Allora…

I think I have probably talked about my admiration/adoration of Lidia Bastianich in previous posts, but I’ll stress again, if you don’t have any of her cookbooks – get Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy. If you have an interest in the history, anthropology, and geography of Italy and how they relate to the type of food cooked in that region, this will be your encyclopedia.

I was watching her the other day on PBS – she had her grandkids on, and they were calling her Nonni (and saying it ‘nawnee’) which is what my Mother called her grandmother. My mom’s nonni/nauni/nawnee was from the insanely tiny island of Ilovik in the adriatic. (when she was there, it was part of Italy and today is considered part of Croatia). Lidia’s family is from a part of Italy which is now I think part of either Austria or Croatia. Another reason why I am related to Lidia (at least in my dreams).

Tonight I made Chicken with Olives and Pine Nuts (Pollo con olive e pignoli). A fantasti recipe full of flavor. The recipe comes from the region of Italy called ‘Le Marche’ (pronounced ‘Lay Mark). The region is north of Bari, along the Adriatic. The region’s cuisine features a lot of seafood and then also a lot of chicken and game as you head inland. The area is also covered in olive trees – which contributes to this particular dish (so explains Lidia).

I made a few modifications to this dish. I added pepper (how can a recipe call for salt, and not pepper??!), crushed red pepper, and a couple lemon slices. I also used different olives than the kind she calls for (Ascolane or Cerignola). I used some spanish green olives and some cured black olives. You need to be careful with the amount of salt you use – the olives add a lot of salt, and it is easy to over season this dish. I also used dried bay leaves instead of fresh. Who buys fresh bay leaves, Lidia?

Read Lidia’s recipe.

To accompany this, I made a favorite that my mom used to make. Really simple – Boiled potatoes with string beans. Boil your potatoes, with 5 mins to go, put green beans in. drain. dress with olive oil, a little vinegar (i used red wine v), salt, pepper, and i added paprika (mom didn’t add that back in the day). It is so stupid simple, it doesn’t seem like it’d be any good – but trust Mom – this is the best. And it is better the 2nd day. Also this is a case where I like the potatoes a little overcooked. It’s just the way its got to be.

This is from over a year ago, and I recently figured out how to get the pics off my phone. Hoooray me! This a light way to make eggplant parm. After baking the individual slices of eggplant, you can store them separated in a plastic bag until u want to assemble them. So you could freeze it without assembling the sauce and cheese. This is good if you are cooking for one , or two and want to assemble something quickly.

So, first make (or open a jar, or grab it out of the freezer) some spicy marinara:

Then wash and slice eggplant into 1/4″ slices. lay on paper towel and sprinkle with salt. place a paper towel on top. This draws out any excess water so u dont get soggy eggplant. Some people say this also makes the eggplant less bitter, but I am not sure if that is fact or fiction.

Set up dredging plates – egg and seasoned breadcrumbs:

Bread slices of eggplant and place on baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for 20 mins or until golden and crispy (pretend you just fried these!).

Top with sauce and cheeses. Make a NORMAL portion size and then put the rest of the eggplant slices and sauce in the freezer so u don’t overeat.

recognize those plates, mom??? they are still alive and kickin’

These would be good for a party – like, ya know, with toothpicks in them. Who doesn’t love buffalo sauce, and who doesn’t love meatballs? I wanted something that tasted guilty but was decidedly not guilty. If you can’t handle the heat, use less of the hot sauce.

As with everything this would be better if they were fried and not baked – and if you want to do that, knock yourself out – but the idea is that the flavor of buffalo wings is there.

And sorry no pics! i was hungry and there was a yankee game on!

For 16 meatballs:
1 lb ground white meat chicken
3 Tb. Chicken stock (to bind instead of using an egg)
2 handfuls breadcrumbs
3 Tb. Frank’s hot sauce + 1 Tb.
salt and pepper

For dipping sauce:
3 Tb. fat free sour cream
1 Tb. crumbled blue cheese
1 tsp. chopped jalapenos (preferably the jarred ones – the vinegar is good for the taste of the sauce)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 415.

Combine chicken, chicken stock, breadcrumbs, 3 Tb. hot sauce, salt and pepper with your hands. Add less/more breadcrumbs/stock depending on how dry/wet the mixture is.

Roll into 1 1/2″ balls and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 mins. Remove from oven and toss in a bowl with the remaining 1 Tb. of hot sauce. Place in the oven and bake for 2 more minutes. This gives it a coating and the hot sauce kind of gets a little sticky.

For the dipping sauce – just combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. It’ll keep for a while so if u can make extra and put it in the fridge.

These were taken a while ago. Wanted a big burger, but didnt want it to be 3,000 calories. Went with a turkey and portobello mushroom burger on sandwich things. big slices of tomato and grilled onions. Also – gotta have a ’special sauce’. This one is 1 tbsp mayo, 1 tsp mustard 1/2 tsp tomato paste, 2 chopped pickles. dayum!

Ok. So last night I tried to make Pasta Carbonara…or a form of it, which I have never made before. Typically that has pasta, eggs, milk, cheese, and pancetta/some kind of glorious pork fat. Since it was my first time around the Carbonara Block, I consulted my Giada cookbook quickly enough to see “Whisk egg and cream…blah blah blah” and “return drained pasta to pan and add cream mixture”. Well I probably should have read the rest of the recipe. However, what came out of it was actually quite good. really good actually. Would be some great hangover food.

After cooking the fettucine I returned the pasta to the pan, and added 2 eggs and skim milk which i had whisked together. My mistake was that even though the burner was off, the pan was still way too hot for the eggs. It ended up scrambling the eggs. Oh well. I added lots of cracked black pepper (in fact my grinder broke and dumped a whole butt load onto the pasta- nothing went right on Wednesday) crushed red pepper and parmigiano reggiano and salt. It was great.

this looks totally gross, but believe me. it’s no stranger than lo mein or fried rice with scrambled eggs in it.

Recipe TK (tk is publishing speak for ‘to come’ or ‘it’s not in yet’) can you tell i have a ton of chipotle’s in my house???

With the weeks now totally and completely filled with work, the weekends are for catching up with friends and cooking up a storm (also filling my freezer/fridge for lunches to take to work). I slept the sleep of the dead the past two nights, and so i’m feeling recharged for the week. Tho the weekend should go on forever. I had a bunch of cilantro from Mom’s garden that I needed to use, so tonight I made:

Shrimp Quesadillas w/ Garlic Chipolte Black Beans

Marinate shrimp in lime juice, garlic, cilantro, 1/2 chipolte pepper, salt and pepper:

Heat 1 can of black beans in a sauce pan with 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped, the other half of the chipolte pepper, salt and pepper. After they are bubbling, smash with a potato smasher.

Grill 1/2 red pepper chopped up, 1 portobello mushroom, chopped up, 3 scallions, chopped. Set aside:

Grill shrimp, about 3 mins each side. Set aside, and chop when they are cool enough to handle:

Throw two tortillas on the grill for 30 seconds on each side. On the second one, keep on the grill, put down 1/4 c monterray jack, then shrimp, veggies, 1/2 avocado chopped, and put a tiny bit of cheese on top so that you can “glue” the top tortilla to it. Press down for 3 minutes, flip. Cut into quarters. Quesadilla serves 2.

I made a little cucumber salad on the side too – 1/2 cucumber, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper.

Pierogies & Kielbasa with Grilled Zucchini & Onions

Boil a pot of water for the pierogies, boil for 6 minutes, drain. Slice kielbasa, zucchini, onions and throw on the grill. As the pierogies are boiling and meat and veggies grilling…mix together 1 tbsp of course grain mustard, paprika, cayenne pepper, and dill in a bowl. When you drain the pierogies, toss them into this mixture. Serve w/ kielbasa and veggies.

Kielbasa, zucchini, onions on ‘the grill’ aka my grill pan

mix together this schtuff

ja!

Another cookbook has been added to the collection! Could anything be MORE up my alley than a cookbook? Photos, words, and food? i don’t think so! Lidia Matticchio Bastianich’s Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes is an awesome, almost history/anthropology cookbook. It is separated into regions of Italy – and then gives you a brief overview of the area; exports/imports/geography/climate etc., to help you understand WHY a recipe might have become a staple in that area. I’ve bookmarked many pages in the book, as you can see:

The first recipe I made from this book comes from the island of Sardinia and it’s Cauliflower with Olives & Cherry Tomatoes. ALTHOUGH, i didn’t have tomatoes! whoops, so just disregard that. haha Basically the recipe involves sauteing the cauliflower for a long time to really get some dark brown color on it – the olives are there to add a salty bite to cauliflower, along with the addition of ‘pepperoncino flakes’ aka crushed red pepper. It was delicious! Really gave a somewhat bland vegetable for a side dish, some depth!