Valentine Lasagne
Early last week Victor decided he was making lasagne, today. For many folks, lasagne for dinner usually means putting the frozen block of Stouffer's into the oven and coming back in an hour.
Not around here. Lasagne in our house is a bit more complex - it starts with making the sauce and making the lasagne noodles. It's the old adage if you're going to do it, do it right...
The sauce was not overly-difficult. He added ground beef to his jarred sauce along with some garlic and herbs and cooked it down a bit. It came out a bit richer, meatier - more substantial.
And them he made the lasagne.
Fresh Lasagne
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups '00' flour
- 1/2 cup semolina flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.
Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.
Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is a scant 1/8 inch thick. Cut to fit your dish or pan.
There are few things in this world that are better than homemade pasta - and right now, I can't think of one of them...
The lasagne was layered with sauce, pasta, ricotta mixed with herbs and parsley, fresh mozzarella... All the good stuff. We had a hard time waiting for it to set up before diving into it.
While Victor was getting lasagne together, I made a loaf of Pane Siciliano.
This is a great bread I've made a few times - and even made it in Sicily! The original recipe comes from one of my favorite books - The Italian Baker by Carol Field.
Pane Siciliano
Makes 2 loaves
- 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp malt syrup
- 1 cup water, room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups semolina
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup sesame seeds
Stir the yeast into the 1 1/4 cups warm water in a large mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the oil and malt and mix until smooth. Knead on medium speed until; the dough is firm, compact, and elastic with lots of body, 4 to 5 minutes. Finish kneading by hand on a lightly floured surface.
First rise. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. The dough should be springy and blistered, but still soft and velvety.
Shaping and second rise. Punch the dough down, knead it briefly, and let it rest for 5 minutes. Flatten it with your forearm into a square. Rollit into a long, narrow rope, about 20 to 22 inches long. The dough should be so elastic that it could almost be swung and stretched like a jump rope. Cut the dough in half and shape each into a loaf.
Place the loaves on floured parchment paper, peels sprinkled with corn meal, or oiled baking sheets. Brush the entire surface of each loaf with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds; pat the seeds very gently into the dough. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Baking. Thirty minutes before baking heat the oven with baking stones to 425°. Bake 10 minutes, spraying 3 times with water. Reduce the heat to 400° and bake 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cool on racks.
We've become almost-exclusively an Italian Flour family. The exception is Daisy Organic Flour grown and milled here in Pennsylvania. I bake too much to buy mediocre flour, and Victor's pasta is just unbelievably outstandingly good. Quality ingredients give quality results. It's just worth it.
The lasagne was both rich and decadent, while also being light. The homemade pasta makes all the difference. It's not gummy like no-bake noodles usually are, or belly-bombs like some traditional lasagne noodles. I wiped my plate clean, sopping up every bit of goodness with bread slathered in butter. It really took a lot to keep from going back for more.
Take your chocolates, your flowers, your going-out-to-dinners... This was Valentine's Day!
Fun in the kitchen, great smells wafting through the house, and eating a great dinner on hand-painted plates custom-made for us in Florence.
It does not suck to be us...
Sunday Breakfast
Imagine being in a house with the smell of freshly-baked scones and bacon wafting through the air...
I, of course, did not have to imagine it - it was my house! Victor has been plotting a frittata for breakfast all week. It started with me cutting up some peppers and having him ask me to save some. It kinda grew from there.
Red and green peppers, asparagus, kalamata olives, bacon, potatoes, garlic, ricotta cheese... Just little bits of this-n-that that were in the 'fridge. The perfect assortment of flavors.
We were fresh out of bread for toast - I'm going to be baking that later on today - so Victor threw together some cherry scones to go along with the frittata.
It's rough living in our house.
Cherry Scones
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 stick butter
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Stir in cherries. Mix sour cream and egg and stir into flour mixture.
Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into an 8" circle about 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle a bit of sugar.
Cut into 8 wedges and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake about 15 minutes or until nicely browned.
A great way to start the day. It's the perfect sustenance to get us through comfy-chair shopping, today.
Yeah... we need to go shopping. Our leather La-Z-Boy has seen better days. Springs have sprung and it's finally beyond repair - or comfortable sitting. I love the look of the chair, so here's hoping we can find something similar.
It's a sad state of affairs when we would rather leave the house to go furniture shopping than watch the Super Bowl.
Cavatelli
Ya know how you're surfing the interwebs and ya click on something and then you follow something else and then you're someplace completely different from where you started out?!? Me, neither, but I understand it happens to folks from time-to-time...
One thing that did happen to me last week, though, was I was looking at an old copy of La Cucina Italiana and saw a recipe for cavatelli - and decided to buy a cavatelli maker. That, of course, led me to Google which led me to A Best Kitchen - an online restaurant supply house.
I have to tell ya... I'd rather spend all day in a restaurant supply house than a Williams-Sonoma or other retail outlet. Form follows function. I want something that is going to work and last a while - not something that is cute and will break the 2nd time it's used. My dream kitchen is actually stainless steel with a quarry tile floor - with a drain. Sadly, that's not going to happen any time soon.
But I digress...
The cavatelli maker arrived in a couple of days and once we knew the storm was coming, decided that today would be the perfect day to try it out. And, it was. Sunshine, blue skies, a chill in the air, and feet of snow awaiting the plow. We had spoken with our neighbor who has a snow service and she said she'd send him down when he did her place. He hasn't shown. I went down there a couple of hours ago and dug out her front door - she and her sister were actually trapped in the house because both doors were completely blocked in with snow. It's what neighbors are for. But we still didn't get our driveway done! It looks like I'll be hand-digging it out tomorrow. Oh well. I wanted feet of snow and I got feet of snow!
But back to the cavatelli...
We had several recipes to choose from, so Victor went with a ricotta and parmesan version.
The dough is quite easy to make - actually, all fresh pasta dough is pretty easy to make. It's the rolling and/or forming that takes the talent. I leave it to Victor.
Ricotta and Parmesan Cavatelli
- 4 cups flour
- 1 egg
- 1 lb ricotta
- 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup milk
Sift flour onto a counter or board. Make a well and add the remaining ingredients. Slowly incorporate the liquids with the flour. when everything is mixed in, knead for about 2 minutes. When done, cover and let dough rest for about 10 minutes.
When ready to make the cavaletti, roll the dough to about 3/8" thickness and cut into 3/4" strips. Feed into your cavatelli maker, or cut into small pieces and roll on your gnocchi board.
Yes, we have one of those, also. Victor makes an awesome gnocchi.
Cook in boiling, salted water for about 5 minutes. Drain, and serve with your favorite sauce.
Our favorite sauce is the sauce Victor just made - with Italian sausages and meatballs.
We had it with thick slices of the Walnut Raisin Bread from yesterday.
So we didn't get the driveway plowed, but we sure as hell ate well - and there's Pecan Pie for dessert.
I'll deal with the driveway tomorrow.
Another Vat of Sauce
Victor has been making sauce and I've been jarring it for a long, long time, now. It's just something that takes a bit of time, but is so worth it in the long run. I even graduated from plain ol' mason jars to fancy jars that look like store-bought.
I do have to admit that it's not as inexpensive as buying sauce, but... Prego doesn't use San Marzano tomatoes like we do. If you're going to go to the trouble of making something, make it good with good ingredients. Make it worth your while.
We have the process down to a science... Victor makes the sauce and I do the canning. Teamwork.
We have a big ol' pot that we bought years ago and it gets filled up and then goes for a slow simmer for a few hours...
While the sauce is simmering, I get the jars ready...
I like the one-piece lids on these but think I may be going back to mason jars at some point. I kinda like the old-school look and feel of a good ol' mason jar. Not to mention I have dozens of them in the basement - complete with lids and rings.
Of course, that would mean I would have to stay away from my favorite jar website - Fillmore Container - and stop getting their emails and all that. Yeah. Right. I probably won't be doing that any time soon. Going through the pages of bottles and jars is almost as bad as going through the Atlantic Spice website. Food porn. That's all there is to it.
But back to the sauce...
First I fill up the jars...
I got 14 quarts this time around. That's about the average. I canned 13 and kept one out for dinner, tonight. They then go into the canner - 7 quarts at a time.
They can at 11 pounds of pressure for 45 minutes - and then i do it all over again. Fortunately, I don't have to stand in front of the stove while it's going on - just check once in a while to make sure the pressure remains constant.
And then they come out to cool.
I had one that didn't seal properly this time around, so it went into the 'fridge and we'll use it up sometime in the next week or so. The rest of them went downstairs to the basement with the other goodies. I rarely have one that doesn't seal properly and it's pretty much the main reason I thought about going back to two-piece lids.
We had the sauce served over Cavatelli.
It was totally delish. And just now - while double-checking that I spelled cavatelli correctly, I bought a cavatelli maker. $34.95. What the hell. So much for purging and getting rid of stuff. It will be here in a few days. Fresh pasta and homemade sauce.
La vita è bella.
Oh... here's the recipe...
Victor’s Pasta Sauce
- 2 – 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
- 1 – Sm can tomato paste
- 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
- Olive oil
- Dried Italian seasonings
- Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
- Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops
Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.
Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.
When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes. Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.
Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings. I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 TBS is fine. Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.
Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.
Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.
When I make meatballs, I don’t fry them, I bake them on a sheet pan. When I do, I add them to the simmering sauce when they’re done so they also absorb the flavor.
I usually make the sauce early in the day and after it’s done, just let it sit on the stove until dinner then I re-heat it. This should make enough sauce for a couple of dinners or good sized lasagna.
Sunday Pasta
Turkey is great - for a few days - but by the Sunday after Thanksgiving, it's time for something different. Turkey soup, sandwiches, and egg rolls can only go so far...
Victor headed to the kitchen first, and whipped up a batch of fresh pasta. He has pasta-making down to a science. In about an hour - and that includes 30 minutes for the pasta dough to rest - he has it made, rolled, cut, and ready to cook. Gotta love it.
Years ago he bought me a pasta roller for Christmas - and I've used it maybe twice. He took to pasta-making immediately, and I'm definitely not stupid enough to argue. He says pasta and I say yes. I don't even ask what kind. He's making, I'm eating. Rather simple...
He has a few different recipes for pasta, but this is kinda the go-to...
Tagliatelle Fresche
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- Coarse sea salt
Instructions
On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs and egg yolks to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.
Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.
Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.
Cut sheet in half widthwise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.
With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons, a scant 1/4 inch wide. Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.
To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.
And here he is tossing it with sauce - his homemade sauce that I can a few times a year. Homemade sauce on the shelf is always a good thing...
And crunchy garlic toast is always a good thing, too. Perfect for sopping up every last bit of sauce...
It was all really good.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
I got a text at work on Saturday to bring home some whipping cream. Victor said I wouldn't be sorry.
Once again, the boy was right. I wasn't sorry. I was thrilled. Flourless Chocolate Cake was awaiting me!
Victor found the recipe years ago from Tyler Florence and has tweaked it over the years - and every time he makes it it is better than the time before. It is truly one of my most favorite desserts. It is dense and fudgy with a wicked good chocolate flavor. It calls for a full pound of chocolate - and the better the quality, the better the cake.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
- 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 9 large eggs, separated
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
- 1/4 cup strong black coffee
- 2 cups heavy cream, cold
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1-inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs – this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate; then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture. Add the coffee and mix well.
Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 25 to 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.
Serve at room temperature dusted with powdered sugar and the whipped cream.
Make one. You won't be sorry.
Victor's Pasta Sauce
When the local Pathmark store was in the process of closing, they had three #10 cans of Cento San Marzano tomatoes discounted 30%. Of course I had to buy them.
I knew Victor would be making sauce, soon. That soon became today!
It is just so nice to have the smell of sauce wafting through the house... The onions and the garlic... the sausages... the simmering tomatoes in all their Italian glory... It is gastronomic heaven!
He first purees the tomatoes since they come whole and peeled... and after it simmers, I come in with my trusty pressure canner and put it all into jars for future dinners...
It would definitely be a chore to do this all by oneself, but with Victor doing the cooking and me doing the canning, it's a breeze.
I got 11 quarts of sauce - enough to get us through to the first of the year - I think. It is sooooooo much better than buying sauce at the grocery store.
I'm a happy guy!
Here's the basic recipe. Multiply, as desired...
Victor's Pasta Sauce
- 2 - 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
- 1 - Sm can tomato paste
- 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
- Olive oil
- Dried Italian seasonings
- Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
- Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops
Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.
Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.
When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes. Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.
Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings. I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 TBS is fine. Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.
Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.
Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.
When I make meatballs, I don’t fry them, I bake them on a sheet pan. When I do, I add them to the simmering sauce when they’re done so they also absorb the flavor.
I usually make the sauce early in the day and after it’s done, just let it sit on the stove until dinner then I re-heat it. This should make enough sauce for a couple of dinners or good sized lasagna.
Italian Wedding Soup and Fresh Bread
The Pope is in town so I thought I'd bake some bread in case he stopped by and wanted to feed the neighborhood, or something. Victor made soup - Italian Wedding Soup - because even though the Pope is from Argentina, his father was born in Italy and his mother's parents were born in Italy - and you know how Italians are around here... if your grandparents, great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparents were born in Italy - you're Italian. End of discussion. We thought Wedding Soup was fitting because he was here for the World Meeting of Families, not to mention we have an abundance of greens in our garden, right now!
We decided to stay out here in 'burbia instead of trekking into the city. I just couldn't imagine dealing with the crowds, barricades, security checkpoints, and all that. Even after a fun and uplifting day, I imagine I would be a cranky guy trying to get my SEPTA train back home, tonight.
And speaking of home... the garden has gone crazy! We planted lots of fall greens and they are really coming through! Tomorrow night I'm cooking up New Zealand Spinach, and some of the beets are looking like they're almost ready. Fun, indeed!
The bread, today, was my favorite Pane Pugliese. I have been making this bread for nigh on 35 years. It really is one of my favorite breads and it never - ever - fails. I try to keep a biga on hand for those almost-spur-of-of-the-moment loaves of bread since it needs to be made a day in advance. This was concept-to-table in 4 hours.
And while the dough was rising, Victor was making soup.
This is such a great soup. Victor also made fresh chicken stock from the bird I roasted the other night so it is really homemade!
Italian Wedding Soup
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Soup
- 3 qts chicken broth
- 1 lb escarole, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Make meat balls: Mix all ingredients together and form into very small meat balls- about the size of a prize shooting marble. Place on a sheet pan off to the side.
Make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the meatballs and escarole and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the escarole is tender – about 10 minutes.
To add the egg: Whisk the eggs to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a large fork to form thin stands of egg.
Ladle into bowls and add additional grated cheese and a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.
The soup is deeply satisfying and made all the better with crusty bread. And... there's enough left over for lunch, tomorrow.
'Tis a good day, indeed!
Carbonara and Cured Eggs
There's new fun food at our house!!
I know, I know... How unusual... but the cured egg yolks really did come out good! My stomach is smiling, as my sister, Eileen, used to say.
I had already thawed the lamb rack, otherwise I probably would have made the carbonara the main dish, but, a bit of culture-mixing is nothing new in our house, either. We're eclectic from head to toe.
The eggs came out pretty much as I thought. They have a creamy/salty/eggy taste that really went well atop the carbonara. I can see these being used with asparagus, on garlic toast or bruschetta, or shaved onto salad. The possibilities really are endless.
Carbonara is traditionally made with spaghetti, but Nonna no longer likes spaghetti noodles, so I went for a short rigatoni that's easier for her to eat. I do believe that pasta shapes make a difference, but in this case, it came out just fine.
The basic carbonara recipe is:
Pasta alla Carbonara
- 1 lb spaghetti
- 4 oz pancetta, diced
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup grated pecorino romano
- fresh black pepper
- pasta cooking water
Start with a cold skillet and add the diced pancetta. Slowly heat the pancetta until it renders its fat and crisps.
Mix the eggs with the cheese and set aside.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Drain, and reserve a bit of the cooking water.
Add the cooked pasta to the pancetta pan and swirl to coat all of the pasta with the rendered fat and pancetta, and garlic. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the egg and cheese mixture, tossing it quickly to coat the pasta and cook the egg without scrambling it. Add a bit of hot pasta water, if needed to thin.
Place on plates and add several hefty twists of black pepper and then garnish with a grated cured egg yolk, if desired.
There are a few different takes on making a carbonara. I've heard of it being made with just egg yolks, but I really can't picture an Italian woman separating eggs and saving the whites for something else. Really. And the cheese is pecorino romano. Locatelli to the uninitiated - hand-crafted from 100% pure sheep’s milk. You can taste the difference.
And no cream and most definitely no peas! Just a couple of really good-quality ingredients.
Guanciale would be the meat of choice, but it's impossible to find out here in 'burbia. If you can get it, use it in place of the pancetta.
Cured Egg Yolks
Victor was perusing the internet last week and ran across a dish using cured egg yolks. I vaguely remember seeing these years ago on some show or another and quickly forgot about them. Victor didn't. He decided to make some!
The premise is quite simple - eggs, sugar, and salt - and they really could not be easier to make. It's what to do with them after that's the fun of it all...
I see a pasta carbonara in our very near future - as in probably tonight along with lamb racks that I took out of the freezer a couple days ago - forgetting we weren't going to be home for dinner last night. I'll post about that when it happens.
In the meantime, here's how to make them:
Cured Egg Yolks
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cups kosher salt
Combine sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Line the bottom of a pie plate or other container with a thick layer of the salt mixture. Make small indentations in the mixture and slide the yolks into them. Cover the yolks completely with the salt mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator.
They should be ready in 4 or 5 days.
Take them out of the salt mixture and brush off as much as possible.
Gently rinse under cold water and blot dry with paper towels. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.
Grate over pasta or anything where you want a boost of slightly-salty, rich egg.
Vegetable and Meat Casserole
It was a typical Saturday. I was at work and Victor was lounging in front of the TV eating Bon-Bons. His thumb was getting sore from channel-surfing when he landed on the Saturday PBS cooking shows. Back in those thrilling days of yesteryear when I also had a Monday-Friday job, we'd always have the PBS cooking shows on in the background as we did our weekend puttering around the house. It's good that one of us can keep up the tradition.
Food Network may have 24/7 cooking, but the PBS shows are quality. It's a perfect example of less is more. Quality vs quantity. I've gotten many more recipes from PBS cooking shows than any other TV station and we've bought a few cook books because of them, as well.
So... today Lidia comes on and before the hour is over, Victor is at the grocery store buying zucchini. Zucchini. The vegetable I pretty much never buy because Victor doesn't like it. That zucchini.
She was making a zucchini and potato casserole that had his mouth watering. Zucchini. Go figure.
I came walking into the house and was immediately greeted with the most fabulous aroma wafting from the oven. My mouth started watering and I didn't even know what it was! Now, I generally have a smile on my face when I walk into the house, but it turned into a huge grin, immediately!
It was an even bigger grin when we sat down to eat.
Nonna complimented me on how good the dinner was. I had to let her know that it was actually her son who made it and she turned to Victor and said "Really? You made this?" She sometimes forgets he used to own his own restaurant and knows his way around a kitchen just a bit. Meals can be quite amusing around here...
Lidia's original recipe called for ground turkey - or any other ground meat - so Victor made it with a beef/veal/pork blend similar to a meatball or meatloaf mix.
Zucchini and Meat Casserole
adapted from Lidia's Commonsense Italian Cooking
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 2 small onions, thinly sliced
- 1 lb zucchini, diced
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef/veal/pork blend
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups white wine
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 1 3/4 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced , (¼ inch thick or less)
- 8 ounces low-moisture mozzarella, shredded
- 1 cup grated Grana Padano or -Parmigiano--Reggiano
- 2 tbsps unsalted butter, at room temperature
Preheat the oven to 400°. In a large skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, and cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook until the zucchini is tender, then remove vegetables to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil to the skillet. When the oil is hot, add the ground meat. Cook and stir until it is crumbled and browned, about 4 minutes. Then clear a space in the pan and add the tomato paste. Let it toast for a minute, then stir it into the meat mixture. Add the wine and bay leaves, bring to a simmer, and cook until the wine is reduced and saucy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the onions and zucchini.
Toss the potato slices with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the remaining teaspoon of salt. In a medium bowl, toss together the two cheeses.
To assemble, butter a large 4-quart baking dish. Layer the potatoes in the bottom, and sprinkle with a third of the cheese. Layer all of the meat mixture, then all of the remaining grated cheese. Cover with foil and bake on the bottom rack until bubbly around the edges, about 20 minutes. Uncover, and bake until the top is browned and crusty, about 15 minutes more.
It really was great. I went back for seconds.
And I now have a standing order for Bon-Bons to be delivered every Saturday Morning!
Fish on the Fourth
Anyone can barbecue or grill on the Fourth of July, in fact, I think we usually do. Then, again, we grill year-round, so it's not like we're lacking in our carcinogens. But every once in a while, we have to buck tradition - and Victor did it, today!
Holiday or not, it was a normal Saturday around here. I worked and Victor did his Saturday chores - laundry, vacuuming, that sort of stuff. And, as an added bonus - for me - he cooked dinner!
Poached white fish in a white wine butter sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, and tomato salad.
Totally yum!
We totally eschewed the whole Independence Day theme. Weird, because it's actually been a pretty good week to be a Liberal in this country and I'm feeling a tad more patriotic than I normally do. Marriage Equality was definitely grand - we're now just 'married' everywhere instead of gay-married in some states and not married at all in others. Something I honestly never thought I'd see in my lifetime. And then the upholding of the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare. I especially love that the right wing pundits started calling the AFC Obamacare early on as a slur. After surviving two Supreme Court challenges, it is the law of the land - and their slur has turned into his legacy. It will always be called Obamacare. That must totally annoy some folks to no end. Personally, I love it. And see ya later, Confederate Battle Flag. As I said - a great week to be a Liberal.
But back to dinner... Not a strawberry or blueberry in the house. No red, white, and blueberry cake, shortcake... We do have watermelon, but we always have watermelon. It almost doesn't count. Normal, everyday food. I do see some grilling in our very near future, and another peach pie/cobbler/something is in the works, as well. Tomorrow is another day...
So Happy 239th Birthday, America! And here's to Bernie for the 240th!