Blog - Proud Italian Cook

PENNE W/SHRIMP & BROCCOLI AGLIO OLIO!!

November 21, 2007 by Marie 7 Comments

If you are opting for something a little lighter before the big turkey showdown this is a quick and light meal to make. Hubby and I had this last night. I usually always have a bag of shrimp in my freezer, it’s something easy to defrost and quick to cook!

THIS IS ALL YOU DO:

Put a pan of water on for your pasta, when it boils blanch the broccoli for 1 minute and scoop out with slotted spoon, then drop pasta in the same water and cook al dente.
While that’s cooking, saute at least 4 cloves of of shaved garlic with olive oil till golden, then you want to put your shrimp and broccoli in the oil and saute, next deglaze everything with some white wine. When the sauce reduces a little and all the flavors are blended, put in your pasta so it soaks up the sauce, add salt & pepper to taste, and in this case I added some sun dried tomatoes, which I think adds color and flavor. That’s it!!!!

Buon Appetito

7 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: broccolli, shrimp, sundried tomatoes

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP!!!

November 18, 2007 by Marie 18 Comments

I’ve been to many Italian weddings in my life and I have NEVER been served this soup! So how did this name come about? That was the exact conversation my Sister- in- law Jennie and I had on the phone the other day. So I decided to do a tiny bit of research and came up with this… Somewhere along the way, the name Minestra Maritata got mis-translated.
The literal translation is “married soup” which in this case, refers to the ingredients, which are a perfect “marriage” of the meat and greens in the soup.

That sounds logical, doesn’t it? If any of you have a little trivia on Italian Wedding Soup, I would love to hear about it. Now on with the recipe!!

First of all I want to say, that there are many, many variations of this soup, I just prefer a little more color, so I add some tomatoes and carrot to mine.

INGREDIENTS

Your favorite Italian meat balls with lots of Romano cheese in them and made tiny, of course
About 6 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1 onion
1 big carrot or 2
1 cup of orzo pasta
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
2 cups of kale, escarole, or chard (shredded) more if you want!
1 small can of diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper

Get your nice heavy soup pan out, then take the garlic, carrot, onion, and saute in a little butter.
Next throw in broth and tomatoes.
I like my broth clear so I don’t put the uncooked meatballs right in my soup pot just yet. I separately put them in another pan with some extra broth and softly cook them, so this way there is no foam in my soup. When they are mostly cooked through I scoop them out with a slotted spoon and put them right into the big pot! The result is a nice clear broth!
After it’s been simmering for a while, I throw in my greens, which in this case was chard, and my 1 cup of orzo.
Also, if you have any leftover rinds of Romano or Parm, this would be an excellent time to use them.

Buon appetito!!!!!

18 Comments Filed Under: Soups and Stews Tagged: italian wedding soup, italian weddings, meat and greens, ministra maritata

BLACK RASPBERRY POLENTA MUFFINS W/ LEMON GLAZE !!

November 14, 2007 by Marie 12 Comments

Note: This is a much needed update on this archived post of 2007, same exact flavors with some better visuals and a recipe card at the end.

These delicious muffins have the addition of polenta, the polenta gives the crumb a nice texture which holds up well to the berries, and they’re topped off with a bright lemon glaze.

In my updated version I used blackberries but honestly any berry would work. I prefer using fresh berries but in the past I used some frozen berries and it still works fine.

I like using paper muffin cups for this recipe because I find that sometimes the berries stick to the bottom of the tin if only greased, and you certainly don’t want to loose any of that goodness.

The added polenta gives the muffins a slight crunch and added sweetness to each bite and a little more sturdiness and structure.

Delicious straight from the oven but even better with a generous drizzle of lemon glaze!

Fresh lemon juice and zest make up the glaze which give the muffins an added zing.

Easy to make with no mixer involved and the end results are amazing, hope you give them a try!

BLACK RASPBERRY POLENTA MUFFINS W/ LEMON GLAZE !!

This is an updated 2021 post from the original date of 2007 when I first published it.

Author: Marie

Ingredients

1½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup instant polenta
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
⅔ cup milk
⅓ cup of oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 2 lemons, one for muffins and 1 for glaze
8 oz. preferably fresh berries like blackberries, blueberries or mixed berries
GLAZE
1 cup or so of powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice

Instructions

Heat oven to 350F.
Line muffin tin with paper liners.
In a small bowl add in the flour, polenta, sugar, baking powder, salt, whisk together.
In a larger bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, zest and oil.
Add the dry to the wet and with a rubber spatula, mix well.
Fold in the berries and fill the paper liners.
Bake time is 25 to 30 minutes, you want a nice golden color on top.
While muffins are baking mix up your glaze in a small bowl.
Add the powdered sugar, zest and enough fresh lemon juice to make a semi thick glaze, you don't want a runny loose glaze, something a little thicker.
When muffins are finished baking, let them cool then brush the glaze on top.
Enjoy!