Italian

Roasted Eggplant Linguine with Prosciutto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

June 10, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

After making several batches of eggplant panini sandwiches I had some leftover eggplant that needed to be used up. First, I roasted the eggplant in the oven, and then cooked it in red wine with the prosciutto and tomatoes. The eggplant browned a bit in the oven and absorbed the flavors of the wine in the pan. It was pretty easy to throw together and doesn’t take long to prepare. The wine, eggplant, and prosciutto all complimented each other really well. I topped the pasta with a little fresh basil and feta cheese.

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Grilled Eggplant Panini with Roasted Tomatoes and Olive Tapenade

May 27, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Eggplant has become a recent favorite food over the last 2 years. Before that I just never gave it a second thought. It’s an under rated vegetable and that might be due to the trickiness of cooking it. There’s acid in eggplant so it’s good to press some of the juice out to remove the bitterness. Grilling eggplant is one of the best ways to cook it just because it chars the eggplant and gives it a smokier flavor. I chose some roasted tomato slices to compliment the eggplant along with fresh mozzarella and olive tapenade. The roasted tomatoes were especially good because they are in between fresh and sun-dried. The tomato is concentrated like a sun-dried tomato but it remains just juicy enough to eat on a sandwich. It was so good! I really liked all the flavors together and I will definitely make this again.

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Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza with Pancetta and Balsamic Caramelized Onions

May 18, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Butternut squash is a food that can be surprisingly versatile. So far I have enjoyed it in a variety of recipes but this pizza is by far one of the best. The squash is coated in olive oil, sage and rosemary and baked until soft. The onions sauteed in balsamic vinegar and brown sugar provide a nice balance of sweet and tart. Those flavors work really well with the squash and smoky pancetta. As for the cheese, I used Mozzarella but I would guess that Fontina cheese would be fine too. I also scooped some of the seeds out of the squash to roast in the oven which I used as a final topping. They taste just like pumpkin seeds and it was a really nice last minute addition on the pizza. I wouldn’t use a lot of salt on this recipe as the pancetta is naturally on the salty side and roasting the seeds with salt provides enough flavor for the rest of the pizza. The result was a great pizza with flavors that complimented each other really well.

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Roasted Tomato, Mozzarella and Pancetta Pizza on a Rosemary Focaccia Crust

April 19, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

When I made Parmesan and Rosemary Focaccia bread a few days ago I looked at the flat dough and I couldn’t help but think of a pizza crust. I kept thinking about how great it would be to make a pizza out of this bread and load it with tasty toppings. I relayed the idea to John and we brainstormed toppings to go on a focaccia pizza. I thought that real tomatoes instead of a sauce would be better since focaccia is traditionally a sandwich bread. John had the great idea of roasting them in the oven for 20 minutes with olive oil and garlic, giving the tomatoes an almost sun-dried flavor. We also decided that pouring a little mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the crust would be a great way to infuse the balsamic vinegar into the dough. The crust was then pre-baked to get it nice and crispy. To add some smoky flavor I tossed on some pancetta which was sauteed for a few minutes with garlic. The pancetta is fairly salty so I would recommend not adding any extra salt to this pizza. The pizza turned out really well and I can’t wait to make this again!

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Parmesan and Rosemary Focaccia Bread

April 16, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Focaccia bread is great for sandwiches and as a side dish with dinner. This bread is yeast based and, as always, it requires a little more time to prepare. The result however is a tasty, flat(ish) bread that is flavored with rosemary and olive oil. I topped the bread with a little grated parmigiano-reggiano and the cheese got nicely brown and crispy. I dipped the bread in a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil and it worked great as an appetizer.

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White Bean, Kale and Pancetta Soup

April 9, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

I have been trying to eat more “super foods” lately and one vegetable I never think to buy is kale. Kale reminds me a lot of spinach when it’s cooked so I thought a hearty Italian soup with kale would fit together nicely. This recipe is a peasant style soup with white beans, potatoes, veggies, and Italian bacon. I added a little red pepper flakes, fresh herbs, and lemon zest to brighten up the broth and the result was a really tasty, hearty stew! I decided to use chickpeas and cannellini beans but you can use any variety of white bean you like. The soup is garnished with Italian parsley and a few slices of parmigiano reggiano. I served the soup with a couple thick slices of Parmesan Potato Bread and the two together were delicious.

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Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Crispy Fried Sage

March 15, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

A classic way to eat gnocchi is with a brown butter and sage sauce. The sauce is really easy to make as it only involves melting some butter in a pan, letting it brown for a few minutes, and then frying fresh sage leaves in the butter. It is a perfect sauce for both pumpkin and sweet potato gnocchi. The next step is to toss the gnocchi in the sauce for a few minutes and the result is a delicious pasta with flavors of pumpkin and sage. I added a little lemon juice at the end to give the pasta a little more flavor.

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Pumpkin Gnocchi

March 9, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Gnocchi is a flavored pasta dough and it can be mixed with sweet or russet potatoes, butternut squash or pumpkin. I made sweet potato gnocchi a while ago and I thought it would be fun to try it with pumpkin instead. Making gnocchi is somewhat time consuming but really isn’t too bad compared with making other pasta from scratch. All you do is mix the dough with the flavoring that you want, roll the dough into logs and cut them into small pieces. The dough is boiled and then fried. The whole process takes about 2 hours to complete but it is worth the effort as the little pillows of pumpkin practically melt in the mouth!

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Mushroom Ravioli with a Balsamic Butter Sauce and Toasted Walnuts

February 25, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

This mushroom ravioli is really easy to make if you don’t have time to make your own ravioli from scratch. Unfortunately I don’t have the tools (yet) to make my own pasta so hopefully I will be able to enjoy this recipe from scratch eventually. This is actually my boyfriend John’s recipe (he ate a lot of this during his bachelor pad days). He definitely did better than most bachelors with this delicious and easy to make recipe. The balsamic to butter sauce ratio is important as there needs to be enough butter to tame the bitterness of the balsamic vinegar. The sauce should be a medium brown color and not have a lot of bite to it. I let the sauce simmer on very low heat to let the balsamic vinegar caramalize a little while the pasta was cooking. The walnuts and sauce are perfect with the woodsy flavors of the mushrooms. The only thing I wish I did was get a good rind of parmigiano reggiano for this recipe.

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Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta and Bean Soup)

December 2, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

Pasta e Fagioli is a traditional Italian peasant soup that translates to “pasta and beans.” It’s a soup that can be made with several types of pasta, usually tubettini, ditalini, or conchigliette. Prosciutto or pancetta is used for the base to give it a nice smoky flavor. I wanted to make a big batch so I used a slow cooker to cook the beans and broth. It turned out great, though I forgot to cut up the rosemary and it should really be finely chopped. Just before serving I mixed in the cooked pasta. I strained the rest of the noodles out before putting it away to prevent them from absorbing all the broth over night. The soup was great with a warm, crusty baguette and grated parmigiano reggiano.

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