WTF Was for Jaimie's Wedding: Italian Appetizers

I got the honor of both officiating Jaimie's ceremony and making a few cicheti, or Venetian small plates for her wedding.

And I enlisted a bunch of my favorite to help me.

Thanks everyone. I love you Jaimie!

Matt in an apron...for the first time ever?

Caprese Skewers:

Sista is building a platter of beautiful caprese skewers using fresh basil leaves, cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella balls stuck on skewers and drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile I had roasted the diced eggplant and diced red pepper for the crespelle (stuffed Italian crepes) the recipe is below.

And I had to make polenta for the grilled polenta squares... (recipe below)

Thanks for your house, kitchen and hospitality, Brian!

Stuffing crespelle...

I LOVE YOU,  SPENCER!

For the Crespelle: (to serve 8)

1/2 heaping) cup of flour

3/4 cup of milk

1 whole egg plus 1 yolk

For filling and topping:

one medium (3/4 lb eggplant)

2 medium red bell peppers

3/4 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1/2 cup of grated Fontina (or Fontinal)

For topping:

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons Parmigiano

Put flour in a bowl, add milk in a very thin stream beating steadily with a whisk, taking care that lumps do not form. When all the milk has been incorporated add the whole egg, egg yolk and a pinch of salt. Mix steadily for about 2 minutes. Heat crepe pan, and with each crepe swipe the pan with butter. Add just under a 1/4 c. batter to pan and cook like you would any crepe! Cook and stack crespelle (they can be made ahead of time and once they have cooled completely covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated). 

Cut eggplants into 1/2 cubes. Salt in calendar to sweat out bitterness for at least half an hour and up to an hour. Rinse under cold water dry with paper towels. You can either than either fry them in batches in olive oil or roast them in the oven after tossing them with olive oil. Your choice, just going for a bit of that nice rich brownness / a tiny bit of caramelization...

Roast the eggplants, peal and dice to the same size as eggplant. (these both could be done ahead of time, of course). 

In large bowl mix the peppers and eggplants with the parmigiano and Fontina. Taste for salt. Roll / stuff the crespelle with some of the filling transfer to baking sheet. When all are prepared top with Parmigiano and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes until cheese has melted and started to turn golden...

Zucchine Ripiene (Stuffed and Fried Zucchini cups, recipe adapted from Saveur)

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup milk
1 slice white sandwich bread
4 medium zucchini, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2″ lengths
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup canned whole, peeled tomatoes in juice, crushed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. crushed red chile flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
4 oz. prosciutto, minced
1 oz. pancetta, minced
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. thinly sliced basil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 400°. In a bowl, pour milk over bread; soak for 10 minutes. Squeeze bread to drain milk; discard milk. Return bread to bowl.

2. Using a melon baller, hollow out zucchini pieces, leaving 1/4″ walls, to form "cups"; season insides with salt and pepper. Stir together tomatoes, 2 tbsp. oil, chile flakes, garlic, and salt and pepper in a bowl; set sauce aside.

3. Mix bread with prosciutto, pancetta, Parmesan, parsley, egg, and salt and pepper. Stuff mixture evenly among zucchini cups. Heat remaining oil and butter in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add cups; cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, 2–4 minutes. Transfer cups, stuffing side up, to a 9″ x 9″ baking dish; pour sauce over and around cups. Bake until zucchini is tender, about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with basil.

AJ also used his amazing cocktail skills to lend himself to the wedding--- prepping lemon twists, wedges and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice for drinks after the ceremony.

Clark Kent...I mean Ian, diligently filling the ripiene! Thanks Ian!! You're amazing.

Sista!

A very handsome woo-boy.

For the polenta squares:

 I prepared the polenta (2 cups of polenta to six cups of water) with butter and salt and pepper, and when I was cooked I spread it out evenly onto a greased cookie sheet, and broiled it on high for 15 minutes, until it was golden brown. Then I placed it in the refrigerator so that it would cool and easily slice. I topped each square with my grandmother's simple homemade marinara (recipe on this blog) basil and freshly grated cheese, at the wedding we also offered friend pancetta as a topping on the side.

The ripiene were topped with a spicy tomato sauce, made with the grease from frying the pancetta and proscuitto, fried garlic, chili and salt and pepper. Yum!

Simple Vegetable Lasagna

**If you would prefer this recipe be vegan, then substitute vegan cheese for the cheese, and substitute a smashed firm tofu, salted with nutritional yeast, basil, olive oil, and a smidge of sugar in place of the ricotta. I have decided I much prefer real, organic, dairy to processed vegan "dairy" but the vegan route of this recipe is delicious too!

What you will need:
Two+ cups of marinara sauce (see my homemade recipe, previous to this one)
Olive oil
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 eggplant, peeled and diced
1 cup of spinach, washed
1 10 ounce package of gluten free lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups of ricotta (I prefer full fat, organic ricotta-- I think being satisfied with my meals what keeps me lean, personally)
1 handful of fresh basil, minced
Black pepper
Salt
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan
1 cup of shredded asiago, romano, mozzarella, and parmesan (use whatever combination makes you happy)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and begin your lasagna making ritual by having your sauce ready-- in my case I prepare mine right before making this recipe.
Then, boil ten quart pot of water for your lasagna noodles.
This is the kind I buy when I don't feel like making pasta from scratch:

While the water is boiling, saute the onion, in a pan on medium high in a scant amount of olive oil, until it becomes translucent. Add garlic and diced eggplant. Add a bit of broth or water if the eggplant begins to stick. Cook until the eggplant is soft, about 7 minutes.

Once your eggplant is soft, add your spinach, and a pinch of salt for taste. And remove from heat. The spinach will wilt on its own between being with the warm eggplant and once it goes into the oven to bake in the lasagna.

If the water is boiling at this point, add your lasagna noodles and keep a timer-- you want them al dente as they will continue to get soft in the oven once they are baking.

Add your ricotta cheese to a bowl with a pinch of pepper, the minced fresh basil as well as fresh grated parmesan.

Drain your lasgana noodles when they are ready and rinse they gently with cold water to keep them from sticking to one another.

Grate your cheese--- on this occasion I used a mixture of asiago, mozzarella and parmesan. You can use any combination or single cheese that you would like.

Now you can start your lasagna, on this evening I was making two small lasagnas, so I used two 8x8" baking dishes. Normally you can use a 13x9" or so rectangular baking dish.

You don't need to grease it, instead put a layer of marinara sauce down FIRST to keep things from sticking :) then add an even layer of noodles.

Then add a layer of evenly placed ricotta mixture and a sprinkle of cheese.

Add another layer of noodles and then a thin layer of cheese (remember the cheese is what binds this whole recipe together, having a little cheese on every layer will make it more manageable to serve!) vegetables and a smidgen of marinara sauce.

Depending on how much filling you have, repeat until you have enough noodles for a final top layer, then add a generous amount of sauce and finish your grated cheese.

 In this particular case I was able to make two small 8x8 three-layer lasagnas.

Bake, covered with aluminum foil at 350 for 30 minutes.

:) Enjoy xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo

Marinara ala Sacchitella

You know, when you are Italian everything "is aboutta-da-sauce." So, growing up, there were two different sauces; there was the simple, elegant sauce my grandmother made, and...the sauce my dad made.

The sauce my dad made defied my grandmother's traditional recipe, which was my dad's underlying purpose I believe, because he put everything-- I mean everything-- in his sauce. He had sort of a if-one-thing-then-why-not-ten attitude in the kitchen. His marinara included tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, olive oil, barbecue sauce, honey, miso, wine, soy sauce, every spice in our spice cabinet...the list goes on. And once, he even put (I wish I was kidding) corn flake IN his sauce. I repeat, IN the sauce: IN it.

He also rebelled against tradition and didn't always pound his chicken flat when making chicken parmesan, so when he served his chunky breaded and fried chicken with his eclectic-flavored tomato sauce, it was more reminiscent of chicken nuggets with some kind of sweet-sour dipping sauce you get from a fast food joint.

(Rene if you are reading this, I know you are laughing really hard right now-- we used to beg our mom when our dad wasn't home just to make us sauce out of the can, we would DAYDREAM about Ragu because it was so different than what our dad served us so often!)

So now that I am an adult and don't have to force myself to eat things I don't like so that I may get up from the table, I have gone back to honoring my grandmother's way of doing things, which I always liked better, anyway.

My grandmother is a simple, woman from a farming family in Sicily. She makes things simply. This sauce is simple. And delicious.



For this family-inspired marinara you will need:

Olive oil
Half of once large yellow onion, peeled and diced
8 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
Dried marjoram and basil
Two 32 ounce cans of organic** whole, peeled tomatoes (I am a stickler for buying all things organic, but with everything BUT I really, really push for people to make sure that mass-produced things, like canned tomatoes are ESPECIALLY high quality, they are even better if you buy them in the jar, but if I bought jarred tomatoes all of the time I might go bankrupt)
Salt


First, coat your sauce pan lightly with olive oil, turn up to medium high and saute your onions until they are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium and add your garlic. Saute altogether briefly, about a minute, until the garlic starts to soften.

Next, add 1/2 tablespoon of marjoram and 1 tablespoon of basil. Mix up with the onion-garlic mixture. Then add both of your cans of whole tomatoes and if you feel that you need more volume, 1/2 of a cup of water.

With a potato masher (which I do not have!) or a heavy-duty whisk, mash your chunks of tomato into the sauce, while the pan is still on medium heat. 

Once your sauce is a more even consistency, add salt to your taste liking and cover to let it simmer on low for at least 30 minutes-- you can let it simmer on low all day if you would like, my grandma did.

If you like a really garlicky sauce, add 1/2 of the garlic at the beginning and save 1/2 to put in just for the simmering at the end, this will give the sauce a little more zip.

Enjoy with pasta-- or in my next recipe, in lasagna!

xoxo