Two summer recipes from Liguria
Stuffed Onions and Green beans and pine nuts from Enrica Monzani's The Flavours of Liguria.
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It has been a tiring summer so far, made of extremes and opposite experiences.
Lots of cooking classes, but also a relaxing week in Abruzzo at the end of June that seems so far away.
We suffered an unbearable heat in July, but we were also blessed by a couple of weeks that felt like the summer of my childhood: cooler nights and crisp mornings for a brisk walk. And now back again to the sultry weather, that makes you feel tired, sticky, purposelessly wandering from room to room searching for some respite.
I put love and attention at every meal to eat plenty of seasonal vegetables, especially now that Livia is at home from daycare for the summer holidays. I tested new recipes and enjoyed simple, nourishing home food. I reintroduced the good habit of an early morning daily walk, but I also had a cold and a cough that won’t give me respite and brought me to surrender to antibiotics in August. Again. I’m so sick of being sick during the holidays.
I’m experiencing an avid and unattainable desire to travel (the Alps! London! Southern France! Edinburgh! Northern Europe!) and a reality made of tiny, precious discoveries that made me appreciate even more my small, provincial town. Saturdays are now for my new ritual, Forno Pellegrino’s takeaway pizza and chats on the terrace with friends, in the dark, waiting for shooting stars. I had many wishes ready for a shooting star, but the one I kept closer to my heart was to find joy in the small things, nurture friendships and count my blessings.
In the rarefied atmosphere of an Italian August, where most of the shops and restaurants are closed for the holidays and where the locals are often fleeting the cities for coastal or mountain towns, we decided to keep the newsletter running to offer you seasonal summer recipes and an occasion for some precious armchair travel.
After our weeklong deep dive into the Abruzzo’s gastronomy, I asked you if you wanted us to take you somewhere else, and Liguria was one of the most common answers. So I asked Enrica Monzani from A Small Kitchen in Genoa if she wanted to share two vegetable recipes from her cookbook, Liguria in Cucina - The flavours of Liguria.
I speak in a whisper as if I put too much emphasis on these words I could be ostracized. I have never hiked or visited Cinque Terre. I have never visited Genova but for a quick business trip.
Everything I know about Liguria and its gastronomy is thanks to Enrica, a friend, a passionate food writer, an expert cooking class teacher, and a connoisseur of Liguria beyond the Cinque Terre.
She is my go-to source for any Ligurian recipe, and I owe her the crispest crust in my torta pasqualina (if you have Cucina Povera, you’ll find the recipe on page 165).
Recently, we also cooked together during a Cook Along: I made Tuscan panzanella, while she demonstrated the Ligurian take on summer salads, cundijun.
I’ve been knowing Enrica for quite some time now. In the past years, sharing our experiences and hopes, struggling with the same problems—a pandemic when you work with tourism is devastating, but also living and working in two of the regions where the effect of over-tourism, or better, of a badly organized tourism, are more destructive—, and dreaming big while writing our cookbooks, we bonded and found in each other support and inspiration.
I know Enrica and the dedication and passion she puts into everything she does, from cooking classes to food tours of Genova and Liguria. She is the master basil pesto and trofie maker.
About the recipes in this book, she says: Most of them are cooked in my family since ever, some are a gift of gastronome friends, all of them have been prepared and enjoyed on our tables endless times.
If you are longing to visit Liguria, and if you want to have a better, deeper knowledge of the cuisine and culture of this region, this is the book you want to read, as it goes beyond the crystal blue sea and the trofie al pesto. It tells of a green and light cuisine, where vegetables are essential, of a sustainable seafood cuisine, where fish has been traditionally used, but always in moderation. It brings you to its woodlands and shows you how most of its iconic recipes are born on the street.
Learn more about Enrica Monzani here:
Web site: https://www.asmallkitcheningenoa.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asmallkitcheningenoa/
Her book: Liguria in Cucina - The flavours of Liguria
Everything I said about Florence here, could be said about Cinque Terre, too.
The Ligurian cuisine is one of the more inclusive and inventive with vegetables of the whole peninsula.
I am sure you will enjoy the following recipes, belonging to what we call cucina di terra (inland cuisine) as opposed to cucina di mare (seafood cuisine).
RECIPE - Stuffed onions
Serves 6
Ingredients
500 g (1 lb) of big round white onions
1 medium size onion, finely chopped
400 g (14 oz) of potatoes (ab 3 medium-sized potatoes)
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil (plus some extra for greasing the baking dish)
1 teaspoon of fresh marjoram leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh Italian (flat-leafed) parsley, finely chopped
1 cup of breadcrumbs
Salt
Pepper
Proceeding
Wash the potatoes, put them in a roomy pot of cold water with their skins on, and boil until tender (about 35 minutes).
Put the chopped onion in a skillet on a low fire with 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin oil and cook gently until golden and translucent (about 15 minutes)
Peel the big round onions and boil them whole in salty water for about 10 minutes (they must remain firm). Drain and cut each in half longwise from root to tip. Separate the layers to achieve many little bowls. Reserve the best intact ones to one side and chop the remaining central part.
Add the chopped onion pulp to the skillet with the fried onion and cook a little longer, around five minutes. Drain the potatoes, peel them, and mash them while still hot.
Put the potato puree in a bowl, add the fried onion from the skillet, the eggs, the parmesan cheese, the marjoram leaves, and parsley. Mix well, taste, and season with salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a shallow baking dish with baking paper and grease it with some olive oil. Using a piping bag or just a teaspoon, fill your onion bowls with the potato filling and arrange them side by side in the baking dish.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and drizzle with some extra-virgin olive. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the surface is golden. Remove from the oven to cool. Serve warm or cool (they’re even better the next day!)
RECIPE - Green beans and pine nuts
Serves 4
Ingredients
500 g (1 lb) of fresh green beans
30 g (1 oz) of pine nuts
2 fillets of salted anchovy
2 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ glass of water
Salt
Proceeding
Boil the green beans in lightly salted water until they are al dente. Drain and set aside.
Pour the oil into a large pan, add the garlic cut into thin slices, and the anchovy fillets. Brown the garlic carefully and melt the anchovy into the oil (3-4 minutes), Then add the green beans and brown them over medium heat for 10 minutes until they are slightly wrinkled and golden.
Meanwhile, crush the pine nuts in a mortar (you don’t need to reduce them to cream, some larger pieces are fine) and dilute the crushed nuts with a glass of cold water. If you don’t have a mortar, you can use a blender.
Pour the "pine nut milk" into the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper, and let cook, stirring from time to time until the beans are perfectly cooked and the pine-nuts milk absorbed. Serve hot.
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I love the use of anchovies with vegetables. I use them with sauteed mushrooms and broccoli rabe. I add the anchovy to the hot oil and garlic. They make a wonderful difference in the flavor of the veggies.
Both recipes sound yummy!! I’ll let you know when I make them. We are experiencing really hot weather here in Northeast Florida also. Really looking forward to crisp fall mornings!! I hope you are feeling better….a presto! Angela