Zucchini Parm

It's zucchini season and while I don't grow it myself, I get plenty of it from family members who do.  Just last week my brother told me he had picked 14 and there were more that were ready.  The FIL also grows it and gets enough to share.  Me, whenever I tried to grow it, I got none.  I don't know why that is, I do very well with everything else I've grown.  But whatev, I'm not lacking in the zucchini department by not growing it myself.

I had some leftover Damn Pasta that I made with paccheri pasta.  Paccheri is a very large tube shaped pasta and I urge you to find it (I get it at West Point Market for all you in the Akron area), especially if you're going to make that damn pasta.  With damn pasta, the bigger the pasta shape the better it comes out.  Anyway, I had some leftovers but not enough for two so I needed to make something to go with.  And seeing that big zucchini sitting on my counter I thought, "hey how about some zucchini parm?"  Sounds good.

So I started off with a pretty big zucchini and cut it in fairly thick slices.

I usually set up a breading station with flour, egg and then bread crumbs, but I skipped the flour step this time.  I went from egg (2 beaten eggs) to bread crumbs (about a cup of seasoned bread crumbs with a quarter cup of grated Parmesan cheese added).

And then to the frying pan with about 1/4 inch of canola oil nice and hot.  I have made these without frying and they turn out pretty damn good.  You can check out the baking method HERE.

They don't have to be fried very long.  Keep an eye on it.  And turn when they are browned on the bottom.

I made these pretty thick so they didn't cook the whole way through before they browned on both sides and that worked out pretty perfectly.  When they got to this stage I popped them in a 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes and they were perfect.  Well almost.  They just needed one more thing.  Some smoked mozzarella.  Place a piece on top of each zucchini parm and let it melt in the oven for a few minutes.

 

You can serve these with a side of spaghetti (or Damn Pasta like I did), orzo, or whatever you want.  You can even put them on a sandwich with some crusty Italian bread.  Oh damn these are good!   The smoked motz added a whole lot.  You can certainly use a regular mozzarella, but why not give the smoked a try?    

 

Buon Cibo mia Amici.

Classic Mac and Cheese

Sometimes nothing else will do.   It just won't.  Pasta and cheese, lots and lots of cheese.  It's iconic.  It's comforting.  It's just damn good.  I had already made my Sloppy Joe's and I was looking for a side dish.  I happen to be a spudaholic, so making some crispy potatoes is usually my go to side.  I could seriously eat potatoes every day, in every way.  But as I perused my fridge and pantry, I saw I had all the makings of what could end up being a pretty killer mac and cheese so I went for it.

Starting out with a third of a cup of unsalted butter and a third of a cup of flour, cook together for a few minutes on medium high heat. It doesn't have to darken, you just want to cook out the raw flour flavor. 

 

Turn the heat down to medium and add 2 cups of milk, slowly, stirring the whole time and continue to stir and cook until the mixture starts to thicken.  Add salt and pepper to taste and then for that extra zip, I add what amounts to about a half teaspoon of nutmeg.  I grate it fresh so I'm not exactly sure how much it is, I just grate it until it looks like enough.   When the mixture gets to the point where it can coat the back of a spoon it's time to turn off the heat.

Now it's time for cheese, cheese, glorious cheese!  I had extra sharp cheddar and provolone on hand and this was a winning combination!  Both cheese are sharp and full of flavor.  They rocked the mac.  I used 8 oz. of each for 1 pound of pasta.  You can use elbows if you want but seriously, why would you when you could use cavatappi?  It's heartier, bigger, holds the sauce better, bakes better, is just better all around.  Anyway, grate the cheese and add to the warm sauce mixture.

Gently stir the cheese in until it's completely melted.

 

Then, place your cooked to just slightly under al dente pasta in a buttered baking dish and pour all that cheesy goodness over the top.  Stir to combine completely.  And then it's time for the last but not least punch of flavor.... sour cream!

This happens to be one of my sour creams of choice, it's local and fantastic.  Rich, creamy, thick, with that sour cream tang I do so love.  SMITH'S products are available throughout Ohio.  If you are in the area, find it and use it!  And if I had any of my SMITH'S Chili Con Queso dip left, I would have used that.  Oh yes, that would be killer in the mac and cheese! 

Stir in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sour cream into the mac and cheese.

 

To finish it off, sprinkle the top with panko bread crumbs and dot with butter (that means take small pieces of butter and scatter them all over the top of the mac and cheese).  

 

Bake at 350 degrees, covered for 30 minutes and then uncover and bake for another 15 minutes.  And when you take this bubbly beauty out of the oven, you'll be in heaven!

Buon Cibo mia Amici.

Muffaletta This Pal

Just the word Muffaletta makes my mouth water... that combination of good crusty Italian bread, olives and garlic and herbs and cheese and capicola and ham and and ..... ohhhhhh ecstasy!   I love it, love it all, crave it, want it right now.   But as I strive for healthier living, I needed to find a way to have all those amazing flavors and still be kinda healthy... sort of.  Maybe.  I could be fooling myself here, but go with it, don't harsh my buzz.

Pasta salad.  Why not?  Just substitute the deliciously fatty Italian meats, for pasta.  Sacrilege you say!?  Try it first!

I first took a red bell pepper and roasted it off.  You can do this on a grill, in a broiler, on a stove top, in a freakin toaster oven if you want.  Just do it.  Don't buy it.  It's cheaper and tastes better when it's done fresh.  After that's done, give them a chop and toss them in your big bowl that will hold all your ingredients.  Now come the olives.  I only used one kind and Muffaletta generally has several, but when you're talking Kalamata, why mess with a good thing.  I would bathe in Kalamata's if I could.  Wow, a Kalamata olive bath.  That's something to aspire to.  Anyway, yeah... as I shake myself out of my reverie, add a big amount...a cup?  two cups?  Use your judgment, of Kalamata olives, chopped.

From there, I added the fresh mozzarella.  Now I suppose if you must, you can add a lesser motz, but why would you want to?  Soft, creamy, yummy fresh mozzarella!   Don't be an idiot.  Fresh is best, make this your mantra.

Cut in cubes, and add to the olives and peppers.  And then, ahhhh a bounty from my garden.  Chives, basil, Italian parsley, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes! 

What you see here are a couple San Marzano's, a couple Green Zebra (did you honestly expect me not to have zebra tomatoes?) and 16 Black Cherry's.  I only used the Black Cherry's (and the herbs) for the salad.  The rest will be used in something else or just eaten with some extra virgin olive oil and that crusty Italian bread I mentioned earlier.

So, 16 Black Cherry's.... true, I'm sure most of you don't have a giant 6 foot tall Black Cherry tomato plant in your yard, but if you do, use them!  If not, another fresh tomato would be fine, or as a last resort, grape or cherry tomatoes from the grocery.  And then pile on the herbs.  Don't be shy, add them to where you may even think it's too much.  It won't be, trust me.

A pound of whatever pasta you like is needed here.  You can use anything.  Don't feel confined to using tri-color rotini or whatever most pasta salads are made from.  I did use a tri-color farfalle because I had it on hand, but you can use anything ... penne, cavatappi, orzo, whatever.  And now the dressing.  I use my standard 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and that's it.  There is so much good stuff in this salad, but it's also big so you may need more dressing.  Probably not a full double recipe but more.  Season as you go of course, but there is no need to be aggressive with the salt, the olives add a lot.

Enjoy the hell out of it... make it often!  Buon Cibo mia Amici

Pepperoni Pizza Meatloaf!

What a weird concept. I don't know why I was even thinking it. But I was taking my mom on her weekly grocery shopping trip and I was thinking of making meatloaf for dinner. Then I just started thinking to myself, "self, what would pepperoni pizza meatloaf be like?" I decided that adding some tomato sauce, pepperoni, Italian seasonings and mozzarella cheese would make a meatloaf kind of pepperoni pizzay.

I started off with two pounds of ground turkey. My logic being that if I'm making a meatloaf with cheese and pepperoni in it, I should probably try and save some calories and fat somewhere. I don't know how much I succeeded with this, but it makes me feel a little better about it.


From there, I took half a large sweet onion, chopped and three cloves of garlic, chopped, and sauteed them in a little olive oil. I do this for all my meatloaf. I like the sauteed vegetables more than adding them to the meat raw. It's just another level of flavor.



While the onions and garlic are getting all nice and soft and sweet, I chopped up some pepperoni in bite size chunks. Using the same twisted logic as the reason for ground turkey, I decided that if I saute the pepperoni, it will release some of the oil and I won't have all that oil in the meatloaf. As it turns out, that wasn't so twisted after all!


I also chopped the mozzarella into bite size chunks.



Now that everything is chopped, sauteed or ready to go, I mixed it all with the meat... the onions/garlic, the pepperoni (about a cup or so), the cheese (same amount), 3/4 cup of seasoned bread crumbs with a hearty pinch of salt, about 10 grinds of pepper, two tablespoons dried parsley, one tablespoon dried basil, one teaspoon dried oregano, and about half a cup of crushed tomatoes. Form the meatloaf and then pour about another half cup of crushed tomatoes over the top. And then top with thinly sliced pepperoni.


Bake at 350 for at least an hour. I suggest that you not use a loaf pan because even though you cooked some of the oil out of the pepperoni, there will still be some and if you bake it in a baking dish instead, you can drain it out.

This is a BIG meatloaf. It will take time to cook. And for a first try at something I just made up in my head on the way to the grocery store, it was pretty damn good! Sure, I now know that there are lots of recipes online for Pepperoni Pizza Meatloaf, but I had never looked one up until after I made it. I wasn't really surprised. Not much is original anymore.

You definitely want the pepperoni on top to be crispy, the cheese to be oozy and in general the whole thing to be a big mound of yummy deliciousness.





I served it with some orzo with asparagus. I think if I make it again, I might add an egg to the mixture. It didn't fall completely apart, but it was a little messy. It was even better the next day.

It's My Birthday and I'll Muffaletta if I Want To.

It might be one of the most perfect foods. Then again, I might say that about anything that has olives in it. A Muffaletta, if you're not familiar, is an Italian sandwich that was created in New Orleans. It's usually made on a crusty round loaf of bread, but I'm using a long one this time. It usually contains various kinds of Italian lunch meats and cheese and then is topped with a spread made of olives, garlic, roasted peppers and all kinds of yumminess. So let's start with the olives. I use pitted Kalamata (although you can pit them yourself if you like).




Then use a large green olive. I don't really have a preference, just whatever is looking good at the olive bar that day.



I used a roasted sweet pepper... you can roast them yourself or use the jarred variety. In this case I use the jarred kind. They work perfectly! Today I have yellow.




This all goes in the food processor with some extra virgin olive oil (just enough to keep the mixture together but not be too wet) and I'd like fresh parsley, but I didn't have any today so I used some dried oregano and dried basil. Pulse it slowly until it's just chopped and mixed (zebra bowl is optional).





Then take your bread and cut it in half lengthwise. I like to dig out some of the bread from the top so the olive spread has a nice little cubby to nestle itself into. And then put the spread on that side of the bread. You can use as much or as little as you want. If you have some leftover, mmmm bruschetta.





And now it's time to add the meat! You can use whatever varieties of meat you want... capicola, mortadella, pepperoni, salami, ham, whatever you like. I just happen to have some ham leftover from earlier in the week so I used that as well as capicola and mortadella.



Then comes the provolone. If you don't like provolone, by all means use mozzarella. After you put the cheese on, carefully... very carefully, put the top of the bread over it. Then wrap it in plastic wrap, tightly, and place in the fridge. It should stay in there a couple hours so the olives have time to seep into every crevice of that bread.






Take it out about half an hour before you are going to eat it, unless you like it cold, then this step is not necessary. Enjoy!!!



What would I do differently if anything? I might cut it down to 1 or 2 cloves of garlic instead of the three I used. This particular garlic is really strong and kind of spicy. If the garlic is milder, I'd go with three. I'd also pull out some of the bread on the bottom half. But oh yes, the muffaletta is delish!!!

Tuscan Mac and Cheese

I've talked about the deliciousness of Tuscan Mac and Cheese on my message board, so if you go there, you've probably already heard about this dish. It bears repeating because it is SO good! In fact, the first time I made it, Nick's exact words were, "You know, if you want to make this again, I won't object." We love it, Mom loves it, even Grandma loves it. I am posting it with my tweeks to the original recipe.

8 ounces sweet or hot Italian sausage
1 lb. gemelli or cavatappi, cooked and drained
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cut into cubes and softened
4 ounces crusty Italian bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 2 cups)
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz.)
1 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon snipped fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups milk
2 ounces shredded Asiago, Parmesan, or Romano cheese (1/2 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Remove casings, if present, from sausage. In a skillet cook and crumble sausage; drain. In a very large bowl combine sausage, cooked pasta, cream cheese, bread cubes, olives, and mozzarella cheese. Set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour, thyme and salt. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Pour sauce over pasta mixture. Stir gently.

3. Transfer mixture to a 2-quart casserole. Bake, covered, for 35 minutes. Uncover; top with Asiago cheese. Bake, uncovered, 15 minutes more or until heated through. Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with additional cheese, if desired.

I know, this sounds like fat city! But there are so many ways you can lighten up this recipe. Start out by using turkey sausage. Use light cream cheese. I wouldn't try using fat free. But light works nicely. Use skim milk. I've made it both ways... full fat and lightened up and it's delicious both ways. I bet if you try this, it will become one of your go to meals too.