In The Kitchen With Ricky Lauren
“Sitting around the table and telling each other stories, making jokes and laughing,” Ricky Lauren (pictured) tells Style.com. “Those are the fondest memories I have of our summers in the Hamptons and of meals we’ve shared there together.”
For her latest book, Ricky Lauren The Hamptons Food, Family and History, Ralph Lauren’s other half has invited the world in on those cherished, private moments at their homes in the Hamptons. The cookbook is filled with 130 delectable recipes (some of them passed down in the family for generations) and rich photographs, complete with stories from Lauren about their family pancake “breakfast factory” before the kids went off to day camp and Ralph’s barbecue requirement: frankfurters. “One of our favorite salads, from the book, is my daughter Dylan’s Sunshine Salad (page 151). She made that up by herself to surprise us (with the help of her babysitter) when she was very young,” says Lauren. “She put it on a big round platter with the rays made out of slices of orange, mango, papaya, banana, and chicken—she wanted to make it look like the sun!” Here, Lauren shares her phyllo vegetable stack recipe (page 119) with Style.com. To get all of the recipes, the book ($40) is available on RalphLauren.com.
Phyllo Vegetable Stack
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 yellow zucchini, finely chopped
1 green zucchini, finely chopped
2 cups crimini mushrooms, finely chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 sticks butter, melted
5 sheets phyllo pastry dough
Grated Parmesan cheese
Paprika
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Saute the onion in butter, then add garlic. Add the zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms, then the tomatoes and basil. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Add 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Set the vegetable mixture aside.
Brush the butter on each sheet of phyllo pastry. Layer like a Napoleon, starting with the phyllo, then spooning the vegetable mixtures on top and spreading it over the pastry dough. Then repeat. Finish with a layer of phyllo. Sprinkle the top layer with Parmesan and a dash of paprika. Cut the phyllo into 2-by-2-inch squares. Bake in a 400 degree F oven until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove and serve warm. Stack three squares on top of one another to form a tower.
Serves 4 to 6.
That Phyllo Vegetable Stack looks absolutely amazing- definitely going to have to make it. Just found this great interview with Ricky on hamptons-magazine.com where she discusses stories from her book and living in the Hamptons http://hamptons-magazine.com/home-page/articles/ricky-lauren-book-hamptons-food-family-history
It’s a really good read and she seems very down to earth.