Pork Piccata over Pasta

Tonight we celebrated Auroras birthday.  Our custom is to make her a delightful dinner that I beleive she will enjoy.  I would say that I hit a home run tonight as she was very insistant that I needed to blog this recipe.

Here was the menu:

Appetizer-Brie with sliced bread, apple, pear and pomagranite

Entree-Pork Picatta over sun dried tomato & goat cheese ravioli

Dessert-Baklava

PORK PICATTA

1 1/2 lb pork cut into 3/4" slices

1 c flour

3 eggs

1 c panko(whole wheat if available)

1/2 t salt

1 t pepper

1 T "Everything Seasoning" from the Feast Hall

1/2 c (1 stick) butter

1/3 c lemon juice

1/2 lemon, sliced

1 c wine

3 T capers

2 t garlic, minced

1)  pound pork out to 1/2" thickness

2)  beat eggs to make egg wash

3)  season flour with salt and pepper

4)  season bread crumbs with Everything Seasoning

5)  bread pork by dredging in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs, making certain to cover completely and shake off extra

6)  Preheat oven to 200 and place a baking sheet with rack inside

7)  preheat a large saute pan and melt 1 T butter in it.  When it is hot, place 1/3rd of the breaded pieces of pork in and let cook for 2 minutes on each side.  When both sides are brown place pork on rack in oven. and repeat with remaining pork

8)  deglaze pan with wine and lemon juice.  Add in lemon slices, capers and garlic and cook until liquid is reduced by half.  

9)  turn off heat and  stir in butter until melted

10) plate pork over a bed of pasta and top with sauce

Pasta with Sardines

Today I am practicing "pantry cooking".  What that means is that I am only going to purchase things as *absolutely necessary*.  Since we do meatless Fridays and most of the canned fish in our panty is sardines I decided to look through an Italian cookbook and find a sardine pasta dish.  I of course modified it due to ingredients and now my husband has a suggestion for the left overs.


PASTA with SARDINES

INGREDIENTS:
4 4 oz cans of whole sardines in olive oil (wild planet is preferred)
1/2 c flour
12 oz whole wheat pasta
2 T prunes, chopped
1/2 c pine nuts
1 T dill weed
1 lg sweet onion
1 t garlic, minced
Olive oil
salt
2 oz Parmesan grated


DIRECTIONS
*  Bring Pasta water to boil with 1 T salt
*  Soak prunes in 1/2 c hot water
*  Drain sardines in a colander
*  Dice onion and saute in 2 T olive oil until you get moderate carmelization
*  Add garlic, dill, pine nuts, prunes with water and stir while cooking until water evaporates then remove from heat
*  Cook Pasta then drain and mix with above mixture
*  Heat pan and add 2 T olive oil
*  Dredge sardines in flour
*  Cook sardines on each side until golden brown
* Plate pasta, top with Sardines to desire then grated Parmesan

I suggest serving this with a nice Chardonnay or a sweet Riesling.
In a few days I will reheat the left overs with a nice cream or alfredo sauce, per my husbands tastebuds and I will update then.


I hope this inspires you to modify dishes to work with your pantrys stock.

Anthoinette

Clams in Vodka Sauce with Linguine

Ever since I have heard of "vodka sauce" I have really wanted to find a recipe and try it.  Today was just the day.  It had cooled down enough so that crab cakes were off the menu, but it was still too warm for Cioppino.  Not to mention the Raging Mr. was stuck on clams.

Clams in Vodka Sauce with Linguine
This batch serves 8

INGREDIENTS
1 lb linguine
1/2 c butter
1/4 c salt
1/4 c cornmeal
1/2 T crushed red pepper flake
1 medium red onion
6 large Roma Tomatoes
1/4 lb crimini mushrooms
1 T minced garlic
1 T capers
1 c Vodka
1 c heavy whipping cream
5 lb clams in shells
1/4 lb Parmesano Regiano-grated
1 loaf favorite rustic bread

DIRECTIONS

*  Put clams in a large bowl with 3 T salt, 1/4 c cornmeal and enough cold water to cover
*  Dice onions and slice mushrooms then saute in butter
*  Dice tomatoes and add to onions and mushrooms
*  Add 1 t salt, 1/2 T crushed red pepper, 1 T capers along with 1 T minced garlic
*  Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes stirring every couple of minutes
*  Put pasta water on to boil with 2 t salt
*  Add Vodka continue to cook for 20 minutes or until vodka flavor mellows
*  Add whipping cream to sauce and bring to boil
*  Drain and rinse clams and stir into sauce
*  As clams open pull from sauce
*  Cook pasta until al dente, rinse and lightly coat with oil
*  Pour sauce and clams over pasta to serve
*  Serve with grated Parmesano Regiano and rustic bread

Greek Pasta

One of my favorite variations of Greek Salad is Greek Pasta

INGREDIENTS

1/4 c artichoke hearts
1/4 c kalamata olives-pitted
2 roma tomatoes
1bell pepper
1/4 c mushrooms
1/4 c red onion
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T olive oil

2 clove garlic
1/4 t marjoram
1/4 t basil
1/4 t oregano
1/4 t thyme

1/4 t salt

1/4 t crushed red pepper
4 oz feta

12 oz rotini

DIRECTIONS

1)  cook rotini until almost al dente

2)  thinly slice red onion and mushroom

3)  julianne bell pepper

4)  quarter artichoke hearts

5)  dice tomato

7)  mince garlic

8)  gently saute onion, mushroom, garlic, bell pepper and tomatoes with olive oil, salt, marjoram, basil, oregano, thyme, and crushed red pepper until you start to see light carmelizaion

9)  add artichoke hearts, kalamatas and balsamic until hot

10)  crumble feta over the top to serve

Royal Macaroni and Cheese

Aurora and Charming love a certain amount of decadence in their charmed life.  This extends to their royal comfort food.

Royal Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

                   Skinny                                                    Rich
1 14.5 oz box macaroni noodles                 1 14.5 oz box macaroni noodles
1 1/4 lb sharp cheddar cheese                     1 1/4 lb sharp cheddar cheese
5 1/2 oz chevre                                           5 1/2 oz chevre
1/4 lb bacon                                               1/4 lb bacon
4 jalepenos                                                 4 jalepenos
5 T butter                                                   5 T Irish Butter
5 T flour                                                     5 T flour
5 c milk (2% or whole)                              3 c milk + 2 c whipping cream
1 1/2 t porchini sea salt                              1 1/2 t porchini sea salt (available at LaCrosse Olive Oil Co.)
1/2 t pepper                                                1/2 t pepper
1/4 c porchini mushrooms                         1/4 c porchini mushrooms
                                                                  1/4 c panko


Directions

1)  boil water for pasta and add a little salt, cook pasta for 7 minutes, drain and set aside

2)  cut bacon into 1/2" pieces and cook until squishy

3)  cut up jalepenos and porchinis and saute with bacon, until bacon is crisp, then drain grease and set aside

4) melt butter in pan and mix in flour to make roux then slowly whisk in milk and whipping cream(for rich version) and bring to boil, then drop to simmer

5)  grate cheddar and stir 1 lb into milk mixture

6)  break chevre into piecies and mix into milk/cheese mixture

7)  stir noodles, porchini salt, pepper, mushrooms and bacon into cheese sauce and put into a 13x9" pan

8)  spread remaining 1/4 lb cheese on top
     for the rich version evenly spread panko on top of cheese

9)  bake at 350 for 30 minutes

10)  remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes before serving


I hope you try this and enjoy it as much as I do.

Antoinette

Italian sausage in a creamy mushroom sauce

This is a recent creation of my husbands, and OH, is it ever good. You can put it over pasta, or just serve it by itself, as an hors d oeuvre. 1 T Olive Oil 1/2 red onion, diced 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced 1 1/2 lb hot italian link sausage in 1 inch pieces 1/2 c flour 1/2 c sun dried or dehydrated tomatoes 4 c milk 1 clove garlic minced grated Parmesan or Romano to top(1/8 to 1/4 lb depending on taste) Saute onion in Olive Oil until soft add sausage and cook until almost done mix in flour to coat sausage add milk stirring until hot add mushrooms and garlic simmer for 5 minutes add tomatoes mix with pasta or serve as desired leave grated cheese on table for people to mix in as desired. NOTES the sauce is very thick and creamy The tomatoes really just add a bright note to this dish Roux, who needs a traditional roux. Before I was able to make one properly I coated what I sauteed with flour and found I didn't have any lumps.