Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina

I love the smell of Italian food in my kitchen. It warms up the house and the aroma just feels like family. This pasta is a dish I'm sure I will be coming back to again and again. It's one of those "grub" meals that just tastes good and fills your belly. It also uses ingredients that I usually always have on hand. Double-score!

From Giada De Laurentiis

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Total Time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups pastina pasta (or any small pasta - I used whole wheat shells)

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (may substitute with 1/4 cup dried parsley or other Italian herbs)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 Tablespoons butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a medium pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook just until tender, stirring occasionally, about  5 minutes. Drain pasta and place in a large mixing bowl. 

Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes more. 

Add the chicken mixture to the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Place the mixture in a buttered baking dish. (9" x 13" or similar in size will do.) 

In a small bowl, mix together the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter. Bake until the top is golden-brown, about 30 minutes.

Buona Vita!

Grilled Chicken with Mango Avocado Salsa

We have been buying produce like it's nobody's business lately! At one point this week, we had the following items in our kitchen: cantaloupe, watermelon, avocado, tomatoes, mangoes, plums, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, cherries and bananas. For only two people, that's a lot of fruit! So I decided to make some delicioso salsa. It could have been paired with just about any type of fish (mahi mahi, halibut, salmon, tilapia), but I decided to keep it simple and convenient (translate: I didn't have any fish in my fridge) and serve it with chicken. The result was simple, fresh and tasty!

(Bonus: we had some leftovers, so I served it up the next morning in an omelet. Who knew mangoes could taste so good with eggs!)

Inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow

INGREDIENTS:

2 servings simple blackened chicken

1 ripe mango, diced

1 ripe avocado, diced

2 ripe beefsteak tomatoes, seeded and diced

5-6 green onions, finely chopped

1 teaspoon lime juice

garlic salt, to taste

lemon pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Mix mango, avocado, tomatoes, green onions, and lime juice. Season to taste with garlic salt and lemon pepper. 

Using a sharp knife, cut blackened chicken breasts in half, lengthwise.

On a plate, place chicken breasts. Spoon a generous serving of the mango avocado salsa over the chicken. 

Enjoy!!

Chana Masala

I have really been loving Thai food lately, but have yet to learn how to make it. Indian food is a close second and there seems to be more recipes for Indian food in the blogosphere. I found this recipe for Chana Masala and thought it was genius that it uses coconut milk (a staple in Thai food). Then I realized that coconut milk is a common dairy substitute for vegans and most chana masalas do not use coconut milk. But I actually seem to think this meal tastes a lot better with the lovely, subtle island taste of coconut milk. 

(If you'd like another lovely option for Chana Masala without coconut milk, click here.)

Adapted from The Gluttonous Vegan

INGREDIENTS:

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 onions sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon ginger

2 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes*

1 can coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 handful fresh coriander

1/4 teaspoon garam masala

juice of 1/2 a lemon

*I only had tomatoes with diced green chiles and it worked just fine.

DIRECTIONS:

Thinly slice the onions and place into a deep frying pan with olive oil. Place over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until they cook down. 

Add ginger and garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add tomatoes, pepper flakes, cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, and fennel seeds. Let simmer for about a minute, then add chick peas. Stir them in, then add the coconut milk. 

Stir all ingredients together and let simmer for about 20 minutes, or until much of the liquid has boiled out. Be sure to stir every 5-10 minutes, so nothing sticks. 

After much of the liquid has bubbled away, add fresh chopped coriander and garam masala. Squeeze lemon juice onto the mixture and add salt to taste.

Serve immediately with rice or flatbread.

Enjoy some grub!

Tuscan Tomato Soup

By far, the majority of my recipes are found on the internet, through other blogs, random google searches, or the trusty allrecipes.com. While I do appreciate the ease of the internet, I love the Williams Sonoma Cookbook. It is beautifully organized with pictures of each dish (a must!) and it teaches basic steps for delicious meals (if only I had time to make everything). The cover of this book represents the essential ingredients in all good cooking: olive oil, eggs, garlic, salt, fresh herbs, lemon, and parmesan cheese. I feel pretty confident that almost every basic dish is made better with these ingredients.

So, tomato soup. I kind of love it. I feel like it's the perfect combination between a brothy soup and a creamy soup. Pair it with some good bread or grilled cheese sandwiches, and you've got yourself a full meal. There's another secret about tomato soup. A lot of recipes (like this one) can be re-purposed into a delicious pasta sauce. This recipe is quite delicious, especially when served with toasted french bread at the bottom of the bowl. MMM!

From The Williams Sonoma Cookbook

INGREDIENTS:

6-8 slices french bread, each 1 inch thick
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 lbs. ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded, then diced*
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
1/2-1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped basil leaves, plus 6-8 whole leaves, for garnish
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

*Click here for instructions on how to peel and seed tomatoes. If you're in a hurry (like I always am) replace 1.5 lbs., or all of the fresh tomatoes, with canned, crushed tomatoes.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, turning once, 10-15 minutes total. Set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onion and sauté, stirring frequently, until softened, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until softened but not browned, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and stock, raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until the tomatoes are softened, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using an immersion or standing blender, purée the soup, leaving a little bit of texture if desired. Return the soup to the pot, if needed, and reheat gently over medium heat. If soup feels too thin, add bread crumbs until soup reaches desired texture. Add the chopped basil and season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, place a slice of toasted bread in the bottom of each warmed bowl and sprinkle with a spoonful of parmesan cheese. Ladle the soup on top, garnish with a basil leaf, and serve at once.

Ground Turkey Cannelloni

This is one of those dishes where you don't have to follow the ingredient recommendation exactly. As long as you have the most important ingredients like pasta shells, ground meat, marinara sauce, broth, parmesan cheese, eggs, milk, and herbs, you're pretty good to go. Cooking with too many measuring utensils sort of stresses me out, so this is one dish that is right up my alley. The no-measuring utensil method does not work for all dishes, but it does work for this one.

I hope you enjoy. Hubby sure did last night, eating 4 of these big boys.

Adapted from AllRecipes

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. ground turkey

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 onion, minced

1/2 cup celery, minced (about 3 stalks)

1/3 cup carrot, minced

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 teaspoons fresh herbs, chopped (rosemary, parsley, thyme are all good options)

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 bay leaf

1 egg yolk

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

dash nutmeg

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

2-3 cups marinara sauce 

6-8 cannelloni/manicotti pasta shells, cooked and drained

DIRECTIONS:

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil. Add onion, celery, and carrot and cook until softened. Add garlic and cook one minute. Add ground turkey and cook, stirring occasionally, until meat is no longer pink. Add wine and reduce for one minute. Stir in broth and add herbs and bay leaf. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Uncover and let reduce until almost dry. Discard bay leaf and set aside mixture to cool. 

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan and whisk in the flour. Whisk in milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and let simmer for about 5 minutes or until thickened. Stir in parsley and 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese. Remove from heat. 

Transfer the cooled meat mixture to a large bowl and add egg yolk and cheese-parsley sauce.  

Spoon meat filling into cannelloni shells and arrange, in a single layer, in a well-buttered baking dish. 

Cover the stuffed shells with any remaining meat mixture, marinara sauce, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. 

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until parmesan cheese is slightly golden.

Beer-Battered Fish Tacos

It has been so HOT here lately, it makes me want to lie on the beach all day long. One of my favorite beach-y foods is fish tacos. We find ourselves dining out a lot on Tuesday night for various restaurants' Taco Tuesday deals, but someday I envision making every Tuesday night in my home Taco Tuesday and I will make the tacos. This would definitely be one recipe in my arsenal. It's very fast and simple.

INGREDIENTS:

3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/3 cup beer (may be substituted with milk)

8 oz. tilapia fillet or other white fish, cut crosswise into 1-inch wide strips

Vegetable oil

Corn tortillas

1-2 tomatoes, diced

1 avocado, sliced

sour cream

paprika or other seasoning 

DIRECTIONS:

Combine flour, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl. Whisk in beer to create a batter. 

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat tilapia pieces in the batter and, letting the excess batter drip into the bowl, add fish to the pan. Cook until crispy and golden, about 2-4 minutes per side.

Serve with tortillas, tomatoes, avocados, sour cream, and season with paprika or your favorite seasoning. 

Blue Ribbon Lasagna

While I am not Italian, this recipe is a family-favorite dish. It has been shared, devoured, and enjoyed by many a visitor in my childhood home. The sauce. is. amazing. It would be great served with any type of pasta, in my opinion, but also combines perfectly with the cheesy, saucy, pasta-y layered perfection that is lasagna. This dish isn't labeled Blue Ribbon for nothing!

INGREDIENTS:

1-1 1/2 lb. ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes

1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons oregano

2 Tablespoons parsley flakes

2 Tablespoons basil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

pepper

9 lasagna noodles, cooked

1 pint (2 cups) cottage cheese

2 eggs

2 cups monterey jack cheese, grated

2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated

DIRECTIONS:

Brown beef. Add onions and cook until they are transparent. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, bay leaves, oregano, parsley, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1-2 hours, until sauce is thickened. 

While sauce is simmering, cook noodles. Drain and let dry. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. When sauce is ready, begin assembly of the dish. Mix cottage cheese and eggs together. In a 9x13 inch pan layer cooked noodles, meat sauce, cottage cheese mixture, jack and mozzarella cheeses. Repeat layers three times. 

Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy!  

Gnocchi!

As the second installment of Jersey Shore-inspired Italian meals, I present Gnocchi (pronounced "nyocki"). The first time I ever tasted and heard of gnocchi was at a dinner that was used to get me out of the house for a surprise 17th birthday party. The location was Italy's Little Kitchen and I remember thinking, "Oh, Gnocchi! Where have you been all my life?" Having grown up with an express love for mashed potatoes and fettuccine alfredo, I thought, "You mean to tell me that I can have potatoes and pasta in one dish?!" Haha.. Now that I am more well-versed in nutrition, I realize this seems a little carb-crazy, but all things are good in moderation. And some things, like this, are really good.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs. Yukon Gold Potatoes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Poke potatoes all over with a fork and bake on a baking sheet for 45 minutes to one hour, until potatoes are fork-tender. For best results, turn potatoes over halfway through baking. Let potatoes cool slightly. (It helps to let cool in the freezer for a few minutes if you're impatient, like me.)

Peel the potatoes, then grate them using the large holes of a grater into a large bowl. Add lightly beaten egg and salt to the grated potatoes and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Add the flour to the potatoes, a little at a time, using only enough so that the dough will not stick to your hands. Once the flour has been incorporated, bring the dough together and dump onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough, as you would bread dough, for about 3-4 minutes. 

Form the dough into a ball, and then portion it out into six smaller balls. On a floured surface, use your fingers to roll one of the six dough balls into a 3/4-inch wide rope. Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces. 

You can cook the gnocchi as it is now, but traditional gnocchi has ridges. You can create these by pressing each piece of dough on the tines of a fork and then rolling it off and forming a cylinder shape. It helps to dip the fork into flour in between each formation to avoid sticking.  

To cook the gnocchi, place each dough piece into a pot of boiling and well-salted water. After a few minutes, the gnocchi will float to the top. Let cook one more minute, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. 

Serve with marinara sauce and parmesan cheese and enjoy. 

Chickpea Salad with Fresh Herbs, Tomatoes, and Carrots

(photo by Bradford Fishback)

I seem to come up with my favorite creations when I only have about five minutes to plan and thirty minutes to cook. This mediterranean-inspired dish is light, but filling at the same time. Also, it's a great use of fresh herbs! (Something I've been aiming to use more of lately.)

UPDATE (09.08.10): When I first made this, I was in a very garlicky mood apparently so I threw in five cloves of garlic. After eating this again as leftovers, I have realized that five cloves is far too much and I've changed the amount to two cloves of garlic.

INGREDIENTS:

1 can chick peas, drained

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut in half and then quartered

2 carrots, peeled, quartered, and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

1 big handful parsley, finely chopped

1 big handful cilantro, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

In a large pan, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. When oil is glossy, add onions and garlic and cook until onions are transparent, about 2-3 minutes. 

Add carrots, cover with a lid and cook for about five minutes until carrots are just tender (but still with a bit of crunch). 

Add chick peas and cook for another five minutes. 

Next, stir in tomatoes, parsley and cilantro. Let all ingredients meld together for a few minutes, then season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve with a lemon wedge, or sprinkle with lemon juice just before serving. 

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Cheese Toast and Yogurt with Cucumbers: Place a piece of gouda cheese on slices of bread and toast in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Serve salad on top of the toast and use the toast to help scoop up juices from the salad. 

You may also include a side of plain yogurt with diced and skinned cucumbers...a true Mediterranean staple. Maybe someday, I'll make tzatziki. 

Basic Marinara Sauce

There is something about a chunky, delicious, homemade marinara sauce. I can't decide what's better: the perfect way it complements spaghetti or the aroma that fills your kitchen while it simmers. This is a meatless sauce (aside from the chicken broth), but the texture and flavor and richness make this a hearty crowd-pleaser that turns the oh-so-common American-staple spaghetti dish into a memorable evening meal.

*adapted from Recipes at 350 Degrees

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 medium chopped yellow or white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon fresh basil (if you have it... if not, replace with Italian seasoning)

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

2/3 cup chicken broth

1 (28 oz.) can no-salt-added crushed tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until glossy and slightly browned, about 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add garlic and next six ingredients. Cook about 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Stir in balsamic vinegar. Cook about 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, on low heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 55 minutes. Makes four cups.