Τό γυναικεῖον τῆς Ὑπατίας - An Áit Bhanda na Hypatia - Hypatia's Gynaeceum

A Fuji apple.

You Are Minestrone

You are a spontaneous person. You don't make or follow rules. You just go with your gut. You're eager to go wherever life takes you. If something doesn't work out, at least you've learned. Nutrition and eating healthy is very important to you. You eat your veggies. That being said, you're not a picky eater. You like all foods.

This is too perfect! In fact, minestrone is absolutely my favorite dish ever. I literally live on minestrone. This is a good opportunity to share my recipe.

Minestrone vegetariano di Gianna

My favorite comfort food…

There are millions of different minestrone recipes, but this is how I prefer it. This recipe doesn't need precise measurements; I cook by intuition. I usually vary it by adding whatever vegetables I have on hand that would go well in it, especially cauliflower and zucchini.

1 large onion
Several cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
1 or 2 whole cloves and a few black peppercorns
Bay leaves
Carrots
Celery
Cremini mushrooms (a.k.a. "Baby Bellas")
Red or green bell pepper
Green beans
Several Roma tomatoes, chopped
Peas
Spinach, chopped
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of cannellini beans, drained
¼ pound of small-sized whole wheat pasta
2 quarts vegetable broth and water (or more as needed)
Soy sauce
Crushed red pepper
Black pepper
Flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano
Basil

1. Sauté the chopped onions until transparent, along with the minced garlic.

2. Add the cloves, peppercorns, and bay leaves, along with the sliced vegetables: carrots and celery first, then after a while the mushrooms, bell pepper, and green beans, and sauté a couple more minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes, peas, and spinach, and cook for another minute.

4. Add the beans, tomato sauce, water, and vegetable broth.

5. When the liquid starts to simmer, drop in the pasta, cover the pot, lower the heat all the way down, and simmer very slowly for about 20 minutes.

6. About five minutes before cooking is done, stir in the spices, herbs, and soy sauce, and maybe a little salt to taste. Serve topped with grated Parmesan cheese and maybe a little drizzle of olive oil.

The relative proportions of each ingredient are up to the cook's best judgment. The whole wheat pasta makes this a thick hearty minestrone. Having all the food groups combined, it can even be a whole meal in one bowl.

In writings about Italian regional cooking, you often find mention of the vegetarian side of Mezzogiorno cuisine. When Sicilians talk about the lack of meat on their tables, though, that doesn't apply to the fish and seafood in their cuisine. I suppose that's due to the legacy of the Catholic Church and their allegedly "no meat" Fridays and Lent which, however, allow fish. That never made any sense to me. Are fish plants or animals? Didn't any of those Church prelates study biology even a little bit?

Anyway, as a Sicilian exploring my ancestral cuisine, I find plenty of vegetarian tradition to draw on, and I feel more favored in this respect than I would with any other European ethnicity, or anywhere outside India.

The book Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio by the mother-and-daughter team of Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene waxes lyrical about the glories of Sicilian food and the role it's played in their lives. Signora Tornabene introduces her chapter on meat dishes--the smallest one in the book--by telling how she doesn't really care for meat, and how Sicilian cuisine has historically gotten along without it.
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From my childhood, I remember my grandfather's garden, the vegetables he grew that graced the table and my grandmother's homemade tomato sauce made from his garden and her sfincione (Sicilian pizza) when the extended family gathered there; his homemade wine; and the special pride he took in growing a fig tree in northern Ohio that actually bore fruit--a true Sicilian-American miracle. I'll never forget my first ambrosial taste of a fresh fig from Nonnu's tree when I was only 6 or 7. That was many years before they became available in American groceries. Of course, when I visited relatives in Sicily, they fed me all the fresh homegrown figs I could eat, under the shade of an olive tree.

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 red bell pepper, chopped
5 Sicilian olives, pitted, sliced
5 Kalamata olives, pitted, sliced
2 tbs capers
1/2 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas
1.5 cups tomato sauce
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbs lemon juice
2 cups mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup parmesan
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1. In a large skillet, sauté the onions and garlic in 1/4 cup olive oil until transparent.
2. Add celery, red pepper, black pepper, bell pepper, olives, capers, mushrooms, and chickpeas; sauté 5 more minutes.
3. Stir in herbs and lemon juice.
4. Oil the bottom of a deep baking dish with olive oil, and coat with a couple tablespoons tomato sauce; place half the chickpea mixture into the dish.
5. Cover with 1 cup mozzarella.
6. On top of the mozzarella, spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce.
7. Place the remaining chickpea mixture on top.
8. Cover with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella.
9. Cover with the remaining 1 cup tomato sauce.
10. Cover with parmesan; top with bread crumbs.
11. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes; raise heat to 425 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes to get a crispy top. Serves 8.

( Segue la ricetta tradotta in italiano... )

No animals were slaughtered in connection with the making of this dish.

I'm attempting a low-carb vegetarian diet. I need to lose 20 pounds to fit into a slinky new dress. So far, so good. I started yesterday by making a salad with raw vegetables and yogurt sort of like tzatziki, and then I made chana dal, which is high protein and low glycemic. This morning for breakfast I had eggs and my one slice of whole wheat bread for the day. This afternoon on the way home from downtown I got all the Thai ingredients from Grand Mart, and went to work.

I sliced up carrot, Chinese eggplant, baby bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, shiitake, and tofu, and also used snow peas. I chopped ginger, galangal, garlic, hot little green Thai chilis, lemongrass, makrud lime leaves, and a bit of onion, added spices and soy sauce, and ground it all into a paste. I sautéed this green curry paste, then added the vegetables and stirred, covered them with coconut milk, added a couple bunches of Thai basil, covered and let it simmer, and when it was done topped it with cilantro.

It turned out pretty excellent for the first try! This is one of my favorite dishes ever and I'm delighted to be able to make my own now. I made a big pot of it and used 6 Thai chilis, which made it "American hot." But when I took my own serving, I sliced three more Thai chilis and sprinkled them on my curry, making it "Thai hot."

คิฉันรักอาหารไทยค่ะ dichan rak ahan Thai kha :)

"What is one food that you refuse to try? Why?"

Meat. Because I'm vegetarian. Deal with it.

I'm OLIVE OIL!

What Kind of Oil Are You?

This actually goes pretty well with my Ancient Greek theme.

Ειμαι ελαιον;

I just saw Pacific Multigrain Beverage in the store and thought I'd try it.
Ingredients: Filtered water, oat groats, triticale, barley, organic soybeans, brown rice, amaranth, tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, riboflavin (B2), vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2.

My first swig of it tasted exactly like a bowl of cereal and milk. Except that the cereal was completely dissolved in the milk. Imagine that. And the milk itself has been replaced by cereal that has taken on the form of milk. Isn't that like a Thomistic theory for transubstantiation--but in this case the form of milk and the substance of cereal?

Hoc est enim granola meam. Hoc est enim calix lactis Terrae Matris ex mammae.