4 flavorful recipes from Carla Lalli's new cookbook 'Food Is a Feeling'
Chef and cookbook author Carla Lalli is serving up seasonal recipes from her new cookbook, "Food Is a Feeling."
Lalli joined "Good Morning America" on Thursday to share a colorful citrus salad and fruit-filled cobbler, plus her top tips and tricks to help home cooks recreate each dish.
She also shared her recipes for a hearty Bolognese and a sesame cake with miso, vanilla and lemon.
Check out her full recipes below.
Dreaming of Summer Citrus Salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
1/2 medium shallot, thinly sliced crosswise
4-finger pinch of fennel seeds, lightly crushed
Kosher salt; freshly ground black pepper
Distilled white vinegar
3 oranges, such as navel, blood, Cara Cara, and/or Satsuma
4 tangerines and/or clementines
3 celery stalks
12 Castelvetrano olives
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Palmful of roasted pistachios or almonds
Aleppo pepper and flaky salt, for seasoning
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine the shallot rings and fennel seeds and season with salt and black pepper. Toss and stir until the shallot starts to look wet, then pour in just enough vinegar to coat generously. This is the base of the dressing.
For tight-skinned oranges, like navel and blood oranges, slice off enough from the stem and bottom end to expose the flesh, then upend the fruit and cut away the peel and pith. Slice the denuded oranges crosswise into thin rounds or irregular wedges. If using a Satsuma, peel it by hand, remove any particularly thick, stringy bits or pieces of pith, and then cut it into similar shapes. Play around with your knife work; make it pretty; they don’t all have to be the same.
Transfer the oranges to the shallot mixture, but don’t toss them together. Peel the tangerines and/or clementines, then separate into clusters of 3 or 4 sections, removing any especially egregious stringy bits. Cut the clusters in half on an angle and add to shallot mixture (don’t stir).
Thinly slice the celery on a steep diagonal and add to bowl. Smash the olives with the flat side of the blade, remove the pit, and use your fingers to tear into smaller pieces. Set the olives aside.
Drizzle enough olive oil over the ingredients to generously coat them, season with salt and black pepper, and very gently fold together with your hands or a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning and oil as needed. Arrange the salad on a serving plate or divide it between two smaller plates. A bowl is not the move here. Scatter the olives and pistachios over, season generously with Aleppo pepper and a couple of pinches of flaky salt, and finish it off with one last shiny drizzle of oil.
Black-and-Blue Cobbler with Jam Biscuits
8 servings
Ingredients
For the biscuits
2 1/4 cups (270g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (12g) sugar
1 teaspoon (3g) kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 hard-boiled egg yolks, from large eggs
12 tablespoons (6 ounces/ 170g/ 1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-tablespoon pieces
3/4 cup (175ml) cold buttermilk, plus more for brushing
1/2 cup (160g) blackberry jam
For the filling
1 1/2 pounds (680g) blueberries (about 4 cups)
1 1/2 pounds (680g) blackberries (about 4 cups)
3/4 cup (144g) plus 2 tablespoons (24g) sugar, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Zest and juice of
1 lime Buttermilk, for brushing
Whipped cream, cold heavy cream, crème fraîche, sour cream, and/or vanilla ice cream, for serving
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
Make the biscuits: In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and egg yolks and pulse until the yolks are in small pieces, about 12 pulses. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in very small beads and the mixture resembles cornmeal, 35 to 40¡pulses. For a flaky biscuit (or pie dough, for that matter), you’d leave the butter in larger pieces so that they create pockets of steam and layered texture in the final biscuit. For these, you want the butter and flour to create a sandy texture, which yields a tender, more homogeneous crumb. Stream in the buttermilk while pulsing and pulse just enough to bring the dough together.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface (or parchment paper). With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to a roughly 9 × 12-inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. With a long side facing you, cut dough in half crosswise. Spread the jam evenly onto one piece of dough, then place the other piece of dough on top, like a sandwich.
Cut the jam-filled dough in half lengthwise to make 2 strips about 9 × 3 inches. Then cut each of those long pieces crosswise to create 3/4-inch-wide strips. (If at any point the dough warms up or becomes difficult to handle, chill for 10 minutes to firm up.) Transfer the strips to the lined baking sheet and chill while you make the filling.
Get ahead: The dough can be rolled out, filled with jam, and cut into strips up to 3 days ahead. Wrap airtight and refrigerate. (Alternatively, freeze for up to 2 months.)
Make the filling: In a large bowl, combine both berries, 3/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Finely grate the lime zest over, then halve the lime and squeeze in the juice. Gently toss until no dry spots remain, then use a large fork to lightly crush about a third of the berries. Taste the mixture and adjust sugar and salt as needed. Scrape the mixture into an oval, square, or rectangular 2-quart baking dish, 2 to 3 inches deep, and place on the prepared baking sheet.
Arrange the chilled strips on top of the fruit, twisting them slightly so that the jammy edge is exposed in some spots. Lightly brush the dough with buttermilk and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over.
Bake until the topping is dark golden brown and fruit juices are bubbling at the surface of the cobbler, about 1 hour 10 minutes. (Loosely cover with aluminum foil if the biscuit topping is sufficiently browned before the juices are bubbling.)
Let the cobbler cool until the side of the baking dish is just warm to the touch. If you spoon into it when it's still hot, the fruit juices will be thin and runny, which is a disservice to them, and to the work you did. This is why we bake in the early part of the day and have cobbler after dinner. (Leftover cobbler is also amazing for breakfast the next day. Loosely cover and leave it at room temperature.)
Serve spoonfuls of cobbler with some whipped cream, a drizzle of cold cream, a dollop of crème fraîche or sour cream, and/or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
If You Make One Bolognese
Makes 6 cups, enough for 8 servings
Ingredients
3 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
1 medium carrot
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 fennel bulb
3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
4 ounces pancetta, diced
Kosher salt; freshly ground pepper
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup whole milk 3 bay leaves
1 cup white wine
1 to 2 pounds fettuccine or rigatoni
Parmigiano, for serving
Directions
Roughly chop the garlic, celery, carrot, onion, and fennel, then transfer to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the bowl as needed.
Heat 1/3 cup oil and the pancetta in a large Dutch oven over medium. Cook until most of the fat has rendered and the pancetta is turning golden brown. Add the vegetables, stir to coat, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the soffritto is juicy and has lost about a third of its volume, 10 minutes.
Add both types of ground meat and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meats are no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook until it has turned a deeper shade of red, about 5 minutes. Pour in the milk, add the bay leaves, and increase the heat to bring the liquid to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the milk has almost completely evaporated, about 15 minutes.
Add the wine, return to a simmer, partially cover, and cook until the meat is extremely tender, and the sauce has reduced by about half and feels velvety, about 3 hours. Check and stir occasionally, and loosen the sauce with water as needed.
Get ahead: Transfer the Bolognese to a container, let cool, then refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. For every 4 people, use 1 pound of pasta and 3 cups sauce. Scale up or down from there.
Cook the pasta until very al dente, a few minutes less than the package instructions. Transfer the pasta to the pot with the sauce along with about 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Simmer the pasta in the sauce, gently stirring and tossing occasionally, until the pasta is al dente. Serve with Parmigiano for grating over.
Just Like an Olive Oil Cake, but with Sesame Instead
Makes one 9-inch cake
Ingredients
Vegetable oil, for greasing the pan
12 tablespoons (6 ounces/ 170g/ 1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons (30g) tahini
2 tablespoons (26g) toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon (18g) white or yellow miso
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup (144g) plus 2 tablespoons (24g) sugar, divided
2 lemons
1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
3 cup (42g) fine almond flour
1 teaspoon (3g) kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons (7g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2g) baking soda
3 large eggs
4 tablespoons (35g) sesame seeds, toasted, divided
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch cake pan with vegetable oil and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
Cut the butter into tablespoon-size pieces and let them temper while you prep your ingredients. You want the butter to be pliable and cool when it’s time to mix the batter. If you cannot bend the butter without it breaking, it is too cold.
In a small bowl, mix together the tahini, sesame oil, miso, vanilla, and 1/4 cup (60g) warm water until no lumps of miso remain. Set aside.
In the bowl of stand mixer (or large bowl, if using a hand mixer), put 3/4 cup (144g) sugar and grate the zest of both lemons over (about 1 tablespoon). Use your fingers to thoroughly work the zest into the sugar. Add the all-purpose flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and comb through with your hands to combine and break up any lumps.
Add the butter to the dry ingredients and place the bowl onto the mixer fitted with the paddle (or use a hand mixer). Beat on medium speed; the butter will go from chunky to pebbly to sandy, and then the mixture will ball up around the beaters. When that happens, continue beating until the mixture is smooth and some of the batter sticks to the sides of the bowl, another minute or so. Scrape down the bowl and paddle.
Add the eggs one at a time on medium speed, waiting until each is incorporated into the batter and scraping down the bowl before adding the next. (So: add, beat, scrape, repeat.) Stream in the tahini mixture and beat until the batter is emulsified and creamy, 1 or 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the stand, add 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, and use a rubber spatula to give the batter a few swift mixes, making sure to get the way to the bottom of the bowl, where sneaky clumps of batter like to hide out.
Scrape the batter into the cake pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sesame seeds over, then the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake the cake until it is dark brown, firm but a tiny bit springy in the center, and starting to pull away from the edge of the pan, 45 to 50 minutes. If you have a digital thermometer, the temperature should be between 205° and 210°F in the center of the cake.
Let cool in the pan for 5 or 10 minutes, then run a paring knife around the edge of the cake to prevent it from sticking. Let cool in the pan 20 minutes more, then carefully invert to release the cake. Peel off the parchment. Cool the cake on a rack, sugared-side up.
This cake is light and fluffy on day one. Lovely. Or, wrap it in wax paper and store at room temperature. On days two and three the cake will have settled down a bit; what it loses in etherealness, it gains in heft and humidity. I like it better once it has rested; you might value loftiness.
Not to overcomplicate things, but you can also slice the cake and then freeze it, airtight, for several months. Thaw, toast, and assess. So many options. The beauty is that you can have this cake and eat it, too. Enjoy a slice several days in a row and decide in the moment when you think it has peaked. It is, after all, your cake we're talking about.
Recipes reprinted with permission from Carla Lalli.
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