tomato

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Orzo with Sausage, Peppers and Tomatoes

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This dish encompasses some of my very favorite things: adorable pastina, chicken sausage, and peppers.  It’s also easy… ridiculously easy.  You just start browning the sausage at the same time as you put the orzo’s water on to boil, and by the time the orzo is done, you have your sauce ready to go.  It doesn’t get much simpler than that, and the flavors are unbelievable, with sweet, crisp-tender peppers, tart fresh cherry tomatoes, and spiced sausage bits in every bite.

Orzo with Sausage, Peppers and Tomatoes

1/4 box orzo
1 package fresh sausage (I used garlic and tomato chicken sausage)
2 peppers, cut into strips
1/2 package cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on size)
salt and pepper

  • Start water to boil for the orzo.  When water is boiling, season with kosher salt, add orzo and cook according to the package directions.
  • Meanwhile, begin browning the sausage in a nonstick pan.  If the sausage is still in its casing, squeeze it out so that it is in a mass in the pan.  Break it up with a wooden spoon and distribute it so it browns in small chunks.
  • While the sausage is browning, cut the peppers into strips and prepare the cherry tomatoes.  After the sausage has made some good progress, add the peppers and tomatoes and stir to distribute them.  Continue to cook the sausage, peppers and tomatoes together, keeping a careful eye on the orzo.
  • When the orzo finishes cooking, drain it and add it to the pan with the sausage and vegetables.  Mix together and serve.

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Yield: Serves two or three for a main course, four to six as a side.

Source: Adapted from Giada’s Kitchen, by Giada de Laurentiis

Note: The original recipe actually called for roasted red peppers in a jar, cut into strips.  This is usually a standard pantry item for me, so I didn’t even give it a second thought when I made my grocery list and it turned out that when I went to look for them in my pantry or fridge, I was out – who’d have thought?  Instead, I used sweet Hungarian peppers from my farmer’s market.  However, I think this recipe would work equally well with sauteed red, orange and/or yellow bell peppers, or with roasted red peppers from a jar.

Wine Pairing: Hubby and I are trying to work through the bulk of our wines these days, because we are preparing for a trip to Napa in about a week and a half, and we’re going to be bringing quite a bit home!  For this dinner, we poured Pinot Grigio from Doukenie Winery in Purcellville, Virginia.  Doukenie is our favorite winery in the region – we are actually members of the wine club there, which requires simply that we buy twelve bottles per year (easy; their wines are delicious).  Pinot Grigio is normally not my choice.  I once received a bottle as a gift and it had oxidized.  Ever since then, I have been turned off by Pinot Grigio and will almost always choose Sauvignon Blanc or a more obscure white instead.  But Doukenie’s PG is very nice, crisp and yet smooth, with mellow fruit aromas.  It’s making headway toward changing my mind about Pinot Grigio, and I think it worked well with this dish.  I’d also recommend a northern Italian white, or a lighter-bodied Italian red such as Barbera d’Asti.  If you substitute pork sausage for the chicken or turkey, you could pair it with Chianti and it would be delightful.  Enjoy!

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Greek Tomato Salad

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I found beautiful yellow and red cherry tomatoes at the farmer’s market on Saturday, and I was planning homemade pasta with a two-color fresh tomato sauce.  But tonight, hubby and I were finishing up the lentil soup and the meal needed something else to make it complete – a salad of some sort.  I thought of the cherry tomatoes in the fridge, checked the deli drawer and saw some traditional Greek feta in brine, and Greek Tomato Salad was born.  I’ve got to say, I am so glad this salad came into my life!  The tomatoes are sweet, the feta is salty and briney, and there’s a perfect herbal bite from the scallions and oregano.  I know I’ll be making this again and again.

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Greek Tomato Salad

1/2 pint red cherry tomatoes
1/2 pint yellow cherry tomatoes
1/2 block of Greek feta in brine
1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
1 scallion, thinly sliced
2 generous pinches of fleur de sel
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

  • Slice cherry tomatoes in half and place in a bowl.  Medium-dice the feta and add to the bowl, along with the scallion and oregano.
  • Season with salt and pepper, and toss everything together.

Source: Covered In Flour

Yield: Serves 2

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Note: If you can’t find yellow tomatoes, feel free to substitute all red, or half orange – whatever you can find.  I think this salad would be really fun with some of the more interesting-looking heirloom tomatoes as well, and you don’t even need to do cherry tomatoes; you could thinly slice regular ones, dress with the olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano, and lay them out on a long platter with the feta crumbled over the top.  (Just don’t buy it pre-crumbled; you really should try the traditional feta in brine.  It’s a revelation.)  Go crazy!

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Lentil and Vegetable Soup

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Organic French lentils, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and kombu – what’s not to love?  I made a pot of this soup before going to the spa on Sunday, and it was the perfect dinner to come home to – after treating myself to a lovely massage, I continued to treat myself to a delicious, healthy dinner.  Now that’s what I call pampering!

Lentil Vegetable Soup

1 quart organic chicken or vegetable stock
1 quart water
1/2 cup French lentils
2 strips kombu (sea vegetable, available in the Asian aisle of your market)
3 carrots, sliced in thin rounds
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1/2 teaspoon kelp granules (optional)
kosher salt and fresh pepper
pinch of cumin, oregano and thyme
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

  • Bring water and stock to a boil in a large stockpot.  Add lentils and kombu strips (break them in half before adding them, to make them easier to eat) and cook on a low boil for 45 minutes, until lentils have begun to soften.
  • Add vegetables and season with kelp granules, salt and pepper, dried herbs and spices, and continue to cook until lentils have completely softened and the carrots and zucchini are cooked through as well, about 10-15 more minutes.  Stir in crushed tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes or so to allow the flavors to combine.

Source: Adapted from Sara Snow

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Pasta with Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomatoes

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Another weeknight wonder!  As much as I love to cook elaborate dinners and put together exciting menus, or learn new skills and try out new recipes… weeknights just don’t allow for that.  I get home at 7:00 and I’m starving, and I need something quick and easy.  Most nights, I’ve forgotten to take whatever I had planned on serving out of the freezer to defrost, too, so it helps to have a few vegetarian dishes or pantry stand-bys on the weekly menu.  This is one of the easiest, and one of the most flavorful.

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Pasta with Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomatoes

8 ounces pasta (in the shape of your choice)
4 ounces goat cheese
4 ounces sundried tomatoes
extra-virgin olive oil
splash of red wine (optional)
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chopped chives

  • Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water, according to the directions on the package.
  • Meanwhile, roughly chop approximately 4 ounces of sundried tomatoes.
  • When the pasta reaches al dente, drain it and put it back in the pot.  Add the sundried tomatoes.  Crumble in goat cheese and moisten with a little olive oil, add a splash of red wine (if desired), and season with salt and pepper.  Garnish with chives and serve.

Yield: Serves 4.

Wine Pairing: Because the flavors of sundried tomatoes and goat cheese are quite robust, a somewhat fuller-bodied red wine can stand up to this dish.  Go for a Bordeaux blend or – if the budget allows – a Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Source: Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

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Tomato and Goat Cheese Frittata

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Frittatas are a standby in my kitchen – one of the easiest dinners imaginable, with endless variations so you never get bored.  You can throw absolutely anything into a frittata, and it’ll be delicious.  Well… maybe not anything.  Chocolate cake, for instance, would make a pretty weird frittata.  But almost anything else is welcome.  I’ve made frittatas with chicken sausage, feta cheese, and all kinds of other ingredients.  They are one of my favorite fridge-clearing meals and one of the simplest things to whip up after a long day at work.  I load them up with lots of veggies to make them filling and boost the nutrition.  They are also good at room temperature, which makes them great for brunches, and they are surprisingly delicious cold in a sandwich for lunch the next day – essentially, my perfect go-anywhere-do-anything dish.  To make them even easier, I oven bake them rather than cooking them on the stovetop and flipping them – a method I saw on “Everyday Italian.”  Bless Giada for making my life so much easier and filled with frittatas!

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Yes, I really love my Emile Henry Artisan baking dish in Pommeterra.  Why do you ask?

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Tomato and Goat Cheese Frittata

7-8 large eggs (try to get organic, free-range brown eggs if you can)
1/4 cup milk
2 scallions
3 Roma tomatoes
2 ounces Chevre
1/4 cup Parmesan (freshly grated if possible)
salt and pepper

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray an 8×8 baking dish with Pam and set aside.
  • Crack eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk quickly to break up the yolks.
  • Add milk, salt and pepper and whisk vigorously to combine.
  • Slice scallions thinly and dice tomatoes coarsely.  Add to mixture.  Break Chevre into mixture and grate in Parmesan cheese.  Stir gently to combine all ingredients.
  • Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, until center of frittata is just set.  Let cool briefly and then slice.

Serves 4 for a light dinner with a green salad on the side.

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Note: You don’t have to oven bake this frittata, of course.  I like it because it’s pretty much as easy as falling out of bed.  But if you’re a frittata traditionalist or just have a super cool frittata pan that you like to use, feel free to follow your usual method for stovetop cooking.

Source: Covered In Flour, inspired by Giada de Laurentiis

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Stuffed Heirloom Tomatoes

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Sunday dinner.  The phrase conjures up images of grandmothers in aprons serving roasts on china platters, doesn’t it?  Growing up, we ate dinner at my grandparents’ house on many Sunday nights and whether dinner was of the roast-and-china variety or was more casual, my grandmother’s table was always warm and welcoming and full of love.   To this day, I love the idea of family coming together once a week for Sunday dinners.  Of course, having given up red meat ten years ago, and having moved hundreds of miles away to another state six years ago, I don’t do the whole big-family-eating-beef-around-the-table thing anymore.  But I do try to put a little bit of extra effort into Sunday dinners, because I have the time and because I like to reserve Sunday evening for my family (which is just my husband and I, most nights) to sit at the table, light candles, and relax together, or to pop in a DVD (tonight, it was “My Fair Lady” with Audrey Hepburn) before we jump back into the rat race for the coming week.

Today, driving home from our long holiday weekend, I had a six hour car ride in which to mull over dinner ideas.  I came up with the idea of stuffed tomatoes with a crispy Italian-seasoned breadcrumb and Parmesan crust.  Stopping at Whole Foods on the way home, I found gorgeous heirloom tomatoes in the produce section – fate smiling on me!  This is the result…

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Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

4 vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes (small to medium sized)
1 lb ground turkey or chicken sausage
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffonaded
1 tablespoon ketchup
salt and pepper (approx. 1 teaspoon of each)
extra-virgin olive oil

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Core tomatoes and remove seeds.  Cut off a small slice from the bottom of each tomato (for stability) and stand tomatoes in a shallow baking dish.
  • Remove sausage from casings and combine with egg, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs and half the chiffonaded basil.  Season with salt and pepper and stir gently until just mixed.  Add mixture to hollowed-out tomatoes.
  • Combine remaining breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese and sprinkle over the top of each stuffed tomato.  Drizzle extra-virgin olive oil over top.
  • Bake 30-35 minutes, or until meat is cooked through.

This dish is quick and simple enough to make on a weeknight – in fact, I do something very similar with bell peppers, a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis, and it’s one of my favorite weeknight meals.  But it hits the spot on Sunday too, and served with a simple green salad, it makes a light but flavorful finish to the weekend.  In fact, since this dish is made with chicken or turkey rather than beef or pork, it’s healthy enough to justify dessert – maybe a peach and blueberry crumble?  Sunday dinner.  Think about it.

Note: This recipe makes double the amount of meat you need for four tomatoes.  You can either stuff eight tomatoes and feed 4-6 people on them, or reserve the remaining meat for another use – I made mini meatballs for tomorrow night.

Source: Covered In Flour, inspired by Giada de Laurentiis

And a bonus picture – the new view from my kitchen island, thanks to the incredibly talented artist Amy Giacomelli…

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