Author: toothpicktales

Stir Fry Noodles with Pork Loin Roast

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The pork loin is an economical and versatile cut of meat.  A whole loin can weigh as much as 8 pounds.  I like to buy the whole loin and section it off into 2 pound pieces.  I usually apply a different dry rub or marinade to each section.  They can be wrapped in foil and plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for weeks, or even months. 

The loin is a very lean cut of meat and can be slow roasted, sliced into steaks or roasted at high temperature for a short period of time, which is what I did for this recipe.

I wanted to make an Asian inspired dish with noodles and as I was looking at the various types of noodles at the grocery store I couldn’t decide between udon noodles or rice vermicelli so I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about what flavor and texture I really wanted.  The answer came to me quickly. 

Ramen noodles.  Yes, the inexpensive ramen noodles that can be purchased for as little as 25 cents per package.  Ramen and I go back a long way.  Ramen was there when I needed something to fit my very tight budget and ramen rarely disappointed me.  You can add anything you want to ramen, which makes it a near-perfect food, in my opinion.

For the marinade:

1/3 cup dark soy sauce

4 Tbs cup sesame oil

2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

3 green onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, smashed

2 Tbs chopped fresh ginger

4 Tbs garlic chili paste (Sambal)

2 lbs pork loin

For the stir fry:

4 oz broccoli

1 large carrot

¼ head of cabbage

8 oz mushrooms

3 green onions

¼ cilantro leaves

2 Tbs cooking oil

½ cup marinade, cooked and strained

2 tsp hoisin sauce

2 packs of dry ramen noodles  (You won’t need the seasoning packets)

Directions:

Trim the fat from the top of the pork loin (optional).  

Combine marinade ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. 

Add the pork loin and marinade to a large, seal-able storage bag.  Marinate in the refrigerator overnight or up to 24 hours.

Bake the roast at 425° for one hour, uncovered.  While the roast bakes, prepare the stir fry vegetables.

Peel and cut the vegetables.  Separate the white root ends from the green parts.  Leave the root parts whole and chop the rest of the green onions.  Slice the cabbage into ½” strips.  Slice the carrots, broccoli and mushrooms into bite sized pieces.  Set the vegetables aside. 

Soften the ramen in boiling water.  Do not overcook.  Strain the ramen and set aside.

Add the marinade to a skillet and cook until boiling.  Strain out the solids and reserve the sauce.

Remove the roast from the oven and cover with a foil tent an let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes. 

While the roast rests, make the stir fry.

In a hot wok, add two tablespoon of cooking oil.  Add the broccoli, carrots and the green onion roots and stir for a few minutes.  Add the mushrooms and stir for a minute. 

Add the cabbage.  Stir for a minute and then add ¼ cup of the cooked marinade and the hoisin sauce.  Stir to incorporate. 

Add the ramen and mix everything together.  Add the chopped green onions and cilantro and mix lightly. Turn the heat off and let the stir fry sit in the wok while you slice the pork roast

Slice the pork as thinly as you can. 

Arrange the slices on a serving platter.  Add the stir fry to the serving platter.   Drizzle remaining sauce over the sliced pork.

Sheet Pan Roast

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This is a great time-saving meal for a weeknight dinner…very convenient for working parents who want to make something nutritious, tasty and quickly.  The whole process takes about an hour, from start to finish.  Clean up is easy, especially if you line the sheet pan with parchment paper or foil.  I used frozen Italian sausage for this and it cooked completely and browned nicely.  The ham was cured and ready to eat, so I added it near the end of the cooking process, just to make it warm.

Ingredients:

3 large russet potatoes

2 very large carrots

8 to 10 oz broccoli

½ large onion

8 oz mushrooms

2 tsp salt

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

3 Tbs olive oil

2 garlic cloves, smashed

2 Tbs Italian seasoning

2 mild Italian sausage links (about ½ lb)

½ lb cured ham, sliced ¼” thick.

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Set oven to 350°.

Peel and rough chop vegetables.  Cut vegetables into 1” to 1 ½” pieces.

Add oil, garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to a large mixing bowl.

Toss vegetables in the oil mixture and turn everything out to a lined sheet pan.

Add the sausage on top of the vegetables.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.  Stir vegetables and turn the sausage over to brown evenly.  Bake for another 15 minutes.  Add the ham and stir.  Top with Parmesan cheese Bake for another 5 minutes.  Serve from the baking sheet, or a serving platter.

Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas

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Most of my entrée recipes contain meat, in some way or another.  Some recipes seem like meat, meat and more meat.  Other recipes lean toward vegetarian dishes…until I throw in some chicken stock.  This is a bona fide vegetarian dish. 

Until I started this blog I didn’t give much thought to other people’s recipes.  I have spent the last twenty-plus years relying on my own instincts and re-imagining dishes that I have had in the past.  But now I find myself perusing other cooking blogs and WOW, there sure are a lot of vegetarians and vegans out there!

I have gained an appreciation for what those cooks are doing.  It’s easy for an omnivore, such as me, to look at vegan recipes and think, “oh, those poor people…they have given up meat and they must be miserable.”  But, on closer inspection, I have found that vegetarians and vegans are bravely redefining what it means to be conscientious cooks.  Nutrition and taste can be achieved without meat.  There, I said it.

As I plod along searching for delicious and nutritious ways to satisfy my soul, I consider every lifestyle diet equally important.

This is one of those rare meals that came out just as I imagined it would.  The creaminess of the tomato based sauce and the three types of cheese made this a very gratifying dish.  It lacked a significant amount protein, which concerned me a bit but I grabbed a few handfuls of peanuts while I made this and life was good.

Ingredients:

7 green onions

2 garlic cloves, smashed

4 cups fresh spinach (8 oz)

16 oz fresh mushrooms

3 Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs butter

4 Tbs flour

2 tsp cumin powder

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

32 oz vegetable stock

6 oz tomato paste

½ cup half-and-half

8 oz Colby-Jack Cheese

4 oz sharp cheddar cheese

4 oz Mozzarella cheese

12 white corn tortillas

Directions:

Prepare the vegetables:

Chop the green onions.  Think of the green onion as three parts.  There is the white root section, the light green middle section and the dark green tips.  Cut and separate the green onions accordingly.

My recipe calls for 4 cups of spinach but I used more.  This might be considered a “heaping” four cups.  The beauty of fresh spinach is that it quickly wilts down to a much smaller amount when it is cooked. 

Chop the mushrooms.  I used baby portabella mushrooms because the price was right…any type mushroom will do.

In an oven proof skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil at medium heat.  Add the chopped white ends of the green onions and garlic.  Simmer for one minute.  Add the spinach and stir.  After a minute, the spinach will begin to soften and wilt.  Add the chopped mushrooms and stir for another two minutes.  Remove to a bowl.

  • Spinach wilts quickly
  • Don’t overcook the mushrooms

Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter.  Add the flour and whisk to make a roux.  Add cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper and stir to incorporate.  Add one half of the vegetable stock, (16 ounces) and tomato paste and whisk to thicken.  Add the half-and-half and whisk to mix.  Simmer on low heat to allow the sauce thicken. Thin the sauce with the remaining 16 ounces of vegetable stock. Simmer on low while the enchiladas are assembled.

  • Start roux by adding butter
  • Add flour and whisk
  • Heat the roux until flour dissolves
  • Add spices and whisk
  • Simmer roux
  • Add vegetable stock and tomato paste
Add the half-and-half.
Sauce will become very thick after adding half-and-half.
Add remaining vegetable stock to thin the sauce.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the mozzarella and cheddar cheese and 4 ounces of the Colby-Jack cheese.  Add the chopped middle sections of the green onions.  Add the cooked spinach and mushrooms.  Mix thoroughly. 

Soften the tortillas in a microwave or wrap in foil and warm them in a conventional oven.

Adding sauce to the pan keeps the enchiladas from burning

Add ½ cup of the enchilada sauce to the bottom of a large casserole dish.  Spread the sauce to cover the bottom of the dish.

Assemble the enchiladas:

Lay a tortilla on a clean work surface.  Add about 1/3 cup of the filling to each tortilla.  Roll and place in baking dish. 

Once all of the enchiladas are in the casserole dish, pour the sauce over the enchiladas and scatter 4 ounces of shredded Colby-Jack cheese on top.  Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Top with chopped green onion tips and cilantro

Peri-Peri Chicken

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My cousin recently introduced me to peri-peri.  She understands my passion for chilis and all things spicy and, when she shipped three bottles of peri-peri sauce to me, I was elated.  As I opened the box, a heavenly aroma of chilis filled the air and as I began to unwrap the contents, I realized that two of the bottles had broken during shipping.  Oh, the horror! 

I salvaged the one unbroken bottle and said a solemn prayer for the two noble souls that didn’t make it.

Peri-peri is a cultivated chili from Portugal.  It’s originally an African chili, from Mozambique, to be exact.  “Pillpill” is Swahili for “pepper”.  It is a very spicy red chili.  Portuguese explorers came across peri-peri way back when Portugal was in their exploratory heyday.  The peri-peri chilis were brought back to Portugal where they were cultivated through selective breeding. 

Since I had never heard of peri-peri, I did what anyone else living in the 21st century would do…I ran to my computer and searched the internet for peri-peri.  Most of the results showed recipes for peri-peri Chicken, which was naturally a Portuguese concoction.  Most recipes called for about 4 ounces of peri-peri sauce which was just about what my lone- surviving, stalwart bottle contained.

I discovered that the key to this dish relies more on how the chicken is prepared, rather than the type of chilis that are used.  In fact, you can omit the chilis entirely and still have a great meal!  I have to say that I recommend using some amount of chilis because they add a wonderful flavor and the act of roasting takes away much of their heat.

I didn’t have peri-peri sauce on hand this time but I did have lots of red-ripe habanero chilis from my garden that were just waiting for an opportunity to shine. 

  • Chop one-handed!
  • Don’t touch the habaneros!

I also included things like Italian dressing and Tajin seasoning, for the marinade.  The substitutions and additions that I used didn’t take anything away from the quality of the finished product because I stayed true to the spirit of the dish.  I grilled the chicken over hot coals.  That is the key.

Ingredients:

1 whole fryer chicken

Dry rub:

2 Tbs Tajin seasoning

2 Tbs garlic powder

Marinade:

1 ½ cups Italian dressing

5 habanero chilis, chopped

2 Tbs Tajin seasoning

2 Tbs sriracha sauce

2 Tbs dried onion flakes

1 tsp coarse salt

1 Tbs hot sauce

Glaze:

1 ½ cups marinade

2 tablespoons butter

Juice of 1 lemon

Preparation:

For the rub:

Combine the Tajin seasoning and garlic powder.

For the marinade:

Combine marinade ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Prepare the chicken:

Inspect the cavity of the chicken and remove the neck and packet of organs, if they are included.  Wash and rinse the chicken.  Using kitchen shears, remove the backbone.  This is actually fairly easy to do but it requires a strong grip on the scissors.  Feel along the backbone to determine where to cut.  Cut along both sides of the backbone.  Remove the backbone and use it for chicken stock or, if nobody is looking, discretely discard it and suffer some guilt later.  Same goes with the neck and organs…great for other uses but I promise I won’t tell on you if you discard them. 

Turn the chicken over on a cutting board so that the breast faces upward. 

Double your fists as if you were going to perform the Heimlich maneuver on someone.  Press down forcefully between the breasts until the cartilage gives way.  Don’t hold back!  Lock your elbows and push down with extreme force!  (Just think of it as chicken therapy).   If you lack the strength to perform this act, that’s ok.  Just score the breast meat along the sides of the breast bone and try again.  Work your way up and down the middle of the breast with your fist until the cartilage yields and you are left with a flattened chicken. 

Apply the rub:

Carefully create an opening between the skin of the chicken breasts and the breast meat.  Use your fingers to create the opening and then slide your hand under the skin and continue sliding back to the thighs and leg.  Do this gently, to avoid breaking the skin.  Once you have separated the skin from the meat, apply liberal amounts of the rub on the meat with your fingers

Take the chicken and dredge both sides in the bowl  containing the marinade.  Coat the chicken thoroughly and then cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. 

Prepare the grill:

Heat some charcoal.  I filled one charcoal chimney with coals and the chicken was done in about 1 ½ hours.  By the time the chicken was fully cooked, the coals were nearly spent.  If you want more char on the chicken or if you want the chicken to cook faster, add more coals and cook hotter.  A word of advice:  If you add too many hot coals you run the risk of burning the chicken and the chicken might not cook evenly.  I actually liked the way this cooked on the grill.  I never worried about burning the chicken and the chicken came out nice and moist. 

Use indirect heat when grilling the chicken.  Add the hot coals to one side of the grill and place a shallow pan on the other side, filled half-way with water…this becomes a drip pan and it provides some moist air to keep the chicken from drying out.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and let it warm to room temperature.  Reserve the marinade…it will be used for the glaze.

Using two tongs, place the chicken on the grill, breast side up.  Point the legs toward the side containing the coals.  This will keep the breast from cooking too quickly and drying out.  Additionally, this puts the bones of the chicken closest to the heat source, which will cause the bones to heat and cook the meat surrounding them.  That’s a good thing.

Let the chicken cook for at least 30 minutes before considering turning the chicken over or repositioning it. 

Check the chicken every 15 minutes or so.  If the legs look like they are charring too much, scoot the chicken away from the coals, otherwise, let it ride.

After the chicken has cooked for 45 minutes, press the chicken with a thumb or forefinger to check for doneness.  If you are unsure about doneness, use a meat thermometer to check.  If the thermometer reads 165° the chicken is safely cooked.  If you want to turn the chicken over to crisp the other side, have at it.  As I mentioned earlier, my coals were cooling at this point and I wasn’t worried about over cooking, so I turned the chicken and let the top side crisp a bit.

Remove the chicken and keep in a warm place.

For the glaze:

Pour the reserved marinade in a skillet.  Heat to a boil and simmer for about 5 more minutes.  Contrary to popular belief, a chicken marinade can be used for a sauce but it must be boiled first.  Do not use the marinade to baste the chicken…that’s where you run into the risk of bacteria infecting your food.  Add the butter and lemon juice to the sauce and simmer for a few more minutes, or until the butter has melted. 

Drizzle the glaze over the chicken and serve warm with rice and vegetables.

Meatball Subs

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When I make spaghetti and meat balls I almost always make extra sauce and meatballs.  I sometimes use the extra sauce to make meatball sub sandwiches. 

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked meatballs in marinara sauce

½ cup dry Parmesan cheese

1 large New Orleans style Po’ Boy bread loaf (or any good French loaf)

1 cup Mozzarella cheese, grated

½ cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

1 Tbs olive oil

1 clove of garlic, smashed

¼ bell pepper, sliced into ¼” strips

2 Tbs chopped fresh basil

Directions:

Warm the meatballs and marina is a skillet.  Add the dry Parmesan and mix.  Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.

While the meatballs warm, grate the cheese and prepare the garlic and bell pepper.  Chop the basil.  Set aside.

In a small pan, add olive oil and garlic.  Heat the pan on low/medium heat and then add the bell pepper.  Sauté for a few minutes, until the peppers have softened.

Heat the oven broiler.

I used a 24” bread loaf, which made 4 subs.

Slice the bread loaf but do not cut through all of the way.   Cut a “V” shaped trough in one of the lengths. 

Add the meatballs and marinara to the trough in the bread loaf.

Add the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  Put the subs under the oven broiler to melt the cheese.

Remove the subs and layer with the bell pepper and a little more fresh Parmesan cheese and basil.

Wings (over the Mid-South)

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Well, it had to happen at some point.  I can’t hide the fact that I have become a “wing junkie”.  Spend enough time in the Mid-South and you are bound to get hooked on the darn things.  I never cooked chicken wings until I moved to the Mid-South area, nearly twenty years ago. 

For those of you who don’t know what I mean by “Mid-South”, let me try to explain…

The East Coast and West Coast need no explanation…just look at a map of the United States and it’s obvious.  The Northwest, Central Plains States make sense, too.  It gets a little difficult to define the Mid-West states because they include so many states that I would consider, The North and, it includes Ohio, which can hardly be considered “west”.  The Deep South covers a large swath of land from Virginia to Texas, which makes sense, even though Fort Worth, Texas claims the motto, “Where the West begins.”   The Southwest is plain enough…it’s all of those big states with deserts and mountains.

The Mid-South is all of the other states that don’t seem to fit in anywhere else, or maybe they are states that are actually parts of other geographically named areas but they’re just not happy about it.  According to the internet, and who am I to argue with the internet, the Mid-South includes Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, which is where I reside.

As I was mentioning, I never cooked chicken wings until I moved to the Mid-South.  If you look at the states that comprise the Mid-South you might think that barbecue is the main attraction, and you are probably right, but chicken wings aren’t far behind.  You can’t throw a rock around here without hitting a chicken wing joint.  I’ve come across some great wing restaurants and I’ve seen my fair share of so-so joints.  My criteria for a good chicken wing joint is crispy wings (preferably whole wings), good sauces, plenty of crisp vegetables and real blue cheese dressing.

With that, I present tonight’s fare.  Buffalo Wings with honest-to-goodness blue cheese dressing and fresh vegetables.

Note:  Seasonings can be whatever you like.  I don’t know if I have ever made chicken wings the same way twice.  I prefer them very spicy, but that’s just me.  The spice I used on these may seem extreme but, as they bake, they lose some of the spiciness and just carry the flavor of the spices.

Ingredients:

10 whole chicken wings (or about 2 lbs)

2 Tbs Tajin seasoning (contains flavors of chili, lime and sea salt)

2 Tbs smoked paprika

2 Tbs cayenne powder

2 Tbs garlic powder

1 Tbs cumin powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

For the blue cheese sauce:

8 oz crumbled blue cheese

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup half-and-half

½ cup sour cream

1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs lemon juice (or 1 tsp vinegar)

The fruit and vegetables:

3 ribs of celery (sliced into sticks)

2 large carrots (sliced into sticks)

2 large jalapeños (sliced into sticks and seeded)

1 lime (quartered)

Directions:

Heat an oven to 400°.

Wash the chicken wings under cold water and allow them to air dry for 20 minutes.  The skin of the wing needs to dry before adding the spice rub.

Tajin seasoning
  • Spices before mixing
  • Spices – mixed

In a large mixing bowl, add the spices.  Toss the whole wings in the spice mixture.  Allow the wings to rest for about 10 minutes, to allow the rub to fully adhere.

Cover a baking tray with parchment paper.  Lay the wings on the pan and stretch them as wide as they can go.  Doing this will maximize the crispiness.

Bake for 45 minutes and then turn the wings over to bake on the other side.  Turn the oven down to 350° and bake for another 30 minutes. 

While the wings bake, make the sauce and prepare the vegetables.

Prepare the sauce by mixing half of the blue cheese with the rest of the sauce ingredient.  Beat with a spatula until creamy.

Add remaining blue cheese and gently incorporate.

Peel the carrots and slice all of the vegetables into sticks.

Slice the lime into quarters.

Arrange the vegetables and lime on a platter.

Pull the wings from the oven and apply the hot sauce of your choice, or serve as is.

I used equal parts of these 3 sauces on my wings and left the rest without sauce

Arrange the wings on the platter with the vegetables and lime wedges.

Serve with chilled blue cheese sauce.

Shrimp with Creamy Garlic Butter and Pasta

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This dish is a bit like Shrimp Scampi but, not so bold and intense in flavor.  The creaminess, provided by the half-and-half, along with the pasta turns a wild Shrimp Scampi into something gentle and soothing.

Ingredients:

4 Tbs unsalted butter

1 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp red chili flakes

4 garlic cloves

1 lb large, raw shrimp, deveined and peeled

2 green onions

¼ cup fresh basil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

½ cup half-and-half

12 oz dry pasta (I used Farfalle – butterfly pasta)

Ingredients for the sauce thickener:

1 Tbs softened butter

1 Tbs flour

Ingredients for the garnish:

½ cup diced tomatoes

2 root ends of green onions

1 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp vinegar

½ tsp oregano

¼ tsp garlic powder

Directions:

You should prepare all of the ingredients in advance.  Shrimp cooks very quickly and you want to have all of the other ingredients ready when you need them.

Boil the pasta to al dente.  Normally I would use lots of water but this time, I wanted the noodles to keep some of their starchiness so that the sauce would cling to it better.

While the pasta cooks…

Pulverize coarse salt and red chili flakes in a mortar and pestle.  Set aside.

Chop the garlic and slice the green onions.  Reserve the root portions of the green onions.  Set aside.

Prepare the sauce thickener by blending the flour with the softened butter.  I like to use a fork for blending.  Set aside until needed.

Prepare the garnish by dicing the tomato and roots of the green onion.

Drain the pasta but do not rinse.  Set aside.

Strain the garnish to remove the olive oil and vinegar.  Set the garnish aside.

Rinse the shrimp under cold water and remove the shells. 

In a large skillet, add 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Simmer at low heat. 

Add the garlic and crushed salt and red chili flakes.  Simmer at low heat for about two minutes.  This will allow the garlic to mellow a little. 

Add the shrimp to the pan.  Turn the heat to low/medium. 

Stir the shrimp until they turn from translucent to slightly pink.

Add the green onion, basil and lemon juice to the pan and stir for about a half minute.

Add the sauce thickener and mix with the buttery sauce.  It should thicken within a minute or so. Add the half-and-half and stir. 

Add the Parmesan cheese.

Turn the heat off and add the pasta.  Stir a few times and remove to a serving bowl.

Top with the tomato and onion garnish.

Dinner #1: Spaghetti with Meatballs

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There are some meals that I can cook in my sleep, with one hand tied behind my back.  Spaghetti is one of those meals.  Long ago, when I when I was just establishing myself as a home cook, I had a very limited repertoire.  It wasn’t because I lacked a willingness to experiment and it wasn’t due to a lack of creativity, training or knowledge that curtailed my culinary endeavors to a mere handful of recipes. 

Being a parent of very young children changes a person in many ways and one of those inevitable changes is a parents’ diet.  I don’t regret anything about having children.  One of the greatest things about having children is watching them grow up to become living, breathing, free-thinking adults.  I wouldn’t trade the experience of raising children for anything.

Young children don’t have refined, educated palettes.  Surprise!  For a long time, my wife and I didn’t even think about making something like Steak with Roquefort Cheese Sauce, Bratwurst with Sauerkraut or Tandoori Chicken.  Heck, we were lucky if we could sneak a vegetable past our kids every now and then without them noticing. 

We realized pretty quickly that our meals repeated week after week.  Four or five basic recipes stayed in constant rotation.  It got to a point where I assigned a number to the meals.  Monday nights were spaghetti and Friday nights were homemade pizza so, Spaghetti became Dinner #1 and Pizza became Dinner #5.  Dinners 2,3 and 4 varied over the years and they entered and exited the rotation as young taste buds changed.  They included simple meals like, chicken nuggets and tater tots, tacos with salad and fish sticks, with macaroni and cheese.  Our weekends were “anything goes” days.  It might be barbacoa tacos, pan fried chicken or a pasta casserole.  We made sure to include fresh fruit as often as possible, especially because the only vegetable our kids would willingly eat was raw carrot sticks. 

Eh, they survived.  And, so did we.  I look back on those days fondly.

Fast forward nearly twenty years and Dinner #1 is still one of my favorite go-to meals.  I have made spaghetti over 1,000 times in my lifetime.  That’s not a guess…that’s real math at work! 

Now that my children are grown, I have more free time which means I can add flair to simple recipes, like spaghetti and meatballs.  For this version, I used homemade tomato sauce.  I also employed some extra tricks to make this meal a little more special.  Plain tomato sauce tends to be acidic.  I could have added a few tablespoons of sugar or honey to balance the sauce but I used Marsala wine, roasted garlic and fire roasted bell pepper, which provided all of the necessary sweetness and it gave the sauce an additional depth of flavor.

This recipe will feed about 6 people.

Ingredients:

24 oz tomato sauce (store-bought sauce is perfectly fine)

1 whole garlic bulb

¼ cup fresh basil

½ red bell pepper

½ onion

¼ cup Marsala wine

1 lb. ground beef (80/20)

½ cup bread crumbs

1 Tbs dried oregano

2 tsp dried rosemary (ground)

2 eggs

¼ cup grated, dry Parmesan cheese

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

½ cup grated, fresh Parmesan cheese

For the spaghetti noodles:

4 quarts water

12 oz dry spaghetti noodles

1 Tbs kosher salt

1 bay leaf

1 Tbs olive oil

Directions:

If you are using store-bought tomato sauce, feel free to skip to the section on Preparing the Meatballs.

Otherwise…

Heat an oven to 300°.

Prepare the herbs, onion, garlic and bell pepper.

Roughly chop the basil and set aside.

Chop the onion into ¼” pieces and set aside.

Separate the garlic bulb in half.  One half of the garlic will be roasted in the oven and the other half will be minced, fresh.

Wrap one half of the garlic bulb in aluminum foil and place on the rack, in the oven.

Rest the half bell pepper on a stove burner and char the pepper over low heat.  Rotate the pepper for several minutes to all the pepper to char on all sides. 

Wrap the pepper in foil and put it on the oven rack, with the garlic.

Allow the garlic and red pepper to bake in the foil for about 20 minutes. Remove the garlic and pepper.

Unwrap the red pepper and allow it to cool for a few minutes.  Rinse under water to remove the charred parts. 

Slice the top and stem of the pepper and discard.  Lay the remaining red pepper on a clean surface and dice into ¼” pieces.  Set aside.

Remove the roasted garlic from the foil and squeeze the soft garlic from the papery husks.  Mash the garlic into a paste with the broad side of a kitchen knife and set aside.

  • Roasted Garlic
  • Roasted Garlic with Basil and
    Roasted Bell Pepper

Mince the cloves of the other half of the garlic bulb and set aside.

Preparing the Meatballs:

In a large mixing bowl add the ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs, dry Parmesan cheese, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. 

Mix until all of the ingredients have combined. 

Form into 1” balls and leave the meatballs in the mixing bowl. 

In a large skillet, set the heat on the stove to low and add a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add the onions and sauté until slightly softened.  Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. 

Add the meatballs and cover the pan.

Simmer the meatballs for about 5 minutes at low heat and then turn them over.  Cover the pan and cook for another few minutes.  Keep turning the meatballs every few minutes until they become firm.

Strain the meatballs to remove the grease.  Return the meatballs to the pan. 

Add the tomato sauce to the meatballs.  Stir the meatballs in the sauce and add the Marsala, roasted garlic, roasted bell pepper, fresh garlic, chopped basil, oregano, rosemary, salt and black pepper.  Stir briefly to incorporate.

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. 

While the sauce is finishing, prepare spaghetti noodles in a large stock pot.  Add the water to the pot and bring to a boil.  Add a tablespoon of salt, a bay leaf and 1 tablespoon of oil.  Add spaghetti noodles and cook until the noodles are al dente.

Serve with fresh Parmesan cheese, garlic bread and salad.

Chicken Marsala

/ toothpicktales / 4 Comments

I don’t make Chicken Marsala very often, mainly because I rarely have Marsala wine on hand but, every time I make this I tell myself that I should always keep a bottle of Marsala within arm’s reach.  The sauce that the wine produces is rich and smooth.  A good Marsala sauce results in a beautiful balance of sweet and savory flavors.  Heavy cream can be added to the sauce to make it luxurious, to the point of decadent. 

Note: Most recipes for Chicken Marsala call for some cooking sherry to be added, along with the Marsala wine.  Cooking sherry is another thing that I rarely keep in stock, so I skipped it.  Marsala and sherry are both sweet wines and I didn’t think I would lose any significant flavor by omitting the sherry. 

Ingredients:

¼ cup flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

½ tsp dried oregano

4 chicken breasts, sliced ¼“ thick

4 Tbs butter

4 Tbs olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced shallots

1 ½  cup sliced mushrooms (an 8 oz package)

½ cup Marsala wine

Directions:

Slice the chicken breasts horizontally into ¼”slices.

Mix the flour, salt, pepper and oregano together in a bowl.  Coat the chicken in the flour mixture and set aside for several minutes.

In a skillet, melt the butter and oil over at medium/low heat. 

Add the shallots and simmer for 1 minute.  Remove the shallots and reserve. 

Place the coated chicken in the pan, and brown, slightly.  Do not crowd the chicken.  You will probably need to make two batches.  Turn the chicken after a minute, or so, and then once again to lightly brown the other side. 

Set the first batch of chicken aside to a warm area.  Add the second batch of coated chicken to the pan.

Once the second batch of chicken is done, add the first batch back to the pan. Add the mushrooms and shallots to the pan.  Finally, add the Marsala wine.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, turning the chicken one more time during the process.

A wonderful brown sauce forms in a matter of a few minutes. 

Masala – Marsala

/ toothpicktales / 6 Comments

This week’s confession is truly astounding, even for someone like me, who has committed so many kitchen atrocities over time that I am sure I will end up in Kitchen Hell, when it’s all said and done.

All kidding aside, this was truly a remarkable faux pas.  I’m the sort of person that likes to be the smartest kid in the class and, if it’s obvious that I am not the smartest, I like to the one that says the most clever things.  Earlier this week I confused Masala with Marsala. 

For those of you who might be scratching your heads, wondering what the difference is between the two, I’ll tell you.  The difference is “R”.  (See what I mean about trying to make up for a lack of intellect by attempting to be clever?)

Masala is a mixture of many spices.  It’s a term used by people from India and Pakistan, among other places.  It is not just one particular spice mix.  The mix can contain any number of spices.  Masala is the flavor foundation for many dishes.

Marsala is a sweet, fortified Italian dessert wine, often used for cooking. 

An innocent mistake, for sure.  And, if that was where my story ended, I could have laughed it off and gone on with my life with nobody being the wiser. 

Several months ago, while visiting my favorite Indian spice market, I struck up a conversation with the proprietor, as I usually do.  He is always willing to stop and talk with me and he has been a tremendous guide, while I attempt to unravel Indian cuisine.  On this occasion, I told him that I was considering making a masala pizza, at least that is what he probably heard.  I actually said Marsala, because I was thinking about making a chicken Marsala pizza.  That was the moment I ran off the rails. 

You see, I have made chicken Marsala before and I have made many dishes with masala, although I’ve never really thought about calling the spice mixture, masala.  I must have had a bizarre synaptic short-circuit which caused me to switch masala with Marsala.  The proprietor, being the gentleman that he is, just stared at me when I suggested the masala pizza.  He gave me a sort of quizzical, pitiful look.

Well, months later, here I am ready to make the pizza.  I wanted to try a test run with the chicken Marsala, before moving on to the pizza.  I went back to the Indian market to pick up some items for other dishes and when I saw the proprietor, I told him that I was really going to make the masala pizza, but I what I actually said was, “Marsala”.  I told him that I was deliberating on how to approach the pizza.  I didn’t want to use traditional Italian marinara and mozzarella because I didn’t think they would pair well with the Marsala sauce.  I asked him if he had a suggestion for a creamy sauce that I could make, instead of using Mozzarella.  After a moment, he suggested coconut milk and followed that with suggesting tapioca starch to thicken the coconut milk.

Coconut milk?  I’ve taken some interesting turns while creating new food but coconut milk didn’t seem like a very good idea for pizza but, I told him that I would give it a try.

As I left the store and headed to the wine store, to pick up some Marsala wine, it suddenly dawned on me that I had been utterly confused.  You see, the proprietor of the spice market speaks perfectly.  Despite the tell-tale Indian accent, his diction and vocabulary is precise and clear.  He speaks better English than most people I encounter, on any given day. 

“Masala”, was what he was saying, and he made sure to say masala each time after I said “Marsala” to him.  The nerve cells in my brain finally made the jump.  I had been enlightened!  I also suffered from incredible embarrassment. 

As I drove to the wine store I convinced myself that the only way to redeem myself was to perform an act of penance.  I would make two pizzas.  One would be inspired by masala and the other would be inspired by Marsala. 

One final interesting event rounded out the day and convinced me that fate is a very real thing.  I was checking out some other blogs and I came across this blog,  https://ishitasood.com/ .  It’s tagline reads, “The Biggest and Only Indian Blog on Italy”.  Ishita is the author and she has produced some very interesting posts.  One post in particular struck a chord with me… https://ishitasood.com/confessions-of-a-passionate-blogger/

In the blog she offers some words of encouragement, including the following: “It is okay to be vulnerable.”

And that was exactly what I needed to hear.  It is what I needed to remember.  I am an imperfect human and so is everybody else.

I will work on these recipes with an open heart and an open mind.