Polenta with Kale and Beans

The process of making this meal went perfectly! It all started with Wegmans, like all of my meals do, but this time they actually had the cheese I was looking for and it was even imported from Valle d'Aosta! I didn't have a lot of time to cook this week, and this meal was the perfect choice. It is very simple and only had 8 ingredients, 3 of which were kosher salt, water, and olive oil which I have learned are in every single Italian recipe.  The first step to this recipe, as I mentioned in a previous post, was to soak the beans overnight. I forgot to do this a few days in a row, postponing my meal a few times, and I promised my dad that I would actually finally cook tonight. At about 2 am last night I woke up and realized that I had yet again forgotten to soak my beans, so this meal almost didn't happen.

The first step today was to cook the soaked beans. I simply put them on the stove in water, olive oil, and fresh bay leaves.

To make the polenta I boiled water with olive oil, kosher salt, and bay leaves. I then slowly sprinkled in the polenta while whisking it all. My family eats polenta all the time, but I have never made it before and I was really surprised at the amount of water (5 cups) that is needed to cook just one cup of polenta. This was the creamiest most delicious polenta I have ever tasted, and I plan to tell my dad about the olive oil, salt and bay leaves so the next time he makes polenta it is just as creamy.

While the polenta was cooking I cooked the kale with olive oil and salt until  it was wilted, and then added the beans and a little of the water they cooked in.  

When everything was cooked I mixed shredded fontina cheese in with the polenta, and served it all!

To make the kale I was actually supposed to cook meat and then add the kale, which would cook in the meats oils rather than olive oil, but being vegetarian I obviously didn't want to do this. I was a little concerned that the kale wouldn't cook the same way or that it would be bland but it was a success and I am very happy with the way this dish turned out.

Valle d'Aosta

I've decided to make Polenta con Cavolo Nero (Polenta with White Beans & Black Kale) for my dish from Valle d'Aosta. The recipe says to soak the beans overnight, and I'm going to make sure I do that this time, because in previous recipes I've forgotten to do necessary steps the night before.

Shopping List:

• dried cannellini beans (1/2 lb.) 
•  fresh bay leaves
• yellow polenta
• black kale (sometimes called dinosaur kale or lacinata in USA) (1 1/2 lbs.)
• Fontina Cheese (8 oz.)

Progress Report

Regions covered so far:

1. Sicily
2. Sardinia
3. Liguria
4. Trentino-Alto Adige

Regions I still need to cover:

1. Basilicata
2. Molise
3. Abruzzo
4. Umbria
5. Tuscany
6. Emilia Romagna
7. Lombardy
8. Valle d'Aosta
9. cheese making day

At the beginning of the project I decided to start with southern regions and work my way north, but with the exception of the two islands which I started with (Sicily and Sardinia), I seem to have reversed that. My plan is to work on Valle d'Aosta this week, and I plan to make something very simple because this week is very busy for me.
On March 25th we don't have school, so if all goes as planned I would like that to be my day dedicated to making cheese. There is a lot of science involved in making cheese, so to make it perfect I will need to research the proper techniques and ratios.

Overall I am on track with my project. Depending on when I have my final presentation I have 9 or 10 weeks left, and I am confident I can work through everything I still want to.

Shopping

Everyone who lives in Ithaca knows that Wegmans is amazing, and for the most part I agree, but during this project I have discovered that even Wegmans doesn't have everything. I have had some definite struggles shopping for every single meal, and have found it particularly difficult to find appropriate cheeses. In Italy they have an abundance of sheep, and most of the cheese they use is local sheep's milk cheese. Here in America we don't have the luxury of living in the same town as a few sheep farmers who make excellent cheeses. Cheese has been an important part of every meal I have made thus far, and I haven't been able to find the exact right type for any of the dishes. I find myself standing in the cheese section of Wegmans once a week, reading the info cards and getting to know the different types for an extended period of time. I've asked the workers for oppinions, I've called my sister who worked on a cheese farm in Umbria, and I've read about the cheeses in an attempt to find the best substitute for the Italian cheese that doesn't exist in America each and every week.

Trentino-Alto Adige

I have always enjoyed cooking with my sister, and she was home for spring break on my mom's birthday, so we decided to cook together. Cooking this meal went very smoothly, because my sister is really good and being patient with me and at cooking in general.

Making the panzanella went very smoothly.  I didn't mess anything up in this recipe (maybe the first time ever) and it turned out great! My cousin was watching me make it and was a little weirded out when I poured vinegar and olive oil onto stale bread, but even she loved it.

Making the country salad was a bit of a challenge. I burned the walnuts completely while toasting them, and had to start that process over. I also took the potatoes out of the boiling water well before they were done cooking. After cutting into the first one I realized how completely uncooked they were, but couldn't just put them back into the water because I had already peeled them. I decided to dice them like the recipe said, and then bake them. I think they actually tasted better baked than boiled. The dish turned out really tasty despite the struggles along the way.

My sister helped out with the fish a lot, because I don't really like dealing with meat or fish. We added cheese, garlic, thyme, oil and asparagus and baked the whole thing. There was some debate on whether the asparagus was cooked right or not, but I didn't try it so I couldn't tell you.

It turns out that for the ricotta dumplings you need to strain the ricotta overnight, which it doesn't say in the recipe but I soon figured out. I will most likely make them at some point, but for my mom's birthday we just went out and bought a big chocolate cake.

This was my first time cooking for people beyond my immediate family, and it was a big success!

My Mom's Birthday Meal

For my mom's birthday, my mom and I planned the menu together.  We decided to cook from the region Trentino-Alto Adige, with the exception of one dish.  We had some stale bread and decided to make Condiggion (bread salad.)  The recipe I used for this is actually from Liguria (the region I worked on last week) but it is made all over Italy with the purpose of using up stale bread.  From Trentino-Alto Adige we chose Isalata Paesana (country salad) which is a German inspired potato and veggie salad and Canederli di Ricotta (sweet ricotta dumplings with strawberry sauce.)  My mom loves fish, and because it is was her birthday I said I would make fish.  We chose a recipe from my grandma's cookbook, and I bought Pacific Cod, because it has the least environmental impact of all the mild fish wegmans had at the time.

Ligurian Meal

My meal from Liguria was much simpler and didn't take as long as the meals I have previously made. While making this meal I felt a lot more confident, and only asked for help to get it on the table faster, rather than because I didn't know what to do.

This soup was the best dish I have made so far on this journey, even my brother complimented it and that isn't a regular occurrence. It was interesting how small I was supposed to cut all of the vegetables, and how long everything was supposed to stay on the stove. My mom was worried that I was overcooking the veggies, but the long amount of time on the stove led to an amazing soup with a very flavorful broth.

This crostata, like the soup, was delicious, but it was a slightly rockier road to get there. The filling called for a large amount of milk, and when I added it the filling became very soupy and runny. Because the filling needed to go inside of a crust, I was worried it wouldn't work and would just run out the sides. In addition to the runny filling, the cookbook had a way shorter baking time than the time it actually took to cook. I checked it many times, and was really concerned because it didn't appear to be cooking. Eventually the raw rice in the filling absorbed the extra milk and it baked into a golden brown crostata. It tasted heavenly. It was like a quiche, but 10 times better.

Liguria menu

When Lidia (the author of my new cookbook) traveled to Liguria for the first time she was a child, but she still remembers the first meal she had there very clearly. It wasn't a meal with all 5 courses like the meals I have been making so far, there were only two courses. My plan for Liguria is to re-create this meal. The first thing her cousin made was Torta di Riso e Zucchine (Rice & Zucchini Crostata) and she then made Zupa di Verdure all'Agliata (vegetable soup). The soup recipe creates a huge quantity, this is because Lidia believes you go through each day feeling better if there is soup stored at home ready to be enjoyed and sustain you. She says that the most important part of this meal is the garlic. Liguria has extremely aromatic garlic, and there is a lot used in the soup.