Archive for the ‘cheese’ Category
PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS AND SAUSAGE
Posted: April 30, 2023 in asparagus, Carnivore!, cheese, Food, Italian, pork, Recipes, sausageTags: asparagus, food, pasta, recipes, sausage
4 mild Italian sausages, sliced into pieces 1/2″ thick
HOMEMADE STUFFED CRUST PIZZA
Posted: April 20, 2023 in cheese, Food, pizza, Recipes, UncategorizedTags: food, pizza, recipes, stuffed crust
It’s Pizza Week here in Providence, RI, but most of the time, I prefer to make mine at home.
So let’s not talk diets right now. Let’s talk about what is probably the greatest invention since pizza itself: stuffed crust pizza.
I mean: first, there was the simple margarita pizza. Then someone thought of “extra cheese.” After that, where could we go? And then, someone who in my mind deserved the Nobel Prize for Food, came up with stuffed crust pizza. Originally the brainchild of Pizza Hut, it boldly put cheese where no cheese had gone before.
So for me, since I love to make my own pizzas, the next step was to figure out a way to make stuffed crust pizza at home. Turns out it wasn’t really that difficult.
If you’re not into going through the hassle of making your own dough, most supermarkets have pre-made pizza dough balls in the refrigerated section. Grab a couple of them, and save yourself some time and effort. (If you want to make the dough from scratch, see my recipe at the bottom of this blog.)
Same thing with the sauce: I prefer to make my own from real San Marzano tomatoes, but if you have a brand of jarred sauce you like, use that.
The rest is pretty straightforward: cheese!!
Let’s get started…
You bought or made the dough. If you bought two balls, you rolled them together to make one larger one. You poured a little olive oil in a bowl, and placed the ball of dough in that, covering with a clean towel, to let the dough rise for a few hours.
After a few hours, you punch the dough down to get rid of the air bubbles, and roll it into a ball again, putting it back in the bowl, covered, to rest for another hour or so.
Preheat the oven to 500 or it’s hottest temperature, with a pizza stone on the middle rack.
Now the dough is ready to work. Place your pizza peel on the counter you’re working on. Sprinkle the peel with a large-grained flour, like corn meal or semolina. (That acts like little ball-bearings to let the dough slide off easily.) On top of the pizza peel, stretch the dough out to a size that will be about 2 or 3 inches bigger in diameter than the peel or pizza stone you have in the oven.

Made the mistake of stretching the dough out on the counter rather than the peel, which made it hard to lift. Perhaps it was the influence of the bourbon in the background! I fixed the problem later. (I kept the bourbon.)
Buy a firm mozzarella that slices nicely into sticks. (If you use fresh mozzarella, it will get mushy in the crust.) Cut it into pieces the size of the average mozzarella stick.
Place the sticks of mozzarella around the dough in a circle, about an inch away from the edge.
Now fold the dough over the mozzarella sticks. You might need a touch of water to make the dough stick to itself.
Now make your pizza like you normally would. Sauce it…
Cheese it…
Add toppings…
And bake!
You can never have too much cheese!
If you want to make your own pizza dough, here’s my recipe…
The key ingredient is 00 flour, and it can be found in specialty stores, or online. Ratios for this recipe depend on the humidity in my kitchen on any given day.
4–5 cups 00 flour
1 cup tepid water (100 to 110 degrees)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
a squirt of extra virgin olive oil
I mix all the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, then slowly add the water as it mixes. After the ingredients are well mixed, and the dough pulls from the side of the bowl, I remove it to a floured board, where I knead the dough by hand for another 5 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic, shaping it into a ball. I rub a little olive oil over the ball of dough, place it in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and let it rise at room temp for 2 hours, punching it down after that. I roll it back into a ball again, and let it rise, covered, for at least another hour.
CHICKEN ROLLATINI
Posted: January 18, 2023 in Carnivore!, cheese, chicken, Food, Recipes, restaurantsTags: chicken, food, Italian, recipes, rollatini
Chicken Rollatini was one of the first dishes I learned how to make back in my teenage days on Long Island, working at a local Italian restaurant called Pizza City East. (The original Pizza City was in Ozone Park, Queens.) It was a simple dish: a chicken breast rolled up with prosciutto and mozzarella, and baked in a mushroom cream sauce. My version these days substitutes ham for the prosciutto, provolone for the mozzarella, and an Alfredo-like sauce instead of the mushroom cream sauce.
4 chicken breasts cut lengthwise to make 8 thin breasts, about 2 pounds
8 slices sliced ham
8 slices of provolone cheese
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon granulated onion
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 carrots
2 parsnips
2 celery stalks
1/2 medium onion
Olive oil
3 cups your favorite rice, cooked
1 cup cream or half-and-half
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
salt and pepper
REUBEN SOUP
Posted: November 29, 2022 in bacon, cheese, Food, Recipes, sauerkrautTags: food, recipes, reuben, sandwich, soup
This is a great recipe for a cold day, and you can buy most of the ingredients at your supermarket.
Why have soup and a sandwich when your soup can be your sandwich? I had all the ingredients to make a Reuben sandwich. But I wanted soup. So I made Reuben Seup…I mean Soup!
Think French onion soup, but using Reuben ingredients…
Rye bread slices
Sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
Chicken stock
Pastrami, sliced thinly
Swiss cheese, sliced thinly
I like to take the sauerkraut, rinse it under cold water, then toss it in a pot that already has some finely chopped bacon and onions cooking in it. Once the ingredients have cooked down, set it aside. (If you prefer not to use bacon and onions, that’s fine, too.)
Find a source for great pastrami, like a good deli in your neighborhood.
Heat the chicken stock in a pot. Take the thinly sliced pastrami and chop it up into bite-sized pieces. Place the pastrami in the chicken stock to warm through. Keep the stock warm on low heat.
Now you’re ready to assemble…
Take an oven-proof soup bowl. Line the bottom with some rye bread.
On top of that, place a nice helping of the sauerkraut.
Pour the warm chicken stock with the pastrami over the sauerkraut.
Layer slices of Swiss cheese over the top of the bowl. Place it under the broiler until melted.
Eat!
It satisfied my soup and sandwich craving!
SLOPPY JOSÉ
Posted: October 16, 2022 in beef, burgers, Carnivore!, cheese, Food, Recipes, tacoTags: beef, burgers, food, recipes, sandwich, sloppy joe, tacos
Instead of opening a nasty can of Manwich or other similar product, the classic Sloppy Joe sandwich is easy enough to make from scratch.
My version takes on a Mexican twist (hence the name Sloppy José), using seasoned taco meat and a great barbecue sauce. Putting them together with a sprinkling of Mexican cheese on a bun with lettuce and tomato makes for one sloppy but delicious sandwich!
For the barbecue sauce…
2 cups ketchup
3/4 cup water
6 tablespoons white vinegar
6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
6 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer until the flavors have blended, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool to room temp. If you store it in an airtight container in the fridge, it’ll stay good for a few months.
For the seasoned taco meat…
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
olive oil
2 lbs. grass-fed ground beef
Combine all the spice ingredients in a bowl.
Sauté the onions in a bit of olive oil until translucent. Add the beef and sauté until cooked, mixing in the spice mixture a little at a time until you’ve used it all.
For the sandwich…
Take some of the taco meat and place it in a small non-stick pan and heat it on medium. Squirt in as much of the barbecue sauce as you like, mixing thoroughly. Sprinkle some grated Mexican cheese on top. (I like Cotija, which is like a Mexican feta, but a bag of mixed cheeses works great, too.) Mix thoroughly, letting it all melt together into one warm, gooey mess. Throw it on a bun. Add lettuce, tomato, avocado slices, whatever you like!
FRESH CORN AND TOMATO SALAD
Posted: September 30, 2021 in cheese, corn, Food, garden, UncategorizedTags: corn, food, recipe, SALAD, salsa, tomato
This is a simple salad you want to make now, while corn and tomatoes are still in season, but I’ve found that frozen organic corn and greenhouse tomatoes work pretty darn well.
2 lbs. fresh or frozen organic corn
1 container grape tomatoes, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
6 oz. mild crumbled cheese, like cotija or feta
1 package (5 oz.) organic baby arugula
1 teaspoon Fleur de Sel
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon capers, drained
2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
If you’re using fresh corn, remove it from the ears, then pan sauté it in a little olive oil, but leave it nice and crisp. If you can roast the ears of corn over some coals, even better. If you’re using frozen corn, pan sauté in a little olive oil. Set the corn aside to cool.
Mix the corn with all the other ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
Right before serving, taste and season it again, mixing well. I think it’s best a little cooler than room temperature.
BABY BELL PEPPERS WITH FRESH CORN STUFFING
Posted: July 15, 2021 in cheese, corn, Food, garden, RecipesTags: cheese, corn, food, pepper, recipes
I came up with this crunchy appetizer a few years ago, when I needed a tasty bite for one of our summer parties. I wanted something fresh that highlighted the veggies of the season, so when I spotted these baby bell peppers in the supermarket, I got the idea. I get requests for the recipe every year.
Baby bell peppers
6 ears fresh corn, removed from the cob…or organic frozen corn
1/2 Vidalia onion, peeled, quartered, grilled, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I use Frank’s Red Hot)
6 oz. feta cheese or Queso Fresco, crumbled
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of white pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
Cut the corn kernels from the ears, and sauté them very briefly in a little olive oil. Place them in a bowl and let them cool.
Peel and quarter the Vidalia onion, and throw it on a hot grill with a little olive oil to get some nice grill marks on it, leaving the onion still crispy, not soft. If you’re cooking indoors, throw the quartered onion in a hot pan with a little olive oil, and cook it until you get some brown marks on it. Remove it, let cool, then place it in a food processor and pulse it until the onion is chopped into small bits, just smaller than the corn kernels. Add the onions to the corn.
In a separate small bowl, combine the mayonnaise and the Frank’s Red Hot. Pour in the crumbled cheese and mix well. Pour this into the corn and onion bowl and mix well.
Add the lime juice, white pepper and parsley to the bowl and mix well again.
Cut the baby bell peppers in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds and membrane. Stuff the peppers with the corn mixture and garnish with cilantro or parsley.
If you’re preparing this ahead of time, refrigerate the stuffed peppers until you’re ready to eat, but allow some time for them to warm up to a cool, not cold, temperature.