Chicory: A specialty of Rome and probably a vegetable you should know

Raw chicory bundled from the market

I've heard about chicory before... well, at least I think I'd heard about chicory. I honestly had no idea what it was exactly until getting to Rome two weeks ago.  Chicory or Cicoria is a specialty here (along with artichokes). It is a leafy green vegetable, similar to spinach but more bitter, almost like a broccoli rabe.  It is utterly delicious but is somewhat particular.
I love it.  I've tried it a bunch of times now and I can't get enough. I honestly wish I had known about it sooner because it's a great addition to my vegetable repetoire. It's a leafy green like spinach, broccoli rabe and kale, so it's very, very healthy and packed with vitamins.
Chicory is a somewhat woody plant with beautiful, bright blue flowers. Upon seeing a picture of it in the
wild, I wouldn't naturally think that it's an edible plant, but now that I've tried it, I know better. The leaves are edible raw in salads or cooked down like spinach while the roots can be baked, ground and then used as a healthy coffee substitute. It is far more common in Europe which is why it isn't very well known in the states but it has recently started being cultivated in North America and Australia. It's becoming more widely available which is definitely nice. I would really hate coming back to the states and not being able to eat it all of a sudden. It's slowly becoming a staple in my diet.

Ripassata served at "Il Secchio" in Rome Center

I love how it's prepared in Rome. It's either prepared "all'agro" which means cooked down in a pan with some olive oil and salt and then drizzled with freshly squeezed lemon juice. The lemon works quite nicely with the bitterness of the chicory leaves. The other popular preparation of chicory is "ripassata". Basically the fresh chicory leaves are cooked down in a pan just like all'agro except it is cooked with olive oil, whole cloves of garlic and a small quantity of red pepper flakes. It is absolutely delicious and my favorite way to eat it. I even taught myself how to prepare it.  It's super easy to make and utterly delicious.

what I started with in my pan...

The only thing to remember is that like spinach, it is a very deceiving vegetable. When you first put it into a hot pan it looks like you're going to be making a lot of it. However, by the end of the cooking process, the leaves loose their water and shrink down. So I suggest always making more than you think absolutely necessary so you have enough to eat. It is utterly delicious but you always need to make more since it shrinks.

what I wound up with...

Chicory has been around for a long time, even Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) a leading Roman lyric poet through 65 to 8 BC ate chicory. It's been a cultivated crop for centuries but is still a delicious staple in many people's diets. I strongly recommend giving it a shot. Add it to your diet for its lovely flavor and the healthy addition it makes to your diet.  It is a great vegetable so try cooking it for yourself or if you're in Rome, you should absolutely order it as a side dish to go with your meal. It's usually very affordable and I've never had it poorly made. Believe me, I've tried it in a lot of restaurants. It is generally really, really good.

As part of your New Year, give it a chance. Try something new!

Vegetables and Markets

I mentioned open air markets a couple of weeks ago. They’re a great source of fresh produce across Italy.

In Acilia, where I work, the market is on Tuesday and Friday which works pretty well for my schedule. However’ there are dozens of markets that crop up across Rome (well, in most Italian cities) that are similar.

But what happens when you want fresh vegetables on days without an outdoor market in your area?

Well, there are 2 solutions.

1. Go to a regular supermarket. It’s not quite as fresh as the open air markets but it’s still really good. It can also be a little more expensive but sometimes there are more options because they have things that have been imported.
2. Otherwise there are small fixed vegetable/fruit markets. They specialize in fruits and vegetables. Everything is still very fresh and generally speaking, very cheap.

When I was staying with Endira, I went to a closed vegetable market and I bought a lb of green beans and 2 red peppers for €0.50 total.  Yeah… Vegetables can be that cheap.

I turned the green beans into a steamed side dish for two one evening and then sautéed the peppers to eat on salads and sandwiches. 

Such a good use of fifty cents!

Ten Ways to Get Kids to Eat "Green Things"

As children my brother and I were prone to shouting, "EWWW, green things!"  It was one of those hilarious (or not so hilarious things) our mother and grandmother had to put up with.  We were challenging to say the least and when we were trying to behave it was kind of comical how often adults seemed to have the same opinion.  I will never forget the night my mother took my brother and I to a restaurant with two of her coworkers. I don't remember what I ordered at that Italian restaurant but I do remember that my brother was so picky that he could only order pasta with butter and cheese (yes, I facefaulted even then). When it came out, my mother and I had to hold our breath, the plate was sprinkled with some kind of green herb garnish. Luckily for us, my brother decided to dig in anyway without commentary.  Her coworker, after a brief moment shouted, "Eww, what's that green stuff?"  I thought Mom was going to die, goodness knows I was laughing very, very hard.  Adults are supposed to like vegetables. Kids are the ones who are supposed to be difficult about fresh vegetables.

We were such pains about most vegetables. Goodness knows, I only ate a handful of veggies and my brother ate even fewer than I did. In retrospect, I don't know why I wouldn't eat vegetables because now I love them. I know that sometimes I didn't like the texture of vegetables, other times it was a flavor issue and sometimes it was sheer stubbornness... When Mom or Grams would put their foots down, I would eat the bare minimum to avoid their anger. Now, I think vegetables are delicious and I've been thinking of some ways to make them look appealing to even kids.

Besides force feeding, here are some suggestions on how to get kids (and some adults ::wink::) to eat their "green things."

1. Set a good example! Eat your vegetables, and they'll start to pick up good habits. Not to say this always works, afterall Grams and Mom ate their veggies and I couldn't be bothered.  But it's still a good place to start.
2. If not, try making vegetables playful! Kids love make believe so bring pretend play to the table. Broccoli can be trees. Celery can be logs, especially if served with peanut butter and raisin ants. An octopus out of red pepper served with ranch or french onion dip is fun to play with. Pack a lady bug garden bento box. Or a cucumber racecar! Build a jungle on your plate with string beans, carrots and different kinds of greenery. Or maybe a grilled cheese and veggie train.  An edible rainbow would be colorfully delicious!
3. Get the kids involved! Have them help you prepare the meal, either by picking the vegetables at the store or by cleaning the veggies during prep time.  They'll be more inclined to eat the veggies if they're actively involved in the process. When I was younger, I helped my grandmother with our garden in the backyard. I was far more interested in eating the vegetables that I had helped plant and grow. 
4. Don't force kids (or picky adults) to finish their plates.  I know, seems counterintuitive, but if you force someone to eat something, they will develop negative associations. However, you should enforce the one bite rule.  They need to at least try the new vegetable each time it's on their plate. So one bite, but no fighting.  One of the reasons that I hated string beans for so long was because I associated them with my grandmother and brother trying to force me to eat them and clear my plate. The last straw for me was when my lovely brother shoved a handful into my face, and effectively into my nose. I could not and would not eat string beans again until I was 20 and even then I wasn't thrilled with them. 
5. Basic bribery: Every time they eat their veggies, or a bite of a new type of vegetable, some kind of reward can be offered.  I loved stickers growing up so if someone had said, if you try these beets you get a sticker, I pretty much would have jumped at the opportunity. I really liked my stickers. 
6. Don't tell them how healthy vegetables are.  Kids tend to think they're invincible so health is not high on their list of priorities.  However, kids do want to get bigger and stronger. I ate spinach because I thought it would help me become like Popeye who was, in my mind, super cool and super strong. 
7. Make it colorful. Little kids like bright colors, so serve up some colorful vegetables seperately rather than in a casserole. 
8. Use butter, garlic and bacon!  You can absolutely make veggies more appealing by cooking them with things that have big flavors.  Positive associations after all. :D 
9. Hide them: Add the veggies like spinach, beets, carrots, salad and other neutrally flavored vegetables to smoothies with fresh fruit. They don't add flavor but they add to nutrition. Super healthy and delicious! I had a delicious berry, banana and spinach smoothie the other day and you couldn't tell their was spinach in there by sight or taste. You can also cut and freeze the fruit ahead of time and then you won't have to add ice to the smoothie. 
10. Hide them: Sweet tooth? Shred up your veggies and bake them into a cake or cookies, like my Double Chocolate chip zucchini cookies, Carrot Cake, and Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. Don't mention the veggie and the kids will eat up their dessert, not knowing that they're getting a dose of vitamins. If you're worried about sugar content you can always cut the quantity of sugar in most recipes and skip the chocolate. I seem to have chocolate chips in most of my recipes because I LOVE chocolate.  And the great thing about this is that almost any cake can be made with veggies, it will just add some moisture. 

Mind you, 9 and 10 are really kind of last resorts. They absolutely work to get kids (and adults) the nutrition they need but at the same time they don't solve the basic problem. Smoothies and cakes with hidden vegetables don't make kids like vegetables. They simply add nutrition to a diet. My other suggestions are far more realistic if you want a child or adult to get enjoyment out of their food. The ideas can help people actually start to enjoy eating vegetables and new foods. Enjoyment of healthy foods is the first step to leading a healthy lifestyle.

Recipe: Baked Omelette

I've been running a couple of days a week lately and I keep looking for healthy ways to satiate my hunger in a healthy way.  Protein is a great way to fill up so I automatically thought of omelettes. They're easy and fast. High protein and you can put as many fresh vegetables as you like... However, it's usually also cooked in oil and can get heavy depending on cheese and other ingredients.
That didn't stop me from making myself an omelette. I just switched it up a bit by baking it in the oven. I made it a little bigger than necessary, so it served me as two meals

Baked Omelette
3 eggs
4 baby red and orange peppers, sliced finely
1/4 onion, sliced finely
1/4 cup whipped cream cheese
1 tsp chives
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray your small pan with some pan.
In a bowl whip together the eggs, cream cheese and spices.  Once well blended, fold in the peppers and onions.
Pour into the pan and sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes.
The eggs will fluff up while the cheese bakes in the moisture.

The best part about the baked omelette is that you can really put any kind of vegetable inside and they stay just crisp enough in the baking process. Brocolli and onions would work. Sweet potatoes. Spinach. Kale. Sooo many great possibilities.

-Raspberry Truffle

Let's talk SALAD

The beauty of a healthy salad for lunch

serious nutritious yummyness

So I know quite a few people who think that salads are boring and unappetizing... But really, that's not true!

Who says a salad can't be delicious and gorgeous, and just as much fun as other foods?

Yes, plain lettuce is a boring salad. So dress it up! Add in beautiful colors with other veggies and proteins. Keep it simple, healthy and nutritious with fresh ingredients.

I've been on a bit of a health kick recently and decided that salad would be a great lunch option... But only if I could figure out a way to make my salad delicious and well, not boring.

So, the salad that I perpetually go back to is healthy (and gorgeous, if I do say so myself!) and packed with all sorts of beneficial nutrients.

Spread out on a larger plate in all its colorful glory (here with Romaine lettuce)

I used arugula (although, if you don't enjoy the slightly bitter taste, I would use Romaine or even regular lettuce for a more mild taste). I then added corn, freshly sliced tomatoes, and a hard boiled egg (although some of my Jersey girls insist that one egg just isn't enough for a salad lunch xp). A little salt, pepper and oregano and then dressed with a drizzle of Italy's finest olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

And that's only one variation!  If you don't like hard-boiled egg (I know it's kind of particular), I sometimes add chickpeas to my salad for protein kick! If avocados are in season, I love to add half of one for some healthy fat to the mix (yes I know, quite the conundrum, healthy fat... lol). Beets could add a kick of color and sweetness. Red onions also work (although I prefer my onions sauteed and juicy). If you're bored of normal lettuce varieties, fresh spinach is a wonderful substitution! OOooo Also, never forget the power of adding cheesy yumminess! Mozzarella, swiss, gouda, feta, ricotta, and so forth and so on.  Or nuts!  I love to add walnuts to my salads! And others tell me almonds and peanuts are great additions as well (I dislike both varieties sooo I'll stick to my walnuts!).
But you can always go further out of the box and create an amazing salad with ingredients you wouldn't think to put in a salad. Like fruit!  I love adding fresh rasperries or strawberries to my salads. And sliced apples or pears work wonderfully if you're also using nuts!  Oranges make a great juicy addition too. (There's an amazing Sicilian salad that I'll have to write up a recipe for using only fennel, onions and blood oranges! It's gorgeous and delicious!!)

As for dressings, I mean really, the options are limitless!  I mean there are your creamy Italians, drool worthy Russians, saucy Frenches... wait... I may have just gone off on a tangent... I'm describing salad dressing, NOT men... :P
Yes, so, as I was saying dressings. There's the stuff you buy in jars and then you can always get creative and make your own. Add a little dijon mustard to your balsamic and olive oil for a little tang. Sometimes heating up some honey to drizzle on top is also amazing (My friend Kim makes this wonderful dressing by melting feta, honey, olive oil, and pine nuts all together in the oven before serving the amazing concoction over arugula and pears).

And now that I've successfully given myself a salad craving, I'm off!

~Raspberry Truffle

Recipe: Tortellini Soup...

It's not exactly soup.... There was definitely less broth than I had anticipated, but it was absolutely delicious anyway. :)
It was wonderful for the "snowstorm" that kept me trapped in Sesto Fiorentino. Warm with a little kick of goodness.

Tortellini Soup
5-6 carrots, peeled and sliced
4-5 stalks of celery, washed and sliced
1/2 a large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
3 medium sized potatoes, cubed
Olive oil
1 boullion cube (follow package to make broth)
1 package of prosciutto tortellini
nutmeg
red pepper flakes
oregano and basil
salt and pepper


Saute the onions and garlic over a low heat until the onion begins to wilt (approximately 5 minutes). Add the spices and cook for 1 minute before adding the carrots, celery and potatoes. When the veggies are almost half done pour in the boullion cube broth (about a quart). Cover and let simmer for about a half hour (the potatoes should be almost fully dissolved). If adventurous, and legally of age, add in a liberal amount of whiskey for flavor. (Don't worry the alcohol will cook off).
Uncover and add the tortellini.  Cook according to package time.

~Raspberry Truffle