By: Teresa Genaro;

Like many kids, I wasn’t much fond of spinach and broccoli when I was little. I did fine with peas and green beans and carrots, but I turned up my nose at spinach and broccoli.

At my aunt’s one day, when I was about seven, I was served a plate of pasta with some green stuff in it. I asked what it was, I was told it was parsley, and I contentedly ate it.

Of course, it was not parsley; it was spinach, as I learned several years later, when my mother shared this recipe with me. I don’t think that either she or my aunt was particularly adamant about getting spinach into me; their subterfuge was less about nutrition than about taste. I think that this was just a dish that they liked, and they didn’t want to make it without the spinach.

It’s incredibly easy to make; it serves a crowd with minimal effort; it freezes well; it tastes great; and it doesn’t cost very much. You can prepare the dish a day or two ahead of time and pop it in the oven 30 – 40 minutes before serving.

A few words about the ingredients:

The sauce: You can of course make your own, and I often do, but if you want something easy, you can get away with jarred sauce in a recipe like this. I’ve included below a recipe for marinara sauce, and to keep the ease factor high, make a bunch at one time and freeze it, taking it out to use on occasions like this.

The vegetables: Thank goodness that last year Mark Bittman in the New York Times took us all off the hook for using frozen vegetables. As he wrote, they’re just as nutritious as fresh, and it doesn’t matter whether you buy a name brand or a store brand. I have used frozen vegetables with enthusiasm and without guilt ever since. I know that he specifically names broccoli and spinach as vegetables it’s easy to use fresh, but again, in a recipe like this, I don’t think it matters. If it matters to you, you can pre-cook the vegetables and then add them to the pasta, but it takes some of the ease out of the recipe.

Mama Genaro’s Baked Pasta

• One pound of the pasta of your choice. I like to use something for the vegetables to stick to and crawl into, like shells, but you can use whatever you like, or whatever’s in the house.
• The equivalent of one 16 oz. jar of marinara sauce
• One package of frozen broccoli, defrosted and drained
• One package of frozen spinach, defrosted and with excess water squeezed out
• One 15 oz container of good ricotta cheese
• One 16 oz block of good mozzarella cheese, sliced into ¼” slices
• Grated parmesan or romano cheese

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the pasta in salted water until it’s not quite done, probably about ten to twelve minutes, depending on the type of pasta you’re cooking.

As the pasta is cooking, slice the mozzarella and prepare the vegetables; defrost them in a microwave, or if they’re already defrosted, drain them.

Mix the vegetables, sauce, and ricotta cheese in a large bowl and set aside. If you want to eliminate another dish to wash, keep the ingredients separate and mix them individually with the pasta.

When the pasta is finished, drain it and pour it into a disposable aluminum baking pan—12” by 10” and about an inch and a half deep. Add the vegetables, sauce, and ricotta, turning well so that the ingredients are evenly mixed.

Top the pasta mixture evenly with the slices of mozzarella.

Bake the dish for about 20 – 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the ingredients are heated through. Serve in pasta bowls, topping to taste with grated cheese.

If you going from refrigerator to oven, you will probably need 30 – 40 minutes in the oven, so that the ingredients are heated through.

Easy marinara sauce

This is the most basic of tomato sauces; I prefer sauce with some meat and other vegetables, but if you need a decent sauce quickly, this will do.

• Olive oil
• Two cloves of garlic, chopped
• One small onion, chopped
• One 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (use dried if you can’t find any, or use basil-infused tomatoes)
• ¼ cup red wine

In large sauce pan over low heat, sauté the garlic and onion for about five minutes, until the onion is translucent.

Add the canned tomatoes and basil, and cook for about ten minutes.

Add the red wine and cook for five minutes more.

By: Teresa Genaro

Or, as it’s far more melodiously called by our friends in the UK, the aubergine. I confess that I’m addicted to this wonderful vegetable, and that it frequently graces my table in a variety of forms.

Unfortunately, the eggplant doesn’t have a lot to recommend itself in terms of nutrition: you can get a little fiber from it, and some minerals, but look elsewhere for protein. On the plus side, it’s virtually fat-free, particularly if you don’t cook it in oil.

So if it’s not particularly good for you, why bother? Simply put: cost and versatility. A medium-to-large eggplant is not that expensive, and it goes a long way. Eggplant is also a fundamental element of a number of cuisines, including Italian, Chinese, Thai, and Indian. It’s super-easy to prepare and lends itself to a terrific variety of dishes. It attains a buttery, creamy smoothness when slowly sautéed in olive oil (who cares about a little olive oil fat, right?), and it can be mixed with almost anything. A couple of recipes are below.

(A word before we begin: many recipes call for the eggplant to be cut and salted ahead of time, to draw out liquid and bitterness. If you have time, do it; if not, skip it. I’ve cooked it both ways without an appreciable difference. If you do salt ahead of time, let the eggplant sit for about thirty minutes, and then rinse it well before cooking, patting it dry to remove excess moisture. Do not, as I did once, use kosher salt—big mistake, as the salt was far too powerful for the eggplant and the resulting dish was nearly inedible.)

Sautéed eggplant with meat and beans
1 medium to large eggplant
1 chopped white onion
1 pound cubed meat of your choice (chicken, pork, sausage—or none—this works as a vegetarian meal as well)
½ cup dry wine, rosé or white (you could use chicken or vegetable stock as well)
1 can cannellini (white beans), drained and rinsed
¼ cup chopped mixed pitted olives
Salt and pepper to taste

Add a generous amount of olive oil (several times around the pot) to a medium-sized pot, and turn the heat to medium-low. As the oil is heating, cube the eggplant into about ½” pieces.

Add the eggplant to the pot and stir frequently; you don’t want it to brown or burn. Keep the heat low, and be prepared to stay by the stove for about twenty minutes. Drizzle more oil as needed.

After about five minutes, add the onion and continue stirring occasionally.

Cook for an additional five minutes, then add the meat and stir occasionally as it browns.

When the meat has browned, add the wine or stock and simmer uncovered until the liquid reduces by about two-thirds.

Add the beans and olives, cooking until both are heated through, and transfer to a bowl for serving.

If you like, you can toss this pasta or serve it over rice, but I like it as it is, with some crusty bread on the side. This is the sort of dish to which you can add any ingredient that you like that’s not included above. Among my favorites: sun-dried tomatoes; spinach or another leafy green; artichoke hearts.

Low-fat eggplant Parmesan

OK, I’m cheating here because it’s not my recipe, but it’s too good not to share. Growing up in an Italian household, I dug into more than my share of eggplant parmigiana; nothing says “comfort food” to me like crunchy fried circles of eggplant with creamy mozzarella cheese oozing with each mouthful. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve held on to my affinity for eggplant, but not to my willingness to ingest all that fat (which is not to say that I don’t do it—it’s just more of a special treat meal than a regular occurrence), so when I came across this recipe in the New York Times about a year ago, I made it a part of my regular cooking routine, even serving it at a New Year’s Eve dinner party to much praise. It is not your grandmother’s eggplant parmigiana; the cheese, and thus the pleasure, is reduced, but it’s a lot easier to prepare than the traditional dish, and the bread crumb topping helps to satisfy the crunch craving. And, it’s just way, way better for you.

Lower fat eggplant Parmesan from the New York Times