Hello everyone! I’m back with another recipe. This time, it’s one I thought of on my own and it’s really simple to make, despite the cost of some of the ingredients. I visited Rome, Italy a few years ago and that was my first experience with Pesto. It was so delicious and fresh that I wanted to make it at home. Well it took me a while but I finally did manage to make my very own batch and believe me when I say that it is DELICIOUS and extremely simple to make.
Basil Pesto
Ingredients:
One pack of Fresh Basil (available at many mega-marts)
One pack of Pine Nuts (also available at many mega-marts)
1.5 Cups of Olive Oil
Heavy Pinch of Grated Romano Cheese
4 – 5 Cloves of Garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste
Small pinch of Oregano or Rosemary
Hardware:
Blender
Half Sheet Pan
Spatula
Spread out the Pine Nuts on the sheet pan and toast at 400-degrees until lightly browned. Keep a watchful eye on these guys. They burn easy.
Add all other ingredients into the blender and then add the Pine Nuts when they’re done.
Blend the whole thing until smooth.
Pour over your favorite pasta dish or meat dish and serve!
How simple was that? This dish literally takes no time at all to make and it’s a ready-to-eat sauce that requires almost no cooking! And as I briefly mentioned, pasta isn’t the only thing Pesto can be paired with. It goes really well with meats as well! Enjoy!
Now, I have to ask, when someone says “Ratatouille” what do you think of? The Disney/Pixar movie? Well…yeah. Good movie, but that’s another blog. When I say Ratatouille, I’m talking about the traditional French dish. A dish so flavorful and so stuffed with vegetables that even the most hardcore nutritionist and/or vegetarian would be happy. While it is true that this dish takes a bit of fussing over, your patience will be rewarded because Ratatouille is both good and good for you. So come on in, give it a try and expand your culinary horizons!
Ratatouille
Ingredients:
2 Oz. and 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Garlic, Minced
4 Oz. Onion, Diced
4 Oz. Bell Peppers, Diced (color is up to you)
4 Oz. (or 1/2 Cup) Tomato Puree
8 Oz. Tomato Concasse (tomatoes that have been peeled and diced)
8 Oz. Yellow Squash, Diced
8 Oz. Zucchini, Diced
8 Oz. Eggplant, Diced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Basil Chiffonade to finish (Basil leaves that have been cut into thin ribbons)
Hardware:
Saute Pan
Large Stock Pot or Soup Pot
Silicone Spatula
Wooden Spoon
Chef’s Knife
Talking cartoon rat that can help you cook (optional)
A quick note before I launch into the cooking procedure. In this dish, more than any other, order matters. What do I mean? Well, if you just threw every veggie in there and started to cook and cook and cook, you’d have some that are underdone and some that are overdone. Bad news if you ask me. So, to avoid a culinary catastrophe, add the veggies that take the longest to cook, first. Then, add the rest in increments until they’re all done, seasoning each layer as you go, stirring every once in a while. Trust me, you DO NOT want to skip this step. You don’t want to make the rat sad, do you?
In the large pot of your choosing, add the 2 Oz. of olive oil and sweat the onions and garlic on medium heat until the garlic is golden. Don’t let the garlic burn or else it will get bitter and ruin the rest of the dish.
Veggies that take the longest to cook, go in first. So, add the Bell Peppers into the pot and season with salt. Cook until they’re nice and soft.
Meanwhile, in the saute pan, add the remaining oil and saute the Eggplant on medium-high heat until they’re well browned on all sides. Don’t skip this step either. This will actually mellow out the bitterness of the Eggplant. Once they’re browned, kill the heat and set them aside for now.
Once the Bell Peppers are tender, add the Zucchini and the Squash. Season with salt.
Add the Tomato Puree to the pot and continue cooking until both the Zucchini and the Squash are tender.
When they become tender, add the Eggplant. Season.
Cook and stir to incorporate everything, and then add the last of the veggies; the Tomatoes. Season.
Cook everything for another 4 to 5 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.
Kill the heat, finish with a few grinds of Black Pepper and the Basil. Serve while warm.
There you have it! Your very own slice of France, and you didn’t even need a tiny talking rat to help you out. Ratatouille is a little fussy, but let’s be honest; what good dish ISN’T a little bit fussy? Besides, because you were in the driver’s seat, you know that it’s going to be great! I hope you enjoy this one!
As promised, here it is! My personal favorite recipe involving roasted garlic; Mashed Potatoes!
I absolutely LOVE Mashed Potatoes. They are one of my favorite comfort foods of all time. It’s really easy to make and it’s so delicious. They can be made any way; chunky, smooth and silky, even a mixture of both. It all depends on the type of potatoes you use in the recipe. I’m partial to mine on the smooth and silky side, but if you want to make them another way, I’ll let you know what potatoes to use at the end of this entry. Now, on with the show!
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 – 2 Large Russet Potatoes (3 – 4 if they’re on the small/medium side)
1 Head of Garlic
1/4 – 1/2 Cup of Milk
Olive Oil
Salt
Hardware:
Large pot for the potatoes
Smaller pot for the milk
Chef’s Knife
Cutting Board
Potato Masher
Mesh Strainer
Start the Roasted Garlic recipe now. Refer back to that recipe for the steps.
Peel and cube the potatoes and add them to the large pot
Add cold water to the pot until it completely covers the potatoes. Start with cold water to make sure the inside and outside of the potatoes cook at the same time.
Set that pot on high heat
When the water comes to a boil, salt the water and start checking the potatoes. It will depend on the size of the cubes, sea-level, temperature of the water, etc. on how long the potatoes will take to cook. Just be patient and keep checking on them. Once they start to soften, they’re almost ready.
In the smaller pot, add the milk and simmer on medium-low heat for 5 – 6 minutes.
When the potatoes become fork-tender, kill the heat and drain, but leave potatoes in the pot.
Add the roasted garlic to the potatoes
Start mashing and slowly add the warm milk a little bit at a time. Add less for more chunky mashed potatoes or add more for a more silky batch.
Serve while still warm
Believe me, this is a fantastic upgrade to a tried and true comfort food recipe. Enjoy!
Hey guys! I had no idea where to file this entry because it’s both a bit of a discussions as well as a recipe, so enjoy either way!
A lot of foods and/or ingredients can benefit from a bit of culinary alteration, before being fiddled with (and yes, “fiddled” is a scientific term). No ingredient is a better example of this concept than garlic; that pungent member of the onion family, whose flavor and aroma are distinct and often, a kick in the teeth to those novice foodies and chefs. The smell gets on everything and when you cook them too long, they burn and become incredibly bitter and altogether unpleasant. So how do we avoid all these problems? Roast them….the garlic, that is.
Roasting garlic gives it a fantastic texture that is perfect for eating as-is or adding it to other food items. The flavor isn’t the kick-your-teeth-in kind of strong either. Instead, it’s deep, rich and even delicate at some points. It will really permeate throughout whatever dish you add them to. Also, because the texture is very smooth, they are much easier to work with than they are raw. So here you go!
Roasted Garlic
Ingredients:
1 Head of Garlic (or how many ever heads you think you may need)
3 Teaspoons of Olive Oil
A Pinch of Salt
Hardware:
Aluminum foil
Chef’s Knife
Cutting Board
Preheat your over to 400-degrees
Cut off about 1/2 an inch off the top of the garlic head
Peel away the outside “paper” of the garlic head, but leave the skin on the garlic cloves themselves intact
Rub them down with the Olive Oil and season with the salt
Wrap the whole thing up in the foil and bake for 30 minutes
Let cool before handling/eating
You can either eat them by themselves or add them to other recipes. My personal favorite is Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. That recipe will be up in the morning, because it’s a little after 1AM EST when I’m posting this and I need sleep. So stay tuned guys!
