Month: November 2015

Pasta e Fagioli

As the weather gets cooler, I crave this soup. It takes less than an hour start to finish. Add a green salad, and some crusty Italian bread, and there’s dinner!

PASTA E FAGIOLI

INGREDIENTS:

Sauteing the vegetables
Sauteing the vegetables

3 TBS extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 large onion, diced

2 large carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup of crushed or diced tomatoes

2  15 oz cans of white beans, such as Great Northern. Do not drain

2 cups vegetable stock

1 ½ tsp salt

Fresh pepper to taste

1 cup of dried small pasta, such as Ditalini or broken spaghetti

METHOD:

In stockpot, sauté the onion, carrots and celery for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the garlic, and cook over low heat for about 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and beans, sauté for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the broth, salt and pepper.

Simmer the soup for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling, salted water according to package directions.

Ladle the pasta into soup bowls, top with the soup and enjoy!

Serves 4.

Aunt Edith’s Slap Cookies

My Uncle Herb’s sister, Edith, was another wonderful baker that inspired me. She always came to family functions with some sort of great sweet in tow. She called these buttery, delicious cookies “Slap” cookies, because she just slapped them together!

Give them a try- they are simple to prepare. This recipe makes a good size batch. The cookies have a long shelf life and they freeze beautifully as well.

AUNT EDITH’S SLAP COOKIES

Heat oven to 350; Line cookie sheets with parchment.

INGREDIENTS:thumbprint cookie dough

3 cups all purpose flour (15oz)

¾ tsp table salt (not Kosher)

3 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 scant cup sugar (7oz)

1 TBS pure vanilla extract

1 egg yolk, from a large egg

¾ cup red currant jelly

METHOD:

Whisk the flour and salt together; set aside.pastry bag currant jelly

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.

Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract; mix until combined.

Add the flour and salt mixture and mix on low speed until dough comes together.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets with a 1” scoop.

Roll into balls.

With your finger tip, make an indentation in each ball of dough.

Fill the indentations with red currant jelly. A pastry bag or a Ziploc bag with the edge trimmed off works very well for this.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes until light golden.

Cool and enjoy!

Yield: 6 dozen