Lasagna with Asparagus, Leeks, and Morels

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, divided
• 2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
• 1 pound thick asparagus spears, trimmed, cut on diagonal into 1-inch pieces (**We forgot these or didn't have them or something. Whatever the case -- we didn't have them.)
• 4 ounces fresh morel mushrooms, rinsed, coarsely chopped, or 5 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, coarsely chopped (**I was not aware of this, but morel mushrooms are REALLY expensive. $60 a pound expensive. SIXTY DOLLARS A POUND! That is nuts.)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 3 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 9-ounce package no-cook lasagna noodles (12 noodles)
• 1 1/4 cups (about) finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Preparation

• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks; cook until wilted, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in same skillet. Add asparagus, mushrooms, and thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until asparagus is crisp-tender, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Add to bowl with leeks and toss to distribute evenly. Add broth, cream, and bay leaf to same skillet and boil over high heat until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle flour over and whisk to blend. Boil until sauce thickens, about 1 minute, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in nutmeg; discard bay leaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Vegetables and sauce can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat four 2-cup shallow oval or round baking dishes with nonstick spray. Break off corners of noodles to fit flatly into dishes. Spoon 1/4 cup sauce into each dish. Place 1 noodle atop sauce. Scatter 1/4 cup vegetable mixture over, spreading in even layer. Drizzle 2 tablespoons sauce over. Sprinkle rounded tablespoonful cheese over each. Repeat layering 2 more times with noodles, vegetables, sauce, and cheese. Drizzle remaining sauce over lasagnas. (**We used one big dish. We really didn't have enough, but that was partly because we forgot we were supposed to have a pound of asparagus.)
  
• Cover each dish tightly with foil. Place on rimmed baking sheet and bake until noodles are tender, about 40 minutes. Uncover and bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese begins to brown, about 6 minutes. Let stand at room temperature 5 minutes before serving.

Delicious.


Here was our final product. Deviled quail eggs, Quail-Toad-in-the-Hole in Flat French Bread, Lasagna with Leeks & Shiitakes, and a fanned strawberry on balsamic reduction.

Burrata & Caprese Salad

I found burrata cheese!!! I got it at Jungle Jim's, but I have heard reports that Whole Foods has it too. Burrata is the most amazing cheese. I really recommend finding some for yourself. It's heavenly.


This isn't the best picture in the world, but this was really tasty. We used a balsamic reduction on it. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Fettuccine with Peas, Asparagus, & Pancetta

OK, really we made Fettuccine with Peas & Bacon.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces fettuccine or penne
• 3 ounces pancetta or bacon, chopped (*We used regular bacon.)
• 1 1/4 pounds asparagus, trimmed, cut on diagonal into 1-inch pieces (*Didn't have it!)
• 2 cups shelled fresh green peas, blanched 1 minute in boiling water, drained, or frozen peas (do not thaw)(*Frozen peas were fine)
• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced, white and pale green parts separated from dark green parts (*We used shallots.)
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel (*Didn't use it.)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley, divided (*Didn't have it.)
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil, divided

Preparation

• Cook pasta in pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot.
• Meanwhile, cook pancetta in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 teaspoon drippings from skillet. Add asparagus to drippings in skillet; sauté 3 minutes. Add peas, white and pale green parts of green onions, and garlic; sauté until vegetables are just tender, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Add vegetable mixture, 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid, dark green parts of green onions, 1/2 cup Parmesan, cream, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon peel, half of parsley, and half of basil to pasta. Toss, adding more cooking liquid by tablespoonfuls if needed. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to large bowl. Sprinkle pancetta, remaining parsley, and basil over. Serve, passing additional Parmesan cheese.

This gets two forks up from me. (Also, note the cameo by my foot & house shoe.)

Campanelle with Lamb Ragù

This meal was quite tasty, and not especially hard to make. It's technically supposed to be Pappardelle with Lamb Ragù, but we couldn't find Pappardelle, so we used Campanelle. It looked like a fun shape.

4 SERVINGS

• PREP: 50 minutes
• TOTAL: 50 minutes

Recipe by the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

May 2010

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds round-bone lamb shoulder chops, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (*Lamb is expesnive...we used about 1/3 of this. It would be better with more lamb.)
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 3 cups chopped leeks (about 3 medium; white and pale green parts only)
• 1 1/2 cups dry red wine
• 2 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 8-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
• 2 cups frozen peas with pearl onions, thawed
• 1 8.8- to 9-ounce package pappardelle or other wide egg noodles
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preparation

• Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle lamb with salt, pepper, and flour. Add lamb to skillet and sauté until browned, about 5 minutes. Add leeks; sauté until soft, about 3 minutes. Add wine and boil until slightly thickened, scraping up browned bits, about 3 minutes. Add broth and oregano; bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer uncovered until lamb is tender, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Add artichokes and peas with onions. Simmer until heated through, about 4 minutes. (*We raised the heat and boiled it some more to reduce it. We ended up adding a little more flour to thicken the sauce, although it might have been OK without that step.)
  
• Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain.
• Place pasta in large bowl. Spoon ragù over and sprinkle with parsley.

Another delightful little hint. We purchased some imported butter (Celles sur Belles), which is traditional churn butter with little sea salt crystals. My aunt had some of the butter on her bread melt into the ragù and discovered it was quite tasty. Indeed, a little pat of butter kicked the taste up a nice little notch.

Pizza Dip

There is little I love more than football food. For this year's Super Bowl I wanted to try out some dips. This was a fun tasty little dip to compliment the last football game of the season. My next recipe will need to be some chocolate that I can eat as I console myself for the 7 month football drought I am starting to embark.

Ingredients 2 c tomato sauce
1 c (ish) ricotta cheese
chopped basil
chopped mozzarella cheese

Directions
1. Simmer tomato sauce in oven proof skillet until warm
2. Add dollops of ricotta cheese and heat until warm
3. Add chopped basil and mozzarella
4. Bake in oven at 350 until mozzarella is bubbly. (The recipe also called for pepperoni but I didn't include it because I don't like it)

Serve with mini toast or bread sticks and keep sauce in the skillet.

Alternative serving suggestion:
The next day I reheated it in the microwave and then Brandon and I scooped it out onto the mini garlic toast and heated again for another 30 seconds or a minute. This softened the mini toasts and was really good. I think I liked it better this way.

Pasta Escarole

I made this pasta last night, and thought it was fantastic and worthy of our blog. If you are in the mood for a quick tasty pasta... I would go with the pasta escarole. You can see how beautiful and delicious the picture in Food Network Magazine looks, and then compare it with my less than stellar photograph below.

It is pretty easy and took me about an hour. If I hadn't been watching Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, I bet it would have taken me 30 minutes tops! What's 30 minutes extra if I get to watch tv too.

It makes about 4 servings, so I am looking forward to eating it while Brandon and I watch American Idol... er uh I mean The State of The Union. :) Good food and tv, I don't think it gets better than that. Seriously I don't.

Ingredients
Kosher salt (I used regular salt)
12 ounces gemelli, fusilli or spaghetti (I used spaghetti)
1 head escarole, roughly chopped (called Endive at the grocery store)
1 T pine nuts (used seseme seeds)
2 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling (emphasis on the MORE)
2 T breadcrumbs
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 pound pancetta, cut into thin strips (I used Prosciutto because the deli said it was similar and they didn’t have pancetta)
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I used the diced stuff in the jar)
1 red jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced (I used green because the store didn’t have red)
2 T grated parmesan cheese (I also used asiago cheese, and I used a lot more than 2 T)
Grape/cherry tomatoes (my addition)
Spinach (my addition)

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente, about 10 minutes. Add the escarole and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 2 more minutes.

I got distracted with other components and left the escarole in longer than 2 minutes and it was fine.

2. Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a large skillet over medium-high heat, about 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, the breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper to taste; cook until golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a plate.

I added garlic to the mixture, and it took a lot less than 2 minutes. When I first cooked it for 2 minutes it was dark brown, not golden, so I redid it and cooked it for a lot less time.

3. Wipe out the skillet, add the pancetta and cook until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and blot dry.

I used prosciutto, and it is so thin that I had difficulty cutting it. However, after cooking it, it looks like bacon. I bet regular bacon (or creepy turkey for Stephanie) would work as well, and be a lot cheaper. It was 5 dollars for less than ¼ pound of the pancetta.

4. Add the remaining 1 T olive oil to the skillet, then add the garlic and jalapeno and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

I sauteed the jalapeno mixture for a little bit longer because I was a worried about the heat from the jalapeno. Also, I didn’t bother to measure the amount of olive oil I added.

5. While doing the above steps, you can sauté the tomatoes with olive oil. When the tomatoes are soft add the spinach and then sauté together until soft.

6. Drain the pasta and escarole, reserving 1 cup cooking water, and add to the skillet. Add half of the pancetta and toss, drizzling in enough pasta water to moisten. Season with salt and pepper.

I did this step differently, because I used a small skillet for the previous steps and used more cheese.

After draining the pasta/escarole, I put it back into the big pot and turned the burner to low. I then added all of the pancetta and some of the reserved water. I then added most of the grated cheese and stirred it around. This helped the pasta have moisture and a subtle cheesy coating. I then add the tomato spinach mixture and the jalapeno and tossed it around.

7. Divide the pasta among bowls, top with the breadcrumb mixture and the remaining parmesan. Drizzle with olive oil.

The bread crumb mixture is to give the pasta a topping without feeling obligated to add a lot of cheese. (I of course still added the extra cheese, but the breadcrumb mixture is good).

As I made the dish, Brandon kept warning me that an entire jalapeno would make the pasta too spicy, but it was perfect. There was very little kick, and I almost forgot the jalapeno was there. Brandon and I both thought the tomato mixture made the dish. It gave the dish a hint of sweetness that I think would be missing without it.

Brandon and I both thought the pasta was great. Because there is no actual sauce, the pasta dish is lighter than most dishes, and we didn’t feel totally ridiculous afterward. Brandon said his favorite part was the different textures in the pasta. I think my favorite part was the hint of sweet provided by the sautéed tomatoes…. Oh yeah and all the extra cheese.

This meal is one of the 500 calorie dishes from the food network magazine, but I think my extra cheese did me in. That and the fact that I skipped the gym to make the pasta…

PS My camera broke... the display doesn't work, so I can't see what my pictures look like until I load them onto the computer. :(