Italian Beef Ragu

This beef ragu sauce was the hit of the neighbours dinner- pasta bar.  Served with rigatoni pasta and topped with roasted young carrots, it was a dish worth making again and again! 

To serve 6 - 8

Tiramisu

Tiramisu, a classic, delicious Italian dessert is easy to make and a perfect end to that fancy dinner.  Be sure to use the best quality ingredients- there are few, and they need to be great.

I like to use "build" my tiramisu in small dishes or containers- even canning jars.  They can be frozen individually and they prevent me from eating way too much at a time- you know, "just trimming the edges." 

To make approximately six to eight servings.

Canning Marinara Sauce - a quick pasta sauce

 My 2020 garden is tomato bountiful!  Time to add variety to my tomato preservation agenda.  Today it is marinara sauce and tomorrow it will be passata.  Followed by corn relish with tomato, roasted tomatoes with eggplant.  By next weekend, I will have green tomato chow chow and probably back to roasted tomatoes... It will be a tasty winter!

I am always careful to follow today's canning rules for tomatoes- sauces need extra acid in the form of lemon juice to boost the acidity in the jar.  Everything is steam canned for 40 minutes or whatever time is listed in a tested recipe.  I know granny did it differently back in her day, but times have changed and so has the equipment, thankfully.  I have my workhorse Kitchenaid vegetable strainer attachment and a steam canner to make things easier and faster.

This marinara recipe is based on the one in Food in Jars by Marissa McLellan.  I trust her recipes as she is always mindful of safe canning guidelines.

MAKES 4 500ml jars

Garlic Scape Pistachio Pesto

I was blessed with a bag full of garlic scapes this week.  What to do with these delicious beauties?  Well, I combined them with fresh garden basil and parsley to make this pesto and pickled the rest.  For pesto, feel free to substitute the pistachios with pine nuts, walnuts, almonds or whatever you have in your pantry.

This pesto is great with pasta, or add a dollop to smashed potatoes or roasted fresh garden tomatoes- a marriage made in heaven! Oh yeah- makes a great salad dressing....

Garlic scapes blended with pistachio nuts, basil, and parsley. This seasonal pesto freezes well.


This recipe makes about 2 cups and easily doubles.

Korean Bulgogi Bolognese - a marriage of Korean and Italian.

I am always on the lookout for great cooking websites.  The New York Times cooking section is one of the top ones.  What I especially love are the comments from cooks who have tried and "tweaked" the recipes.  I also tend to ignore those who have lots to say about a recipe they never tried.

The Korean Bulgogi Bolognese intrigued me.  It is a mashup of my two favourite cuisine.  This is a great dish! Oh, and I forgot to buy egg noodles so I just had to make them from scratch bringing the dish to another level- delicious!

Served with homemade spinach and red pepper egg noodles.

To serve four.

Eggplant Parmesan- baked not fried- sooo good!

I love eggplant!  I really love eggplant parmesan... breaded eggplant slices, baked in the oven and cooked in a homemade marinara sauce, layered with assorted cheeses.  So good!

I make extra breaded slices of eggplant, freeze them, ready for a quick dinner.  Just add sauce and I am ready to go.

Eggplant parmesan, ready for the freezer, or ready for the oven .

This recipes serves 6-8.

Pasta alla Norma- Eggplant heaven!

I don't know who Norma was but she sure inspired a great pasta sauce.  My great friend Gaby introduced me to pasta alla Norma in Kelowna a few years ago.  I missed this dish... If you love eggplant, try this out.

Pasta alla Norma served with tomato basil bruschetta.

Serves two generously.  Can be doubled.

Rigatoni and Cauliflower at Forno

Oven roasted cauliflower, boldly seasoned with garlic, sage and a few red pepper flakes, combined with rigatoni and cheese, topped with bread crumbs- a made in heaven dish!

This recipe is adapted from a New York Times article on cauliflower... an "ode" to a deserving
vegetable.

To serve 4-6.

My Favourite Meatballs

I used to make these meatballs with my teenage daughter, back in the day!  She now makes her own for her "boys".  These are my go to meatballs for all occasions and for a fast and easy dinner.  Make extra and keep on hand in the freezer.

Simmered in marinara sauce.

Breaded and baked in the oven.  

Makes approximately 15 meatballs.

Caponata

This is one recipe you want to make in a big batch.  Bonus, it gets better as it ages.  So when you need a burst of Sicilian summer goodness, just add a little caponata to crostini, chicken or your favourite sandwich.

Makes enough to serve four to six.

Ingredients
1 large     eggplant, cut into one-inch chunks
Olive oil
Kosher salt
2             onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
pinch of crushed red pepper
3 ribs       celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 bulb      fennel, cut into 1/2-inch dice
6 cloves   garlic, thinly sliced
1             red pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1             yellow pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2             zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 tbsp     sugar
1/3 cup   red wine vinegar
1/2 cup   tomato paste
1/4 cup   pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup   golden raisins
1/2 cup   large green Sicilian olives, pitted and slivered
2 tbsp     capers

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the eggplant in a large bowl and toss generously with olive oil and salt.  Spread the eggplant in an even layer on a baking sheet, transfer to the oven and roast until soft and brown, 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and reserve.

Generously coat a large, wide, deep pot with olive oil.  Toss in the onions and season with salt and crushed red pepper.  Bring the pan to medium-high heat and cook until the onions are soft and very aromatic, five to six minutes.  Add the celery and fennel, season with salt and cook until soft, seven to eight minutes.  Toss in the garlic and cook for another two to three minutes.

Toss in the red and yellow bell peppers and cook for five to six minutes.  Add the zucchini, stir to combine and cook until the zucchini softens, seven to eight more minutes.  If the pot seems dry and is starting to burn, reduce the heat and add a few drops of olive oil and about 1/2 cup water.  Toss in the roasted eggplant.

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and add to the pan.  Stir in the tomato paste.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.  The sugar and vinegar will make things tangy.

Toss in the pine nuts, raisins, olives, and capers and cook for another ten to twelve minutes.  Add a little more water if the mixture seems dry, then taste to make sure everything is delicious.  Let cook and serve at room temperature.

Italian Wedding Soup- a happy marriage of great ingredients

This soup is a happy marriage of great ingredients: meatballs, noodles, green and eggs.  You get to choose which of these ingredients to invite!

If I am freezing my soup, I use noodles; if I am serving right away, I use eggs- poured in to form beautiful ribbons in the soup...

Well worth the effort, it is a crowd pleaser.

This recipe will serve four to six.

A trio of pestos... stock up the freezer... these are delicious

Frozen pesto is a boon in the winter kitchen.  Great with pasta, in soups, in sauces, it doesn't get much better than this.  So, when I found myself with too many peppers, a lot of basil and extra sun dried tomatoes (that's a problem everyone should have!), it was time to make pesto.  A traditionalist would use a mortar to make the basil pesto, but I much prefer the food processor.  I freeze it in ice cube trays, ready for use anytime...

(clockwise from the top: traditional basil, pesto rosso- dried tomato, red pepper pesto)

Pesto no. 1 is the traditional basil pesto made with fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic (fresh and local), olive oil.  I add the parmesan cheese after thawing.

Pesto no. 2 is pesto rosso- dried tomatoes in olive oil, olives. fresh garlic, rosemary, toasted almonds. olive oil- delicious.

Pesto no. 3 is red pepper pesto- fresh garden ripe sweet red peppers, toasted almonds, a little onion, garlic, olive oil.  Parmesan cheeses added when thawed.  Fresh tasting and delicious.

Each recipe made about 12 cubes with a little left over for immediate tasting.

Calabrese Explosion- it's hot, it's spicy and it's truly amazing!

Preserving the Italian Way is an interesting book- full of great ideas for preserving some of my favourite ingredients: eggplant, tomatoes, squash, hot peppers...  For years, I have been meaning to try out this recipe and finally I have.  Well, I started with their recipe but have made it my own and can't wait to try it!  on bruschetta, on cheese, added to a sauce for heat...

This is a multi-step recipe, spread over a few days.

My jars of spicy deliciousness!

This recipe made six 500ml jars.

Torta di Zucca eh!

In Italy, that's pumpkin cake with pine nuts and apricots; in Canada, I make it with a twist: maple syrup, walnuts and dried cranberries.  In either country, it's moist, fragrant and easy to bake. Delicious!

My recipe is a twist on the one provided by Eliza Green in her great cookbook "Starting with Ingredient Baking".  I made this cake for an office bake sale and fundraiser.

Using a nine-inch ring pan, this cake will serve 10 to 12.

Pistachio Pesto- version 2- and just as Heavenly!

I love pistachios and I love pesto- a marriage made in heaven!  This version is simpler than the first- there's no garlic, no parmesan, no herbs- just pistachios...  See which one you prefer.

To make 2 1/2 cups.

Sicilian Caponata- the quicker version

There is definitely no definitive version of caponata in Sicily.  This is version number two, for when you want it to be relatively quicker (it will still need about 45 minutes to cook) and with fewer ingredients than the first version.  This recipe is based on one provided by David Rocco in his Made in Italy cookbook.  Version number three, coming this summer, is the one I've been canning for over a decade.  Still a favourite!

Serve this at room temperature on a piece of baguette, or warmed up, in a small bowl "on the side" or even as a topping for an omelet...

Be prepared- your kitchen will smell heavenly!

Consider the quantities flexible.  If you don't have red pepper, just add more celery.  Have a lot of zucchini, throw it in!

To make enough to serve six!

Bruschetta with Roasted Peppers

Looking for a great appie?  Easy and quick?  You can even make a big batch and freeze some for later...  This is a crowd pleaser!

Will make four people very happy....

Pasta Puttanesca- It's Quick and it's Fabulous!

Need to entertain in a hurry?  Pasta puttanesca is my "go to" for a healthy, quick and easy dish that will truly impress your guests.  When I think puttanesca, I can taste the brininess of the Kalamata olives, the saltiness of the capers, the background heat from the red pepper flakes- it's a great dish.

If you want to keep it strictly vegetarian, just omit the anchovies.  The sauce also freezes well so portion pack and you'll always be ready to go...

Makes enough sauce to serve eight. 

That's Italian! Passata

What to do with the bounty of local tomatoes available by mid-August?  If you're Italian, you get the family together and can your tomatoes for the coming year.  My sister and I aren't Italian, but, with a little help from our Italian friends, we got the low down on the Italian "way".  Three hundred pounds of tomatoes will provide us with enough incredibly fresh, tasty, healthy passata- a light tomato sauce- for the next six months. The thing is, this sauce has a minimal amount of salt and a maximum amount of tomato flavour.

64 500-ml jars of tomato goodness- passata

300 lbs of roma tomatoes
 (each box holds 25 lbs)

Elyse (my sister) underestimated the yield per 25 lbs box, so we ended up canning twice the amount of jars we had planned for.  She will enjoy 64 litres of tomatoes (from 200 lbs of roma tomatoes) and I will have half that amount. 

Here is what you can expect: 25 lbs of roma tomatoes will provide you with 8 litres of passata.  That's 8 x 1 litre jars or 16 x 500 ml jars... And, timewise, expect to spend about one hour for every 25 lbs of tomatoes.  All well worth it! 

We tried out two new tools this weekend: a large tomato hand press and the food puree attachment for the KitchenAid.  Both worked admirably and I would highly recommend them.  The KitchenAid attachment was great to press the juices from the tomatoes.  The hand press' bigger hopper allows more tomatoes to be processed at once.  We each used one of the "tools" then passed all of the seeds and skins through the KitchenAid a second time to catch all of the pulp for our sauce.

To make a twenty-five lbs batch of tomatoes- 8 one-litre jars.

Delicioso- Pistachio Pesto and Pasta

One of my favourite Kelowna Italian restaurants, Casa Sasso, introduced me to this pasta dish.  I was hooked- it is delicious.  Gaby, the owner/chef at Casa Sasso, is keeping her recipe top secret.  And, I don't blame her- it is wonderful.

My version is based on a recipe from a great little pasta cookbook entitled "100 Ways to be Pasta" and  "tweaked".  The pistachio pesto provides an unexpected great flavour for the pasta, not the usual tomato or cream sauce we are accustomed to.  This pasta dish is quick and easy to make with a little help from the food processor.

To serve 4

Ingredients
5     garlic cloves
1     cup whole basil leaves
1     cup Italian parsley
2     cups shelled, toasted (in a dry pan) pistachios, divided - 1 cup for the pesto and 1 cup for garnish
1/4  cup pinenuts
1     cup extra virgin olive oil
1     tsp salt, plus more for the pasta water
3     tbsp unsalted butter
3/4  lb dry pasta- tagliatelle, linguine, penne or farfelle
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Put the garlic, basil, pistachios, pine nuts, 1/4 cup of olive oil, salt into the bowl of the food processor, fitted with a metal blade, and blend.  Gradually pour the rest of the oil through the feed tube until all the ingredients are integrated into a paste with a slightly coarse texture.  The pesto should be fluid, not hard or dry.  Keep adding olive oil until you have a runny paste.

Place the pesto in a large serving bowl, reserving a large spoonful.  Place the butter on top of the pesto.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Stir in a fistful of salt, a splash of olive oil and the pasta.  Cook, stirring often to prevent the pasta from sticking, until the pasta is al dente.  Lift the pasta from the pot and into the bowl with the pesto and butter.  Add a splash of pasta water and toss the pasta until the butter is melted and the pasta is coated.  Add the rest of the pistachios (1 cup) and toss again.  Dust with Parmesan cheese and serve very hot, with more Parmesan at the table.

WANNA PLAY?
Add cooked shrimp to your dish.  Or lightly brown cubed chicken until cooked through and add to the pasta, then toss.

You can also play with the proportion of basil and parsley- if you want more or less basil flavour.

Double or triple the pesto recipe, freeze in ice cube trays and you have an almost instant dinner!  Just try to thaw the pesto in the refrigerator at least a few hours before using.

Enjoy!