Katie at the Kitchen Door

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Torta de Carnitas

Torta de Carnitas {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Torta de Carnitas {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

June has proved itself to be a serious test of my tolerance for both drinking and socializing. It started with our 10-year high school reunion, progressed into a work offsite, and is culminating in a trip to Iceland with my girlfriends. After more beers than I’ve had since college, my body hates me and so does my wedding dress. It’s been good for my soul, though, full of enriching conversations and laughter and long nights enjoying the perfect June weather.

Reunion in particular was a whirlwind. Trevor and I both went to Andover, and our reunions are a weekend-long marathon. Friday night was a bit awkward – lots of “hey! So what do you do now?” conversations and liquid courage courtesy of Sam’s car bar. But by Saturday, everyone had slipped right back into their old friendships. We spent the day playing flip-cup and slosh-ball and hanging out in an old soccer field on the edge of campus. This morphed into dinner and dancing and 3-am lawn hangouts before we stumbled home. With very little recent practice for this sort of all day event, I’m amazed at the stamina we brought to the table – 28 and going strong.

Torta de Carnitas {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Torta de Carnitas {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

On Sunday morning, after we groggily hugged our friends (and my amazing parents who let us take over the house all weekend) and slowly drove ourselves back home, we needed grease. Grease and HBO. There are only 3 or 4 restaurants within walking distance of us that are any good, but thankfully one of them is Tenoch. Tenoch is a small fast-food style restaurant that makes the most incredible tortas, griddled Mexican sandwiches. A torta usually consists of a big squishy bun called a telera, slow-cooked meat, a spicy sauce, refried beans, avocado, something bright and pickle-y like pico de gallo or pickled onions, and melted queso fresco. Basically it has all the elements of a taco but with a larger volume of filling and more carbs.

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Dessert

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

The world may not need another blog post about strawberry-rhubarb pie, but I need to write this one. Because it’s not just about pie, it’s about a pie for my dad. My dad has the misfortune of his birthday only being a week or so before Father’s Day, so we tend to lump the two together. Also he’s quite difficult to shop for, so we tend to… not shop for him. But this year I’m going to celebrate him properly – starting with this blog post, and a strawberry-rhubarb-raspberry pie.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

I become more and more grateful for my parents the older I get. Particularly this year as we prepare for our wedding, I don’t know where we would be without them. We’re getting married at their house in Maine, and my dad built us a barn, by hand, for the reception. It’s absolutely beautiful and so special to be celebrating at a place we both love. (Lest you think I’m even more spoiled than I am in reality, the barn, who’s primary purpose will be boat storage, was always in the long term house plan, just bumped up a few years). The long farm tables we’ll gather at will be my dad’s handiwork as well. Not to mention the hours of yard work and prep required to host a wedding!

The wedding is a big thing, but I’m grateful for all the little (and other not so little) things too. The emergency plumbing assistance when our pipes burst while we were in Portugal. Bringing us a piano rescued from a friary. The tax help phone call I make every year on April 14th. Driving me and a pile of my adult friends to and from our high school reunion last weekend when we did a little too much day-drinking. Teaching me how to play soccer and to sail, even though I never really fell in love with those things. Teaching me to play piano, which I do love.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

My dad doesn’t like to sit still. He always has a dozen projects going on, and a “master plan” he’s ready to share with you. When we’re up in Maine, he can usually be found tractoring something or cutting down a tree – we (lovingly) call him The Onceler. He loves to be on the water, the reason we find ourselves with such a collection of boats. Some of my fondest memories of Maine are of early mornings out on the harbor, dad at Clifford’s helm, skimming the ocean’s surface while its still glassy, looking for dolphins.

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Salad

Potato Salad with Bacon, Broccoli, Egg and Mustard Dressing

Potato Salad with Broccoli, Bacon, and Gribiche Dressing {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Potato salad doesn’t remind me of picnics, or BBQs, it reminds me of pool parties. Perhaps this is an artifact of my suburban New England upbringing, but a backyard pool party was a much more common summer occurrence than a real BBQ (you know, the kind with smoked pig that I came to love in North Carolina) or a picnic. If we did go on a picnic, it was at the beach, and we were eating tortellini pesto and cold grapes, not potato salad. But pool parties – whether they were at a neighbor’s or a friend’s or even some random friend’s of your parents house – were the peak of a suburban summer.

Potato Salad with Broccoli, Bacon, and Gribiche Dressing {Katie at the Kitchen Door}Do you remember how exciting it used to be to get invited to a pool party? The lure of being able to immerse yourself in coolness on a hot day. The feeling of rough concrete under your feet as you tried so hard to “WALK don’t run.” The pleasant chlorine-scented exhaustion of a day spent swimming and running and screaming with your friends. Then, after splashing and fighting over the floaties, you could sit on a lounge chair, the ends of your hair dripping on your legs, and eat pool party food. Hot dogs in squishy buns. Bags of sea salt and vinegar potato chips. Ruby colored fruit punch in the squeeze packs your mother wouldn’t let you buy. Dirt cake. And potato salad.

 

Potato Salad with Broccoli, Bacon, and Gribiche Dressing {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

This potato salad is not the gloppy mayo-covered salad of my pool party days. I certainly don’t turn up my nose at a classic potato salad, but at home, I’m making this version. It’s inspired by two separate, but similar recipes. First, a Broccoli and Potato Gribiche I made ages ago, originally from Heidi’s Super Natural Every Day. Second, Bon Appetit’s Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles. Same general concept – a lighter, brighter potato salad with lots of hard-boiled egg and pickled things to give it zip. I love both mustard and capers, so having them both on top of my favorite vegetable is a win. A large amount of roasted broccoli makes me feel a little bit better about how much of this I can eat in one sitting. Of course then there’s the crispy crumbled bacon, which makes me feel a little worse.

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Potato Salad with Broccoli, Bacon, and Gribiche Dressing {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

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Potato Salad with Bacon, Broccoli, Egg and Mustard Dressing

Potato Salad with Broccoli, Bacon, and Gribiche Dressing {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Not your average potato salad, this one is packed with zippy flavor from the mustard, caper and shallot dressing. It takes its cues from French gribiche sauce, but then gets all American with bacon and broccoli and hard-boiled egg. 

Inspired by Super Natural Every Day.

  • Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
  • Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 1 head broccoli, washed and chopped into very small florets (1/4 inch pieces)
  • 4 TBS olive oil, divided
  • sea salt to taste
  • 1 lb. small Yukon gold potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 6 slices bacon
  • 4 large eggs, hard-boiled
  • 2 TBS capers
  • 2 TBS dijon mustard
  • 1 large shallot, peeled and finely minced
  • 1 TBS white wine vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 tsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the broccoli florets with 1 TBS of the olive oil and a bit of sea salt. Spread out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in the oven until tender and browned, about 20-25 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the broccoli once during cooking. Remove from the oven and set aside.
  2. Place the cubed potatoes into a large pot and cover with cold water. Salt the water generously. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the potatoes are just tender when poked with a fork but not falling apart, about 10-15 minutes after the water comes to a boil. When the potatoes are done, drain and set aside.
  3. Cook the bacon using your preferred method until it is golden brown all over. Drain off the fat into a tin can and place the cooked bacon on a paper-towel lined plate to absorb the excess grease. Once bacon is cool, chop into small pieces.
  4. Peel the hard boiled eggs and roughly chop. Place the chopped egg in a large mixing bowl and add the capers, mustard, minced shallot, white wine vinegar, and chopped herbs to the bowl. Slowly add the remaining 3 TBS of olive oil to the bowl, whisking vigorously to incorporate after every teaspoon-sized addition. Using this technique you should emulsify the oil with the eggs, building up a thick dressing with the consistency of a loose mayo or aioli. Once all of the oil is incorporated you will have a creamy sauce. Season to taste with black pepper.
  5. Add the cooked potatoes, roasted broccoli, and chopped bacon to the bowl with the dressing and stir to thoroughly coat the potatoes in the dressing. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Italian

Ramp Carbonara

 

Ramp Carbonara {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Ramp Carbonara {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

I know it’s the very tail end of ramp season, and most of you have moved on to stone fruits and strawberries, but I didn’t want to let another year slip by without posting this recipe for ramp carbonara. It’s nothing revolutionary, just a simple spaghetti carbonara dressed up for spring. Spaghetti carbonara is one of my favorite meals, rich with eggs and cheese. I probably make it more often than I should, given how indulgent it is, but I love it.

I’ve never seen a ramp growing. They have sort of a woodsy mystique about them, one of the first spring edibles to hit the markets, gathered in wild forests some unknown distance away. I picture them growing in quiet, verdant groves, their dark green leaves waving gently in filtered forest light. Perhaps they’ll be the next on the list of foolhardy things we are trying to grow in our little urban backyard. Although, like asparagus, they need several years to establish themselves. I’m not sure we have the patience.

Ramp Carbonara {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Ramp Carbonara {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

I loved the idea of the long, thin ramp leaves winding through the pasta like noodles, so the first time I tried this, I left the ramp leaves whole. While it was beautiful to look at, it left me chewing (and chewing and chewing) big mouthfuls of ramp, which wasn’t particularly pleasant. So this time around, I treated the ramps with a bit more finesse. I sliced the leaves into thin strips and just barely cooked them, keeping their texture crisp. It worked out much better.

This came out lovely. While spaghetti covered in cheese is always good, there’s a big difference between a good carbonara and a great carbonara. This one was great. I thickened the sauce with a little bit of mascarpone so it was truly creamy. Instead of parmesan alone, I used a mix of parmesan and pecorino. Of course the ramps, swirled into the noodles, made it garlicky and a little special. And the finishing touch – a shower of meyer lemon zest – brought it all together.

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Dessert

French Spring Dinner with La Crema: Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes

*This post is sponsored by La Crema Wines. All opinions here are my own. You can find the companion recipes over on the La Crema blog. 

As soon as the first hint of spring arrives, I start thinking about rosé wine. Perhaps I’m just more susceptible to social trends and marketing than I think I am, but somehow, that first chilled glass of rosé, preferably consumed on a terrace on a sunny but cool evening, has come to embody the fact that summer is coming. In March and April I test the waters with a glass here and there, usually consumed indoors while looking longingly at the outdoors, wishing spring would hurry up and get here. And then May hits, and it’s all rosé all the time (#roséallday, people).

Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes - a French take on classic Strawberry Shortcake {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

 

Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes - a French take on classic Strawberry Shortcake {Katie at the Kitchen Door}In celebration of the start of rosé season, I’ve put together a pairing dinner using La Crema’s two rosé wines – the Monterey Pinot Noir Rosé and the Saralee’s Vineyard Pinot Noir Rosé. In the past my dinner series collaboration with La Crema has taken us to Japan for Izakaya, Latin America for a spicy Thanksgiving menu, and Italy for a summery seafood feast. Now, for spring and for rosé, we’re going to France, where effortless appetizers and simple but elegant entrées are king. And also there’s a lot of pink wine.

 

There are four courses in this menu. First, a Spring Crudité Platter. If you are thinking to yourself, “how boring,” bear with me a moment. This is not a platter of dry baby carrots and too-thick ranch dressing sitting, ignored, in a corner. This is a vibrant, effortless display of spring’s best vegetables. Blanched asparagus, snap peas, tender spring carrots, bitter endive, spicy radish slices, and sweet pepper… all served with an addictive, pale green herb aioli. Crudité platters can be very classy.

French Spring Dinner Menu - Spring Crudites with Herbed Aioli {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

French Spring Dinner Menu - Goat Cheese Tart with Peas and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Second, a simple and savory Goat Cheese Tart with Peas and Prosciutto. It’s similar to a quiche, but thinner and denser. It’s also so, so good. Even if you’re not tackling the whole French Rosé Dinner menu, give this goat cheese tart a try. It’s  a great multipurpose recipe to have in your cooking arsenal, and you can vary the vegetables with the season. Equally good warm or cold, a thin slice is a perfect appetizer for dinner, while a big slice makes a filling breakfast.

The main course is a lovely Baked Halibut Provençal – halibut marinated in lemon and olive oil and served over a rich tomato, olive, and caper sauce. It’s inspired by the time I spent in Provence years ago, on my first vacation with Trevor. We rented an apartment at the top of a hill in Cassis and spent a week there. It was a tiny little place with an expansive patio, and every day after beach hopping we would hike up the hundreds of dusty stone steps with bags of vegetables from the market hanging on our shoulders. We were using most of our disposable income on the apartment so we ate simply – ratatouille and grilled chicken. This recipe takes it’s cues from those meals. A simple but perfectly cooked protein accompanied by a sauce full of seasonal vegetables and herbs.

French Spring Dinner Menu - Baked Halibut Provencal with Tomato, Olive, and Caper Sauce {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes - a French take on classic Strawberry Shortcake {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

And to finish off this lovely French dinner, a cake! Or, mini Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes, to be precise. I wanted to make a French version of strawberry shortcake, one of my favorite spring desserts. I swapped the buttery shortcakes for a light and airy chiffon cake, and layered the chiffon cake with strawberries and whipped cream. A few more tweaks upped the elegance – there’s rosé in the cake batter and mint and tarragon in the strawberries.

Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes - a French take on classic Strawberry Shortcake {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

This cake was everything I was hoping it would be. I was worried that it would be worse than your standard strawberry shortcake. Strawberry shortcake is, after all, pretty difficult to improve upon. But the chiffon cake – soft and airy – was the perfect thing for soaking up all the delicious strawberry juices. The rosé wine flavor was just barely present in the cake, and you could taste the mint and tarragon in the strawberries, too. It was the kind of dessert that I thought about multiple times while sitting at work. That’s the surest sign of a win, in my book.

You can find the recipes for the first three courses on the La Crema blog: Spring Crudité Platter, Goat Cheese Tart with Peas and Prosciutto and Baked Halibut Provençal. The Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cake recipe is below!

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Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes - a French take on classic Strawberry Shortcake {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

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Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes

Strawberries and Cream Chiffon Cakes - a French take on classic Strawberry Shortcake {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

A French take on Strawberry Shortcake, using light and airy chiffon cake as the base. The chiffon cake has rose wine whipped into the batter for a hint of flavor, and the strawberries are macerated with fresh tarragon and mint.

Chiffon cake recipe adapted from the Joy of Cooking.

  • Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
  • Yield: 6
  • Category: Dessert

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 TBS baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup rosé wine
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 7 egg whites
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

For the filling:

  • 2 lb. strawberries, washed, hulled, and thinly sliced
  • 1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
  • 2 TBS minced fresh tarragon leaves
  • 2 TBS minced fresh mint leaves
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  1. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray an 11×17 inch sheet pan lightly with cooking spray, then line with a piece of parchment paper. Set the prepared pan aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until evenly combined. Now add the wet ingredients – the egg yolks, wine, canola oil, and vanilla and beat thoroughly, until a smooth batter is formed. Set this batter aside.
  3. In a large, clean bowl, begin beating the egg whites on high speed (or vigorously by hand). After about 30 seconds, stop and add the cream of tartar, then continue beating. Beat until the egg whites are very stiff and glossy – they should completely hold their shape. Add a third of the beaten egg whites to the bowl with the batter and gently fold with a spatula until the two mixtures are evenly combined. Now add the remaining egg whites and fold in until evenly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared sheet pan and use a spatula to spread evenly. Bake until the top of the cake springs back lightly when pressed, about 20 minutes. Run a knife along the edges of the pan to release the cake. Let cool to room temperature, then invert the cake on a piece of aluminum foil and peel off the parchment paper. Set the cake aside or refrigerate until ready to use.
  4. For the filling: Place the sliced strawberries in a large bowl with 1/3 cup of sugar and the minced mint and tarragon leaves. Stir to coat the berries with sugar. Set aside and let macerate for at least 15 minutes. You can also cover the berries and let them sit in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
  5. When you are ready to assemble and serve the cakes, beat the heavy cream on high with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar until it is whipped enough to hold it’s shape. Avoid over-beating as it will take on a butter-like consistency. Stir in the vanilla.
  6. Cut the cake into 12 squares that are approximately 4 inches wide. For each cake, place one cake square on a plate. Cover with 2 or 3 large spoonfuls of strawberries and their juice, arranging neatly. Spread some whipped cream on top, then repeat the layers – cake, strawberries, whipped cream – once more. Garnish with a strawberry. Serve immediately.

Italian

Ingredient of the Week: Fava Beans // Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

It’s time for the (slightly belated) final post for fava bean week. It’s another recipe inspired by Italy – homemade ravioli filled with a fava bean, mascarpone, and ricotta mixture and served in a two-ingredient truffle butter sauce. Because it turns out that when one of your ingredients is truffle butter, you don’t need much else.

While fava beans are abundant in Italy and Portugal, they aren’t particularly common in the US, even at the height of their season. They occasionally make an appearance at Wholefoods, and some people have found them frozen at Trader Joe’s, but I couldn’t find any near me. We are growing a long row of them, but they won’t be ready until late June, about the same time that Bostonians will be able to find them at local farmer’s markets.

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

So what’s a fava bean lover to do? I’ve basically been rabid for them in anticipation of the series, knowing it would be difficult to get my hands on enough for several recipes. I’ve started harassing the staff at Wholefoods, begging for them to go back into the stock room and bring me a few pounds. I made my friend Veronika walk through all of the Wholefoods in Cambridge with me – surprisingly, the little Wholefoods had some and the big one didn’t. It doesn’t help that you need about 1 pound of pods for every cup of beans, so what may look like a lot of beans disappears surprisingly quickly.

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

And then, unexpectedly, I found fava bean nirvana – Eataly. While out shopping for  wedding shoes with my mom, we stopped in at the new Eataly in Boston. I needed truffle butter for this recipe, and figured it made more sense to pay a little more at a store that I knew would carry it than to schlep all over looking for it. If you’ve never been, Eataly is like the Ikea of Italian food, except everything is expensive. You have to wind your way through the massive store in a certain order.  You’ll pass the gelato and pastry counters, a case full of beautiful seafood, a deli counter with dozens of prosciuttos, and rows of dry and canned goods. After weaving my way through the tempting rows filled with jars of fancy tomatoes and olive oils and capers,I found the produce section. There, next to a beautiful basket of morel mushrooms, were all the fava beans I could want. So now I know. And if you’re in Boston, New York, or Chicago, you know too.

Back to the ravioli. Every once in a while Trevor and I break out the pasta machine and make a batch of homemade pasta. I find it quite therapeutic to make, although our pasta is never quite as tender as I want. It’s fun to customize, though, and this filling is really lovely. The sweet mascarpone and ricotta really mellow out the fava flavor. We tossed the ravioli with a quick burro fuso – truffle butter melted and whisked with a bit of warm water. Simple, elegant, and springlike, a homemade pasta worth the effort.

More Fava Bean Recipes…

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto

Avocado Toast with Fava Beans and Pecorino

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

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Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter Sauce

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Homemade Ravioli with a Fava Bean, Mascarpone and Ricotta Filling. Served in a simple Truffle Butter burro fuso sauce.

Adapted from SPQR. 

  • Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
  • Yield: 4

Ingredients

  • 1 cup blanched, peeled fava beans (from 1 pound of fresh beans)
  • 1 TBS chopped fresh mint (from 10-12 leaves)
  • 1/4 cup mascarpone
  • 1/2 cup ricotta
  • 1/4 – 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 recipe homemade pasta dough
  • 2 oz. truffle butter
  • 3 TBS warm water (preferably the pasta cooking water).
  • grated pecorino cheese, for serving

Instructions

  1. Add the fava beans, mint, mascarpone, and ricotta to a food processor. Process until smooth and fluffy. Season to taste with sea salt. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate.
  2. Use a pasta machine to roll out the pasta dough in thin sheets. Target the third or fourth thinnest setting as your ultimate thickness of the pasta.
  3. Lay the pasta sheets flat on a lightly floured surface, covering the sheets you aren’t using with a piece of plastic wrap. Use a knife to score the pasta sheets into 2 inch squares. Place 2 teaspoons of the chilled filling in the center of half the squares. Wet your finger with water and run it along the edge of each square, then cover the squares with filling with another sheet of the pasta. Press the sheets firmly together around the edges of each filled square, forming ravioli. Use a ravioli cutter or knife to cut the ravioli apart, then firmly press the edges together again to ensure there are no air bubbles. Repeat until you have used all of the pasta dough, re-rolling any dough scraps as needed.
  4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil. Gently place the ravioli in the boiling water and cook just until al dente, about 2-3 minutes. They should be floating at the surface of the water when they are ready. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and place them on a large plate. Drizzle the ravioli with just a little olive oil to keep them from sticking.
  5. Add the 3 TBS of the pasta cooking water to a small frying pan, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Whisk in the truffle butter one piece at a time, allowing the butter to melt between additions. When you have incorporated all of the truffle butter, add the cooked ravioli to the frying pan and toss gently to coat with the butter sauce. Divide between plates, sprinkle with the grated pecorino, and serve immediately.

Current Feature: In Season

Ingredient of the Week: Fava Beans // Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Jamón

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

During the time I spent in Lisbon over the past year, there was a noted dearth of fresh vegetables in my diet. The food in Lisbon is wonderful, but it’s not particularly fresh. One night I stumbled upon a tapas restaurant that served a fava bean salad and it quickly became my go-to vegetable dish when I was craving something light. It was a cold, simple salad of favas, tomatoes, olive oil and herbs. I couldn’t tell you exactly what was in it, but it hit the spot.

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

I tried to recreate this salad for this week… and totally missed the mark. But, what I did make turned out wonderful. Nothing like that particular tapas dish, but delicious nonetheless. It has a lot of Spanish flavors – smoked paprika, jamón, tomatoes – that all meld together in a warm, homey dish. It ended up being my favorite of all the fava dishes I’ve made for this week, a total surprise hit. Try it with a few slices of crusty bread or a bowl of pasta for a comforting spring dinner.

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More Fava Bean Recipes…

Avocado Toast with Fava Beans and Pecorino

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Fava Bean and Mascarpone Ravioli with Truffle Butter Sauce

 

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

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Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Jamón

Spanish Fava Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Prosciutto {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

A warm tapas dish of sauteed fava beans, fresh tomatoes, and jamón. 

  • Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
  • Yield: 4
  • Cuisine: Spanish

Ingredients

  • 2 TBS olive oil
  • 1 small red onion, peeled and chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 2 cups of shucked and peeled fresh fava beans
  • 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
  • 1 medium heirloom tomato, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
  • 2 thin pieces of jamón serrano or prosciutto, torn into bite size pieces

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add the peeled fava beans, lemon juice, tomato, and smoked paprika. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down and the fava beans are tender.
  2. Push the beans to one side of the pan to expose the bottom of the pan. Add the pieces of jamón to the bottom of the pan and fry for 1 minute, just to crisp up. Mix the jamón into the beans and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm with crusty bread or warm pasta.

Breakfast

Ingredient of the Week: Fava Beans // Avocado Toast with Fava Beans and Pecorino

Avocado Toast with Fava Beans, Pecorino, and Meyer Lemon {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Four years ago, we spent two weeks in Italy in the beginning of May. It was our first “adult” vacation, and we ate and drank our way through Rome, Florence, and the Maremma. Rome is a city that is easy to fall in love with, especially in May. Jasmine tumbles over seemingly every stone wall, its fragrance completely filling the city. The weather is sunny and dry but not too hot, perfect for sundresses and gelato and walking along the river. Nights are cool and you can eat al fresco, sipping on chilled Pinot Grigio and tucking into plates of cacio e pepe. While parts of Rome are perpetually jammed with tourists, if you move just a little outside the tourist track you’ll begin to feel the heartbeat of a thriving, modern city.

Avocado Toast with Fava Beans, Pecorino, and Meyer Lemon {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

While we were there, we visited a farmer’s market and loaded up on pecorino cheese, the first tiny strawberries of the season, truffled sausage, and fava beans. We brought our bounty to the Pincio gardens, where we picnicked amid throngs of people watching the sunset over the Piazza del Popolo. The simplicity and freshness and ambiance of that meal has stuck with me more than any almost any other meal in Italy.

Eating fresh fava beans with chunks of pecorino cheese is a Roman tradition with a long history. In Rome, the custom is to eat them just as we did – a freshly shucked bean, a slice of pecorino, and perhaps a chunk of crusty bread. It’s a nearly perfect pairing, perhaps improved only by a glass of stony Italian white wine.

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Soup

Ingredient of the Week: Fava Beans // Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

It’s very clear to me what I should be eating and drinking in May. Perhaps more clear than any other month of the year. May is for fava beans, as many as I can get my hands on. It’s for ramps, garlicky and pungent, worth the splurge. It’s for chilled glasses of rosé, on both warm days and cold days. And finally, at the very end of the month, it’s for the first strawberries, tiny and bright red.

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Fava Bean Recipes {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

This year, on May 2nd, I found myself standing over a pile of fava beans, happily shucking the beans from their fuzzy-pods. (This is only a happy activity the first time. After that it’s a chore and a half but still worth it.) I had just opened the first bottle of rosé, a lovely Chilean blend. And then, I realized that I had lived this exact moment the previous year – the first fava beans, the first rosé, the apple blossoms just reaching their peak outside the window. What a beautiful moment! The world is better for its patterns.

In celebration of this particular moment in the year, I’m bringing back a series that’s been quiet for years: ingredient of the week. It’s been 3 years since I last did one, but it’s always at the back of my mind. What’s in season now that I can only get my hands on for a week or two? How can I make the most of it’s brief appearance before it’s gone for another year? After my Sunday Dinner series, it’s the series that best reflects why I write this blog – finding interesting recipes to celebrate seasonal ingredients. Of course, given my current blogging pace of 4 posts a month, putting together 5 posts in a week seems a bit Herculean. So much cooking and writing and photo editing, not to mention the fava bean shucking! But I’ve planned ahead, and I think we’ve got this.

Fava Bean Soup with Mascarpone, Mint, and Pancetta {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

Fava beans have a very distinct flavor, grassy and slightly bitter. This soup is the essence of that flavor, undistilled, unsweetened. It’s a good recipe to kick off this week, a pure celebration of spring flavors. It’s all about the toppings – don’t skip them. The soup needs the saltiness of the pancetta and the crunch of the croutons and the subtle sweetness of the mascarpone. It even needs the mint, that little bit of herbality humming in the background. Without all of those flavors to highlight and offset the grassy fava beans, the soup is a bit one dimensional and overwhelmingly green tasting. But all together, it’s the very essence of spring.

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Dessert

Peanut Butter Banoffee Eton Mess

Peanut Butter Banoffee Eton Mess - Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche, Meringues, Cream, and Banana {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

I didn’t intend to post two dessert recipes in a row. Normally, I try to keep things balanced and fairly nutritious around here (especially now that I’m in full-blown wedding planning mode and realllly starting to think about how that strapless dress is going to look). But, sometimes my recipe inspiration is for things like homemade spinach wraps… and sometimes it’s for Banoffee Eton Mess.

If “Banoffee Eton Mess” is meaningless to you, let me explain. This dessert mashes up two classic British desserts – banoffee pie and eton mess. We’ve been intermittently watching The Great British Bake-Off and it has substantially increased my desire to bake all sorts of British things. And to call them “bakes,” of course. I have also begun to fantasize about living in that magical baking tent filled with pleasant people and cakes, surround by green fields and flowers.

Peanut Butter Banoffee Eton Mess - Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche, Meringues, Cream, and Banana {Katie at the Kitchen Door}

I digress. Banoffee Pie is a sticky sweet dessert that consists of dulce de leche, bananas, whipped cream, and a shortbread crust. It’s kind of childish and simple and a very fun thing to say out loud. Banoffee. I think the name may be the primary reason that Trevor requested it as his birthday dessert, given that he doesn’t like bananas. Not to worry, I didn’t leave it that simple anyways. First, I turned the “offee” into peanut butter dulce de leche. Yum. Next, I made these as layered parfaits, adding a layer of crumbled meringue to the party. Which meant I could also call it Eton Mess – a mixture of broken-up meringues, whipped cream, and fruit. Tah dah! Peanut Butter Banoffee Eton Mess.

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