Ingredients (four servings)

• 16 oz. (about 500g) bag of hard semolina pennette (or any other pasta in a pinch)
• 2 medium onions
• 1 clove garlic
• 8 oz. (about 200-250g) hard feta cheese (both cream cheese and farmer’s cheese will work more or less, though you’ll have to add additional salt)
• 4 plum or similar tomatoes

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil, add the pasta and let it cook until it is al dente – cooked but still quite firm. While it is cooking, slice the onions thinly and glaze them in a large skillet over a medium-low flame. Slice or press the garlic and add it to the onion once it begins to caramelize, then turn off the flame, being careful not to overcook the garlic. When the pasta is done, drain and place it in the pan with the onion, and crumble in the feta. If your skillet is not big enough, use a separate bowl. Mix well, until the cheese becomes creamy and coats the pasta. Serve with plum tomato wedges for color and extra zing.

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I was never big on the Sunday lunch thing. Never really warmed toward Sunday, so if I’m going to cook big and enjoy it has to be Saturday. And if it’s a snowy, windy Chicago Saturday and I’m not dragging the kids to museums, movies or other assorted activities – roasted chicken it is. Since I discovered how easy it is to roast a whole chicken a few years ago, I haven’t stopped. I’ve marinated chickens with spices, honey, Coke, homemade barbecue sauce, molasses, mustard – you name it, I’ve done it. I’ve done it Greek style with lemons, Thai with coriander and ginger, Italian with olive oil and oregano, Bulgarian stuffed with sauerkraut (yes, it’s not only a German patent) and more. The last thing you can say about roasted chicken is that it’s boring! If I had to give up meat, I think roasted chicken would be the thing I’d truly miss.

There are a few requirements for a flavorful, juicy bird. First, it better be fresh, not deep frozen. Second, buy the best you can afford – organic, free range – it really makes a difference. It has less fat, is smaller and much tastier than the monstrous mass-farmed pterodactyls stuffed with more hormones and drugs than a Tour de France cyclist. Third – stuffing soft butter mixed with salt and fresh herbs like sage or thyme under the breast skin will help to eliminate white meat dryness. I don’t use butter on top of the skin as I don’t trust my oven (I suspect the temperature inside is higher than it is supposed to be) and want to avoid burned butter solids on my perfect roasted chicken. I sprinkle it with salt and baste it with olive oil. Lemon or orange juice, honey or red paprika make the skin beautifully golden and crunchy. Sea salt flakes are best for roasting as they dissolve slower and penetrate the meat deeper than regular salt.

I always stuff something in the cavity – lemon halves, apples, quartered onion, garlic, fresh herbs – whatever I have or all of the above. They are for flavor, so I don’t bother peeling or coring them.

Last Saturday it was time to try a Georgian recipe (the country, not the state) from Nigella Lawson’s “Feast”. Georgia’s cuisine is one of my favorites – the grilled meats, pungent spices, fresh herbs and amazing red wines always fascinated me – not to mention the people’s temperament. Some dream about visiting India or Japan – I dream about Georgia.

The chicken is stuffed with rice cooked similar to pilaf – with sauteed onions and dry fruits. I didn’t have sour cherries so I used cranberries instead and added chopped fresh mint to the required parsley. I did alter the recipe a little. I doubled the amount of rice as it sounded so good and the chicken was only 2 ½ pounds (around 2 kg), able to hold only about two cups of the cooked stuffing. I also took the liberty of chopping the liver and heart in to the rice – I don’t believe that any Georgian cook would throw those out. A simple cabbage and carrot salad and chocolate cake rounded out the Saturday lunch. There were five of us and I still had chicken leftovers for school lunch.

Here’s how it’s done:

• 1 4-5½ lb chicken (2-2½ kg), preferably organic or free range
• 2 tbsp soft butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt, red paprika (optional)

For the stuffing

• 2 tbsp butter
• the fat cut from the chicken cavity (optional, but highly recommended)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• ¼ cup roughly chopped dry sour cherries or cranberries
• 1 ½ cups jasmine rice (or any other white long grain rice)
• 3 cups water
• ½ cup (one handful) chopped flat leaf parsley or mix of it and fresh garden mint
• salt, black pepper

Wash and pat dry the chicken and place it in the fridge without cover until the rice is ready.

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C)

For the stuffing, melt the butter and chicken fat in a pot, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until soft, 10-15  minutes. Add the dry fruit and rice (and chopped liver and heart if using) and mix well until the grains are glisten from the fat. Pour the water, add salt and cover the pot. Turn down the heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Try for seasoning, add salt if needed. Add freshly ground black pepper and the chopped herbs and mix with a fork.

Stuff as much rice as possible in the cavity and secure the opening with cocktail sticks. Mix the soft butter with ¼ tsp salt and massage between the breasts and the skin. To do that place the chicken with the cavity opening towards you, push your fingers lightly between the skin and the breast, being careful not to tear the skin. When you separate those, take some of the butter and slide it under the skin. Repeat until all the butter is gone. Salt the chicken generously, baste it with the olive oil all over and, if you wish, sprinkle with red paprika. Place breasts up in a roasting pan just big enough to hold the chicken. The oven rack should be positioned in the middle. Roast for 1½ hour. Check by piercing the space between the leg and the body. If the juices run clear the bird is done. The skin is crispy and golden, the stuffing is absolutely delicious and nobody will ever tell you that roasted chicken is boring.

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I mostly use a mix of beef and pork minced meat, but if you are porkophobe go just for the cow. I’ve made them with chicken breast, but that never really worked for me – too dry, too flat. The meat choice is important. I use lean beef without antibiotics and hormones from Trader Joe’s and fresh rosy pork mince from the corner Polish deli (Poles really know their pork). If you have a butcher nearby where you can have the meat minced to order that’s the best deal. I would go for a pork shoulder and beef roast. The shoulder has just the right amount of marbled fat to make the stuffing tasty and juicy and you don’t need to use a lot of oil.

The tomatoes add an extra acidity to the whole mix and the carrot – sweetness. You can play with the spices – for a more Middle Eastern experience you can add ¼ tsp cinnamon and ½ tsp powdered cumin seeds. You can substitute cilantro (coriander) for the flat Italian parsley or fresh thyme for the dried sage. As for the rice – don’t worry that there is no extra water added to the stuffing – it will cook just fine soaking up the meat and tomato juices.

The stuffing will also work for stuffing tomatoes, zucchini or eggplants. Sometimes I mix my vegetables for a more dramatic effect.

The stuffed peppers I made today were supposed to last until tomorrow. They didn’t. Next time I should plan better and make more than 12!

Stuffed sweet peppers

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 carrot, grated
• ½ cup jasmine rice (or any white long grain rice)
• 1 pound minced lean beef
• 1 pound minced pork
• 2 big plum tomatoes, cut in half and the flesh grated (or 4-6 Roma tomatoes)
• 1 tsp dry sage
• ½ tsp smoked Spanish paprika (or regular sweet paprika)
• salt, black pepper
• 1 handful flat Italian parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 cup water
• 1 big plum tomato, flesh grated (optional)
• 8 bell peppers or 12 long sweet banana or Mediterranean peppers, the tops cut and deseeded

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a big frying pan and saute the onion, garlic and carrot for 4-5 minutes. Add rice and stir for a minute. Add the minced meat, season with salt and pepper, the sage and smoked paprika, and cook for a few minutes mixing well and breaking up the meat lumps that will form. When the meat starts to brown, add the grated tomatoes and cook until juices reduce by half, another 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat, check the seasoning and add the parsley.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C), with the rack positioned in the middle. Sprinkle the insides of the cleaned peppers with some salt and spoon in the stuffing, carefully forcing it in if using the long variety (I use the spoon handle to push the meat mix to the end). Place them tightly in a broad baking pan, big enough to hold the peppers. They don’t need extra space in between as they’ll shrink a little during the cooking. Pour the water on the bottom, sprinkle with salt and the second tbsp olive oil, cover loosely with heavy duty aluminum foil and cook for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes or until the peppers are soft and slightly browned. Turn off the oven, cover with the foil again and leave in for 15-20 minutes before serving. You can spoon some thick Greek style yogurt on the plate and dig in.

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At this time of the year I stay away from root vegetables, which I associate with cold, gray weather, and try to use the seasonal ones in simple dishes. I limit the seasoning to salt and pepper, with fresh thyme, rosemary and a lot of garden mint, parsley and cilantro (coriander). With fresh-from-the-field produce I don’t want to overdo it.

The dish I’ve made is not really a stew, as I didn’t cook it for a long time. Actually the shorter you cook it the better. It resembles Provençal ratatouille, but all is cooked in one pot and I use whatever is in my fridge, including some leftover beer (could be wine or nothing at all). If I had I would throw in some green tomatoes, too. This colorful fuss-free dish can be served as main, or as side to roasted chicken, fish or chops. Needless to say, for a vegetarian version leave the sausage out.

Vegetable casserole with sausage

• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
• 4-6 small fresh Polish or Italian sausages – cut into 3 inch (7 cm) pieces
• 3 sweet banana peppers, cut in rounds
• 2 handfuls of yellow or green string beens – trimmed and cut 2 inches long (4 cm)
• 3 small zucchini – green and yellow mixed – quartered lengthwise and cut to bite size
• 1 medium eggplant, quartered lengthwise and cut into bite size pieces (if it has brown seeds, salt it and wait 30 minutes to get rid of bitterness)
• 1 pound (500 gr) firm Roma tomatoes – quartered lengthwise
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
• leaves from 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
• salt, freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup beer or wine (optional)
• ½ cup chopped parsley or cilantro (coriander)

Sweat the onion in 2 tbsp olive oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add sausage and cook 3 minutes. Add the peppers, beens and eggplant, the rosemary and thyme, season it with salt and pepper and cook on medium low heat for 5-7 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes stirring carefully not to mash the vegetables too much. Here you can add the last 1 tbsp of olive oil if too dry. The tomatoes come last with the beer or wine if you are using it. Increase heat to medium and cook another 10 minutes until the juices in the pot are reduced by half. Serve sprinkled with parsley and country style bread to soak the juices. It tastes even better the next day.

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After a seemingly never-ending winter in Chicago and two great hot and sunny months in central and south-eastern Europe I’m back for a second year of cooking and food shopping in Chi-town, among other things. Hopefully the new season will be better than the first, though unfortunately the props are still the same – an almost non-existent kitchen in the hallway and even less counter space. But I smuggled deep round baking trays for holiday pita and banitsa (Bulgarian stuffed filo dough pie) and some Balkan sage and thyme, so there are improvements in the kitchen after all.

I spent half of July and all of August on the Bulgarian sea coast, starting the day with thick slices of tomatoes on buttered toast, continuing with tomatoes and feta salad for lunch, and ending it with more tomatoes and roasted long peppers or eggplants in tomato sauce, or stuffed zucchini with tomatoes, or nibbling cherry tomatoes straight from the vine, or… you get the picture.

The sun ripened tomatoes from my aunt’s garden are the second reason I go back to Bulgaria every summer – the first being my family and friends. The fact that my parents live ten minutes from the sandy beaches of Varna – the best city in the country – is also a big plus.

I’ve never found better tasting tomatoes – heavy, meaty, sweet. Bulgarians are crazy about their tomatoes, and most of them will grow their own in every available plot. August will be dominated by tomato topics such as the prices on the market, a disease threatening the crop or the extinct local varieties.

The pungent sweet fruits will even overshadow yet another cabinet crisis or new corruption scandal and everybody’s weekends will be spent not on the golden beaches, but plucking or watering the mighty tomatoes. Growing, eating and canning tomatoes is our national sport. And though I’ve been living abroad for many years now, I’m more than happy to participate in those late summer games. By September I have tomato juice flowing in my veins instead of blood, and my kids do too – after all, they are half Bulgarian.

Back in Chicago, I got to enjoy the latest crop from my mother-in-law’s back yard. That started my quest on farmers’ markets. I found reasonable tomatoes – not as sweet and aromatic as my aunt’s, but the best so far on this side of the pond – at Lincoln Square’s Tuesday market (on the parking lot by the Western Brown Line El stop). The price, $1 per pound, was also reasonable, and I went home with several varieties – Roma, regular red ones and very tasty yellow globes.

At home I made a colorful salad, adding pear-shaped yellow cherry tomatoes from my mother-in-law’s yard (they grow like crazy till late October). Though basic, it’s a beauty, and could lift your spirits for the whole day. On the market I also got sweet long peppers, so I had to use them too. This salad really depends on the flavor of the tomatoes, so make sure to use really good ones.

Never ever keep tomatoes in the fridge. They have to be eaten at room temperature or you are going to miss a lot of their aroma and sweetness. Choose specimens that are heavy for their size and rather hard, and please do use your nose – they should smell of sun and grass not fish and cardboard. I usually don’t peel them and don’t deseed.

Colorful tomato salad

• 2 red tomatoes
• 2 yellow tomatoes
• 1 handful of cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 handful of yellow cherry tomatoes or any other crazy looking ones, if you can get some, otherwise more regular ones
• ½ medium red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 long sweet pepper ( I used a banana pepper)
• a few sprigs of garden mint or cilantro (coriander) or basil – chopped
• balsamic or red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil
• salt

Slice the tomatoes as you like – I like country-style chunks, bite size. Slice the pepper into rings. Place all the vegetables in a salad bowl, sprinkle with salt, a little vinegar and a nice splash of olive oil. Mix carefully not to smash the tomatoes too much and sprinkle with the fresh herbs of your choice.

Serve immediately with crusty bread or sourdough baguette to soak up the juices. I, being Bulgarian, will usually add crumbled feta cheese, but the salad is perfect even without it. Eat in the garden or on the porch if you have one, with a cold fruity white wine, to keep the summer for a little bit longer.

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This one is the ultimate crowd-pleaser no matter whether you are serving it for dinner, during a grill party or from a plastic container at a picnic. I love potatoes in almost any form and several takes on potato salad are on my regular to-do list. The one here is my family’s favorite and I learned to make a lot of it as domestic disturbances often start over the leftovers.

It’s hard to go wrong with this salad, but still there are few rules to be followed to get the best from even this simple combination of ingredients. Rule number one – always choose the smallest potatoes and make sure they are of a uniform size. It’ll cut the cooking time and will let them cook evenly. Rule number two – always cook them with the skin on. This helps preserve the vitamins which are right beneath the skin, and prevents the potatoes from soaking up too much water during cooking and getting mushy. Rule number three – be generous when salting the boiling water – there’s very little to be done to save an under-salted boiled potato. The water should taste like the sea to get it right. And rule number four – use real mayonnaise! With a salad of only a few ingredients, every one of them matters for the final result. So forget for a moment about the upcoming bikini season and go for the real thing – egg yolks, fat and all.

I sometimes add crispy Granny Smith apples for an extra crunch and play with fresh herbs like flat Italian parsley, dill or cilantro (coriander) to add some color.

There is no picture of the salad, because it was devoured too quickly during last Sunday’s end-of-the-academic-year grill party my husband threw for his fellow architecture grad students. It never met with the chicken and hamburgers it was supposed to accompany – I should have kept it in the kitchen until the last moment.

Potato salad

• 4 pounds (2 kg) Russet red potatoes, small to medium, but uniform in size
• 1 big red onion, peeled, cut crosswise and thinly sliced
• 1 cup real mayonnaise
• ¼ cup Dijon mustard
• juice from ½ lemon
• salt, freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bunch flat Italian parsley or dill (optional)

Bring half a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt for it to taste like sea water, add the potatoes, skins on, and cook for 10-15 minutes or until a fork goes easily in when pierced. Drain and let cool enough to be able to hold when peeling. The salad will be tastier if made when the potatoes are still warm.

In a small bowl place the onion, sprinkle it with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 10 minutes, squish and drain – it will take some of the sharpness from the onion. In another bowl mix the mayo, mustard and lemon juice.

Peel the potatoes and cut into big chunks, or thick rounds if using small ones. Taste for salt and add some if needed, but remember that the dressing will be pretty salty from the mustard. Grind the black pepper, add the mayo, onion and optional parsley, and carefully mix the salad to avoid crushing the potatoes too much. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

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This year we had two full-blown Easters, including two rounds of egg coloring, a traditional Polish Easter breakfast, an American egg hunt and – a week later, as the Bulgarian tradition requires – roast leg of lamb, stuffed with rice and fresh herbs. I was in charge of the kozunak – the Bulgarian cousin of Jewish challah bread and French brioche. Though in Bulgaria you can buy it all year round, the Easter one is special and no celebration is complete without this sweet bread, heavy on the eggs and butter, and stuffed with dried fruits and nuts. The butter-vanilla-lemon zest aroma of the kozunak is one that defines this holiday for me, as are the blanched almonds that decorate its top and the eggs done up in psychedelic colors by my kids.

The recipe I have used for more than ten years now is from a cookbook first published in the thirties, which belonged to my grandmother. At first I was quite afraid, as the description and ingredients were very vague, but I was stubborn and wanted to feel that Easter aroma even if there were no almond trees blooming outside our Warsaw apartment. The first year the breads were flat and a little dry, but we ate them anyway. Besides, nobody knew the real thing except me and that was an advantage in my favor.

I was expecting to engage in serious combat with the dough, as I’d heard legends about how hard it is to knead and how long it has to be worked on. To my surprise it was actually easy, and as good a stress reliever as any bread dough. The recipe is for one kilo of flour and this may put some people off, but it’s worth making the whole amount. You can use different stuffings, make one plain and toast it for breakfast like brioche or freeze the extra dough for croissant-shaped rolls for weekend brunches to come.

Ingredients for the basic bread:

• 10 cups (1.3 kg) all-purpose unbleached flour + extra for adding when kneading the dough
• 30-40g (1-1.5 oz fresh yeast or 2 packages of instant yeast
• 6 large eggs
• 2 sticks butter (200gr) butter melted + extra for rolling surface
• 1 ¼ cups milk (250ml), warm
• 1 1/3 cup sugar (dark brown and white mixed)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp rum or brandy
• 1 egg for egg wash + 1 tbsp of milk
• 1/2 cup blanched almonds
• sugar for sprinkling

Preparation:

Sift the flour in a big mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.

Crumble the fresh yeast, or pour in the dry, into a small bowl with 1/2 cup warm milk, add 1 tbsp sugar and enough flour to make a thin batter. Cover and leave in a warm place until it starts bubbling – about 10-15 minutes depending of the air conditions. Keep an eye on it, as it tends to explode!

Whisk the eggs with the sugar and add the rest of the warm milk, zest, vanilla and rum.

When the yeast is ready, add it to the flour, than the egg mixture and 1/2 tsp salt. Start making the dough adding the melted butter little by little or dipping your hands in it (that’s how I do it) and working the dough until all the butter is incorporated. When kneading the dough instead of pushing, pull and stretch it on the side of the bowl and then roll it into a ball and stretch again until it’s smooth, doesn’t stick to the walls of the bowl and little bubbles appear on the surface. Add some extra flour while kneading if the dough is too sticky. Form a ball, place it in a buttered bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and put in a warm, draft free place to rise – until double its size (around 1 hour). Or place it on a floured wooden board and cover with a big glass bowl like for the pizza dough.

Preheat the oven to 375°F (200°C).

The amount is enough for several loaves depending on the sheets and pans you are going to use. Pull three equal dough balls, roll them into logs on a buttered surface and make a braid, place on a baking sheet or cake pan lined with parchment. Leave it to rise again covered with a clean moistened towel. When it doubles in size, brush with the egg wash, push some almonds into the top and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden brown and a tester comes out clean – 20-30 minutes. Take out before it has cooled completely.

Kozunak can be stored in an airtight container, but is best eaten fast.

You can also make a roll with the dough. Roll 1/3 of the dough into a square around 1cm (half inch) thick. Mix one jar of jam of your liking (mine is fig) with handful of chopped walnuts and the same amount of raisins, dried cranberries or cherries, and spread over the dough, leaving 1cm free on the edges. Roll it and place into a cake form to rise. Brush with the egg wash, place almonds and sprinkle with sugar, then bake as before.

You can make little croissants, either plane or with sweet stuffing like for the roll. After shaping them, place on a baking sheet, leave to rise and do as before (skip the almonds). Or you can stuff them with a mix of ½ pound crumbled feta and one big egg for about ¼ of the dough. Those are the ones my kids fight for – often with me.

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The combination of the fresh greens with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and crunchy bulgur wheat is addictive. I use fine cracked bulgur from my favorite Middle Eastern store, Alkhyam Bakery at 4744-46 N. Kedzie Ave, corner of Lawrence. Before using always go through the wheat and throw out any dark grains. For the tabbouleh, you never soak it in hot water, but in a mix of lemon juice and cold water – it should keep a crunchy bite – and besides, it will soak up the juices of the salad.

You can make tabbouleh for two or twenty two, but it has to be eaten the very same day. If you leave it to soak for too long you’ll lose the crunchiness of the wheat and freshness of the herbs. The best way to serve it is spooned on Romaine lettuce leaves – you roll it and eat with your hands.

Another rule is to keep the proportions right – forget the versions with cous-cous or so much bulgur that the dominant color is yellow. It has to be green, with little specks of wheat and red tomatoes and a strong lemony taste.

Use the smallest and crunchiest cucumbers you can lay your hands on. Surprisingly for me this was the hardest ingredient to find here. Usually it was the fresh mint, but in Chicago cucumbers smaller than a baseball bat are the really tough to find. The best so far are the ones called Persian or mini. They cost a fortune, so sometimes I give up and go for the smallest and hardest monster I can get.

Once you work out proportions that really work for you you’ll be hooked. Here are mine:

Lebanese tabbouleh

(enough for 4)

• 1 cup coarse bulgur wheat
• 2 bunches flat leaf parsley, chopped (about 2-3 handfuls)
• 1 bunch dill, chopped (about 1 handful)
• 1 bunch mint, chopped (about 1 handful)
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped (about 1 handful)
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 medium size plum tomatoes, chopped

or

• 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes – quartered
• 2 small cucumbers, chopped
• juice of one lemon (lime)
• cold water
• salt, black pepper
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil (optional)

Place the bulgur in a bowl, pour half of the lemon juice and enough cold water over it to moisten it thoroughly and let soak for 15 minutes.

In a big bowl combine all the greens and vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add the rest of the lemon juice and mix well. Squeeze all the water from the bulgur and add to the bowl. Mix once more and adjust the seasoning. The Lebanese will stop right there and serve the salad, but I like to add olive oil. Combine the salad ingredients no longer than 30 minutes before serving to avoid the bulgur getting too soft – it will keep absorbing the juices in the bowl.

Tabbouleh is great as part of a mezze plater or with roasted meat and fish. It’s my party pleaser and back yard grill staple. Some warm pita will go well with it too.

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By now I’ve learned how to navigate my sorry excuse for a kitchen and on that sunny March morning even the temperamental gas oven wasn’t a match for me. Tart crust is easy if you don’t panic, and is ready in a breeze. This tart calls for a pre-baked shell so you can make it ahead of time.

I used small Sicilian eggplants, which are extremely beautiful with their light purple and white stripes. I don’t salt the eggplants and don’t wait for 20 minutes when they don’t have many brown seeds – it’s a waste of time. The bitterness is in the seeds. The tomato sauce I use for pizza and spaghetti with meatballs, which I usually make in batches and freeze afterwards, made the whole operation faster. I wish I could have served it all with a crisp and fruity Portuguese Vinho Verde, but didn’t have time to get any that day.

Tomato tart with eggplants and goat’s cheese

For the tart crust see my cranberry tart recipe. Keep the remaining part of the dough in the freezer for future use. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Pierce the shell with a fork to keep the crust from rising. Place aluminum foil on top of the tart shell, weigh it down with dry beans or tart weights if you have some and bake for 15 minutes on racks positioned in the middle. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until the shell is golden brown. Take out and leave to cool.

Filling

• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• ¾ cups tomato sauce
• 3 small Sicilian eggplants, cut in half lengthwise and then quartered – you should have eight strips (or 1 medium size Italian eggplant – cut in ¼ inch rounds)
• 1/8 pound fresh goat’s cheese (or feta)
• salt, freshly ground black pepper
• chopped parsley (or dill) for garnish
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium heat, add the eggplants in batches if they don’t fit in single layer and saute until soft and slightly brown. Transfer to a plate covered with a paper towel to soak up the extra oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss.

Spread the Dijon mustard over the bottom of the tart – it gives a nice sharp bite to the sweet tomato-and-eggplant filling. Spoon in the tomato sauce and spread it evenly. Arrange the eggplant strips in a fan (or if using rounds – starting from the outside lay them in overlapping circles). Crumble the cheese on top, sprinkle with more black pepper and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese starts melting and the eggplants are warmed through. Serve warm with a salad and a nice crisp white wine. It will really make a difference to your mid week or light weekend lunch.

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Thicker than the Italian frittata and usually containing my other favorites – potatoes – this Spanish omelet has as striking a flavor as its looks. It’s easier to make too, as you don’t have to fight to flip it over, but simply bake it in the oven. It can stoically take on whatever you throw at it, and no fridge push-around need be wasted again. The classic one with potatoes is great, but I’ve done it with zucchini, parsnip, feta cheese, Parmesan, bacon, various types of dried and fresh herbs, and combinations of the above. It’s a successes every time, and the only person who refuses to eat it is my daughter – the new egg-phobe in the family.

I finally have a cast-iron paella pan, perfect for tortillas too, which I put to heavy use. The recipe is enough for four as a weekday supper, or for eight as part of a weekend brunch with friends. If there are leftovers, they are very good the next day and make a great lunchbox item. I often wrap them in whole-wheat tortillas with Tabasco’s Chipotle sauce and fresh cilantro (coriander). I love to answer the what’s-for-lunch question – tortilla in tortilla.

For a vegetarian version skip the sausage.

Spanish tortilla with potatoes, sausage, ricotta and fresh herbs

serves 4

• 6 – 8 large eggs – free range or organic
• ½ cup fresh ricotta (or thick sour cream)
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed or sliced into thin rounds
• ½ pound good quality sausage (I use Polish sausage with thyme and garlic and no preservatives added) – cubed the same size as the potatoes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped (optional)
• 1 cup mixed chopped dill, mint and parsley (or cilantro)
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• salt, freshly ground black pepper, Spanish smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°F (200°C) – with racks positioned in the middle. In a heavy-bottomed oven-proofed frying pan (cast iron is best), melt the butter and olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the potatoes until slightly brown and tender – about 10 minutes. In the meantime beat eggs in a bowl to break the egg yolks. Add the ricotta and beat well – though some cheese lumps are OK. Season with salt and black pepper to taste, add the herbs and green onions and mix.

When the potatoes are ready, take them out of the pan with slotted spoon and stir into the egg-cheese mixture. Add sausage to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, until sightly brown. Add onion and garlic and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Pour over the egg-cheese-and-potatoes mixture, stir well, and let cook on medium low for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with smoked paprika and transfer the pan to the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes or until the top of the tortilla is set and slightly brown.

Serve warm with the pan (makes a great impression) with rustic bread and simple green salad. My son loves it with a few drops of Tabasco Chipotle sauce. I have it with extra Bulgarian cheese, feta style.

Goes great with a light, bubbly Portuguese Vinho Verde or Italian Prosseco for a more elegant experience.

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