A hard time's easy dishes

Is it any surprise that YouTube sensation Clara Cannucciari - whose cooking videos have been a hit since they debuted earlier this year - now has a cookbook?

Of course not. But the fact that she's 93 might raise your eyebrows. Her series of videos, Great Depression Cooking With Clara, has attracted millions of viewers looking for no-nonsense tutorials from a grandma who knows her way around a kitchen. The tales she shares along the way are a kick, too.

The cookbook, Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes From the Great Depression (St. Martin's Press, $21.99), showcases her recession-friendly recipes culled from her Depression-era youth in Melrose Park, Ill.

"It was cheap, and it was nourishing," Cannucciari said of the fare. "My mother used to make [the dishes] during the Depression. These are all simple things to make."

Simple, yes, and cheap, too. But not dumbed-down. Italian Americans will fondly remember so many of these dishes, including pepper and egg sandwiches, pasta with peas, and the accompanying meatball recipe. They're a testament to the savvy cooks in those hard times. "Everything was terrible," she recalls in a video. "But we had good food."

There is a certain charm to Clara's videos and her spartan recipes in her own humble kitchen. It's the antithesis of the Food Network chefs in their flashy kitchen racing against the clock and working with unheard-of ingredients.

Clara could be your neighbor or your grandmother, slicing an onion over the pot, using not fresh peas, but canned, adding commentary about all the different variations of pasta they would eat, back in the Depression: pasta with garlic, pasta with peas, pasta with beans.

"This recipe," she writes in Clara's Kitchen about the meatball recipe, "is all about stretching it out. . . . If you have a little bit more money this week, double the ingredients and cut the meatballs in half!"

Clara Cannucciari offers her own practical advice throughout the book under the heading, "Take it from me." Here are some of her offerings:

If you don't think you have time to exercise, just clean your kitchen. I think it's kind of silly - the people jogging. Scrubbing my floors and counters makes everything strong and my kitchen looks good.

Lemon juice can be used to pep anything up, from a salad dressing to steak, and can also be used as a cheap, safe cleaner for your hands or your countertops. Lemon zest gives a bright lemon flavor to anything you add to it. So I always have lemons in the house.

To get the most juice out of your lemons, press on them and roll them around on the countertop before cutting into them, which releases their juices.

If you run out of oil, just add a little water to your pan. It will keep food from sticking, and it's free.

Here is a simple way to save time and money: Cook in bulk and freeze leftovers.

Olive oil is a good natural moisturizer. Toss a salad with your hands and you'll see that olive oil works just as well or even better than any fancy expensive moisturizer you might be wasting your money on.

- From "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes From the Great Depression" (St. Martin's Press)

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Makes 4 servings

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1 bunch Swiss chard

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt and pepper, to taste

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1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Thoroughly rinse the Swiss chard, removing most of the tough stems (but leave some if they appear to be tender).

2. Add the Swiss chard to the pot. Boil 5 minutes, then drain and set aside. When it's cool enough to handle, squeeze it between your hands and get all the extra water out of the chard.

3. Add the oil to a medium frying pan set over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until the garlic turns a very light brown. Add the Swiss chard and saute until tender; about 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Per serving: 36 calories, trace protein, 1 gram carbohydrates, trace sugar, 3 grams fat, no cholesterol, 58 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

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Makes 2 servings

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3 large bell peppers (red, yellow, orange)

Olive oil

4 large eggs

4 thick slices of bread

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1. Clean the peppers, removing the stems and seeds and rinsing well. Slice each pepper into thick (roughly 3/4-inch) strips.

2. Add the peppers and some olive oil to the pan. Use only enough oil to coat the peppers. Saute the peppers first over high heat, then lower the heat as the peppers begin to brown.

3. In a separate bowl, crack the eggs and whisk them. When the peppers are soft, about 10 minutes, fold in the eggs. Turn off the heat and let cook in their own heat about 5 minutes, or until the eggs are firm.

4. Place the pepper and egg mixture between the bread slices, or serve open-faced.

Per serving: 377 calories, 19 grams protein, 34 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams sugar, 19 grams fat, 423 milligrams cholesterol, 484 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes 4 servings

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1 pound fresh broccoli, chopped

1 pound dry angel hair pasta

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Pecorino Romano cheese

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1. Bring water to a boil in two large pots; one for the broccoli, one for the pasta. Add the broccoli to one pot and cook for 9 to 10 minutes, or until it's tender enough that you can pierce it with a fork. Drain and set aside. Boil the pasta for about 4 minutes in the second pot. Drain, leave about 3/4 cup of the cooking water at the bottom of the pot.

2. Toss the pasta and broccoli together in the pasta pot with the cooking water. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper, and cheese to taste.

Per serving: 588 calories, 18 grams protein, 92 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams sugar, 17 grams fat, 3 milligrams cholesterol, 68 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes 4 servings

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2 cups water

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 fresh mint leaves

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1. Pour the water and sugar into a small pot and bring to a boil. Let the sugar dissolve for about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat. Place the pot in the freezer and leave it there for 4 to 5 hours. Give the mixture a few turns with a metal spoon every half hour or so, keeping the mixture from freezing completely.

2. Remove the pot from the freezer. Scrape the ice with a metal spoon into a medium bowl. The ice should shave off nicely. At the bottom of the pot, the ice will be a little more frozen, so mash it up with your spoon.

3. When all the ice is in the bowl, add the vanilla and mix well. Spoon the ice into four small glass dishes and return them to the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove from the freezer, top each glass with a leaf of fresh mint, and serve immediately.

Per serving: 99 calories, no protein, 24 grams carbohydrates, 24 grams sugar, no fat, no cholesterol, trace sodium, no dietary fiber.

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Makes 4 servings

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1 large egg

1/2 pound ground beef

2 tablespoons each: bread crumbs, grated pecorino Romano cheese

2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon

olive oil

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1. Combine the egg, ground beef, bread crumbs, cheese, and parsley in a large bowl; form into a large ball. Lightly coat the meatball with 2 teaspoons of the oil.

2. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat; cook the meatball, turning to evenly brown all sides, until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Cut into quarters; serve with your favorite pasta and tomato sauce.

Per serving: 177 calories, 13 grams protein, 3 grams carbohydrates, 12 grams fat, 90 milligrams cholesterol, 124 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber.

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