Italian

Boy it’s been a while…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

It has been some time since I last posted, I even found old drafts of recipes still on this site which are mostly done but I will have to brush the cobwebs away and try and remember what in the world I was thinking at the time. However, and in good time, I will publish those too. I am sorry for my delays but motivation was really lacking for a while and creating was less of a priority. Heck, I do not even know if anybody follows me any longer. At any rate, regardless of whether there is “a following”, I am back.

I had been thinking about this particular recipe for a couple of years and had an idea of how to do it but was never able to figure out the logistics. This is a meatless recipe for a bolognese sauce and it is a decent recipe for those that need a lighter alternative to heavy meat sauces. I mean, I do like a good bolognese but having to sleep for a few days like a boa constrictor digesting his meal can be a bit, how you say, unproductive. I used this to make a nice lasagna and it turned out delicious. I hope you try it and please let me know how it turned out for you.

It Ain’t Got No Meat?!

(Portobello mushroom bolognese)

Gary Bechard – The Well Fed Cyclist

Ingredients – 

4 oz (weight) – Mushroom blend (Shiitake, Oyster, White, baby bellas) (food processor)

12 oz (weight) – Portobello mushroom caps (food processor)

1/2 – Medium onion, diced

1 – Small red bell pepper, diced

1 – Small green bell pepper, diced

3 – Cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp – Parsley, fresh, chopped 

2 tbsp – Basil, fresh, chopped 

1 tbsp – oregano, fresh, chopped 

3 tsp – Sea Salt, coarse ground, (or to taste)

2 tsp – Black pepper, coarse ground (or to taste)

28 ounces – Tomatoes, Petite (1 can)

28 ounces – Fire roasted tomatoes (1 can)

15 ounces – Tomato sauce (1 can)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a few good swirls around the bottom of the pan just enough to lightly coat the bottom

Construction Instruction – 

Veggies – For the mushrooms I cubed them, put them in a food processor and pulsed about 5 times to have them have the consistency or the appearance of browned ground beef. Place mushrooms in a bowl for addition later.

Peppers and onions – I made sure to leave them a medium dice and not a super fine dice because you do not want them to disappear during the cooking process. 

Herbs – I did a regular chop on them. Or, you could use, and I am not sure every store has them, semi-dried fresh herbs you can find in the refrigerated herb section in the grocery store. They are really good and are great when you are kind of short on time. However, fresh is best.

Cooking – In a large sauce pan (I used a 5 quart enameled cast iron), coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil and bring to temperature. Note: I usually keep the temperature just below medium heat to make sure that I do not burn the oil since olive oil has a low smoke point. When the pan is at temperature, add the garlic and stir slightly to soften the garlic. Make sure that the garlic is not overcooked and does not turn brown. Next add in the peppers and onions  sautéing them until they are soft and the onions turn translucent. Last but not least add the mushroom mixture and mix all the ingredients together until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. I salted and peppered my veggies at this stage and took a little taste to make sure that I had the flavors right.

Next, add the cans of tomatoes and the sauce and mix everything into an even mixture of veggies and sauce. Then add the herbs and stir thoroughly. Lower the heat and simmer for about 2 hours always making sure that you keep the sauce moving so the temperature is even throughout the mixture. You want the diced tomatoes to break down a bit and release their flavor. The sauce will cook down a bit and become thicker the longer you simmer. 

Uses – I used this sauce in a lasagna but because of its robust flavor it would be great with rigatoni or thicker kinds of pasta. Buchatini would be great with this sauce. 

Enjoy!

The Well Fed Cyclist – Gary Bechard

Somethings can wear you out…(but they don’t have to)

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

One of the things that I have figured out is that life is best taken one day at a time. There are things that happen that will flat out leave you wondering what in the world you did in your past lives to deserve what you are getting now. Currently, my wife has stage 3 lymphoma and we are having to deal with the issues and circumstances surrounding the disease. Thankfully, my wife is one of the most positive people on the freakin’ planet and that bodes well for her treatment. I applaud her and her positive fighting spirit. However, cancer changes things and her taste for food is one of those. I guess I do not understand her current penchant for wanting a Chicken Nugget meal from McDonalds at random moments but it is not only that which has changed. Her tastes change on a daily basis. No I don’t mean that she wants to dress like it is the 80’s (ewww!) but because of the Chemo drugs she may favor certain flavors over others. This has created a situation where I am literally buying for every dinner every day based on what flavor profile she prefers.  I have to ask each day, do you want salty, sweet, savory, sour, spicy, etc. The days of grocery shopping for the week have disappeared. It is almost like performing an episode of “Chopped” every night. This recipe was born out of this situation.

Last night I needed something to go with chicken parmesan and grilled eggplant but did not want to do the noodle thing (chemo drives up the sugar content in the blood and noodles are bad for that) which would be bad for the blood sugars. Rice was the winner in this contest because of having zero sugars thus not contributing to the possible diabetic issues.   Normally I use all fresh ingredients and cook all day but I wanted to keep it simple and use as many pre-done products as possible to cut down on prep and clean up time. I also wanted it to be flavorful so I kind of combined Northern Italian with Southern Italian to get there.  You will notice the name is a bit different and references the type of cancer my wife has and it is not intended to glorify the disease but without Dr Hodgkins there would be no treatment. So, I guess it could be a tribute to him.

 

Hodgie’s Italian Baked Rice

Ingredients –

1 – 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes with garlic, oregano and basil (I used Hunt’s) drained

1 – 8 ounce can of tomato sauce with garlic, oregano and basil (I used Hunt’s)

2 – 8.8 ounce bags of 90 second rice (I used Uncle Ben’s)

1/3 cup – Diced mushrooms (I used baby Portobellos)

1/3 cup – Diced sweet onion

1/4 – Red bell pepper diced

1/4 – Green bell pepper diced

4 ounces – Shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – You know…the good stuff

Construction Instruction –

First, you are going to make a quick sauce. In a 5 quart sauce pan do a couple of turns around the bottom of the pan with the olive oil and bring to temperature remembering that olive oil has a low smoke point. ( medium to medium high should about do it). When the pan is at temperature put in the onions and peppers and sautee them until the onions are translucent (you can kind of see through them). Next, add the diced mushrooms and sautee them until they soften. When the vegetables are done add the diced tomatoes and the tomato sauce, lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Second, do the 90 second rice according to the package directions and put into a big bowl. Add your quick sauce to the rice and fold everything together until the vegetables are evenly distributed. Place this mixture in a small baking dish and gently layer the parmigiano-reggiano on the top.

Finally, bake covered at 350 degrees for about 30 to 35 minutes.

This was served as a side for Chicken Parmesan and grilled eggplant but would be great with a host of other dishes.

A final note –

You can make this a fancier dish if you use your own homemade sauce, fresh herbs and roast your own tomato pieces but if you are pressed for time and need to just make dinner happen, here you go.

Enjoy!

The Well Fed Cyclist – Gary Bechard

It’s a “Two-fer”! Blasphemy (and the simple sauce) and NUTS!

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

I spent a lot of time yesterday “leaf herding” and doing those other activities that are supposed to prepare the homestead for the upcoming winter but is anyone ever really prepared for the upcoming winter? I know that I am not. The time got so late I wore out and did not do a post yesterday so there are two recipes for today.  The picture is of the hazelnut-rosemary encrusted tilapia mainly because I did not think that anyone would just want to see a pot of sauce.

First up, is the sauce recipe and I will have to write quickly because there is an angry mob of Italian grandmothers armed with giant soup spoons and a hanging rope made of old pasta trying to hunt me down.  They keep chanting “get the blasphemer, get the blasphemer!” I believe I could probably outrun them but you never know these days with souped up electric scooters and the like.  This is the 20 to 30 minute pasta sauce and a great alternative to the jarred sauces because you do get the fresh taste and not the oversalted garlic powder heavy taste of some sauces.  The key to being able to have a quick sauce is to have your ingredients in a state that will allow them to incorporate (get intimate) in a very short period of time, kind of like speed dating. This is the reason that dried powdered oregano is used and the onions and garlic are very finely diced. You are probably going to ask why not use dried basil and parsley and I would answer that the fresh give off more flavor in a shorter period of time than the dried ingredients. Without further delay here is the recipe.

It’s A Quickie (fast pasta sauce)

Gary Bechard – The Well Fed Cyclist

Ingredients:

2 – 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce (I used Muir Glen organic)

1 – 15 ounce can of tomato sauce, No Salt Added (I used Muir Glen organic)

4 – Very thin slices of medium sweet onion very finely diced

7 to 10 – Fresh basil leaves, thin sliced (chiffonade)

1 handful (about 3/4ths cup) – Fresh Parsley leaves, finely chopped

6 – Cloves garlic, finely chopped

A couple of good turns around the bottom of the pan with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tbsp – Coarse ground black pepper

1 ½ tbsp – Lemon peel (grated)

Note: You can substitute the zest of a lemon

1 ½ tsp – Dried, powdered oregano leaves

1 tsp – Thyme leaves

A brief note before the construction instructions: I normally chop my vegetables ahead of time because it makes for easier cooking and cleaning. You may also notice that there is no salt listed in the ingredients and that is because 2 of the cans of tomatoes already have that in them. I am a big proponent of “taste as you go” and adjust to how you like it so do whatever floats your boat.

Construction Instructions:

In a 3 to 4 quart pot, do a few good turns around the bottom of the pot with some extra virgin olive oil. Turn the heat to mid range and bring the oil up to temperature remembering that olive oil has a low smoke point and does not withstand high heat very well without breaking down. When the oil is hot, add garlic and onions and sauté until the onions are translucent (kind of clear) and without turning the garlic brown. This process should take about 1 to 3 minutes because of the very fine chop you have on the garlic and onions. After the onions have released their water (sweating them to the oldies you could say), add the tomato sauces and stir mixture until it is fully pulled together. Next add your soft ingredients, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme leaves, and the black pepper and lemon zest and continue to stir. (Note: This is not a 4 to 5 hour sauce so you have to keep the sauce moving. You do not want the mixture to have uneven temperature.) Allow these ingredients to become intimate (cover the children’s eyes if you have to). Simmer until you start to see the parsley and the basil start to break down and become wilted (this will be around 10 minutes). Also, small bubbles will appear in the tomato sauce and once you see them reduce the heat to around 3 and continue to simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. If you see that the sauce is becoming thicker than you would like you can add either some chicken or vegetable stock or red wine (my favorite) to thin it out. NEVER use water to thin because that destroys the integrity of the sauce. After the cooking time is done, I normally allow the sauce to “rest” by turning off the heat and letting sit partially covered on the stove.

Enjoy!

This is the second recipe and it is kind of a shorty but very, very tasty. I was eating some Marcona almonds with rosemary the other day and thought to myself, these would be really good as a coating for chicken or fish. I carried the idea around in  my head for several weeks playing around with the idea of tossing the rest of the bag into the food processor but I ended up eating them all and I finally decided to do something with the idea last night. I did not go the almond route because I thought that hazelnuts would have a better flavor profile and would still play nice with the rosemary and thyme.  I did the tilapia in a large cast iron skillet in canola oil but I believe that you could do the egg wash thing, coat them and bake them on a cookie sheet just as well.  I will be trying that with chicken here in the near future.

Nuts to You

(A coating for fish or chicken)

The Well Fed Cyclist – Gary Bechard

Ingredients:

2 cups – ground hazelnut flour

2 tbsp – rosemary leaves

1tbs – thyme leaves

1 tsp – Kosher salt

Thoroughly mix this in a bowl until all ingredients are evenly blended.

I did an eggwash of the tilapia, rolled the fillets in the mixture and gently put them in the cast iron skillet.  It took about 3 to 4 minutes a side until the fillet started to flake.

Enjoy!

The Well Fed Cyclist