I love cookbooks. I collect cookbooks. Sometimes, I read cookbooks in bed before going to sleep. I have been gratified in recent months to realize that a number of people also treat cookbooks as literature, but then I had this realization: I was only using them as literature.

Somehow, despite having already accrued 34 cookbooks here in Minneapolis (in addition to the maybe more than 100 I have at home in Berkeley), I never cook out of cookbooks anymore. Blame the internets. Somehow, somewhere along the way, cooking out of a book became a rarity for me, and one that seemed like a greater undertaking than pulling a recipe from the world wide webs. This was, of course, totally irrational: recipes from cookbooks don’t, by definition, take any more effort than recipes from the internet, plus most of the recipes I get from the internets came from books originally.

So, I decided to reacquaint myself with my cookbook shelves, beginning with this wonderful, Wonderful stew from my beloved, Beloved Jamie Oliver.

I love Jamie Oliver, and whether it is cool to love him or not, I don’t know, but I credit him with the beginnings of my interest in cooking. Well, him and my mom (who truly deserves the credit), but Jamie is the one who taught me that you don’t have to measure most things, that you don’t have to pull parsley or cilantro leaves off the stem, and that you can juice a lemon directly into a dish, using your fingers to catch the seeds.

His books are beautiful and lush, brimming with beautiful dishes that frequently avoid exact recipes, providing guidelines instead. And, most recently, he is doing really, really good work with school lunches and the obesity epidemic in America. And he has a show about all that coming out on abc! He is my hero.

He is my hero because of all the extra-good stuff he does, but he wouldn’t be able to do all that extra-good stuff if he hadn’t laid a foundation of really really delicious food. A Jamie Oliver recipe has never done me wrong, and this stew was no exception. Hearty, smoky, and easy-peasy, to last for days and only get better as leftovers (smokier, more complex). This is like a really upgraded chili, all the more classed up with chopped hardboiled egg as a garnish, for a little contrast. Go make it, tonight, from my cookbook to your computer, and perfect for this inbetween time of year that’s not quite winter and not quite spring.

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

Adapted from Jamie’s Dinners

Serves 8

Ingredients

-       6 oz. chorizo sausage, chopped

-       1 onion, peeled and chopped

-       1 clove of garlic (or more!), peeled and finely chopped

-       2 sticks of celery, chopped

-       2 bunches (maybe 1.5 lb) spinach, washed and chopped

-       1 – 28 oz. can tomatoes, with juice (either pre-diced, or you can chop them; also, JO calls for fresh tomatoes here, but it’s winter in Minnesota, and so that’s just not happening)

-       1 – 28 oz. can chickpeas, drained

-       5 cups chicken stock

-       2 oz. prosciutto (or Spanish ham)

-       hard boiled eggs

-       olive oil

-       salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Add the chorizo. Cook for a few minutes until fat is rendered, then add onion, garlic, and celery. Reduce heat and cover, cooking for about 15 minutes (without coloring the onions, though no harm will really befall you if they get a little brown).
2. Add spinach, tomatoes, chickpeas, and chicken stock. (Add more chicken stock or water if you think you need more liquid.) Bring to a boil, then lower heat and let simmer for about 40 minutes.
3. You don’t have to (but I did): Remove about a third of the soup and puree it in the food processor. This will make things more stew-y, rather than soup-y. Return puree to pot and give everything a stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in prosciutto and 2-3 tablespoons olive oil.
5. Serve with grated (or finely-chopped) hardboiled egg on top.

About a month ago, I wrote about the weeknight dinner quandary — how to make a good dinner for a guest, on a weeknight, that won’t drive you crazy to the point where you are unattractively frazzled or smeared with olive oil or flour or the like or just terrifically drunk by the time your guest arrives.

I served this chicken saltimbocca along with the spaghetti in vino rosso that I cooked for the particular dinner in question, and the whole thing couldn’t have been easier unless I’d ordered delivery for the two of us. Plus, the word “saltimbocca” is Italian for “jumps in the mouth.” Could there be a more enticing name for a dish?

The classic saltimbocca (I believe) is made with veal, but this chicken version is a popular spin that is certainly more wallet-friendly and debatedly more animal-friendly (but that’s a whole other debate). Mostly, I don’t really like the taste of veal — something about its texture is too spongey for me.  And also, I  have a feeling that most people aren’t just cooking up veal on an average Thursday night. I’m pretty sure that boneless, skinless chicken breast, on the other hand, appears in most 20-somethings’ kitchens far more often than such a relatively tasteless protein really deserves to.

But wrap the chicken breasts in sage and prosciutto and you have something that, well, jumps in the mouth, with only five minutes more effort and less than $5 more expenditure.

Chicken Saltimbocca

Serves 2 (can be increased, infinitely)

Adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients

- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied (cut in half lengthwise, so they aren’t so thick, but not fully cut so that they become 2 pieces) — the ones in the photo above aren’t butterflied, and boy did I learn my lesson when I had to pull them out of the pan mid-cooking to cut them in half so they wouldn’t be raw

- 4 sage leaves

- 4 thin slices prosciutto

- a little flour, for dusting the chicken

- olive oil and butter, for the pan

- about a cup of white wine, chicken stock, and/or water (any combination, though wine and/or stock is best) for the pan

- salt and pepper

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place 2 sage leaves on each chicken breast and top with 2 prosciutto slices (prosciutto should adhere to chicken). Dust chicken with flour.

2. Heat olive oil and butter in a pan. Add chicken (prosciutto-side up), cook until bottom is brown, about 3 minutes. Turn chicken to prosciutto-side down, cook just about a minute. Remove chicken from pan.

3. Add about a cup of wine, stock, and/or water (wine or stock, or a combo of the two, is best, but if you don’t have any, water is fine) to pan to deglaze. Bring to a boil and cook until liquid is reduced by about half.

4. Return chicken to skillet (prosciutto-side up) and cook about 2 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Adjust salt and pepper seasoning and serve, with pan sauce poured over.