Tuscan Black Cabbage and Pork Soup (p. 129)

It's cold and wet and dreary in Raleigh today, which makes it a perfect day for a hearty soup. I actually used kale for this as a substitute for the black cabbage since I received a large head of it in my CSA box this week.

Set some chicken stock to simmer in a large pot, and, separately, cook small cubes of pork in olive oil until they're nice and brown.

Add the meat to the now simmering stock.

Sauté thinly cut onions in the remaining olive oil. I got four small onions from my CSA and they're beautiful, so I was excited to use them.

I have a huge head of local garlic that has been adding great flavor to all my dishes, so I tossed some of that in too, along with a crumbled dried chili. Once everything was softened it went into the stock as well.

Lastly, stir in salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and the slivered kale. Cover the dish and leave for about 15 minutes, until the kale is completely cooked. Serve with a little cheese on top.

This was great -- I wasn't expecting to really enjoy it but I did. The garlic and chili pepper added a great kick. I only made half the recipe, which I don't recommend -- there wasn't really enough stock to make that quantity, so my soup doesn't have a huge liquid base to it, but it's still scrumptious.

CSA kale -- $1.58

pork -- $1.50

CSA onion -- $.79

parsley -- $.89

Total Cost of Tuscan Black Cabbage and Pork Soup: $4.76

($1.59 per serving)

Roast Fish with Fennel, Potatoes, and Carrots (p. 372) and Braised Cavolo Nero with Chestnuts (p. 303)

Today was the day I discovered my dislike of the smell and taste of cooked kale. But more on that later. First, roast fish, which is always delicious.

The main vegetables in this dish -- fennel, potatoes, and carrots -- are prepared first. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes (the recipe actually calls for fingerling or new potatoes, but I only had regular ones, so I prepared them in the same way) and put them in boiling water for about 5 minutes, just until they're starting to soften. Drain the veggies and place them in a bowl along with quartered fennel bulbs, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Mix everything together and pour the ingredients out on a baking pan to roast for about 40 minutes.

Chop the green fennel tops along with rosemary to create a topping for the fish. Rub the salmon steaks down with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Top the fish with the chopped herbs and lemon zest and place it on top of the already roasted vegetables.

Put the dish back into the oven until the salmon is cooked. The recipe quoted 10-15 minutes, but mine took closer to 30 for it to be cooked thoroughly.

Then serve!

This was quite lovely. I liked the flavors that the rosemary and fennel added, and the vegetables were delicious. The addition of the thinly sliced lemons to the roasted vegetables added a subtle citrus flavor, and the juices of the cooked salmon soaked in as well. Very, very nice.

Which was good, because I hated the side dish I made with this.

My CSA box came with chestnuts this week, and I knew I had seen a chestnut recipe somewhere in my cookbook. Sure enough, I found a recipe for Cavolo Nero, which is basically a very dark green kale. So while perhaps not the best pairing with my fish and vegetable dish, Braised Cavolo Nero with Chestnuts it was.

I roasted the chestnuts an evening in advance -- cut an X through the thick skin of each nut and place them on a cookie sheet to roast for about 15 minutes. It's incredibly difficult to cut through the husks of the shells, and some of them I had to just toss rather than kill myself trying to cut through.

When the chestnuts come out, the flesh of the nut should have puffed up through the X making it easier to pull the shell and skin away from the nut.

In a pan, saute onion in olive oil for about 10 minutes and then add chopped pancetta (it actually calls for bacon, but I had leftover pancetta from another recipe) and continue cooking until it has released its fatty juices. Add the peeled chestnuts in and coat them with the mixture. Pour in chicken stock and continue cooking for about half an hour.

Remove the hard stems from the kale and sliver and clean the leaves. Cook this in the water clinging to the leaves, occasionally adding a little more water as necessary.

Once the kale is very tender (after maybe about 20 minutes), combine it with the chestnut mixture and flavor with salt and pepper.

I hated this. It tasted and smelled like cabbage and even the yummy chestnuts and pancetta couldn't redeem it. Epic fail.

salmon -- $10.33

fennel -- $2.48

carrots -- $1.29 (half left)

lemon -- $.89

potatoes -- $3.14 (CSA price)

Total Cost of Roast Fish with Fennel, Potatoes, and Carrots: $18.33

kale -- $1.99

onion -- $1.37 (half left)

chestnuts -- $3.14 (CSA price)

Total Cost of Braised Cavolo Nero with Chestnuts: $6.50

Polenta with Teverina Dried Wild Mushroom Sauce (p. 243) with Sauteed Greens with Garlic and Oil (p. 299)

I was eating solo on Thursday night but still wanted to get some cooking in since it's been so long. This one looked tasty, so I ran to the grocery store after work to pick up some fresh meat and veggies (my fridge was completely empty except for pickles and beer) right after work.

I started by prepping dried porcini mushrooms by putting them in a bowl of very hot water. I left them for about 30 minutes to soften while making the rest of the dish.

Next up was the sweet Italian sausage, which I cut into small chunks and sauteed for about 10 minutes. The sausage is supposed to cook in its own fats instead of using olive oil, but mine didn't produce much juice, so it was a kind of dry sauté. Once they were cooked I placed the chunks on a paper towel to dry.

When the meat was pulled out of pan I added olive oil along with chopped onion, celery, and parsley. 

Once the veggies had cooked and softened, I stirred in chopped canned tomatoes (along with their juices), chopped rosemary, and some dried thyme. These were left to simmer for about 20 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.

After the mushrooms had soaked for 30 minutes I drained them through paper towels placed in a colander (I didn't have the sieve and cheese cloth that was required), reserving the water that they had soaked in. I rinsed and chopped the mushrooms and set them aside with the water.

Meanwhile, I boiled water and slowly added the cornmeal. This set over low heat for about 20 minutes until the polenta was creamy.

I added the mushrooms and water as well as the sausage back into the sauce and continued cooking them until the polenta was ready.

The polenta is spooned onto a plate with the sauce ladled over it and parmesan scattered over the top.

Yum! I don't even like mushrooms all that much, but this was delicious. I had no idea that polenta is so easy to make, and I'll definitely make it again. It absorbs flavors well, and all the ingredients in the sauce made a very flavorful blend. Yum! I'd do a rendition on this recipe again.

With all the poor eating in NOLA, I wanted to make a veggie side. This one is pretty easy -- it's just sauteed greens of your choice. I used kale, and before beginning the recipe I rinsed the greens and boiled them briefly just using the water remaining on the leaves.

Once the kale had become tender I removed it from the heat, tossed it on a paper towel to briefly dry, and then chopped it coarsely. In the meantime, I sauteed minced garlic in olive oil for only a few minutes until it was soft and then added a dried chili pepper broken into small pieces.

I added the kale back into the pan and let the greens absorb the olive oil. They only remained on the heat until they began to sizzle -- just a few minutes -- and then I added salt and red wine vinegar, mixed them together, and served.

I surprised myself by quite liking the kale. The combination of the dried pepper and the vinegar gave it a great flavor!

canned tomatoes -- $.99

corn meal -- $1.69 (with the majority remaining)

sweet Italian sausage -- $2.03

celery -- $1.69 (only used one stalk)

onion -- $.89 (half left)

parsley -- 1.99 (most left)

dried porcini mushrooms -- $3.99

shredded parmesan -- $2.65 (most left)

Total Cost of Polenta with Teverina Dried Wild Mushroom Sauce: $15.92 (with the recipe cut in half, this made three servings)

kale -- $.27

Total Cost of Sauteed Greens with Garlic and Oil: $.27 (for just one serving)