Baked Pasta

I made a delious baked pasta recipe a few weeks ago to bring to a friend's house. It was a great dish for that.. I was able to grab it from the oven and put it directly in my car. It rested in the car and by the time I arrived, it was ready to serve. The original recipe is actually a Baked Ziti with Sausage recipe from AllRecipes.com but I made a couple of modifications, one of which was pureeing the onions which I think really made a difference. You could leave out the sausage for a vegetarian dish and probably use a ziti, penne or even maybe a medium-sized shell pasta. I used a rigatoni because the supermarket here didn't have ziti, but it came out great. Try to pick a pasta with lines as opposed to a smooth pasta because the lines will hold the cheese, sauce, and/or meat.

Baked Pasta

• 1 (16 ounce) package dry ziti pasta or other shape


• 1 pound mild Italian sausage, ground or links (optional)


• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese


• 1 egg


• 1 cup chopped onion


• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic


• 1 teaspoon dried oregano


• 1 teaspoon dried basil


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper


• 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce, divided


• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.


2. Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the ziti, and return to a boil. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite. Drain well in a colander set in the sink.


3. While pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat. If you are using a link sausage, cut the links into 1/2 inch pieces before cooking. Add the sausage, and cook and stir until brown, about 10 minutes. Drain sausage and set aside.


4. Put the chopped onion, garlic, and about a 1/4 cup of the ricotta in a food processor and puree. Add the rest of the ricotta, egg, and spices, and puree until smooth. Add to a large bowl.


5. If using ground sausage, stir the cooked, ground sausage into the ricotta mixture. If using linked sausage, don't mix in the sausage. If using no sausage, ignore this part!


6. Stir the drained pasta into the ricotta mixture and add 1/2 of one jar of the pasta sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.


7. Now it's time to layer the dish. Cover the bottom of your baking dish with 1/2 jar of sauce, then layer in 1/2 of the pasta/ricotta mixture, then the sausage link slices if you have them, another 1/2 jar of sauce, then 1/2 of the shredded cheese. Then layer the remaining 1/2 of pasta, 1/2 jar of sauce, then 1/2 of the cheese.


8. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil.


9. Bake in the preheated oven until heated through, about 20 minutes. Uncover; return to the oven and bake until cheese is melted, 5 to 10 more minutes.

Risotto

I'd never really made risotto until the other day when I didn't have much in the house for dinner but I did have a box of Trader Joe's Aborio Rice which I'd never opened along with a bag of frozen cooked shrimp so I thought, this could make a good meal along with the salad I just whipped up. The results: amazing, one of the best things I'd ever made and surprisingly it's naturally low in fat and calories. It's naturally creamy because of the starch in the rice, but you don't actually add any cream to it and in my opinion you can leave out the butter and cheese which is traditionally added at the end, especially if making with seafood. I flavored my risotto with the juice from half a lemon, so it was pretty lemony and very good, but it tasted amazing even before I added the lemon. So, I think you can really take the basic recipe and modify the flavors in lots of different ways by trying different broths/stocks, wines, veggies, etc.

Lemon Shrimp Risotto
Makes 4, entree-sized servings

• 1 Tablespoon butter


• 2 big or 3 small garlic cloves, crushed or grated


• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion


• 1/2 cup finely chopped red, yellow, or orange bell pepper


• 8 green olives with pimentos, finely chopped


• 1 cup Aborio rice (or even better rices are supposed to be Carnaroli or Vialone Nano)


• 2 cups hot chicken broth (if using stock, will need to salt/season more)


• 1/2 cup dry white wine


• 1/4 teaspoon crushed saffron threads


• 1 lb cooked shrimp, tails off, frozen OK


• 1/2 lemon, juice and zest (separate)

1. Heat a medium saucepan over medium/high heat until hot. Add the butter and swirl and melt.


2. Add the onions and peppers, cook two minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and olives, cook two minutes more.


3. Add rice while stirring, cook 2-3 minutes stirring constantly until rice starts to brown.


4. Stir in the wine 1/4 cup at a time.


5. Add the saffron.


6. Stir in the broth 1/4 cup at a time with a minute or so between each addition. Keep stirring constantly.


7. When liquid comes to a boil, turn to very low and simmer, stirring frequently, until the rice is tender and there is just enough liquid left (should be a thick sauce, but not soupy). When done, stir in the lemon juice and add white pepper to taste (broth and olives have the salt).


8. While rice is cooking, heat up the shrimp with the lemon zest in a pan.


9. Serve rice with warm shrimp!

I'm Still Alive People! Plus, Christmas Eve Wrap-Up and Tiramisu Recipe

Apologies for the MIA status. I was working on a super-hectic work project in December, then I took a couple of weeks off for the holidays and now I am just being lazy.

I went to Boston for two weeks over the holidays. My mother, my nephew and I cooked the Italian seafood Christmas eve dishes we usually make, as part of La Vigilia, the feast of the seven fishes. I counted them up and it came to six fishes this year as opposed to seven. This is because no one made the delicious salted-cod antipasto, Baccala, that I love so much. Thanks a lot! This recipe at the Boston Globe comes close to it. I just realized I have an eerily similar post from last year where I did post the Baccala and Stuffed Squid recipes. So, check it out.

The fishes we made were:

• Scallops wrapped in bacon (bacon deviates from the tradition because it's meat)


• Stuffed clams


• Fried smelts (I really perfected the frying method this year - yes!)


• Salmon with farfalle (bow-tie shaped pasta)


• Grandma Phyllis' shrimp casserole


• Stuffed calamari with spaghetti

Most of the dishes we make are some combination of the fish/seafood, tomato sauce, garlic, and Progresso bread crumbs. I swear we use like three containers of those breadcrumbs every Christmas.

We don't really do much of a meal Christmas day; we usually just eat leftovers. We do however have plenty of Panettone in the house for breakfast Christmas week. I looooove Panettone.. the best way to describe it is a light Italian fruitcake but it tastes nothing like regular American fruitcake. It is very difficult to make, so even most chefs don't recommend trying to make it at home.

My mom also usually makes her homemade cannoli but I talked her into letting me make tiramisu which came out awesome! I'll even post the recipe below. It is kind of a fake/poor man's tiramisu because it doesn't use marscapone cheese but it is awesome nonetheless. I got it from a Better Homes and Gardens magazine a few years ago. It's actually one of the reasons why a roommate and I parted ways.. but that's a story for another day.

Poor Man's Tiramisu

• About 2 packages of lady fingers (cookies)


• 2 cups of heavy cream, freshly whipped. This will make the 3 cups of whipped cream which will be used for the filling and frosting.


• Grated chocolate or sifted cocoa for topping/garnish

Filling:

• 2 8oz packages of Philly cream cheese, softened


• 1 cup sifted powder sugar


• 3 Tablespoons Kahlua


• 2 cups of the whipped cream

Frosting:

• 1 cup of the whipped cream


• 1/2 cup sour cream


• 2 Tablespoons Kahlua

For soaking the lady fingers:

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup strong, fresh coffee


• 1/4 cup Kahlua
  

1. Now, you can make this in 2 or 3 layers depending on the size of your dish, but you'll need one that's a few inches deep. You can use a longer dish with less height, or a smaller one with more height. The more cookies you use, the more coffee you'll need to soak them. So, go choose your dish and decide how many layers you'll be doing before you get started.


2. First you should make your coffee and whip your cream.


3. Prepare the filling: mix together the cream cheese, sugar and Kahlua. Then, fold in the whipped cream. Set aside.


4. Prepare the frosting: mix together the sour cream and Kahlua. Then, fold in the whipped cream. Set aside.


5. Combine the coffee and the 1/4 cup of Kahlua.


6. Now, you're ready to start layering. With the exception of the frosting, if you are doing two layers, use the cookies, coffee mixture, and filling 1/2 at a time. With three layers, use 1/3 at a time.


7. Arrange your first layer of cookies at the bottom of the pan evenly. If you need to chop off some ends of some cookies, do so. Pour the first part of the coffee mixture evenly over the cookies so that they are all covered.


8. Spread your first layer of filling over this.


9. Repeat with the remaining layers. With each layer, arrange the cookies in the opposite manner so as to build strength into the Tiramisu.


10. After the last filling layer, spread the frosting on top.


11. Chill until ready to serve. Sprinkle shaved chocolate or sift cocoa over the whole thing right before serving.

Wicked Good, Wicked Easy, Meat Lasagna

I am sure there are plenty of recipes for lasagna out there, but I concocted my own from a combination of recipes that were lying around and it came out really good! It was relatively quick because I used the "oven-ready" noodles that you just bake right out of the box. I did learn however that if you're going to use those noodles that all parts of the noodle must be covered with sauce, otherwise they don't get soft. I came up with a little trick where I actually put the lasagna in the broiler for 3 minutes at the end and the cheese on top got all bubbly and crisp!

Wicked Good, Wicked Easy, Meat Lasagna
Serves two people for 3 days or 3 people for 2 days

• 8 oz of oven-ready lasagna sheets (the kind you don't have to boil first.


• 1 lb ground beef (I used 96% lean and it came out great)


• 2 cloves garlic, crushed


• 28 oz of your favorite pasta sauce like Classico, Barilla, or Trader Joe's. Please don't use Ragu or Prego or anything with corn syrup, please!!


• 15 oz can plain tomato sauce like Contadina, Pastene, or a store brand (again, no corn syrup)


• 15 oz ricotta cheese


• 1 large egg


• 3 Tablespoons freshly cut herbs like basil, oregano and Italian parsley OR
  2 teaspoons dried herbs


• Salt and pepper


• dash nutmeg


• 2 cups shredded mozzarella (I use part-skim)


• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese or if you don't have that, use pre-grated parmasan or romano cheese
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.


2. Lightly brown the ground beef with the garlic in a skillet. Don't overcook, it should be rare since you're going to bake it for 45 minutes. Drain.


3. In the mean time, mix well the ricotta, egg, herbs, a little salt and pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.


4. Add your 28 oz pasta sauce to the beef and heat on low for a few minutes until just warm.


5. Start layering your lasagna. Pour about 1/4 can of the plain tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan and spread it all out. This will be like your glue.


6. Layer 3-4 sheets of the pasta, whatever fits.


7. Spread on 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, then sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the mozzarella.


8. Spread on 1/3 of the meat sauce.


9. Repeat steps 6-8 two more times.


10. Now, take the last sheets of pasta you have and lay them on top.


11. Pour the 3/4 can of plain sauce over the top, make sure every piece of pasta gets wet.


12. Sprinkle on the remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella and the 1/2 cup of parmigiano reggiano.


13. Cover the whole thing with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the temp up to 375 and cook for another 15 minutes, the last 2-3 minutes of which, if you have a broiler, put it right under there. Don't turn the heat to the broil setting, 375 is hot enough. Keep a close eye on it so that it doesn't burn.


14. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before cutting into it.


15. You're done! Serve with a salad!

Rachael Ray's Italian Fish and Chips with Organic Tomatoe Salad

I guess we're still on a fried fish kick here because we just made some for dinner. We used a recipe from one of Rachael Ray's newest cookbooks: Just in Time (more 15, 30, and 60-minute meals). Now, this isn't my mom's recipe for fish and chips (she just uses eggs and Italian breadcrumbs), but it came out really well. I changed the recipe just a little, and substituted cod for red snapper. Cod is the amazing fish which I think is best for "fish and chips" because it just has those huge flakes. I also cut the recipe almost in half and turned the topping she made into a salad. I hope you like it, we did : )

(At the bottom of the post is a picture I took today of one of the flowers in our courtyard. I don't know what the plant is, but it has red leaves almost year-round and in early Spring these amazing light pink flowers just pop out and their petals start falling from the tree like snow. Today the clock "sprang forward" and it seems all the plants knew. At the beach, there were amazing bright yellow flowers and lots of other kinds.)

Italian Fish and Chips with Tomatoe Salad
Serves 2-3

• 3 medium, red potatoes
• 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 cup, plus 3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• 1 Tablespoon fresh, chopped rosemary
• 1 lb cod
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 garden or organic tomatoes
• Handful of fresh, flat-leaf parsley
• 1 Tablespoon finely diced onion
• 1/2 cup croutons (preferably homemade and not made with much fat or seasoning)

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Cut up your potatoes into wedges and place on a cookie sheet. Drizzle 1.5 T EVOO on the potatoes. Sprinkle the chopped rosemary, crushed garlic, and salt and pepper over the potatoes and toss. While you're waiting for the oven to heat up, you can make the salad:
2. Wash and dry the parsley, then chop. Chop the tomatoes, place in a bowl with the parsley. Squeeze in the lemon juice, 1.5 T EVOO, salt and pepper. Add the croutons now if you like hem soft, like a bread salad (I do.)
3. Put the potatoes in the oven and cook for 14 minutes. During the first 12 minutes, get the coating and fish ready:
4. On a plate, mix together the cornmeal, flour, cheese, and lemon zest.
5. Cut the fish into 3 pieces. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and a lot of pepper onto each side of the fish. Coat the fish evenly with the cornmeal mixture.
6. Once the potatoes have cooked for about 12 minutes, heat up the remaining 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add the fish.
7. Cook the fish about 4 minutes on each side until deep golden brown.
8. When the fish and potatoes are done, you can place them on a brown bag to soak up the excess oil.
9. Serve with homemade tartar sauce (mayo mixed with relish) and lemon wedges.

What do I have to do to get a good sub around here??

I just tried out a place I've driven by many times in Santa Monica. I am from Boston, so I know that my sub standards are high, but with a sign called 'Bud's FAMOUS Deli and Desserts", I figured they might have something good going on here. I asked for a turkey sub, they don't really do those.. but they can put it on a "roll". Although the turkey meat was plentiful and tasty, they put a FREAKIN' KRAFT SINGLE on my sandwhich when I asked for American cheese. I mean, come on! Even out here you can buy white Land o' Lakes wicked cheap.

Step it up, Bud..

Our Christmas Traditions

Since there isn't any point now in posting the vegan pumpkin chocolate chip mummy cupcakes or the Thanksgiving leftover stromboli since they are so yesterday, I thought I'd get a jump on the whole Christmas thing before it is too late.

First, I'm Italian, so our Christmas tradition is the "seven fishes" feast on Christmas eve. So, we've never had turkey or ham or any of those things. On Christmas day, we have Panettone for breakfast and then leftovers the rest of the day. Panettone is a very light and tasty cake with small amounts of dried fruit. It is NOT like an American fruitcake. It usually has golden raisins and citrus peels. I found a cranberry version at Trader Joe's this year. My mother likes her piece toasted with butter. I just eat mine plain. We've never tried making these, we just buy them. Do NOT pay $34 at Williams Sonoma for these. You can get them for $7 to $15 at Italian bakeries or grocery stores with ethnic foods.

My absolute favorite dish for Christmas, and possibly my favorite dish EVER, is my mom's stuffed squid. She basically buys cleaned squid, cuts up the tentacles and makes a stuffing out of it, and then shoves it into the bodies. You bake it all up with tomato sauce. Here is the recipe:

Stuffed Squid

• 2 lbs cleaned squid bodies (get BIG ones) plus 1/2 lb tentacles.
• 2 cloves garlic sliced fine
• 1.5 cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (like Progresso)
• 1/2 c grated parmesan or romano cheese
• 1/4 c olive oil
• a few cups thick, homemade tomato sauce
• 3 T chopped parsley
• 1 large egg beaten
• 1/2 c dry red wine
• 1 medium onion, minced

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Wash all the squid and chop the tentacles.
3. Mix the tentacles with all the other ingredients EXCEPT the tomato sauce
4. Stuff the squid bodies with the stuffing. Secure each body with a toothpick.
5. Spread 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan, place the stuffed bodies on the sauce.
6. Cover with the remaining sauce.
7. Cover pan with foil
8. Cook for about an hour, remove toothpicks before serving.

For some reason, we got into the habit of stuffing everything and we ended up with stuffed squid, stuffed clams and a stuffed shrimp casserole. I could post those recipes if you want.. so post a comment if you want me to. There is usually a pasta dish, it could be linguine with clam sauce, but recently my mother started making a really good salmon with bow ties and peas, probably because my nephew and brother are picky about things. Again, just leave a comment if you want these recipes.

I will post my other favorite, and that is Baccala, which is an Italian version of dried, salted cod. Sounds delicious, huh? Well, it is! My grandmother (rest her soul) always made this as the first course and served it cold with big chunks of tomatoes, artichokes, peppers, and olives, like an antipasto. My sister is usually the one to re-create it. You need to do this ahead of time, because the fish needs to soak in water for about 12 hours to get most of the salt out. Unfortunately, like many family recipes, I don't have measurements here. But I feel you can prepare it to your own tastes.

Baccala

• Dried, salted cod
• Vinegar peppers (these come in the jarred section).
• Black Olives
• Roasted red peppers and/or big tomato chunks
• Artichoke hearts
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Pepperoncini (if you like them, these are hot)

1. Soak the cod in water for 12 hours, then poach.
2. Break the cod up into 3 inch chunks
3. Add veggies with some vinegar from the peppers.
4. Add olive oil and lemon juice.

OK, finally, there are the cannolis. We make the shells from scratch, no boxed, yucky shells. I'll get to those in the next post.

Well, I hope you enjoy some of these recipes. Why not try a traditional Italian christmas this year? : )

Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad

I know this is an easy, obvious thing to make. But, it tasted so good I thought I'd post about it real quick. If anything, I just want to remind you of how tasty this simple salad is. I really think it is the fresh basil that makes it. I bought a basil plant... it died. I've got this little window box herb garden just outside of my apartment. But, with the California summer sun, the basil was just too delicate. Rosemary seems to stay alive nicely, along with mint and oregano, for a while. At any rate, if you can keep fresh herbs around, they are pretty much the best way to make things instantly delicious.

For my salad, I sliced up Roma tomatoes. I used small mozzarella balls so no prep there, and placed them and the fresh basil leaves on top of the tomatoes. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil and WHITE, yes, white balsamic vinegar on top. It's lighter than regular balsamic but still adds some of that great flavor. Some salt and pepper and you're all set. Enjoy it with your next pizza, stuffed peppers, or antipasto.

Vegan Anise Agave Cupcakes

Let me explain the inspiration for these cupcakes:

I am 10 years old and I've just walked into the local Italian bakery in East Boston, Massachusetts. The smell is of anise, sesame, rum, blueberries and sugar. I look at the strawberry cheesecakes, reserved only for birthdays in my family. These cheesecake are softer than the New York kind, almost fluffy, and covered in fresh strawberries and gooey strawberry glaze...pretty much the best thing about birthdays when you're 10 years old.

The girl behind the counter slices the scali bread in the big metal slicer, and then hands slices of room-temperature Sicilian pizza to the kids for lunch. The cheese is one solidified layer over a cooled tomato sauce. The Neapolitan pastries are so pretty, with their vanilla and chocolate ribbons intertwined over layers of flaky pastry and boiled custard cream. One of my favorites, the half-moons, beckon me from their case. Otherwise known as "black and whites", these soft, cake-like cookies are frosted with chocolate icing on one half and vanilla on the other, giving them their lunar name.

I'm probably in the bakery because we're buying pastry to take to my grandmother's house, or maybe my dad feels like treating us on a Sunday. At any rate, getting a pastry is a special occasion. Then, I see them, the bags of snowball-shaped cookies covered in thin white icing and rainbow sprinkles. Some are flavored with lemon or vanilla, but my favorite is anise. They sit next to towers of similarly flavored pizzelles: flat, waffle-like cookies that crumble to your touch.

I pick up the bag of anise snowball cookies and smell it. Inhaling the sweet, licorice aroma is pure heaven. My dad sees my joy and takes the bag from me, bringing it to the cash register. As we leave the shop I spring out into the sunshine and run through the parking lot. I can't wait to get home and eat my cookies. It's going to be a great day.

When you read my story, you understand my thoughts behind these cupcakes. The agave cupcakes in VCTOTW are golden and full-flavored, yet receptive to any additional flavors to be layered into them. Light agave nectar is a wonderful sugar alternative and is healthier than refined, white sugar. It's natural, but doesn't have the same effect on the body as white sugar, so it's better for diabetics and those on low-glycemic index diets like South Beach, the Zone, etc. I did use confectioner's sugar in the icing, but the amount of icing is so small, it is a much lower-calorie alternative than other frosted cupcakes, and to me, taste amazing.

For those who haven't tried anise, it comes from the seed of the star anise plant. Although it tastes similar to licorice, fennel or Zambuca, I believe it's taste is unique. I say this because I don't like licorice, fennel, or Zanbuca, but I love anise. Buy it in extract form. The only place I was able to find it on the west side is the Italian market inside the Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery. This is the only place that has the stuff I'm used to getting back home in East Boston and the North End: olives, parmigiana reggiano, frozen ravioli, Nutella, etc.

The recipe? You'll have to buy VCTOTW to get the agave nectar cupcake recipe. [Don't fret chicklets! You can make these adjustments to any vanilla cupcake recipe with awesome results!! ]Instead of 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla and .5 teaspoons of almond, I used .5 of vanilla extract and .5 of anise extract for 12 cupcakes. The MOST important part is the icing: Take a bunch of powdered sugar, add a little soy milk and a little anise extract. Stir it all up. It should be the texture of Elmers glue (my icing is too thin in the photo above). Drizzle in the middle of each cooled cupcake and let it spread out. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle on the rainbow sprinkles, the tiny round kind, not the jimmies. Prego!!!!