Swiss Chard with Pancetta and Soft Polenta

After finding some great looking Swiss Chard at my local market, I decided to try this recipe from Cooking Light's web site. Swiss Chard is like substantial spinach and just perfect to build a dinner around. Dishes like this are common in italian restaurants, creamy cheesy polenta with some sort of stewed meat or vegetable as its companion on the plate. This one (since it's from CL) is a little leaner, but quite good. The chard is sauteed with sliced garlic and then a brief covering of the pan gives it the steam it needs to collapse and get tender. On the plate, the soft polenta is topped with the chard and crispy pancetta bits are sprinkled over the top. This recipe could easily be vegetarian if you just eliminated the pancetta. But I, being a dedicated carnivore, have started keeping pancetta and regular bacon in the freezer between sheets of wax paper. This is really helpful because now I always have some sort of bacon on hand.



I added some slow roasted cherry tomatoes to the plate because they go well with everything and they're so good. I definitely put on too many tomatoes for this photo but I couldn't help myself. Plus I threw in some cubed fresh mozzarella that I also had in the fridge. My husband liked this dish and remarked that "his favorite vegetarian dinners have pancetta in them. "

Herb-Crusted Halibut

I had an excellent rendition of herb-crusted Arctic Char at Mity Nice Grill last week. It had a tasty, crispy crust and was drizzled with a lemon butter sauce. I wanted to do something like it at home, but I really couldn't find a recipe that approximated what I had in mind, so I decided to just wing it. No Arctic Char at Whole Foods, but the first halibut of the season looked mighty fine so that's what I decided to work with. Crispy was M.O. here. and it is hard to get crispy from the oven when you're cooking fish. Most likely, by the time you get the topping where you want it, the fish will be overdone. I decided pre-toasting the breadcrumbs would give them a head start, so that's where I began.

Harkening back to a Fine Cooking method for producing crispy oven-fried chicken, (from issue no. 84,) a method that uses a sticky sauce to adhere a pre-toasted breadcrumb topping to chicken and then finishes it in the oven, I decided to give my halibut fillets a similar treatment. First, I needed a sauce to help stick the crumbs to my halibut. Not being a huge fan of mustard, I decided a thin coating of mayo on the fillets would do the trick. I flavored the mayo with lemon zest and minced garlic and thinly spread it over the halibut. Then I pressed toasted fresh breadcrumbs flavored with fresh chopped parsely and basil onto the fillets. I was torn on whether to add parmesan to this coating and in the end I decided to add a little. The fish was roasted in a 400* for about 20 minutes and turned out nicely. The mayonnaise melts away in the oven; you don't notice it on the cooked fish but the lemon and garlic flavors remain. The crunchy topping contrasts with the tender, juicy halibut for a delicious texture in the mouth. I will do this prep again, Steve liked it a lot.

Asparagus, one way

Asparagus is one of our favorite vegetables and it's always a good time when it's in season. One delicious way to make them is a la Ina Garten in Barefoot Contessa Cooks Family Style. They're roasted and then sprinkled with parmaggiano to make them special. Served en masse on a big platter, they would be fantastic on a buffet.

Sliders

When I make burgers indoors, I like to make them old-school diner-style. I form them very thin and sear them on a flat skillet. The meat on the edges of my imperfect patties gets a little crispy. And once on the bun, it hangs off the sides. With a nod to the current restaurant trend (and because I didn't have any hamburger buns,) I've fashioned these into mini-burgers. A hot dog bun divided into three served as the buns. These burgers went over well with the boys, needless to say.

Pasta with Cherry tomatoes, basil and garlic

Here's a great thing to make when pints of grape tomatoes are selling as
"Buy one, get one" at Jewel or your local supermarket. This recipe for Pasta Pomodorini is from Michael Chiarello of the Food Network. This is a great way to make a fresh tomato pasta sauce when tomatoes aren't in season. The reliable grape tomatoes break down and get sweet. Their juices mix with olive oil and garlic and a dash of red pepper flakes and it all makes a delicious sauce to serve with pasta. The only problem with this pasta is that it does not photograph well in a yellow bowl.

Garlicky Tortellini, Spinach & Tomato Soup

I can't say enough about this simple soup (from Fine Cooking #47) made with stuff you can buy at a regular grocery store (like bagged washed spinach, frozen tortellini, canned tomatoes and broth.) There's a good amount of garlic in here and it just transforms store-bought chicken broth into something fresh tasting. This soup has become a staple in our household. I've talked about it before but never given the recipe. So here it is. Please buy good tortellini for this. If you are in Chicago, the ones from Dominick's, the Safeway brand, are just awful. They're gummy and you won't be happy with your soup. The Contadina brand (from supermarkets, (here in Chicago)) are somewhat better and Whole Foods carries a Perfect Pasta label (in the frozen case) that is great.
You could do mushroom tortellini here, or of course, some sort of chicken tortellini would be good. Pretty much anything that sounds good to you would work. We always just do cheese tortellini though. This recipe is easily made vegetarian with veg. broth. If you're going to buy broth, you'll need one of those big box cartons. I recommend Swanson, low-sodium, Healthy choice chicken broth.