The Houndstooth Gourmet

Whew! That’s a long name for a simple dish.

I promised myself that this week, I would work my way through all the produce I bought from the farmers market (am I the only one who is guilty of throwing away produce because it spoils before I get around to using it ??). J&W Valley View Farm (Westmoreland County, VA) had such gorgeous greens that I went a bit crazy buying at the Alexandria West End farmers market last Sunday! With a bunch of spinach, I made a salad topped with grilled chicken and spring onions, Gorgonzola cheese, strawberries and pecans. I grilled up 4 chicken breasts and saved two of them for the dish I made last night.

I used the remaining Gorgonzola and chicken breasts, sauteed J&W rainbow chard and made a simple white wine sauce which I tossed with fettuccine. Oh, and to gild the lily, I sprinkled some Pecorino cheese on top!

It was all soooo Robin Miller.

Still in my refrigerator is parsley, cilantro and bok choy. Any ideas HG readers??

Thanks!

Fettucine With Rainbow Chard And Grilled Chicken In A Gorgonzola And White Wine Sauce

 

Ingredients

• 1 box fettuccine, cooked according to package directions
• 2 chicken breasts, grilled and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (reserve a few crumbles to top dishes)
• 1 bunch Swiss chard
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Place a pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Add onions and garlic. Sautee for 3-4 minutes. Add chard and saute for 5 minutes, or until it wilts. Remove pan contents to a bowl.

Increase heat to high and add wine. Allow wine to reduce by half. Add chicken stock. With the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and flour, make a beurre manie*. Stir beurre manie into the liquid and bring to a boil. Add gorgonzola, chicken and vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a large bowl, toss fettucine and chicken with Gorgonzola sauce. Sprinkle with reserved Gorgonzola crumbles and grated Parmesan or Pecorino prior to serving.

This recipe has been submitted to Presto Pasta Night. PPN is a fun weekly blog event sponsored by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.

*A beurre manie is a dough, or paste made my mixing equal parts soft butter and flour. It can be used to thicken soups and sauces.

Tags: presto pasta night, cheese, pasta, chicken by Ramona
7 Comments »

Don’t you just love asparagus season? I confess that I buy asparagus year round-I love it. But the purple-tipped local asparagus at the farmers markets is really special, and I wanted to make a recipe to showcase them.

For DC Foodies, I created a Mother’s Day brunch menu, incuding this frittata, a warm spinach salad and rosemary potatoes. It was easy and so delicious. Frank gave the frittata two thumbs up when I made this meal for dinner recently.

 Go check it out here!

Tags: asparagus, ham, brunch, spinach, breakfast, DC Foodies entry, potatoes, salad, cheese, eggs by Ramona
1 Comment »

I was so happy with the tart I made earlier this week for DC Foodies, that I decided to make another one. This time, I capitalized on a photography expidition to Cheesetique (Del Ray), and bought a couple of their products while I was there. I explained to a very helpful woman behind the counter that I wanted to make a tart with a cheese that could withstand baking in the oven with the crust. She suggested Bucheron. Bucheron is an aged goat’s milk cheese from the Loire Valley of France. A thin moldy rind encases a log of cheese, which is harder on the outside, and flakier towards the middle. The flavor is both tangy and mellow.

I combined the cheeese with Jamon serrano ham. Meaning mountain ham, serrano is a dry-cured Spanish ham. Similar to Italian Proscuitto, it is generally served raw in slices. I happen to enjoy the taste and texture of the former more than that latter. To me, serrano ham seems less fatty and the flavor is more concentrated.

Finally, I added dates to the tart to add a sweet note to balance the tangy cheese and salty ham.

I said it before and I’ll say it again…..if I can do this, so can you! The tart pastry (Pâte Brisée) comes together quickly, and after a brief (or longer) period of refrigeration (up to overnight, or frozen for a month), you can use my idea for topping, or do your own. Just about anything you can imagine can go on top!

How fun is that?

Enjoy!

Bucheron, Serrano Ham and Date Tart

Serves 6

Ingredients

Pâte Brisée

• 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, cut into small cubes
• 2 1/2-3 Tablespoons ice-cold water

Topping

• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6-8 Bucheron cheese
• 1/4 lb. Jamon serrano ham sliced paper thin
• 10-12 pitted dates, sliced in half
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling over after baking

Directions

Cut the butter into cubes and place in freezer for 10 minutes.

In a food processor, place the flour and salt. Pulse 5 times. Add butter in thirds and pulse until it crumbs into pea size balls. With the processor running, slowly pour water through the top. The dough should come together and not crumble.

Take dough out of processor and form it into a flat disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight. The dough can be frozen for up to one month; defrost in refrigerator overnight.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Lightly butter a 9 inch springform pan.

Lightly flour a board and rolling pin. Place dough disk onto board and roll out to about a 10 inch diameter. Roll from center-out and make 1/4 turns to form a circle. Don’t worry if the dough edges crack or become uneven. You can easily patch the dough once it is in the pan.

Place rolling pin at one end of the dough and roll the dough around the pin. Transfer dough to pan and pat down evenly. Tamp down the edges to make a bit of a crust at the edges. Patch holes in dough as needed.

Crack black pepper over dough to taste. Place crumbled/thinly sliced Bucheron cheese, dates and ham over tart pastry. Drizzle 1-2tablespoon of olive oil over the tart.

Place tart in oven and turn heat down to 425 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow tart to cool for 5 minutes, and release the pan. Transfer/ slide tart gently onto a cutting board and drizzle more olive oil if you like.

Tags: cheese by Ramona
6 Comments »

Check out my Feta and Tomato Tart over at DC Foodies. Basil and Tomato, and Italian Herb feta from Keswick Creamery combined with oven dried and carmelized tomatoes made this savory tart a keeper!

Tags: DC Foodies entry, cheese, tomatoes by Ramona
2 Comments »

I’ve been making lasagna for many years and have come to put my own “signature” on my version. It’s not particularly traditional-but as Rachel Ray would say, “there’s things in there that will make your guests go hmmmmm”. And Yum-O! And hopefully, “can I have the recipe?”

The twists that I put on my lasanga are: using bell peppers to compliment the ground meat, adding nutmeg as a background taste to the meat and cheese, adding lemon zest to offset and balance the creaminess of the cheese, and adding the tang of cream cheese because I saw Paula Deen do this once, and dang! it’s good!

As always, making a lasagna will feed a crowd and while it’s time consuming to put together, the work is all up front. Once assembled, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to a day before making it-leaving plenty of time to clean the kitchen!

This lasagna is a please your family- feed a crowd-hook your boyfriend good. Just ask my husband, Frank

Most of all, lasagna just says love.

 Lasagna a la Mona

Ingredients

• Lasagan noodles, cooked according to package direction and enough to make 3 layers of pasta
• 2.5 lbs. meatloaf mix, or ground beef
• 1 Tablespoon Italian herbs
• 2 lb. container of ricotta
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella, plus 1/4 cup for topping
• 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese, pluse 1/4 cup for topping and more for passing at the table. About 2 cups total
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ounce cream cheese or neufastchel cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 24 oz. jar marinara

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion and bell peppers. Saute for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking for an additional 3 minutes. Remove to a large bowl. Increase heat to high and add ground meat. Season meat with salt, pepper, nutmeg and Italian herbs.Using a spatula, chop meat and cook thoroughly. At this point, you may want to drain meat in a collander to remove excess fat and liquid. Combine meat with the cooked vegetables.

In another large bowl, combine ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, cream cheese, lemon zest and egg.

To assemble:

In a large lasagna pan, place about 1/4 cup of marinara sauce and spread evenly to cover bottom of pan. Place one layer of lasanga noodles. Spread more marinara over noodles to cover evenly. Top evenly with one half of the cheese, then one half of the meat and vegetable mixture.

Place another layer of lasagna noodles on top and press down to even the bottom layer and spread the filling evenly. Repeat with marinara, cheese and meat mixture.

Place the top layer of lasanga noodles over the second layer of filling and press down to evenly distribute filling evenly. Pour marinara over top layer to cover evenly. Reserve the rest of the marinara to serve warm at the table.

Cover lasagna with foil and place on middle rack of oven. Cook for one hour. Remove foil and sprinkle reserved mozzarella and parmesan evenly over top.

Turn on broiler. Place lasanga under broiler to melt cheese and lightly brown the top.

Allow the lasagna to rest for 15 minutes before cutting. This is very important-it will allow the lasagna to “set up” and keep your slices together when plated.

Serve with more parmesan and the remaining warmed marinara at the table.

Mangia!

Lasagna a la Mona is being submitted to Presto Pasta Night-a fun weekly blog event sponsored by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.

Tags: presto pasta night, cheese, pasta by Ramona
8 Comments »