Frugal Archives - I THINK THEREFORE I JAM

Minestrone with parsley root

more is more

My favourite way to eat this is with toasted pumpernickel or rye bread as a warming meal-in-a-bowl. My “smart way” to cook it is with a pressure cooker which retains more nutrients and saves on energy too.

Parsley and parsley root proliferate in this winter vegetable melange and imbibe the soup with startlingly high levels of Vitamin C and magnesium as well perhaps it’s mystical ability to transport the eater between earth and the spirit world (as the ancient Greeks believed)!

It is of course Italy that claims “minestrone” as its own and now Sardinia has claimed it as a “Blue Zone” healthy ageing staple but there are variations all around the Mediterranean, all with their own versatile and thrifty takes on a “cucina povera” vegetable stew.

Caponata

a mozaic mezze with aubergine pulling everything together

With its sweet and sour “agrodolce” sauce cloaking a medley of olive-oil-fried aubergine, assorted veg and piquant olives and capers, Caponata is a halfway house between English chutney and Turkish “Zeytinyağlı Sebze”; olive oil poached vegetable mezzes.

I like to use it as a vehicle for late Autumn scavengings of markets and lucky gifts from friends with gardens and no two batches are ever the same! I like to think Sicily, its homeland, approves of this opportunistic make-do approach.

Roast Plum Compote

Easy roast plums with rosemary and cinnamon which bottle beautifully

This is a very simple way to relish end-of-summer plums and capture that dusky, rich flavour for darker days. Roasting seems to do something to concentrate the flavour as well as rendering the flesh creamy-smooth and the skins pleasantly chewy. I add rosemary and cinnamon, sometimes lemon or orange rind. Plums do vary in their tartness so the sugar quantity here is a guide. You can eat them all as simple roasted fruit or go on and bottle them – I generally eat some and bottle some!

Eat them cold or warmed a little with yoghurt, creme fraiche or good old custard. Make breakfast bowls with museli or serve them with syrniki – sweet cheese pancakes. Use as instant crumble, cobbler and pie filling – this compote really is super versatile and easy to use.

For bottling them you do need to create enough syrup (and allow for ahem…sampling!) I add some sugar and a little water to create a light syrup that is so heavenly I find myself drinking it “cough-medicine” style by itself! Roasting = lazy; I roast on a low heat slowly and gently and check occasionally in between doing other things.