Citrus Roast Chicken + Saffron Romanesco Broccoli
The Power of Good Food and Spreading the Light
Growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s during what we might call “simpler times” we were especially delighted when our English teacher would exit stage left for the library to return with a clunker of a television strapped to a metal cart. This was when we were required to “read the book first” as an exercise for the imagination. It was before screens came to create our new science fiction world. Before we could even imagine seeing children blown to pieces and hanging from walls. We were still young adults viewing films inspired by literature. There were no codes or apps available in the name of child protection. We were free. Free from all of the noise.
In this scholastic moment, we had been introduced to Like Water for Chocolate a Mexican novel by Laura Esquivel to understand her use of magical realism and the supernatural as writing techniques. I remember being quite taken with the 12 chapters that featured a Mexican recipe representative of each month of the year and their correlation to the protagonist’s life. Tita was only able to express herself through her cooking, and her strong and overwhelming emotions could be tasted and felt in her food. With her forced duty to the home and kitchen, her dishes laced with emotion unintentionally affected those around her. The author (as authors do), added layers of fantasy to the beautiful and bitter realities of life.
Esquivel’s imagery and words are a great reminder of how much food cooked with love (or not) can have such a profound impact on our lives – and how our emotions and moods can truly impact the final results of what we are cooking. When we cook or eat food made with love we transmit and absorb this energy into our being and the same can be said for food cooked by someone who is sad or stressed or as anxious as a bat out of hell. My own mother disliked cooking for the most part, unless she was cooking from her deck of special occasion dishes and believe me, you could absolutely taste the difference.
Cooking and eating are also true vessels for our feelings and are daily acts of possibility for love and empowerment or harm toward self and others. The examination of what we are cooking and eating on micro and macro levels is a true reflection of how we are doing as individuals, community and planet. Back in these famous “80’s” families generally gathered to eat dinner when the street lights came on. That’s how you knew everyone was alive and well. Today in Western culture, this is a rapidly fading practice. I join others in the belief that so many of the major problems that we face in modern society are a result of our “disconnection” from ourselves, our communities and the land. Many of these blinding issues would surely disappear in coming together in family and/or community to sit down at least once a day around a table full of good nutrient-dense food cooked with love.
Remembering this novel, I also thought about how my own cooking and eating story has been shaped by how I am feeling inside and how this has affected my own person as well as the people who surround me. There have been periods where I have given zero love to the preparation and consumption of food despite my passion for food and cooking. This has been due to things like melancholy, ill health, exhaustion, or endless months of 24-hour morning sickness. I mention this now because I used to think there was something terribly wrong with me when I wasn’t “feeling the love” in in the kitchen and instead of having patience and compassion for that place, I would feel guilty. It took me a long time to understand that this feeling, especially in the modern shape of our society, is something that touches us all.
The act of cooking good food and feeding and eating with love, like raising children, should not fall exclusively on the shoulders of one or two individuals and this is probably where some of The Joy of Cooking gets lost. Ideally, there should be, like there has been in the past, another layer of support woven into family and community. This is because good food is about food, but it is also about people and the human exchange that comes with these acts in these settings. I have lectured about the aspects of Rural Food Traditions that contribute to optimal well-being and longevity and one of those major contributors as detailed in studies involving the Mediterranean Diet and the Blue Zones is living in a supportive community and eating and preparing food together. Women have traditionally overseen meal preparation since the beginning of time, but it was a group of women, not A WOMAN or even A MAN. If someone needed to take to the bed with a headache, there were others to keep the show going.
If our governments invested as much money in regenerative/indigenous agriculture, good food education, accessibility, policy and general solutions for peace as we do on arms to support unjust wars and genocide then this world would be a very different place. Farmers and their tractors would not be protesting in cities all over Europe as we have seen in recent weeks. Children would not be dying of starvation in Gaza. Israel would not have been able to completely level the agricultural landscape and general contents of Palestine as one of their methods of colonization that aims to strip cultural heritage and identity. We would be at peace.
In our recent relocation back to Italy, our children have gone from cold lunches brought from home as necessary in their Irish village school where very little time is dedicated to their consumption, to an Italian village school where hot three-course meals are cooked with local food and love by a group of women who we refer to as “the Nonnas”. Lunch is the most important part of the day, and the children always provide an enthusiastic lunch report as we walk to the car. It is our local food culture and community and the importance placed on all of it not to mention this “layer of support” and care that makes me thankful for our return. Especially in these past few months.
When bombs started falling on the Gaza Strip in October, I like millions of others came to join this collective sadness, shock and feeling of helplessness that we are now experiencing on a global level. My heavy heart joined the sea of individuals who are exhausted from this constant planetary fight for what is right, and as a result, I stopped cooking with love and started cooking just to get by. In the slow reflective moments prompted by winter’s rhythms, I turned to other things and then I remerged much to my family’s delight to prepare this Roast Chicken. When one of our local farmers delivered it to the front door before Christmas, I sent it straight to the freezer because I believed that the poor chicken and the man who raised it, deserved more than I had to give.
My favourite quote which comes from Carlo Petrini the Italian activist, author and founder of the International Slow Food Movement has lived on the landing page of my website for a handful of years now:
“Food is more than a simple product to consume. It’s happiness, identity, culture, being together, nutrition, local economy and survival.”
And in these same reflective moments, I also remembered that Good Food is also creative expression, inspiration and an opportunity for connection if only, for some of us, across digital realms. It heals us. It gives us strength. It helps us grow. It is empathy. It is respect. And it is an incredible source of dignity.
The living food culture and the story of the Palestinian people in this unimaginable moment of darkness is and will always be one of their greatest powers because it is the greatest power of us all. And there is regenerative power in the intangible, in what can’t be bombed, physically destroyed or taken away. Good food in the form of traditional food brings is a warm flame at the centre of our darkest hours, in moments of mourning and remembering we crave it – a source of pride, reconnection and rebuilding. When we feel powerless to support the many things in life that we feel are out of our control we can come into communion to cook. Good food empowers and uplifts. Good food prepared as an act of solidarity creates positive ripple effects in the universe even if we are thousands and thousands of miles away. We have seen so many taking part in these acts in recent years.
Food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth. - The EAT-Lancet Commission Report
The future of the world depends on good food. - United Nations Food Summit 2021
and without it, we have no future.
It’s time to put down our arms and pick up our forks. When we support good food and soverign food systems in the best way that we can, we regain power and control over our basic human rights and we take it from the governments who are not acting in our names to defend the sanctity of world peace. Good food and sovereign food systems help us to choose. To do what is right to support the economic prosperity and well-being of our families and our neighbours for the sake of the generations to come and for the future of this planet. We can put our hope in good food. It is the most powerful weapon that we have against the forces of darkness. Good food was given to us by our universe and Creator. It was given to us to spread the light.
Citrus Roast Chicken
Pollo al forno agli agrumi
DF. GF. GrF.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 quality free-range chicken
1 organic lemon
1 Tarocco blood orange
4 large waxy potatoes
3-4 garlic cloves in their jackets
A few branches of fresh rosemary
Extra virgin olive oil
White wine
Sea salt + freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Heat the oven to 200°C. Season your chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Cut the citrus in four and add it to the cavity together with a stick of rosemary. Rub the entire chicken in olive oil.
Peel your potatoes or leave the skin on if it is edible. Cut your potatoes into eighths lengthwise, toss them in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add them to the bottom of the pan together with the cloves of garlic and another stick of rosemary snapped into a few pieces. Christen the entire pan with a few light splashes of white wine and then make the sign of the cross over it (just joking).
Cook the chicken for 20 minutes at this temperature and then turn the oven down to 180°C and continue to cook according to its weight*. Cover the chicken only with aluminium foil if it starts to brown excessively before it is fully cooked. Remove your chicken from the oven and rest 15-20mins before carving. At this point, you can turn the heat of the oven to 200°C and return the potatoes to the oven if you like them really crisp. If they have already reached your preferred consistency then return them to the oven at a lower heat to keep warm. Carve your chicken onto a serving platter and surround it with crisp hot potatoes. Spoon over or serve with hot juices from the pan.
Notes:
Cook chicken according to its weight. As a rule, chickens are cooked for 45 minutes for each kilo plus 20 minutes. Fresh chickens from the farmer are non-standard and their weight might not reflect the same constitution of a free-range supermarket chicken. A higher weight may mean heavier bones and less meat to cook. If you get to know your chicken, you will understand it’s required cooking time. I use a food thermometer to ensure that my chicken is cooked to 74°C
Saffron Romanesco Broccoli
Broccolo romanesco allo zafferano
VE. GF. GrF.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 head of Romanesco broccoli
80g butter
A splash of olive oil
1 small onion
A handful of parsley
1 pack of quality powdered saffron or 0.5 of fresh saffron
Sea salt + freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Cut your broccoli into florets a rinse. Add them to a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Finely chop your onion. Melt the butter in a frying pan over gentle heat, add the onion and cook until translucent. Turn off the heat. Take a ladle or two of the hot water from boiling broccoli and add it to a small bowl or cup where you have placed your saffron and stir. Drain the broccoli when it is soft and gently toss in the butter and onion in the frying pan over low heat. Add the saffron infusion, gently toss again and continue to cook for a few minutes. Add freshly chopped parsley and serve hot.
Notes:
You can substitute cauliflower here. If you substitute the butter with another few tablespoons of olive oil this side dish is vegan and gluten-free. The broccoli can be served quite al dente where the florets keep their form or cooked until they are softer. This is the consistency that I usually choose so that I can toss leftovers (if there are any) to reheat and toss with pasta the next day.