Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Bean soup)

In the US most Italian-Americans call this Pasta Fazul. This is probably because most of their ancestors come from the southern tip of the Italian boot, and this is the translation of their dialect.  That pronunciation isn’t Italian.  It is really pronounced Pasta Fa-jo-li.

This is another peasant dish.  Both delicious and nutritious, and no longer just for peasants, you find it in restaurants all over the City.  I love this dish.  It’s perfect on freezing winter afternoons.  Plus, the second day you can either rehydrate it as a soup (the pasta drinks all the liquid) or you can eat it with a fork, it’s a totally different meal.

The pasta you use should hold the sauce.  Great pastas to use are: Conchigliette (small shells), Funghini (little mushrooms), Orecchiette (little ears), Ditalini (small tubes), Quadrefiore (square flowers),  and Gomiti or Chifferi (elbows). Cooking times vary for these, but be sure they are al dente (firm to ‘the teeth’) because they will continue cooking in the soup, and nobody wants mushy pasta.

I use a vegetable base to accompany the tomatoes, but feel free to use a beef or chicken base.  When I have the ends of the Parmigiano Reggiano left I put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them.  When I make the base for Pasta e Fagioli, I throw them in.  They add lots of cheesy flavor.

This is a super dish on cold winter night. Serve it with a crusty Italian pane integrale (whole grain bread) and plenty of Parmigiano Reggiano and if you have any leftovers, don't be surprised to see someone in your family with a bowl of cold Pasta e Fagioli for breakfast! 

 

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Garlic Shrimp Risotto and Cannellini Bean & Tomato Salad - An Unplanned and Delicious Dinner Menu -

My son Marc came to visit and I hadn't gone food shopping.  I thought about ordering something, after all, I live in Manhattan, I can order just about anything I want.  But I wanted to prepare a dinner that he would remember. 

I looked in the refridgerator and saw that I had some grape tomatoes, arugula and some freshly roasted sweet peppers.  In the freezer were some shrimp.  If you wonder why I had frozen shrimp, you should ask your fish monger if the fresh shrimp you buy is really fresh.  It probably isn't.  Almost all shrimp is flash frozen and defrosted when you buy it.  So, I keep shrimp in my freezer for last minute meals.

My garlic shrimp risotto is not typical.  However, I have served it to my friends from Italy (from all parts of the boot) and they love it, so give it a try.

Our first course was a cannellini bean, grape tomato and arugula salad.  The main course was garlic shrimp risotto and the finale - meyer lemon olive oil cookies.  An easy unplanned menu that could be last minute for my son, or for a party.

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Sopa de Milagros (Spanish Garlic Soup of Miracles)

Feel a cold coming on? Coughing? Sneezing? Does your throat hurt?
I have the cure!  OK, maybe not a cure but  it is a heck of a home remedy! And if you're not cured, it is still so delicious and so warming that you can't help but feel better.



Rugged and breathtaking Basque coastlline

I found out about Sopa de Milagros  (Soup of Miracles) many years ago when I was visiting my wonderful friend Rocio, comadre mia,  in the Basque Country (aka Euskadi or el País Vasco) in northern Spain. She told me about a soup that her father-in-law, Anastasio Lasuen, made when family members were sick.  His remedy was called Sopa de Milagros, and that it really was a miracle if you have aches and pains, or a fever, or you are congested.  I asked her what was so great about it and she simply answered 'it works',  hence the name, Sopa de Milagros. It's one of the many wonders of the beautiful, mountainous, wooded area that reaches well into France (Pays Basque).


Historically Sopa de Milagros is a peasant dish. Like so many other
peasant dishes it is delicious and it has a purpose.  Now people take things like Garlique for good health, but I'll take this super flavorful Basque cure-all any day.  And for those of you who combine the well known Eastern European Jewish cure-all, chicken soup, with the Basque cure-all. what could be bad?

Because this was a peasant dish, Sopa de Milgagros was often sauteed garlic with a soup base of water poured over the toasted bread.  On a good the egg was added.  On a great day the base was made from chicken carcass.

Today, it still works!  My family loves it, my friends love it.  When anyone who knows me is sick, they ask for Sopa de Milagros.  And if you live in New York and make it, your whole floor has the wonderful fragrance of sauteed garlic, so if you're going on a date, or having guests, make sure they have some too.

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