Category Archives: Recipes

Food, Jen's Kitchen, Recipes

A Healthy and Hearty Minestrone Soup Recipe

I (Jen) can safely say Minestrone Soup will be a new staple in our home.  I love it for many reasons.  First, it’s something that I was eating as a baby when my Mom and Nonna (Grandma) would prepare it for me before I even had teeth.  For that reason it’s a soup that not only warms the belly, but also warms my heart.

Julia enjoying some vegetables – pre-soup
I also love that it’s a hard dish to mess up.  You can throw in whatever you have in your pantry and fridge and even though it may not taste exactly the same as the last time; it will always be good.  I also love that I feel good about serving it to my family.  It’s a healthy, complete, meatless dish that tastes good and leaves everyone feeling satisfied.   I love that it works for all ages.  As I mentioned I ate this as a child.  This is a perfect dish to blend up for your baby once they start eating real food.  And I love that now my daughter asks for this soup by name, nearly every day “mom-mom… ZUP!”

So here are very simple instructions for how to make this soup.  Keep in mind I have made this a dozen times since and it’s always different.  I will try to include ways I have switched it up.

INGREDIENTS

>1/4 of extra virgin olive oil, plus more garnish
>Three (3) carrots
>Two (2) sticks of celery
>One (1) small onion
>Half (1/2) vegetable bouillon cube (possibly a full cube depending on taste preference)
>Four (4) potatoes
>One (1) tomato or four (4) small cherry tomatoes
>One (1) green vegetable, on this evening I used an Italian vegetable that I don’t even know the name of.  You can instead use a cup of peas or a zucchini
>Farro (a grain similar to barley, I think you can get this at Wholefoods)
>Green lentils
>Orzo (this is a pasta shaped like rice)
>Two (2) cans of beans, you can use the ones you like the best.  I think it tastes the best when you use fresh beans though
Fresh vegetables
Your grains
Your beans
DIRECTIONS
My “cookbook” – pictures from Claudia making the soup earlier
>In a bowl set aside faro, orzo and lentils and let them soak.
>While they soak clean vegetables and chop into bite sized pieces.  I chop the onion and celery into smaller pieces.
Washing…
Peeling…
Chopping…
>In a large pot cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil.  Add all the vegetables*, drained and cleaned beans and the rinsed farro, orzo and lentils.  Cover the ingredients with water.
Place all the washed, peeled and chopped vegetables in a pot
>Bring the pot to a boil and add the bouillon cube along with about a teaspoon of salt.
>Once it is boiling turn the heat down.
>Cover the pot and let simmer for about an hour.  Stir often and be careful not to let the soup burn on the bottom of the pot.
Dadi (bouillon cubes)
Pot simmers with the lid closed
To serve, drizzle with high-quality olive oil and cover with grated parmigiano cheese.
The finished product!
ENJOY!  I would love to hear how your soup turns out.
*another method is to add the finely chopped onions, celery and a single carrot (leaving the others carrots cubed) to the olive oil and cook until tender and fragrant (approximately 4 minutes).  Then add all the remaining ingredients and proceed as outlined above.
Cooking, Family Stories, Food, Jen's Kitchen, Recipes

Easy and Delicious Marinara Pasta Sauce

Well, we have heard a lot from Greg so I thought it was time for me (Jen) to give this blogging a go.  I have had a lot of people ask me how to make sauce.  Growing up in an Italian family this was a staple in our house.  I didn’t even know until college that most people buy pasta sauce from a jar!  Sorry, but… yuck.

I am by no means an expert cook but I have had many very talented woman in my life that have taught me a lot.  Until recently everything I know has been taught to me by my nonna (grandma), my mother and my mother-in-law, who are all incredibly talented in the kitchen.

Even though my Mom isn’t Italian she learned from the best Italian cook (my nonna) how to prepare all of my Dad’s favorite Italian meals.  In the beginning of their marriage she made all the foods she grew up eating – good Ohio cuisine.  This consisted of meat and potato cooking such as meat loaf and casseroles.  Don’t get me wrong, all these foods are delicious… just not to my Dad.  It wasn’t until maybe a year or so of eating this food that my Dad admitted he missed his mother’s cooking and my Mom’s path to creating mouth watering Italian dishes began.  One of the best things she learned from my Nonna was how to prepare Sugo (sauce).  My Nonna’s recipe requires a lot of chopping and it is time consuming to make.  Since I have been living in Como I have had the opportunity to learn from another very talented woman, my Zia (Aunt) Claudia.  She recently taught me a quick and easy way to make delicious sugo with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry and refrigerator.  I hope you enjoy the sauce as much as everyone here enjoys eating it.

Marinara Sauce

This should be enough sauce for one pound of pasta (4 to 5 servings).  I would suggest doubling the recipe and putting half in the freezer.  It will save beautifully for about six months.

Simple ingredients you can find anywhere

INGREDIENTS

>Canned tomatoes – can be whole or chopped (must be San Marzano from Italy)
>Four (4) raw cherry tomatoes
>Two (2) Garlic cloves
>Half (1/2) bouillon cube (a quick shortcut to avoid lots of vegetable chopping)
>Extra virgin olive oil
>One (1) pound of pasta (I recommend Delverde or DeCecco)
>Sea Salt
“Put me to work, Mom!”

DIRECTIONS

>Peel two cloves of garlic
>Cover the base of your pot with extra virgin olive oil.  Heat on a low setting and do not adjust temperature.
>Leave the garlic cloves whole to put in sauce (Italians prefer just a hint of garlic flavor). If you prefer a stronger garlic flavor you can chop or mince the garlic.
>Put the garlic in the pot with the heated olive oil and cook long enough to extract flavors.  Be mindful not to burn.
Garlic should be lightly browned

>Add can of tomatoes (must be San Marzano, which is the region in Italy – there are various brands)

Canned tomatoes
>Dice raw tomatoes and add to sauce
Diced, raw tomatoes
Tomatoes added to pot
>Add half of a vegetable bouillon cube and stir
>Add sea salt (approximately a teaspoon… or Italian style, this much)
About this much salt… adjust based on hand size :-)
>Remove the garlic and set aside (it gets added again)
>Blend the sauce with a hand mixer
Blend with hand mixture to get the correct consistency
>Place garlic back in pot
>Let sauce simmer over medium-low heat for approximately 30 minutes
>Finish with a dab of butter

>Remove from heat and serve

Pasta

>Add cold water to the pasta pot with coarse sea salt (my mother always taught me to pour the salt until you finish saying “Father, Son and the Holy Spirit”)
>Boil water as your sauce nears an end
>Place pasta in water
>Cook to a nice al dente – the appropriate time will be listed on the spaghetti package

>Drain pasta water and cover pasta with sauce until it is covered but not drenched

To Serve

>Cover individual pasta serving with sauce
>Drizzle with olive oil
>Add freshly grated parmesan cheese
Buon Appetito