Between our resident nanny/tourista extraordinaire wanting to see all the sights of the city and Dave's crazy work schedule, replete with dozens of work dinners and social events (you can stop rolling your eyes, I promise that 4 course Italian dinners get burdensome after a while), we literally ate out of the house an average of 5 times per week. And poor Joey? Well, he tasted his way through a patate fritte tour of the Eternal City. Except for some terrifying situations, where french fries weren't on the menu...and then we froze.
What to do? We would start frantically pouring over the menu, trying to identify safe dishes while slapping away desperate hands from the omnipresent breadbasket. Um, how about carrotes julianne con limone? Or tacchino arrosta con rocket? Maybe some carcifora romana?
Before we knew it, we'd identified more than a few winners, and we made the startling discovery that our kids don't only tolerate but actually really like artichokes, broccoli, roasted red peppers, carrots marinated in olive oil and garlic, and most surprisingly to me, caprese salad - and the whole thing, not just the mozzarella like their weirdo mom.
So we've been cooking more meals at home these last couple weeks, and I'm slowly learning to shift from bean and corn-tortilla centric dishes to preparing meals using whatever is fresh and in season at our market down below the apartment.
Right now, strawberries, artichokes, fennel (gag), and asparagus are all in season, and therefore cheap and abundant. It's not like in the US where you can find whatever produce you're looking for, either; they don't seem to import out-of-season goodies from across the globe, which isn't an entirely bad thing, I'm guessing.
Which brings me to last night's dinner. I am no photographer, and I am an embarrassment to the blogosphere with my utter and complete lack of technical knowledge, so please forgive these fancy caption-less photos which are in no way worthy of pinterest ... or really even of your continued attention. But I took them and I've come this far in my naptime posting, so:
Paleo/Gluten-free Chicken Parmesan with Roman Artichokes
Ingredients:
(Serves 2 adults and 2 hungry-ish toddlers)
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, filleted into thin slices
8-10 large cherry tomatoes
4 oz parmesan cheese (powdered fakey fake is fine. Mine was powdered real, but I'm sure it still would've given a real Italian a stroke to see me dump it from a plastic bag rather than shred it myself)
a few sprigs of basil
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
1 egg
3 artichokes, trimmed and with stems intact (probably hard to find in the US? I don't know)
salt and pepper
First things first, call your husband and ask him to bring home some red wine. Then, unwisely allow the kids to climb up on the chairs next to the table you're working on, so they can help de-stem the tomatoes and practice grabbing the knife by it's blade.
So good. And edible in their entirety. How did I not know this for 30 years? |
You can melt some softer cheese on top of them towards the end of the cooking process. I had gouda on hand, so that's what I used. |
Drain the blanched tomatoes and proceed to split them open with a fork (careful, they squirt) and smash them into oblivion. Add parmesan, chopped basil, salt and pepper to taste, and some oregano because hey, you're the boss of this tomato sauce. And an entire clove of crushed garlic. Saute on medium high for 20 minutes or so, until the sauce thickens a bit. It will be very chunky, but also very delicious, so ... win win.
In retrospect, larger tomatoes would probably have yielded a more respectable amount of sauce. |
Our matching espresso makers. Dave is on a decaf kick, so we're a mixed household these days. |
Buono mangia!
Awesome, Jenny! I would love to have joined you! Now, I do not have celiac, but my stomach was (is) stupid-sensitive over random foods, and I was gluten-free for awhile in an attempt to live. Since bread was so abundant on my trips to Rome, and it ended up in my hand without even reaching for it (I swear), that I ate some. Turns out, it digested AND it didn't hurt. Back in the states, I did a very small bit of what we'll call "research" online. I learned that the wheat they grow in Italy is more pure, similar to how we have our cutsey old-timey U.S. "heritage tomatoes" that taste like tomatoes from heaven. Similar to our grocery store cardboard tomatoes, the wheat and subsequent flour in America has been modified and modified and modified to be heartier and produce a higher yield and give us all cramps. So, I wonder if your boy could handle a little Italian wheat? Maybe try something that wasn't a yeast-raised bread, maybe a noodle? Just throwing that out there...
ReplyDeleteThis gets me thinking I need to maybe change the diet in our household. My husband has a super sensitive stomach and had a bout with diverticulitis this past fall. So...hmmm...
ReplyDeleteLove the picture of St. Peters!
Thanks!
~M
Umm. I am SO proud of you! Look at you, you little cooking superstar? And blogging 2 days in a row sans nanny? Amazing.
ReplyDeletewow, sounds delicious! I have never eaten artichokes...they kinda scare me a little, but yours sound not so bad:)
ReplyDeletelove,
Margo
yum!!!!! and I love the shots of what you guys see every day outside of your windows.
ReplyDelete"You are the boss of this tomato sauce!" Dying! Get it girl, indeed! Looks super yummy!
ReplyDelete