Chicken Cacciatore

Cacciatore is the Italian word for "hunter". This recipe is a variation on a recipe that I received from a former co-worker (thanks Jim!). The original recipe had a few less ingredients but also had 1 whole clove added to the sauce during cooking. While I loved this flavouring, my husband did not. Therefore, I have used dried chili peppers in place of the cloves. This recipe serves about 6 people. It is also excellent reheated as left-overs! If you want to add more greens to it, you can stir in some baby spinach at the end of the cooking time.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet red pepper, chopped
1/2 jar (about 150 ml) fire roasted sweet red peppers
1 onion sliced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
4 medium white potatoes, quartered
2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced into one inch rings and then halved
1 cup of chicken broth
1 tsp dried chili peppers (or more, depending on your heat tolerance)
1 cup ripe oil-cured black olives
2 cans (28 oz each) diced tomatoes, with juice
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp thyme, oregano & basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
chicken: use bone-in & skin-on chicken--either 6 chicken breasts or 12 thighs or a combination of both.


1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in large dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, chopped red pepper, and celery. Saute until onion is soft. Combine all remaining ingredients, except chicken, with the onion mixture and simmer slowly for at least 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, brown chicken in skin, on both sides, slowly, in large nonstick skillet. Remove to paper towels and drain off fat. Cut skin off and discard. Transfer chicken to the prepared sauce and cover. Simmer, covered, on low, for about one hour or until tender.
3. Spoon chicken and vegetables onto plate and spoon sauce over them. Serve with fresh Italian bread.

Italian Sausage and Peppers with Roasted Asparagus

To make the Italian Sausage and Peppers, you can use either sweet or hot sausage, green or red sweet peppers, or a combination. To take the heat up to another level (which we prefer) add a tsp of dried hot chili peppers as you are cooking the sausage. You can prepare the sausage ahead of time, refrigerate it, and add it to the pan of stir fry veggies when you are ready to eat. I prefer to cut the sausage links in thirds before cooking them. The recipe for roasted asparagus is at the bottom.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds hot or sweet Italian sausage links, pricked with fork
1/4 cup water
2 large green or red peppers, cut into 3/4 inch wide strips
2 large onions, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 garlic clove, finely chopped (I used 2 cloves)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dried hot chili peppers

1. In 12 inch skillet, heat sausage links and water to boiling over medium heat. Remember to add the chili peppers if you are using them. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Remove cover and cook, turning sausages frequently, until water is evaporated and sausages are well browned, about 20 minutes longer. With tongs, transfer sausages to paper towel to drain.

2. Pour off all but one tbsp of fat from skillet ( I didn't find I had any fat in the pan so I added one tbsp of olive oil). Add peppers, onions, garlic and salt; cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender.

3. Add sausage to the peppers and onions; heat through.

For the roasted asparagus, preheat oven to 425F. In small bowl, combine a couple of tbsps olive oil; 1 tsp lemon rind, grated; finely chopped garlic clove, sprinkling of salt and 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper. Wash and clean a bunch of asparagus, removing barky stalks at bottom. Lay asparagus stalks out on a cookie sheet & drizzle olive oil mixture over stalks, tossing lightly. Roast for 10-15 minutes.

Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroons

These macaroons are a chocolate variation of an Italian recipe called brutti ma buoni "ugly but good"! Chocolate plus hazelnuts equals gianduja--a flavour you may have encountered in fine Italian chocolates. Walnuts also work in this recipe. This recipe was for 30 cookies, but I only got 20! I think mine were bigger......

Ingredients:

1 cup hazelnuts (filberts)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 square (1 ounce) unsweetened chocolate, chopped. If you don't have unsweetened chocolate on hand, you can make it by combining 3 tbsps of unsweetened cocoa with 1 tbsp of butter or margarine, melted.
1/8 tsp salt
2 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a large cookie sheet with foil.
2. Place hazelnuts in a 9 x 9 metal baking pan. Bake until toasted, about 10 to 15 minutes--keep an eye on them so they don't burn! Wrap hot hazelnuts in clean kitchen towel. With hands, roll hazelnuts back and forth to remove skins. Cool.
3. In food processor with knife blade attached, process hazelnuts, sugar, cocoa, chocolate, and salt until nuts and chocolate are finely ground. Add egg whites and vanilla and process until blended.
4. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon, using another spoon to release batter, 2 inches apart, on prepared cookie sheet. Bake until tops feel firm when pressed lightly, about 10 minutes, rotating sheet between upper and lower oven racks halfway through baking. Cool on cookie sheet on wire rack.

sorry folks, I went out for dinner tonight!

Tomorrow I will be making Italian Sausage with Peppers and Grilled Asparagus.

Tonight I ate out with friends and I had a very nice spinach salad with goat cheese; strawberries; cranberries; almonds & topped with a rasberry vinagrette. My dinner companions had smoked salmon with linguine and baby spinach--which she really enjoyed---but I had a hard time wrapping my head around that one!

Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers

Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers can be served as part of an antipasto platter or as a side dish, hot or at room temperature. Sorry about the photo, it seems to have ended up sideways:) This recipe is easily doubled. I halved the recipe and it turned out well. I topped the finished product with the bruschetta mixture from my previous recipe and then just heated that through in the oven for five minutes at the end. To be honest, although it was good, next time around I would spice it up a bit by reducing the bread and adding some cooked ground chicken and hot chili peppers to the mix. This recipe is for 4 accompaniment servings.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh 1/2 inch bread cubes (about 3 slices of bread---to make this healthier, I used multigrain/flax seed bread)

2 tbsp olive oil (or to taste--I found that I needed more olive oil & with just half the recipe I used about 4 tbsp of olive oil)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

3/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

4 Italian frying peppers (3 ounces each), tops removed and seeded. Okay, I just used sweet red peppers (you could use green or yellow ones too).

1. Preheat oven to 375F. On cookie sheet, toast bread cubes until light golden, about 6 to 7 minutes---keep an eye on them so they don't over toast!

2. Meanwhile, in 10 inch skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Add cheese, parsley, and croutons to onion, tossing to combine. Spoon crouton mixture into peppers, pressing down gently to fill. I then drizzled 1/2 a tbsp of olive oil over the top of the mixture inside of each pepper. Place peppers on their sides in 11 x 7 inch baking dish. Drizzle remaining tbsp of oil over the side of the peppers and cover with foil. Bake 40 minutes. Remove foil, top with previously mentioned bruschetta mixture if you desire and bake until peppers are tender (about 5 minutes longer).

Lacy Parmesan Crisps

Lacy Parmesan Crisps are known as "frico" in Italy & are simply spoonfuls of grated cheese that are baked and cooled. I cooked these on a cookie sheet coated with aluminum foil & they did not stick. However, I used parmesan cheese that was already grated and I believe it was too finely grated. It would be better to use freshly grated parmesan and grate it very coarsely. Suffice to say, that this one was not a hit today, but that was my fault. The recipe below is for 24 crisps.

Ingredients:

6 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated (1 1/2 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line large cookie sheet with foil. Drop level tablespoons of Parmesan 3 inches apart onto cookie sheet; spread to form 2 inch rounds.

2. Bake until edges just begin to colour, about 6 minutes. Transfer crisps, still on foil, to wire rack to cool for 2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Bruschetta with Tomatoes, Basil and Olives

First of all, let's get the pronunciation correct! It is pronounced "broosketta" and this recipe is fabulous! I used Vienna style bread, only because it seemed fresher than the Italian bread at my store (and I couldn't tell what the difference was between them in any case). One loaf made 16 bruschetta and there were only three left over at the end of dinner, so three of us ate 13 pieces between us! It was just too good to pass up....my son likes parmesan cheese on his, so I put a small dish of it out for him to sprinkle on his own at the table.

Ingredients:

1 loaf French, Italian (or Vienna) style bread, cut on diagonal into 1/2 inch thick slices

1 garlic clove, peeled and cut in half (I used two cloves and I put them in the micro wave on high for 10 seconds before rubbing them on the toasted bread)

8 ripe small tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup Kalamat olives, pitted and chopped ( I measured the 1/4 cup after I pitted and chopped them)

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves, chopped

3 tbsp extravirgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt (or less)

1/8 tsp coarsely ground black pepper (or more)

1. Preheat broiler. Place bread slices on ungreased cookie sheet. Place pan under broiler at closest position to heat source. Broil bread until lightly toasted, about 1 minute per side. Rub one side of each toast slice with cut side of garlic.

2. In medium bowl, gently toss tomatoes, olives, basil, parsley, oil, salt and pepper until combined.

3. To serve, spoon tomato mixture on garlic-rubbed side of toast slices.

Roasted Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

This recipe calls for you to cook the asparagus before wrapping it in the prosciutto and then cooking it again. I did not find this necessary. I just added 5 minutes to the cooking time and it came out great, with the asparagus staying nice and crisp. Like I said before, my son loved it and he hates asparagus! This recipe is for 12 first course servings or 24 appetizers, so I did not make the full amount. I used 10 asparagus spears and 5 slices of prosciutto, each cut lengthwise in half. It was plenty for 3 people. Because I made a small portion, I cooked it in my 8 x 13 corningware pan.

Ingredients:

24 medium asparagus spears, trimmed

12 thin slices prosciutto, each cut lengthwise in half

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. (this is the step you can eliminate if you wish, as I did). Preheat oven to 400F. Place asparagus and 1/4 cup boiling water in large roasting pan; cover pan with foil. Place in oven and let steam until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer asparagus to paper towel to drain; pat dry. Wipe pan dry.

2. On waxed paper, place 1 prosciutto strip (already cut in half lenthwise); sprinkle with 1 tsp parmesan. Place asparagus spear on end of prosciutto strip. Roll the prosciutto around the asparagus spear, slightly overlapping prosciutto as you roll to cover most of spear. Repeat with remaining asparagus, prosciutto and parmesan.

3. Place wrapped asparagus in roasting pan (it's all right if spears touch) and roast until asparagus is heated through and prosciutto just begins to brown, about 10 minutes (I found 15 minutes was perfect).

Caponata

Caponata gets its name from the capers in the dish & has a delicious sweet and sour flavour. I served it at room temperature as a side dish, but you can serve it as part of a cold antipasto or heap it on bruschetta. I halved this recipe and it made plenty for four people. This recipe is for about 5 cups.

Ingredients:

2 small eggplants (1 lb each), ends trimmed and cut into 3/4 inch pieces

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon (or less) of salt

3 small red onions, thinly sliced

4 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (I did not peel or seed & I don't believe it is necessary)

1 cup olives, such as Gaeta, green Sicilian or Kalamata, pitted and chopped. (I used Kalamata as I have never heard of the first two & I love Kalamata olives)

3 tbsp capers, drained

3 tbsp golden raisins (I used sweetened dried cranberries because I don't like cooked raisins)

1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

4 stalks celery, with leaves, thinly sliced

1/3 cup red wine vinegar ( I used balsamic vinegar & worked wonderfully)

2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I forgot the parsley all together)

1. Preheat oven to 450F. In two jelly roll pans (I don't have these pans & just used my corningware pan), place chopped eggplant and drizzle with 1/4 cup of oil and sprinkle with salt; toss to coat. Roast eggplant 10 minutes, stir, and then roast until browned, about 10 minutes longer.

2. Meanwhile, in non-stick 12 inch skillet, heat remaining 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until tender and golden, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, olives, capers, raisins (or cranberries) and pepper. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes.

3. Add eggplant and celery to skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring until celery is just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in vinegar and sugar and cook 1 minute longer. Cool to room temperature, or cover and refrigerate up to overnight. To serve, sprinkle with parsley.

Three Appetizers/Antipasto Make a Dinner!

I decided to make three antipasto as our dinner tonight and my husband and son were very pleased. This is the first time that my son has eaten asparagus! When you see the recipe, you'll know why.....We had "Caponata", named for the capers in the recipe (I usually hate capers, but this dish was delicious and I gobbled them up); "Roasted Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus"; and "Bruschetta with Tomatoes, Basil & Olives". The recipes with photos follow.....

Almond-Anise Biscotti

Warning: Biscotti are meant to be dunked in a warm beverage, such as coffee or tea. Otherwise they are VERY hard on your teeth.


Ingredients:

1 tbsp anise seeds, crushed
1 tbsp anisette (anise flavoured liqueur)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup whole almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional & very mange cake, I know, but I love the flavour)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease large cookie sheet. In medium bowl, combine anise seeds & anisette; let stand 10 minutes.

2. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, chopped almonds (I roasted my almonds on an ungreased baking sheet at 325 F for 5 minutes and then pulsed them few times in the food processor---you want the chunks nice and big), baking powder, salt & cinammon if using. With wire whisk, beat eggs into anise mixture. With wooden spoon, stir egg mixture into flour mixture until blended. Divide dough in half. On prepared cookie sheet, with floured hands, shape each half into a 15 inch log, placing them 3 inches apart (dough will be sticky). Now, the fact is that my dough was NOT sticky & this worried me a bit, but I managed to make the two logs without floured hands---also, my logs were only about 12 inches long and although this recipe is supposed to be for about 60 biscotti, I only got about 24! But they were fabulous & probably a bit thicker than what the recipe called for, so no harm done.

3. Bake until golden and toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes on cookie sheet on wire rack, then transfer logs to cutting board. With serrated knife, cut each log crosswise on diagonal into scant 1/2 inch thick slices. Place slices, cut side down, on two ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 15 minutes, turning slices over once and rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower oven racks halfway through baking. With spatula, transfer biscotti to wire rack to cool.