I only had about a cup and a half of leftover sauce so I added some garlic and onions as well. I made a basic risotto first and then I added the sauce to it and continued to cook it, although I did modify the basic risotto somewhat to take into account the fact that I’d be adding the Bolognese sauce to it.

Most risottos (except seafood) use Parmesan cheese. Belle and my older son don’t like the cheese so I left it out.

Belle’s note: This was a lovely way to use up the leftover Bolognese sauce – it got a thumbs up from everyone, even our little one (who ate just the risotto and none of the “bits” he could see). I often find risotto to be too creamy, but Ward’s version using Bolognese sauce was rich without being too creamy.

Risotto with Bolognese Sauce

6 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 large onion, peeled and chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 cups risotto rice (Arborio)
1 cup dry white wine
1-2 cups Bolognese sauce

1. Heat stock in a medium sauce pot and bring to a simmer.
2. Heat oil and butter in a large sauce pan over medium-low heat.
3. Add garlic and onions and cook slowly, do not colour the onions or garlic.(about 15 -20 minutes)
4. Add the rice and turn the heat up to medium-high and stir constantly so it doesn’t stick.
5. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol, still stirring.
6. Turn the heat down to low and add one ladle of stock.
7. Continue stirring until the rice has absorbed most of the stock; add another ladle and continue this process until all the stock is gone.
8. Add the Bolognese sauce before the last ladle has been completely absorbed and stir until absorbed and the sauce is heated.

This isn’t a great picture, but we forgot to take a picture until after everyone had dug in. Trust me, it tastes much better than it looks!

Here’s how this meal happened. It was Monday, around 4 pm, and I was ready to start getting dinner prepared. I’d planned for a  fairly simple dinner: spinach tofu salad with spicy miso dressing, miso soup with tofu and spinach and baked tofu with wilted spinach and peanut sauce. And for those in the family not really keen on tofu and spinach, spaghetti squash with Indian spices. I had all the ingredients and just needed to do all the prep work first, so I could cook it later.

We generally don’t eat before 7 pm which is late for most people, but for our lifestyle it works well. The older two come home from school  and want to snack so to eat at 5 pm (the way I grew up, you could set your clock by when my Mom had dinner on the table) is much too early.

When I first started cooking we would eat at 8, 9 or even 10pm – way too late and not good for the digestion! But I’m a lot better at timing things now, so I’ve moved dinner time to about 7  pm unless we have guests and then we aim for 6 pm.

The problem with my style of cooking is I LOVE being in the kitchen and I’m in no rush to get out, so I don’t care if it takes me three  hours to make dinner or even lunch. It’s relaxing and meditative for me – Zen and the Art of Cooking. Hey, that could be the title of my first book!

I digress.

So everything was ready and then my older son came into the kitchen and asked, what’s for dinner? I told him and the look on his face let me know he was not going to be a happy camper. Then Belle told me our daughter, the vegetarian, wasn’t going to be home for dinner. The menu suddenly seemed really inappropriate. Not to mention,  Dylan wasn’t likely to touch any of it either.

My older son said, “How about something with tomato sauce?” (I think he wanted to order pizza.) So I said, “How about Home Made Pasta and Bolognese Sauce. You know, the one made from steak and takes two hours to make?”

His answer? “Okay!”

So off I went to the butcher for a top blade roast, ground pork, pancetta and to the grocery store for the rest of the ingredients. I got back before 5 pm and started the sauce.

One of my favourite “meat” cookbooks is The New Steak by Cree LeFavour. There is not a page in it that I do not like. Wonderful cookbook! I made the pasta my usual way, rather than following the method in The New Steak, and I made some changes to the Bolognese sauce in the book. One change was prompted by the fact that  it’s hard to find fresh porcini mushrooms and I didn’t want to use the dried ones again, so I substituted shiitake mushrooms.

The finished sauce looks beautiful but some people, who shall remain nameless (his first initial is “Dylan”, by the way), won’t touch it because it has “flavours” in it. “Flavours” to Dylan means anything green, red, purple etc. So I took some of the sauce and puréed it in a blender and voila, no “flavours”. Puréeing is a great idea, because Dylan eats it and still gets some veggies.

A suggestion from a friend is to reserve some of the sauce and make a risotto with it. Now that sounds interesting, and I plan to try that the next time with the leftovers – if there are any.

Belle says: I love this Bolognese sauce, and have asked for it many times – and I don’t normally like pasta with sauce! The slow simmering makes the meat so tender, and the taste is out of this world. I usually have seconds, especially when Ward pairs this sauce with homemade pasta like he did the other night.

Bolognese Sauce
Adapted from The New Steak by Cree LeFavour

4 tbsp olive oil
2 lb top blade roast, cut into 1/4″ – 1/2″ pieces, most of the big fat removed
1/4 lb lean ground pork
1/4 lb pancetta(hot), diced
1 yellow onion, diced
5 ribs celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio)
6 sprigs thyme
4 fresh bay leaves
2 cups organic chicken stock, divided
1-1/2 cups skim milk, divided
5 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup chopped tomatoes and their juices (canned diced tomatoes work perfectly)
freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese (fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano is best and worth it after going to all the trouble of making this beautiful sauce and home made noodles)

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large sauce pan until hot. Add about 1/3 of your beef and caramelize (about 5 minutes). Remove to a bowl and repeat with the rest of the meat.
2. Cook the pork in the same pan and then remove to same bowl as the beef.
3. Lower the heat to medium-high and add the pancetta to the pan (you may need more oil at this point) and brown it (about 5 minutes).
4. Add the onion, celery and carrots, salt and cook for about 5-8 minutes, until carrots are soft.
5. Add the shiitake mushrooms and garlic. Cook for a few more minutes.
6. Turn the heat down to medium and add the wine, thyme and bay leaves.
7. Reduce the mixture while stirring and scraping the brown bits off.
8. As soon as it looks like it’s going to start sticking, add 1 cup of stock and 1/4 cup milk and the tomato paste. Reduce again.
9. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, slowly adding the remaining stock and milk. Cook slowly for 1.5 hours.
10. About 10 minutes before the sauce is done, add the tomatoes and pepper.
11. Adjust for taste with salt and pepper. I don’t find it needs any, especially if you’re adding Parmesan cheese.

Homemade Pasta

This will take less then an hour to make and since the Bolognese sauce was taking 1-2 hours to cook, I had nothing else to do, so I decided to make the pasta instead of using store-bought pasta. See my previous post about making home made pasta in 30 minutes.

I doubled the flour and eggs for this meal so it took longer to roll out the pasta and cut it. For 4 people, use approximately 4 cups of all purpose flour and 4 free range eggs in a food processor. Add flour as required until you get slightly sticky little balls of dough. Remove from processor and divide into 4 equal balls.

Use your pasta machine to roll out the 4 balls, flouring them and stacking them. When finished, lay each sheet out on the cutting board and fold in half, slice with a knife and shake into a large bowl.

Boil salted water. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and cook in batches. Add more olive oil for the third batch.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. ]]> http://museinthekitchen.com/italian/homemade-pasta-with-bolognese-sauce/feed/ 4 http://museinthekitchen.com/italian/home-made-pizza-with-whole-wheat-crust/ http://museinthekitchen.com/italian/home-made-pizza-with-whole-wheat-crust/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:05:04 +0000 Ward http://museinthekitchen.com/?p=238 home made pasta. This week, he said, “Daddy, can Matthew and I have home made pizza?”

We were at Pizza Hut on Tuesday for lunch so he had pizza on his mind. I had left Pizza Hut sorely disappointed. I have not been there for quite a while and I guess my taste buds have changed. All the pizzas on their lunch buffet was too salty and tasted the same!

This past Wednesday night was fun. I did not set the timer as I knew it would take 2 hours for the dough to rise, but after the dough rose it took only about 2-3 minutes to roll it out, oil it, put the sauce on, and add the cheeses (and pepperoni on half for Matthew).

I popped the pizza onto a pre-heated pizza stone. About 9 minutes later both Dylan and Matthew were eating whole wheat cheese pizza. Neither of them are used to whole wheat pizza crust, but Dylan had two slices and Matthew had four!

So it was all pretty quick and easy. I must admit I had picked up a whole wheat pizza dough from the local grocery store just in case the dough did not turn out. I have to have more faith in myself!

I should say that I don’t care about having a round pizza, so I just roll it out to the thickness I want and don’t worry much about the shape; this way, it looks more home made! Maybe next time I will use all-purpose flour and they might eat even more.

I made a veggie one for myself, with sauce, green peppers, red onions and garlic slices. I popped it into the oven and 8 minutes later realized I forgot to put the cheese on it. It was vegan pizza! But I like my cheese so I pulled out the rack, threw some cheese on it and popped it back in for another 2 minutes. Perfection. It was one mistake that turned out quite well.

I talked to a friend of mine who’s Sicilian, and she adds her cheese at the end too, so it turned out not to be a mistake, just a bit of brilliant insight. At least that is my new story and I’m sticking to it.

I was going to make my own tomato sauce but when I started looking for tomatoes in my cupboard, canned tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, anything with tomatoes. I realized that for some strange reason, I was out of tomatoes – I’m always buying canned tomatoes, so I don’t know how I could have run out of them! But I did find a can of Organic Pizza sauce so I went with the canned sauce this time.

I adapted the recipe for the dough from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book (pg 137) and I basically followed their recipe on page 139 for the cheese pizza and did my own upside down version of that for my veggie pizza. It’s a great book, by the way. I have made quite a few breads from it and they all turned out well. Or at least my loving family said they did.

My older son had the leftover pizza for breakfast the next two days, so I think I will be making this again. The dough takes some advance planning time but everything else is last minute so it would make a good casual party meal: prepare the dough ahead of time or when the guests arrive and then have everyone make their own pizzas with whatever toppings they like (that you have on hand).

Basic Pizza Dough
makes two 14″ pizzas

1 tbsp dry active yeast
1/2 cup hot water
4 to 4-1/4 cups whole wheat flour (hard)
1-1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup hot water

Toppings
14 oz (398ml) Organic pizza sauce, divided
2-1/2 cups mixed cheddar cheeses , grated
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 pepperoni, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced

Special tools
Food processor
pizza stone

1. Combine yeast and 1/2 cup water in small bowl and let stand 5 minutes or until frothy.
2. Add 4 cups whole wheat flour, 1-1/2 tsp fine sea salt to a food processor (with a dough blade if possible) and pulse to mix.
3. Add yeast mixture and mix.
4. While running the food processor, add oil and 1 cup water through the chute and continue to process. Use a spatula to bring dough off sides and process some more.
5. When dough comes together, let rest for 2 minutes and then process again for 30 seconds.
6. If the dough is too wet at this point, add flour in tablespoons until it comes together.
7. Place the dough on a floured surface and shape into a ball. Place ball of dough in an oiled bowl, spray non-stick oil over ball and cover the bowl for 2 hours.
8. Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees F and place a pizza stone on lower third rack
9. Take dough out and divide into two on a floured surface. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a rimless baking sheet. Roll one half of the dough into a 14″ pizza, transfer to the baking sheet. Brush dough with olive oil
10. Add 1/2 the pizza sauce, leaving at least 1/2″ of the edge free of sauce. Add cheeses and pepperoni (for veggie pizza add the green pepper, red onion and garlic).
11. Place pizza and parchment on pizza stone (slide it on carefully  – the stone is very hot). Bake for 8-10 minutes. Set your timer for 8 minutes and check it and if the crust still needs some browning add another 2 minutes. If necessary, keep browning for another minute and so on, until done to your likeness.
12. Carefully slide the pizza and parchment back onto the baking sheet and transfer to cutting board. Let rest at least 5 minutes.
13. While the first pizza is baking, make your second pizza. Repeat steps with second pizza
14. Slice pizza and enjoy!

Pollo Alla Diavola looked delicious in the cookbook (The Food of Italy: A Journey for Food Lovers), so when I was putting together the list of meals for this week, I slipped it in there, along with spaghetti con zucchini (very garlicky good) and grilled mushroom caps with arugula butter (absolute perfection).

I had absolutely no idea that I’d picked a dish that would have me saying, over and over again, “This is so good. This is so good. This is so good.”

It didn’t look like it would turn out well, actually. This was the first dish we’d be making from The Food of Italy, a new-to-us cookbook. You have the option to either grill it on the barbecue, or broil it in the oven. Since the mushroom caps had to be grilled over indirect heat, and our grill isn’t the snazziest most up-to-date grill around (it basically gets the job done, but without any interesting options), Ward decided to use the broiler instead.

One of the banes of Ward’s life is that all the rooms downstairs have a low ceiling. With low ceilings, anything he cooks that smokes a bit usually results in the fire alarm going off. And usually when he uses the broiler, things get smoky..

So tonight, the smoke alarm went on. We fanned around it, and it stopped. It went on again. And again. By the time Ward was finished cooking, we had all the windows open, the stove-top vent on and a fan blowing in an attempt to keep the smokiness away from the fire alarm.

But when things had cleared (literally!) and we sat down to dinner, such lovely smells rose to greet us!

The chicken was delicious – the best chicken I’ve ever had. Seriously. Not only was it tender, it also had a wonderful essence-of-chicken taste. You know how sometimes chicken smells better than it actually tastes? Not with this recipe. It was chicken perfection.

I’d been avoiding chicken recipes for a while because, back when I was doing the cooking, most of the recipes I chose used only white meat, and I just found the results to be too bland. Pollo Alla Diavola has me hooked on chicken again. And Ward says it wasn’t a very difficult dish at all.

The recipe in The Food of Italy tells you to butterfly the chicken. We just asked our butcher to do it for us. Much easier.

Don’t let my mediocre food photography skills put you off. The chicken was far more delicious than the picture looks.

The following recipe for Pollo Alla Diavola is adapted from The Food of Italy: A Journey for Food Lovers:

POLLO ALLA DIAVOLA (Devil’s Chicken)

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
4 sage leaves, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
one 3-4 pound chicken, butterflied
2 shallots
4-5 cloves of garlic
6 tbsp chopped parsley
2-1/2 tbsp butter, softened to room temperature

Other equipment: One ziplock back, large enough to marinate the chicken.

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, chili and chopped sage. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place the butterflied chicken into the ziplock bag, and pour the sauce over the chicken. Close the bag, and squeeze gently to distribute the sauce around the chicken. Marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes, then gently squeeze the marinade around the chicken again and, turning the bag over, marinate in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
2. While the chicken is marinating, place shallots, garlic, parsley and butter in blender or food processor and chop until the mixture is a fine paste. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Preheat the broiler (or your grill).
4. Remove the chicken from the ziplock bag, reserving the leftover marinade. Place the marinated chicken, skin side down, on a broiler tray (or the grill). Place the tray or grill about 6 inches below the heat  and broil or grill for 15 minutes, occasionally basting the chicken with the marinade. Turn the chickens and broil or grill, basting occasionally, for 10-15 more minutes, or until the juices run clear when thigh is pierced with fork or skewer.
5. Spread the butter mixture over the skin of the chicken. Turn off the broiler and set oven to 300° F. Bake chicken for an additional 5 minutes, so that skin gets lightly browned. Serve hot.

So I was thrilled when I recently came across this recipe for Minestra Maritata (Italian Wedding Soup) over at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy.

Actually, “thrilled” is an understatement; I think I gave a little cry of joy and danced a quick little dance. At any rate, the first thing I did was print out the recipe and rush into the kitchen waving it in my hand, saying, “I want this! Can you make it? Please?” to Ward.

So he did.

Italian Wedding Soup

We varied the recipe a little; we used ground beef and pork, rather than ground veal and pork. We decided on acini di pepe for the pasta, because I’ve always liked the way the little balls of pasta feel in the mouth. We didn’t have any homemade broth on hand, so we used organic chicken broth.

Was it good? Absolutely! And Ward loved how quick and easy it was.

Sage Leaves on Top

Gorgeous & Saucy Layers

Delectable Shrimp in Spicy Sauce

Doesn’t that look incredibly good? This is the Shrimp and Tilapia Risotto we had with last night’s Soy-Glazed Flank Steak. An odd combination, I know, but it was already late afternoon when we realized we hadn’t decided on dinner. The flank steak was my choice, the risotto was Ward’s.

Simply because Ward loves making risotto. The problem, though, is that while I do like risotto, all that cheesiness is usually too rich for me. Our solution? Seafood risottos! No cheese. Still quite rich, but not too rich.

This one was incredibly creamy and very good.

You don’t really have to stir risotto as much as legend would have it, although there is stirring involved. Here it is, simmering on the stovetop:

Ward adds liquid, pops over to another spot in the kitchen to do some other quick bit prep work, comes back, stirs for about a minute until all the liquid is absorbed, adds another measure of liquid, goes does something else (a quick something else), comes back, stirs until the liquid is all absorbed … So while you do have to stir for a bit, you don’t have to stand there at the stove continuously.

The result? Very creamy risotto, with a lovely rich taste that’s not too rich, because no cheese has been added.

The seafood is perfectly done. Here you can see some chunks of tilapia and the shrimp:

Adapted from The Best Italian Classics, by Cooks Illustrated

Shrimp and Tilapia Risotto

Ingredients:

For the broth

1 medium onion, unpeeled, quartered

1 medium carrot, cut in 2-inch lengths

10 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp salt

shells from 1 pound shrimp (from below)

1 cup bottled clam juice

1 cup vegetable stock

1 can (14 1/2 oz or 400 mL) diced tomatoes

For the risotto:

5 tbsp unsalted butter

1 medium onion, diced fine

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

salt

2 cups Arborio rice

small pinch saffron threads

1 cup dry white wine

1 pound shrimp (about 31 to 40 per pound), shells (including tails) removed and reserved

2-3 small tilapia filets, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves

ground black pepper

Directions:

1. The broth: Combine all ingredients with 5-1/2 cups of water in a large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain broth through a fine-mesh strainer into another saucepan, discard the solids and put broth on low heat to keep warm.

2. The risotto: Melt 4 tbsp butter in large saucepan over medium-heat. When butter stops foaming, add the onion, garlic and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is very soft and translucent, about 9-10 minutes.

3. Add rice. Crumble saffron threads into pot, using your fingers. Cook, stirring frequently, until the edges of the rice are transparent, about 4 minutes.

4. Add the wine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the wine is absorbed by the rice, about 2 minutes.

5. Add 3 cups of the broth and simmer, stirring every three minutes. Continue simmering and stirring until liquid is absorbed and the bottom of pan is dry, about 10 to 12 minutes.

6. Continue adding more broth, approximately 1/2 cup at a time, as needed to keep pan bottom from drying out. You’ll be adding a half-cup every 3 to 4 minutes. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is cooked through, but grains are still a little firm in the center, about 10 to 12 minutes.

7. Stir in the remaining 1 tbsp butter vigorously, until melted. Gently fold in the shrimp, tilapia and basil. Cover pot and remove from heat. Let stand until seafood is cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes. Season to taste, and serve immediately.