Bread and Vegetable “Lasagna”

I found this recipe on Living the Gourmet blog. Gosh I wish I lived in the same town as Catherine. Her recipes always are excellent. This one was very easy and really delicious. And Chris like it. The toasted bread made a perfect crust for this "Lasagna." I can see adding any type of vegetable but we are fans of Zucchini and Onions!

Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens

Kind of a funny title but it describes the dish quite well. I found the recipe on Culinate.
I cooked the dried cannellini beans yesterday. And I even cleaned and sliced the chard yesterday that way making this tonight would take less time. I had a hot dog in the freezer which I cut that up, Chris was happy with that addition. I even had a left over Accordion Potato from last night so that went into the mix too.

The result was a delicious meal. The beans were crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The chard gave the dish a nice earthy flavor. We of course added crushed red pepper and lots of Parmesan cheese.

Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens

Ingredients -
1/2 lb. medium or large dried white beans, cooked
3 Tbsp. clarified butter or olive oil
Fine-grained sea salt
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
6 to 7 big leaves of chard, preferably rainbow chard, leaves cut into wide ribbons and 1 or 2 stems cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for topping

Method -
Drain the beans, then heat the butter or oil over medium-high heat in the widest skillet you’ve got. Add the beans to the hot pan in a single layer. (If you don’t have a big-enough skillet, just do the saute step in two batches, or save the extra beans for another use.) Stir to coat the beans with the butter or oil, then let them sit long enough to brown on one side, about 3 or 4 minutes, before turning to brown the other side, also about 3 or 4 minutes. The beans should be golden and a bit crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside.

Add salt to taste, then add the onion and garlic and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until the onion softens. Stir in the chard and cook until just beginning to wilt. Remove from the heat and season to taste with a generous dose of salt and pepper. Drizzle with a bit of top-quality extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan.

And for an inside look at how this blog is created -

 

The critical eyes of Lucy.

Barley Soup

Turning to page 139 of La Cucina we find the recipe for tonight's dinner, Minestra Di Orzo or Barley Soup 1. There are 5 Barley Soups recipes in the book. This one is from the Valle D'Aosta region. Another simple and delicious meal. I love this cookbook!

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
1 leek, cut in thin strips
1 medium, cut in thin strips
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot grated
1/2 cup Pearl Barley
1 bay leaf

Method
Heat the butter in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Add the leek and onion and cook until the leek begins to soften. Add the potatoes and carrots and cook for 10 minutes, then cover with boiling water. When the mixture returns to a boil, add the barley and bay leaf. Let cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 1 hour, until the barley is tender.

We had some left over Arborio rice from the other night so I made some Suppli (Rice Balls) from Simple Italian Snacks as a side dish.