Italian Fantasy Chili or Fantasy Italian Chili

OK, this isn't exactly chili and it isn't really Italian but it's the best description I could come up with because Spicy Stew of Sausage, Chicken, Peppers and Onions with Cannellini Beans is way too long. It's kind of like chili and it's kind of Italian in flavor. And admittedly, I made this up as I went based on ingredients that sounded good together. But all that aside, this is delicious, savory and hearty. A great dinner on a cold wet Fall day or a frigid snowy Winter Saturday. Gotta have some good crusty country bread or ciabatta to have with it too along with a beer or wine.

Ingredients

2 Hot Italian sausage links cut into 1" pieces

1 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts roughly cut into 1" pieces

3 cans Cannellini Beans drained

1 medium sweet onion cut into thin half moons

2 Yellow or Orange sweet bell peppers cut into strips

12 - 15 grape tomatoes left whole

5 cloves of Garlic roughly chopped

1 tsp Herbes de Provance or Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon Cumin

1 Big Handful of fresh chopped Flat Leaf Parsley

5 Tutto Calabria Hot Peppers in oil cut in half lengthwise or generic red pepper flakes to taste

Water as needed to make the consistency to your liking

1/2 Lemon seeded and roughly chopped

Juice from one Lime 

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil divided

Salt and pepper to taste
Bread and beer or wine

How to do it - 

In a heavy Dutch oven add about a tablespoon or so of olive oil and brown the sausage pieces. Then add the peppers including the hot Calabria peppers, onions and garlic. Cook until the peppers are soft and the onion is translucent - about 5 -8 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside but keep the juices in the pot. Deglaze if necessary with water or a little white wine.

Add the chicken to the pot and cook until browned add salt and pepper and the herbes de provance. Then the grape tomatoes

Add back the sausages, onions and peppers along with the parsley and lemon pieces. Add the juice from the lime. Add enough water to come almost up to the top of the ingredients. Cover and simmer on low for an hour

After an hour add the cannellini beans. Cover and cook for a half hour. The chili should look like this -

ENJOY!!!

Thai Basil Pesto!

Thai Basil

Who doesn't love basil pesto! Well, maybe there are a couple people out there. If made properly (read - home made) it adds a wonderful undertone to tomato sauce or used alone to paint just simple pasta or to spread on hot crusty bread or on fish, poultry or even on the side with a nice steak - wow! Plus it freezes well so it's a good way to save fresh basil for winter. We grow a number of different types of basil in our garden - good ole workhorse sweet Genovese basil, purple basil, lemon basil, curly leaf leaf basil and Thai basil. I guess you have figured out that we kinda like the stuff. Each one of these varieties has its own taste and aroma. 

Pesto comes from the Italian word pestare which is a term that means to pound or crush. So it is a sauce where the ingredients are pounded or crushed together. The Old School way would be to mash the ingredients together with a mortar and pestle. That would be great if you have a mortar and pestle in your kitchen but a food processor will do just fine. The ingredients most typically used to make basil pesto are fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese and olive oil. 

Pesto doesn't have to be made with basil. After all it is basically just a "green sauce" like chimichurri or salsa verde, or green chutney to name a few. You could use another aromatic herb instead like parsley or arugula or oregano. And change the other ingredients around too that better compliment the herb you are using like using cashews or walnuts or peanuts instead of pine nuts or other oils like grape seed oil or avocado oil or sesame oil or changing the cheeses too. Experiment! 

OK, so let's get back to Thai basil. Thai basil does not taste like the sweet Genovese basil most people are familiar with. It has a stronger aroma, spicier and with a mild anise or licorice background. It could, but shouldn't, be used in a traditional Italian basil pesto sauce because other ingredients better compliment the special taste of Thai basil. Lisa harvested the last of our Thai Basil just before we were supposed to have a frost that would turn the basil leaves to mush and put this recipe together to use it all. Here is what she did with it. You will love it.  

Ingredients - 

2 Cups loose packed Thai basil leaves
3 large or 4 small cloves of garlic
1/4 Cup dry roasted or unsalted roasted peanuts
3 Tablespoons Sesame oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon lime juice
Easy on salt

Put all the dry ingredients in a food processor then add the wet ingredients and blend until smooth. Add a little more sesame oil if it seems too dry but go easy.
The flavor of this sauce is amazingly complex and is best suited with Asian inspired stir fried dishes. We added a couple spoonfuls of this to stir fried chicken, onions, peppers and Japanese eggplant in coconut milk over rice noodles. Bamm!

Mason-Dixon Salmon

Bringing the North and South together we experimented and used toasted Georgia Pecans, Pennsylvania Maple Syrup and a little Pennsylvania rye whiskey to make a sweet crunchy sauce to spoon over pan seared salmon filets - so, Mason-Dixon Salmon was born. Aren't we clever? 

We picked up a nice big jug of Hillegas Maple Syrup when we went to the 72nd annual Pennsylvania Maple Syrup Festival in a little town called Meyersdale in the beautiful Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. We didn't even know that Pennsylvania was a big producer of maple syrup! 

And we had to add a little of our favorite small batch Pennsylvania rye whiskey made right here in Pittsburgh by family run Wigle Whiskey.

Ingredients - 

Salmon filets - 2
Whole Georgia Pecans - toasted then roughly chopped - 2/3 cup 
Pennsylvania Maple Syrup about 1/3 cup
Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey - 1 teaspoon
Squirt of lemon juice

Here's what you do, and it couldn't be simpler - 

In a bowl, combine the maple syrup, chopped pecans, rye whiskey and lemon juice.
Note: you can play with the quantities to make more because you might find yourself sampling to much of this before using it on the salmon! 

Sear the filets in a pan with a little butter and olive oil

Spread the mixture on top of the salmon filets and serve with grilled fresh green beans and wild rice mix.

Red Pot Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

You will love this! It's one of our favorite go-to comfort meals. Hearty enough for a cold Sunday in January but light enough for a Saturday in June. We call it "Red Pot" chicken for no other reason than we originally made it in a red porcelain Dutch oven and the name seemed appropriate. (We made this one in a Calphalon pot).

As you can see from the ingredient list there is a good variety of garden vegetables that all play well together and cook down with the herbs, chicken juices and seasonings to produce a delicious sauce that must be sopped up with good crusty bread. The chicken is moist and tender but develops a wonderful crisp skin and the meat falls off the bone .

Ingredients:

2 - 3 Bone in, skin on, chicken breasts

Soft herb and garlic cheese like Alouette or Rondele 

3 medium zucchini

2 yellow or orange bell peppers

1 lb fresh Roma tomatoes

3 celery stalks - use the top leaves too

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion - roughly chopped

3 Garlic cloves crushed

8 Sun dried tomatoes in olive oil drained and cut in half
11 Kalamata olives pitted and cut in half

1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh (which we used)

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon paprika

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F

Loosen the skin on each chicken breast without removing it, making a pocket. Push the soft herb garlic cheese under the skin of each breast, spreading it in an even layer.

Cut the zucchini into 1 inch thick rounds
Cut the bell peppers into 1 inch wide strips. 
Quarter the tomatoes lengthwise
Cut the celery stalks on a bias into 2 inch long pieces.

Heat the olive oil in the casserole. Add the onions and garlic. Sauté stirring frequently for about 5 minutes.

Add the zucchini, peppers and celery. Cook for about 5 more minutes.

Stir in the Roma tomatoes, the sun dried tomatoes, olives, oregano and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Stir it all together.

the chicken breasts on top of the vegetables, drizzle with the rest of the olive oil, season with salt and sprinkle with the paprika.

Bake for 1 hour covered then remove the lid and cook for a half hour more or until the chicken is golden, cooked through and tender.

Serve with ciabatta or other good crusty bread.  ENJOY!

How to Make Asparagus Pizza. Yes, Asparagus Pizza.

If somebody says, "Hey, let's have pizza for dinner!", chances are pretty good that they didn't mean "Hey, let's MAKE a pizza for dinner." (unless they live here...), and even more unlikely, "Hey, let's make an asparagus pizza!". But after you find out how good this tastes and how easy it is to make, I know you will want one. Here are two similar asparagus pizzas. They look pretty cool don't they? Good to serve at a party as a second or third pizza option or when you just have friends over and want to look like you really know what you're doing.

Pre-made pizza crust, pencil asparagus, garlic, green onions, chives, mozzarella, olive oil

OR

Pre-made pizza crust, asparagus, garlic, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, pecorino cheese, olive oil

This is a white pizza with asparagus as the primary topping. White pizza typically has an olive oil, garlic, herb and cheese base instead of tomato sauce. We love tomatoes but enjoy white pizza too because it is so versatile, can have a stronger flavor punch and is a good way to change things up. It makes a great base for toppings like pancetta, prosciutto, anchovies, arugula, roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, caramelized onions - not all at the same time - the fewer ingredients, the better. But you get the idea. 

Ingredients for the asparagus pizza:

Pre-made pizza crust (we like Boboli for ease, taste and look, BUT you can also make your own crust from scratch if you are feeling scratchy) - 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 cloves of garlic minced

Crushed red pepper flakes

1 bunch of pencil asparagus - the thinner the better

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

1/3 cup grated pecorino cheese

Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Use a pizza stone if you have one.

Saute the garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. 

Stir the garlic and pepper flakes along with the olive oil they were sauteed in into the ricotta. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Spread the ricotta mixture over the pizza crust

Trim the thicker ends off the asparagus and arrange on top of the pizza.

Add the mozzarella and the pecorino and drizzle olive oil over the top.

Bake for 8 - 12 minutes or what time the crust package recommends.

Enjoy!

Sicilian Tuna Steaks

My daughter kept telling me that we needed to check out the tuna steaks they have at Aldi - good price and great quality.  Well, this past week we bought some. She suggested a method she and my son-in-law use that sounded great. They use a particular peppercorn as a key ingredient they found at an Asian food store. We didn't have any of those peppercorns so decided to look on line for other interesting ways to cook the tuna. We found a few we thought would be good and made some modifications.

Fresh tuna steaks, the thicker the better, are best done seared in a screaming hot cast iron skillet for just a few minutes per side.  They are usually served with a simple sauce. This version is different and this is no ordinary sauce. After searing the tuna, it is briefly and gently simmered in a tomato-based aromatic sweet and sour sauce. 

The recipes we liked used these ingredients - dried fruit (golden raisins), tomatoes, lemons, capers, olives and pine nuts and are ingredients found in southern Italian and particularly Sicilian cooking. We've used all of them in other recipes but we improvised a little. We used some dried tangerines instead of raisins. Trader Joe’s sells them as well as Amazon of course and if you haven’t tried them, you’re missing out on a real treat and they went perfectly with this dish.

Briefly, here's how it's done - 

Quickly sear the tuna steaks, and set them aside.

Sauté the onions and garlic in some olive oil until the onions soften slightly.  

Add the white wine and let cook down for a couple minutes. 

Add the tomatoes, capers, olives, lemon zest and dried tangerine. Simmer this mixture for a few minutes to let the juice thicken up a bit and to allow the flavors to mingle. 

The sauce is now ready. Gently nestle the tuna steaks in the sauce, cover the pan and simmer for about 2 minutes.  You want the tuna to remain nice and pink inside so you do need to watch it. When you’re ready to serve, pull the tuna out of the sauce and toss in the fresh herbs, give it a good stir and simmer for about 1 minute. 

Spoon some of the sauce on the plate with the tuna on top or spoon over each steak.

Note - You don't usually see fresh tuna simmered in a sauce because it’s difficult to keep the tuna nice and pink.  But this recipe works and it’s just simply delicious. We served this with a side of pasta dressed with garlic, herbs and olive oil. Polenta would work very well with this too as well as arborio rice made into a risotto with fish sauce.

This sauce can be made ahead and reheated. I think it might taste even better if you made it the day before. It’s a nice option to have.

Here is the step by step - 

Servings: 4

Ingredients - 

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 to 1 1/4 pounds of tuna steaks, at least 1-inch thick (about 4 -6 small) 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 cup sliced onions (about 1 large onion)

1/4 cup chopped dried tangerines (use golden raisins if you can’t get the dried tangerines)

Zest from 1 lemon and the juice from the lemon to squeeze over the tuna

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained

10 Castrovetrano olives, sliced

1 lb fresh tomatoes chopped or a 15-ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup water, use as needed to thin sauce if necessary

1/4 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped

1/3 cup pine nuts - toasted

½ lb pasta, we used linguine (alternately, you could use basmati rice or polenta)

- Heat a heavy, medium skillet (prefer cast iron) over moderately high heat. Add the canola oil and let it warm.

- Season the tuna with salt and pepper; sear for 2 minutes per side, or until both sides are golden and the center is still pink.

- Remove the tuna and set aside. Do not clean the pan.

- Using the same pan, sauté the onion with the garlic and lemon zest in the olive oil, stirring frequently until just tender, about 2-3 minutes. Deglaze with the white wine and let cook down.

- Add the capers, olives, dried tangerine slices and tomatoes. Continue cooking, for another 2 -3 minutes.

- Let simmer for a couple more minutes until the sauce thickens and has some body.

- Return the tuna to the pan, nestling the tuna down in the tomato sauce. Squeeze some lemon juice over the tuna from the lemon you zested. Cover with a tight-fitting lid. Continue to cook over low heat until the tuna reaches the desired doneness, 2 to 3 minutes for medium.

- Remove the tuna to a serving plate.

- Add the fresh herbs to the sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper; stir well.

- Set the tuna on top of the sauce on a plate or spoon it over the top of the tuna; garnish with the pine nuts.

NOTE: It’s important that the tuna steaks are at least 1 inch thick…the thicker the better, as the tuna will be less likely to overcook. The sauce can be prepared early in the day, or even the day before then the tuna can be done just before serving, simmered briefly in the sauce.

Pork Belly with Rye Whiskey and Maple Syrup Glaze

Oh Boy! 

Pork Belly roasted low and slow, glazed with a mix of pure maple syrup and Pennsylvania rye whiskey. Served with roasted baby red potatoes and baked granny Smith apples.

Just three simple ingredients - Sea salt, Maple Syrup and Rye Whiskey

 Make a series of crisscross cuts through the fat cap and sprinkle with sea salt

Marinate overnight in maple syrup and rye whiskey

Roast on a rack low and slow in oven - 250 degrees for 4 hours

Slice into pieces, just about falls apart

Alice Waters

“When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.” 

  ― Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution

Chicken Piccata

This is another one of those dishes that looks classy and sophisticated on the plate but is simple and easy to prepare. 

Chicken or veal piccata, like chicken or veal Marsala and chicken or veal Francese are staples in Italian-American restaurants. The basic preparation for all of them is the same - thinly sliced and pounded meat that is dusted in flour then sauteed in olive oil and butter with wine. The difference is the flavor ingredients. For chicken piccata the flavor ingredients are capers, parsley, lemon juice and a dry white wine. I used Pinot Gigio.

 Ingredients (for two people)

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into cutlets and pounded about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick 

• 3/4 cup homemade chicken stock or low-sodium store-bought broth
• 1 1/4 cups dry white wine 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• About 1 cup all-purpose flour for dredging
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
• 3 tbsp capers
• 1/2 cup Minced fresh parsley

Directions - 

Cast Iron Steaks

Just a quick food porn post. Here's a video of two bone in strip steaks I cooked in a cast iron skillet on the side burner of our gas grill. Make sure you have the sound on. Nothing else needs said...

Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala (and it's "cousin", Veal Marsala), is a staple in every Italian-American restaurant. Sophisticated as it seems and delicious as it is, it is a simple dish to prepare, made with just a few ingredients - chicken cutlets, sliced mushrooms, minced shallots, thyme and parsley and it's namesake - Marsala wine. At its heart, though, it's just a basic chicken-with-pan-sauce dish.The key, though, is paying attention to what you are doing because things come together quickly.

First a little interesting background. The British deserve at least partial credit for the creation of chicken Marsala, even if that might make more than a few Italians cringe. The dish, which has its roots in Sicily, cannot be made without Marsala wine, which is a wine produced specifically around the city of Marsala in Sicily. And that's where the British influence comes in - they were instrumental in spreading fortified wines like Port and Marsala around the world to their various colonial outposts. Because of its higher alcohol content (thanks to a good dose of hard liquor), fortified wine was able to withstand, and to even be improved by, weeks and months on the open sea. In the case of Marsala specifically, an Englishman named John Woodhouse was responsible for deciding to sell a fortified version of the local Sicilian wine abroad. Eventually that wine found its way into the kitchen, and chicken Marsala was born. 

Start by preparing the chicken cutlets and browning them well. Most supermarkets and butchers sell cutlets already prepared, but you can easily make your own from skinless, boneless chicken breasts by slicing the breasts in half horizontally. 

.

Here is some advice from a recipe I found on line that is helpful - 
"In most chicken Marsala dishes, it's also customary to lightly dredge the cutlets in flour before browning them. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this: The flour can help act subtly to thicken the final pan sauce, but it can also slightly dull the sauce's flavor. The flour also speeds browning by providing a drier (and therefore more browning-prone) surface than the chicken itself, but it's the flour that's browning, not the chicken. That's a mixed blessing. Faster browning is good, since chicken cutlets are thin and cook through rapidly—the quicker you can brown the exterior and get them out of the pan, the better. But since the flour is browning more than the chicken itself, your sauce won't be as flavorful as it would be if it was just the plain chicken protein making contact with the pan.That being said, I still prefer the flour step. If the cutlet is dredged lightly, the flour doesn't affect the sauce's flavor enough to sacrifice the insurance it gives against overcooking, especially with a lean protein like chicken breast, which can quickly take on the consistency of cardboard. On top of that, the flour coating changes the texture of the cutlets themselves, giving them a silkier exterior. To me, that silky exterior is an essential quality of chicken Marsala."

Right after browning the chicken and removing it from the pan, it's time to brown the mushrooms. Mushrooms do not brown quickly. They're loaded with moisture and have to dump it first before any real browning can begin. Being patient and waiting until all that mushroom liquid has cooked off and the slices turn a deeper chestnut color is essential to getting a good, rich flavor in the final dish. Otherwise, it'll taste like steamed mushrooms, and that's not a good thing. As soon as the mushrooms are browned, I add minced shallots and cook them just until translucent.

Now it's time to add the Marsala. While you can certainly drop plenty of cash on a top-notch Marsala, it's easy to find bottles that are good enough to drink and still cost a song. DO NOT USE super market Marsala cooking wine!!! I bought mine - a very drinkable Marsala - for five bucks. About a cup or a little more to the mushrooms and shallots will do the job.

 Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups Marsala wine 
• 3/4 cup homemade chicken stock or low-sodium store-bought broth
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into cutlets and pounded about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• About 1 cup all-purpose flour for dredging
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
• 8 ounces cremini (baby bella) mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• Minced fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions

1. 1.
   Combine Marsala and stock in a mixing bowl or large measuring cup. Set aside.
2. 2.
   Season chicken cutlets all over with salt and pepper. Pour a roughly 1/2-inch layer of flour into a wide, shallow bowl. Dredge each cutlet in flour, tap off excess, and transfer to clean plate.
3. 3.
   Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in batches if necessary, add chicken and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Using a slotted spatula, transfer to paper towels to drain.
4. 4.
   Add the sliced mushrooms and shallots to the skillet along with the thyme (do not drain remaining oil) and cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms have released their juices and browned well, about 10 minutes. Add more oil if pan seems too dry at any point.
5. 5.
   Pour Marsala mixture into pan. Bring to a boil, whisking and scraping up any browned bits from bottom of pan, until liquids are reduced by about three-quarters. Add butter and whisk constantly until emulsified and sauce takes on the consistency of heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper. Taste sauce and adjust as needed.
6. 6.
   Return chicken cutlets to pan, swirling to bathe them in the sauce and warm them through. Transfer to a warmed serving plate, spooning sauce and mushrooms all over chicken. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Thyme, parsley, shallot

with a side of pasta, or better yet, polenta