Rosemary Mushrooms

Today is the last day of May, thus we have come to our last recipe featuring an herb from my garden. Have you been keeping track? The only one left is: ...Rosemary! Rosemary is such a flovorful and fragrant herb (I feel like I've been saying that about every herb so far...). It's used for its flavor in everything from breads, to potatoes, to sauces, and meat marinades. It's used for its aromatic quality in everything from soaps, to shampoos, to cleaning products (I've linked to some of my favorites for you!). It's truly an herbal all-star.

I use rosemary often when I cook and actually can't believe I waited the whole month to use it in a recipe! I guess I saved the best for last...

The recipe I'm going to share is a personal re-creation of one of my favorite dishes at my favorite restaurant, José Andrés' Jaleo. I think on their menu it was called "setas al ajillo," or mushrooms with garlic. I first had this dish maybe four years ago or so, and quickly got to work with some friends on re-creating its magic in our own kitchens. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what all of the ingredients were that created the complex flavor we loved. My recipe is a take on the one we think we figured out. That one included more herbs than just rosemary, but my recipe includes only rosemary as the herb star because I think it does such a great job on its own and doesn't need the support from the other herbs (which included thyme, bay, and parsley). You could say I simplified it a little and it turned out fantastic!

This is a fairly simple recipe, as I said, but the flavor payoff is incredible. It's salty and deep and garlicky and the rosemary tops it all off. My friend Katie was over for dinner when I made it and she loved it! She also wanted me to note that it's pretty figure friendly as well as tasty :-)

One note before we get started. My rosemary bush is in the beginning stages of its life and therefore isn't producing full, bushy stems like you find in the grocery store. See?

You will notice in the pictures and ingredients list that I used four sprigs of rosemary because I used the ones from my own rosemary bush. But if you're buying from a store and the stems are nice and full, you should probably knock it down to two sprigs.

OK, let's get cookin' good lookin'!


Rosemary Marinated Mushrooms

Servings: 2
Prep. time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 8-ounce packages of whole button mushrooms
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 8-ounce can beef stock
4 sprigs of rosemary (use only 2 if they are full, bushy stems)
1 tablespoon of butter

Take a few minutes to clean off your mushrooms. Use a damp paper towel to wipe off the small specks of dirt from each mushroom. (You don't want to rinse them under a running faucet like you would do with most other veggies because they will get tough.) Set them aside.

Heat a deep sided skillet on the stove over medium-low heat. Add the olive oil & garlic and let that cook for two minutes.

Next, add the mushrooms to the skillet and toss them in the oil & garlic. Pour in the wine and allow that to cook for two minutes.

Sprinkle in the salt & pepper and toss the mushrooms to spread the S&P around.

Add the beef stock and the sprigs of rosemary. Stir the mushrooms around so that they can marinate in the stock and infuse with the rosemary.

Turn up the temperature to medium heat and add the butter. Stir around so that it melts into the stock. Allow the mushrooms to simmer and marinate in the stock for about 30 minutes.

When they've cooked for 30 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and pull out the rosemary stems. (The leaves should have fallen off the stem when cooking.) Pour the mushrooms and juice into your serving bowl. Allow to cool for about five minutes before serving.

To eat, pluck the mushrooms from the juice - you don't want to eat it like a soup and eat the juice with the mushrooms. The mushrooms should be eaten on their own. Salute!

I Know My Meatballs!

When I'm having my dad over for dinner, I try to make what I know he loves. He's a bit of a finicky eater and has a few all time favorite meals, so I try to accommodate. I like to see him happy. So when I had the idea to make meatballs for the meal that would feature oregano, I knew I had to invite him to dinner since they are definitely on the list of his top favorites. For the father of a vegetarian, the man sure does love beef! (He also loves his fair share of vegetables, so I have to give him that.)

Making Italian food with oregano is an obvious choice, so I figured I would just roll with it. I always use fresh oregano when making meatballs, so to me, making them for my oregano feature was an obvious choice as well. Now what business does a vegetarian chick have making meatballs? Well this vegetarian chick also happens to be part Italian and she also grew up watching her mom make meatballs a couple times a month (many of which I ate in the years before I became a vegetarian), so it's safe to assume I know what I'm doing. I've gotten plenty of affirmations over the years that I do in fact know what I'm doing from people who have eaten this vegetarian's meatballs, so not to worry - you can trust this recipe.

I added the oregano to the meatballs and the sauce for this recipe, so you can really taste everything it has to offer. Fresh oregano has a pretty strong flavor and some people shy away from using it, but I love it so I try to use it whenever I can, since I am growing the Italian variety and have it on hand.

A few things to note: This recipe is for three meatball subs and one mushroom sub, since obviously I don't eat meat and therefore needed something to eat myself and always like to include a vegetarian option when I'm making anything with meat. You could make all mushroom subs or you could make all meatball subs - or half and half! It's up to you and what makes sense in your household. There is oregano in the sauce, like I said, so you'll still get the flavor even if you do the mushroom version.  If you're going to make more mushroom subs, use one portobello cap per sub.

Also, you'll see in the final pictures that there are only two meatball subs and I said I was making three. One was for the boyfriend, one for my dad, and I sent my dad home with one as leftovers for lunch the next day. Just didn't want you to be confused!

Lastly, I think it's important to use lean ground beef when making meatballs. I've made the mistake in the past (because I honestly had no idea what I was looking for in the ground beef section of the grocery store!) of buying the stuff with more fat content, and those meatballs did not turn out so well. I've found that the more fat, the more the balls fall apart and get crumbly when you're cooking them. It's less messy if they stay in their neat ball shapes and I've heard they taste great, so just take my word for it on this one. Save the fattier meat for burgers!

Alrighty- let's get cookin'!


Oregano Meatball (or Mushroom) Subs

Servings: 3 meatball subs + 1 mushroom sub
Prep. time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh Italian oregano, finely chopped
1 28 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
3 rounded teaspoons of tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoon grey or sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

For the Mushrooms:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 portobello mushroom cap, sliced
1 teaspoon butter
1/4  teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
Pinch of salt

For the Meatballs:
1 pound ground lean ground beef (I used 93/7)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 egg
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons fresh Italian oregano, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

For the Subs:
4 sub rolls, sliced length-wise
2 teaspoons butter
1 clove garlic, sliced through the center
2 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese
8 slices provolone cheese


The sauce is going to take the longest to cook, so start with that.

Set a medium sized pot or Dutch oven on the stove over medium-low heat. Drizzle in the EVOO and add the minced garlic.

Let the garlic cook in the oil for two minutes and then add the chopped onions.

Let the onions cook on their own for about three minutes and then add the peppers. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt & pepper, as well as one teaspoon of oregano. Let that cook for 15 minutes.

(Isn't this beautiful?! One of my favorite sights when cooking - the red, green, and white look so pretty together! Like the Italian flag!)

After 15 minutes, add the whole can of diced tomatoes and stir to work all the veggies into the sauce. Next, add the tomato paste and mix well to combine it into the rest of the sauce. Make sure there are no chunks. Once the tomato paste has been fully incorporated into the sauce, stir in the last teaspoon of oregano. 

Allow the sauce to come to a light bubble, stir, and reduce the heat to low. Let simmer so that some of the liquid can cook out while you prepare the mushrooms, meatballs, and sub rolls. Remember to stir periodically.

Next, make the mushrooms. (Skip this step if you're only making this meal for meat-eaters.)

Place a non-stick skillet with one tablespoon of oil in it over medium-low heat. Add the minced garlic and let that cook for two minutes.

Add the mushroom slices to the pan and drizzle the top of them with two more tablespoons oil, then add the butter and sprinkle with the pepper. Stir them around.

Let them cook for about five minutes and then add the salt.

Let them cook for three more minutes and then remove them from the heat.

Now for the meatballs! First, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, go ahead and heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add two teaspoons of EVOO to it now so that you don't have to touch the oil bottle once your hands are all meaty.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients (except the oil) and grate the clove of garlic into it. Make sure your hands are freshly washed and then use them to combine all of the ingredients with the meat. Once all of the ingredients are worked into the meat, begin taking chunks the size of golf balls and rolling them into meatballs. You want enough to have four for every sub, so if you're making three subs, you will need 12 meatballs.

Make all the balls and then place them in the pan at the same time so they cook all at the same rate. As soon as all the balls are in the pan, wash your hands.

Once the bottom of the meatballs start forming a brown crust, turn them over using a spatula.

While the balls are cooking, drizzle two teaspoons of EVOO into a baking dish and move the pan around so that the bottom inside becomes coated.

Once the meatballs have cooked for about 7-8 minutes, remove them from the skillet and place them in the baking dish. Place them in the oven to cook for 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, prepare your sub rolls. Place all of the sliced rolls on a baking sheet. Dig out the insides of one side on each of the rolls and discard. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of butter on the flat side of each roll. Put them in the oven to melt the butter and lightly toast the bread - about three minutes.

Remove from the oven and rub the cut side of your garlic clove onto the buttered side of each sub roll. You should be able to use a half side of the garlic for two rolls.

Sprinkle the buttered side with 1/2 teaspoon each of permesan cheese.

Place back in the oven to melt the cheese. Remove after two minutes.

Arrange two slices of provolone cheese on the inside of each sub roll and put back in the oven one last time. Let the cheese melt slightly and remove after two minutes.

By this time, the meatballs should be about done. Remove them from the oven after they've baked for 15 minutes.

Now to assemble our samis. Scoop one large spoonful of sauce into each roll over the melted provolone cheese.

Then place four meatballs in each sub over the sauce and place the mushrooms in the last roll if you've cooked the mushrooms.

Scoop another large spoonful of sauce over the balls (and mushrooms). Serve immediately! You might need a bib for this one - it's kinda messy! Salute!

Memorial Mojitos

In honor of the holiday weekend coming up, I thought I would provide you with a drink recipe! This would be the perfect drink to sip this Memorial Day weekend while sitting poolside, relaxing in the sun. It's refreshing, it's smooth, it's tropical: a mojito! And not just any mojito - a mango mojito. The mojito is my favorite cocktail and mango is my favorite tropical fruit, so I figured why not combine the two and have a favorite flavor explosion of a drink?

Like I said, the mojito is my absolute favorite cocktail - I think it's the perfect combination of two refreshing tastes and scents: lime (my favorite scent in the whole world) and mint. But I don't like ordering a mojito when I go out unless I'm at a bar or restaurant where they specialize in making them (like Rumba Cafe in Adams Morgan, D.C. They make a killer mojito, pisco sour, and caipirinha!). I feel like bartenders hate making a mojito because it does take a little bit of extra time with having to muddle the mint and limes and making sure the flavors are just right.  And no one wants to make enemies with the bartender! That is why I've made it my mission to perfect my own mojito recipe so I can make them at home any time I like. I recently had my neighbors over for a happy hour to do just that, so we have my little taste testers to thank for this recipe turning out just right!

And if you couldn't guess by now, the featured herb for today's recipe is mint, or spearmint to be exact. I told you last week that basil is my favorite herb, but I think mint would have to rank a close second. It's so refreshing and there is so much you can do with it. It's great for garnishing desserts, using in Mediterranean (namely Moroccan) dishes, adding to teas and cocktails. It has a variety of uses and that is why I grow it in my little herb garden.

A few housekeeping notes before we start making our mojito:

First, I use agave nectar in this recipe because it's the perfect sweetener for this drink and it's much easier than making a simple syrup. Secondly, this recipe serves one and I did it that way so you could easily multiply it for however many you're serving. You could probably fit up to three drinks in a shaker comfortably. Last, I use 1 1/2 shots of rum per one drink, but I think two shots would be OK if someone wants a slightly stronger drink and I don't think that would interupt the taste much at all. I happen to like my drinks to not taste very strong, so that's why I scaled it back a little for this recipe.

Oh wait, one more thing! If you're not a big drinker, I think you could still enjoy all the flavors my mango mojito has to offer. Just omit the rum in the shaker and once you pour the mix into your glass, simply add a splash of club soda to top it off and voila! A delicious and refreshing booze free drink.

OK, I think I have covered everything, so let's get drinkin'!


Mango Mojito:

First I want to mention my new favorite kitchen contraption: the lime juicer. I used to literally torture myself when making mojitos or margaritas from scratch by using a fork to get the juice out of the limes. That was painful, frustrating, and took foreverrrr. My neighbor Joanna introduced me to this fabulous tool and I am so thankful for it! It makes your life so much easier and saves so much time when making homemade drinks.

You slice the limes in half around the center, then put the half in the juicer, cut side facing out:

Then place the juicer over a glass to catch the juice and just squeeze down on the handles:

Using this contraption, one lime should give you about 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed juice. How fantastic is that?! Go out and buy one of these suckers before you try this recipe! I found mine at TJMaxx, but I'm sure they would have them at Bed, Bath & Beyond or Williams Sonoma. Maybe even Target.


Servings: 1
Prep time: about 7 minutes

Ingredients:
10 spearmint leaves
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (1 lime should do it)
1/4 cup mango nectar
1 1/2 shots clear rum
2 teaspoons agave nectar
4 handfuls of ice

Place all of the mint leaves at the bottom of a tumbler glass and use a muddler to crush them. This releases all of the oil from the leaves, emitting their yummy mint flavor. Set aside.

Pour the fresh squeezed lime juice, mango nectar, agave nectar, rum, and two handfuls of ice into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for about 20 seconds.

Place two handfuls of ice in the tumbler glass over the crushed mint leaves.

Remove the cap from the top of your shaker and pour all of the liquid into the glass.

Use a drink stirrer to combine the mint with the drink mix. Add a sprig of mint to the top and consume immediately!

Basil Baby

Today's' featured herb is my absolute favorite in all the herb kingdom: basil. I think it has something to do with me being part Italian, but at any rate - I LOVE basil. It's so delicate and has such an amazing fragrance, which leads to its amazing liquorice-y taste. I love being able to grow it (I named my basil plant 'basil baby,' hence the title of this post :-P ) so that I have it at my disposal any time I get a craving. Raw or cooked, you can't go wrong. And that's why I'm super excited to share my tomato-basil sauce recipe with you.

I have loved homemade tomato sauce since I was little. My mom let me help her in the kitchen all of the time, but it was her delicious spaghetti sauce recipe (that she learned from her second-generation Italian father) that stuck with me the most. While this isn't her spaghetti sauce recipe, the method is very similar. Learning the method to making a basic tomato sauce is key. From that knowledge you can build it into any kind of sauce you want it to be: arrabbiata, vodka, marinara, etc. The one I want to share with you today was meant to highlight the flavor of the basil, thus I kept the rest of the ingredients pretty simple.

I decided to pair it with ravioli because I didn't want to just give you a recipe for tomato sauce over spaghetti or some other plain noodle - how boring would that be?! This way you're getting two recipes for the price of one! The process of making your own ravioli is somewhat time consuming, so I understand if you want to take a shortcut and buy store-bought, pre-made ravioli. But I think everyone should try making their own once. You can ask someone to help you and really get into it. Put on some music, throw some flour at each other, have a good time with it! It's fun, plus you're controlling the ingredients which makes it a little healthier. OK, OK... I'll get off my soap box now.

So I already mentioned buying store-bought ravioli as a time saver. Another time saver would be to only make one type of filling. I'm giving you two filling recipes, but you don't have to make both. You can do either/or. There's no way I'm going to tell you to skip making the sauce in order to save time. For one thing, the sauce is the whole point of this post (because it uses our featured herb, basil), but more importantly - I don't believe in using store-bought sauce. No way José!  My grandfather would roll over in his grave, plus it's just so easy to make yourself, there really is no excuse for using the store-bought stuff.

Alright, pour yourself a big ol' glass of red wine and let's get cookin'!


Homemade Ravioli with Tomato-Basil Sauce

Servings: 4
Prep. time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
2 cups bread flour
3 eggs


For the Mushroom Filling:
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 portobello mushroom cap, sliced & halved (see picture below)
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine
1/2 teaspoon salt - grey or sea
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 basil leaves

For the Plain Filling:
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt - grey or sea
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)

For the Sauce:
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/3 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 28 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes
4 teaspoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoon salt - grey or sea
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
3 teaspoons white sugar
4 teaspoons red wine
8 basil leaves, torn into small pieces

First, make the dough. Here is a link to some instructions if you want to do it by hand or if you don't have a food processor. I happen to have a food processor and think it's a great time and aggravation saver to use it for this, so I'm going to give you those instructions.

Make sure your food processor is fitted with the dough blade instead of the chopping blade. Put 1 3/4 cup flour in the food processor along with all three eggs.

Turn the food processor on so that the flour and eggs are combined. Stop it occasionally if necessary to scrape down the inside of the bowl. Continue processing until the all of the flour has been incorporated and the dough turns into a ball.

Remove the dough from the food processor bowl and place it on a clean, flat surface that has been sprinkled lightly with flour. Knead the dough for about five minutes.

Roll it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge for at least a half an hour to chill.

While the dough is chillin' in the fridge, make the mushroom filling for the ravioli.

Start by pre-heating 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat on the stove. Grate in one clove of garlic and allow that to cook for two minutes.

Next, stir in the butter and let that melt into the garlic oil. When the butter has melted completely, add the portobello slices. Drizzle 2 more teaspoons of olive oil over the top of the mushrooms and stir.

Sprinkle with pepper and allow to reduce for about three minutes. Once the mushrooms have reduced slightly and soaked up a lot of the butter and oil, add the red wine and the salt. Allow to cook for another three minutes, then reduce the heat to low and cook for another five minutes.

Remove the mushrooms from the pan and place them on a plate covered with two overlapping paper towels so that the oil can drain off a little.

Place the mushrooms in your food processor (with a clean bowl - don't use the same one you used for the dough - and fitted with the chopping blade) with the ricotta, basil, and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.

Turn on the food processor to combine all of the ingredients. Once all of the mushrooms are fully chopped and combined with all of the other ingredients, turn off the food processor. Spoon the mixture out of the food processor bowl and into a food storage container. Place the lid on it and put it in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the ravioli.

While we're at it, let's go ahead and make the plain cheese filling. Simply add 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/4 cup grated parm., 1/2 teaspoon each of salt & pepper, and the cayenne to a food storage container. Stir to evenly combine the ingredients. Place in the fridge while you make the rest of the food.

Moving on to the tomato-basil sauce. Pre-heat the oil in a saute pan with high sides over medium-low heat. Grate the 2 cloves of garlic into the oil and allow that to cook for two minutes. Then add the red pepper flakes.

Let them cook in the oil for one minute and then add in the can of diced tomatoes. Stir to incorporate the oil, garlic, & pepper flakes.

Add the tomato paste and stir to make sure it breaks up and gets distributed into the sauce. Sprinkle in the sugar, salt, & pepper and stir. Let the sauce cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next, stir the wine into the sauce. Let the sauce cook for five minutes, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer while you assemble the ravioli. Remember to stir the sauce occasionally while you're working with the ravioli.

Now for the ravioli assembly. First, place a large pot filled 3/4 full with water on the stove over high heat.
Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it, and place it on a flat, clean surface that has been lightly sprinkled with flour. If you have a pasta maker, great - use that to roll out the dough. If not, use the method I used and roll it out using a rolling pin until it's very, very thin. (Not gonna lie - this is hard so I had my man do it! I needed his brute strength!) Make sure when it's finished that it's in a shape at least somewhat resembling a rectangle.

Next, use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares. Do this by scoring the dough first length-wise. Mark off the halfway point, then the halfway points on each half (confusing enough?!). When you're done you should have the dough marked into quarters. Then just go ahead and use the pizza cutter to cut the strips. You will have four long strips when you're done.

Now slice it the other way using the same method. First mark the halfway point, then divide each half into thirds. (You can kind of see the score marks in this picture:)

Then make your cuts across using the pizza cutter. Now you should have a bunch of squares and some outer edge pieces that have a little bit of a funky shape, but that's OK, you can work with those.

Now get your cheese mixtures out of the fridge, remove the lids, and use teaspoons to add dollops of the cheese filling to the center of each of your squares.  (We made rectangles and triangles to differentiate between the plain cheese filled ones and the mushroom filled ones because my boyfriend doesn't care for mushrooms. But if everyone you're cooking for likes mushrooms, go ahead and make triangles for all of them - they're easier to form.)

Fold one corner to its opposite corner and press down. Use the tines of a fork to press down along the edges to secure your ravioli closed.

Once the water has come to a boil on the stove and all of your ravioli have been assembled, place them in the boiling water along with a sprinkle of salt. Allow them to cook for ten minutes to al dente.

At the end of the cooking process for the pasta, you'll need to finish your tomato sauce by adding in the torn pieces of basil. Stir them into the sauce and leave to simmer while you drain the pasta.

After cooking the ravioli thoroughly, drain the water from the pasta by carefully dumping them into a colander in the sink. You don't want the ravioli to break open if you're too rough, so make sure to do it carefully. Gently shake the colander to remove any excess water and then place the colander with the ravioli still in it over the hot pot you cooked the pasta in. The heat will dry off the pasta.

Place the pasta on your serving plate and top with spoonfuls of the tomato-basil sauce. Sprinkle lightly with grated parmesan and serve immediately. Salute!