 This late summer heat wave we're having in Georgia has me thinking about our trip to Mexico last winter. 😎🇲🇽 There were so many great things about that trip but one of the highlights of the week was the outdoor cooking class that we took as a family. The chef from Faith Hualtulco patiently taught our motley crew how to make the most delicious Mexican dish: Pina Rellena.
 After months of searching farmers markets and grocery stores, I've finally resigned myself to the fact that I'm never going to find pineapples that can compare to the ones that we had in Mexico.🍍 (They were even sweeter and juicier than the fresh pineapple that we had when we were in Hawaii.) I decided that in order to recreate this dish in my own kitchen, it was going to be necessary to swap out some of the ingredients that we used to create our Pina Rellena on that open air rooftop kitchen overlooking the Gulf of Mexico with foods that are availble to me in the middle of Georgia. I don't see a lot of fresh octopus in my little landlocked town so that was out. 🐙😅 But with a few "Southern swaps" - I think that I managed to create a very tasty version of the delicious meal that we made in Mexico.😅 😋  Pina Rellena 1 pound frozen seafood mix, defrosted (Mine had scallops, mussels, shrimp and calamari.) 2 pineapples 1 bell pepper, diced 1 cup onion, diced 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 2 Tablespoons cilantro 2 tablespoons olive oil sea salt and black pepper 1 cup Mexican cheese  Slice pineapples horizontally and hollow out, saving the inside.  Saute onions, bell pepper, garlic and jalapeno in 2 T. olive oil until softened.  Add mushrooms, tomatoes and cilantro. Transfer mixture to a bowl.  Pat seafood dry. Saute in 2 T. olive oil until cooked through.  Add vegetables back to skillet as well as 1 cup diced pineapple. Season with salt and pepper.  Spoon mixture into hollowed out pineapple halves.  Top with cheese and place under broiler to melt.  Everyone agreed that pineapple, seafood and cheese sounds like an add combination --- until you try it. It's quite scrumptious really. My point is - Don't knock it til' you try it.🤣
Ciao!
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 Today, I'm rounding out my week of garden inspired recipes so I thought it was appropriate to share my recipe for Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce. It's one of my favorite ways to prepare freshly picked garden tomatoes. And since I can freeze this sauce, it' a great way to enjoy those garden tomatoes all year long.
 Just to be clear: this is NOT the way that I learned to make pasta sauce from my Italian grandmother. She bought canned tomatoes and simmered meat and spices in her sauce all day to get her deeply flavored signature sauce. I created this sauce recipe as a way to make the best use of the garden tomatoes that I was given and fresh basil that I had growing in my garden. It's basic and simple and it can be adjusted or modified to fit your own personal tastes. Add a few crushed red pepper flakes to spice it up, a parmesan rind or even a few sprinkles of oregano to make it your own.  Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce 6 pounds fresh tomatoes, cored and halved 3 yellow onions, quartered 8 garlic cloves 1/4 cup olive oil fresh basil 2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper  Divide tomatoes, onions and garlic between 3 foil lined baking sheets. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt.  Roast 30 minutes at 400.
 Process until smooth.  Transfer mixture to a large pot and simmer 1 hour on low heat.  Serve with pasta and freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. Store leftover sauce in freezer containers.
Ciao!  PSA: If you give me a bushel of butternut squash - I'll make all the soup and ravioli that my freezer can handle.😅 I had a friend share some butternut squash with me this month and since I'm relatively new to the squash game - I had to do some research. I don't know if you've googled squash recipes recently but take it from me - there are hundreds of thousands!😳😅  I'm embarrassed to confess to you the number of hours that I spent chasing. the butternut squash rabbit hole but let's just say - it was a LOT.🤣 There were far more possibilities for the squash than I ever realized. I was on a quest to find the best, most delicious, freezer friendly recipes. There were lots of contenders but butternut Squash ravioli was the clear front runner.  Roasted squash with garlic and parmesan, homemade pasta dough and a simple browned butter and sage sauce was the PERFECT way to enjoy the sweet, nutty butternut squash. If you've got one of these squash in your garden - or a generous friend like mine - you NEED to try this recipe. You will not regret it. AND you can make a big batch and store these ravioli in your freezer.  Butternut Squash Ravioli Pasta dough Filling 2 1/2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and chopped 6 whole garlic cloves 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 cup parmesan cheese 1/2 teaspoon dried sage salt and pepper to taste Sauce 4 tablespoons butter 10 whole fresh sage leaves freshly grated parmesan cheese Toasted pine nuts or walnuts
 Serve ravioli with browned sage butter sauce, fresh parmesan and walnuts.
Ciao!  This was a summer full of parties, celebrations and family gatherings. We had so many things to celebrate and boy did we ever.🥳🎉 We partied so much that we depleted nearly all of the food that I had stored in both of the commercial sized freezers in my basement.(FYI: that's a LOT of food.🤣) Lucky for me, I've got a very generous friend with a prosperous garden who shared copious amounts of vegetables with me this month so I could start to restock my freezers.🍅  I'd been a little overzealous when I was picking up butternut squash out of the garden because when I saw all of my fresh squash sitting in a giant pile on my kitchen counter - I got slightly overwhelmed.😬😅 A quick google recipe search was all it took to turn that emotion into genuine excitement about the squash possibilities though. So much squash - so many options.😅 I decided to turn my freshly picked butternut squash into soup and pasta. I thoroughly enjoyed my week of cooking giant pots of butternut squash soup and making and freezing butternut squash ravioli. (Check back Wednesday for the ravioli recipe.😉) Roasted butternut squash soup was the perfect thing to make now and store in my freezer for the cooler days ahead. That's not to say that we didn't eat a couple of bowls of it while it was simmering on the stove but I still had plenty to put in the freezer.  Butternut Squash Soup 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 white onion, peeled and quartered 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced 2 cups chicken broth 1 carrot, peeled and sliced 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced 3-4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced 1 sprig fresh sage 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pinch of ground cinnamon 1 can unsweetened coconut milk salt and pepper to taste
 Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30-40 minutes.  Remove sage and stir in coconut milk.  Use an immersion blender to puree soup to smooth consistency. 
 Ciao!
 Is it even possible to grow an appropriate amount of zucchini from a single plant?😅 I love zucchini as much as the next girl but it's almost comically prolific. I'm just saying that if you make the decision to plant zucchini in your garden, you better be prepared to have a lot of zucchini lovin' friends that you can share it with. 😂 I'm not the only one with this opinion though. Today, August 8th is National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbors Porch Day!! 🤣 No Joke.  This year, I was not the zucchini planter but I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of another friends harvest. And when I'm gifted zucchini - I add it to everything I can think of.🤣 Zucchini muffins, zucchini burgers and stuffed zucchini boats are some of my favorite ways to enjoy it. When I've added the squash to all the recipes that I can think of and I've still got leftovers - I turn to google for new recipes. 😉 Cook's Illustrated provided the inspiration for this scrumptious Pan Seared Zucchini. It's an easy way to prepare the vegetable and in this case, the simplicity is what makes it delicious. I'm a big fan of the spicy/sweet/salty combination. I feel like it might better be named hot honey zucchini but this may be my new favorite way to enjoy zucchini.  Pan Seared Zucchini 2 Tablespoons honey 1/2 Tablespoon hot sauce 3 zucchini, halved lengthwise 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 3 Tablespoons olive oil 1 scallion, sliced thin
Transfer zucchini to platter, drizzle with hot honey and sprinkle with scallions. (I skipped the scallions but I thought this was mighty delicious without them.)
Ciao! |
