Friday, August 1, 2008

Italian burritos, and my fusion fixation

So I landed in San Diego this morning, and I now have some time to kill before heading off to a wedding in Julian for the weekend. Julian is a quaint mountain town about 1 1/2 hours to the northeast; I haven't been since I was about 3 years old, when my family drove there to play in the snow! (Yes, they have mountains near San Diego, and yes, Californians make an event out of "going to the snow".) Because I'll no doubt be enjoying all sorts of delicious food cooked by other people tonight and tomorrow, I figured I might as well post something of my own now. For better or worse, this blog really has led me to change my approach to cooking, as what you are about to read is yet another original!

On Wednesday night I decided to try my hand at an Italian-style burrito made with cannellini beans. (I confess to just having spell-checked "cannellini", and it's a good thing because I thought there was only one "n"! See, as much as I try not to let my obsessive-compulsive personality infiltrate my writing, I can't help myself.) I actually got the idea a few months ago, when I made a "black bean and cheddar" burrito recipe from Fine Cooking but all I had on hand were white beans. BFFT loved it anyway, and I started thinking of some ways to make the filling more true to the bean type. A few years ago I took a two-week-long vacation to Tuscany with BFFT and the in-laws (I think I see a raised eyebrow, or two, or unibrow - believe it or not his parents are wonderful!), and at dinner one night we had a delicious cannellini-rosemary side dish. So I decided to recreate it on paper - I mean, in tortilla - and here's what I came up with:

Italian "burritos"

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1/3 c onion (preferably yellow)
2 cloves garlic
1 small tomato (I used green this time - went well with the herbs color-wise!)
10 oz canned cannellini beans
1/2 t dried rosemary
1/2 t dried sage
1/3 c grated fontina cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
2 burrito-size tortillas (sundried tomato flavor is tasty)

Directions:

Saute onion in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until tender. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 additional minute. Add tomato, cannellini beans, and herbs. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until all ingredients are heated through, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

While filling is cooking, bake tortillas (with fontina cheese spread across the middle) in a 350-degree oven for about 3 minutes. Transfer to plates, spread half of the filling over each tortilla, roll up, and serve.



Is it just me or does looking at this picture make you kind of dizzy? Anyway, on the side I served roasted green beans with half a head of leftover radicchio (the double-consonant Italian words are killing me today! well, I actually got this one right according to my spell checker). Radicchio develops a wonderful, nutty flavor as it cooked, so it complemented the burritos quite well.

Considering my very first post, you might be tempted to think I have some sort of burrito fixation. I actually don't... it's more a "fusion fixation", which if you consider what I've blogged about thus far, could begin to describe much of my cooking. So I am developing a style, or perhaps am just becoming consciously aware of it at long last! Awesome.

P.S. Don't worry, that comment about the unibrow in no way referred to you. I have been up since 3am Pacific time (and didn't sleep for most of last night because I kept having nightmares about missing my plane!), so I'm in a strange mood. Or maybe I'm just strange, period.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

You eat the dessert and I'll eat the Burritos!!!!! Kimmy, this is a wonderful contribution (your BLOG). It is informative and very, very entertaining. Thank you!

Unknown said...

Santa Barbara Meatloaf...ground turkey,2 uncooked sausage links,minced onions, chopped garlic, bread crumbs, tomato sauce, chopped parsley, salt and pepper, one egg...mix and make rectangular loafs...cook about 45 minutes @ 375 on a broiler pan!!! Currently, we are 2 minutes until done and I can't wait to taste this dish.

Unknown said...

Also, feta cheese!!!

Kim said...

Thanks for reading! It's been awhile since I've written something besides a journal article, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the process. The meatloaf sounds delicious... did I ever tell you it was the first dish I learned how to cook? I actually made a lentil loaf this evening but need to experiment a bit more with the combination/consistency of ingredients before posting the recipe.

Unknown said...

The Santa Barbara Meatloaf IS delicious! We enjoyed it last night right from the oven and tonight right from the refrigerator. Try it.

Unknown said...

More on Santa Barbara Meatloaf...Gale made a delicious vegetable soup and, of course, I added leftover SBM to the soup and WOW; delicious Part 2.

Kim said...

I can't wait to start making soups again (and blogging about them)! It will be a few months before the Columbus weather is cool enough to do so...