Tag Archives: Escarole

Soup, Vegetarian

Escarole and Beans

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Escarole and Beans

Escarole and Beans
Escarole and Beans is cheap, easy to make and healthy. My doctor always tells me to eat more greens and beans so this recipe is perfect. Escarole, scarola in Italian, looks like lettuce but with wider, wavy leaves. It’s in the chicory family, and like endive and radicchio it has a slightly bitter taste when eaten raw.
Escarole and Beans
Ingredients:

– 1/4 cup olive oil

– 2 heads of escarole – washed and sliced into 1-inch pieces

– 4 cloves of garlic – thinly sliced

– Salt, black pepper, and red pepper – according to your taste

– 1/2 cup chicken stock

– 1 can (15 ounces) of cannellini beans – drained and rinsed

Escarole and Beans
Heat the oil in a large pot with salt, black and red pepper. Sauté the garlic on low heat until it’s soft but not brown.
Wash (drain but leave it wet) the escarole and cut it into one-inch slices removing the base and add it to the garlic and oil. It may seem like too much, but it will wilt and reduce in about ten minutes. Cover the pot until the escarole begins to wilt and toss it to coat it with the oil.

 

Add a half cup of stock (or water) and the rinsed beans. Add some hot water if you’d like it thinner. Simmer ten minutes and serve.

 

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Soup

Escarole and Potato Soup

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Escarole and Potato Soup

Escarole and potato soup – sometimes my mother made it with soprasade and other times with beans. You can try it with both. That one clove of garlic was my idea, not my mother’s.

Ingredients:
  • Olive oil for frying
  • ½ lb. soprasade cut into thin slices
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 minced garlic clove
  • 2 pealed potatoes cut into ½ inch pieces
  • 6 cups coarsely chopped escarole
  • 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 3 diced plum tomatoes
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

Put the soprasade in a pot with some oil and cook for a few minutes – don’t brown. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent and soft. Add the garlic and potatoes. Add oil if yuou need it. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the washed escarole. It may seem to overflow the pot but add ½ cup of water, cover and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes until it wilts. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed.
Add the tomatoes, the stock, and vinegar. Mix thoroughly and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Check for seasoning and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.

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Lunch/Snacks, Vegetarian

Escarole Pie

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Escarole Pie
My aunt used to make this, or something like it. I never got her recipe but this is pretty close. It’s a simple dish (especially if you buy pizza dough instead of making your own).

If you  want to make your own dough instead of going to a pizzaria, here’s a recipe from Martha Stewart .

Escarole filling –

Remove the base and cut the escarole into 1 inch slices and clean it. Drain it  but it should be wet so it steams.

Heat the garlic and oil with some salt, black pepper and red pepper. Add the damp escarole and stir to coat with the oil. After a few minutes, it should begin to wilt. Add the olives and capers if you’re using them. Add some water if necessary, cover and steam  until it’s completely wilted and tender. It may seem like too much when you start but after it’s wilted, it’s just the right amount.Uncover and keep it on a low heat until it begins to dry. If there is still too much liquid, drain the excess. Add some olive oil and let it cool.

Preparing the pie –

Pre-heat oven to 375o. Coat the baking pan with oil. Cut off about ¼ of the dough for the top of the pie. Roll out the rest and cover the bottom and sides of the baking pan with it. Place the cooked and cooled escarole in the pan (it should be moist but not dripping) and tamp it down.

Roll out the smaller piece of dough to the size of the top of the pan and cover the escarole. Squeeze the edges of both pieces of dough together and trim the edges at the top of the pan.

Make some small slits on top of the pie with a sharp knife to let the steam escape. Brush the top with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes. Let it cool and serve at room temperature.

 

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Lunch/Snacks, Vegetarian

Sandwiches Italian-Style

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Sandwiches Italian-Style

hoagieSubs, hoagies, grinders – that’s fine but in New York, it’s a hero. Sandwiches Italian-Style doesn’t necessarily mean 8 different kinds of meat and cheese and a bunch of other things, where each flavor cancels out the next. It shouldn’t be that complicated.

For a good Italian-Style sandwich the most important thing is the bread. On the right bread, cream cheese and Welch’s grape jelly can be something special. Then comes basic but high-quality ingredients. After that, the main condiments are simply salt, pepper and maybe a few drops of olive oil. Here are a few standards.

sandwich sausage and peppers

Sausage & Peppers – Fry some bell peppers and an onion. Then fry the sausage in the same pan. Simple

tuna-sandwich

Tuna with Lemon and Onion – Use imported tuna packed in olive oil, add some thinly sliced lemon (with skin) and onion. A little romaine if you like.

ricotta sandwich

Ricotta on a Roll – Scrape some of the bread out of the top of the roll to make room for the ricotta so it doesn’t squeeze out.

sandwich - mozzerella

Mootz & Tomato – Fresh cold mozzarella with sliced tomatoes and basil if you have it.

escarole-sandwick-904x1024

Escarole – Add  just washed and still wet escarole leaves to a pan where you’ve sautéed some garlic in oil.  Simmer until it wilts. It’s as easy as that.

Note that only one of these sandwiches contains meat, another fish and the last three are vegetarian. That says something about the Mediterranean Diet.

The photo at the top of this page is from Medonia Brothers Bakery on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

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Sides, Vegetarian

Escarole, Broccoli & Cardoons

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Escarole, Broccoli & Cardoons

Three green recipes –  simple and cheap.

Escarole

Usually a side dish but it makes a great vegan sandwich. 

escarole (2)Escarole ingredients

Preparation:

Cut of the base of the stem off 2 heads and cut the leaves in half. Soak in sink full of cold water.

Place leaves in a pot, cover with cold water and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a large pan with 1 tsp salt, black pepper and garlic. Drain the leaves and add to the pan while they’re still slightly damp. Toss and simmer for a few minutes. Remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon. Drizzle with a little more oil in its serving dish.

escarole sandwich

Broccoli Salad

broccoli salad

Broccoli Salad ingredientsRinse broccoli & trim florets and stems. Boil in a salted water until stems are tender and drain.

Add salt and black pepper, thickly sliced cloves of garlic, oil and lemon juice and toss. Chill and serve.

Cardoons

(This is for Bea)

growing wild

This is a rare edible weed that you seldom find commercially, even at the best markets. Whenever I’ve eaten it, it was only because someone went to a rural area in New Jersey or upstate New York in spring and picked it where it grew wild.like celery

It’s a leafy plant that grows close to the ground. The leaves are inedible. It’s the stems that you want. When cleaned they look something like a stalk of celery but don’t attempt to eat them raw. They have to be boiled to soften them with the thicker ones split down the middle to make them all about 1/2 to 3/4 inch width.

Dry them and dip them in an egg wash. Then coat them with bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper and maybe a little finely chopped parsley. Fry them until golden brown in olive oil. They are worth the troublefried

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