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Plumerias wrote:There is that saying, when in Rome............ Well, when in Tuscany and it's cool and there's a wonderful fresh market and an excellent bakery nearby............ Does anyone have a recipe for ribollita? I just have a basic kitchen, so making broth in advance (that's what I'm finding online so far, sigh) isn't an option. I'll have to use canned beans. The market has great herbs. HELP?! Grazie mille!
Plumerias wrote:Thanks Agnes! Hmmmm, just why did I know it would be you who answered? (Actually, I figured on a three way tie between you, Minnie, and greentea.) Inspiration indeed. I think I like your last suggestion the best though! I did make a farro and borlotti bean soup yesterday with all sorts of fresh stuff from the market. It was so fun, especially after being in a country with groceries that were, let's be polite here, boring and uninspiring. We also have a toaster, so DH, with advice from the saleswoman, bought a bread specifically for bruschetta. Oh, gee, and then there are ingredients for panzanella too. Hmm, maybe I should start another thread and ask what kinds of toppings people use for that. If only olive oil wasn't a food group in Italy, sigh, then we could try more stuff in restaurants.
AlwaysAgnes wrote:Plumerias wrote:Thanks Agnes! Hmmmm, just why did I know it would be you who answered? (Actually, I figured on a three way tie between you, Minnie, and greentea.) Inspiration indeed. I think I like your last suggestion the best though! I did make a farro and borlotti bean soup yesterday with all sorts of fresh stuff from the market. It was so fun, especially after being in a country with groceries that were, let's be polite here, boring and uninspiring. We also have a toaster, so DH, with advice from the saleswoman, bought a bread specifically for bruschetta. Oh, gee, and then there are ingredients for panzanella too. Hmm, maybe I should start another thread and ask what kinds of toppings people use for that. If only olive oil wasn't a food group in Italy, sigh, then we could try more stuff in restaurants.
I've never made panzanella either, but Mary McDougall has a recipe. https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2015nl/jul/recipes.htm I would imagine that heirloom tomatoes are key in this. I love heirloom tomatoes. Tasty. They are $3/pound, though. I still buy them.
Can't really say that I do bruschetta either. Okay. That's it. I guess I'm not Italian. I still made pasta e fagioli the other day with cranberry beans. I love cranberry beans. (I ordered 4 bags of them from Bob's Red Mill because they're just too hard to find in stores around here.) http://www.bobsredmill.com/cranberry-beans.html These are also called October beans. They make great Southern-style "soup beans" which is basically a pot of beans with a thick creamy broth. Soup beans are a mainstay for many Southerners, I reckon.
Okay. Now, back to ribollita!
Plumerias wrote:Yes, a good heirloom tomato is indeed the secret to good panzanella, for sure. But then, I think it's the secret to a good many celebrate the bounty of the season recipes. Sigh, I miss growing them. In Venice I found a vendor who was selling huge ones for 5 euros a kilo. This was one of those markets where you wait and the vendor chooses and bags for you, it was busy, and there was only one, so I waited hopefully. Well, the receipt said the thing weighed 1.044 kg, and it was just exactly right for the salad I made. It was the first decent tomato we'd had in ages.
On the cranberry (aka borlotti, aka romano) beans, when we're in Florida in the winter I can get them at Walmart! Yeah, can you believe that, Walmart. And they're not expensive or icky at all. So, for what that's worth........ Oh, and come to think of it, maybe Target as well.
An Italian grandma must have lived in this rental, the kitchen has some of the most interesting, and very nice, cookware. There's also a cookbook, Il Cucchiaio Verde, La bibbia della cucina vegetariana on the shelf. It has some recipes that Google translate and I are going to have to work on, including ribollita and panzanella, and several potentially interesting soups. What a great way to learn some Italian words!
greentea wrote:I would have answered but I've never made Ribollita. How was it? It sounds delicious!
Totally off topic, but have you tried those fabulous giant caper berries they have in Italy?
greentea wrote:The selection of pasta was impressive! All those colours and shapes available made it impossible to choose.
I was pretty blown away by the selection of lentils and beans too. There were many varieties I had never seen before.
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