Pesto ... as Promised!

I opted to use the bunch of basil I received in my delivery first, because basil spoils quite quickly, and I didn't want it to go to waste. The best way to use a large amount of basil is to make pesto sauce. What's pesto sauce, you may ask...well, I'm about to show you. It is probably one of the easiest sauces to throw together!

Pesto goes great with any pasta, but I prefer it with a shape that has a larger surface area to catch the sauce. I decided to go with a box of medium shells that I had in my pantry (I told you I was going to start using stuff up!). You'll also need some grated Parmesan, pine nuts, salt and pepper, garlic and olive oil, in addition to the basil. I decided to add some ricotta to the top of my dish, as a garnish, as well, so I saved a few basil leaves to mix in with that as well.

The first thing that you need to do to prepare your pesto sauce is toast the pine nuts. When I say toast, I mean, get some heat on them...they burn VERY quickly so throw them under the broiler for a minute or two tops, but keep a close eye on them. All you need is a little heat to bring out the flavor of the nut.

In a food processor, chop up a clove of garlic (or a little less than a clove if you don't want it to be very garlicky) and the pine nuts until they are all chopped up. Add about 3 handfuls of basil and chop it all up. Add the Parmesan and then start pouring olive oil, little bits at a time until you have a thick, chunky consistency.

While the shells were cooking, I took half a head of lettuce and mixed it with some shaved carrots, sliced radishes, and lemon-tarragon vinaigrette, as a side dish to the pasta. I also mixed a few tablespoons of ricotta with some salt, pepper, and basil ribbons.

Once the pasta was drained, and put back in the pot, I added the pesto and tossed it all together. Reserve a little bit of the pasta water before draining, in case you need to thin your sauce a bit. In this case, I didn't need to, but depending on the consistency of your pesto, it could be an option for you, and the starchy water is the perfect antidote. I plated the salad alongside the pasta and added a nice quenelle (a dollop shaped with two tablespoons) of ricotta mixture to the top of each plate. I sprinkled it with Parmesan and a few extra basil ribbons. VOILA!

Leftovers for Breakfast?

It's that time again, the time when I spend a few days using up what's left in the fridge, putting use to the ingredients in the pantry, and cleaning things out for the next shopping trip and even more exciting, the NEW MENU! :) My task today is to see what things I can put together for the next few days of meals, and then plan my menu and make my grocery list. Over the next week, I'll start to gather the ingredients from that list so that the menu can begin.

Shopper iPhone App

This morning, I used some of the things in the fridge to make a great scrambled egg dish! Eggs are a great base for most vegetables and they make for a great way to use up those scraps from previous dinners. I chopped up a tomatillo, which I then sauteed for a few minutes, and some leftover chives. When I make scrambled eggs, I beat the eggs with the ingredients mixed in, so that it all cooks together. Once the eggs, tomatillo and chives were cooked through, I sprinkled a little goat cheese through out and seasoned it with salt and pepper. What a delicious breakfast!

Other great ways to use leftovers: pizzas, pastas, "garbage" salads (salads with LOTS of stuff thrown in)

We have plans tonight, so there won't be any more cooking today, but tomorrow, I'll roast those beets from the farmer's market last weekend, and I have a few leftover cuts of meat from the freezer to defrost. There may even be a parsnip puree in my future!

And now...on to the menu planning!

The Advantage of a Homemade Bolognese

The homemade Bolognese, or meat sauce, is a quintessential addition to any well-rounded cook's repertoire. I must stress the importance of the "homemade" portion of that sentence. The difference between a store-bought marinara with some ground beef in it, and the slowly simmered sauce chock-full of the meaty flavors characteristic of the dish is incomparable.



Bolognese, believe it or not, doesn't really have a lot of tomato base at all, nor is it really all that "saucy." It's mostly meat, simmered slowly until tender, so that all the flavors can meld together to create a very thick sauce with quite a bit of depth to it. Traditionally speaking, the ingredients include pancetta, olive oil, butter, onions, carrots, celery, ground beef and pork, white wine, tomato paste, salt, pepper, nutmeg, chicken stock, and a little heavy cream to top it off. See, not much tomato at all mentioned there! We tend to get lost in the commercialized version of a "bolognese," that jarred red sauce with some meat stirred in it.

There are many modern variations on the Bolognese, and one of my favorites is from the Stir cookbook, by Barbara Lynch. Her recipe is one of the stars on the menu at her restaurant, The Butcher Shop. Its flavors are based on ground veal, lamb, and pork, along with some finely chopped chicken livers and it makes for an extremely robust sauce. As the flavors meld over the course of a few hours, they develop into a very rich sauce that is just perfect over a plate of homemade fettuccine. Make a large batch and freeze half for later! It will also keep in the refrigerator for a few days...leftover Bolognese truly is a treat!

If you really enjoy a "saucy" sauce, Giada De Laurentiis has a simple Bolognese sauce which uses a can of crushed tomatoes and ground beef. It can be found in her book, Everyday Italian. This recipe is a bit more mainstream, and much more stereotypical, but if you have a penchant for all things tomato-y, you might like this recipe better. I will say that I prefer the traditional to the mainstream. If I wanted a marinara sauce, I would make a marinara sauce.



If you want to try making Bolognese, remember to be patient. It takes time for those flavors to develop, and this is not a short process. Take a Sunday afternoon and really work with it...and try a few different recipes before committing to one for life! You'll find the balance that you like, the flavors you enjoy most, and maybe even create your own award-winning Bolognese! If you find one you especially like, please share, as I'm always looking for the next great recipe!

A Reader's Request:

One of my avid readers (and a very dear friend) has asked that I touch on the subject of vegetarian menus, and keeping it interesting. My very simple answer is: creativity. Now anyone with a vegetarian in their household knows how hard it is to cook for everyone, and keep everyone happy! Without the usual proteins to mix it up at dinnertime, it's difficult to always find new and exciting things to put on the table, but not if you use your imagination!

There are so many people that are vegetarian now, it seems that a lot of places are finding more and more ways to make delicious dishes, using only what comes from the ground! It used to be that if you wanted a vegetarian meal, you got some bland tofu on a plate with some snap peas and broccoli and called it a meal. I don't think so, that's not the way I eat anyway...and I've been known to choose the vegetarian option over a protein one sometimes.



Nowadays, there are plenty of main ingredients that you can choose from, to build your menu around. Some examples that I gathered while I was in Whole Foods on this fine snow day here in Massachusetts are as follows:

• Quinoa
• Cous cous
• Portobello mushrooms
• Tofu
• Pasta
• Rice
• Beans

By the way, that's seven ingredients. There are seven days in a week, and you now have a menu for an entire week with no repeats!


Now, the question you ask may be: "What can I DO with these things though?"

My answer to you all is SO MUCH. How about stuffed Portobello mushroom caps? You could use cous cous or quinoa as the base and load it up with delicious herbs, diced peppers and onions, and maybe even a little parmesan cheese. That was just off the top of my head! Veggie fajitas are another good one, because the tortilla gives grilled vegetables a bit more substance, making it into a meal. There's plenty you can do with tofu if you master the art of cooking it. Believe me when I say, tofu will pick up ANY flavor you put on it...it won't taste like tofu if you cook it in some Sriacha and soy sauce, or try a teriyaki and honey marinade...see how that works out!

For more exotic inspiration, look to the Indian cuisine. They do so much with lentils, potatoes, okra, and chickpeas, and so much of their flavor comes from herbs and spices. It's very inspiring to see a dish with such bland main ingredients turn into something so vibrant and flavorful.



As a last little tidbit, I came across a cookbook at Whole Foods, which I noticed (upon looking through it) contains a TON of vegetarian recipes. Now, I don't claim to know if they are good (although I would bet money that the majority of them are delicious) but I thought it was worth mentioning as I happened upon it today, and it seemed apropos of the topic at hand. It is called The Whole Foods Market Cookbook, and I just added one to my Amazon cart as well! Next time I place an order, it will be on it's way to me! :)

In the future, I will try and include vegetarian equivalents of recipes that I discuss. We have to keep it interesting for everyone!

And to my Lauren - I hope this helped. Keep us all posted on your vegetarian endeavors, and I'll keep the ideas comin' for you! Thanks for the post idea! xoxo

Get your own food! It's delicious! :)

Tonight, we went to Vapiano. This is a fairly new restaurant in the theater district, and my parents were dying to take us there. It's SO much fun! The premise of the place is a bit unorthodox. When you walk in, you are handed a "credit card," which is how you pay for each piece of your meal. You sit wherever you'd like, and there are stations where you can pick up parts of your meal, such as salads, pastas, and pizzas. There's also a full bar, where you can pick your poison: wine, beer, AND cocktails. (I recommend the Sparkling Grapefruit Cocktail: Absolut Pears, Patron, Prosecco and cranberry juice.)

Now, I know you're saying...so, it's cafeteria-style? Yes, it IS cafeteria-style...but it's most definitely not cafeteria-style food! It's amazing!

The salads are large, and chock full of all the things the menu claims will be there, and when you ask for dressing...you get just enough. It's not over-dressed, over-tossed or over-saturated...it's JUST right! I had the Petite Mista salad, a small version of the option that boasts cherry tomatoes, radishes, mushrooms, arugula, carrots, red and green onions, zucchini, cucumbers, Mozzarella and Parmesan. Wow, when they say "petite," they don't mean it! My salad was a great size for a starter! I had the Arugula Mustard dressing, which was delicious.

We then approached the pasta counter, where there were two chefs, awaiting our requests. They could each make two dishes at a time, so my mom went to one and I went to the other. My pasta chef was a very pleasant young man who kept up conversation while making two meals in front of my eyes! Impressive! I had the Granchi de Fiume, which includes Crayfish, Lobster Sauce, and Fresh Vegetables. (have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for anything with lobster in it? - don't worry, you'll see!)   You are able to choose what type of pasta you want, and let me tell you...they are ALL fresh! I mentioned in an earlier post that I make fresh pasta, and prefer it to most dried...well, it's hard to find fresh pasta in a NORTH END restaurant, let alone a casual place such as this. The pasta is incredibly fresh, cooks quickly, and tastes delicious. The sauce was fantastic, and what I liked most about it: there was none left when I finished my plate. No soup-y sauce with little pieces of noodles swimming in it...the dish was sauced perfectly...just enough to flavor the noodles without any excess to drown the leftovers.



Each meal was served with a healthy portion of fresh, hot, just-out-of-the-oven bread, too! And not ONE thing on that menu is over $12.95...unless you count the Veuve Clicquot. When you are done with your meal, just head to the counter to cash out your "credit card" and get your bill.

What a fantastic low-key night out! Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

Vapiano's can be found at 191 Stuart Street, in Boston. For more locations, you can check their website at http://www.vapianointernational.com/vapiano/cms/. If you decide to try it, leave me a comment! Let me know what you had, and how you felt about it! Next time we go (and there will definitely be a next time) I will try someone else's recommendation!

Sunday Night Dinner

I decided to make a somewhat easy meal tonight, one that would also provide us with some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thankfully, this same recipe was a great one to make into a how-to entry. Baked ziti is an easy meal that goes a long way since a whole box of pasta makes quite a few servings. If served with a side salad and some garlic bread, you can make it go even further. The best part is that baked ziti is delicious when re-heated too so it works well for warm lunches on those cold days!

The recipe I used is from The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles. My husband bought me this book with a pasta-maker, because I normally make my own fresh pasta. One of the best presents EVER! :) However, with certain shapes, I purchase dried pasta, and I am actually excited about this new brand I found at Whole Foods. It's called Severino Pasta, and it was delicious. I didn't use the traditional "ziti" that this recipe calls for ... I used a shape called "paccheri." It's a GIANT tubular shape and it held the sauce and cheese really well. Ziti always works just as well though!

So, first things first, and I will ALWAYS start my how-to's with this: my mise en place. You will need 2 garlic cloves, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh basil, salt, 1 lb of ziti or other tubular pasta, 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 of grated parmesan cheese.



This recipe only called for a few ingredients really so this is a very basic mise en place...but there are all of my ingredients, ready to go as I read the directions for cooking.

The oven should be preheating to 400 degrees, and a pot of water should be set to boil on the stove. Add a pinch of salt to that water to season it a little bit. I put two garlic cloves through a garlic press, and mixed the crushed garlic with a teaspoon of water. I then added 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet, and let it heat. Once warm, I added the garlic and water to the mix, allowing it to heat until fragrant, but not brown (about 2 minutes). If you brown garlic, it becomes bitter...you don't want to do that!



Once the garlic is fragrant, I add the tomatoes, and simmer until they thicken a little bit. This should take about 10 minutes.



How are we doing so far? Not too bad, huh!? Once those 10 minutes are up, you'll want to take the sauce off the heat, and stir in the basil, as well as some salt, to taste. When a recipe says "to taste," they mean it! Taste your food - that's the only way to know if it's seasoned correctly...and when I say correctly, I mean, the way YOU like it! You should enjoy your food so season it to your taste...if you don't like salt, don't use a lot. If you do like salt...add a little extra, but taste more often to make sure you aren't overdoing it!



Meanwhile, you should have put the pasta into the boiling water, stirring occasionally. You should always stir your pasta every few minutes. Otherwise, it can get clumped up on the bottom of the pot and not cook evenly.



While the pasta is cooking, brush a 13x9 inch baking dish with that third tablespoon of olive oil. I actually opted to use a 9x9 inch dish because my pasta didn't spread out enough in the larger dish. You don't want your layers to be too thin, so if that seems to be the case for you as well, use the smaller dish.

You want to cook the pasta to be almost al dente but still firm to the bite, since it will continue to cook a bit in the oven. Drain the pasta in a colander, and then put it back in the pot, and mix it with the tomato sauce.

Next, you'll want to put half of the pasta and sauce (mixed) into your baking dish. From there, layer half of your mozzarella, with half of your grated parmesan, and then top it with the rest of your pasta and sauce. Top that with the rest of your mozzarella and parmesan. This is what it should look like before it goes in the oven:



Put your baking dish in the oven for about 20 minutes. You want to bake it until the cheese turns golden brown (but not burned). Once you remove the dish from the oven, you should let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving.



And there you have it folks...that wasn't too bad was it, and you have a delicious meal to be enjoyed for days! Serve it with a nice green salad, and maybe some garlic bread...and you've got a nice, home-cooked Italian meal!

Bon Appetit!



If you have any questions about the recipe before you try it, let me know. I will walk you through whatever you found confusing. If it's a question, it's a good question...it means you are trying to learn! I also recommend the whole cookbook as it gives you lots of "master" recipes, such as this one, and then builds off of it to give you lots of different variations. If you can master one, you'll have about 10 variations under your belt! How does THAT sound?

The Menu - The Focal Point of your At-Home Culinary Journey

When it comes to planning my meals, I make a menu, and it comes in handy for numerous reasons. First of all, never again will you ask the question, "What do you want for dinner tonight?," only to be answered by "I don't know." Yea - I know, you ALL know what I'm talking about!

Second, it makes going to the grocery store a helluva lot easier, don't you think? A list of things you'll need to make meals for numerous days in a row - it's a brilliant concept, right? More on that in a later post, I promise!

You can plan a menu by day, or by type of food, or by country of origin, you can do it anyway you like...but here's how I do it: I make a list of different main ingredients and I pick ONE recipe for each of those main ingredients. You can't get bored if you're only eating chicken once every 2 weeks! My categories are as follows: Fish, Shellfish, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Lamb/Veal, Soup/Sandwich, Risotto, Pasta and Breakfast for Dinner. My husband especially likes that last one...

This little tip will help you plan ahead for your meals. You can prep things ahead of time if you know you are going to be home late one night. Marinating something overnight, and then just throwing it in the oven when you get home is the easiest way to get a great, home-cooked meal without all the fuss!

I normally just spell it all out on a piece of paper, which I then check off when I make one of the meals. Sometimes the menu lasts longer than other times, just based on things that come up - did we meet someone out somewhere for dinner? Did we both feel like sushi one night? Did I just SERIOUSLY not feel like cooking - because that happens once and awhile...and that's okay!

Whichever way you plan your menu, I promise you will find that it helps you immensely in the long run. It's much less stress to just know what you have to cook when you get home - and sometimes, even get excited about it! :)

I'd love to hear your feedback - if you try my tips and think they are good...or even if you hate them...leave me a comment and let me know! It will definitely help me figure out what road to take this blog on!