Tiny Timballos

By Cookbad

Timballos, timpanos, whatever you want to call them . . . are upsidedown savory pies filled with pasta, sauces, vegetables, anything you want arranged in layers to create a dramatic effect when it is cut into. A couple of years ago I made a crustless one, but more commonly you build one by layering the bottom of a souffle dish or round bottomed pan with a thin dough, add the fillings layer by layer and then bake. Mostly when I try to get the pie out of the pan it has been sticking and falling apart, but it tastes good and the kids will eat it, so I keep trying.

Last night I tried to make tiny single sized versions for The Mini Pie Revolution mini pot pie event. I've made these mini pork pies in the past with great success, but this is the first time I made up a mini (or any) pie recipe.

So here goes:

Makes about 6 small pies in various sized ramekins:

CRUST:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/3 grated asiago cheese
12 tablespoons (1.5 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 tablespoons chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water

In a food processor, mix the first 4 ingredients, then pulse in the butter and shortening until it looks grainy. Then add the water. Continue to pulse a few more times. Form the dough into a ball and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

PASTA:
2-4 oz. of penne cooked 2 minutes less than the preparation calls for.
enough sauce to cover pasta

BECHAMEL SAUCE:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons diced onion
2 tablespoons flour
1.5 cups milk
1/4 cup asiago cheese, grated
Sweat he onions in the butter over med heat then add flour and for 2 minutes stir constantly. Add milk, and whisk until fully combined. Set over medium-high heat and whisk till as it simmers. Add asiago and simmer for 8 minutes.
When it is done, add:
1/2 cup of frozen peas

6 hard boiled quail eggs

A bit of extra asiago cheese

TO ASSEMBLE:
Liberally flour your surface and roll out the dough to no less than 1/4 inch. Place the ramakin you are using onto the dough, then cut a circle around it that is 2 inches + bigger than the raminkins imprint. Then, cut a shape directly around the lid of the ramekin. Remove extra dough, then roll the larger circle out some more. The dough should be as thin as you can work with it. Grease, spray or butter your ramakin. Then, gently lift the larger round, place and work it into the ramakin. If there is gross excess in spots, cut it out and seal it.

Take your tomato covered penne and lay them in a row at the bottom of the pie. Fill in the edges with more penne. Then, make another layer.

Scoop about 2-3 table spoons of your peas and bechamel mixture over the pasta. Then very gently press the quail egg down thru the pea mixture. Ideally it will be standing perfectly upsidedown.

Layer some very thin slices of asiago then cover with another arranged layer of penne.

Place the smaller crust on top and seal with the lower crust.

Pop in to oven at 350 for 45 minutes. Check on it, and if the upper crust is burning, take it out.

When you take it out, place it upsidedown on a plate. It may or may not fall onto the plate. Ideally, they fall out of the ramekins after a bit of cooling. If they stick, I've tried chilling it got get it to fall, heating it on the plate to get it to fall, but sometimes it just won't. Then you have a classic pot pie, that will taste just as good.

Leftover bechamel and tomato sauce can be combined and poured over pies if you like.

I'm really sad about the grey circle around the egg yolk, but that comes from over cooking and I can't figure a way around it after 45 minutes in the oven.

Sweetbreads with artickokes

A soaked, but un-demembraned sweetbread. Presumably, the pancreas.

By Cookbad

Jacques Pepin calls sweetbreads the choicest of offals. Offal is what Bourdain calls, the Nasty bits. Sweetbreads are, in some cases, the thymus gland but more desirable are the pancreas.

I've had sweetbreads before and thought that they were delicious and have been meaning to try to make them for a really long time. I also just recently finally found a butcher in Los Angeles that doesn't snicker and say, "We don't have that!" When I ask for Pork Butt. So, here's to you, Bob's Market. May your butchers always get excited when I order non-standard cuts of meat.

I over thought this one. I read and read and read about it while it languished in the fridge. I settled on a recipe for the exceedingly comprehensive The Silver Spoon, but used Jacques Pepin's method of preparation, which added 24 hours to the process.

This the the abridged version of his method of prep. :
1. Soak in cold water for a few hours.
2. Put in a pan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil for 2 minutes.
3. Shock it in ice water.
4. Pull of all rubbery or sinew pieces that adhere to the meat
5. Wrap sweetbread in a clean dry cotton cloth, place on a cookie sheet, place a cookie sheet on top of the sweetbread and then place 5-7 lb. of books or whatever on top of the cookie sheet to press the sweetbreads.
6. Press overnight.

Arg.
The goal here being to remove any and all trace of pink.

Later I told my sister (a classically trained chef) about this method and she said the pressing was a waste of time. Boo.

I'm taking her work over Pepin's because it is easier.

Still, the soaking and the pulling off of all rubbery stuff is most certainly not a waste of time if you want it not to be gross.

Here is the basic recipe from The Silver Spoon:
1 tbsp. butter
1 lb. 2 oz. sweetbreads soaked and drained.
3.5 oz. prosciutto (my spell check wanted to change this to prostitute), cut into strips
3.25 cups dry white wine
salt and pepper

Parboil sweetbreads for 5-6 minutes, drain, cool, remove membrane and chop. Heat butter and bacon in a skillet, add sweetbreads, season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with white wine and cook until liquid is eveaporated.

Serve with quarted steamed globe artichokes.

The final product. Fair.

Next time, I'm trying it with madeira wine and skipping the pressing part.

Pan Cooked Savoy Cabbage

50g butter
3 potatoes, thinly sliced
½ Savoy cabbage, cored and cut into thin strips
1tbsp parmesan cheese, freshly grated
2 eggs
100ml milk
salt and pepper

Melt half the butter in a large frying pan an make a layer of half of the potato slices on the base, then top with the cabbage, and sprinkle with the parmesan. Beat the eggs with the milk and a pinch of salt and pour into the pan. Make a layer of the remaining potato slices on top, season with salt and pepper, and dot with the remaining butter.
Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and cook over a low heat for 1 hour.

This comes from The The Silver Spoon. Everyone should own this book. Everyone should try this cabbage too.

It takes a while to cook, but once you’ve got it set up, you just leave it there while you get on with whatever else you are cooking to go with it. It’s really easy. I would recommend using a non stick pan for this, because it is a long cooking time, and you can’t stir it or anything while it’s cooking, so if you don’t have a non-stick, then at least be sure to use a good one with a strong heavy base so that it conducts the heat well, otherwise you’ll wind up with burned spots.

This goes with so many things, and it is a potato and a green all in one so you don’t need to worry about making anything else. The flavor is really good because it just emphasizes the flavor of the cabbage itself instead of drowning it with other things.

I loved this so much that I have actually made it a few times (don’t worry, I always make something new to go with it).

Try this one!

Tagliatelle with peas and Parma Ham

600g Tagliatelle
200g fresh peas, podded weight
50ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 garlic clove, crushed
Handful of freshly chopped mint
Handful of freshly grated Parmesan
8 slices of parma ham or 200g soft goat’s milk cheese, crumbled
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook pasta according to packet. Actually the recipe called for making your own, but I used store bought because I was in a hurry.

Bring a medium saucepan full of water to the boil. Add the peas and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain and plunge into iced water. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a pan over a low heat and add the garlic. Cook for 1 minute, then add the drained peas, and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Drain the pasta and add to the pea mixture. Toss well then season to taste and add the chopped mint and a drizzle of olive oil. Sprinkle in the parmesan, and drape over the parma ham or scatter with the goat’s cheese before serving.

This was from a book I just got called Angela Hartnett’s Cucina.

This was a really simple and lovely pasta dish. It was interesting to me because it used mint. I have not had a pasta dish that used mint before. I was wondering if it would be strangely like eating toothpaste, but it was not at all. The mint works beautifully with peas, and it winds up being a subtle background flavor. You don’t notice it right away, but then if you are told it’s there, it becomes obvious. This was Italian cooking at it’s best. Super simple, only a few ingredients, and only lightly cooked, but perfectly balanced, and ever so comforting.

This is a perfect dish if you’re in a hurry too, because you can make it in the time it takes to make the pasta. I am definitely going to try it again in the summer when the peas are fresh, I’m sure it will be at it’s best then.

Quick Springtime pasta

Blah, but read on... I felt bad about two blah recipes in a row, so I added in my absolute favorite tomato sauce for all time ever. Also I've just been dying for an excuse to post it even though I make it all the time.



Quick Springtime pasta (the ok sauce, scroll down for the other)
1tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
400g can chopped tomatoes
Handful of basil leaves, chopped
400g/14oz spaghetti
290g jar of artichoke hearts, cut into bite sized pieces
Handful freshly grated parmesan
Handful parsley, chopped

Heat the oil and tip in the garlic and cook for 1 min until lightly colored. Pour in the chopped tomatoes, then stir in the basil. Bring up to a boil, then turn down the heat and leave to gently simmer for 10 min. Meanwhile, boil the spaghetti according to the pack instructions.
Drain the spaghetti, reserving a little of the cooking liquid, and return the pasta to the pan. Add the artichokes to the tomato sauce until heated through, then pour it over the spaghetti. Stir in a little parmesan, most of the chopped parsley and a splash of the cooking water if the sauce looks dry. Serve immediately with the remaining parmesan and parsley sprinkled over.

This was from Good Food Magazine. There was nothing at all wrong with it, but I found it kind of bland. I loved the artichokes, but other then that it was nothing to sing about.

If you want a really unbelievably amazing perfect tomato sauce that is cooked in less then the time it takes to cook the pasta, and can be made with all ingredients that you can keep around in the house, try Jamie Oliver’sPuttanesca:

455g/1lb linguine
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2-3 small dried chilllies, crumbled
1tsp dried oregano
Extra virgin olive oil
2x400g tins of tomatoes drained and chopped
2 handfuls of black olives, destoned
1 handful capers, soaked in water and drained
12 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
1 good handful fresh basil (When I don’t have this around, I skip it, the sauce is still amazing, but do use it if you can)

Cook pasta according to packet
Fry garlic, chillies and oregano in oil till slightly softened, add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add olives capers and anchovies and cook 4 - 5 minutes more.
Toss with pasta, tear basil over, and test seasoning.

I like to throw some grated parmesan on top too.

Seriously, try this sauce, and you will never use jar sauce again.

Pizza Dough

I've been using cooking to de-stress for the past couple of days. If this keeps up, we'll need a baking section and a pickle section too. It is calming though.


Pizza Dough
800g/1&3/4 lbs strong white bread flour
200g/7oz fine ground semolina flour or strong white bread flour
1 level tbsp fine sea salt
2x7g sachets of dried yeast
1tbsp sugar
650ml/just over a pint lukewarm water

Combine the flour(s) and salt and make a well in the center. Add the yeast and sugar to the water, mix with a fork and leave it to sit a few minutes, before pouring it into the well you’ve made. Mix together into a dough, and then knead for 10 minutes. Flour the top of your dough, cover it with cling film and leave it to rest for 15min.

Break into pieces (depending on how big you want your pizzas), and roll them out to about 1/4 inch thick and about 15-30 minutes before you are going to put them in the oven. Put on whatever toppings you want, and bake at 250c/500f for 7 to 10 minutes.

European pizza is more of the thin and crispy crust variety. Growing up in New York, it was hard for me to accept any pizza that wasn’t gorgeous hand stretched thin-ish but chewy and crispy at the same time golden crust loveliness. Still, I’ve been here a long time now, and the thin crispy crust European pizza has become our normal pizza. Sometimes I’m sad that the Boy’s will grow up without Brooklyn’s finest food, but I just make sure to feed it to them every time we visit.

This pizza was really lovely and easy to make. I only made a quarter of the recipe because it was just me and the boys, not the whole National Guard. Once you roll them out, you can put them onto a greased and floured piece of tin foil and wrap them in cling film to refrigerate if you want to cook them later. Just flour each one and lay them on top of each other, they won’t stick. This particular pizza dough is from a Jamie Oliver cookbook, and he has all kinds of wonderful looking toppings, but I just made them out of whatever was lying around in the fridge. It wound up being cheese, ham and olives. The great part was that my three year old was able to make his very own little pizza all by himself. He totally dug that. A fair amount of topping that was meant to go on the pizza, actually went right into his mouth, but it came out very nice in the end.

For me the only real down side is that it is an incredibly hot oven, and mine does not preheat very fast. Next time I make them I’m going to start preheating as soon as I get up in the morning.

tags technorati : pizza, kids, baked

Timballo

Timballo aka fancy ziti

recipe #134

I found this while browsing thru one meal dish recipes on epicurious.com. It is supposed to be similar to the big beautiful amazing pasta dish served in a crust in the movie Big Night. After searching I found a recipe that included the crust, but in the interest of using only half the calories I stuck with the crust free version. I'll make the crust one on a night I have a bunch of people over.

Timballo
For meat sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage meat (remove casings if in links)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 (14- to 15-oz) can whole tomatoes in juice, forced with juices through a food mill (1 1/2 cups)
Pinch of sugar

For pasta
3/4 lb. ziti

For chard in béchamel sauce
1 lb. green Swiss chard, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped (4 cups)
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 oz finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/2 cup)
4 oz fresh mozzarella (not unsalted), cut into 1/2-inch cubes (scant 1 cup)

Special equipment: a 2-qt soufflé dish; parchment paper; a 6- to 8-qt wide pot

Make meat sauce:
Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté sausage, breaking up lumps with a fork, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add onion and bay leaf and sauté, stirring frequently, until onion begins to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute, then add wine and deglaze by boiling, scraping up any brown bits, until most of liquid is evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add tomato purée and sugar and boil, stirring frequently, until thickened, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool sauce and discard bay leaf.

Cook pasta:
Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente, then transfer with a skimmer to a colander to drain (do not rinse), reserving water in pot to cook chard. Cool pasta, spread in a baking pan, to warm.

Make chard in béchamel sauce:
Add chard to pot and simmer, uncovered, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer with skimmer to a bowl of ice and cold water. Drain chard and squeeze handfuls, then finely chop.

Heat butter in a 1 1/2- to 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until foam subsides, then add garlic and cook, whisking, 1 minute. Add flour and cook, whisking, 1 minute, then add milk in a slow stream, whisking. Bring to a boil, whisking. Reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in chard, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and 2 tablespoons Parmigiano, then remove pan from heat.

Assemble and bake timballo:
Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.

Oil soufflé dish and line bottom with a round of parchment paper, then oil parchment. Cover bottom of dish with a single layer of pasta. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella and 3 tablespoons Parmigiano over pasta, then spoon half of meat sauce in an even layer over cheese. Arrange one third of remaining pasta over meat sauce in soufflé dish and top with all of chard, then another layer of pasta (about half of remainder). Sprinkle with remainder of cheeses, then spoon remaining meat sauce over cheese. Top with remaining pasta. (You may have pasta left over.) Cover pasta with an oiled round of parchment (oiled side down) and cover dish with foil.

Bake in a water bath in wide 6- to 8-quart pot until bubbling and a metal skewer or thin knife inserted in center of timballo comes out hot to the touch, about 1 hour. Remove soufflé dish from water bath and let stand, covered, 15 minutes. Remove foil and parchment and run a knife around edge of timballo to loosen, then invert a platter over soufflé dish and invert timballo onto platter. Remove soufflé dish and remaining parchment.

Makes 6 to 8 main-course servings.

There are about 4 billion ways to modify this recipe and make is more simple or more elaborate depending. I used spinach instead of chard, penne instead of ziti, jarred sauce instead of making my own (gasp) and added some pesto I had frozen from over the summer.

It is much easier to make than it looks and it takes no more time than a lasagna.

Cleaning Squid a Fun Afternoon Does Not Make.

a half cleaned squid

recipe #130

Cleaning squid is just plan gross. Not gross in a gag reflex sort of way, but tedious, slimy, cold, not fun sort of way. And you get the lingering suspicious that no matter how clean they are, they just aren't clean enough.

It took me close to an hour to clean 2 lbs. of squid. There were good instructions on how to clean squid in The Classic Italian Cook Book by Marcella Hazan- which is where I found this recipe.

There are also these nice directions From the New York Times March 1982:

HOW TO CLEAN SQUID
1. Twist and pull off the head of the squid. As you do this you will also pull out much of the interior of the body.

This may include an ink sac, which is used in many European recipes but not for the recipes given here. Discard the pulled-out material.

2. Pull out and discard the semihard translucent, sword-shaped pen. 3. Using a knife, cut off the tentacles from the head of the squid (just in front of the eyes). 4. Using the fingers, pop out the round, hard beak in the center of the tentacles. Discard the beak. 5. The tentacles are wholly edible. If they are long, you may want to cut them in half or into smaller lengths. 6. Rub off the brown skin of the squid, holding the squid under cold running water. Use coarse salt while rubbing and pulling with the fingers.

7. Rinse the squid inside and out to remove any remaining material from inside the body. Drain the squid thoroughly and set aside.


Calamari e Piselli alla Livonese aka Stewed Squid with Tomatoes and Peas
1.5 tbs. finely chopped yellow onion
3 tbs. olive oil
1.5 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tbs. chopped parsley
3/4 c. chopped tomatoes with juice
2 lbs. of the smallest possible squid
salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs. fresh peas or 10 oz. package of frozen peas

In a saute pan add onions to olive oil and heat until pale gold. Add garlic until light brown. Add Parsley, stir once and then add the tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes

Slice squid sacs to rings, divide tentacle clusters in half then add squid. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you are using fresh peas add now. If you are using frozen peas add at about minute 25.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4-6

I served it with whole wheat pasta and added extra tomatoes in the cooking process. It was pretty tasty, although I had a hard time getting past the squid cleaning process. I think that if I ever make it agian I will cook the onions and garlic in bacon fat or along with panchetta.

Also, after you clean the squid, get the discarded squid parts out of the kitchen ASAP, because they really stink.

squid carnage

tags technorati : squid, italian, slimy

Tamarind Granita

Today I learned that tamarind is an important ingredient in Worcestershire sauce.

I'm giving my sister, Bronwen credit for this one. It is really good. My daughter actually ate 2 servings of it even though I thought it would be too tart for her. It would be a good cocktail base too. Add some vodka and you've got a nice drink.

Here is the very simple recipe:
Tamarind Granita
1.5 cups of sugar
3 cups of water
1/4 good tamarind concentrate

In a saucepan combine water and sugar, bring to boil then remove from heat. Add tamarind concentrate then cool to room temp. Throw mixture into an ice cream maker for 20-25 minutes than store in the freezer. The mixture will not harden like sorbet.

photos shortly.

And . . .

An interesting article from The Journal of the American Medical Association stating that the health benefits of eating fish out weigh the health risks.

Dinner

wild mushroom lasagna with rapini and tomato olive salad

DISH 38
New Things: rapini, trying to reheat a cream sauce bases pasta

I made this lasagna last month and it has been sitting in my freezer waiting for guests to come over and eat it. I was worried, reheating such a cream sauce based dish. I let it defrost to room temp, then cooked it for as little time I I thouht I could get away with.

It turned out well.

Here are the recipes for the menu:

Wild Mushroom Lasagna

Serves 10 to 12
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms , rinsed well
1 cup water
1 pound oyster mushrooms , cleaned, stems trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
12 ounces chanterelle mushrooms , cleaned, stems trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
10 ounces shiitake mushrooms , cleaned, stems removed, and sliced 1/4-inch thick (about 4 cups)
7 tablespoons unsalted butter , plus additional for greasing pan
Table salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large red onions , chopped medium (about 4 cups)
8 ounces cremini mushrooms , cleaned, stems trimmed, and broken into rough pieces
4 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
1/2 cup dry vermouth
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup minced fresh basil leaves plus an additional 2 tablespoons
8 ounces Italian fontina cheese , rind removed and shredded (about 2 1/4 cups)
1 1/2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 3/4 cup)
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest from 1 lemon

1. Cover porcinis with water in small microwave-safe bowl; cover with plastic wrap, cut several steam vents in plastic with paring knife, and microwave on high power for 30 seconds. Let stand until mushrooms soften, about 5 minutes. Lift mushrooms from liquid with fork and roughly chop (you should have about 3 tablespoons). Strain liquid through fine-mesh strainer lined with paper towel into medium bowl. Set mushrooms and liquid aside.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss oyster, chanterelle, and shitake mushrooms together in large bowl. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; when foaming subsides, add half of mushrooms, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and most of liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Transfer mushrooms to rimmed baking sheet and set aside to cool. Repeat with another 2 tablespoons butter and remaining mushrooms.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in now-empty skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering Add onions, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are browned around edges, about 10 minutes. Transfer onions to large bowl and set aside.

4. Meanwhile, process cremini mushrooms in food processor until uniformly coarsely chopped, about six 1-second pulses, stopping to scrape down bowl as needed. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in now-empty skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add chopped cremini mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and all moisture has evaporated, 6 to 8 minutes.

5. Reduce heat to medium and stir in porcini mushrooms, 1 tablespoon garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in vermouth and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes.

6. Add remaining 3 tablespoons butter and cook until melted. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute. Slowly add reserved porcini soaking liquid, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits. Add milk and nutmeg. Increase heat to medium-high and bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce has thickened and reached consistency of heavy cream, 10 to 15 minutes (you should have about 4 cups). Remove from heat and stir in 2 tablespoons parsley and 1/4 cup basil.

7. Combine fontina and Parmesan in medium bowl. Toss cooled wild mushrooms with onions in large bowl. Place noodles in 13 by 9-inch ovensafe baking dish and cover with hot tap water; let soak 5 minutes, agitating noodles occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove noodles from water and place in single layer on kitchen towel. Wipe baking dish dry and coat with butter.

8. Using rubber spatula, evenly distribute 1 cup mushroom sauce in bottom of baking dish; position 3 noodles on top of sauce. Spread 3/4 cup sauce evenly over noodles followed by 2 cups mushroom-onion mixture and 3/4 cup cheese. Repeat layering of noodles, sauce, mushroom-onion mixture, and cheese two more times. Place 3 remaining noodles on top of last layer of cheese. Spread remaining sauce over noodles and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Lightly spray large sheet foil with nonstick cooking spray and cover lasagna. Bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes.

9. While lasagna is baking, combine remaining 2 tablespoons parsley, 2 tablespoons basil, 1 teaspoon garlic, and lemon zest in small bowl. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees, remove foil from lasagna, and continue to bake until cheese on top becomes spotty brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove lasagna from oven and sprinkle evenly with herb mixture. Cool 15 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve.


Tomato and Olive Salad
4 tomatoes, cored, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/3 cup brine-cured black olives (such as Kalamata), pitted, halved
1/3 cup very thinly sliced red onion or shallot
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Combine tomatoes, black olives and onion in medium bowl. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar; toss to blend well. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in arugula and serve.

Makes 2 Servings.

Rapini
boil for 2 minutes, remove and shock with ice water. Heat pan with garlic and olive oil. Sautee for 4 minutes.

Pesto and Red Pepper Crostini

DISH 37
New thing: I never made crostini before

We had friends over for dinner last night so I took the oppertunity to maybe get a few dishes ahead. The next couple of posts are the menu.

BELL PEPPER AND ONION CROSTINI WITH PESTO
1 (18- to 22-inch-long) baguette, cut into 60 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For peppers and onions
6 assorted red, yellow, and orange bell peppers (3 lb), cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
2 large onions (1 1/2 lb), cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar

For pesto
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan (1 oz)
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Make toasts:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put baguette slices on 2 large baking sheets, then brush tops with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in batches in middle of oven until pale golden, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Cook peppers and onions:
Cook bell peppers, onions, and garlic with salt in oil in a wide 4- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until softened, 20 to 25 minutes. Cover pot and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender and just starting to brown, 20 to 25 minutes more. Stir in vinegar and remove from heat.

Make pesto while peppers cook:
Pulse all pesto ingredients except oil in a food processor until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil in a slow stream and blend until combined well.

Assemble crostini:
Put about 1 tablespoon pepper mixture on each toast and top with about 1/4 teaspoon pesto.

Makes 60 crostini.

Do not make the same mistake that I did and get bad bread. I was feeling too lazy to walk up the the good bakery and instead settled on some terrible hero rolls from the Eastern European grocery store near my apartment. Mistake. This recipe really counts on a decent, hearty compact bread.

Other than that it was delicious and very easy to make. My daughter helped me put them together, but ofcourse refused to eat any of them.

I made about 30 of them and between 4 people there were none left over.

technorati tags [crostini] [pesto] [snacks]

Garbage Pizza

made with everything about to go bad in the fridge

DISH 30

This dish is almost a cheat. I've made pizza before, I've used all the ingredients on the pizza before. . . It was just the combo of ingredients. It was the night before I was supposed to leave for Burning Man and I need to get rid of everything that was going to go bad in the fridge before I returned. I was so lazy I bought pizza dough from the pizza place up the block. The only think I did differently this time was take care that the crust was actually crispy and and the center of the pizza was not a soup in the end. Hard to do if you don't have an 800 degree over.

Here is what I threw together:
Garbage Pizza
pizza dough (bought from a pizza place becasue I am lazy)
tomato sauce I had in the freezer
Any veggies in the fridge with included:
zucchini
onion
red pepper
mushrooms
pitted olives
basil on its last legs
left over sausage
home made pesto
fontina cheese (seemed like a better idea than humbolt fog)
and what I think is asiago cheese

I sauteed up the veggies, while pre-heating to oven as high as it would go. Then, I did a mediocre job laying the pizza dough on the pizza stone. Then popped dough on stone into the over for 10 minutes.

Remove what should be more crispy dough. Add sauce all the way to the edges of the pizza,

Remove. All all veggies, dollops of pesto and crumble fontina or whatever cheese you have on hand.

Re-pop. Cook until cheese is getting bubbly and golden. Remove, shred asiago on the top, add sliced fresh basil. Cool, serve with red wine. maybe even over the edges if you are like me. Re-pop into over for another 10 minutes.


I think I got the technique done this time of pre-cooking the dough, crumbling the cheese and then shredding the hard cheese on after the cooking was finished.

Jambalaya Suppli

amazingly good fried treat

DISH 27

You read it right. I figured out a way to combine Cajun and Italian food. I thought I was being really original, but then I realized Two Boots does the same thing. I'm going to mention this one to Doris and see what she thinks.

I had an enormous amount of left over jambalaya from last night which doesn't reheat very well and I can't really freeze it so it is either throw it away (which kills me) or recycle it.

I lived in Rome for a year abroad in college. While there I subsisted mainly on boxed wine and amazingly delicious pizza rustica. These large, rectangular pizzas would come as simply as just olive oil and salt or as exotic as with arugula, shrimp and mayonnaise. The pizza was should by the ounce so when ordering it you'd point to what you want and then make hand motions describing the size piece you'd like. I have only found one place in the US that has anything like it. It's called Amorina Amorina at 624 Vanderbilt Ave. Brooklyn NY. Most of pizza rustica places in Rome would also sell fried and breaded stuffed rice balls called suppli. A bit bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball and changed slightly in ingredient depending on the region of Italy you were. In Sicily, they would be stuffed with meat and sometimes had peas in them- a more African influence. In Rome, they would be stuffed with a bit of cheese. They cost 1000 lire or $.70 so they were dirty cheap.

I went searching for a recipe, found that the rice filling was prepared very similarly to risotto or jambalaya. I had a bag of panko left over from an earlier soufflé recipe.

Here is how it went:

Jambalaya Suppli
left over jambalaya, risotto or similar
egg-beaten
oil to fry with (I used canola)
panko (worked great!) or other bread crumbs

roll approx. 3 tbs. balls of jambalaya
dip and coat in egg
roll in panko
fry in HOT oil for 2 minutes per side

Eat while hot.

These were so good that I ate them all. Usually when I cook, I eat just a small amount. This time, I made 5 thinking my daughter would try one, My Husband would have 3 and I would eat one. I couldn't stop myself. After the first one I broke out the Thai chili sauce and ate them with that. They would be great for a party.

[pizza] [fusion] [Rome]

Mushroom Lasagna

DISH 16
From Cook's Illustrated. This one is far far far to long to retype.
But seriously, one of the very best things I have ever made.

So good.
Photos coming.

Basil Pesto

I have been buying these huge bunches of basil for $.99. I use about half of it before it starts to wilt. So, I'm making pesto with the remainders. I'm making up the recipe from what I seem to recall my ex-step-grandmother made it with.

A large amount of fresh pesto
a large chunk of high quality parmigiana cheese (or asiago cheese)
walnuts
salt
high quality ex. virgin olive oil
garlic -I used pre-chopped because fresh tends to get very over powering if uncooked.

Throw it all in a blender or food processor. I used My baby food maker, which I guess is really just a small blender. Blend until it looks like pesto.

This is goooood. Really good. I'm going to freeze half of it.

Panzanella

Part of the reason I am able to make a different meal everyday--actually more why I have been inspired to do so is because a Fairway opened in Brooklyn. Fairway is the greatest grocery store ever (Trader Joe's is a close second--but fairway has an amazing produce section and is HUGE). They have an insane bakery. I have been buying the most enourmous ciabatta breads. They are the size of pillows. I cut them up and freeze them. Also, I thought this looked great too.

It is a mixture of a few different sources.

3/4 pound day-old crusty peasant-style whole-grain bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)
2 large tomatoes (about 1 pound), trimmed and each cut into 8 wedges
3/4 cup sliced unwaxed cucumber
1/2 cup sliced red onion
your favorite vinegrette
10 fresh basil leaves, shredded
2 tbsp. parmasian cheese
freshly ground black pepper

1. add fresh mozz. cheese for a heartier salad.
2. In a serving bowl stir together the bread, the tomatoes, the cucumber, the onion, the oil, the vinegar, the basil, and salt and pepper to taste until the salad is combined well.
Serves 4 to 6.

I loved this. My 10 mo. son loved it. My 3 year old didn't spit it out which is a rave review from her. You have to eat it all fast or it gets gross.

Fennel and Orange Tomato Sauce

Today I am going to start simple and make a fennel and Orange tomato sauce. I'm never cooked with Fennel before. The recipe is from Sept. Oct. 2006 Cook's Magazine. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to publish the recipe, but I will until I get a cease and desist letter.

This is enough for 1 lb of pasta

4 tbs. ex. virgin olive oil
1 med. bulb of fennel, cored, stalks removed and diced
2 med. cloves of garlic diced
.5 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 strips of orange peels 1 in. X 3 in.
3 tbs. orange juice
3 lbs of ripe tomatoes cored, seeded peeled and diced
3 tbs. fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon Ground black pepper

1. cook fennel in OO for 4-6 min. then add garlic, peel, fennel seeds, pepper flakes. Cook for 30 sec. then add tomatoes. Cook that for 10 min.
2. remove peel then add juice, basil salt and pepper and sugar if it seems like it needs it.
3. serve over pasta w/ 2 more tbs. of OO

So I followed the recipe to the T. No substitutions of changes. I used the very available NJ (local) tomatoes. They have been terrific in everything we have used this in so far this season. Peeling and seeding them was kind of a pain (you have to boil them for a short time until the skin splits then run them under cold water and the skin peels away).

This recipe turned out to be a real dog. Flavorless for the most part. It might bee better if I doubled of tripled everything but the tomatoes. I froze it thinking that maybe I will dress it up later on. Hey, it might even taste better latter, but I doubt it.

UPDATE: I recently deforsted and tried this sauce and it didn't suck at all.