Local Lemons

How to Make Fresh Mozzarella Like Giuseppe

I can’t yet compete with 40 years of experience, but I’d like to think that my homemade fresh mozzarella at least comes close to that of Giuseppe’s, the master cheesemaker at Caputo’s in Brooklyn.

Since I was young, one of my favorite things to eat was creamy mozzarella cheese with olive oil and tomatoes from our garden – I know, my parents fed us well. But, my standards rose along with my age, and after traveling through Italy and living in the old Italian neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, the mozzarella must be exceptional to get my stamp of approval.

It’s rare these days to find fresh mozzarella with the texture and richness that I once took for granted, so I often rely on my own two hands to get the cheese I want. It’s actually quite easy – I use the recipe from  Ricki’s Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit, which I purchased about two seconds after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal. Vegetable. Miracle.

I’ve made this cheese many times, and a few small tweaks have transformed it into cheese that’s great melted on something, to cheese that you want to savor all on its own. First, the quality of the milk is the most important. My top choice is the organic, whole, cream-on-top milk from Straus Family Creamery. I’ve also used their raw milk with great results, but I like the flavor of their whole milk better. On their website, Straus explains it’s the combination of the fog, salty coastal air and special vegetarian diet they feed their cows that give the milk its unique aroma and taste. I can’t attest to their methods, but I can say that their milk is the best I’ve ever had – actually the second best. First place goes to the almost mythical dairy products that come from Valle d’Aosta in Italy.

Another trick to this cheese is the kneading process. I try to work the cheese as little as possible. Ricki suggests stretching the cheese before you shape it into a ball, but I often leave that step out to produce an ultra-creamy texture similar to mozzarella di bufala. It also improves the texture if you only let the curds set for three minutes instead of five. It may take a few turns to get your cheese exactly how you like it, but I’m sure every batch will be even tastier than the last. And the best part? It only take a half hour to make.

See the “About me” photo at the top of the page? That’s me making cheese in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. When I told my neighbor I was making homemade cheese, he just had to run over and take a picture. You’ll find that’s a common response when you tell people you’re making cheese from scratch.

Tortilla Omelet

This is one of the easiest, tastiest breakfasts I have ever made – and the accolades all belong to the ingredients. Sweet Maui onions, local organic eggs, homemade tortillas and aged dry jack cheese are all spruced up with a generous sprinkle of cilantro and a squeeze of lime.

In my last post I mentioned the California Rancho Cooking cookbook, so I thought it only fair to now share one of its recipes. The dish is called Don Miguel Acosta's Tortilla Omelet, named after the 84-year-old Santa Barbara descendant who, as author Jacqueline Higuera McMahan says, still wakes up every day with ideas for new recipes. This one grabbed my attention because usually when tortillas and eggs are in the same meal, the tortillas' sole purpose is to wrap up the eggs in neat little breakfast burritos. Not here though - this recipe gives the tortilla top-billing, so use ones that you made yourself or pick some up at a local Mexican restaurant. I used leftover ancho-corn tortillas from my halibut, but plain corn turns out just as good. I changed the recipe quite a bit from the original, but the technique and the feel are the same, and that's the important part.

I love how rustic these eggs feel. When you're eating it, you can imagine early Californians preparing their breakfast the same way, using only the natural ingredients they have on hand. This is the way food was meant to be eaten – pure and simple.

Asparagus and Sage Lasagna

Italian food often gets an undeserved rap for being unhealthy and heavy. It's not completely unfounded - some restaurants enforce this belief by serving dishes like fettuccini alfredo and baked rigatoni that's drowning in imitation cheese. The truth is the food in Italy is a world away from the processed pizza that gets delivered to your door, and when done correctly, is one of the healthiest cuisines in the world.

This lasagna dish holds close to its roots. I used all local, organic vegetables and herbs, freshly made pasta and organic cheeses from Italy. There is a good amount of diary in this recipe, but it is a far cry from the mozzarella-laden American lasagna. And, I would much rather splurge on a dish like this, made with natural whole foods, than waste the calories mindlessly eating bad pizza or greasy french fries. One of the advantages of a diet full of unprocessed food and vegetables is that you rarely have to feel guilty about what you're eating. I, for example, never cook regular pasta at home. Unless I'm making it from scratch, I always use whole wheat, which I think tastes better anyway. When I do make pasta from scratch, I use local eggs and organic flour, so it doesn't matter as much that it doesn't have whole grains. High-quality olive oil, minimally processed cheeses, organic vegetables, whole grains and local fish make up the majority of my diet, and it's the reason why I can enjoy a dish like this and feel god about eating it.

 On to the lasagna...

Great lasagna starts with the pasta, and making your own is a surefire start to an authentically Italian dish. I've tried many techniques, but the one that yields the best texture and flavor is that of Marcella Hazan. She has a rigid kneading routine and a specific method for rolling out the dough that produces a light noodle that is easy to work with. When making noodles for lasagna with a pasta machine, roll the dough out to the last notch. This is key because when layered, the thicker noodles feel sticky and heavy, as opposed to the thinner ones that cook up light as air. This is one of the reasons why store-bought pasta produces mediocre lasagna. I layered the noodles with béchamel, pecorino, parmeggiano-reggiano and mixture of asparagus, Maui onions, pine nuts and guanciale. If you're not familiar with it, guanciale is Italian bacon made out of pork cheeks. It's not as smoky as pancetta or American bacon, but it's rich and fattier. A little goes a long way, so take care when adding it to a pasta recipe. It's hard to find, but if you live in the Bay Area you can grab some at the Fatted Calf stand at the Saturday Farmers' market in Berkeley. Maui onions look like small white onions, but they're sweeter and lack the typical sharpness. They also have a high water content, which make them a great choice for slow cooking because they don't turn brown as quickly. For the béchamel, I seeped organic sage in the milk for about an hour, so the sauce would carry the right amount of the pungent herb throughout the whole dish.

Overall, I have no regrets or reservations about cooking and eating this lasagna, cheese, béchamel sauce and all. If you use substitutions like fat-free cheese or lite bacon, the overall calories may be lower, but your chemical intake will be through the roof, increasing your chances of things like heart disease, cancer and obesity. And most importantly, it won't taste half as good.

Stuffed Artichokes with Whole Roasted Potatoes

There are times when I can create masterful meals that take an entire day to prepare. There are other times when I can whip a half-empty kitchen into a surprising culinary feat. But then, there comes a time when I cannot for the life of me think of anything to cook. This particular time came precisely when my friend Gina exclaimed, “Make me something great!”

Earlier in the day, Gina asked me to show her how to cook an artichoke. Okay, easy enough. Knowing that she was eating dinner beforehand, I didn’t plan on anything complicated – maybe just steaming them with a side of caper aioli, and I could throw in some small potatoes to enjoy with the homemade mayo.

As the artichokes were steaming and we chatted over some wine, I began to second-guess my menu. The tiny russets were roasting beautifully, but the artichokes needed something… more. As I contemplated last-minute revisions, Gina must have sensed my hesitation, because it was this moment that she requested something great. This is what happens when you tell people you like to cook. 

I wanted to stuff the artichokes and bake them, but I hardly had the right ingredients on hand. I stared blankly into the fridge for what felt like an hour, until my senses gradually returned and I pulled out some stale bread, garlic and Parmigiano cheese.

This was an above-average artichoke. The leaves were soft and tender, the breadcrumbs crunchy, and the cheese baked up to a subtle golden brown. Not the best meal to come from my kitchen, which was too bad because it was the first of mine that Gina was tasting.

 Just don’t ask what happened to the aioli…

Farmers' Market Scrambled Eggs

I was scarred as a child by IHOP breakfasts. The memory of a rubbery glob of yellow eggs sticking to my fork before I closed my eyes and braced for the sodium overload. This dreadful memory was enough to steer me clear of scrambled eggs for about 20 years, until I discovered the ingenious egg dishes at Tini restaurant in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The owner, Monica, uses local eggs and lightly beats her eggs with treats like smoked salmon, fresh goat cheese, roasted tomatoes and fragrant herbs. Her food was rich, and maybe too buttery, but Tini was the only place I wanted to go after running the 13 miles of the Brooklyn half marathon.

In Berkeley, I have yet to eat a plate of scrambled eggs out, but after bringing home a bag full of spring vegetables from the market, I thought of Tini and Monica's eggs. A few tricks I learned about scrambled eggs–like don't beat them for too long and let them set for at least a minute in the pan before stirring– have transformed my childhood image of scrambled eggs to something I can actually look forward to eating. I also make my eggs with olive oil instead of butter, and if you use good olive oil, the flavor gives your eggs something that butter never can. Eggs can be, and should be, made with olive oil no matter which style you cook them. The delicate flavor of fresh eggs is as good a use for your expensive olive oil as homemade mozzarella.

I know some people add water or milk to their scrambled eggs before cooking them, but I don't think that's necessary. In fact, if you use good quality eggs, all that really does is water them down. If you use fresh tomatoes instead of roasted, seed them first to get rid of the excess moisture. You can pretty much use any fresh vegetable you want in this dish, as long as it doesn't add too much liquid to the pan.

Leftover Grilled Cheese

Add this to your list of things to do with leftover roasted chicken. It also helps to have a tad of arugula, a few cheeses that are almost gone, and a lone, ripe tomato. Stack all of these things between some whole wheat bread, add a little butter, a swirl of olive oil, and you have a five-star grilled cheese made from kitchen scraps.

I hate throwing things out, so when I clean out the fridge, I always try to make use of all the odds and ends that are hanging on for dear life. I actually look forward to this time of the month, because I always end up finding inventive flavor combinations I wouldn’t have tried otherwise.

For this grilled cheese – and all others actually – cook it slowly. The biggest mistake I see people committing when cooking this American staple is rushing it over high heat. If it gets too hot, the bread will burn, and the cheese will still be hard – especially if you overstuff it, of which I am definitely guilty. For all of my grilled cheeses, I add a little butter inside the sandwich, swirl some olive oil in the pan, cover it and cook on low for at least 15 minutes. Try it on your scrap night – it never fails!

Baked Whole Wheat Orecchiette with Broccoli, Asparagus & Peas

Sometimes I wish I could eat pasta every day of my life. Seriously – I would have no qualms about slurping down homemade trenette with pesto, pappardelle with a thick ragu, or grandma’s cheesy lasagna every single day of my life. This unrealistic infatuation with the mighty noodle happens to me every time I create a pasta dish that turns out perfect. By perfect, I mean every aspect of the dish fits together in gloriously delicious harmony, with a myriad of tastes and textures in every last bite.

This particularly perfect pasta recipe will prove that not all baked pasta dishes are vein-cloggingly (is that a word?) bad for you. Not all semolina that comes out of the oven must be covered with cream and cheese (not that I have anything against a good mac and chz). This baked dish combines first-of-the-season asparagus, fresh broccoli, roasted garlic and peas, with high-quality Asiago and Romano cheeses, and some homemade breadcrumbs. Not too unhealthy, right? I actually reasoned that it was healthy enough to take a rather large second serving.

One note – although it would be much quicker, don’t skip the roasting step. The caramelized vegetables are what makes this dish so special.