Cherry Tomato Crostata

You know, there was a time I was obsessed with Martha Stewart. I loved her and I wanted to be like her. I watched her shows and subscribed to her magazine. I only got rid of the magazines a few years ago, and that's only because my mother was cleaning out her basement and came upon them and didn't want to keep them any more. I don't blame her. I don't know when was the last time I looked through them. Probably 15 years ago.

Anyway, it was during this time in my twenties, that I decided I wanted to perfect the fruit pie. Crust and all. Especially the crust. You see, Martha was baking these beautiful pies that were made from scratch and used fruit that she grew herself on Turkey Hill in Conneticut. Go figure! So I was making and baking pies practically every week. And I think after a few months, I did perfect the pie...I also gained 20 pounds but whatever, I made beautiful pies.

So then I spent my thirties trying to lose the twenty pounds, which meant I stopped making pies. I still make a pie here and there but my crust is not nearly as perfect as it used to be. But I don't mind.

When I came upon this recipe for tomato pie, it called for a crust made from scratch. I debated whether to make it or use an already prepared crust from the frozen section in the grocery store. Ultimately the grocery store won. Martha would be very disappointed. Oh well.

I doubled this recipe because I had a lot of cherry tomatoes from my garden.

Cherry Tomato Crostata
makes one 9inch pie

1 prepared pie crust, thawed
2 pints cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup basil, chopped
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence (optional)
5 1/2 cups grated provolone or fontina cheese
1/2 cup mayo

Preheat oven to 375F.
Mix the cheese, basil and mayo. Spread the mixture over the bottom of the pie shell. Top with the cherry tomatoes and press down. Bake for 35 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbling. Cool for 10 minutes and serve.

m xo

Caprese Salad

My garden is on its last legs. Even though the tomato, pepper, celery and cucumber plants are still producing, the plants are starting to wither, even with all the watering. I always forget, year to year, how quickly summer goes. It's amazing!

We have been having tomatoes, every night, in many combinations, including this classic salad.

Caprese is a traditional Italian salad made with tomatoes and mozzarella that I'm sure you've had many times. It's a standard in every Italian restaurant. This time of year, of course is the best time to have this. I added cantaloup because, well, as I'm sure you know by now, I have a sweet tooth and I try to incorporate any sweetness, any way I can.

Real simple here. Tomatoes, preferably heirloom, fior di latte, cantaloup and basil. Doesn't get any better than this.

Caprese Salad

Tomatoes
Cantaloup
Fior di latte
Basil
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Layer the tomatoes, cantaloup, fior di latte and basil on a platter. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

m xo

Blossoming Zucchini Pie

I had a little helper today. My niece Ella again. Thankfully she loves being in the kitchen just as much as I do, so when she is around and can spare a few minutes away from her iPad, she comes over to help with the chopping and stirring.

Today we decided to make zucchini pie because I had a few zucchini laying around from my moms garden (we didn't grow any this year). She also gave me a HUGE bag of zucchini blossoms (flowers), so I decided to use them in the pie also. But this totally optional as I know that they are hard to find. I, myself have gone to the farmers market down the street from me on a few occasions and they were sold out. I need to get there as soon as they open, which is like 7:30 in the morning. And well, I never did that. The flowers aren't really nessessary for this, I just think they make it look pretty. Lol.

To prepare the flowers, if you are using them, cut the bottoms off and split the flower lengthwise to remove the little pistil in the middle. Depending on how many you have, leave 5-6 to decorate the top of the pie and chop up the rest for the filling.

I normally make a frittata in a pan, but decided to change it up a bit by baking it a quiche baking dish. I sautéed the zucchini and an onion and mixed it in with eggs, a bit of cream, some herbs and cheese of course. I used Compte because, well, thats what I had. You can substitute Gruyere or mozzarella.

This dish is really nice because it can be served at room temperature, which means it can be made ahead of time. Great for brunch!

Zucchini Pie

Butter, to grease baking dish
Bread crumbs, to coat dish
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups sliced zucchini
1 medium red onion, chopped
6 eggs
1/4 cup half and half cream
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
2 cups Compte cheese, grated
12 zucchini blossoms or flowers, totally optional
Salt for the zucchini


Preheat oven to 350F.
Butter and coat a 12 inch, round baking dish. Set aside.
Place the sliced zucchini in a colander and salt liberally. Let it sit for 30 minutes.
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and add the zucchini and the chopped onion. Cook until soft. Set aside and let cool. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, cream, parsley, herbs de provence, cheese and half the zucchini flowers, if using. Add the cooled zucchini mixture and pour in baking dish. Place 5-6 of the flowers decoratively on top and drizzle a little olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes until golden or a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

m xo

Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Chicken

I didn't always like goat cheese. In fact, I quite detested it. Every time I tried it, I always thought it tasted "goaty". It just wasn't my thing. Until recently. All of a sudden I developed a taste for the tanginess of the goat cheese. I really enjoy it! You just never know. One day your palette just changes.

I decided to make stuffed chicken breasts with goat cheese and spinach that I had hanging around and needed using. I first cooked the spinach in a pan until wilted. Let it cool and then chopped it. Sauteed an onion and mixed it together with the spinach, the zest of a lemon, salt and pepper to taste and of course the goat cheese. Stuffed the chicken breasts and baked them. They were so delicious and I almost forgot I was eating chicken breast. The cheese was so creamy. Mmmmm!!! I can't wait to make these for a dinner party. You can make them ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator until ready to bake.

Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Chicken

5-6 chicken breasts, boneless
1 red onion, chopped
1 cup cooked spinach, chopped
1 cup goat cheese, room temperature
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil to sauté the onion and drizzle over chicken

Preheat to 400F.
In the meantime, in a pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the onion until soft. Set aside and let cool for a couple of minutes. In a bowl, mix the spinach, goat cheese, lemon zest, salt and pepper, and add the sautéed onion.
Using a sharp knife held horizontally and starting at the thinner side of the chicken, cut in half almost but not all the way through, like a book. Spread approximately 1 tablespoon stuffing on one side and fold over with the other side. Salt and pepper the top and place in a greased, oven proof dish. Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is golden and no longer pink inside.

m xo

Happy Birthday to Me…Cardamom Carrot Cake!

This year I decided to make my own birthday cake. Strange, you say? Maybe. But think about it. You decide what kind of cake you want, you know all the ingredients that are going into it and then you get to share it with the people you love!

Let me tell you how this came about. My sister Antonella offered to make me my birthday cake and I decided I wanted a cheesecake this year. Which is unusual but I really had a craving for it. She was going to use local raspberries as the topping. Yummy! In the meantime I took a quiz on Facebook, posted by food52, asking "what cake are you?" and I got "Carrot Cake with Cardamom". I do enjoy a nice carrot cake but what I REALLY love most about carrot cake is the cream cheese frosting!!! Sooo good. I bought all the ingredients to make this cake and figured, hey, you can never have too much cake. I would be enjoying the cheesecake and the carrot cake for the next few days. Definitely no complaints here. But then Antonelle got sick so I NEEDED to make my own cake. Hahaha!

The carrot cake is the recipe from food52. I liked it because it has cardamom in it, which I love. I made some adjustments though. The original calls for both white and brown sugar, I only used brown sugar and I  cut it down by half a cup. I also replaced I cup of the flour with spelt flour. I didn't use the cream cheese frosting that the recipe called for. It was too much for what I needed so I found one on line from Good Housekeeping. It's the perfect amount and not too sweet. I like my cream cheese frosting on the tangy side.

So for your next birthday, I encourage you to make your own cake and most important, share it with the people you love!!

 Carrot Cake with Cardamom 

Cake

1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
4 cups grated carrots
2 cups flour
1 cup spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of an orange
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup yogurt

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour two 9" cake pans.
In a bowl, beat the sugar and the eggs until light yellow. Add vanilla. In a large bowl, combine the grated carrots, flours, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, salt and orange zest. Toss to coat. Add the oil and yogurt and stir until combined. Pour batter evenly in the pans. Bake until golden, about 50 minutes. Cool completely. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup butter, softened
400g. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

In a large bowl, with a mixer or by hand, beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar until blended and light and fluffy.

m xo

Asparagus Frittata

Farmer's markets are just starting to open and sell their fresh produce in my area and I am all over them. I love going to see what they have and then coming home and plan our meals around the wonderful produce that I've bought.

This week I bought a few bunches of asparagus and fresh farm eggs and one of the things I made was this frittata. Growing up, we would have frittata at least once a week because it was a quick meal to make after work and delicious. Of course it always depended on what was in season or what what was in the refrigerator. One of  my favourite frittatas is potato, which I have to say, I make all year round. But I remember my mom making frittata to put in my fathers lunch to change it up from the usual cold cuts. Frittata is such a versatile dish because you can make it for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner.  And to this day, when I bring it for lunch, I can never wait for lunch time because I can't wait to have it. Isn't that funny?

I used 8 eggs and made a substantial frittata because not only did we have it for dinner, but John brought it for lunch the next day and I had it for breakfast. (see, I couldn't even wait for lunch) lol.

I used Comte cheese because it was what I happen to have in my refrigerator but you can use parmesan  cheese if you prefer.

I flip my frittata on an inverted plate and slide it back in the skillet and finish cooking but if you don't feel comfortable doing that, just make sure you use an oven proof skillet and finish under the broiler in the oven.

Asparagus Frittata

1 bunch of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper
8 large eggs
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1/2 cup Comte, freshly grated

In a 10 inch skillet, cook the red onion and the asparagus in the olive oil over medium heat until softened. Season with salt and pepper.
In the meantime, whisk together the eggs, tarragon, chives and cheese in a bowl.
Lower the heat to a medium-low and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Cook and slowly drag the edges to the middle of the pan until the egg mixture is set. It should be lightly brown on the bottom. Place an inverted plate over it and with oven mitts on, quickly flip the frittata on the plate and slide it back in the pan. Cook until the bottom is lightly brown.
Slide onto a plate and cut into wedges to serve.

m xo

Baked Polenta

I have been craving polenta for a while now, but because John doesn't like polenta, I haven't really rushed to make to it, until today. I cheated a little and bought the prepared polenta in the tube-y thingy that you get in the grocery store. I have to say, that stuff is sooo convenient. It's pretty amazing. I just sliced it up, spooned some sauce over, sprinkled some cheese on it and popped it in the oven. I prepared my lunch and had it on the table in 30 minutes. How fabulous is that?

I made a salsa cruda (raw) instead of a cooked sauce. I wanted it to taste light. I didn't give you any amounts for this recipe because thats totally up to you and how many people you're feeding. I made the whole tube and it was enough for 2 people, but since it was only me, I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Lucky for me!

Baked Polenta with Salsa Cruda

Prepared polenta in a tube
Salsa cruda, recipe below
Shredded mozzarella
Olive oil
Butter, to grease baking dish

Preheat oven to 375F. Butter a baking dish with butter. Slice the polenta into 1/2 inch rounds and layer in pan, overlapping a little. Spoon over the salsa cruda and sprinkle evenly with mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20 minutes until bubbly and golden.

Salsa Cruda

Fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped
Garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix together and set aside.


m xo

Cheesy Quinoa Muffins

Ok, so these muffins came together like the perfect storm. I pinned them a while ago and have been wanting to make them for quite a while but just never got around to it…until today. I looked in my refrigerator and had EVERYTHING. I didn't have to substitute anything. Those who have been following me know that I do a lot substituting when I'm in the kitchen and sometimes it's not even that I don't have a certain ingredient, it's just that I want to try something different. But this time I did exactly what the recipe called for, and they were great! I think these would make a nice picnic fare. Or for lunch, with a salad.

Just a little tip that I think would help. When you take them out of the oven, cool them completely before taking them out of the muffin tin. They stuck to the pan a little when I tried to take them when they were still warm.

Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Muffins

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 small broccoli, cooked and chopped
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons sriracha
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Generously grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
Mix everything together and fill muffin pan. Bake for 45 minutes until golden. Cool in pan before removing from the pan.

m xo

Not Really a Recipe #2…Good Friday Lunch

As I'm sure you all know, Good Friday, one of the holiest day of the year, we are not supposed to have any meat products. Growing up, we usually had linguine with vongole or mussels. Nothing too fancy but I always looked forward to it. Things have changed a bit because my husband AND brother-in-law both don't like fish. Except tuna fish…in a can. Not fresh tuna. Go figure. Anyway I needed a quick lunch today so I decided to make tuna melts.

Now growing up, we NEVER mixed seafood and dairy. It just wasn't done. Things have changed a lot since. You see more and more people, especially Italians, mixing the two.

I think I made my first tuna melt last year after seeing them everywhere and knowing John loved them. I have to say, they are delicious! I make mine open faced because I like the bread to tuna ratio. I also love these made on crostini as an appetizer. Yummy!

So if you, like me, have never mixed seafood and dairy, You MUST try this! And who knows?  You might experiment with other seafood/dairy recipes.

Preheat oven to broil.
Toast a nice piece of wholegrain bread until nicely browned.
Using tuna in olive oil, drain and add a little mayo. You don't want to drench it, just enough to bind it together.
Spread the tuna mixture on top and top with your choice of cheese. I used cheddar cheese this time, but you can use whatever melty cheese you prefer.
Put under the broiled until the cheese bubbles.

Enjoy!

Have a Happy Easter!

m xo

Throwback Thursday...Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

When I think of this salad, I think of the 80's. I think every restaurant had this on their menu back then. But I never had it until years later when an ex-boyfriends mother would serve this salad as a side with dinner. That's another thing that we never did, serve salad on a separate plate, on the side. Growing up, salad was always at the end of the meal on the same plate. Haha, this was totally new to me. I thought it was really cool.

I finally decided to make it as a main meal for last nights dinner and added a poached egg to it. A nice light meal. I adapted this recipe from Mark Bittmans cookbook, How to Cook Everything. Although I did guild the lily a little by adding some crumbled blue cheese to it.

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette
(adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman)

150 grams baby spinach
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 slices bacon, chopped
1 small shallot, chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Crumbled blue cheese
2 poached eggs

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and add chopped bacon. Cook until crispy and remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the chopped shallot and sauté until soft. Stir in the Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar and bring to a boil. Take off the heat.
In a large bowl with the baby spinach, pour the bacon vinaigrette over it and toss until well coated. Sprinkle with the crispy bacon and  blue cheese crumbles. Divide in two plates and top with a poached egg on each one.

m xo