Recipes for Life

My dear friend Maria Pia passed away this year of cancer. She is a most beautiful woman/soul who lives eternally not only with God, but through amazing wisdom and love she shared. She reminded me of the importance of the simple life: family, faith, stories, home, food and dance. Not only did she share delicious food from her kitchen, but she taught me how she made a few of them. Just like her wisdom they are simply delicious! All recipes are approximate measures as they were in Maria Pia's kitchen, recipes are woven narratives within the story of life...

SEASONAL FRIED VEGETABLES
Veggies in Season (a little goes a long way): zucchini, onions, mushrooms, etc.
1/2-1 cup Sparkling unflavored water, very cold
1-3 cups flour
salt to taste
sunflower oil
I like to use a mix of veggies here, but note that one zucchini, 1/2 an onion, a handful of mushrooms and one previously roasted red pepper will feel a family. Slice zuch & onion into 1/4" thick rings, mushrooms if small use whole, slice peppers into strips feel free to get creative with other veggies, the ones shown are autumn veggies. Heat about 1/2" of oil at medium-high in the bottom of a heavy skillet. Make a thick batter of the flour, sparkling water and salt and dip veggies into batter and directly into heated skillet, flip once when golden and place on paper to drain oil.
My kids and their friends were amazed how easy it was to make their favorite appetizer fare for low cost!!!

THE UNIVERSAL ZUCCHINI
Zucchini
Onion
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Slice zucchini extra thin, I use 3 average grocery sized per medium onion. Dice onion in 1/4"ish and saute slowly in olive oil seasoning to taste with salt and pepper until onions are beautifully caramelized and zucchini transparent as stained glass. This delightfully simple cooked treat can be used as a side dish with meat OR as a topping for pizza OR on top of your favorite pasta. A quick way of making this into pizza is to buy foccaccia bread and simply top and reheat.

SIMPLE SAUCE
4 Italian Sausages *go for quality of flavor
3# ripe tomatoes
1 finely diced onion
2T olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
Place ripe tomatoes in a large bowl and cover in boiling water for a bit until skins break and they are easy to peel. While they are waiting in bowl, dice onion and start slowly sauteing over medium low heat in a largish pot. Add peeled tomatoes and Italian Sausage, let them all simmer for 1-2 hours, pull the sausage for a side dish, or dice and return to the pot for a meat sauce, season after tasting (the seasoning of the sausage has now infused your sauce amazingly!). Use this sauce to top polenta (simply boil corn meal until soft in salted water), gnocchi (recipe below) or favorite pasta. Many of the ladies would use this sauce over thick slices of hearty bread as a great use of left-over sauce!

GNOCCHI (this one from friend Maria A.)
2 large well boiled potatoes
2-4 cups flour
salt to taste
Bail the potatoes whole until their skin breaks and they are very soft, Maria says boiling with skin gives them the best flavor. If you have marble counter tops or work board just use this work space, no need for bowls. Peel the potato when just as cool as you can stand and it mashes easily between your fingers. Work the potatoes until smooth then add flour while continuing to work the potatoes until you have a nice firm dough. Roll out the dough on floured surface and cut into 1/3-1/2 inch squares. Put the cut squares into a bowl with some flour at the bottom and gently toss until they are lightly covered and not sticking to one another. Drop into pot of salted water and you have gourmet gnocchi ready and floating to the top in less than 4 minutes!