Pork Saltimbocca and 26.2

October 12, 2009 by 28 Comments

In a pinch and need a quick meal? In about 10 minutes or so you can have this for dinner! Lean, thin cut, pork cutlets sauteed in a buttery white wine sauce topped with prosciutto and a sage leaf. So simple with a ton of flavor, no wonder saltimbocca translated means, ” jump in the mouth”!

*First you’ll want to take your cutlets and pound them down a little to flatten them out a bit.
*Season your cutlets with salt and ground pepper.
*Take a slice of prosciutto and lay it on your cutlet, and gently pound it into the meat, add a sage leaf on top.
*Drizzle a hot pan with olive oil and prosciutto side down fry cutlets about 2 minutes on each side.
*Remove from pan and deglaze with 1 cup of white wine, scrapping up all the brown bits.
*Add 3T of butter to gloss the sauce.
*Return the cutlets back to the sauce and finish cooking. Buon Appetito!

2009 Chicago Marathon

I want to give a big shout out to my son for completing his 2nd Chicago Marathon which was yesterday. That’s him on the right in yellow ready to cross the finish line. He actually knocked 50 minutes off his time from last year! He amazes us all with his dedication and determination! The weather yesterday in Chicago was bitter cold, great for the runners, but not so great for the spectators, notice the gloves, hats, scarves and winter coats. I thought this was fall!

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Butternut Squash Lasagna, Revisited

October 5, 2009 by 47 Comments

I love this time of year it puts me in the mood for butternut squash lasagna. Have you tried it yet? If you haven’t, you must. I love serving this along side a roasted turkey on Thanksgiving, to me it’s the perfect complement and a great pasta side dish.

butternut squash lasagna

Over the years I’ve made it so many different ways with a little tweaking here and there. I updated some of the pictures in this post to reflect that. Time has sure past since I first posted this back in 2009, and now it’s almost 2020 and I’m still making butternut squash lasagna!

butternut squash loasagna

I love adding a bechamel sauce that’s infused with herbs and garlic. In the past I infused the sauce with roasted garlic and rosemary then moved on to roasted garlic and sage. When you infuse those flavors into warm bechamel sauce it takes the whole lasagna to another level of flavor and taste!

Sometimes I’ll add on the layers ricotta cheese mix and some shredded mozzarella, sometimes no ricotta just bechamel, parmesan, the squash and maybe even another cheese like shredded fontina which melts really nice, it’s all good!

I think an important thing to remember is to make enough sauce. When I first started making this four cups of sauce was not enough because the pasta seems to soak it up and also you want a nice layer ending on the top, as well as some for serving.

And if you’re going to use the no-boil pasta, well that tends to need a lot of sauce anyway. So you be the judge, but I would start out with six cups of sauce, it’s better to have more than not enough.

I used one large butternut squash which was perfectly enough for a 13×9 pan.
Peel the squash, slice it, scoop out the seeds and cut it into chunks. Place them onto a baking sheet seasoned with salt and pepper and an olive oil drizzle, roast in the oven at 400F until fork tender but not mushy. In the same oven I roasted 1 small head of garlic wrapped in tin foil.
In the meantime, make your basic bechamel sauce, when finished add in a few of the roasted and smashed garlic gloves, you be the judge on how much you want in there, toss in some fresh sage leaves and a good handful of grated parmesan, salt and pepper.
Let the magic happen and let it infuse for a good 20-30 minutes, give it a taste to see if it meets your flavor standards, if not add more of something.

If you’re going to add ricotta to your layers whisk an egg into it along with a generous helping of grated parmesan, salt and pepper. Start layering with the sauce, then pasta, more sauce, pasta, the squash, ricotta mixture, shredded cheese and more grated cheese.
Then repeat, ending with sauce on top of the last layer of pasta.
Bake covered with tin foil at 375F. for about 30 minutes, take the foil off and stick it under the broiler until golden brown for a few seconds.
Feel free to use any kind of lasagna noodles, boil, no boil, whole wheat or white lasagna noodles, again just make plenty of sauce (which I feel is key).
noodle-less lasagna
I’ve even made a noodle-less version of a butternut squash lasagna which is equally delicious and perfect for those who are gluten free.
Butternut Squash Lasagna, Revisited
 
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Ingredients
  • FOR THE BECHAMEL
  • 6 cups whole milk
  • 12 TBL. butter
  • 12 TBL. flour
  • ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
  • handful of rosemary or sage
  • roasted garlic cloves, smashed
  • Melt butter in a saucepan, whisk in flour. Cook and stir for around 1 minute to cook off the raw and starchy taste of the flour. Whisk in the milk stirring frequently until it starts to bubble ad thicken.
  • Toss in the smashed roasted garlic, herbs and parmesan to infuse sauce. Let it sit for 20- 30 minutes
  • Taste for salt and pepper and remove herbs.
  • ROASTING THE BUTTERNUT SQUASH
  • 1 large squash, peeled and cut into cubes, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and placed on a sheet pan until tender but not mushy at 400 degrees.
Instructions
  1. Feel free to use any type of pasta noodle, no boil, boil, whole wheat or plain white or even fresh.
  2. You can add a ricotta mixture as stated in the post along with shredded fontina or mozzarella, the squash and bechamel.
  3. You can make it without ricotta by just using the butternut squash, shredded cheese and bechamel.
  4. You can make it noodle-less as shown in the post with a link by slicing planks of squash into . "pasta noodles".
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47 Comments Filed Under: Fall, Pasta, Side Dishes, Vegetables Tagged: , , , , ,

Arborio Raisin Rice Pudding

September 29, 2009 by 32 Comments

Now that fall is officially here and the air is cool and crisp outside, inside I’m thinking more and more about comfort foods. Is there anything more comforting then a bowl of old fashioned rice pudding? It’s simple, straight forward, none pretentious and quite economical!

There are so many variations using different ingredients such as butter, egg yolks and cream. Different techniques in cooking it, baked, stove top, and even some crock pot recipes. Fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, raisins, coconut, and some even spiked with liqueur, just to name a few.

In my house it’s golden raisins with cinnamon and vanilla, although I have been known to spike it with some Amaretto at times, (so good!) I don’t use cream or egg yolks or butter, because frankly we don’t need it, and believe me you won’t miss it.

If you want to fancy it up you can make or buy some dried apples and stick them into the rice pudding for a pretty presentation, I’ve done that a couple of times but normally I just eat it as is, the flavors are “fancy” all on it’s own.

I had so much success with oven drying tomatoes, that I thought I’d give it a try with some apples and pears. It took a lot less time and the result was great, and even 2 weeks later they were still moist and chewy! Make sure to store them in an airtight container.

I used a mandolin for slicing my up my fruit which I then placed single layer on a baking sheet topped with parchment paper. They took about 3 hours to dry in a 225 F oven. I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on mine before baking, but you don’t have to.

Scenes from a pumpkin farm we went to over the weekend, don’t you just love fall, it’s my favorite season.

Arborio Raisin Rice Pudding
 
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Ingredients
  • 5 cups whole milk
  • 1/ 2 heaping cup of arborio rice
  • ½ cup sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ golden raisins
  • 2 teaspoons good vanilla
  • optional cinnamon or a drizzle of amaretto liquor
Instructions
  1. Combine the milk, sugar and salt in a sauce pan on medium heat, when it reaches a boil add the rice, stir and reduce to a slow simmer.
  2. You need to stir the rice mixture frequently and total time could take up to an hour.
  3. When you see it thicken up nicely like a loose pudding it's finished.
  4. Remove pan from heat add the raisins and vanilla.
  5. Let it cool down, then cover the top of the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate til cool.
  6. You can sprinkle with cinnamon or omit the cinnamon and spoon some amaretto liquor on top.
  7. I highly suggest you double the recipe, you'll be glad you did!
  8. Enjoy!

 

 

Buon Appetito!
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32 Comments Filed Under: Desserts, Fruit, Rice and Risotto Tagged: , , ,