I am lucky enough to be part of a great little local ladies supper club. I was introduced to this club, and great group of women by my friend Erin (that’s her there in the front, striking a pose in the little dress) of The Olive Notes. I met Erin through the world of blogging, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that she and her husband Chris live about 10 minutes away from us. They have a great group of friends here in Saint Augustine, that have really welcomed Roberto and I since we moved here.

Well the ladies in this circle of friends started an awesome supper club. There are eight of us currently, and we all get together each month. It is kind of a dress up event. Sometimes people just show up in jeans and a nice shirt, which is totally allowed, but there are also party dresses and high heels. It is a very girly event – and no boys allowed!

We all take turns hosting, and each month, the hostess gets to pick the theme, then everyone brings a dish to add to the dinner. We always have a welcome cocktail and appetizer to start, which usually finds us all in the kitchen chatting, laughing and catching up with each other. Then we move on to the table and have soup or salad, and then the main course with a vegetable side and a starch side. There is always wine to accompany the meal, and of course we end with something sweet. It is always a great night and something we all really look forward to each month.

Well this past Friday, it was my turn to host – and so I chose a Moroccan theme. For one, a lot of my table decor has a North African/ Middle Eastern flair to it, and the cuisine is one of my favorites….plus, did you know I recently got a Tagine!?? LOL!

This supper club was a huge success – the food was delicious and we ended the night by working off some of that food with a little belly dancing! I have a lot of music from this region of the world, and all of the ladies know I used to belly dance, so they asked for me to bring out all my gear and show them some moves. We all got down, and it was a wonderful time! Good music, good friends, good times.

But I know that you are all here for the food, so here we go – We started with Moroccan Pomegranate Martinis – fresh lemon and lime juice mixed with vodka, POM Wonderful and simple syrup.

The appetizer was a Spiced Moroccan Carrot Dip – with fresh cilantro, and green olives, served with pita bread.

We started at the table with a wonderfully spiced Harira (traditional soup of Morocco. It is usually eaten during dinner in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to break the fasting day ).

For the main dish, I did a Vegetable Tagine overloaded with fresh acorn squash, chick peas, onions and kale, dotted with prunes and topped with sliced almonds. There was fresh flat bread and a delicious vegetable curry to go with it, and for dessert,

the Moroccan pièce de la résistance – M’hanncha -”The Snake” (although it kind of broke in the revelry!) – which was very reminiscent of baklava.

Everything was wonderful and I had a great time hosting these lovely ladies!
Click through for the Vegetable Tagine recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

2 acorn squash
olive oil
cider vinegar
salt & pepper

2 1/2 cups of chickpeas that have been soaked over night.
1 large bell pepper – any color, sliced
1 large onion, sliced

1 TBS of sambal belacan (Malaysian version of harissa given to me by my good friend Dharm)
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

about 1/2 to 1 tsp of each:
tumeric
coriander
cumin
smoked paprika
saffron
cinnamon

salt & pepper
clove of garlic, sliced very thin
splash of red wine

4 cups of greens – I used kale

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut acorn squash in half and place in a baking dish filled with an inch of water. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Peel and slice. Place in a large bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, splash of vinegar and salt and pepper and let marinate for about an hour.

Slice, the pepper and onion and place in another large bowl with the soaked chick peas.

In a small bowl mix together the sambal belacan, cider vinegar, olive oil, and spices, garlic and red wine. Mix together and pour over the chick pea mixture. Let marinate for one and a half hours.

Preheat oven to 350. Pour chickpea mixture into tagine, and then pour the acorn squash over top. Let cook for one hour. After an hour, remove tagine lid, stir contents and add half of the greens. Cover again and cook another 40 minutes. Lift lid and add the rest of the greens, cook for another 20 minutes. Serve with couscous.

Last year I fell in love with the Meyer lemons that were being sold week after week at the farmers market. After a few weeks of buying them and enjoying their wonderful flavor, I decided it would be great to use them to make limoncello. When I went back the next week to pick some up for this purpose, I was told lemon season was over!!! I was heartbroken! I know I could have just gone to the grocery store to pick up some organic lemons, but I wanted local meyer lemons.
I wanted it to be special. So I decided that next year, I would be ready! Well it is now lemon season again here in the Sunshine State, and what is more sunny than limoncello?

I love limoncello and made it years ago using vodka as the alcohol. After quite a bit of internet research (I mean I had a YEAR), I discovered that many people use grain alcohol to make limoncello as it more closely mirrors the kinds of alcohol that would have been available to country people in the south of Italy, like the Island of Capri (where lemons are as big as grapefruits!) who originally made this aperitif. Plus vodka is not strong enough to get all of the oils out of the peel. So I decided not to go against the grain.

I looked at several recipes and decided to go with this one as most of the other ones matched this one. The only thing I did differently is I did not remove the peels before adding the simple syrup to the mix, and then I let everything sit for another 2 weeks. When it was time, I strained the peels, and then dried them – they became “candied” and are a great garnish for a limoncello spritzer

Here is another post about a featured pantry item. This was not planned it just so happens that the last few times I cooked, I got so inspired by a key ingredient and just went off on different tangents with it. Which to me, is my favorite way to cook – when I am inspired and excited about ingredients – when they make me hungry and I can’t wait for the dish to be done. This post is going to feature different uses for tomato sauces, which I made from boxed tomatoes.

Now I am putting a disclaimer out there that this isn’t my mom’s, my grandmother’s or probably anyone’s grandmother’s recipe for tomato sauce, or meatballs. Even though I grew up both Spaghetti Squash and Spaghetti and Meatballs, I don’t like making anything EXACTLY the same way every time. Since I like to use my leftovers, when I make a sauce or any kind of dish, really, I always do a tour through the fridge to see what needs to be used yesterday, and find a way to incorporate it. Usually this means we get extra veggies in whatever dish I am making, which is never a bad thing. But it also ensures that my dishes are always slightly different every time, making it more interesting.

Here is the story of this Tomato Sauce Extravaganza! I bought a spaghetti squash with all intentions to make baked spaghetti squash with fresh mozzarella for dinner. Then on Twitter, I was chatting with some of my buds and Elle, from Elle’s New England Kitchen was making Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Peter, from Kalofagas was talking about garlic bread. So naturally, I started craving both things. So I decided to act on those cravings and just make everything all at once. So I made the tomato sauce so that it could go in my baked spaghetti squash dish and also be used the next day for the meatballs. I must admit both dishes were fabulous!

Then I made garlic bread topped with parm and a little leftover blue cheese. It was the perfect accompaniment.

Tomato Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced – usually I prefer white, but this is what I had on hand
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 zucchini, diced
salt & pepper
1 small can of organic tomato paste
dash of red wine – we were drinking pinot noir that night, so that’s what went in
dried oregano, thyme and basil
1- 26. oz box of Pomi strained tomatoes
1- 26 oz box of Pomi chopped tomatoes

METHOD:

Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add onion, garlic and zucchini and cook until veggies are soft. Add s&p and tomato paste. Cook until getting dry, then add red wine, dried spices and both boxes of Pomi. Cook sauce on low heat for about 45 minutes. Add water if getting too thick . TIP: this tip is actually my grandmother’s. Fill the tomato paste can with water to add to sauce – that way you are also cleaning out the cans.

Baked Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Mozzarella

INGREDIENTS:

1 spaghetti squash
1/2 cup caramelized onions (I had some leftover)
1 yellow squash – sliced
6 oz fresh mozzarella
sauce from recipe above
Parmesan cheese for top

METHOD:

Cut the spaghetti squash in half and place cut side down in a baking pan. Bake the spaghetti squash in the oven at 350 F for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool, until it can be handled. Using a fork, loosen the spaghetti squash. If you have never used this kind of squash before, it gets it’s name because the strands of squash look like strands of spaghetti.

In a baking pan layer in this order: 1/4 cup of sauce, 1/2 of spaghetti squash strands, 1/2 of yellow squash, 1/2 of caramelized onions, 1/2 of mozzarella, then do it again. Top it all with a healthy grating of parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven at 400 F for 45 minutes. Sauce should be bubbly and cheese, browned.

Buffalo Meatballs

INGREDIENTS:

16 oz. ground buffalo meat (you can use any kind of ground meat you have)
1/2 of a small zucchini, diced into small pieces
1 small piece of bread, cubed
handful of spinach, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 egg
splash of red wine (again with the pinot noir)
salt and pepper and dried oregano, to taste

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with your hands – this ensures that everything gets well incorporated. Form into meatballs – makes about a dozen to 15. I like to bake my meatballs in the oven, since it is healthier. Buffalo meat is very lean, so it will not make much grease and the cooking time is shorter. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, then add meatballs to the tomato sauce and cook another 15 minutes. Serve with Spaghetti

Garlic Bread

INGREDIENTS:
1 baguette
2 cloves of garlic
2 TBS Irish butter
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper
parm and blue cheese for top

METHOD:

Slice baguette down the middle. In a small bowl, mix butter, oil and salt and pepper. Pop in micro for about 20 seconds. Using a pastry brush, brush both sides of the baguette with mixture, then top each side with grated parm and blue cheese. Close bread, and wrap in foil. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes.

(This is not the actual picture of the dish, but I don’t know where they have gone – so imagine these eggplant slices rolled around the cheese (which is dotted with fresh herbs) on top of couscous instead of salad!)

We got some really cute eggplants at the Farmers Market recently. I didn’t really have a dish in mind for how to prepare them, but I love eggplant, so I knew I would get inspiration at some point. They sat in the fridge for about a week, and then I got a bright idea! Recently we had gone out to eat and I had a rolled, stuffed eggplant dish that was breaded in panko and fried. I didn’t really want to fry the eggplant, but I wanted to roll them and stuff them. I love the combination of chevre and eggplant, and I had some nice chevre in the fridge. I stuffed the eggplants with fresh herbs and chevre and broiled them in the oven. I drizzled balsamic-pomegranate reduction over top and served it with raisin and pine nut dotted couscous. The flavors were really magical and took my taste buds to new heights! I was really pleased with the way the dish turned out – I think the combination of herbs really made it. This is a great dish for the last days of summer and I am betting it would be phenomenal on the grill!

INGREDIENTS:

3 small eggplants
8 oz. chevre
handful of fresh mint leaves
handful of fresh basil leaves
handful of fresh parsley
3 scallions
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil to drizzle before broiling

1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup pomegranate syrup

couscous cooked according to the package, drizzled with olive oil and mixed with 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts and 1/4 cup raisins.

METHOD:

Cut the eggplants lengthwise in thick slices. Place them in a salt water bath for 30 minutes. In the meantime preheat the oven to 350 F. After 30 minutes rinse and squeeze out the water. Place slices on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10-15 or until soft. Place a TBS of chevre and a pinch of herbs on each slice and roll up the eggplant. Secure with a toothpick. Set the oven to broiler setting.

In a small sauce pan combine the balsamic and pomegranate syrup. Heat up on medium – low and reduce by half.

While the sauce is reducing, place the eggplant rolls on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Broil on high for about 5-7 minutes or until golden – be careful not to melt the cheese too much!

Serve over couscous. Serves about 4.

I have been hearing about Pomodori e Riso (tomatoes and rice) for the past two years. This is one of Roberto’s favorite dishes that he misses the most since moving from Rome to the US. Like his mom’s Involtini, tortellini soup, and roasted potatoes from the Rosticceria, he mentions pomodori e riso often with a dreamy faraway look in his eyes. Pomodori e riso, roasted potatoes and roasted chickens are on offering in many a Rosticceria in Rome. I have been hearing about how great the food is from these places, that when I finally make it to the Eternal City, I imagine that they will be built of gold and marble. Not only this, but I really want to do my best to replicate Roberto’s favorite dishes and give him a sense of home. But Roman cuisine is all uncharted territory for me, as my Italian ancestors are from much farther South and therefore the cuisine is an entirely different animal! But I am always up for a good challenge in the kitchen!

My attempts at making the tortellini soup went over pretty big a few years ago (before I had this blog), so when we found ginormous tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market last week, and he got the pomodori e riso bug, I was all for it. I put on my proverbial chef hat, and my geeky researcher glasses and in a very Food 911 fashion, I asked a lot of questions about how it was supposed to taste and why his past attempts just didn’t do it for him.

Here were the problems with his past attempts:

1) The tomatoes and potatoes were too hard – the ideal texture is soft on the inside, but crispy on the top of the tomatoes and the outsides of the potatoes from sitting in the rosticceria all day getting nice and slowly cooked.

2) The tomatoes were too small and therefore not up to par

3) The sauce needed some help – it had been too bland in the past

4) Rice was not the right texture

So I thought about how to improve on the recipe, and came up with these solutions:

1) I have perfected roasted potatoes. So I knew how I was going to cook them (see recipe method), as for the tomatoes, they needed to be cooked a little ahead of time to get them to the right texture and then but under the broiler (with a little grated parm) at the end to get the crispy top.

2) Use the season’s bounty of beautiful big tomatoes (I don’t think these kinds of tomatoes grow very much in New England)

3) I made the sauce by using the insides of the tomatoes, some Pomi tomato sauce, fresh basil, fresh garlic and salt, sugar, balsamic and pepper to make a delicious and fresh tasting sauce

4) I used arborio rice and pre-cooked it, but added a little extra water so that when it was baked inside the tomatoes, it wouldn’t get hard

Pomodori e Riso

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups uncooked arborio rice
@ 8 small potatoes – we used red skinned
s&p
dried rosemary
4 very large garden fresh tomatoes, insides scooped out and reserved, and tops reserved
2 large portabella mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil and s&p
grated parm for the top
drizzle of olive oil

for the sauce

insides of tomatoes
@ 1 cup of Pomi tomato sauce (or any other you like)
3 cloves fresh garlic
6 nice leaves of fresh basil
shot of balsamic
1 tsp of sugar
s&p to taste

METHOD:

1) Cook rice to package directions – make sure to salt the water. Mix in sauteed portabellas and set aside.

2) Preheat the oven to 425 F. Cut the potatoes into wedges, drizzle with olive oil and season with s&p and dried rosemary. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes, flipping after 20 minutes

3) Place tomatoes in a large glass baking dish with their tops on and cook them along with the potatoes for about 15 minutes or until they start to soften up. Remove from oven after 15 minutes, while potatoes continue to cook.

4) In the meantime make the sauce – put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and mix together. Add about 3/4 of the sauce to the rice mixture.

5) Stuff the tomatoes with the rice mixture.

6) When potatoes are finished, put them in the bottom of the baking dish you used for the tomatoes. Place the stuffed tomatoes on top. Great some cheese over the tops of the tomatoes and put the lids of the tomatoes on top. Pour reserved sauce over top of everything

7) Bake in the oven at 400 F for about 25-30 minutes. Then place under the broiler for about 5 minutes or until skins of tomatoes char a bit on the top and the cheese browns a little.

Serve with a little extra grated cheese and a drizzle of good quality olive oil.

Well these were delicious! It tasted like summer on a plate – it was fresh and flavorful and full of the bounty of the season! Roberto was very happy with our version, but felt that the rice needed more salt or something to give it a little umph! He though the potatoes and tomatoes were some of the best he ever had! We had a wonderful time making this dish together and I think it is one of those dishes we will make every time we find really great big and delicious tomatoes!

So as many of you know, in the Leftover Queen household there is an unending quest for good pizza.

I have written about it on my travel blog here, here, here and here , as well as attempting it at home, on the grill last summer when we were at my mom’s.

We have tried other, not so successful pizza making attempts at home that certainly weren’t worth blogging about. But still on this bread revolution kick, I decided to use my new favorite cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to try my hand at a new recipe for pizza dough.

I decided to go with the Olive Oil Dough, but I modified it a little to get some whole wheat flour in there. I have heard the low down on all WW pizza dough from my good friend Helen’s blog, Food Stories, and so I didn’t want to make the same mistake (thanks Helen for being the guinea pig!).

This dough was amazing! It was easy to work with, lifted right off the cookie sheet with no trouble and a perfect golden brown. We topped our pizza with Ciliengini (small fresh mozzarella balls), sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and anchovies with capers. It was the perfect combination of flavors and they texture of the crust was perfect – thin, crunchy on the outside, with a soft give inside. The flavor of the olive oil in the dough really gave it a whole level of deliciousness. The fruitier the olive oil, the better!

We enjoyed this pizza while watching The Spiderwick Chronicles when my mom was visiting. Now Roberto is insisting we have this pizza at least once a week!

INGREDIENTS:

Dough – makes four one pound loaves to be used for pizza, foccacia or even a nice boule.

2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 TBS granulated yeast
1 TBS sea salt
1 TBS sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cups whole wheat flour
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
8 tsp gluten

Pizza Toppings

1/2 small can of tomato paste
dried oregano and basil to taste
1 8 oz. container of Ciliengini
4 oz. artichoke hearts
sprinkling of sun dried tomatoes
1 flat of anchovies with capers, drained (optional)

METHOD:

Mix yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil in a 5 qt. bowl with a lid or food container. Mix in the flours and gluten without kneading, just using a spoon until it is all mixed. You can use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of dry ingredients if necessary. The dough will look “messy”. This is normal – you do not want to over mix.

Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours. The dough can be used immediately after the first rise, or it can be put in the fridge for about an hour, making it easier to handle. Dough can be used for up to 12 days.

To make Pizza:

Preheat oven to 450F.
Roll dough out on a flat surface and roll to desired thinness. Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Spread the tomato paste on the dough and sprinkle with herbs. Place the Ciliengini on top of the pizza evenly spaced. Then add the artichokes, anchovies and sun dried tomatoes. Place on the bottom rack of the oven and bake for about 15-17 minutes or until crust is golden brown (don’t forget to check the bottom) and cheese is melted and bubbling.

Serves 3 adults – and leaves them wanting more…

Serve with “Italian Mojitos” (when you want to channel your inner Giada, who makes Italian version of everyone’s favorites!)

For each drink:

several lemon wedges
generous pinch/ small palm full of fresh basil
generous pinch/ small palm full of fresh mint
simple syrup (I used homemade mint simple syrup), to taste (I used about 2 TBS for each drink)

(muddle these ingredients together in a tall glass)

Then add 2 oz./one shot of dark rum

Fill to top of glass with ice and club soda or seltzer water!

ENJOY!

Nothing says comfort food like a Tropical Storm!

We are still waiting for the storm to hit. Latest news reports say that it will not have enough time out in open water to turn into a hurricane once it hits land again, which is good, but it will hit land again as a tropical storm, right here in our lovely town of Saint Augustine. We are right on the coast here in Northern FL. Less than a five minute walk from the water. We have already seen rising waters and some low lying areas (well everything is low lying around here) have flooded and the storm isn’t even here YET. We should be expecting it tonight or more likely tomorrow. Everything is closing up and our county has declared a state of emergency. The National Guard is already here, thankfully, and we live on the second floor, so we are staying put. We are ready with supplies and we have just moved everything off the porch. The wind is starting to pick up, but nothing severe yet.

The summer has been pretty rainy here especially since the end of July, which is like monsoon season in Florida – it rains everyday, and even if it doesn’t rain, a large part of the day is gray and the sky rumbles.

So much for The Sunshine State.

My appetite begins to get confused – from inside, looking out it seems like a fall day, but as soon as you step outside it is sweltering hot and sticky humid. Even so, during the first week or so of this, my brain temporarily goes from cooling summer foods, right back to the land of comfort food. Which in this case, was Pasta al Forno – or oven backed pasta, much like a Mac n’ cheese of sorts. This dish was creamy and satisfying – chock full of flavors and textures. Roberto took one bite and he was transported back to childhood memories of tortellini with peas in bechamel. This may be a new family favorite. It certainly does hearken to rainy days under a blanket with a good book and glass of rich red wine under a Tuscan sky… Or perhaps just a storm safe closet!

But maybe this will even stave off Fay!

Italian Style Mac n’ Cheese

INGREDIENTS:

1 package penne pasta

3 TBS olive oil
5 small sweet Italian multi colored peppers, diced
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup white wine
6 green olives, sliced
1 9 oz. pack of frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 strips of bacon, chopped

Pesto-Bechamel Sauce

3 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 TBS pesto

Bread Crumbs, Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

METHOD:

Cook pasta for about 6 minutes in boiling salted water. Remove while still kind of hard. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large skillet, sautee the peppers, onion and garlic over medium high heat until they begin to brown. Pour wine into skillet and turn heat down to medium, allow to reduce down all the way.
In a large bowl combine sautee with olives and artichoke hearts. Set aside.

Make Bechamel Sauce. In a small saucepan, heat up milk. In a larger sauce pan, melt butter. Once butter is melted, quickly whisk in flour, making sure there are no lumps. Cook for a minute or two until it is a light brown color. Immediately begin whisking warm milk in, slowly. Keep whisking until all milk is incorporated. Whisk a few minutes more, while it thickens. Once it is the right consistency, add pesto and mix thoroughly Set aside.

Butter a large baking dish. Dump pasta into dish. Add sautee, pine nuts, peas, and bacon. Stir to mix. Then add the bechamel and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Sprinkle bread crumbs and parmesan cheese over top, cover with foil and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes. Remove the foil, and place under the broiler for about 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese. Serve hot and enjoy!

It is no secret that I adore hummus. I think if I had to pick a favorite food, hummus would be it. It even won us a bottle of rum in Jamaica! We played a newlywed game when we were on our honeymoon there and they asked Roberto what my favorite food was. When he thought about it, the most logical answer was hummus. When they asked me to guess what he said, I had to think about it for a minute. I mean I love all kinds of foods and have so many memories in my mind of different food experiences, it is hard to imagine choosing just one. But when I thought logically about what Roberto would have answered, I knew it had to be hummus, because it is the most consistent staple of my diet. I eat it almost daily, and it is not only filling and delicious, but it is really healthy and easy to grab when you have the munchies. Not only that, you can be as creative as you want with it. Purists may balk, but I say be adventurous with your hummus! So when I read that Tony Tahhan’s Taste of the Mediterranean event this month was focused on Lebanon (one of my favorite cuisines) and Hummus (my favorite food), I knew I was in!

I adore the original, unadulterated hummus. The one with just a few essential ingredients: chick peas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and salt, maybe a little water to thin it out. There is nothing better….except for when you add a little somethin’ somethin’. For this event, in honor of hummus and Jamaica, I have decided to add some special Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce we got while there (because I adore it) and adorn it with a few pine nuts for some added texture! bring on the heat!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of chick peas, skinned (skinning them gives you that creamy texture!)
½ cup tahini
1 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
1 tsp cumin
juice of 2 lemons (or more to taste)
2 cloves of garlic smashed and finely minced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
as much scotch bonnet pepper sauce (or any other hot sauce – smooth or chunky) as you can handle. Harrisa would go great in this!
2 TBS toasted pine nuts for taste

METHOD:

Place all the ingredients, except the olive oil, hot pepper sauce and pine nuts, into a food processor. Blend until it is the desired consistency. (I prefer a smooth hummus, but hummus can also be chunky. If you prefer a really chunky hummus, I recommend using a mortar and pestle). Start streaming the olive oil in slowly. Add water by the teaspoon if the hummus is to dry or pasty. Place in a serving bowl, drizzle with hot pepper sauce, a little more olive oil and top with pine nuts.

Today, I am dedicating this post and recipe to Bri, a fellow food blogger from Figs with Bri, and a woman fighting the long and difficult battle against breast cancer. This month’s CLICK event , hosted by Jugalbandi has a theme of Yellow, based on the Livestrong model. This month we, who are participating in this event, are dedicating our YELLOW posts to Bri, a strong woman with the heart and spirit of an Amazon! There is also a fundraiser going on for Bri – a way to help her seek the best medical care, in all areas, including holistic and experimental treatments some of which are not covered by her medical insurance. So please go here to check out the information and learn more about Bri’s cause – a little goes a very long way. The Foodblogger Blogosphere is a global village. we may not personally know everyone we interact with on a regular basis, but their stories and lives do touch us. I feel it is so important to support our fellow bloggers in good times and when they need us the most, during their trials.

(CLICK event photo)

Everyone here knows about my love for Moroccan foods. One of my favorite restaurants when I lived in the DC area was Marrakesh. This is how their website describes an evening there “course after course of Moroccan cuisine featuring succulent meats, vegetables, and salads served against the backdrop of Middle Eastern music and decor will both excite and lull you into one of the most special evenings of your life”. No truer words have ever been spoken.

Then at the other end of the spectrum, there was another great Moroccan restaurant where I used to live in Northampton, MA called Amanouz Cafe an unassuming place, yet serving up fresh and delicious food at very affordable prices. Both of the restaurants rate highly on my list of favorite restaurants of all time because of the education they afforded me for Moroccan food.

For one, the first time I went to Marrakesh, when I was a pre-teen, for my mom’s birthday, was the first time I had ever tasted Moroccan food – the spices, the hints of cinnamon, the smokiness of cumin, the meat falling off the bone, mint tea poured artistically into small decorated glasses. That coupled with the backdrop and splendor of the restaurant itself was a truly magical experience I have never forgotten. Then Amanouz, which is run by two brothers, whom I got to know while I lived in Northampton, taught me even more about Morocco and its food, making Morocco one of the premier vacation destinations of my soul.

However, even though I haven’t gotten there yet, some of my closest friends have, my dear friends Tony and Jonathan who gifted Roberto and I with a beautiful handmade Tagine (name for the cooking vessel and a meal), bought in a Moroccan market and hand carried back to Massachusetts and then down to Florida for our wedding. I cannot tell you how much this gift meant to me. Not only is it beautiful, but it was thoughtful and deliberate. So thank you Tony and Jonathan – I love you both and you are welcome to come to our house for Tagine anytime!

For me, the combination of chicken rubbed with aforementioned spices and slow cooked with tart green olives, lemon and raisins is quintessential of Moroccan cuisine – the sweet and the tangy in perfect harmony. So of course the first thing I wanted to make with my new Tagine was Chicken and Olive Tagine with Preserved Lemons (minus the preserved lemons).
Um, yeah, I am not a big fan of preserved lemons, however the nice olive lady at our farmers market solved this problem for me, by selling me beautiful green olives stuffed with lemon peels. This gave me the taste I was after without having to deal with preserved lemons.

Then to the issue of the Tagine. Handmade Moroccan Tagines from a Moroccan market do not come with directions – they come as they are. So research online taught me that hand painted, glazed (tagines are clay) Tagines are not to be used for cooking. They are for serving only. This actually suited me just fine, because even though I was dying to cook with a tagine, I was not dying to break this beautiful and sentimental gift from my friends and I know how tricky cooking with clay can be and I was leery to experiment with this piece. So out came my cast iron skillet – the only pan I use anymore, and it worked just as well! Served up in the beautiful Tagine, along with couscous, salad and pita and it was like being at the Marrakesh…well…almost.

Chicken and Lemon Peel Olive Tagine

INGREDIENTS:

coarse sea salt
one small chicken cut into 8 pieces
(or if you are the leftover queen like me, 8 large chicken tenders that are in your freezer)
1 TBS white vinegar (I used apple cider as this is what I had)
2 cups water
5 TBS olive oil
1 large bunch of fresh cilantro finely minced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp real saffron
salt to taste
1/2 lb chopped onions
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
2 TBS olive oil
a good amount of green olives stuffed with lemon peels
a good amount of raisins

METHOD:

Rub coarse sea salt on the chicken pieces and wash chicken in a bowl with vinegar and 2 cups of water.
Leave the chicken in the bowl for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the spice rub. In a large shallow bowl mix olive oil, cilantro, cinnamon, saffron, salt, half of the onions, garlic, cumin, ginger, paprika and turmeric. Mix together and add a little water if necessary to make a paste.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Then rinse and dry chicken and place in bowl with the spices. Roll chicken in spices making sure to cover them really well. Leave to marinate for 15 minutes.

Heat cast iron skillet, or tagine or dutch oven on the stove top and add 2 TBS olive oil. Place the chicken in the pan, and then pour the rest of the marinade over top. Add the rest of the onions, olives and raisins and cook in the oven, covered, for about 45-50 minutes. Serve with couscous, salad and pita bread.

So we are going to go back in time a little with this post. I hope you all don’t mind the time warp this blog sometimes is! It is hard sometimes figuring out when to post what! The life of a food blogger is all about organization…and sometimes the lack thereof.

Anyway, as you all know, the week before our wedding, Anna, Roberto’s mom came to stay with us. She is a food blogger and member of The Foodie Blogroll!

Her blog AnnaGarau.com features recipes from her native Sardinia. It is a great blog, full of wonderful anecdotes about Sardinia as well as beautiful pictures and she is quite the chef. It is in Italian, so if you want to check it out, and I recommend that you do, use one of those handy dandy translators like this translator from Google. You can even watch a video of traditional Sardinian dancing and singing – something Sardinians are known for. When she was here at our house, she was updating that post and we were having such a good time. I was really pleased to be able to have a “private” lesson with this great Italian cook in my own kitchen when she was here visiting us from Rome.

When I ask Roberto about his favorite foods that he remembers his mom making, the first thing out of his mouth is always Involtini or stuffed, rolled beef. However, he is always vague about exactly what her involtini are stuffed with. Out of desperation, once, I made these “involtini” stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, spinach and feta cheese.

They were delicious, but not involtini. So I was thrilled when Anna was here that she was delighted to show me how to make her involtini. She also made these fabulous eggplant patties that were very tasty. I am certainly making both of these again…in fact in honor of writing this post we are having leftover involtini tonight (The day I post this, may not be the day I wrote this…you know how the time warp is…)

It was very interesting going to the grocery store with Anna to get the ingredients. Many things that she is used to cooking with, just doesn’t exist here, or are not easily found, like pancetta (bacon that is not smoked) and butchers for that matter who can slice the meat super thin for involtini. So we had to be inventive. We got the thinest slices of beef we could find and we had to settle for bacon.

INVOLTINI

The first thing she did was chop a large handful of fresh herbs – parsley and basil. She mixed it with finely chopped onions, a minced clove of garlic and salt and pepper. There might have been a little bit of olive oil too… then she put a bit of this mixture, a thin slice of carrot and a thin slice of high quality parmesan cheese (thankfully we do have that!) onto each piece of meat and rolled the meat up, securing it with toothpicks.

Then she heated some olive oil and a little bit of butter in my cast iron skillet, placed a few sage leaves and then seared the involtini on all sides, cooking for about 10 minutes in a covered pan. Then she added a large drinking glass of white wine and another of water to cover the involtini and then cooked everything, uncovered, over a medium high heat until it reduced down into a “creamy” sauce, turning the involtini every few minutes to ensure even cooking.

The sauce isn’t really what I would call creamy, but it is a little frothy, especially with the cheese inside the involtini melting out and mixing with the wine. Anna says she always cooks beef with white wine, as it makes the reductions creamier and gives the meat a lighter taste and she just likes it better that way! We ate these involtini with my Pap’s Potatoes and Swiss Chard.
Yum!

Then she also made a favorite of mine, meatless meatballs, made from eggplant. They were so good, I wish we still had some in the freezer…

EGGPLANT PATTIES

Anyway, for this dish, she baked a whole eggplant in the oven at 400 F for about 40 minutes. Then after it cooled down a bit, she removed most of the seeds and put the eggplant pulp in the food processor. She added 2 eggs, some breadcrumbs, a large handful of fresh parsley, salt and pepper (there are no exact amounts here guys, just a occhio, to the eye) to the eggplant and processed it all together until it was well mixed, although still a bit chunky. Then she formed them into balls and dredged them in more breadcrumbs, smooshed them into patties, then placed them in the cast iron skillet with hot oil and pan fried them until they were crispy on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside. They were soooo good. It made about a dozen.

She also made these lovely Sardinian pastries – it was cheese, soft cheese without flavor (we used havarti since the cheese she usually gets was unavailable), mixed with saffron and stuffed into a thin dough, kind of like phyllo, although the dough we made was a bit thicker. These pastries were then fried in a skillet in olive oil and served with a drizzle of honey. I wish we had pictures of this, but we did a video instead. They were great, froze well and made wonderful breakfasts when we got back from the honeymoon.

All I can say was that in this busy week leading up to the wedding, it was wonderful to be an on-looker and let someone else do the cooking. It was especially nice that it was Roberto’s mom. It was a great time for mother and son to bond in the kitchen and for both of us to learn some new dishes from La Cocina di Anna.
So I will just say Grazie, Anna! Bacione!

Recently we had my family over for an open house. We have been in our new place for a while now and not everyone had been here to see it. So we decided to do a luncheon. I had two ideas going into this party – I wanted to make something rustic and old-school hearkening back to the times that Italians stopped what they were doing to enjoy a nice lunch spread together out in the fields, on a big slab of wood turned into a table. Also along this theme, I really wanted to make something using ingredients that we already had at home.

Too many times when preparing for a party, I decide on a menu and then go and buy all the ingredients. This time, I wanted to challenge myself more and use what was around. We had been to the Farmer’s market the day before and had gotten our staples: potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, onions and beautiful bread. We also had a bag of frozen mussels in the freezer. So I decided to make a regional dish from Puglia, called Tiella di Cozze or Mussel Casserole – it is said to have descended from Spanish Paella. Since we were having a crowd, I also added some shrimp to the dish, which was topped off with a delicious bread crumb and parmesan topping! It was wonderful.

We served it with a nice green salad,Garlic-Rosemary Foccacia from Maria, the bread lady at the Farmer’s Market and finished with a

Yogurt Carrot Cake with Toasted Hazelnuts . Keep reading for the recipes.

Tiella di Cozze

INGREDIENTS:

3 lbs mussels
1 lb shrimp
½ cup wine
¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 lb potatoes, thinly sliced
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
1 large yellow squash, thinly sliced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
salt & pepper to taste
4 ounces grated parmesan cheese
2/3 cup bread crumbs
½ TBS dried oregano
½ TBS dried tarragon
reserved liquid from shellfish

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 375 F. Scrub and rinse the mussels well. Pull away beards and discard them. Throw away any mussels that have cracked shells or are open. Peel and de-vein the shrimp. Wash and pat dry. Put mussels and shrimp in a large sautee pan, add the wine and cover the pot. Steam them until mussel shells begin to open. Take the shellfish out of the pan – while doing this remove the top shell from the mussels and discard – leaving the mussel in the bottom half. Set these aside.

Spread olive oil in a casserole dish. Arrange a layer of onions over the olive oil. Add a layer of potatoes, squash, zucchini and tomatoes on top of each other. Then place the mussels in their shell as well as shrimp on top to make another layer. Salt & pepper to taste.

Combine cheese, bread crumbs and herbs together in a small bowl. Spread some on top of the mussels. Keep layering vegetables, shellfish, and breadcrumb mixture until all is used up. You want your top later to be the breadcrumbs. Pour reserved liquid down the sides of the casserole. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes or until veggies are tender. Scoop with a spoon to serve. Serves about 8, generously.

Yogurt Carrot Cake

I used a store bought carrot cake mix and instead of using oil, I used plain yogurt. I made whipped cream using Tahitian vanilla extract for flavoring and used the whipped cream to ice the cake. I then sprinkled the whole thing with chopped, toasted hazelnuts.

I love polenta – it is total comfort food and a great base for a variety of vegetables and great with tomato sauce and cheese. My favorite way to make polenta is with sundried tomatoes, olives, cheese and spinach-  put it in the fridge until it gets hard, dust it with flour and pan fry in olive oil. Served with a hearty tomato sauce it is really one of the best things to eat. This time though, I didn’t feel like frying the polenta. I wanted something lighter but still comforting and flavorful, so I decided to use the polenta rectangles as a base for lasagna. It was really good and something I will certainly make again.

This is also my contribution to Marie of Proud Italian Cook and Maryann of Finding La Dolce Vita ‘s Event: Festa Italiana. All Entries due March 22nd. Please click on either of their links for participation guidelines!

INGREDIENTS:

for the polenta:

4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup polenta
½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
½ cup extra sharp cheddar, shredded
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
¼ cup capers, drained
½ cup sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and julienned
2 cups fresh baby spinach

for the sauce:

1 large can of san marzano plum tomatoes
4 TBS olive oil
½ yellow onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBS tomato paste
dash of each: oregano, basil, thyme
salt & pepper to taste
splash of balsamic vinegar

METHOD:

Grease a square cake pan. Bring veggie broth to a boil and add polenta. Turn heat down to low and gently simmer for about 12-15 minutes or until polenta is thick and and sticks to your spoon. Add half the cheese, herbs, capers and tomatoes. Pour mixture into cake pan and put in the fridge for about 3 hours.

After about 2 hours, make the tomato sauce. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Remove tomatoes from can using a spoon – reserve the liquid. Place them on a foil lined cookie sheet and season with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Place in the oven and cook for about 20-25 minutes.

In a large saucepan. Heat up the olive oil, add the onions and saute until transparent and soft then add the garlic, keep cooking until garlic becomes aromatic. Then add the reserved tomato sauce and the tomato paste, then the spices. Then add the tomatoes from the oven, break them apart with your spoon and cook down for about 30 minutes. Add a splash of balsamic.

Take your polenta out of the fridge. Cut it in half, horizontally, then cut it into 18 rectangles. Line the bottom of a large baking dish with 6 rectangles. Place sauce, a sprinkle of cheese and some spinach on top, then another layer of polenta. Keep doing this until all your ingredients are used up. Then shred a little more Parmesan on top. Place in the oven and cook for about 45 minutes or until heated through. Serves 6.