Steak?

You guys are sneaky. I honestly didn’t think in a million years that cauliflower steak would win the poll. It not only won, it crushed all other options!

You guys really want to see a steak made of cauliflower!

I guess I’m happy to oblige.

For me, does this replace a wonderfully marbled and juicy medium-rare steak? Abso-freaking-lutely not.

But honestly it turned out a lot better than I was expecting. The cauliflower is really filling and has a good texture.

All the flavor comes from the tapenade on top. That’s the highlight of the meal for sure in my book.

Cauliflower Steaks

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons olive oil

Tapenade:
1/2 cup cauliflower florets, chopped
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup kalamata olives, diced
2-3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 lemon, juice only
Salt and pepper

Tomato Sauce:
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
A pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Mini food processor

Directions:

1) Slice cauliflower head down the center and cut off all of the leaves. Slice off four 1/2 inch "steaks" of cauliflower. If your cauliflower head is very small you might only get 2-3 steaks out of it. Make sure they are a nice thickness.

2) Some florets will fall off as you cut the steaks, reserve them and chop them. Add enough florets to this until you have 1/2 cup of chopped florets.

3) Dice olives and sun-dried tomatoes and mix with chopped florets. Mix in parsley, lemon juice, and a dash of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and set aside for later.

4) To start steaks, add a good drizzle of olive oil to a large skillet and get it hot over high heat. Sear cauliflower steaks on both sides until they are nicely seared, about 3 minutes per side. You will have to work in two batches to sear all the steaks if you have 4.

5) Add steaks to a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Flip the steaks once halfway through roasting.

6) Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium pot. Add garlic and cook for a minute.

7) Add in diced tomatoes and continue to cook until simmering. Season with a pinch of sugar and salt and pepper.

8) Pulse tomato sauce in a food processor until smooth then return to pot and keep warm until needed.

9) Cauliflower steaks are done when they are tender in the thickest stem parts.

10) Serve steaks on the tomato sauce with a drizzle of good olive oil. Top with tapenade.

Adapted from Bon Appetit Jan. 2012.

Let’s Talk Cauliflower

I’m a big fan of cauliflower actually even though I don’t make it too much for Macheesmo posts. One of my favorite ways to prep cauliflower is to roast it with some balsamic and parmesan cheese. That’s good stuff.

Of course, for this we are keeping it really simple. The key to making a steak out of cauliflower is slicing it pretty thick. If you don’t slice it thick, it’ll just fall apart.

Bon Appetit says to slice it at least 1/2 inch thick, but I would maybe lean even more to 3/4-1 inch thick. You have to flip this thing a few times and you want it to stay in one nice piece.

Here’s my first steak!

Custom cut steaks.

You should be able to get 2-4 steaks per head of cauliflower depending on how big your hunk of cauliflower is.

One this is for sure though, as you cut the steaks, you’ll produce lots of what I call cauliflower schrapnel.

You’re going to want about 1/2 cup of this schrapnel for the tapenade later so if you don’t have that much just chop up a few florets to make more.

The florets.

The Tapenade

Like I said, I thought the best thing about this dish was the tapenade. Even Betsy said it was okay and she despises olives.

In fact, you could just make the tapenade and put it on crostini or something and that would be a very delicious appetizer.

Finally some flavor!

To make it, just dice up everything pretty finely and stir it together. If you can, make this first so it sits together for a few minutes.

The flavors need a chance to mingle.

Season the tapenade with salt and pepper but be careful with the salt. The olives and sun-dried tomatoes are already a bit salty so you won’t need much.

This is really tasty actually.

A Basic Tomato Sauce

The original recipe calls for real tomatoes, but I’m just never really all that impressed with December tomatoes so I just used a can of diced tomatoes to make my version.

This sauce is about as easy as sauce gets. Just dice up a few cloves of garlic and toss them in a pot with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook them on medium heat until they are soft (about 2 minutes), then add in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer.

I went ahead and blended mine up so it was smooth. You could leave it chunky though or use tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes and you would be all set.

Season the sauce with a pinch of sugar and salt and pepper. If you wanted to get crazy you could add in some dried marjoram which goes really well with cauliflower. Totally optional though.

About as simple as sauce can get.

Cooking the Steaks

I must say, cooking these cauliflower steaks are a lot easier than real steaks. For one, they are cheap. So if you mess up at least you aren’t out $20. Second, while you can technically overcook them, it’s a lot more difficult. There’s a pretty wide range of acceptable finished temperatures for these guys. Not true (in my opinion) for real steaks.

To start cooking them, add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large pan and get it hot over high heat. Once it’s hot, add in the cauliflower steaks. I followed Bon Appetit’s advice and didn’t season my cauliflower at all. I just tossed them in the pan.

If I were to make these guys again (possible) then I think I might spice up the steaks a bit with some cumin or marjoram or just some salt and pepper. If you do add something, go light on it. The tapenade has a lot of flavor.

Sear the steaks for about 3 minutes per side on blazing high heat. This creates a nice sear on them.

Nice crust on that steak.

Then transfer the steaks to a 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes to finish cooking. Take them out and flip them once about half way through just to make sure they are cooking evenly.

If your pan isn’t oven-safe that you seared them in, you can transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake them on that.

Serving is pretty straightforward: sauce, cauliflower, drizzle of olive oil, tapenade. Pile it high!

Not too bad actually.

I was very skeptical of how this would turn out. So was my loving wife.

We were both pleasantly surprised with it though! It’s much more filling than it looks and has some good flavors.

The steak on its own is kind of just a vessel for the sauce and tapenade.

The cauliflower has great texture though and if you’re feeding vegetarians, it’s a fun change from the portabella steaks that they are probably most used to.

This is some serious flavor.

When goat cheese won the poll last week, I started immediately having Paradox of Choice woes. There’s just so much that you can do with goat cheese.

Staring at a log of fresh goat cheese is the food blogger equivalent of a fiction writer staring at a blank page.

I started immediately brainstorming. I could put it in some fancy appetizer. I could make a salad. I could make some strange (but probably delicious) dessert out of it.

Or I could do the right thing and make macaroni and cheese.

I almost always do the right thing.

Macaroni and (Goat) Cheese

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound macaroni, cooked
2 roasted red peppers, diced
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes (from oil), minced (about 6)
4 tablespoons butter + a bit for the pan
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
6 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup goat cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Roast red peppers over a flame. If you have a gas stove, you can stick them right on the flame or you can grill them. You can also just used jarred peppers. Cook them until they are nicely charred all the way around.

2) Add peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 10 minutes and then peel off pepper skins. It's okay if some skin is left on.

3) Dice peppers and sun-dried tomatoes.

4) Cook macaroni according to package.

5) For cheese sauce, add butter and flour to a medium pan over medium heat. Whisk together once butter has melted to form a roux. Cook for about 3 minutes, whisking constantly.

6) Slowly add milk to the roux, starting with just a few tablespoons. Whisk it constantly so no lumps form. Keep adding milk in small increments until all your milk is added and your sauce is silky smooth. Turn your heat down to medium-low and continue to cook it until it thickens.

7) Whisk in cheeses into the sauce and season with salt and pepper.

8) Drain pasta and mix with peppers and tomatoes, then stir in cheese sauce.

9) Add macaroni to a buttered baking dish (2.5 quart or 9x13). Top with bread crumbs and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

10) Let cool briefly before serving.

Adapted from a recipe in How To Cook Everything.

The Add-Ins

You could leave out the add-ins in this recipe if you wanted and still be left with a pretty rocking macaroni and cheese. But there’s something about the deep flavor of the peppers and sun-dried tomatoes that works really well with the goat cheese.

Plus it’s fun to roast peppers on a gas stove.

Any flame will do.

If you don’t have a gas stove, you can also roast these guys on a grill or in a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

You can also just buy the jarred peppers and use those.

If you do roast your own though, stick them in a bowl after they are nice and charred all over and cover them with plastic wrap. Let them sit and steam for about 10 minutes. That’ll make them much easier to peel.

Then just start peeling off the skin of each pepper. It’s okay if the peppers aren’t 100% peeled.

Some skin is okay.

Then just remove the seeds and dice them up along with a few sun-dried tomatoes. I like to use the sun-dried tomatoes that are in oil for this recipe. If you use the dried ones, reconstitute them in some hot water for a few minutes before using them.

Sun-dried tomatoes are also in there.

The Cheese Sauce

Besides the peppers and macaroni, the only thing left for this recipe is the cheese sauce. And let’s be honest. It’s the star of the show.

You’ll need this stuff.

A cheese sauce!

Start by adding the butter and flour to a medium pan and get it cooking over medium heat. It’s probably a good idea to melt the butter first and then add the flour, but I like to live on the edge so I just threw them in together.

The beginnings of something beautiful.

Once the butter melts, whisk the butter and flour together until it forms a paste (a roux to be specific and French). Continue to cook and whisk this paste until it turns a light brown color. This will probably take 3-4 minutes and you’ll end up with something like this.

That's the color you want.

Then start to slowly add your milk. When I say slowly, I mean start with just a few tablespoons and whisk that in. Then add a few more and whisk whisk whisk. If you add to much milk at once, your roux will get lumpy which will lead to a lumpy sauce.

Nobody likes a lumpy cheese sauce.

So work slowly and after a few minutes you should have all your milk incorporated with the roux and you’ll be left with a light gravy basically. Again, you could be French and refer to it as a Béchemel, but let’s be real. It’s gravy.

Once you have that part of the sauce done, you’ll need some cheese. Goat cheese is the star of the show obviously, but I added in some grated cheddar also just to give it a more complex flavor.

Hard to go wrong here...

Finishing the sauce is as easy as dumping all this cheese into the white sauce and continuing to whisk it until the cheeses are melted and smooth.

Lots of cheese....

Then just season the sauce with salt and pepper and you’re ready to make some serious mac and (goat) cheese.

Finishing the Mac and Cheese

Cook and drain whatever kind of macaroni you choose. I went with shells this time around, but you could use anything except those little wagon wheels.

I’m just kidding. You can use the wagon wheels. I have an irrational hatred of them for some reason.

Sorry. Getting sidetracked.

Add the peppers and tomatoes to the pasta and then pour on all of that delicious cheese sauce.

Whoa man.

Stir this all together and feel free to serve it up like that if you like or you can take it to the next step.

The next step being to pour the mac and cheese into a buttered casserole dish, top it with bread crumbs, and bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Bread crumbs give some texture.

The bread crumbs should crisp up a bit and give the dish some really nice texture.

Yum.

It’s pretty hard to go wrong with goat cheese I guess, but that should just make you even more confident to throw it in random dishes with abandon.

Betsy and I ended up housing about half of this in one meal which, for the record, is a lot of macaroni and cheese.

There's pizza in them there scones.

I’m not sure that’s it’s completely socially acceptable to eat pizza for breakfast. I mean… I do it. You do it. Everyone does it, but if you saw someone walking down the street at 8AM with a slice of pepperoni, you might think, “Wow. That person needs help.” Or you might just be jealous.

But did you know you can have your pizza and maintain all semblances of a normal social creature? All you have to do is hide the pizza a bit.

You see, if people see you walking down the street with a lovely, flakey homemade scone they will immediately think, “That person has their act together!” People who eat scones get raises and are almost always dateable. Scones mean you have it going on.

In reality though, you’re just eating pizza. Buttery, flakey pizza.

Pizza Scones

Yield: 8 large scones

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup cornmeal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced
1 Teaspoon dried oregano
1 Large pinch of salt
1/2 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, minced
1 Cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 Cup pepperoni, minced (opt.)
1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 Eggs
3/4 Cups buttermilk

Helpful Equipment:
Biscuit Cutters

Directions:

1) Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, fresh basil, and oregano in a large bowl.

2) Mix mozzarella cheese, minced sun-dried tomatoes, and pepperoni in a separate bowl. If you're using dried sun-dried tomatoes, reconstitute them in boiling water for 30 seconds before using. If you're using tomatoes in oil, you can just add them in.

3) Cube butter and cut it into the flour mixture using your fingers until it resembles pea-sized pieces.

4) Stir mozzarella mixture into flour mixture.

5) In a separate bowl, mix together buttermilk and eggs and then stir that into the flour mixture. Mix until it forms a loose dough.

6) Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead a few times. The dough should be about 3/4-1 inch thick.

7) Cut out 8 large scones from the dough. You may need to re-roll the dough. Add cut scones to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

8) Bake scones in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown. Let cool briefly before serving.

Adapted from a Family Fun recipe.

The Scone Base

This is a really standard scone base except for a few add-ins that give the scones a bit of pizza flare. Namely, cornmeal, fresh basil, and oregano.

Scone basics!

Mix all this together with some baking powder, salt, and flour and your dry ingredients are pretty much ready to go.

The basil is key.

As with any scone worth its flakes, these guys have a fair amount of butter in them. I’m sure they exist, but it’s pretty hard to make a great scone without butter.

So cube up some cold butter and add it to your dry ingredients.

Gotta have butter in scones.

I find that it’s easiest to just use my fingers to mash up the butter with the dry stuff until it’s in pea-sized bits. It should resemble a really coarse meal basically.

Bring on the pizza!

Now that we have a scone base, we need to add in some good pizza flavors. I did some mozzarella, pepperoni, and sun-dried tomatoes. Honestly, I think the sun-dried tomatoes are the most important part. They really give the scones a classic pizza taste. If you’re using sun-dried tomatoes in oil, you can just dice them up, but if you’re using dried, be sure to reconstitute them in boiling water for 30 seconds or so.

The real pizza flavors.

Mix these pizza toppings straight in with your scone base. This bowl will already be smelling good.

This already smelled good.

As a final step, mix in your eggs and buttermilk to the dry ingredients. This will bring your scone dough together.

Nice action shot.

Shaping and Baking

Once your buttermilk and eggs are mixed in, try not to over-mix the dough. Just mix it enough to pull everything together and then turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface.

Knead the dough a few times and then use a biscuit cutter to start popping out large rounds. As an alternative, you could make a large circle with your dough and then slice it up into triangles.

This would, of course, look like pizza!

I went with rounds though.

Big scones.

Lay these guys out as you make them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You should get about 8 large scones out of a batch and you’ll probably need to re-roll your dough once to get full use of it.

These are huge.

Pop these guys in a 375 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes until the scones are lightly browned and flakey.

This might be no surprise to you, but your kitchen will smell like pizza while making these. Exactly like pizza.

Like a pizza pie.

You’ll want to let these cool for a few minutes, but you want to eat them while warm also.

I was pretty happy with these guys after my first big bite.

CHOMP!

So, fool all those people who you encounter on any given day. They will think you’re high class and sophisticated. Heck. They might even think your British!

But, really, you’re just a pizza sneak.

There's goat cheese in there...

I’m noticing a trend with the pasta salads that I really like: They are freakin’ packed with flavor. If I’m making a meal out of a pasta salad, it needs to be flavorful. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it needs to be really heavy. The white bean pasta salad I made on Monday was pretty light actually.

This salad is a bit heavier, but still summer appropriate. Betsy and I loved it mainly because we have a near-fetish for sun-dried tomatoes. Ok. I guess I can only speak for myself there, but I’m pretty sure we both really like them. And you can’t tell from the top photo, but there’s also some creamy goat cheese folded into the pasta which makes it really rich.

It’s hard not to love this quick and simple dish.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound Farfelle (bowtie) pasta
1 Cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 Cup pine nuts, toasted
2 Teaspoons balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
1 clove garlic
1/2 Cup olive oil
6-8 ounces fresh arugula
4 ounces goat cheese
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor (if you don't have one, you can just chop everything really finely)

Directions:

1) Cook pasta according to package and drain pasta and reserve 1 Cup of cooking water.

2) Process sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan, pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor, blender, or chop finely. For more flavor, toast pine nuts in a dry skillet until fragrant over medium heat, about 5 minutes.

3) Drizzle oil into the tomato mixture. Then stir in vinegar.

4) Toss pasta in tomato pesto mixture. If it seems dry, add 1/2 Cup of the reserved pasta cooking water. Taste for salt and pepper.

5) Stir in goat cheese and arugula or serve pasta on a bed of arugula with goat cheese crumbled on top.

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen 30 Minute Suppers.

This is about as simple as it gets for pasta salads. There’s barely any chopping to do which is rare.

One of my favorite pastas for salad.

If you’ve never used bowtie pasta for pasta salad, give it a shot. It’s climbing the ranks in my favorite pasta list. Not only is it fun, but the ridges grab hold of a lot of sauce or, in this case, sun-dried tomato goodness.

Of course, you can use any pasta for this though if you can’t find bowtie pasta. I’d recommend larger blocky pastas though. Don’t come crying to me if you try this with angel hair pasta and it sucks.

Strong flavors!

Making the Pesto

Besides boiling your pasta, the only thing you really need to make for this is the sun-dried tomato pesto. This is as simple as adding in all your sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and Parmesan cheese into a food processor and pulsing it until it’s a coarse paste. Then drizzle in your olive oil and pulse a few more times and stir in the vinegar.

But Nick. I don’t have a food processor!

Do not fret. You have some options. You could try it with a blender although it might be rough going. But honestly you can also just finely chop all your ingredients and then mix together everything in a bowl. Your final product might be a bit chunkier than mine, but it’ll still be delicious in the final pasta salad.

A kind of pesto I guess...

The Others

There’s two key ingredients to this recipe that really make it pop. First, goat cheese. When that gets folded into the pasta it gives it a creamy, tangy flavor. I liked folding it in, but you could also kind of crumble it on the finished product if you wanted.

Second, and maybe more important, is nice fresh arugula. The peppery taste of it goes great with the goat cheese and tomatoes. The arugula is maybe my favorite part of the dish, but don’t tell the goat cheese I said that.

Creamy and peppery.

Once your pasta is boiled, just drain it and reserve some of the cooking liquid. Toss it immediately with the sun-dried tomato pesto. If it seems a bit dry, add in 1/2 Cup of the cooking water. After everything is well-combined you can fold in your goat cheese also if you’re doing that.

This smelled amazing.

Making it Pretty

I elected to not make mine very pretty. I just kind of mixed everything together because I was planning on taking it for lunch and stuff like that and it was just easier.

If you wanted to make this pretty though, you could serve the pasta on a bed of arugula with the goat cheese crumbled on top.

For my version, I chose function over form I guess.

You could probably make this prettier...

Start to finish this dish is literally done in the amount of time it takes to boil pasta. It’s fast and tasty and keeps for days.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the last summer salad of the week which is actually based off of last week’s poll winner!

Savory and delicious.

I was thrilled when risotto won the poll last week. It’s really one of my favorite dishes. When made right, it’s creamy and flavorful. It can be paired well with a ton of dishes or just eaten on its own. It also rocks for leftovers.

For this version I wanted to use some old cherry tomatoes I had in my fridge as well as some really old tomatoes that I left sitting in the sun for 2 months. Just kidding. Just wanted to see if you were reading.

Anyway, the end result was really fantastic. I think the only thing I would change about this recipe is the quantity. If I make it again, I’m doubling it!

Super Tomato Risotto

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Arborio (or Risotto) Rice
1 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped finely
1 Cup cherry tomatoes, halved and roasted
1 medium white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6 Cups chicken stock, hot. Homemade is best, and I would have probably 8 Cups ready knowing I won't use it all.
2/3 Cup dry white wine (like a Chardonnay)
2 Tablespoon heavy cream (optional)
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Basil for garnish

Directions:

1) Slice cherry tomatoes in half, toss them with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt. Lay them cut side up on a baking sheet and bake for about an hour at 325 degrees.

2) Pour all your chicken stock into a pot and get it to a simmer.

3) Chop your onions and mince your sun-dried tomatoes until they are a rough paste.

4) Add your butter and oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted add the onions and cook until they are soft, about 3-4 minutes.

5) Add risotto rice to the pan and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring regularly. It'll be very dry obviously.

6) Add the sun-dried tomatoes and your white wine to the pan and stir until it's absorbed in the rice.

7) Once the white wine is absorbed, turn the heat down to medium and start laddling your hot chicken stock into the risotto about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir continuously after each laddle of chicken stock.

8) When the rice looks dry, add more stock. Keep doing this, stirring regularly, until the risotto is cooked through and creamy. It'll probably take about 35-40 minutes until the rice is nice and cooked. It should still have a small bite to it, but not be hard at all.

9) Once the risotto is the right consistency, add the cream, the oven-roasted tomatoes, and taste for salt and pepper.

10) Serve immediately and garnish with chopped basil and Parmesan cheese.

Roasting the Tomatoes

I really wanted to have tons of tomato flavor in my risotto which is why I decided to use two different kinds.

Some old and some new!

This is my preferred method of roasting tomatoes. It works like a charm. Chop your cherry tomatoes in half and toss them with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt (this is in addition to the olive oil in the recipe). Then lay them cut side up on a baking sheet like so…

Ready to roast!

Stick these in a 325 degree oven for about an hour and you’ll be left with these delicious little roasted things. You might think an hour is too long, but there’s a ton of water in tomatoes and it takes awhile to evaporate. Just check on them ever 15 minutes or so to make sure they aren’t burning.

They should have some moisture in them, but they’ll be dry and wrinkled around the edges. Like this:

Yum.

These are pretty hands-off which is good because the rest of the meal is very hands on. I suggest roasting them while you are doing other stuff obviously unless you want to turn this meal into a 2-3 hour production.

Prepping Your Ingredients

I’ve always really enjoyed making risotto. There’s something very calming about it to me. Slowly stirring as this very hard thing turns into something creamy. It’s damn near magical people.

And while it does take some work, I wouldn’t exactly classify it as hard.

To prep for the risotto making, you need to do two things:

1) Pour all your chicken stock in a large pot and get it simmering. It has to be hot when you add it to your risotto later.

2) Take care of all your chopping before you get started. That means mince your garlic, chop your onion, and mince all your sun-dried tomatoes.

If you’ve never chopped sun-dried tomatoes before, they can be a bit hard to handle. I usually just go kamikaze on them until I get them into the desired size, which for this recipe is a very rough pesto-like paste.

Tough chopping...

Cooking the Risotto

The thing to remember about risotto is just to take your time. If you rush it, it just won’t turn out as good. It’s the Italian way you see to spend time making good food.

Start with a heavy pot (I use a cast iron enameled pot, but any large heavy pot will work). Put it over medium high heat and add your butter and oil. Once the butter is melted, add your onions to the pot. Let them cook down for a few minutes (you don’t even want them browned). Then add your garlic and cook for another thirty seconds or so.

Next, add all your risotto rice. It might seem odd to add the rice to an essentially dry, hot pan, but it’s what you want to do. Heating the rice will open it up some and allow it to soak up moisture better and faster.

At this point, you should have something like this:

The start of something wonderful.

Let the rice cook with oil, butter, garlic, and onions for no longer than a minute. Stir it constantly during this time so the rice doesn’t stick to the pan.

Next, add all your sun-dried tomatoes and your white wine. This will cause some serious hissing. Use the white wine to scrap up any little bits that are on the pan and keep stirring!

The Waiting Begins

At this point your rice is ready to start adding your hot chicken stock. It helps if you have your chicken stock heating in a pot right next to the pan with your risotto in it. Add your first ladle of hot stock to the risotto once all the white wine is almost evaporated. That’ll be about 30 seconds after you add it. Not long at all.

I used a ladle that I think had about a 3/4 Cup capacity so if you don’t have a good ladle, you can definitely just use a measuring cup to add in your chicken stock.

Once you add the stock to the rice, stir slowly. When the rice starts to get dry, add another ladle! Keep stirring!

As you can imagine, your first ladle of stock will be absorbed almost instantly. Your second ladle will take a minute or two. By your third or fourth ladle, it should start being 5-6 minutes in between ladles.

Keep stirring but you don’t need to stir vigorously. You aren’t whipping egg whites or anything. Just keep it moving.

Cheater’s Note: You don’t actually have to stir continuously once you get the hang of it. You can take a break for a minute or two to drink your wine which, according to the country of Italy, is the only acceptable reason to stop stirring risotto.

After about 25-30 minutes of this, you should be about half-way home.

Getting creamy!

The only thing to really remember about this is to not add your stock too fast, but don’t let the rice burn. Right when it’s starting to look a bit dry, add more stock.

Taste the risotto regularly to test the texture. The final product should have a very tiny bite to it. You don’t want it mushy. But you also don’t want it crunchy. I’ve found that my risotto is about perfect after 40-45 minutes or so of cooking. It seems like a long time, but it’s really not that bad.

Warning: I always recommend heating up more chicken stock then you’ll need just in case. It sucks to run out and have to switch to lukewarm water to finish your risotto.

Finishing the Risotto

When the risotto is at the perfect consistency and you aren’t planning on adding in any more stock, stir in a tiny amount of cream if you want along with the Parmesan cheese and all of your roasted tomatoes.

Also, taste for salt and pepper at this point and adjust. I don’t like to add salt before this because normally chicken stock is pretty salty.

More tomatoes... why not.

Serve this as quick as you can! Basil as a garnish is a great touch.

Basil is a given here.

According to Betsy, this was one of the better risottos I’ve made. It was really creamy and the tomato flavor was very intense, but in a good way.

Like I said, if I made this again the only thing I’d change is that I’d double this bad boy!

You can find all the previous entries under the Grilled Cheese Trials. Today’s entry is a tapenade sandwich with homemade bread and mozzarella cheese!

Um. Yes please.

I came up with this idea largely because I had some great tapenade ingredients left over from my Greek nachos experiment. I figured why not make a sandwich with them!

Tapenade Grilled Cheese

Yield: 2 sandwiches.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 head roasted garlic
1/3 Cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/3 Cup kalamata olives
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
6-8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil
4 slices sturdy, rustic bread. A sourdough loaf would be good.
2-3 Tablespoons butter

Helpful Equipment:
Mini food processor (obviously you could use the bigger version if you have that)

Directions:

1) Roast the garlic by cutting the top off the entire bulb, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt then wrap the entire thing in foil.

2) Bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes.

3) In a food processor, chop sun-dried tomatoes then add olives and cloves of roasted garlic. Drizzle in a few tablespoons of olive oil until mixture comes together leaving it a bit chunky.

4) Take two slices of bread and lightly spread butter on them.

5) Flip the pieces over and slather on some tapenade onto both sides of the bread.

6) Layer on sliced mozzarella and some fresh basil and press together so the buttered sides are on the outside.

7) Grill on a medium to medium-high heat for a few minutes gently give it a flip as often as needed.

Making the Tapenade

You could make a more traditional tapenade with capers and anchovies if that’s your thing. I went with a roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato version though.

To start, you need to roast a head of garlic. This couldn’t be easier. Just chop off the top off an entire bulb, drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and wrap the whole thing in foil.

Pretty straightforward

Bake it at 350 for about 30-40 minutes. Your house will smell delicious and the garlic should be a nice light brown color. Let it cool for a few minutes.

If they made a candle, I'd buy a box.

If you’re making my version of the tapenade you’ll need these things also:

Ingredients for the tapenade.

I have a tiny 3 Cup food processor that’s perfect for mixing up stuff like this. I threw in my sun-dried tomatoes first as they would be the hardest to chop and gave them a spin for a few seconds. Then I added my olives and finally my cloves of roasted garlic. Drizzle in a few tablespoons of olive oil until the mixture comes together.

Looks like a lot of garlic... don't worry.

It looks like a lot of garlic, but the flavor is actually pretty mild.

Pulse it a few times to combine everything and you’ll be all set. You don’t want to over-process this spread. A bit chunky is good in my book.

Yum.

Making the Sandwich

I think that choosing the appropriate bread is one of the most important things you can do for a grilled cheese. For this sandwich, I think I chose wisely. I went with a rustic loaf of homemade no knead bread. This is actually my normal bread that I make once a week and it worked great with this sandwich. I wanted to make sure I had something hearty enough to stand up to the tapenade.

Can't buy this!

To get the sandwich ready, take two slices of bread and lightly spread butter on them. That will be the outside of the sandwich. Then flip the pieces over and slather on some tapenade onto both sides of the bread. Layer on sliced mozzarella and some fresh basil and smoosh it all together so the buttered sides are on the outside!

It’s ready for the heat!

Get it?

The key thing about a grilled cheese is controlling the heat. To hot and you’ll burn your bread before your cheese is melted. Too low on the heat and you’ll starve before it’s done.

A medium to medium-high heat should be about right depending on your stove and pan. Just set the sandwich in and let it cook for a few minutes and gently give it a flip. These aren’t like pancakes, you can flip them over and over again and that’s just fine.

This is about as perfect as it gets in my book:

Grill baby grill.

The good news about this sandwich is that mozzarella melts incredibly fast. So you shouldn’t have to worry about the bread being toasted before the cheese is melted.

Nice.

As with all the other grilled cheese trial submissions, here’s my verdict:

Cheesiness: 7. I think mozzarella is better for pizzas than sandwiches. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it was almost too melty. It made it kind of hard to eat!
Bread: 9. The bread was great. Nicely toasted with a good crunch to it. It held up perfectly to the toppings.
Fillings: 9. I swooned over this tapenade. I could just eat it with a spoon.
Overall: 8. Unfortunately, not the best sandwich I’ve made for this competition, but definitely a worthy competitor. I think if I subbed out a slightly more flavorful cheese, I’d be onto something.

Got an idea for a grilled cheese? Leave a comment!

In any event, one of my favorite things besides his books is his videos on the New York Times website. Most of them are under five minutes and have some inventive ideas. These nachos are lifted off of his rant on bar nachos with their orange cheese sauce and soggy chips. I definitely agree with him.

These Greek nachos are piled high with ground lamb, a feta cheese sauce and tons of toppings, so they lose none of the flavor. Even my traditional nacho-loving fiancee didn’t have a problem polishing off a plate of these.

Different and delicious

I’ve written about nachos before on Macheesmo. I did the near perfect nachos which in my opinion is the only way to make traditional nachos. Then I made some fish nachos over the summer which had some awesome flavor. Greek nachos are a departure from both of those things, but equally tasty.

Greek Nachos

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

12-16 pitas, cut into eights. I like making extra chips for snacking later
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1 Teaspoon cumin
Olive oil, for drizzling on chips
Salt for chips

Feta Sauce:
1 Container (17.6 ounces) Greek yogurt
1 to 1 1/2 Cups Feta Cheese
1 Lemon, juice and zest
3 Tablespoons fresh mint
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Toppings: (These are what I used, but go crazy)
1 red pepper, diced
1/4 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1/2 Cup feta, crumbled
1/4 Cup kalamata olives, diced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
2 jalapenos, de-seeded and diced

Helpful Equipment:
Blender
Microplane (for zesting)

Directions:

1) Place ingredients for feta sauce in a blender and blend. Zest off the lemon before juicing it.

2) Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the sauce (or mix it with the other ingredients).

3) Cut pita into eights without peeling them apart. Place pitas on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt.

4) Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes (stirring once or twice while cooking).

5) Chop toppings.

6) Place lamb in a skillet with a pinch of salt and cumin. Let it cook for 20 minutes, stirring a few times until it browns.

7) Place pitas on a platter, add lamb, and a few spoonfuls of sauce.

8) Serve with toppings!

Adapted from a Bittman Video.

Making the Sauce

The thing that differentiates this dish from normal nachos more than anything is the sauce. Instead of a gloopy, orange sauce, this sauce is actually cold and stays a perfect consistency no matter what. It’s also very flavorful and pairs perfectly with lamb and pita.

You’ll need this stuff:

Good ingredients on their own.

Basically, just stick all your ingredients in a blender and give it a whirl. Be sure to get the zest off your lemon before you juice it. I like to use a microplane for this. It’s a bit easier that way. The zest adds a lot of fresh flavor to the sauce to counter the sharpness of the feta and yogurt.

Say no to cruddy orange sauce!

I like to drizzle a bit of olive oil over the sauce when it’s done, but you can also just mix the olive oil straight in. The recipe above makes a lot of sauce and we didn’t come close to using all of it for 4 plates of nachos, but it was great over the next few days on pita bread with some hummus.

Olive oil adds another level of flavor.

Making the Chips

I didn’t photograph this, but for this recipe all I did was cut the pita into eights. Don’t peel apart the two sides of the pita. Leave them whole which will make a thicker chip that will hold up better to loads of toppings.

Put your pitas on a baking sheet and drizzle them with some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Bake them at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, stirring them once or twice while they are cooking. The chips may not become completely crisp, but they should be mostly crisp. I wouldn’t recommend doing these too far in advance as it’s kind of nice to have warm chips.

Other Toppings

While your pita chips are cooking, you’ll have plenty of chopping to do. I didn’t take any photos of this because chopping is kind of boring, but here’s the master shot of the whole spread. I just put everything in bowls and then people could pick and choose their toppings. Again, any leftovers make a great pita sandwich the next day.

Get it?

Cooking the Lamb

Cooking ground lamb is just like cooking ground beef although sometimes lamb can be a bit fattier. So you may need to drain off some grease while it cooks. In any event, just throw the lamb in a skillet with a pinch of salt and some cumin and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Stir it a few times and let it brown really nicely.

Making the nachos

The nachos are pretty easy to make once you get all the pieces made. Start with a good layer of chips, then add the lamb and a few spoonfuls of sauce.

Lamb plus cheese sauce

I put a heaping amount of every topping on my nachos. Some friends who I invited over picked which toppings they liked the best. It looked like the sun-dried tomatoes were a big hit and the jalapenos gave some needed spice to the dish in my opinion.

But yea, the end result was delicious.

Toppings galore!

I had a lot of leftovers from this meal and it wasn’t a problem at all. I ate them all weekend and it was awesome. You could decrease the amount of toppings I gave in the recipe if you wanted to cut it close (the lamb and chips were about perfect though).

Anyway, props definitely go to Mr. Bittman for this idea. It was a huge success in my book. It makes up for the recipe I saw him make on the Today Show a few days ago: Chicken Pot Pie without the Crust. That idea sounds about as good as apple pie without the crust. Why bother?!

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The point is that these nachos rocked.

Artichokes are hands down one of my favorite veggies even with all their annoying prep work. I was skeptical that stuffing the artichokes would be better than just steaming the guys and eating them with butter, but I think I’m a convert.

I mean come on. Just look at these things.

Each one of these weighs like 5 pounds.

I’m not going to lie to you, this recipe takes some time to prepare. Not an insane amount of time or anything, but probably 30-45 minutes just because the artichokes are kind of cumbersome, especially if you haven’t worked with them before. Totally worth it though in my opinion.

As an appetizer, you could easily split one of these with another person. I’ll admit though that when I made these I had two of them in one sitting which probably bordered on approximately 4,000,000 calories. It’s cool though. I had a lite beer to counteract the effects of the calories.

Stuffed Artichokes (Adapted from a recipe in Eating Well in Season)

- 4 medium to large artichokes
- 2.5 Cups bread crumbs (I prefer Panko)
- 1 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (yes this is a lot)
- 1/2 Cup fresh basil, chopped
- 1 Cup Feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 1/2 Cup white wine
- 1 lemon
- olive oil
- Salt and Pepper

I made my stuffing first which basically just involves chopping up the tomatoes and the basil and mixing everything together.

Chopping stuff for the stuffing.

Be sure to take your time on the tomatoes. You don’t want any enormous chunks in the final product. Combine the basil, tomatoes, bread crumbs, cheese, and one clove of crushed garlic in a large pan. Season with salt and pepper. I probably used about a Teaspoon and a half of each.

Mix it all up!

Good to eat just like this!

The Artichokes. On to the subject at hand, these bastards:

The subject.

To prep these for stuffing we need to do four things:

1) Cut the stems off. Yes there is some good artichoke meat in the stems but they have to go if you want your artichoke to sit up nice and tall while it is cooking. And trust me, you do. Otherwise your stuffing will just fall out. (Artichoke at 12 o’ clock in the below photo.)

2) Cut about the top inch or so off the artichoke. I hope you have a decent knife because the leaves are pretty tough. (Photo at 9 o’ clock.)

3) Get your fingers in the middle of the artichoke and pry it open. Don’t worry about being gentle. This thing is stronger than you. It’s ok if a few of the leaves split also. Really work to pry the leaves open though because we are going to stuff deliciousness between all the individual leaves. Eventually, you will expose the pinkish spiky center leaves. (Photo at 3 o’ clock.)

4) Now you need to cut out the center which is not an easy task. Not only are the leaves tough, but there are a lot of them and about a million little thistle things way down inside. I’ll just say this: Whoever first figured out you could eat these things was really hungry.

Ok. I’m exaggerating. It isn’t that bad. If you have a grapefruit spoon (or maybe a Spork?) you can make pretty quick work of the job. Or if you have a good paring knife just cut around the inside in a circle and then scoop out all the insides with a spoon. Again, don’t worry about being gentle. (Photo at 6 o’ clock.)

Can you follow this?

I would say it probably took me 5 minutes for the first artichoke, but I got pretty fast at it after that. It’s a pretty quick learning curve once you realize the goal. Also, on the thistle thing, there will be a bunch. Don’t worry about getting every single one. They will basically dissolve when it cooks. Get as many as you can though.

This was my garbage for just four artichokes.

Nick 1. Artichokes 0.

Stuff the thing! Now that your choke is ready and your stuffing is ready, you know what to do! Basically start at the center, filling the big hole, and work your way out. You shouldn’t really have any leftover stuffing if you are using four artichokes. Make sure to pull apart the leaves and get the stuffing down in between each leaf. There is no better tool than your hands to get this job done.

Cooking this monstrosity. There are two ways you can cook these guys. Either way you need to start by preheating your oven to 375.

Cast Iron Method – If you have a 7 quart cast iron Dutch Oven then you are in luck as it can go from stove top to oven. Start by sauteeing 1 clove of chopped garlic in a Tablespoon of oil over high heat for a minute or two and then add 3 cups of water, 1 1/2 Cups of white wine, the juice of a lemon, and a pinch of salt.

Once this comes to a boil, nestle your four artichokes in the liquid, cover your pan, and stick it in the oven for 50 minutes. Then take off the cover and cook it for another 10 minutes.

Baking Dish Method – If you don’t have a cast iron pan, prepare the liquid in a normal pan, bringing it to a boil, and then pour it into a normal baking dish and sit your artichokes upright in the dish. Cover the whole thing with foil and cook for 50 minutes. Take off the foil and cook for another 10 minutes.

No matter which method you use, your house will start smelling amazing around minute 27. After one hour you will have something like this:

This thing is just begging to fall apart.

You’ll have to be gentle because literally, the leaves just fall off. So tender and delicious.

One delicious leaf out of many.

It’s really fun to eat because you get to use each leaf as a spoon for the filling and then just scrape out the artichoke meat on the leaf with your teeth. While these were some work, I think they were 100% worth it. One of the best appetizers I’ve made I think.

Pretty little thing.

The really great thing about this book is it gives you the tools so you always have the option of fresh bread. I’ve found that if I mix up a batch of dough, it becomes nothing to bake up a loaf of fresh bread a few times a week.

This dough is not what I used to think of when I thought of bread dough. It’s so much easier. There is no proofing. No kneading. You can make a bunch of it or a little.

Boule Recipe (from Artisan Bread in 5. I cut their recipe in half.)

- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour. Don’t sift or anything crazy. Just throw it in.
- 3/4 Tablespoons salt.
- 3/4 Tablespoons dry active yeast.
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water.

Helpful Equipment for the final loaf:
- Pizza stone and peel

Throw all of your dry stuff in a big mixing bowl.

Flour. Yeast. Salt.

Stir in your water and form a loose ball. This took me literally 4 minutes and I was taking photos. It will be pretty wet. You wouldn’t be able to kneed it even if you wanted to.

Cover it and let it rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

Before and after two hour rise.

At this point you want to put your dough in the fridge for at least a few hours. Ideally though you would leave it in overnight. That lets the yeast flavors really develop. Covered well, this dough will keep in the fridge for 10 days at least.

When you want to bake, cut off a good sized hunk (I used about a 2 pound ball). You will need to flour it pretty well. Lightly form a ball and then roll it out into a rough rectangle.

This recipe is really easy.

Then toss on your chopped sun-dried tomatoes and Parm. I used 1/2 cup of both.

Pack this stuff on, but don't over do it.

Then the only real hard part of this thing is rolling it up. It isn’t that hard though. Just fold it over and make sure the ends are tucked under.

Rolling loaf.

Then you need to let this rest on a pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan for at least an hour, but 90 minutes wouldn’t hurt. Be sure to put a fair amount of flour or corn meal on your surface before you put the loaf down. Also, obviously put it with the seam side down or it will just open up.

Bread bomb.

About twenty minutes before you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 450 and put your pizza stone in the oven. Do you need a pizza stone? No. You could just bake it on a baking sheet, but a pizza stone will really help get that really lovely crust.

Also, put a metal pan in the bottom rack of your oven and let it get hot. When you put your bread in the oven, pour a cup or two of water in the hot pan (If you use a glass pan it will explode. So don’t please.) The steam will also help the bread develop a good crust.

Right before you bake, take a serrated knife and cut a few slits in the top to let the bread vent.

Slice a few slits.

If you want, sprinkle some Kosher salt on the top. Slide the loaf right into the oven, add water to your steam pan, and let it bake for 35-40 minutes.

Take it out and cool it on a rack before cutting.

A few of my favorite things.

The thing about this bread is that it is really simple to make. It takes only a few minutes to make the dough and even if you don’t add the sun-dried tomatoes and Parm, it is still a very solid loaf of bread.

This is my new favorite thing.

I ended up with this baked dish:

Looks fantastic.

When I pulled this out of the oven I was really hopeful. The cheese was melted beautifully, the pasta was perfectly baked, and I could see lots of spice and flavors poking out. I cut two big slices for me and Betsy and we sat down and had our first bite. After that bite, we both looked at each other…

Waawaaa.

That’s the sound of disappointment. The dish just didn’t quite do it for me. I want to go through the process I used though and if anyone has any tips or notices any errors, I’m all ears.

Before I give my recipe though, I should note a few things I changed from the original which possibly led to disaster:

- I didn’t use pancetta. I can see how this could lend some needed flavor.
- I used whole wheat pasta instead of normal. I don’t think that hurt it.
- I didn’t use red pepper flakes.
- I added to the dish a whole red pepper for flavor and sun-dried tomatoes mixed in with the ricotta.

Pastizza

- 16 ounces linguine (undercooked slightly.)
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup cream (you could probably use milk if you are watching that waistline)
- 2 cups ricotta
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- Handful of parsley, chopped
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Salt and Pepper

Ok. I started by preheating my oven to 425, putting a large pot of salted water on to boil, and prepping all of my ingredients. I mixed my ricotta with half of the chopped parsley and the sun-dried tomatoes and grated my cheese.

Lots of cheese.

So these are the basics of the dish:

Ready to get started.

Then I got out my trusty skillet and sautéed the peppers and garlic in the olive oil.

Peppers and garlic getting happy.

When they were about done, I tossed in all of my pasta and cooked it in the water for 3-5 minutes. Rachel says three minutes exactly, but I found I needed to give mine another minute. You want the pasta flexible but still with some bite to it. Definitely undercooked. It will finish cooking in the oven.

Then toss all of your pasta in the pan and stir it well to combine with the veggies and oil.

Get your pasta mixed with the oils.

In a bowl, whisk together your eggs and cream and then pour that mixture into this pan. Stir quickly to combine. I tried to kind of burrow out the center to resemble a “crust” on a pizza. Then into the oven for 5 minutes. No more. No less. You’ll pull out something similar to this:

I think this is looking pretty good.

Then put on a layer of all your ricotta, sprinkle your mozzarella and parm on top and hit it with plenty of pepper and, salt and any extra parsley you have.

Adding your cheese and other cheese.

Bake this for 10-12 minutes and you will be all set. Let it sit for a few minutes before cutting into it or your ricotta will just run all over the place. You’ll end up with slices like this:

A slice of... something.

I’m not sure if it was my changes to the recipe or that it just wasn’t to my liking, but this was definitely not my favorite dish.

Ultimately, I think this was my problem with it: It was more work than either pasta or pizza and I would rather eat either of them apart then try to combine them in some weird amalgam dish.

I’m sure that there are tons of people that love this dish and if any of those people want to comment and give me some pointers, I’m all ears, but I’m just not sure that this dish delivered.