Pasta Caprese

America’s Test Kitchen

 

We often eat this as a main course with a side salad, but this is also a great side dish to take somewhere in the summer.  You could add chicken if you want, but that might take away from the simple, but delicious flavors of the dressing.  This is especially yummy when you use homegrown summer tomatoes.  Don’t even try to make it with canned tomatoes, as it will become a COMPLETELY different dish!

America’s Test Kitchen recommends cubing the cheese and freezing it for about 10 minutes, so that the cheese remains in cubes rather than melting onto the hot pasta, but in the picture above, I simply shredded the cheese in my food processor and added it as the pasta had cooled a little bit, and it still turned out great.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2-4 tsp juice from 1 lemon (I usually add a little more than this)

1 small garlic clove, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp if you really like garlic)

1 small shallot, minced fine (I usually substitute red onion since I rarely have shallots)

1 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch dice (I don’t core or seed it)

12 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I just use an 8 oz. block of part skim mozz.)

1 lb short tubular or curly pasta, such as penne, fusilli, or campanelle

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1 tsp sugar (this is mainly needed if the tomatoes are not super sweet homegrown.)

salt and pepper

1.  Whisk the oil, 2 tsp of lemon juice, garlic, shallt, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper together in a large bowl.  Add the tomatoes and gently toss to combine;  set aside.  Do not marinate the tomatoes for longer than 45 minutes.

2.  While the tomatoes are marinating, place the mozzarella on a plate and freeze until slightly firm, about 10 minutes.  Bring 4 quarts water to a rolling boil in a stockpot.  Add 1 Tbs salt and the pasta, stir to separate, and cook until al dente.  Drain well.

3.  Add the pasta and mozzarella to the tomato mixture and gently toss to combine.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in the basil; season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice or sugar, if desired, and serve immediately.

If it tastes a little bland, it probably just needs some extra salt!

Cilantro worked this year!

 

Every year my cilantro kind of grows straight, tall and straggly, but this year it finally worked and looks beautiful!  Maybe its because I planted it in with the rest of my garden with all the nutrients, or maybe its because I just dumped half a packet of seeds in and DIDN’T “thin” as they tell you to do.  Regardless, I’m very excited about this!

Stuffed Peppers

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book


I have been making this classic recipe for a long time, but last night was the first night that I actually ate the entire thing.  I was always turned off by the idea of having such large pieces of pepper in each bite because I have always been a "perfect bite" kinda girl - I like just the right ratio of one food to another so that one doesn't overpower the other.

I’ve always liked peppers chopped up in things, but I’ve never been one to eat peppers by themselves, so usually I would just eat the stuffing without the peppers when I’ve made this in the past.
I really didn’t think my kids would like these either with the peppers, but believe it or not everyone loved them!  I think because the peppers were perfectly cooked, and the flavors blended so well together. 

In the picture above, I have cut the peppers in half and filled them, but traditionally, you should leave the peppers whole and just cut out the stem and seeds from the top. 

Stuffed Pepper Cups

1.  Cut off tops of 6 medium green peppers;  remove seeds and membrane.  Precook green pepper cups in boiling salted water about 5 minutes; drain. (For crisp peppers, omit precooking.)  Sprinkle inside of cups generously with salt.
2.  Cook 1 lb ground beef and 1/3 cup chopped onion till meat is lightly browned.  Season with 1/2 tsp salt and dash pepper.  Add one 1 lb can tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice, and 1 tsp worcestershire sauce.  Cover and simmer till rice is tender, about 15 minutes.  Stir in 4 oz sharp process American cheese, shredded (1 cup).  Stuff peppers;  Stand upright in 10x6x1 1/2 in baking dish.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Serves 6.

**In the past, I have doubled all the ingredients except the meat to stretch this meal further. 
I also used about 1 TBS worcestershire sauce instead of 1 tsp
I used 2 slices of American cheese, and about 1 oz of cheddar and mixed it all together
If you do it like me with the peppers cut in half, then only bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Greek Salad Dressing

America’s Test Kitchen – (Although I must say that my homemade vinaigrette recipe is very similar to this one!)
The following is their recipe x 4, because I knew we would go through it very quickly!
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbs juice from 1 lemon
3 Tbs minced fresh oregano leaves
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups olive oil
wisk ingredients in a large bowl until combined.

Roasted yellow peppers

It is pretty hard for me to pass up a good deal, so when the produce guy at the flea market offered me all of these for $5.00 (about 15 yellow peppers), I couldn’t resist.

Actually, after I accepted the offer, I was upset with myself for not offering him $3.00 because it was towards the end of the morning, and he was ready to finish up, so I’m pretty sure he would have taken that offer. 

I really had no idea what I was gonna do with all of these, but this is how I shop- I only buy things that are a great price, and then I figure out what to do with it later.

I took about 4 of the peppers and chopped them up and froze in 2 separate bags to use next time I make Thai Chicken Soup.

With the rest, I figured I would try roasting them.

When I worked at an Italian restaurant, I realized how simple it was to roast peppers, but I had only ever roasted red peppers, so the question remained, can I roast YELLOW peppers? 

I figured the flavor should be similar to that of red peppers, but that remains to be seen.
First I washed all the peppers in a bowl of soap and water, then put them on the grill (technically I believe you are supposed to slowly roast them in the oven for the best flavor, but I love to grill them when it’s too hot out to use an oven, and they also cook much faster this way).

I usually put the grill cover down, but be sure the heat is turned down to a medium low, and set the timer for about 5 minutes because those hot spots on the grill with char them to a crisp!
You want the skin of the peppers to get nice and black, but you don’t want the whole pepper charred.
Turn them about every 5 minutes, and they should end up looking like this



I then put them in a 13X9 casserole dish and cover with plastic wrap for about 20 minutes while they cool.
Once they are cool, peel the skin off (if they are roasted properly, the skin should slide right off) and remove seeds. 

Now they should look like this.

I froze these to use in one of my favorite recipes- chicken-penne salad with green beans.

squash patties

                                What to do with all those summer squash? . . . Squash patties!!
                                       Here is my French Grandmother's recipe.
                           You are supposed to score the squash and dice it very fine, like this

but that takes lots of time when you're making a huge batch., so today I tried something different.
I cut the squash into quarters lengthwise, and then put it into the shredding disc of my food processor, and it turned out like this.  My mom would not approve of doing it this way, and I'll admit, hers are always better than mine, but this is SOO much faster when feeding a family of 7!

Then you drain the water from it by adding 1.5 tsp salt and stirring the squash while in a colander set over a bowl.

This is how much water I got out of my 4 1/2 zucchinis.

next, add flour (about 5 TBS)

Then add the basil and 2 scrambled eggs and some pepper
Fry them in oil on a griddle on high heat, about 3 minutes on each side (or until nice and brown).

Directions:
combine 4-5 medium zucchinis and 1 1/2 tsp salt and let it sit in a colander for about 30 minutes to drain excess water.
add 5 TBS flour
add 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil and pepper
add 2 eggs
Fry.

Planting time!!

This time of year is SOO exciting, but also a little stressful at times, because I have so much to get done outside!  The seedlings are officially in the ground and covered with milk jugs (a tip from a friend of mine to protect them and create a sort of “greenhouse” effect while young.)

 I learned how to do a garden about 6 years ago (from the same friend who told me how to make yogurt), and every year my garden is a little better than the year before.

I LOVE tomatoes so there is nothing better than a home-grown summer tomato which is why I became interested in gardening in the first place.  A garden is also the best way to ensure your family isn't getting any pesticides and eating all natural fruits and veggies.  I've been told that when you grow your own tomatoes, they always taste great, but that just isn't true. 

My first year with tomatoes was dreadful!  I have just a few tomato plants, each of which had about 7 green tomatoes from august until about mid-september when they finally turned light pink (not the pretty heirloom pink, but hot-house-store-bought-pink), and they were some of the most mealy, flavorless tomatoes I've ever had!  

I'm not sure what happened that year, but after that, I began to go to the local farmer's co-op to get my soil tested so they could tell me exactly what I needed to add to my soil.  This was SOO helpful, although my second year of tomatoes were only a little better than the first.  I've learned new things each year, but I mainly enjoy the fruits of my labor more than the labor itself.  

It has become a favorite time of year for me to watch a little seed turn into a seedling, into a huge plant that bears beautiful fruits. My mouth begins to water as I see the first fruit hanging on the vine, just thinking about slicing, salting, and eating that first ripe tomato!

Last year’s garden was the best ever!  Although I usually just like to hoard them and eat them all by myself, I actually had so many that I could share them this year, and even can my own salsa!