I am not sure who gave me this recipe or how it originated. I do remember when I first served it, though. It was back in the seventies and the invited group was a little less than sophisticated. Smoked oysters? Are you kidding? A couple of the bravest of the men tried it – after all, I had seen them down barrels of raw oysters, how could this be so strange? When it was obvious they enjoyed this version, the platter emptied quickly. It has been a staple in my recipe box ever since. It is very simple to make and there is no cooking involved.
Tomatoes with Smoked Oysters (Serves 8)
Canned smoked oysters
Cherry, grape or other small tomato
Sea salt
Method: Cut the top off a cherry tomato. If you are using the longer more oval small tomatoes, cut a slit in the side. Remove seeds and as much of the meat as possible to clean out the cavity. (I use a baby's feeding spoon, the one with the long handle and very small spoon. A demitasse spoon is also quite handy.)
Turn the tomatoes upside down and allow them to drain for a short while. Drain the oil from the oysters and place one in each tomato shell. After they have been arranged on the serving plate, sprinkle sparingly with a finely ground sea salt.
Serve at room temperature.
These are usually served as nibbles before dinner with drinks. They also make a nice first course if you use one of the larger varieties of the small-sized tomatoes. Put a couple of oysters in each and serve on a lettuce-lined plate, accompanied by a small bread stick or piece of flat bread.
Note: One could also use smoked clams or mussels, but I find oysters the most compatible with the tomato. There are roughly 24 oysters in a 3.75-ounce can.
The title this week isn’t exactly accurate. This recipe is from chef Elizabeth Binder of Bar Bambino.
I have been making minestrone soup for many years from my mother’s recipe, then later from my favorite Italian cookbook, Marcella Hazen’s The Classic Italian Cook Book, first published in 1973.
Her Minestrone di Romagna contains onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, white beans, zucchini, green beans, cabbage, meat broth, and canned Italian tomatoes.
Hazen’s recipe focuses on meat broth (beef) and also includes, if possible, the scrubbed crust (only) of a large piece of Parmesan cheese.
Many people don’t know the crust of Parmesan is just a very dried part of the cheese, not a wax coating. My mother would throw the leftover crust, which was too hard to grate, into whatever soup she was making. It adds a lot of favor.
Binder doesn’t throw in a Parmesan crust, but her version, served with a dab of pesto, is as good as Hazen’s.
Minestrone di Verdure (Serves 6)
1
cup cannellini beans, soaked overnight in cold water
1
cup fresh beans (selection of blue lakes and yellow wax), cut into1/4-inch pieces and blanched
1
cup fresh English peas, blanched
2
tablespoons olive oil
1
cup onion, diced
1
tablespoon garlic, minced
1
cup carrot, diced
1
cup celery, diced
2
cups zucchini, diced
1
cup canned Italian tomatoes, drained and chopped
6
cups vegetable stock
2
cups savoy cabbage, shredded
1
cup orzo pasta, cooked al dente
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method: Drain cannellini beans. Cover beans with fresh water, bring to a gentle simmer and partially cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add salt and allow to cool in liquid. Drain and set aside.
In salted boiling water, cook peas and beans separately for 2 to 3 minutes.
Shock each in cold iced water to cool immediately. Drain and set aside.
In large enamel casserole, bring 2 tablespoons olive oil to a medium heat. Add onions and sweat until soft and transparent. Add garlic, carrots and celery and cook gently for 5 minutes.
Add zucchini and sweat for 1 minute. Add partially cooked cannellini beans, tomatoes and stock, bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until beans are tender (about 10 to 15 minutes).
Add savoy cabbage and cook for another 5 minutes until cooked. Stir gently.
Add cooked orzo. Check seasoning and adjust with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Just before serving add blanched peas and fresh beans, and bring to a simmer to heat.
Presentation: Garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or with a dollop of fresh basil pesto. Serve with grilled rustic Italian batard (cut bread 1/4-inch thick, grill, then rub with garlic clove and brush with olive oil).
Mrs. Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book: Revived and Illustrated Dusha Bateson and Weslie Janeway Glitterati Inc. $35 ISBN-13: 978-0-9801557-3-0
While Charles Darwin pursued research and theory, his wife Emma Wedgwood Darwin, like many women of her time, kept a notebook filled with recipes, culinary instructions and personal anecdotes about everyday life in the Darwin household. Authors Dusha Bateson and Weslie Janeway have recreated and tested every one of Mrs. Darwin’s 55 recipes for this unique cookbook, which offers a rare glimpse behind the dining room doors of one of the Victorian era’s most eminent families.
I’m a sucker for history, and when it’s combined with the culinary, I’m sold. This book tickled both my passions.
The collection of recipes reflects Emma Darwin’s social position and responsibility for feeding her family, entertaining guests, and maintaining the household. Reading her recipes and notes today offers remarkable insight into Victorian life, and includes dishes popular in her day such as Baked Cheese Custard, Scotch Woodcock, Beef Collops, Chicken and Macaroni, Veal Cake, Pea Soup, Potato Rissoles, Arrowroot Pudding, and Compote of Apples, to name just a few. Thankfully these wonderful recipes have been adapted for today’s modern kitchen and are easy to prepare.
Here is Mrs. Darwin’s recipe for Beef Collops, as she wrote it:
Cut thin slices from the rump or rib. Spread them on a table, season with black pepper and salt. Dash each side with flour, have ready some butter in the frying pan, boiling but not browned, put in the collops, fry them on each side a light brown, take them out of the pan without any of the butter that is left, and put them into a stew pan with some good beef gravy, plenty of sliced onion, some soy and walnut pickle, let all stew gently till the collops are quite tender and the sauce a proper thickness — This dish requires to be served up very hot. — N.B. The onions should be baked a little while before they are sliced.
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Individual pieces and sets $79.95 to $499.95, available at
Sur La Table
Volume 1 Issue 18 
I am not sure who gave me this recipe or how it originated. I do remember when I first served it, though. It was back in the seventies and the invited group was a little less than sophisticated. Smoked oysters? Are you kidding? A couple of the bravest of the men tried it – after all, I had seen them down barrels of raw oysters, how could this be so strange? When it was obvious they enjoyed this version, the platter emptied quickly. It has been a staple in my recipe box ever since. It is very simple to make and there is no cooking involved. 
The title this week isn’t exactly accurate. This recipe is from chef Elizabeth Binder of 
Scanpan is the first producer of nonstick cookware that is certified PFOA free, so it’s safe for cooks and the environment. The unique surface is safe for metal utensils and allows for browning, searing and deglazing – things you can’t do with traditional nonstick. It requires little to no fat for cooking, so you can eat healthy with your healthy cookware.
