Well folks, I have failed SPECTACULARLY at getting my summer blog posts written! But you know what, that’s okay. This is my blog and I can do whatever I want! I have had lots of outside projects going on, and I’ve been spending most of my evenings working, either on the yard or on actual work. Now that fall is upon is, the yard work is done, and there’s a light at the end of the work tunnel, so hopefully some of my free time will be back soon!
So, in the last 5 weeks of Italian Summer, even though I didn’t write about it, I cooked A LOT! I packed 7 or 8 different meals into the 5 weeks, and they were all delicious! I will do a quick recap below and do my best to caption the pics. Now that summer has wound down, that leaves us with fall. (Ha ha, get it? Leaves? Fall?) What are we doing for fall, you ask? Well, mes amies, we are doing FRENCH FALL! If you know me, you know I think I might have been French in a former life, and I’m excited about all the delicious possibilities! While Italian is my favorite thing to cook, last year’s Asian Autumn and the previous year’s French Fall have taught me a lot about other methods and flavors, and that making a souffle is not nearly as scary as you might think! Tonight for example, I will be attempting crepes for the very first time. Say a prayer, and I promise I will be better about getting these things posted! Okay, now, back to Italy:
Week 12: I packed a lot into week 12! I had a great green bean harvest from the garden, and threw them in the crock pot with some new potatoes, onion, and bacon. I made the balsamic steak, which was great! I did use flank steak instead of filets, because I’m not made of money. Later that week, I threw in not one, but TWO other pasta dishes. The penne with sausage was great, and made excellent leftovers. I had higher hopes for the orecchiete with breadcrumbs but it ended up a little too salty. Keep in mind if you make that one, the proscuitto is pretty salty, and it needs a little more liquid.
Week 13: Linguine with Walnuts and Mint
This is another Giada pasta, and it was very good. I had a lot of mint growing (note on this, don’t ever plant mint in the ground, leave it in a pot; it will TAKE OVER) and this was a good way to use up what was left. I don’t always make a full recipe of pasta, sometimes I cut it in half because it’s just the two of us. This one though, I made the whole thing. I shouldn’t have, it is enough to feed an army! You’ll definitely have leftovers with this one!
Week 14: Polenta with Mushrooms
I made this dish a couple of years ago as a side dish, and it is DELICIOUS. I decided to make it for just a meal, and with all those mushrooms, you don’t miss having any meat. The sauce is a little labor intensive, but totally worth it. I used my own tomato sauce as a base (I saute onion, garlic, tomato paste, a pinch of red pepper flakes, add in a 28 oz can of San Marzanos, and let it all cook down for 45 minutes or so. SO good) and then followed the rest of the recipe. Making your own tomato sauce is easy and totally worth it. One other little secret: put about a teaspoon of sugar in your sauce as it’s simmering, and add in about a tablespoon or so of good balsamic vinegar. Trust me. This one was very filling and delicious, I’m definitely making it again soon, it will be a good cold-weather meal. We also got a copy of Ina Garten’s Cooking for Jeffrey, so I threw in her Brussels Sprouts for a side dish. Very good but it makes a TON! Jarrod had also made David Lebovitz’s Lemon Tart that week. Holy moly, SO GOOD. I sprinkled a little flaky sea salt on it, wow.
Week 15: Bolognese with spaghetti
I have made this bolognese recipe before, and so far it’s my favorite. The recipe calls for ground lamb, which I don’t like. I substitute the lamb with beef, but if you like lamb, go for it. This sauce takes lots of prep, two hours to cook, and is 100% worth every second of your time. And one of the best things about it: you only use half for the meal and freeze the other half! So half of that delicious sauce is in my freezer just waiting for me. Score!
Week 16: Samin Nosrat’s Lasagna from the New York Times
Okay, this was our finale! I am not posting the recipe, because it was literally 15 screen shots just by itself! This recipe was posted on the New York Times, and you can possibly find it on Pinterest. There is also a YouTube video of Samin making the lasagna at home during quarantine, and I totally recommend watching, not only for her tips, but also because she’s hilarious. Her Netflix show, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is also very highly worth your time.
Ok, I’m not going to lie to you: this recipe takes FOREVER. I broke it up into two days. I made the sauce, the bechemel, the spinach-ricotta filling (which I missed getting a pic of by itself) AND the pasta all from scratch. It is probably the most labor intensive dish I’ve ever made. Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! It was delicious, creamy, cheesy, gooey, yumminess. Will I do it again? Maybe. My go-to lasagna recipe is a meat sauce and I tended to miss the meat in this one, but it is still delicious. If you are really bored though and want to cook something complicated, I could not recommend this more! I also made Panna Cotta for dessert, which I had never done before. I used Ina’s honey and olive oil panna cotta recipe, it was so good! A meal like this deserves to be celebrated, so we invited our dear friends R and K over for a socially distanced backyard dinner and I stuffed them full of food and booze, and a good time was had by all!
Well friends, that wraps up Italian Summer. I’m sad to see it go, but I am definitely looking forward to French Fall. I hope the change in seasons finds you well, and you stay that way until we get out of the weirdness that has been 2020! (And don’t forget to VOTE!)
Ciao! ~ Jen