Clafoutis alle Ciliege - Cherry Clafoutis

We've been getting tons and tons of cherries lately, over a quart from our C.S.A. and then a half pallet that our friend Robert got from the Mariquita farms soup-nazi-esque mystery pickup.

I'd been dying for a clafoutis lately, not exactly what planted that distant memory in my head... But conveniently, when I scanned the SS for cherry-related recipes, sure enough they had a clafoutis recipe. (Again, this is where SS shows itself as being more a cookbook written by Italians for Italians and not necessarily a book of Italian cuisine - a clafoutis is a French dessert).

This is one of those recipes that's fantastic if you've just returned from a pick-your-own orchard with a bushel of cherries and are far too exhausted from your long day in the sun to hop out to shop for other ingredients. You probably have everything this recipe calls for in your kitchen already (or close enough).

First, I did the most difficult part of the recipe: halving and pitting 2 cups worth of cherries. Since I'm recovering from Strep and Mono, this was just about my speed today.

Once that was done, I started by sifting a cup of flour into a mixing bowl. The recipe called for a scant cup of flour but I didn't just want to use regular white flour, so I decided to experiment with a variety. I used a quarter cup of whole wheat flour, half a cup of white flour and a quarter cup of coconut flour (which is very high in fiber). To that I added a cup of milk and two lightly beaten eggs. That's it. I mixed the ingredients till the batter was smooth, then poured it into a greased cake pan and sprinkled the cherries over it.

I baked the clafoutis in a 400º pre-heated oven for 40 minutes, then instead of
sprinkling it with vanilla sugar (which I did not have), I used a touch of brown sugar then drizzled a bit of Amaretto.

It was absolutely delicious - so quick and easy (minus the pitting). A wonderful dessert.


Tasty Factor: A+ Ease of Preparation: A- (well, maybe all the pitting warranted a lower grade, but I do feel that the recipe came together so easily that it couldn't really score lower) Modifications: Yes. Used 2 parts white flour to one part coconut flour and one part whole wheat flour in an attempt to make it a bit healthier. And used brown sugar and Amaretto instead of vanilla sugar.

Puré di Cicoria - Chicory Purée

I do love my leafy greens (and leafy yellows and reds) and chicory happen to hang out near the top of that long list. Radicchio, curly chicory, frisée and endive are all types of chicory. So it's a bit surprising, actually, that it's taken me so long to explore the Chicory Family chapter of SS.*

There are only three recipes in this chapter so I decided to start with the one that struck me as most unexpected: Chicory Purée. I mean really, purée? The only time I really purée leafy veggies is for my spinach pesto. But this recipe did sound delicious: cream, nutmeg and Swiss cheese? Perfect comfort food (à la creamed spinach. Yum.)

The recipe called for white chicory, which I didn't have, so though red chicory (aka radicchio) would do. I boiled it in salted water for 15 minutes (very much in line with the SSVTR rules - in this case seemed not to matter since gratins are often on the more-cooked side of things). I preheated the oven to 350º and greased an ovenproof dish.

I drained the chicory well and then squeezed it well to drain as much liquid as possible, then puréed it using my lovely immersion blender. At this point, I noticed that it wasn't really getting a very smooth texture. I kept going until I decided to move along and maybe that was just something that wasn't going to happen?

I mixed in some heavy cream, a pinch of sugar and processed some more. It got a bit smoother but still didn't quite achieve what I would call a purée-texture. I finished it with a bit of nutmeg, salt and pepper, spooned it into the baking dish and sprinkled with grated Swiss. just a touch of butter and put into the oven. I baked it until the cheese was bubbly and golden.

The flavour was really yummy and the dish was quite satisfying in a comfort-food sort of way, but ultimately I wasn't too psyched about the texture. I almost wonder if I shouldn't have just cooked it more like a creamed spinach and not bother with the purée. Still, we did enjoy the dish very much - I served it with Pearl Onions with Sage and Savory Artichoke and Potato Pie (both coming soon) - a delicious dinner!

Tasty Factor: A- Ease of Preparation: A- Modifications: Yes. Used red chicory (radicchio) instead of white. Cut down a touch on butter.

*It's interesting that there is also a Chicory chapter with three more recipes. This is probably due to the Italian naming system: Chicory Family is Cicoria whereas Chicory is Indivia.