Classic Lasagna with Meat Sauce

This recipe is a variation of one from Good Housekeeping's 100 Best Italian Recipes. You can make the sauce meatless if you prefer. I used fresh lasagna noodles from a local Italian grocery store and I would recommend you do the same. They are made from 100% durum semolina flour. This flour is an excellent source of protein. Two sheets of this pasta have 14 grams of protein. To calculate your own protein needs, you should multiply your body weight in kilos by .8 to get the number of grams of protein you should be eating per day. For instance, a person who weighs 50 kilos should get about 40 grams of protein per day. You do not have to boil this lasagna and it melts in your mouth! The noodles expand in the pan while cooking, so leave some space at the side of the pan when placing the noodles. The sheets of lasagna I used were about 6 inches wide, uncooked. Once cooked they expanded to about 9 inches wide. I also used jalapeno & red chili peppers to spice it up and that is optional, depending on your taste for heat. Also, I am not a big fan of mozarella cheese (unless it is fresh buffalo mozarella, but you wouldn't hide that in a lasagna), so I doubled the amount of parmesan and didn't use mozarella. You can make this dish a day ahead & refrigerate before cooking it. In this case you should add about 15 minutes to the cooking time.

Ingredients:

Meat Sauce:
2 tbsps olive oil
1 lb lean ground beef (or veal or chicken or turkey)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cans (28 oz each) diced tomatoes & their juice
4 tbsps tomatoe paste
1/2 tsp salt (or less)
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsps chopped fresh basil leaves (or 1 tbsp dried)
2 tsps dried red chili peppers
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

Cheese filling:
1 large egg
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 container (16 oz) light ricotta cheese (5% milk fat)
4 oz part-skim mozarella cheese, shredded (1 cup)--if using
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (double this if not using the mozarella)
1 package fresh, no boil, lasagna noodles (6 noodles about 6 inches in width)

1. Prepare sauce: Heat large heavy bottomed saucepan over medium high heat. Add olive oil and ground meat (if using) and cooking, stirring & breaking up with a fork, about 2 minutes. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally & continuing to break up meat, until meat is browned and onion is tender. Add garlic & jalapeno and cook about 1 minute.
2. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, red chili peppers and salt & ground pepper; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Stir in basil.
3. Meanwhile, prepare filling. In medium bowl, mix egg, pepper, ricotta, 1/2 cup of the mozarella, and 1/2 cup of the parmesan until blended.
4. Preheat oven to 375F. In 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish, evenly spread 2 cups of sauce. Arrange one noodle over sauce ( noodles will expand while cooking). Top with 1 cup cheese filling, spreading across noodle. Place another lasagna noodle over the cheese and top that with 2 more cups of sauce. Continue to layer in this way until you have used 6 of the lasagna noodles. Top with 2 cups of sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozarella and 1/4 cup parmesan. (If making a day ahead, cover and refrigerate at this point).
5. Cover lasagna with foil and bake until heated through and bubbling, about 1 hour (15 minutes longer if it was refrigerated). Remove foil and cook another 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting, for easier serving.

Rosemary Scented Butternut Squash Risotto with Roasted Red Peppers and Black Olives

This is a variation of a recipe that my daughter sent to me. She got her recipe from a great vegan site: http://www.theveganfoodie.wordpress.com/. I have kept it vegan, but added a few things to my own taste. It's really delicious!I served this with Olive Ciabatta artisan bread.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into one inch cubes
5.5 cups vegetable broth
3/4 cup chopped shallots
1 cup ripe black olives, oil curred
1/2 jar (150 ml) fire roasted red peppers
1 sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried rosemary
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 plus 3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp olive oil margarine
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp freshly grated black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Place cut squash on baking sheet and toss with 2 tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast for 35 minutes or until tender.
2. In the meantime, heat veggie broth (you can microwave this in a medium sized bowl).
3. In a heavy-bottomed pot heat 3 tbsp olive oil. Add shallots and garlic and saute 8 minutes (until translucent not brown).
4. Add rice & saute 2 minutes.
5. Add wine & cook 2 minutes. Add rosemary. Add a ladle or 2 of vegetable broth & stir. Cook until rice becomes almost dry. Keep adding 2 ladles of broth & stir every 2 minutes (at least).
6. When rice is 3/4 of the way done add margarine; squash; peppers & olives. Stir to blend.
7. Cook & stir until rice is al dente (should take about 30 minutes).

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).