eggplant rollatini

I've been waiting very patiently to make this dish.  I first had it sometime in the 90's all deep-fried & yummy...  I've made a bit of a lightened version of it....

I used Asian eggplant..  You can skip the whole 'salt to remove bitterness' step if you do :)

Start by slicing the eggplant about 1/4 in ch thick the long way

I saved the 'end pieces' ( the part that was all skin) for another dish.  Drizzle the eggplant slices with some olive oil & salt & pepper. The eggplant will act like a sponge    so don't be afraid to add more oil if needed.. 

♥♥♥♥(it's heart healthy)♥♥♥♥

Preheat a grill pan or grill

When grill is good & hot, place the eggplant at an angle on the grill.

let it develop grill marks for a minute then ( don't flip) using tongs Gently move so that the eggplant is angled the opposite way.

( I lost some of the pictures that I took of this somehow , I will try to describe the best that I can..)

*the top eggplant is the first angel that I used, then I turned it so that it is facing the direction that the bottom 2 are.

When you then flip it ( as I have, you will have these very pretty grill marks) *


When all of the eggplant are grilled, set them up like little soldiers to get ready to be filled.. (prettiest side down.. that will end up being the top)

ugh.. the other lost photos were of the filling.

I invite you to use your imagination...

I had about a cup of part-skim ricotta
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 egg
salt & pepper
crushed garlic cloves (crush with the side of a knife..)  this insures that garlic flavor will be throughout the filling without anyone biting straight into a chunk of garlic..

Then, start assembling

Lay some fresh basil leaves a top of your eggplant

then top with sun-dried tomatoes.. ( I used a different brand than I normally do.. they are as pretty and red as I'm used to, but they still tasted good )

next, the imaginary cheese filling

roll each eggplant up & place in a baking dish lined with some Marinara Sauce

top with more sauce & shred some parmesan cheese on top

bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes  then top with a drizzle of olive oil & a drizzle of balsamic vinegar

YUM!'

I served this with a simple tomato& cumber salad..

I used the same idea as Caprese Towers

I just layered an heirloom tomato with a lemon boy cucumber

I grew these just for fun this year....  You can used whatever cuke you like, just peel it first ;)

top with some shredded basil, a diced red onion, salt, Pepper, EVOO & balsamic vinegar...

enjoy!


on another note... is there something that you would like to have a recipe for?  Something that you would like to see me make? I do have a lot of ideas on my own but  I'm open to suggestions....  I love a challenge..

thanks for reading :)


~oxoox ~shel

When life gives you a summer n'oreaster.....

Make sauce!!! Lots & lots of sauce!!


Last week we received even more tomatoes in our CSA share from Plato's Harvest Organic Farm

(yes, that's a big, beautiful, juicy watermelon :)


Onto sauce.... I know that I posted my quick fresh sauce recipe, but now I'm going for the big guns.. the 'stock the freezer' sauce.. the 'I like to pretend I'm an Old Italian grandmother' sauce...


The sauce that I will defrost for my homemade ravioli on Christmas sauce.

Yup.. that's the sauce..

Start by finding some big, comfy socks & turning on some corny 70's tunes

♬♬♬  If you like Pina Coladas♬♬♬


Bring a large pot of water to a boil  & also fill a large bowl with ice water


♬♬ Getting caught in the rain♬♬♬♬

Turn your maters upside down & with a paring knife, make an X in the bottom

 ( I can't see my X's.. perhaps I took the picture first?)

go ahead, make the X

♬♬♬ and the feel of the ocean♬♬♬♬

When the water is boiling, add a few tomatoes at a time & let boil for just about a minute

( take a sip of your coffee )

♬♬and the taste of Champagne♬♬♬


then, using a spider or tongs, remove tomatoes & quickly plunge into the ice bath

The skins should easily peel away

♬♬♬ why don't we peel away..baaam bamm abmm abaa baaamp..peel aaawwaay, into the  night♬♬♬

repeat with all of the tomatoes

( you can use this method to take the skins of of fruits like peaches & plums as well...)

When all of the tomatoes are skinned, dump the water from the stockpot , dry it, ( no need to wash it).. place back on the stove over medium heat & add some olive oil.

When the oil shimmers, add some chopped onion, carrots & celery... season with salt & pepper

yes, I have a purple carrot in there :)

once the veggies caramelize a bit ( you see a little browning ) add some finely chopped garlic ( add this right at the end, because if the garlic is in the pan too soon without liquid, it will burn & scorch & taste yucky)


))) burnt garlic((((


give the veggies one last swirl together

♬♬♬ Night Fever,  Night fevaaaaa  you know how to do it♬♬♬

then, start adding the tomatoes , cutting the cores out as you go..

WHOA!!  did you noticed how my pan changed colors???


♬♬♬♬Saturday.. in the park, I think it was the 4th of July♬♬♬♬

add a couple of bay leaves, kosher salt & pepper, some dried oregano & basil & bring to a simmer.

throw in some 80's tunes

♬♬ I've had the time of my life.. no I've never felt like this before♬♬♬

and let your sauce simmer

and simmer

♬♬♬ Nothing's gunna stop us now...♬♬♬

and simmer

your sauce will get thicker & a deeper color red as the day goes on...

stir it once in awhile and enjoy the amazing aroma..

♬♬♬wasting away again in Margaritaville♬♬♬

I let mine simmer for a good 4 hours. when the sauce is looking thicker... remove the bay leaves then..

 you can do one of 3 things.

1) leave it thick & chunky, test for salt & pepper

2) let cool & blend in batches in a blender; test for seasonings
or
3) use an immersion blender to puree; test for seasonings


I personally don't mind it chunky, but if I leave it chunky, I find that certain family members pick out some of the veggies; by pureeing the sauce, the eat them without knowing ;)



If you can eat it within a week, I store it in a mason jar, just make sure that it is completely cool before you put the lid on..

You also could can it at this point, but I chose to freeze it in portions in zip-lock freezer bags..

after, of course we had some with our sketti & meatballs last night.


This might seem like a lot of work to get from this

to this

but it is so worth it. If you have the opportunity to make sauce from scratch, I highly recommend it.

it is  very gratifying to look at the product at the end of the day.

not the mention to taste it :)


~oxoxo
michelle


♬♬everybody's talkin' bout the new sound honey, but it's still rock & roll to me ♬♬♬♬

Summer. In a bowl :)

I know that I have declared my love of tomatoes before, so just bear with me while I do it again.

and again.

and again.

This week at Plato's Harvest Organic Farm

our share  had 10  pounds of tomatoes!! 10 pounds.. this is NOT a typo :) this is in addition to the pick your own varieties of salsa & cherry tomatoes :)

did I mention that  just LOVE tomatoes?

We also got to pick more string beans

I pondered over what to make for dinner last night, then it hit me like a brick.... I just HAD to make

Fresh tomato sauce

**** you need to use good quality, fresh tomatoes... all of the flavor in this recipe is based on simple, flavorful ingredients....  if you don't have them growing in your yard, find a
Local Farmer's Market
You'll be supporting your local farms & farmers & I PROMISE you you will have the best tasting pasta dish on your table tonight*****



I used 3, maybe 4 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
4 scallions
a healthy grating of parmesan
A few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
a handful of basil leaves

Put it all in my food processor & pulsed it a few times so that it blended but didn't puree

season with salt & pepper

and Presto!

I like to add the cubed mozzarella right at the end on top of the pasta, but that's just me, feel free to mix it all in if you please :)

This could not have been simpler or more delicious.

I made a batch of fresh pasta to go along with this. That's a WHOLE other story... but one I will get to, I promise

 Since Ryan doesn't really like tomatoes ( gasp) I also made a simple white sauce with parmesan for him. I put a little bit of the white sauce on my pasta with the tomato sauce.

This was heavenly. So much in fact, that I just had leftovers for breakfast :)

Panzanella salad

Let's start with what we received from this weeks's share of our CSA from Plato's Harvest Organic Farm.

new this week were green peppers, scallions & asian eggplant

AND.. we were able to pick the gladiola!!!

oops.... here they are..

and in our bread share??? Stuffed garlic bread!! OH. Yeah.

And now, my favorite recipe of the week~

Panzanella.

 Funny word, eh?  When I first heard this I conjured up visions of brightly colored flamingo dancers. ( I have a wild imagination)

Panzanella is an Italian bread salad.  What, bread, in a salad? Oh, yeah. Trust me. 

I based my recipe on Ina Garten's Panzanella, but I did make changes, basically because I was trying to work with what I had.

I started by cubing the bread (day -old bread.. if you don't have any, you can buy day old bread usually for half price in the bakery section of your grocery store~ use something rustic :)) & sautéing in in olive oil over medium heat...(don't be afraid to add more olive oil while sautéing, you want the cubes to develop a crust)  seasoning with salt & pepper. Let cool.

There are many recipes out there, and not all of them have you saute the bread, but I find that the little scrumdilicious crust that it makes helps keep the bread form getting soggy.

In a large bowl, I added

a pint of assorted cherry tomatoes, halved

a few cucumbers, cubed

a red onion, cubed

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1/2 of a jalapeno, diced  ( I made this last week, prior to bell peppers, if you don;t like the bit on heat, feel free to omit)

I seasoned this all with salt & pepper

what's great about Panzanella is that you really could add whatever veggies ( that you would eat raw) that you happened to have on hand :)

I made a dressing of :

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup Extra-Virgin Olive oil

Kosher salt & Freshly ground pepper

you can make this in a bowl by mixing everything except for the olive oil together then slowly stream the olive oil in, whisking vigorously..

You can put all of the ingredients in a blender & whirl away..

or if you happen to have an immersion blender with one of those little mini food processor thingys.. well that works just perfectly.

this is an amazing little invention. Clearly on of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

salad dressing yumminess!

what I especially love is that I usually tend to not use all of the dressing in a recipe, (calorie-counitng & all) ~ so I just pop the top on & save it in the fridge right in it's own container :)

Ok...back to the salad...

You can also make this dish ahead of time, keeping the dressing, the veggies & the bread separate until about 1/2 hour before serving.

at which time, simply toss them all together,( I use half of the dressing to start, then add more as needed) add a few tablespoons of capers, and some shredded basil leaves & a grating of lemon zest.

Let sit for about 30 minutes..

Now because I am a cheese NUT, I crumbled some ricotta salata over top. You could really add whatever cheese that you'd like, feta, goat cheese, even cheddar. Or, you could just omit it.

I LOVED this dish. I served it with grilled steak tips and it went so well together. My only complaint about it was that went I went up for seconds, it was all gone :(

Lucky for me, I just *happen* to have all of the ingredients on hand to make it again today :)

enjoy!
xoxoxo

Caprese Towers

This is what received last week from our share at Plato's Harvest Organic Farm

Our basket is filled with tomatoes...  ahhh.....tomatoes.... my VERY favorite!!

 *squeal*

 look at these babies!!!

not to be under shadowed by the awesomeness that is the tomato... we also received some

purple carrots!

Before the recipe I'd like to share a story...


I loved to 'play' with food since I was a little girl. When I was about 4 or 5, my grandfather had made a make- shift stove for me in my grandparents' back yard out of some tree stumps & plywood.

How is wish that I had a picture of that now...


My grandmother gave me some of her old pots & pans & wooden spoons. While my sister & her friends were playing normal kid things, I was mixing sticks & stones in my 'kitchen'.


My grandparents has a backyard veggie garden. I remember one day thinking that it would be a great idea to pick ALL of their ripe tomatoes & try to make them into a sauce in my beach pail.

 NOT such a good idea..

 I'm sure that they were furious with me, but what I remember most about that day was sitting in the corner of their garage ( trying to stay out of view, I'm sure) trying, trying, trying to mix those tomatoes into sauce..

here is a picture of my sister, my aunt & I in front of the garage where I 'created' my first sauce. The garden is off to the right.

I'm the one in pink :) some things never change...

Thank you for letting me share this.



now back to our regularly scheduled recipe..

I think that I (as I'm sure many) am SO excited about tomatoes due to the fact that last years' crop was basically wiped out ( at least in the Northeast) by blight.

But this year.. they are amazing!

I made Caprese towers :)

simple, yet elegant ingredients

tomatoes ( we were lucky enough to have 3 colors but any color is fine)
Fresh mozzarella
basil leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper

I love to prep all of my ingredients before I build. Just looking at this board makes me ♥smile ♥

assembling is easy.. just alternately layer tomatoes with the cheese.  Lay the basil leaves on top of each other, roll into a 'cigar' then cut small slices.. you will end up with ribbons of basil to sprinkle over the top. Season the towers with kosher salt & cracked pepper.. and drizzle with the olive oil..

Now I have to admit that I attempted to make a 'basil oil' prior to making these stacks.

I added a handful of basil leaves to my blender with about 1/2 cup of olive oil, salt & pepper.

Blend until the oil is green , then strain out basil leaves.

I did not like the color that the oil came out to be. The flavor was wonderful, but I think that the heat from the blades of the blender bruised the basil..

Next time I will try to blanche the basil first. When I made the arugula pesto last month, the blanching helped the pesto keep it's beautiful bright color.


Scott keeps telling me that when I make a mistake ( in the kitchen or otherwise ) that I'm not doing it wrong, I'm simply learning yet another way how NOT to do something.

wise man.

I'm not a chef, I'm not a teacher; I am someone who loves to learn & who enjoys sharing what I know & what learn along the way.

I'm learning every day;)


oxoxo