Eggplant Parm Pie

Posted on June 18, 2013 by jacky grace

The only thing I love more than my mom’s meatballs is her eggplant parm.

If you’ve only eaten eggplant parm out at a restaurant, you have never eaten eggplant parm.

Sorry restaurants. But mom’s will win every time.

Bobby Flay should really come do a Throwdown with my mom.

Here’s the thing about her eggplant though. It’s a process. Totally worth it in the end, but it involves a lot of time over a hot stove. First you make the gravy, then you fry the eggplant in batches, then you layer the gravy and the eggplant in a casserole dish, then you top with cheese, then you bake for an hour, and then, during that hour, you clean your grease-splattered stove.

In the summer, my itty bitty city kitchen is ridiculously hot.

So no thanks.

But I was thinking about eggplant. And so I came up with this. It’s not at all the same thing as mom’s, but it’s quick and it’s light.

Think of it as the summertime cousin to mom’s cheesy, melty, tray of eggplant wonderfulness.

A sort of quichey, eggplant pie.

You will need

4 eggs

1 eggplant

1 tomato

1 heaping scoop ricotta cheese

mozzarella

splash of milk

olive oil

salt

pepper

butter for the dish

Turn your oven to 400.

Peel the eggplant and slice into discs. The more even the width, the more evenly they will bake.

Lay them on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for about twenty minutes.

When the eggplant is nice and browned up, remove from the oven and set the slices aside. Slice up the tomato in rounds and place on the foil-lined sheet you just removed the eggplant from. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast for about ten minutes.

This recipe sounds a little lengthy, but to me roasting time isn’t really cooking time. I throw things in the oven and forget about them for a little bit, taking the time to unwind after a long day or to swiffer the floors or to do some previously neglected tasks. Like paying the bills. While the tomatoes roast is the perfect time to pay the bills.

When the tomatoes are done, butter a baking dish or pie pan. I’ve extolled the virtues of my pie pan before. Namely, that it is dishwasher safe. So between the foil-lined cookie sheet and the pan that goes in the dishwasher, this is a no cleanup necessary dinner.

Line the bottom of your pan with eggplant.

Next add a lawyer of tomatoes.

Top with the remaining eggplant.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, a splash of milk and a scoop of ricotta cheese. This is serving as the parmigiana part of the dish.

Pour the mix over the eggplant and tomatoes and then top with mozzarella.

Lower the oven to 350 and bake for 45 minutes. Again, a long baking time, but there’s very little active cooking time in this recipe. There’s a lot of hang out, put your feet up, sip some wine and let the smells fill the apartment time.

Remove from the oven when the eggs are set.

Slice up and serve with a side salad and some crusty bread.

It’s not mom’s but it does the trick.

For now.

Baked Potato Soup

Posted on June 17, 2013 by jacky grace

I love soup.

It could be 100 degrees in the shade and it won’t deter me from having soup for dinner if that’s what I’m craving.

And soups are very itty bitty city kitchen friendly. They usually just require some space for your cutting board and then it all goes into one big pot.

I was thinking about summer barbecues and some of my favorite flavors from them.

I love me a big juicy burger, covered in ketchup, cheese melting down the sides.

But the supporting cast has a lot to offer too. Like potato salad. A big scoop of potato salad beside your burger. Yum.

That made me think of potatoes in general. I feel like potatoes get a bad rep for being starchy and fatty. When you fry ’em, yea, they’re not so good for you. And when you cover ’em in mayonnaise in potato salad, they’re not so good for you.

But guess what? That little spud had 45% of your daily value for Vitamin C, 10% of your B6, and more potassium than a banana.

Go Idaho Potato!

I’ve turned baked potatoes into dinner before, stuffing them with broccoli and cheese and adding a side salad. But today was a day when I wanted soup.

Lightbulb!

Baked potato soup.

Bonus? It’s vegetarian. So it’s Meatless Monday friendly.

You will need

3 baking potatoes
carrots
celery
onion
olive oil
1 cup whole milk
salt
pepper

That’s for the base of the soup. If want to, you can add toppings such as scallions or chives, grated cheddar cheese, a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, and, if you’re not making this as part of meatless Monday, a crumbling of bacon. But the toppings are entirely up to you.

Here’s how you make the soup.

Bake the potatoes at 400 for about an hour, being sure to poke holes so they don’t explode in your oven.

If you don’t want to spend an hour baking potatoes after work, bake them up over the weekend. But really, baking potatoes requires no effort. You throw them in and walk away. So come home, go to the gym, take a nice long hot shower. Flip through a magazine.

The potatoes will be fine.

When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven, cut in half and let cool.

Leaving the potatoes to cool, drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a pot.

Toss in the chopped carrots, celery and onion. I used two carrots, two ribs of celery and about a third of an onion. I know I’m going to add scallions on top, so I don’t want to overwhelm the soup with onions.

Cook the vegetables until they are soft, but not brown.

Add salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Stir and cover for a few minutes.

Peel the skins from the potatoes and discard (or snack), adding the insides to the pot.

Using the back of a spoon or a potato masher, mash the potatoes into the carrots and celery and onions.

Add more seasoning and then add enough water to cover the potatoes.

Cover and cook for a few minutes until the water softens the potatoes more.

Lower the heat, and, using an immersion blender or transferring to a food processor or blender, blend the soup until smooth. Pour back into the pot and cook over low, adding in a cup of milk for some richness.

Let cook a few more minutes so the rawness of the milk is gone and the soup is warmed through.

Serve up in big bowls and add your toppings.

Leftovers of this are great.

If you have any.

Summer Carbonara

Posted on June 13, 2013 by jacky grace

I know I seem like a broken record going on and on about summer and summer fruits and how much I love summer foods, but it was a long winter.

And here in the city, we don’t get much of summer.

So I embrace every moment of it.

Outside right now, it’s pouring.

It feels like all it has been doing lately is rain. Yes, yesterday was the perfect blend of summer heat and spring breezes, but I can’t shake the feeling that it has just been raining forever.

Looking outside and seeing the rain falling makes me feel cold. It could be the most humid and sticky rainforest-like rain, but just seeing the droplets fall gives me a chill.

I want something warm and comforting for dinner, but I still want to embrace the bounty of summer.

A bowl of pasta. That’s what rainy days call for. Carbonara. That’s my go to comfort food dish in the winter. But it’s too warm for that. And bathing suit season is around the corner, somewhere, I swear.

So how about taking out the pancetta and using some summer tomatoes to keep things light and fresh?

It won’t be the same smoky taste as traditional carbonara, but the richness and the texture will still be there.

For this dish you will need

angel hair pasta
tomatoes, diced (if tomatoes aren’t fresh and ripe and juicy, you can use a can of diced tomatoes)
garlic
heavy cream
black pepper
parmesan cheese
2 eggs

This is a one pot and one pan dish. You’ll boil the pasta in a pot, make the sauce in a pan, and then add the pasta to the pan to combine and coat with the eggy, tomatoey sauce.

Traditional carbonara starts with frying up some bacon or pancetta. We’re going to get our flavor from the juicy tomatoes and from some browned garlic.

Drizzle some olive oil in a pan and add the diced tomatoes and a clove or two of garlic. I used two tomatoes for two people, so adjust accordingly depending upon the number of people you will be serving.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil.

Cook the garlic and the tomatoes down until the tomatoes release their juices and the garlic starts to brown.

When the water comes to a boil, toss in the angel hair.

You’re going to want to time this so the pasta will be done at the same time that the tomatoes are cooked. Angel hair cooks really fast, so don’t go anywhere.

Grab 2 eggs, a splash of heavy cream, a few grinds of black pepper and a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese.

Oh my god. I just realized something.

Whenever I ask my grandma or my boyfriend’s meme how to make something, they always give ingredients as first you add a little bit of this and then a few scoops of that and then a little bit of this. And I always laugh and say they do that on purpose so I will never make it exactly the same as theirs, because really, what’s a little bit?

I’m not doing that to you!

I promise!

Cooking is such a personal thing. If you like a lot of spice, you add more pepper. If you want more of a salty bite, bring on the parmesan cheese.

I hate recipes. I prefer guidelines.

So thank you grandma and meme for always giving me guidelines.

Okay, back to the eggs.

Beat the eggs, cream, pepper and parmesan cheese and set to the side.

Now, here’s where you have to work quickly.

As soon as your pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the tomato sauce. Lower the heat and toss, coating the pasta with the mix.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg mixture over the pasta, tossing constantly.

The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs, but if you leave the mixture for too long in one spot, the eggs will scramble and seize up. You want this to be a smooth, silky, creamy sauce, so keep those pasta noodles moving.

When the eggs coat the strands of pasta and the tomato juices have turned the cream a pale pink, plate up heaping bowls of pasta.

Top with an extra sprinkle of parmesan if you want some more cheese.

Twirl your fork and let the creamy strands coat your tongue and the tomato bits punctuate the richness with juicy bursts.

One, two Mushroom Ragu

Posted on June 5, 2013 by jacky grace

I was good all day. No instant hot cocoa in the cafeteria, no trip to the vending machine, no mindless munching.

My fruit salad and my English muffin with homemade strawberry faux-jam kept me full and satisfied all day.

Okay there may have been a piece of chocolate in there. But it was dark chocolate. And that’s good for me. Check this Fitday article on the benefits of dark chocolate.

So now I get to go home and indulge. A little.

This recipe actually feels more indulgent than it is. Mushrooms have a way of doing that to a dish. They trick your brain into thinking you’re eating something you shouldn’t be when really you’re giving your body so much goodness.

Mushrooms are the only fruit or vegetable source of Vitamin D. Those little guys are more than just a fungi! They help give us that does of D. And Vitamin D helps make us happy; deficiencies can lead to depression, which is why we’re so blue in the winter when we get less sunlight.

So mushrooms have this feel good vitamin to give us a feel good boost. Cake gives us a feel good boost, but it’s short lived. And we feel guilty afterwards. Mushrooms feel naughty, but they help boost our immune system, give us a dose of antioxidants and provide B vitamins that help boost metabolism.

Check that out!

You’re not going to pass by those humble-looking little mushrooms in the grocery store again!

In fact, here’s a great, quick dinner to get in some D and B vitamins and to help comfort you as you make your way through the mid-week hump day slump.

Because if you’re like me, you’re tired at the end of Wednesday. You’re looking at the calendar and feeling like Friday. Is. So. Far. Away.

This dish combines the comfort of pasta with the feed your body the right things goodness of mushrooms.

Yes, you can make your own ravioli.

No, I do not have time to do this after work.

Guess what? Frozen ravioli is okay. I grew up in an Italian household where my mother AND my grandmother used frozen raviolis. If grandma did it, then it’s okay.

There are definitely occasions when making your own is called for – anniversaries, birthdays, days when you’re snowed in with nothing to do – but week night dinners is not one of those occasions.

There are a ton of brands that make really tasty, good quality frozen raviolis. Explore the freezer section.

This is a two pot dinner – one to cook the pasta and one to make the sauce.

But everything comes together so quickly that it makes up for having to wash two pots. Promise.

You will need

ravioli (I’m using three cheese, but you can get creative with flavor combinations and try spinach or even pumpkin ravioli)

mushrooms (I’m just using plain button mushrooms)

onion or shallot (whatever is on hand)

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon butter

olive oil

black pepper

red wine

Fill a pot with water and turn to high to bring to a boil. While the water is coming to a boil, you can make the sauce. The sauce and the pasta should be finished at the same time.

Drizzle olive oil into a frying pan. Add the chopped onion and garlic. I want the mushroom flavor to be really prominent, so I’m not using much onion or garlic. Adjust according to your taste.

Cook the onions until translucent. Be careful not to burn the garlic (I have a tendency to do this, so the warning is as much for me as for you).

While the onion and garlic simmers, chop the mushrooms.

Toss them in with the onions and garlic and add some black pepper. Again. One of my favorite kitchen smells.

Cook the mushrooms down.

Around this time, your water should be at a boil. Toss in the ravioli. I never salt my pasta water. I know this is an area of much debate, but I do drizzle a little olive oil in the pot when I’m making ravs so they don’t stick together. Mom did it. Grandma did it. I do it.

Cook the ravs according to the instructions on the package. You can lighten this meal up by using penne or angel hair too.

When the mushrooms are cooked down and while the ravs are bubbling away, add the butter and some red wine to the mushrooms, onion and garlic. You can leave the butter out to make the sauce lighter. I was good all day, though, remember? So a little butter is okay.

When the ravs are cooked (they usually float to the top when they’re done) drain and divide them into bowls. Pour the sauce over.

Sprinkle with some some parmesan cheese.

Mangia!

(Please excuse the lack of pictures in this post… we were too hungry to think straight!)

Itty Bitty City Kitchen

tiny kitchen, BIG CULINARY ASPIRATIONS

Tag Archives: vegetarian dinner

Eggplant Parm Pie

Baked Potato Soup

Summer Carbonara

One, two Mushroom Ragu