Curzio's Recipes!
Dear Friends:

Eating what is "in season" requires understanding of what is grown locally, when it is available, and how to prepare it to make delicious meals. This is an example for the end of July in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

 
Soffritto di verdure fresche - Garden Fresh Veggies
Ingredients: garlic, red torpedo onions, new potatoes, yellow zucchini, Swiss chard, olive oil, herbes de Provence (French Provincial spices), salt and pepper.

 
Start by cutting the red torpedo onion in large chunks. As the fresh onion cooks, it will break apart and make a very sweet base to this dish.

 
Slice the new potato thinly, if you want to prepare this dish in less than 30 minutes. The potato is the ingredient that takes the longest to cook. Large chunks will take 30 minutes, while thin slices cook in 20 minutes.

 
Slice the yellow zucchini. First in two halves and then in half-moons. Again, if you like larger chunks, the cooking will take longer.

 
The Swiss chard stems and leaves are cooked separately.

Set the leaves aside and slice the stems. Pick colored Swiss chard to improve the appearance of your dish.

 
Rinse the Swiss chard leaves, cut them about 2 inches wide and put them in a pot to be steamed. The water that remains on the leaves after the rinse should be enough for steaming them. If they appear dry, add a little water. Steam for 5 minutes and set aside.

 
The fresh garlic - here you see Italian garlic - when it is picked green, the cloves have a very though skin, difficult to remove. I like to cut the cloves in half and cook them with the skin. In the finished dish you will find the garlic and set aside, if you are not a fan. I suck the skins for the incredible flavor of garlic melting on my tongue.

 
All ingredients are ready! Start in a skillet on medium flame: olive oil and garlic, till golden, then add the spices (herbes), and finally the red torpedo onions.

Stir occasionally and cover till the onions turn translucid (glaze).

 
Add the sliced potatoes first. Make sure the slices are coated with the juices of olive oil and onion. Stir and cover.

After 10 minutes add the sliced zucchini. A good time to add some salt and pepper. Stir and cover.

 
Take the steamed Swiss chard leaves. In the bottom of the pot you should have the juices left after the steaming. Add these juices to the other ingredients.

The liquid addition will help the cooking of the potatoes.

 
The steamed Swiss chard leaves are added at the end and stired in to absorbe the flavors.

At this time the veggies have cooked for about 30 minutes and you may want to taste a piece of potato, zucchini or chard stem. I like the texture of each ingredient: the rough potato, the stringy chard stem ... so I don't like to over-cook them.

Serve in a dish with a sprinkle of olive oil.

 
This dish tastes fantastic warm, luke warm or cold. As a left-over it tastes even better.

If you follow proper food separation, this dish is digested in an alkaline base and should not be eaten with any protein: No cheese, nor meat.

We recommend to drink a glass of wine - perfect combination is achieved with a red wine.
I shopped my favorite store - Tenuta Delicatessen - and found a great Barbera. This would have been the wine of choice for my Grand Pa Antonio, who loved the earthy taste of this grape Piemontese. Make sure you open the bottle a few hours before your meal and serve this wine in large glasses at room temperature.

 
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Looking forward to meet you at the Harbor MarketPlace on market day.

Your friends,

Curzio

 
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