Flashback Friday - Pesto Mac

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 20, 2012.
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I had leftover roast chicken. I had pesto. I wanted to make something interesting, inspirational. Fabulous at the very least. Something worth blogging about. But my brain just wasn't cooperating. I almost made a risotto, only I didn't have any short-grain rice. I did have a box of cavatappi, that fun spiral pasta that's like a conga line of elbow macaroni, and realized there was plenty of cheese in the fridge, so my lazy brain went there.

Mac and cheese. But with pesto and chicken. Not exactly a life-changing dinner, but it was very good, and rather easy. I used Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac recipe as a guideline, switched up some quantities, and added sauteed onions for more flavor. You could skip the onions to make an even quicker version.

Macaroni with Pesto and Chicken (adapted from Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese)

1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound cavatappi
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 5-oz cans evaporated milk
6 ounces milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
16 ounces shredded cheese (we like a combination of sharp cheddar, Swiss, and pepper Jack)
3/4 cup pesto (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Cook onion in olive oil over medium heat until very soft and starting to brown around the edges, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Cook the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. Drain water, return pasta to pot, and add butter.

Whisk together the eggs, milks, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese, the onions, and the pesto. Cook over medium heat until cheese melts and pasta is well coated. Stir in chicken and fresh basil and taste for seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Gluten-Free Green Tomato Caprese

Once again our garden is inundated with tomatoes. Green tomatoes. The few that have started to turn red have been attacked by a plague of squirrels. Those furry little bastards take one bite of the reddest, ripest tomato and then leave the rest of it on the vine. If they're going to eat it, I'd rather them take the whole damn thing and save me the disappointment of finding tiny toothmarks in the side of one of my beautiful Black Krims.

(Our next door neighbor told us a funny story about squirrels in our tomatoes. He said he watched one of the critters climb down into the garden, take a tomato, and fling himself skyward onto a branch. He then proceeded to smack directly into a tree trunk and fall flat on his back. With the tomato still in his jaws. He eventually picked himself up and ran off. With the tomato.)

I can't wait for the tomatoes to ripen, so I picked a bunch of green ones. The most obvious thing to do with green tomatoes is to fry them, but I hate the whole messy plate of flour-bowl of egg-plate of breadcrumbs routine and then having to clean up all of the flour and breadcrumbs that inevitably drop onto the floor between the counter and the garbage can. So I thought I could batter the tomatoes, instead of crumb them. I did some googling and found a couple recipes, all of which involved frying in at least half an inch of oil. F that. If pancakes can cook in a haze of PAM, then batter-dipped fried green tomatoes can, too.

Ok, so I didn't use PAM. I used vegetable oil. But only about a tablespoon-full in my big 12" skillet. And see from the photos how purty and brown they turned out?

I thought I'd make a cornmeal batter, but the bag I thought contained cornmeal actually had oat flour in it. Next to it in the pantry was a bag of rice flour, and seeing the two of them together made me flash back to the truly awful gluten-free donuts I made some months ago. I almost sat down and cried again right on the spot; instead I put on my big-girl panties (yes, right there in the kitchen) and took a deep breath. I didn't really want to reach up to get the big heavy barrel of flour off the top of the cabinet, so I used the oat flour and rice flour, bad memories and all, since they were in my hands. Yes, I am lazy, but that makes this recipe gluten-free. And honestly, I couldn't tell that I didn't use wheat flour. (You can use wheat flour, if you're not as lazy as I am.) I kinda didn't want to use milk for the batter, but using beer would have defeated the whole gluten-free thing, and the closest thing to club soda I had on hand would have been some diet raspberry fizzy water. Milk it is, then.

I bought some Buitoni pesto because our basil is really kind of lame this year. Originally I was going to use straight pesto, but I like a mayo-based sauce with my fried green tomatoes. Then I thought mayo and cheese together? Maybe that will be too rich. As if there's any such thing as too rich. So I made a vinaigrette, too, with pesto in it, and a pinch of sugar for balance. (I didn't use oil because pesto already has oil in it.)

What I liked best about this dish was that the hot tomatoes made the cheese melt. It had all the right things going on - crusty, creamy, gooey, tangy, herbaceous, and fried. Mmm.

Gluten-Free Fried Green Tomato Caprese

For the tomatoes:
3/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough milk to make a thick batter
2-4 green tomatoes, cut into 1/4" thick slices
Vegetable oil, for frying

For the pesto mayo:
2 tablespoons pesto
2 tablespoons mayonnaise

For the pesto vinaigrette:
2 teaspoons pesto
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Pinch of sugar
Salt

To assemble:
Fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into thin slices
Basil, for garnish

To make the tomatoes: Combine batter ingredients in a large bowl.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Swirl the pan so the bottom is coated.

Put several tomato slices into the bowl of batter, turning them with a fork to make sure they are well coated. Using the fork, lift slices and allow some of the batter to drain back into the bowl before putting them into the hot pan. Don't crowd the pan - just put 5-6 slices in per batch.

Cook tomatoes until bottoms are nicely browned. Flip slices and cook an additional few minutes until the other side is brown. Remove to paper towel-lined plates to drain and give them a dusting of salt. Cook remaining tomatoes the same way, adding more oil to the pan for each batch.

To make the pesto mayo: Combine the ingredients in a small bowl.

To make the pesto vinaigrette: Combine the ingredients in a small bowl.

To assemble dish: Place a small blob of the mayo in the center of a plate. Top with a slice of tomato, then a slice of cheese and another blob of mayo. Repeat once more, then finish with a third tomato slice and a blob of mayo. Garnish with fresh basil. Drizzle the vinaigrette around the stack.










Posted on Minxeats.com.

Green Machine

Here's a delicious vegetarian sandwich for you: fried green tomatoes, basil and dill pesto, lemon chive mayonnaise, and avocado on a ciabatta roll. Better than a burger (seriously)!

The tomatoes, basil, dill, and chives came from our garden. Alas, we do not have an avocado tree!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pesto Mac

I had leftover roast chicken. I had pesto. I wanted to make something interesting, inspirational. Fabulous at the very least. Something worth blogging about. But my brain just wasn't cooperating. I almost made a risotto, only I didn't have any short-grain rice. I did have a box of cavatappi, that fun spiral pasta that's like a conga line of elbow macaroni, and realized there was plenty of cheese in the fridge, so my lazy brain went there.

Mac and cheese. But with pesto and chicken. Not exactly a life-changing dinner, but it was very good, and rather easy. I used Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac recipe as a guideline, switched up some quantities, and added sauteed onions for more flavor. You could skip the onions to make an even quicker version.

Macaroni with Pesto and Chicken (adapted from Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese)

1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound cavatappi
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 5-oz cans evaporated milk
6 ounces milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
16 ounces shredded cheese (we like a combination of sharp cheddar, Swiss, and pepper Jack)
3/4 cup pesto (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Cook onion in olive oil over medium heat until very soft and starting to brown around the edges, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Cook the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. Drain water, return pasta to pot, and add butter.

Whisk together the eggs, milks, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese, the onions, and the pesto. Cook over medium heat until cheese melts and pasta is well coated. Stir in chicken and fresh basil and taste for seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cheesy Meatballs

I got an email a couple weeks ago asking if I'd like to try a new cheese product. "Sure," I said, "I love cheese." And indeed I do. Within a few days, a bag of Piacci cheese had arrived on my doorstep. I had been hoping for some of their Fior-de-Latte, but with the warm weather we'd been having, it was nice that they sent a sturdier cheese along - Parmesan.

We always have some parm in the house, either a small slab or some of the pre-shredded stuff that comes in little tubs in the gourmet cheese department of most supermarkets. Mostly it goes on pasta or salads, but here was a new form to play with - nuggets. Actually, perfect little 1" cubes. My first thought was that they'd be fine for snacking out of the bag, but after sampling one, I realized they were perhaps a bit too intense for that. Better to eat them with a selection of antipasti - olives, salami, roasted peppers. Then I realized that little 1" cubes would be a perfect thing to stuff into a meatball. A turkey meatball, flavored with fresh basil and topped with pesto. Ordinarily, I'd use a softer cheese for that, like mozzarella. That makes for a gooey center, but there's also a good chance that the cheese will find a way to migrate out of the ball and into the pan. And I know there's a dirty joke in there but I'm just too tired to think of it right now. I'm sure you'll help me with that.

I served the stuffed meatballs with a simple steel-cut oat risotto, a side of asparagus, and some marinated tomatoes. And it was all good.

Cheese-Stuffed Turkey Meatballs

1.5 teaspoons ground chia seeds
3 tablespoons water
1.5 lbs ground turkey
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, minced (mince after measuring)
1/4 cup minced onion
plain or Italian-style dry bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 package Piaggi Parmesan Cubes
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup pesto (home made or store bought)

Soak the ground chia seeds in the water for about fifteen minutes until they reach a jelly-like consistency.  Place the bloomed seeds in a bowl with the ground turkey, basil, and onion. Mix well to incorporate seeds and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. If the mixture seems too moist, add some dry bread crumbs, a tablespoonful at a time.

Divide the meat mixture into 10-12 portions. Form each portion into a ball, poke a hole in the center and add a cheese cube, then use the meat to close the hole over the cheese. The cheese should be completely encased in the meat.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Brown meatballs all over, then add stock. Turn heat down to low and cover pan. Braise meatballs for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally, to make sure they are cooked through. Most of the liquid should evaporate during that time. Stir in pesto and heat through.

Serves 3-4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pasta with Corn Pesto

I happened upon a recipe for fresh corn pesto a couple of weeks back and fixated on it until I had an opportunity to make it for myself. Fresh corn isn't happening in Baltimore in January, so I relied instead on the trusty bag of frozen kernels that is usually in our freezer. We did, however, have fresh basil growing on the windowsill - I bought a plant at the supermarket at Christmas and have managed to keep it alive all this time, without replanting it!

As is my wont, I tinkered with the recipe a bit. While the resulting yellow goo was pretty tasty, I'm betting it would be better with fresh corn.

Fettuccine with Corn Pesto

1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed and drained well
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup roasted and unsalted almonds, pine nuts, or walnuts or a combination
1 small clove of garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
pinch dried red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb fettuccine, cooked according to package directions
basil and Parmesan for garnish

Place first seven ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it forms a slightly chunky paste. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine with cooked fettuccine. Serve garnished with basil and Parmesan.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Meatless Monday - Caprese Salad

Even with the extremely hot and dry weather we've been having in Baltimore, our herb garden is growing like gangbusters and our tomato plants are thriving as well. What to do with too much basil and lots of green tomatoes?

Make a Caprese salad.

Rather than the traditional version with slices of ripe tomato, soft mozzarella, and basil leaves dressed with olive oil, I made a fancier version with fried tomatoes and pesto. In addition to the green ones in our garden, we also had inherited a couple of pallid "ripe" supermarket tomatoes that wouldn't be flavorful enough to eat raw. They worked well enough when fried, although they were much softer than the green ones so I had to take care not to make a mess while transferring them from pan to plate.

Also, I coated the tomatoes in Progresso Italian bread crumbs, a flavor from my childhood. This is all my mother ever used, so nothing else tastes "right" to me.

Caprese Stack

Pesto (recipe follows)
Fried Tomatoes (recipe follows)
1 - 2 large balls fresh mozzarella
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh basil leaves

Slice cheese into 1/3" - 1/2" thick slices (depending on the size of your tomato slices). Put vinegar and oil into a small bowl and beat with a fork to emulsify. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Place a small dollop of pesto in the center of a serving plate. Top with a fried tomato, a slice of cheese and more pesto. Repeat layers once more. Drizzle some of the vinaigrette on and around the stack and garnish with the basil.

Serves 2-6 depending on how many slices of tomato you sneak while you're frying them up. :)

Pesto

2 large cloves of garlic or one enormous clove (as I had), coarsely chopped
1 good handful of nuts of your choice (I used cashews and pecans)
A small handful grated Parmesan cheese
About 3 cups of fresh basil leaves (I used a mix of spicy globe, Thai, and sweet)
About 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Place garlic, nuts, cheese, and basil in the bowl of a food processor (I used a Cuisinart Mini Prep). Drizzle in some of the olive oil and blend. Continue adding oil and blending until desired consistency is achieved. I like mine to have a little bit of texture. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Fried Tomatoes

4 medium-sized green tomatoes (can also use ripe tomatoes)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
1 + cups Progresso Italian breadcrumbs
1/4 + cups canola oil

Cut each tomato into 3 or 4 1/3" - 1/2" slices, discarding the curved tops and bottoms.

Prepare coating: in one bowl, season flour with salt and pepper. Put egg and milk combo in a second bowl. Place bread crumbs into a third bowl.

Dredge each slice of tomato in flour, shake off excess, and dip in egg. Let excess egg drip off and finally coat tomato in breadcrumbs. As you prepare each slice, arrange them on a plate. You may need to add more breadcrumbs to the third bowl.

Heat about 2-3 tablespoons of the oil in a large nonstick skillet. When it's hot, fry tomatoes in 2 or 3 batches until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Add extra oil in between batches if necessary. Transfer tomatoes to paper towels to drain. Sprinkle a bit of salt on each slice while they're still hot.

Flashback Friday 7.2.10

This post, complete with original recipe, is from February 14, 2007.
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Crespelle di Mare e Pesto

Back in 1999, for our first Valentine's Day, I concocted a rich dish of seafood-stuffed shells in a pesto cream sauce. My darling hubby still counts that as one of the best meals I've ever prepared. Unfortunately, I never wrote down the recipe. I tried to re-create it a few years back, and I suppose it turned out ok, although nothing ever matches the first time. This year, I decided to try again, but with definite added twists. It's a bit of a pain to have to boil shells, separate them, dry them, and store them until ready to fill in my tiny counter space-challenged kitchen. Then a month or so ago, I made crepes for breakfast. They were delicate, yet strong, and I thought they would make an excellent "noodle" for a homemade cannelloni-type dish. Plus they were a snap to make and store.

In the original recipe, I mixed shrimp and crab into a bechamel sauce and added lots of cheese. The pesto went on the bottom of the baking dish, mostly so the shells wouldn't stick. And the shells were messy to fill. This time, I would put additional flavors in the seafood mixture - mushrooms and spinach. The bechamel would be a topping, and the pesto would flavor the sauce.

Presenting the fruits of my labor:

Crespelle di Mare e Pesto

1 recipe Crespelle (following)
1 recipe Besciamella (following)

1/2 large onion, chopped
3 or 4 large buttom mushrooms, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Handful raw baby spinach
1/3 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined, chopped into large chunks
1/2 lb crabmeat (because most supermarket crabmeat, even in Maryland, doesn't seem to be from the hallowed blue crab and is pretty tasteless, I use claw meat, which has more flavor)
1/4 grated parmesan cheese
olive oil
chopped parsley
chopped scallions

Prepare crespelle; refrigerate until ready to use.

Make filling: Saute onion and mushrooms in a bit olive oil until golden. Stir in garlic and baby spinach, cook until spinach wilts. Add shrimp and cook until no longer translucent. Salt and pepper to taste. Gently fold in crabmeat. Put seafood mixture into large bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

About 45 minutes before you want to serve dinner, make the besciamella. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 425F. Remove filling and crespelle from fridge. Lightly coat the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with a few tablespoons of warm besciamella. Place a single crespelle on a plate; put 2 heaped tablespoons of filling across one end and roll up jelly roll-style. Place filled crespelle in sauce-coated pan. Repeat with remaining crespelle to fill the baking dish with neat rows. If there is filling left over, sprinkle it over the filled crepes. If there are crepes left over, freeze the extras for a future use.

Spoon the besciamella over the crepes to cover. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoon of parsley. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until well browned and bubbly.

Serves 6.

Crespelle (Italian Crepes)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
5 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Put flour in a large mixing bowl and slowly drizzle with milk, stirring constantly to avoid making lumps. Add eggs one at a time beating with a fork until a thin batter is formed. Add salt and let stand 20 minutes. Spray non-stick skillet or pancake griddle with cooking spray and heat pan over medium heat until hot (but not smoking). Add 3 or so tablespoons of batter to the pan, spreading it quickly with the back of a spoon or ladle to make a round about 6" in diameter. Cook until crespelle is set (top will look dry), about 30 seconds. Remove from pan and place on place. Cover with a sheet of waxed paper. Stack subsequent crespelle in the same manner. Repeat until batter is gone.

Cover plate with plastic wrap and store in fridge until ready to use.

Besciamella di Pesto (Bechamel, or White Sauce)

5 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons pesto sauce
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Heat butter in a medium saucepan until melted. Add flour, stirring or whisking until smooth. Cook over medium heat until lightly golden, 6-7 minutes. Slowly add milk, a little at a time, whisking continuously to incorporate. Continue whisking until smooth. Bring to a boil and cook until it thickens. Remove from heat. Add pesto and parmesan whisking until smooth. Season with nutmeg; salt and pepper to taste.

Note: There will be extra besciamella left over.
You may skip the crespelle and use sheets of fresh pasta instead. Or, if you more space than I do, large shell pasta or manicotti tubes are also fine.

Besciamella and Crespelle adapted from recipes by Mario Batali

Meatless Monday - Rotini with Broccoli

We planted our garden early in May and within a few weeks our basil situation was out of control. Four kinds of basil were growing like wildfire - not a bad thing - and Mr Minx was forced to whip up a quick batch of pesto with the spicy globe variety. We used some as a burger topping, and the leftovers on pasta, along with about half a cup of leftover heavy cream (leftover from sometime at the end of April - does the stuff ever go bad?), and the dregs of a container of shredded Parmesan cheese.

We also had some broccoli crowns in the fridge, so I blanched them and tossed them into the sauce, which went over "rainbow" rotini. (Surely an orange, green, and cream colored rainbow could only have existed in the 1970s.)

With a judicious amount of salt and a bit more shredded Parmesan added at the end, it was a filling and delicious meal, full of vegetable goodness.

What's your favorite way to eat broccoli?

Sliders

To continue with today's theme of miniaturized food, this post is about wee burgers, aka "sliders." Popularized by White Castle in the 1920s, this pint-sized version of the hamburger is found on menus in many restaurants these days.

Mr Minx had just made a batch of pesto from our rampantly growing spicy globe basil plant and cashews and thought it would be good on a burger.

Indeed it was, particularly with some sautéed mushrooms and onions and a dollop of whole grain honey mustard mayonnaise. C'mon - you don't need a recipe for that, do you?

Honey Mustard Mayo

1 Tablespoon whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon honey
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise

Mix together. Eat.

An Easy Dinner

This plate of pork tenderloin with cilantro pesto, black-eyed pea salsa and green chile bread pudding looks like a lot of effort, but it really wasn't. The salsa and bread pudding were left over from the Blogfest last Friday. I merely marinated the pork and tossed it in the oven and browned the bread pudding in a sauté pan to give it a much-needed crust. My blender did all the work of making the pesto.

I love leftovers.