Hunter-Style Chicken

Hunter-Style Chicken 1, Pollo All Cacciatora 1. Why the number 1? There are 3 versions of this recipe in the La Cucina, The Regional Cooking of Italy cookbook. This recipe was a winner. The sauce was great and it was very easy to make.

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sliced onions
1 lb. carrots, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
3 1/2 lbs chicken, cut in pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 lb, ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped (I used a can of diced tomatoes)
chicken broth, if necessary
salt and pepper

Method
Heat half of the olive oil in a large pan and add the onions, carrots and celery. When they have taken on color remove them and set them aside. Put pieces of chicken in pan with remaining olive oil and when pieces have colored add the white wine. When the wine has evaporated add the tomatoes and reserved vegetables. Continue cooking over low heat for about 40 minutes, adding a little broth if necessary. Adjust for salt and pepper.

The cookbook recommends serving this with polenta, but we went for the ziti. Tomorrow night we will have the leftovers with polenta!

Potato Leek Soup

La Cucina, The Regional Cooking of Italy cookbook, from the Piemonte region. Potato Leek Soup, Zuppa di Patate E Porri Gratinati with a couple of alterations.

4 leeks, sliced and rinsed
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups of broth, I used Chicken but the recipe called for beef
Bay leaf

In a bowl, combine the leeks, potatoes and broth with the bay leaf and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat and simmer about 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Puree the mixture using either a blender, food mill or Immersion blender(!) and serve.

The recipe went on to say to put the soup in an oven proof bowl. Cover each serving with a slice of bread, add pats of butter to each, then sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake until the cheese is lightly browned.

I don't have oven proof bowls so we just had the soup with crackers. It was good. Light, possibly too light. Next time I will make add a sandwich or quiche or salad to go with it.

Sausage and Potatoes

Again tonight we have a recipe from La Cucina, The Regional Cooking of Italy cookbook. This recipe comes from the Calabria region tonight we had Salsiccia E Patate, Sausage and Potatoes. The recipe called for the sausage to be formed into the spokes of a wheel, using skewers to hold the shape. I had Chris read the recipe to get his opinion and he agreed that the skewers could be skipped. So I cut the sausage into small pieces. The simplicity of this recipe and others from the book is amazing when you taste the finished product.

Ingredients
1 lb. sausage
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
pepper

Method
Cut sausages into 1 inch slices. Heat olive oil in pan and add potatoes and sausages. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring from time to time with wooden spoon. Cook until sausage is cooked through. Season with pepper.

This was delicious. I loved the fried potatoes. Had some Italian bread with it and a bit of the stuffed bread leftover from last night.

Eggplants and Tomato and Prosciuotto Stuffed Bread

This week's meals, well at least for 4 nights will come from La Cucina, The Regional Cooking of Italy cookbook. Tonight I made Melanzane E Pomodori, Eggplants and Tomato. It reminded me of a deconstructed Eggplant Parmesan. It is from the Calabria region of Italy.

Ingredients
4 eggplants (about 2 lb.)
4 large eggs, beaten
2 tbsp. grated pecorino
Olive Oil
4 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped, I used a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
Salt

Method
Peel the eggplants and cut them in small cubes. Put the cubes in salted water for about 1 hour. Meanwhile, mix the eggs and pecorino and set aside. Rinse and drain the eggplant cubes. Heat 1/4 inch of olive oil in a high-sided pan and fry the eggplant cubes until golden. Add the tomatoes and egg mixture and stir to cook the eggs until they set. Serve immediately.

I also made a stuffed bread. I used the other portion of pizza dough I had in the freezer from last week. I filled it with Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Swiss cheese. Wow it was good!

Vegetable Timbale and Spaghetti Carbonara

The Big Game = Dinner To Go. Saints vs. Cardinals. I was not going to cook dinner tonight. So I stopped at La Rosticceria. For myself I picked a Vegetable Timbale. It was something I have seen in cookbooks and online but had never tried. It looked so nice and wow the flavors were perfect. It was layered with eggplant, sweet onions, orange peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and fresh basil.


For Chris I picked up Spaghetti Carbonara. He loved it.

La Rosticceria makes fantastic cupcakes and yesterday 10% of the bakery sales was being donated to help the victims in Haiti. I picked up some Coconut Cupcakes. I have yet to finish a whole cupcake from this store. They are delicious but they are big.


The Saints win!

The Perfect Calzones

Tonight's dinner started with the basic pizza dough recipe from Jim Lahey's My Bread Book. I made the dough last week and divided it in 2 pieces and froze them.

I thawed one of the portions and had enough dough for 2 calzones. For Chris, I sauteed onions and fried some bacon. I filled mine with sauteed veggies - broccoli, carrots, red pepper, zucchini and some tofu. Also filled both with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses.

The fillings were good but the bread was perfect. We both devoured the calzones. I used a jarred marinara sauce that I picked up at Whole Foods. San Marzano Sauce. The link shows the price at $10 a jar... I did not pay that much. But it was the best jarred sauce I have tasted.

Stuffed Peppers with Brown Rice and Sausage

I was inspired by the Proud Italian blog from last week which featured Stuffed Peppers.

After removing the seeds I pare boiled the peppers. I made some brown rice. I had sausage left over from last night's soup. I sauteed onions and carrots and added the sausage. After the sausage had browned I seasoned it with salt, pepper and oregano. Then I mixed the rice, the sausage and veggies together with Parmesan Cheese. I stuffed the peppers with the filling and topped with Marinara Sauce and baked for 30 minutes at 350º.

The meal was a winner! Quite tasty. Had some rolls that I made this weekend. I tried to make sandwich rolls but they look more like baseballs... Pitchers and catchers report Feb 18th!

Hearty Lentil and Sausage Soup

I found this recipe on the Whole Foods Site. I made a couple of changes to the original recipe. I just omitted a couple of ingredients...

This is the recipe as it appears on the Whole Foods site with my changes in parenthesis.

Hearty Lentil and Sausage Soup
Serves 6

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic (this I omitted)
1/2 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 pound mushrooms (such as white, cremini, shiitake, portobello and oyster), chopped ( I also omitted this)
1 cup (about 7 ounces) dried French or brown lentils, picked through and rinsed
2 1/2 cups beef broth
2 1/2 cups mushroom or low-sodium chicken broth (I used low sodium chicken broth)
1 cup chopped tomatoes, with their juice
1 cup dry red wine
Pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 pound baby spinach, thinly sliced (I used escarole and beet greens)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Method
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add carrots, celery, onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent. Add sausage and cook, breaking into small chunks, until it begins to brown. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until mushrooms have released most of their liquid. Add lentils, beef broth, mushroom or chicken broth, tomatoes and their juice, wine and pepper flakes; cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

Add spinach and salt and pepper, stir well and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes more; stir in thyme. Ladle soup into bowls and top with Parmesan.

This was delicious. Chris loved it. The escarole and beet greens gave it a nice bite. I used the new wine glasses we got from my sister for Christmas and they have a lovely stem to hold. Another great Monday night meat... the pressure is on for the rest of the week.

Barley Soup with Beef

I turned to the cookbook, La Cucina for tonight's meal. Barley Soup 1. Or Minestra Di Orzo 1. The cookbook numbers it's soup, for instance there are 5 Barley Soup recipes. This recipe comes from the Valle D' Aosta region.

Ingredients
4 tbsp. butter
1 leek, cut in thin strips
1 medium onion, cut in thin strips
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 sprig thyme

Heat the butter in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Add leeks and onion and cook until the leeks begins to soften. Add the potatoes and carrot and cook for about 10 minutes, then cover with boiling water. When the mixture returns to a boil, add the barley and thyme. Let cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 1 hour, until the barley is tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Up to this point you have a great vegetarian soup... but I still have the leftovers from the roast from Christmas in the freezer. I cut the meat into small pieces and added them to the soup. Voila - Beef Barley Soup!

It was delicious. I had to stop at 2 servings. Even without the beef it would have been good. Perfect for a very cold Monday night dinner

Steak Pizzaiola with Potatoes

We visited my sister yesterday and I saw her husband fixing dinner. He was making Steak Pizzaiola with an ingredient that I never added before... potatoes! Fascinating.

So tonight I attempted to recreate his dish. I put the steak in an oiled dish and added chopped onions, diced tomatoes, diced potatoes, salt, pepper and oregano. Covered the dish with foil and put it in the oven for close to an hour, the steaks were not thin so they took quite a while to cook. The dish was quite good and my sister was right - the sauce was the best part.

On a completely different note, today I went shopping with my sister and my niece. We went to DSW. Anyone who knows me knows I really do not need a new pair of shoes. But gosh 80% off. Okay they are summer shoes and it is 30 degrees out right now. And I really needed a new wallet. Again 80% off. So the shoes and the wallet, after I used my $10.00 off coupon, came to 39 cents. When the salesperson said the amount I owed her I knew my mother was smiling!


; )