Garlic & Veggie Risotto

Risotto is a well-loved dish in my household and I'm always looking for ways to change it up.
I recently saw a post by Lidia Bastianich for a garlic risotto which sounded interesting but I was hesitant about the amount of garlic and lack of other veggies.  I made a few modifications, but I now have no doubt the original would have been wonderful the way it was!  You could easily pick any vegetable or combination of veggies for this risotto.

Needless to say, this risotto was a huge success!  The kids ate it up and the husband was very impressed.  This served our family of four with a protein and salad, with leftovers for another day. 

Ingredients:
7-8 cups chicken stock
2 cups arborio rice
1 head of garlic (approx. 14 cloves), peeled and crushed
1 cup white wine
olive oil
salt to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped green beans
1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 - 1 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Directions:

1. Bring the chicken stock to simmer over medium heat and season with salt.

2. In a frying pan over medium heat, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.   Toss the green beans red peppers and cook until tender.

3. Puree the garlic and white wine in a blender or food processor.

4. In a large, shallow pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until they are tender, but not starting to brown, about 5 minutes. 

5. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the rice, stirring constantly until the grains are coated in oil and translucent, about 2 minutes.  Add the wine-garlic puree and cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed.

6. Ladle in about 2-3  ladlefuls of stock, stir and cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed.  Repeat this process, adding in a couple of ladlefuls of stock each time the liquid is mostly absorbed, until the rice is al dente, about 20 minutes.  With about 5 minutes left, add the green beans and red peppers.

7. When the rice is al dente, turn off the heat and stir in the butter and Parmesan cheese.  Season with salt and pepper if necessary.  Serve immediately (with more cheese if you like!)

Quick & Easy Creamy Lemon-Garlic Ravioli

Has anyone else been struggling to find inspiration for 3 meals a day every day during this COVID-19 pandemic?  I've come to realize how often we ate out or even just picked up snacks out.  Now we are basically enjoying all meals inside.

I'm a PC Insiders member and I didn't even realize we had exclusive access to something called the Insiders Project until I received an email saying they were giving free access to everyone during the pandemic! 

Well of course I had to go on and browse what they have on there - and wow! Lots of variety and lots of great looking recipes.  So of course I had to try one of them out.

I've always loved a cream sauce on my pasta, even though my kids are not big fans.  And no matter what I do, I can never really replicate my mom's cream sauce, and any that I've found online are not what I would consider keepers.  Well tonight the pasta was enjoyed by all and my husband actually said "Wow! This is a keeper!" Now that's saying a lot because I'm pretty sure my kids inherited their dislike for cream sauces from him.  He started talking about all the different ways we could use this sauce in other dishes.

This amount was perfect for our family of 4, and it came together very quickly.  Once I popped the frozen ravioli in the boiling water, I got started on the sauce.  It has very little prep involved as well - grate the cheese, mince the garlic and zest the lemon.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, but I never measure and always use till I think it looks good. Of course, you could use any pasta you want, but for some reason I love ravioli in a cream sauce.

Ingredients:

400g bag frozen cheese ravioli
2 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup cream
zest of one lemon
sea salt to taste
1 tsp dried parsley
(1 cup) Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place frozen ravioli in a salted (large) pot of boiling water. Cook until the ravioli is al dente (approx. 8-10 minutes).  Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water, and drain the ravioli.

2. While ravioli is cooking, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Be careful not to brown or burn the garlic.  Stir in cream, lemon zest, dried parsley and salt.  Simmer until the sauce is reduced by half, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add drained ravioli and 1/2 cup pasta water.  Increase heat to medium-high, then cook, stirring often until the sauce thickens and coats the pasta, approx. 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and gradually grate the Parmesan cheese over top, stirring occasionally.  Stir in lemon juice and season with black pepper.  Serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Maple Glazed Trout

I often buy trout from Costco - it comes as two nice fillets that are pretty easy to prepare.  This recipe will glaze two of those fillets (about 1.5 kg).  It can easily be halved if you are planning on making one fillet and freezing the other for another use. (Original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/steelhead-trout-baked-with-honey-or-maple-glaze-50175385)

This trout pairs nicely with some basmati rice and steamed green beans tossed in salt and olive oil.  You can also sub out the maple for honey with the same results!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 onion, thinly sliced

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a glass bowl in the microwave.  Whisk in the remaining ingredients.

2. Place the fish in the centre of a piece of foil.  Pour the glaze over the fish and fold the packet around the fish.

3. Preheat the oven to 400F.  (The fish will marinate while the oven heats up.  This step is not necessary though; you can preheat the oven while you prepare the fish to save time.)

4. Bake for 10 minutes plus 10 minutes for each inch of thickness (ie: a one inch thick fillet would bake for 20 minutes.)  Alternatively, you can subtract 5 minutes from your total cooking time, open up the foil and broil for 5 minutes.

Yummy garlic bread!

If I'm not using my grandparents' jarred sauce, I'm probably using the marinara sauce from Costco (I think it's called White Linen; it comes in a glass jar).  This sauce is so easy because you just have to
heat it up, it tastes great and having it with some fresh ravioli is oh so yummy!

My little one has been asking for garlic bread every day for at least the last week so I decided to make some to go with our ravioli dinner tonight.  This recipe makes such a yummy garlic bread and it is so great to dip into the tomato sauce as well.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 tsp dried parsley (or 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped)
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 baguette or Italian loaf
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Stir together the butter, oil, garlic and parsley in a small bowl.
3, Cut the bread into 1" thick slices with a serrated knife.  Do not cut all the way through, leaving the slices attached to each other.
4. Gently pull apart the slices and use a pastry brush to butter them with the garlic mixture.  Spread the garlic mixture over the outside as well.  Sprinkle the outside and between the slices with the Parmesan cheese.
5. Wrap the loaf in foil and bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes.  After that time, open the foil and bake an additional 5 minutes.

Garlic Bread Sticks

If my little one could have pizza and garlic sticks every day, she would.  Whenever we ask her what she wants, that's her answer, followed by the cutest smile and a "please please please please please."  Fridays during Lent we are abstaining from meat, so veggie pizza is always an easy fix for a Friday night dinner.

The dough recipe that I use can be found here (from a previous post): Quick Pizza Dough.  I let the dough rise a little longer, probably 20-30 minutes.  This gives me enough dough to make two round pizzas.  One dough I use for my pizza and the other one I use for the bread sticks.

On a side note, this is such an easy recipe to get little hands involved.  My daughter helped me mix the dough, roll the dough, put on the toppings of the pizza and brush the bread sticks.  Her hands were really the ones that made our dinner tonight!

Ingredients: 
half of my dough recipe (see above)
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup grated mozzarella

Directions: 
1. Roll out the dough into a circle.  Grease the pizza pan with butter and spread the dough into the pan.
2. Combine the butter, olive oil and garlic into a small bowl.
3.  Sprinkle the dough with salt and pepper to season.  Using a pastry brush, spread the garlic mixture over the dough, covering it entirely.  Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
4. Top with your cheeses.
5. Bake in a preheated 500F oven for approximately 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, let sit for a minute or so then cut into strips and serve (with your favourite marinara or dipping sauce if you like!).

Notes:  We normally just sprinkle Parmesan on our bread sticks because we don't like them as cheesy.  If you are baking the bread sticks with your pizza, then you will have to adjust some of your settings.   Normally I bake my pizza at 425F, so I place the garlic sticks in the top rack to cook at the same time.  I normally bake the pizza first and then start on the bread sticks.  If you do the same thing, the breadsticks will probably be in the oven for about 10 minutes.  After you take out the pizza, place the breadsticks in the bottom rack and raise the temperature to 450F.  Bake it for another 5-10 minutes, until it is golden brown.

We left this one in a little too long, so it was a bit dark and on the crunchy side, but still tasted delicious!

A Vegetarian Dinner

Tonight was a meat free dinner with some delicious vegetarian options: eggplant pizza and baked broccoli.  Both recipes required the use of the oven, so I started with the eggplant and while it was cooking I prepped the broccoli.  When the eggplant was ready to be taken out of the oven, I put the broccoli in and topped the eggplant slices.  I then turned the oven to broil on high and put the eggplant back in beside the broccoli for about 5 minutes.  When it was ready, I left the broccoli to cook again at 425 for whatever time was left.

Baked Broccoli
This makes a great side dish to any meal and it's really easy to put together.

Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli, washed and cut into pieces
2-4 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to season
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp cheese (Parmesan or Asiago are my favourites), shredded or grated
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 lemon, zest and juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Spray a 8x8" baking dish with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine the broccoli, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper until the broccoli is coated.  Add the bread crumbs and 2 tbsp cheese; stir again.  Transfer to the baking dish.  Make sure you add all the crumbs in the bowl to the top of the broccoli.  (Easy clean-up option: Combine all the ingredients in a large ziploc bag and give it a shake to coat!)

3. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until everything is browned.  Stir the broccoli about half way through cooking if you like.

4. Zest the lemon over the broccoli.  Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli as well.  Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.


Eggplant Pizza
I've been wanting to make this for a long time.  With the ingredients required to make it, you really can't go wrong!  And this portion of our vegetarian dinner is gluten free as well!

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, sliced into 1" thick slices
1 jar/can (213mL) tomato sauce or pizza sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella, grated (this amount varies depending on how cheesy you like our pizza)
15-20 fresh cherry tomatoes, halved (enough so that there's 2-3 halves per slice)
4-5 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1 tsp sea salt
Asiago or Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt.
This will help dry them out as they cook.

1. Preheat oven to 425F.  Arrange the sliced eggplant in rows on a baking sheet (or two if you need it).  Sprinkle with salt and bake for 20 minutes.

2. Remove the eggplant from the oven and turn the broiler on.  Spread 1 tbsp sauce over each eggplant, followed by the mozzarella.  Arrange the basil and cherry tomatoes over the cheese.  Grate some Asiago cheese over each slice.

3. Broil for 3-5 minutes.  Keep a close eye to make sure it does not burn.  Serve hot.

Instead of mozzarella, you can use Provolone cheese.  If you buy it already sliced, it makes for an even quicker prep and less clean up.

The cooked eggplant topped and ready to be broiled!

The final product - so delicious!

Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Fiori di Zucca)

I love zucchini flowers.  My Nonna used to make them when my Nonno picked them from the garden.  She would make a batter, dip them, fry them and sprinkle them with sugar.  When I recently asked her why she doesn't make them anymore her response was, "They don't turn out so good...."  So I asked her if they had any in the garden because I wanted to try making them. Nonno went out and came back with three large zucchini.  "She wants the flowers!!" Nonna shouts in Italian.  He's not sure if there is any, but he went out to look anyways.  And he came back with about a dozen.  I have seen a lot of recipes for stuffed zucchini flowers so that's what I wanted to try!

When preparing the flowers, make sure you take out the yellow stamen inside and cut off the stem (if necessary).  You don't need to wash them, but it doesn't hurt to wipe them with a damp paper towel if they look a little dirty.  Be gentle when you open them as you need them to stay in tact in order to be stuffed.  Some of the smaller ones or ones I couldn't stuff, I simply dipped in the same batter, fried them and sprinkled them with sugar like my Nonna does!

Ingredients:
12 zucchini blossoms, ready to be stuffed
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1.5 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves minced garlic)
2 tsp basil, or about 4 fresh basil leaves finely chopped
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup & 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cold water
1 tbsp lemon juice
oil for frying (vegetable, canola or coconut - I used a combo of vegetable and coconut)

1. Mix together the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, basil, garlic and salt.  Continue mixing until it has a smooth consistency.  Using a freezer bag, place the mixture into it and cut off the corner to make a piping bag.  Do this just before you are ready to stuff the flowers.

2. Add the lemon juice to the water and give it a quick stir.  In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and lemon water.

3.  Meanwhile heat the oil over medium heat.  You will need a large pan with a couple of inches of oil so the whole flower can fry.

4. Gently pipe about 1-2 tbsp (depending on the flower size) of the ricotta filling into the flowers.  The large flowers will swell up as they are filled.  Twist the top of the petals together to close and seal the flowers.

5.  Test the oil by dropping in some batter.  If it's hot enough it will sizzle and rise to the top.  Dip each flower into the batter one at a time.  Hold the flower by the top where you twisted the petals.  Make sure it is totally covered in batter and let the excess batter drip off.

6. Gently lower the flower into the hot oil.   Cook until the flowers are crispy, about 2-3 minutes.  If the whole flower isn't covered in the oil, turn it over part way through.  Fry the flowers in small batches depending on the size of your pan.

7.  Remove the flowers with a slotted spoon and place on a baking sheet with a paper towels.  Keep the stuffed flowers warm in a low oven while the others are being fried.  They taste best when they're fresh, but can easily be warmed up again in the oven at a later time.