Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

Delicious dinner.

Tonight we had Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. It had been way too long, and I was craving that rich, comforting flavor. I pulled out one of my go-to cookbooks, Lidia's Italian American Kitchen, and made her classic recipe. 

Ingredients-

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 med yellow onion, minced

1 med carrot, peeled and finely shredded

1/2 cup minced celery with leaves

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

1 lb ground veal

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 tbsp tomato paste

3 cups crushed tomatoes

4 dried bay leaves

Fresh ground pepper

Method-

Heat the olive oil in a wide, 3 to 4-quart pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. 

Stir in the onion, carrot, and celery, season them lightly with salt, and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent. 

Crumble in the ground beef and pork and continue cooking, stirring to break up the meat, until all the liquid the meat has given off has evaporated and the meat is lightly browned, about 10 minutes. 

Pour in the wine and cook, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the wine is evaporated, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook a few minutes, then pour in the tomatoes, toss in the bay leaves, and season lightly with salt and pepper. 

Bring to a boil, then lower the heat so the sauce is at a lively simmer. 

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is dense but juicy and a rich, dark red color. 

This will take about 2 to 3 hours—the longer you cook it, the better it will become. 

While the sauce is cooking, add hot water as necessary to keep the meats and vegetables covered. (Most likely, a noticeable layer of oil will float to the top toward the end of cooking. 

Once finished, the oil can be removed with a spoon or reincorporated in the sauce, which is what is traditionally done.

Sausage with Fennel and Olives

We have not made this recipe in a while. The recipe is from Lidia's Favorite Recipes. 

I prepared the dish yesterday, so Chris just popped it in the oven to reheat tonight. One dish! Easy cleanup for a Monday night!

Somebody even went back for seconds, so I would say it was a tasty dinner. Personally, I love the flavor of the cooked fennel and the olives add just the right bit of salt. 

Ingredients-
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 sweet Italian sausages (about 2 pounds)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 cup large green olives, squashed and pitted
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method -
Pour half of the olive oil into a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausages; cook, turning occasionally until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes or more. Carefully add wine and bring to a boil; cook until reduced by half. Transfer sausages to a platter; pour the cooking liquid over the sausage.

Add remaining olive oil to skillet over medium heat. Add the crushed red pepper in it for a couple of seconds. Add olives; toss and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add fennel chunks and stir to combine. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt, cover skillet, and cook over medium-high heat for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the fennel softens, and begins to color. Add a little water to the pan if the fennel remains hard; you want it to be wilted but not mushy.

When the fennel is cooked through, return sausages and wine to skillet. Toss together with fennel and cook, uncovered for about 5 minutes. Adjust the season to taste.

This is my favorite summer dinner

Do you remember the Meat Pies I made at Easter? Well, we had 1/2 a pie in the freezer.  It was as delicious now as it was at Easter. We ate the whole 1/2! We had a Caesar Salad too. We were hungry! The dressing recipe is further down the page.

The dressing recipe we use is from Lidia Italian-American Kitchen.

I do make a couple of edits to the original recipe.

Ingredients-
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 cloves of garlic
4 anchovy fillets
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
fresh ground black pepper
Romaine lettuce, or anything you prefer

Method-
Combine the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and anchovies in a blender or work bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth, adding some of the 1/3 cup olive oil if there is not enough liquid to move the mixture around the blender jar. Add the mustard, hard-boiled egg yolk, salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and remaining olive oil if any.  Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste the dressing; if it's a little too tangy, pour in a splash or two of olive oil and blend until it's incorporated. Pour over greens and toss to cover the lettuce.

 

Chicken Saltimbocca

Superfast Sunday dinner.

I made the Arborio rice first and kept it warm on the stovetop. The zucchini was sauteed while the chicken was cooked.

About the chicken. I picked up Chicken Cutlets at Fresh Market. I did a google search for a recipe and found a Lidia Bastianich recipe from Food and Wine. Perfect!!

Ingredients-

Four 6-ounce  boneless chicken breast halves

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 thin slices prosciutto di Parma

All-purpose flour, for dusting 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth

Method-

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place 2 sage leaves on each breast. Top with a slice of prosciutto, trimming it to fit. Press the prosciutto to help it adhere to the chicken. Dust the chicken with flour, shaking off the excess.

Heat a large skillet. Add the oil and 2 tablespoons of butter. Add 2 of the breasts, prosciutto side up, and cook over high heat until nearly cooked through about 3 minutes. Turn the chicken and cook just until the prosciutto begins to shrink about 1 minute. Transfer the chicken to a plate; repeat with the remaining chicken. Pour off any fat and wipe out the skillet.

Add the remaining butter to the skillet. Add the wine and cook over high heat until reduced by half, 2 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Cook until reduced by half, 3 minutes. 

Return the chicken to the skillet, prosciutto side up, and simmer over moderate heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Transfer the chicken to plates, pour the sauce on top, and serve.

It seems that someone else in the house is a fan of this recipe...

Bolognese Sauce and Home Made Pappardelle

This was the first sauce for the freezer for this fall season. Yes we have reached the time of year where I start stocking up the freezer with dinners, casseroles, soups and of course, sauce. I usually make my Mom's Sauce, but this Bolognese Sauce is so darn good. The recipe is Lidia's but I followed a tip I picked up from watching Michael Symon during the lock down. You add the meat first and let it brown before breaking it up. Those brown bits of meat are worth doing this step.

I ended up with 5 zip-lock bags of sauce for the freezer. Money in the bank!

 

For the pasta I made hand cut Pappardelle using the only pasta recipe I have ever used, the Tide and Thyme Recipe. This pasta and this sauce were meant to be together.

Click here for Lidia's Bolognese Sauce Recipe.

While the sauce was simmering for a few hours some of us caught up on our cat naps!

 

Double Cheese Chicken Roll Ups and Stuffed Tomatoes

I don't even know where to begin. Everything, even the green beans received rave reviews.

Let's start the protein. The Double Cheese Chicken Roll-Ups. I found this recipe on An Italian In My Kitchen. I made one little alteration to the original recipe. I added sliced provolone to the roll along with shredded Swiss Cheese. This was perfect! The meat was cooked perfectly and the flavors were just perfect. No complaints at all for this dish. Click here for the original recipe!

I served steamed green beans as a side dish. The beans were from my sister's garden.

I also made rice-stuffed tomatoes, a Lidia recipe, as another side. The tomatoes were from my sister's garden.

Rice Stuffed Tomatoes-

Ingredients-

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 bay leaves
½ cup Arborio rice
4 medium tomatoes (about 2 ½ pounds), ripe but firm
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup Parmesan
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

 

Method-

In a 1-quart saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups salted water, 2 tablespoons of the oil and the bay leave to a boil. Stir in the rice and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat to a lively simmer and cook the rice, uncovered, until al dente, tender but firm, about 12 minutes. Most of the liquid should be absorbed and the texture of the rice is creamy. Drain any excess liquid from the rice and transfer the rice to a mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut a 1/2-inch slice from the top of each tomato and set aside. Scoop out the pulp and seeds with a teaspoon and drop into a strainer set over a bowl. Press on the pulp in the strainer to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Reserve the liquid and discard the pulp in the strainer.

Toss the rice, mozzarella, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan, and the basil together in a small bowl. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Gently stuff the tomatoes with the rice mixture, dividing it evenly. Top each tomato with the reserved slices. Using some of the remaining oil, brush a baking dish into which the tomatoes fit comfortably. Set the stuffed tomatoes in the dish. Add the strained liquid from tomatoes and, if necessary, pour in enough water to come about ¼ inch up the sides of the tomatoes. Drizzle the remaining oil over the tomatoes and sprinkle them with the remaining 1 tablespoon grated cheese. Cover the dish loosely with aluminum foil and bake 15 minutes.

Uncover the dish and bake until the tomatoes are very tender and the tops are lightly browned about 10 minutes. Remove tomatoes from the oven and let rest for a few minutes. Carefully transfer the tomatoes to a serving platter or individual plates. Swirl the juices in the pan to incorporate the oil into the juices and spoon the pan juices over and around the tomatoes. The tomatoes are best when served warm, with some of the pan juices drizzled over each serving.

 

The Last Friday of Lent

A repeat appearance of Caesar Salad with Shrimp. The salad dressing was Lidia Bastianich's.

Romaine Lettuce tossed with Caesar Salad Dressing and topped with homemade croutons and boiled shrimp.

The Shrimp was placed in a pan with 2 cups of cold water and lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon, along with the lemon half and 1/2 tsp of whole black pepper and 1/2 tsp of sugar. The pan was heated over medium heat to a boil and let simmer for about 5 minutes until the shrimp was cooked.

Caesar Salad Dressing
Ingredients-
2 Hard Cooked Egg Yolks
2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
Juice of one Lemon
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
½ Tsp Kosher Salt
6 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Black Pepper to Taste

Method-
In a mini–food processor, combine the egg yolks, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, and ½ teaspoon salt. Process until smooth. With the machine running, add the olive oil in a steady stream to make a smooth dressing. 
The recipe suggests dressing the entire bowl of greens. We prefer to dress our own plates. We can never finish the whole bowl of greens. Not mixing the dressing on the entire salad means we can use the greens for another meal... Stay tuned!

First Friday of Lent

This is our second Lenten meal and again I combined Three Girls Vegan Creamery with Lidia Bastianich. Lasagna by Three Girls Vegan Creamery. Caesar Salad is from Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen. It was nice getting home for work and preparing the salad. But it was really nice having the prepared Lasagna that just needed to be heated up.

Caesar Salad Dressing from Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen-

Ingredients-
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 cloves of garlic 
4 anchovy fillets
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
fresh ground black pepper 
Romaine lettuce, or anything you prefer

Method-
Combine the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and anchovies in a blender or work bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth, adding some of the 1/3 cup olive oil if there is not enough liquid to move the mixture around the blender jar. Add the mustard, hard-boiled egg yolk, salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and remaining olive oil if any.  Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste the dressing; if it's a little too tangy, pour in a splash or two of olive oil and blend until it's incorporated. Pour over greens and toss to cover the lettuce.

Pepperoni and Onion Sauce with Potato Gnocchi

I have to tell you that the first time I walked into the Three Girls Vegan Creamery I felt like I walked into my Mom's kitchen. My Mom was far from vegan. It was more of a portion thing. I walked in the Three Girls Vegan Creamery hoping to try a couple of menu items and I walked out with a week's worth of food!

The Three Girls Vegan Creamery recently opened a new store with more hours (!!!) and I stopped in this past Sunday to pick up some food for our first week of Lent. Pepperoni and some Lasagna.

Back to tonight's dinner. Ash Wednesday. I got my ashes at an Ashes to Go stop at the Madison train station. Seemed very convenient. For dinner, I amped it up a bit. Lidia Bastianich's Basic Potato Gnocchi with Marcella Hazan's Onion and Butter Tomato Sauce with some of Three Girls Vegan Creamery Pepperoni.

Yeah, it was very good. Not a bad start for Lent.

Pollo all'Arancia e Olive

Pollo all'Arancia e Olive, Chicken Breast with Orange and Gaeta Olives. I found this recipe on Lidia's new website. You know Lidia. The woman who cooked for the Pope!

This was such an easy meal to prepare. Well, I did do all the prep before I left for work today! All I had to do when I got home was dredge the chicken in the flour.

Delicious! A restaurant quality meal if I do say so myself!

Ingredients-
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds thin sliced chicken cutlets
1 teaspoon kosher salt
All-purpose flour for dredging
1 large red onion, sliced
1 cup pitted Gaeta or Kalamata olives, halved
Juice and zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup white wine
1 teaspoon fennel powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

Method-
In a large skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and butter. Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and lightly dredge it in flour. Lightly brown the chicken in the skillet (you want the chicken to end up with a blonde-colored crust and slowly build the color, and flavor, up) on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Cook the chicken in batches, if necessary, depending on the size of your skillet. Remove to a plate as it is colored.

Once the chicken is colored, add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the olives, orange juice and zest, white wine and fennel powder.  Add chicken back to the skillet and simmer until the chicken is just cooked through and the sauce coats the chicken, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season with remaining salt, sprinkle with the parsley, and serve.

Spinach and Ricotta Pappardelle

A recipe by Lidia! You know it's going to be good. Deconstruct ravioli. This was delicious. I used a store-bought Pappardelle, Al Dente's Pappardelle. We loved this pasta. And the sauce was the perfect consistency and the flavors were spot on. The recipe is from Food & Wine.

Spinach and Ricotta Pappardelle, from Food & Wine.

Ingredients-
12 ounces pappardelle pasta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped sage
Two 5-ounce bags baby spinach
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method-
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pappardelle pasta until al dente. Drain the pappardelle thoroughly, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water.

Meanwhile, in a large deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the scallions and sage and cook over high heat until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spinach in large handfuls and cook, stirring, until wilted. Add the pasta, butter and ricotta and toss. Add 3/4 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water and the Parmigiano and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook over moderately low heat, tossing, until the sauce is thick and creamy, adding more of the pasta water as needed. Transfer the pappardelle to bowls and serve right away, with grated Parmigiano. 

Cinghiale in Umido

 

Happy Birthday Chris! For this birthday dinner I pulled out all the stops. I ordered a Boar Roast from the Meat Shop. I got a 1 3/4 pound roast. Price - $35. Other than the Christmas roast this was the most I spent on meat for one meal. But just put the cost out of your mind because it was so amazingly delicious. Chris has requested this to be on our weekly menu, I hope he was kidding...

The recipe, Cinghiale in Umido (Braised Wild Boar) was supplied by my brother-in-law, Ralph, who also gave us a bottle of wine to go with dinner. The recipe is by Lidia Bastianich. Her recipe serves 8 so I cut it in half, I should have made the whole thing!

Ingredients -

3 1/2 pound boneless boar roast

salt and pepper to taste, plus 1/2 tsp of each

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 olive oil

 

6 oz pancetta cut into 1-inch cubes (1 1/4 cups)

1 large yellow onion, diced, (1 1/2 cups)

2 large carrots, shredded (1 1/2 cups)

4 stalks celery, diced (1 1/2 cups)

6 whole garlic cloves (I did use the garlic!!!)

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)

1 bottle Chianti or other hearty red wine (this is not what we drank with dinner)

1 28 oz can peeled Italian whole plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)

2 cups chicken stock

Method -
Preheat oven to 350˚.

To prepare the roast, dry the meat and season well with salt and pepper. Place the flour in a large shallow plate and turn the meat in the flour to coat lightly, shaking off the excess.

In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot or Dutch oven, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil (enough to fully cover the base of the pot) over medium high flame until the oil is shimmering but not yet smoking. Add the meat and brown deeply on all sides, allowing the pieces to sit on each side long enough to develop a thick brown crust. There will be considerable splattering of oil during this process, so use caution. The total browning time should about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the other 1/4 cup of olive oil in a heavy bottomed skillet or saute pan over medium-low flame. Add the diced pancetta and saute about 7 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic cloves, rosemary and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper to the pot, increasing the heat to medium high and saute about 10 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the other vegetables are soft and almost mushy. Remove the mixture from the pot and set it aside.

When the meat is finished browning, begin to add the wine one cup at a time. It will splatter and hiss, which is good – you want the alcohol to burn off. Bring the wine to a full boil around the browning meat. Boil for 5 minutes, then add the sauteed vegetables and the reserved pancetta. Pour in the can of tomatoes, the 2 cups of stock and 2 cups of water.

Remove the stock pot from the stove top, cover it with aluminum foil, and place it on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Simmer for 3 hours, until the liquid had reduced and the meat is literally falling off the bone. The mixture should be thick and gelatinous.

Remove from the oven and carefully remove the meat, using two large spoons or spatulas.

 

Take the remaining liquids and solids in the pot and press them through a fine sieve using the back of a wooden spoon, collecting the liquid in a large bowl. Skim the fat from the surface of the strained liquid. At this point you may either slice the meat and serve it topped the liquid or shred the meat with a knife or by hand and combine it with the liquid to create a thick pasta sauce.

We opted for the pasta sauce. 

The noodles were homemade pappardelle noodles, recipe from Tide and Thyme.

This meal is going to be on this year's top ten list.

And I baked a cake. I made my Mom's Two Egg Cake. I added Chocolate Shots to the batter. The batter is enough for a 9 inch square pan, perfect size for 2 people (and some people at work!).

Mom's Two Egg Cake with Chocolate Shots

Ingredients -
2 eggs
1 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup Chocolate Shots

Method -
Blend shortening and sugar. Add eggs, beating well after adding each egg. Add flour to egg mixture and blend well on low speed. Add 1/2 cup chocolate shots. Mix. Pour into a well greased and floured pan. Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Bake until tester comes out clean. Cool on rack.

The wine we had with dinner was Castelgreve Chianti Classico Riserva 2009. Perfect match to tonight's dinner.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

  Snow! Again! Really!

Well I worked from home but was not about to head out to the store so dinner had to be made from in-house ingredients. Okay I have a pretty well stocked pantry so it was not difficult to put this together. The hard part was deciding on which recipe to use. There was Lidia's, which used capers (I love capers). And there was Giada's, which used white wine and well I like wine! The recipe is mostly Giada's with the addition of the celery and capers from Lidia. I added whole wheat Cappelini to the sauce. Do not even think the fact that the pasta was whole wheat was even noticeable.

This is what I came up with and wow it was delicious.

Ingredients -
1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 teaspoon salt, plus additional as needed
1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons
1 shallot, sliced
1 celery stalked, diced
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
¼ cup tiny capers in brine, drained
4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves



Method -
Toss the shrimp in a medium bowl with 1 teaspoon of salt and red pepper flakes. Heat the 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and saute for about a minute, toss, and continue cooking until just cooked through, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a large plate; set aside. Add the shallot and celery to the same skillet, adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil to the pan, if necessary, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices, wine and oregano. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Return the shrimp and any accumulated juices and capers to the tomato mixture; toss to coat, and cook for about a minute. Stir in the parsley. Season with more salt, to taste, and serve.

Straw with Hay, My Way!

For Christmas Chris gave me Lidia's Favorite Recipes. I can see myself doing a Julie & Julia type thing because I want to make every recipe. Today I made Rice and Zucchini Crostata. An interesting recipe. The Aborio rice absorbs the liquid from the grated zucchini and is baked. Mine did not come out looking like the one in the book... it was the crust. I need to work on that more. My crust tasted good but I think is should be thinner next time.

For dinner I was going to make Lidia's recipe for Straw and Hay. I made the pasta (used the recipe from Tide and Thyme), but did not make any spinach pasta, just got too tired. I reached for the prosciutto and hey there was none there! Scallions, darn it I only bought enough for the Crostata. But we forged ahead. I had pancetta. And boy was that a good choice. The pasta was delicious and the sauce was better because of the pancetta.

And I did some baking, actually I started the dough yesterday. I made a rye bread and ciabatta using the Jim Lahey 18 hour recipe. It is sooooo easy!

And one more thing....

This is a table runner that I made for my niece. It is made from doilies that my mother tatted when she was young. When I saw this done on Under the Sycamore blog I knew I had to try it. I recently came across quite of few of my mom's doilies so I was ready to go.

Chicken Trombino

Wow another fast meal!  I found this on Lidia's Italy site. I love her recipes. The dishes are so comforting and delicious. This one was amazing. Try it. I am sure you will not be disappointed.