Janelle Maiocco

Hi.

Welcome to my blog. I live in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle on an Urban Farm (w/ five laying hens and a huge garden). I am a trained chef (w/ a certificate in food preservation), taught at a cooking school & like to share 'kitchen hacks' - culinary tips that save time, money & maximize flavor. If that isn't enough, I also run a food+tech startup called Barn2Door.com - a platform to help everyone easily find & buy food directly from farmers, fishers & ranchers (from CSA's to urban farm eggs to 1/2 a grass-fed cow).

jarred fish soup

jarred fish soup

soup in jar
soup in jar

I do love jars.

Its a fact. I put candles in them, use them to shake up my salad dressings, to keep leftovers in my fridge, to freeze grandma's strawberry jam and more. They are so useful and a brilliant alternative to Tupperware. Recycled jars make great pencil holders, make iced tea somehow more authentic and with a little wire and creativity: can stand in as lanterns in your backyard.

And now, I use them to make fish soup.

Thanks to Bologna. And one of the best meals of my life. And my main course.

Mio marito found this restaurant for our quick trip to Bologna; it was highly rated, hard to find, and the menu was verbal: perfect combination. We all adored our meals, and I will never forget my jarred soup. I was astonished: it came in a jar, with one of those lids you crank off and lift back (for the one I made, I just used a regular canning lid)---he opened it at the table so the perfumes of garlic and basil could escape directly to my nose.  I am pretty sure I didn't talk much, while eating that soup.

And I asked him how the chef made it: just 20 minutes in simmering water. All he put in the jar: a little olive oil, onion, tomato, snapper and seasonings (I have made it with basil and thyme; don't forget salt and pepper). That's it. And the fish goes in raw and comes out cooked. I will say: choose a flaky fish, not a meaty one. Catfish was too much, swordfish would be too much...

I am still playing around with ingredients, so it isn't the last you will see of 'jarred fish soup' on my blog. But suffice it to say: I just love jars. And all you can do with them. Including, apparently, lunch. (And all you really need is 4-5 bites of fish---scraps from the night before---part of a tomato, a bite of onion and a garlic clove...)

What is your best use for jars?

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Sicilian arancini

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