Day 353: Some Assembly Required

To be honest, tonight's dinner was more assembled than cooked.  I purchased some fresh pasta (cooks in 2 minutes!), a package of Aidell's chicken/turkey meatballs, and some shaved parmesan cheese.  All I needed to do was make some quick sauce and prepare the pasta & balls as suggested on their packages and presto - dinner is ready!

To make the sauce, I threw a package of cherry tomatoes and two pressed garlic cloves into the food processor and pulsed it until the tomatoes were crushed.  Then I threw all of that into a pot with a couple of splashes of white wine, a few pinches of dried oregano, and S&P.  I brought all of it to a boil and then allowed it to simmer with the meatballs for about 15 minutes.

Then came the assembly.  I mixed the cooked pasta with the sauce and meatballs in the pot I had used to cook the pasta.  I then sprinkled in a generous dose of the parm and gently mixed it all together.  Once plated, I sprinkled some more cheese over the top.

So - very little of tonight's dinner was made from scratch - but it was tasty, easy, and healthful.  On busy work nights, sometimes that's the best you can do but I think you should be proud about making dinner at home no matter what you make.

Day 342: Pretty Pile of Pasta

This beautiful bowl of pasta was a snap to put together and so tasty!  It all started with a package of fresh egg pasta, which only had to boil for 2 minutes!

Rather than sauce, I loaded this pasta with the full flavors of fresh ingredients like heirloom cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, chopped basil, and lots of grated parmesan cheese.

I tossed a pound of cherry tomatoes with about 2T olive oil, 3 cloves minced garlic, and S&P and laid it all out in a single layer in a glass baking dish.  This roasted at 350 degrees for about 30 hour - until the tomatoes began to burst.

Another 4 cloves of minced garlic was sauteed with 3T olive oil and a few shakes of red pepper flakes over low heat for about 5 minutes, until the garlic was softened and mellowed out.

In a separate pan, 3T of pine nuts were carefully toasted over low heat.

When everything was ready, I cooked up the pasta (2 minutes!), drained it, and returned it to the pot.  I then added the tomatoes, garlic/olive oil, and nuts to the pot with it, along with about 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese.  Taste and add S&P as you feel is necessary.  

Serve, sprinkle a good dose of freshly chopped basil over the top, and enjoy!

Day 329: Mush Mouth

I had my last two wisdom teeth extracted this morning.  Fun!  After a day of smoothies and broth I was hungry and ready for some real food, but needed to be careful to find something soft.  We headed to Luisa's for their divine eggplant parmesan.  I've had this dish many times before and I love it, especially when the waiter generously grates parm over the top!

I had been planning to begin the meal with soup, but I noticed a new meatball appetizer on the menu.  Soft minced meat?  Sounded perfect to me!  They were delicious and easy for me to consume once chopped up into small bites.

I expect that I'll need to continue to find more tooth/gum friendly foods tomorrow.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Leave a comment if you have one.

Day 324: Italian Feast

During our weekly visit to Trader Joe's today, I found some beautiful basil and decided that dinner tonight would involve homemade pesto.  Pesto is so easy to make.  The following recipe makes enough to stuff four chicken breasts, but if you want to make it as a pasta sauce, you should probably double it.

Pesto:

1 packed cup of basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1.5 T pine nuts

1/2 + 1T freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 T butter

S&P to taste

Place basil, oil, garlic, and nuts in a food processor and mix until smoothly, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time.  Add cheese and butter and mix again until all ingredients are blended.  Add S&P to taste.

Pre-heat your oven at 375 degrees.  Slice the chicken lengthwise through the middle, being careful not to cut all the way through.  You want to be able to fold the chicken back like a book.  Once folded back, coat the inside of each chicken breast with about 1T pesto.  If you'd like, lay some roasted peppers over the pesto and fold the chicken back up again.  Place the breasts in a greased baking dish and smooth about a teaspoon of pesto over the top of each breast.

Bake the chicken for 25 minutes and then sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese over the top of each breast.  Bake for another 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Add another sprinkling of cheese and place the dish under the broiler until the top is browned.

Our side dish was sauteed baby broccoli (known as broccolini at Trader Joe's).  I first cooked 3 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes.  Once they were softened, I added the broccoli, a few splashes of white wine, and cranked the heat up to medium-high.  I added more wine every couple of minutes when the pan got dry to ensure that the garlic didn't burn.

The best part of tonight's dinner?  It's Sunday but there's not work tomorrow!  Enjoy your Memorial Day, everyone!

Day 316: A Real Seasonal Treat

Tonight's dinner with my visiting in-laws was full of tasty treats, but the greatest of all was the stuffed squash blossoms that I had as my appetizer.  Filled with fresh mozzarella, lightly fried, and plated with drizzles of tomato sauce and pesto. 

As I almost always do when we go to Capannina, I ordered fish.  Tonight it was sea bass served with cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and grilled polenta.  Yummy.

And because we had special guests, we decided to splurge and have dessert. Of course I insisted on an order of Capannina's to die for profiteroles.  These light creme puffs are served with two dipping sauces - chocolate and caramel - and they are heaven on earth.  My hubby's choice was molten chocolate cake with hazelnut ice cream.

This was a treatful night indeed.  Squash blossom season is a short one - I'll have to try to get back to Capannina again before it's over!

Day 261: Double Recipe Entry

I make damn good meatballs and today's you're lucky day because I'm going to give you the recipe.  Usually we eat them without pasta, but tonight I boiled up a little bit of whole wheat spaghetti.  I also made some baby broccoli as a side dish and it was beyond delicious.  All in all, a stellar meal tonight.

Meatballs:

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup bread crumbs or panko

1/2 cup cold water (or beef broth if you have some handy)

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 lb ground lamb

Place first four ingredients in large bowl, stir together, and let sit for 5 minutes.

Pour a thick layer of olive oil into a pan and place it over a medium-high burner.

Add garlic, parsley, and parm to the egg mixture and mix everything together.  Add meat and use your hands to gently mix everything together.  If it seems too wet to hold together, add some more bread crumbs until you're happy with the consistency.  

Place two jars of your favorite tomato sauce in an oven proof pot and place in the oven at 225 degrees.  I like Classico and use some combination of their tomato basil, roasted garlic, or spicy tomato flavors.  Of course, you can make your own sauce if you prefer, but having tried that a couple of times, I find it's way more effort than it's worth for this particular recipe.

Make balls out of your meat mixture.  I like to make larger ones because you can get them all fried in fewer batches.    I get about a dozen and a half large meatballs out of this recipe.

Place a batch of meatballs in your hot oil and cook until browned.  Turn them and allow the other side to brown and then place them in your pre-heated sauce.  Once all of your meatballs are in the sauce, allow them to cook uncovered for an hour and a half.

Upon serving, grate some more parm or melt some mozzarella over the top.

Baby Broccoli:

1 package of fresh baby broccoli (we purchased ours at Trader Joe's)

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 small shallot bulb, chopped

1/4 cup white wine

Pour a thin coat of olive oil into a pan and warm over low heat.  Add garlic and shallot and saute for a couple of minutes until soft and fragrant.

Add broccoli, season with S&P, and turn heat up to medium-high.  Add half of the wine and stir everything together.  Add the rest of the wine a couple of minutes later, or when you see the initial bit has evaporated.

Stir frequently and cook until broccoli is at the desired doneness.  I like mine to still have a lot of crunch.

This dinner definitely takes some time to prepare, which is what makes it perfect for a Sunday night.  If you're cooking for two, then you will also be blessed with some yummy leftovers which will make dinner preparation a lot easier one night during the week.  Enjoy!

Day 233: And the Oscar Goes To...

Our friends Hugo & David hosted a really fun Oscar party tonight.  The bad news:  I came in SECOND in the pool.  The good news:  there were lots of good eats!

Most of the food was ordered in:  hummus, artichoke dip, dolmas, spanakopita, fried ravioli, and as you can see - a giant cheese plate.  Other stuff was brought by friends:  spinach pie, fruit, and pie.  Of course, we were in charge of bringing the wine.

The Oscars is one of those things that is much more enjoyable in a group.  We had lots of fun and good laughs - even though I was so close and yet so far from winning the pool!!

Day 190: Found Via Yellow Death Machine

The phrase "yellow death machine" was coined by my husband after one too many death defying white knuckle rides in a NYC taxi.

I hopped into a yellow death machine after work a few weeks ago and the driver took me on a totally circuitous route.  Annoyance turned into appreciation when we passed by an adorable restaurant not too far from our house, but on a street I wouldn't normally use.  We gave that restaurant a try tonight.

Amarena was charming indeed and we were warmly greeted when we arrived and experienced very friendly service throughout our meal.  The atmosphere had a cozy, neighborhood feel that I liked as well.  The food, however, was good - but not great.  I think that if we lived closer, we would work Amarena into our rotation.  But because we have a stellar Italian restaurant within walking distance from our place, we don't see much of a reason to board a bus or catch a cab to get to Amarena again.

Okay - so what did I eat?  First, my husband and I shared a beet and spinach salad with ricotta dressing.  The beets were delicious, but the dressing lacked seasoning or any real flavor.  Next, I had the eggplant parmesan "small plate".  I was thrilled when it arrived and the eggplant wasn't fried.  However, a somewhat disturbing amount of olive oil oozed out of it as I cut into it.  The dish tasted good and I know that olive oil is a "healthy fat", but I just didn't really enjoy it as much as I normally do eggplant parm.  My entree was salmon with olives, capers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and potatoes.  This was very yum and I would happily order it again if I find myself at Amarena again in the future.

We hadn't tried a new restaurant in awhile and very rarely venture out of our immediate neighborhood for dinner so tonight was a nice change of pace.  What will be my next yellow death machine discovery?

Day 182: Third & Fourth Wheels

Friends of ours from the East Coast have been in the Bay Area this week and today was their 10th wedding anniversary.  Since I had attended that wedding so many years ago, I thought it appropriate to suggest that we all celebrate their anniversary together.

As always, our dinner at Capannina was delightful.  You may recall that my husband and I spent Christmas Eve at this restaurant.  That night, my husband and I shared two appetizers - a beet salad with goat cheese and spicy prawns stacked high with polenta cakes.  Those prawns were so good that I had to have them again tonight.

For my entree, I chose linguini with clams and zucchini.  This dish was so simple and yet so delicious.

And of course, because we were celebrating an anniversary, we just had to take advantage of Capannina's amazing dessert menu.  The four of us shared three desserts:  a warm chocolate cake with hazelnut gelato, profiteroles with chocolate and caramel dipping sauces (my personal fave), and tiramisu.  

What a meal!  We'll have to invite ourselves to help celebrate friends' events more often!

Day 180: A New Year - A New Cuisinart

Happy New Year!!

We spent the last night of 2008 at a dinner party at our friend Julie's house.  She made a delicious lasagna with ground pork and lots of creamy ricotta.  It really was fab.

To accompany the main dish, I made a spinach salad with tiny tomatoes, orange bell pepper, raw mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, and sliced apple.

I also made cheesy garlic bread which, to be honest, was too garlicky.  Next time I'll roast the garlic first to cut down on its sharpness.

Cheesy Garlic Bread:

French baguette, sliced in half lengthwise

1/2 stick of butter, softened

1 T chopped fresh oregano

Several cloves of roasted garlic

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Combine the oregano and butter and mix.  You may find it helpful to do this with a fork.

Fold the bread back to expose the inside.  Be careful not to tear the top from the bottom.  Spread herbed butter liberally on the top and the bottom the inside of the bread.

Add a thin layer of mashed roasted garlic (or finely minced/pressed raw garlic, if you prefer) on top of the buttered bottom of the bread.  Sprinkle a layer of parmesan cheese over the garlic.  Add the shredded mozzarella, fold the bread back over, and wrap tightly in foil.  

Bake bread for 15-20 minutes on 375 degrees.

The last dish I made was chocolate mousse.  Eventually it was tasty, but the preparation was fraught with disaster.  

The recipe called for 12 oz. of imported milk chocolate but I decided to get fancy and use chocolate with hazelnuts.  I broke up the bars into my Cuisinart to chop the chocolate but either I overloaded it, or the nuts were too hard for the machine, or perhaps there was another reason but next thing I knew, the processor was making a strange sound.  I stopped it, opened it up, and realized that the blade had broken in half and the loose piece was sticking into the side of the bowl of the processor!!  I didn't know something like that was even possible!  Guess I'll be welcoming a new Cuisinart to our household in 2009!

My milk was already simmering, but I needed to go to the store for new chocolate, so essentially, I needed to start from scratch.  Once all of the ingredients had been replaced, I still found the mousse somewhat difficult to make.  It's very delicate and there are several opportunity to screw it up by overcooking the milk or overmixing.  It wasn't easy, but it turned out very good.  We served in small dark chocolate cups - bit sized luxury!

I hope you all enjoyed your New Year celebration and wish you all lots of good food and tasty treats in 2009!!

Day 166: I Hate When That Happens

I assure you that this meal is approximately 1 billion times tastier than it looks.  That kind of bums me out.  Anyone know of any good food plating or food styling classes in the Bay Area?

This is actually a dish that I used to make quite often but for some reason, it fell out of my mental recipe box some time ago.  It's easy, delicious, pretty healthy, and great on a cold winter night.

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 links of uncooked spicy turkey sausage, meat removed from casing

1 medium/large zucchini, sliced into 1/2 inch thick half moons

1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

1/2 onion, sliced thin

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 T chopped fresh oregano

.5 to 1 cup chicken broth

1 can chopped tomatoes, NOT drained

Heat a stainless steel pan coated with olive oil over medium high heat.  Once hot, add chicken breasts and brown on both sides.  Remove chicken and set aside.  Pour off most of oil from pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of chicken broth and deglaze the pan.  Add crumbled bits of the sausage to the pan and brown.  When nearly done, add garlic, onion, zucchini, pepper, and oregano and continue to cook, mixing from time to time.  If pan is getting too dry, add a few more drops of broth.

Once all veggies are beginning to get soft, add canned tomatoes and another 1/4 cup of broth and mix.  Push veggies away from middle of pan and return chicken to the pan.  Once chicken has been added to pan, cover and surround it with the veggies.  Simmer for another 10-15 minutes, adding more broth if the liquid seems to be reducing too quickly.

Remove chicken and veggies from pot and reduce sauce by simmering on medium-high heat for a couple of minutes.  Drizzle over the top.

We had some leftover cooked whole wheat pasta from earlier in the week.  We added that to the sauce while it was simmering until it was cooked through.  I hadn't ever done this before, but it added a nice extra dimension to the dish.

So, despite an ugly presentation, this was a tasty meal indeed.  Any tips to make it as pretty as it is tasty are welcome!

Day 163: Baked Pasta, How Do I Love Thee

I'm not sure what the best thing is about this dinner.  The flavor?  The fact that it incorporates ingredients from 5 of the 6 food pyramid areas?  The leftovers, good for lunch or dinner later in the week?  It's so hard to choose...

I never make baked pasta the same way twice.  Some components are consistent:  whole grain pasta and ground turkey, to be exact.  But the additional ingredients vary based on what I have on hand.

I boil the pasta in salted water with olive oil until cooked al dente.  While that's happening, I brown 1.25 to 1.5 lbs of ground turkey (buy ground turkey breast and you reduce the fat content further!) with 3 minced cloves of garlic, 1/2 a chopped onion, diced red bell pepper and/or zucchini, red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp dried oregano, and S&P.  This time, I also added what remained of a bag of fresh spinach leaves - maybe 2 cups, which I chopped and added once the turkey was browned.

In a large bowl, mix together the pasta, the turkey mixture, and 2 cups of tomato sauce (one of my favorite jarred sauces is Classico Tomato & Basil).

Spray a large glass baking dish with Pam (or use olive oil, if you prefer) and then add half of your pasta mixture and spread evenly.  Lay slices of provolone cheese over the top and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.  Add the rest of your pasta, followed by another layer of provolone. Bake in the oven on 350 degrees until the cheese is melted.  Pull the dish out, sprinkle another layer of shredded mozzarella over the top, and return to the oven until the cheese is melted.

If you have fresh basil on hand, it adds great color and a punch of additional flavor when chopped and sprinkled over the top.  Or, you sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan over the top.  You can never have too much cheese.

Give this recipe a try on a cold wet day and you'll feel warm and cozy and happy.  I promise!

Day 152: Memories of San Gennaro

I'll give you one chance to guess why I used to love the New York San Gennaro Festival.  Surely none of you think it's the insane crowds, throngs of tourists, or the silly carnival games.  Of course - it's the food!!

I know this falls into the TMI (too much information) category, but generally speaking, pork sausage just does not agree with me.  Therefore, I would allow myself the indulgence (and afterwards, the torture) only once a year in the form of a sausage and peppers sandwich at San Gennaro.  Of course, that was followed up with a nice, hot, fresh funnel cake topped with powdered sugar.  Yep - the whole outing was pretty much just one giant intestinal disaster.

Anyway - for some reason this week I was thinking about San Gennaro and realized that I could make my own delicious sausage and peppers but in a healthier way that wouldn't kill my digestive system.  I'd use turkey sausage, skip the big giant roll, and of course - omit the funnel cake.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 onion (or, half of a purple onion and half of a yellow onion)

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2-3 colored bell peppers, sliced lengthwise (use different colors for better presentation)

4 links of spicy turkey sausage (or sweet, if you do not care for spicy)

Approximately 1/4 cup of white wine (broth may work as well)

Olive oil

Pour a thin coat of olive oil into a stainless steel pan and heat on medium-high heat.  Lay sausages in hot oil and brown on all sides.  Remove sausages and set aside.  

Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in white wine to deglaze pan.  As wine hits the pan, it will sizzle furiously.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula and quickly rub at and release the brown bits at the bottom of the pan.  Add onion and garlic and saute until softened (6-8 minutes).

Add peppers and saute until softened, stirring frequently.  If you're afraid that things might start to burn, throw in a another couple of splashes of white wine.  It'll take awhile for the peppers to soften up, unless you have sliced them very thinly.  Mine weren't all that thin and I believe it took 10-12 minutes.  Covering the pan will speed up cooking, but just make sure you keep an eye on it so that the veggies don't burn or stick to the pan.

Once the vegetables are to the desired softness, slice the sausages in half vertically and add them to the pan with any juices that may have accumulated when you set them aside or when you sliced them.  Mix everything together and continue to cook until sausage is heated through.

This is 6 ingredients, 1 pan, and so easy.  A great mid-week meal solution and not unhealthy if you use a natural turkey sausage and limit the amount of olive oil you add to the pan.  Oh yea - and no tourists.  Bonus!!

Day 101: Celebrating Christopher Columbus

What better to eat on Columbus Day than Italian food? It had been awhile since I made meatballs because they are very time consuming so with a whole day off and nothing else planned I went for it.

This recipe has received stellar reviews from everyone who has eaten my meatballs. They are well worth the time and effort. You can make them with 100% beef, but to achieve the best flavor, I highly recommend a mix of meats.

Ingredients:
2 lbs of ground beef, lamb, veal, and/or pork (I always use 1 lb of the leanest ground beef, and then 1/2 each of two more meats, depending on what is available at my butcher shop)
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup freshly chopped parsley
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 jars of your favorite sauce (or your homemade sauce if you’re really ambitious!)

Crack eggs into a large bowl and beat gently. Add water and breadcrumbs, mix, and let rest for 5 minutes.

Add all remaining ingredients except for the meat, and mix until blended. Crumble the meat into the bowl and mix everything together with your hands. Form balls - whatever size you like. I’ve made small ones served with toothpicks at cocktail parties and large ones served as entrees or over pasta.

Pour 1/4 inch of olive oil into a saucepan and heat on medium-high temperature. Once the oil is hot, place a batch of meatballs in, being sure not to crowd them. Flip them over as their bottoms brown.

Meanwhile, pour the sauce into a large baking dish and place the dish in an oven pre-heated to 225 degrees. After the meatballs are browned on both sides, place them in the baking dish and tuck them into the sauce.

Once all of the balls are in the sauce, bake for 1.5 hours. I like to place a layer of provolone or mozzarella over the top at that point and then serve once the cheese is melted (3-4 minutes later).

From start to finish, this project will take you more than 2 hours. But like I said, it’s worth it - whether you choose to serve bite-sized ones (add another 1/2 hour to your prep time!) or just serve these “as is” for dinner. you’ll be sure to impress. Christopher Columbus would be proud.