Category — Recipes

This past weekend was our anniversary, and we went to the beach to celebrate our marriage by running on the sand as if we were in a Vagisil commercial.  Actually we stood on the sand and stuffed our mouths with Thrashers.  But it’s mostly the same thing.

We also went to a famous Rehoboth pizza place that shall not be named because I’m cranky beyond words at this moment.  We had this brilliant idea to purchase sauce and bring it home so we could recreate the restaurant experience in our own kitchen.  Their pizza sauce is vegan.  Their tomato sauce is not.  Josh went up to the counter and bought the tomato sauce, not realizing that.  I didn’t look at it until we got home.  So we now have jars of unusable meat sauce on our hands.

So.

I need a great tomato sauce recipe for tonight.  Here are the parameters:

(1) I’d like it to cook for an hour or so.  I have a lot of quick tomato sauces, which are fine.  But I’m looking for a sauce that feels as if a lot of love has been put into it.  Time = love.  So I’d like it to cook for at least an hour.

(2) I’ve always preferred recipes that use canned tomatoes over fresh tomatoes.

(3) I am not a fan of oregano in sauce.  Basil is fine.  Parsley is fine.  A bay leaf is fine.  But oregano is not.

(4) It has to be vegetarian — no meat.  Cheese is okay, but no beef, pork, chicken, etc.

If you have a recipe that fits this description, or you know that your recipe can be tweaked to fit this description, leave it in the comment section below or email it to me.  If you’re okay with me posting your recipe at the bottom of this post so others can use it too, please let me know.  If you don’t say so, I won’t post it.

Thank you for saving our dinner.

Long term readers of my blog know that every January 6th, we celebrate Befana Day even though we are not (1) Italian or (2) Catholic.  The short version of the story is that I picked up the tradition one winter when I was in Florence, Italy.  The longer version includes a convoluted story of very loud sex partaken by other hotel guests staying at the same palazzo, and a conversation with the owner’s daughter which ended with her announcing that she needed to go fill her child’s shoes with candy.  A lot came between listening to the people having sex and the candy in the shoes, but none of it is very important.  The bare facts you need to know is that I’ve been celebrating Befana Day since 1994ish even though I am not Italian or Catholic.

Befana Day — also known as Epiphany — falls every January 6th.  On the night of January 5th, the witch Befana flies through the air, delivering toys and candy to children who believe in her.  She comes to our house because we believe in her wholeheartedly.  The twins draw pictures of shoes and set them outside their rooms (since we all agreed that actually putting the candy in their mangy shoes was twenty kinds of gross).  In the morning, they open their gift before school and at night, we eat a meal of potato caramelle (the recipe will follow below).

I started celebrating this holiday back when I was in graduate school, before I knew anything about infertility.  So it’s sort of strange that I would fall in love with this holiday where infertility and loss feature so prominently in the story.  This is the story the owner’s daughter told us about Befana:

Once there was a woman named Befana. She was cooking and cleaning and just trying to get through her day when three men came to her house and asked directions to Bethlehem. They told her that a baby had been born who was G-d in human form and they asked if she wanted to come with them to see the new baby. Befana said no because she thought she had already used up too much time giving them directions and she went back to her cleaning and cooking.

A little while later, she thought about how she had just missed this amazing opportunity because she had been so focused on this end goal of having the house clean and dinner cooked. She ran out of the house with her broom and apron and tried to find the three travelers (who were, of course, the three wise men). Befana still goes from house to house to this day, trying to find the baby and leaves gifts and candy at each house she visits.

She also gave a second version of the story that hits much closer to home:

Befana was an old woman who was finally a mother after many many years of infertility. The king learned that a baby would be born who would be G-d in human form and he ordered all baby boys to be murdered. Her son was killed in front of her but in her grief, she refused to accept the loss. Instead, she piled together all the things she had made for him, all the hope she had infused into these tangible items while she waited for him, and went out wandering around the world with this sack on her back.

One night, she came to a manger and in her grief, she thought she had found her son who she believed to be lost rather than dead. She placed these items in the manger and the baby’s family saw how deeply this woman grieved from not having her child that they named her Befana, the giver of gifts and gave her a special blessing. One night out of the year, she is a mother to all of the children in the world. On that night, she travels from home to home, leaving presents for children, to remind them how much they are wanted.

I’m not sure how much I love this second version of the story which plays into all the stereotypes of crazy grieving mothers, but there is a part of me that connects with Befana and her grief.  I imagine the modern-day Befana as a thirty-something woman, making her toys in the middle of the night when no one can see her crying.  She holds it together during the day, possibly working an office job so no one suspects that she really has magical powers, and at night, she just sits with her hope, making things for children until the day she can parent her own.

Interestingly, in poking around the Internet about the history of Befana, I came across an article that mentioned that she comes from the Roman goddess Strina or Strenua.  And in looking up information on this Sabine goddess, I discovered that she is the embodiment of strength and endurance.  Which — I think — says a lot about the women in this community.

So.

Caramelle pasta is also a Befana Day tradition (at least, according to the hotel owner’s daughter — I’m not Italian, so if I’m getting all of this completely wrong, it’s her fault).  The shape is meant to resemble the pieces of candy that Befana leaves.  We stuff ours with a creamy potato and balsamic-glazed onion mixture.  I make them ahead of time and freeze them, and serve the meal with a salad.  You do need a hand-cranked pasta machine to make these, but considering they cost about $20, I think it’s one of those things every kitchen should have.

Fresh Pasta

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
5 eggs
pinch of salt

Place the flour in a huge bowl (I like to knead inside the bowl in order to minimize the mess). Make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the middle of the well and add a pinch of salt. Using your hands, knead the dough together until it is smooth. You will possibly need to add a bit of water or a bit of flour in order to bring it to a satiny finish. Once you have a smooth ball of dough, divide it into 4 parts, wrap each with plastic wrap, and let it rest for an hour while you make the filling.

Caramelle Filling

Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes
1 onion
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp of olive oil
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash and prick the potatoes and set them on a foil covered baking sheet. Create a small nest out of a second piece of foil and place inside the onion in 4 quarters. Cover the onion sections with the thyme and balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil. Close that foil nest and place on the baking sheet too. Put the whole thing in the oven for 45 minutes. The potatoes should be soft when you stick a fork in them to test them.

Allow it to cool a bit and then peel the potatoes (the skin will come right off). Place the drained onions (discard most of the thyme), the potatoes, butter, and cheese in a cuisinart. Puree until smooth. The filling will look like this.

Caramelle Pasta

To put the pasta together, dust the first section of pasta dough with some flour. Run it through the machine on the widest setting (usually 7). Pass it through again two settings down (usually 5), and finally do it a third time at a low setting (I always use 3). Using a square cookie cutter, punch out as many squares as possible.

I use the leftover dough a second time (running it through the three settings), but then toss the rest because it becomes too tough. Fill the squares with a dime-sized amount of filling.

Fold the dough over the filling and continue to roll it until it looks like a tube. Then, pinch the two ends closed. This also works out the air so the pasta will stay closed during the cooking process.

I lay out the caramelle on parchment paper and flash freeze, finally transferring them to a tupperware container.

They cook in about 5 minutes in boiling water. (You’ll need to stay close by and try one or two because the cooking time varies depending on whether they are fresh or frozen.) I serve with butter and a bit of additional cheese.

Buon appetito!

A little tradition you can take and make your own if it speaks to you as it did me.  If making your own pasta feels like too much work this year, feel free to still honour Befana with a slice of pizza or a can of Spaghetti-os.  I use the holiday to say a wish for myself and for the entirely ALI community.  Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes you just need to embrace these outlets.

The idea for this recipe came to me at the Wilco concert this past weekend.  I’m not a fan of honey cake… or really… honey anything.  I’m also not a fan of apple cake.  So that knocked out two traditional desserts served on Rosh Hashanah (apples because they are round like the year, and honey to wish people a sweet new year).  On the other hand, while I don’t like to eat apple pie (I have this thing about mushy apples), I love to make apple pie, and my brother’s girlfriend gave me this fantastic pie idea recently that I wanted to try out. As Jeff Tweedy sang, I thought about apple pie with vanilla ice cream — my staple side dessert to the main dessert — when suddenly it hit me: honey ice cream.  Apples and honey.

Get it?

So I’m posting these recipes in case other people want to make them for their Rosh Hashanah dinner tomorrow night.

Double Bottom Apple Pie

Ingredients for the Crust

3 3/4 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour (I like King Arthur)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 sticks of butter cut into small bits
1/2 cup of ice water (you may need more, but start with this)

Everyone loves my pies. One man told me that he would choose my pumpkin pie as his last meal if he was about to be executed. So what I’m about to write will horrify all pie makers, but this is what I do…

Put the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sugar) in the food processor with the metal blade and pulse. Add the dots of butter into the food processor (while it’s off) and toss around a bit with a fork to coat with flour mixture. Turn on the food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Then sprinkle on the water (yes! While it is in the food processor! Don’t gasp!) and pulse again until the dough pulls together. Make sure you add only enough water to bring the dough together. Too much and the dough will be difficult to work with.

Divide your dough into two circles, wrap in plastic wrap, flatten with your hand, and throw them in the refrigerator. Go write a blog post because you have an hour.

Ingredients for the Pie (modified from Baking Illustrated)

One helping of the pie crust above
7 apples, peeled and sliced thinly (Go for a mixture of types. The only ones I don’t use are golden delicious. I don’t know why I’m biased against them in pies.)
Lemon juice (just enough so the apples don’t discolour)
Scant 1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of allspice
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 500 degrees, with the rack on the lowest setting. I keep the pizza stone in there just because I think it helps conduct heat. Take the first dough out of the refrigerator.

Roll it out by sprinkling some flour on it (not the flour above… just some extra flour) and placing a piece of parchment paper between the dough and the rolling pin. Press the dough into a 9-inch pie plate and cut off the overhang with kitchen scissors. Roll out the leftover dough and make a second circle by placing the bottom of the pie plate over the dough.

You want a circle that fits the exact dimensions of the bottom of the pie plate. Place this dough circle inside the pie plate, creating a double-thick bottom crust. Refrigerate the dough inside the pie plate.

Peel and slice the apples and toss them with lemon juice so they don’t brown. Mix the dry ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, flour, and salt) and toss into the apple bowl too (save just a bit of the sugar to use later).

This is going to look like a lot of apples — mostly because it is — but I promise that it will all fit in a 9-inch pie pan. It will mound slightly in the center.

Now roll out the second pie dough to make the top crust. Lift it over the mound of apples and press the edges together with the back of a fork (the top of the pie plate crust to the top crust). Cut off any excess dough. Using the kitchen scissors, snip a few holes in the top of the crust in order to allow the pie to vent. I sometimes put it in the freezer for a few minutes to allow it to firm up again.

If you want to get all fancy, brush the top of the pie with some egg white or water and sprinkle on the remaining sugar.

Place in the oven and lower the temperature to 425 degrees. Bake 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature again to 375 degrees. Bake for another 30 minutes. The pie is ready when the top crust is a golden brown.

Allow it to cool and start work on your ice cream.

Honey Ice Cream

Ingredients for the Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup of honey

Make sure your ice cream maker has been in the freezer for 24 hours (you know, the part that goes into the freezer… not the whole damn maker). Place all four ingredients in a pan and gently heat (slow and steady) until the honey is melted and combined. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool slightly. Transfer the mixture to another container and place in the refrigerator for a few hours. Make sure the mixture is COLD before you use it.

Start the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Mine usually takes about a half hour to freeze into ice cream, so I like to start it at the beginning of dinner so it’s ready when I serve the pie.

Voila — a new take on apples and honey.