Sloppy Joes...slop, sloppy joes!

Way before the song made famous by Adam Sandler, my family was eating sloppy joes. If I think about it, my mom always used either a jarred sauce or a seasoning packet to flavor up what was surely not very lean ground beef. Now I prefer to season the meat my own way, and use lean ground turkey instead of beef. What my mom DID do that I liked was toast the buns, and melt cheese on top of the meat before eating. Yum!

Sloppy Joes
2 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 - 2 pounds lean ground meat
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mustard
Salt and pepper
Hamburger buns
Butter
Shredded cheese

Heat the 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, not browning, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the cumin and chili powder and cook for a minute, allowing the spices to bloom. Add the ground meat, breaking into pieces, and cook until browned.

Reduce heat and move the ground meat to one side so you reveal a little spot on the pan to caramelize the tomato paste. Add the paste and cook for a minute or so. Cooking the paste in this way will add a nice complex flavor, and reduce any tinny taste. Add the tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard.

Turn your oven to broil and cover a cookie sheet with foil.

Turn the heat down to medium low and continue cooking the meat mixture until thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Line the hamburger bottoms and tops on the cookie sheet and brush lightly with butter. Broil until golden brown. Remove cookie sheet from oven and place hamburger tops on plate. Add meat mixture to hamburger bottoms. Sprinkle with cheese and return to broil just until cheese is melted. You can add raw onion, pickle relish, or any other toppings, add the hamburger top, and enjoy!

Diced green pepper can be added with the onion to cook for additional crunch. Veggie lovers may like added frozen (thawed) chopped spinach to the meat mixture as well.

Experiment with the seasonings - added chili powder or cayenne will make a nice spicy sauce. Added basil and oregano will make Sloppy "Giuseppes".

Basghetti and Meatheads

That's how I referred to the classic dish when I was just a wee one. To this day I have difficulty saying "meatballs" rather than "meatheads". I got to thinking after watching a recent episode of Barefoot Contessa that I've never actually attempted meatballs from scratch. If I want meat in my spaghetti I usually just throw in ground beef and brown it up then throw the sauce on top. After making this recipe, I can say I probably won't be doing it again. What a hassle, and what a mess all that grease made. Granted I haven't even eaten it yet (Queen of Food Prep!) but I can't imagine it's going to deliver.

I'm including the recipe here off Food Network's site because Queen Ina doesn't allow her recipes to be posted more than 2 weeks after the show airs (can you see me rolling me eyes?!).
It also occurred to me the cost incurred to make these LK#@(H%$! meatballs was way more than if I'd just bought the great Butterball turkey meatballs, and they would have been a lot healthier.

Yield: 6 servings

For the meatballs:
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
*edit - I don't eat veal so I used 1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (4 slices, crusts removed)
*edit - oops, yeah, I used wheat and I left the crusts on - egads!
1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
* edit - since I'm pg I wasn't going to just open a full bottle and let it go to waste, so I used this cheapie 2-serving bottle of red. I didn't look at the label b/c I didn't want to salivate
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:
1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Freshly grated Parmesan

Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs. (Her meatballs are enormous, and if I'd left them 2 inches they never would have cooked. I had 24 normal-person-sized meatballs)

Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan. (I used my Le Creuset Dutch oven which does not have a 12-inch bottom. Not all of us have enormous skillets Ina! Plus I like to make sauce in the oven - it NEVER would have fit in a skillet. Is she smoking again???)

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

The sauce I tasted before the long simmer was very strongly flavored of the wine. This is probably my fault for the wine I picked. But still, I like my tomato sauces on the sweet side, and this is definitely NOT sweet. We'll see how it tastes after it's mellowed and picked up the flavor of the meatballs. I have a feeling this is a "grown-up" sauce, and I like mine like I liked it when I was a kid - sweet like Prego. Granted I'd never eat Prego now, but still. Mine is a little grown-up since it has brandy in it...

Since I had bought 3 pounds of ground beef and had some red peppers in the fridge I decided to do a 2-for-1 and made some baked pepper filling as well. I'll add that tomorrow...

Light Pasta Salad

When it's hot and you don't feel like cooking, a pasta salad is right up on my list. The only "cooking" involved here is boiling the pasta. Since the salad is so simple however, it really benefits from the best ingredients. Here, we had some heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil from the garden, and a heavy-for-its-size lemon. Seasoning with salt and pepper is also really important.

Summer Italian Pasta Salad

1 lb whole-wheat rotini pasta
2 heirloom tomatoes
10-12 fresh basil leaves
1 fresh lemon
parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

Put your water on to boil with plenty of salt in the water. The water should be "salty as the sea". This is the only time to get flavor into your pasta.

Put the pasta in, and while cooking, prep your other ingredients. Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized wedges. Roll up the basil leaves into a cigar shape and slice very thinly end to end. This is what is called "chiffonade". Roll the lemon firmly on your counter with the heel of your hand to get the juice flowing.

Cook your pasta to slightly more al dente than you would to pair it with a warm sauce. Drain, reserving some of the cooking water, and return the pasta to the pan over low heat, and add the tomatoes and basil. Grate about 1/4 cup of parmesan over the pasta, and add a couple tablespoons of the cooking water. Stir. Grate the lemon rind onto the pasta, cut the lemon in half, and juice it over the pasta. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to your preference. Stir and serve.

I really like the fresh flavors of the ingredients that came out. Next time I'll add more tomato just because I love it so much.

Basil Pesto

Basil pesto is one of those things that I look forward to all year, and start salivating about as soon as I have my basil in the ground. Last year the basil went crazy, but I didn't freeze any of my pesto, which was a big shame. This year I intend to rectify the sad situation.

My basil reached significant enough growth that I could cut quite a bit. Granted, it looks like a skeleton now, but it will bounce back I'm sure. Pesto is simply a combination of herbs, olive oil, seasonings, usually some nuts. Parsley, mint, cilantro - all make nice pestos.

Basil Pesto

1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
2 garlic cloves
5 cups loose-packed basil leaves
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

Toast your nuts in the oven at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes or until lightly brown. Stir halfway through cooking.

In a food processor that is running, add the garlic through the chute. This ensures the garlic will get chopped fine enough. Add the pine nuts, basil, and cheese. Pulse a little bit. You'll notice you need some liquid to get it going. Add olive oil and/or water in a small, steady stream to the running food processor. I don't like to use all olive oil as it becomes to oily for my taste. You can use water or broth even. Add liquid until it reaches desired consistency. Taste before adding salt as the cheese can be quite salty. Add pepper and any other seasonings you desire.

I like this on pasta of course - on crostini - crackers - and even fresh vegetables. Often I will make a batch of pesto, use most of it, then turn the leftovers into alternately dip, then salad dressing, getting thinner and thinner as I use more and more.

Gnocchi'n on Heaven's Door

Lest you think I was not a proper wife and didn't make something FABULOUS for our 1-year anniversary, I give you dinner, Guns 'n Roses style. Having become the recent owner of a ricer, and having some fingerling potatoes growing sad and forgotten in our veggie basket - gnocchi was to be the new recipe of the evening.

Have you ever had gnocchi? It's pasta. Made from potatoes. And done correctly they are light and airy and wonderful. The best gnocchi I ever had was in London's Notting Hill neighborhood. Since then I've wanted to make them, but didn't have a ricer, and like Alton Brown, I hate uni-taskers. Recently I read you could use a regular box grater to grate the cooked potatoes. Makes total sense. I don't know why it didn't occur to me.

We made gnocchi in cooking class a month or so ago so I felt I had my technique down. Potatoes, eggs, flour - that's all there is to it. The starch in the particular potato matters, and I'd always heard fingerlings were the best but all the recipes I seemed to find involved russets. I'm trying those next time because they sure are easy to find and I think the skin comes off easier as it's thicker.

Potato Gnocchi
(serves 4)

1 pound russet potatoes
3-4 egg yolks
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

You can bake the potatoes in the oven, or boil them in water. Cook until they are tender when pierced with a skewer. You don't want to overcook them or the flesh will soak up more water, and more water equals more flour. A light hand with the flour is the key here - more flour equals a less tender gnocchi. Don't overwork the dough.

Let the cooked potatoes stand just long enough so that they are cool enough to handle. The hotter the potato when you rice them, the fluffier.

Scrape the peels off the potatoes and rice or grate the potatoes. Spread the riced potatoes out in a thin layer to expose as much of their surface as possible to the air. You should have about 2 cups of potatoes. In a large bowl whisk together 3 egg yolks, the cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Add the potatoes and mix well. Sprinkle half cup of the flour over the potatoes and using your knuckles, press it into the potatoes. Fold the mass over on itself and press down again. Sprinkle on more flour, little by little, folding and pressing the dough until it just holds together. If the mixture is too dry, add another yolk or a little water. The dough should give under slight pressure. It will feel firm but yielding. To test if the dough is the correct consistency, take a piece and roll it with your hands on a well-floured board into a rope 1/2 inch in diameter. If the dough holds together, it is ready. If not, add more flour, fold and press the dough several more times, and test again.

To form, cut the dough into 4 to 6 pieces. Roll out each piece into a rope about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces and lightly flour any sticky sides. You'll now form them into dumplings with the ridges that are familiar to gnocchi. The ridges are what helps sauce stick. I doubt you have a gnocchi board - the tines of a form work just as well. Rest the fork upside down and at a 45 degree angle. Hold the gnocchi to the fork with your thumb and with light pressure press down and away from you. The gnocchi will roll away down the fork and get the impression from the tines. It will be slightly curved. Don't worry, it will take practice to get the right force and motion.






Rope for cutting








At this point you can lightly dust the gnocchi, place on a cookie sheet in the freezer, and freeze for later use. Simply move them to a ziptop bag when they are frozen through. Or you can bring a large pot of salted water to boil to cook them. They only need about 90 seconds to cook. Place them in the boiling water and when they float to the top, they are done. Use a skimmer or strainer to fish them out and dump into prepared sauce.

Frozen gnocchi can be placed in boiling water for cooking and remove when they have floated to the top - slightly longer than fresh gnocchi.

Sauces should be prepared and kept barely warm to simply coat the gnocchi and heat them through. I did a very simple brown butter coating with another grating of Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of kosher salt. A simple cheese cream sauce, a light marinara, or a pesto would also be excellent. Next time I'll be doing the basil pesto when the basil in the garden gets mature enough.

These took a long time from start to finish (being about an hour or so) but were well worth it considering how long I've waited to make them myself. They had a really strong potato taste plain, but I think switching to russets will help. Next time I'll watch the flour content more to try and make them even lighter. They were really good and went well as a side dish to our pork loin and Italian squash.

I'm Gonna Be a Weiner

Above is my entry in a recipe contest. I've never done anything like this before, but spurred on by all those contest shows they have on Food TV "America's National Crabapple Jelly in Pastry Competition up next! Don't change that dial!" and how simple the rules SEEMED, I decided to take a recipe I make all the time, dress it up, get the particulars, and send it off.

What I realized is that those rules are NOT simple. They have all kinds of hidden details and ingredients you must use and formats the recipe must be in. I'm sure this narrows the pool down to a nice sizable amount that can be actually tested and eaten. Still, I figure this is good experience, plus now a family recipe is down on paper and can be shared with the world. THE WORLD I tell you! It's really good alongside grilled steak or chicken. My husband loves it and he's not the biggest squash fan. It's also good on top of pasta. I personally eat it cold leftover out of the fridge all the time.

Italian Skillet Squash, from my Mama

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 cups sliced yellow squash (about 2 small)
2 cups sliced zucchini (about 2 small)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with basil and garlic flavor (or other Italian flavor)
2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (optional)

Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped oion and saute until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add minced garlic and dried oregano. Saute for another minute. Add salt and pepper.

Add the squash and zucchini and continue to saute until the squash soften. Add the diced tomatoes and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Sprinkle with grated parmesan. Garnish with fresh chopped basil, if desired.

Yield: 6 cups (serving size about 3/4 cup)