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Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Italian

Cafe Affogato

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I’m sure I’m not the first person to have said, food knows no borders. How else could our first exposure to Cafe Affogato be in Poland? The first I’d heard of it was when Ed told me about having one at a golf course with his Polish golf pro friend, Przemek. I had a couple of Cafe Affogatos while we lived in Poland. One of the more memorable was at a driving range. You can read all about that here. While we’re on the subject of difficult to pronounce Polish names, how about Przemek? He was the golf pro at this posh driving range. At first, I thought it was Shemek, but no. You must find a way to mumble Prz in front of that . . .shemek.

 

Cafe Affogato

How did we come to be having Cafe Affogato for breakfast here in Tucson? Well, we’re having them in the morning because we don’t have decaf espresso. We’re having them again because on a recent trip to Costco trying to remember what we were shopping for, we drove by Tuscon’s new Top Golf, a multi-level driving range that serves food and drinks. It’s Chuckie Cheese for grownup golfers. We haven’t been yet, and I said that we should make a point of trying it out because it was as close as we would get to Hotel Solei, home of the driving range mentioned in the paragraph above. That led to planning to buy ice cream and what cute little cups we would use to serve our Cafe Affogatos.

If you haven’t had one yet, let me explain that affogato is Italian for drowned. It’s simply a scoop of vanilla ice cream or gelato drowned with hot espresso. It is a dessert or a beverage? You’ll find it in both places on the menu depending on where you are. It’s so simple that I feel a little silly putting it into a recipe format, but that the only way to let search engines know that I’m writing about how to prepare something. You can, of course, do as others do and fancy it up a bit, with other flavors of ice cream, syrups, sprinkles, or maybe even some yummy baked good under the ice cream, brownie affogato?

Smacznego!

Lois

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Cafe Affogato

  • Author: polishhousewife
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 2 servings
  • Category: Beverage
  • Cuisine: Italian
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Description

A scoop of vanilla ice cream drowned in hot espresso

Ingredients

2 scoops vanilla ice cream or gelato

2 shots hot espresso or strong coffee

Instructions

Place a scoop of ice cream in each cup of glass

Top with hot coffee

Serve with a spoon

Notes

Go all out with favored ice creams, sprinkles, syrups, make it your own!

Bacon Wrapped Figs

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figs, bacon, goat cheese on a bed of greens with a roasted hazelnut vinaigrette 

For most of my life, I have not been a fan of figs. I remember a eccentric church member, we’ll call her REW, stopping by my office years ago with a basket full of figs that she’d hoped to give away. When I declined, REW cut off a hunk of fig, shoved it at me saying, “taste it!” She forced me at knife point, so to speak. Despite her forceful nature, I again had to decline, explaining the the texture was too gritty for me. REW proceeded down the office hallway with her figs looking for a more appreciative recepient.

 

Figs goat cheese bacon greens hazelnut bacon wrapped figs

The theme of our time in Poland could be described as “try new things” or “try everything you can.” When my friends from the Poznan International Ladies Club were raving about the figs with goat cheese wrapped in prosciutto they’d sampled recently, I had to give this a try at home. If your history with figs has been like mine, let me suggest that you try them roasted. It’s a totally new experience, not at all gritty!

We began to talk about planting a fig tree when we returned to Arizona. Figs are one of the few fruit trees to thrive in our hot climate. When I mention his to my mother, she said not to buy one because they had a fig tree they would happily give us. We now have a fig tree that comes with a story.

Fig tree Figs

Our tree has grown from a cutting taken from one of the first fig trees brought to the area by the Spainish. The young tree was intended for the Mission Garden, part of the Rio Nuevo project. Rio Nuevo was a downtown revitalization project that fizzled out during the recent economic slump. During this delay, the little fig in a six inch pot was given to our family friend, the late Bunny Fontana. Bunny was a brilliant, charming man, but he would have been the first to admit that he was not a gardener. He said as much when he gave the six inch pot with the now five foot tall fig tree to my mother.

My parents moved the tree to a 5 gallon container and had hoped to harvest enough figs to make something similar to this dish, thinking it would be fun to serve Bunny figs from his tree. The tree grew a lot, but it never produce more than one ripe fig at a time.

Figs

Our fig tree has been in the ground for almost two years. The one fig at a time trend continued until this summer. Now, we’re finally getting a harvest with which you can do something. This summer, we’ve had fig pastries, figs in bacon, and if my luck holds out, we might even have fig jam, a wonderful addition to a charcuterie platter.

We’ve been eating bacon wrapped figs with goat cheese all summer, but only recently added the hazelnut dressing and greens. It’s a winning combination!

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Bacon Wrapped Figs

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 25 mins
  • Total Time: 30 mins
  • Yield: 8
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Cuisine: Mediterranean
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Description

Quick and easy to make these figs are a yummy appetizer or the perfect topping for an elegant salad,

Ingredients

  • 4 figs
  • Honey (optional)
  • 1/2 cup goat cheese
  • Sprig of fresh thyme
  • 4 slices bacon, cut in half crosswise

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Remove stems from figs and slice in half lengthwise
  3. Fill the cavity in the fig center with honey, if using
  4. Top each fig half with a tablespoon of goat cheese
  5. Sprinkle with thyme leaves, if using
  6. Wrap each fig with half of a bacon strip and secure with a toothpick
  7. Bake for 25 minutes or until bacon is crisp
  8. Serve as is, or place atop a bed of spring greens and drizzle with roasted hazelnut vinaigrette (recipe below)

 

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Roasted Hazelnut Vinaigrette

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Total Time: 5 mins
  • Yield: About 1 cup
  • Category: Salad dressing
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Description

The perfect topping for a green salad or try it on grilled chicken!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Water, if needed

Instructions

  1. Add hazelnuts and garlic to a food processor or blender, process until almost smooth
  2. Add oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar and blend until well combined
  3. If too thick, thin with a few drops of water

 

Butternut Squash Lasagna

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Our daughter, Lauren, used to work in a library, so she is well aware of the treasures on library shelves.  I was surprised to learn that you can find cookbooks at the library, but Lauren has gathered quite a stack of recipes without spending a fortune on cookbooks.

This is one from her collection.  It’s from the cookbook Celebrate by Pippa Middelton, and something we fixed when I stayed with Lauren earlier this year.  I love to add vegetarian dishes to my repertoire, but I find that I would like this dish seasoned a little more than the sister-in-law of the future king of England – no surprise there.  😉


Ingredients

olive oil
1 ½ large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 ½ pound butternut squash, peeled seeded and sliced in 1/8 inch crescents
1 large bunch of sage leaves, half left whole and half chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 pound fresh spinach
generous grating of nutmeg
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound dried lasagna noodles
2 4-ounce balls of mozzarella, sliced
for the béchamel sauce:
1 stick unsalted butter
3 cups milk
¾ cup grated Parmesan, plus ½ extra for sprinkling between layers
(We made the full béchamel recipe, even though we were making a smaller pan of lasagna, so ours is heavy on the sauce)
Directions
  • Preheat the oven to 400 F
  • Add onion, squash, chopped sage and garlic to a large baking dish
  • Toss with a little olive oil
  • Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until soft (We used frozen cubes of butternut squash, giving it a chop or quick whir in the food processor will give you a thinner veg layer than pictured here.)
  • In a separate pan, add the spinach, nutmeg, salt and pepper
  • Cook in a little olive oil until the spinach has wilted, pressing out any excess water
  • Cook the lasagna noodles, for 5 minutes just to make them soft, in a large pan of boiling salted water with a little oil olive added to help keep the noodles from sticking
  • To make the béchamel sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir in the flour (you should have a paste), cook for a couple of minutes
  • Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, to form a thick sauce, add the ¾ cup Parmesan cheese (the recipe doesn’t call for it, but it would have benefited from a little salt, maybe a pinch of white pepper and/or cayenne)
  • To assemble all of the components, put a layer of pasta in a 9 x 13 baking dish, top with a layer of the squash mixture, a layer of béchamel sauce, some spinach and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese
  • Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of pasta, spread with the remaining béchamel sauce, scatter the top with mozzarella slice and any remaining Parmesan.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes until the mozzarella bubbles and browns
  • Garnish with the whole sage leaves flash fried in a little butter (we were running a little short on sage)
Serves: 8
Pippa recommends paring this with a full-bodied white wine such as a Chenin Bland or a white Rhone

Italian Sausage

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There are dozens of sausages in the butcher case here in Poland, but I’ve yet to find Italian sausage.  I try to embrace the local cuisine, but every now and then you need something for spaghetti sauce or a hot sausage sandwich.

It’s easy to find ground pork here, so I’ve taken to making my own bulk Italian sausage.

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork (ours is very lean, so I add a little olive oil to the pan when cooking)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fennel seeds (I’ve used anise seeds in a pinch)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (to taste)

Directions

  • Combine all ingredients until spices are evenly distributed.
  • Chill, covered, one hour or overnight
  • It’s now ready to use in your recipe
  • We like to make a patty of sausage, grill it, top with (melted) provolone cheese, and serve it on a crusty roll with mustard.
Italian Sausage/Cheese (pepper-jack in this case) Sandwich

Green Walnuts

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Last winter our friend, Grzegorz, stopped by and sampled my wisniowka (as he called it), a homemade cherry liqueur.  I think he was impressed not only by the drink, but by the fact that an American was taking part in this popular Polish pastime of making liqueurs.

He said that I must try making orzechowka, a green walnut liqueur.  He was so keen on the idea that he phoned his mother to get his aunt’s recipe.  I jotted it down in my iPad notes with a reminder to get in touch with Greg next May.  He promised to bring me a bag of green walnuts from his aunt’s tree.

Greg’s family recipe, Day 1
Two weeks in brine for vinegar based options

It’s been a mild summer, so it was late June before Greg popped round with the green walnuts, which look more like a lime than what you’re used to seeing in the nut bowl at Christmas.

I’ve followed the directions to start a batch of the Polish family recipe.  Rather than make a huge batch of this liqueur, because we’re moving back to the states in 6 months, I decided to search the Internet to what else people do with green walnuts.

I have small batches of several recipes going thanks to Agrarinista.  I’m trying an Italian green walnut liqueur as well as the Polish version.  The main difference seems to be that the Italian version will include spices.  The walnuts that are in the brine will go on to become green walnut ketchup, green walnut chutney, and pickled green walnuts.

I’ll do separate posts as we finish and sample everything, but I wanted to mention this now, in case you have a source of green walnuts but aren’t sure what to do with them.

Spaghetti with Sausage & Mushroom Sauce

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Check out all of the entries below – I’m #12!

Welcome to my second Crazy Cooking Challenge.  This is Julie’s recipe from Sugarfoot Eats.  You need to check out her blog if for no other reason than to see where the name came from; it’s a great story.  Getting back to the dish at hand, it might be more accurate to say this is the spaghetti Julie would make if she lived in Poland where we have lots of sausage, none of it Italian.

I bought ground meat (pork and beef, because the pork is just too lean), and seasoned it using Alton Brown’s recipe for Italian sausage, added salt, pepper, fennel, and parsley.  Ed thought heat would be a good idea, so we also tossed in a generous pinch of red pepper flakes.  This is the land of mushrooms, so it was no problem finding three different kinds to use – white button, portabello, and chanterelles.

I enjoyed this dish immensely, the flavor was rich and complex.  Even though I knew every ingredient, I struggled to identify and separate them once they had blended.  Our dinner guests raved about the taste, the proportion of meat to mushroom.  Who am I kidding? I stack the deck by inviting Ed’s coworkers whose wives are stateside.   They’re nice polite guys who enjoy a home cooked meal.  (I know you’re reading this Bill and Bill.)

Give it a try; this delicious red sauce is different than anything we’ve ever had before!

Photobucket
Ingredients

box of whole wheat spaghetti
3 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 pound spicy ground Italian sausage
8 ounces of sliced mixed mushrooms
salt & black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
1/4 cup heavy cream
shredded Parmesan cheese, for topping

Directions

  • Cook spaghetti according to the package directions.
  • Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.
  • Drain pasta.
  • In a large frying pan, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
  • Add the Italian sausage, brown over medium heat.
  • Transfer sausage to a bowl and set it aside.
  • To the skillet, add 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
  • Over medium-high heat, add the mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes.
  • Add in tomato paste and rosemary (I substituted fresh tarragon).  Stir for 1 minute.
  • Return the cooked sausage to the skillet.
  • Add the cream and reserved pasta water, stir.
  • Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  • Combine spaghetti and sausage & mushroom sauce.
  • Top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Giada’s Olive Oil Muffins

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Olive Oil Muffins

Another great recipe from Giada’s Kitchen.  My daughter gave me this cookbook last summer, and I’ve loved everything that I’m made from it.  I’ve been curious about olive oil cakes for some time.  When my brother told me about some of the recipes he’s tested, that was just the push I needed.  These olive oil muffins were easy to whip up and they were the perfect snack for our road trip to Łódź.  I was worried that the taste of the oil would be overpowering, but the most dominate flavor and fragrance was from the citrus zest with a hint of almond!

I made these one days when friends were stopping by. I bake them in some cool parchment paper muffin cups. They were so impressed that one told me she’d never invite me to her home for dinner; it would be too intimidating. Being a food blogger — it’s a mixed blessing.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Giada’s Olive Oil Muffins

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 25 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Yield: 12
  • Category: Bread
  • Cuisine: Italian
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Description

A moist and lightly sweet muffin with a hint of citrus

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup almond slices, toasted (see note)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. This makes 12 muffins, use paper liners or grease the muffin pan
  3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt
  4. In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, and zests until light and fluffy
  5. Add the vinegar and milk
  6. Gradually, beat in oil
  7. Stir in dry ingredients, just until combined
  8. Crunch half of the almonds with your hands and add them
  9. Stir until mixed
  10. Fill the muffin cups, the batter will go almost to the top of the liner or cup
  11. Top with remaining toasted almond slices
  12. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Notes

Note: Spread the almonds on baking sheet, and bake at 350 for about 7 minutes. If you can’t find sliced almonds, I have also substituted whole almonds, which I toasted and ran through my mini-food processor until finely ground.

 

Mediterrain Style Skillet Vegetables

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Because some vegetables need to cook longer than others, I tend to  slice and  dice as the previous ingredients are cooking.  I’ve also prepared this with  diced prosciutto (add with the garlic), diced tomatoes (add with the squash), and grated Parmesan cheese (add at the end of cooking).

 

Ingredients 

3 T. olive oil
1 c. carrots, thinly sliced
5 bell peppers, julienned (I used 2 red, 3 green)
1 large yellow onion, julienned
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 small head green cabbage, cored, thinly sliced, and parboiled
2 zucchini, halved lengthwise, then halved across, thinly slice each quarter lengthwise
2 yellow summer squash, sliced in same manner as the zucchini
2 c. Barilla whole grain pasta (I used medium shells), cooked as directed
kosher salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper

Directions 

Over medium to medium-high heat, add oil to a very large frying pan.  Add carrots; stirring occasionally.  While carrots are cooking, slice bell peppers then add to frying pan.  Season with salt, stirring as needed.  While the mix is cooking, slice onion and prepare cabbage.  Add to frying pan and season with salt, and continue to stir.   Prepare garlic and squash, add to pan and season with salt, stir.  Cook pasta; drain; add to frying pan, combining with vegetables.  Season with black and cayenne peppers to taste.

Yields 10-1 cup servings, 1.8 WW points each (adding prosciutto or Parmesan cheese will increase this value.)