Spagetti, but from two recipes with a little modification.

Both recipes from my favorite chef, Ina Garten, but both are from two different books, and i modified the meatballs a smidge.

The meatball recipe i took from her book "How easy is that?". It's listed under "Spicy Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti."



The sauce is from her "Barefoot Contessa Family Style," book, and the recipe is under, (you could probably have guessed this,) "Spaghetti and Meatballs."

So lets get to it! First you make the spicy meatballs.

Ingredients:
3 cups bread crumbs from round rustic bread, crusts removed, cut into 1” pieces (or you can do what i did, which was buy the bread crumbs from the store. If this is the case, use WAY less. I would say 1 cup of already fine ground bread crumbs. My reasoning being they fill the cup more densely.)
2/3 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
2 lb/900g ground turkey (I bought the extra lean ground beef instead. Next time i might just go for lean so its not as dry.)
8oz/226g Italian sausage, casings removed (I used hot Italian sausages, about 4 of them.)
4oz/114g thinly sliced prosciutto, finely chopped (i bought pancetta instead, and kept it aside to use in the actual spaghetti sauce.)
1 cup Asiago cheese, grated (I used regular parmesan cheese because my market did not have any Asiago and i was to lazy to go to another store.)
½ cup fresh Italian/flat leaf parsley, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp crushed red chili pepper flakes
3 tbsp good olive oil, plus some for brushing the meatballs
2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Line a lipped baking sheet with parchment paper or foil (foil is better for easy clean up and is what i used).

2. Place bread in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until the bread is in medium crumbs. Transfer crumbs to a small bowl and add the milk. Toss and set aside for 5 minutes. (OR poor 1 cup of the box/can breadcrumbs into a bowl, add the milk, stir, it gets kinda clumpy.)

3. In a large bowl, the turkey (or beef), sausage, prosciutto (or pancetta), bread mixture, Asiago (or parmesan), parsley, oregano, red pepper flakes and lightly combine with your hands. Add 3 tbsp olive oil and eggs, stir lightly with a fork to combine. (Or like me, remove rings and mush together with your hands.)

4. Lightly roll the mixture with your hands into 2” round meatballs and place them on the prepared baking sheets. Brush with olive oil and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the tops are browned and the centers completely cooked. (I did not brush mine with the olive oil and they turned out lovely and crispy on the outside.) I cooked mine at 350-375 (since my oven is crapping out and i'm not getting a new one until we move...) for about 30-40 min.

They are delicious! You will seriously eat them right out of the oven. Yum! I doubt i'll ever pan fry my meatballs again.

Now into the sauce!
Remember the pancetta??? Now is the time to use it!

(Pancetta, 4oz)
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a pan. (I used my deep sauce pan.) Add the pancetta, cook until well, it looks like half cooked bacon. Add in the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper. At this point i added in an extra half cup of red wine.

I let mine simmer for about 2 hours at a very low heat. Barely bubbling.

Cook your pasta, then add in your meatballs to your sauce to reheat them. (I added 4 meatballs per person into the sauce and i wrapped up the left over meatballs for the next day.)

I love De Cecco pasta so that is what we tend to cook around here. If you want some garlic bread, i usually take one clove, cut it, rub it over the bread, butter, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and stick it into a 375 oven till lightly browned. Delicious!

Homemade Mac and Cheese

I love Mac and Cheese, but sometimes i feel like it takes forever to make. This one i was able to pop into the oven within 30 min. Delish!

Start out by melting butter. I used 1/4 cup.
Add your flour. I add it by the tbsp till i get the desired consistency. (All over med low heat.) Mix mix mix mix mix! Cook and stir till it turns into a lovely light golden color, cause you want to cook off the flour taste.
Add your milk, i added it in about 2 cups, then by eye till the sauce was as thick as i like it. Add in your pepper, and some salt.
Here is where i added in the cheese. Normally i chop up half a block of velveeta into small cubes, then i grate half of a 900g block, throw it all in. I also had half a block of cream cheese i threw in this time, cut up in cubes. (Feel free to use whatever cheese you have on hand!)
Stir and stir and stir until all the cheese melts. Then i boiled up some macaroni noodles, (a whole box.) Drain them, and then add them to the cheese sauce. I switched to a wooden spoon at this point to gently fold in the noodles.
Pour it into a baking dish, and cook at 350 degrees until the top is golden and bubbly.
As you can see the finished result was gone before i could get a picture of it. Just imagine the top pic all golden and bubbly. Sometimes i throw more cheese on top, sometimes i throw breadcrumbs. Sometimes i throw in a can of diced tomatoes and cooked ground beef to make a more hearty meal.

Enjoy!

Eton Mess by the Barefoot Contessa

Honestly the majority of my favorite recipes come from the Barefoot Contessa collection. I do own them all, and i love to go through them. Not only does she have fantastic, easy, fresh recipes, but also many, many tips on food, flowers, entertaining and hosting.

One thing i have always wanted to make, but been very weary of creating, is meringues. So when i came across a recipe on how to make a very easy version of Eton Mess, (mounds of whip cream, crunchy bits of meringues drizzled with a fresh raspberry coulis...It really does not get any better then that!)

The easy Eton Mess recipe came out of my new book below!


I started out making a very easy coulis, basically i bought a 500g container of frozen raspberries. Divide them in half. One half into a pot over medium heat, to which i added 1 & 1/2 cup sugar (although my little two cents, i prefer a tart fruit coulis, so next time i will only add 1 cup.) Bring to a boil over medium heat, crush the raspberries with a fork. (I used my stirring thing-a-ma-bob.) Turn heat down to simmer for another few minutes until it is syrupy. Throw in the rest of the berries, and stir. Pop it into the fridge to chill.



Now, Barefoot says you can buy your meringues pre-made at a bakery, and she is right! Whip up your cream with a tsp vanilla, and 3 tbsp sugar (for 500g of cream.) Layer the meringues with whip and syrup over and over in a decorative glass, or a bowl. As you can see the end picture is missing. There was no time. It was too delicious. If you look closely at the cover of her book, that is what they look like. It is my new favorite dessert.

And now, if you are adventurous, and would like to make your own meringues, i got the recipe out of her book, Barefoot in Paris.



I think it called for five egg whites, some sugar and 1/4tsp cream of tartar. I used my kitchen aid and was so impressed by the beautiful, silken and cloud like texture. I was kind of in a rush to get the meringues fluff into my pastry bag that i did not really take a before picture. This is an after picture.

My first time piping, it totally could of been worse, but whatever, i was impressed, and not to forget, your going to BREAK them up!

A close up. (For a trick, trace a cup with a pencil over the parchment paper, then turn the paper over and use that for your circle outline.)


I popped them into the oven at 225 degrees for two hours, then left them in the oven with the heat off for four hours. Delicious! I really suggest trying it! What out for those humid days, they get all sticky!

The best bread ever, my BBA challenge #2

Yes, seriously! Casateillo, a bread with salami and cheese. Delish!
The recipe is from a Bread Bakers Apprentice. (FYI, the best bread book i have ever baked from.)

Ok, here we go! I've read through the recipe a few times, everything seems to make sense!

Take 3/4c butter out of the fridge to get to room temp. I did this the night before.

Make your sponge,

1/2c bread flour
1tbsp instant yeast
1c buttermilk or whole milk which should be 90-100 degrees.

(i made my own buttermilk by using 1% milk and a tbsp of lemon juice. Also, i threw in a tsp of sugar into the sponge.)

Mix with wooden spoon. Cover with plastic wrap, then a dish towel, and forget about it for 1hr. (It will look like bubbly pancake batter.)

Now take

4 ounces dry cut up cured salami (or other cured meat, or sausage, or whatever you like to nom. I use mild salami.)
Cook it till its crispy. Drain it. Try not to eat all of it while making the bread.

Now mix together in your kitchen aid:

3 1/2c bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

in another bowl lightly whisk:

2 eggs.

Use paddle attachment and mix in the sponge (make sure you let it get fluffy for an hour!) and the eggs until you have a coarse ball. If there is loose flour dribble in some water or milk.

Now turn it all off and wait 10 minute.

Now you need the

3/4c butter room temp. Cut it into four pieces.

(i switched to a dough hook at this point.)

Mix at medium speed, adding in one piece of butter at a time. It looks like a tacky mess but it will be ok. This will take about 12 min of mixing. (Don't forget to scrape down your bowl.) If after 12 min its not a ball, sprinkle in some flour until it just comes off the sides of the bowl.

When the dough is smooth kneed in the meat. Then kneed in

6 ounces of cheese. ( I used 3 oz provolone, and 3 ounce med. gouda.)

Lightly oil a LARGE bowl and rub your ball of dough around in the oil. Now cover it with saran wrap, then a towel, and leave it alone for 90 minutes. (Or until it has risen 1 1/2 times.)

Now i took it out, cut it in half, and make two rectangles no bigger in length then my bread pans. Then i rolled them up and popped them down into the pans. (The pans that you greased up with oil, or butter, or whatever it needed.) Cover with saran. Cover with towel. Leave it alone for another 90 min. ( I know, by now you just want to eat it, but alas, it needs to rise AGAIN. It will be worth it!)

Let them puff! (or rise...)
Now preheat your oven to 350. Cook them for 20 min. Turn them 180 degrees. Cook them for another 20 min.

Now take them out of the tins. Onto a wire rack.

Stare at them for 1 hour. (We could only wait 35 min.)



Ok. Now you can cut into them.

Further directions include noming and not sharing.

*A little note of my own, next time i am gonna cut up my cheese into small chunks instead of grating it. Or maybe half and half. Delicious.

BBA Challenge #1

What is BBA you ask? It is the BEST bread book i have ever bought!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice has turned my hatred of crappy, hard, never rising high-enough bread into soft, full, steamy hot bread. It is my new favorite cookbook and i have not moved it out of my kitchen since i bought it over a month ago.

Here is my arsenal of equipment. Kitchen Aid Mixer. No you do not need one, but if your somewhat lazy like i am, it can definitely save you some time and energy. Also, i always use bread flour for my recipes, unless i state otherwise. Yes it costs way more, but i find my results are always better. Chose a good olive oil, a scraper tool thing, measuring cups, as well as spoons. Not featured in this picture is my liquid measuring cup.

Alright, this a great recipe, but not listed here. Here is a pic of the dough, rising away.

The garlic, basil and parsley oil. Super easy to infuse, i left it over low heat, 1 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup basil, 1/2 cup parsley, and i believe i put four cloves chopped up, although next time i am so going to just use my garlic press, i like smaller pieces.
Here it is for the final rise. I was really concerned about the amount of oil. I actually took it off and put it on a new parchment. To my surprise it actually soaks up the oil while baking, although the second time i made it (yes it was that good!) i used only 1/2 cup of the oil-herb mixture.)
Delicious! It took about five hours from start to finish the second time, once i was more familiar with the recipe. Good luck with your baking!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This recipe is one i found on in a Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine. I was really desperate to find a decent recipe, having just moved out, and looking forward to some home cooking. I thought the recipe looked fairly easy, and it was!

I use my kitchen aid to mix this all up, although i have done it by hand a number of times.

1 & 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Blend together

then add:

1/4 cup oil (but i substitute butter, i prefer the taste.)

2 eggs

blend till just combined.

Then add 3 mashed bananas.

Blend.

Add in 1/2c chocolate chips ( i found it to much, i would add maybe half as much, depends on how much you like chocolate. Also, lately I've using one ounce bittersweet chocolate and two ounces semi sweet, cut into chunks.)

Blend.

Butter your loaf pan. Pour in batter.

Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes.

(I put mine in for 45 min, checked it, turned it, then baked another 10 minutes.)

Enjoy!