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Tag Archives: Italian
Homemade semolina pasta with a simple fresh tomato sauce make an easy dinner that will please even the pickiest eaters.
A couple months ago Lori over at the Recipe Girl and I were tweeting about simple food that we sometimes forget about. The first one that came to mind for me, is a simple tomato sauce, that I use to make very often when I needed a quick meal after a long day. I have put that conversation and that recipe in the back of mind for an evening when we would need an easy dinner.
We have been traveling for the past three weeks (stop awwwing for us, it was all work) and have been locked in conference rooms where most of our meals have been dried out sandwiches or buffets of fried food and limp veggies. I have been dying to get back in the kitchen and even more so we have been dying for a good meal. I stopped by the market on my way home from work and picked up some Dirty Girl Dry Farmed Tomatoes, a baguette and a bottle of wine. Rest of the meal would be found in the pantry at home.
Some of you may be wondering what dry farmed tomatoes are? I discovered dry farmed tomatoes a couple years ago and have never looked back, in all honesty, I even look forward to these little gems more than their cousins the heirloom tomatoes. Dry farming is a waterless method of growing tomatoes which will only produce about 1/3 as many but the end result is a tomato that is dense and packed with flavor, not to mention the deep red color. As soon as I see the first ones in the markets, I am buying them all the time. At the close of the season, I purchase a big bag of them and freeze them whole. They are a wonderful addition to toss into a sauce, stew or soup.
Now back to dinner …… We got hooked on fresh pasta a couple months ago, after purchasing a pasta machine when we were in Montreal. We used it very often before it gave out on us after the 5 time of using. Finally upgraded last month and purchased the pasta attachments for the KitchenAid, love it! For this meal, I made a simple pasta dough out of some semolina flour, olive oil and organic eggs. While the dough was resting, I combined the tomatoes with lots of fresh garlic and a sprinkle of Maldon salt and then let it do it’s thing, while I rolled pasta. The attachments are so easy to use and you can have fresh pasta in less than an hour, I cannot believe we waited so long before purchasing!
Once the pasta was cooked (and fresh pasta only takes minutes) and drained, I tossed it with handfuls of fresh basil from the garden, a drizzle of olive oil, a generous grind of fresh black pepper and the fresh tomato sauce – Delicious!
Recipe: Homemade Fresh Tomato Sauce
1 lb fresh tomatoes, used dry farm tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
maldon salt, sprinkle
olive oil, drizzle
basil, handful, sliced thinly
Roughly chop tomatoes and put into a bowl. Add the garlic, sprinkle with salt and let sit for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better. Gently heat before serving, only until heated through. Cook favorite pasta, drain, add basil, olive oil and tomatoes. Toss. Serve. Eat.
Risotto, an Italian rice dish, is a staple recipe that everyone should know how to make. It is simple to make. And ever so versatile. We show you how to do so, by using our Basic Risotto Recipe.
I am so tired from this job we are working, that I cannot even type out the entire recipe for this very tasty dish. I have had a few requests for a re-post of our basic Risotto recipe so I decided now would be a great time to do it. I use this basic risotto recipe when making “risotto”. I love it because it is flavorful and simple to make. You just add all the extra fun things to jazz it up! Here is the basic risotto recipe.
Recipe: Basic Risotto
1 cup Risotto Rice
2 shallots – minced
1 clove garlic – minced * let sit minced for 15 minutes before cooking – added health benefits!
1 ½ cup chicken, beef, veggie or veal broth – depending on your add-ins
1 ½ cup white wine
2 T. Olive Oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Saute shallots with olive oil until soft. Add garlic and cook for a couple more minutes, remove from heat and put in a small bowl. Heat the broth and wine together until hot. Turn off heat – do not keep cooking. Add rice to the same pan you have been using. Saute for a couple minutes until the rice is coated with the remaining oil. Add about a ½ cup of the broth mixture and stir – do not let boil. Cook it down a little and then add more broth. Continue this process until the rice is cooked al dente – do not over cook. When it is cooked right it will be a little creamy. Add whatever extras you have decided to add and heat through, this should only take a couple minutes. Then add the butter and keep stirring until melted. Take off the heat. Season with salt and pepper. Eat.
If desired, before serving sprinkle with parmesan or asiago cheese.
Need a quick and easy dinner that is not boring? Here is a simple and flavorful pasta dish using easy ingredients: roasted capsicum (red peppers), fresh creamy ricotta and whole wheat pasta.
Okay, forgive us …. we are on a Donna Hay kick again. Sorry, we just cannot quit, her recipes are simple, and so darn good!!!
Tonight we made an easy pasta dish with roasted peppers and ricotta cheese. I love both of these items for a few reasons. Roasted peppers go well with pasta, on pizza, sliced over a bed of salt cod, or even in eggs. Ricotta you can add to pasta, onto a pizza or even eat as dessert with honey drizzled over the top! We usually have both items in the house and I guess, it can be called a “staple”. You will love this easy pasta dish … dinner in 25 minutes!
Recipe: Roasted Capsicum (red peppers) & Ricotta Pasta
*serves 2
*adapted from Donna Hay
200g whole wheat pasta
150 g roasted capsicum, roughly chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 small cloves garlic, minced
sea salt and cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
100 g fresh ricotta
1/2 cup basil leaves (suppose to use mint but it went bad)
Cook the pasta in a saucepan of salted, boiling water for 10 – 12 minutes or until al dente. Drain and return to the pan. Place the capsicum, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil in a bowl and stir to combine. Add the pasta with the ricotta and basil and toss to combine. Garnish with pine nuts. Serve. Eat.
This easy dinner is an Italian version of Cordon Bleu – chicken thighs stuffed with parmesan cheese, wrapped with prosciutto and then lightly pan fried.
This dinner probably looks a lot like summer. I received the first magazine of the wonderful gift subscription of Donna Hay, that I received from MEM for Christmas. I love Donna. The photography throughout her books will have you drooling all over. Her easy and delicious recipes will amaze you every time.
Tonight I made a simple chicken thigh recipe. I followed Donna’s idea but changed how to do it a little. Instead of lightly rolling the thighs and sprinkling with Parmesan cheese on them; I pounded them until thin and the rolled Parmesan cheese in the middles before wrapping with Prosciutto and pan frying. The chicken came out very moist and really flavorful and slightly salty. This dish reminded me of an Italian version of Cordon Bleu. I served the chicken exactly as Donna suggested, with a tomato and basil salad.
Recipe
Chicken wrapped in Prosciutto
* serves 4
4 chicken thighs, trimmed
3/4 cup shaved Parmesan
4 slices of prosciutto
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 vine ripened tomatoes, sliced
1 cup basil leaves
olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt and cracked pepper
Place the chicken between 2 sheets of waxed paper and flatten by pounding. Put shavings of Parmesan cheese in the middle of the thigh and tightly make into a roll. Wrap with the prosciutto. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. cook the chicken 3 – 4 minutes each side or until cooked through. Place the tomato and basil in a bowl, drizzle with extra oil and vinegar and toss to combine. Serve. Eat.
I had no intentions of making soup two nights in a row. It was a late night at the office and by the time we got home it was almost time to eat. I can not even really share a recipe as I tossed together the stuff I had purchased for this series and made a quick soup. I am amazed that it came out so well.
Basically I sauteed some onion, carrots, celery and garlic with olive oil then I added a can of whole tomatoes, veggie stock, handful of kale, and some white beans. Cooked it for an hour. Seasoned with salt and pepper and garnished with shaved Parmesan. Simple, quick and delicious vegetarian minestrone.
$ 8.74 for 4 servings. Dinner and lunch for the next day.
As a regular reader you know how much we love Gourmet Magazine and yes, we heard the near horrible news that they be be under by year end – it possibly cannot be true! Their January issue is really fantastic and is filled with mouth drooling Italian dishes. There is not one that I do not want to make.
We both love Octopus. Lenny loves them big or small. I prefer them small or on a sushi platter. When I saw a recipe in the January issue I knew I had to make it and after reading it I knew I would be adding my own spin to it. The recipe calls for jarred octopus - yick! The first change would be to use fresh baby ones. The recipe also calls for using the boiling water from the potatoes – I substituted with some white wine.
WAIT! There’s more »
Ever since I discovered the cooking Blog, Under The Tuscan Gun, I have had Parmigiana of some sort on my mind. Lenny loves eggplant parmigiana, I love them all. After all, who does not love gooey cheese and tomato sauce? Since we are doing a big ride on Saturday (today, which was tomorrow when we ate this) we also wanted to load up on carbs, so …. that is where the kind of comes in.
I took a chicken breast, thinly sliced it and then cooked it with some olive oil and chili peppers. It was ultra moist and juicy because we like to use organic or free ranging chickens. Then I cheated …. I added a jar of premade Italian tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese and cooked pasta (we like little ears), tossed it all together, put it into a baking dish and baked until bubbly. We served it with a big loaf of garlic bread. Even though I did not take the time to make my sauce and I used premade garlic bread, the meal was still really great; well, you could really tell that the bread was premade, not so great. The pasta dish tasted like Chicken Parmigiana which is what I was after!
Next time … we will be making the eggplant parmigiana.
Saturday night, I will tell you how we are going “local”!
During the day on Saturday we had a nice break from the rain and cold; but, it came back just in time for dinner. It was a good night for some comfort and a good night to join Meeta over at What’s for Lunch Honey and her monthly mingle – comfort food!
As I mentioned earlier in the week we are using up everything in the house – sort of a pre-spring cleaning. So, we are limited as to what we have on hand. I have been dying to make this lovely soup, recipe from one of Jamie Oliver’s books, and lucky for us we have everything in the house. As well, it is pure comfort on a cold and rainy night!
Pasta e Ceci is like a peasant dish – simple, hardy, very easy and full of flavor – onions, garlic, a small amount of celery, chickpeas and a little pasta. If you like chickpeas this soup is for you. We added a loaf of our favorite crusty french bread and opened up a bottle of Italian wine to compliment it (ever since we had a FANTASTIC bottle of Italian wine at Delfina, we have been lushing after them). Was a very nice and cozy evening.
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