Yummy Pizza

Surprise... more Basil! Also, more prosciutto. Nick has decided he really likes it. Prosciutto, not basil. Although he likes Basil too, thank goodness.

Anyway, this pizza was primarily intended as a vehicle for the aforementioned basil and prosciutto, as well as the remaining mozzarella in my fridge. All three are incredible: the basil is from my fire escape, and the prosciutto and mozzarella are from Italy by way of Agata & Valentina, an absolutely amazing gourmet food store on 79th and 1st. They have at least 4 kinds of prosciutto, exotic cheese offerings and make their own pasta. Needless to say, I love it there.

The pleasant surprise of the evening was how great the pizza itself was. I bought the dough from a pizza place down the street and was a bit shocked to pay $5 for it. Admittedly, it was a HUGE piece of dough, but still. Pizza dough is a dollar in Salem - you could get a whole pizza for $5! But it wouldn't be as good as this pizza.

Because the dough was so big, it was a kind of thick-crust pizza. And although I usually prefer thin-crust, it was really good. Soft and chewy but not gooey - I don't know how I did it. All I know is I used some chunky tomato sauce I made last week, tore the mozzarella over that, grated a bunch of Parmesan on top and stuck it in a 500º oven for about 18 minutes.

Then I tore the prosciutto and basil over after it came out of the oven, and it was great!

Of Butchers and Basil

Two exciting new culinary developments this week.

First, I found a butcher. I've always wanted a butcher. It's nice to be able to get exactly what you want, plus some advice on what to do with it. And I've never been particularly fond of buying meat in shrink-wrapped Styrofoam at the grocery store. It's a kosher butcher, so no pork, but lots of very helpful Jewish men.

Second, I got a Basil plant! I found it at the miniature farmers' market on 92nd street for only $6. I've named him Basil, and he lives on my fire escape. Having a nice green plant waving around outside the window makes me surprisingly happy.

So dinner tonight was in honor of the butcher and the basil. I made chicken stuffed with prosciutto, mozzarella and, you guessed it, basil, and then a cucumber watermelon salad with more basil. Both were based on recipes from epicurious.com, my versions follow.

Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Basil stuffed chicken
Serves 2

2 boneless Chicken Breasts, skin on
4 slices Prosciutto di Parma
1 small ball Fresh Mozzarella
8 large Basil leaves
Coarse grained mustard
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 325º

1. First, make a pocket in each chicken breast by carefully cutting a slit three-quarters of the way through, lengthwise.

2. Gently slide 1 or 2 basil leaves under the skin of each chicken breast.

3. Lay your prosciutto slices out flat on a cutting board. Tear or grate some mozzarella over each. Tear some medium sized pieces of basil over the cheese.

4. Roll up each prosciutto slice, then stuff two into the pocket of each chicken breast. Season the chicken with salt & pepper.

5. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in an ovenproof skillet. Gently place the chicken breasts skin side down in the skillet.

6. Spread about 2 teaspoons coarse-grained mustard on the underside of the chicken.

7. Brown the skin side for a few minutes, then flip. When both sides are slightly browned, put the chicken in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through.

Cucumber Watermelon Salad

2 cups cubed watermelon
1 cucumber, cubed
juice of 1 lime
1 Tb. chopped basil leaves
1 Tb. chopped cilantro
1 Tb. chopped mint

Combine everything in a bowl. Eat.

Polenta with Mushrooms and Asparagus

Made a nice vegetarian dinner with Dana and Seth last night. Well Dana and I made dinner - Seth washed the dishes, and opened the wine, which was from Oregon. (Lightest Pinot Noir ever - very nice.) For some reason all the food looks super shiny in the picture - probably the super-bright environmentally-friendly but terribly unflattering light bulb in our kitchen. But it was actually of a normal, healthy sheen and quite delicious.

I've been trying to use up a bag of fine yellow cornmeal for months, so we've made polenta twice now. First time was on Dana and Seth's alternate first date. They were going to go get sushi at a nice restaurant in Wayland Square, but then it was blizzarding. Sushi didn't seem like an adequate reason to walk 20 minutes in multiple feet of snow, so they decided to eat here. But since we hadn't gone grocery shopping in ages, I was enlisted to help make something out of the random ingredients we did have in the kitchen. Wound up making polenta with grilled asparagus and red peppers, plus a nice little salad of caramelized red onions and walnuts with sliced apples and blue cheese. It was surprisingly good, for a this-is-what-was-in-the-kitchen meal. I've made the salad again several times.

So we did polenta again last night, but as we were actually going grocery shopping, we picked up some mushrooms and an onion to go on top. Threw them together with some finely chopped sun dried tomatoes, cheap white wine leftover from our last meal together (asparagus risotto) and some herbs from the cabinet. (There were dozens of spice jars here when we moved in, and I'm still finding ones I didn't know were there.)

We cooked the polenta with some toasted pine nuts, then cut it into triangles and fried it in oil. And as we forgot to get something green to go with it, we wound up making asparagus again. Always good.

San Francisco Fried Ravioli

A few months ago, Nick and I went to San Francisco for a little vacation. I've never been to a city outside of Italy that cared so much about what it put in its mouth. Refreshing.

Anyway, we were there over New Year's Eve, which of course deserved celebration with a nice dinner and some champagne. Unfortunately, I'd hurt my foot earlier in the trip, and by the end of December 31, was in no condition to walk very far for any reason, even great food. Luckily, in San Francisco, great food always seems to be right around the corner. So I agreed to schlep a block and a half to a nice restaurant visible from our hotel window in return for a bottle of California champagne from the wine/convenience store across the street (did I mention I love San Francisco?)

The restaurant was packed when we got there - it was New Year's Eve, after all - so we grabbed a couple seats at the bar and sipped something from Napa or Sonoma until a table opened up. The menu was mostly modern Italian dishes - California twists on lasagna and the like. The most unusual offering was fried ravioli - I didn't know you could fry ravioli! So of course I ordered it.

I was delivered a bed of greens in a light balsamic vinaigrette, topped with a few large, fried ravioli. (Interestingly, ravioli and raviolis are both acceptable plural forms; ravioli is actually the plural of the original Italian raviolo.) They looked much as you would expect fried ravioli to look. But beyond that, they far exceeded expectations! The breaded pasta shell was crunchy but light and never chewy (I'm pretty sure the pasta was homemade.) After the first bite, hot, melted cheese oozed out luxuriously, having been exposed to the heat but not the hot oil of frying. It would have been worth a much longer walk.

Since then, fried ravioli has been near the top of my list of things I want to try to make. So the other night, when Dana and Seth and I were all wondering what to eat, I offered to fry up the package of fresh ravioli I had in the fridge. Dana proffered some brussels sprouts, and we dug a red bell pepper out of our vegetable drawer. Then we did this:

San Francisco Fried Ravioli

1 Red Bell Pepper
1 pkg Fresh (or homemade!) Ravioli
Breadcrumbs (I used some w/ Italian seasoning, although I'm sure homemade would be better)
Olive Oil
Brussels Sprouts
salt & pepper

Put a pot of salted water on to boil and preheat the oven to 425º.

Slice the bell pepper in half, right through the stem. Place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet and throw it in the oven.

Slice brussels sprouts in half lengthwise. Toss them on a baking sheet with a generous splash of olive oil and some salt & fresh-ground pepper. Slide the pan into the oven either next to or below the peppers. After about 10 minutes, toss the brussels sprouts around.

Pour your breadcrumbs out onto a plate. Pour a quarter inch of olive oil into a cast iron skillet.

Boil the ravioli until slightly less than al dente - take a couple minutes off the time on the package.

Don't forget to turn the brussels sprouts!

Just before the pasta is done, heat the oil in the skillet until very hot but not smoking.

Take the pasta off the heat, but leave it in the water. Using a slotted spoon - preferably one of those circular ones full of holes - transfer a few ravioli at a time to the breadcrumb plate, and turn to coat.

Use tongs to place the ravioli - carefully - in the oil. They cook fast, so keep an eye on the edges and flip when browned on one side.

Repeat until all the ravioli is fried, adding more oil and letting it heat up as needed. Keep the cooked ravioli on a plate under foil.

Take out the peppers and brussels sprouts, remove the seeds from the peppers and slice them into 1 by 1 inch squares, more or less.

Serve the peppers, brussels sprouts and ravioli together in shallow bowls with fresh ground pepper.

I didn't truly blacken the peppers for this, or do the whole plastic bag/skin peeling thing (mostly because we were hungry) but I like them this way - soft and hot but still bright red and flavorful.

The ravioli were good, but they didn't have the oozy cheese that was so great in SF. Guess I'll have to start making my own pasta!