Escarole and salami tart

Something I’ve been trying to do more often is to bring lunch to work – eating out gets more expensive by the minute while the quality and flavor of the food get worse.

This tart might seem like a lot of work – making your own pastry! – but believe me, it’s not: you just need to plan ahead. Go wild with the filling: the original was a mix of spinach and ham, but I used what I had in my fridge. Since the tart tastes great both warm and at room temperature I brought the leftovers in my lunchbox – but, to be honest, I wish I’d had lunch somewhere else. ;)

Escarole and salami tart
adapted from the wonderful and delicious Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life

Pastry:
250g all-purpose flour
100g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
30g freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten with a fork
about 1 teaspoon milk, more if necessary

Filling:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
300g (11oz) escarole, coarsely chopped
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup crème fraîche – I used homemade sour cream*
30g freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for grating
2 large eggs
100g (4oz) salami slices

Make the pastry: put the flour, butter, cheese and a generous pinch of salt into a food processor and pulse for 10-15 seconds, until the mixture is crumbly and fine. Pour in the egg and add the milk. Pulse for a few more seconds until the mixture comes together. Scoop your dough out of the food processor onto a clean, floured work surface and pat it a few times to make it more compact – don't knead it. Shape it into a disk, wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to rest for at least one hour.
Lightly butter a 33x23cm (13¼x9¼in) baking sheet. Roll out the pastry between two sheets of lightly floured baking paper until you have a 35x25cm (14x10in) rectangle. Line the sheet with the pastry, leaving a 1cm (½in) overhang. Pinch this overhanging dough up to give a little rim. This not only gives it a rustic edge but also stops the pastry from shrinking and it means there’s no need to fill the pastry case with beans or rice before baking it blind. Prick the pastry all over with a fork and chill in the freezer for another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
Make the filling: heat the butter and olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onions and a pinch of salt and gently fry the onions on a low heat for 10 minutes until they're soft and sweet, but don't let them color. Turn up the heat, add the garlic, the escarole (in batches if your pan isn't big enough) and the thyme. Season lightly and give it a good stir. Take the pan off the heat when the escarole has wilted – this will only take a couple of minutes. Set aside.
Put the crème fraîche (or sour cream) into a bowl, stir in the parmesan, eggs and a pinch of salt and pepper, mix together and set aside.
Remove the sheet from the fridge and bake your pastry crust in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden. (This is called baking it blind, and it stops the pastry from going soggy when you add the filling.)
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and spread the escarole mixture over it. Lay the salami slices over the escarole, then spoon the crème fraîche mixture evenly over the top, smoothing it out with the back of the spoon. Grate over a generous helping of Parmesan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the top is golden and the filling has set.
Delicious warm or at room temperature.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)

Serves 4

Spicy tomato soup with crispy grilled cheese

I must start this post by saying that I love canned tomatoes – they’re a great pantry staple and I always have a couple of cans around. But even though I use them to make tomato sauce all the time I wasn’t very fond of the idea of using them to make soup – for absolute no reason, since I’d never tried canned tomato soup in my life. For a moment I thought “Oh my goodness, I’m becoming my husband!” – the one who hates food without even tasting it first – and that, my friends, is NOT going to happen. :)
So I made the soup, tried it and felt like a fool for avoiding it for so long – it tasted really good and comforting. But the addictive component of this meal is the grilled cheese: my two favorite things in the savory world, bread and cheese, heavenly combined in a crunchy, delicious way. I’m in eternal debt with Barbara Lynch. :D

Spicy tomato soup with crispy grilled cheese
adapted from the beautiful and very well written Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition

Soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
2 x 400g (14oz each) cans plum tomatoes
generous pinch of sugar
7-8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 ¼ cups (300ml) boiling water
very generous handful of basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream, to serve
dried oregano, to serve

Grilled cheese:
½ baguette
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon dried oregano, plus more to serve
1 cup good melting cheese, grated, such as Fontina (what I used) or Gruyère

Start by making the soup: heat the olive oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender. Add the tomatoes, breaking them with the spoon, followed by the sugar, thyme and the water and cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Add the basil, season lightly with salt and pepper and let cool briefly before pureeing the soup in a food processor or blender, in batches if necessary. Pass the soup through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing on the solids with a ladle (Barbara Lynch’s advice: “save the pulp – it’s delicious on crostini or baked eggplant”). Keep the soup on low heat while you make the grilled cheese.
For the grilled cheese: preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Have ready two large baking sheets so one can nestle into the other. Line one of them with baking paper.
With a serrated knife, cut the bread into 6mm (¼ in) slices (if necessary, place the bread in the freezer for a while to make slicing easier). Place the slices on the prepared baking sheet.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the oregano. Brush half the bread slices with the butter and place the buttered side down, in contact with the baking paper. Divide the cheese evenly among the buttered bread slices. Cover the cheese with the remaining bread slices and brush the top with the butter. Place a large piece of baking paper on top of the sandwiches and stack the second baking sheet on top of the paper.
Bake until the bread is golden and crisp, 15 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and peel off the paper. Remove the sandwiches from the baking paper.
Ladle the soup into bowls, cover with some crème fraîche and a sprinkle of oregano and serve it with the grilled cheese.

Serves 2

Tomato tart

Some things instantly remind me of others (and sometimes they’re related): the first time I watched "The Cell" – I know it sounds crazy that someone would watch a movie with J. Lo more than once, but Vincent D’Onofrio and the director made that possible – I found that the red “uniform” she wears (while getting into someone else’s mind) looked a lot like the medieval war armor Gary Oldman wears at the beginning of “Dracula” (years later I read that Eiko Ishioka was responsible for the costume design of both movies). :)

This tart, while in the oven, perfumed my apartment with a delicious pizza scent; despite the similarities of smell and ingredients, it’s a completely different thing – one I think you should definitely try. ;)

Tomato tart
slightly adapted from the wonderful Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Pâte brisée:
2 ½ cups (350g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
¼ cup (60ml) ice water, plus more if necessary

Tart:
1 head garlic
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ recipe pâte brisée (recipe above)
1 cup grated Italian fontina cheese (about 85g/3oz)
3-4 ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced 6mm (¼in) thick
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a few sprigs fresh thyme

Make the pâte brisée: combine flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and blitz to combine. Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces of butter, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the water through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until the dough holds together without being wet or sticky – do not process for more than 30 seconds. Squeeze a small amount of dough together – if too crumbly, add a bit more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Form dough into a ball, divide in half, then shape into two flattened disks. Wrap in plastic wrap as refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight – dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F. Place the garlic on a large piece of foil, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and fold the foil to encase the garlic – seal the edges well. Place onto a small baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes or until garlic is soft. Remove from the oven and set aside. When garlic is cool enough to handle squeeze the cloves out of their skins – do not discard the olive oil left in the foil. Place garlic in a small dish or bowl and mash with a fork. Set aside.
Roll out the dough between two sheets of lightly floured baking paper to a rough 35x15cm (14x6in) rectangle. Transfer to a lightly buttered 30x10cm (12x4in) tart pan and press into the edges. Trim dough flush with the top edge of the pan and prick dough all over with a fork. Freeze tart shell for 40 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F. Spread the roasted garlic evenly on the bottom of the chilled tart shell. Sprinkle with ½ cup of fontina, then arrange the tomato slices over the cheese. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper. Place a few sprigs of thyme over the tomato slices and cover with the remaining cheese then drizzle with the garlic infused oil. Bake tart until crust is golden and tomatoes are soft but still retain their shape, 35-40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes then serve warm.

Serves 2 (generously)

Feta, ricotta and lemon pasta with olive breadcrumbs

This recipe combines two types of cheese, black and green olives, lemon, a touch of thyme + a delicious topping in only one pasta dish, which turned out fantastic; I guess I should rename it and call it “Steven Soderbergh pasta” – after all, who besides him can gather so many stars in one single movie? I can only think of the late Altman.

Feta, ricotta and lemon pasta with olive breadcrumbs
adapted from the always delicious Australian Gourmet Traveller

Pasta:
200g penne
½ onion, finely chopped
100g ricotta
100g feta cheese, crumbled
60g black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
60g green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
½ tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive breadcrumbs:
50g fresh breadcrumbs
15g black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
15g green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
finely grated zest of ½ lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of the cooking water. Return pasta to the saucepan with reserved water.
While pasta is cooking, combine olive oil, onion and garlic in a saucepan over medium-high heat and sauté until very tender and starting to caramelize. Transfer to a large bowl and cool slightly. Add the ricotta, feta, olives, lemon zest and juice and thyme and mix. Season to taste. Add the pasta and mix well. Transfer to a lightly oiled 1 quarter (1 liter) capacity baking dish.
Make the olive breadcrumbs: combine the breadcrumbs, the olives, the olive oil and the lemon zest in a small bowl. Season to taste. Spread evenly over the pasta mixture and bake until bubbling and golden (15-20 minutes). Serve hot.

Serves 2

Broccolini rigatoni - delicious food in almost no time at all

I love being in the kitchen, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying quick meals too – they have been a great idea in these cold days, when all I want is to be wrapped in a blanked, reading or watching TV.

After watching several episodes of the wonderful “Jamie’s 30-minute meals” I ended up buying the book - which is absolutely beautiful - and the first recipe I tried was this pasta dish: broccolini is in season and the hubby loves it. It instantly became one of his favorites – and heaven knows how rarely that happens. :)

Broccolini rigatoni
slightly adapted from the wonderful Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes; I bought it on amazon.co.uk

250g broccolini or broccoli
½ small onion
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
finely grated zest of ½ lemon
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, stalks removed
200g rigatoni
generous handful finely grated parmesan, plus more to serve
handful of basil leaves

Slice all the broccolini florets from the stalks and set the florets aside. Place the stalks, the onion, the garlic and the capers in a food processor and process until a rough paste forms.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the broccolini paste. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add ¼ cup (60ml) hot water, season with salt, pepper, the lemon zest and the thyme leaves and stir.
Meanwhile, cook the rigatoni in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente, adding the broccolini florets to the water in the last minutes of the cooking time.
Drain the pasta and broccolini florets reserving about ½ cup (120ml) of the cooking water. Transfer the pasta and broccolini to the pan with the paste, add the parmesan and basil leaves and mix to combine everything together. If necessary, add a little of the reserved cooking water to loosen the pasta sauce.
Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with more parmesan and serve at once.

Serves 2

Crash-hot potatoes

I was devastated when I learned that Tastespotting had been closed. Luckily for me and for all the foodies, there new options for our daily dosis of food porn: Food Gawker and RecipeMuncher. Go check them out!

Deb, from the super yummy Taste and Tell, has mentioned a couple of times that she has trouble choosing side dishes. Deb, my dear, these are for you! Not only they are extremely simple to make but they’re also delicious! And one can play around using their favorite herb – I followed one of Jill Dupleix’s suggestions and went for thyme.

This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Joanna, from Joanna’s Food.

Crash-hot potatoes
from Totally Simple Food

16 small, round potatoes
salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon thyme or rosemary sprigs – I used a bit more

Heat oven to 230 or 250ºC/445 or 480ºF - yes, hot. Don't peel the potatoes. Just bung them into a pot of salted water, bring to the boil, and simmer for around 15 minutes until they'll take a skewer without too much resistance. They should be just about cooked, without being soft.

Drain, and arrange on a lightly oiled baking tray or sheet. Use a potato masher to squash each potato flat, until it is twice its original diameter.

Brush the tops with olive oil, and scatter with sea salt, pepper and thyme.

Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until terminally crisp and golden. Serve hot.

Serves 4

Linguine with olives, thyme and lemon

Some people hate Martha, but I’m one of those who love her. :)

I got this recipe from her website; the original version calls for pappardelle, but I chose to use linguine (one of my favorite pasta shapes). I think the substitution worked well.

It is a quick, easy to put together sauce and it smells wonderful, but one thing that didn’t please me much was finding large pieces of zest in my pasta – as much as I love lemons and oranges, I’m sure that the result would have been a lot better if grated zest had been used instead of chopped.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by the adorable Anh, of Food Lover’s Journey.

Linguine with olives, thyme and lemon

½ teaspoon coarse salt– I used sea salt
225g (8 oz) linguine
16 Kalamata olives, pitted
½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
zest of 1 lemon, coarsely chopped
one 3-inch piece orange zest, coarsely chopped
¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and the linguine, and cook until pasta is al dente, following label directions. Drain in a colander.
While pasta is cooking, combine salt, olives, parsley, olive oil, thyme, lemon zest, orange zest, and red-pepper flakes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse until a chunky puree forms. Transfer to a warm serving bowl large enough to accommodate cooked pasta.
Add pasta, and toss to combine.
Serve immediately.

Serves 2, or 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Ricotta gnocchi with lemon thyme butter sauce

I know that many people frown at the simple mention of the name “ricotta” - right, C.? :)

I’m not one of those. I really like ricotta and find it very versatile. You can use it in both sweet and savory recipes and jazz it up with a diversity of flavors.

Valentina posted this gnocchi recipe a while ago on her blog in Portuguese and it sounded so easy I had to try it myself. Another use for the wonderful lemons in my fridge and also for my newest addiction: fresh thyme.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Margot, from Coffee and Vanilla.

Ricotta gnocchi with lemon thyme butter sauce

Gnocchi:
250g ricotta cheese
¼ cup (25g) grated parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup (70g) all purpose flour
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra grated parmesan, to serve

Sauce:
80g unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Start with the sauce: place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until the butter melts completely. Remove from heat and set aside.

Now, the gnocchi: place the ricotta, ¼ cup parmesan, egg, flour, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well until smooth – the ricotta cheese we have here in Brazil is a bit dry, so I started by breaking it with a fork and then added all the other ingredients. You'll see specks of ricotta in the gnocchi because I did not want to overmix the dough.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased or coated with cooking spray surface and shape into a long log; cut the gnocchi – they should be about 2cm.
Make indentations in each dough ball with a fork – I did not do that.

Cook the gnocchi in a large saucepan with boiling salted water – as soon as the balls come up to the surface, they will be almost ready; let them cook for another 30 seconds then remove them carefully from the pan, using a skimming ladle.

Heat the sauce, pour over the gnocchi, sprinkle with parmesan and serve at once.

Serves 2