Heritage Prairie Farm wheat berry salad

Localicious was the name of this year’s party for the FamilyFarmed EXPO held in Chicago March 11-13. What started five years ago from small beginnings has since grown into a three-day, agenda-packed event to connect family-owned farmers, artisanal food producers, buyers, policy makers, and the public with each other to promote the growth of local food systems. The Localicious party, naturally, showcased restaurants and producers who make use of local and sustainable food. 

So on Friday evening of the expo I found myself in a cavernous room at the UIC Forum sampling one fantastic tasting dish after another:    

Spit-roasted leg of lamb with horseradish crème fraîche and microgreens from Bistro Campagne.   

House-made pork sausage with black lentils atop creamy mashed potatoes from Osteria Via Stato.   

Chicken liver pâté with pickled winter vegetables and salt crackers from Lula Café/Nightwood.   

Beef and black bean Brazilian chili from Province.   

Mediterranean semolina-honey-butter cake from Pasticceria Natalina.       

All good. And then I got to the Heritage Prairie Farm table displaying this colorful, wow-me bowl of wheat berry salad in an earthy-hued bowl (from IKEA!). Friend and farm chef Portia Belloc Lowndes prepared this salad with the farm’s wheat berry and enlivened it with baby arugula, Capriole goat cheese, craisins, microgreens, and a honey-citrus vinaigrette. “It’s a great, great grain when used whole,” she says. I took a forkful, then another, and another—and was ready to take the entire bowlful home. I love the combination of chewy wheat berries with sweet and savory flavors.

This sort of salad is easy to make on your own, especially if you plan ahead and break out the steps. Portia recommends soaking the wheat berries in water overnight and then cooking them for an hour and half. She buys her wheat berries from Ted’s Organic Grains in Kaneville, Illinois, but for most people who don’t live nearby, it will be easier to buy them at Green City Market in the summer or from stores that carry their own sources of grains. Depending on the pot you use, cooking time can vary, which for me, is about an hour. You can use what’s in season or mix in a variety of ingredients to your liking, such as dried or fresh fruit, nuts, crumbled feta, sliced scallions, grated orange or lemon. I particularly like the combination of dried chopped figs, pine nuts, goat cheese, and chopped parsley.   

Below is get Portia’s honey-citrus vinaigrette recipe. I also included detailed cooking instructions from Lorna Sass’s excellent Whole Grains, Every Day, Every Way book.

Portia Belloc Lowndes’s Citrus-Orange Dressing
for Wheat Berries, Cous Cous, or Rice
Whisk the following ingredients together in a bowl or jar:
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup lime juice
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
¾ cup olive oil
4 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
3 tablespoons honey
salt and pepper to taste 

Lorna Sass’s Cooking Instructions for Wheat Berries 
To make approximately 2½ cups of cooked grains:
Use 1 cup dry wheat berries and 2½ cups water in a 2-quart pot.
Add salt to taste toward the end of cooking.   

Presoaking the grains is optional but recommended. If time permits, soak the grains in the 2½ cups of water overnight. It saves some cooking time, but more important, presoaking results in a softer bran layer, more even cooking, and plumper grains.   

Alternatively, do a quick-soak: Bring the water to a rapid boil in a Dutch oven or heavy saucepan. Stir in the grains. Turn off the heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.   

Bring the water and grains to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer until tender.   

Once a few of the grains have burst open or you detect the whitish starchy endosperm peeking through one end of some grains, start checking for doneness: Cut a few grains in half and see if they are one color throughout. If so, taste a few grains and see if they are juicy and the starchy center is soft. Cooking time is typically 30 to 40 minutes for soaked grains, about one hour for unsoaked. If the water is absorbed before the grains are done, add more as needed.   

When the grains are tender, drain them thoroughly. To plump them slightly more and reduce surface moisture, return the grains to the hot empty pot and cover them. Let them steam in the residual heat for 5 to 10 minutes.   

After the wheat berries are cooked, add them to a bowl and toss with an appropriate amount of dressing to lightly coat. Let sit for 15 minutes. Complete your salad by adding additional ingredients to your liking.

For more information about Heritage Prairie Farm:
Heritage Prairie Farm
2N308 Brundige Road
Elburn, Illinois 60119
Tel          630.443.8253   630.443.8253    630.443.8253   
info@hpmfarm.com

Traditional Mille Foglie

The opening of Pasticceria Natalina on Valentine’s Day 2007 generated raves in the press, and soon after drove foodies to Andersonville to confirm whether all the hype was true. It was. And it still is. And it is a find. The elegant dolci here are divine. 

Natalie Zarzour’s fervor about eating properly made pastry—pastry that eschews industrial mixes, methods, and shortcuts—drove her to open her shop in hopes that others would be as passionate as she about high-quality confections.

This simple, chartreuse pastry shop is the creation of Natalie and Nick Zarzour. She’s of Sicilian descent and he’s Lebanese. The two met in college, where she studied political science and he engineering, and they married in November of 2002. One day while driving, Natalie bit into a mediocre piece of pastry and realized how fed up she was with the poor quality and industrialization of a lot baking in the United States. She knew she could do better. She was fortunate to have grown up with immigrant grandparents and family members who involved Natalie from an early age in learning how to cook and bake in the Sicilian ways.

A small inheritance from her Palermo-born maternal grandparents at around the same time triggered the turning point for Natalie and Nick to call it quits with their pursuits. The two decided to put their energy into opening a shop featuring distinctive Sicilian specialties. “I was only 23. It was totally a gift. I figured it must be the right thing to do then,” recalls Natalie. “I think they’d be happy with what I did with it.”

Half the space is devoted to an open kitchen where Natalie and a few other pastry chefs make every aspect of every piece of pastry by hand, from scratch, while Nick runs the business end of things. For her pastries, Natalie marries authentic Sicilian tastes with classical French techniques by drawing on her family’s Sicilian roots, as well as trips to Italy, her own creativity, and an apprenticeship at a French pastry shop in Zahle, Lebanon, where Nick is from. Her unyielding mantra: focus on flavor, texture, and the visual. “If those three things aren’t on the plate,” says Natalie, “it’s not a pastry I want to serve.” She is simply impassioned with doing things the right way. Her ingredients “for anything that gives flavor”—such as Sicilian ricotta (made from sheep’s milk), preserved fruits, nuts, honey, flavoring liqueurs, and decorating sugars—are imported from Italy. Fresh fruits are seasonal and organic.

Once inside, you are immediately drawn to the dozen or so beautifully adorned confections on display. After my first visit, I realized it would be impossible to ever pick one. So I always opt to take home an assortment. One afternoon, I started with a rectangular Mille Foglie alle Fragole, an exquisite layered creation of puff pastry, vanilla sponge cake, Sicilian pastry cream punctuated by two thin tiers of strawberry compote filling. My first bite elicited an intense crispy crunch, followed by sublime creaminess and intense strawberry flavor.

The cassatine pastry was traditionally prepared for Easter, but is now made year round in Italy and here.

While it’s hard to imagine anything more satisfying, a pale green, dome-shaped cassatine comes close. Traditionally an Easter cake, it can now be found year round in Italy and now here. This diminutive pastry belies its medley of complex flavors. Beneath the outer marzipan shell, a floral liqueur-soaked sponge cake (pan di spagna) coddles luxurious imported ricotta cream, bits of dark chocolate, all topped with a powdered sugar glaze and piece of candied orange. Both creations demonstrate Natalie’s ability to marry flakiness and creaminess is nothing short of miraculous.

A display of fresh-baked sfogliatelle.

I know of no other bakery in Chicago where you can find sfogliatelle, an unbelievably involved pastry to make. It technically originates from Naples, and is the Italian word for “leaves” or “pages.” It resembles a seashell made of wrapped layers of thin pastry that is baked with a lemon-zest ricotta filling and dusted with powdered sugar. Customers come from all over the city for these alone. Baked to golden perfection with burnished edges, Natalie’s sfogliatelle gives new meaning to the word flakiness. They are best eaten fresh and a must-try.

Fig-filled cuccidatti cookies.

The “homier” pastries, such as the cookies, reflect Natalie’s Sicilian influence the most. Among these are fig-filled cuccidatti; crunchy sesame reginette; delicate anise and lemon crescent cornettini; and zaletti butter cookies with polenta, rum, and raisins. The almond butter Baci di dama with dark chocolate filling is a perfect cookie for dunking in coffee. Other simpler offerings are crunchy sesame, almond, honey bars (cubbaita) and various biscotti.

What is considered “authentic” can be a debate in any cuisine. Natalie, who delves into the history of Italian food—which is influenced by centuries of war, conquests, trade, introduction of foods by different cultures—takes customers back in time with her creations. “I take each pastry for what it is. I try to get to know it in its different stages of history. And then I try to make the most artistically pleasing version of that pastry.” This approach is a welcome preservation of Sicilian sweets, which even in Italy is becoming a lost art form, according to Natalie. 

For those not living in Andersonville, a visit to Pasticceria Natalina probably means making a special trip. Although the pastries are not inexpensive, the rewards of the journey are worth every last bite. Pasticceria Natalina is a wonderful addition to Chicago’s food scene, with Natalie Zarzour’s talents setting a world-class standard in pastry making. 

Pasticceria Natalina
5406 North Clark Street
Chicago 60640
Tel 773.989.0662
Fax 773.989.1078
www.p-natalina.com

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
Wednesday – Friday, 12:00 noon – 10:00 pm
Saturday, 12:00 noon – 10:00 pm
Sunday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 pm
Note: hours change seasonally

Parking: Street, metered

Castel Gandolfo spinach fig proscuitto pizza.

Another thin-crust pizzeria? I say bring it on. Chicago’s long-running reputation for deep-dish pizza is steadily being eroded by the proliferation of new pizzerias popping out thin-crust creations. When my friend Lisa and I were wondering where to have dinner on this Saturday night, we opted to try the latest newcomer to the Chicago pie scene, Castel Gandolfo. Inspired by a trip to Rome that included a private visit with the Pope (and named after the Pope’s summer residence), Jane Jasnak and family wanted to duplicate the light, Neapolitan-style pizza she experienced on their visit. And duplicate she did.

The pizza here is delicious. Jasnak spent months developing the dough and insists on using housemade mozzarella. The painstaking efforts show. The dough is chewy and lightly charred on the edges. Each pizza is topped with impeccably fresh ingredients. Every order is delivered bubbling hot out of a wood- and coal-burning brick oven that heats to more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit. We chose to order that evening’s special—a pizza with goat cheese, fresh spinach, fig, caramelized onion, pine nuts—that hit the mark with an pleasing palette of flavors and textures. Castel Gandolfo also offers a small selection of calzones, two salads, some antipasti, and a few desserts. We were told a selection of pasta dishes were to be added to the menu soon. The crisp, mixed greens house salad, enough for two or three people, is served with a mix of roasted sweet red peppers, big green olives, and salty Parmesan crisps.

The quality of the pizza is so good and satisfying that it made up for the multiple waits and service glitches by an inexperienced wait staff. Hopefully those issues are being worked out. I’m already thinking about which pizza I want to try next. The prosciutto and arugula? The veggie? The bianco? I’ll just have to come back soon, and often, to try each one.

Castel Gandolfo
800 North Dearborn Street
(Chicago Avenue & Dearborn)
Chicago 60610-3317
Tel 312.787.2211

Pasticceria Natalina cannoli

Coffee breaks, like long lunches, seem to be a thing of the past. But after the first time I visited Pasticceria Natalina, a pastry shop featuring distinctive Sicilian specialties in Andersonville, I now manage to make the time for an occasional break. Then after I introduced my sister Martha, who moved into the city with her family less than a year ago, to Pasticceria Natalina, she has often become the one who instigates plans and has started a regular ritual of us ordering and sharing a cannoli. The cannoli are so fresh, they are not filled with ricotta cream until you order, and are best eaten within half an hour. The ricotta cream is speckled with dark chocolate chips and thin strips of orange peel that add an incredibly intense note of flavor. Like us, most customers don’t get past the door and end up devouring them at the small counter in the shop. They are the best!

As my sister and I savor every bite of these crispy and creamy creations with our cappuccino, we get a chance to catch up with each other. Eventually our conversation turns to the important subject of what pastry to share next and which ones to take home. Every time we find it hard to walk out with just one delicious dolci. 

Pasticceria Natalina pesche dolci

Although the selection of cookies is constant, Natalie always has something new and different on offer. This visit included these stunning peach cookies, almost too beautiful to eat.   

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
Wednesday – Friday, 12:00 noon – 10 pm
Saturday, 12:00 noon – 10:00 pm
Sunday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 pm
Note: Hours change seasonally

The rooftop garden at Uncommon Ground restaurant.

Uncommon Ground in Edgewater is not your typical restaurant. You might go there to listen to live, local music nightly in the back room. Or to view the latest local art exhibition on the walls. Or maybe to shop at the organic farmers market in the parking lot on Friday evenings during the summer, and also to sample wines against a backdrop of live music from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm while chatting it up with others at the market. There’s even Chicago’s—and the country’s—“first certified rooftop farm” you can check out on top of the building. On a chilly day, you’ll want to settle by the two fireplaces in the bar. And, oh, by the way, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served daily, and the food is alone is worth a visit.

On this cool, breezy Tuesday evening, Slow Food Chicago held a dinner featuring Seedling Farm fruits.

The evening started on the 2,500-square foot rooftop garden, where we sipped on summer mixed berry shooters dotted with goat cheese cream and fresh herbs and refreshing “Agua Fresco Local Koval,” a mix of cucumber agua fresco with tarragon from the garden, Koval Rye Chicago, Koval Ginger Liqueur, and maraschino-style ground cherry as we wandered about the cedar boxes of produce that are used for the restaurants two locations (also at 3800 N. Clark St. in Wrigleyville). While Natalie Pfister, Uncommon Ground rooftop farm coordinator, described the array of produce being harvested (including 17 varieties of tomatoes) this first full season, we nibbled on excellent appetizers of shredded smoked chicken and tart cherry BBQ sauce on crispy blue corn polenta cakes and lamb lollipops with ground cherry jam. A trio of musicians was playing off to one side. It was all quite heavenly.

When Helen and Micheal Cameron, Uncommon Ground owners bought the property in 2007, they saved the historic building dating from 1908 saved from demolition. They proceeded to have the building extensively rehabbed, including digging the basement an extra five feet and adding steel beams to support the extra weight of the planned rooftop garden that eventually included four tons of dry weight soil—six tons when wet. The effort was carefully executed with a local and environmental agenda. You can read more about the project and the farm on the Uncommon Ground fact sheet page.

Uncommon Ground summer salad.

Since the Camerons are serious promoters of local, seasonal, family-farmed, and organic food when possible as well as local products, providers and workers, their menus reflect those principles. As we moved downstairs and inside the building’s dark wood-paneled main room, we continued to enjoy the bounty of summer that highlighted fruits from Seedling Farm in South Haven, Michigan.

Apricot mustard glaze pork loin.

Chef Brian Millman and his crew prepared a first course of a flavorful summer salad of roasted beets, plums, toasted walnuts, and goat cheese with mixed greens and a champagne vinaigrette. This salad was followed by an apricot and mustard glazed pork loin accompanied by a crispy potato cake, sautéed swiss chard and a slather of plum apple sauce. The pork served was from Slagel Family Farm, where earlier in the week the entire kitchen staff visited to watch and learn how an entire pig is processed.    

Peach blueberry napoleon.

The dinner, finished off with a peach and blueberry napoleon with melon gelato, satisfied in hitting many summer notes. When Slow Food Chicago organizes a dinner with Uncommon Ground, I jump at the chance if I can. The menu always boasts a creative blending of seasonal ingredients that pleases the palate and the evening’s informal agenda includes some sort of educational aspects. You get to learn more about the food you eat and the people behind it, making your meal more interesting—and memorable. 

Uncommon Ground (Wrigleyville)
3800 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL  60613
Monday – Thursday 9:00 am – 10:00 pm (kitchen); bar until 2:00 am 
Friday 9:00 am – 12:00 midnight (kitchen); bar until 2:00 am
Saturday 8:00 am – 12:00 midnight (kitchen); bar until 2:00 am
Sunday 8:00 am – 10 pm; bar until midnight
Tel 773.929.3680 

Uncommon Ground (Edgewater)
1401 West Devon Avenue
Chicago, IL  60660
Monday – Thursday 11:00 am – 10:00 pm (kitchen); bar until 2:00 am 
Friday 11:00 am – 12:00 midnight (kitchen); bar until 2:00 am
Saturday 9:00 am – 12:00 midnight (kitchen); bar until 2:00 am
Sunday 9:00 am – 10:00 pm (kitchen); bar until 12:00 midnight
Tel 773.465.9801
www.uncommonground.com