Food Mystery!

One of our readers has written in with a wonderful food mystery on his hands — there’s a certain almond bread he remembers from back in the 1970s, and he is hoping to find the recipe to share with his family.

Now, I’ve run this question past a couple of food-savvy friends, and checked my own cookbook library, but the bread isn’t ringing a bell…

Can you help?

Here’s the story.

Gary from California writes:

(I’m paraphrasing a bit here, to combine a couple of emails)

Hi:

Every time I see someone with Italian Recipes I look in VAIN for a recipe my Godmother used to make. Nobody in the family bothered to get it from her and write it down.

I am now the only one left of the Grandchildren, and am teaching my boys and their familys to cook different Italian dishes, breads etc.

I believe it was called “Ocenti“… a small sweet bread with an almond flavor and topped with sugar … may have been a regional recipe.

She was from Lamporo, located in Vercelli, Piemonte, Italy.

It didn’t taste like a yeast bread but more like a roll, it was about 4 inches long shaped liked a log, cut at an angle on the ends. She would make 2 indents on the top using the sides of her hands so it had 3 humps on the top, sweet, light almond taste with sugar on the top.

If you have anything close to this recipe… I would be forever thankful as I have been looking for the recipe since 1971 when she died.

I am now 70 yrs old and would like to give this recipe to my family.

Hope this information helps, and looking forward to hearing from you with some GOOD NEWS!

Thank you again for taking up your valuable time in trying to help me.

Gary

Now, I’ve run this question past a couple of chef friends, and the bread isn’t ringing a bell in any of their memories. We did wonder if maybe “Ocenti” might be a half-remembered variation on “Osso d’ Santi” — sort of in there somewhere between the “Osso dei Morti” cookies/biscotti that are traditionally baked for All Souls’ Day, and the “Pan de Santi” bread for Easter — but that’s pure conjecture, with no basis in fact. Another theory — could “Ocenti” have been “Occitani” (as in Occitan Valleys) originally? No way to know… and I’m just throwing it out there, in case someone can confirm (or rule out) any of these wild theories.

My friend, the bread-loving Guilherme Zühlke O’Connor, who lived for some time in Italy, says that “by the description it could be a variety of breads or pastries, almonds (and bread for that matter) are very popular over there.” Without more to go on, it was hard to say…

So then I got hopelessly lost (and very hungry!) browsing the beautifully photographed bread recipes at Il mondo di Milla and Academia Barilla / Italian Food Academy.

And I’ve flipped through my cookbooks on Italian cuisine without finding any bread that looks like it might fit the bill…

Nothing.

So, over to you!

Can you help Gary to find that old family recipe? Does the long-lost Italian almond bread sound like a recipe you know and love?

If you have any idea of what it might be, please leave a comment — Gary and his family would be grateful, and I’d love to know as well!

We’re into the season of veggie harvest and hearty soups! Food writer Chris Perrin brings two new vegetarian recipes to the table (haha!) to keep good company with your soup bowl… If you’ve been following his tasty contributions here each month, you’ll know that Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Pumpkin Panini and Apple-Seitan Sandwich

Despite the fact it signals the end of the growing season, Fall is the time for one last culinary celebration. Gone are the spring vegetables, the tomatoes, and the peaches. Still, every autumn, the Earth erupts forth in a great bounty of fruits and vegetables in such great quantities that the ground must know it will produce nothing for the next five or six months.

Okay, that might be a little overly dramatic, but how else can you explain the flood of apples, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, and other gourds that invade grocery stores across the country every October? The problem, though, is that most of Fall foods are usually thought of as desert (pumpkin pie) or are much maligned (cranberry “sauce” from a tin can.) Even the most inventive thing done with the mighty apple tends to be chopping it up and throwing it into a salad.

Photo: jslander

That all changes today. Today, we are going to elevate Fall fare into the fantastic. We are going to make sandwiches! (And they’re going to be veg friendly, too.)

Pumpkin Panini

Pumpkin is a nutritious vegetable that really does not get the credit it deserves as a savory ingredient. When roasted it has a satisfying, meaty flesh that has a subtle earthy flavor and is not nearly as sweet as you might think. This particular sandwich is paired with good mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and basil for a pumpkiny twist on an Italian favorite.

• 1 small sugar pie pumpkin or about a pound of regular pumpkin
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 16 sundried tomatoes
• 12 basil leaves
• 1 loaf of vegan bread, cut into half inch slices
• 4 tablespoons of vegenaise or mayonnaise
• 1 medium tomato, sliced thinly
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella (vegan or regular)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare the Pumpkin

Wash the outside of the pumpkin thoroughly and pat dry. Cut into quarters and remove the seeds and stem. Coat with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Bake the pumpkin for forty minutes or until fork tender. Remove and set aside to cool. Once cool, cut into thin slices roughly the same width as the tomato. You may choose to remove the pumpkin’s peel or leave it on as you choose.

Make the Spread

As the pumpkin is roasting, prepare the sun dried tomato mix. The idea is to have a chunky spread, not a sauce. To make it, put the sun dried tomatoes, two tablespoons of the tomatoes’ oil, and the basil into a food processor and pulse. Add the olive oil one tablespoon at a time until it reaches a consistency you like.

Make the Panini

Construct the sandwiches by taking a slice of bread and spreading a tablespoon of vegenaise on one side and a quarter of the shredded cheese on the other. Starting this way will help to water proof the bread for the cooking ahead.

Stack the pumpkin, one-quarter of the sun dried tomato spread, and two slices of tomatoes on the cheese side in that order. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the tomato and top with the other slice of bread.

Finally, to make this a panini, pull out a skillet and coat in a bit of your favorite nonstick cooking spray or olive oil. When the pan gets hot, put two sandwiches on it and press them with a second skillet or a cookie sheet weighted down with cans. Cook this way for two minutes, then flip sandwiches and cook them weighted down for two more minutes. If the mozzarella is not fully melted, put the sandwich in the oven for a few minutes.

Serve with pumpkin bisque for an awesome pumpkin meal.

Apple/Seitan Sandwiches

Photo: mharvey75

Many years ago, before I stopped eating meat, my friend V introduced me to this sandwich, which she made using good mild summer sausage. I have changed it to use seitan, my favorite of the vegan “faux meat” products.

• 1 package store bought seitan
• 2 tablespoons sausage spice mix or 1 tablespoon each of black pepper and thyme and a pinch of red chili flake
• ½ cup of Dijon mustard
• ½ cup of apple cider vinegar
• Hard rolls or French bread cut into quarter inch slices
• 1 apple, cut into long slices
• 4 slices Swiss cheese (vegans: use vegan parmesan)

The first thing to do is change the flavor profile of the seitan slightly. Because seitan is an Asian dish, it is normally flavored with soy sauce, but that flavor can be lessened by boiling the seitan. Also, boiling tends to soften seitan and make it easier to chew.

To do this, bring a pot of water to boil. Use water, not broth, but flavor the water with sausage spice mix. Boil the seitan for about 5 minutes. Take it out of the water and bring back to room temperature.

While the seitan is cooling, mix the mustard and the cider vinegar in a bowl with a whisk.

Construct the sandwiches by covering the bottom of a roll or a piece of bread with seitan and adding a piece of cheese, a few slices of apple, and topping with the mustard/vinegar mix.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.