The Best Chili

When I was growing up, we spent a lot of Christmas and summer vacations making long treks cross-country in a minivan. We lived in northern Michigan. Bajee, my mom's mom, lives in southern Colorado, about a 24-hour drive away. My dad's parents, Grandmom and Pop, lived in Memphis, about 14 hours. Many of my parents's friends lived in New York. My sister and I got comfortable in the backseat, hauling great bulging backpacks full of books, crayons, travel games, and later, magazines, journals and portable CD players. We knew how to do a road trip.

Every time we arrived in Memphis, Grandmom would dish out bowls of the spiciest soup I had ever tasted, and we would eat every last bite, not wanting to suffer the shame of being labeled sissy Yanks by our cool older cousins. When I went to college, my mom started making chili for me when I'd come home. Spicy chili with shredded cheddar, warm corn bread with lots of butter and honey. We'd sit at the same dining room table we always had, just my family, sinking right back into our old ways of being together.

This time of year, I crave this kind of food. Hearty, packed with flavor, tasting like home. When friends and family arrive at your house this winter, road-weary and sick of fast food, give them some chili. It makes everyone feel better. Beer doesn't hurt either, but chili is a great place to start.



NOTE: This is not turkey chili, or chicken chili, or veggie chili. This is not low-fat chili. If you're looking for low-fat chili, I advise you to rethink your life choices look elsewhere. If you're looking for chili that warms you up from the inside out, makes children and grown men alike grin with delight, and tastes like the chili that would win first prize in Heaven's chili cookoff, MAKE THIS NOW.

The Best Chili

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package mild breakfast sausage (like Tennessee Pride)
1.5 pounds 80% lean ground beef
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 15-oz. cans kidney beans, rinsed
2 25-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more or less to taste

Place the olive oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add the sausage and ground beef and saute, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon as you go, until it is mostly brown. Add the onion, green pepper, garlic, and tomato paste, and cook about 2 minutes, stirring until combined. Add the beans, tomatoes and spices, and stir. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Simmer 2-3 hours or more (you can also transfer to a crock pot and cook it all day). Taste and adjust seasonings, and serve with whatever condiments and sides you like: corn bread, Saltines, sour cream, shredded cheddar, chopped onions, green onions, Tabasco sauce.

Late Summer Minestrone

Hello?

...Anyone still here?

I accidentally took the summer off from blogging! I trust that you have been eating well, taking advantage of beautiful weather and farmers markets, and hopefully you've been online less this summer as well!

I'm back, because fall energizes me and makes me excited about what I'm cooking again! And I want to share! To kick off your weekend, a simple summer soup. Late summer means you can put whatever you want in it - seriously. Anything that looks good at the market, or that you have too much of in your garden. Yesterday I was reading a novel, in which a soup like this was described: a recipe that's never quite the same, served with whole grain bread and salted butter. Into the kitchen I flew!



(not pictured: pile mountain of unfolded clean laundry, several piles of clutter, unvacuumed floors all made possible by aforementioned novel-reading and soup-making.)

Late Summer Minestrone

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, rinsed well and sliced
3 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 zucchini, chopped
1 cup shelled fresh cranberry beans (or cooked cannellini beans)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 large can whole tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper
Asiago cheese, for serving

In a soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the leek, carrots, celery and garlic, and cook 3-4 minutes. Add the zucchini, beans, tomato paste, and tomatoes, crushing the tomatoes slightly with your hands as you add them. Fill the can again with water, and add that to the pot. Add the herbs, bring to a simmer, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer 20-30 minutes, until the beans and vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve with Asiago cheese grated on top.

Chicken and Stars

Just when I think I am getting the hang of things, something happens to throw me off, humble me, make me realize that ultimately, I am not actually in control. This time, let's call that thing February. This month has been a little rough around here, starting with a nursing strike. Breastfeeding is amazing for a host of well-publicized reasons (it is a perfect, free, easily-digested and fully customized food for the baby, helps you lost weight, delays the return of postpartum fertility, gives several happy- and calm-inducing hormones for you and baby, is totally portable and instantly ready, acts to soothe and comfort in almost any situation...), until something happens that makes it hard. We had a relatively easy start, and while I was always thankful for the ease of our nursing relationship, I definitely took it for granted. Never again! I have a new (albeit slight) insight into how my friend Sarah must have felt when she struggled to nurse her girl, and fresh compassion and understanding for her (totally right, brave) decision to bottle-feed.

But that was just the beginning. Just as things were getting back to normal, Daddy caught a horrible cold, which kept him home from work several days last week. Serves me right for thinking how lucky we were to get through this awful cold and flu season unscathed!! And now Anne has the cold, too. It breaks my heart to hear her congested cough and runny little nose, especially because there's no way to explain to her what's going on, and very little I can do to help.

There have been a few rays of sunshine, literal and figurative. Anne has learned how to laugh. My seeds came in the mail, and garden planning is in full swing. I've been leaning hard on homemade broths in the kitchen, and this superstar of a soup was last week's victory. Really, it's just a very basic, classic chicken soup (there's ginger and garlic in the broth, but not enough to be able to clearly identify either flavor). To boost the Asian flavor and healing power, I added sriracha and fresh-squeezed lime juice to my bowl. I'm doing everything I can to fight off the germs that are lurking in every corner of this house that hasn't seen fresh air for months, and this soup is just the kind of soldier I like to have on my side.



Chicken and Stars

The stock is the star of the show here, so make sure it's high-quality. Homemade is best. Recipe below.

2 quarts chicken stock
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup stelline, alphabet pasta, orzo, or other tiny pasta

In a large pot, heat the chicken stock. Add the parsnips and carrots, and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling salted water (I made the mistake of just adding dry pasta to a soup once... and there was no soup left, just pasta. Oops.) and drain. When the vegetables are about done, add the cooked pasta and frozen peas and continue simmering until heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning (usually more salt; if using homemade, un-salted stock, about a tablespoon of salt is great). Serve with a squeeze of fresh lime and sriracha to taste (about a tablespoon is great for clearing up your sinuses, and also, OH YUM).

Homemade Ginger-Garlic Chicken Stock

Ginger and garlic are both great natural cold remedies.

Bones from 1 whole roaster chicken, picked mostly clean of meat
1 piece fresh ginger, about 6 inches, thinly sliced (peeling is optional)
4-6 cloves fresh garlic, smashed and peeled
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Place all ingredients in a large pot and cover with cold water (about 2 quarts). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6-8 hours. You can also combine everything in a slow-cooker and simmer overnight. Strain solids out and discard. Use in soup or cool and freeze for later use.

Potato Leek Soup

It is a magical day today! 10.11.12! I'm not sure why these days feel so exciting to me - I suspect it is because we made 6.7.08 our wedding day, so the sequential dates feel important and fun and full of promise. We are also having the most beautiful fall weather imaginable; blue skies that could only be possible in October, spectacular sunrises, eye-popping color on the trees, and cool, crisp temperatures. It is an absolutely LOVELY time of year.  I hope you are enjoying it as well!

We haven't turned the heat on in our home yet this year, and I think my husband is suffering.  Here's a snippet of conversation from earlier this week:

Him: How are you doing, temperature-wise?
Me: Great! I'm very comfortable.
Him: Oh ok. That's good then.
Me: Why, are you cold?
Him: Well, it's 65 degrees in here.

Poor guy. When they say you've got a bun in the oven, you tend to focus on the "bun" part, and not so much on the "oven." Let me tell you, I am an oven. I try to make up for the lack of heat by roasting chickens and making soup! We'll be warm from the inside out.



Potato Leek Soup
adapted from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups

4 tablespoons butter
3 large leeks, rinsed well and thinly sliced
4 potatoes, diced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 rib celery, diced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock (or water)
1 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Add the leeks and cook over medium heat for a few minutes, until slightly softened.  Add potatoes, carrots, and celery and saute about 5 more minutes. Season with thyme, and add the stock or water. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat to medium-low.  Continue simmering about 45 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are tender.  Puree about half the soup in a blender and return to the pot. Add the milk, stir, and heat through. Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste.

Cream of Asparagus Soup

**NOTE: I have fixed the thing that was making it impossible to pin photos to Pinterest, thanks to this helpful post. If you have a blog and you've been having the same issue, I hope that helps! If you don't have a blog but you like to pin my posts and recipes, thank you! I love it when you share!!

For my blogday, I asked people to suggest things they'd like to see on the blog. My good friend Cassie asked for some asparagus soup, and since this hot weather is about to send the asparagus packing, it's now or never! I had never had asparagus soup before, and I have to say this is not my favorite preparation of this vegetable. Upon first taste I thought maybe I hadn't seasoned it well, or maybe it was too much stock and not enough vegetable, but after letting it rest a day in the fridge it turns out it was actually a pretty nice soup. It's just very, very subtle. And since asparagus has such a short season, I'd rather just barely saute it and toss with pasta, or shave it and pile it on a pizza, or steam it and dip it in a creamy sauce. But! If a velvety, subtly-flavored light green soup sounds like just the thing for you, give this a try!

Cream of Asparagus Soup

I've seen several recommendations from other sources that if you puree asparagus, you should strain it to remove any lingering tough or woody pieces, but I found it to be an unnecessary step. My soup was plenty smooth without straining. Follow your heart, though, and make sure to trim your asparagus well. Peeling the hard edges might also help with especially woody asparagus.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch spring onions, or 1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1- to 2-inch lengths

4 cups water, vegetable stock, or chicken stock

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute about 3-5 minutes, until slightly softened. Add asparagus and toss together. Season with salt and pepper, add the water or stock, and simmer until the asparagus can be easily smashed against the side of the pot with a spoon, about 10-15 minutes (more or less depending on how thick your asparagus is). Puree in batches in a blender, and then return to the pot over low heat. Stir in the butter and cream, taste, and adjust seasoning. Serve warm or cold.

Yield: about 4-6 servings

Armenian Potato Leek Soup

Friends, I have been living large this week. I found out about an absolutely amazing donut shop that is a short walk from my office (Do-Rite Donuts OMG), accidentally stumbled upon the downtown Chicago Farmstand (as I was trying to find aforementioned donut shop for the first time), and went to the first outdoor Green City Market of the season! So exciting!



I love the produce at the beginning of spring. It's so tender and bright green and delicate. It deserves to be treated gently. Last Thursday, I was impatiently waiting our trip to the market on Saturday morning, so finding the Farmstand was like getting to open a present on Christmas Eve. I got some rhubarb, leeks, pea tendrils, and mint, and started dreaming about dinner.

As I started pulling things together for this soup that evening, I wasn't purposefully trying to turn it into an Armenian-flavored dish. I just wanted a light, simple way to spotlight these first few springtime treasures. But when I tasted it, the mint and yogurt were unmistakably Armenian. One of my favorite meals from my childhood was Tan Abour, a delicious soup made with lamb stock, yogurt, mint, and barley. This hits all the same flavor spots, and only takes about 25 minutes to come together, making it a perfect supper for a springtime weeknight. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!



Armenian Potato Leek Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 small potatoes, about a pound, peeled and cubed
2 leeks, rinsed well and sliced
2 cups vegetable stock or water
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup whole milk yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a wide, shallow saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the leeks and onions, and saute for a few minutes, until the vegetables are getting some color in places. Season lightly with salt and pepper, and add the vegetable stock or water. Cover and reduce the heat to low, and simmer about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Puree in a blender. Return to the pot and stir in the milk, and heat through over low heat.

In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, lemon juice, mint, and salt. Stir yogurt mixture into the soup and mix well, or ladle soup into bowls and drizzle a little bit of the yogurt mixture over each bowl. Serve warm or chilled. Top each bowl with a little pile of pea tendrils.

Serves three as a meal, four as a first course.

Borscht

This winter has been perhaps the gentlest one I can remember. There have been no blizzards, no ten-day stretches where the thermometer doesn't even get above zero. I've needed my hat and serious boots only a handful of times. Now that it's officially March, anything that happens weather-wise can reasonably be blamed on the caprices of spring. I feel a little disoriented, but I'm not complaining.

Lack of extreme weather aside, there's still not a lot of color on the outdoor landscape during these months. Though it's not cold, it's still pretty dark. We've had our fair share of dreary days, and the grass that has been visible much more than normal is looking pretty tired. I find it really encouraging, when the world is languishing in shades of grey, that you can dig up roots that look like this:



They're so thoughtful.

This soup is delightful. Packed with veggies, warm and comforting, and bright, bright, BRIGHT! Beets and carrots get roasted first, for an extra layer of flavor. I wouldn't say no to a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

(P.S. I'm participating in Soupapalooza with TidyMom and Dine and Dish, sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast, and Le Creuset! Come join the party with your soup recipes!)



Borscht

If you happen to have beef stock on hand, you can use that in place of some or all of the water and beef bouillon. You can also omit all beef entirely and just use water for a vegetarian soup. Also, this soup is lovely puréed, if you like that. I find it more satisfying to have something to sink my teeth into, especially if soup is the main course. A puréed version would make a great first course.

2-3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 large beets, scrubbed clean and quartered
3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium-sized russet potato, peeled and cubed
1/2 head red or green cabbage, shredded
2 tablespoons beef bouillon, optional (use more salt if omitting)
dried or fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream or yogurt, optional
balsamic vinegar, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a baking dish or roasting pan, arrange beets and carrots in a single layer. Drizzle one tablespoon olive oil over, and toss well. Add about a cup of water to the dish, and roast for about 45 minutes, until beets are tender and easy to peel. Remove from oven and allow to rest until cool enough to handle. Slip the skins from beets and dice.

In a soup pot or Dutch oven, heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until softened, about 10 minutes. Add diced beets and carrots, potato, cabbage, and dried dill, if using (if using fresh, wait until the end to add it). Stir well and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Add about 10 cups cold water to the pot, so that all the vegetables are completely covered. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, until all vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot or cold, garnished with sour cream or yogurt, balsamic vinegar, and a sprig of fresh dill.

Miso-Carrot Soup

We're back to it. Eating our vegetables, buying less stuff, spending more time with people we love. The sparkle of New Year's has worn off, and we're left with clouds and cold, sweaters and snow. How are your resolutions faring?

I am so excited about the food I've been eating lately. So many vegetables, roasted, braised, and sauteed, dressed merrily in herbs and spices, and dancing with citrus. It may be grey and dreary outside, but there is no shortage of color in the kitchen. Carrots! Beets! Blood oranges! Grapefruit!





Treat yourself to a really great lunch of miso-carrot soup and this beet salad, and then use the energy boost to power through a productive afternoon! All those fruits and veggies combine to give you superpowers that no rain/snow mix could dampen. Go forth and do great things!

p.s. Did you know that you can get ten pounds of organic carrots for just under $7 at Costco? Crazy deal.

p.p.s. If you make this salad and pack it for lunch, make double-triple sure the container it's in can't leak. The inside of my lunchbox was fuchsia for a day.

Miso-Carrot Soup
adapted from smitten kitchen

I used ginger-chicken broth in this soup, because I had it leftover, and wasn't a huge fan of it on its own, but vegetable broth is perfect as well. Make sure to choose a low-sodium version if you're not using homemade - the miso is pretty salty, and you want to be able to control the seasoning yourself.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large vidalia onion, thinly sliced
4 medium cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
4 cups low-sodium broth
1/4 cup red miso paste
juice of 1 lemon

toasted sesame oil and roughly chopped parsley or cilantro, to finish

Place the oil in a large Dutch oven and heat over medium flame.  Add carrots, onion, and garlic, and saute until onions are translucent, about ten minutes. Add broth and ginger, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and puree in batches in a blender, or use an immersion blender. Ladle a small amount of soup into a small bowl, and whisk in the miso paste.  Whisk miso mixture and lemon juice into soup and taste, adding salt, pepper, or more miso if necessary. Ladle into bowls and finish with a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and a sprinkling of fresh herbs.

Pasta e Fagioli

Happy new year! How did you spend the last days of 2011? We weren't able to take the week off, so we were home, working during the days and trying to somehow make it still feel like Christmas in the evenings. We ended up being pretty successful. We went to see the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights, had friends over for soup and salad, joined same friends on a different night for pizza and Wii, and attended a fabulous New Year's Eve party complete with vodka tasting, banana split bites and fireworks on Navy Pier.







Do you love my Christmas dress?! I WON IT! Courtesy of Oona and the ladies at Shabby Apple. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Aside from the dress, one of the best gifts I got this Christmas was the newly released Cook's Illustrated cookbook. I urge you to buy it for yourself and anyone else you know who is even moderately interested in cooking. It is like a recipe encyclopedia, and threatens to make all my other cookbooks (and even *gasp* the Internet) obsolete. A Google search for a recipe is so risky! I mean, I do it all the time, but each time I try a recipe I got online, there's a little bit of breath-holding, especially if I got it from a mildly unreliable source. With this cookbook, I know that each recipe has been tested and tested again, and I trust it completely. Also, I've made several things from it already, and they've all turned out magnificently. At just over $20, it is also a great deal.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and that your 2012 is off to a fantastic start!



Pasta e Fagioli
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

This traditional Italian soup is even better a day or two after you make it, when the flavors really get a chance to meld. The heirloom beans I used barely hold their shape, transforming the broth into a velvety bean gravy.

Pronunciation: PASTA (duh) EH FA-JOH-LEE.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped fine
1 celery rib, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 anchovy fillets, rinsed and minced
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 Parmesan cheese rind (or a 2-inch cube of cheese)
3 cups cooked cargamanto cranberry beans (or 2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans)
3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 1/2 cups water
salt and pepper
1 cup orzo, or other tiny pasta
2 ounces grated Parmesan, for sprinkling

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add celery and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, and anchovies and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and deglaze the pan. Add Parmesan rind and beans and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes.

Add chicken broth, water, and one teaspoon salt. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes.  Remove and discard Parmesan rind. Remove from heat, ladle into bowls, and serve with grated Parmesan for passing.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

I took a yoga class last week.  My first Baptiste Power Yoga class ever.  I've been practicing yoga on and off for several years, but I've never felt a particular sense of commitment to one form or another.  I like Bikram, but it tends to be hard to fit it into my schedule.  Ashtanga is great; I like the idea of building heat from the inside using breath and flowing through the postures.  I've always felt challenged by the classes I've taken, but Baptiste?  Baptiste should be in a category of its own.  It takes the external heat of Bikram and combines it with the internal vinyasa/breath heat of Ashtanga, and it is SO. HARD.  (Also, I just want to mention Om on the Range - fantastic teachers, clean facility, lots of different classes in two different locations, and such a welcoming atmosphere.  I love it!  Go try it - $20 for your first unlimited week!)

Of course, when you leave the class, you barely remember how hard it was because you're practically high with all the endorphins.  Amazing.  I ended up taking 3 classes last week, and I'm desperately looking for a hole in my upcoming schedule so I can go back again.

Isn't it funny how one little decision can make such a difference in the direction of your whole life?  One day, I'm lethargic, eating Chee-tos on the couch and watching 6 episodes of Scrubs in a row.  The next day, I take a yoga class, and it's like I've suddenly regained the ability to take good care of myself!  I come home from yoga, take a shower, put a clay mask on my face, and make myself a nutritious meal. 

Who knew that the basic laws of physics could be so aptly applied to peoples' lives?  Physics was the only math/science class I actually enjoyed in high school.  I liked exploring the explanations of realities that we experience every day but rarely think about.  Evidently interest is not enough, because my inadequate math skills landed me a C in the class (give me a list of vocab words any day), but maybe it worked out.  I'll just apply my limited understanding of physics to yoga, luscious fall soups and life lessons.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

When I was growing up, my mom used to make a dish of roasted bone-in chicken, potatoes, apples and carrots, in a yellowish mustard-honey-curry sauce.  It was a fantastic cool-weather dinner, and was easy on her, too, since it only used one baking dish.  This soup is my take on those same flavors, without the chicken.  To make it truly vegan, replace the honey with agave nectar.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 sweet onion, diced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 15-oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can light coconut milk
2 tart apples (preferably Granny Smith), cored and chopped
salt to taste

Place the olive oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute, stirring often, until it starts to soften.  Add celery and carrots and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes.  Add butternut squash.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are starting to brown slightly on the edges.  Add curry powder, honey, and mustard, and stir well.  Add 2-3 cups of water (depending on how thin you like your soup), stir to combine, and bring soup to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes, until vegetables are almost done.  Add apples and garbanzo beans and simmer a few minutes more, until just tender.  Stir in coconut milk at the very end, and season with salt to taste.

This is great by itself, or over brown rice or quinoa for an even heartier meal.

Yield: about 6 servings.

Ratatouille Niçoise

I only lived alone for one year of my life.  I lived with roommates in college, and then for one year I lived in a tiny little studio apartment, and then I got married and moved in with my hubby.  I loved that one year.  I loved having the total freedom I had there.  If I wanted to watch TV or practice or listen to music late at night, I wasn't bothering anyone.  That space was one hundred percent mine.  I lived a couple of blocks from a Whole Foods, and once in a while, I took myself on little dates.  I would walk over there and buy a bottle of wine, some cheese, bread, and whatever else looked good, and bring it home to make dinner for myself.  Then I'd take a long, hot bath and read a book.  Far from being lonely, those evenings by myself were soul-nourishing and wonderful.

The kitchen of my tiny studio.

One of my favorite things to make on such nights was ratatouille, which is a traditional Provençal vegetable stew.  My family spent three weeks in Nice when I was six years old, and I assume that's when this recipe made its way into my mom's regular rotation.  The longer I'm away from home, the more I realize how incredibly spoiled my sister and I were by the food my mother consistently put on our dinner table.  Warm and fragrant, with the heady scent of herbs and red wine, a big bowl of ratatouille and a slice of crusty French bread spread thickly with soft goat cheese is comfort food at its finest.

Ratatouille Niçoise

The amounts and ingredients in this recipe are pretty flexible.  Just play around with it until you find something that you love.  And like most soups and stews, this gets better with time - the flavors blend and mellow and make magic together.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
2 medium summer squash, halved and sliced into 1/2-inch half-moons
2 medium zucchini, halved and sliced into 1/2-inch half-moons
1 large or 2-3 small eggplants, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup dry red wine
1 teaspoon herbes de provence
1 28-oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes

Heat the oil over medium heat in a soup pot or dutch oven.  Add the vegetables as you chop them, stirring in the next addition as it comes.  When all the veggies are in the pot, cook them until they are beginning to brown and soften.  Add wine and let cook for a minute or two.  Then add herbs and tomatoes, and stir well.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft, but not falling apart.  The eggplant takes the longest to soften - taste a piece, and if the skin is still tough, give it another 10 minutes or so.  Serve as a side dish with roasted chicken, or as a sauce for pasta, or my favorite way: by itself, with a piece of French bread and goat cheese.