If you ask Nathan what his most favorite recipe to cook is, he’ll tell you, “p’skeddi squash and steak!” He’s taken quite a liking to p’skeddi squash, and we’ve never tried to correct his pronunciation of spaghetti squash, it’s just too darn cute! Though I can imagine one day, when he’s older and cooking a romantic meal for a special gal, calling it p’skeddi may ruin his chances of a second date.

Due to a little goof while gardening with 35 seed packets and 2 over-zealous kids, we planted 12 spaghetti squash plants in the garden, enough to supply our entire zip code with spaghetti squash for life.

Thankfully, the chickens have a taste for the leaves and the happy-yellow flowers – and we haven’t stopped them from consuming most of the spaghetti squash plants, so now we’re left with 3 plants, one of which is barely hanging on.

The hens are my heroes!

Microwaving the Spaghetti Squash

The fastest way to cook the spaghetti squash is to microwave it! If microwaving a solid, heavy squash intimidates you a bit, you can also bake the spaghetti squash in the oven, which takes an hour to do, but is just as easy.

You’ll take a sharp paring knife and carefully, very carefully, pierce the squash in several places all over. It’s a hard squash, so it takes a bit of effort to do this. I guess a better instruction would be to say STAB the squash. But do this carefully, k?! The squash is a round, rolly, hard object.

Microwave on high for 10-12 minutes, rotating the squash halfway during cooking.

After cooking, just let the squash sit there for a few minutes to cool down a bit. Put on some oven gloves and remove the hot squash.

I highly suggest a thick towel or oven gloves – remember you stabbed the squash? Well inside the squash is steaming hot squash and some liquid which may leak through the stab marks.

I use these Pit Mitts – okay, so I look like a dork, but they are amazing – soft gloves that actually fit my hand with rubber grippy grip lines all over. I highly recommend them as I’m not a fan of those traditional oven mitts that make you feel like you’re cooking with Barney the annoying purple dinosaur hands.

Continue reading Microwave Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes & Basil...

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I’ve been fortunate in my life to meet some of the greatest people who have influenced food in a major way, from television chefs like Martin Yan to cooking greats like Jacques Pepin.

But the person who I’ve enjoyed meeting the most is Marcella Hazan, who happens to live here in Florida. (read about when I first met Marcella and Victor Hazan)

Marcella Hazan has been one of the most influential cooking teachers and cookbook authors in the world. After 6 best-selling cookbooks on Italian-American cuisine (my favorite is The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), she’s been often referred to as the “Doyenne of Italian Cooking in America.”

I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon with her and husband Victor at their home in Longboat Key, teaching Marcella how to make my Mom’s Chinese fried rice and egg rolls.

After rolling and deep-frying 50-some egg rolls and enough fried rice to last a few days, we all sat down to enjoy our lunch. I so wish I had a notepad and pen at the dinner table, I would have even risked being considered bad-mannered, taking notes while eating.

Marcella and Victor recounted stories from when they met to her first time on television. Marcella flung cooking tips my way and sling-shotted zippy one-liners back at me if I happened to ask a silly question like, “So, do you cook every day?”

Her reply, “We have do eat, don’t we?!”

Towards the end of the meal, she asked me what dish I loved to eat the most. My reply was, “Steak. A big, thick steak.”

Without hesitation, she promptly began teaching me her and Victor’s favorite way to cook steak. Since that day, it’s been my favorite way too.

***

This summer is all about steaks, as I’m the beef gal for Sweetbay Supermarket, a Florida chain this summer. Last week, I chatted with Pat, the butcher on duty at my local Sweetbay. Pat’s favorite cut is the ribeye and so I thought I’d feature Marcella’s recipe of Steak with Rosemary and Garlic with the ribeye cut.

I always try to get bone-in ribeye (Coco, the puppy, sure appreciates it.) Pat loves the marbling in the ribeye, saying “deep marbling equals more flavor.”

To make Marcella’s steak, get a pan super-hot and lay the steak in the pan. If you’re cooking with ribeye, there’s no need for any oil as the ribeye’s own fat is just fine.

Continue reading Rosemary Garlic Steak...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments

The dish is dead simple and I can’t think of a better way to dress up leftover protein. Just pile on slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella over any warmed up store-bought rotisserie chicken, leftover chicken, turkey, pork chops, salmon, etc., a little drizzle of olive oil and slide that under the broiler to melt the cheese. Season a bit with salt & pepper, throw on some basil and just a few drips of good balsamic vinegar if you want.

It’s a deceiving dish, looks so darn elegant yet so easy.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 14 comments

I just have to put it out there that if I’m going to spend the calories on a dessert, it should satisfy not only my sweet (and salty) tooth, but also take care of my boozy tooth too. Specifically, desserts that include some sort of dunking, spritzing or drizzling of alcohol that can make my toes tingle is a good thing. Especially Tiramisu.

So while the recipe for these cupcakes calls for a quick brushing of coffee liqueur before the topping goes on, feel free to do as I did and brushed liberally….and then help yourself to another shot for your afternoon coffee. I promise, I won’t tell.

While traditional Tiramisu is multiple layers of ladyfingers, coffee liqueur, mascarpone and cream, this cupcake is simpler to make, only 2 eggs (some recipes call for 7 egg yolks!) and no overnight wait.

There are still layers in this cupcake! Rich, fudgy chocolate cake, then a brushing of coffee liqueur, then creamy mascarpone cheese, then whipped cream and lastly chocolate shavings.

The surprise in this recipe is that cake mix is used, but instead of following the directions on the box, the mix is combined with sour cream, 2 eggs, coffee granules and just a couple tablespoons of water. This creates a batter is thick, almost fudge-like and makes the cupcakes rich and intensely coffee-chocolaty.

I didn’t have instant coffee granules, so I ground my coffee on the finest setting instead and it was perfect. I got a nice crunch texture using regular coffee.

Here’s Pampered Chef’s Deluxe Mini Muffin Pan – each cup holds about 1 1/2 tablespoons of filling, which makes these the cutest mini-cupcakes ever. You can use a regular muffin pan too.

The mascarpone layer is so simple – just combine the mascarpone cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

After the cupcakes are baked, you’ll immediately use something to make indentations for the mascarpone layer.

I used the Pampered Chef Mini Tart-Shaper tool dipped in powdered sugar, but you can use the bottom of a shot glass or any other item you can find in the kitchen to make the indentations. You have to do this while the cupcakes are still hot from the oven.

A veeerrry nice brushing of coffee liqueur (like Kahlua) is next, and then pop them out to cool completely on a rack.

The mascarpone cheese filling goes into a plastic bag with the tip snipped off and piped into the indentation.

You can use a pastry bag if you want, but a plastic bag works just fine.

And then the whipped cream (I used my fancy ISI whipped cream maker thingy)

Lastly, shaved chocolate.

This Tiramisu Cupcake recipe comes from Pampered Chef – I recently flew over to their HQ in Chicago to film their very first live cooking show and made these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 32 comments

It’s funny how a little thing like lunch can be a life changer.

For Marcella Hazan, it was when Craig Claiborne of the NY Times came to lunch in 1970….and shortly thereafter, celebrities, writers, chefs and other-important-people-who-can-make-your-career started coming to Marcella’s classes to learn about authentic Italian cooking. Six best-selling books, Lifetime Achievement awards and changing the way Americans cook, think, enjoy Italian food…that’s Marcella.

My life changing lunch was last week.

It was a bit unexpected – I’ve been friends with Lael and Guiliano Hazan (Marcella’s son) for the past couple of years but never imagined that I’d be meeting Marcella. And it wasn’t until Pamela Sheldon Johns swung by the area on book tour that I had that chance. A few emails, text messages and phone calls with Pamela and it was decided that lunch at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota was the plan, and that Marcella would be joining us.

I really didn’t know what to expect, I had heard Marcella was intense and intimidating, but I would have expected nothing less from the “doyenne of Italian cooking in America“…a fervent force of nature, indeed!

Lunch was pleasant, I was on my best behavior and didn’t slurp my Pork Belly Ramen Noodles like I normally would, for fear that a long slingy noodle would slurp-lash rich broth at my dining companions. Conversation flitted between Pamela’s cooking school in Italy to olive oil to cookbooks to book tour to travel.

No, wait. Pamela and I flitted. Marcella listened, at moments her eyes would gaze away and just when I thought we had bored her to tears, she’d smile and cut our sing-song fluttery conversation with her wisdom, bluntness and staunchy opinions.

And that was our lunch.

But that wasn’t THE LUNCH that I was referring to.

As we were about to leave the Ritz, Marcella wanted to know when I was going to come to her house to cook Chinese food. She has a fondness for Chinese food that has gone unfulfilled here in Sarasota (our Chinese-American restaurants here in town have a bad habit of drowning every dish in the same nasty, goopy brown sauce.) I recalled reading that a Chinese cooking class is what started it all for her in 1969.

Phone numbers were exchanged.

The next day, Marcella called, “Hello, this is Marcella. We met yesterday. Do you remember me? When are you coming over?”

Hmm…Marcella…marcella…name sounds familiar…OF COURSE I REMEMBER!

Lunch at Marcella and Victor’s home was scheduled and I decided to make My Mother’s Famous Chinese Crispy Egg Rolls and Chinese Sausage Fried Rice, both from my book and both are dishes that I could make on the fly without a recipe. Important, because while I couldn’t pretend that cooking for culinary royalty was a normal thing in my daily routine, at least I could stack the odds in my favor that the food would turn out good.

Their condo, overlooking the happy blue sea of Gulf, is elegantly decorated with treasures from around the world. A richly colored, cone-shaped lantern, as large as a satellite dish, hangs mightily at the center of the living room.

“It’s Venetian,” Victor says, “have you ever been to Venice?”

I love Victor. He’s quick, sharp, witty and still a ladies man. He’s dressed in slacks, button down shirt, both perfectly pressed, trimmed goatee and his short, grey hair styled in that messy-tousled way.

He’s still sexy at 81.

Marcella is 87 years old (her birthday was last week) and health problems have taken their toll on her body. I can imagine what she was like in her energetic younger years.

But these days, Marcella is comfortable at her dining room table, situated between the kitchen and the view of the Gulf’s peaceful blue.

She sits within fingertips reach of the kitchen, a cigarette in hand, only getting up and shuffling to the walk-in closet converted to a pantry and storage to retrieve items that I needed to cook with.

She senses that I’m reluctant to ask for too much, the shuffling is labored and the cigarette has to be put down, “Tell me what you need. I have many things, just ask. The right tool always makes it easier.”

I break out of my normal blogger routine of capturing everything on camera and film, my friend Shelisa helps me snap a few photos while being respectful of the Hazan’s privacy. Don’t get me wrong, it was one of the hardest things to do. Given my way, I would have mounted five cameras to the ceiling to record it all, especially if I happened to do something silly…like burn down their kitchen.

They live in a strict condo community. No bbq grills, no gas flames. I knew they had an electric stove, so I brought my own portable butane powered gas stove and wok. Marcella looks at me, smiles wickedly and says, “oh, that’s illegal here.” (but we used it anyways….shhhh!)

Shelisa and I stood a couple of feet from Marcella’s seat at the dining room and we proceeded to roll a couple dozen egg rolls. Then Marcella wanted to learn and so we brought out a wooden TV tray to her and she put down her cigarette.

The secret to rolling a good egg roll is to keep it tight and even, something that takes a little practice, even for Marcella. The first couple didn’t turn out so good, and I froze for split sec…how do I tell culinary royalty that her egg roll isn’t quite right? Do I quickly re-roll under the table without her seeing? Do I gently scold like my mama does to me!? What if she really knows how to roll and she’s just testing me?

“Marcella, we have to roll tighter, like a cigarette. Like this…”

And boom. She understood.

We rolled enough for lunch and enough to store a batch in the freezer for another time.

There were many things that I learned once the four of us sat down for our lunch of Egg Rolls and Fried Rice. Like most Italians, lunch is Marcella and Victor’s main meal of the day, the most important one, so Victor opened a bottle of wine, the table was set and we sat and dined.

I had forgotten to bring a bottle of Chinese Black Vinegar for the egg rolls. And if you didn’t know how to eat an egg roll properly, let me tell you. You first take a little bite on one of the egg roll. Holding the egg roll upright, spoon just a few drops of Chinese Black Vinegar down into the egg roll, so that it dribbles all the way down on the inside of the roll. That deep, musky tang of the vinegar adds another flavor dimension.

But if you don’t have Chinese Black Vinegar, cheap balsamic vinegar will do. Notice I said “CHEAP” (Chinese Black Vinegar is $3 a bottle).

But how do I ask the Hazan’s if they have cheap balsamic?! So I just asked for balsamic.

Victor brought out a eeety beety tiny bottle of balsamic.

Marcella looks at the bottle, looks at me, then points to the bottle, “You know, this is $85 a bottle, aged 25 years.”

And then a little bickering began, with Marcella telling Victor in Italian something about 25 year old special balsamic, $85 a bottle, our American guests will use too much, they won’t appreciate! And then no more special balsamic for me!

Well, I don’t speak Italian, but that’s exactly what *I* would tell my husband! They bickered back and forth for a while, and I think Victor won, because the bottle stayed put on the table.

Very carefully, I opened the bottle…Marcella had her eye on me…I looked at the cork and declared, “oh, this balsamic vinegar won’t work well, it’s too thick and sweet!” and sent Victor off to find a more “tart and runny balsamic”…i.e. the CHEAP STUFF.

Among the lessons that I learned that afternoon:

• Real Italian sausage has no fennel, “Why all sausage have fennel? I don’t understand. Italian sausage just simple salt and pepper.”
• While we ended our meal with an espresso, Marcella ended hers with a glass of Gentleman Jack whiskey, “I cannot drink wine anymore, I have a reaction. So I drink whiskey.” And from Victor, I learned that a little sugar in the espresso brings out so much flavor.
• They love a big, thick rare steak. Massage the steak with salt and pepper, place on grill, and when you see 1/4″ of the side cooked and cook the other side 1/4″ inch. In separate frying pan, heat up olive oil, garlic, rosemary. When it’s very very hot, take the grilled steak and place in the olive oil pan. Let it sizzle just a bit, flip and do that a couple of times, but be careful, you’re just coating the steak, not cooking it further.

But the life changing moment for me was not about the food, it was a lesson on fondness.

Some days, my husband and I are so busy that we hardly even have a chance to meet eyes. Even when we’re not busy, our eyes are on our children.

That day, during every story that Victor told of Marcella, and Marcella told of Victor, their eyes would lock for a moment, they’d share a smirk-smile and it was evident that this was more than love. This was 55 years of fondness that they still have for each other.

I can’t quite explain it in words, but this is what growing old together, forever, in love means.

Victor sent me home with a package of Italian sausage, custom made for them by Paul Bertolli, meat, fat, salt, pepper and absolutely no fennel.

And a few nights later, we grilled the sausages and also made Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter that she’s famous for. What a fine meal it was!

The recipe for her tomato sauce is so simple – just 3 ingredients: butter, onion and tomatoes. Recipe for Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 111 comments

I recently had the pleasure of meeting, cooking and dining with Marcella and Victor Hazan at their home in Florida.

At 87 years old, Marcella Hazan is a legend in the culinary world, having influenced millions of Americans on the art of Italian cooking.

Of all recipes, I think this is simple Tomato Sauce is what she’s most famous for.

Read my post and see photos of my visit with Marcella and Victor Hazan.

Marcella’s Tomato Sauce: 3 ingredients

Four, if you count the pasta as well.

1 whole onion, one 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes (from San Marzano if you can find them), 5 tablespoons of butter and pasta of your choice. I used salted butter, which let me omit the added salt to the sauce (and I also salt my boiling pasta water too)

Place the butter, onion and tomatoes (I’ve roughly chopped the tomatoes first) into a pot and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.

Until it looks like this, where droplets of fat float freely from the tomato:

Remove the onion and discard if you must (but secretly, I enjoyed it with a little salt and pepper)

This is what tomato sauce is all about!

Serve over pasta.

Victor and Marcella sent me home with a gift of custom made Italian sausage by Paul Bertolli:

And so we grilled them outside…but a little boy was impatient and couldn’t wait for me to finish my photoshoot.

After I scolded him for grabbing the sausage with his hands before dinner was served, I turned around to get the other plates dished up.

And caught him….

in the act…

of super-fast slurping…hoping not to get caught…

look at that slurptastic action!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 92 comments

This recipe for Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings is a must-try. If I could, I’d duct tape it front and center on my favorite recipes list. These, along with Momofuku’s Chicken Wings make me a very happy girl. Forget Buffalo wings, forget even the Hooters wings (I just heard my husband gasp). The next time you’re at the market, grab a couple pounds of wings and try this out.

But wait. It gets better.

The dipping sauce is a mixture of blue cheese dressing with Dijon mustard! The Recipe is from Chef Jesse Thomas of PizzAmore restaurant in Mount Dora.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 64 comments

Scarpetta in New York City is most famous for its Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil.

People pay $24 for a serving.

Yes, that’s right: twenty-four dollars.

And we’re not talking about the family-style mound you’d find in a sticky-floored Italian joint. This is one of those fancy-restaurant, daintily plated serving sizes. If you twirl your fork three times, you’d get it all. Don’t believe me?

But people love it. Although I haven’t been to the restaurant myself, I’ve read the endless rave reviews and since there were too many variations for the recipe online, I just had to call the restaurant directly for the recipe.

And the secret to their famous pasta its simplicity.

Oh, and butter.

To make Scarpetta’s Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Garlic Basil Oil, you’ll first work the tomato. Cut each tomato in half and scoop out the seeds with your fingers. You can use plum tomatoes or regular tomatoes, whichever is freshest. You want a smooth, intensely flavored sauce…and watery seeds don’t belong.

The Garlic Basil Oil has just a few ingredients – fresh basil, sliced garlic and chili flakes.

Infuse the ingredients in hot olive oil and let sit on stove for 20 minutes or more: 10 minutes on low-low-low heat and then 10 minutes off the heat. The longer you let it steep, the more flavorful the oil will be. You won’t use all of the oil – strain, discard the solids and refrigerate for a few days and use in other recipes. Do not store the garlic in oil at room temperature.

Just before serving, drizzle or toss the pasta with the Garlic Basil Oil.

***

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 87 comments

Oink!

This is probably my most favorite Good Bite video of all time – Elise, Ruhlman and I had a great time talking about one of our favorite subjects ever…

And for the recipes and videos: my Pork Ragu over Pasta, Ruhlman’s Grilled Pulled Pork with Chipotle BBQ Sauce and Elise’s Pork Chop with Red Currant Sauce

Pork Ragu over Pasta Recipe Video

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments

Update 12/8/09 I’m thrilled to share that I’m a featured blogger for Oprah’s Holiday 2009!

This is one of those perfect perfect fall-winter recipes that you must make for Thanksgiving. Because it’s super-simple. If you’ve never made gnocchi before, please trust me that it’s easier than you think…please don’t be intimidated by the “gn”

Two throaty letters THAT close together sometimes scare me too.

Continue reading Pan-Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 87 comments