A Fresh Take on a Classic

Tonight's dinner didn't come from a recipe, it just sort of evolved from what I knew I wanted and what I found. It started with the idea of using my current favorite salad *arugula, prosciutto, dried chopped date and shaved parmesan with a semi-sweet tart vinaigrette; but making it into a complete dinner by adding a simple grilled chicken breast and serving the salad on top as is common in Italian restaurants. The salad itself is a really good combination of flavors: bitter fresh arugula, salty, dry prosciutto, sweet chopped dates, parmesan and also chopped pecans. (Thanks to Chef David DiGregorio, my favorite Italian chef)

But then I started thinking that it might be more interesting if I put chicken and prosciutto together. My thoughts naturally turned to Chicken Saltimbocca, the classic Italian chicken, prosciutto and sage dish, usually served with a lemony wine sauce. This wasn't quite the dish I wanted though, I still was thinking of my dinner salad. So I decided to prepare the chicken breast "saltimbocca" style but serve it with a tart vinaigrette and the arugula and date salad.

The chicken is prepared according to this recipe from Bon Appetit. Basically you just pound it thin and lay thin slices of prosciutto across the top. They just stick, no problem. The whole thing is dredged lightly in flour and then the chicken is browned in oil prosciutto-side down in a saute pan. It browns in about 4 minutes, gets flipped and cooked until it is cooked through (165 degrees,) about another 4, depending on the thickness of the chicken.

A vinaigrette is prepared and tossed with some arugula and thin-sliced dates. (I've pointed you to the vinaigrette that I use, but I think one made with lemon juice and zest would be even better. ) The chicken is plated and the salad is served on the side. Parmesan shavings go over the top - to bring it over the top. The chicken turned out really juicy and flavorful. Sometimes you get in your mind what you want and you just have to follow your instincts and trust that you know what you're doing. A nice spring dinner. Arugula is just about in season, so give this a try.

Swordfish "alla ghiotta"

From the Fine Cooking (90) notes on this recipe: seafood "alla ghiotta" means glutton's style. It is a savory side dish/sauce made with fennel, tomatoes, olives and capers all simmered together. I wonder if the name means that that the sauce has some of everything, like a glutton might want. The editors suggest you serve this dish with fish or you could just serve it as a side on its own, like as part of an italian buffet. But then I would add an extra fennel bulb.

I'm going through a thing with fennel at the moment and, when I was searching on Fine Cooking's website for something to do with my swordfish, this popped up as the ideal candidate. I know many of you will read swordfish and think mercury. And that's true, you shouldn't eat a lot of swordfish and we don't. But once a month or so, I can't resist. Whole Foods has had some great swordfish in the case lately. I love its clean taste and meaty, juicy texture. And It can hold its own next to big flavors so it is fun to work with in the kitchen. Meditteranean flavors like tomato, olive, lemon, rosemary are all natural pairings. And there's just nothing like swordfish on the grill, except maybe a steak.

This sauce is outstanding. The fennel browns and then is cooked slowly in a braise of tomatoes, olives and capers. The tomatoes soften their flavor after some cooking with onions, but the olives and capers are sharp and acidy. If you like Pasta Puttanesca, you will like this sauce. And I could almost see using this on pasta, but you would have to cut up the fennel smaller, here it is in wedges. There's one thing missing in the recipe below. Can you find it? ......... Garlic. I would add garlic next time. I was nearly through with cooking it when I realized I hadn't chopped any garlic. I don't care what a recipe says, if I'm going to make a sauce like this, I'm going to add garlic. Any glutton I know would want garlic, I'm pretty much sure of that.

Braised Fennel with Tomato, Green Olives & Capers

by Janet Fletcher, Rosetta Costantino

Seafood prepared alla ghiotta (“glutton’s style”)—with tomatoes, olives, and capers—is common in Calabria and Sicily, but the same flavors are compatible with fennel. Serves four.

1 large fennel bulb, trimmed (3/4 to 1 lb. after trimming)
8 large green Sicilian or Cerignola olives
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1-1/2 cups peeled, seeded, and diced fresh tomato (2 or 3 small tomatoes) OR a 28-oz. can whole tomatoes (preferably San Marzano), drained, seeded, and diced
3 Tbs. capers, drained and rinsed
1-1/2 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cut the fennel bulb in half lengthwise and then cut each half lengthwise into four 1-1/2-inch-thick wedges. Trim a little of the core but leave enough to hold the layers together.
With a pairing knife, slice the olive flesh off the pits lengthwise.

In a 12-inch skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the fennel, one cut side down, and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, turning once with tongs, until the wedges are lightly browned on both cut sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add the onion and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally and gently so as not to break up the fennel wedges, until the onions are slightly softened and browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, capers, and olives to the pan along with 1 cup water. Bring to a simmer, cover, and reduce the heat to medium low or low, to maintain a steady simmer. Cook until the fennel wedges are fork tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover, raise the heat to high, and simmer briskly until most of the liquid evaporates, leaving a thick sauce, 3 to 5 minutes. Gently stir in the parsley. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

serving suggestions:
Serve with grilled swordfish or tuna, roast chicken, or grilled sausages.

From Fine Cooking 90, pp. 50
December 4, 2007

Tuscan Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

Here's a seasonal dinner from Ellie Krieger's Food You Crave . It's Tuscan Roasted Chicken with Veggies, an all-in-one dish that you can put together easily and just stick in the oven. You can even play with your kids outside if you can hear the oven timer. Reading over the recipe, a few things concerned me, but since I had everything I just figured I'd go with it and adjust as I went along. More on that later.

This chicken is cooked on the bone but with the skin off. Good - because I end up just pulling the skin off before I eat it anyway, and because she instructs you to roast this at 375 - which will just give you flabby unappetizing skin anyway. On-the-bone gives you juicier chicken, so that appealed to me. You make a nice rub of garlic and lemon and put that all over the chicken. The chicken is placed on top of chunks of zucchini, tomatoes, and fennel (and I added some squares of red bell pepper too) that have been seasoned and tossed in olive oil. And into the oven it goes for 30 minutes. Then you add some herbs (rosemary, I added some thyme) and let it go for another 30 or so.

All good in theory. But the chicken and vegetables weren't really roasting. They were baking and there was no browning occurring at all. So I ended up turning the oven up to 400. If I wasn't out in the yard, I might have put it up to 425 and watched it closely. But at 400, the chicken got a little golden, as gold you could expect skinless chicken to get, I suppose. And the vegetables started to get some appetizing color too. In the end, it all tasted pretty good. The zucchini didn't get too mushy, as I feared it might. The tomatoes, fennel and peppers cooked down and softened. The juices from the veggies and the chicken co-mingled to make a delicious jus to spoon over everything. BTW, the fennel really benefited from cooking with the chicken. Fennel is great raw and sliced thin in a salad. But it's also amazing slow roasted in broth, cream or chicken juices. It mellows out and is just so savory and interesting. It made this dish notable.

I will probably make this again. (I might add some onion into the veg mix next time.) It is just one of those no-brainer, no-sweat, healthy meals that everyone needs in their repetoir.

Sweet 100's

If you're like me and you planted cherry tomatoes this year, they should be coming out of your ears about now. I planted one plant of Sweet 100's and 6 regular size tomato plants. But once things started to ripen I had to check that count. It seemed like there were cherry tomatoes coming up all over my garden plot. The prolific plant had grown and stretched its way to every corner of the plot. I slow roast the cherry tomatoes for "tomato candy." I eat them raw by the handful, add them to salads, saute them and serve them as a side dish and still they keep coming, more than a pint a day. I tried a cherry tomato gratin that was only so-so.

But here's a couple good pasta recipes to use up a bunch in a hurry. These are also great recipes for when the supermarket runs its "buy one, get one free" sale on pints of cherry or grape tomatoes. The first is called Pasta Pomodorini (little tomato) from Michael Chiarello of the Food Network. This is not a saucy pasta. The tomatoes exude some juices that mix with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes, but the tomatoes don't ever actually completely breakdown into a "sauce.' Nonetheless, there is plenty of flavor to coat your pasta. I like to toss in some cleaned raw shrimp in the last few minutes for a really nice dish.

Another great recipe (that I can't believe I've never posted about before) is Sara Moulton's Penne with Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Goat Cheese. This is where I learned the tomato candy method from above. And if you make those tomatoes (plus, somehow manage not to eat them all before it is time to prepare dinner,) and add them to some hot pasta and fresh goat cheese and basil ... well, you're in for a treat. This is one of dear husband's favorite pasta dishes.

Hearty Fare

I have never been much of a meat sauce lover but I cannot get enough of this short rib ragu especially on papardelle.

Short Rib Ragu

ingredients

3 to 4 lb. meaty bone-in beef short ribs, preferably

English style Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

3 oz. thickly sliced pancetta (about 3 1/4-inch-thick slices) or 3 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch squares

1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 1 heaping cup)

1 celery stalk, diced (about 1/2 cup)

1 carrot, diced (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup sliced white mushrooms

3 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

2 Tbs. tomato paste

Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth

1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes

how to make

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat the oven to 300°F.
Cook the ribs:
Trim away any excess fat from the top of each rib down to the first layer of meat, but don’t remove the silverskin or tough-looking tissue that hold the ribs together or onto the bone. Pat the ribs dry with paper towels, and season them with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven (or other heavy pot with a lid) over medium heat until hot. Add only as many ribs as will fit without touching, and brown them on all sides, turning with tongs until nicely browned, 3 to 4 min. per side. Transfer to a platter, and continue until all the ribs are browned.
Pour off and discard most of the fat from the pot. Return the pot to medium heat, and add the pancetta or bacon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pancetta or bacon has rendered some of its fat but is not crisp, about 3 minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrot, mushrooms, and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 min. Add the tomato paste and red pepper flakes, and cook for 2 min., stirring. Add the wine, increase the heat to medium-high, stir to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot, and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes and their juices and bring to a simmer.
Transfer the ribs to the oven:
Return the short ribs (and any juices) to the pot in a single layer, nestling them into the sauce. Crumple a large sheet of parchment and smooth it out again. Arrange it over the pot, pressing it down so it nearly touches the ribs, allowing any overhang to extend up and over the edges of the pot. Set the lid in place, and transfer to the oven. Braise, turning the ribs with tongs every 45 min., until fork-tender and the meat is pulling away from the bone, about 2-1/2 hours.
Make the ragù:
Use tongs or a slotted spoon to carefully transfer the ribs to a shallow baking dish or wide bowl. Set aside until just cool enough to handle. Skim any visible surface fat from the braising liquid and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. If the tomatoes haven’t broken up, break them up with a wooden spoon. If the sauce seems watery, increase the heat to medium-high and simmer to thicken. If not, keep it warm. Taste for salt and pepper.
When the beef is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and the bands of connective tissue that encircled the bones. Chop the meat into bite-size chunks or pull into large strips. Return the meat to the sauce, and keep warm until ready to serve, or if making ahead, cool and refrigerate.
Make Ahead TipsThe finished ragù can be refrigerated, covered, for up to three days.

From Fine Cooking 77, pp. 45, Article by Molly Stevens

Prosciutto con Melone

I've always thought this was a weird dish, pork wrapped around melon. But it tastes really good, the salty prosciutto against a sweet, juicy piece of melon. I don't like to order this in a restaurant because you can never be sure how good the melon will be, sometimes even in the nicest places!! But when I start to get good musk melons and cantaloupe from the market, I like to pick up some prosciutto de Parma and make this at home.

Spring Pasta

For my weekly installment of Things to do with Pasta and Cherry Tomatoes, I borrowed the idea for this spring pasta from the current issue of Cooking Light (Penne with Asparagus, Spinach and Bacon), however I changed it so much that it really bares little resemblance to the original, except for the vegetables used. The method for cooking is closer to this recipe, where I usually start with this type of pasta dish. Here I added spinach, asparagus and bacon from the Cooking Light recipe. This pasta turned out lovely. There is spicy pepper flakes in the oil that really come through, plus the bacon and the green vegetables made it very satifying and beautiful. Even dear husband, at first shocked by the idea of not one, but two green vegetables to contend with, enjoyed it very much. The best way to tell a good pasta dish is if it gets better down toward the bottom of the bowl and you scrape the last bits of sauce as we did with this one.

Pasta with cherry tomatoes AGAIN

Here's one from the current issue of Fine Cooking magazine, issue no. 86. It's another pasta dish with cherry tomatoes which we seem to have some incarnation of at least once a week in our household. Grape tomatoes are so reliable, they're always good and sweet. This one incorporates them with shrimp, garlic, herbs and some hot pepper flakes and then is garnished with toasted breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs add a lot to the dish. They stick to the shrimp and pasta and give them some crunchy texture. The recipe suggests mint for the herb, but I went with basil, not being a huge mint fan. The only other change I would make would be to add the shrimp after the tomatoes have cooked down a little, so that the shrimp don't get overcooked and the tomatoes have time to give up some juice.

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. "

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.

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.

Marinara Sauce

Talk turned to signature dishes over at CT this week. Defined as a dish that you've made repeatedly and have been asked by others to make, something you are proud of and that's been with you for a long time, I decided that my marinara sauce would have to be my signature dish. It's not difficult to make and there's no secret to making it. But I can make it with my eyes closed and it turns out good everytime. I see no reason to try another basic tomato sauce. I've given the "recipe" to people but the recipe is sort of just a vague description of what I do. It's really just an adaptation of my Mom's sauce. In my own hands, I reduced the onion, use fresh basil, and puree a bit with the stick blender for a smoother finish. Also, I upgraded on the tomatoes because I think Muir Glen Whole Tomatoes are especially good. I think I'll work on a concrete recipe and include it here soon. For now the picture above will have to do.

My marinara goes especially well with these fantastic ravioli from Perfect Pasta. This is a company from the Chicago area. I don't know if they're national or not. I find the pasta in the freezer section of the local Whole Foods. We like the big pillowy cheese ones, but there are quite a few varieties. All are made from rich egg pasta. You can really taste the ricotta inside. I think the quality is very good.

Not So Crunchy Parmesan Chicken

This recipe (from Fine Cooking 38) met mixed reviews in our house. My husband enjoyed it, but me, not so much. I have made the recipe before and remember liking it more. The chicken is rolled in melted butter, coated with a parmesan-flour-herb mix and baked in a hot oven (425*). The topping is flavored nicely with thyme and a little cayenne. The problem is that all that good flavor is on the skin which I end up taking off. Chicken skin has to be crackly crispy dry for me to like it. This chicken skin still retained a little flabbiness so I couldn't eat it. The kids ate it without the skin as well. I think I might try to modify it with bone-in skinless breasts perhaps using the pre-toasted breadcrumb method from a recent Fine Cooking issue.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Halibut with Sage Butter Sauce

This recipe is from Fine Cooking issue 75. It's super easy and looks great on plate. The herbed fillets are wrapped in a belt of prosciutto and baked. A sage butter sauce with a spike of lemon is prepared and dabbled over the cooked fillets at the end. I think this dish would be nice for a dinner party becauce once the halibut is prepped, it just goes in the oven and comes out looking spectacular with the colors of the pink prosciutto, the green sage and the snowy white halibut. I served mine with Spinach Catalania or spinach sauteed with raisins. The sweet raisins played off the salty prosciutto. And it was italian-y love.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Halibut with Sage Butter Sauce

From Fine Cooking issue 75
Serves 6

2 large lemons
6 1-inch thick halibut skinless fillets (about 6oz each)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
A bunch of fresh sage leaves
6 thin slices imported prosciutto
6 TBS unsalted butter

Position a rach in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 400F.

Slicing crosswise, cut six ¼ inch rounds from the center of one of the lemons
Repeat with remaining lemon. Squeeze the juice from the ends into a small bowl (you’ll need 4 tsp,) and set aside. Arrange the lemon rounds in slightly overlapping pairs on a heavy-duty baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment.

Season the fish with salt and pepper. Set two sage leaves on top of each fillet and then wrap each fillet with a slice of prosciutto. The prosciutto should form a belt, enclosing the leaves but leaving the fish exposed at either end. Lay one wrapped fillet on top of each pair of lemon slices. Bake until the fish is cooked through (it should flake and be opaque in the thickest part), 15 to 20 minutes depending of the thickness of the fillets.

While the fish is cooking, melt the butter in a 10-inch skillet over med. heat. Add the remaining sage leaves and cook, turning once until the leaves are crisp and the butter begins to brown, about 7 minutes. Add the 4 tsp. lemon juice and season with ¼ tsp. salt or to taste.

Arrange each fillet on its lemon slices on each dinner plate. Pour any juices from the fish into the butter sauce in the skillet. Spoon some of the sauce and a few sage leaves over each fillet and serve.

Trader Joe's Ravioli

I'm really enjoying these Portabella ravioli from Trader Joe's. The ravioli filling is really flavorful and includes provolone cheese. Here I've made them with a sage walnut cream sauce - a classic combination. Although this dinner is somewhat improvised (i.e. no recipe,) I give credit to my gal, Deborah Madison and her wonderful books for planting the idea in my head.

Salmon goes italian

You never see italian recipes using Salmon. The fish just isn't traditionally used. But here I was with a notion for an italian style vegetable saute served over polenta and some Salmon. So I roasted with Salmon with olive oil, rosemary and garlic. It went perfectly fine with my side dishes.

Short Rib Ragout

Making a meat sauce out of short ribs is a breaking new ground for me. I was a little hesitant because I love short ribs just as they are. But this recipe from Fine Cooking issue #77 got great reviews so I decided to give it a try. Basically, short ribs are browned and then simmered in a vegetable-enriched tomato sauce until very tender. Then the meat is removed from the bones, all the fat trimmed and the meat is shredded and added back to the de-fatted sauce. It turned out great. The meat was a pleasure to eat because all the work had been done. The sauce was delicious. I served the ragout tossed with Ziti. But it would also be nice on top of a cheesy polenta.

Chicken stuffed with Prosciutto and Fontina

It is not everyday that you have prosciutto and fontina in the fridge needing to be used. But that is where I found myself on a recent Wednesday night. I came up with the recipe from Fine Cooking's 100 Things To Do with Chicken. The recipe turned out great. But it was not our favorite thing to have stuffed in a chicken breast, so I won't be making it again. Goat cheese is the best thing to stuff in a chicken breast.

Minestrone Soup

By far the best vegetable soup I have ever made. It it chock-full of goodness and has a great taste. Rinds from Parmaggiano-reggiano are simmered in the soup. The broth is chicken stock and the juices from the veggies which include, onions, garlic, carrots, celery, tomatoes, potato, green beans, swiss chard and white beans. Herbs are parsely and basil. A tiny pasta is added at the end. This recipe is from Williams-Sonoma series: Mastering Soups and Stews. While the baby would not eat the veggies, he slurped up the broth.