Herbie Likes Spaghetti

5 Great Grilling Recipes

2012-06-01T14:54:00.002-04:00

So, we moved! We're now Brooklyn residents, and as part of that, we've got some outdoor space where we've set up our grill. It's been such a long time since we had a real outdoor grilling space - about two years actually - so we've been searching for some inspiration on what to cook. We've got a lot of old favorites, which you'll certainly be seeing here in the coming weeks, but we wanted to go a bit beyond that, so we scrounged the web for grilling recipes that looked delicious and wanted to share them with you here. It's supposed to be a great weekend, so hopefully you'll be able to enjoy these recipes as well!

Grilled Babyback Ribs by FoodieCrush

Garlic Beer Marinated Grilled Chicken by The Slow Roasted Italian

Parmesan Garlic Grilled Corn by Eclectic Recipes

Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich by Closet Cooking

Jalapeno Chili Dogs by Coupon Clipping Cook

Got more great grilling recipes? Please let us know about them in the comments so we can give them a try! Have a great weekend!

Big Hearty Chicken Dish: Chicken Vesuvio, BBQ Style

2012-05-30T16:36:00.000-04:00

We've been away, in case you hadn't noticed! Our lives have been consumed with that long and tiresome process of moving. However, it's pretty much all behind us now which means that soon enough you'll start to see some photos with much better lighting that are much less cramped as we start cooking up a storm in our new kitchen!

For now we want to share with you a great recipe that will leave you feeling really satisfied - the Dinosaur BBQ Chicken Vesuvio. Now, I've never actually seen this on the Dinosaur BBQ menu, but it has long enticed us in the cookbook. We cook it here in the oven but it could just as easily be finished in the grill, so it'd be a great dish to whip up this weekend. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1 lb chicken thighs
2 - 3 russet potatoes
1 cup barbeque sauce
1 shallot, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1/2 cup white wine
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter, divided
canola oil for frying
4 tsp cajun seasoning, divided
salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas

Preheat the oven or a grill to 375 degrees.

Get started by prepping the chicken. Rub them all over with half of the cajun seasoning, getting it under the skin if it's still on there. Let rest for about 10 minutes to come up to room temperature. While resting, take your russet potatoes, clean them off, and then slice them into wedges. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and the cajun seasoning over the wedges as well.

In a large non-stick pan, dump in the canola oil for frying and turn the heat up high. When the oil is hot, add the chicken to the pan, working in batches so that you don't crowd the pan. Sear the chicken on each side for about 3 - 4 minutes, until a nice golden crust forms, and then remove from the oil and place in a baking dish.

Once all the chicken is done, fry up the potatoes. Place them in the hot, now chicken infused oil, and cook for 3 - 4 minutes per side until nice, crispy, and golden brown. Remove them from the oil when they're done frying and place them in the baking dish with the chicken.

Make up a quick batch of the sauce - you can do this while someone else is browning the chicken and frying the potatoes, or do it afterwards, it doesn't take too long. Add 1 tbsp of the butter and the olive oil to a sauce pan and let it melt. Add in the garlic and shallots and let sizzle for a few minutes until they start to get slightly golden. Then add in the white wine, bring to a fast boil, and then add in the barbeque sauce. Add in the fresh chopped parsley, stir everything together, and then season with salt and pepper to taste. Additionally, feel free to drop in a tablespoon or so of spicy brown mustard to give it a nice little kick!

Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and potato wedges in the baking dish. Place the baking dish into the oven or grill and bake for about 20 minutes, until the chicken is all the way cooked through. While the chicken is baking, take the frozen peas and place them into a small pan. Add in the second tablespoon of butter and stir everything together over medium heat, until the peas warm through and are covered with the butter. Remove from heat.

When the chicken and potato wedges are done, remove them from the oven and let them rest for a few minutes. Then put them on the plate, arranging the wedges around the chicken, and scatter the peas on top. Dig in and enjoy!

One year ago: Pasta alla Melanzana

Delightfully Delicious: Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes and Shrimp

2012-05-18T15:07:00.002-04:00

As summer comes closer and the weather gets warmer, we're trying to find recipes that are quick, simple and to the point, yet are still wonderfully delicious. This spaghetti with shrimp and cherry tomatoes is perfect for late spring for all of those reasons. The cherry tomatoes are nice and ripe, slightly sweet and only a little tart. They cook down and exude their juices and create a nice simple sauce in which to cook the shrimp. Add in a little fresh chopped parsley to give the dish some color and a nice cool flavor, and you've got a real winner on your hands!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup white wine

2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

1/2 lb spaghetti

Once you've got your shrimp peeled, your garlic sliced, and your cherry tomatoes halved, start boiling a pot of water, add some salt, and drop the spaghetti in once it comes to a boil. You'll want to cook until about one minute shy tof the package directions which is usually about 10 minutes, more than enough time for the sauce to come together.

In a non-stick pan, heat up the olive oil over medium heat and then add in the garlic. Cook for a minute until slightly fragrant, and then add in the tomatoes. Stir everything together and cook for 4 - 5 minutes, until the cherry tomatoes start to soften. Be careful to make sure the garlic doesn't burn.

After a few minutes of cooking the tomatoes will have softened. Add in the white wine, bring to a boil, and then stir everything together. Add in the shrimp, and reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally. The shrimp will take about 4 - 5 minutes to cook in the simmering wine/tomato mixture.

Once the pasta has finished cooking, remove it from the pasta water and add it to the pot with the shrimp and tomato sauce. Add in a touch of the pasta water if the sauce needs more liquid, and throw in the parsley. Toss the pasta, shrimp, parsley and tomato over high heat until the liquid is absorbed.

Dig in and enjoy!

One Year Ago: Panko Crusted Eggplant with Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Mom's Famous Tuna Casserole

2012-05-15T16:56:00.003-04:00

Mother's day was Sunday, and what better way to honor mom than by taking one of her time honored recipes and posting it here? Tuna noodle casserole is a classic Mom dish, and this recipe is one that Bryan's mom made pretty frequently back in the day. It's simple, creamy, and delicious. It'll warm you up and give you that home cooked comfort food feeling.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
2 cans solid white tuna in water
1/2 onion, diced
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tsp flour
1 cup half and half or whole milk
1 cup peas
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
1 lb egg noodles
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large pot, heat up the olive oil and butter until the butter has melted. Then, add in the garlic, onion, carrot and mushroom, and cook through, stirring occasionally. The mushroom will exude its liquid and the liquid will evaporate.

When the mushrooms, onions, and carrots are soft, add in the two teaspoons of flour and stir together to incorporate. It'll be a little clumpy, and in this state, you'll want to let it cook for a few minutes over the heat. It'll give the dish a nice toasty flavor.

Finally, add in the milk, and bring everything to a nice bubble. Add in the thyme, peas, and pecorino romano, and stir everything together, and let simmer, stirring constantly. At this point, drain the liquid from the tuna cans and drop the tuna right into the sauce. Continue to stir.

While the cream sauce is simmering, cook up the egg noodles, and once complete, drain. Add the egg noodles to the cream sauce mixture and stir together.

Add the whole mixture into a baking dish, top with more grated pecorino romano, and pop in the oven for 10 minutes or until the top is nice and brown and bubbly. Remove, and dig in!

One year ago: Tacuba style chicken enchiladas

Add Some Asian Flavor to Your BBQ: Ten-Spice Steak and Golden Beet Hash

2012-05-12T14:21:00.000-04:00

We're getting closer and closer to grilling season with the weather getting consistently nicer. Plus, we're just about ready for our move to Brooklyn where we'll finally be able to grill again! Sometimes it's nice and easy to just pop a steak on the grill and throw some A1 sauce on top. But if you want to have a really gourmet experience, this ten-spice steak with soy-ginger barbeque sauce is an easy yet exotically delicious way to do it. The golden beet hash on the side is a great early summer side dish when the beets are at their peak. It's a simple enough dish to make if you can get past all the chopping, but it is twenty times more exciting than the normal side of potatoes, and healthier as well!

This is modified from the strip steak recipe out of the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que cookbook, and gives a big bold infusion of Asian flavor into the barbeque paradigm. And the best thing is, since you're using a spice rub, there's no need to prep hours ahead! Read on to learn how to amp up your next grilling night!

P.S. - We've picked a winner for the Fresh Direct Giveaway! Head over to our Facebook Page to see who won!

Making the Steak
What You'll Need
1 hanger steak, trimmed

For the Rub
1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning (cumin, garlic powder, cayenne, chili, and salt)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Sauce
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
Dash of salt and pepper
1/4 cup bbq sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
Dash of Sriracha chili sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil
Juice from one slice of a lemon
sliced scallion for garnish

To prepare the steak, take out all of the rub ingredients, and mix the seasonings together until everything is nicely incorporated. Then add in the soy sauce and oil and mix it together. It will form a black paste, and should be fairly thick. Rub this evenly into the steak, and then let the steak rest out for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature.

While the steak is coming to room temperature, make the sauce. In a small saucepan, heat up the peanut oil and then throw in all of the garlic and ginger, as well as a touch of salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes until the garlic and ginger are fragrant but not quite golden. Then add in all the remaining ingredients, and stir together to blend. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Keep warm.

Cook the steak on the grill or grill pan to the desired level of doneness - for the hanger steak to get the medium it took us 4 minutes per side on the grill pan plus 8 minutes in the oven. Let the steak rest for a good 15 minutes after you cook it, then slice it into nice medallions. Pour the sauce over top and sprinkle the scallions on top.

For the Golden Beet Hash
What You'll Need
3 golden beets
1 to 2 russet potatoes
4 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees

Peel the beets and potatoes and chop them up into small quarter inch sized dices. This can take some time, so be patient. Remove the thyme leaves from the stems and coarsely chop. In a non-stick pan heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced beets and potatoes to the pan and sauté, coating with oil. Add in a touch of salt and pepper as well as the thyme, and cook for about 10 - 12 minutes until the potatoes and beets are nice and soft.

Remove the beets and potatoes from the heat and add to a baking dish. Place the baking dish in the oven and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, until the beets and potatoes are soft and almost crispy. Remove from heat.

Serve on the side of the hanger steak. We used a measuring cup to get the golden beet hash to hold its shape!

One Year Ago: Marcella Hazan's Porcini-Style Shiitake Mushroom Pasta

Delicious Seafood Pasta: Penne with Swordfish and Spinach

2012-05-07T13:15:00.004-04:00

As you probably know, we're all about simple, easy recipes that create gourmet results, and this penne with swordfish and spinach fits the bill perfectly. It's incredibly easy to make, yet the combination of ingredients and flavors will make you think that you were eating at a restaurant. We had initially planned to make a swordfish dinner with a side of spinach, but then got the craving for pasta, had some tomato sauce on hand, and so this was the result, and we're quite glad of it! The swordfish is a delicious, meaty fish that pairs wonderfully with the tomato sauce.

Also, don't forget about our giveaway! Since we were busy last week with jury duty, we're extending the drawing. If you like and/or comment on our new Facebook page (click the link below!) you'll be automatically entered to win a $50 gift card to Fresh Direct.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1 or 2 swordfish steaks, trimmed and cut into cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 bunch spinach, rinsed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 lb penne pasta or other tubular pasta

Start by salting and boiling some water to cook the pasta. Penne usually takes about 12 minutes to cook (although can vary by brand, so check your package!), so if you get that started early on, the sauce should be done around the same time. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until a minute shy of the package directions

Pat the swordfish dry and then sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper, and pat in. Heat the olive oil in a non stick pan over high heat, and when the olive oil is nice and hot, add in the spinach, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook it until the spinach just starts to wilt, being careful not to let the garlic burn.

Once the spinach has wilted slightly, add in the swordfish and sear on all sides until it is opaque. Cook for about 5 minutes, until it is a pale white color, although not completely cooked through.

Add in the tomato sauce, and stir everything together to incorporate. Bring the swordfish and spinach sauce to a bubble, then reduce the heat and simmer until the pasta has finished cooking, another 5 - 7 minutes or so.

Once the pasta has finished, take a small portion of the pasta water and add it to the swordfish and spinach sauce. Then, drain the penne, and add it directly to the sauce. Turn the heat up to high and toss everything together gently to incorporated, cooking until the sauce has reduced to the desired consistency, about 1 - 2 minutes.

Season with additional pepper if desired, and serve piping hot! Enjoy!

One Year Ago: Chicken Paprika

Be a Cinco de Mayo Superhero - make Homemade Tortillas (perfect for these Black Bean Enchiladas)

2012-05-01T09:08:00.000-04:00

It's the first day of May which means one of our favorite food holidays is just around the corner... Cinco de Mayo! This week we'll be bringing you all sorts of Mexican goodness for the occasion, so that you'll have plenty of Cinco de Mayo recipes to choose from. Today we start with the fundamentals so that you can make your Cinco de Mayo feast like a pro - making your own tortillas! We've also got an extra tasty enchilada filling that you can put in these soft, fluffy, delicious homemade tortillas that'll really knock your socks off.

Why make your own tortillas? A couple of reasons. 1) It's cheaper than buying them. 2) It's less fattening than the ones you get at the store. 3) It's DELICIOUS. That last point is especially relevant. Normally when you think of corn tortillas you probably think of those nasty yellow ones from the store that fall apart super easily and have no flavor. These are not like that. They are closer in texture to flour tortillas, soft and slightly chewy, yet pack way more flavor. There's no substitute to making them fresh, which is why we're going to show you how to make tortillas yourself.

So get out your tortilla press and get ready to go, a whole new world of freshly made tortillas is about to be presented!

What You'll Need

2 cups masa harina
1.5 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
Tortilla press
2 pieces wax paper

Pretty short ingredient list, right? You can get masa harina at Mexican grocers, or prehaps more easily, Amazon. It is a special kind of corn flower that has been treated with lime to make it more nutritious. It's also very finely milled.

As for the tortilla press, if you don't have one it's possible to do this with a rolling pin, but the tortilla press makes it so much easier.

In a large bowl, mix together the masa harina, the touch of salt, and the water until a dough forms. Add more water if needed - it should be pliable, but not too mushy. Since the exact consistency will vary from brand to brand, check the bag and see exactly how much water is recommended.

Break the masa dough into balls slightly larger than a golf ball and roll them in your hands until they are perfectly spherical.

Then take your two pieces of wax paper (or saran wrap, if like us, you ignored the wax paper recommendation and just used what you had on hand). Open up your tortilla press and place the paper on both surfaces. Place the masa dough ball into the center of the bottom surface. Close the top surface over it and use the lever to press down, nice and firmly.

Heat up a griddle or non-stick skillet over high heat. Gently remove the tortilla from the wax paper, letting it drape over your hand as you do so, and then let the tortilla slide off your hand onto the hot surface. Cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute per side, until it is toasted and air pockets start to form. Then, remove the tortilla from the surface (you can use a spatula for this) and place it into a bowl, covering with a towel. Continue to press and cook your tortillas, adding them each to the bowl. They'll continue cooking slightly in the bowl, and get nice and soft from all the heat in there.

And that's it! Now you have tortillas! But... what to put in them? Read on for more...
Ingredient List »

Win $50 Free from Fresh Direct

2012-04-30T17:13:00.000-04:00

Want to look as happy as this guy? Enter our contest and win $50 bucks!

Hello! We mentioned at the end of last week that we had a special give away for you. We meant to get it out on the weekend, but... got busy. Sorry! Anyway, today we're announcing a special giveaway from our friends at Fresh Direct! We've set up a brand new Facebook page, since that's where all the kids are these days, and you can enter the giveaway by simply "liking" our page by clicking in the box below. Leave a comment on our brand new Facebook page for a second chance to win. We'll randomly pick a winner from the entries, who will receive a $50 gift card for use at Fresh Direct!

For those of you who don't know, Fresh Direct is a delivery grocery service serving New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. We use Fresh Direct every week to get what we need to make pretty much everything you've seen on this blog. You simply place an order online and have it delivered as early as the next day.

When we tell people that this is the primary way we get our groceries, one of the main concerns is always "but you don't get to pick out your own produce or meat?". That's true, but we've rarely had trouble with what comes. Everything is always of the highest quality. On some occasion they've sent us something that was either much smaller or much larger than we expected, and Fresh Direct addressed it immediately with a credit to our account.

So if you've never tried Fresh Direct before, or use them all the time and want $50 towards your groceries, like us on Facebook for a chance to get the gift card! We'll pick a winner at the end of the week!

A Simple Healthy Dinner: Spaghetti with Cauliflower and Coppa

2012-04-27T10:15:00.001-04:00

We're back! Bryan's been out this week at jury duty, doing his civic duty, so it's been a bit difficult for us to be cooking and posting. We're very sorry about that, and to make it up to you, we're giving away a special prize tomorrow, so check back then for details. Today though, while we're coming to the end of cauliflower season, we have a great, simple pasta dish that makes use of this vasty underrated vegetable.

We were skeptical when making this dish - it's hard to get excited about cauliflower. But by giving them a nice caramelization and tossing it with a salty cured meat and pasta, it actually ended up being really good. So if you're up for it, read on to learn how to make this tasty little dish.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1/3 lb spaghetti or other long noodle
3 oz coppa or other cured meat (prosciutto, etc), sliced into strips
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 cup tomato sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp grated pecorino romano
salt and pepper to taste

In a non stick pan, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Once it's nice and hot, add in the cauliflower and a touch of salt, and start cooking the cauliflower. Cook it for about 8 - 10 minutes until it is nice and soft and slightly caramelized.

Once the cauliflower is nice, soft, and golden, add in the tomato sauce and toss everything together. Let simmer until the tomato sauce is cooked through. Then, remove from heat. Start cooking the spaghetti in lightly salted water. Cook until 1 minute shy of the package directions.

Ladle a little bit of the pasta water into the cauliflower sauce and bring up the heat to high. Add in the spaghetti and toss in the coppa and pecorino romano. Add in a touch of the pepper and toss everything together to combine, until the pasta has absorbed most of the liquid. Enjoy!

One Year Ago: Eggplant Involtini and Weeds with Sausage

Delicious Easy Appetizer: Green Olive & Artichoke Crostini

2012-04-21T13:35:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while we'll have guests over for an Italian feast, and we always want to be sure that everyone will leave full. Serving a tasty appetizer is an easy way to do that. The perfect appetizer takes just a few minutes to prepare, so that you can focus on the rest of your preparation, yet is hearty, and full of flavor, so your guests will think you spent hours slaving away.

These green olive and artichoke crostini fit the bill perfectly. They're so flavorful, yet require virtually no cooking or preparation time. You simply throw everything into a food processor, toast the crostini, and plate. The olive gives you salty satisfaction while the artichoke is smooth and delicious. Whip these up for your next party and watch as your guests devour them all.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need

1 cup green olives, pitted
1 can artichoke hearts, drained
1 tbsp capers, drained (optional, but recommended)
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, whole
1/4 cup olive oil
1 baguette, cut into 1/4 in thick slices

In a food processor, combine the olives, artichoke hearts, capers, pecorino, and garlic. Pulse a few times, and then start to drizzle in the olive oil, pulsing continuously, until a nice smooth yet still slightly chunky mixture has formed.

Taste it, and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Lay out the baguette slices on a baking sheet and toast them or put them under the broiler for a few minutes, toasting each side until crispy.

Let the pieces cool slightly, and when warm enough to handle, take the remaining whole garlic piece, and rub it against the top of each piece. You're basically rubbing the garlic into the crispy bread. This will give you a very nice garlic-y flavor. You may need to use more than one clove of garlic depending on how much bread you have, but try not to put too much garlic on each crostini - it is very intense!

Spoon a portion of the olive and artichoke mixture onto each crostini. Drizzle extra olive oil over top if desired, although not necessary, and serve! Watch as your guests devour!

One Year Ago: Tajarin ail Sugo di Arrosto

Easy and Delicious: Scallops Braised in Rosemary and Tomato with Quinoa

2012-04-20T10:58:00.003-04:00

Scallops. In our opinion, they're a great piece of seafood. Very versatile, very tasty. When you get them at a restaurant, perfectly caramelized and crispy on top, they're just wonderful. However, it's hard to get that same caramelized crispy top on a home stove because the temperatures just don't get hot enough. To make up for that, you can braise them in a rosemary infused tomato mixture for delicious results.

This scallop creation takes only a few minutes to pull together but the results are really quite delicious. We served them with some quinoa, but we imagine it would be just as good over cous cous, noodles, or even some other vegetable. The trick is to make sure you don't cook the scallops too long or they'll get a bit chewy.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 15 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
6 - 8 large scallops
salt and pepper to taste

Pat the scallops dry and then season then lightly with salt and pepper. Set them aside. Next, remove the whole tomatoes from the can and coarsely chop them. Into a non-stick pan, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Once it is hot, throw in the rosemary and garlic, and cook for a minute so the flavors infuse in the sauce, but not so long that the garlic burns.

When the garlic and rosemary are smelling nicely, add in the tomato chunks and their juice and stir together to incorporate everything together. Let simmer for about 8 - 10 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly and the flavors really start to stand out.

Once the sauce is ready, add in the scallops and turn up the heat. The sauce will start to bubble. Keep the scallops on one side for about 4 minutes, then turn them over, and cook for another 4 - 5 minutes. They'll start to exude some liquid.

Remove the scallops from the sauce and turn up the heat, letting the liquid evaporate. Then, move all the sauce to one side of the pan and put the scallops in the side without the sauce. Let them cook for about a 30 - 60 seconds on each side to finish them off.

To serve, lay down a bed of the sauce next to whatever side you choose, and place the scallops on top. Then, dig in and enjoy!

One year ago: Tajarin al Sugo di Arrosto

Quick Spring Fix: Shrimp, Artichoke, and Sundried Tomato Pasta

2012-04-17T08:10:00.000-04:00

The weather here in New York City has been unseasonably warm, and we're not complaining. The weekend was beautiful and was a cause for us to make it out to Central Park twice, where YiRan learned to play tennis with Bryan's brilliant instruction.

When it gets warm like this, it's hard to cook anything that takes too long or requires too much heat because it makes the house unbearably hot. So this quick pasta dish is a great option. The shrimp take just a few minutes to cook through, while everything else needs to be just warmed through. The artichoke heart and julienned sundried tomatoes break down slightly while cooking creating a wonderful coating for the pasta. The result is a delicious dish with a wide variety of flavors, which comes together in a mere 15 minutes.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 lb farfalle or other short pasta
8 - 10 sundried tomatoes, packed in oil, thinly sliced
4 - 5 artichoke hearts, quartered
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Bring a pot of water to boil and drop in a few teaspoons of salt. Start cooking the pasta and cook until one minute shy of the package directions. As farfalle usually takes about 12 - 14 minutes, the rest of the dish will come together while the pasta is cooking.

When all the ingredients are prepared, rinse the shrimp under cool water and pat dry. Sprinkle with a touch of salt and pepper. In a nonstick pan heat up the olive oil and over medium heat. Add in the garlic and the red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 - 2 minutes. Before it gets too far along, throw in the sundried tomato strips and toss together. Cook for about 3 minutes

After the sundried tomatoes have softened slightly add in the artichoke hearts and toss to combine. Cook these for about 1 - 2 minutes until they are warmed through.

Add in the shrimp. Toss everything together and when they are slightly opaque, add in the white wine. Bring the white wine to a boil, tossing the shrimp, sundried tomatoes, and artichokes together into it, until the wine is reduced.

At this point, the shrimp should be completely cooked through. Remove from heat so that they don't over cook. When the pasta is close to done, take a ladle of the pasta water and toss it into the shrimp mixture. Then, drain the pasta when it is finished, add it to the sauce, and toss everything together over medium high heat, until the liquid has absorbed into the pasta and the sauce is at the desired consistency.

If you have it, tossing in an herb like parsley or chives would be great here as well. We didn't, but that was just fine. The dish was great all the same. Quick, easy, and very delicious. Enjoy!

What's your go to quick fix dinner? Let us know in the comments!

One year ago: Babbo's Black Spaghetti with Rock Shrimp, Sopressata, and Jalapeño Pesto'

Simple, Healthy, and Fantastic: Roasted Vegetable Pasta

2012-04-12T10:53:00.000-04:00

As you probably know, we make a lot of different dishes as a result of running this blog. Sometimes we run out of inspiration from the cookbooks we have on hand. One solution is to buy new cookbooks (just purchased Ad Hoc at Home, so get ready to see some delicious stuff from there!), but the other, far cheaper solution, is to scour the inter webs for greatness.

One blog we keep coming back to is The Slow Roasted Italian. Donna provides daily updates of really delicious looking dishes, and she posts the photos of the process, so it makes it really easy to understand how to actually make the dish.

She has a ton of great recipes, so if you are ever in the need of some inspiration yourself it's worth perusing her recipe file. We've bookmarked a few for our future endeavors as well, including her recent southwestern meatballs, her light and healthy chicken with tomatoes and olives, the baked cavatappi with roasted red peppers, and of course her Italian style mac and cheese. But this week we made something really healthy yet tremendously delicious, her Roasted Vegetable Penne Pasta.

It's so simple, yet bursting with flavor, and since it's so healthy you can eat a lot of it without the need to feel guilty at all. Pop the veggies in, roast them, then toss them with pasta. It doesn't get any easier than that!

Making the Dish
Roasted Vegetable Penne Pasta adapted from The Slow Roasted Italian

What You'll Need
1/3 lb penne pasta
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 zucchini, cubed
2 eggplant, cubed
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup pecorino romano
2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 375. When the zucchini and eggplant are cubed, place them in a bowl and toss them with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the salt, and a tbsp of the black pepper. Toss everything together until it is nicely coated.

Lay out the zucchini, eggplant, and tomato on a baking sheet. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the tomatoes, and add them to the baking sheet as well. Make sure that they are all in one even layer across the baking sheet, and then pop it in the oven.

Roast the veggies for about 15 - 20 minutes until they are really nice and soft. While they're roasting, cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. When it's completed, drain it and add it to a bowl.

Remove the veggies from the oven and add them to the bowl with the pasta. Add in the pecorino romano, and toss together until the pecorino has slightly melted and the veggies have been incorporated throughout the pasta. Some of the veggies will break apart, especially the tomatoes, providing a subtle coating for the pasta. That's what makes the dish really work.

Serve garnished with some extra pecorino if you desire, and enjoy!

Got a great blog we should know about? Tell us about them in the comments!

One year ago: Shrimp and Spinach Alfredo with Penne

Delicious Spring Pasta: Farfalle with Veal, Porcini, and Spinach

2012-04-10T07:22:00.000-04:00

Every time we see a recipe that calls for dried porcini mushrooms, we get a little scared. We'd never worked with them before and weren't really sure what they were all about. Plus, dried porcini mushrooms always seem to be so expensive, and without knowing what they taste like or what they're good for, we never bothered to try them out.

Until now.

Turns out, they're not so scary after all. You only need a tiny amount of them for the dish you're going to use, they have a big, hearty mushroomy flavor that you just cannot get from a regular mushroom, and the liquid that you use to rehydrate them can be used to enhance the flavor of the dish you're preparing.

We found this recipe in Mario Batali's latest cookbook Molto Batali and modified it a bit for our small kitchen. The porcini mushrooms are mixed with ground lamb, tomato, and spinach, for an extraordinary pasta. The results are below.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need

1 oz dried porcini mushroom
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp red chile flakes
1/2 lb ground veal
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 lb farfalle
4 oz baby spinach
pecorino romano
salt and pepper

Start by rehydrating the porcini mushroom. Place them in a bowl and fill with 1 cup or so of warm water. Let them rest in there for about 10 minutes. When they're nice and big, drain them and reserve the liquid - you'll need it for later. Run the liquid through a sieve to get out any dirt. Chop the porcini coarsely.

Heat up the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 2 - 3 minutes. Once done, add in the veal and the porcini and cook until the veal has browned, which should be about 8 - 10 minutes over high heat.

When the veal is ready and the porcini are nice and soft, add in the tomato paste and stir everything together so that the paste is completely incorporated. Let the tomato paste toast a bit on the pan's hot surface, for about 5 minutes, until it has developed a deep, dark looking color.

When the tomato paste is where you want it to be, add in the white wine, and about 1/3 of a cup of the porcini soaking liquid. Stir to incorporate. You should have a nice sauce forming at this point. Once the wine has nearly evaporated, add in the tomato sauce and stir to incorporate. Return the heat to low and simmer

While your veal and porcini mixture is simmering, cook your pasta. Bring the water to a boil and add in a bit of salt. Cook the farfalle until 1 minute shy of the package directions. Drain the pasta, reserving a touch of water just in case.

At this point, toss the spinach into the veal and porcini mixture, bringing the heat back up a bit. Stir it around until the spinach has started to wilt. Then, add the drained farfalle to the mixture as well, and a touch of pasta water if necessary, and toss everything together over high heat until the farfalle and veal and porcini sauce are completely incorporated.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with grated pecorino romano to finish. Enjoy!

Have you ever cooked with dried porcini mushrooms before? Let us know in the comments!

One Year Ago: Tomato and Onion Focaccia

Red Snapper Veracruz Salsa: Incredibly Easy, Incredibly Delicious

2012-04-07T11:11:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter/Passover/whatever you may celebrate weekend! Today we're bringing you a meal we made up ourselves, that was inspired by watching the Food Network. Bobby Flay had his team on Worst Chef's in America make a fish with a veracruz salsa. It looked pretty good, so we wanted to make it. But since they don't list the recipe on the show or the website, we had to reverse-engineer it, so to speak.

The basics of the veracruz salsa are pretty simple - some tomatoes, olives, capers, and red onions. That seemed to be about the extent of what was in play on the show and that's essentially what we stuck to here. We also grabbed ourselves two fresh filets of red snapper. We'd never had red snapper before but had heard that it was amazing. After one bite, we were forced to agree. It's so smooth, so luscious, yet not really that "fishy". It immediately became one of our favorite fish.

This recipe comes together really easily. Just a quick bake on the fish and a quick stir of the veracruz salsa ingredients. We served it with a side of quickly sautéed rainbow chard, making it the perfect spring dish. Dig in!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
2 red snapper filets
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 red onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 green olives, pitted and halved
2 tbsp capers, drained
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
rainbow chard
lemon

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Pat the red snapper filets dry, and then drizzle one tablespoon of the olive oil over them. Rub in some salt and freshly ground pepper into the snapper's flesh. Then place the fish into a baking dish.

When the oven is heated, pop them in the oven and let them bake for about 12 - 15 minutes, until the fish flakes easily but is not overly dry. This perfectly simple preparation will let you fully realize the pure simple deliciousness of this wonderful type of fish!

While the red snapper is baking, if you're going to prepare a side dish, now is the time to do it. We did this with a side of rainbow chard which was actually quite a perfect accompaniment. Drizzle one tablespoon of the olive oil into a pan and heat to high. Then chop up the chard into ribbons and cook quickly over high heat until it starts to wilt. Take your lemon, slice it in half, and squeeze the juice of half of the lemon into the pan. Continue to cook for about 4 - 5 minutes until most of the moisture has evaporated and the chard is completely cooked. Again, simple preparation.

Finally, prepare the veracruz salsa. We really just want to warm most of the ingredients through, but make sure the onions are cooked so they are sweet instead of bitter. Pour the last tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet and start to cook the onions over medium heat, adding in a bit of salt to let the onions sweat.

After about 5 minutes, the onions should be translucent and a little golden. That's where you want them. Add in the the olives, capers and tomatoes, and squeeze in the other half of the lemon's juice. Stir together and once the ingredients have warmed through (about 2 - 3 minutes), remove from heat.

By this time, the red snapper should have finished cooking. Remove it from the oven, and place on a dish. Spoon the salsa over the fish, and add the chard or whatever else you're cooking on the side to the side. If you'd like, you can drizzle over some additional good quality olive oil, but with good ingredients and simple preparation, that's not entirely necessary. Dig in and enjoy the delicious combination of flavors!

Have a favorite simple fish preparation? Let us know about it in the comments!

One year ago: Thai Red Curry

Two Great Recipes for Easter Ham Leftovers

2012-04-06T17:24:00.000-04:00

While it's somewhat hard to believe that there would be any leftover ham from Easter, there's always the chance that you're not able to finish off the whole thing. If you do run into that unlikely situation, we've got two great recipes for you to check out that are perfect for the leftover ham. The first is a delicious baked ziti that's infused with ricotta and ham chunks - just the kind you can pick off your Easter ham.

The second is our delicious, creamy, split pea soup. If you don't have the bacon on hand, don't worry about it. The key to getting that savory, salty flavor is the ham. You'll want nice chunks of it, so this is a perfect thing to make if you've got some leftovers.

Have any other great leftover Easter ham recipes? Let us know in the comments!

Simple Spring Pasta: Wild Mushroom Kale and Sausage over Tagliatelle

2012-04-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

The other day we found ourselves without any plan of what to make for dinner. Bryan was in the mood for something light, fresh, healthy, and in season. He wandered into Eataly and picked up whatever looked good, and pieced together this delicious pasta dish. Kale is definitely in season now, and it looked great, so that was added to the dish. There was also a wide array of wild mushrooms. He picked up some oyster mushrooms, blue mushrooms, and lobster mushrooms. The sausage was freshly made, so he grabbed some of that. And then of course, the base - fresh, whole wheat tagliatelle seemed like the perfect vessel to carry all of these beautiful ingredients.

So this pasta dish of wild mushrooms, kale, and sausage in a white wine butter sauce was born, and now we'll share it with you. It's a light, quick, and simple dish, but one that really satisfies. The whole wheat pasta actually is an important contributor here as it's earthy flavor adds another layer of complexity to the dish. If you're unable to find wild mushrooms, any mushroom would suffice. Baby portobello's would be great, or shittake, or any other kind. And if you want to leave the sausage out, just add a little extra salt and fennel to make up the difference.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 link sweet Italian pork sausage, removed from casing and crumbled
1 bunch kale, sliced into ribbons
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp chile flakes
1/2 lb whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
Pecorino romano to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

When all of your ingredients are chopped up and prepared, melt the butter into a skillet with the olive oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic and chile flakes and cook for a minute until they become fragrant. Then into the pan, add in the mushrooms. Cook them for about 7 minutes. They'll exude their liquid after a few minutes, and at this point, add in the sausage. If at any point the garlic looks like it's getting over cooked, add in a splash of the white wine.

Start boiling the water and add some salt. Continue to cook the mushrooms and sausage until the sausage is browned on all sides. Then add in the remaining white wine and cook everything together until the white wine is reduced by half, 5 - 7 minutes. The sausage should be cooked through at this point, break one of the bigger crumbles open to check.

Once the sausage is cooked through, add in the kale, and stir everything together. Cook until the kale is wilted. Remove from heat.

Cook the pasta until 1 minute shy of the package directions. If you're using fresh pasta, this should only be about 2 minutes. At the 1 minute shy mark, turn on the heat on your sausage kale and mushroom skillet, and add in a hefty ladle of the pasta water. Shake it around so that it gets nicely incorporated and combines with the rest of the sauce.

Add the pasta directly to the skillet with the sausage, kale, and mushrooms, and toss together over medium heat until all of the excess liquid has been absorbed by the pasta. Add more pasta water if needed to get to your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano cheese, and enjoy!

One Year Ago: Fettuccine with Lamb Ragu

The Best Way to Make Salmon at Home: Poached with Dill BBQ Sauce

2012-04-02T12:16:00.000-04:00

The other day, a couple of our friends were telling us about how they like to eat healthy and one of their go to dishes was salmon with a vegetable. It made us think and start to feel a little guilty about eating carbs and carbs and carbs all the time. The problem is, carbs are delicious, and so we needed a way to make eating salmon healthy equally delicious.

Fortunately, we came across this amazing recipe in the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que cookbook for poached salmon in a dill infused BBQ sauce. We'd never poached salmon before, but figured that we'd give it a try, and boy are we glad we did. It's an incredibly simple way to cook the fish, and the sauce is amazing. We served it with a simple side of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes tossed with oil, and taste-buds were extremely happy and didn't miss spaghetti at all.

So if you're looking for a nice simple salmon dinner, look no further than this!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
2 salmon filets
4 sprigs dill
5 - 6 sage leaves
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1.5 cups white wine
1 cup barbecue sauce
2 tbsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Get started by patting your salmon filets with salt and pepper. Then in a skillet that's big enough to hold them both, melt the better over medium heat. Once the bubbles disappear from the butter, add in the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.

Into that skillet, add in the wine, a half cup of the barbecue sauce, 2 sprigs of the dill, the sage, and the peppercorns. Stir everything together and bring it to a boil. Then put in the salmon filets. If the liquid is too low, add a bit more wine.

Return to a boil, and then cover the skillet with the lid slightly ajar, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the salmon is nice and cooked through, it should be slightly flaky and firm throughout.

Remove the salmon from the poaching liquid, and use a slotted spoon to remove the dill, sage, and most of the other chunks in there. Chop your remaining dill and when you have about a tablespoon of it, add it to the skillet. Add in the dijon mustard, the rest of the barbecue sauce, and a good grinding of pepper. Then bring it up to a boil and reduce until about half of the liquid is evaporated.

Serve the salmon with your veggie side and spoon the sauce generously over it. Dig in, and be amazed! You've never had salmon this good!

How do you prepare salmon? Let us know in the comments!

One Year Ago: Ricotta Gelato

A Fancy Taste of Summer: Burgers with Caramelized Onions & Mushrooms, and Rosemary Fries

2012-03-29T10:45:00.000-04:00

Allright everyone, the weather is getting NICE. And when the weather gets nice, that means it's time to break out the grill and start making burgers. Or, if you're in New York City and don't have any way to grill without giving yourself carbon monoxide poisoning, you can break out the grill pan.

Now while there's certainly a lot to be said for the plain old Ron Swanson burger (btw, if you get the reference, let us know in the comments and win our enduring love and respect!), if you can't cook over charcoal, you might feel the need to fancy things up.

That's what this post is for. We'll show you how to cook up some perfectly caramelized onions and mushrooms, create a nice, spicy sauce, and give you the recipe for some brilliant rosemary fries to go along with the burgers. Read on!

Making the Dish
What You'll Need

1/4 lb burger meat per burger, preferably 85% or 90% lean
1 bun per buger
1/4 cup olive oil
3 - 4 sprigs rosemary
2 russet potatoes
1/2 onion, sliced
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp, sherry vinegar

Salt, pepper to taste

1 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp mustard

1 tsp sriracha

1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

First things first, you'll want to start with the caramelized mushrooms and onions because they will take the longest. In a medium saucepan, melt a tablespoon of the butter and drizzle in about a tablespoon of the olive oil. Then throw in your sliced onions. Let them start to cook down on medium heat. Low and slow sort of thing. First they'll get soft and slighty translucent. After about 10 minutes or so, they'll start to turn a little golden.

At this point, add in your mushrooms and let them start to cook down as well. Soon, they'll start to exude their liquid. When that liquid evaporates, add in the sherry vinegar and toss it around with the onions and mushrooms. Continue to cook while that sherry vinegar evaporates. At this point you can turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so, until everything else is done. Make sure you don't go too far and let it burn.

While the onions and mushrooms are simmering away, you can start on your rosemary fries. Heat your oven to a nice hot 475 degrees and take out a large non-stick skillet. Add in the olive oil and heat it up, tossing in two sprigs of rosemary. After a few seconds, it'll start to sizzle a bit. Let this keep going but be careful not to burn it. What we're trying to do here is infuse the rosemary flavor into the olive oil.

Wash the potatoes and cut them into wedges. Season them with salt and pepper. Then, carefully place them into the hot olive oil, 4 or 5 at a time so as not to crowd the pan. Let them get nice and crispy on one side, then turn them over and let them get nice and crispy on the other side. Once totally crisp, remove them from the olive oil, let the excess oil drip off, and place them in a baking pan. Continue until all the potatoes have been crisped.

Chop up the remaining rosemary into a small dice and scatter over the fries in the pan. You can also liberally sprinkle salt over them as well. Then, pop them into the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes, until the fries are nice and baked through, golden brown, and awesome.

To make our magical sauce, it's simply a matter of stirring the mayo, mustard, sriracha, and red wine vinegar together until it emulsifies. Taste, and adjust the ingredients as you'd like. If it's too spicy, add more mayo. If it's not mustardy enough, add more mustard. You get the idea.

Cook the burgers however is best for your situation. If you have a grill, we envy you, and will be joining your ranks soon! If not, use the indoor pan like we recommended in our indoor grilling instructions episode.

Finish off the caramelized onions and mushrooms by removing from heat and adding in half a tablespoon of butter, and swirling around. This will give it a nice creamy consistency.

Then, put it all together by spreading some sauce on your buns, placing the burgers on top, and topping with a ladle of the caramelized onions and mushrooms. Serve with the rosemary fries on the side, and enjoy the fruits of your labor and the wonderful summer-ish weather!

Got a favorite burger recipe? Let us know in the comments!

One Year Ago: Stuffed Shells and Manhattan Clam Chowder

The "Best" Spaghetti all'Amatriciana

2012-03-26T12:21:00.000-04:00

Spaghetti all' Amatriciana is one of those classic pasta dishes that you can find just about anywhere. This is probably because it's extremely simple, quick to make, and very tasty. We've created our own version here that uses a lighter sauce that just barely coats the pasta, letting the onion and pancetta really stand out.

This is one of those meals that we make some nights when we've got some leftover pancetta (or bacon, or any other sort of cured pork) and aren't really feeling like making a big, high effort feast. In fact, there's a good chance that you've got everything you need for this already! So, take a look at the recipe below and give it a try!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
2 - 3 oz pancetta
1/2 red onion, cut into strips
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 lb spaghetti

Start off by chopping up the pancetta into small cubes - to about the size you'd want to eat them. Then place them in a sauté pan with the olive oil and cook over medium heat until the fat renders from the pancetta and it gets slightly caramelized.

Start boiling the water with a touch of salt. Cook the spaghetti until 1 minute shy of the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, finish making your sauce.

Into the pan with the pancetta, add in the red onion. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium high heat until it is fairly soft and somewhat caramelized. Then add in the garlic and cook for 2 - 3 minutes more. Finally, add in the tomato paste. Place it on the side of the pan where there's no veggies or pancetta and let it cook for a minute or so directly on the heat. Then stir it into the red onion and pancetta and get fully incorporated into the veggies.

As the pasta is finishing cooking, take a ladle of pasta water and pour it into the sauté pan. Stir to incorporate full. This will create a slight, light sauce out of the water and the tomato paste.

Grab the spaghetti with tongs and place it into the pan with the pancetta and onion. Add in the chopped parsley, and toss to combine over medium heat. Add in more pasta water if necessary. Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano.

The Result
The red onions are slightly sweet after caramelization, the pancetta is savory, salty, and hearty.

Everything is held together by this perfectly delicate tomato sauce that just barely coats the pasta, which really lets the pancetta and red onion shine through.

This is in my opinion the perfect version of Spaghetti all'Amatriciana, but we know there are plenty of variations. Have a favorite version of your own? Let us know about it in the comments below!

One Year Ago: Pork and Fennel Meatballs and Jambalaya

Simple Weeknight Dinner: Cavatappi with Sausage and Kale

2012-03-22T12:52:00.000-04:00

Some pastas really are the sum of their parts. The perfectly shaped noodles being coated by just the right amount of sauce and augmented by just the right savory and hearty ingredients. This is one of those pastas, and it is perfect for this time of year when it's not too hot and not too cold.

This cavatappi with sausage and kale comes together very quickly, and is all bound together by a nice, light coating of tomato sauce. The cavatappi is the perfect shape to embrace the sausage and kale, and the flavors all blend together beautifully.

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1 head kale, sliced into ribbons
1/2 lb sausage, removed from casing
2 cloves garlic
1/2 red onion, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup marinara sauce
1/2 lb cavatappi
pecorino romano
salt and pepper

When all your vegetables are cooked, start to heat up the olive oil in a large sauce pan. When hot, start to sauté the red onion until it is translucent, about 7 minutes. After that, add in the sausage and garlic, and stir to break up the sausage into small pieces. Cook until the sausage is browned on all sides and mostly cooked through, another 7 minutes or so.

Once the sausage has browned and cooked most of the way through, start boiling the water and add in a tablespoon of salt. Cook the cavatappi until 1 minute shy of the package directions.

Into the saucepan with the sausage, add in the kale and stir together, coating entirely, until it starts to wilt. Then add the tomato sauce, and again cook through. Reduce the heat to a simmer.

When the pasta is ready, take a ladle of the pasta water and put it into the sausage and kale mixture. Drain the cavatappi and then place it into the sausage and kale mixture. Toss everything together over high heat until all the moisture is absorbed into the pasta and the pasta has finished cooking, 1 - 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve garnished with grated pecorino romano.

The Result
What more could you ask for from a dish that takes just about 15 minutes to prepare and costs around $7 for two servings? This is great. It's savory and delicious from the sausage, nice greens from the kale, and all bound together with tomato sauce on a delicious bed of pasta.

What's your favorite quick weeknight meal? Let us know in the comments!

One year ago: The Best Burger with Sun-dried Tomato Aoili

Easy Cheesy: Lasagna Stuffed Portobello Caps

2012-03-20T07:39:00.000-04:00

Quick, simple, delicious. That's what we look for when selecting recipes to eat at home and share with you. So when we came across this recipe for Lasagna-Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Cap from one of our favorite blogs, Pink-Parsley, we were immediately inspired to make it. This recipe is most certainly simple, and the results are pretty delicious!

Now we're pretty particular about our cheese fillings for manicotti, stuffed shells, and the like, so we used our own filling to stuff these portobellos. The main difference between ours and Pink-Parsley's is the use of an egg in ours, which we've found gives it a bit extra creaminess, but feel free to omit the egg for the stuffing and you'll be fine. We also removed the mozzarella to make it a bit lighter, but if you're feeling decadent, you can certainly include that in the stuffing as well.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need

6 portobello mushroom caps (2 - 3 per person)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
1 cup ricotta
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 clove, minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp grated pecorino romano
2 cups marinara sauce

Start by roasting the portobello mushroom caps. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Coat the portobello caps in the olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper on all sides. Place them on a roasting pan, stem side down, and when the oven is ready, put them in there and let them roast for 10 - 12 minutes.

While the portobello caps are roasting, start making your cheese filling. Beat up the egg and pour it into a mixing bowl with the ricotta, the parsley, nutmeg, minced garlic, two tbsp of the pecorino, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly to combine, and make sure all the ingredients are incorporated throughout the ricotta.

Remove the portobello's from the oven and spoon in a bit of the marinara sauce into each mushroom cap, spreading it around over the entire surface. Spoon an equal portion of the cheese filling over each cap as well. To finish, sprinkle the remaining pecorino over the top of each stuffed portobello.

Place the stuffed portobellos caps into the oven and bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until the top has a nice crispy, golden top from the melted pecorino. Spoon the remainder of the marinara sauce into your serving bowls (make sure it's still hot!) and then place the stuffed portobello caps right on top. Dig in and enjoy!

The Result
A nice, crispy, cheesy, creamy topping. A delicious meaty, hearty portobello base. This is a great creation! We really enjoyed the flavor combination and the lack of any guilt while eating it - it's vegetarian with very few carbs so it's got to be good for you, right?

Thanks to Josie from Pink-Parsley for bringing this recipe to our attention! We'll certainly be making more recipes from her blog since she seems to always have something interesting cooking over there.

Have you got a great recipe for stuffing portobellos? We want to hear about it! Let us know about it in the comments so we can give it a try!

One Year Ago: Enchiladas Verdes and Braised Lamb Shanks

St. Patrick's Day Treat: Peanut Butter Swirled Guinness Brownies

2012-03-17T17:17:00.000-04:00

Happy St Patrick's Day! In honor of this special day of corned beef, cabbage, and green beer, we're bringing you something sweet and delicious - Peanut Butter Swirled Guinness Brownies! We don't make a ton of sweets around these parts, but when we do, we go big.

We served these brownies up sundae style with some delicious homemade vanilla ice cream. This recipe was adapted from Brown Eyed Baker's Peanut Butter Brownies and Patent and the Pantry's Guinness Brownies.

Making the Dessert
What You'll Need

For the Guinness Brownies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

8 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate

8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

4 eggs

2 bottles guinness beer, reduced to 1 1/4 cups

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Peanut Butter Swirl

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour both bottles of Guinness into a medium saucepan, and simmer on medium heat until it's reduced down to 1 1/4 cups. This should take about 15 minutes. It'll smell a little weird, but it's worth it. When complete, remove the Guinness from heat and let cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

Put the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined.

Add 4 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Make sure that you don't overbeat the batter or you'll end up with cakey brownies, rather than nice fudgey brownies.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible. For this part, use a spatula instead of a whisk. Finally, stir in the cooled reduced Guinness until it is completely incorporated.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and smooth the top with your spatula.

Next make the peanut butter swirl by simply mixing together all of the peanut butter swirl ingredients. Then place dollops of the peanut butter mixture all over the top of the brownie batter. Using a butter knife, swirl the chocolate and peanut butter, using a knife to incorporate the peanut butter mixture into a nice design across the Guinness brownie batter.

Place the brownies in the center of the oven for 30 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely. Cut into squares and serve.

If you're feeling really decadent, do what we did and serve it with some vanilla ice cream, whip cream, and hot fudge. You'll be glad you did!

The Result

These brownies will certainly not disappoint. They're not overwhelmingly "beery" - just a simple hint of that nice dark Guinness flavor. The peanut butter swirl on top is a delight, and gives it a rich, salty sweet contrast to the deep chocolate flavor of the Guinness brownies.

What are you doing today for St. Patrick's day? Did you make anything special for the occasion? Let us know in the comments!

One year ago: Lobster Spaghetti with Sweet Garlic and Chives

Nomtastic St. Patricks' Day Dinner: Mac and Cheese Shepherd's Pie

2012-03-16T11:38:00.000-04:00

St. Patrick's day is tomorrow, and if you want to have an "Irish" meal that's really delicious, and, dare we say, nomtastic, this mac and cheese shepherd's pie fills the bill. Where a traditional shepherd's pie would be topped with a nice crispy browned topping of mashed potatoes, this one is topped with a nice crispy browned topping of mac and cheese. Does it get any better than that? We think not.

This dish is inspired form the Dinosauce Bar-B-Que cookbook and makes use of the delicious Dinosaur Barbeque BBQ Sauce. This is one of our favorite books to cook from since everything that comes out of it is really, really yummy, and this one is no exception. So, if you want a delicious, cheesy, smoky, yummy Irish-inspired dinner this weekend, read on!

Making the Dish
What you'll need
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp, olive oil
1 lb, ground beef
1 tbsp, cajun seasoning
salt and pepper
1/2 cup, bbq sauce
2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1.5 cups whole milk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 cups, cheddar cheese
1/2 lb pasta shells

Get started by making the beef mixture. In a skillet, heat up your olive oil, and then add in half of your diced bell pepper, half of the onion, and all of the garlic, and sauté over medium heat until everything is soft and fragrant, about 5 - 7 minutes.

Add in the ground beef and half of the cajun seasoning, as well as a touch of salt and pepper. Cook until all of the beef is nicely browned. When browned, add in the barbecue sauce and the spicy brown mustard and stir together. Let simmer for about 3 - 5 minutes until everything has thickened slightly, and taste for seasonings. Remove from heat when complete.

Now, preheat your oven to 375 and get started on the mac and cheese. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook your pasta shells until 2 minutes less than the package indicates. In a non-stick skillet melt the butter over medium heat and start to simmer the remaining onion and green pepper until they are golden brown and soft, about 7 minutes.

Once softened add in the flower and stir together until the flour is completely incorporated. Then, start to stream in the whole milk, bit by bit, stirring to incorporate as you do. This will start to create a thick sauce. Add in more milk until the sauce is at the desired thickness. Then simmer for a few minutes.

Into the sauce add in the dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and the other half of he cajun seasoning, and the cheddar cheese, and stir everything together. Add more milk if necessary to get it to the desired level of thickness.

Drain the pasta and add it to the cheese sauce, and stir together until all the pasta shells are nicely coated.

In a baking dish, lay out the beef mixture all across the bottom in a nice flat layer. Pour the mac and cheese over top and flatten out the top. Pop it in the oven and cook until everything is nice and brown and crispy on the top, about 15 - 20 minutes.

Spoon out onto a plate and garnish with parsley (optional). Dig in, and enjoy. Then go back for seconds!

The Result
This is one of those meals that everyone will love.

It's cheesy, meaty, tasty, and delicious. It's the perfect St. Patrick's day meal for kids, since it's got their favorite mac and cheese, and adults will love it too since it has a complex array of flavors throughout.

What are you making this St. Patricks' day? Let us know in the comments!

One year ago: The Devil's Chicken and Lobster Spaghetti with Sweet Garlic and Chives

Get Italian-Inspired for your St. Patrick's Day Meal: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

2012-03-15T08:07:00.000-04:00

This week we're bringing you Irish inspired Italian creations. Cabbage and speck tossed in pasta started us off on Monday, and today we bring you these delicious stuffed cabbage rolls. If there's anything more Irish than potatoes and cabbage, we don't know what is. So we stuffed these cabbage rolls with potatoes, onion, and for the Italian side, some ricotta cheese, and baked it on a bed of marinara.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need
2 yukon potatoes, diced finely
1/2 red onion, diced finely
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 head cabbage
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 oz speck or cooked bacon, sliced in a julienne
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup pecorino romano cheese
1 cup marinara sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 375. Get started by preparing your cabbage. Remove the tough outer leaves of the cabbage and finely chop it up. Then bring a pot of water to boil, salt lightly, and then put the whole head into the boiling water. Cook the cabbage for about 6 - 7 minutes, then remove from the boiling water and rinse under cool water, let stand until it is cool enough to handle.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Then add in all of the ingredients, the potatoes, onion, chopped cabbage, speck, and garlic. Season lightly with salt.

Remove the big outer leaves from the cabbage. Keep 12 of the biggest ones, and set aside. Core the remaining cabbage, and then dice it up. Throw the diced cabbage into the skillet with the potatoes and onion.

Continue to cook all of the vegetables until everything is soft and golden. This should take about 15 - 20 minutes. Then remove from heat. Let cool slightly, and then add in the ricotta cheese. Fold everything together until nicely combined.

Spread the marinara over the bottom of a baking dish. Spoon an even amount of the mixture into each of the cabbage leaves. Fold over the sides and roll up, almost like a burrito. Then place the cabbage rolls seam side down side by side into the baking dish.

Cover the baking dish with foil and cook for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the baking dish from the oven, and take off the foil. Cover with the grated cheese, and then place back in the oven for another 10 - 15 minutes until the top is crispy and golden.

The Result
These cabbage rolls, with their golden brown cheesy top, creamy ricotta filling, and savory potato and onion stuffing, will get eaten up quickly! They're light, yet filling. The potatoes and onions are nice and soft, and the speck or bacon give it a nice hint of that cured pork flavor.

Tell us your St. Patrick's Day culinary plans in the comments!

One year ago: Eggs with Mustard Creamed Spinach and The Devil's Chicken