Erica De Mane

Peppers roasted with caciocavallo, black olives, and thyme

Recipes:

Peppers Roasted with Caciocavallo, Black Olives, and Thyme
Grilled Peppers with Salt-Packed Anchovies and Marjoram
Grilled Peppers with Honey, Almonds, and Rosemary
Couscous with Grilled Peppers, Ginger, Basil, and Merguez Sausage
Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Peppers, Soppressata, and Parsley

Certain vegetables perplex many American cooks. Not their mere existence, but how to cook them. Eggplant is one, artichoke another. Bell peppers seem to be a third; they look so beautiful, almost too shiny and colorful to even put a thumb print on. Most people I know just slice them up and throw them into a salad. But I’m a cook who doesn’t like bell peppers raw, and I say grill them or roast them. Do anything to rid them of their rawness. In my opinion, if they’ve still got a crunch, they’re not at their best. I’m talking about the red, ripe ones. I really don’t care for green bell peppers, raw or cooked. To me their smell is strangely unfood-like, and their flavor really has legs, traveling all over your plate, spreading its essence. When I eat a green bell pepper I sense I’m burping up something vaguely like gasoline for several hours after. The only sweet green peppers I do like are the long Italian frying ones, like my father used to grow in his backyard garden. He picked them when they were just faintly tinged with specks of red. Then my mother slow-roasted or sautéed them, along with onions and sometimes sausages, until they almost seemed dissolved (a truly Italian-American approach). Continue Reading »

Ruchetta selvatica from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm.

Recipes:

Wild Arugula Salad with Ricotta, Strawberries, and Pine Nuts
Wild Arugula with Shrimp, Cherry Tomatoes, and Parmigiano
Cavatelli with Wild Arugula, Mussels, and Sweet Bread Crumbs

I had my first taste of wild arugula as a child on Long Island, and I’ve loved it ever since. The Mastellones, our neighbors across the street, took a trip to their hometown of Sorrento, Italy, sometime in the late l960s and smuggled back clumps of wild arugula, relocating it in their backyard garden. The stuff took off like the weed that it is and has been thriving there ever since, some summers almost taking over the entire garden. They gave cuttings out to all the Italian neighbors, and soon the entire block was growing it. This was before even domestic arugula appeared in supermarkets, so it was a real novelty on Long Island. We called it rucchetta, which is what arugula usually goes by in Rome and in parts of Southern Italy. Either rucchetta selvatica or rucola selvatica is how you refer in Italian to this wild variety, with its intense, addictive bite. I’ve picked up seed packages of a cultivated form of wild arugula in Italy to hand out to friends with gardens (I can also sometimes find these on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, in the garden department of the indoor shopping mall). I’ve grown tiny pots of wild arugula on my window sills in the city. What they need is plenty of sun, which is what I’ve got (a little more space would be nice too). When the seeds first sprout they look like clover, with rounded leaves, but as they shoot up they develop skinny, spiky, dark green leaves, resembling a more refined-looking dandelion. The aroma is so pungent I get whiffs of it coming in through the open window. Continue Reading »

Recipes:

Fingerling Potato Salad with White Wine, Thyme, and Shallots
Red New Potato Salad with Tarragon Mayonnaise and Capers
Yukon Gold Potato Salad with Wild Arugula and Summer Garlic

One reason I love making potato salad is because it gives such a great opportunity to show off extra-virgin olive oil. I dress the potatoes while they’re still warm and let them soak up the oil and whatever other seasoning I’ve decided on. My current favorite oil is Maussane-les-Alpilles from Provence. It’s a gentle, golden oil, very olivey, without the bite of a green Tuscan oil, a taste I find too strong for the starchy sweetness of potatoes. I am also still crazy about my all-time favorite Sicilian oil, Ravida, which is a bit grassier than the Provence oil but still lush and mellow. You can order both of these great oils from Zingermans. Continue Reading »

Spring Garlic at the Union Square Greenmarket.

Recipes:

Snap Peas with Pancetta, Young Garlic, and Mint
Cavatelli with Shell Peas, Squid, and Young Garlic
Grilled Trout with Black Olives and Tarragon and Young Garlic Vinaigrette
Chicken Roasted with Limoncello and Young Garlic

Fresh young garlic is absolutely my favorite warm-weather vegetable, and I wait for it all year, dreaming of its fragrance. In early June the first, skinny garlic heads, with their long green stalks, start piling up in stalls at the Union Square Greenmarket. They have a sweet, fresh garlic taste and a juiciness you always guessed garlic must possess at some point in its development. They look almost exactly like scallions. The great thing about them is that you can eat a lot of them without feeling garlicked out. I slice them, stalk and all, and scatter them raw over a salad, something I would never in a million years do with the dry, sharp, garlic I find in the supermarket in the winter. (In fact, often in the dead of winter I forgo garlic altogether, turning to leeks or shallots for that flavor base.) Continue Reading »

There are fancy cheese shops in Manhattan, such as Murray’s and Artisanal, where I shop quite often but find few if any Southern Italian cheeses. Granted, most cheeses from the Mezzogiorno are not as sophisticated as some Northern ones, but they have special flavors that stay close to my heart, and I have a huge desire for them in my kitchen. Continue Reading »

Fresh asparagus at Union Square.

Recipes:

Fava Beans, Mozzarella, Mint, and Spring Onion
Fennel and Mozzarella with Basil and Anchovies
Roasted Asparagus, Mozzarella, and Parsley Oil

Often with the first hit of warm weather here in Manhattan my mind jumps ahead, bypassing spring to start thinking about summer. And to my culinary mind, summer means Caprese salad, that amazing Neapolitan combination of perfect tomatoes, mozzarella (never refrigerated), summer basil, and the best extra-virgin olive oil. Caprese has beeen my idea of exquisite summer dining ever since I was a child and my father fashioned big platters of it from his backyard beefsteaks and Long Island basil. I now wait all year to be able to turn out a perfect version, with August tomatoes from the Greenmarket. Thinking about Caprese when I can’t have it gets me craving mozzarella with something fresh, herby, and olive oily, so every spring I start concocting seasonal improvisations on the theme, tinkering with the Caprese concept in small, timely ways. Continue Reading »

My path from nervous, uncertain cook to creative good one was slow but exciting. When I think about some of the strange and occasionally inedible meals I made for friends and family during my early forays into cooking, it’s amazing that I had the drive to persevere and come out the other end. Of course the more I cooked the more familiar I became with proper techniques and the way ingredients work together, but I believe some other things I did, beyond cooking, also had a lot to do with making me into a good cook. Continue Reading »

Recipes:

Torta with Sweet Onions, Anchovies, and Potatoes
Zucchini, Ricotta, and Basil Torta
Swiss Chard Torta with Pine Nuts and Dates

I just came back from a little off-season trip to Liguria, the area along the Mediterranean that encompasses Genoa and also such famous beach towns as Portofino and San Remo, which are stunning and a breeze to drive through in the low season. What the area lacks in knock-out floral displays in early March it makes up for in serenity. But when I was in search of new food ideas, I headed off the coast into the hill towns. Continue Reading »

Recipes:

Watercress, Strawberry, and Sautéed Shallot Salad
Watercress Salad with Prosciutto, Sautéed Celery, and Pine Nuts
Watercress with Beets, Ricotta Salata, and Thyme Vinaigrette
Watercress and Squid Salad with Capers and Pistachios

I really look forward to the wild watercress I start seeing at the Greenmarket in May. The stuff is so alluringly biting and addictive, and it’s such a darkly pigmented shade of green, that it almost looks artificially colored (I think also because it has a slight blue undertone).

I like presenting watercress, especially the wild variety (and other strong, distinct-tasting greens too), as the only green in a salad, showing off its special flavor. The key to offering straight watercress salads is breaking up its intensity with hints of sweetness or little touches of acidity or saltiness. I’ve had good results adding certain fruits to watercress salads. I especially like the way it blends with spring strawberries (in the fall I might pair supermarket watercress with local apples). But to avoid an overly sweet result I often add something like shallots and plenty of black pepper. Beets work well too, but in the beet and watercress salad I offer you here I include ricotta salata, whose saltiness plays against the sugar in the beets. Seafood with a touch of sweetness, like squid, shrimp, or scallops, is another option. I give you here a salad with quick-seared squid and capers, a nice first course, but it could also be a light lunch dish. If you want to use shrimp or scallops instead, cook them the same way I do the squid, quickly in a very hot skillet, so they sear but remain moist and tender). I haven’t had good luck combining briny seafood, such as clams, with watercress; the tastes strike me as unharmonious.

Prosciutto or another salt-cured or rich meat like bresaola or capocolla can also be a good counterbalance for watercress. A touch of fattiness nicely complements this peppery green.

Watercress, Strawberry, and Sautéed Shallot Salad

(Serves 2)

1 large bunch watercress, well stemmed
5 ripe medium-size strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
A pinch of sugar
Salt
5 small tarragon sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Spanish sherry vinegar

Place the watercress in a medium salad bowl. Scatter on the strawberry slices.

In a medium skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium flame. Add the shallots, a pinch of sugar, and a little salt, and sauté until they just start to soften, about 2 minutes (you just want to take the raw edge off them). Scatter the shallots over the watercress.

In a small bowl whisk together the tarragon, sherry wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a few grindings of black pepper. Pour this over the salad and toss gently. Serve right away.

Watercress Salad with Prosciutto, Sautéed Celery, and Pine Nuts

(Serves 2)

1 large bunch watercress, well stemmed
4 very thin slices imported prosciutto (San Daniele is a nice choice), the excess fat removed, the meat cut into thin strips
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 thin inner celery stalks, thinly sliced, plus a small handful of celery leaves, left whole
A small handful of pine nuts
Salt
1/2 teaspoon champagne vinegar
1 garlic clove, peeled and lightly crushed
Freshly ground black pepper

Place the watercress in a medium salad bowl. Scatter on the prosciutto.

In a medium skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium flame. Add the celery, the pine nuts, and a pinch of salt, and sauté until the celery just begins to soften and the pine nuts are lightly colored, about 2 minutes. Scatter the celery and pine nuts over the watercress. Add the celery leaves.

Place the garlic and the champagne vinegar in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a few grindings of black pepper and whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Remove the garlic clove and pour the vinaigrette over the salad. Toss gently. Serve right away.

Watercress with Beets, Ricotta Salata, and Thyme Vinaigrette

(Serves 2)

2 medium golden or red beets
1 large bunch of watercress, well stemmed
2 scallions, cut into thin rounds, including some of the tender green part
1 garlic clove, peeled and lightly crushed
4 large sprigs of thyme, the leaves chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
A few gratings of fresh nutmeg
A pinch of sugar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Wrap the beets in aluminum foil and place on a small cookie sheet. Roast until they’re tender and fragrant, about 40 minutes. Remove the beets from the foil and let them cool until you can handle them. Slip off their skins and slice them thinly.

In a medium salad bowl combine the watercress, the beets, and the scallions.

In a small bowl combine the garlic, thyme, lemon juice, nutmeg, sugar, a generous pinch of salt, and a few grindings of black pepper. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, and whisk to blend. Pour this over the salad and toss gently. Scatter the ricotta salata over the top. Serve right away.

Watercress and Squid Salad with Capers and Pistachios

(Serves 2)

1 large bunch watercress, well stemmed
2 very thin slices red onion
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound small, tender squid (2 or 3 inches long), cleaned and cut into thin rounds, the tentacles left whole
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
A pinch of Aleppo or cayenne pepper
Salt
A splash of dry white wine
A small handful of salt-packed capers, soaked in several changes of water for 10 minutes and then rinsed and drained
A palmful of unsalted pistachio nuts
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Place the watercress in a medium salad bowl. Scatter on the red onion.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the squid, spreading it out in one layer. Let it sear without moving it for about a minute. Add the garlic, season with the Aleppo pepper (or cayenne, but Aleppo is much more fragrant) and a pinch of salt. Turn the squid and let it sauté a minute longer. When it’s opaque it’s done. Add the splash of white wine and let it bubble for a few seconds. Then scatter the squid, with any skillet juices, over the watercress.

Add the capers and pistachios. Drizzle on 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the lemon juice, season with a pinch more salt, and toss gently. Serve right away.

Recipes:

Chickpeas with Rosemary and Saffron
Israeli Couscous with Scallions, Pine Nuts, and Marjoram
Orzo with Cherry Tomatoes and Parsley

I usually consider the simplicity or complexity of my squid preparation when picking a side dish to pair it with. Simple grilled or quick-sautéed squid flavored only with lemon or a single herb can take a more involved side dish than can a brothy stew or stuffed squid. With the latter I like keeping any accompaniment rather plain, so it doesn’t interfere with the flavors of the main dish. Here are a few sides that have worked well for me, both for simple and more involved squid concoctions. They can all be served hot, warm, or at room temperature, so you can make them ahead if you like. Continue Reading »