Back in the U.S. of A and Bagnèt Verde

As you can see, I have been away for awhile from my poor little neglected blog. I have been visiting in the US trying to see everyone and everything that I can as my visits are few and far between. As much as I love living in Italy and all of my friends and family here, I do miss my American family and friends. With my hectic schedule attempting to take it all in, I didn't seem to find any time to share here on my Bella Baita View, so today I will remedy  that. 

Snowshoeing in Frisco and Skiing Copper Mt Colorado

I have three brothers and their children scattered throughout the states and I was blessed in that I was able to see most of them. Along the way I was also able to spend some time in Summit County in Colorado, which I still consider my last home in America. Fortunately for me, I still have a lot of friends making the visit all the more sweet. I got to do a little snowshoeing and skiing as well as chatting and sipping beverages with friends. The world around,  we all do enjoy our "catching up" over food and drinks. This trip was no exception. My friends Mary and John, were kind enough to open their home to my friends for a potluck one night so we could all do a bit of catching up while we sampled each others food and drink.

Friends at the potluck

Since my hosts were working the day of the party I took the opportunity to do a bit of cooking, using seasonal vegetables and making some dishes vegetarian and vegan with some traces of  Piemontese influence in the various dishes. To provide a protein or meat dish that I could make ahead so as not to be busy when everyone arrived, I braised a beef roast and served up the room temperature slices with a classic Piemontese sauce, salsa verde. I also made green cabbage rolls filled  with spicy sausage and covered with a marinara sauce. Vegan cabbage rolls made with Chinese cabbage, as it was more similar to Savoy cabbage, which I couldn't get, and filled with mixed quinoa, tempeh bacon and a sweet fruit and vegetable relish begging to be used up in the fridge. I grilled some eggplant slices and filled the with firm tofu that had been sautéed up with garlic and 2 colors of kale  and covered with the marinara sauce. I added some of my home made focaccia to go along with a great selection of Wisconsin cheeses, many made by small producers from the Devils Head area, thanks to a great gift from my Wisconsin friend Marcia. We had met up in Chicago for lunch and she gifted me with a fabulous treasure trove of artisan cheeses. Everyone loved them. There were a lot of great dishes brought along to share but I got so busy chatting I forgot to take photos, so you'll just have to believe me. 

Potluck buffet

A great dish for Easter lunch or brunch, plated or on a buffet anytime, is the braised beef slices warm or room temperature, served with the salsa verde. This green sauce is a garlicky punch that usually finds itself served alongside the beloved bollito misto, or mixed boiled meats that is so popular here in Piiedmont and other parts of Italy. Often when we enjoy Easter lunch with my in-laws, the evening meal, after the traditional "passeggiata", or walk in the neighborhood after groaning through lunch, we have a simple bollito misto accompanied with both green and re sauce.  So here is my version based on my mother in-laws, which can vary depending on taste or what's on hand. It's great on any type of simple meat that adds just the right amount of zip and brightens up the plate. Adjust the amounts to suit your palette to make it your own.

 Bagnèt Verde Piemontese or 

Green Sauce or "Bath" Piemontese Sauce

1-2 large fistfuls of parsley, washed and dried

2 garlic cloves

2 whole or 4 fillets of anchovies in salt, cleaned  (in oil if you can't find those in the salt)*

1 T capers in salt, washed to remove the salt

1 hard boiled egg **

2 c (bicchieri) olive oil

1/2 c (bicchiere) vinegar, white wine, red wine or apple cider all are nice 

salt if needed to taste

The easy way would be to buzz it all up in the food processor, but my mother in-law would not approve as it would not have enough texture. 

I hand chop all the various ingredients fine or sometimes I use a mezzaluna (curved knife with two handles) to get a uniform texture. 

I place all of the chopped ingredients in a bowl and mix the oil and vinegar in to taste adjusting any of the ingredient quantities if I feel it needs more or the flavor isn;t well blended.

Serve at room temperature. This will keep a few days in the refrigerator also, so you could make it ahead of time. 

Spoon liberally over your cooked meats and enjoy. 

** Some make the sauce with the egg yolk only and use a slice of soft white bread chopped uo to thicken. Our family is more practical and we add the whole boiled egg, chopped fine.

* Anchovies and capers that are preserved have more flavor once the salt is removed than the anchovies in oil or capers in vinegar. You may need to adjust the seasoning depending on which variety of these two ingredients you use. Do not add any salt without tasting first and you might want less vinegar if your capers were preserved in vinegar. 

Fennel Flan or Sformato di Finocchi with a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

This part of the world is crazy about  vegetable flans. If you've never had one I recommend trying one some time soon.They are easy and make a wonderful change of vegetable or eggy type offering. It makes a light luncheon course or a first course addition to a multi course meal. This time of year the local favorite is a pepper flan usually with a bagna cauda sauce to go along for a bit of a flavor punch up. I like that one quite a lot, but as there are so many people out there that tend to have an aversion to anchovies, I decided to make the pepper into the sauce to go along with the delicately flavored fennel variety. Piedmont is famous for their peppers, so I make sure to indulge. I think the peppers and fennel worked well together and seemed to be a big hit with some recent friends that came to  dinner. Vibrant red, orage and yellow peppers are everywhere at the moment, so it's hard to resist using them as much as possible. The roasted red pepper sauce made for a colorful contrast to the white flan. This particular flan calls for a thin béchamel sauce. I added a few slabs of local seirass cheese to add a bit of interest as it holds its shape when cooked. It is rather like a ricotta salata, but not quite as firm. Flans here generally tend to be smooth through and through, but my preference is for a bit of texture, so I blend up part of the vegetables and leave some small chunky bits so you also have a better idea of what you are eating. The flan is still smooth and silky, but make the adjustments to your taste.
Sformato is a large dish that can be cooked in a souffle or ring mold. Sformatini are individual servings that can be made in muffin cups. We have aluminum baking cups here perfect for a nice presentation on your plate.
I usually roast my peppers first while I am preparing everything else. I serve the pepper sauce at room temperature and the flan piping hot, but of course, you can serve it as you like as it is delicious when the flan and sauce are at room temperature or piping hot.

Fennel Flan

or Sformatini di Finocchi (or Sformato)

Ingredients

For the béchamel:

1 1/2 cups whole milk

40 g  /3 Tb butter, unsalted

20 g / 3 Tb flour

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

For the Fennel filling:

2-4 bulbs (about 1 kg / 2 pounds) outer fronds removed, inner part diced

2 large eggs

1 cup freshly grated cheese

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup fine bread crumbs

Instructions:

Make the béchamel:

Melt butter a heavy medium saucepan

Add the flour, whisk together and sauté for a few minutes.

Whisk in the milk, bring to a boil and simmer till thick, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, set aside.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

In a medium saucepan, cover the fennel with enough water just to cover and a big pinch of salt.

Cook, covered until fennel is tender, about 20 minutes; then drain, reserving some of the liquid.

Pulse fennel in a food processor or with a hand blender until finely chopped, adding a little reserved water if needed to make a smooth paste with some texture.

Heat oven to 325°.

Beat eggs in a large bowl;

Add béchamel and whisk to combine.

Add chopped cooked fennel, cheese, salt and pepper; stir to combine.

Butter a 1 1 ⁄2- to 2-quart baking dish or a similar size ring mold or individual tins or muffin cups with olive oil or2 Tb butter to coat  and then tip in bread crumbs, swirling to cover.

Add fennel mixture.

Place dishes into a pan with hot water to make a bain mare.

Bake until sformato or sformatini set and are lightly browns about 20 - 40 minutes depending on the size.

Remove the sformato from oven; let rest for  a few minutes for small ones and 15 minutes for larger ones then unmold .

Serve warm or at room temperature with a sauce if desired.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Servings: 4

Ingredients

            2 whole red peppers

            2 T olive oil

            1 cloves garlic, Minced if you wanted a milder garlic flavor, you could also roast the garlic

            Flat Leaf Parsley or basil, optional

           

           

Preparation Instructions

Roast red peppers, and then place in a bag to allow to sweat. Peel the charred skins from the peppers, then remove seeds.

Puree peppers with the garlic, oil, parsley and or basil.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add more oil if you need it a bit thinner.

You can adjust this as needed for more servings.