Roasted Tomato and Almond Pesto

The lentil soup recipe I was using Friday night did not necessarily need anything else. It comes from Diamond Jim Moran, friend of Huey P. Long's and the party deemed responsible for bringing slot machines to New Orleans. Supposedly when he passed, the boxer Rocky Marciano lamented both the loss of the man and the loss of his legendary lentil soup.

But I couldn't resist an addition to make it my own. Tomatoes quartered, drizzled in balsamic, and roasted. Toasted almonds. Fresh basil chiffonade. All processed together and then swirled among the noodles and legumes of Diamond Jim's soup. It certainly didn't hurt.

You can find the lentil soup recipe here. I must champion its assets as a cold-weather lunch. It will warm you to the core.

And now for its full-flavored companion:

Roasted Tomato and Almond Pesto (adapted from Eating Well)
Makes 1 1/2 cups

4 vine-ripe tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil & 1/4 cup olive oil, separated
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup almonds, toasted
1/2 cup basil leaves, cut chiffonade style
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400. Place tomatoes on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Toss in balsamic and two tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for one hour, tossing halfway through.
2. In food processor, combine roasted tomatoes, almonds, basil, red wine vinegar, and cheese. Add remaining olive oil in a steady stream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pesto and Mozzarella Focaccia

How can you have tomato soup without a cheesy bread to sop it up?

This week in the Country Roads Test Kitchen, I revived the roasted tomato soup recipe from Il Posto Cafe in uptown New Orleans. Find the recipe here.

The soup, with its tremendous depth of flavor, needed an ideal dipping companion. I chose focaccia because it's easy and quick to make, and I love the freedom to spread my desired toppings over the dough before baking--like fancy pizza!

I adapted the pesto focaccia recipe from Whisks and Whimsy (which I hope has a meandering sister blog out there known as "Whisky and Whims.") Shamefully, I did not make my own pesto, because my food processor is broken right now. But my abashed, hanging head was rewarded with the lovely scent of roasting tomatoes. So instead of "Sorry I'm not sorry," I guess it's "I'm not sorry I'm sorry!" If that makes sense...

Back to the recipe! Once my dough was properly combined in my stand mixer (with the dough hook attachment), I left it to proof in the oven while I ran to the store for everything else. Perfect timing. All I had to do when I came back was roll out the dough, top it with pesto, onions, and fresh mozzarella, and throw it (or ya know, carefully set it down while wearing oven mitts and squinting at the heat waves) in the oven for 25 minutes.

While the bread cooled slightly, I finished my tomato soup. Then sliced the bread. Then dipped. Then sighed. Happy eating!

Pesto and Mozzarella Focaccia
Makes one large pan.

2 teaspoons rapid-rise dry yeast
1 cup water, warmed to about 115 degrees
2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
1/4 cup prepared pesto
4 oz. fresh mozzarella (pearls or torn into 1/2-inch pieces)
1/2 yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced

1. In the bowl of your standing mixer, combine the yeast, water and sugar. Stir to dissolve, and let sit for 3 minutes, until foamy. With the mixer fitted with a dough hook, turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add 3 1/2 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Add the dissolved salt (doesn’t have to be completely dissolved) and slowly pour in the olive oil. When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium and mix for about 8-10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Add the remaining flour a tablespoon at a time if the dough is too sticky.

2. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter and knead a few times before forming the dough into a round ball. Place the dough ball into a large oiled bowl, turning it so that it is coated with olive oil. Leave the dough ball in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, until the dough has doubled in size.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and coat a sheet pan with olive oil. Turn out the dough on your work surface. Roll and stretch the dough roughly into a rectangular shape (doesn’t have t be perfect); the dough should be about a 1/2 inch thick. Transfer the dough to the oiled sheet pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 15 minutes.

4. Uncover the dough and use your fingertips to make dimples in the dough. Brush the dough with extra-virgin olive oil and then brush the dough lightly with the prepared pesto and top with fresh mozzarella and onion slices. Bake the bread in the lower third of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden.

Fish in Crazy Water (Pesce all'Acqua Pazza)

Those Italians. Beautifully vivid with their recipe names. You can almost picture a cartoon mustachioed chef with steam rocketing out of his ears, elevating his quaking leather boots from the ground as he tests out this so-called crazy water.

Truth be told, it is a little zany.

A few lessons learned from this recipe:

1. A little crushed red pepper goes a loooong way. I guess that's effect produced by the long-simmer. The flavors meld and spotlight the spice.
2. My new kitchen smokes up right quickly. Thankfully there's a powerful vent, but the noise and air did detract somewhat from my inhaling of the aromatics.
3. Speaking of aromatics! The Italian term for a bundle of lovely smells sauteed in olive oil (here I used oregano and parsley) is soffritto. I imagine it's somewhat related to the French mirepoix, which refers to the usual suspects (onions, carrots, celery, what have you) used in making a stock.
4. Must work quickly with a gas stove and thinly sliced garlic. When initially sauteeing the garlic, I had to shake the pan a lot to keep the garlic from sticking. Using a wooden spoon would have caused it to clump.
5. The combination of grilled corn and pesto is more of a winner than the Dillon Panthers.

I used pollock for the fish here, mainly because I was looking for something not-too-pricey that didn't bring a strong flavor (here's looking at you, salmon) along with it. Pollock did a great job at absorbing the flavor of the tomato and spices while still bringing along its own pleasant fishiness.

To complement the hydrating psychosis, I chose a couple of other summer standards with a bit of Italian flair. I cannot get enough of tomatoes and corn right now. Grilling them? Even better. The additions of a balsamic-based marinade (for the tomatoes) and a heaping dose of pesto ladled over the ear of corn and I was practically mopping my plate to ensure nothing fell by the wayside.

Fish in Crazy Water (Pesce all'Acqua Pazza) [adapted from Cooks Illustrated]
Serves 2 - 3.

4 fillets pollock (the kind I purchased were very narrow)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 small red onion, halved and sliced thinly
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 stems parsley and 2 sprigs fresh oregano, tied together with kitchen twine (soffritto)
1 cup chicken stock (or dry white wine, which I would have preferred to use but forgot to purchase)
2 cups water
Juice from one lemon

2 ears corn
1/4 cup pesto

2 large Creole tomatoes, cored and halved
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
Salt
Pepper

1. In a 9x13 baking dish, whisk together balsamic, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper. Placed tomatoes face down in dish and let marinate at room-temperature for 15 - 20 minutes.
2. In a 12-inch skillet, heat up olive oil over medium-high. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Shake the pan to keep garlic from sticking. Cook until pale golden.
3. Add in red onion slices, stirring constantly, until onion is translucent and beginning to brown.
4. Pour in chicken stock, water, cherry tomatoes, and the soffritto. Lower heat to medium and let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile heat grill pan to medium-high, drizzling it with a bit more olive oil. Add tomatoes (hollow-side down) and ears of corn. Grill tomatoes for two minutes before flipping. Remove after another five to six minutes, as tomato starts to caramelize. Grill corn, turning frequently and brushing with oil, until browned on all sides.
5. Carefully slide fish fillets into broth mixture. Reduce heat to low, cover pan, and let cook for another 10 minutes.
6. Serve by halving fish fillets, placing them in a bowl, then ladling the broth (along with onions and tomatoes) over the fish. Squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle parsley over each bowl.
7. Ladle pesto over corn.
8. Enjoy!

Italian Stuffed Burgers

I've been talking lately with my coworker about the possibility of opening a food truck specializing in stuffed burgers. The problem for me when I talk about ideas like this is that it's difficult to limit myself. I want to cook everything. But I must adjust myself to practical concerns like inventory and time.

Here, though, is an item I think we could market quite well. With spaghetti and meatballs in mind, I created a burger stuffed with fresh mozzarella and slow-roasted roma tomatoes and served on toasted garlic buns. I did hope--for poetic reasons--that noodles would work as a topping. I have been told vehemently that they would not.

The slow-roasted tomatoes sat in for the desired marinara element, bringing that juicy tomato flavor without oozing out of the patty.

I fried the pancetta, pressing down on it to render grease, and then cooked the burgers in this flavorful oil.

To go alongside the burgers, I chopped up some red potatoes and sprinkled them with herbs and olive oil, then roasted them for close to an hour.

The hamburger buns were simply sprinkled with garlic powder and then popped in the toaster.

Then we assembled the burgers and ate--before we "snacked" on too much of the mozzarella and tomatoes.

The Italians certainly know how to meld their flavors.

Italian Stuffed Burgers
Serves 4. 

2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons garlic powder
4 oz. fresh mozzarella, chopped
6 small rounds of pancetta
4 hamburger buns, halved, dusted with garlic powder, and toasted

4 roma tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil

6 small red potatoes, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons rosemary
1 tablespoon olive oil

Parsley (for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 200. Place quartered tomatoes on a baking sheet and sprinkle with herbs, balsamic, and olive oil. Roast for 2  hours.
2. When the tomatoes are almost done, mix together ground beef, minced shallots, oregano, and garlic powder.
3. Remove tomatoes from oven. Increase oven temperature to 400. Spread potatoes out on another baking sheet and coat with rosemary and olive oil. Roast in oven for 45 minutes.
4. Form thin burger patties, then top half the patties with mozzarella and a roasted tomato. Place an unadorned patty on top, then crimp the edges together to fully seal.
5. Fry pancetta in a medium skillet, pressing down to render grease. Once cooked, set pancetta aside and cook burger patties in the rendered oil.
6. Assemble burgers on toasted garlic buns, then top with pancetta--and another roasted roma if desired! Serve roasted potatoes on the side.

Chicken alla arrabbiata (aka ANGRY BIRD)

Mmmm, another dish selected by Andy, so of course it's the best. He's got an eye for the delicious (lasagna timpano, for instance.) Tonight we sought out to make penne alla arrabbiata, but with a little meat added in order to make it an entree (for carnivores.)

To begin with, I heated up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in my cast-iron skillet, then added the chicken, cooking it for 6-7 minutes on each side until it was well-browned.

Meanwhile I cooked my pasta according to the directions. I used strozzapreti, which is a kind of wheat semolina pasta. It looks a bit like a long macaroni. After the pasta was done cooking, I drained it and set it aside.

Once the chicken it was browned, I reserved it on a plate. To the same skillet I added the chopped onion and cooked it till it was translucent. It began to brown quite quickly because of the residual oil from the chicken, so I was careful to lower the heat a bit below medium to keep the onion from burning.

I then added the minced garlic and a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper to the skillet. I cooked the garlic for a minute or two before pouring in white wine and raising the heat up to moderately high. I waited a couple of minutes to let the wine reduce, after which I returned the chicken to the skillet, along with the peeled tomatoes, oregano, parsley, and shredded salami.

I lowered the skillet to a simmer and covered it for 40 minutes. Then I removed the lid, raised the heat to medium-high, and let it cook for an additional ten minutes while the sauce thickened.

Then I poured the sauce into the pot with the pasta and stirred it all together. I topped each serving with a sprinkle of pecorino romano and chopped green onions.

Too good.

Chicken alla Arrabbiata (adapted from Italian Food Forever)
Serves 4
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
16 oz pasta (something like penne or semolina or strozzapreti)

1 small onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced

2 dashes cayenne pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon oregano
4 slices Genoa salami, shredded
Salt and pepper

Lasagna Timpano

Today's delicious recipe comes from The Food in My Beard, which is something with which I wish I could identify, because it sounds scintillating. Plus if I had a beard, I'd probably have a whole food pyramid living it without me realizing.

We've been talking about doing lasagna for a while, but other recipes would crop up and push poor lasagna out of the way. No longer! Andy finally pushed the issue last night--and after seeing the recipe, I couldn't resist. So we ventured out for a ton of ingredients and a nice bottle of chianti (fava beans omitted, har har har.) 

For the sauces...I know I'm always championing do-it-yourself, but this time around I followed Andy's suggestion of just buying the marinara and pesto, for the sake of time and money and clean dishes and the depletion of all my basil stock last time I made pesto. But I stopped short of buying alfredo--it's way too easy and quick to make on your own. Next time, though, I will concoct all my marinara dadgummit!

Last night we began by grating the cheese and putting the water onto boil. This took foreeeever because of the amount of water, so make sure to arm yourself with some patience. We used two packages of lasagna noodles, which ended up being just a little more than enough. Once the water had finally reached a rapid boil, we added the noodles, submerging them as much as possible, and letting them cook down for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile I made the alfredo sauce. If you're not familiar with this process, it just involves melting butter on medium low heat, adding cream and letting it simmer for five minutes, and then stirring in parmesan and crushed garlic and stirring until the cheese has melted. Add chopped parsley and you're done! Make sure to use freshly grated parmesan, otherwise it won't melt as well and you'll have a mess of goopy parmesan strings.

At this point, Andy browned the ground beef and then stirred in the marinara for a nice chunky sauce.

Once the noodles were done, we made the base of the crust in a large, oven-safe bowl (well-coated with cooking spray.)

I snipped some of the dangling noodles and used those bits to help make the noodle dividers between layers. We began with three alfredo layers, adding salami to the first and third. I ended up making more alfredo for the end of this recipe, but I wish I'd stocked up on more from the beginning. You can never have too much alfredo. 

Next we had a layer of pesto, topped it with parmesan, provolone, and parmesan, then a bit more pesto.

We took a minute here to preheat the oven to 350. Then it was time for the marinara layers! At this point, we were running out of room. We had only been pressing the layers down occasionally, when we probably should have done it every time. But believe me, it was more than enough. To combat the space issue, we just did two layers of marinara. On the top layer, we dotted clumps of ricotta on top.

Finally we covered this top layer with strips of lasagna, folded over the ends of the base noodles, and brushed everything with alfredo sauce as a glue.

Oven-ready!

The lasagna cooked for almost an hour and fifteen minutes. I took it out a few minutes beforehand, after noticing it looked like this:

Still tasty, but on the verge of disaster!

We let it rest for twenty minutes before we approached again. Flipping this baby over was an adventure, but we secured the top with a platter, slid the bowl off the counter and inverted it back down. Thanks to my good friend cooking spray (she's asked me to call her Pam), the bowl slid off quite easily! Oven mitts were required  due to the heat of the bowl. And after all that, it really looked like something had been birthed.

Gaze upon it.

Be careful when cutting this. I advise long deliberate strokes with your knife, otherwise it's going to fall apart.

But there you have it! It's hard to nail down exact ingredients for this recipe, because a lot of this is like a canvas, and you're welcome to add whatever you'd like!

Lasagna Timpano (adapted from The Food in My Beard):

2 16 oz.-pkgs. lasagna noodles

3 c. parmesan

1 c. provolone

2 c. mozzarella

4 oz. sliced salami

1 lb. lean ground beef
3 c. marinara

2 c. pesto

1/2 c. ricotta

1/2 c. butter

2 c. heavy whipping cream

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 c. parsley, chopped

Chicken Garlic Pizza with Whole-Wheat Rosemary Crust

=

When I'm not cooking or engaging my computer screen in an hours-long conversation of slow blinks, I work at a pizza restaurant. Though I don't work in the kitchen, I come home nightly saturated in the scent of cornmeal and pizza grease--yet somehow I haven't gotten tired of pizza. (Though this is the same girl who has eaten a PBJ with a side of Cheetos and grapes every year for her birthday since she was 8...some foods just remain delicious.)

It's just such a versatile dish, with so many possible styles and toppings, that it's hard to think of a world in which I'd say "As God is my witness, I'll never eat pizza again."

Until last night, all I'd made within the realm of pizza  was flatbread topped with swiss, pancetta, and caramelized onions and a chicken alfredo pizza baked on panini bread. But I just came into possession of a pizza stone and was ready to tackle the actual dish. Not on my own, though. My co-chef (graduated from sous-chef) was able to offer some of the expertise he gained living in Italy for a total of seven years, for which I'm endlessly grateful.

Not that our pizza was full-on authentic, obviously, but we weren't trifling with no Lunchables, ya heard?

We decided to make the dough from scratch, despite my past tragic battles in this arena, because it's just more fun and rewarding, I think, then getting a pre-baked crust or a tube of dough. And how else are you going to learn if you don't just throw yourself in? (I'm going to move on quickly from this train of thought, before my blog starts sounding like a Grey's Anatomy end-of-episode pep talk.)

For the dough, we combined a cup of whole-wheat flour, active dry yeast, warm water, oil and brown sugar. Stirring this together, we then added three cups of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon and a half of salt, and the fresh rosemary, which Andy stopped me from throwing in before it was fully chopped and de-stemmed. Thank you, Andy! (To be said like the Dude addresses Donny after being informed that his phone is ringing. But for real, my co-chef is a blessing.)

I stirred this up with a wooden spoon, which was a little unwieldy, but doable. Afterward we turned the dough out onto a highly floured work surface. Do not skimp on flour! This is the main lesson I've learned. Otherwise everything falls apart and the dough tries to become your new skin instead of staying put on the counter.

I then kneaded the dough until it was well-combined and hardly sticky, just elastic. We then oiled the bottom of a medium bowl, set the dough inside, and then turned it a few times to coat. The bowl was set in a warm place with a dish towel over it to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour (I believe we let it go for about fifty minutes.)

After the dough's been rising for fifteen minutes, we put the pizza stone in the oven and preheated it to 500. The dough recipe advised that we preheat for at least an hour.

Now on to the toppings! (I'm so sorry about the length of this blog.) I seasoned the chicken breast with cumin, oregano, paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper--using the helpful advice of a commenter on Allrecipes--and cooked it in a skillet. The original recipe called for the chicken to be cooked in bowling water, but that just seemed so bland to us.

The chicken, mid-cook

After the chicken was all-the-way-cooked (Andy checked), he transferred it to a plate, let it cool for a few minutes, and then diced it up roughly.

For the base, Andy melted butter in a small skillet. Once the butter had started to melt, he added chopped green onions, dried basil, and minced garlic. We had placed a bowl in the freezer to chill it, then retrieved it, poured in the herb butter, and put it into the refrigerator to set.

The dough had doubled by now, so I turned it out onto the now-oiled work surface and pressed down on it gently with my (not naturally) oily hands. Then I cut it in half. I divided one of the halves again, formed them both into balls, and stored them each in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator, where they'll keep for up to three days (though we already used one last night to make a second smaller pizza).

I formed the remaining dough into a "ball" (picture way, way above), covered it with a towel, and let it rest for twenty minutes. This was perfect time for the butter to set, the cilantro and tomatoes to be chopped, and the Parmesan to be freshly grated.

(Here I was going to rant about how Parmesan is just not a pretty cheese, but I'm certain I am barely holding on to your patience.)

The set-dough had a really nice texture to it--a little drier but still very elastic--and it was easy to push out into a thin flat circle. Andy kept calling for it to be thinner--Italian-style--and the crust and I conformed as much as we could.

For the toppings, we spread the herb butter over the pie using the back of a spoon. Next came the diced chicken, then I dotted clumps of ricotta all over, followed by the tomatoes and then the chopped cilantro. Over all this, Andy sprinkled a few handfuls of Parmesan cheese.

With all this, we still had plenty of toppings left for the second, smaller pizza we made. All we had to do was remake the base.

The original pizza.

At this point, we realized we did not have parchment paper on which to rest the pizza atop the stone. The stone's not a necessity for your own pizza-making, of course, but the ceramic base does help distribute the heat, and I highly recommend it. Normal baking sheets will suffice, though, I'm pretty sure. (Here is where I point out that Google knows much, much more than I do.)

We awkwardly relocated the dough from the work surface onto a sheet of foil. The second time through, we made sure to do this before adding the toppings. Learn from your mistakes.

The dough recipe called for the pizza to cook for 8 minutes, but ours was in there for about eleven and the crust was perfectly crispy without burning at all.

The crust was ohhh, soooo yummmmy too. I'm usually not one for finishing the crusts on things, but I could not get enough. Flavored crusts are definitely the way to go.

So there you have it! Choose your crust flavors and toppings and bake away.


Whole Wheat Rosemary Pizza Dough (via Pinch My Salt)
1 1/2 C. warm water
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 t. brown sugar
1 C. whole wheat flour
1 package active dry yeast or 2 t. instant yeast
3 C. all-purpose flour plus extra for kneading
1 1/2 t. salt
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed and chopped

Chicken Garlic Pizza (via Allrecipes.com)

• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
• 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• cumin
• oregano
• garlic powder
• paprika
• ground black pepper