I'm off work this week and i've spent some of my free time experimenting with Italian foods. It all started the day before Easter standing in a long check out line at the produce market. An old Italian man behind me in line commented on how many people "were buying out the whole store." He pointed out some Feng Shui brand rice crackers and recalled a random story with me about how a prospective buyer wouldn't buy a house he was selling because it didn't have the proper Feng Shui. He was buying two cans of Escarole soup and a ball of cheese. Could canned soup be good enough to stand in such a long line? I had to find out. Needless to say, I made a pot of escarole soup today.
I love making soup, I love how you can not use a recipe and just go with your senses and it usually works. My escarole soup was basically a head of leafy escarole, one potato, some chicken thighs and the other typical brothy soup ingredients: bay leaves, water, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, parsley. I boiled the heck out of it and the broth was a rich brown color and fantastic!
My next Italian food was some pasta sauce. At the produce store I found some tomatoes in the discount bin: 10 luscious reds for $1.26. I added some hot pancetta, fresh basil, jalapeno, onion, and garlic to make some chunky Arrabiatta sauce. A few years ago my friend M and I went to a cooking class at Pina's Culinary Experience in Roselle. M later went to a sauces class offered there and had a pasta party making this recipe. It's a great sauce that i've made several times since. Served over Pina's favorite noodle: Buccatini (very thick spaghetti noodle with a whole running vertically through the middle) delish! I'll freeze the sauce to save it for a quick weekday meal.
The star of my Italian cooking experiences this week has been the Panini Sandwiches! All the comfort of a grilled cheese sandwich but with more sophisticated flavors. I tried to make some Rustic white bread...didn't turn out so well. My breads never turn out quite right (does anyone have any suggestions?) so I settled for store bought Turano bread which is a tried and true panini basic. Here are some combos I tried:
- Brie, honey, pecans, raisins, and apple slices
- Gruyere cheese, arrabiatta sauce, basil leaves, and hot pancetta
- Cheddar, turkey, pecans, and cranberry sauce
- Brie, dark chocolate, and basil leaves
There is something sexy about this odd combination that received a 5 star online rating. Cheese and chocolate are sexy foods, Giada is a sexy lady, just had to try it. C and I agreed it was fantastico! Rich flavors of the brie cheese and Lindt Semi sweet chocolate blended well while the fresh taste of the basil cut the sweetness of the chocolate.
I have to admit, by the end of today I reached my cooking limit, I washed enough dishes today, tomorrow I think i'll take a break.
(Picture of Panini with Chocolate and Basil complements of foodtv.com I've been trying to use more pictures of foods I actually made but C didn't have his camera with him today and I lost mine but regardless hopefully you'll bee seeing more authentic pictures from here on out.)
1 comment:
The combination of flavors in the paninis may seem a bit foreign to the average American's pallet, but they were outstanding. There is not a single panini that I wouldn't eat again from the list. And the soup was unique and had a wonderful marriage of flavors. I didn't want to stop eating it!
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