A Good Food Day: Reboot Your Health with Food That Tastes Great (13 page)

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Authors: Marco Canora,Tammy Walker

BOOK: A Good Food Day: Reboot Your Health with Food That Tastes Great
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PLANT POWER
Why Vegetables are Vital
It’s hard to go a week without hearing about the latest and greatest superfood discovery—some energy-boosting, weight-loss-friendly seed or berry from a faraway mountaintop. While I’m not denying that they’re nutritious, there’s nothing magical about foods like açai berries and pomegranates. They have more marketing dollars working for them, but they’re not healthier than the asparagus or apples at your local farmers’ market.
The truth is that every whole plant food is a superfood, and not any one of them can be singled out as the golden ticket to good health. It’s their collective powers, the tried-and-true practice of “eating the rainbow” of brightly colored vegetables and fruits, that can steer you away from high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, and premature aging. By mixing it up in the produce section, you’ll not only have far more exciting meals, you’ll also benefit from a wider variety of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, the compounds that give plant foods their characteristic colors.
Don’t think you can take a one-a-day pill, go right on eating crappy food, and still be fine. Supplements can’t capture all the goodness of vitamins and antioxidants in whole foods. The phytonutrients in each fruit and vegetable work as a team, so extracting just one component doesn’t cut it.
Many phytochemicals function as antioxidants, including the carotenoids in sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash and the flavonoids in blueberries, grapes, and red wine. Antioxidants are superheroes that wipe out free radicals—unstable oxygen molecules that damage healthy cells through a process called oxidative stress. Some oxidative stress is normal, but we drastically accelerate it through smoking cigarettes, living in a state of constant stress, and eating shitty acid-forming processed foods. Antioxidants and the plant foods that carry them are crucial because they neutralize free radicals and stop the downward spiral of oxidative stress, ultimately slowing the aging process and reducing the risk of winding up with cancer or a chronic disease like Alzheimer’s. So while eating your vegetables doesn’t make a miracle cure, it sure as hell makes it a lot less likely that you’ll be diagnosed with something truly destructive.
A big source of free radicals is exposure to pesticides and toxins. Some exposure is inevitable, since we live in the modern world, but you can reduce it by buying local or organic produce whenever possible. Buying organic isn’t about getting more nutrients, it’s about what you’re
not
getting: pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides, and other freaky chemicals. Organic options can be pricey, but I consider it a worthwhile investment. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list online. If anything on the list is regularly in your shopping cart, you can try to buy the organic version of those. Sometimes, small producers at local farmers’ markets use organic practices but haven’t gone through the (pricey) official certification. Produce from those farms may be more affordable.

Sweet Pepper Peperonata

SWEET PEPPER
PEPERONATA
SERVES 4 TO 6
This exemplifies the simple, delicious Tuscan food I grew up eating. I make it year-round, but it’s especially good from late summer to early fall, when antioxidant-rich peppers are prime time. The colorful mix of stewed sweet peppers and onions is great as a condiment with cheese and charcuterie, a filling for an omelet, or a topping heaped on a piece of roasted fish or
Flavor-Pounded Chicken
. It also holds its own as a side dish, whether hot out of the pan or served room temperature. Peperonata is even better a few days after making it, so this one is a go-to of mine when I’m cooking for a group and want a few make-ahead dishes.
▪
If you like to flip food around a lot while it cooks, this recipe is an exercise in self-restraint. With too much fiddling that deep browning won’t happen, so go easy on it—nurture the browning.
2 garlic cloves, peeled
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 olive oil–packed brown anchovy fillet, minced
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch squares
2 large yellow bell peppers, cut into 1-inch squares
1 medium red onion, cut into ½-inch dice
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1
Crack the garlic cloves by giving each one a tap with the flat side of a knife until they split open. In a large, cold high-sided pan, combine ¼ cup of the olive oil, the garlic, and anchovy, then crank the heat to high. When the oil is hot and you see the first wisps of smoke coming off the pan, add the bell peppers (so they get the most heat), then the onion, and season with salt and black pepper. Let the vegetables do their thing in the oil without stirring for about 4 minutes.
2
Stir briefly and let cook for 2 minutes before stirring again. After another minute, or when the pan starts to look dry, add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir to coat. Cook until the peppers and onion show browning around the edges and have shrunk down some, about 3 minutes.
3
Reduce the heat to medium-high. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Cook for 5 minutes, tossing occasionally. Add the basil and continue cooking for 10 minutes, tossing every couple of minutes.
4
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vinegar. Serve immediately, or let it come to room temperature and store in the refrigerator.

Roasted Asparagus and Lemon with Chunky Pesto

ROASTED ASPARAGUS AND LEMON WITH CHUNKY PESTO
SERVES 4
Freshly roasted asparagus doesn’t need much more than good-quality olive oil and salt, but I’m a firm believer that pesto makes everything better. By hand-chopping pesto rather than whizzing it up in a food processor, you get more substantial bits of cheese and pine nuts in every bite. For attractiveness and brightness, I often throw in thin lemon slices with whatever I’m roasting. The heat mellows their acidity and softens the peel so you can eat the slices whole. Avoid using skinny asparagus when roasting, since those can get stringy and burn quickly.
▪
1 bunch medium asparagus
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 lemon—½ cut into thin slices, ½ reserved for serving
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (3-inch) chunk Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts
½ cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2
Trim the asparagus by holding each stalk horizontally and bending until the tough, woody end snaps off. On the baking sheet, toss the asparagus with the olive oil, lemon slices, and salt and pepper to taste. Roast until the asparagus is tender and the lemon slices are lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
3
While the asparagus is roasting, use the tines of a fork to crumble the Parmesan into small nuggets, about 2 tablespoons total. Pile the cheese, pine nuts, and basil together on a cutting board and chop until they’re well combined but still chunky.
4
Transfer the roasted asparagus and lemon slices to a serving platter, add the chunky pesto, and toss together. Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon half and top with a drizzle of olive oil.

Romesco Sauce

ROMESCO
SAUCE
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS
Unbelievably rich and vibrant, a jar of this Spanish pestolike sauce doesn’t stand a chance of lasting more than 48 hours when I’m around. Its richness comes from the quality fats in almonds, hazelnuts, and olive oil, so I don’t feel bad about my habit of hovering over a jar of it with a spoon. Romesco is traditionally made with grilled or roasted red peppers, but I prefer the ease of this stovetop variation. I’ve scaled this to a big batch, so use it any time you want to add a punch of piquant flavor to steamed or grilled vegetables or fish. It’s dynamite as a dip, a condiment for sandwiches, or stirred into a bowl of quinoa or rice. I also scoop it onto
Herb-Roasted Spatchcock Chicken
.
▪
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 red bell peppers, cut into large pieces
Fine sea salt
3 large garlic cloves, sliced
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ cup Marcona almonds
½ cup hazelnuts
1 cup canned stewed tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1
In a large high-sided skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over high heat. When wisps of smoke start coming off the pan, add the bell peppers and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and smoked paprika and cook for 2 minutes. Add the almonds and hazelnuts, reduce the heat to medium-high, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the tomatoes along with another pinch of salt and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for another 5 minutes so all the flavors come together.
2
Transfer the mixture to a food processor and add the vinegar and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Pulse until thoroughly combined, but still coarse. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed.
BRAISED
STRING BEANS
SERVES 6
It’s a rare thing when a little effort is rewarded with an impressive result. For this reason, braising is one of my favorite cooking techniques. By doing next to nothing, you get a huge amount of rich flavor. These slow-cooked string beans come out tender and addictively tasty every time (and they’re even better the next day, so this is scaled up to give you some leftovers). This will take about 45 minutes to cook, but it’s mostly hands off. If you make this during the summer, and I recommend you do, see if you can find Romano beans to sub in for the string beans. They’re broader in shape and stand up well to longer cooking like this. If it’s the dead of winter and your fresh tomato selection is iffy, feel free to substitute a 28-ounce can of chopped tomatoes. Just be sure to drain the liquid out before adding the tomatoes to the pot.
▪
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 small yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, peeled and smashed with the flat side of a knife
2 pounds string beans, trimmed and halved crosswise (8 to 9 cups)
6 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped (about 4 cups)
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
1
Pour the olive oil into a large cold pot or Dutch oven. Layer in the vegetables—the onions and garlic on the bottom, followed by the string beans and then the tomatoes on top. Add a couple generous pinches of salt and pepper. Cover and turn the heat to high. Cook for 12 minutes, then stir the vegetables to coat them in the liquid they’ve released. Cover and cook for 3 minutes before stirring again.
2
Reduce the heat to medium and cook for another 5 minutes, then stir and taste. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if needed. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Stir and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, so any remaining liquid evaporates and the flavors concentrate.
3
Add the basil and toss with the string beans. Taste and adjust seasoning.

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