Young Zucchini Gratin

Last Friday, I visited my local farmers market for the first time this year. Field tomatoes are not there yet because the spring was very cold but many greens are already available--different kinds of beets, a variety of kale, radish and young zucchinis. I left the market with bags full of spring greens and a couple of pounds of different zucchinis to make my favorite dishes and to experiment with the new ones.

Late spring zucchinis are still rather small and probably the tastiest. The menu of dishes that can be made with them is endless. Many simplest ones, like zucchinis just sauteed in olive oil and herbs, are among the best.

Yesterday, I tried a zucchini gratin recipe. Gratin dishes usually make the vegetables well cooked. This recipe however cooks zucchinis only to the point where they are still tender. Also, gratin dishes, contrary to popular believes, are delicate and not very rich in calories. Just look at all the slim Italians or French who make many dishes based on this Béchamel sauce.

This particular combination of young zucchinis and Béchamel sauce with a moderate addition of goat cheese seems perfect and can be served for lunch or dinner.

Young Zucchini Gratin
(serves four)

Ingredients:
2 lb of small, baby green and yellow zucchinis, sliced in 1/2-inch slices,
2 small shallots, chopped,
a small bunch of fresh preferably lemon thyme--leaves only,
1/2 cup of crumbled goat cheese,
4 tbsp butter,
2 tbsp all purpose flour,
1 and 1/2 cup reduced fat milk,
4 tbsp breadcrumbs,
2 tbsp olive oil,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Heat the olive oil and fry shallots in it for about 3 minutes. Add sliced zucchinis and fry them for about 3 minutes, tossing them frequently.

3. Transfer zucchinis to a medium oven-proof dish. Sprinkle them with thyme leaves, and crumbled goat cheese.

4. To make a Béchamel sauce, melt 2 tbsp of butter in a medium pot. Add the flour and whisk until a smooth paste forms. Take off the heat and add milk. Using a whisker incorporate milk until the sauce is smooth and no clumps remain. Return the sauce to the heat and bring to boil stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Spread the hot Béchamel on top of the zucchinis. Sprinkle the dish with the remaining butter and breadcrumbs.
6. Bake the zucchinis for about 25-30 minutes, until the sauce bubbles and breadcrumbs become gold.

Serve hot alone or with a baguette.

Farro and Palm Hearts Salad

Whenever I happen to be in McLean's Tysons Galleria at midday I am always amazed by a long line of people waiting to get their lunch at Sweet Leaf--a vegetarian place where you can get a salad of your own design--and not only that. There are many young women in that crowd watching their diet but, what surprises me even more, there are equally as many business-dressed men waiting to buy their salad lunch as well.

It makes me think that we are becoming more and more vegetarian, watching our diet and calories intake. I also have noticed a similar trend when I am having friends over. Salads often win against meat dishes. This salad was just another culinary experiment and I made it with farro, which I have not been using too often so far.

Farro is an ancient nutritious grain, which thanks to its values became quite popular recently and by now is quite easily available. You can get 10 minutes farro from TJ but I prefer the one from Whole Foods which take a little longer to cook but has more texture. I combined it with palm hearts, which are very rich in iron, and spiced up with watercress leaves and red oranges. This salad has a differentiated texture and a delicate taste but at the same time it is very nutritious: a perfect lunch meal for Sweet Leaf aficionados.

Farro and Palm Hearts Salad

Ingredients:
1 cup farro,
1 can palm hearts cut into half-inch slices,
4 oz watercress salad,
2 oranges, preferably bloody,
1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped,
1/2 red onion, finely chopped,
juice from one large lemon,
4 tbsp olive oil,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Cook farro according to instruction (10-15 minutes), drain and cool.
2. In a large bowl, put together farro, palm hearts, chopped onion, and hazelnuts.
3. Cut out the skin from the oranges and using a small sharp knife get out the flesh without white membranes. Add orange pieces to the bowl with farro and mix.
4. Finally, add to the salad water cress leaves and gently incorporate to it.

5. In a small bowl, mix oil with lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle over the salad. Mix gently again and serve.

Saffron Risotto with a Twist

Risotto seems to be a pretty well known dish but I was surprised to hear that some of my friends who are good cooks never made it, or one even expected risotto to be cooked from orzo pasta. After my trip to Italy when I was raving about food I had, a friend asked me for a good risotto recipe. So here it comes.

Risotto, because it is so simple, like many simple dishes has its secrets which make it special. Sometime the secret lies in the recipe and sometimes in the quality of the ingredients. I admit that since my host in Rome showed me each step of the process, also my risotto has improved a lot.

In this case, the most important secret is to have a good, preferably home made stock, which is added during the whole process. I make mine from scratch or use an organic free range chicken stock, which is a good substitute. Also, butter used to fry should be only melted, not fried and the onion or shallot and all other ingredients should be chopped finely or grated, so they are detectable in taste rather than in texture. Bigger pieces are added usually at the end for finishing. A real good quality Italian Parmesan also makes difference.

Most often I cook saffron risotto, since it has become my kids favorite. Saffron adds not only a beautiful color but also the aroma. Moreover, saffron risotto is often just a base and different ingredients are added to it, beside saffron.

During my recent trip to Italy I visited one of the famous restaurants in Florence: Caffè Giubbe Rosse. I had saffron risotto with zucchini, finished with scamorza affumicata (smoked cheese a bit similar to mozzarella), which was melted on top and gave an extra smokey taste to the delicate risotto. So today I share this recipe.

Saffron Risotto with Scamorza
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 and 1/3 cup Arborio rice,
2 shallots, peeled off and finely chopped
3 tbsp butter,
1 glass of white wine,
a pinch of saffron powder or saffron threads,
4-5 cups good quality stock of your choice,
2 zucchinis, grated,
1/2 cup grated, Italian parmesan,
4 tbsp table cream,
4-6 thin slices Scamorza cheese (available for instance in Giant's gourmet cheese section),
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Place stock on a pot and heat it until hot. If you use saffron threads, rather than saffron powder, let them soak in the stock. Keep the stock hot during the cooking of risotto.
2. In a large heavy duty pan melt butter until liquid but do not let it fry. Add chopped shallots and them fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until shallots becomes transparent. Add Arborio rice and fry for about one minute, until grains are coated.

3. Add wine to rice and cook stirring constantly until wine almost completely evaporates.
4. Pour in about a half a cup of stock and cook stirring until liquid is absorbed. Repeat until you use about 2/3 of the stock. Then add grated zucchinis and continue cooking and adding stock until rice is al dente and zucchinis still green.
5. Turn off the heat. Season risotto with salt (not much as stock is usually salted) and pepper. Add Parmesan, cream if you use, stir well, cover and let infuse for about 3 minutes.

6. Transfer hot risotto into serving plates, cover with thin slices of scamorza and serve.