Vegetarian Archives - Very EATalian

Risotto with Wild Hop Shoots (Risotto con Bruscandoli)

May 17, 2020 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

Did you think hops were just for beer? Brewers may be interested in the flower, but their delicate shoots are also a unique ingredient for risottos and frittatas!

In early spring, my family and I usually take walks in the country and look around for these thin green shoots growing wild in the Friuli and Veneto countryside. They look like delicate miniature asparagus and you can spot them near bramble bushes and scruffy vegetation areas dividing land properties. After we’ve gathered a big bunch of “bruscandoli”, we proudly carry them home and turn them into a delicious dish.

If you’re not into foraging, wild hop shoots are not an uncommon sight on market stalls in early spring.

Now, scroll down for a delicious risotto with wild hop shoots recipe!

Risotto with Wild Hop Shoots (Risotto con bruscandoli) | Very EATalian

Risotto with Wild Hop Shoots (Risotto con Bruscandoli)

Cook Time 22 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Very EATalian

Ingredients

400 g (14 oz) Carnaroli or Arborio rice
a drizzle of olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
a bunch of wild hop shoots chopped (tougher ends removed)
1.5 liter (6 cups) vegetable broth
a splash of white wine
30 g (2 Tbsp) butter
50 g (1/2 cup) parmesan cheese
25 g 1/4 cup toasted almonds chopped
salt

Instructions

In a heavy medium saucepan, heat a drizzle of oil.
Add onion and chopped wild hop shoots and cook until softened. Add rice and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add wine and cook until it’s completely evaporated.
Reduce heat and add a ladleful of broth, stirring frequently and allowing the liquid to absorb fully before adding more. Repeat the process, adding a ladleful of broth at a time. Cook rice until “al dente”, about 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat, add butter and grated cheese. Mix well until melted and creamy. Add salt, to taste. You can stir in more broth to adjust consistency. Sprinkle some chopped almonds on top and serve.

If you make this recipe, please let me know how it turns out for you! You can leave a comment below the recipe or share a photo on IG or FB. Don’t forget to tag me with #veryeatalian! Grazie!

Simple and flavorful Pasta e Ceci

April 21, 2020 By very EATalian 2 Comments

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Simple and flavorful Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with Chickpeas) | Very EATalian

I’m having a moment with Pasta e Ceci (Pasta and Chickpeas). It’s a sort of Southern “cousin” of another bean-based pasta dish we make quite often around here: Pasta e Fagioli soup.

Both of these delicious recipes have their merits: they’re equally humble, nutritious, and filling. My favorite thing about Pasta e Ceci is how all ingredients come together in a harmony of flavors. A fragrant clove of garlic and an aromatic sprig of rosemary set the perfect stage for the beautiful marriage between the bright pureed tomatoes and the hearty chickpeas.

Like many other Italian dishes, you can prepare Pasta e Ceci in many different ways, according to family and regional traditions. I personally like my Pasta e Ceci just like Emiko Davies does: I like it to be less of a soup and more of a pasta, with just enough sauce to call for a spoon. I also like to be generous with tomatoes and puree about 1/3 of the chickpeas I use. The rest of the chickpeas dots the pasta, adding textural interest to the dish.

The best way to go is obviously dried chickpeas. I took a little shortcut and used the canned ones, and the result was still delicious! Make sure you don’t discard the water, though, as it will be an important thickening and flavoring addition to the sauce!

Short pasta works well with this recipe. I scored some mixed-shape pasta at the grocery store and it turned out to be a great source of entertainment for Olivia. She spent a good amount of time sorting out the different shapes. She also got really sad when she realized she ate all her chickpeas and she had no more.

A drizzle of good-quality extra-virgin olive oil and a generous sprinkle of shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese will be the perfect final touches to your Pasta e Ceci. If you like a bit of heat (and I DO!), you can add a hint of peperoncino (chili powder).

So there you have it. This simple and flavorful Pasta e Ceci is kid-friendly, cheap, nutritious, filling, and just DELICIOUS. I hope I inspired you to make it, too!

If you make this recipe, please let me know how it turns out for you! You can leave a comment below the recipe or share a photo on IG or FB. Don’t forget to tag me with #veryeatalian! Grazie!

5 from 1 vote

Simple and flavorful Pasta e Ceci

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with chickpeas) is an incredibly satisfying and nutritious pasta recipe made of cheap pantry ingredients. The pasta is cooked in a delicious sauce made with chickpeas, pureed tomatoes, garlic, and rosemary. You’ll love this dish so much, you’ll want to make it again!

Servings 4

Author Very EATalian

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas (don’t discard the water!)
1 clove garlic smashed
1 sprig rosemary
½ can (7 oz or 200 g) pureed or chopped tomatoes
300 g short pasta (I used mixed shape pasta)
extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
chili powder (optional)

Instructions

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Sauté the garlic with the rosemary, until fragrant. Add the pureed tomatoes and let cook for about 3 minutes, on low heat.
Add the chickpea liquid from the can and ⅔ of the chickpeas. In a separate small bowl, puree the rest of the chickpeas with a couple of tablespoons of water, to obtain a creamy, thick sauce. Add the pureed chickpeas to the sauce, too.
Add 3-4 cups of water to the saucepan, until it becomes quite watery and then add the pasta and a generous pinch of salt. The pasta doesn’t need to be completely submerged by the watery sauce, but it needs to have enough liquid in which to cook. For this reason, you will need to add a couple more cups of water, as the pasta cooks. The cooking liquid will eventually reduce and cook down into a creamy sauce. Cook pasta until al dente, stirring occasionally.
When the sauce becomes a nice liquid cream that’s not too thick, your Pasta e Ceci is ready.
Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve with generous shavings of parmesan cheese and a little drizzle of olive oil. Make sure you serve it with a spoon!

Creamy Polenta with Grana Padano Cheese Fondue

January 14, 2020 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

As strange as it may sound, my dad always says he grew up eating “polenta e latte” (polenta and milk). In the morning, he would break a slice of hardened polenta into his bowl of warm milk and call it a breakfast. Although I never had the pleasure to try it, my mom confirms it’s delicious!

WHAT’S POLENTA, ANYWAY?

Cheap and filling, polenta is the quintessential peasant food of Northern Italy; it’s coarsely ground cornmeal cooked in water for a long time. Polenta is very versatile. Do you remember that Forrest Gump’s scene where Bubba goes on and on about shrimp? Well, I could go on and on about all the different ways to eat polenta! It can be yellow, white or dark (polenta taragna, a blend of buckweat flour and cornmeal). When soft, it’s the perfect companion for stews or any dish that includes a little sauce. When hard, it turns into a loaf that can be easily sliced and then pan-seared, grilled or fried. Here are just a few examples of how people in Friuli and Veneto like to eat it: polenta with sauteed mushrooms, polenta with melted cheese, polenta with grilled meat, polenta e baccala’ (salt cod), polenta con polastro in tecia (stewed chicken), polenta e spezzatino (beef stew), polenta e osei (birds!), polenta with eggs, polenta with salami cooked in vinegar, polenta with fried sardines…and the list goes on and on!

Creamy Polenta with Grana Padano Cheese Fondue | Very EATalian

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Heirloom Tomato Ricotta Tart

August 30, 2016 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

There are two incredibly versatile ingredients I try to keep in my fridge and pantry at all times: ricotta cheese and frozen puff pastry. With these 2 staple ingredients I make A BUNCH of things. A nice savory tart is one of them.

I love savory tarts because they require little effort and little time to put together. I hardly use any recipe and I usually combine ricotta with whatever is sitting in my fridge that’s approaching the expiration date (veggies, ham, Swiss cheese, etc…). It’s the perfect way to avoid wasting food I wouldn’t otherwise be able to eat!

For this extra-pretty Heirloom Tomato Ricotta tart, all you need to do is:…

Panzanella: Bread and Tomato Salad

August 17, 2016 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

Isn’t it funny how sometimes the simplest things impress you the most?

I was 9 years old when I attended my great-uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary in Rome, with my family. The reception was held in a beautiful castle just outside the city. There, an impeccable wait staff served multiple gourmet dishes, fine wine for the adults, and a wide array of desserts. Despite all the fanciness and fine dining, that’s not where I had the most memorable and delicious food that day.

Shortly after the reception, we got invited to somebody’s house. In Italy, when there’s a reason to get together and celebrate, the party never ends…and neither does the food! There, I got to taste for the first time a lovely colorful dish: panzanella, a bread-based salad featuring tomatoes, onions, and basil, simply dressed in olive oil and vinegar. Super simple, yet super tasty! I gobbled up my portion and went back for seconds….

Sicilian Caponata: a sweet-and-sour summertime classic!

July 29, 2016 By very EATalian 4 Comments

If you’re tired of serving the same ol’ potato salad at your summer barbeques or picnics, I’d like to suggest an excellent alternative which also happens to make GREAT leftovers: caponata, i.e. a lovely summer vegetable dish, combining wonderful Sicilian sweet-and-sour flavors.

In this recipe, eggplants are the stars of the show: they are cut in pieces, fried (or sauteed) and then cooked briefly together with a softened ensemble of onions, celery, fresh tomatoes, capers, olives, and raisins. The most important additions are a generous splash of good vinegar and a couple tablespoons of sugar — both enhancing the sweet and sour taste for which caponata is known (in Italian, we call it agrodolce). A sprinkle of chopped almonds or pine nuts add a nice bit of crunchiness to the dish. Needless to say, all ingredients must be fresh and of the best quality you can find.

In order for the eggplant pieces to retain their shape, you must salt them and leave them in a colander to drain for about 30 minutes; salt draws the bitterness and the excess liquid out of the eggplant, preserving some of its firmness during cooking….

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

January 27, 2016 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

I’ll start off by admitting that Pasta e Fagioli isn’t the sexiest soup around (and I can assure you it was quite hard to photograph)…BUT it definitely makes up for its humble (and messy) appearance with a world of flavor and goodness. It’s peasant food, made with cheap ingredients — it only needs few veggies and pasta. It was a staple dish on my grandparents’ table and it’s still a dish we cook quite often around here.

We love it because it’s incredibly versatile: you can eat it warm or cold; you can use different pasta shapes (as long as it’s small dry pasta); you can make it more or less liquid. If you’d like to have it cold, just throw in some torn radicchio and lightly dress it with vinegar, for a nice touch of acidity. If you want to be really old school, you can do what my grandfather used to do — instead of vinegar, just pour a dash of red wine in it…better if straight from your glass!

The recipe is courtesy of my mom: it’s definitely simpler and lighter than many other versions that include pancetta, lard or pork rind. The cooking time depends on the type of beans you are using: we typically use fagioli borlotti (cranberry or Roman beans). Many people like to add shaved cheese on top — we only add a bit of good-quality extra-virgin olive oil and a couple of crostini as a final touch.

Mmmm. Che bontà! So good!

Pasta e Fagioli Soup [Pasta and bean soup]

Author: Very EATalian

Serves: 4

Ingredients

200 g (7 oz) dry cranberry beans, previously soaked in water for at least 24 hours*
1 celery stalk, cut in big chunks
1 carrot, cut in big chunks
1 onion, halved
2.5 lt (10 cups) water
150-200 g (5.2-7 oz) short dry pasta (ditalini or elbow macaroni are perfect!)
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil
(optional) crostini*

Instructions

Pour water in a pot and add carrot, celery, onion, and beans. Add some coarse salt (like when you cook pasta). Bring to a boil and cook on medium-low heat for 50 min-1 hour or until beans are cooked through.
Take out some cooked beans and, if you like, some carrots; these will be added back in the soup at a later moment.
With a hand-held blender, blend together all the ingredients contained in the pot. Add pasta in it and cook according to package instructions. Stir often as pasta will tend to stick to the bottom.
Once pasta is cooked, add beans and carrots (cut in smaller pieces) back in the pot. Keep in mind that pasta will thicken the soup. Depending on the density you like to achieve, you can make it less liquid by adding boiling water or you can make it thicker by cooking it a little longer. Add more salt, if necessary.
Serve warm with crostini, some freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Notes

* When you soak your beans, it's a good idea to change out the water a couple of times.
* To make your own crostini (croutons), cut a pieces of bread in slices and then in small squares. Drizzle bread squares with extra-virgin olive oil and pan-roast them until golden.