Tyler Florence's Peach, Mozzarella and Crispy Prosciutto Salad

Here's another salad for you courtesy of the farmers' market.  Work is busy enough that I only have the opportunity to cook/eat 1-2 meals per week at home so I really want to take advantage of the produce at the farmers' market and make great meals when I can.  This salad started with the peaches.  I love the smell of fresh peaches, but I just can't get into eating them solo.  It's the fuzz on the skin that really throws me.  But when you combine fresh peaches with other ingredients in a salad or crostini I really enjoy it.  Go figure.  I was going to make this Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad but I thought it would be fun to try something new.  Since I really liked the combination of prosciutto, peaches and dairy in the crostini I wanted to make a salad that used those ingredients.  This Tyler Florence recipe fit the bill perfectly.  It wasn't the most amazing salad we have made but it was fun and different.  I liked the crispy prosciutto and the fennel.  We don't use fennel a lot, but it is really growing on me.  The anise flavor and the crunch of the fennel works beautifully in a salad.  While the salad was nice, it didn't really come together for me.  If you had a bite with equivalent amounts of every single ingredient in it, it wasn't bad, but if you had a bite without the prosciutto it lacked seasoning/salt.  It was still yummy, but it wasn't quite as delicious as I had hoped for. 

I'm hoping that work will slow down enough for us to make a few more farmers' market-inspired meals.  At the very least I have a few more to post about, including the Corn Som Tam with Rock Shrimp we made this afternoon.

Recipe after the jump.

Mediterranean Salad with Prosciutto and Pomegranate

I have to be honest - sometimes I make food because it is just too darn pretty to resist.  Look at this salad for one.  My picture doesn't do it justice, but if you check out the original recipe at Bon Appetit and the version from Smitten Kitchen, it's just gorgeous and so very festive - I love the colors of the white bowl or platter, the greens, the proscuitto and the pomegranate.  And I love the combination of proscuitto and fruit, whether it's pomegranate or melon.  The fennel made me a little nervous because neither Alex nor I is particularly enamored of the licorice/anise flavor of fennel, but sometimes you have to live a little.  When I was thinking of a salad to go with the Spicy Chickpea Soup I was making for dinner I jumped at the opportunity to make this one and then didn't bother to tell Alex what I was making, except to say that he would like it because it includes one of his favorite ingredients.  I believe Alex said something along the lines of "sure" and then went back to fighting the good fight with Turbotax.  When I put the salad out on the dinner table I was hoping that it was every bit as tasty as it looked and it absolutely was.  The pomegranate seeds gave the salad a wonderfully sweet and tart flavor that balanced nicely against the salty porky flavor of the prosciutto and the anise flavor of the fennel.  For those of you who might worry about the inclusion of the fennel, I think that tossing it in evoo and salt prior to adding it into the salad mellowed out the intense flavor of the fennel.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked in the salad. 

And given how much we both liked the salad, I think it definitely made the cut for recipes that we will making again in the future.  I would definitely serve this salad for company (or for the holidays) because it looks and tastes fancy, even though it is supremely easy to throw together.  I know this is completely superficial but it would look so perfect on the table for Christmas dinner or any dinner party, and sometimes, you just want to look perfect.

Recipe after the jump!

Sauteed Savoy Cabbage with Speck and Lemon

Say hello to what might be my new favorite cabbage variety.  There are a few reasons for my changing allegiance, including aesthetic ones - Savoy cabbage is way prettier than regular green cabbage.  Plus, the leaves were much more tender than regular cabbage.  It was also pretty sweet, although the chicken stock and the speck in this recipe masked the sweetness a little with their meaty, savory flavors.  I'm sure if you simply sauteed some Savoy cabbage until lightly caramelized it would pack a lot of sweetness.  I am going to have to buy a few more heads of Savoy cabbage at the farmers' market this fall and winter to experiment.  As a side note, I know that I promised you guys that I would be making this recipe in my last post, Warm Mushroom Salad with Shallots and Sherry Vinegar, although I thought it would take me at least a few more days to get around to it.  But we decided to scrap our original plans and make this sauteed cabbage recipe last night because it was a little chilly out so the warm savory cabbage sounded delightful and (more importantly) the Savoy cabbage was taking up a lot of space in the refrigerator.    It was warm and comforting and very flavorful.  Sauteing the cabbage in the chicken stock really imparted a lot of flavor into the cabbage.  And every once in awhile you got a nice meaty bit of speck that gave the cabbage some of its smoky, porky flavor.  That generous squirt of lemon juice right at the end gives the whole dish some brightness and acidity to counterbalance the heavier, meatier flavors of the stock and speck.  Yum.

In the end, this simple little sauteed cabbage dish outshone the salmon we served with it.  In the salmon's defense - this wasn't a really nice $20+ per pound piece of wild organic salmon.  It was organic salmon, but it was farmed.  I know, I know.  It is my own fault for buying farmed salmon (which incidentally still cost about $14 per pound).  But the wild salmon at the grocery store didn't look particularly nice so I decided to be lame and buy farmed salmon.  Lesson learned - this particular salmon had literally no flavor whatsoever.  I won't stray again.
Recipe after the jump!

Peach, Prosciutto and Ricotta Crostini

When I was younger my favorite restaurant was an Italian restaurant in Rockville, Maryland called Il Pizzico.  They had a few dishes that I loved - a shrimp and tomato crostini, a pasta with stewed calamari and dessert called "chocolate salami."  We started going there for dinner when it was a really small cafe with a glass case at the front full of desserts and stopped going after it got all fancy and expensive.  I believe Il Pizzico was also my first experience with tiramisu, but I didn't grow to love tiramisu until years later.  Once they fancied the restaurant up, they took all of our favorite dishes off the menu in favor of other, less homestyle dishes and raised prices dramatically.  So that was the end of that.  I haven't been back to Il Pizzico in at least 15 years, but it had a lasting effect on my diet - my love of crostini stems from meals I ate at that restaurant.  I really should ask my mother what went in the crostini aside from shrimp, scallions and tomatoes because she used to make a version of it at home that I would love to recreate.  And I am determined to make chocolate salami eventually just to see if it can possibly be as good as I remember it being. 

Back in June of this year Bon Appetit had an article called "Summer Crostini 7 Ways."  Two of the recipes from that article immediately caught my eye - this one, and a recipe for Tomato, Mozzarella and Thai Basil Crostini that we made about a month ago.  There are a few other recipes that I want to try from that issue (including one for Peas, Mint and Parmesan Crostini), but I figure I will get around to them eventually.  I decided this morning that these crostini would be the perfect light lunch served alongside a simple arugula salad.  We had some of the really nice local ricotta that I picked up from Whole Foods the other day left in the fridge, so we went to the farmers' market this morning and picked up some fresh peaches and some ciabatta bread.  Then we wandered down to Salumeria Rosi to pick up some of their amazing prosciutto.  By the time we accomplished all that it was about 12:45 pm and I was starving so we whipped up some crostini.  I really liked this recipe, but Alex and I both agreed that the Tomato, Mozzarella and Thai Basil Crostini was better.  Alex wanted there to be more prosciutto on each crostini, but that's because he is obsessed.  I thought the amount of prosciutto he wanted totally obscured the flavor of the ricotta and the fresh peaches.  The recipe is inspired by the traditional Italian combination of prosciutto and melon and all in all, I think in this case traditional might be better.  While I enjoyed the summery flavors of this crostini, the combination of peach and prosciutto wasn't quite as successful to me.  Even so I thought it was a really lovely lunch.

Recipe after the jump!

Italian Bison Burger

I just realized how brown all of my recent posts have been.  And I guess this one is pretty brown too, but at least you get the red of the tomato and the green of the fresh basil leaves, right?  So it's not TOO brown.  Just a little bit brown...  I promise to get some color on here soon that isn't brown!  Maybe tomorrow?  Or maybe tonight.  I do have some pretty exciting recipes planned out for this evening.  Anyway, I know we make a lot of burgers.  We can't help it.  Or I can't.  Burgers are easy to make, easy to play with, and satisfying to eat.  You can use whatever ground meat you have on hand and season it in any way you wish.  I know in the past we have made Korean-inspired burgers, Vietnamese-inspired burgers, Japanese burgers...  Actually, it looks like we have managed to hit all of Asia and very little of Europe.  This time we made an Italian-inspired burger with lots of fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and a really nice beefsteak tomato from the farmer's market.  Nothing groundbreaking, but a nice meal.  And since we used ground bison instead of ground beef it's not actually that unhealthy!

Recipe after the jump!

Egg-Topped Soba Noodles with Asparagus and Prosciutto

Hey guys.  Sorry for my brief hiatus from the blog.  I was out of town at a bridal shower and we had grand plans for cooking upon my return home last night, but after a 5 1/2 hour long bus ride (which usually takes about 4 hours), motivation was lacking.  So we ordered Indian.  But now that I am back I promise that I will come up with some new posts pronto - starting right now.  Get excited because we have some fun dishes planned for later in the week (Indian, Latin, etc.).  Well, I think they are fun but some of you might disagree.  I also have a guest post/recipe from Alex!  But more on that later in the week...

Anyway, I know that this sounds like a very random assortment of ingredients - eggs, asparagus, prosciutto, Parmesan cheese and soba noodles.  But somehow it works.  And it's not nearly as random as the Fatty Cue Brussels Sprouts I made a week ago.  I don't know why this recipe works.  I really can't think of what makes it work.  I guess it's not rocket science and it would probably work just as well with spaghetti rather than soba noodles, but I enjoyed the slightly nutty flavor and chewier texture of the soba noodles.  The recipe does call for a lot of pots and pans, but it comes together very quickly and is a perfect easy weeknight meal.  There is very little prep work and the entire dish goes from fridge to table in about 20 minutes.  So that is a huge argument in its favor.  It's not the most amazing pasta or soba dish, but it is solid.  As a side note, I prefer a regularly and gently cooked sunny-side up egg to the way this recipe calls for cooking the egg.  I felt like the whites cooked perfectly this way, but the yolk was just a hair past being property runny (where the yolks are sticky and gooey, rather than runny and saucy).

Recipe after the jump!

Mango Chutney, Prosciutto and Paneer Pizza

Apparently this recipe comes from the winner of The Next Food Network Star, Aarti Sequeira.  I was just browsing the Food Network website and saw some reference "The Pizza Recipe."  So of course I clicked on it.  I love pizza and if there exists a recipe so delicious as to be called "The Pizza Recipe" I want to know what it is.  At first I was a little confused by the ingredient list and then I decided that the combination of those ingredients and flavors sounded like it could be really good.  Then I read the reviews and while most of them were endorsements of Aarti and not the dish itself, it got me intrigued enough to try making the pizza myself.  I figured Alex would be excited by the recipe for, if nothing else, the fact that this pizza is topped with prosciutto.  Don't get me wrong - Alex enjoys Indian food, as well as pizza, but give him prosciutto (or serrano ham) and he is a very happy husband.  Luckily we have prosciutto and I know exactly where to go for paneer cheese, frozen naan, and sweet mango chutney.

This pizza was really easy to make, which I generally expect from Food Network recipes, and was very tasty, but needs some work (which I also expect from most Food Network recipes).  It needs a little tweaking to really make it shine.  We tweaked some while cooking, but I wish we had tweaked a little more.  Alex and I both wished that the pizza had more heat to it.  We used the 1/4-tsp or crushed red pepper flakes that we specified below, but in the future I will probably bump it up to about a 1/2-tsp (at the very least).  We both also thought that the pizza would benefit from more ground cumin to add a little smokiness. All things considered I thought it was an easy and interesting lunch, and would make a nice quick and easy dinner if served with a side salad.

Recipe after the jump!

Eggs "Benedict" with Asparagus and Prosciutto

While in Aruba I got in a conversation with friends about how I am intimidated by hollandaise.  I'm not really sure at this point why I stay away from hollandaise in my kitchen, I just know that I have yet to make eggs benedict at home, because it would require me to make hollandaise sauce.  I've always heard that hollandaise is hard to make - it breaks, you have to whisk it by hand over a saucepan of gently simmering water, etc.  Then I realized, if you're going the home cook version, you can also make hollandaise in a blender.  Genius!  But when I told Alex that we were going to make the hollandaise for our eggs benedict in a blender he shamed me into doing it the old-fashioned way.  Well, really he shamed himself into it because I refused to be the one standing over the saucepan of gently simmering water whisking away.  Instead, Alex had to whisk the eggs into submission while I commentated.  And for the record, the first batch of hollandaise we made broke.  So we had to start over.  See?  I had reason to stay away - hollandaise is finicky!  But in the end, particularly once you know what you are looking for, it's not hard to make.  Basically, we learned that the hollandaise goes from thin, to thick, to thickest - almost the consistency of aioli or homemade mayonnaise.  Stop once you get to that really thick point, otherwise your sauce might break and end up a buttery, liquidy mess.  It just requires some knowledge, babysitting and arm muscle.

I decided to top my eggs benedict with asparagus and prosciutto rather than smoked salmon, or the more traditional ham.  And I decided to serve it on toasted crusty sourdough from Amy's Breads.  Alex and I both agreed that we loved the sourdough in our version of eggs benedict.  It soaked up the runny egg yolks and the hollandaise sauce without getting mushy, and it gave the dish great flavor.  Also, this hollandaise was lighter (overall it was just less heavy and rich) and more lemon-y than most I have tasted.  I know a lot of recipes call for either vinegar or lemon juice and I have to say that with the asparagus I loved the noticeable lemon flavor of our hollandaise.  The proscuitto added just the right note of rich, salty, porky goodness - without it I think the dish would have been missing something.  As much as I loved this dish, I think we will probably only make it once every 6 months or so because it requires so many pots and pans and a good amount of effort.  But it was delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Disappearing Zucchini Orzo and Prosciutto-Wrapped Radicchio

 
Several years ago I read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:  A Year of Food Life.  I went through a phase where I read every book even remotely related to food.  I have since grown out of that phase, but it must be said that Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was one of the better books I read then.  While the book was a very interesting read, what really stuck with me was her recipe for "Disappearing Zucchini Orzo."  I had grated zucchini to use in zucchini breads before, but mixing grated zucchini into pasta had never crossed my mind.  And boy is it good and easy.  I think this is the perfect gateway dish to get kids to eat zucchini (then again how would I know since I don't have any).  The zucchini isn't a distinct and overwhelming flavor in this dish - instead it is somewhat masked by the taste of the Parmigiano-Reggiano, but you are still getting several servings of zucchini down in a really delicious fashion.  I also love that the whole dish comes together in a matter of minutes.  While you boil the pasta, you can grate the zucchini, chop the onion and garlic, then saute everything together.  Voila!  An easy, healthy, vegetarian weeknight meal.

We served our orzo this evening with prosciutto-wrapped radicchio - something I have been meaning to make for months now.  Alex loves prosciutto and I love the idea of using random vegetables like radicchio in different ways, so it really was the perfect dish for us.  I think the tang of the balsamic vinegar that I sprinkled on after I took the radicchio out of the pan was what really made the dish come together.  Without the balsamic it would have been a little blah, but with the balsamic it was yummy.

Recipe after the jump!