Ive always been a avid food magazine reader. I grew up reading Martha Stewart Living, Sunset, Canadian Living, Gourmet, and Taste of Home (that cheezy one that hides a toothpick in every edition). Then in more recent years Cooks Illustrated, Rachel Ray (even if it makes me feel like I've been diagnosed with ADD after I read one,) my favorite mini-magazine Everyday Food and of course Bon Appétit. I’ve always enjoyed my random subscriptions because they offer me a monthly magical present of mouth watering eye candy. Though I’ve spent a pretty penny on ladies magazines with their glamorous, smutty and slutty exposes I truly enjoy the food ones. You always feel like you’re getting a jump on the next season or food trend and for me its a game of what did I already just make before I even lifted the cover page. Its fun to cook seasonally and magazines are a great and easy read that help to boost your food brain. I completely own up to the fact that I get bored with food easily. Hell, I have a problem with eating at the same restaurant without enough time between visits. Therefore getting exposed to new food ideas are what keep me excited about cooking.
The idea for this post came from reading the September 2011 edition of Bon Appétit. They did a piece on cheese and Italian fare called “Dairy Queen” offering up Chef Nancy Silverton of Osteria Mozza’s recipes. She had a D.I.Y. Ricotta recipe that made me feel like a dork for never attempting cheese before. IT IS SO EASY TO MAKE YOUR OWN CHEESE, well ricotta at least. I knew I had to start somewhere and make the hell out of this. I really was pumped. I mean I love cheese and cooking...why not. So I figured in the spirt of the article, make some Italian food to go along with my cheese.
It is rare that I make a pot of spaghetti sauce. Its just too boring for me, and I have a hard time eating it for more than two days. I also grew up in a home that made many a meaty red sauce throughout my time. But my parent’s red sauces differ a lot from my own. They were about the thickness as well as seeing how many filler items they could stuff into the pot while I am more of a simple flavors and textures variety. So when I think about my aversion to spaghetti sauce I realized that...I got sauced out. I understand that it was simply just an easy dinner with two big guy eaters in the house, plus when that sauce was made....it got eaten for days. Though they never cared. It was I, the young food snob that wasn’t the happiest when I saw that thick, meaty, tomatoey, cauldron bubbling away on the stove. I tended to like the carb and green portion of those dinners way before the sauce. I’d rather eat a plate of butter noodles, garlic bread, and salad any day. Though what I have found about my self as an eater is that I have a quirk. More than likely from my old experiences with red sauce, I eat most all parts of my meals with everything on its own, and decide when to mix (gravy excluded here.) Yeah I get a tiny bit of sauce on my noodles, but I like two separate piles. Im not one of those “oh my god if my bread touches my broccoli which touches my lasagna, Im not going to eat it” kind of person, but I enjoy the separate tastes. I have noticed that this carries on to other genres of food. I’ll pile that basmati rice on my plate and eat a spoonful only after I have a bite of my tikka masala. Its not too weird right? Its just my style of eating...blame red sauces of my past. Any who as you will see from my pictures I enjoyed this meal with its separate components, but you can sure go crazy and do something wild...like put that sauce all over your spaghetti squash. You rebel you.
Ricotta Cheese
(Adapted from Bon Appétit September 2011, p. 135. Click here to read the original recipe)
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 and a 1/2 tsp of kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice (I added another Tbsp and a 1/2 after the 3rd step)
- Cheese cloth (can be found on usually on the baking isle of the grocery store)
How
1.) Seriously, bring all four of these ingredients to just the point of boiling. Here you are watching for the milk level starting to rise and foam but no big bubbles! Remove from heat.
2.) Let the creamy boil sit for 15 minutes away from the hot stove.
3.) Check to see if curds begin to form, if theres a lot of them; no need for extra lemon juice but I figured it couldn’t of hurt mine and I love lemon. So very gently, stir in some extra lemon juice.
4.) Let sit another 5 minutes, meanwhile set up your cheese factory. Line a fine mesh strainer with a double layer of cheese cloth and then place clothed strainer over a larger bowl for drainage.
5.) Using a scooping instrument (like a handy measuring cup) slowly ladle a cup at a time of the warm pre-cheese into the cheesecloth. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour then transfer to your fridge to continue the draining process.
6.) Wait. Think of what you are going to use this ricotta for, then decide how dense you like your cheese. The longer the draining, the denser the ricotta. (After 4 hours I had a little bowl of it with some olive oil and salt and then decided I’d like it denser when I ate it with my meatballs, sauce, and squash. So It got about 12 more hours of draining when I ate dinner the next day. It was quite dense after that long but I enjoyed how it held together and offered up bursts of cream throughout the rest of my meal.)
7.) Jump up and down, you made cheese! Eat it.
**I chose to use organic whole milk from Organic Valley and the thickest cream I could get my hands on from Twin Brooks Creamery (in those cute glass bottles). I went all out for this recipe but it can certainly be made with whatever variety of milk, just make sure you get fuller fat dairy here. I also understand that this was an expensive recipe, but once you try your cheese you wont want to eat it store bought anymore.
White Meatballs
- 3/4 lb. ground hot italian pork sausage
- 3/4 lb. ground mild italian chicken sausage
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 3 to 5 cloves of garlic, run through a microplane, or just finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried red chili flakes
- Heavy dose of ground black pepper
- 1 big pinch of kosher salt
How
1.) Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl.
2.) Preferably using your hands, squish and mash all the meaty goodness together until the ingredients are evenly combined.
3.) Clean hands, and roll about a ping pong-ball-sized amount of meat around in your hand until you get a shape that at the least, resembles a roundish blob.
4.) Place meatballs evenly apart on a baking sheet. (I love me some Silpat action when I bake anything, but tinfoil lining works great too for a quick clean up.)
5.) Bake meatballs at about 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until they begin to lightly brown and become firm. Cut into one at the 20 minute mark for an inspection, remembering that you have two different types of meat cooking in there.
6.) Eat them just like that or add to a tomato sauce, may I suggest mine below?
**I like using a mixture of meats in my meatballs, because it offers a more complex texture. Using regular ground meat leads to less flavor too so I tend to only use spiced sausages.
Red and Easy Tomato Sauce
- 3 Tbsp of olive oil.
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped into medium-sized chunks
- 5 thick slices pepper bacon, chopped into smallish bits
- 4 to 8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped into smallish bits
- 1 Tbsp of dried chili flakes
- 3 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves (if dried is all you can find use 2 Tbsp)
- 15ish large basil leaves, roughly chopped
- Heavy dose of ground black pepper
- 2 28 oz. cans of whole peeled tomatoes (I used the good stuff, San Marzano)
- Kosher salt to taste
How
1.) In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat then toss in onion and bacon bits. Cook until onions become almost golden and bacon begins to almost crisp.
2.) Add in garlic, chili flakes, thyme, basil, and black pepper. Cook for about 10ish minutes on medium heat to bring out all the different flavors of your sauce-to-be.
3.) Add in both cans of tomatoes with juice. Let sauce cook for at least an hour over medium heat. With the help of your spoon, while you stir, break up the whole tomatoes into smaller pieces.
*** Since I like a smooth yet chunky sauce I chose to use my “Thunderstick” here better known as an “immersion stick blender”. I poured half of my tomato sauce into a heat resistant bowl and ran the blender through it for about 10-15ish seconds until I had thoroughly blended the tomato chunks with the onion and bacon bits. Then I poured the blended sauce back in with the original sauce and continued to cook for another 30 minutes.
**If you dont have a Thunderstick, just make sure that you break up the tomatoes in sauce. Or of you’re worried; switch the cans of whole tomatoes with crushed tomatoes in step 3.
4.) Sauce, like we all can attest from someone or someone’s mother... we’ve heard them tell us is that the longer it cooks, the better its going to taste. Heed this advice. For my sauce, I put in about an hour and a half of cooking past step 3. Add salt to taste.
5.) Prepare for where you’re going to ladle this sauce.
Baked Spaghetti Squash
- 1 medium sized spaghetti squash, (bright creamy yellow colored squash in the shape of a boxy football).
How
1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.) Cut spaghetti squash in half from stem to end.
3.) Using a spoon, scrape out the seedy innards of the squash and place on a baking sheet, cut side down. (Just like my meatballs, I used my Silpat here.)
4.) Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until tender.
5.) Using a pot holder, hold half of your squash in one hand. Grab a fork with your other hand and scrape out meat. (Here is where you see how your squash got its name, I’d say its comparable to angel hair in size.)
6.) Enjoy alongside a wonderful red sauce or enjoy its simple divinity with just butter and a little bit of dry cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Put it all together and what do we have....
