Olive Tapenade

"Tapenade is a Provençal dish usually consisting of puréed or finely chopped
olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word
for capers, tapenas. It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is
generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on bread.
Tapenade's base
ingredient is olive. The olives (most commonly black olive) and capers are
finely chopped, crushed, or blended. Olive oil is then added until the mixture
becomes a paste. Tapenade is often flavored differently in varying regions with
other ingredients such as garlic, herbs, anchovies, lemon juice, or brandy."

-Wikipedia

You can't always trust wikipedia, but this sounded pretty right on to me. I had no idea what Tapenade was until a recipe I wanted to make a couple years ago called for it.
Keeping it short and sweet:
Olive tapenade is expensive and can be hard to find. Make your own! It's easy, and so very delicious!



Yield: about 13 ounces

You Will Need:

- 1 cup pitted kalamata olives, rough chopped
- 1/4 cup green olives, any filling removed (ie, pimentos or almonds) and rough chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 Tablespoon anchovy paste
- 1 Tablespoon pine nuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture takes on the consistency pictured above.
Tapenade is a spread, perfect for bruschetta, or on THESE:
Tomato and Tapenade Tarts

Homemade Marinara

I'm taking credit for this one. I've made a few different marinara sauces, sticking strictly to whatever recipe I was using. This recipe I claim as my own is really a mixture of my favorite parts of each recipe.



You will need:

- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely chopped
- 2 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (it's up to you, how much do you like garlic?)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 (15 oz, or as close to...) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz, or as close to...) can stewed tomatoes, (open the can and give them a rough chop)
- 1 (15 oz, or as close to...) can tomato sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine (optional I guess, but the flavor is insanely good when used)
- OPTIONAL (1/2 cup green olives, finely chopped, 3 tablespoons capers, drained)--these will go with the flavors of the white wine and add a delicious salty bite to the sauce, but I know not all of you are olive fans. That's ok, more for me!

Directions:
Place stock pot or dutch oven on stove over medium-high heat, and add olive oil. Add in the onions, celery, carrots and garlic, and season with the salt and pepper. Allow the vegetables to saute until soft, about 15 minutes. Add in the tomato products, bay leaves and white wine, and allow to simmer over medium heat for about 45 minutes, until flavors marry and the sauce reduces a bit.
REMOVE BAY LEAVES!!!
Grab your food processor and, depending on how chunky you and your family like your marinara, process ladle fulls of the sauce until smooth, and then add the processed sauce back to your stock pot. Doing this will help thicken the sauce. If you want to process the entire batch of marinara sauce then I recommend bringing out a second pot for the sauce you've already processed.
This sauce is delicious with the sweet potato gnocchi (when made without the capers and olives). It is perfect to use as pizza sauce for your homemade pizzas as well.
I promise you will love this sauce! You can pop it in a jar and give it as a gift to your neighbors. It keeps in the fridge for 7 to 10 days, but you can store some in the freezer if you need to keep it longer.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Our friends Bubba and Kim had us over for dinner before they moved to Florida, this must have been a month or two ago. They always make the most beautiful, amazing food for us when they have us over. This particular night they made us Sweet Potato Gnocchi. I love pasta, especially gnocchi, but I had never heard of using sweet potatoes or yams in place of regular potatoes before. That's not to say that doing so is rare, it is just another proof of how much I don't know about food.
Hold up.
Pretend I didn't say that. I know everything about food. Please keep reading my blog.
Anyway, what really blew my mind is how good the sweet, cinnamon-y gnocchi tasted with the homemade marinara sauce they served with it. Below I will post the gnocchi recipe they used, as well as the one I tried. The only difference is that with the second one (by Giada, Foodnetwork.com) you don't spend 2 hours draining ricotta cheese. I am also posting Giada's recipe for Browned Butter Sauce, because this is what she served hers with, and it is also very delicious.
How fun would it be to serve these sweet potato gnocchi with Thanksgiving dinner instead of the generic sweet potatoes with marshmallows?! (Although those are awesome too, which is why they are a classic, right?)
What I like to do is make a triple batch to have some for later. To do this you just make up the dough per the directions below, line up the uncooked gnocchi on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and pop them in the freezer until they have hardened. Make sure they do not touch on the cookie sheet or they will freeze together in a clump. Once they have hardened you can transfer them to a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to eat them just boil them up like normal, they will just take one or two extra minutes to cook up.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
(Bubba and Kim’s recipe)

Ingredients:
2 1-pound sweet potatoes, pierced all over with a fork
1 12-ounce container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours
1 cup grated Parmesan
2 tbs. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. plus 2 tbs. salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
2 ¾ cups flour (about)

Directions:

Place sweet potatoes on plate; microwave on high until tender, about 5 minutes per side. Cut in half and cool. Scraped sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer 3 cups to mixer. Add ricotta and blend well. Add Parmesan, brown sugar, 2 tsp. salt and nutmeg; mash to blend. Mix in four, about ½ cup at a time, until soft dough forms.

Turn dough onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a 20-inch-long rope (about 1 inch in diameter), sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 40 pieces. Transfer to baking sheet.

Bring large pot of water to boil; add 2 tbs. salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until they float to the top. Transfer gnocchi to baking sheet.


Next, Giada's recipe--

Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
2 pounds sweet potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/3 cup for the work surface

For the Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
20 fresh sage leaves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
For the Gnocchi:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Pierce the sweet potato with a fork. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender and fully cooked, between 40 to 55 minutes depending on size. Cool slightly. Cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes and transfer to a large measuring cup to make sure the sweet potatoes measure about 2 cups.
Transfer the mashed sweet potatoes back to the large bowl. Add the ricotta cheese, salt, cinnamon, and pepper and blend until well mixed.

Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms.
Lightly flour a work surface and place the dough in a ball on the work surface. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls.

Roll out each ball into a 1-inch wide rope. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces. Roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork. Transfer the formed gnocchi to a large baking sheet. Continue with the remaining gnocchi.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the gnocchi in 3 batches and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 6 minutes. Drain the gnocchi using a slotted spoon onto a baking sheet. Tent with foil to keep warm and continue with the remaining gnocchi.

For the Brown Butter sauce:
While the gnocchi are cooking melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the sage leaves.

Continue to cook, swirling the butter occasionally, until the foam subsides and the milk solids begin to brown. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Careful, the mixture will bubble up. Gently stir the mixture. When the bubbles subside, toss the cooked gnocchi in the brown butter. Transfer the gnocchi to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Muffuletta Sandwich

Jacob and I were road trippin' it on Friday, making the long drive from Salt Lake City to Newburry Park, California. I hate fast food. (Not really, but if I say it enough I am hoping to make it true.) In order to avoid the usual multiple fast food stops I planned ahead. It wasn't just about buying all of our favorite snacks at the grocery store the night before, though I did that. I also wanted to make something that would be so delicious and filling that there wouldn't even be room left for a small order of french fries. Muffuletta Sandwich, mission accomplished. And after I ate my half I had so much energy! Usually I am so tiered the entire drive, and Jacob always makes me drive the second shift.

Recipe by: The Neely's (Foodnetwork.com)Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup mayonnaise

- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 red onion, diced(I used half, and that was PLENTY)
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 1 cup diced black olives
- 1 cup diced green olives
- 1/2 cup diced marinated artichoke hearts
- 1 cup diced piquillo peppers(I used a half cup of pepperoncini peppers, it was yummy)
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1/3 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Kosher salt
- 1 muffuletta or round Italian loaf (10 to 12 inches in diameter)
- 2 ounces each thinly sliced Genoa salami, hot sopressata, mortadella, and smoked turkey
- 2 ounces each thinly sliced imported Swiss cheese and aged provolone

Directions:

Whisk together the mayonnaise, olive oil, vinegar, honey, lime juice, red pepper flakes, oregano, and 1 teaspoon black pepper in a large bowl. Add the onion, carrot, olives, artichoke hearts, peppers, celery, and parsley; toss, and season to taste with salt. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the salad to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Slice the bread in half, and pull some of the interior from the middle of the roll to make room for the other ingredients.

Spread a generous amount of the olive oil salad on each half. (You will probably have some salad leftover; it holds for 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator.)

Layer the meat and cheese on the bottom half, alternating layers of each meat with thin layers of cheese. Cover with the top half of bread, press gently, slice into wedges, and serve.

Artichoke Risotto

Recipe from: Cooking Vegetables, by Joanne Glynn

I have adapted this recipe a bit. The recipe allows for you to prep your own artichokes. I, however, prefer to buy canned artichokes. I like these:

The keys to a good risotto are patience, and using the proper heat setting. Risotto can take some time to cook and rushing it will leave you with crunchy risotto. Using to high a heat will cause your stock to evaporate instead of being absorbed by the rice, and to low a heat will leave you standing at the stove for hours. Good Luck!

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cans canned artichokes
- 5 cups homemade light chicken or vegetable stock (I used canned, of course)
- 1/3 cup butter
- 2 leeks thinly sliced, white part only
- 1 ½ cups aborio rice
- ½ cup dry vermouth (I used white wine, as that is what I had on hand. I have never used vermouth before, so I’m not sure if it was a close substitution, but it still came out delicious!)
- 3 tablespoons chopped mint
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic chives (optional)

Directions:

Cut your canned artichokes into thin, vertical slices.
Heat the stock in a sauce pan, cover, and keep at a low simmer. Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter over a low heat in a large, heavy based, non-aluminum pan that is wider than it is tall. Fry the leek without browning for 3-4 minutes.

Add the artichokes to the pan. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add 1 cup of stock to the pan, cover, and simmer gently for 10 minutes or until almost all the stock has evaporated. Stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the vermouth and cook until it has been absorbed. Add a ladleful of hot stock and stir constantly over medium heat until all the liquid is absorbed.

Continue adding more liquid, one ladleful at a time, until almost all the liquid id absorbed and the rice is tender and creamy. This will take 20 to 25 minutes (for me this took more like 45 minutes). If the stock runs out use boiling water.
Remove the pan from the heat. Add the remaining butter, the mint, and Parmesan, and stir until the butter has melted. Set aside for 1 minute before serving topped with the garlic chives, if desired.
Note: The stock used needs to be light in color, as well as flavor.

Parmesan Chicken, Puttanesca Tomato Salad, and the Best Garlic Bread Ever (so say Jacob and Grayson)

I know it sounds like a lot, but it is really easy and comes together fast if you plan it right. If you watched food network today then you’ve likely already seen two of the three recipes. The Puttanesca Salad is a Rachael Ray recipe, so you know it’s easy (and is jam-packed with E.V.O.O.), and the garlic bread was on Guy whatever’s show today. The parmesan chicken is an old Ina Garden recipe. If I ever let loose and get totally wasted, I’m doing it with Ina. She looks like a woman who knows how to grip it and rip it.

If you are gonna make all this in one night (like I did) here is the game plan I would suggest:

- Prep the garlic butter for the bread first.
- Next, assemble your tomato salad and store it in the fridge while you finish everything else.
- Pound out your chicken breasts and prep your flour/egg/bread crumb stations. Then get your skillet preheated and ready.
- Slice your bread, and coat with the garlic butter. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil (you will be glad you did come clean up time) and put the buttered bread on it. Preheat the broiler.
- Start breading and cooking your first and second chicken (I had to cook my chicken breasts one at a time because my skillet was too small), put the garlic bread in to cook about the same time you start your last chicken breast on the skillet.


Now for the recipes...


For the Garlic Bread you will need:

- 1 loaf sourdough or French bread, cut in half lengthwise
For the Garlic butter:
- ¾ pound unsalted butter (3 sticks of butter), room temp.
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- Pinch of paprika or cayenne pepper ( I prefer cayenne)
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- garlic salt (Guy roasted his own garlic which took an hour, I used garlic powder and it was better than fine…to each his own.)
To top:
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- either sun dried tomatoes or roasted tomatoes in olive oil, whichever you prefer. I used the latter because I think sun dried tomatoes are a little to strong/sweet if you know what I mean…
- about 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Basil


For the Garlic butter simply mix all the ingredients together. Top the bread with the butter and then broil until toasted. Slice the toasted bread, and top with the parmesan cheese, tomatoes and basil. You better serve this with something delicious, because this bread will seriously steal the show.

For the Puttanesca Tomato Salad you will need:

- ½ cup E.V.O.O. (Rach, that you so much for that…(sarcasm…))
- 1 jar large capers (drained and patted dry if you plan to fry them, but I don’t think you need to…I tried it and thought that frying took away their flavor.)
- 1 clove garlic grated or finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon anchovy paste (don’t be scared)
- 6 plum tomatoes (I used roma and was fine)
- 1 small red onion, or ½ medium very finely sliced (I used ½ a small onion and it was still a lot)
- ½ cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley (I used the same Italian parsley that I used in my garlic butter)
- a handful of pitted good quality black olives (Harmon’s has an olive bar, hopefully you have access to some place with one, like a Wholefoods…canned black olives aren’t gonna cut it this time…)
-salt and black pepper
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes for seasoning

If you want to fry the capers: Heat 1/4 cup oil in small pan over medium-high heat. Add capers but be careful, they will spatter. Fry the capers 1 1/2 to 2 minutes until golden, drain on paper towels.
Then, combine remaining 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil with garlic and anchovy paste. Add tomatoes, onion, parsley and olives. Season with red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Garnish with capers and serve. This recipe has a lot of what I like to call ‘adult’ flavors. It is strong, but really good served on top of the parmesan chicken, so give it a try!

Thank you Harmon's, and your plentiful olive bar...

For the Parmesan Chicken you will need:

- 3 chicken breasts, pounded until they are ¼ inch thick
- 1 cup all purpose flour
-1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 2 large eggs, beaten with a tablespoon of water added
- about 1 and ¼ cups seasoned dry bread crumbs
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan, plus extra for serving
- unsalted butter
- olive oil (Ina Garden is way too cool to say E.V.O.O.)
Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. Serve with the additional parmesan and some of the puttanesca tomato salad.

I will tell you that I didn’t pound out my chicken to the thickness specified by Ina, and I spent about ten extra minutes cooking each breast. It was a bummer, and Jacob and Grayson didn’t get to eat until almost nine o’clock. The moral of the story, plan well fair chefs, plan well. I didn't take a picture of my chicken because it was all cut up and ugly, but you can go here to see the one Ina posted on foodnetwork.com:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parmesan-chicken-recipe/index.html

Creamy Baked Fettuccine and the Horrible Spider (9/19/2009)

Well, I am normally not a huge Fettuccine fan. I thought this recipe was...eh...okay, but my husband and, surprisingly, my son Finn LOVED it. So I'm posting this recipe because I am outnumbered, but I do have one fettuccine recipe that I love that I will make sure I post in the near future.

For this recipe you will need:

-1 lb dry fettuccine pasta

-2 cups grated Asiago cheese , plus 1/4 cup

-2 (8-ounce) containers creme fraiche

-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

-1 and 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.

In a large bowl combine the 2 cups Aiago cheese, creme fraiche, Parmesan, thyme, salt, pepper, cooked pasta, and pasta cooking liquid. Gently toss until all the ingredients are combined and the pasta is coated. Place the pasta in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup asiago cheese. Bake until golden on top, about 25 minutes. Let sit for at least 5 minutes and serve.

So... thanks Giada and foodnetwork.com for the "awesome" (according to Jacob and Finn) Fettuccine recipe. It was definitely fast and easy, and it made a ton which is great because the cheese was pretty expensive. I added fresh lemon juice to mine at the end and that was tasty. The recipe could probably feed five really hungry people as a main dish, more if you served it with salmon or chicken.

A little side note about my day today.... I put my hand down right on top of the most disgusting, hairy, thirty-eyed spider ever...

and I'm positive it wasn't even full grown yet. This happened today at the playground in my complex. There was also a hairball from some mangy flee bitten muff of a cat sitting in the middle of the walk way. W.T.F. Remington?!?