Baked Sausage

The easiest way to cook sweet Italian sausage

Preheat oven to 350

Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil (this is to aid cleanup - skip if you prefer)

Puncture casing of each sausage with fork or knife slit and arrange on cookie sheet so they are not touching.

Cook 45 minutes - you *should* turn them at least once, but I forget to do this all the time and they come out fine.

Baked Eggplant

I found the tiniest, most perfect (and ridiculously low priced) eggplant the other day at the Asian market. It weighs in at slightly less than a pound, so there is not much to it ... more appropriate for a side dish or appetizer than a main course.

I decided to make my own version of an eggplant lasagna/eggplant and mozzarella tower/eggplant rollatini (unrolled.) Here are my thoughts ...

1. Peel and slice the eggplant into 1/2" rounds (make sure diameter will work with cooking vessel - I plan to use a smallish round casserole dish. Not sure if I am making this as individual servings (as in, using ramekin size casseroles) or sreving family style (all in one casserole.)


2. Lay eggplant slices out on a rack and sprinkle with salt (I will be using kosher) to remove excess moisture and bitterness. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, then rinse off and pat dry.


3. Grill the slices for about 4 minutes on each side (until done) in pan coated with olive oil.


4. Preheat oven to 375


5. Coat the inside of the casserole(s) with patsa sauce.


6. Combine 1 egg, ricotta cheese, salt, pepper, parsley, grated parmesan and some mozzarella (or whatever cheese you plan to top this bad boy with)


7. Drain can of diced tomatoes (or dice some fresh ones - whatever)


8. Steam and drain some baby spinach (or thaw and drain some frozen)


9. Start layering in the casserole: first, lay down a slice of the grilled eggplant, cover with some of the ricotta mixture, top with spinach and tomato, top with some sauce, repeat. When you are done with the last repeat, top the whole thing with mozzarella/whatever cheese you are using.


10. Bake, uncovered, about 15 minutes.

I think I will serve this along with some italian sausage and linguini.

Stromboli

• Ball of pizza dough - enough for one pie should do


• sauce, cheese, etc - fillings of your choice


• olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 - stretch dough to form a rectangle. In the center third of the rectangle, put down a good qty of the filling of your choice, fold over one of the other thirds, add more filling on top and fold over the last third and tuck the ends under. Transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment paper (keeps it non-stick and easy to clean!) with the seam side down. Brush with some olive oil, cut a few slits in the top, bake 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let it sit for a few minutes before cutting so the cheese has had a chance to cool slightly and firm up a little!

Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash
4 granny smith apples
1 large onion (yellow or vidalia - your choix)
Sage (the leaves from several sprigs of fresh sage are best, but a couple of shakes of dried powdered will do in a pinch
salt/pepper/honey to taste
chicken broth (enough to cover all the veg in the pot - for me it was about 4 cans, ymmv)

Peel and cube (1/2" cubes should do it) the squash, apples and onion and put them in a large stock pot. Add enough chicken broth to cover the whole works, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes - until the veg is soft and cooked through. You can use a regular blender, but I put my immersion blender right into the pot and puree until smooth (its not perfectly smooth - I am sure you can get it there, though - but I like the texture!), then add the sage, a few pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper. From there, give it a good mixing/blending and add in honey to taste.

Ricotta Cheese Pie

Yields 3 pies

6 eggs
1 Cup of Sugar
2-3 tsp vanilla
3 lbs Ricotta (whole milk)
3 graham cracker pie crusts (you can make your own I am sure, but I buy them premade)
Cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 and combine the first 4 ingredients and then pour into pie shells. Bake the pies for about an hour (mine always take a little longer - they are done when they are set and they are starting to get golden around the edges.) When they come out of the oven, sprinkle with cinnamon - allow them to cool on racks and then refrigerate.

Schnitzel

Boneless pork cutlets
1 egg and a splash of milk (1/8 - 1/4 cup should do it, I used the 2% I had on hand)
flour for dredging cutlets
1 Cup of Panko Bread crumbs
1 tsp paprika
2-3 Tbsp of oil (for the skillet)
salt & pepper

Use a mallet or rolling pin (or whatever you have) to pound/roll the cutlets to 1/8" thickness (though mine are usually more like 1/4" to be honest ...) Most recipes call for you to add the salt and pepper to the flour or the bread crumb mixture, but I prefer to put it directly on the meat. I sprinkle both sides and then dredge them in flour to coat. From there they go into the egg mixture - simply whisk together 1 egg and a splash of milk and dunk the cutlets individually and then pop them right into the panko. Now I am sure that panko are not the traditional bread crumbs used by German grandmas, but they sure do make amazing schnitzel - so crunchy! I put the panko into a pie plate and mix in 1 tsp of paprika. Once all of my cutlets are prepped, I heat a large non-stick skillet, add 2-3 Tbsp of oil and then when the oil is nice and hot (as in, when you toss in a few breadcrumbs they instantly sizzle), I add the cutlets. Cook them about 3-4 minutes on one side, flip and cook about 3 minutes on the other and then ... you are done! So easy, so tasty!

Spaetzle

7 eggs
2 Cups of AP Flour
1/4 Cup milk (I use 2%)

I combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well incorporated, then I rest it in the fridge for about an hour - when it comes out of the fridge it should be kind of like elastic-y pancake batter.

To turn the batter into spaetzle, you need some equipment and a large pot of (gently) boiling water or broth. Tradition dictates a spaetzle board - you plop some batter onto the board (it looks like a handled cutting board with a 45 degree slope at the bottom which gets submerged in the boiling water) and use a blade to form individual spaetzle and roll them into the water. As someone who LOVES fussy cooking techniques I really wanted to try this, but the boards are not easy to come by and a friend convinced me that, tradition be damned, it would be far too messy and difficult to put up with. I have also heard tell of pastry bags and using a cheese grater, but a friend of mine has an actual honest to goodness spaetzle press he was generous enough to loan me (naturally he was also invited for dinner!) It worked like a charm!

Now, a word about the spaetzle press: in order to bring a "unitasker" into my already cramped teensy kitchen, it has to be mighty special. Like, my pizzelle press - I can't make pizzelles without it and life without pizzelles is simply not worth living. For realsies! But is it really a unitasker? Kind of yes, but I don't use pizzelles only as cookies - while still hot you can roll them into (non-traditional) cannoli shells, you can turn them into waffle cones and you can even press one inside a small dish to make a waflfle cup for ice cream! So yeah, it IS a unitasker, it only makes pizzelles, but pizzelles can make many things!

But a spaetzle press? What else can I make with a spaetzle press? Well ... my friend's spaetzle press bore a remarkable resemblance to ... a potato ricer! A few years ago my ex purchased one of these (yes, another unitasker!) to make gniocchi and it has taken up precious drawer space ever since. Well, next time I make spaetzle, I am going to try the potato ricer and see how it works! But if it doesn't, a spaetzle press in a unitasker I am more than happy to have - spaetzle, like pizzelles, makes life worth living!

Whatever method you use, the batter has to be released into gently boiling water or broth to cook - when they float, they are done - usually just a few minutes. But before you cook them, you need a plan to cool them! You need to fish them out of the boiling water and stop the cooking immediately. I used an ice bath - simply a huge bowl of water in my sink with ice floating in it. I would occassionally dump the no longer cool water and replace with cooler water and new ice, but it's about as simple as you can get!

So there you have it - spaetzle! So easy and so tasty!