Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata

Sometimes I can get stuck trying to combine all my vegetables to make one main dish, but recently realized there is nothing wrong with just letting each vegetable shine on its own.  A few weeks back, I roasted a buttercup squash and beets, while my friend made some baked eggs with tomato, goat cheese, and dill.  But the best part of the meal had to be the green beans with gremolata (a traditional Italian condiment, of lemon, parsley, and garlic) from Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift's cookbook The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper.  Super soft green beans, seasoned with fresh lemon, parsley and nutty Parmigiano, you really cannot go wrong.  So I thought this would be the perfect recipe to share, since I got green beans again from my CSA this week.

Ingredients for Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata from The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper, serves 4:

-Olive oil

-1 1/2 pounds green beans, stem end trimmed

-1/2 cup water

-Shredded zest of 1 large lemon

-1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, tightly packed

-3 large garlic cloves

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper

-1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, fresh-grated

Lightly film the bottom of a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan with the oil.  Heat it over medium-high heat.  Add the beans and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Saute for 2 minutes, then add the water and immediately cover the pan, and turn the heat to medium low. Cook the beans for 15 to 20 minutes, checking them often for burning and adding a little water if necessary.  You want the beans to become very tender.

While the beans are covered and cooking, make the gremolata.  In a food processor, mince together the lemon zest, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Stir half of the mixture into the cooking beans.  Blend the rest of the gremolata into the grated cheese and set aside.

When the beans are tender, uncover them, cook off any liquid in the pan, and turn them into a serving bowl.  Toss the beans with the reserved cheese-gremolata mixture.

Enjoy!

Cheater's Homemade Broth

I received The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift for Christmas this year from my grandma.  Inside the cookbook is an array of fonts and photos, which at first I found confusing.  Then after second glance and some real reading, I realized that this book is the literary version of Kasper's Splendid Table radio program.  Throughout the book you can hear Lynne's voice offering the reader tips and secrets to making delicious meals.  The first recipe I tried was Soup of Fresh Greens and Alphabets which included making a recipe of Cheater's Homemade Broth.  What exactly is cheater's broth?  Basically it is taking store-bought broth and adding "every flavor-boosting trick" Lynne and Sally know.  At first I was skeptical with the amount of work I was going to have put in to make the broth before I even made the soup.  But once I tried a spoonful of the finished broth, I was sold.  It is truly the most flavorful broth I have ever made - so good that I could have just eaten it alone without anything added to it.  Lynne and Sally recommend making this broth and storing it for whenever you feel like making soup.  The broth keeps for 4 days refrigerated and 6  months frozen.