italian cooking Archives - Good Food St. Louis

Robin with Seafood Paella

I’m amazed at how people are dealing with the isolation and boredom of Covid. Robin called to tell me she was making paella, which I immediately took as a desperate culinary act.

I made paella. Once. I even bought an expensive paella pan, as well as my first saffron—also expensive. The recipe had far too many ingredients for me. After that I left the traditional Spanish dish to the professionals.

Zooming Around the World

Robin said her Zoom workmates (shall we call them Zoomers? Zoomists? Zoomies?) had arranged for Chef Helina Sanchez in Barcelona to make paella on line. Why do that, I thought to myself. I can find paella makers on YouTube. Then Robin explained that everyone on the Zoom call was making the dish along with the instructor. “Ahh,” I said, “that’s a horse of a different color.”

“The class starts at six,” she said. “Can you be at my house by then?” That, of course, was a funny question. Nowadays my main activities are blogging, going to the mail box, walking up and down my hallway for exercise, blogging some more, and watching Rachel Maddow—though she’s quarantined and off the air temporarily.

In spite of my “heavy” schedule, I agreed to be there.

Robin got her paella pan many years ago in Valencia, Spain.

AirBnB’s Online Cooking Experiences

If you miss the chance to travel or eat exotic foods, AirBnB now offers their Online Cooking Experiences. Participants have access to over 3,000 unique family recipes from more than 75 countries.

Popular chefs lead you and your Zoom buddies through every step in making a dish. Cooking sessions run from an hour to an hour-and-a-half and are capped at 10 people. The cost is $30 each and upward.

In the Virtual Kitchen with Helina

Chef Helina Sanchez instructing from the other side of the world

Helina, our instructor, went with a Seafood Paella, using squid, crayfish, prawns, and mussels. Vegetables and seasoning included garlic, sweet red pepper, tomatoes, smoked sweet paprika, rice, fish stock, and saffron.

Crawfish get a swim in a bit of olive oil.

Stirring uncooked rice into the paella before adding the seafood stock.

“Salute!”

Helina paused occasionally to see what the dish looked like in our kitchens and to answer any questions. (It was midnight in Barcelona, but Helina didn’t seem to mind.)

She also paused from time to time to lift a glass of wine. We all followed suit with a lusty “salute!” What a great cooking custom!

A Spanish Classic

The Spanish meat-vegetable-rice dish is pronounced pai-ei-uh. It’s the Spanish word for frying pan. Like most classical dishes there are as many ways of making paella as there are households. (Sorta like meatloaf and bread pudding here in the U.S.)

Valencia Reigns

Some view paella as the national dish of Spain, but Valencia lays claim to its origins. In Valencia the ingredients vary, but include all, or some, of the following: rice, chicken, rabbit, duck, butter beans, seafood, vegetables, and saffron.

American chefs have been known to throw in a bit of sausage as well, but that’s frowned upon by paella aficionados.

Ta-Dah!

Zoomers show off their finished paellas.

Wait . . . Don’t Forget the Appetizer

Pan con Tomate. I could’ve made a meal on this alone!

In addition to making Paella and Sangria, Helina began with a rustic appetizer: Pan con Tomate (or “bread with tomatoes”). It was so quick to make, yet incredibly tasty. The appetizer has five ingredients: rustic bread (such as ciabatta), tomato, olive oil, garlic, and Maldon sea salt.

A Quick and Easy Recipe

Here’s the recipe (with photos) used by Chef J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. It differs slightly from Helina’s. He runs the whole tomato across a box scraper. She first boiled the tomatoes enough to make it easy to remove the skin and seeds by hand. I prefer Helina’s method of preparing the tomatoes.

Served with an Italian cheese topping and a bowl of soup, you have a meal.

Zooming in the kitchen! What a wonderful way to connect with people around the world!

Staring into the pot makes the soup cook faster—so I learned from the kitchen diva, Lucy Van Pelt 🙂

As the days get shorter and the temperatures drop, I think about heading South. Or pulling out my goose-down comforter. Or buying a new winter coat. I also think of making a big pot of soup and that’s what I did this week. One of my favorites: Italian Minestrone.

A Pot of Veggies and Noodles to Warm the Innards

As I pulled out the ingredients I had on hand, I was missing the noodles I prefer. So when Robin called, I asked where she was.

“I’m in the car,” she said.

“Hmm . . . . might you be anywhere near The Hill?” I asked hopefully. I was delighted, when she said yes.

“I need a special noodle for the Minestrone I’m making,” I said. “I like tubetti, the short tubular noodle, but I’m all out. I can never find them in the grocery stores near me.”

Robin to the Rescue

Robin showed up a while later with five varieties of noodles! I stuck with the tubetti and we divvied up the remainder. In gratitude for the home delivery, I promised to share the soup with her when it was finished.

With noodles in hand, I was back to soup making. I love this merry medley of vegetables (onions, leek, carrots, celery, potatoes, zucchini, spinach, and tomatoes), but chopping them takes about 45 minutes. I need a sou chef. Hmm. . . I should have invited Robin to stay around for my “chopping party.”

A small dash of balsamic vinegar and a topping of Parmesan add a flavor boost.

Pointers That Add Flavor

There’s a couple of things I do with this soup (or any vegetable soup) to give more depth of flavor. I add a Parmesan cheese rind—a trick I learned from Italian cookbook maven Marcella Hazan. I keep them in the freezer just for soup making. I’ve noticed they sell them at the grocery now. Like a bay leaf, you remove the rind from the soup before serving.

I also saute the vegetables before adding the broth and tomatoes. In the end, goes the spinach and noodles.

Marcella Hazan’s classic cookbook is considered the most authentic guide to Italian food ever published in the U.S. Her recipe for Minestrone is much like the one I use, though she adds cabbage and beans.

While I’m Here . . .

While I had the kitchen in a mess, I made and froze a batch of Italian Meatballs. I get about 25 meatballs from the recipe, that calls for merely one pound of meat (a mix of ground beef and pork). Amazing!

It’s the panade (bread soaked in milk) that plumps up the ingredients and makes the meatballs smoother. I’m thinking that a freezer sack of meatballs will come in handy for those extra meals during the Thanksgiving holidays.