Besides all the traditional dishes of Thanksgiving like stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberries, I like to throw in a few extras, sometimes it’s simply roasted seasonal vegetables.
Different shaped squash, colorful carrots and vibrant greens are the perfect backdrop on a pretty platter, you can roast them ahead of time, reheat in a hot oven and finish them off with a good drizzle of balsamic glaze!
In my family we all like brussel sprouts in some form or another so I always try to have them on my Thanksgiving table, this year I’m doing a Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad. ( recipe below)
It’s fresh, crunchy, creamy, slightly sweet with a tiny bit of heat and laced with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, lemon and Marcona almonds and plumped cranberries.
I seriously could eat this for lunch everyday, it’s that good! Pull out a large bowl because you’ll be surprised how much it makes with just one bunch of kale and half a bag of brussel sprouts. I encourage you to double the recipe please!
Everyone needs a little decadence during the holidays and these Cipollini bathing in Creamy Parmesan and Thyme sauce are the perfect addition to your table, besides they’re small and a few on your plate won’t hurt you! Cipollini are the saucer shaped onions but you can certainly replace them with pearl onions which are even smaller.
Roast your onions ahead of time in a 400 degree oven until golden, then place them into a shallow baking dish. Meanwhile in a separate saucepan place 2 cups of cream and three sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper, when cream starts to come to a boil remove pan from the stove and stir in 3/4 cup of grated parmesan, add salt to taste, then spoon it over and around the onions. Sprinkle additional 1/4 cup of grated parmesan on top and place into the oven at 450 for 15 minutes or until the cream has thickened.
Creamy Fennel with Parmesan and Thyme, another decadent treat! Prepare it the same way as the onions above, slightly roasting the fennel before hand. I used three bulbs thinly sliced.
I usually make a side of pasta on Thanksgiving and either Butternut squash or Pumpkin Gnocchi is always a wonderful complement to the turkey dinner.
But my all time favorite are these Stuffed Shells with Butternut Squash, Spinach and Ricotta. All the flavors of a butternut squash lasagne stuffed into individual pasta shells, one or two on your heavily loaded plate is plenty and there’s no hassle cutting into a big lasagne, what could be better than that? Happy Cooking!
- 1 bunch of Tuscan kale, chopped with stems removed
- ½ lb. brussel sprouts, sliced thin or shredded in a food processor
- ¼ cup shredded carrots
- 1 large celery stalk, sliced thin
- 1 cup of plump dried cranberries
- ½ cup of Marcona almonds
- ¾ cup coarsely shredded parmesan cheese
- FOR THE DRESSING
- ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 or 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
- a pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 small smashed garlic
- ½ teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- Place chopped kale, shredded sprouts, carrots, celery, dried cranberries and almonds into a large bowl, sprinkle cheese all around.
- Whisk olive oil, lemon, garlic, red pepper and Dijon together in a smaller separate bowl then toss with the kale and sprout mixture, adding more cheese and olive oil if needed. Cover and refrigerate or eat immediately.
Yesterday I spent the whole day with family making Cucidati, Italian fig cookies. We stopped counting at 500 but I think it was actually close to 600 in the end. I figure if you’re going to do this only once a year you might as well go big!
Everything was prepped the night before so when everyone arrived we could get right down to the business of making and baking the cookies, we knew it would be an all day project.
My husband has a soft spot for Cucidati, 
They also brought along some of this fabulous pistachio liqueur to sip as we were baking, it’s become our tradition and it pairs perfectly while you’re taste testing the cookies. ( wink, wink!) Besides fig and pistachio are a perfect match! 
After a few minutes everyone got in their groove doing their specific jobs, we had the music going and we started pumping them out!
Straight from the oven onto my marble dining room table which was a good spot for them to cool down on.
When we got half way through the dough we stopped for a lunch break of lentil soup and a frittata, then back to work!
The table started filling up fast after lunch so it was time to get them frosted so the glaze would be completely dry before they got packed into containers.
A proud moment, waiting for the last two batches in my oven to come out and then every inch on my dining room table would be filled with fig cookies!
The best part, enjoying the fruits of our labor!
This frittata was born from leftover squash that I had in my fridge and it was a big hit, I love it when things come together at the spur of the moment! You could eat this for breakfast, brunch or even dinner with a salad and it’s so quick to put together like all frittatas are.
I’ve been experimenting with my new favorite squash, Delicata. It’s smaller in size and has a very thin skin which is all eatable, the flesh is very creamy in texture and rich in flavor. I love the look of the smaller rings when you cut into it with it’s scalloped edges. You can also slice it length wise, remove the seeds, stuff it and eat the whole thing, it’s very tender.
I used freshly grated romano cheese along with and an aged cheddar to flavor my eggs which complemented the delicata squash perfectly. Spinach and tomatoes were also added.
Make sure not to use too many eggs because you want to be able to see the squash sitting up there real pretty, of course it all depends on how big your pan is, I used a 10″ skillet, five eggs, 5 slices of squash.
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
