Proud Italian Cook

Veggie Napoleon

September 20, 2012 by Marie 21 Comments

This is a savory version of a napoleon, layers and layers of your favorite vegetables all perched on top of a sturdy portobello base. These pretty bundles are the perfect side dish to any protein you make or a straight up main course served together with a salad.

This dish was inspired by something my sister in law ordered while on vacation, her portobello was filled with Yukon gold potatoes, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and parmesan cheese.

I wanted to incorporate some autumn vegetables on mine so I added sliced sweet potatoes, kale and some nice fresh green beans I found.
Everything is precooked before you layer, I steamed the green beans and sauteed the kale but roasted everything else you see here, the eggplant, red and yellow peppers, the sweet potatoes and the onion slices all tossed with a little olive oil and placed in a 400 degree oven until golden and tender.

The portobellos, (I bought large ones) were scraped of their gills ( to give you lots of room for layering) and roasted for only 10 minutes along with everything else just to get them a little tender.

Then just start layering! In between the layers you want add some grated cheese that melts good like fontina or mozzarella, it sort of “glues” the veggies together so that when you cut into bundle, ( with a serrated knife please) they won’t fall apart.
Place them back in the oven for a couple of minutes just to let the cheese melt in between.
I think I was getting a little over zealous here stacking them too high with too many layers in the beginning, I tend to over due it, just ask my kids!

So I ended up making mine a little more compact with not quite as many layers as above but always ending with the sweet potato slices on top.
Place your finished veggie napoleon in a nice big puddle of marinara and sprinkle with more cheese, delish!
Get creative here, the various veggie combinations are endless!!

21 Comments Filed Under: Side Dishes, Vegetables Tagged: eggplant, kale, meatless meal, portobello mushrooms, roasted veggies, sweet potato

Scenes from Seattle

September 16, 2012 by Marie 19 Comments

I just returned from my Seattle vacation and since I don’t have a stitch of food in my house or any desire to cook right now I thought I’d share some highlights of my trip.
The weather was beautiful all week, it only rained once for just 15 minutes.
We took a cruise all over Elliott Bay and Puget Sound.

No wonder why they call Pike Place Market the “soul of Seattle”, aisles and aisles of the most beautiful local produce, flowers, artisan vendors and hand crafted gifts, over 100 places to indulge when hungry, and the most gorgeous fish this Midwesterner has ever seen!

And yes, they do throw fish there, in fact my husband caught a 20lb salmon that was thrown to him, thank goodness he caught it!

I’m a big fan of Dale Chihuly and couldn’t wait to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass to see his work up close. Glass artist extraordinaire, Chihuly is known for his large architectural installations, you might have seen the ceiling in the hotel Bellagio in Vegas where he installed over 2000 hand-blown glass elements.

One of my favorite exhibits he did was Chihuly over Venice, where he hung the most amazing glass chandeliers over the canals and piazzas in Venice, breathtaking!

The picture really doesn’t do this justice, this boat was over 10ft long filled with magnificent glass works!

The museum has his works inside and outside in a garden and it’s located right near the Space Needle as you can see in the picture.

His colors are just amazing!

We went to wineries and waterfalls and visited the the beautiful Washington coast.

You know what I love about Seattle and the state of Washington? They’re coffee obsessed! Everywhere you look, virtually every corner you’ll see a coffee shop or hut like this one. We grabbed a cup and headed right down on to the sandy beach with our rental car gazing at the pacific and watching this couple make gigantic bubbles.

And how could I not talk about the food! This IS a food blog after all! Here’s a small glimpse of some of the food we consumed.
Fresh wild salmon, amazing halibut, ling cod, crab cakes, clams, fish and chips, fabulous crab sandwiches on sourdough, chowder, chowder and more chowder, marionberry pies, we even stopped in at Salumi and had porchetta sandwiches, but mainly we were all about the fish.
Would I visit Seattle again? Most definitely!

19 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: Chihuly, Pike Place Market, Seattle, Seattle vacation

Kale and Almond Pesto with a Little Bit of Heat

September 2, 2012 by Marie 17 Comments

We have three different varieties of kale growing in our garden, Cavolo Nero or tuscan kale, the curly and green-gray type and one that is a redish purple color with ruffled leaves, I love them all!
Quite honestly I never thought of turning kale into a pesto, I’m such a basil person, until I saw the new Donna Hay magazine and then I got instantly inspired!
What a great way to use up all my kale!

What I loved was her addition of red chillies and toasted almonds, the chillies give a slight touch of heat and the toasted almonds add so much flavor to the pesto.

Blanching the kale for a few minutes and then placing it right into a bowl of ice water, helps to retain it’s vivid green color. I made mine about a week ago and it’s still bright green.

If you’re a kale lover and you know just how good kale is for you, then you have to make this! Dare I say I’m liking this better than basil pesto right now, that’s how good it is.
The first time I made it I quadrupled the recipe.

I’ve been tossing and slathering it all over everything. Here I tossed it with roasted zucchini coins and orecchiette pasta.

Slathered over our weekend frittata, man was that good!

And my absolute favorite, ( thanks to Donna Hay) slathered over a warm, right from the oven, roasted chicken.
AMAZING!

I will be making many more batches of this before all my kale is gone… My family is thanking me!

Here is my adapted version, slightly different from Donna Hay’s because she used Manchego cheese and I used romano, she also added 1 cup of parsley in addition to the kale, I just used straight up kale.

2 cups of kale leaves stems removed, blanched and squeezed of moisture

1/3 cup of toasted almonds

2 red chillies

3 cloves of garlic

1/3 cup of grated romano

1/2 cup of olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat oven to 375F. On a small baking sheet place almonds, chillies, and garlic drizzle with olive oil and roast for 8-10 minutes or until almonds are golden brown. Deseed chillies.

Place the almonds, chillies and garlic in a food processor then add the kale and cheese, process until roughly chopped then drizzle in your olive oil.

Taste it for salt or more cheese or even more oil, the pesto should have a nice movement to it when stired.

Enjoy!