After indulging in too many rich restaurant meals, it feels just right to make some simple, homemade
food using fresh produce with lots of flavor and color. Here are pictures and recipes of what dishes I
made this first week of settling into winter.

Recipe 1. Fresh Green Bean Salad with Turkey Bacon, Onion, and Tomato
Wash and snap ends of fresh green beans. Set aside while boiling a medium size pan with a quart of
water. Add a half teaspoon of salt to the boiling water. When the water comes to a full rolling boil, add
the green beans. Do not overcook the green beans. When the beans turn a bright green, they are almost
done. Let them cook another minute. Allowing the beans to turn an olive color means that they have
cooked too long. They will be mushy and most of the vitamins will be boiled out. The objective here is to
have the beans cooked to an al dente consistency. As soon as the beans are cooked, pour into a
colander and run under cold water for two minutes. Drain and put into a large salad bowl and set aside.

Chop a half of a medium white onion coarsely. While the beans cool, use a medium size frypan and add
one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Use medium heat to warm the oil. When the oil turns
shimmering, add the onions. Cover the pan and let cook for two minutes. Chop turkey bacon, five strips
(or pork bacon if you prefer) and cook with the sautéed onion. Cook for eight minutes, stirring to keep
food from sticking. Add a half cup of tomato sauce or freshly chopped Roma tomatoes to the cooking
onions and bacon and cook another five minutes. Add a pinch of salt. Include a few fresh basil leaves,
torn not chopped, to the cooked mixture. Shut off the heat and let cool for ten minutes. After cooling,
add the mixture to the cooked green beans, tossing lightly. Serve this dish warm as a side or as a salad. It
even tastes better the next day.

Recipe 2. Spinach and Broccoli Rabe Sautéed Lightly in Garlic with Lemon Zest, Hot Chicken
Sausage and Penne Pasta

Finely chop three large cloves of garlic, a bag of fresh spinach (one prewashed bag, about 10 ounces),
and one bunch of well washed broccoli rabe. Be sure to cut off stems from the broccoli rabe and discard.

Using medium heat, add two tablespoons of virgin olive oil and let cook until oil shimmers. Add garlic
and brown for two minutes. Add broccoli rabe next, and sprinkle with salt. Cover the pan and let the
broccoli rabe steam until it appears a light green color. Add the spinach, salting lightly and recover the
pan, changing the heat to medium low. Cook for another three minutes. Uncover the pan and stir the
greens from the bottom of the pan up, mixing the broccoli rabe and spinach together with the garlic on
the bottom. Taste and adjust for the right level of saltiness. Put in a large bowl and set aside. Prepare a
baking sheet with parchment paper or foil liner and add one pound of chicken sausage, cut into bitesize
pieces. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Turn sausage over and bake for another 8 minutes. Check to see that
meat is thoroughly cooked, devoid of pink color in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool.
While the meat is cooling, prepare a pot for boiling pasta. Penne or Rotelli works well with this dish. Use
a two-quart pan filled to half with water and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Bring to a rolling boil. Add one
cup of pasta. It will double in size after cooking. Use the directions on the box of pasta to determine
cooking time.

Watch carefully how the color of the pasta changes as it becomes softened and cooked. Al dente pasta
is best. The color of the pasta changes to a light straw color. Taste one piece and decide if it suits your
palate. If the pasta color looks almost white, it is overcooked, and its texture will be much! When the
pasta is cooked, strain and rinse with cool water, shaking off excess moisture. Add pasta to the cooked
greens, tossing well but not mixing. Avoid mushing ingredients together at all costs!
Use a fine box grater or raspier to make a teaspoon of lemon zest. Sprinkle zest onto the pasta and
greens and mix gently. If you like, a third of a cup of Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes can be
added. Before serving, add the turkey sausage, turning into the pasta-greens mixture. Serve warm.

Recipe 3. Manicotti Crepes Filled with Ricotta

I recently found out that manicotti is not made in Italy. Cannelloni is the signature Amalfi dish of baked
large, rolled tube pasta Italians know and love. Manicotti, coming from the Italian word manicotti,
meaning large sleeves, is an Italian American food. Manicotti, cannelloni are somewhat interchangeable
as vehicles for stuffed pasta with cheese, veal, pork and chicken, or vegetables as in Bolognese. I
experimented with making my Mom’s version of manicotti from handmade crepes that were later filled
with ricotta, parsley, egg, and cheese. After the crepes are cooled, they are filled with the ricotta
mixture and folded into a tube shape. After a batch of the manicotti rest in a wax paper lined tray, they

can be frozen and later stored in a plastic bag to be used as needed. Manicotti can be frozen and used
for up to two weeks.

For the crepes:

Wax paper squares cut from sheets of wax paper. Have at least a dozen available. Mix in blender,
one egg at room temperature, one cup of all-purpose flour, one cup of water, room temperature, and a
pinch of salt. Blend on low until completely mixed. Using a 9inch non-stick pan, grease with a bar of
butter. Use the bar partially wrapped in paper, so that the surface of the stick of butter stays clean. Each
time the pan is filled with crepe batter, the pan needs to be greased so it can be flipped onto wax paper
for cooling and filling.

Heat the frypan and grease lightly, then fill with the crepe batter, dropping the batter in the middle of
the pan, the size of 4-inch disc. Rotate the pan so that the batter covers the whole bottom of the pan
with a thin coating. Cook on medium heat for 2 minutes, or until the middle of the crepe is solid. You
can tell it is done when you see the middle does not wiggle when you shake the pan. When the crepe is
cooked, flip it out using a rubber spatula onto a prepared square of wax paper set on a platter to cool.
This recipe will make a dozen crepes. As the batter settles over time, it can become thick. Stir the batter
occasionally, and if needed, add a quarter cup of water to loosen it.

When you have used up all the batter and the crepes are cooling, make the manicotti filling.

Manicotti filling:

ix one-pound container of fresh ricotta with one egg, two tablespoons of minced flat leaf parsley, one
egg, a dash of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and half cup of Parmesan cheese.
Scramble the egg before you add it to the cheese mixture. Beat in the egg and the cheese with the other
spices until well blended. Cut up a half pound of mozzarella cheese into quarter inch blocks and fold into
the cheese mixture. The crepes are now ready to be filled.

Using a cookie sheet prepared with a layer of wax paper, assemble one crepe at a time, using 3
tablespoons of cheese mixture. Put a dollop of the mixture in the middle of one crepe at a time,
spreading generously from top to bottom. Fold the crepe over one side of the filling and then the other
side, making a little “sleeve” over the filling. Fill the cookie sheet with the filled crepes, placing them in
the freezer for three hours. The manicotti should be frozen hard and able to be stored in a plastic
freezer bag for later use. Manicotti can be stored for up to 2 weeks in the freezer.

To serve, prepare a baking dish with a layer of tomato sauce, then frozen manicotti, then a top layer of
sauce and Parmesan cheese or grated mozzarella. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25-30
minutes. After baking, put the manicotti under the broiler on high heat for 2-3 minutes until golden
brown.

Serve immediately.