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Thursday, March 8, 2012

A little Heritage

An understanding of my heritage has been a large part of my life. Like a little kid sitting cross-legged for story time, I used to sit at the dinner table, completely attentive, hearing stories about my Grandma Lena’s amazing homemade ravioli and how she spent hours perfecting them. My grandpa will still quietly sing the Italian love songs he used to hear as a child from his father, who never spoke English. My other grandfather, who resembles Robert De Niro from the Godfather, still spends afternoons eating plates of pasta with his friends from the Italian club.

                Though I have never had the opportunity to travel to Italy, I try to embrace my heritage the best I can. Sometimes, my attempts to understand my heritage are carried out by cooking an old-fashioned Italian dish. Missing some good Italian meatballs while I was away at college, I decided to make Italian Wedding Soup (or Minestra Maritata) with a strong, aromatic broth. And of course, who can enjoy a bowl of soup without some gravy-soaking bread? I made (with my sister’s help because I ran out of time) a fresh batch of focaccia bread to accompany the meal.

                I also realize it is important to embrace another side to my heritage… the American side. Living in the melting pot means taking my ethnic background and melding it into my American lifestyle. This has been the American way for many years. I love driving down a street and seeing a Chinese restaurant, next to a pizza joint, followed by a sushi bar. My way of incorporating my American side into my heritage is by making some minor changes to the Wedding soup recipe to make it easier and healthier. One modification was making my meatballs out of chicken rather than beef, pork or veal (using my mother’s amazing recipe!) because America is currently on its health conscious kick to limit the epidemic of obesity. Another modification was substituting brown rice for pasta. It gave the soup a different and unexpected texture.

                Despite the changes to the recipes, the soup came out quite well (and in a somewhat timely manner). My favorite part of the meal, though, was the opportunity to enjoy it with my family, the reason for carrying on my heritage. It was nice to sit and converse with them between bites of bread and spoonfuls  of soup. Whether I am Italian or American or Italian-American, the best part of embracing my heritage is that I can share it and learn about it from the most important people in my life!

(I had some trouble with my phone the other night, so my mother and sister took these photos of their soup to help me out)

My Mother's Photos:


My Sister's Photos:




 

    Italian Wedding Soup with Rice ( from Ina Garten )
My mother’s Meatball Recipe:

·         1 lb. ground chicken

·         1 cup panko bread crumbs

·         ½ cup grated parmesan cheese

·         1 egg

·         2 tbs. olive oil

·         Garlic powder to taste

For the soup:

  • 2 tablespoons good olive oil
  • 1 cup minced yellow onion
  • 1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 10 cups homemade chicken stock (I didn’t use homemade)
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 2 cups wild rice (cooked)
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh dill
  • 12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine all meatball ingredients in a bowl with your hands. Roll into small balls and place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25-30 minutes until fully cooked and lightly brown.
In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil.. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs and rice to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan


Focaccia Bread (From the Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook)
  •  1 1/3 Cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
  • 2 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
  • 3 tablespoons Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 1/2 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Topping
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 -1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1. combine water, yeast and oil in the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir in the flour and salt. When the dough comes together, replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.
2. Turn the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise until dough is puffy and has doubled in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours).
3. Generously spray (with nonstick vegetable oil spray) the bottom and sides of a 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 inch pan that measures at least one inch deep. Flatten the dough and press it into the pan. cover with a damp cloth and let it rise until puffy and almost doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Just before baking, use your finger to dimple the dough at 2-inch intervals. Drizzle topping oil over the dough, letting some collect in the indentations. sprinkle the dough with salt.
5. Bake until the bottom of the focaccia is richly colored and crisp and the top is golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Use a large spatula to remove the focaccia from the poan and slide it onto a wire rack to cool.


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