Baked Ziti

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated (March/April 2009, pg. 15)

This, my friends, is pretty much Italian comfort food at its best.  Baked Ziti can be vegetarian/meatless or you can add some Italian sausage for a different twist.  Half of this recipe feeds my family of 4 (2 adults and 2 grade school children) for two meals.  It is easy to make even a single recipe and freeze in smaller containers for later or to take a meal to a friend. 

 

Ingredients:

1 pound whole milk cottage cheese
2 large eggs
3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 pound ziti
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 – 1 pound Italian sausage (optional)
5 medium garlic cloves (minced or pressed)
1 (28 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt/Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon corn starch (2 teaspoons if using whole milk instead of cream)
1 cup heavy cream (or whole milk)
8 ounces low-moisture mozzarella cheese (cut into 1/4 inch pieces)

 

You will also need:

Medium bowl
Large stock pot / dutch oven
12 inch skillet or another stock pot / dutch oven
13x9 inch baking dish

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place 4 quarts of water in the large stock pot and bring to a boil.  While the water is heating, move on and do other things to get the sauces ready.  Once the water is boiling, add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water then the pound of ziti.  Cook the ziti for 5 minutes.  Drain pasta and leave in colander.  Do not wash the stock pot.  Take it immediately back over to the stove.  You’re about to use it again.

Lightly beat eggs in a medium bowl then whisk in cottage cheese and 1 cup of grated Parmesan.  Set aside.

If using sausage, remove from casings.  Put olive oil in the skillet and bring up to medium heat and add in sausage while breaking up into small pieces.  Cook until no longer pink.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant but not brown.  Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, oregano and basil (if using dried).  Simmer until thickened (about 10 minutes).  Off heat, stir in 1/2 cup of basil (if using fresh), sugar, and salt/pepper to taste.

Stir cornstarch into heavy cream (while it’s in the measuring cup) and pour into the (now empty) stock pot and put over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened (3-4 minutes).  Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture and 1 cup of tomato sauce.  Allow to cool just slightly then stir in 3/4 cup of the diced mozzarella.  Stir well to combine.  Add cooked pasta and stir to thoroughly coat with sauce.  (Pasta will likely be all stuck together, but will gently come apart as it gets coated with the sauce.)

Transfer pasta mixture to 1 13x9 pan or two smaller pans and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly on top being sure to cover as much of the exposed pasta as possible.  Sprinkle the remaining diced mozzarella and grated Parmesan on top.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until  bubbly and cheese on top begins to brown.  Remove from oven and allow to rest/cool for 10-20 minutes.  Garnish with fresh basil on top if available.

 

(My apologies for the complete lack of pictures.  I have no explanation other than I just have been too into eating this dish to take any.)

Ribs

Want great and tender ribs but don’t have a smoker?  No problem.  This oven method for cooking ribs, while long, is wonderfully easy and turns out perfectly tender baby back ribs every time.

 

Ingredients:

Rub
Baby back ribs (I usually do 1 rack cut in half to feed my family of 4 + 1 guest.  Plan for 2-3 ribs per person.)
Barbeque sauce (optional)

You will also need:

Broiler pan (or sheet pan + cooling rack)
Aluminum foil
Grill (optional)

 

Method:

Cut the racks in half so that they more easily fit on the pan.

Use a spoon to dip into the rub and place it on the ribs.  With your fingers, rub the spice mixture into all sides of the ribs. 

You can cook immediately, but for maximum flavor, wrap in foil or cover and refrigerate overnight. 

Preheat oven to 300º F.

Place the ribs on the broiler pan with the “cup side” up.  Bake, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours. (If you had the ribs wrapped in foil overnight in the fridge, save the foil as you’ll use it later.)

Remove the ribs from the oven and lower the temperature to 200º F.  Wrap each 1/2 rack of ribs individually in aluminum foil.  Return the ribs to the oven and bake (still at 200º F) for 3 hours.

Remove from oven and unwrap each foil packet of ribs.

You may serve as is, or, if desired, lightly brush with your favorite barbeque sauce and grill over high heat to caramelize on the sauce.  The ribs should be completely tender, but still grip the bone enough to make grilling on the barbeque sauce easy. 

If you like your ribs literally falling off the bone, bump up the low heat baking time to 4 hours or so.

We prefer to not have a lot of sauce as the rub we use gives so much flavor and has such a nice finish with the brown sugar that is in it. 

Spice Rub

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons each:
Whole cumin seeds
Whole coriander seeds
Whole mustard seeds

3 teaspoons each:
Whole Allspice
Whole Peppercorns

1 ½ cups brown sugar
4 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt
2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon each:
Curry powder
Ground ginger
Cayenne pepper
Dried rosemary (crushed)
Ground cinnamon


You will also need:

Non-stick sauté pan/skillet
Spice grinder or spice dedicated coffee grinder


Method:

Measure each of the whole spices (cumin seeds, coriander seeds, allspice, mustard seeds and peppercorns) in to a small non-stick skillet and place over medium – medium-high heat. Shake the pan periodically to move the seeds around. Toast the spices in this manner until fragrant and you see a few wisps of smoke rising from the skillet. Remove from heat and pour the spices in to a different bowl or container to cool. Set aside.

While the toasted spices cool, measure the remaining ingredients (brown sugar, seasoned salt, paprika…. etc) and place in a bowl.

Once the whole spices have cooled a bit, place them into your spice grinder or spice dedicated coffee grinder and grind into a powder. Add them into your bowl and mix to combine while mashing up the clumps of brown sugar as you mix.


It can be used on Ribs, Brisket, Chicken... whatever.

Italian Sausage Skewers

Ingredients:

1 cup tomato sauce (prepared marinara, spaghetti or pizza sauce works great)
2-3 tablespoon olive oil
Assorted fresh herbs, chopped (i.e. basil & oregano)
Salt and pepper, to taste

3 links Italian sausage, casing removed and cut into 15 thick chunks
1 medium onion, quartered and some layers separated
1 bell pepper (Green, Yellow or Red), cored & seeded, cut into chunks
1 zucchini or yellow squash, halved and cut into 1/4-1/2 " thick slices
1 tomato, cut into eighths


You will also need:

Skillet
Skewers
Grill
Tongs


Method:

If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water first.

In a smallish bowl, combine the tomato/pizza sauce with olive oil, fresh herbs and salt/pepper to taste. Stir well and set aside.

In a skillet, pre-cook the sausage pieces over medium - medium high heat. (They take the longest to cook and I find that pre-cooking them a bit keeps the rest of the vegetables from getting burned.)

Turn on your grill. (I'm assuming everyone uses a gas grill. If you are using charcoal, then you are on your own.)

Assemble the skewers by alternating all the components but leaving off the tomatoes until the end.



Brush with the tomato sauce.



Grill over medium heat until sausage is done and vegetables are tender and have good grill lines. Brush with remaining tomato sauce as desired.



Serve over rice and enjoy.



This recipe was included in the summer recipe edition of the carnival, Works for me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family. Go pay Kristen a visit to find more summer recipes from around the blogosphere or add your own.

You might also enjoy this easy recipe for Tuscan (Inspired) Lamb Chops.

If you are visiting for the first time, hop on over to my regular blog about faith, family and food at Way More Homemade.

Jambalaya

The great thing about Jamalaya is that it has a few basic ingredients and the rest of it, you can just make up as you go. But here's what I do, some of the time, kind of, in a general sort of way.


Ingredients:

Chicken for filling (click to see recipe) (chunked or shredded)
1 pound smoked sausage (or andouille or other sausage) (halved and sliced)
1 pound uncooked shrimp (thawed if frozen, peeled & deveined)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 celery stalks (chopped)
2 carrots (chopped)
1 green bell pepper (seeded and chopped)
4 cloves of garlic (peeled and chopped)
3 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
Reserved liquid from Chicken for filling
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 bay leaves
4-6 cups water or chicken broth
4 cups long grain white rice - or - 3 - 3 1/2 cups brown rice
Salt (to taste)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley


You will also need:

Stock pot with lid
Hefty spoon


Method:

First prepare the Chicken for filling while reserving the cooking liquid (which is a beautiful deep red color) in a separate bowl and discarding the aromatic vegetables.

In the same stock pot, saute the sliced smoked sausage until it has a nice browned color on both sides. Remove from stock pot and set aside in a separate bowl.

Still in the same stock pot, heat olive oil and add onion, celery, carrots and bell pepper and cook until onions are beginning to soften. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant (30 seconds-1 minute). Next add the reserved cooking liquid from the chicken while scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pot. Then add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves and 4 cups of water or broth. Then add your rice (I suggest a little less brown rice as it seems to absorb more liquid and takes longer to cook than white). Bring to a boil.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 325. Once the rice is boiling and your oven is hot enough, cover and put the whole thing in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make sure that your shrimp is peeled and deveined. After the 15 minutes, add in your shrimp, sausage, chicken, and more liquid as necessary.

Here is where some options come in.

-If you are serving immediately, I'd suggest to continue to bake until the rice is fully tender, but you still want a little bit of liquid.

-If you are taking this with you somewhere like a potluck where it could potentially be in a crock pot for a while, I'd only cook until the shrimp is done then remove it from the oven (so just a few minutes). That allows the rice to continue to cook while it is in the crock pot and prolongs the time before it just becomes a sticky over-done rice mess.

Remove bay leaves and garnish with parsley before serving.


Made with brown rice:




Made with white rice:

Corn Stuffed Pork Chops

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

Ingredients:

2 pork loin rib chops, cut 1 1/4 inches thick
1/3 of an onion (chopped) (approximately 1/4 cup)
1/2 of a green pepper (chopped) (approximately 1/4 cup)
1/2 of a rib of celery (chopped) (approximately 1/8 cup)
1-2 cloves of garlic (minced) (approximately 1 teaspoon)
2 (ish) tablespoons butter
3/4 cup cornbread stuffing mix (or crumbled leftover cornbread is even better)
1/2 cup cooked whole kernel corn
2 tablespoons chopped pimiento
salt
pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander


You will also need:

Bowl, water, salt, & sugar for brine
Non-stick skillet
Wooden toothpicks
Broiler pan


Method:

In a bowl mix 3-4 cups of water, and approximately 1/4 cup of each salt and sugar. Stir until salt and sugar are both fully dissolved. Add pork chops, cover, and allow to refrigerate several hours if possible.

When ready to prepare, remove from brine, rinse and pat dry. Trim fat from chops. Cut a pocket in each chop by cutting from fat side almost to bone.

For stuffing, in a non-stick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium high heat. Sautee onion, green pepper and celery until tender then add garlic, cumin and coriander and cook a little longer until fragrant(a little browned is okay in my book). Add another tablespoon or so of butter and stir in stuffing mix, corn, pimiento, salt and pepper; cooking and stirring until the stuffing mix is completely moistened and all ingredients are combined and heated through.

Season the outside of the pork chops with some peppe and sprinkles of ground coriander and cumin. Open the pocket made in the pork chop with one hand and spoon in the stuffing with the other, pressing it in with the back of the spoon or with your fingers. Secure pockets with toothpicks. Place chops on broiler pan and bake at 375 F for 40 - 50 minutes or until no pink remains.

Remove toothpicks and serve.

****

Season the outside of the pork chops with some peppe and sprinkles of ground coriander and cumin.




Open the pocket made in the pork chop with one hand and spoon in the stuffing with the other, pressing it in with the back of the spoon or with your fingers.

Secure pockets with toothpicks.

Place chops on broiler pan and bake at 375 F for 40 - 50 minutes or until no pink remains. Remove toothpicks and serve.

Carnitas (Mexican Pulled Pork)

from Cook's Illustrated (May/June 2008, page 13)

Some of my own cook's notes are in italics...


1 3 1/2 - 4 pound boneless pork butt, fat cap trimmed to 1/8 think, cut into 2-inch chunks (My grocer didn't have boneless. I trimmed a bunch of meat off and left a bunch on the bone and cooked that right along with everything else. The rest of the meat just fell right off the bone with no problem.)
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small onion, peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons juice from 1 lime
2 cups water
1 medium orange, halved
(I think next time I'm going to add a minced seeded jalapeno to the mix just to see what happens)

Heat oven to 300 F. Combine pork, salt, pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice, and water in large Dutch oven (liquid should just barely cover meat). Juice orange into medium bowl and remove any seeds (you should have about 1/3 cup juice). Add juice and spent orange halves to pot. (I failed to get an orange at the store, so I just used 1/3 cup orange juice from my fridge and added some dried orange peel from my spice cabinet for good measure.) Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and falls apart when prodded with fork, about 2 hours, flipping pieces of meat once during cooking. (Flipping during cooking... yeah, right. I put this bad boy in the oven then left the house for two hours. It was fine. Some of the pieces were a little stuck together, but they came right apart.)

Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. Using slotted spoon transfer pork to bowl; remove orange halves, onion, and bay leaves from cooking liquid and discard (do not skim fat from liquid). Place pot over high heat (use caution, as handles will be very hot) (that's your disclaimer for the day, ladies and gentlemen) and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy (heat safe spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), 8 to 12 minutes. You should have about 1 cup reduced liquid. (My pork rendered more liquid than probably normal because of the bone and extra fat and meat. My sauce never got to the thick and syrupy stage. I dont' know how crucial this is... in my oh so humble opinion... it's no biggie.)

Using 2 forks, pull each piece of pork in half. Fold in reduced liquid; season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread pork in even layer on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet or on broiler pan (meat should cover entire surface) (And if you're me, you may cover the entire surface twice.) Place on lower-middle rack of oven and broil until top of meat is well browned (but not charred) and edges are slightly crisp, 5-8 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, slip pieces of meat and continue to broil, looking for the same results. Serve immediately with warm tortillas and garnishes.

Ideas for serving & garnishes:

Warm flour or corn tortillas (Do you know how to warm corn tortillas? Spray with Pam and wrap in foil and place in the oven for just a little while.)
Lime wedges
Pico De Gallo (tomatoes, onion, cilantro & jalapeno chiles)
One Minute Salsa
Slices or chucks of avocado
Rice (flavored with some fresh cilantro and lime juice)
Beans
Use as stuffing for enchiladas or tamales (and if you make your own tamales, please come and see me!!)