Caldo Verde and Roast Cauliflower

Wandering around on the web trying to find a recipe for the Galician "caldo" soup described by John Barlow in "Everything But the Squeal" (addressed in an earlier post), I came across a couple of recipes for Portuguese "Caldo Verde". According to one account, "considered by many to be Portugal's national dish, caldo verde is found everywhere — in the dining rooms of Lisbon's most luxurious hotels to the humblest of country homes."

The ingredients of Caldo Verde appear slightly different from the Galician caldo described by Barlow, but the two obviously share a similar heritage. I decided to give it a try, together with a baked cauliflower dish that we saw at our dinner at Pizzeria Delfina last week. Both turned out very well for the first try and would definitely be worth trying again, although I do have to say that visually it brought to mind Barlow's description of Galician caldo ("It doesn't look very appetizing. It looks, indeed, like what might run from an overflowing drain after a downpour. Yet it tastes tremendous.")

Caldo Verde - Portuguese Kale and Sausage Soup

Baked Cauliflower with Capers

CALDO VERDE

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
One package (4 sausages/ 12 oz.) Aidells Cajun Style Andouille sausage, sliced into 1/4 inch slices*
4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (just over 1 pound), peeled and diced into 1/2'' cubes
8 cups cold water**
3 bunches (just over 1 pound) cavallo nero (aka “dinosaur”) kale, stems removed and cut into a fine julienne (long, thin strips, about 1/8" wide) ***
Salt and pepper

* The traditional recipe calls for chorizo sausage.

** Obviously if you have a stock pork stock available that would be far better.

***Kale is not particularly bitter. Contrast the bitter "grelos" which Barlow described as the heart of the Galician caldo.

Preparation:

Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large enameled cast-iron casserole. Add the onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion just begins to soften and turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and half of the chorizo and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the water, potatoes, and salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes.

Hopefully using an immersion blender (otherwise you will need to remove the soup to a food processor and blend it), process the soup to a coarse puree, and then bring the soup back to a boil. Add the kale and simmer until it is wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining half of the chorizo and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

BAKED CAULIFLOWER WITH CAPERS (A LA PIZZERIA DELFINA)

Ingredients:

1 (2-pound) head cauliflower, green leaves discarded and cut into florets*
Olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon drained capers (packed in brine)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs

*One recipe I saw suggested baking the cauliflower head whole. I think it is a better idea (and makes serving easier) to cut it into the florets before baking.

Note: This dish on the Pizzeria Delfina menu is described as "Spicy Cauliflower with capers, garlic, and Calabrian chilies." I did not use either the garlic or chilies the first time, although those would be worth exploring! If one did not want too spicy a dish perhaps one could add julienned sweet Italian frying peppers (like a Jimmy Nardelo variety). In addition, other recipes I saw for similar dishes (apparently one is on the menu at Mario Battali's OTTO in New York) suggested adding thyme and kalamata olives, and flat leaf parsley as a garnish.

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Place cauliflower florets in a large bowl, season with salt and pepper and drizzle on about 1/3 cup of olive oil. Toss to coat.

Put a rack on a baking sheet and spread the florets on the rack. Bake until tender, about 35-40 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. The tips of the florets may char or blacken a bit but don't be overly concerned about that - in my view it adds to both the flavor and texture.

While cauliflower roasts, in a small bowl combine the lemon juice, lemon zest, capers and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Remove the cauliflower from the oven, put it in a bowl, pour on the lemon mixture, toss and serve.

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Happy New Year

Now there is a New Year resolution I can fully support!

At our dinner at Delfina earlier this week Antonio and I watched as the folks in the kitchen stretched mozzarella. Our waitress, Jeanine, explained that Delfina makes some of the mozzarella they use using cow's milk obtained from local dairies.

Of course, the most traditional mozzarella is made from the milk of the water buffalo, and, in Italy, comes from designated areas in the southern part of the country, much of it from the coastal areas in the region of Campania where the production apparently originated in the 12th century. The highest quality buffalo mozzarella bears a "Mozzarella di Bufala Campana" trademark, and an organization named Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio di Bufala Campana (The Consortium for the Protection of the Buffalo Cheese of Campania) oversees the promotion and marketing of mozzarella under that mark.

Almost all the mozzarella consumed here in the US is made from cow milk (sometimes referred to as "fior di latte mozzarella") and while some of it is quite good, according to the Consortia:

"Buffalo milk is not for drinking and is used exclusively for making mozzarella. Indeed, it is so nutritious and so rich in fat and cassein that it would be indigestible over the breakfast table, whereas it is the best for the cheese industry. Cow's-milk mozzarella is a ball of fresh cheese swimming in brine, pleasant as ice cream but absolutely tasteless."

So if one wants to avoid the "absolutely tasteless" alternative of cow's milk mozzarella one needs to find some real buffalo mozzarella. Of course the problem is that as a fresh cheese, mozzarella di bufala needs to be eaten as soon as possible (Italians will say ideally within hours of its production) and hence apart from the cost (and the dioxin scare of last March), several days of transit from Italy does not help its quality.

One ray of hope for those of us here in California is provided by a small California company named Bubalus Bubalis (the Latin name of the water buffalo) which for the last 10 years has been producing buffalo mozzarella at a plant in Gardena using a small herd of water buffalo raised on a farm in Bangor, about 70 miles north of Sacramento. Bubalus Bubalis' buffalo mozzarella can be found as some local cheese stores (including Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building), and in fact Delfina offers it as an option (for a $2.25 surcharge) on its Margherita pizza.

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At Pizzeria Delfina with Antonio

In addition to feeding us very well since they opened, one of the great things that Umberto Gibin at Perbacco did for me was to introduce me to Antonio, who initially became my Italian tutor and soon became virtually a member of our family.

Although Antonio typically comes to meet me at my office for our sessions, our normal schedule was interrupted by the holidays so we decided to meet last night and combine a lesson with an end-of-the-year dinner.

Antonio is from Salerno in Campania, just south of Naples, and if there is one thing he knows it is good pizza. I had never been to Pizzeria Delfina on 18th Street near Dolores Park so Antonio suggested we go there. It also gave us a chance to stop in to take a look at some of the other highly regarded establishments within a couple of blocks - Bi-Rite Market (must go back soon!), Tartine Bakery, and Farina Foccacia which specializes in Genovese cuisine and employs James Bowien who won the Pesto Sauce World Championships and the "pestello d'oro" (the "pestle of gold" award) in Genova in April.

We were able to get to Delfina fairly early and although it was full when we arrived we did not have to wait too long until we were seated. We were assisted by a very nice waitress named Jeanine who helped us with our selections. Antonio had been there before so also had some views on that subject as well! We ended up selecting two appetizers and two pizzas:

• Monterey Bay sardines "in saor" with crostini;
• Collard greens with guanciale and Calabrian peppers;
• Salsiccia Pizza - housemade fennel sausage, tomato, onions and mozzarella; and
• Broccoli Raab Pizza - broccoli raab, ricotta, oven-dried tomatoes and mozzarella.

For wine, Jeanine recommended a glass of the Aglianico dell'Irpinia "Taurì" produced by Antonio Caggiano in the province of Avellino in Campania just up the road from Antonio's home town.

Our dinner was excellent. We started with our two antipasti. The sardines were prepared using a Venetian mixture ("saor" means "sour") used to preserve fish which is made with vinegar, onions, olive oil, bay leaves, pine nuts and raisins. It was the first time I had that preparation and it was wonderful, and complemented well by the crostini.

The collard greens with the guanciale and peppers were also superb (see this site for a photo of the dish). It led us to a long discussion (I can't remember if that was in Italian or English) about leafy green vegetables and what the counterparts were in Italy and the US -- collard greens do not seem to have achieved a foothold yet in Italy! Jeanine told us that the guanciale had been cured there at Delfina, although she said they also use Nieman Ranch guanciale from time to time. It was sweet and cut in large cubes which went very well with the collard greens. It seemed that all the dishes we enjoyed that evening used relatively simple ingredients in a straightforward presentation which allowed each ingredient to express itself. In my view exactly the right approach.

The two pizzas arrived together. Initially the salsiccia pizza was our strong favorite, but as the broccoli raab pizza cooled off a bit and firmed up the slightly bitter flavor of the broccoli raab became more defined and by the time we finished the two were in a dead heat (more discussion of bitter greens, including the Galician "grelos" which were mentioned in my last post). Incidentally, although the salsiccia pizza comes with bell peppers, Antonio recommended that we have them hold that ingredient as it would make it too complicated and sweet. It was the right decision!

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