Wednesday, April 27, 2005

 

Stufato di verdure Isabella (Isabella's vegetable stew)

Carissimi,

I made this stew last night and it is delicious. I call it a stew instead of soup because the vegetables are chunky, and the brodo (broth) is thickend with a puree of white beans (canellini) and it is spooned over toasted Tuscan garlic bread. O cielo! You guests will beg you for more and more and more...

This recipe serves 3.

3 large cloves garlic, minced
½ large onion, diced
3 tablespoons minced pancetta (Italian bacon) optional
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium carrots, sliced on the bias
1 small zucchini, chopped in chunks
1 small yellow crook-necked yellow squash chopped in chunks
3 plum tomatoes, chopped in chunks
5 shitake mushrooms chopped in chunks
1 ½ cups good vegetable or chicken broth
1 14 oz. can white canellini beans (1/2 of them pureed in a food processor)
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesean cheese
2 slices thick Tuscan bread
½ clove garlic
olive oil

Saute the onion and pancetta in the olive oil over medium heat for about three minutes, add the garlic and sauté until tender, add carrots and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, add zucchini and yellow squash. Saute for another 2-3 minutes, add mushrooms and tomatoes, sauté for another minute, then add the broth and heat through for another minute or two. It is important to not overcook the vegetables. It is better to undercook rather than over cook them. Add the pureed beans and the whole beans, gently heat through.

Cut the Tuscan bread in two thick slabs and toast in toaster or under broiler till golden. Remove from toaster or oven. Spread some olive oil on warm bread, then rub ½ the garlic clove over the olive oil on the bread. Place the bread in the bottom of a pasta bowl. Spoon the thick vegetable stew over the bread and sprinkle the minced herbs over the stew. Sever immediately and add more grated Parmesean cheese to dish.

I served this with a dry Portuguese rose wine: Marques de Caceres.

Comments:
Ooh, amazing! And served over tuscan garlic bread to boot. Garlic bread served with anything is awesome. Shiitake mushrooms, though? But don't get me wrong - I love them. This looks like decent diet food, too - lots of veggies and flavour.
 
I just got my weekly email from Epicurious and it contained a link to Gourmet's cannoli recipe. Woo-hoo! Or so I thought. It is a lot of work, and I never realized quite how much until I saw the recipe. However, I shall give it a try sometime, especially since I'm still not working. Luckily, I have all the special equipment it requires - pasta machine, piping bag and tips, etc.
 
As I said to you when you first asked me for a cannoli recipe, I buy them at the very excellent Italian bakeries here in the North End of Boston. They are labor intensive. But worth making once, just to enjoy the process.

But if you can find a genuine Italian bakery, let them do the work, and you do the eating!!!!
 
IdP- stew looks excellent!

WC- I live on the edge of what used to be Little Italy before it was swallowed by the student ghetto. there is and Italian bakery and deli that has beenin the same family for as long as anyone here can remember. They make wonderful cannoli! They also sell them dipped in wonderful belgian semi sweet chocolate. These will kill you, but are worth dieing for!
 
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