Fusilli with Fresh Tomato Sauce & Ricotta Cheese

After college I moved to NYC to “grow up,” which means I worked three jobs in attempts to make rent & pay off student loans while having some fun too. Glamorous, right? One of my three jobs was waiting tables  in NYC’s Little Italy. During this time I survived on a few staples for dinner: cannolis, pasta dishes my boss would generously share with me & Chinese food from my favorite place a block away.

I really hadn't thought about these meals until I was watching Giada’s show on Food Network yesterday. She was in Italy making all kinds of pasta. The one dish that she made took me way back to my early twenties when I used to share fusilli (the long curly pasta) with tomato sauce & fresh ricotta with my boss. I easily ate this once or twice (maybe more) a week. Giada’s method was simple & straight forward so feeling nostalgic for it I recreated it from memory of what I learned earlier in the day. 

The one key method for making Giada's simple & super fresh tomato sauce sung out to my inner love of tomatoes - especially fresh summer tomatoes. She took fresh tomatoes & used a box grater to break them down for the sauce. Apparently if you do this in a fancy food processor or blender the heat from those kinds of appliances actually change the flavor of the tomatoes (& we don't want that). I had to try it. I did & I loved it. This maybe my new favorite way to make tomato sauce. It’s so easy & fresh that you’ll be making on the regular too. I think it’s time to get this dish back in my weekly rotation like when I first moved to NYC.

Do you have specific food that reminds you of your first “adult” years? I’d love to hear about them. Leave me a note in the comments below.

PS: remember if you make this pasta be sure to snap a pic & then tag me in your photos on instagram (@mrshoh or #HeatherOMade)!

Basil-Parsley Pesto

When we visit Charleston we find ourselves at Coda del Pesce  at least once if not twice per trip. The menu changes daily but it’s always delicious. The one constant (non)menu item is the ciabatta bread they serve with this amazing pesto. It’s super light but really addicting & we’ve definitely asked for seconds (& wanted thirds) because it’s that good. The wait staff is super knowledgeable & more than happy to share how the dishes are prepared so of course we asked, “what’s in the pesto?” The answer was not much. Literally there are a handful of ingredients that make the pesto so delicious. Naturally,  I made some mental notes & then made it at home.

The one main element that separates this pesto from your usual pesto is also what makes it so light - it doesn’t have any cheese or nuts but it does have anchovies. I know that may sound a little unapproachable but really the anchovies just serve as a salt factor. It doesn't taste fishy what-so-ever. I promise. (Note: If you're preparing this for picky eaters who are put off by fish just don't mention the anchovies & all they'll know is that it tastes delicious.) It’s really fresh & great on everything (I mean everything: bread, fish, pizza, potatoes, veggies).

Make this & then let me know what you put it on. Tag me in your photos on instagram (@mrshoh or #HeatherOMade) if you do I'd love to see your concoctions!

Chickpea & Tomato Ragout

I make dinner most nights after I get home from working all day so quick, easy & tasty food is ideal. We ate this chickpea & tomato ragout with some grilled fish (cod, I think) but I could make a meal out of this alone. It's reminiscent of pasta e fagioli (pasta with beans) minus the pasta. It's ready to eat (prep to finish) in about 20 minutes & you can eat it hot, room temp or cold.

Better Home Cooking Basics: #61 Top Baked Potatoes with Greek Yogurt Instead of Butter or Sour Cream.

If you love to load up a baked potato with gobs of butter or sour cream (like we do at our potato-loving house) this tip is for you. Swap out those fatty condiments for protein rich Greek yogurt instead. You'll get all the creaminess with less guilt & some nutrition to boot.

Want to take your baked potato to the next level? It's easy & tasty. Use this simple recipe to add some fresh & creamy flavor to your next baked potato.

Fresh & Simple Tomato Salad with Poached Egg Pasta

I hope you’ve liked the tomato posts this week & have given my Fresh & Simple Tomato Salad a try at your house. Today, I have one last rendition for you to amp up this basic recipe. Today I’m making a meal out of it by  adding some pasta &  poached eggs.

If you’ve tried any of these tomato salad recipes this week I’d love to hear which you loved best. Drop me a line in the comments below. Happy Friday!

Fresh & Simple Tomato Salad

I love tomatoes. I know we are lucky enough to be them year round now but nothing beats a fresh summer juicy Jersey tomato. The best part is that they do pretty much all the work themselves because they just taste that good.

My mom always made tomato salad growing up. I think I had forgotten about it until just recently & then I became obsessed. (When I say obsessed I mean it - we ate tomato salad for a week straight & I still want more.) I loved it then & I love it now & I think you will too. Plus the recipe is so completely easy you’ll have to try it at least once. If you love it as much as I do I have some surprises for you this week on how you can serve & eat it so check back!

Zucchini Butter

Zucchini is a veggie (or is it a fruit?) that I always have in my shopping basket & during the summer I grab as much zucchini as I can. It’s a great grilling veggie but it’s also great when you slow cook it into this yummy zucchini butter. While it’s ‘slow-cooked’ it’s also really easy to make. You can cook it ahead & store it in a jar & then toss it with pasta, farro or smear some on toasted bread.   I tossed ours with some linguini, a little bit of pasta water & topped it with some grated cheese. It was tasty!

Greek Earth Bowl

It’s that time of year again when the temperature rises & I automatically feel like I should be eating some sort of salad for ever meal, yes even breakfast! This earth bowl (a salad with some hearty grains) is one of those dishes that you could eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can eat it (just-cooked farro) hot, room temperature or cold from the fridge. It’s a heartier salad but doesn’t leave you feeling heavy. You can use the veggies & other add-ins I did or you can use what you have on hand.


PS: happy birthday (tomorrow!!! - doh!) to one of my favorite Greek goddesses - Stacy! Love you hot latte ;)

Tomato Sauce Poached Eggs with Basil & Kale

I don’t eat a ton of meat - so Chris doesn’t really either because we eat together. I do however always try to have some sort of protein in our meals. Eggs are a great protein & usually really quick to make for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Last week I boasted about my first successful poached egg experience. As I was going through my photos* & I found some of these tomato sauce poached eggs that I actually made a month or two ago - sorry I fibbed a bit on the poaching because I in fact had poached before! I feel like poaching eggs in tomato sauce is a bit more forgiving & might be the gateway poaching method you need to get your feet - err eggs (?) - wet.


*I photograph pretty much everything I make - sometimes these photos make the blog & sometimes they just collect on my hard drive.

Kale & Cherry Pepper Mac & Cheese

Well hello from 2014! I realize there has been radio silence from my end since the start of this new year. Honestly, I was debating what my obligatory resolutions would be. I still really don't know but I have a giant list & have definitely been inspired by BexLife's list.  When I figure it out I'll let you know. What's yours?

In any event, the start of the new year makes me want to be a better person - by bettering my relationships & trying new things.  Right before the holidays I was spoiled by some much needed girl time with some of my best friends.  We visited The Celler at Beecher's in NYC (twice for some of us in a week's time) & all agreed that their kale, mama lil's peppers mac & cheese was worthy of multiple repeat orders during the same dinner (!!!). So naturally, I wanted to try to recreate it at home & I think I came pretty close.  It's not baked but rather more of a macaroni with cheese sauce which means less cooking time - yay! Plus, if you're skipping out on carbs this year (or first full week of 2014 at least until you realize that is for the birds) you could probably just make the cheese sauce (although there is a tiny amount of flour in it) & pile it on top of steamed broccoli or spaghetti squash for a low-carb option. Try it yourself & see what you think.

Thanksgiving Appetizers

Clockwise from top left: A Simple Cheese Plate; Apple Parmesan Basil Bites; Whipped Feta Crostini; Simple Mushroom Crostini

My sister & I were talking about how we usually don't eat much the day of Thanksgiving - until we get to "the Thanksgiving" portion of the day.  If you're the same way you probably think the appetizers  (or antipasto at my Grandma's house) portion of the night is key since it might be one of the first things you're eating that day (besides all the tasting while cooking, of course).  These were some of my favorite simple, light appetizers from previous posts that I think would be great for Thanksgiving this year.

What are you making for appetizers?

Strawberry-Basil-Lime Vinaigrette

I usually try to make my own salad dressing because if you've looked at the ingredients on a bottle of dressing lately you'll probably see words that don't even look like they would be food, most likely because they're chemicals (yuck!).  So I opt to keep it fresh with homemade dressings that will dress up even just simple mixed greens.

Ingredients

• 4 strawberries, roughly chopped with stems removed
• 1 small shallot, roughly chopped
• 5 basil leaves, roughly chopped or torn
• 1 lime, juice & zest
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Make it!

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.
2. Store in an air tight bottle like this one I found at Fish's Eddy.

SweetGreen's Blueberry Basil Lemonade

A few weeks ago I spent some time in DC for work.  At the recommendations of my coworkers I tried & became obsessed with SweetGreen, a fabulously fresh local salad joint. Besides their super fresh salad toss-ins that are locally sourced and prepared by (maybe) angels themselves, they also have this ridiculous blueberry basil lemonade.  Yes it is as good as it sounds.  I was really missing it when I got back home so I did what every good food blogger does, I googled it.  I didn't look long since SweetGreen actually gives you the recipe on their blog! (read: I officially love SweetGreen more.)  In honor of their awesomeness and a scorching heatwave I made a batch myself & loved every sip.



PS: SweetGreen is slated for the streets of NYC so be on the look out (or I'll just tell you when it hits!).

Grilled Peach, Brie & Basil Pizza

Happy belated 4th of July! Apologies for the radio silence from last week. I am back this week with tons of summer foods you're going to want to bring to your table, starting with this sweet & salty pizza that I will be making again and again and again.

I saw this recipe in Rachel Ray Everyday, but when it came time to make it I misplaced the magazine so I ad-libbed what I remembered the recipe to be.  Rachel Ray's recipe adds bacon - so if bacon's for you - go ahead, cook some up & sprinkle it on at the end.  Or you can skip the bacon & make it like me!

Spicy Sweet Grilled Pineapple Rings

Meat on the grill takes caveman like simplicity to prep yet seems to deliver so much flavor. If you have enough salt & pepper on your chicken or steak plus a little olive oil you're going to win every time.  Top simply prepared meat with these equally simple spicy sweet rings of pineapple & you'll think you're ready for the grilling version of Chopped.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 4 3/4-inch-thick pineapple rings
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4cup thinly sliced basil

Make it! (recipe from Rachel Ray Everday)

1. Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and chili powder.
3. If you don't have a pre-cored pineapple cut your rings & punch out the core with a cookie cutter, or keep the core in they have surprising nutritious values. (If your rings break apart they will still taste good, so don't sweat it!)
4. Brush the pineapple and steaks with 1 tbsp. olive oil.
5. Sprinkle the pineapple with the chili sugar and season the steaks.
6. Grill the pineapple, 2 minutes per side.
7. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil until ready to serve.
8. Serve meat stacked with pineapple rings & sprinkle with basil.

Zucchini Pasta e Fagioli

I've always been a fan of pasta e fagioli (often butchered by Italian-Americans like myself as something that sounds like pasta fazool).  In plain English it's pasta with beans. My mom used to make it with tomatoes, garlic & those short cut noodles or tiny elbow macaroni.

When I have a fridge full of produce I try to use it so I don't lose it. We had some zucchini in the fridge which lead me to this new (to me) take on pasta e fagioli, I call it zucchini pasta e fagioli. I left the dried pasta in it's box & shaved my zucchini into wide noodles instead (similar to here) - making it gluten-free pasta my friends (& Auntie Pat).  It's a very rustic dish which is code for it's not super pretty but it tastes really good, so serve it just after sunset when the light is that cool blue color & you're too hungry to care about how it looks.

Savory & Spicy French Toast

Around 5:30/6:00pm everyday I am reminded that I'm now an adult.  This revelation comes from the fact that I (not my mom) have to answer the question, "what's for dinner?" Last night I perused the web for an idea of what to make. I like to try new things as much as make things I've made a million times. This recipe for savory french toast seemed like a good mix of the two.

Chris loves breakfast for dinner so I thought I'd give it a try.  Note to self: when making french toast of any sort, make sure you have bread in the house. I'd like to give a special thanks to Chris for running out to get said bread last night to make this post possible. Thanks Chris!

I used the recipe I found on Food52.com (worth checking out if you haven't yet) as inspiration while improvising with the things I had on hand.  I served it with a salad for dinner. I think this is definitely a brunch worthy dish for the weekend as well so you have Saturday & Sunday coming at you why not give it a try? Check out my recipe after the jump.

Roasted Veggies & Goat Cheese Pizza

If you read this blog on the regular you might be noticing a pattern with pizza.  I'm really into making pizza dough to have on hand for dinner. The possibilities are endless & plus, who doesn't like pizza? 

Chris brought back one of the largest butternut squashes I've ever seen from the farmer's market so I felt the need to incorporate that into a dinner & in this case a pizza.  I'm not going to lie, you have to put some work in to get what you want out of a butternut squash. It's pretty hard so zap it in the microwaved before you attempt to cook it. Since mine was on the larger side I microwaved it for about 5 minutes. Then you can cut it in half length ways.  It has some seeds in it that you'll need to scoop out. There is also a pretty tough shell on this veggie so you'll need to peel that off.  Now you're ready to chop. Do your best to make even sized pieces. The smaller the pieces the quicker they will cook. I only used half of the squash for this recipe but I chopped up the rest of it & sealed it in a food storage bag for use later in the week - which mean less prep time for round two.

My favorite part of this pizza is smearing the warm goat cheese all over it when it comes out of the oven. The tang from the goat cheese & the sweetness of the roasted veggies is dinner worthy!

Ricotta Gnudi with Spicy Tomato Sauce

Last week I posted about recipes for gnudi (pronounced nude-y) that I wanted to try. To be honest, I didn't grow up eating gnudi. Yes I have ate lots of delicious American-Italian cheese & sauce covered dishes but gnudi wasn't one of them. I had it at a restaurant once & it put it on the map.

So mom & Jennifer (who didn't know what gnudi was when I told them about it) gnudi is like a cheesy dumpling - or as I like to think of it a delicious cheese blob - but that might not sound so appetizing - but it is. They're kind of like the cousin of a ravioli, the difference is there is no clear definition between the pasta & the filling - it's all one homogeneous mixture. DELICIOUS.

I went with Lottie + Doof's  ricotta gnudi recipe.  I used the sauce I posted about on Monday. Overall it made for a pretty tasty Sunday dinner.

Click through for Lottie + Doof's  recipe & photos, of course.

Mushroom, Basil & Egg Crepe Squares

These crepes seem to be my go-to for weekend brunch.  I usually take a look in the fridge at what's left from the week & try to work with it. This recipe incorporates the mushroom mixture from these delicious appetizers plus a basic crepe.

See more photos & the recipe after the jump!