Steamy Kitchen » Italian Recipes

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings

SteamyKitchen — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:53:20 +0000

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.

Come get the recipe for Baked Parmesan Chicken Wings over at Steamy Kitchen on TLC.

Scarpetta’s Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Garlic Basil Oil

SteamyKitchen — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:32:01 +0000

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.

***

Scarpetta’s Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Garlic Basil Oil Recipe

adapted from Scott Conant and Scarpetta

Serves 4

Chef Conant likes to use 20 ripe plum tomatoes (no canned). My adaptation includes canned tomatoes as well because I find it works better. Tomatoes used for canning are picked at the peak of ripeness, and many times the fresh tomatoes I find at the market are just so-so. Feel free to use all fresh, all canned or a combination. Don’t expect the usual sauce-heavy spaghetti. Conant’s recipe is light; the barely there sauce combined with the basil-garlic oil is so full of intense flavors, you don’t need to drown your pasta.

4 ripe organic tomatoes (preferably plum tomatoes)
One 12-ounce can of San Marzano or organic whole tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of crushed red chili pepper flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ounce freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about 1/2 cup)
6 to 8 fresh basil leaves, well washed and dried, stacked and rolled into a cylinder and sliced thinly crosswise into a chiffonade
1 pound spaghetti, either high-quality dry or homemade

For the Basil-Garlic Oil:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6-8 whole cloves garlic
10 whole fresh basil leaves
Generous pinch crushed red chili pepper flakes

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water nearby. Cut a small X on the bottom of each tomato. Ease the tomatoes into the pot and boil for about 15 seconds, then promptly move them to the waiting ice water. (Continue with the remaining tomatoes.) Pull off the skin with the tip of a paring knife. If the skin sticks, try a vegetable peeler using a gentle sawing motion. Cut the tomatoes in half and use your finger to flick out the seeds.

2. In a wide pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until quite hot. Add the fresh and canned tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and season lightly with the salt and pepper. (I always start with a light hand with the salt and pepper because as the tomatoes reduce, the salt will become concentrated.) Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes to soften. Then, using a potato masher, chop the tomatoes finely. Cook the tomatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tomatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened. (You can make the sauce, which yields about 2-3 cups, ahead of time. Refrigerate it for up to two days or freeze it for longer storage.)

3. While the tomatoes are cooking, make the basil-garlic oil. Heat a small saucepan over low heat with 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic cloves, basil leaves and pepper flakes. Keep the heat on low to allow the ingredients to warm slowly and release their flavors. When the garlic is lightly browned, turn heat off and let cool for 10 minutes. The longer you let the oil sit, the more infused the oil. Strain the oil, discarding the solids.

4. To cook the spaghetti, bring a large pot of amply salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti until just shy of al dente and drain, reserve a little of the pasta cooking water.

5. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and cook over medium-high heat, gently tossing the pasta and the sauce together with a couple of wooden spoons and a lot of exaggerated movement (you can even shake the pan) until the pasta is just tender and the sauce, if any oil had separated from it, now looks cohesive. (If the sauce seems too thick, add a little pasta cooking liquid to adjust it.) Remove the pan from the heat and toss the butter, basil and cheese with the pasta in the same manner (the pasta should take on an orange hue). Drizzle with just a bit of the basil-garlic oil on each plate (you might not use all of it).

Here piggy piggy piggy…Pork Ragu

SteamyKitchen — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:38:02 +0000

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

Pan-Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage

SteamyKitchen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:50:24 +0000

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.

But I promise you, it’s not bad at all. Here, let me hold your hand and walk you through it.

1. Mix together some canned pumpkin, lemon zest, salt, ricotta cheese, egg yolk and grated parmesan. In a separate bowl, add the flour. Now, here’s a secret shortcut. The recipe calls for “sifted flour” but I’m lazy. I don’t like to sift. I use a whisky-thingy to briskly whisk through the flour which breaks up any clumps. Does the same job. Plus, I like saying “briskly whisk.”

2. Add some of the flour (not all) You’re gonna mix with a spatula until the flour disappears.

3. Now add the rest of the flour and use your fingertips and lightly mix/knead. It’s a wet, sticky dough, but you’ll only do this for a minute. You can add more flour if it’s too sticky.

4. How do you know when you’ve added enough flour? Press your finger into the dough. It should be slightly tacky but clean. Then divide that dough ball into 4…and roll out with your hands one of the sections into a 1-inch diameter, long snake.

5. Cut into 1-inch pieces with a knife. Then you can use your fingers to lightly roll each piece to get them evenly sized. But seriously, this step is not necessary at all – you’ll be pan frying the gnocchi and any fancy handwork or groovy fork-marks will disappear anyways.

6. Heat a pan with some butter, add gnocchi pieces, fry until both sides golden.

7. After you fry all batches, clean the pan. Add new butter and olive oil. Fry the sage until fragrant. I like to remove the sage (you might like to eat that crispy herb and keep it in) Then whisk in balsamic vinegar. Pour over the gnocchi. THAT’S IT!

8. Shave some parmesan and serve.

See, I told you gnocchi was gneasy.

Pan-Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi Recipe

The secret to gnocchi is to have a light hand in the mixing. Overworking the dough will result in chewy, tough gnocchi. Use a spatula to mix the dough and then your fingertips to just turn the dough a few times to incorporate the rest of the flour. If you don’t have a flour sifter or are just plain lazy like me, use a wire whisk to break up any clumps in the flour.

The brown-butter sage is incredible – it’s a rich recipe, and only a little bit of the fragrant browned butter sage is needed (it’s not meant to be a “sauce”). The balsamic vinegar in the sauce gives it a nice tang that cuts through the rich gnocchi. Use a good quality balsamic vinegar.

serves 4-6

1/2 cup skim milk ricotta
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup freshly grated parmegiano reggiano
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon lemon zest (use a microplane grater) (plus extra reserved for garnishing)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
1 cup all purpose flour, sifted plus more for dusting (see sifting tip above)
3 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons good quality balsamic vinegar
3 sprigs fresh sage, plus more for garnish
shaved parmegiano reggiano for serving (use vegetable peeler)

Preheat oven to 300F

1. Combine ricotta, pumpkin parmagiano, yolk, zest and salt in large bowl. Mix well. Sprinkle half of the flour on the mixture, gently turn with spatula a few times to incorporate. Dump mixture on clean, lightly floured countertop or you can still do this in the bowl. Sprinkle remaining flour on top of the mixture. Gently knead with your fingertips, just bringing together the mixture until flour is incorporated through. This only should take a minute or two. Any longer and you will be over-kneading.

2. Dust a clean, dry surface with a generous sprinkling of flour. Divide dough into 4 parts. Take one part and roll into a long, 1″ diameter log. Cut gnocchi into 1″ pieces.

3. Heat a large frying pan or saute pan with just 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When hot, add a few gnocchi – enough to cover surface but not touch each other. Fry on medium heat for 1-2 minutes, turn and fry for another 1-2 minutes. Remove gnocchi, place on large baking sheet to put into oven to keep warm. Repeat with rest of gnocchi.

4. When all gnocchi is finished, discard butter/oil in pan and clean pan with paper towel. Heat pan on medium heat and when hot, add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. When hot, add the fresh sage. Let the sage brown and sizzle (but not burn) for a couple of minutes until very fragrant. Remove the sage and discard if you want (or keep it in to eat — as many people in the comments below like to do!) To the pan, add the balsamic vinegar and whisk. Let simmer on low for 1 minute and pour over the gnocchi.

5. Serve with shaved parmegiano reggiano and a sage leaf for garnish.

Caprese Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

SteamyKitchen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:52:52 +0000

It’s the LAST WEEK of Summer Fest! Where did all the time go? We’re onto our final round of celebrating the garden and onto Tomatoes. If you haven’t yet heard about Summer Fest, it’s a four-week celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best with my co-hosts White on Rice, Away to Garden, Simmer Till Done, Paige of The Sister Project and Matt Bites. Of course, It’s not a party without your participation! And I’ll tell you how in just a bit.

When we first threw the idea of Summer Fest around, I was just ending my early Summer season of tomatoes. It’s just way too hot here where I live in Florida to grow much of anything in the thick of summer. I SHOULD be starting my tomatoes for our Fall/Winter-ish season (there’s no such thing as Winter here, it’s still like 80F in December) but I haven’t started, because this is what happens to my tomato garden when I travel too much:

Um yeah. So my Earthboxes are still empty.

Wait…you don’t believe me that I can harvest tomatoes in the winter? Oh let me show you what I picked on Christmas Eve in 2007:

Okay, so it was only 1 itty bitty leeeetle tomato. But still! Christmas Eve harvest!

But there are SOME things that are growing:

So I’ve got basil…LOTS of basil and had to cheat with the tomato and get that at a farmer’s market to make Caprese Salad with Basil Vinaigrette.

When tomato is THIS good, I hate to do anything other than enjoy it fresh in a salad. My Basil Vinaigrette is simple to make, takes 5 minutes in a blender. You’ll love it. I promise.

First, the Basil Vinaigrette ingredients: fresh basil leaves, shallots, sea salt, a couple slices of fresh chili pepper, good olive oil and a white vinegar (I’m in love with Dehydr8).

First you gotta chop up the shallots and the pepper in the blender.

Next goes in the torn basil leaves, salt, vinegar and 2 tablespoons of water. You need that liquid to get things moving in the blender.

Let that baby whirl while you slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Look at that gorgeous mossy green!

Once it calms down a bit, the color turns bright vivid green.

The makings of a Caprese Salad.

Wait. Another beauty shot of the tomato.

Since I’m stacking this Caprese Salad up, I want to make sure that the bottom layer (which uses the bottom of the tomato) is flat — so that the whole stack doesn’t fall over. So lop off the round butt of the tomato so that it has a flat ass to sit on.

Start stacking and layering your Caprese Salad!

Lastly…drizzle the Basil Vinaigrette over your Caprese Salad.

Love that drizzle action!

Caprese Salad with Basil Vinaigrette Recipe

serves 4 as first course

4 large tomatoes, sliced into thick slices
1 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced into thick slices
1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

For the Basil Vinaigrette
1 small shallot, roughly chopped
2 slices fresh chili pepper
1 cup loosely packed basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons good white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (1/2 tsp table salt)
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. To make the Basil Vinaigrette, add the shallot and chili pepper to the blender. Next add the basil leaves, water, vinegar and sea salt. Blend. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil as you are blending.

2. To assemble the Caprese Salad, layer the tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. In between each layer, season with a bit of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle the basil vinaigrette on top.

Store extra basil vinaigrette in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

How you can join Summer Fest

Summer Fest 2009 is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created (alphabetically listed) by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project.’ And from you that’s critical. Your contributions are desired, and needed.

Will you play along? Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting today, with the subject of herbs, you can contribute in various ways, big or small. Contribute a whole post, or a comment, whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:

Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2009 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites).

Summer Fest 2009 Schedule:

Tuesday, July 28: HERBS. Any and all.

Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES (also known as stone fruits, but we won’t scream if you toss in a berry or another fruit, promise).

Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK (either or both, your choice).

Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK. How do you like them love apples? (this week!)

What did my co-hosts make for the Summer Fest Party?

Simmer Till Done Made a Savory Upside Down Tomato Basil Bread

Matt Bites does Tomatoes 10 Ways

Away to Garden shows us her Quick Tomato Sauce Ever So Slowly

White on Rice tells us about their kiddie tomato thieves and makes Tomato Jam!

What a cute little girl! Paige from The Sister Project makes Curried Carrot and Tomato Soup

Gluten Free Girl makes Smoked Tomato Salsa