Proud Italian Cook

GRILLED CHICKEN OREGANATO

April 22, 2008 by Marie 44 Comments

This past weekend the weather was beautiful, which prompted me to fire up my grill for dinner.
Since I was going to be grilling chicken I knew exactly how I was going to make it. I got my inspiration for this from eyeing Amy’s huge jar of Marinata Diavola, over at Familia Bencomo.
What a great idea to have this on hand in your frig during grilling season. Go over and check out her recipe here, I had to change mine up a bit because I didn’t have any fresh rosemary, so instead I used dried greek oregano, hence the title…Chicken Oreganato.

What ever herbs you use trust me it will be delicious! Its simply a mixture of fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic cloves, sea salt, and pepper, and cayenne pepper. ( I only had red pepper flakes). Put it all in a jar, shake it up and use it as a marinade or just brush it on grilled meats, all kinds of fish, and your favorite veggies.

I didn’t make enough, so I’ll be making lots more. I love having it readily available in my frig, and the longer it sits, the better it tastes. 🙂

I even brushed it over my lemons that I grilled. If you have never grilled a lemon, you have to try it, it’s sweeter and super juicy! I squeezed it all over my chicken, mmmm was it good!!

If you haven’t had a chance to visit Amy’s blog, or gotten to know her yet, please stop by for a visit, one conversation with her and you’ll think you’ve known her for years! Really!!!
Thanks Amy!

Happy Grilling!!

44 Comments Filed Under: Poultry Tagged: chicken oreganato, greek oregano, grilled lemons, grilling season

CONTORNI (SIDE DISHES)

April 17, 2008 by Marie 33 Comments

The other day while I was visiting some of my favorite blogs, I came across a post by Peter of Kalofagas Greek Food & Beyond. He was talking about how he was going to try and feature more side dishes. He felt that sides got little attention compared to the main course, we as bloggers often feature. My thoughts exactly!!! In fact in my house we’re all about the sides! Especially with grill season starting its fun to get creative with different sides to have with your main course. Below are a few of our favorites, and as grilling season gets reved up I’ll be posting more!

VEGETABLE GIARDINIERA

Cook in salted boiling water for 3 min. cauliflower, sliced carrots,and celery. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a tray lined with paper towels. Cool vegetables.

In a large bowl add green and your favorite black olives, drained artichoke hearts, minced garlic, drained eggplant salad, chopped red onion, and all of your cooled down veggies.

Make a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, season with salt and pepper, dried oregano, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Refrigerate till cool.

FRESH GREEN BEAN SALAD

Precook your green beans, make sure they still till have a bite to them. Drain and cool them down.

In a large bowl add cooled beans, kalamata olives, red onion, garbanzo beans, and chopped fresh tomato’s. Toss like a salad with red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper, and granulated garlic. Delicious at room temp, or chilled.

STUFFED TOMATOES WITH RICE

I use the tomatoes on the vine, slice a little off the top, scoop out the pulp and place in a bowl.

arrange scooped out tomatoes on a baking tray lined with foil. Set aside.

Smash up the pulp a little, add to that your cooked risotto, parsley, basil, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper, mix well.

Spoon filling into prepared tomatoes, drizzle olive oil all over them, roast until tender and soft.

Depending on how big your tomatoes are it could take up to 40 min. at 400 degreesF.

Serve at room temp.

STUFFED ARTICHOKES

Prepare artichokes by trimming leaves and stems, then steam them just until the leaves pull off easy. Set aside.

In a bowl add flavored dry breadcrumbs, or fresh, add garlic, fresh chopped parsley, grated romano cheese, salt and pepper, moisten mixture with some olive oil.

Stuff each leave with the mixture, take your time go all around the artichoke. Place them in a baking dish and place them in a 375 degreeF. oven till heated through. Garnish with lemon.

Hopefully this will encourage all of you to “show your sides”! I’ll be looking forward to seeing all of your creations!

BUON APPETITO!!

33 Comments Filed Under: Side Dishes Tagged: green bean salad, stuffed artichokes, stuffed tomatoes with rice, summer side dishes, vegetable giardiniera

EGGPLANT TIMPANO!!

April 12, 2008 by Marie 51 Comments

I first saw this recipe in the cookbook Cucina & Famiglia, out of that cookbook came the signature Timpano that made the movie “Big Night” famous. I’ve been making that Timpano for years, and even did a post on it here. Its huge, it feeds 16 people and great for a party.
In the same book there’s also a vegetarian version that I have been wanting to try for just as long. I think I was intimidated by the wrapping of the eggplant and all, so I just put it on my list of things I wanted to make.
Then a couple weeks ago I saw Giada De Laurentiis make this Eggplant Timbale on her show, she talked about how her Grandfather, Dino De Laurentiis, made this all the time for their family. I got inspired right then to make it, and I made it the very next day!
I sort of combined a little of both versions together, and came up with this. You can easily find her recipe by going to Food TV and put a search in for Eggplant Timbale, and it will come up.

Giada’s recipe called for 2 eggplants, that didn’t seem enough to me so I grilled about 4, and it was just enough. Depending on the size and length of each piece you definitely don’t want to run out in the middle of doing this. You want to make sure the pieces are long enough to drape over a 9″ spring form pan.

The filling is basically, 1/2 lb. of pasta cooked al’dente mixed together with a marinara, a little Marsala wine, peas, I put in some Italian sausage and a dry packed fresh mozzarella, along with grated romano, Giada used a smoked mozzarella in hers.

The spring form pan which has been lined with the grilled eggplant, filled with the pasta filling, and now folded over into a neat little package is now ready for the oven! 350 Degrees, for about 1/2 hr, till warmed through and cheese inside melts.

After you let it rest a good 10 min, release the pan. Everything molds together perfectly!

It all stayed together when I cut into it. Just use a serrated knife and gently cut it.

You don’t have to add meat to it at all, you can make this completely vegetarian.

Can I tell you, the taste was out of this world, we loved it! It was light, and the flavors of the grilled eggplant along with the Marsala wine, sausage, marinara was wonderful, and it was just as good the next day, and the next. Yes, Hubby ate it 3 days in a row he loved it that much.

Not only does it taste good, but I think it looks spectacular don’t you? Not because I made it, but just how the eggplant looks overlapped with the skin on for a little color, the grill marks and all of the above.