Vegetables – Italian Style

With the subtlety for which I am famous, I present a couple of Italian vegetable recipes, which, with a few sautéed potatoes make a perfect accompaniment to an escalope, steak or pan-fried dish.

Aubergine cooked in tomato and garlic

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

6 long aubergines (the smaller purple ones)

3 medium-large tomatoes, peeled and chopped

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Method

TRIM the ends off the aubergines and cut them in quarters lengthwise.

Slice the quarters into pieces about 5cm long.

    Fry the garlic with the oil in a large non-stick frying pan until it starts to turn brown.

Add the aubergines, season with salt and pepper, stir well and cover.

Cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes stirring gently from time to time, then add the tomatoes. Stir well, and cook gently for around five minutes.

Finally, remove the lid and add the parsley and cook for a further five minutes.

    

This also makes a delicious vegetarian pasta sauce.

Green beans and carrots cooked with onions, garlic and tomatoes

Serves four

Ingredients

2 medium onions, peeled and sliced medium thick

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small slices and/or chunks

500 g of ripe red tomatoes, peeled and chopped

8 leaves fresh basil

600 g of fresh green beans, chopped into quite small pieces

4 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Method

Use a good heavy pot with lid, into which you put all the ingredients.

Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook on gentle heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Cooking until the sauce has reduced sufficiently and the beans are just cooked through.

    Serve hot or cold. A little fresh basil, chopped or torn into small pieces and sprinkled on to this dish adds attractive, complementary flavour.

    

You can vary the mix, if you like, adding, say a stick or two of chopped celery. It is a very tasty lunch-time dish with fresh bread.

These recipes are adapted from a very good little book, Vegetables the Italian Way , published in 1997 by Parkgate Books. Worth looking for in remaindered lists or second hand bookshops.

LADIES AT THE TABLE

IN MY experience, women of today rightly enjoy their food as much as men. ‘Twas not ever thus. The poor souls of a century ago, laced and tied into their corsetry and bodices. But my dear M. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin spared several thoughts for them in his very readable The Philosopher in the Kitchen  and, as always, I admire his taste. I quote:

Women are gourmands

There is something instinctive in the penchant for gourmandism which prevails among the fair sex, for gourmandism is favourable to beauty.

A series of exact and rigorous observations has shown that a succulent, delicate, and well-chosen diet delays the out-ward signs of old age for a long time.

It lends new brilliance to the eyes, new bloom to the skin, and new strength to the muscles; and as it is certain, physiologycally, that slackening of the muscles is the cause of wrinkles, those dread enemies of beauty, it is no less true to say that, all things being equal, those who know how to eat look ten years younger than those to whom that science is a mystery.

Painters and sculptors are well aware of this truth, for they never depict a person who fasts out of choice or duty, such as a miser or an anchorite, without giving him the pallor of sickness, the thinness of poverty, and the wrinkles of decrepitude.

Well said Anthelme!