Mozzarella and Balsamic

My friend John and I have been discussing mozzarella a lot lately. We love good mozzarella, and John will often go out of his way to Caputo's for some of their freshly made cheese. The other night we were at dinner and watched an Insalata Caprese pass by. The style of the dish looked great, but we were baffled as to why restaurants insist on serving tomatoes in the Winter. When tomatoes are not in season, there is really no point to ordering them; they are not fresh and have no flavor. We are both very strong proponents of the local movement, and tomatoes in the New York Winter are an affront to seasonal eating. So we started brainstorming what foods could match a good mozzarella in the colder months. There really are no vegetables that have the same sweet/acidic flavor and juicy texture of a tomato. I suggested a good balsamic vinegar that has been reduced and rid of some of its pungency, which brings out a similar acidic sweetness. John agreed- a reduced balsamic really is the only appropriate Winter match for a good mozz.

I started thinking of other similar condiments/sauces that were similar to balsamic, and I got to pomegranate molasses, one of my favorite things. However, what is nice about the Caprese are the layers of tomato and cheese, so I felt like I still needed something else besides the balsamic. What I came up with was sliced oranges (peeled of all pith and cut horizontally) that I cooked in a pan with balsamic vinegar. I sliced the oranges beforehand and let them marinate with the vinegar and a pinch of salt. I then put them in a pan and reduced everything together. The oranges took on a caramelized flavor and texture, without becoming too sweet, and the balsamic reduced with the orange juice. I then layered the slices of fresh mozzarella with the orange, and garnished it with fresh pomegranate seeds (also sweet and acidic), and drizzled it with Tondo reduced balsamic vinegar, pomegranate molasses, and extra virgin olive oil. You can just use a bottle of regular balsamic vinegar and reduce some with the oranges and then some by itself for the drizzle. I have been eying that Tondo balsamic "cream" for a while and couldn't help myself. If you are into foodie indulgences, you should check it out for easy drizzling and garnishing.

I would be curious to know what other vegetables and condiments you would want to pair with mozzarella this time of year. Let us know!

Earl Grey was always the tea party tea of choice in my house growing up and it continues to be a favorite. That is part of the reason why I was so excited to discover fresh bergamot at the farmers market here in Xania (one of the bigger cities in Crete). Suddenly everything was about bergamot. I added slices to my plain black tea to make fresh earl grey tea. There is a recipe for chamomile lemon shortbread that I was obsessed with two christmases ago, so I adapted that and used bergamot zest instead of lemon (and skipped the chamomile).  Then I stewed some with sugar and took to adding that to plain black tea so it was sweet and flavor all at once.  The next day I adapted the shortbread to be more greek-winter friendly and used olive oil instead of butter. This evening we went to a friends house for dinner and I used that same olive oil shortbread for the crust of a lemon-ricotta tart and put some of the candied bergamot on top for decoration. It has a really nice taste, it is a bit bitter but the flavor is lovely. I really can't stop putting it into everything...

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Olive Oil Bergamot Shortbread

All those olives.... this much oil.

On saturday we went to the olive press. When we arrived, the man told us we were late and he was about to close. What we didn't realize was that he wasn't just closing for the day, but for the entire season. Our olives were the last ones pressed this year... so glad we made it just in time. They weighed the olives when we arrived, it was a whopping 204 kilos, and we ended up with about 40 kilos of oil, which works out to be the appropriate ratio (20%). I filmed the olives pressing and will be posting it for the next episode....

I know that I have already written about my love of Mediterranean breakfasts. Turkish breakfast in particular. It just makes sense to me. This past Sunday I found myself in my own personal state of breakfast euphoria. Somehow, I had coincidentally sourced a bunch of delicious things throughout the week, so that when I opened my fridge that morning, I had the makings of a glorious platter.

Med Breakfast

When I came back from Turkey in November, I had brought with me a jar of zeytin ezmesi, or olive paste. Olives, olive oil, and other olive-based products form a large part of the diet, and they take up large sections of Turkish supermarkets. I had been spreading zeytin ezmesi on my toast in the morning, but then I discovered it also made an amazing pasta sauce (which I will post soon). I quickly ran out of this amazing product, and decided to order a large jar from Tulumba.com. It arrived in less than 2 days and I was so happy to have this new staple back in my fridge. I will say more about olive paste when I share some recipes made with it, but I love how delicious, versatile, healthy, and inexpensive it is. The jar I bought in Turkey was less than $2.00! In my fridge were also 2 amazing preserves from the Mastiha Shop NY. The store mainly sells products that have mastiha in them, which is a therapeutic and aromatic resin from the island of Chios in Greece. I picked up one jar of bergamot and one of fig the last time I was there. I was pleasantly surprised to see bergamot, because it is not a common fruit. We are all consumers of it, because its essential oil is used in almost every perfume produced, and it is also supposedly one of the ingredients of a famous soda with a secret formula. However, most bergamot is grown in Calabria, Italy, and goes straight into these products. The figs were preserved in the same way, cooked whole in a sugar syrup.

On Friday afternoon I had gone to Gulluoglu, the new outpost of the famous baklava shop based in Istanbul, with my future brother-in-law. I had an almond pudding and grabbed a simit to go. That same morning I had bought a sheep's milk yogurt from the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company for a recipe that I was working on. Thus on Sunday morning I had my simit, zeytin ezmesi, bergamot and fig preserves, and sheep's milk yogurt. That and a cup of Yorkshire gold tea with a drop of honey was all I needed to get my day going on the right note.

For more info about the products mentioned, check out:

http://www.blacksheepcheese.com/products.html

http://www.tulumba.com

http://www.yelp.com/biz/gulluoglu-baklava-cafe-new-york

http://www.mastihashopny.com

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Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Olive Paste