Recipes

Escarole is a slightly bitter leafy green vegetable. It’s part of the chicory family along with endive, frisée and radicchio. Growing up in an Italian family, leafy green vegetables, especially those of the slightly bitter category were often part of our meal. Escarole can be eaten raw as a salad or, as in this recipe, sautéed with added flavorful enhancements. In Italy one would probably use Pancetta, and it could certainly be used in this recipe. However, I like the slightly smokey taste and the crispy texture that bacon adds. The toasted pine nuts add a nice crunch and a drizzle of a very good extra virgin olive oil at the end is an important finish.

Spinach is such a versatile, healthy, year-round vegetable. It can be steamed, sautéed, put in soups, soufflés, pastas or eaten raw in salads or on sandwiches. This version has it tossed with a warm balsamic dressing that has not only the olive oil, but the added flavor of bacon drippings. The spinach is just slightly wilted, the parsnips and bacon are crunchy, the mushrooms are earthy, the onions add bit of sweetness and the toasted pine nuts are buttery. I think a good rich balsamic (and I really love the Olivier VSOP brand from Napa) adds just the right tartness to the dressing. There is so much going on with this salad that with a slice of a good crusty bread it can easily be the main course.

This is an easy, light dessert that takes advantage of our Winter/Spring citrus season. I love the juicy citrus flavors of the Cara Cara combined with the crunch and floral flavor of the Rose Water meringues and all topped with the slightly tart cream topping. If you make the meringues a day or several days before, you can put this together in just a few minutes. As the seasons progress, you can use other fruits, and other flavors in the meringues. Try berries with cocoa meringues and chocolate shavings on top of the whipped cream, or peaches with almond extract meringues topped with whipped cream and crumbled candied almonds. The preparation time shown for this recipe includes the two hours to bake the meringues.

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, but actually most bakeries in the United States make them starting on Ash Wednesday and bake their last batch for Easter Sunday. There are several versions of this Easter treat, some have no fruit, others have raisin, and some, like these from my Father’s recipes have raisins, orange peel and citron. The cross on the top is generally made from a slurry of mixing flour and water, which I don’t think is great tasting, so my father always made the cross on top using his custard recipe, which I have included.
Hot Cross buns have a history that goes back centuries. We tend to think of them as an Easter pastry, but have origins that go much further back to pre-christian times. A very early version of of the buns were baked to celebrate Eostre, a Germanic Goddess of Fertility. The symbolism for the Christian version has the cross on the top as a symbol of the crucification, the spices used to signify the spices used in embalming and the orange peel reflecting the bitterness of his time on the cross.

Galette des Rios or “Kings Cake” is a classic French pastry that was traditionally shared at Epiphany on January 6th to celebrate the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem. However, you will find that this delightful creation combining buttery, crispy, flakey puff pastry with a creamy rich almond filling is served year round. If you choose to make your own puff pastry, it takes a bit more time and skill, but with store bought puff pastry it’s quite simple. This is a fantastic after dinner dessert, good after lunch, wonderful with coffee for breakfast, or actually at any time. It’s best when it’s still a bit warm from the oven. However, if there is any left for the following day, I suggest warming it bit in the oven to re-crisp the pastry. Prep time and difficulty level was based on using pre-made puff pastry.