Happy Easter and happy end to Passover so now we can eat bread!
We have made a panzanella salad, it is traditionally a Tuscan summer salad made with day old stale bread. We have made a brunch version of this topping it with a delicious poached egg.
We hope that you had a wonderful Passover and a wonderful Easter.
xx
Ingredients: Serves 2
1 ciabatta roll
3 Tomatoes
1 small cucumber
1/4 cup kalamata olives
2 Tablespoons capers
1/2 cup arugula
1 clove garlic
1/4 olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
kosher salt
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Start by creating your mise en place; dice the tomatoes into inch cubes, peel and dice the cucumber, halve the olives, mince the garlic, and dice the roll into inch cubes.
In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, garlic, red wine vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Place in tomatoes, arugula, cucumbers, and capers and let soak for about 20 minutes so the flavors can really set.
While the flavors set, in a pan set to medium heat, toast your bread cubes for about 7-10 minutes until they just start to crisp. Once toasted toss in with the salad lightly. If you feel there is to much liquid at the bottom, you can drain some of it.
Now we are going to poach the egg! Fill a sauce pan with about 3 inches of water and the rice wine vinegar, and simmer. Make sure your eggs are very cold, crack into two bowls for immediate use. Carefully place the eggs into the water, cover the pot, remove from heat and set timer for 5 minutes. DON'T touch the pot at all, just let them hang out and cook.
Now the salad is ready to be served, divide salad on to two plates and top with a poached egg and a pinch of salt.
Enjoy!
Michael and I have been plugging
away at working in the kitchen, painting, entertaining, all the fun stuff that
happens around the holiday time. We have made for you a delicious cracker that
stays good up to a week, so when you have some last minute company popping by
you can put these on a plate and not worry!
We have made for you an olive
cracker with a spicy pimento cheese in the middle. To create the shape in the
middle, I found a cookie cutter that had a little owl cutout. You can cut a
circle for the bottom, and then for the top use the same circle and then cut
your shape out. You can find mini cookie cutters at any baking shop, and if you
can’t find a cutout, who cares! You don’t need it; it is the taste that matters
anyway!
*There will be some pimento
cheese leftover, but don’t worry! You can refrigerate for up to 2 weeks!
Ingredients: Makes 2 dozen
Crackers:
2 cup all-purpose flour, more as
needed
1 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. parmigiano reggiano
cheese, finely grated
2 tbsp. black olives, finely
sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 ½ tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup cream, more if needed
Pimento Cheese:
1/2 pound grated Cheddar
1/2 pound grated Pepper Jack (habanero
if you can find it)
1 (4-ounce) can diced pimentos
1/3 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/3 teaspoons granulated onion
2 Pinches cayenne
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
Start by making the cheese by
mixing together all the ingredients and blending in a food processor.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.
Put flour, salt, cheese, olives, garlic
and olive oil in a food processor. Pulse until flour and olive oil create
little crumbs that look like sand.
Add about 1/4 cup cream and let
machine run for a bit. If it is too dry, and a tablespoon of cream, if it seems
really wet, don’t worry.
Roll out dough on a flat surface
covered in flour (this will help if the mix is oily) until 1/4-inch thick or
even thinner, adding flour as needed.
Cut out 24 circle for the bottom,
and 24 with the shape cutout for the top.
Bake until lightly browned, about
12 minutes. If you bubbles form in your crackers, right when you take them out
of the oven, press down with a towel for a few seconds. They are more likely to
dry flat.
Let cool completely.
Assemble!
My father (meaning Francesca’s)
did most of the cooking while I was growing up. My dad is the strong yet
humorous Italian guy with awesome pink sweaters and loafers that can cook
anyone under the table. However some of my favorite dishes are part of the repertoire
that my mother keeps hiding up her sleeve. They were all made for me when I had
a hankering for something homey, I was usually sick, and I still crave them
just the way my mom makes it. Now that Michael has been hazed in to the family, he eats my mom’s tuna noodle
casserole all the time with us, and good thing he is here, because I without
fail screw up béchamel because I’m not paying attention, (so when you make
this, don’t be like me, and follow directions).
I didn’t realize how special my mom’s casserole is until I was looking
up other people’s recipes, three differences: 1) We use olives not peas 2) we
put cloves in our béchamel, and 3) we grate onion into the béchamel as well.
So go ahead and enjoy this delicious
casserole, it will bring comfort to you as you enter the cooler weather of
October, and is awesome to eat with Halloween pajamas!
*a term we use Mise En Place:
literally in French means in putting in place, is a term in cooking where you
put all your ingredients in its place, all chopped and ready for you to cook.
Ingredients: serves 4-6
Béchamel:
5 Tbsp.
4 Tbsp. flour
4 cups milk
1 Tbsp. salt
1 white onion
Casserole:
2 large cans tuna in water,
so about 1 cup
2 bags egg noodle
½ cup green olives with
pimentos
1 cup parmesan cheese
Salt to taste
First things first, preheat
the oven to 350 degrees. You want to boil your egg noodles and make the béchamel
at the same time because you want to use the béchamel immediately. So before
you start anything start to boil your water and make your mise en place, by
measuring out the ingredients, and chopping all the olives, and in our case
grating the parmesan. Once the water is boiling place the egg noodles in it and
boil until it is cooked. Some egg noodles cook faster than others, so be sure
to check every few minutes so they don’t overcook. If they are done before the béchamel,
its ok, you can just remove from the water and pour a little olive oil in it,
so it doesn’t stick.
Now for the béchamel…you are
going to make it in two sauce pans and then combine in to one. In one pan, melt
the butter and once melted add your flour, in a separate pan boil your milk. While
whisking you butter and flour mixture, add one cup of boiled milk at a time,
making sure you mix thoroughly so as to not clump up your sauce. Now add your
salt, 6 cloves and grate the whole onion. Let cook and stir for about 4 more
minutes. Taste and make sure it has the salt level you want, because this will
be most of the salt for the whole dish. Now remove the cloves, and you are
ready to use your béchamel.
In a large bowl mix together
all of your noodles, béchamel, tuna, and olives, you can salt while you stir.
Once mixed pour into your casserole pan (we made a small one in a casserole
dish, and a large one in a glass baking pan). Now cover the top with ¾ of your
grated parmesan, leaving some leftover for when you eat.
Place in oven, bake for about
10 minutes, so that the cheese melts and browns slightly, no longer than 15
minutes because you don’t want the casserole to dry out.
Serve and eat! This is so
tasty, and will be gone in a flash!
