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
6 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 »

I have been wanting to try lamb meatballs for a while now. I enjoy lamb in most every way, except braised lamb shank for some odd reason. I don’t know, maybe it just doesn’t braise well. The most tasty lamb I’ve ever eaten was expertly prepared by Chef Cathal Armstrong at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, VA. It was about 3 years ago and my first (very excited) visit to the Tasting Room. I ordered the 5 course tasting menu (which was really 9 courses when counting the amuse bouche and goodies from the kitchen) and ordered lamb 4 ways as my main protien. Among the 4 preparations was lamb kidney and I’m not an organ meat eater generally, but I knew the chef is crazy talented and works with all parts of an animal lovingly. It was amazing. The lamb kidney had an intense lamb flavor, even deeper than the braised meat beside it. The texture was almost meat-like and really, I wouldn’t have known it was kidney if I wasn’t told.

Here, lamb provides a distinctly different flavor to the meatball. Moroccan spices compliment the savory lamb and the tomato-yogurt sauce has a nice tang from the acidity of the yogurt. These meatballs would make a wonderful appetizer if made bite sized and served with pita bread and the sauce for dipping. Here, I’ve simply made it with plain old spaghetti. The leftovers were gone within a day!

Ingredients for the lamb meatballs:

1-1 1/2 lb. ground lamb

3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

1/2 cup half and half or milk

1 egg

1 small onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. cumin

1 T. corriander

1/2 t. cinnamon

1 t. dried oregano

1 t. dried thyme

3/4 t. paprika

3/4 t. ground mustard

1/2 t. chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the tomato-yogurt sauce:

1 small onion, diced

1 T. olive oil

3 cups tomato sauce or puree

1/2 small can tomato paste

1 8 oz. container yogurt (I used non fat)

1 T. cumin

1 T. corriander

1 t. curry powder

1/4 t. cinnamon

Directions:

For the meatballs.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

In bowl, place bread crumbs and pour over half and half. Stir to incorporate. Add ground lamb, onions, garlic, spices, egg, salt and pepper. Combine but do not overwork the meat. Fry a small patty of lamb to check for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Roll lamb into golf size meatballs and place on a baking sheet or top of a broiler pan (to allow grease to drip away. Space 1 inch apart. Bake in oven for 22 minutes until brown. Add meatball to sauce and continue to simmer in a covered pot for 20 minutes.

For the sauce.

In a heavy bottom saucepan or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add 1 T. each, cumin and corriander. Add 1 t. curry powder and 1/4 t. cinnamon. Add yogurt and salt to taste. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

*Presto Pasta Night is a weekly blogging event sponsored by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. This is my second entry!

Tags: presto pasta night, Recipe, pasta, lamb by Ramona
1 Comment »

I’ve been making meatballs for like I don’t know…ever. When I was dating my husband Frank, he made for me and a few friends his grandmother’s meatballs. Come to think of it, I do believe that was the last time he cooked for me! Well, I was impressed and after we were married, we combined our cookbooks and loose recipes together. Handwritten on an index card was the meatball recipe, passed down from his grandmother to his mother and then to me.
Frank’s Italian grandmother took her cooking seriously. Her recipes were taught my my mother in law personally so her son would not miss her cooking. While not in person, I learned from her meatball recipe what makes the meatball turn out tender and savory. First, use fresh bread crumbs and milk/cream. No dried pre-made bread crumbs from a container. Next, use garlic salt. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about garlic salt whose flavor surpasses powdered garlic and salt. Perhaps it’s the blend whereby the ratio of garlic to salt is just perfect. All I know is that it works.
Here’s my recipe, inspired by grandmom, and made my own. They are tender, moist and delicious. Makes about 28 meatballs.
Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs ground beef, 80/20 lean to fat ratio
1 tbsp. each:
dried basil
dried onion flakes
dried marjoram
dried oregano
dried shallot flakes (optional)

pinch cinnamon
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs (I used white bread with crusts, about 4-5 slices)
1/2 cups each:
half and half
milk
water

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs gently beaten
3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place ground beef in large mixing bowl. Add herbs, cinnamon, bread crumbs, Parmesan, eggs, parsley, half and half, milk and water. Gently combine. Do not overwork meat. Add salt and pepper. Mix throughout meat.

Into a heated pan, cook a small patty of the meatball mixture to test for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Gently hand roll golf ball sized meatballs and place onto an aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Treat surface with non-stick spray. Place meatballs at least one inch apart.

Place baking sheet( I used 2 half sheet pans)on racks set in the middle of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotates sheets upper rack to bottom rack and vice versa. Bake and additional 15 minutes. The meatballs should be golden brown.

Transfer meatballs into gently simmering marinara on stove top. Cover and continue to simmer on low for 30 minutes to an hour.

While meatballs are simmering, cook pasta according to directions. Drain pasta and portion into bowls. Top with meatballs, marinara, grated Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Mangia!

Tags: presto pasta night, tomatoes, Recipe, pasta, beef by Ramona
2 Comments »