Read Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It Online
Authors: Teresa Giudice,Heather Maclean
Tags: #food.cookbooks
Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It (7 page)
Dry or fresh:
Unlike basil, oregano actually has stronger flavors when it’s dried, and doesn’t lose its goodness. I usually go for fresh things, but with oregano, I only used dried. It’s cheap and easy, it tastes great, it’s good for you, and you’ll use less of it in your recipes than fresh oregano, so it saves you money.
Where to get it:
Any grocery store, in the jarred spices section. It’s a classic pizza condiment, so you’ll probably see it in little round jars in nicer pizzerias.
How to prep it:
No need. Just scoop, pour, or shake it directly out of the jar.
How to eat it:
You can use it in recipes, or sprinkle it right into salads or dipping sauces or over pizza.
How to cook with it:
Only the leaves are used for cooking. Just measure out how much you need, and add it directly to the dish. It won’t dissolve like salt, but will stick to the food.
How to store it:
Store the jar in a dark place, like your cabinet. It will last from six months to forever. It will never go bad, but it will lose its flavor eventually.
Best in:
Tomato sauces, on pizza, over veggies and grilled meat. It also works really well in spicy food. Oregano goes perfectly with a tomato, any way, anytime, anywhere! When you’re using tomatoes, you should automatically think “oregano.”
Fun fact:
Oregano became popular in America after World War Two when soldiers who had been stationed in Italy brought the “pizza herb” home with them.
T
eresa’s
T • I • P
Many dried spices are also available in a “ground” form that looks like colored powder. Don’t fall for it. Unless you’re baking, you don’t need it. Besides, ground spices lose their flavors the fastest, and cooking recipes are written for fresh herbs, which can be easily converted to dried herbs. Cooking with ground means you’ll probably get way too much flavor (and hardly any oils).
T
EMPTING
T
OMATO
AND
O
REGANO
C
HICKEN
S
OUP
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
This soup is nice with Parmesan on top. You can also add rice or tiny pasta to thicken it up—great for cold days.
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Two 10-ounce chicken breast halves, with skin and bone
1 small onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, cut into ½-inch dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
One 48-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
One 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes,
with their juices, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried sage
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces green beans, cut into ½-inch dice (1 ½ cups)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
2.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the saucepan. Add the onion and carrots and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth, tomatoes and their juices, oregano, thyme, sage, salt, and pepper, and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer to blend the flavors, about
30 minutes.
3.
Return the chicken to the saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the green beans and cook until the chicken and green beans are tender, about 15 minutes more.
4.
Remove the chicken from the soup and transfer to a chopping board. Cool until easy to handle, then cut the meat from the bones, discarding the skin and bones. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and return to the pot. Sprinkle the soup with the parsley and serve hot.
Parsley -
PREZZEMOLO
Looks like:
Bright green, tiny, curly leaves; Italian parsley leaves are longer and flatter.
Tastes like:
It has a very mild flavor, a bit grassy. Italian parsley has more flavor, but you can use either one.
Dry or fresh:
Fresh, if you can. Dried is OK in a pinch, but it’s not as flavorful.
Where to get it:
You can usually get it year-round at the grocery store. Look for bright green parsley without any wilting edges. Dried parsley will be with the jarred spices.
How to prep it:
Wash. Dry. Chop or tear. The end.
How to eat it:
You can eat the leaves and the smaller thin stalks. Eat as much fresh parsley as you can, because it doesn’t have a big taste, and it’s so healthy for you! Throw it on sandwiches and in salads. Add it to your sauces. You can munch on it raw, like celery, especially after you’ve eaten garlic.
How to cook with it:
Parsley needs to be added to your cooking at the very last minute, because heat will break down its flavors quickly.
How to store it:
Fresh •
Like basil, snip the ends and place the stalks in a jar of water. For some reason, parsley likes to have a plastic bag over its head, so drape one loosely over the top of the plant. Change the water every few days, and it will last for up to two weeks.
Dried Herbs Gone Bad
While some dried herbs can last years in your cabinet, there are a few ways to quickly tell if they are past their prime.
Color =
If the colors are all dull and faded, the flavor probably is, too.
Smell =
If the aroma from the jar is barely noticeable, the taste probably is, too.
Frozen •
Since most recipes only call for a sprig or two of parsley, many people buy it in a fresh bundle and freeze it, so they always have some “fresh” on hand. Unlike basil (with its bigger leaves), parsley is super easy to freeze. You can actually just freeze it whole. Wash it, chop it up a bit, and let it air dry. Then place it in a plastic freezer bag. Remove what you need, whenever you need it. It will generally thaw right away in your recipes (after being frozen, it won’t look pretty enough for a garnish, but it will taste great in your cooking).
Dried •
A jar of dried parsley can be stored in a dark cabinet for one to three years.
Best in:
Sauces, chicken, eggplant, fish, veggies, pasta, even rice.
Fun fact:
In Roman times, it was believed parsley could ward off drunkenness. Possibly a good tip for college girls—arm yourselves with parsley!
S
IN
-F
REE
L
INGUINE
WITH
P
ARSLEY
S
AUCE
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
You won’t believe there’s no cream in here! The sauce also tastes great over grilled chicken or fish.
2 medium red-skinned potatoes (about 12 ounces), peeled
1 pound linguine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1.
Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan and add enough cold salted water to cover. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and set the lid ajar. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes.
2.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the linguine and cook according to the package instructions until al dente. Time the pasta so it is done a few minutes after the potatoes are tender.
3.
Drain the potatoes, reserving about ½ cup of the potato cooking water. Return the potatoes to the saucepan. Using a potato masher or a handheld electric mixer, mash the potatoes until smooth, adding enough of the potato water to make a thick, creamy sauce. Stir in the parsley, basil, salt, and pepper. Cover to keep warm.
4.
Drain the pasta, reserving about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water. Return to the pot and add the potato sauce. Mix, adding enough of the pasta water to lightly thin the sauce as desired. Serve hot.
Rosemary -
ROSMARINO
Looks like:
Prickly blue-green, evergreen needles.
Tastes like:
A little like pine, very fragrant.
Dry or fresh:
Fresh is so much better than dry (and easier on your mouth and insides), and since you can so easily buy, grow, or freeze it, you should really try and use fresh. If you must use dried, though, I won’t blame you. (Although if you cook with full, dry needles, I would try to strain it from the dish before you serve it so your guests don’t get a splinter in the roof of the mouth. Not pretty.)
Where to get it:
Grow it on your windowsill! It’s almost impossible to kill. It’s also at the grocery store, in the fresh produce section (look for branches and needles that bend, that aren’t dried and dead).
How to prep it:
Wash the whole sprig with the water on full force to get the dirt out from everywhere. If you want to just use the needles, hold the sprig at the top with one hand, and run the pinched fingers of your other hand down the stem opposite the direction the needles are growing. They should pop right off, and then you can pull the top needles off by hand. Chop it up by putting the needles in a pile and rocking a large kitchen knife over the pile.
How to eat it:
Rosemary doesn’t have to be cooked. You can eat the needles chopped up and tossed over a salad or something. But don’t eat the stem. In general, you should not eat any stem that’s woody.
How to cook with it:
If you’re using fresh, you can throw a whole sprig (the stem with the needles attached) in what you’re cooking, and then remove the sprig before you serve it. If you want to leave the rosemary in the dish, chop it up as small as you like and add it to your recipe. Rosemary sprigs are also great for baking in the oven tied to roasts or stuffed into chicken.
How to store it:
Fresh •
In the refrigerator, in a plastic bag for up to a week. Wash right before using.
Rosemary’s Bathing
I know I freaked you out with the story of Natalie Wood’s downtown champagne burns, but I did remember a bath with food that is safe, sexy, and completely delicious: the rosemary bath.
Here’s how you do it:
¼ cup dried rosemary
¼ cup dried sage
2 tablespoons dry oatmeal
Pour all the ingredients into a little satchel or square of cheesecloth and tie closed with a long ribbon.
When you want to use it, tie the bag over the bathtub faucet so the warm water hits the bag before it hits the tub. Your rosemary bath mix will make the water softer and will smell amazing.
Frozen •
Wash the rosemary and dry it thoroughly. Then stick the whole branches in a plastic bag in the freezer. Once it’s fully frozen, take the bag out and shake the needles off (they come off the stem when it’s frozen much easier than when it’s fresh; they just fall off). Toss the stem, and put all the needles back in the freezer bag. I actually use rosemary so much that I freeze huge bunches of it, and then store all the needles in a little glass jar in the freezer. Any time I need rosemary, I just scoop it out of the jar, put the jar back, and I’m good to go.