Tuscan White Bean Fettunta and Grilled Bread

Some have said the quickest way to kill your passion is to make it your profession. Well, for the last 3 months, I have been working 20-40 hours a week in food, at a local upscale market. I've worked as a cheesemonger, deli slicer, pizza maker, sandwich maker, salad maker, and food prepper. In the name of exploring the career opportunities within my passion, I've taken a huge paycut, learned a lot about humility, and developed a terrible case of carpal tunnel (wrist braces 'n' all).

I have blogged zero times. I have let myself down, and let all 4 of you readers down. I sincerely apologize, and wish to end the guilt right now.

Fortunately, I have still been cooking up great and tasty things, and documenting them with lots of photos--I knew I would get my act together and come back to blog them eventually.

Tuscan Ribollita

Photo Credit: Stephen Lewis

I was lucky enough to have studied at a small cooking school in Florence. Our "text" was a hodge podge of documents comprised of basically an old Italian grandma telling some stories and doing her best to not be vague about cooking processes that are second nature to her. And from her lips, then translated by someone who is about a 3rd grade English level.

Improved Eggplant Parmigiana

Eggplant is a sponge to oil and butter, but I've found that it often doesn't need as much as most people give it. My favorite mixologist, Kirk, at Cure in New Orleans, names cocktails that are riffs "improved," i.e. the "Improved Aviator." The new is sometimes nothing like the original, but flavor notes are similar.

Hungry for a new way to do eggplant, without breading, frying, and layering tons of cheese, I turned to the Bible of authentic Italian cuisine, The Silver Spoon.  The recipe is not in English anywhere online--until now! It Italy, this is called "Melanzane in Festa" or "Festive Eggplant" and it certainly lives up to the name. This is especially good when made one day ahead up til the point of baking, or reheated for leftovers the next day.

This could be a hearty side or a vegetarian maincourse.  The presentation is nice enough for company, and you can make a day ahead to save time and improve the flavor.