Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

My New Normal Dinner of Roasted Vegetables with Prosciutto

November 19, 2017 by Mary 9 Comments

As you know, I’ve moved to Italy for 3 months, trying to sort out my head, my life and yes even my dinners, after Steve’s passing. My support system of friends here is totally amazing, but my whole life has changed. I so miss Steve.

In Italy, dinner is eaten usually not any earlier than 8:30 pm, which is actually about the time we used to eat in NYC but it’s different now, not coming home from an office and with the time change, 9 am in New York is 3 pm here. It is kinda cool that I have all that time in the morning to myself but then I can work until midnight because it’s only 6 pm there, and that is not healthy, I know.

So lately, I’ve been eating bigger lunches – pasta, at that time, if I want it, – and then a salad or just vegetables for dinner. Often I’ll meet one of my friends for an aperitivo (cocktail) in town at 7 or so and then come home to make a light healthy dinner, eat, check in with the office and do some more work.

I don’t know what we have done to our food supply chain in the US. Here, everything is so darn flavorful and DELICIOUS! For example, sauteed escarole, just simple with olive oil, salt and pepper, is divine!! In the States, we used to buy our vegetables from organic farmers, but even those veggies cannot compare to the ones here. I think we’ve ruined our food system forever in the U.S.

So one evening, I made the dish below, roasting cauliflower and yellow peppers, then throwing in tomatoes at the end, letting the warm combination sit on cool baby arugula (that still tastes peppery here), basil leaves and some avocado to add some creaminess. The prosciutto adds big flavor and protein. Serve this with a slice of bread, some great olive oil and you’ve got a fantastic dinner!!

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH PROSCIUTTO – serves 2

2 small handfuls of arugula
12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
½ head of cauliflower, cut in small flowerets
1 yellow pepper, cut into 1/3” strips and then cut each strip in half
6 thin slices of prosciutto, trimmed of fat, cut into 1/4” strips
1.5 Tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper, fresh ground
12 large basil leaves
1 small avocado, halved, and each half cut into strips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss cauliflower and yellow pepper with olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste and roast for about 12 minutes on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet. Then add the tomatoes and toss all to combine. Roast for 10 more minutes until all is tender and wonderful. Lightly salt again now, if you wish.

Place a small handful of arugula on each plate. Tear up 4 basil leaves and scatter on top of each plate of arugula. Arrange the half of the avocado on each plate, in a circle.

Scatter ½ of the prosciutto slices on top of the avocado and mound ½ of the roasted cauliflower, yellow pepper and tomatoes on top.

Tear up the rest of the basil leaves and sprinkle around on top, leaving one or two leaves as an accent.

Serve with LOVE and bread, if you’d like. Total delish!!

Thanksgiving is coming this week (and so is my birthday) the first of many firsts without my honey, Steve. I am so, so sad. Not much to do to relieve the sadness. I just cry a lot.

But that is not for you. Here is my Thanksgiving book for any of you who need it.

I will be hosting this Thanksgiving on the Saturday after – on the 25^th – at my friends, Tiziana and Andrea’s house as they have a table big enough to seat 14 people. Our younger son, Zach and his wife, Agata, will be flying in from Poland. Our older son and his wife, Kate will spend it with my brother and sister-in-law and their family in Connecticut.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving to you all. Sending lots of LOVE and great food!!

What’s Most Important

December 28, 2013 by Mary 24 Comments

I have been totally preoccupied, which explains my recent radio silence. Our youngest son has encountered some serious health problems involving his digestive system, which has been accompanied by numerous trips to the hospital. Talk about being frightened out of my wits, many sleepless nights and feeling utterly helpless. They have figured out a way to stabilize things and he is now pretty okay pain-wise but this has been quite a journey into unfamiliar territory for our family. When they say that all that really matters is good health, it is so true. It is without a doubt, what’s most important.

He went for a week without consuming anything orally. Not even water. He was hooked up to an IV of course, but nothing to digest to give all of his organs a rest. He lost a lot of weight.

He can now eat gingerly, trying tiny bits of things as we go along, with everything being very low fat. So obviously, this is a new way of cooking for me. Starting with clear broths (only vegetable stock, not even chicken) and steamed rice, we are graduating to skinless, boneless chicken breasts, plain steamed carrots and green beans and trying to figure out ingenious ways to do everything with little or no butter or oil. Now I’ve never been a fan of using a lot of butter but this is a heightened awareness, and you know what? I think I like this super clean way of cooking and eating. This forces you to really stretch and consider ingredients that will add the most flavor and interest. And I’m finding this particularly enjoyable and a welcome respite in the midst of this fattening, rich holiday season. There’s a silver lining in everything!

So here’s the vegetable broth I made. I remembered that roasting vegetables at a high heat always coaxes the most flavor out of them so I just put a very light film of peanut oil on a large baking sheet, laid out all the veggies and roasted them at 425° for 15 – 20 minutes, before creating the broth with white wine and water on the stove top. It was so rich and flavorful, hard to believe it was just vegetables. Here’s the recipe.

ROASTED VEGETABLE BROTH – makes 10 cups

Peanut oil
2 plum tomatoes, cut in half, lengthwise
4 leeks, white parts only, cut in half and carefully washed
4 cremini or baby bella mushrooms, stems trimmed and cut in half
4 carrots, scrubbed, cut in half lengthwise and into 3 inch pieces
4 celery stalks, cut in half lengthwise and into 3 inch pieces
1 red pepper, seeds and membrane removed, cut in half
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup of dry white wine
1 tsp. Kosher salt
½ tsp. fennel seeds
15 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
10 cups of water
3 parsley sprigs
5 thyme sprigs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put a little peanut oil on a paper towel and slick the surface of a large rimmed cookie sheet. Lay out all your vegetables as shown in the photo and roast for 15 – 20 minutes on the top shelf of your oven. You should be able to smell them and have coaxed some liquid out of them. The leeks and red pepper should also be a little browned on the bottom.

Scrape all the vegetables and their juices into a stock pot and place on medium high heat. Add the cup of white wine and reduce to ½ cup. Add the 10 cups of water, the salt, fennel seeds, peppercorns, bay leaf, parsley and thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer partially covered for 90 minutes.

Let cool. Strain broth and store in clean containers in refrigerator or freezer.

Roasted Patty Pan Squash with Fennel, Green Peppers and Tomatoes

October 4, 2013 by Mary Frances 22 Comments

I made this really simple, unusual, clean and fresh tasting vegetable dish the other night that I wanted to share with you. It’s so simple, it’s stupid. But I thought that sometimes we don’t always think of things when we’re rushing to satisfy hungry stomachs at the end of a very busy day. And I am always looking for new flavor combinations with veggies, just to take them up a notch. Aren’t you? Now this combination of roasted patty pan squash with fennel, green peppers and tomatoes was just fantastic! It was different and just look at how pretty it was! I added the tomatoes at the end for color but of course they added taste too.

The local farmer’s markets are dwindling down with product assortment, but there is still squash and the most robust smelling green peppers and actually, the fennel I got at the grocery store. Try this combo – if all of your ingredients are really fresh, it’s divine!

ROASTED PATTY PAN SQUASH WITH FENNEL, GREEN PEPPER AND TOMATOES – serves 3 – 4

4 – 5 small patty pan squash- cut in 1” cubes
1/2 of a large fennel bulb, cut in 3/8” strips and then cut strips in half
1 small green pepper, cut in 3/8” strips and then cut strips in half
2 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1/2 of a large tomato cut in cubes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the squash, fennel and green pepper on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss to thoroughly combine and roast for 20 – 30 minutes until squash is just fork tender.

Place in a serving bowl and fold in the tomatoes to warm them up and serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!

Pesto!!

July 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 7 Comments

I had a dinner party this past Wednesday night that was so much fun. One of my senior designers who worked for me years ago, I think back in the late 80’s, was in town and got in touch. She now lives in Singapore. She connected with another former designer and I got in touch with Carl, who was the second person I ever hired for the firm in the early 80’s. So with other friends, we were 8 people in total and three were past employees of PM+CO! It was just great catching up. Linda is a vegetarian and I wanted to make sure the whole meal was amassed with local farm vegetables from upstate, to bring great country flavors to a NYC dinner party. So I started with a salad of farm lettuce and arugula from my garden, topped with roasted beets, Coach Farms goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and a sherry vinaigrette. I then roasted two huge trays of vegetables – yellow squash, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms, eggplant, Vidalia onions, smashed whole garlic cloves (from Ethel’s garden), red, and orange peppers and baby turnips – with Greek olive oil and French grey salt. I made a mass of steamed Jasmine rice, folded in Goya black beans (for protein) and for the non-vegetarians, I pan roasted 2 whole chickens seasoned with salt, pepper and Garam Masala. It was all really simple. I also had made some basil pesto the night before from basil in my garden, picked on Monday. I decided to put some of that in a bowl and people spooned it on everything and even took some home! I was originally going to fold the pesto into the rice and beans but after taking a survey from everyone during the cocktail hour, we decided this was the way to go. A dollop on top on the vegetables was divine. Barbara asked for a batch as her Christmas present and Mary Beth took a container full home. People just wanted to eat it straight. I really never dreamed of that for pesto. I just wanted to serve it because I had just made a bunch and with our youngest being in Europe, we couldn’t possibly eat it all, although pesto does freeze quite well.

We finished the meal with a rhubarb crisp (really quick and easy to make) topped with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. Not bad for a weeknight dinner party!

Here is the pesto recipe. Remember, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients for any dish you make, so use the very best you can.

PESTO
-makes about 3 cups

3 cups of packed basil leaves, thoroughly washed and dried
6 – 7 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups Greek extra virgin olive oil (I like Athena brand)
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (Reggiano) cheese
2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese
salt
pepper

In a large food processor, combine basil, garlic and walnuts. Process to make a near paste. Scrape bowl. With machine on, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape bowl again. Add the cheeses, a big pinch of salt and 20 grinds on fresh pepper. Process again, taste and add more salt, if necessary, to your liking.

A one cup portion is enough to coat 1 lb. of dried pasta, cooked. I like it on fusilli best as it can get in all the little groves for maximum coverage and flavor.

This freezes well.

Basil in my garden.

Pesto pasta and tomatoes in a white bowl.

Dinner with our good friend, Nancy, on Saturday, started with this course.

Friday night super food!

January 28, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Sauteed shrimp on top of kale, turnips and red pepper

I put together this dish last night. I needed to use up an unusual combination of vegetables – turnips and kale, and I had a red pepper and one plum tomato begging to be used as it’s the end of the week. (You’re probably saying, “Yuck!”) I shop once a week for all fruits and vegetables and fill in on fish and meat from my specialty shops – Esposito’s Pork Shop and Sea Breeze Fish Market near my office. I had bought some beautiful, large, fresh Florida shrimp.

So what to do? I just thought about what would taste good for each and cooked accordingly, and hoped for the best. I always warn my husband when I’m starting to do this sort of thing, winging it, to hopefully lower expectations.

I roasted the turnips together with the red pepper tossed with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. This roasting made the turnips sweet little chunks. While that was roasting, I slowly sautéed the garlic first, then added the kale and chicken stock and cooked them until they were very tender. At the end, I sautéed the shrimp in softened shallots and dry vermouth. Dry vermouth to me, is wonderous. Unlike just a plain dry white wine, it makes anything taste like fine French food. Really. Off heat to finish, I swirled in a bit of butter, to keep the French thing going. You can do this sort of thing with chicken too and it will taste amazing. Notice, no carbs, (I could do that because Zach was not eating with us), and we didn’t miss that starch. This turned out awesome!! My husband had 4 helpings of the kale and usually he is not a big kale fan. I think he doesn’t like it when it’s not cooked tender enough.

This makes enough to serve 4, although it was just the two of us last night. But then Zach and his girlfriend finished up everything when they came home at 3:30 am. The dirty dishes were in the sink this morning. (At least they make it to the sink!)

SAUTEED SHRIMP WITH KALE, TURNIPS AND RED PEPPERS
– serves 4

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

2 good-sized turnips, peeled and cut into 1” cubes
1 red pepper, stem and seeds removed, cut into ½” strips and then each strip cut into half lengthwise.
2 tbs. olive oil
salt & pepper

Toss all together and roast in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until turnips are fork tender and a little browned. Keep warm in a microwave (not turned on) or a warming drawer

1.5 tbs. olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 large bunch of kale, washed thoroughly, stems removed and chopped into 1” strips
1/3 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Some extra water or broth if you need it

Warm the olive oil and sauté the garlic for 10 – 15 minutes to soften. Do not let it brown. Add your kale and chicken broth, toss to combine and cover. Watch and toss often. Add more water or broth if you need to. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook until kale is very tender. It will turn dark.

1.5 tbs. olive oil
2 shallots thinly sliced
1/3 cup dry vermouth
1.5 lbs. shrimp, shells removed, tails left on. Wash 3 times, dry, and salt and pepper one side of the shrimp
1 plum tomato, cut into ½” pieces
1 scant tbs. unsalted butter

Warm the olive oil and sauté the shallots on low heat for 10 minutes or longer. Do not let them brown. Turn heat up, add vermouth and let it bubble for a minute. Add the shrimp and tomato and toss and stir until the shrimp turn pink. This will take about 3 minutes. When shrimp are done, remove pan from the heat and swirl in the butter until melted.

Add the roasted turnips and red peppers with all their sauce to the kale mixture and combine. Place a mound of the kale and turnip mixture in the middle of the plate and mound a serving of shrimp in the center of the kale. Drizzle some shrimp juices on the shrimp and kale.

Enjoy!!