The Houndstooth Gourmet

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
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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
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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
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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 »

 As I reported in the most recent At The Market, I bought a large bunch of really fresh and fragrant dill last Sunday from Gardener’s Gourmet. The first dish in which I incorporated the dill is gnocchi. Gnocchi (roughly pronounced NYOK-kee) are Italian dumplings and are named for gnocco, which is slang for “lump”.

Gnocchi are made from potatoes and other ingredients. They can be used as pasta and be accompanied by a variety of things, from a light tomato sauce, to braised meats, to butter and cheese.

Gnocchi recipes reach back to as far as the 12th century are are most common to Northern Italy. Typically, gnocchi are made by boiling potatoes, followed by ricing them, adding flour, egg and salt. Kneading this dough together is quick and portions of the dough are then rolled into batons and cut into 1 inch long pieces. The gnocchi pieces are then rolled on a fork, or gnocchi roller to give them their signature ridges which are great for holding sauce. Once formed, the gnocchi are quickly cooked in boiling water and are done when they float to the top.

After cooking, gnocchi can be added to a dish, or fried in butter to name just a couple ways to use them.

Here’s a recipe for gnocchi which is adapted from Mario Batali’s recipe on Food Network’s website. You will notice that I chose to use Yukon Gold potatoes as a change from more traditional Russett potatoes. The result was still light, yet creamy and the dough came together quickly without having to add more flour (which has unfortunately been a problem which has bitten me in the ass before- I call those gnocchi “sinkers”).

I served the gnocchi browned in butter and topped with Pecorino Romano cheese. The recipe makes about 90-100 gnocchi, but don’t fear, they freeze well and cook up frozen only a bit slower than when fresh.

To freeze, place the gnocchi on a lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze until solid. Store frozen gnocchi is an airtight Ziploc baggie.

Herbed Gnocchi with Dill and Pecorino

makes 90-100 gnocchi

Ingredients

• 3 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes
• 2 cups All Purpose flour
• 1 large egg
• pinch salt
• 1/4 cup finely chopped dill
• 1/4 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese (more for garnish)

Directions

Peel and quarter potatoes, keeping size uniform. Rinse potatoes in cold water. Place potatoes in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and allow potatoes to simmer, partially covered, until a fork is easily inserted (about 20  minutes).

Drain the potatoes in a collander and allow to cool for several minutes. Using a food mill or ricer, run potatoes through onto a lightly floured surface. Bring milled potatoes together and make a well in the center. Sprinkle all of the flour, dill and Pecorino cheese over the potatoes. Place egg and salt in the center of the well, and using a fork, stir into flour and potato. Once the egg is mixed in, bring the dough together by kneading it gently until a ball is formed. Knead for 3-4 minutes until the ball is dry to the touch.

Lightly four surface and your hands. Cut a 1 inch thick slice of the dough ball off. Gently roll into a baton or rope, until 1 inch thick throughout. Cut the rope into 1 inch pieces. Using your thumb, roll each piece (uncut side) on the tines of a fork, or gnocchi roller. Here’s a great pictorial from Food Network to guide you through this technique.

To cook gnocchi, place in boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes, until they float. Transfer to sauce, or as I did, fry them up in a bit of butter, until browned, in a non-stick skillet. Sprinkle with extra Pecorino Romano.

Enjoy!

*Weekend Herb Blogging is a weekly event started by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. This week, WHB is hosted by Thyme For Cooking.

Tags: herbs, cheese, Recipe, potatoes, pasta by Ramona
11 Comments »