. Rasp about one-half teaspoon lime rind over the top of the salad and squeeze about a teaspoon of lime juice on the watermelon. Don’t mix watermelon into greens. Serve immediately. Pour remaining dressing in a small pitcher and serve alongside salad. * See orange arugula salad recipe for rasp info.
You can add one-third cup crumbled feta cheese when you strew watermelon over greens.
