MIXED VEGETABLE SAUTE FOR WRAPS

An unusual variety of mixed vegetables perfect for wraps

A meatless meal made in one skillet

If you are thinking that a mixed vegetable sauté on a wrap can’t possibly be a filling meal, Ricky has proof otherwise. This recipe was a favorite of his Uncle Joe, and his father-in-law Bud. Ricky’s family is synonymous with great food, and hearty appetites. So, if Uncle Joe was asking Ricky to make his vegetable wraps, you know it is good, and filling. And with all I have heard about Bud, he didn’t shy away from a good meal either. In fact, Bud’s appetite for this meal in a wrap, gave Ricky an opportunity to prove a point on a subject that had come up between them on several occasions. Mushrooms.

Foraging for mushrooms

Ricky’s parents and grandparents, on both sides, were old school Sicilians. It seems to me, people of that heritage have done a good job of passing down culinary rituals from one generation to another. Ricky’s Dad, Sal taught him at a young age how to identify a certain tree mushroom. Have you ever seen tree mushrooms? They are just that. Mushrooms that grow from the bark of a tree. If you Google tree mushroom images, you will see some very strange fungi. They are the weirdest things. Some of them look like mushrooms on the ground, but they are sticking out of a tree trunk, and others look like flying saucers that have smashed into the tree and got buried in there with the butt end hanging out 😂. Some of these things are HUGE. They grow in all shapes, colors and sizes.

Sal had a favorite variety of tree mushroom. He was a letter carrier, and along his route there were trees he picked from regularly, with owner permission of course. Sal’s brothers were also wild mushroom harvesters. Each of the three brothers had a different variety they were expert in identifying. And how did they learn? Just like Sal took Ricky out mushroom hunting, their father had taken them foraging in the woods for food; an art quickly disappearing. Ricky, trying to keep the family tradition alive, took his daughter, Leah out mushroom hunting when she was young. As Ricky puts it, Leah’s interest in foraging waned quickly. It seemed she found boys more interesting than tree mushrooms. 🍄

Winning over a wild mushroom skeptic

Bud had always expressed a skepticism about any person’s ability to know wild mushrooms well enough to risk eating what had been harvested. That’s a valid point. Some mushrooms are toxic. Ricky respected that there were dangerous types out there, but he knew for sure the mushrooms he picked were not only safe, but downright tasty. He set out to prove it to Bud by making a batch of his familiar vegetable sauté, but this time with wild mushrooms. A bold move I would say, since it was his wife’s father! He knew Bud wasn’t going to be scrutinizing the mushrooms in the mix.

As story has it, while Bud had to admit he liked the mushrooms, he wasn’t altogether happy about being tricked into eating them. When told, he said something to the effect of “What now? I guess I need to just wait to see if I have been poisoned”. All’s well that ends well, Bud lived to tell about the mushroom masquerade and Ricky’s marriage survived too.

Don’t try this at home

We are absolutely not encouraging you to go out and harvest mushrooms for this recipe, or any recipe for that matter, without expert guidance. You really do need to know what you are doing. Not all mushrooms are safe to eat. I have to wonder. How did humans find out which of the foods found in the wild were safe to eat or not? Who took the first bite? 😖

Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:

About escarole

The leafy green that Ricky uses in this vegetable filling is escarole. Are you familiar with it? It is a lettuce. I first learned about escarole from Ricky’s mother, Tess. The most memorable use of escarole in her kitchen was what Ricky’s family calls escarole soup. I loved it and learned how to make it. It takes a little longer to make than some other soups because it has a number of ingredients. Still, for most of my life I made it a couple of times a year. After several years I started seeing canned soup much like Tess’s escarole soup. It’s called Italian wedding soup. You may have seen it. It has little meatballs and pasta in it. The canned soup has a leafy green also, but not escarole. At any rate, when I see escarole, I think of Tess and escarole soup.

This is WHAT TO DO:

It is especially important to have your ingredients prepared when making this recipe because it cooks up quickly. Preparation is the key to success when cooking. Read more about that in Our Formula: Prep time = Time saved, Ready….Set….Prep, Get Ready to Be Ready.

As you follow the steps below, we will be adding the vegetables to the skillet according to how much time each takes to cook. If you are substituting a vegetable of your choice, add it according to the same principle.

Preparing the vegetables

Wash all the vegetables, except for the mushrooms. Just brush any residue off the mushrooms.

Now we are ready to start cooking

Keep the heat at medium high and add as much escarole to the skillet as you can mound up. It is going to melt down quickly, it’s all water. You should keep moving the escarole around so all the leaves are getting cooked but you don’t need to fully incorporate the leaves with the other vegetables at this point. When the first batch of escarole melts down, add the rest that didn’t fit. In the next 4 pictures you can see the quick transition from raw to cooked. Look at how little leafy green is left after it has been sautéed for only minutes.

Done

Serve