A Sicilian-Inspired Dish for Inspector Montalbano

It is time for another round of Cook the Books, the fun foodie book club that I and three of my best blogger buddies take turns hosting. This time we read the first Inspector Montalbano mystery by author Andrea Camilleri, "The Shape of Water". Montalbano is a policeman with a lot of wisdom, heart, common sense, a wry sense of humor, and a love of food. Perfetto!

In our featured book, Montalbano looks for the truth behind the suspicious death of a local politico found in a car in a seedy and desolate part of the Sicilian town of Vigata. His Commissioner wants the details of the death hushed up and tells him that it is "wonderful..that someone in this fine province of our ours should decide to die a natural death and thereby set a good example. Don't you think? Another two or three deaths like Luparello's and we'll start catching up with the rest of Italy."

Montalbano doesn't buy it, and he unravels the rest of the mystery and helps out a few innocents along the way. The dialogue is great and the humorous asides cracked me up ("Ingrid apparently belonged to that category of woman who cannot resist the sight of a bathtub.") (Yes!)  The lover of all things literary and foodie will also find literary snacks strewn between the pages, from paper cones of calia e simenza (roasted chickpeas and pumpkin seeds) to expertly prepared boiled shrimp. Montalbano's housekeeper, Adelina, is the mother of some repeat offenders that our hero has apprehended himself, and leaves him homey dishes in the refrigerator.

I perused my cookbook collection and found a simple recipe for a Sicilian country dish called Pollo e Pomodori in Carol Field's mouthwatering cookbook "In Nonna's Kitchen" (NY: HarperCollins, 1997), which I highly recommend if you're one of those category of women who cannot resist a good cookbook that also contains a lot of stories and folklore. I added a few ingredients and subbed out some others, and this turned out to be a quite "blogworthy" dish, in the words of my dear husband. I served it up with a side of roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic and I think Inspector Montalbano would have tucked into this too.

Pollo e Pomodori (Chicken with Spiced Tomato Sauce)

3 boneless chicken breast halves, cut into four smaller portions
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and diced
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 apple, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. allspice

Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan. Add onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add chicken and brown, turning often, about 15 minutes. Add tomatoes, apple, salt and pepper and allspice. Stir, cover pan, and cook over low flame another 20 minutes, or until chicken is done.

The flavors really come together in a spicy tomato gravy that seemed very exotic, though this was an easy dish to make.

The deadline for this round of Cook the Books ends tomorrow. Please visit the Cook the Books blog to see what others have thought about our featured book and what they have cooked. I will present a roundup in a few days after the deadline.

Our next Cook the Books selection is the novel "The Color of Tea" by Hannah Tunnicliffe. Feel free to grab a copy of the book and blog up your thoughts (and cook up something inspired from its pages). Anyone can join in the fun.

Pignoli Cookies for Katniss and The Hunger Games

One of the things I love best about book clubs is that the book selections are often not what I would have picked to read myself. Case in point, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, which is the current book selection for Cook the Books, the online foodie book club. This month, our host Heather, the Girlichef, chose this title for our reading pleasure and our viewing pleasure, as Cook the Books teamed up with Food n' Flix, a blog event that features foodie films.

The result is that I got to read a book that I normally would have passed by as being "one of those books for young adults" and which I really enjoyed. The set up is that the United States has undergone some kind of nuclear/global warming catastrophe in the future and there is a new country, Panem (Latin for bread), which consists of a decadently wealthy Capitol with twelve outlying districts, for which the virtually enslaved residents provide resources. The heroine of the Hunger Games is Katniss Everdeen, a resident of the coal-mining District #12, who lives with her shell-shocked mother and younger sister, Primrose. Every year the Capitol requires that the districts produce human "tributes" to a a gladiator-like event, the eponymous Hunger Games, in which entrants fight a bloody battle to the death.

When Primrose is selected in a lottery to represent District 12 at the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to serve in her stead. She is joined by a local boy, Peeta, son of a baker (so of course I kept thinking of pita bread whenever I read his name) and I won't spoil the rest of the book for you all by revealing further details. I will just say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all the allusions to ancient Rome. I even gobbled up the rest of the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, though I think the first book was the best written and had the most captivating plot.


I wanted to also join in the fun with Food n' Flix, so I rented the Hunger Games movie and really enjoyed that as well, though I do think the book was much more entertaining. I don't think the movie captured as many details as imaginatively as I envisioned them (the costume changes, the descriptions of Katniss' internal moods, the songs of the Mockingjays were all not as vivid for me), though I though actress Jennifer Lawrence made a splendid Katniss. (If you would like to see her in another strong role, check out Winter's Bone some time).

And now, for the "cooking up some Hunger Games-inspired grub" portion of this post. Much of the book (and film) features the cotnrast between what the haves and have-nots eat. The Capitol residents gorge (and purge) themselves on rich, gourmet foods, while the poorer District residents are perpetually hungry and supplement their meager rations with black market purchases and barters or else forage and hunt for themselves. Katniss is a master hunter with her bow and arrow and she also has a great working knowledge of how to use wild plants for food and medicine, care of her parents.

I was taken with a passage in the book where Katniss is wandering through the forest, hungry as usual, and she pulls off a bit of pine bark and chews on the pith underneath. I thought about foraging around my neighbors' fields to scrounge up some eats, but then I thought about pine nuts. That led me to investigations of pine nut recipes and voila, I saw a wonderful recipe for pignoli cookies at Simply Gluten-Free.

The recipe was very easy and I've made two batches since. I just found that I need to rotate the cookie sheets in the oven halfway through the baking time to prevent the lower trays from browning too much on the bottoms. They are chewy, satisfying, and (with a pinch of pine-y smelling ground rosemary mixed in the batter), a really nice herbal, chewy cookie.

So here's to Katniss and all the strong women out there that nurture and protect their families. I toast you with a glass of milk and a couple of pignoli cookies!

Please stop by and check out the roundup of all the other Hunger Games blog posts over at Cook the Books. Our lovely guest judge, Wendy, the Bookcooker, will be reviewing the posts and picking a winner after today's deadline. And please don't hesitate to join Cook the Books over the course of the next couple of months, as we read and cook from Andrea Camilleri's first Inspector Montalbano mystery, The Shape of Water.  Submissions for that round of Cook the Books, (which I am hosting and which will have a surprise guest judge or two!) are due Monday, March 23, 2013.

No Heartburn with a Nostalgic Eighties Gourmet Veggie Pasta

Earlier this year America lost a wonderful writer and filmmaker, Nora Ephron. I first encountered Ms. Ephron's writings through her collections of essays, like "Scribble, Scribble" and "Crazy Salad", books passed on to me by girlfriends whose passion for Ephron's humor and worldview became my own. 

When I subsequently read through "Heartburn", (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983), her semi-autobiographical novel about chef Rachel Samstat, who loses her way during her second husband's adultery, I knew she would always be a part of my pantheon of favorite authors.

I was delighted when "Heartburn" became the featured selection of Cook the Books, a bimonthly foodie book club that I and three of my good blogger buddies co-host. Simona, of the blog, Briciole, is the host of this round of Cook the Books, and she has enlisted Laura Lippstone, a big Ephron fan and blogger at Planet Lippstone, to serve as guest judge of the posts that we all write featuring our book selection and the foods we cook up inspired by our reading. 

Dipping back into "Heartburn" was a nostalgic read: there was the nostalgia of seeing that great dust jacket art, the familiarity of sinking back into Ephron's words like having a cozy conversation with a great friend that one hasn't seen in a bunch of years, and nostalgia for the 1980s world that pervades its pages. Ephron describes Samstat's longing for the great produce sections of New York City supermarkets and gourmet shops that she left behind when she moved to Washington D.C. and that made me remember how arugula and twelve different kinds of peppers didn't used to be a common site at the average food store.

And then there was that passage that made me laugh out loud when I first read and reread it to my friends back in the early Eighties, and which I read and snorted through and reread to my husband now that we're in the 2000-teens.

"When I was in college, I had a list of what I wanted in a husband. A long list. I wanted a registered Democrat, a bridge player, a linguist with particular fluency in French, a subscriber to THE NEW REPUBLIC, a tennis player. I wanted a man who wasn’t bald, who wasn’t fat, who wasn’t covered with too much body hair. I wanted a man with long legs and a small ass and laugh wrinkles around the eyes. Then I grew up and settled for a low-grade lunatic who kept hamsters. At first I thought he was charming and eccentric. And then I didn’t. Then I wanted to kill him. Every time he got on a plane, I would imagine the plane crash, and the funeral, and what I would wear to the funeral and flirting at the funeral, and how soon I could start dating after the funeral.” (p.83)

My homage dish to Heartburn is one that celebrates the dazzling bounty of what the grocery store produce aisle features most any time of the year (alright, the locavore in me is conflicted about how great that bounty is in terms of carbon footprints). I made this great pasta dish after sniping the recipe from my cousin-in-law Diane, a fabulous cook. I added some cubed winter squash, because I have an abundance and threw in some diced tomatoes, too, cause I had some hanging around, but otherwise it's Diane's fantastic recipe. It's delicious and I can assure you that it won't give you Heartburn:

Diane's Eighties Gourmet Pasta

1 small eggplant, peeled and diced small
1 small Delicata squash (or other winter squash), peeled, seeded and cubed (about 1 cup)
1 each red and yellow bell pepper, diced small
1 red onion, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
3 plum tomatoes, medium chop
1/3 cup olive oil
1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 lb. of your favorite small pasta shape (Diane uses orzo, I used GF rigatoni)

Pasta Dressing:

Juice of one lemon

1/3 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper

4 scallions, minced (I used chives)
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted (I used walnuts)
3/4 cup feta, diced (not crumbled)
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into julienne

Toss all of the vegetables in the first part above with garlic, 1/3 cup olive oil, salt and pepper on a cookie sheet. Coat thoroughly with oil and then roast in a 425 degree oven until browned, turning at least once with a spatula.

Cook pasta and drain. Toss with roasted vegetables. Mix dressing and pour over pasta and vegetables.

Gently toss in scallions, nuts, feta and basil. 

Serve at room temperature. Serves 6-8.

Diane says to try throwing in some cremini mushrooms, yellow and green squash or zucchini, if you want.

Simona will be rounding up all the delicious Hearburn blog posts back at the Cook the Books site after today's deadline, so be sure to stop by and see what everyone cooked up. And don't forget to join us in reading, cooking and blogging up our thoughts about "The Hunger Games", by Suzanne Collins, both book and film, for our next round of Cook the Books!

The Cake Mix Doctor Gets Unbelievably Gluten-Free in Her New Book

Bestselling author Anne Byrn, better known to the world as "The Cake Mix Doctor", has written a new gluten-free cookbook, "Unbelievably Gluten-Free" (NY: Workman Press, 2012) and I was honored to be chosen as an official stop on her book blog tour. I have made good use of my copy of her previous gluten-free cookbook, "The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free", which I reviewed here previously at the ol' blog (and that reminds me to make that meltingly delicious Bacardi Rum Bundt Cake again soon, because I like big bundts, and I cannot lie...)

The first recipe I have tried out of the new book is her version of that comfort food stand-by, Mac and Cheese. Now, I have made many different versions of Mac and Cheese in my day, most all of them delicious, but I believe Anne Byrn's recipe is definitely the richest and most velvety variety of them all. She dispenses with any thickening cornstarch or brown rice flour for the cheese sauce, preferring to "enrobe" the pasta with a reduced batch of heavy cream, and it makes for a truly decadent dish. You don't need a whole heaping helping to make a meal because it is very rich indeed. My family cleaned their bowls, and thus, paired with a fluffy green salad with vinaigrette, we feasted like Gluten-Free royalty.

Here is Ms. Byrn's wonderful recipe for Gluten-Free Mac and Cheese, reprinted with permission from Workman Press:

Gluten-Free Mac and Cheese

 Serves 4

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 20 to 26 minutes

Bake: 8 to 10 minutes (optional)

Pinch of salt

8 ounces gluten-free elbow macaroni (I used brown rice pasta)

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter (I used butter)

3 cups heavy (whipping) cream

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese

Dash of ground nutmeg

Dash of paprika, for sprinkling on top

1 cup gluten-free cracker crumbs, for topping the casserole (optional) (but I say they were essential for adding a nice crunchy counterpoint - I used Glutino crackers)

1 tablespoon butter, melted (optional)

1. Fill a large pot two-thirds full with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. When the water is boiling add a pinch of salt and stir in the macaroni. Cook the macaroni until it is just done, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain the macaroni in a colander and toss it with olive oil or butter. Set the macaroni aside.

2. If you are baking the macaroni and cheese, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Add the cream to the pot in which you cooked the pasta and let come to a boil over medium heat., stirring. Let the cream cook until it has reduced to half its volume, about 1 1/2 cups, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheddar and Parmesan cheeses and nutmeg.

4.  When the cheeses have melted completely, stir the cooked macaroni into the sauce. You can serve the macaroni and cheese at once sprinkled with paprika. Or to bake the dish transfer the macaroni and sauce to a 2-quart baking dish. Toss the cracker crumbs with the melted butter and scatter them over the top. Sprinkle the cracker crumbs with paprika. Bake until the macaroni and cheese is bubbly and the crumbs have browned, 8 to 10 minutes. The macaroni and cheese can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 3 days.

I will be back with more recipe reviews from "Unbelievably Gluten-Free" over the coming weeks, including trying my hand at some new recipes to add to my vegetable repertoire, so be sure to tune in for these blog posts as well as a chance to win a copy of this great new cookbook. You can enter to win a copy of each of Ms. Byrn's gluten-free cookbooks,  "Unbelievably Gluten-Free" and "The Cake Mix Doctor Cooks Gluten-Free". To enter, leave a comment below or at one of the next Crispy Cook posts about the book. I'll pick a random winner (U.S. and Canadian residents only) after the Blog Tour is over.

In the meantime, you can also hop on over to Anne's Facebook page tomorrow, November 14, starting at 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, for a chat with the author, or see what the other bloggers on the Tour think about this great new cookbook.

A Picnic Farewell to the Saratoga Racing Season

It was an impromptu gathering of friends to celebrate the end of summer and a chance to hang outside watching beautiful thoroughbred race horses thunder past us. Our venue was the historic Saratoga Springs Race Track. on Labor Day, the last day of the summer racing season. The racetrack offered free admission for that day, which was a nice bonus. Dan and I went early in the morning to claim a picnic table at The Top of the Stretch (where the horses make their last straightaway sprint to the finish line) by draping our tablecloth on a table near the fence. Next time I will leave the vase of zinnias home, which, though it was kind of a classy addition, invited pesky yellow jackets and wasps to our table.

Husband Dan used to go more often in his youth and we were astonished at how many years had passed since we had attended the races. Neither one of us is much of a gambler, but it is always a fun time because the people watching is superb. You'll see fashions aplenty from nattily dressed and hatted ladies strolling through the clubhouse to cigar-chomping OTB regulars perusing the racing papers with great intensity.

We arrived early and brought our picnic fare and feasted like kings. The weather cooperated with sunshine and not too much humidity, though when the track guys came around in their track misters, we did enjoy the spray of water on our faces turning like sunflowers in the light.

Our friends brought a splendid array of delicious foods. We ate some luscious lemony deviled eggs (I'll have my friend Ellen's recipe posted up soon), rice and pasta salads, gazpacho, cheeses, fruit, and other edibles, all packed up in various non-glass containers as per track rules). Then there was this luscious cold zucchini salad, inspired by one of Laurie Colwin's essays from her book "Home Cooking".

You start with a platter of fried zucchini.

I used three largish zucchini, which kept me stationed over a large cast-iron frying pan for a good while the day before. I breaded my zucchini with a mixture of brown rice flour and chickpea flour. They were moist enough after slicing to not require any eggy painting to make the flour adhere. After I drained and cooled these fried zucchini slices, I layered them with dabs of an 8 oz. log of goat cheese, chopped parsley and basil, and sliced bits of a 12 oz. jar of roasted red peppers. Salt and pepper went between the layers, they got a splash of olive oil and vinegar and that was a wonderful salad that was delicious at room temperature the next day and kept well under the hot temperatures during our al fresco track picnic.

Now, to focus more attention on Colwin's delightful book, Home Cooking, which is the featured selection for Cook the Books, the online foodie book club started by me, my buddy Deb of Kahakai Kitchen and my buddy Jo of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food. This book was published in 1988, and has been in my home library since shortly thereafter. Colwin was just a bewitching writer; she was witty, self-deprecating, passionate about the things she loved, and her descriptions of dinner parties (even the ones that went awry) are mouthwatering.

My favorite essay is entitled Kitchen Horrors, and I can read and reread this comic chapter and still chuckle out loud. There are so many disasters described in its pages, but none more hilarious than the strange English dessert Colwin attempted to make for an Easter dinner, called Suffolk Pond Pudding. It involved a sugar-encrusted lemon atop some butter and sugar, wrapped in a suet crust and then steamed in a kettle for FOUR HOURS. Well, that's enough description for me, and I certainly wouldn't want to have to ingest it, but Colwin sallied forth and when she produced her dessert, the comments on its appearances included suggestions that it looked like a baked hat and the Alien. The taste produced further editorial commentary: "This tastes like lemon-flavored bacon fat", "I'm sure it's wonderful, I mean, in England", and the straight-forward "This is awful". Ha!

Sadly, Colwin died at the tragically young age of 48 from a heart attack (her descriptions of her go-to comfort food, rosti, may have been a complicating factor), so there are not many other Colwin titles to read through, though there is a sequel to this book, More Home Cooking, to look forward to.

My zucchini salad was inspired by an essay in Home Cooking, entitled Red Peppers. In it, Colwin describes a favorite dish from an East Side restaurant that she didn't get to often enough. It involved layers of sauteed zucchini slices and pimento strips garnished with olive oil, fresh garlic and lemon juice, which sounds great too.

Deb is hosting this current round of Cook the Books, so be sure to check back at our book club website after the September 24th deadline to see Deb's roundup of all the Home Cooking posts.