Cook: Pasta with Roasted Garlic and Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes Recipe

Last weekend, we went to the Brentwood farmers market for the first time! We usually visit the Santa Monica market, but our friends highly recommended this one so we decided to give it try.

It must be tomato season, since heirloom tomatoes were going for $2.50 a pound (normally you can find them in CA grocery stores for $4.99). There was one stand selling cherry tomatoes - 3 pints for $5! I picked out the super sweet orange variety, a small yellow(squash shaped) variety, and some juicy looking red ones.  Then I had to figure out what to do with all these tomatoes!  I found this recipe for roasted cherry tomato pasta, and followed it with a few modifications. It was a big hit and was super delicious and easy to make!

Pasta with Roasted Garlic and Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes Recipe, Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half*  (I used the 3 pints minus a few bruised tomatoes = prob closer to 5 cups, and only cut the larger sized red ones in half. The orange and yellow ones were small, so I left them as is) 
• 12 garlic cloves, cut in half (I did use this quantity and it was perfect!)   
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 lb pasta (I used bowtie)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I used a little less)
• 1/2 cup freshly shaved parmesan cheese

Directions: 

1. In a  bowl toss sliced tomatoes, sliced garlic, oil, basil, salt, hot pepper flakes and ground pepper.
2. Place in a 9 X 13 metal cake pan or baking sheet pan with edges,  and roast at 400°F for approximately 30 minutes, or until tomatoes are shriveled and the garlic tender.
3. Cook pasta in a pot of salted boiling water while tomatoes and garlic are cooking.
4. Drain and return pasta to pot.
5. Add garlic tomato mixture and parsley, tossing to coat.
6. Serve with sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
7. If you don't have any fresh Parmesan try other sharp hard cheeses such as Romano or Asiago.

Cook: Watermelon Feta Mint and Heirloom tomato salad

I love Watermelon year round, but there is something so refreshing about Watermelon in the summertime.  Over the summer, I noticed a few watermelon based salads on a few menus and thought that it seemed to be an interesting idea. Last weekend, stocked with a perfectly ripe watermelon and some heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market- I decided to attempt the salad myself.  We served it with some brioche, grilled sausage, grilled corn, arugula salad and some apps (see bottom photo). It made for a wonderful summer meal!  I loosely based the salad off this recipe that I found online, but adjusted the tomato/ watermelon ratio to my liking, and added slightly less red onion.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped mixed fresh herbs (I used mostly mint, and a few basil leaves)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 heirloom tomatoes (medium size), cut in chunks (mine were approx 1 in cubes)

2 cups (I used a little less than half a mini seedlesswatermelon) cubed

a few thin slices of red onion (optional)

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (more or less to your liking)

Directions: Whisk together the olive oil, herbs, lemon juice and salt in a large bowl. Add tomato, watermelon, onion (if desired) and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with cheese, toss gently.  I recommend making this salad just before serving - it tastes best fresh!

Cook: LA Burger by Bobby Flay

 

Summertime is a great time for refreshing salads, watermelon, and of course - burgers.  The other day, J and I were looking for a solid simple recipe to try and came across Bobby Flay's recipe for the LA burger. It was a hit - even more delicious than it looks!

Ingredients:

• 80 percent lean ground beef chuck (1 lb serves four)
• Cheese - you pick - monterey jack or cheddar (we used cheddar)
• 2 hass avocado (we picked them up from the farmer's market) 
• 1/2 diced small onion
• 1 minced jalapeno
• juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper
• greens - watercress (I think we used arugula)
• tomato slices

Directions: 

1. Bobby's Perfect Patty -  Shape 6 ounces of 80 percent lean ground beef chuck into a uniform patty, no more than 3/4 inch thick (don't overwork the meat). Make a depression in the center with your thumb so the burger won't bulge; the indent will rise as the patty cooks. Preheat a grill or cast-iron grill pan to high. Brush the burger with canola oiland season with salt and pepper. Grill until golden brown and slightly charred, turning once (7 minutes for medium-rare). Avoid pressing with a spatula! Add cheese for the last minute of cooking.
2. Avocado Relish - Avocado is one of Bobby's favorite ingredients. He mixes 2 chopped Hass avocados with 1/2 diced small onion, 1 mincedjalapeno, the juice of 1 lime, 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro, andsalt and pepper.
3. Garnish: According to the recipe, "L.A. doesn't do iceberg lettuce, so Bobby tops off the burger with Watercress instead. (we used arugula)".  Add slice of tomato

 

As seen: served with pan roasted shishito peppers, heirloom tomato salad, and watermelon for dessert. 

Cook: Mushroom tarts

Just the other day, I found this hand-written recipe for delightful mushroom tarts that my mother in law shared with me a while ago. I had to share the recipe with my deliciousLA readers! I hope you enjoy them as much as our families do! Warning - these mushroom tarts really rich and addictive.  :)

Pastry:

• 1/2 lb butter
• 1/2 lb cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 c flour

Filling: 

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp sherry
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 1/8 tsp thyme
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 tablespoon flour

Cook: Scarpetta Inspired Tomato and Basil Pasta

This is one of J's recipe and it is AWESOME. This is seriously one of the most delicious pasta recipes that I've eaten.  The original can be found at Scarpetta Restaurant in Beverly Hills, but J's version is pretty close.  J derived his recipe from this Serious Eats post, and this Grubstreet post.  

Cook: Al Forno's Baked Pasta with Five Cheeses, Tomato, Cream, and Corn

Al Forno's in Providence, RI is one of my favorite all-time restaurants, in the world!  In fact, their baked pasta and grilled pizza may very well be amongst my top 10 favorite foods ever!!!   I always enjoyed the opportunity to dine at Al Forno when I lived in Providence. However, since moving to LA, I haven't had a chance to make it back to RI.  Fortunately, Johanne Killeen and George Germon published a cookbook "On top of Spaghetti" that allows me to recreate the delicious baked pasta whenever I have the craving! The following recipe is a definite hit - it has received compliments with everyone who I've shared it with.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Cook: Shrimp with Chili, Parsley, Ginger and Garlic onToast by Jamie Oliver

J surprised me one night with this delicious and creative dinner.  The shrimp was bursting with flavor! 

Shrimp with Toast (serves 4) Recipe by Jamie Oliver.

Ingredients:

• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 2-3 fresh red chilies, deseeded and finely sliced
• 16 large whole raw strip, tails left on
• 1-2 lemons, to taste
• 1 good handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley roughly chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 long slices of ciabatta bread toasted

Directions:

1. Into a large, hot, frying pan, put around 4 tablespoons of olive oil,  ginger, garlic, chili and shrimp. fry for about 3 minutes, then turn the heat down and squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon. Add the parsley and a a couple "glugs" of olive oil. 
2. Toss over and remove from the heat. You should have a nice juicy sauce, add lemon and salt /pepper to taste.
3. Serve shrimp and sauce over the ciabatta and have a few more slices of bread on the side to mop up the juices!

Cook: French Meat Pie

Since the last couple of posts were recipes for salads, I thought I'd post something meaty!  Both J and I enjoy meat pie,  but hadn't had it since we moved to LA.  I'm sure we could find it somewhere, but we decided to try making it ourselves. It was easy enough (weeknight dinner easy!), and very delicious.  We modified this recipe slightly by adding a few sliced jalapenos.  We served it with sauteed green beans and a side of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

Cook: Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

This is a gorgeous and hearty salad, perfect for fall or winter.  I made this salad for our new years eve dinner last night, and it was a big hit! I have many fantastic recipes to share in 2012, so be sure to keep checking back on the blog!

This salad recipe another gem by Ina Garten.  The only modification I made was a little less oil in the dressing. Here is the recipe I used which is doubled to serve 8-10 (party size)  To make it for 4, you can follow the original recipe here (but reduce the oil in the dressing by half).

Ingredients:

Cook: Healthy and Delicious Kale Salad

 This is one of our favorite new salads!  It is healthy and delicious!   J found this recipe online and it is apparently one of from Dr. Andrew Weil's True Food Kitchen.   Kale is among the most nutrient-dense commonly eaten vegetables. One cup provides 1,327 percent of the daily value for vitamin K, 192 percent of DV for vitamin A, and 88 percent for Vitamin C!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 cups Kale, loosely packed, sliced leaves with midribs removed (you can get pre cut, prepped kale available in bags by the salad section of the supermarket)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed
• salt and pepper to taste
• hot red pepper flakes to taste
• 2/3 cup grated Pecorino Toscano cheese (or you can use Parmesan)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (we use Italian seasoned bread crumbs)

Cook: Zinfandel-Braised Beef Short Ribs with Rosemary-Parsnip Mashed Potatoes

We wanted to cook a hearty fall meal so we searched epicurious.com's recipe database and settled on this one.  For those of you who have been following this blog, we paired this main course with the radicchio fennel arugula salad, and finished it off with the caramel apple tart dessert.  J made the short ribs as I prepared the salad and the dessert. Don't be intimidated by the gourmet sound of this recipe, it was actually pretty simple. However, you do need to plan ahead because it needs to simmer for a few hours. 

Cook: Radicchio, Fennel, and Arugula Salad with Roquefort and Walnuts Recipe

This is a winning recipe that J and I tried recently from epicurious.  The flavors and textures come together nicely in this delicate and complex salad.  It is important to slice the fennel as thin as possible with a sharp knife - this is probably the most time consuming step - but is worth the effort! Alternately, you could use a mandoline, but we don't have one.  :)

Ingredients:

• 6 cups shredded radicchio (about 3/4 pound)
• 2 cups thinly sliced fennel bulb* (paper-thin)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, cooled and chopped
• 2/3 cup crumbled Roquefort (about 3 oz) / (you can substitute other blue cheese)
• 6 cups arugula, (pre-washed and dried, we used packaged baby arugula)

For Dressing

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Cook: A Twist on the Classic: Variations of Pepperoni Pizza

I've been posting a bunch of pizza recipes recently.  (FYI - we do cook non-pizza dinners here in the FJ household and I'll be posting some other recipes soon :)  After the last non-meat (turkey bacon per Steph's request) pizza post, I wanted to return to a classic. Pepperoni.

I'll admit. I never was much a fan of the chain restaurant style pepperoni pizza. But after mixing up some higher quality pepperoni (nothing too fancy, I just got it at Trader Joe's) with some hot pepper, pizza sauce, good cheese and fresh basil - I must say, I'm a convert. Of all the pizzas we've made so far, the Pepperoni variations are my favorite.

Cook: Fig, Turkey Bacon and Goat Cheese Pizza

Ever since I got my pizza stone, and pizza peel - I've been making pizza about once a week.  It's fun to come up with new combinations - I no longer feel the need to follow any recipes, I just think of something that inspires me and go for it!

Figs have been in season, so I've been having a lot of fun with putting them on pizza. When you add them at the end for about 1-2 minutes, they become nicely caramelized.

This week's pizza recipe was for my friend Steph. She is new to pizza making, so I asked her to bring over some toppings she'd like to see on her pizza. She doesn't eat meat, so she brought over some turkey bacon to go along with some fresh figs she had picked up that morning at the Santa Monica farmer's market. She also brought some goat cheese and arugula. 

Cook: BBQ chicken pizza

My latest food obsession has been homemade pizza (except the dough part :) The Fig Gorgonzola Proscuitto and Arugula Pizza  (pictured below and recipe here) is one of our favorites, but every time I make pizza, I like to try a new combination.

This time, I decided to give BBQ chicken at try. I searched online for some recipes, but in the end, I made up one myself. :)

Cook: Jamie Oliver's The Easiest, Sexiest Salad in the World

Jamie was right. This salad is pretty darn sexy. It is an amazing combination of flavors that just melts in your mouth and makes you happy. It also happens to be a very photogenic salad as well. It's fig season in Southern California and we're taking full advantage of it! If you can, I'd strongly encourage you to try out this recipe.  Serves 4

Criss-cross the figs, but not quite to the botton. 1 fig per person is always a good start, but if they are ripe treat yourself and your loved ones to a larger portion, let's say 3 or 4 figs per person.  Place the figs in a dish, and then weave some pieces of Proscuitto around each fig, throw in some torn buffalo mozzarella, and rip some basil into the mix. Finish off by drizzling everything with honey/lemon dressing (6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon good honey, sea salt and freshly ground pepper). Bon appetit!

Cook: Pasta with Heirloom Tomatoes and Herbed Ricotta

"This is a great pasta for a hot summer day. The heat of the steaming spaghetti is tempered by tossing it with a tomato salad. It chills just enough to keep the sweat off your brow." 

- Johanne Killeen and George Germon, from their cookbook On Top of Spaghetti

The past two days have been scorching in LA. I wanted to make something out of the ingredients I already had on hand - ricotta, heirloom tomatoes, shallots, pasta, and basil from our new basil plant. After reading the description of this pasta recipe in my cookbook from the chefs of Al Forno (my favorite restaurant in Providence, RI ), it was decided. J and I would eat this for dinner, along with a side of jalapeno pork sausage which I had picked up from Whole Foods a couple days ago. It was just as Johanne and George promised, refreshing and comforting - a perfect summer pasta dish. As an added bonus, this recipe is quick and easy to make. 

Cook: Savory Roast Chicken Quarters with Fennel, Thyme and Rosemary

Ever since we first tried roasting chicken (we followed Thomas Keller's tried and true recipe with great success), I have been a big fan of making "roast chicken dinners".  There is nothing like juicy, flavorful, tender chicken and caramelized roast vegetables.

I decided to mix things up a bit and created this recipe with some inspiration from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Since I didn't feel like trussing a bird, I took a shortcut and bought 4 chicken leg quarters (includes thigh and drumstick) and added potatoes so we had a complete meal.  We like to bring leftovers for lunch, so this recipe serves 4. :)

Cook: Fig Proscuitto Gorgonzola and Arugula Pizza!

I have been meaning to make homemade pizza for awhile.  Inspired by photos of my friend Monica's pizza feast on facebook, I decided to give pizza making a try this past weekend.  J and I like our crust thin and crispy so I followed the recommendation of reviewers on line and rolled 1/2 a bag of premade pizza dough as thin as I could, rather than the entire ball of dough. I warmed up with a classic margherita pizza and ended up with this gourmet one inspired by a recipe I found on epicurious. This pizza is so easy to make, but sure to wow! 

Cook: Patatas Bravas

Here is part two of the potatoes two ways series :).  Our friend Shannon made these for a potluck dinner party and they were a huge hit. They would go well with the following recipes on this blog:
- Spanish Tortilla
- Chicken and Chorizo Paella
- Seared Squid, Olives, Tomato and Arugula Salad