Roasted Peppers Stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach

Too many peppers this year! 70 plants, what on earth was I thinking. I've been preserving many of them but there's still loads of them so now I need to dream up ways of eating more of them now. So here's one dish that I whipped up for dinner recently that got rave reviews from Dave so I knew I needed to write it up because I won't remember how to make it again the next time he wants it.

Blanched chard can be substituted for the spinach. Sautéed chopped onions can be substituted for the dried onion. (I used dried onion for the sake of expediency). Chopped fresh sage or sage cooked in brown butter should be a nice addition to the filling. Or onion and sage sautéed together in butter or olive oil should be good too. Hmm, and since I just wrote a post about corn chicos, some presoaked chicos might be tasty too.

12 ounces ricotta, preferably sheepmilk
2 ounces freshly grated parmesan
1/4 ounce dried sweet onion, chopped (no need to rehydrate)
1/2 teaspoon mild pepper flakes
Freshly grated nutmeg
5 ounces blanched spinach measured after squeezing out excess moisture, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more, I'm watching my salt intake these days)
9 or more roasted sweet peppers such as Ajvarski
Olive oil
Dry coarse breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Lightly oil a 8 x 12-inch oval gratin dish or equivalent sized baking dish.

Mix together the ricotta, parmesan, dried onion, pepper flakes, nutmeg, spinach, and salt.

Leave the roasted peppers intact but slit down one side so that they open like a book. Place a couple of tablespoons or so of the ricotta filling on one side of a pepper and fold the other side over to cover the filling. Repeat for the rest of the peppers using all the filling. Place the peppers in the baking dish with the seams to the side. Pack the peppers tightly into the dish so there are no gaps between the peppers, this keeps the filling from oozing out.

Scatter the dried breadcrumbs generously over the top of the peppers and then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until the dish is bubbling merrily all around the edges. Let sit for at least a few minutes or longer before serving.

Makes 3 to 4 main course servings or more as an appetizer.

Zucchini and Spinach Gratin with Ricotta Custard

My adaptation of a recipe from Deborah Madison's Book The Savory Way takes advantage of dried zucchini and frozen spinach from the garden. A pound of fresh zucchini dries down to about 1 ounce. I rehydrated it with the liquid that the frozen zucchini gives off as well as the moisture from the mushrooms and onions. The vegetable mixture should be prepared in advance to allow the zucchini to absorb the moisture from the other vegetables. It can be mixed and kept in the refrigerator overnight or longer.

1.25 ounces (35 g.) dried sliced Romanesco zucchini
8 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, excess moisture squeezed out and reserved
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon tomato paste thinned with a little water
sweet fermented pepper flakes to taste (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
crumbled dried oregano to taste

1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup milk, cream or a combination
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt
freshly ground pepper
freshly grated nutmeg

Place the dried zucchini in a bowl. Add the reserved spinach water to the zucchini and set aside.

Warm the oil in a medium skillet and add the onions and garlic. Sauté about 1 minute, then add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Cook until the mushrooms soften and begin to release their liquid. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of zucchini, stir to mix, cover and set aside for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Season the rehydrated zucchini mixture with the tomato paste, pepper flakes, parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the mixture to a gratin dish. Chop the spinach and distribute it over the zucchini mixture, season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Beat the ricotta with the eggs, then stir in the milk or cream, the cheese, and the remaining parsley. Season with salt and nutmeg. Pour the mixture over the vegetables. Bake until the custard is set and lightly browned on top, about 40 to 45 minutes. Allow the gratin to stand about 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm.

Makes 4 main course servings.

Spinach, Cheddar, and Brioche Pudding

I didn't measure most of the ingredients as I went along so the quantities are a bit vague.

1/4 loaf or so of Brioche, cut into about 1-inch cubes and toasted in a 350ºF oven
Butter as needed
1 small onion, chopped
A couple of small cloves of garlic, minced
Frozen spinach (about 12 ounces?), thawed, excess water squeezed out, and chopped
3 ounces cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 eggs
Freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

Generously butter a 10 x 6 x 1 3/4-inch glass baking dish or a similar sized gratin dish.

Saute the onion and garlic in a couple of tablespoons of butter over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent. Season to taste with salt. Add the spinach to the pan and stir to mix. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit.

Scatter half of the spinach mixture over the bottom of the baking dish. Top the spinach with the toasted cubes of brioche fitting them in fairly snugly. Scatter the remaining spinach mixture over the brioche and then scatter the cheddar evenly over the top.

Whisk together the milk, eggs, and nutmeg. Pour the mixture evenly over the contents of the baking dish being sure to moisten all the brioche. The milk mixture will not completely cover the brioche and spinach.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the top of the pudding is browned and crisp. Serve hot or warm.

Makes about 3 to 4 main course servings or 6 to 8 side servings.

Green Quinoa Pilaf

This recipe is inspired by a dish that I used to make years ago. It's based on a rice dish that is somewhat like risotto which I converted to a baked rice recipe. I'm not eating much rice anymore, especially the white rice that this recipe calls for. But Dave has fondly recalled Green Rice many times and fairly recently, so when I had the convergence of a big bag of quinoa, yet another harvest of spinach, loads of spring onions that needed to be thinned out of the onion patch, and a big bunch of bolting cilantro this dish popped into my head.  I weighed the greens as I went and rounded to the closest whole amount for the recipe, the volume measurement is what the recipe called for but I just eyeballed it. Really, the precise amount is not important, use more or less depending on what you have or what you like.

Quinoa is one of the few vegetable sources of complete protein, it has all nine essential amino acids. It's a pseudograin, meaning it's a seed that is used like a grain but technically true grains come from grasses (monocots) and quinoa comes from a broadleaf plant (dicot). But healthy eating aside, quinoa is delicious and I think it outdoes its refined polished cousin rice in this dish.

To convert it to a rice dish just substitute a like amount of white rice but increase the baking time, it may take about 45 minutes. The original recipe called for parsley instead of cilantro, substitute a like amount of parsley for the cilantro.

2 tablespoons olive oil  (about 30 ml.)
4 tablespoons butter  (about 55 g.)
4 oz./115 g. minced scallions or spring onions (about 1 cup)
2 oz./55g. minced cilantro  (about 1 cup)
8 oz./225 g. finely chopped spinach  (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 ½ cups quinoa  (9 oz./255 g.)
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 ½ cups hot chicken stock  (.35 liter)
Crescenza cheese (aka Stracchino), or Parmigiano

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter a 1 ½ to 2 quart size casserole. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and set aside. Heat the olive oil and the other 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium sized saute pan over medium heat. Saute the scallions until they soften, stir in the cilantro and then the spinach, stir until the spinach wilts. Add the quinoa, salt, and black pepper to taste, stir to incorporate into the greens. Turn the quinoa and greens mixture into the casserole, add the hot stock, drizzle with the melted butter. Cover the casserole and place it in the hot oven. Bake about 30 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed the stock and is tender.

Serve hot with thin slices of the cheese placed on top, it should get melty from the heat of the hot pilaf, if not, run it under the broiler briefly. Serve immediately.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

Note: Crescenza is an oozy soft ripened cow's milk cheese that doesn’t have a rind. A generous dusting of Parmigiano would be good instead, that's what is called for in the rice version.

Spinach Leaves stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach

An idea for a new recipe.

Stuff extra large spinach leaves with a mixture of ricotta, parmigiano, onion, garlic, chopped wilted/squeezed spinach, nutmeg.... spinach involtini....   blanch leaves first?

Bake in tomato sauce or with brown butter/sage.

Creamed Spinach with Eggs and Parmigiano

There are any number of ways to prepare creamed spinach, but more often than not I think that most preparations cook the spinach to death and many recipes use a bechamel sauce, two things I wanted to avoid. One method of keeping the finished dish from being too watery is to sauté the spinach until the excess water has evaporated, which in my opinion overcooks the spinach. I suppose that using a flour thickened bechamel sauce also avoids a watery finished product, but I'm avoiding grains and white flour in particular so that isn't an option right now. My solution to the problem was to wilt the spinach and squeeze out most of the water (which is typically the first step anyway), but then I simmer the cream mixture to thicken it before I add the chopped spinach. It doesn't take any extra time if you are starting with fresh spinach, the cream can reduce while you are prepping the spinach. The addition of eggs to the dish made this a substantial main dish which merely required a simple refreshing salad to make the meal complete (in this case it was mâche with avocado and grapefruit).

Amounts are approximate, I did no measuring while I prepared the dish.

Creamed Spinach with Eggs and Parmigiano

3 tablespoons butter
1/2 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup creme fraiche
Freshly grated nutmeg
Fresh ground black pepper
Salt
1 1/2 pounds fresh spinach with no stems (weigh after removing stems)
4 eggs (extra large is nice)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano cheese
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Bring a 9-inch (23 cm) cazuela up to medium low heat. Melt the butter in the pan and add the onion and garlic, sauté until the onion is translucent. Pour the cream into the pan and stir in the creme fraiche, turn the heat to low and let the contents of the pan simmer slowly while you prep the spinach. Use a medium sauté pan if you don't have a cazuela and have a 9-inch gratin dish or baking dish ready.

Wilt the spinach in an extra-large sauté pan in batches and set the spinach on a rimmed sheet pan to cool until it can be handled. Squeeze the spinach by handfuls to rid it of the extra moisture (you can save the liquid to use in soup), no need to squeeze it to death. Chop the spinach.

Remove the cream mixture from the heat and season it with nutmeg, pepper, and salt to taste. Stir in the chopped spinach. (Transfer the mixture to a gratin or baking dish if using one.) Make a well in the spinach mixture and crack an egg into it, repeat with the remaining eggs. Scatter the Parmigiano over the top and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Bake until the contents of the dish are bubbling and the eggs are set, about 15 minutes if using the cazuela or longer if using a baking dish (preheat the baking dish if you want to speed things up).

Makes 2 to 4 servings.

Beet Greens Quiche with no Crust (updated 4/21/14)

Beets are very closely related to chard, they are really just chard plants with skinny stems and fat roots, but the flavor of the greens is stronger than chard. I prefer to use them in dishes that incorporate other ingredients to offset that stronger flavor. Here's a new recipe that I came up with to use the first beet greens of the year, it's an adaptation of a spinach quiche recipe baked without a crust - both a time and carbo saver. I baked these in individual serving sized ceramic souffle dishes since a quiche without a crust would be messy to try to serve in slices. You could bake the filling in a partially baked tart shell (use at least a 10-inch quiche or pie dish), if you do that bake the quiche at 425 for the first 15 minutes and then turn the heat down to 350 and continue baking for about 30 more minutes. You could also substitute an equal amount of chard or spinach for the beet greens.

Update, April 21, 2014: I've modified the recipe to reduce the amount of custard mix because I found that I often time had too much filling for 4 ramekins but not enough for 5. I've also added an option to substitute stock for milk in the custard because the last time I prepared the dish I didn't have milk on hand so I tried the stock instead and the end result was delicious.

About 1 1/2 pounds beet greens, or chard or spinach
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, sliced thin, or one large spring onion including green tops
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk or poultry stock
3/4 cup creme fraiche, or cream or milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh grated nutmeg to taste
4 ounces grated gruyere or swiss cheese
smoked sweet or medium hot paprika

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Wash the beet greens and trim off the tough stems. Place the wet greens in a large saute pan over medium heat, cover the pan and cook until the leaves are wilted, turning them a few times to cook them evenly. Drain in a colander, allow them to cool until they can be handled, squeeze handfuls to remove excess moisture, and coarsely chop.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped greens to the pan and saute for a minute or two to dry them a bit more. Portion the onion-greens mixture into 4 individual sized souffle dishes (my dishes have an interior size of about 4 inches by 1.25 inches) and place the dishes on a baking sheet.

Beat the eggs, milk, creme fraiche, salt and nutmeg together. Pour an equal amount into each greens filled souffle dish, top each dish with 1 ounce of grated cheese, and dust the tops with the paprika. Bake the souffles for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the custard has set and the tops are golden brown and puffed. Serve immediately, or cool and reheat later.

Beans and Greens 2.0

These days I'm eating very little bread so I've had to come up with a new way to combine my beans and greens. So here's a stab at one of my favorite combos. Rather than cooking the beans with some bacon, mashing it up, spreading it on some garlic toast and adding a pile of cooked greens on top, the dish has morphed into something more, hmmm, not quite soupy, sort of a braise.

No particular quantities because I was just experimenting and not keeping track, and this type of dish doesn't require precise measurements anyway.

• 4 thick slices of pancetta, cut up
• olive oil for sauteing
• 2 small stalks of green garlic, chopped
• firm cooked dried beans (a combo of leftover Gigantes and chickpeas), about 1 1/2 cups or so
• fresh washed spinach, drained but not spun dry, no need to cut up unless the leaves are absolutely huge
• about 1 cup of chicken stock
• fresh ground black pepper
• your best extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Saute the pancetta in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil until it starts to become crisp. Add the chopped garlic to the pan and stir to mix in. Add the beans to the pan and saute for a few minutes to evaporate any excess moisture. Turn the heat down and continue to saute the beans slowly until they start to brown a bit. Pile the fresh spinach leaves into the pan (it was probably about 1/2 lb of leaves) and pour in the chicken stock. Cover the pan and turn the heat to high. When the stock has started to boil turn the heat down again and toss the leaves with some tongs a few times until they have all wilted. Salt is probably not necessary because pancetta is usually pretty salty and perhaps your chicken stock is as well, taste first before reaching for the salt. Don't overcook the spinach, it should just be wilted! Serve immediately in warmed soup bowls with a generous grind of fresh black pepper and a good drizzle of flavorful extra virgin olive oil.

Made 2 main course portions.

A Version of "Beans and Greens"

Beans and Greens is a dish that we have fairly often during the winter when most of what comes out of the garden is some sort of greens, usually kale, chard, spinach, sprouting broccoli with its leaves, or rapini. I do a number of variations on the theme, sometime with mashed beans on garlic bread with greens piled on top, or as in this version, with the beans left whole and mixed with the greens and piled on garlic toast. The flavorings also vary a lot, sometimes enhanced with something meaty like bacon, other times meatless but with a generous amount of garlic and/or onion, perhaps spiced up with chile peppers, or anchovies, or pine nuts... the options are endless.

4 slices thick cut bacon, cut onto 1/4-inch pieces
about 1 lb. fresh spinach
about 1 cup or so of cooked beans (Mayacoba from Rancho Gordo this time)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Toasted rustic whole wheat bread scraped with fresh garlic and drizzled with your favorite extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Cook the bacon in a large saute pan over medium heat until it starts to crisp. Add the spinach in handfuls, tossing to wilt it, adding more as it cooks down. Once it is all wilted, add the beans, continue to cook over high heat until most of the excess moisture cooks off and the beans are heated through. Pile the greens and beans on the toasted bread, grind fresh black pepper over all, drizzle with some of your best EVOO and serve.

Serves 2 as a main course.