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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Italian-Style Tofu Bake

Italian-style tofu what? It might not look like much, but it made me really happy. I have had pizza on the brain for the better part of a week, and while this wasn't a perfect match, it was pretty close. And close in a really useful way. You know how you have a craving for M&M's, but you try to be good and have an apple instead? And then maybe you have some baked lays? But deep down, you still really want those M&M's, and eventually you get them, and you're satisfied, but now you've ALSO had the apple and chips? Yah, this dinner was like that, except it kinda worked. (Next time I make it, though, I'm going to follow the Hubs' suggestion and add sausage or pepperoni and maybe a little tomato sauce).

Whoa. What all that meant was: this was a light, healthy dinner masquerading as pizza (or lasagna maybe?), and I'm okay with that. I think it has a lot of potential - lots of different ways to mix and match, according to your tastes and state of mind. Want sausage? Or maybe mushrooms? No? Green pepper maybe more your style? Add it!

Worth noting - make sure you press the tofu slices between paper towels before you line the baking dish with them (or really, press them out before you do anything with tofu). A lot of liquid comes out, and it will lead to a nicer textured tofu (less squishy)(unless you like that).

O! I also used some fresh basil on top, rather than dried, and I used smoked sun-dried tomatoes and smoked mozz... added nice depth.

Italian-Style Tofu Bake
From: The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook: 200 Delicious Recipes Ready in 30 Minutes or Less

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
10 ounces fresh spinach, thick stems trimmed (5 cups packed or 10 cups loosely packed)
1 (15 ounce) package firm tofu, sliced lengthwise into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon dried basil, divided
4 sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil), drained and thinly sliced
½ cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 400°F.

Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add garlic and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Add spinach, cover, and cook until wilted and tender, about 3 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Lay tofu slices in a single layer in a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle each slice with a pinch of the basil.

Top tofu slices evenly with spinach, tomatoes, mozzarella, Parmesan, and remaining basil. Bake until tofu is hot and cheeses are melted and bubbling, about 15 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 190 cals, 12 g fat, 3.5 sat fat, 19 g protein, 6 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 280 mg sodium

See the recipe...

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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Baked Polenta with Swiss Chard and Cheese

My CSA Farmer, Ellen, includes a little bulletin with each delivery. The very first week, she asked that we learn to like swiss chard, as we'd be seeing it a lot throughout the course of the summer. I'd neither purchased nor knowingly consumed swiss chard, so I had no preconceived notions on it. First impression - its enormous. People should warn you. I mean, I could fan myself with one, should the AC go out. Whilst I'm fed cool grapes.... I digress. Friends with chard, got it.

I've noticed a trend with the two chard recipes I've used thus far - both had ricotta cheese. I don't know if that means something... it could just be that I gravitate to ricotta cheese.

At any rate, this dish is polenta based, and its built in layers, like a lasagne. I credit (blame) my friend Stephanie with our new-found-love of polenta. I don't how how I got by 31 years without it. The creamy polenta was mixed with the ricotta and layered with the sauteed swiss chard and fresh mozzarella cheese, once repeated. Baked in the oven and then given a chance to rest and meld. Please please please give it the resting period. If you don't, it will ooze all over and not hold up enough to be scooped out. Trust me. (As someone that's only recently learned to wait. ;) )

I didn't do anything fancy with the chicken breasts we had along with the polenta/ricotta/chard casserole, just roasted in the same oven with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I purposefully neglected the chicken, thinking that the mix of flavors in the polenta would make up for it - and I was right!

Baked Polenta with Swiss Chard and Cheese
Bon Appetit Magazine, November 2002
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/107270

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 pound Swiss chard, thick stems and ribs removed, leaves cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips 3 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal) or yellow cornmeal 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
2 cups coarsely grated low-fat mozzarella cheese (about 8 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 2-quart glass baking dish. Heat oil in a heavy large deep skillet over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in garlic and crushed red pepper, then chard; cover and cook until chard is tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Uncover; stir until any excess liquid in skillet evaporates. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring 3 1/2 cups water and salt to boil in heavy large saucepan. Gradually stir polenta into boiling water. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until polenta is very thick, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Whisk ricotta and eggs in bowl; whisk in 1 cup hot polenta. Stir ricotta mixture into polenta in saucepan. Spread half of polenta mixture in baking dish. Spread half of chard mixture over. Sprinkle with half of mozzarella. Repeat layering with remaining polenta, chard, and cheese. Bake until puffed and brown on top, about 45 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

Per serving: calories, 259; total fat, 12 g; saturated fat, 5 g; cholesterol, 79 mg

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Lamburger Most Awesome

If we hadn't eloped last August, today would have been our Wedding Day (insert cartoon bird sigh). I have a hard time imagining how it would have been, really, because I'm so thrilled with how we did it. (Note to Everyone: Elope to Vegas - its AWESOME!)

You know what else is awesome? And also wholesome and delicious? Burgers, duh!

We'd gotten some ground lamb from the farmer's market last weekend, and it just so happened that I'd tabbed the Lamburger recipe in Michel Richard's book (ok, I have an addiction to his book, so what?). Coincidentally, it happened to be our almost-wedding-day, and considering that my diet mainly consisted of cheeseburgers when we visited St. Thomas (we were going to destination wed there), the burgers seemed fitting.

I will say that I only had 1 lb of meat, and it called for 1.5 lbs, so they were a bit un-firm. This did not hurt their flavor however, as this ended up being another night I wish I had spare stomachs. If you try them, make sure you have enough lamb, or else you might lose the burgers through the grill.

So what if I already submitted to Freya and Paul's Big Burger Ballyhoo... they said I could submit again, so I'm gonna! I like the photo with this one way more than the last one... I was still pretty new back then (back then equals a month, but still, that's a lot of practice taking pictures!)


Lamburger
From: Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking, the Art of Eating
By Michel Richard
http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Kitchen-Craft-Cooking-Eating/dp/1579652999/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6030309-2846555?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176927459&sr=8-1

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium white onion, cut into small dice (about ¾ cup)
4 garlic cloves, 2 peeled, 2 left unpeeled and halved
1 teaspoon ground cumin
One 7-ounce can peeled whole Anaheim chiles, rinsed, drained, and cut into small dice
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ pounds boneless lamb loin or other lean cut
Cayenne pepper
4 hamburger buns, split
4 slices mozzarella or about ½ cup crumbled goat cheese
4 large tomato slices
Mustard
Tabasco green pepper sauce

In a medium nonstick sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, reduce the heat, and sauté gently for about 20 minutes, or until tender and slightly caramelized. Using a rasp grater, grate the peeled garlic directly into the pan (or mince the garlic and add it.) Add the cumin and sauté for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add the diced chiles and cook for about 3 minutes. Stir in the sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat, spread the mixture on a plate, and refrigerate while you prepare the meat.

Cut away and discard any fat for sinew from the lamb. With a very sharp knife, chop the meat until slightly coarser than ground meat. Place in a bowl, and season with salt.

Once the onion mixture has cooled, add it to the meat. Season with 2 pinches of cayenne and stir together. To test the mixture for seasoning, you can place a small spoonful on a plate and cook in the microwave; taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Divide the meat into quarters and shape into burgers. (The burgers can be refrigerated for a few hours before cooking.)

Preheat the broiler. Place the buns cut side up on a baking sheet, place under the broiler, and toast until golden brown. Set aside, and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

Remove the burgers from the refrigerator. Season on both sides with salt and pepper. In a large pan or skillet, combine the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and the garlic halves and heat over medium-high heat. The garlic will flavor the oil; do not let it burn. Place the burgers in the pan and cook, turning once, or about 1 to 1 ½ minutes per side, adjusting the heat as necessary, until golden brown on both sides.

Transfer the burgers to a baking sheet and then into the oven for about 3 to 4 minutes. Place the cheese on top and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the burgers are cooked as desired and the cheese is melted.

Place the burgers on the toasted buns and top with the sliced tomatoes. Serve with mustard and Tabasco green pepper sauce.

Serves 4 as a main course.

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