It's around 11:30 pm, on Thanksgiving Eve and I am taking some time off from cooking. Just enough time to begin writing down my recipe for fasolakia. You see, I decided that there should be very little cooking left to do tomorrow, Thanksgiving day. This way I can mingle with family, and as most of the cooking will have already been done, Thanksgiving Day will unfold smoother and less hurried for us all. I'm going for simple and delicious this year. Uncomplicated recipes, easy to make, tasty to eat. Okay, now I have to trot into the kitchen, do one final thing (finish cooking the fasolakia), and then I'll be ready for tomorrow. Be right back.
Fosolakia is a popular Greek recipe, very easy to make and most often enjoyed in summer when green beans come fresh from the farm. Our Thanksgiving dinner is comprised of all the traditional fare, but it also contains this recipe as a remembrance of our roots. I make it with flat Italian green beans, which taste great and are similar to the varieties found in Greece. This time of year I buy the frozen kind because these green beans are not available fresh in November.
The dried oregano and parsley are a must in this recipe, and a touch of thyme and rosemary are popular add-ons. While cooking, I hum the amazing Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, by Simon and Garfunkel. The formal title of the song is Scarborough Fair. How I love Art Garfunkel's voice!!! And I love Paul Simon's counterpoint as he sings the ant-war Canticle.
It's good company, this song.
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 pounds flat Italian green beans, frozen
1 can (28-ounces/800gr) San Marzano whole tomatoes
salt to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
some sage
some sage
a sprig of rosemary
a few sprigs of thyme
a few sprigs of thyme
1 cup vegetable broth or water (plus more as needed)
Directions:
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and sauté until soft. Halfway through cooking the onions add the garlic and mix.
- Add all of the other ingredients and mix well.
- The liquid should almost cover the green beans. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover and cook for about one hour, until the green beans are soft and fork-tender.
- If the liquid evaporates before cooking is finished, you will need to add just a little bit more to the pan. You can use vegetable broth or water. The end result should have the green beans look juicy but not floating in liquid. Serve them with the pan juices, and enjoy them.
- This recipe can be used as a side dish and makes enough to feed a crowd but it can be cut in half and served as a main meal for about four people.
My father, 87 years old and suffering from dementia, was having a difficult time of it and that sent the whole house into an uproar. So much for a smooth and unhurried Thanksgiving. It turned out to be very stressful.
Over and over in my mind, I think of the famous words the poet Robert Burns set down in 1785. How true they still ring today, in 2010:
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Still you are blest, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!"
(excerpt from "To a Mouse," by Robert Burns, Standard English Translation)
