30 Before 30: Sauteed Carrots with Vinegar and Oregano (Carote in Scapece) (#13)

When making the rigatoni, I realized how much we needed a vegetable with dinner. I'm loving this challenge for forcing me to do different things with vegetables. Carrots are not something I thought about when looking for Italian dishes, but this was a homerun.

Sauteed Carrots with Vinegar and Oregano (Carote In Scapece) via Marcella's Italian Kitchen:

For 4 to 6 persons

2 lb. carrots

3 Tb. extra virgin olive oil

3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half

½ c. wine vinegar

½ tsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp. oregano

¼ tsp. chopped hot red pepper

Salt

Peel and wash the carrots and slice them into rounds ¼-inch thick. Bring a pot of water to a boil and drop in the carrots. Cook them just until they are slightly tender but still crunchy, not fully cooked. Drain and set aside.

Choose a skillet large enough to accommodate the carrots later, put in the oil and the garlic, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the garlic becomes colored a light nut brown, remove it, put in the carrots, and turn up the heat to high. Cook the carrots for a minute or two, stirring them frequently.

Add the vinegar, sugar, oregano, hot pepper, and salt. Continue cooking, stirring from time to time, until all the liquid has evaporated. Transfer the carrots to a serving platter and serve either lukewarm or at room temperature.

Absolutely a new favorite.

Recipes Complete: 13

Recipes to Go: 17

30 Before 30: Bruschetta al Pomodoro (#12)

Okay, so real bruschetta is best grilled, but your broiler is a good substitute. And sun-dried tomatoes can work for fresh. That makes this super fast and perfect with pasta.

Bruschetta al Pomodoro via Marcella's Italian Kitchen:

Serves up to 6

4 fresh, ripe, firm plum tomatoes

4 large or 6 small fresh basil leaves, or a few pinches of oregano

Six ½-inch-thick slices good, crusty country-style bread

A hot charcoal grill

3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed

Salt

Black pepper in a grinder

3 Tb. extra virgin olive oil

Wash the tomatoes, split them in half lengthwise, pick out as many seeds as possible with the tip of a paring knife, and dice the tomatoes into ¾-inch cubes.

Wash the basil leaves, shake them thoroughly dry, and tear them by hand into tiny pieces. For more pungent flavor, a few pinches of oregano can be substituted for the basil.

Grilled the bread on both sides (or stick it under the broiler briefly, toasting both sides). While still hot, rub one side of each slices with the mashed garlic. Spread over it the tomatoes and basil or oregano, sprinkle with salt and a grinding of pepper, and top with a sprinkle of olive oil. Serve at once.

It's amazing how wonderfully the garlic melts onto the bread. This is a fantastic appetizer and easily adapted to what you have in the fridge.

Recipes Complete: 12

Recipes to Go: 18 

Ravioli

Ravioli is super easy to make, especially once you’ve already got the hang of making pasta. You can fill it with anything you like, easily changing a meat based recipe like this one to a vegetarian one. The best part is that this doesn’t take long at all.

Ravioli:

Serves 2 with leftovers

1 recipe egg pasta

½ lb. ground meat (turkey, beef, or some combination of what you like)

¼ c. ricotta

4 garlic cloves, minced

Salt & pepper

Basil

Oregano

1 egg, beaten

Sauce of your choice

Prepare the pasta. Roll it out as you would for long noodles, but leave in sheets. Set aside to dry.

Mix together all other ingredients except egg. Roll into balls and evenly space them across the dried pasta sheets, leaving another sheet to place on top of this one. When all of the meat (or pasta) is used up, brush the beaten egg in the spaces between the filling balls. This acts as a binder for the top sheet. Take the other sheets and press them down on top of the meat filled side. Create pockets for the filling, pressing down firmly to remove as much air as possible from each pocket.

Using a knife or a pastry cutter, cut the pockets into squares. Place the ravioli into a pot of boiling salted water. Like all fresh pasta, these do not take long to cook, 3-4 minutes at the most. Serve warm with any sauce (marinara is always good).

A fast and very tasty way to do a weekday meal. I like that the basic idea lends itself to many different types of ravioli, depending on what you like to use to fill it. 

Spankopita

Want something maybe a little different to go with your Sunday supper? Try spanakopita. It looks much more difficult than it actually is, tastes wonderful, and looks pretty darn cool. Don’t do Sunday supper? Make this anyway. Don’t have enough feta or spinach? Do what I did a sub in some yummy chard and ricotta. It will all be delicious in the end. Even cold for breakfast.

Spanakopita from The New Moosewood Cookbook:

Makes about 8 servings

2 Tb. olive oil plus a little more for the pan

2 c. minced onion

½ tsp. salt

1 Tb. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

2½ lb. fresh spinach, stemmed and finely chopped

5 medium cloves garlic, minced (or 6 or 7 or 9. Whatever.)

3 Tb. flour

2-3 c. crumbled feta cheese, about 1 lb.

1 c. cottage cheese

Black pepper, to taste

1/3 c. olive oil

1 lb. phyllo pastry, 16 to 20 leaves, thoroughly defrosted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13” baking pan.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or deep skillet. Add onion, salt, and herbs, and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until the onion softens. Add the spinach, turn up the heat, and cook, stirring, until the spinach wilts, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic. Sprinkle in the flour, stir, and cook over medium heat 2 to 3 more minutes. Remove from heat.

Mix in the cheese, then correct the seasonings, adding black pepper to taste along the way.

Place a sheet of phyllo in the prepared pan, letting the pastry edges climb up the side. Brush it all over with olive oil, then add another sheet. Keep going until you have a stack of 10 oiled sheets. Don’t let it creep too high up the edge or it’ll crumble a lot if you try to transport it.

Add the filling, spreading it evenly to the edges. Continue layering and oiling the remaining phyllo on top of the filling. Oil the top layer. Gently with a serrated knife in a sawing motion cut the unbaked spanakopita into squares. Bake uncovered for about 45 minues, or until golden and crispy. Serve hot or warm.

Phyllo gets kind of a bad rap because it can be difficult to work with and dry out quickly. You just have to be faster. This was not that difficult to put together and it was tasty for days afterward. Give it a try.

Mint Chimichurri

What goes great with grilled burgers? Chimichurri. Lamb loves mint, so even though the original recipe does not have mint, but mint + lamb = perfection. The first chimichurri I ever had was with mint, so why not? I added in all of the optional spices and it really pops.

Mint Chimichurri Sauce modified from Closet Cooking:

Makes 2 cups

1 c. mint (packed)

¼ c. parsley (packed)

¼ c. cilantro (packed)

1 Tb. fresh oregano (chopped, optional)

4 cloves garlic (peeled)

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

¼ tsp. cumin (optional)

¼ tsp. hot smoked paprika (optional)

¼ c. oil

2 Tb. white wine vinegar

½ lemon (juice and zest)

Salt and pepper to taste

Puree everything in a in a food processor. Put on food. This is awesome with lamb, but would be great just on toast or a veggie packed sandwich. It is full of ridiculous flavor.

Potato Ricotta Galette

This is just a quick one. Galettes are great because you can modify them in so many ways. This was really delicious. If you haven’t made one yet, based on this one or this one, do it now.

Potato Ricotta Galette:

Makes a super tasty galette

½ recipe galette dough
2 red potatoes, thinly sliced
Ricotta cheese
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Dried oregano
Sea salt
Olive oil

Bake potatoes, mixed in olive oil and oregano, in a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Roll out galette dough. Spread the ricotta cheese over the dough, sprinkle with chopped garlic and oregano, and cover with potato slices. Fold in the dough and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for about 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven. My potatoes cooked a little longer in the first step than I would have liked and as a result were a bit crispier than intended at the end of baking. It still rocked though. I will definitely do this one again and keep on experimenting with galettes. How can crispy dough and garlic ever be anything but amazing?

Calzones and More Pizza

Pizza is a fantastic thing. I know I already posted this recipe back in October, but there’s been a revelation plus I did something different with it.

First, the revelation. I made the full recipe and instead of making four pizzas, I divided the dough into three. 1/3 of it remained in the fridge for a couple of days until part two. Anyway, the other 2/3 made two perfect sized pizzas that were phenomenally easy to shape and work with. These are my prettiest pizzas to date and I just wanted to show them with all of you.







We bought some nice salami and Aaron cooked up some ground beef with oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Along with a heaping of mozzarella, we also used Tillamook aged white cheddar, and parmesan. I also infused olive oil with garlic and we used that to brush on the crust. We added some oregano to the marinara and just look at those pizzas. Seriously, I am so proud.

Now, part two. After a great achievement in pizza, we decided to make calzones. That was a brilliant idea.

Calzones:

Serves two or four, depending on how hungry you are

1/3 pizza dough
Mini meatballs (basic recipe here)
1 c. mozzarella, grated
½ c. aged white cheddar, grated
¼ c. parmesan, grated
2 c. broccoli, chopped and steamed
4 cloves garlic, diced
Tomato sauce
Oregano
Garlic olive oil

Roll out remaining third of pizza dough to desired thickness, shape into a circle and cut in half. Heat oven to 450 degrees.





In the center of each, paint on tomato sauce, not making it too saucy (haha). Make sure you leave a border so you can fold over the dough when you’re done filling it. Sprinkle on oregano. Fill with mini meatballs, broccoli and cheese. Fold over top and pinch down the sides. Brush with garlic olive oil (or regular extra virgin olive oil if you don’t have infused oil) and cut three slits into the top.





Sprinkle corn meal on a baking sheet and place calzones on pan. Bake for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool for another 5 minutes and dig in. We had ours with the remaining tomato sauce warmed up for dunking. These were so good! They’re huge, so you could cut them in half to serve four. The options for filling them, like making pizza, are quite varied, so mess around with it and see what you get. I was really impressed and I am looking forward to doing this again.

Challah-Apple Stuffing

This is basically the same stuffing I made last year, but this time there were no issues. The reason I didn’t post it for Thanksgiving ’08 was due to the fact that the stuffing kept drying out and I continued to add things to it, so while really delicious in the end, I had no idea what was actually in it or at least not well enough to tell other people about it.

I’m marking this down as vegetarian even though I used chicken stock. I used about half veggie stock and my intention had been to solely use veggie stock, but I didn’t defrost quite enough. Make your challah for this at least a few days ahead of time to cube it and dry it out. I skip the glaze and poppy seeds when making it for stuffing. I modified the original recipe heavily (it calls for pecans, raisins, and mushrooms, among other things and uses corn oil instead of butter), so this one is quite different from what’s in the book. I think it’s amazing. You can replace the butter with olive oil or another tasty oil if you’d like, but I think the butter gives it great taste.

Challah-Apple Stuffing modified from 2nd Ave. Deli:

13 c. challah, cubed (pretty much one loaf)
3 tart apples (Jonagold, McIntosh, or Granny Smith work well), cored and chopped
3 c. onion, chopped
2 c. celery, chopped
1-2 Tb. seasonings (I used a bit of sage, rosemary, oregano, and ground pepper)
About 6 Tb. unsalted butter
1½ - 2 c. veggie stock



In a very large skillet (I use my wok), heat 2 tablespoons of butter, add onion and celery and sauté until onion is brown. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Add another 2 tablespoons of butter, and sauté apples until lightly browned.



Add onion and celery back to the skillet, mix together and add in challah. Stir around until well mixed. Sprinkle in stock, making sure all of the bread is moistened. Add seasonings and toss stuffing. Add in a bit more butter, stir until melted. Toss mix until everything is warm and delicious. Transfer to a bowl and serve.



Seriously, this is so very tasty. I love the heck out of it. The apples and the challah are perfect friends. I know this is technically dressing and not stuffing, but whatever it is, it’s good.

Jambalaya

My husband is wonderful and a fantastic cook. Have I mentioned this before? Again, this is an older dish, but due to delays, is only being posted now. Just know that I loved this and coming home to that home cooked delicious smell is one of the best feelings in the world.

Aaron found this recipe on allrecipes.com (original here) and used our slow cooker, which is one of the greatest things ever invented. He did some substitutions and took some things out that we didn’t have at the house, but this was delicious nonetheless. I’d also like to point out how many times I’ve misspelled jambalaya in this post and had to correct it. The answer is a lot. I am constantly misplacing the a’s.

Jambalaya modified from allrecipes.com:

A couple of chicken breasts, cut into 1” cubes
A couple of chicken andouille
1 (28 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
½ large sweet onion, chopped
1 c. chicken broth
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. Cajun seasoning (we got this at the Saturday Market, which I first mentioned back in this post)
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. dried thyme
1 c. cooked rice

In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, and broth. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme.



Cover and cook seven to eight hours on low or three to four hours on high. Aaron said it was closer to four hours on high. When it is done cooking, mix in your favorite cooked rice, serve and enjoy. This was spicy and delicious! If you took a look at the original, Aaron took out the shrimp as we didn’t have any, but next time he said he’d definitely put some in. I also had this as leftovers this next day and it was still fantastic!

Meatball Sub

Lately, Aaron has been doing the majority of the cooking around here. I love that we can both cook and I love the ideas he comes up with. A couple weeks ago or at least sometime between now and the August 19, the last time I posted (sad, I know), Aaron made meatball subs. No, Aaron made THE meatball sub. It was delicious and I barely had time to take a picture before I scarfed down the whole thing. If I had blogged about this sooner, like a normal person, the following recipe would be a bit more accurate. As it is though, Aaron tells me he can give a ballpark of what he did. So good luck and hopefully yours are as tasty as his!

Meatball Subs from Aaron’s mind:

Serves 2

½ loaf French bread
½ lb. ground turkey
1/3 lb. ground buffalo
2 tsp. oregano (maybe more)
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Possibly other seasonings, to taste
Enough fresh mozzarella to cover the meatballs
Marinara sauce



Mix together turkey, buffalo, egg, salt and pepper, and oregano (plus possible other seasonings) in a bowl and form into balls. Fry meatballs in a medium size pan over medium high heat until cooked through. Cut ½ loaf into two pieces and split open, but not all the way through. Ladle sauce into bottom of bread. Place meatballs in and ladle more sauce on top of them. Cover with mozzarella and bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

The combination of turkey and buffalo was fantastic. Both are leaner meats than beef and they play really well together. Aaron mixed them because traditional meatballs are a variety of meats and while I don’t eat most of those, this plays along those traditional lines. I’m also a huge oregano fan, and it works so well here. This is an easy meal and is perfect for midweek dinners. We had ours with mixed greens. I look forward to eating these again!