My last Risotto cooking class was so popular, we couldn’t all fit into one evening. I scheduled a second class the following Monday for the overflow. I was reluctant to take another day off of work (if you can call ski instructor work), but as the first class went so smoothly (except for the fire), I thought I could pull it off. Everything came together, but it made for a very busy day!
Start: 5:20 alarm.
6:00 at the gym, with my three amazing workout companions. On the plan for today, Filthy Fifties. We have 45 minutes to do 50 reps of each of the following exercises – in no particular order:
Box Jumps
Jumping pull ups
Flying lunges
Knee to Elbow (Hanging crunches)
Push Pulls (Squats with a Shoulder press using dumb bells)
Squat Thrusts (otherwise known as burpees)
Wall Ball (Throwing a medicine ball overhead)
Kettle Ball Swings
Back Extensions
We mix it up every morning; sometimes a good strength workout like this, sometimes a spin class, sometimes a mix of both. But a very fun group who love to push each other – great motivation to brave freezing temps and the still darkness to get to the gym.
6:50. Home, shower.
8:00 Ski School for weekly meeting. 10:30 and 1:15 clinics.
Home at 3:00. Clean off counters, assemble ingredients for 6 recipes, set up work stations with ingredients and equipment for cooking class.
5:30 Students arrive.
7:30 We’re sitting down to eat (hard to believe!!)
9:30 In bed, with a clean kitchen. I was expecting this to be more like 11 pm…
I love it when a plan comes together!
Here’s a second risotto recipe from the class.
Risotto Alla Salsa di Salmone e Prosecco
Fish and crustacean based risottos abound in the seaside communities around Venice, with each community featuring their own favorite fish and naturally preferring their version to all others!
We have been smoking our own salmon for years. We first brine, then wood smoke the salmon over a low fire for a couple of hours. I am often asked if we sell it commercially – the answer is no. As a special dish, I love it. If I had to produce it every day, it would quickly become a real job! For smoking, I prefer farm raised salmon. Its’ higher fat content makes for a moister smoked salmon.
So my ‘favorite’ seafood risotto includes this salmon, paired with a prosecco sparkling wine from the Veneto. A commercially available smoked fish; salmon, or trout, would make a great substitute.
Risotto Alla Salsa di Salmone e Prosecco
Serves 6
6 1/4 cups vegetable or fish stock
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoon butter, softened
1 leek, white part only, trimmed of roots and outer leaves, sliced thinly crosswise and swirled in a bowl of cold water to remove any grit
2 cups risotto rice, arborio or carnaroli
1 1/2 cups prosecco
8 ounces smoked salmon, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Bring the stock to a boil.
Heat the oil and one tablespoon of the butter in another pan, add the leek and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
Add the rice. Stir for about 1 minute. Add the prosecco, and simmer until it has evaporated. Stir in a ladleful of the stock. Cook, adding the stock a ladleful at a time, and allowing it to be absorbed by the rice before adding more.
Just as you add the last ladleful of stock, stir in the remaining butter and the coarsely chopped salmon.
Season with salt to taste, and serve, garnished with the chopped parsley.
Last Monday we had another very enjoyable cooking class in the back woods of Sugarloaf, ME. A enthusiastic group of women, plus two brave men faced brutal sub-zero temperatures to gather at my friend Nancy Marshall’s house for an evening of cooking, eating, wine, and great fun. On the menu that night – risottos. I planned three types, a spin on the classic Venetian Risi e Bisi, a seafood risotto with smoked salmon, and a barley risotto with mushrooms, red wine and arugula.
Okay, so we did almost burn down Nancy’s house in the process. The picture on the right shows the stove set up for cooking our three risottos prior to class. Note the stack of dish towels on the left, right near the gas burner. There is a lot of fun and bustle in the kitchen during my classes, and some wine is consumed, and somehow during all of this activity this stack of towels burst into flames. I could attribute this to spontaneous combustion – my 15 year old son Liam would be a proponent of this explanation, having viewed the movie Spinal Tap a few too many times. However, the towels were probably pushed a little to the right as ingredients were moved back and forth, and – poof! A quick thinking Nancy grabbed the stack, threw it in the sink and doused them with water. There was then a search for the fire extinguisher, just in case. Although if the fire extinguisher had been used there wouldn’t have been much risotto to eat, as the spray would have pretty much covered everything on the stove – Nancy’s method saved our meal! Her dish towels, however, are toast. Literally. Future classes will have these located far from the stove.
Back to the class: the basic technique for cooking risotto is pretty simple. The three recipes we used were simple variations on this basic technique. You may or may not use wine; you can add different ingredients at the beginning or at the end, depending on the cooking time they need – vegetables, cheeses, butter, meats, seafood, shellfish; you use different stocks, to complement the other flavors in the dish; you may even use grains other than rice – here, I used pearled barley for one of our recipes.
Basic Risotto Technique:
Heat the stock
Saute soffrito or similar vegetables (onion, carrot, celery, leeks, garlic) in oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan until tender
Add any vegetables or meats that may require a longer cooking time (mushrooms, uncooked meats, bacon/pancetta.
Add rice and saute a few minutes
Add wine, if using. Cook until absorbed.
Add stock, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking until it is absorbed before adding more
Stop adding the stock and remove from heat when tender, but still at little firm to the bite
Add any remaining ingredients – cheeses, butter, cooked meats, shellfish
Depending on the recipe, you may add additional ingredients at the start, or at the end. But basically that’s it – the cook time will vary depending on the grain. A rice risotto takes about 30 minutes; the barley version may take 45 to 50, depending upon how ‘pearled’ the barley is. Other grain options include farro, or any of the various whole grain blends available from Kashi or Bob’s or a variety of suppliers here in the US. Depending upon the grains you use, the result may not be the creamy consistency you will get with a true risotto rice (more on this below) but will certainly be a healthy and delicious meal.
Risottos in Northern Italy
When referring to Italian food, most people immediately think of pasta. But Italy is the greatest rice producing nation in Europe, and the Po River valley in Northern Italy is the largest rice producing region in Italy. Since Venice controlled the major part of this fertile valley for centuries, rice is a mainstay of their cuisine; more prevalent than pasta. Venetians have a myriad of risotto dishes, but probably the most famous of all is Risi e Bisi, Rice with Peas.
Often prepared and served somewhat thoughtlessly, it can be a rather bland dish. However, historically it was created to celebrate the arrival of the new crop of fresh peas and only eaten in early spring. This dish was traditionally served to the Doge (Ruler) of Venice on April 25, the feast day of the patron saint of Venice, Saint Mark. This feast day roughly coincided with the annual introduction of the first baby peas at the Rialto market in Venice.
In Venice, a proper Risi e Bisi would appear to us Americans as more soup-like than the risottos we are familiar with. Their risottos are much more liquid, risotto all’onda, or “risotto with waves”. You should be able create ‘waves’ in your risotto by tipping your plate.
Most chefs are familiar with the use of two strains of rice for risotto, Arborio and Carnaroli. Carnaroli rice is grown in the Grumolo area today. But the area is perhaps best known for its unique regional strain, Vialone Nano. Developed in 1937 by crossing the Vialone strain with the Nano, it is considered by many to be the premier risotto rice produced in Italy. It is the only European rice with its own IGP quality designation.
I use Vialone Nano rice when in Italy, cooking on our Italiaoutdoors trips, but cannot find it here in the states. Arborio and Carnaroli are pretty readily available here. Carnaroli has a longer, larger kernel that retains is consistency during cooking, as it releases the starch that contributes to a nice, creamy risotto.
Here, I’ve played with a traditional risi e bisi recipe, and added radicchio and mascarpone – both ingredients also found in the Veneto. A little lemon and pistachios, and you have a dish that is worth serving even if the peas aren’t from Lumignano in April.
Risi e Bisi con Radicchio e Pistacchi
Serves 4-6
2 ¼ cups peas, shelled or 1 package frozen peas, defrosted
5 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup butter
1 leek, white part only, trimmed of roots and outer leaves, sliced thinly crosswise, and swirled in a bowl of cold water to remove any grit.
1 garlic clove
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 cup risotto rice, preferably riso Vialone Nano, Carnaroli, or Arborio
1 small head radicchio, washed, dried, and thinly sliced crosswise
½ cup Asiago d’Allevo stravecchio or Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
½ cup mascarpone cheese
½ cup raw pistachios, very finely chopped
Zest from one lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper
Bring the stock to a boil. If you are using fresh peas, rather than the chicken stock, you can create a pea stock by boiling the (washed) pea pods in 6 cups of water for 10 minutes. Fill a large bowl with ice water. Remove the pods from the stock, then add the fresh peas. Cook the peas, uncovered, until tender, which should only take a couple of minutes, especially if the peas are tiny. Remove the peas from the stock, and immerse in the cold water. Remove from the water and set aside. If you are using defrosted frozen peas, you can skip this step – they have already been blanched.
Heat the oil and half the butter in another pan, add the leek, garlic and celery and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove and discard the garlic.
Add the rice. Stir for about 1 minute, and then stir in a ladleful of the stock. Cook, adding the stock a ladleful at a time, for about 20 minutes until the rice is tender and all the stock has been used. Add the radicchio and continue to cook until radicchio is tender, about 5 minutes. Add the peas and cook until heated through.
Season with salt to taste, stir in the remaining butter, the Asiago or Parmesan, and the mascarpone. Add the pistachios and lemon zest, reserving a tablespoon or so of the pistachios to garnish. Pour into a soup tureen and serve, garnish with the remaining pistachios.
My favorite Italian dessert, and probably the best-known dessert of Italy, is Tiramisu. We make this on many of our Italiaoutdoors Food and Wine Chefs on Bikes tours, and it always a big hit. My son Liam requests this on his birthday, rather than a cake. When we make this on our tours in Italy, our local chefs always have an anecdote to share as to the origin of this dish. Most begin in a brothel….
Tiramisu translates roughly to ‘pick me up’, and one of the more prevalent, and by far the most colorful legend behind the origin of tiramisu was that is was created as a ‘pick me up’ for weary patrons of a brothel, but I’ve already covered those stories in my tiramisu cookie post (click here). So what to add here? There are a lot of tiramisu recipes that use a simple combination of mascarpone and/or whipped cream as one of the layers, rather than take the time to make the traditional ingredient, an egg custard called a zabaglione. Why bother with making a zabaglione?
For me, THE key component to a great tiramisu is the zabaglione. It is a classic egg custard that appears in various forms, referred to as zabaglione in Italian, and sabayon in French. In Italy, it usually includes sugar and is served as or with desserts. In France, it is often made without sugar as an accompaniment to savory dishes. Various liquors are used; often you will see sparkling wines like prosecco or spumante. In the Veneto, their zabaglione (referred to in dialect as zabaio) is made from egg yolks, sugar, and marsala. I prefer the texture this provides over the simpler whipped cream and mascarpone versions of tiramisu, and I also miss the marsala. And a real zabaglione is not hard to do.
There is no single agreed-upon consensus on the origins of zabaglione. “The Penguin Companion to Food” claims that it was first produced in Florence in the Medici kitchens around 1500. The most probable story, but boring.
A more interesting tale gives the credit to Giovanni Baglioni, a military commander in the early 1500s. He and his troops were camped near Reggio Emilia, in Emiglia Romagna, and the locals referred to him in their dialect as “Zvan Bjoun”. Scrounging what they could from the locals for food, this concoction was invented, and the troops loved it so much they named the treat after him.
This latter story, unlikely but nevertheless well-known in Italy, in which zabaglione is used to provide sustenance to soldiers gave rise to a fairly common practice over past centuries of serving it to newlyweds, either on their wedding night, or on their first morning together. If it can fortify a well-conditioned fighting force, what better food to fuel more peaceful sustained activity?
A well-known Italian food expert, Giuseppe Maffioli, claims that the origins of zabaglione hail from Zabaja, a sweet dessert from Illiria, once a Venetian territory across the Adriatic. Maffioli writes, in his book “Il Ghiottone Veneto”, “The groom’s bachelor friends at the end of the long wedding banquet, maliciously teasing, gave to him before the couple retired a big bottle of zabajon, to guarantee a successful and prolonged honeymoon.”
So, it appears that if tiramisu is to achieve its’ claimed objective of picking up weary patrons of a brothel, zabaglione is a ‘must’ ingredient! And I thought it was for purely culinary reasons…
Tiramisu
Makes 16 servings (13×9 pan)
2 ½ cups freshly brewed espresso
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3/4 cup Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup dry marsala
1 pound mascarpone (2 ½ cups)
1 cup chilled heavy cream
36 savoiardi (crisp Italian ladyfingers)
7 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, grated. I use bittersweet chocolate chips which I pulse in a food processor
Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
In a shallow bowl, combine the espresso, 1 tablespoon sugar, and Tia Maria. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then cool.
Using a whisk, beat the egg yolks, marsala, and remaining ½ cup sugar in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until it has tripled in volume and thickened slightly, about 5 to 8 minutes. You’ve just made a zabaglione. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside so it can cool slightly.
In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff. Add the mascarpone and beat together to combine. Add the zabaglione and beat briefly just until combined.
Gather your mascarpone mixture, ladyfingers, coffee mixture, and grated chocolate, along with a 13- by 9- by 3-inch glass pan.
Quickly dip both sides of each ladyfinger into the coffee mixture, and line the bottom of the 13- by 9- by 3-inch pan with ladyfingers in 2 rows, trimming edges to fit if necessary. Spread half of the mascarpone mixture on top. Sprinkle with half of the grated chocolate. Repeat a second layer of dipped ladyfingers, then top with the remaining mascarpone, and then the remaining grated chocolate.
Chill, covered, at least an hour. It is best made a day in advance. If it has chilled longer, allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Dust with cocoa before serving.
My blog to this point has focused on my culinary activities. But my passions are divided between the kitchen and the great outdoors! So a perfect day for me is one in which I get to indulge in both. Today brought lots of sunshine, but some cold temperatures. With a holiday weekend crowd, it was not a day to spend waiting in lift lines. But a little snowfall this weekend provided enough coverage for a randonnee ascent of West Mountain at Sugarloaf. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is also called ski touring, or hiking for turns. Instead of taking a lift up the mountain, you climb up. You need skis with binding that allow the skiers heel to lift, and ‘skins’ to attach to the bottom of the ski that prevent the ski from sliding backwards as you climb. These ‘skins’ are now made of nylon, but originally were actual seal skins. Here are a few pictures of my tour, working up an appetite for the braised rabbit I knew was awaiting me upon my return home!
This recipe is loosely based on a recipe from “The Silver Spoon”, a classic Italian cookbook for over 50 years. I’ve added some pictures and instructions for cutting up a rabbit, for those of you who may not have a lot of experience with this particular item. If rabbit is not at hand, this would work great with chicken or turkey as well. I would braise the dark meat (legs) for the 45 minutes, then add the white pieces (breasts) and continue to cook just until done. Since chicken or turkey breasts are much larger than rabbit loins, I would keep a bit of additional stock at hand to replenish the braising liquid should it reduce too much while the breasts are cooking.
I used an intriguing and delicious pear cider that was available at our local gourmet store. And I scored some great black trumpet mushrooms for this – a find like this just makes my day! I don’t find rabbit very often here in the US, so to be able to pair it with the pear cider and some fantastic mushrooms is a real treat. Serve with polenta, or some other whole grain side like a farro or barley.
Coniglio al Sidro (Rabbit with Cider)
Serves 4-6
2 rabbits
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, sliced
1/2 cup pancetta or bacon, diced
2 1/2 cups hard cider
3/4 cup rabbit stock
1 1/2 cups mushrooms
1 fresh thyme sprig
Strip of thinly paired lemon rind
Cut each rabbit into 6 pieces: 2 rear legs, 2 fore legs, and 2 loins. This may sound intimidating, but it is no more difficult than cutting up a chicken. I begin by removing the rear legs. I grab the leg and twist it a little to help me locate the hip joint. Using a large chef’s knife, I then cut through the joint where the thigh bone meets the hip socket. The fore legs are next, and I remove them the same way.
The carcass remains, with two loins located down the back on either side of the backbone. Using a boning knife, I cut down on one side of the back bone to loosen the loin, then I make a series of cuts along this same line, following the curve of the rib cage. The loin will easily separate out in one large piece. Repeat on the other side for the second loin.
I save the carcasses to make rabbit stock which I keep in the freezer for future rabbit dishes or soups.
Season the rabbit pieces with salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven or other braising pan over medium high heat, add the rabbit pieces and brown on all sides. You will have to do this in batches, as you do not want to crowd the rabbit pieces in the pan – they will steam, rather than brown nicely. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the onion and bacon to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender and the bacon is cooked but not too crisp, about 7 minutes. Add the cider and stock and bring to a boil. Add the mushrooms, thyme, lemon rind, and the rabbit rear and fore legs to the pan. Cover with parchment paper, and then aluminum foil, and reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover and cook over low heat for 45 minutes.
At this point, the braise can be saved for another day. Making it ahead of time allows the flavors to develop even further. I often make this one day and serve it the next; it is very quickly finished off and makes a great warm meal after nice ski tour! Remove it from the heat, and allow it to cool a bit. Place the entire pan in the refrigerator. If I am making it in advance, I don’t sear the loins, I just save them in a separate container.
When ready to serve the braise, place the pan on the stove over medium heat and bring back to a low simmer. Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium high heat. Sear the loins on all sides. Transfer the loins to the braising pan, and allow to simmer, uncovered, until the loins are cooked through to desired doneness.
Remove the rabbit from the braising pan and set aside, keeping them warm. Continue to simmer the braising liquid, reducing the sauce to the desired consistency. In culinary school, I was trained to bring this to a ‘nape’ consistency, in which it will coat the back of a spoon and, if you draw your finger along the back of the spoon, the line that is left behind will remain clear. Taste sauce and correct seasoning with salt and pepper, if desired.
Place a rear leg, fore leg and loin on 4 warmed plates. Top with the sauce and mushrooms, and garnish with a fresh thyme sprig and a narrow strip of lemon peel.
Make your own ricotta cheese? Are you crazy? That is the reaction I usually see when this possibility is first introduced. But continue reading, and you’ll soon be a convert. You can actually make ricotta from two simple ingredients, and you’ll be done in less time than it will take you to run out to the grocery store and buy it!
The ingredients: whole milk and some sort of acid (vinegar, lemon juice)
How: Heat milk. Add acid. The milk will curdle. Strain curds from liquid. You are done.
We introduced homemade ricotta with Jody Adams leading the way on our Chefs on Bikes tours last year in the Veneto. Everyone was amazed at how simple it was; the most difficult part was scrounging around in the borrowed kitchens trying to locate an adequate substitute for a strainer and cheesecloth (I think we ended up with paper towels, or coffee filters.) We stuffed zucchini blossoms with it in June, and in September we served it for dessert with roasted fresh local plums with walnuts.
Now to fess up a bit, this is not exactly a true ricotta cheese as you would find in Italy. The high quality ricotta cheese we found there are actually produced from the whey, the liquid that is drained off after the milk has curdled. When the protein rich whey is heated, protein particles fuse and create a curd, which is then drained and becomes ricotta. In Italy, most ricotta cheeses are produced with sheep, goat or water buffalo milk whey, while in the US cow’s milk whey is most commonly used. But this homemade whole milk version is delicious, and I love the idea of being able to control the quality of the ingredients – I opt for a locally produced whole milk, as opposed to a supermarket organic. The latter must be UHT (ultra-high temperature) pasteurized, due to the required long shelf life. UHT milk is not recommended for home mozzarella production, as the processing interferes with the more solid curd production needed for that type of cheese. It will work for this type of ricotta, however.
I’ve continued to play with variations, experimenting with different flavors of vinegar and different ingredients to infuse flavor into the cheese. I’m also planning on trying some versions with non-cow’s milk, when I can get my hands on some. Here’s one version in which I used a fig flavored balsamic vinegar and added some dried figs which sit in the curds for a period of time to infuse some flavor into the cheese. I’ve got a few more varieties I want to explore, which I will post with recipes – I’d love to hear from anyone out there with your own discoveries!
Homemade Fig Ricotta
Makes 2 cups
1/2 gallon whole milk, preferably local
2 bay leaves
sprig thyme
9 dried figs, woody stem removed and quartered
2 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons fig vinegar (balsamic vinegar flavored with fig)
Kosher salt
Place milk, bay leaves, thyme, fig quarters and balsamic vinegar in a large saucepan and heat slowly over medium heat, stirring occasionally to keep the milk from burning. Eventually, milk will curdle. Most recipes call for the milk to be heated to 180°, using a thermometer to keep track of the temperature. This is a simmer, just below the boiling point. When the milk reaches 180°, you are instructed remove from the heat and stir in the vinegar. However, the milk will curdle as low as 165°, and if you are careful to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t boil over, you can do this without a thermometer. The milk will curdle when it reaches 165°, if you have added enough acid (vinegar). For the fig ricotta, allow to stand for 1 hour, to infuse the ricotta with the bay, thyme and figs.
Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Remove the bay leaves, thyme sprig and fig quarters from the saucepan containing the milk. Ladle the curds into the cheesecloth, allowing the clear liquid to drain away. Hang in the cheesecloth for 8-10 minutes, longer if you want drier ricotta. You can also gather the ricotta up in the cheesecloth to squeeze out some of the whey. Season with salt.
So, now what do we do with it?
Pasta with Chicken, Radicchio, and Homemade Fig Ricotta with Walnuts
This is a quick pasta recipe I came up with to feature this great homemade ricotta. The combination of fig and radicchio and walnuts I love; I’ve used it on crostini as an appetizer. I’ve added some grilled chicken here as a way to work in some protein, but a vegetarian version would be just as tasty. I used regular white pasta, as that is what I had on hand, but a whole wheat pasta would be very nice in this.
Serves 4
2 boneless chicken breasts
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small head radicchio, chiffonade (thinly sliced)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup homemade fig ricotta
1 pound dried penne pasta, either white or whole wheat
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
Preheat your grill. You can also bake or broil the chicken, if a grill is not available.
Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Grill until cooked through. Allow to cool, then chop into 1/2 inch pieces.
Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat.
While the water is heating, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the radicchio and cook until wilted. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the chicken pieces. Turn off the heat while the pasta cooks.
Once the water is boiling, season with salt. Add the penne and cook until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta and add to the chicken and radicchio.
Turn the heat back on to medium under the pasta and chicken. Add the ricotta and remaining olive oil and combine. If the pasta seems a bit too dry, add a bit of the pasta water – this will depend on how well you have drained your ricotta. Taste, and adjust the seasonings.