Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Lasagne Imbottite

Lasagne

Confused with spelling and the overall recipe name? Well, Lasagne is the dish and lasagna are the noodles. Imbottite means “stuffed” or more literally “padded” and is the perfect description for my over the top version.

Having clarified that, I want to tell you a story...

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Broasted Corned Beef Brisket

Broasted Corned Beef

Nice and easy. Low and slow. This is how I always suggest cooking less tender cuts of meat. We do this because time is the only ingredient that will break down the connective tissue and let the meat realize its delicious destiny.

Sautéed Savoy Cabbage

Sautéed Savoy Cabbage

Cabbage. We like to stuff it, make salads with it and add it to soups and all sorts of other foods. While it works perfectly well as an added ingredient, cabbage is seriously overlooked as a side dish by itself. When it does appear by itself, it is usually still in a supporting role consigned to be boiled along with the rest of the “starring role” vegetables.

Stovetop Roasted Root Vegetables

Stovetop Roasted Root Vegetables

Roasting is a dry method that surrounds the food with heat for even cooking. The results of roasting are a beautifully caramelized surface with a tender interior. An oven is the ideal place for all this to occur, but sometimes my oven is otherwise occupied and I have to look elsewhere to provide similar outcomes.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Meatballs from Heaven

Meatballs

Wouldn’t it be great if each time it rained, it rained meatballs from Heaven?  I know the song lyrics say “pennies”, but pennies would hurt!  These meatballs are soft puffs of melt in your mouth goodness. Way better than pennies!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Pizza Dough Southside Style

Pizza Dough Southside Style

I don’t like having a utensil or appliance in my kitchen that doesn’t pull its own weight. Any time I can find a use for something that doesn’t lessen the quality of the finished product I go ahead and make it work for me. My bread machine is a perfect example of this multitasking. Not only does it produce a decent loaf of bread, it can be a time and effort saver when I kneed an extra pair of hands in the kitchen (Pun intended).

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Essential Red Sauce with Meat

Red Sauce

Really, lots of meat... no seriously, I mean a whole lot of meat! The foundation for this recipe came from one of the best ever Italian cooks, my Polish mother-in-law!

My own version is seriously heavy on the meat and cooks for hours with the intention that it be used for a variety of Italian favorites. Make this sauce early in the week and have some that night with spaghetti and a few of the simmered meatballs. Don’t fret about running out of sauce – this recipe makes enough to feed your family with the aforementioned spaghetti plus at least three more killer dishes which I will be posting shortly.