Deli Convenience Foods Can Be Cooking Teachers by Lisa Messinger on Creators.com

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Deli Convenience Foods Can Be Cooking Teachers

When can convenience food be even more convenient? When it teaches you how to cook! Often, home cooks buy single ingredients in their supermarkets and hope they will work out when tried in recipes. However, the recent growth in supermarket fresh deli sections lends not only to dishes that make quick meals, but ones that can introduce you to ingredients as well as great flavor combinations and potential cooking techniques.

A recent trip to Whole Foods Market, for instance, to pick up fare for a quick lunch, led me to a delightful smoked mozzarella pasta salad. Somehow, I'd never been introduced to the boldly distinctive taste of this rendition of the hearty cheese. The Whole Foods chefs' inclusion of big chunks of it in a salad brimming with penne pasta, spinach leaves, roasted red peppers and parmesan cheese was perfect.

The next day, I tried a vastly different in flavor and texture buffalo mozzarella plate filled with anchovies, basil and zucchini blossoms. Ever since, I've been hooked and preparing dishes with these easy-to-add memorable versions of the cheese.

My next adventure was with surimi, a mock crab. I tried it in a quick-grab salad featured at Ralphs supermarkets in Los Angeles. The pollock-based item tasted like a thick crab-flavored pasta, yet unlike pasta, it was low in carbohydrates and calories. Unlike crab, it was highly economical. Soon, it was peppering many of my homemade entrees and salads.

Here are some further inspirations that can go from deli case to fattening up your recipe box:

— The Spanish pork (or "pernil") virtually pops from the Cuban wraps at Publix supermarkets in the South. After that, it's just a quick jaunt to the butcher section for a pork shoulder and a recipe to make your own pernil at home. Add it to everything from eggs to a side dish with green beans.

— The limoncello cake in the "Rolls Royce" gift basket from Jensen's — a group of specialty markets in the Palm Springs, Calif., area — is more than enough introduction to start adding the Italian lemon liqueur as an easy touch to lots of homemade fare.

— The mingling of flavors (creamy tomato sauce blended with parmesan cheese, spices and vodka) in East Coast-based Superfresh supermarkets' penne ala vodka will undoubtedly have you wanting to whip it up at home.

Here's a taste:

PENNE ALA VODKA

1/2 pound penne

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup vodka

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

1/2 cup tomato sauce

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Fresh parmesan cheese, grated

Yields 2 servings.

Cook penne according to directions on package. Drain and set aside. In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Watching out for flames, carefully add vodka and cook until the flames dissipate. Add cream and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so that cream simmers. Stir until mixture has reduced in volume by half.

Add tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. Add cooked pasta. Stir until coated and heated through. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

— Food Network

MOZZARELLA CON SALSA DI POMODORI

4 medium tomatoes

5 anchovies (preserved in oil)

1 bunch basil

8 tablespoons olive oil

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

12 zucchini blossoms (optional)

1 pound buffalo mozzarella

Yields 4 servings.

Core and dice the tomatoes. Mince the anchovies. Rinse and pat dry the basil; shred the leaves. Combine the tomatoes, anchovies, basil and 6 tablespoons of the olive oil; season with salt and pepper.

Carefully rinse the zucchini blossoms, and with a small paring knife remove the stamens. Cut the mozzarella into thin slices and arrange on four salad plates.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan. Saute the zucchini blossoms over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, turning them over occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish the mozzarella slices with the blossoms and top with the tomato dressing. Serve immediately.

— "The New Regional Italian Cuisine Cookbook" (Barron's, $35).

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.