Italy - First Post of Many to Come! Pear Torte

The driving force behind my trip to Italy was to take cooking lessons so the fact that the weather was terrible on two of the side-trip days didn't bother me much. And really, after you've seen five castles and cathedrals, they all start to look the same! 

This is from the first class. It is a pear, ricotta, and pecorino pie in a puff pastry shell. Nutmeg and pine nuts give it a little extra interest.

Torta Salata con Formaggio and Pere

4 or 5 pears
1 puff pastry circle, thawed
1 egg
3/4 - 1 cup ricotta cheese
5 oz pecorino romano
Couple grinds of nutmeg
Dash of salt
Handful of pine nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel and cut pears into 1 inch-ish chunks. Cut up pecorino to a similar size. 
Add ricotta, egg, nutmeg, salt, and pine nuts, then stir.

Place dough (on parchment) into pan and prick the bottom with a fork. 

Fill with pear mixture and fold edges of pastry over the top.

Cut parchment from around the pan.

Bake for 45 - 50 minutes until inside is firm and pastry is brown.

Tip: This can also be made as a savory pie by substituting the pears with zucchini.

Summer Veggie Lasagna

I usually think of lasagna as a winter dish but in my quest to use up zucchini, I decided that even though it was 102 degrees outside, I would give it a go -- that's how much zucchini I've got!  

It turned out to be the tastiest I've ever made. I didn't get a picture but you know what lasagna looks like.

I used flat, not curly, no-boil, lasagna sheets. Instead of meat, I had a layer of sliced zucchini and a layer of mushrooms. 

The ricotta cheese was fresh from the farmers market as was the mozzarella. The ricotta mix included fresh parsley, Parmesan cheese, an egg yolk, and salt and pepper.

The sauce had onion and garlic, a hot red pepper (that I removed before constructing the lasagna) and fresh thyme and oregano from the garden.

I made an antipasto salad to go with it -- also lots of fresh veggies from the garden/market.

I did not make this one any differently than a hundred other lasagnas I've made, so I have to attribute the success of this one to the fresh summer ingredients. 

Zucchini Boats

Many thanks to my sister, Janine, for this great recipe. 

2 large zucchini
Grapeseed oil (or canola/ olive)
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 rib of celery, diced
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
Mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Drizzle with EVOO and bake, cut side down, for 10 minutes.

In a pan, cook ground turkey and remove. In the same pan, saute onion, garlic, carrots, green and red pepper, and celery. When barely soft, add tomatoes, Worcestershire, and cooked turkey. Heat through.

Turn zucchini cut side up and fill with the ground turkey mixture. Top with fresh mozzarella and bake for 20 more minutes.

Chop up whatever veggies you have on hand and toss them in! Or make them Asian style with soy sauce,

Serve with a fresh garden salad!


Coming soon ... What I did with the leftover filling.

Confetti Muffins

The abundance of summer veggies has me racing for creative uses before they go bad. These muffins were inspired by the mountain of zucchini and yellow squash in the CSA basket today.

Fruit/veggie mix:
In a medium bowl, shred one medium zucchini and one medium yellow squash. Add a handful of shredded carrots. Toss in 1/3 can crushed pineapple, one peach, some golden raisins, and dried cranberries.

Wet ingredients:
In a large bowl combine a stick of butter, 1/4 cup veg oil, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Beat well.

Dry ingredients:
In a medium bowl, combine 3 cups flour, 3/4 T baking powder, 3/4 T baking soda, 1 t salt.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients a little at a time.

Fold in fruit/veggie mix.

Pour into greased or lined muffin tins and/or loaf pans. I made 12 muffins and 1 loaf from this.

Ratatouille as Made in Ratatouille

1 small can San Marzano tomatoes
eggplant
zucchini
yellow squash
onion
fresh thymes
salt and pepper
EVOO

Preheat oven to 325.

Pour tomatoes into bottom of a round baking dish and gently squish them up with your hands. Watch out for shooting tomato juice!

Add some fresh thyme, oregano and salt and pepper to the tomatoes.
Cut the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. Cut one end off the onion and peel back first layer.

I used a mandoline to slice the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and onion into very thin slices. You can use a knife but be prepared to spend a lot of time cutting. The mandoline also ensures the slices are the same width.
 
Alternate overlapping slices of eggplant, zucchini, and squash along the outer rim. Every so often slip in an onion slice.

Make another circle inside and then fill in the middle with a few veggies.
Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables and season again with salt and pepper. Top with more thyme.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. I just placed the dish on top of the parchment paper and drew around the dish. Makes it easy to cut to fit the inside of the dish.
 
I wanted to save this and reheat the next day so I only baked it for 40 minutes. If you want to serve immediately, bake for about 55 minutes. You want the veggies tender, not mushy.

I had a bunch of veggies left over and just threw them in a pot with a small can of diced tomatoes. Cooked for a bout 15 minutes and then let it cool.

I put that in a container and decided to freeze it for use later in minestrone soup or a pasta sauce.

Lemon Rosemary Zucchini Bread

Thanks to Elise at Simply Recipes for this fantastic twist on zucchini bread!

It's delicious!

Final Category

Make a pesto of: Pineapple sage, walnuts, basil, garlic, S&P, and EVOO.

Roast: (in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes) Cherry tomatoes (green and red), zucchini (peeled, seeded, and chopped), garlic, S&P, and EVOO.

Boil: Bowtie pasta.

Combine: Ingredients above and toss in some capers. Top with grated parmesean.

Fight: Over the Final Category question on Kids Week Jeopardy.

The Answer: Of the 4 states that begin & end with the same vowel, the one that doesn’t begin & end with the same letter as the other 3 states.

The Question: What is ...

When the biggest problem in my day is the final category question on Kids Week Jeopardy ... life is good.