Stuffed Pizza with Spinach and Chanterelles

Around this time last year I received an email from Susan (Farmgirl Fare) telling me that I had won a box of fresh chanterelle mushrooms from Marx Foods in her giveaway. Once I recovered from the happy shock of winning two pounds of chanterelle mushroom I eagerly anticipated their arrival. When the box arrived at our door I was giddy with excitement. I don’t get giddy over too many things, but I was giddy over these chanterelles. Read more

Zucchini Risotto

Zucchini season will soon come to an end, but there’s still time to enjoy this icon of the summer garden. We’ve made salads, pasta, bread, gratins, and all sorts of things with zucchini, even though it was a sad zucchini year for us after losing all our zucchini plants to garden pests.

Risotto is comfort food for me anytime of the year no matter what I put into it, and this one with zucchini and our fresh homegrown basil and garlic does not disappoint. The Grana Padano cheese adds a slightly nutty yet delicate flavor that is worth the search, but you can also substitute Parmigiano Reggiano if you can’t find Grana Padano. The recipe is adapted from My Italian Garden, by Viana La Place (in my personal collection), a lovely little book Read more

Arancello (Orange Liqueur)

Last year Michael had a business trip that took him to Naples, Italy for the very first time. Needless to say he was very excited about the trip and sought all sorts of advice on local foods to try, and everyone familiar with the area told him he could not leave Naples without trying the limoncello. He came home from his trip enthused about all the different foods he enjoyed and he was stoked about the limoncello and arancello, but his favorite was the arancello. Listening to him describe the food made me feel a little bit envious, but hopefully someday I’ll have an opportunity to visit the famous city and other parts of Campania.

Arancello/limoncello is a traditional liqueur from Southern Italy, and it’s easy and inexpensive to make, requiring only citrus fruit, vodka or a neutral grain spirit such as Everclear or Gem Clear, sugar, and water. You shave the peel off the oranges and soak them in the alcohol for seven days, strain, then mix with the sugar syrup. The liqueur is usually stored in the freezer but the alcohol content prevents it from freezing solid, so it’s drinkable. The higher alcohol content in neutral grain spirits draws out more of the orange oils than vodka, imparting more flavor to the liqueur; however, neutral grain spirits are not sold in some states and might even be illegal in your state, so check your state’s liquor laws before having a friend run it across the state line for you.

With citrus in season, this is a great time of year to make arancello or limoncello. We keep several bottles on hand in the freezer, and though we enjoy it straight out of a shot glass, our favorite way to sip is with a little half & half poured in, which makes it taste like a very adult Creamsicle. We also tried it with eggnog at Christmas and really enjoyed that combination, and we even made a champagne cocktail with limoncello for New Years Eve. Read more

Risotto with Onions and Sage

Risotto is creamy, beautiful comfort food, and I can’t think of a better meal to make it for than Thanksgiving. Because it’s not a fix it and walk away kind of dish, I do not make it for weekday meals. The constant stirring and adding liquid demands careful attention, and the usual chaos surrounding our meal times prevents me from tackling anything involved on a weeknight.

This recipe from Marcella Hazan calls for quite a bit of sage, though it’s not overpowering. If you prefer you can make it with half the leaves and still enjoy a hint of sage, which will go beautifully with a turkey dinner. Hazan uses homemade meat stock, though I substituted homemade vegetable stock made with mushrooms for a slightly woodsy undertone. The finishing step, mantecare, gives risotto its characteristic gleam and adds to the natural creaminess. In this case, Hazan adds the sage at the end and finishes with a little butter and some Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Our sage, mint, parsley, oregano, and thyme are still going strong outdoors, amazing considering the cold temperatures we’ve had. Many varieties of sage die off after a frost, but the Woodcote variety that we have in our Zone 7a (but right on the edge of 6b) garden has persisted even with temperatures well below freezing at night, so we will be able to use it on Thanksgiving day as well.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. Rachel of The Crispy Cook is our host for this round, so be sure to visit her blog for more information about submitting your post. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page. Read more

Grilled Eggplant Lasagna

When I started the South Beach Diet a few weeks ago, I had to rethink some of our meals, and less pasta was high on the list. It’s easy to get good fresh vegetables at this time of year, and we’ve kept the refrigerator stocked. I’ve had eggplant lasagna on many occasions, but always with the noodles, so this time I decided to use the eggplant in place of the noodles, thus keeping the hearty comfort food a little healthier.

Grilling the eggplant lends a nice smoky flavor to the lasagna, and I left the skin on to help hold the slices together on the grill. The sauce is our favorite spaghetti sauce from Michael’s mom, and the rest is just easy layering and baking. I made this on a weeknight after simmering the sauce all morning and afternoon, but you could also make this a weekend family meal or even for company in individual portions.

Equipment

grill
9×13 baking pan
medium mixing bowl

Ingredients

1 recipe spaghetti sauce
1 eggplant, 16 ounces (~454 g) or larger
olive oil
15 ounces (425 g) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan + more for sprinkling on top
2 teaspoons dried basil or 3/4 cup (~30 g) fresh basil leaves, torn
8 ounces (227 g) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Prepare the sauce according to the directions. You can make this ahead and store in the refrigerator or freezer. If frozen, thaw before using.

2. Preheat the grill to medium, about 350° F/175° C.

3. Slice the eggplant into 1/4-inch (0.5 cm) rounds with the skin still on. Brush with olive oil. Grill for about 3 to 4 minutes per side.

4. Preheat the oven to 350° F/175° C.

5. In the medium mixing bowl, stir together the ricotta, egg, grated Parmesan, and dried basil. If using fresh basil, leave it out for now.

6. Spread a ladle or two of the prepared sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Lay down a row of the grilled eggplant, then spread about 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture. It doesn’t have to look pretty, just make sure that it is evenly distributed, even if it’s in clumps. If using fresh basil, add 1/2 of the leaves in a layer.

7. Add about 2 more cups of sauce, then half the remaining grilled eggplant, 1/2 of the remaining cheese mixture, and the rest of the fresh basil (if using).

8. Add another 2 cups of the sauce, the rest of the grilled eggplant, and the rest of the ricotta cheese mixture. Spread the remaining sauce on top then top with the shredded mozzarella and some more Parmesan.

9. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the lasagna is cooked all the way through and the top is bubbly and golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

More Italian Recipes

More Lasagna Recipes From Around the Blogs

101 Cookbooks – Thousand Layer Lasagne

Ms. Adventures in Italy – 3 Cheese Pesto Vegetable Lasagna

Kalyn’s Kitchen – Grilled Zucchini Lasagna with Italian, Sausage, Tomato, and Basil Sauce

One Hot Stove – Roasted Squash Onion Lasagna

San Marzano Sauce with Peppers

A few days before we left for vacation, I picked five pounds of San Marzano tomatoes and a dozen bell peppers from our garden and had to do something with them fast. I had planned all along to turn those beautiful tomatoes into sauce, but now that the task was at hand and I only had a few short hours, I knew this would have to be a quick and easy freezer sauce.

This sauce is inspired by a couple recipes from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan, my go-to book for Italian cooking. We used all five pound of the San Marzanos (which I forgot to photograph before chopping), six bell peppers, a whole head of garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and tossed in some fresh basil from the garden at the end. The recipe made about three quarts/litres of sauce, and we froze two of them. You can use Roma tomatoes instead, though they have a lot more juices. If you want to limit the juices, try seeding the Romas before cutting into small pieces. Many sauce recipes call for blanching the tomatoes and removing the skins, but we never bother with it.

As fortune would have it, we’re glad we hurried and made the sauce before vacation because when we returned we discovered some animal had been eating away at the ripe San Marzanos and leaving the half-eaten tomatoes lying on the ground under the plants. Heartbreaking, truly. At least we still had some green San Marzanos, and to increase chances of survival we purchased a garden net and carefully wrapped it around the plants. Fortunately that has kept the critters away and our tomatoes are thriving again. Read more

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