Erica De Mane

Recipes:

Puréed Zucchini Soup with Basil Oil and Ricotta
Sautéed Shrimp with Celery, Fennel Seeds, and Hot Chilies
Peaches in White Wine and Caramel

Puréed Zucchini Soup with Basil Oil and Ricotta

Zucchini is a subtle vegetable whose taste can become muted when it’s mixed with other vegetables. When I cook it I usually cook it alone so I can really taste it. I suggest making this with small tender zucchini, which taste more of vegetable than starch.

(Serves 4 or 5)

For the basil oil:

A large handful of basil leaves
About 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the soup:

Extra-virgin olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
2 tender inner celery stalks, chopped, including the leaves
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
About 1 1/2 pounds small, tender zucchini, cut into medium dice
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt
Black pepper
3 cups homemade or low-salt-canned chicken broth (Swanson’s is the best)
A squeeze of lemon juice
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta
About 1/4 cup milk

To make the basil oil:

Set up a small pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add the basil leaves and blanch them for about 30 seconds. Lift them from the water with a small strainer and spoon them into a colander. Run cold water over them to preserve their green color. Squeeze the leaves dry in the palm of your hand and place them in the bowl of a food processor. Add the olive oil and process until well puréed. Pour the oil into a little bowl.

To make the soup:

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the shallots and celery and sauté until the celery is just starting to soften and give off fragrance, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the garlic and the zucchini. Season with nutmeg, salt, and black pepper, and sauté until the zucchini is a bit tender, about another 3 or 4 minutes. This sautéing step before you add the broth is important, as it brings out the flavor of the zucchini and prevents it from winding up with a bland boiled-vegetable taste. Add the chicken broth, turn up the heat, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat back to medium and cook at a lively boil until the zucchini and everything is very tender, about another 10 minutes (cooking quickly at a lively boil will ensure that the soup keeps a nice green color). Purée the soup in a food processor or with a hand blender (the kind you stick right in the soup pot). Pour the soup back into the pot and give it a squeeze of lemon juice. Taste for seasoning, adding a pinch of salt if needed and a few fresh grindings of black pepper. Add a drizzle of olive oil.

In a small bowl, mix the ricotta with enough milk to thin it out to the consistency of yogurt (probably about 1/4 cup).

Reheat the soup if necessary. Ladle it into soup bowls. Give each bowl a tablespoon or so of ricotta and drizzle the basil oil around it. Serve hot.

Sautéed Shrimp with Celery, Fennel Seeds, and Hot Chilies

This recipes takes about five minutes and has so much flavor that I make variations on it all the time. Sometimes I’ll add capers or pine nuts, or a chopped anchovy or two. It’s success depends on getting the pan very hot, adding almost all the ingredients at once, and, most important, not overcooking the shrimp. I serve this as a main course with rice or couscous, but it also works well as an appetizer, with a glass of cold wine.

(Serves 4 as a main course or 6 as an appetizer)

Extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds extra-large shrimp, peeled, deveined if you like, and the tails left on
A small palmful of fennel seeds
1 small, fresh hot red chili, minced, including the seeds
3 tender inner celery stalks, thinly sliced, with the leaves from about 5 stalks, lightly chopped
4 scallions, cut into thin rounds, using some of the tender green part
2 young garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Salt (sea salt is a nice touch here)
A large summer tomato, seeded and cut into medium dice
A splash of Pernod or another pastis (Sambuca or Anisette, though a little sweeter than pastis, can also be used)

Choose a large skillet that will give the shrimp room to breath and place it over high heat. When the pan is hot, add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Let the oil get hot, almost smoking, and add the shrimp, fennel seeds, chili, celery, scallions, and garlic. Season with salt and sauté quickly, moving the shrimp around only enough to sauté both sides (too much stirring will cause liquid to be released from the shrimp and vegetables, leading to steaming). Sauté until the shrimp is just tender, about 4 minutes only. Add the Pernod and let it bubble for a few seconds. Add the tomato and the celery leaves, toss gently, and pull the pan off the heat. Finish with a drizzle of fresh olive oil and pour the shrimp into a large serving bowl, pouring any skillet juices over the top. Serve right away.

Peaches in White Wine and Caramel

Peaches in red or white wine were something my father always put together for backyard barbecues, and they were welcome after the meat extravaganza we usually worked our way through first (somehow he didn’t think it was a proper barbecue unless he offered sausages and chicken and ribs and steak). You can make this dish very simply by just pouring wine over sliced peaches the way he did, but I’ve chosen to deepen the flavor with caramel and some spices. I like it both ways.

(Serves 4 to 6)

About 6 ripe peaches, peeled if you like and cut into thick slices
1/2 cup sugar
About 1 cup dry white wine (something light and simple and not too oaky, like a Frascati)
2 or 3 strips of lemon peel
2 whole allspice
About 3 whole black peppercorns
A few mint leaves, left whole

Place the peach slices in a wide serving bowl.

In a small saucepan cook the sugar with an equal amount of water over medium heat until it turns to a nice dark caramel (watch it intently when it first starts turning golden; it can go from there to burnt and smoking quickly). Pour the caramel evenly over the peach slices and let sit for about 15 minutes, to allow the caramel to penetrate the fruit (it will harden a bit). Add enough white wine to just cover the peaches, and add the lemon peel, allspice, and peppercorns. Let this sit, unrefrigerated, for about 1/2 hour before serving. The wine will dissolve the caramel, creating a sweet dark liqueur. You can easily double or triple the recipe to feed a crowd, but if you do don’t double the whole spices or the taste will be too strong. Garnish with mint leaves just before serving.