Monthly Newsletter by Chef Silvia Bianco

Dog Days and Sultry Nights

August 2007

Immersed in the "dog days" of summer--which Webster's dictionary defines as: 1. the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere and 2. a period of stagnation or inactivity--I feel it's effects profoundly. The ancient Romans called this time the "dog days" after the constellation, Sirius, the dog star which shines high in the northern hemisphere at this time of year. Certainly, in August, Rome is especially hot and muggy and Italians flee en mass to experience the sultry breezes of area beaches. leaving only the tourists to walk the heat drenched streets. In this sense, I couldn't help but notice that maybe we, too, are becoming more Italian.

My usually thriving New England community, now eerily quiet under the dog sky, has dispersed to the beaches as well, leaving the rest of us behind to our inactivity and stagnation. Yet the inactivity of my body, when it's just too hot to do much of anything, has effortlessly led to a flow of activity in my mind, which transferred itself to my hands.

I sat for hours outside in the shade of my roofed patio of river rocks, around a bistro table, with a fan blowing overhead, watching my vegetable and herb garden expand before my eyes wondering at the magic of what was started from seed, now bearing the fruit of numerous meals shared with friends. For one, a young woman and recent transplant from Russia, the aroma of the tomato plants brought her back to her grandmother's garden in a remote coastal village of what was once the Soviet Union. For a moment, time and space did not exist as we tossed a salad of tomatoes, slivered red onions and basil drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.

With another foreign transplant--a fellow Italian-- we dined on fresh baby salad greens, tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and the blossoms from my massive zucchini plant dunked in a tempura batter, fried crispy on the out side, coating a delicate sweetness within---this, a seasonal delicacy from our youth, I also shared with a young California native who ate these blossoms for the first time. And then with another friend who after more than 30 years still remembers, as a young girl in Greece, picking these beautiful salmon colored flowers in the morning when their petals were wide open so they could be stuffed before frying. It seems at times that food and sky know no time or geography.

For my children who love a dish of pasta with tomato pesto, I made a slightly different version of this classic sauce---a pesto of tarragon, basil and parsley. I tossed the linguine only with the tomato sauce, then added a tablespoon of cream to the pesto and added a large dollop of it on top of each individual plate of pasta. This way with each twirl of the linguine, you dragged a bit of the pesto with it, getting the full taste of its intense flavor---unbelievably good.

Each time I prepared even the simplest meal from my garden, it was a reminder of how truly delicious fresh ingredients are. You've never tasted a tomato until you've bitten into one just plucked from the vine, eaten like the fruit it is. Herbs are a completely new experience when they're picked and torn over your food. And peas are truly sweet, eaten right from their pod. You haven't truly experienced summer until you've dined on its fruits, under the dog stars, listening to the rustle of the wind in the trees and feeling the humid, sultry air on your skin, talking far into the night with a close friend who simply "gets you".

Maybe the dog days of summer are meant to be inactive for us because the earth is so busy creating, she wants us to do nothing more than pay it the attention it deserves. Maybe in order to learn the secrets of its ways we need to first be witnesses to its boundless, graceful activity.

So gather with a friend or two and in your inactivity and stagnation, contemplate the universe while you munch on some tasty morsels from our great Earth.

Recipe this month...
Tarragon/Basil/Parsley Pesto
Tempura Batter

Have a great month,
Chef Silvia

Personal Growth

Yes, it's the lazy, hazy days of summer when it seems that everything slows down and nothing much seems to be happening--everyone's gone on vacation. So follow the clues around you and get lazy. Slow down and read a novel, take a nap, do something fun with your kids or your friends. Maybe you need to stop taking life or yourself so seriously and just laugh and smile more. What I know for sure is that some of the most profound and memorable experiences and realizations happen when we're not thinking at all and doing much of nothing.

Soffritto/Sofrito

I’ve recently been experimenting with ways to add additional flavor to various dishes such as soups, pasta and sauces (so that covers just about everything) so I returned back to my native soffritto which simply means a mix of aromatic, finely chopped vegetables and herbs gently sautéed in olive oil and added to many dishes for intense flavor. In many parts of Italy a basic soffritto consists of onions, carrots and celery. In the Italian kitchen of my youth, soffritto was usually a sauté of chopped onions and crushed red pepper flakes in olive oil, used to start a dish but sometimes a version of this was added at the end. One of my favorite was dried red chile peppers broken randomly in small chunks and sautéed gently for about 45 seconds in olive oil, seasoned with salt and drizzled on top of a simple pasta with tomato sauce. I can’t tell you what an amazing difference this addition made--bringing a good dish to the sublime.

Little did I know however that many cultures have their own versions of soffritto (or sofrito as it’s spelled in Latin cuisines) and though each uses finely chopped vegetables and herbs, the variations are endless, yet the purpose (to add intense flavor) and results are all similar.

One of my favorite--because of it’s versatility--is a Latin sofrito that in prepared in a food processor and then can be frozen in ice cube trays or air tight containers, ready to use all winter long. My version was a Mediterranean mix of Vidalia onions. garlic. jalapeno, chile and cubanello peppers, tomato and fresh parsley.

I placed one of each vegetable in the bowl of my food processor and pulsated until all were finely chopped. I stored the mix in a plastic container in the refrigerator and have used it almost every day since. I sautéed a few spoonfuls in some olive oil and added it to a 16 bean soup. I pan seared a skillet steak and rubbed a bit on each side of the meat a minute before taking it off the fire and it mixed in with the meat juices to make a delicious sauce. I also of course drizzled some over my linguine.