Sliced Mushrooms with Melted Mozzarella and Thyme

This is something of an old recipe. Considering I haven't blogged since September 2008, I have a lot of oldies! I made this last summer after a mushroom impulse by at my Saturday farmer's market. I had no plans for them whatsoever, I just had to have them. Lucky for me, Jamie's Italy had this easy, tasty snack!

His recipe didn't call for the toast, he thought the mushrooms on a plate would be good enough. He's probably right - I mean, he IS Jamie Oliver! However, we're big toast fans... and frankly, why NOT add a toast element? I want to say we made these a half-dozen more times, and not always with market mushrooms (store-bought are just as nice, just get whatever type you like.)

The meatiness of the mushrooms, earthy thyme and creamy cheese played really well together. I'd only lightly oiled the bread, so it had a pleasant crunch and held up nicely to the weight of the toppings.

These toasts made a great weekend afternoon snack, but I could see them serving quite nicely as party fare - with a glass of wine, perhaps?


Sliced Mushrooms with Melted Mozzarella and Thyme
c/o Jamie’s Italy, by Jamie Oliver
http://www.amazon.com/JAMIES-ITALY-Jamie-Oliver/dp/1401301959/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195857365&sr=8-1

This is a great little recipe – it takes no time at all to put together and is perfect for serving at a party. I’ve used mozzarella, but another Italian cheese called scamorza would be good too. As this dish grills very quickly, I actually cook it on the plate I’m serving it on, but if you’re using bone china, think again. (I don’t want any bills through the post!)

2 big handfuls of mushrooms, very thinly sliced
2 5 ounce balls mozzarella or scamorza cheese, torn into small pieces
A sprig of fresh thyme, leaves picked
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Get yourself a large ovenproof platter and spread your mushrooms on it in one layer. Scatter over the cheese and the thyme leaves. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and place the plate under the grill.

Grill for a couple of minutes, checking frequently, until the cheese is melted, bubbling, and golden, and tuck in! Serve with some crusty bread.

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Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce

For this week's Presto Pasta Night, I bring you a most glorious Jamie Oliver recipe. I went on a binge a few weekends ago and watched all my saved-up cooking shows, and this pasta dish was featured in his episode on eggs. I made sure to do as he asked and used farm-happy eggs in both the pasta and sauce.

Now, the pasta was something of a departure for me. I'd never made it in the food processor before, and I'd never not let it rest for 30 minutes before I rolled it out. I would probably have questioned the instructions, had I not just watched Jamie do it on television. Ya, ya, tv magic is often in play, but if you've seen his episodes, he doesn't appear to use too much trickery. My trust in him, I went forth and processed and didn't wait to roll, and as you can see, the pasta came out nicely. I am converted.

I mentioned a couple days ago that I don't like much cheese. This recipe may then be confusing. But fontina is way lower on the Stinkiness Scale, and it was smooth and creamy and oozy... all things that get me to like cheese better. His method of gently warming the creme fraiche and cheeses over top of the pasta water is pure genius, if you ask me. I put the pot of water on and the pan on top while I made the pasta. I've rarely done all the prep before I start cooking, so it was nice to be able to stage everything as I went.

If you are comforted by a nice, velvety smooth pasta, this could be heaven for you. I was floored by the cheesy aroma wafting from the pasta as I poured the sauce on it. I know I yammered about smells just yesterday and I meant it at the time. But this pasta blows that soup's smell out of the water. I could be kind and just say that they're different (in the way I find both Jack and Charlie hot, but for different reasons). But I would be lying. Or, at least, I wouldn't mean it. The beautiful cheesy smell just appeals to me more. Could have been my mood at the time, or the weather or something, I guess. I enjoyed them both, don't get me wrong. This one just wins. At least it had the baby broccoli as the token vegetable of the evening, so I didn't feel all bad about it. :)

Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce
c/o Jamie at Home, Food Network TV
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_120489,00.html

The hero of this dish (apart from the eggs, of course!) is fontina, a delicious Italian mountain cheese used for melting, available in good cheese shops and delis. But any combination of Parmesan, pecorino, taleggio or Gruyere cheeses will also work well.

For the pasta:
4 large free-range or organic eggs
2 cups pasta flour, plus extra for dusting
Sea salt

For the cheese sauce:
1 cup creme fraiche
5 ounces sliced fontina or other nice melting cheese
5 ounces freshly grated Parmesan
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound purple sprouting broccoli
2 large free-range or organic egg yolks
1 small bunch fresh marjoram, oregano or thyme tips, leaves picked

Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Extra-virgin olive oil

You can buy ready-made dried or fresh tagliatelle, but this is a really quick way to make your own.

Crack the eggs into a food processor and add the flour. Whiz it up and listen for the sound changing to a rumble - this means the dough is coming together nicely. Turn the power off and test the consistency by pinching the dough. If it's a bit sticky add a little more flour and pulse again.

Tip the dough mixture onto a floured surface and shape it into a ball using your hands. Give it a little knead until smooth, then divide your dough into 4 equal parts. Start on the thickest setting of your pasta machine and run the first bit of dough through 4 or 5 times, moving the rollers closer together each time until the pasta is silky, smooth and about as thick as a CD. Flour your finished sheet generously, then fold it up and cut across into 1/2-inch strips. Gather all the slices together and toss them through your fingers, with a little flour, to open them up and make your pile of tagliatelle. Place to 1 side and repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. In a bowl large enough to rest on top of the pan, put your creme fraiche, fontina or other melting cheese and your Parmesan with a pinch of salt and pepper. Place the bowl over the pan for the cheeses to slowly melt. It won't take long. Meanwhile, trim any dry ends off the broccoli, then finely slice the stalks diagonally and leave the florets whole (cutting any larger ones in half).

At this point the cheese sauce should be lovely and oozy, so remove the bowl from above the pan and drop the pasta and broccoli into the boiling water. Boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes, until the pasta is just cooked through. Whip up the 2 egg yolks and the marjoram, or other chosen herb leaves, into the sauce. Drain the pasta and broccoli, reserving a little of the cooking water, and quickly toss them with the sauce - the heat from the pasta will be enough to cook the eggs through. If the sauce is a little thick, add a few splashes of cooking water to make it silky and loose. Taste and season, if necessary. Serve as quickly as you can, with some extra Parmesan sprinkled over the top and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Grand!

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Pappardelle with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs

Science! Hurry up and learn to clone people (but not in a scary Island kind of way), so you can make many many more Jamie Olivers. Many. Lots. Enough to go around, I say. Please put me on your list for three Jamies. Thanks.

I am smitten with his show, for sure. I have a lot of love for his books, too. His last one, Cook with Jamie, looks all rough-and-tumble on the cover. Yah, he's smiling... but his arms are crossed... and that knife in the counter? He just stab that in there an then vamp for the camera? Love it.

He's spot on when he says that you can make it all ahead of time. I made the meatballs and sauce while Dave was at a hockey game last week. I stopped at the "toss the meatballs into the sauce"step, before the 10-15 minutes of additional simmering. I let it cool and then put the whole pot in the fridge. The next night, I took the pot out when I got home, placed it on the stove and gave it gentle heat while I made the pasta. In the time it took me to make the pasta start to finish, the sauce and meatballs were ready and we had this amazing dinner. (Makes a great lunch the day after, too!)

You may think it weird to put cinnamon and so much nutmeg into meatballs (its ok, I did too). I even thought it a tad strange to be putting lemon zest into them. You'll get over it. Don't worry. You'll like it. I figured, if I like them in my bolognese, I'd like them in these meatballs. And I did.

These tiny meatballs have something really special going for them: they're tiny. You don't have to fight over them, you don't have to cut into them to get a bite. Just swirl some pasta on your fork and stab a meatball and you're set! Also nice - the sauce wasn't big and bulky. There was just enough to coat the meatballs and the pasta without junking the place up. (However, I don't know if that's normal or just how it turned out that way once I reheated it.)

Now, you don't have to make this recipe ahead. It didn't take long to pull together. I only did so because I had the free time that evening with the husband away, and my beef thawed faster than I thought it would. If we'd had extra leftovers, I am sure this would have made a nice freezer dinner, too.


Pappardelle with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs
c/o Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook, by Jamie Oliver

This is a fantastic, classic, easy-pleaser of a dish. Make this for a dinner party or for your family and you’ll be incredibly popular! The brilliant thing about it is that you can make the meatballs, the pasta, and the sauce in advance, so when it comes to putting it all together it can be quite quick. If you’re making fresh pasta, try cutting it out using a crinkly cutter as I’ve done in this picture – I think it just takes it to another league. Of course you can use dried pappardelle or tagliatelle instead.

When it comes to the meatballs, I would suggest that you ask your butcher to grind the beef in front of you; that way you know exactly what you’re getting and that it’s nice and fresh. The reason I mention this is because very often (and I’m not for a minute suggesting your butcher is a con-man) ground meat gets treated a little bit like a dustbin for random cuts of meat. So if you can be specific about what you want, you might as well be. Or you can buy the cuts of meat yourself and pulse them up in your food processor when you get home.

Serves 4-6.

1 x basic pasta dough or use 1 lb good-quality dried pappardelle
A knob of butter
Parmesan cheese

For the meatballs
1 lb good-quality coarse ground beef (chuck, skirt or brisket)
1-2 dried chilies, crumbled
A pinch of ground cinnamon
½ a nutmeg, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large free-range or organic egg
A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
Zest of 1 lemon

For the tomato sauce
Olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
A bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
1 fresh red chili, pierced with the tip of a knife
2 x 14 oz. cans good-quality plum tomatoes
A little swig of red wine vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you’re making fresh pappardelle to this first and lay it out on a floured pan while you get on with the meatballs and tomato sauce. To make your meatballs, mix and scrunch together all the meatball ingredients in your hands and shape into marble-sized balls. When rolling the meatballs, run your hands under cold water every now and then – it will help to make the meatballs dense and hold their shape better. Place them in a pan and put in the fridge while you make your tomato sauce.

Get a pan on the heat and add a glug of olive oil to it. Gently fry the garlic, basil stalks and the whole chili, then add the tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper then gently simmer for half an hour.

Heat up a little olive oil in a frying pan and throw in your meatballs. Cook until they’ve got a really good color on them, and then add them to your tomato sauce. Remove the chili from the sauce and check for seasoning. Continue to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, if you’re using dried pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook according to the package instructions. Otherwise, when your meatballs are almost done, cook your fresh pasta for 2 to 3 minutes until al dente. Drain the pappardelle in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water, then toss it in the meatball sauce. Add the knob of butter, the Parmesan and tear over half the basil leaves. Now, toss around to coat the pasta. Add a little bit of cooking water to loosen the sauce if needed. When it’s superb, serve on a big platter or divide up between individual plates, scatter with the rest of the basil leaves, grate over some Parmesan and serve as soon as possible.

Matt’s wine suggestion: Italian red – Sangiovese

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Bob's Your Uncle!

We're all friends here, right?

Would anyone be willing to start a support group with me? The "Entirely Smitten with Jamie Oliver" support group? I liked him plenty before, when he was naked or motivating troubled youth or tromping through Italy... but I especially adore him at home. (And that Gennaro?? Can we have a sub-group for him?!?!) For both Jamie and Gennaro, I am done-in by their real-person-ness. As I watch Jamie at Home, I feel like I'm there, hanging out with him while he cooks. He doesn't put on a yum-face when he tastes something, he admits when it isn't quite right and how to fix it, he slops ingredients around... his kitchen is one I long to be in and one I long to have as my very own.

Something else I like - watching him prepare this particular soup, he used a pressure cooker. Now, I don't have one, but want one someday. The recipe he provides, however, assumes you don't have one - which is nice. No weird complicated math pressure/volume/time calculations needed. That Jamie, totally thoughtful.

I wasn't sure that this version of butternut squash soup could live up to the delicious wonder that is my friend Liane's butternut soup, but it surprised me. Jamie's soup is thick and luscious and is just delightful over the Parmesan toasts (and packs a dainty but noticeable heat). I particularly like how moist and sloppy the toast becomes. I had a bit of a struggle making the them. I couldn't get the Parmesan to stick nicely to the bread and then they smoked a bit as they heated up. Of course, I wasn't thinking about it when I dished it out, but a clear bowl made for a funny presentation. Doesn't it look like the soup is just floating there?

It's been a while since I've been so excited about a new cooking show. I hope Food Network schedules Jamie at Home for a good long while. Jamie Oliver has a lot he can teach to home cooks. Personally, I'm going to try to work "Bob's your uncle!" into my day-to-day conversations.



Superb Squash Soup with the Best Parmesan Croutons
c/o Jamie Oliver, Jamie at Home on Foodnetwork.com
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_105309,00.html

This fantastic soup is best made with varieties of squash that have dense, orange flesh, such as butternut or onion squash. It's important to use good chicken stock and season the soup well to bring out the nutty, sweet flavor of the squash. Once you've mastered this recipe, you can take the soup in different ways by adding pearl barley, dried pasta, or some chopped bacon. Even the smallest amount of dried porcini. P.S. I made this in my pressure cooker the other day, with really great results - it's so quick!

Olive oil
16 fresh sage leaves
2 red onions, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked
1/2 fresh red chile, to taste, seeded and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 1/4 pounds butternut squash, onion squash, or musque de Provence, halved, deseeded and cut into chunks
2 quarts good-quality Chicken or vegetable stock
Extra-virgin olive oil

For the croutons:
Extra-virgin olive oil
16 slices ciabatta bread
1 chunk Parmesan, for grating

Put a very large saucepan on a medium heat and pour in a couple of glugs of olive oil.
Add the sage leaves and fry for around 30 seconds or until dark green and crisp. Quickly remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl lined with paper towels - you'll use these for sprinkling over at the end. In the pan you'll be left with a beautifully flavored oil, so put it back on the heat and throw in your onion, celery, carrot, garlic, rosemary leaves, chile and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are sweet and soft. Add the squash and the stock to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for around 30 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, make your croutons. Drizzle a little olive oil over the ciabatta slices, and press some grated Parmesan onto each side. Place in a non-stick pan without any oil and fry until golden on both sides.

When the squash is soft and cooked through, whiz the soup with an immersion blender or pour it into a standard blender and pulse until you have a smooth puree* (but you can leave it slightly chunky if you like). Most importantly, remember to taste and season it until it's perfect. Divide the soup between your bowls, placing 2 croutons on top of each. Sprinkle with a few of your crispy sage leaves and drizzle with a swirl of good-quality extra-virgin olive oil.

*When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

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Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella

I hope I get this into Ruth in time! I'll type like the wind!


For this week's Presto Pasta Night, I went to the lovely Jamie Oliver. (To be honest, I think I went though every cookbook I had, looking for interesting eggplant recipes - Jamie won.) This recipe can be found in his Family Dinners book, which I love. This particular cookbook is really useful for sneaking extra vegetables into meals, and I like the stealth factor. With our CSA this summer, its been a great resource for using up all these extra veggies!!

I will admit, I cheated a little. I used one can of diced tomatoes and one crushed. (One for me, one for Dave), and I really liked the added sauciness. The eggplant melted down and turned creamy, which was divine. I used a hot pepper from our porch (I can't remember the name of it), rather than dried - though I'm sure dried would be lovely. As his recipe suggests, the mozzarella melted beautifully and was nice and gooey.

This pasta meal reheated nicely, made a great lunch. I highly recommend it, and I'll absolutely make this again if we get more eggplant in our CSA.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella
From Jamie’s Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook
http://www.amazon.com/Jamies-Dinners-Essential-Family-Cookbook/dp/1401301940/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-9319028-2617441?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183997400&sr=1-2

1 firm ripe pink, black or white eggplant
extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 14 oz. cans of good-quality plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
optional: 1-2 fresh or dried chillies, chopped or crumbled
a bunch or fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks sliced
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 lb rigatoni or penne
7 oz cow’s milk mozzarella
1 piece of Parmesan cheese, for grating

Remove both ends of the eggplant and slice it into ½ inch slices, then slice these across and finely dice into ½ inch cubes. Some people prefer to season their eggplant with salt and let it sit for a while in a colander to draw out the bitterness, but I don’t really do this unless I’m dealing with a seedy, bitter eggplant. This dish is really best made using a firm silky one.

Now put a large saucepan on the heat and drizzle in 4 to 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. When it’s hot, add the cubes of eggplant, and as soon as they hit the pan, stir them around with a spoon so they are delicately coated with the oil and not soaked on one side only. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on a medium heat. Then add the garlic and onion. When they have a little color, add the canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Stir around and season carefully with salt and pepper. At this point, if you wanted to give the dish a little heat you could add some chopped fresh or crumbled dried chilli, but that’s up to you. Add the basil stalks, and simmer the sauce nice and gently for around 15 minutes, then add the cream.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook according to the package instructions until it is soft but still holding its shape, then drain it, saving a little of the cooking water. I like to put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in with a tiny bit of the cooking water and a drizzle of olive oil and move it around so it becomes almost dressed with the water and oil.

At this point add the lovely tomato sauce to the pasta. By now the eggplant will have cooked into a creamy tomatoey pulp, which is just yum yum yum! (Jamie’s words) Season carefully to taste with salt and pepper. When all my guests are sitting around the table, I take the pan to the table, tear up the mozzarella and the fresh basil, and fold these in nicely for 30 seconds. Then very quickly serve into bowls. By the time your guests start to eat, the mozzarella will have started to melt and will be stringy and gorgeous and really milky-tasting. Just lovely with the tomatoes and eggplant. Serve at the table with a block of Parmesan cheese and a grater so that everyone can help themselves.

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