Proud Italian Cook

AUTUMN SIDES

November 2, 2008 by Marie 48 Comments

These are two very easy sides to make, because your oven does all the work! The hardest thing would probably be cutting up the vegetables! Preparing your veggies with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roasting them at 400F gives a nice carmelization to them all. And if your lucky to have a “convection roast” setting on your stove, that’s even better.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans, Dried Cranberries, Toasted Hazelnuts, all tossed with Brown Butter and Sage. I saw this combination in a magazine and loved it ever since! I think it was shown with whole pecans, which would be equally delicious!

Brown butter and sage, is simply made by melting some butter on medium heat, tossing in some fresh sage, heat until the white milk solids turn brown, and sage is crispy.

Balsamic Glazed Roasted Acorn Squash

Taking balsamic vinegar and simmering it down until it becomes a dark, sweet rich syrup, and then pouring a generous drizzle over your squash, makes it irresistibly good!!!

Have a great day, and Buon Appetito!!

48 Comments Filed Under: Fall, Side Dishes, Vegetables Tagged: autumn side dish, balsamic glaze, brown butter and sage, roasted veggies, turkey sides

Antipasto Anyone?

October 30, 2008 by Marie 43 Comments

For special occasions, stuffed mushrooms and stuffed artichokes can be the perfect starter! Yes, artichokes can be a little time consuming, with the prepping and all, but that can all be done ahead of time, which makes things alot easier.

In both appetizers I used the same stuffing which consisted of crumbled Italian sausage, sauteed mushrooms, flavored breadcrumbs, fresh herbs and cheese. I love buying crimini mushrooms, if you’re lucky to have a Costco near you, they have a great buy for a huge container of them.

Preparing the Mushrooms:

Wipe them off with a damp paper towel, trim away hard tips, snip off the stems, chop them up, then set aside. Place stem side up in a baking dish that was drizzled with olive oil. I used Crimini mushrooms, but you can use what you like.. Ater you stuff them drizzle olive oil over each mushroom.

Prepping The Artichokes:

This does take a little time, but it all can be done a day ahead if you like. Trim about 1/3 off the top of your artichokes, then take a scissor and trim off all the pointy tips. Slice it half length wise, and place in pot of water with squeezed lemon. Simmer till you can just start to stick the point of a knife through, you don’t want them to be falling apart or mushy. Stoves, and the size of your artichokes will vary so its something you just have to watch.

After they cool a little bit, trim them down to the light green and tender leaves that are all edible, scoop out all the pointy and fuzzy stuff, but be careful to leave the heart in tact! What you’ll have left is all edible, even the stem if you trim that up too. Place in a baking dish drizzled with olive oil. After you stuff them, drizzle olive oil over the top of each one.

For The Sausage And Breadcrumb Stuffing:

Squeeze your Italian sausage out of the casing, or buy it in bulk. Brown it up and get it into small crumbles. Drain on paper towel. Drizzle olive oil in pan, saute your chopped mushroom stems and a clove or two of crushed garlic. Add back your sausage, and mix together then take off the stove, add in Italian style dry breadcrumbs, or panko, or day old Italian bread, fresh grated romano cheese, fresh parsley, salt and pepper, and just a little bit of shredded mozzarella to hold it all together. Measurements don’t have to be exact here, you’ll be able to judge the amounts by the way it looks.

Bake at 400F, 15 or 20 min’s, or until breading on top is nice and crispy. When mushrooms come out of the oven I usually place a little warm marinara on top, the flavors are terrific together! The artichokes are served with lemon wedges.

I guarantee your guests will not be able to resist these!

Buon Appetito!!

43 Comments Filed Under: Appetizers Tagged: party foods, special occasion foods, stuffed artichoke hearts, Stuffed mushrooms

Chicago Style, Italian Beef Pizza!!

October 28, 2008 by Marie 50 Comments

I was excited to do this months Daring Baker challenge, ” PIZZA NAPOLETANA” , for one thing, I’m a proud Italian cook! and the other thing is, my family on my Mom’s side is from Naples!

The pizza dough recipe which we had to use, came from Peter Reinharts, “The Bread Bakers Apprentice” other than that, we were free to use any sauce or topping we wanted.

Seeing that I’m a girl born and raised in Chicagoland, I thought it would be fun to base my pizza on one of the foods Chicago is known for, and that is Italian Beef!

Originating in Chicago, this sandwich dates back to the 1930’s. Paper thin slices of lean roast beef, simmered in a beef juice that’s loaded with flavors of garlic, oregano, and depending on where you get it from, many other “secret spices”!

I always order mine with “sweet and hot”( peppers that is). Sweet being, green bell peppers that have been sauteed, and the hot, which is usually a homemade giardiniera.

I picked up a pound of our favorite Italian beef from Portillo’s, a very popular place that is always consistent, and always good.

When you buy it by the pound, they always separate the beef from the juice. When you get it home, instructions are to slowly simmer them together, never heating it on high heat, so that’s what I did to get all the flavors into the beef, but then because I was going to put this on top of a pizza, I drained all the juice from it, otherwise your pizza would be a soggy mess.

My sauce was made by simply opening up a can of good crushed tomatoes, and right into the can I put 1 clove of crushed garlic, about 1 teaspoon of salt, some pepper, a light sprinkling of oregano, and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir it all up, take a spoon, and spread it all over your dough.

Of course I had to add “sweet and hot” to my pizza, along with some shredded mozzarella.

The verdict on the dough: I thought the texture and the chewiness was great, it cooked up golden and crunchy, but I feel it lacked flavor, almost like it needed a little more yeasty taste to it. But thats just my opinion!

A big “Thanks” goes out to our hostess Rosa, of Rosas Yummy Yums who picked this challenge.

Click on her blog to get the complete recipe for the pizza dough.

Also go here, and check out some of the other pizza’s that have been cooked up out in the blogosphere!