Semolina Flatbread with Arugula, Mint, and Spinach Pesto

25 Jun

Generally, when I gather together the elements to make a meal, I attempt to strike a reasonably healthy balance of protein, grain, and vegetable.  In the winter months, you’ll see a fair amount of polenta and pasta sitting in for the grain component, their hearty and warm properties providing the perfect bit of comfort one seeks to counteract the cold and drizzly weather.  In the summertime, when the sun beckons and our meals are almost exclusively eaten outdoors, we eat hunks of bread with our slices of cheese and heaping plates of garden vegetables.  And during the intervening weeks, which means now, when the sun appears only sporadically and our days are often still drenched with the cold and the wet, our meals are punctuated with foods that exist in between, not too hot, not too cold, but a rather Baby Bear-like middle ground.

A flatbread like this, hearty and crisp with semolina, slathered with a pert combination of spicy arugula, fresh mint, and lots of lemon zest, is the perfect example of the type of accompaniment I like with my meals on these days of in between.  It’s a great companion for soups (cold weather), or salads (warm weather), and it packs up perfectly for a picnic (dreamy weather).  Paired with yogurt-marinated chicken skewers and some slices of fresh raw bell pepper, it was the defining element of a springtime dinner last week, on a day that couldn’t figure out if it wanted to be rainy or sunny, so it decided to be both several times over.

But, guess what else?  This flatbread has a bit of a secret weapon.  In addition to making a fine side dish at lunch or dinner, it is also able to transform itself, with the addition of a single ingredient, into a fantastic breakfast meal.  By simply cracking some eggs onto the flatbread midway through cooking, your flatbread emerges from the oven as a cross between a breakfast pizza and the most flavorful eggs and toast you’ve ever had.  Don’t want to bother with making the dough in the morning then sitting around waiting for it to rise?  I don’t blame you.  Luckily, you can get around it by throwing the dough together the night before, then leaving it to rise in the refrigerator overnight.  Come morning, you’re one step closer to fresh flatbread dotted with baked eggs, and some great leftovers for lunch or dinner, rain or shine.

Last Year: Mango and Avocado Salsa

Semolina Flatbread with Arugula, Mint, and Spinach Pesto Recipe

Semolina Flatbread:

¾ cup warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 ½ cups bread flour

½ cup semolina flour

pinch sea salt

1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast

In a small bowl, or in a measuring cup, whisk together the warm water, olive oil, and honey.

In a large bowl, whisk together bread flour, semolina flour, pinch of salt, and rapid rise yeast.  Pour the water mixture into the flour mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon.  When the ingredients are well combined (the mixture will look a bit shaggy), start kneading the dough, still in the bowl, with your hands.  Knead the dough, turning it over onto itself several times, until it is smooth and somewhat shiny, about 3-4 minutes total.  Form the dough into a ball.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of the dough, then roll it around in the bowl to coat it all over with oil.  Cover the bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap or a moistened towel, and leave the dough to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until it is large and puffy and more than doubled in size.  Alternately, you can cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then place it in the refrigerator to rise overnight.

While the dough is rising, make the pesto.

Arugula, Mint, and Spinach Pesto

½ cup packed fresh arugula

¼ sup packed fresh mint leaves

1 cup packed fresh spinach

1 large clove garlic, roughly smashed

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons roasted almonds, chopped, sliced, or slivered

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus another ¼ cup for topping the flatbread after it bakes

salt and pepper to taste

In the bowl of a food processor or in a blender, combine arugula, mint, spinach, garlic, lemon zest, almonds, olive oil, and ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste (the cheese is a bit salty already, so you won’t require much additional salt).  Process or bend the ingredients until they are fully incorporated and have turned into a rich paste.  You will have to stop several times to scrape down the sides of the bowl or blender, but it is necessary in order to make sure all the ingredients are properly combined.

Makes about ¾ cup pesto.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place a pizza stone or heavy baking sheet on the lower middle rack of the oven as it preheats.

Line a rimless or overturned baking sheet with a large piece of parchment paper, and set aside.

When the dough has fully risen (if you are taking the dough out of the refrigerator after it has risen overnight, allow it to rest on the counter for 20-30 minutes so it can lose some of its refrigerator chill and is easier to work with), turn it out onto a well-floured surface.  Using your hands, shape the dough into a 14-inch by 10-inch rectangle, gently stretching and poking the dough in order to coerce it into taking shape.  Place the rectangle of dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheet.  Spread the pesto over the surface of the dough, leaving a ½-inch border around the edges.

Slide the dough, still on its sheet of parchment paper, onto the heated baking sheet or pizza stone in the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges of the dough are golden brown and slightly puffed.

If adding eggs to your flatbread, crack 3 to 4 eggs into a bowl.  After the flatbread has baked for 5 minutes, carefully pour the eggs onto the flatbread, directing the eggs as far from the edges as possible (if the eggs are too close to the edges they will simply slide off onto the hot baking sheet, which makes an incredible mess).  Bake the flatbread for an additional 5 minutes, until the egg whites are fully cooked and the egg yolks are slightly runny.  If you’d like your eggs firmer, add them a minute sooner so they have time to bake a minute longer.

Remove flatbread onto a wire rack to cool slightly.  Sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese.  When bread has cooled a bit, cut into squares and serve.

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Strawberry Mango Crumble

21 Jun

I’ve been sitting here for what seems like an eternity, trying to figure out the perfect explanation for why this fruit crumble has risen to the top of my list of Greatest Summer Desserts.  After a lot of false starts and deleted sentences, I can only seem to explain my love by stating this: this is a crumble that tastes like fruit.  It does not taste of unbearable sweetness, it does not taste of leaden crumble topping, and it does not taste of overwhelming spices floating about in a pool of syrup.  It tastes like fruit.

It is odd that I find this attribute to be so remarkable?  I’ve made dozens of fruit crumbles, crisps, and cobblers in the past, but none of them have hooked me in the same manner.  Maybe it’s due to my newfound realization that most desserts are simply bogged down by far too much sugar, but when I took my first bite of this crumble and was struck by how much it tasted like fresh mangoes and ripe strawberries, it was almost as though a light went off in my head.  A fruit crumble that tastes like fruit?  This is a revelation.

Okay, it’s possible that I am overstating things.  Perhaps highlighting the fruit in a fruit dessert is not the most Nobel-worthy of actions, but you’ve got to get on board with what I am touting here.  Think mangoes and strawberries, spritzed with lemon juice, barely sweetened, and sprinkled with just a hint of spices.  Then crumble on a nutty, lightly spiced topping and bake everything together until it becomes juicy, crisp, and absolutely delightful.  You can add a petite scoop of ice cream (in this case, a frozen concoction of leftover lemon cream and a bit of unsweetened heavy cream that, good lord, made the fruit sing even more than before), or you can eat it as is.  Just make sure you do eat it because, trust me, this is a dessert you don’t want to miss.

Last Year: Spinach Basil Pesto with Lemon and Almonds

Strawberry Mango Crumble Recipe

Crumble Topping:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup coarsely chopped almonds or pecans, or a mixture of the two

pinch of salt

pinch of ground cinnamon

pinch of ground cardamom

pinch of ground ginger

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Fruit:

12 ounces diced strawberries (about 2 cups total), pieces cut into 1-inch chunks

2 mangoes, peeled and diced into 1-inch chunks

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

juice of ½ a lemon

pinch of ground cinnamon

pinch of ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

To prepare topping, in medium bowl combine flour, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, nuts, pinch of salt, and spices.  Using a fork, stir together until ingredients are fully combined.  Drizzle in the melted butter, then stir until butter is evenly incorporated.  Set aside mixture to firm up just a bit.

In an 8” by 8” baking dish, combine strawberries, mangoes, 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinches of cinnamon and cardamom.  Toss together and make sure that the fruit is evenly coated with the sugar and cornstarch.

Using your fingers, pinch off 1-inch to 2-inch pieces of crumble topping mixture and evenly scatter them over the fruit.  Bake crumble in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the crumble topping is nicely browned.

Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving, lest you scorch yourself with the molten lava-like heat of the fruit.

Serves 6 to 8, depending on the generosity of your servings.

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Roasted Broccoli Pasta Salad

18 Jun

Not too long ago, we attended our first potluck picnic of the season.  This, along with the season’s inaugural bike ride downtown to picnic on the waterfront, and the breaking down of my willpower when it comes to filling my belly with fresh strawberries and lemon cream, heralds the dawn of a new eating season in our household.  Summer foods are upon us.

Most summer foods can be easily spotted and categorized as such.  You have fruit (strawberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines), you have picnic food (stuffed sandwiches, a simple baguette with a round of cheese to accompany it), and you have what is quite possibly the most misunderstood of summer foods, the pasta salad.

I know what you are thinking: Pasta salad is misunderstood?  And my answer is yes, horribly so.  Most pasta salads are improperly seasoned, unbearably bland, kept in the refrigerator until their starches seize and become unpleasantly pasty, and/or so inappropriately covered with mayonnaise that one can’t even begin to identify the flecks of vegetables that are hiding within.  Which brings me to another point of contention, that being the utterly unbalanced proportion of pasta to vegetables.  Look, I know it’s a pasta salad, but does that really mean that 90% of what comprises the salad really have to be just pasta?

Perhaps I am alone in my displeasure, but, were it not for my feelings of malcontent, I never would have come up with the incredibly tasty and fulfilling pasta salad to see here.  In it, big chunks of broccoli get roasted in olive oil with generous slivers of garlic and a hearty pinch of red pepper flakes.  The pasta, before meeting up with the roasted broccoli, is bathed in a splash of lemon juice, soaking up the brightness as it cools to a perfectly toothsome texture.  A final toss with a confetti of lemon zest and a blizzard of finely grated, wonderfully sharp Pecorino Romano cheese, and it is done.  And, thankfully you are done—done eating dull, limp pasta salads, and done hunting for something delicious and new to take to a potluck and be welcomed with open arms.

Last Year: How to Make Smoked Salmon at Home–this is by far the most popular post on here, and for good reason.

Roasted Broccoli Pasta Salad Recipe

1 pound broccoli florets, trimmed into equally-sized pieces with a long portion of stems intact

3 large cloves of garlic, cut into thin slices

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

1 pound pasta

¼ cup finely grated or chopped lemon zest

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

On a large baking sheet, combine broccoli, sliced garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and salt to taste.  Toss everything together until uniformly coated in olive oil.  Roast broccoli and garlic in the center of the oven for 20 minutes, until both the broccoli and garlic have developed a nice layer of caramelization.  Remove from oven, stir a bit, then set aside to cool slightly.

While the broccoli is roasting, cook the pasta in salted water until tender.  Drain pasta in a colander, then toss with lemon juice while still hot.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes to cool a bit, tossing frequently to aid in cooling and to keep the pasta from sticking together.

When both the pasta and broccoli are no longer piping hot, but still warm, pour the pasta into a large bowl.  Scrape the broccoli, along with every bit of olive oil and garlic left on the baking sheet, onto the pasta.  Add lemon zest and cheese, then toss thoroughly to combine.  Serve at room temperature.

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