Claudina's Kitchen Catering & Classes

Zucchini, Fennel and Italian Sausage Gratin

This dish borrows many of the ingredients of the Fennel & Zucchini blossom dish, with the added intensity of Italian Sausage.  The trick to keep this dish on the healthy side is to use only a small amount of pork sausage along with chicken sausage, which balances the flavors and healthiness.  And you won't miss it for a moment with all of the other deep flavors in this dish that will keep your palate happy...

Zucchini, Fennel and Italian Sausage Gratin 

Ingredients

olive oil
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
3 T. tomato paste
1/2 c. dry white wine
4 cloves garlic
4 small-medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced in 1/4" half circles
3 cups seeded, peeled tomatoes (ideally unsalted)
1 t. toasted, ground coriander
1 t. ground dry yellow mustard seed
1/4 t. crushed red pepper

3 chicken Italian sausages, sliced lengthwise into quarters and cut into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces.
1 pork Italian sausage, sliced lengthwise into quarters and cut into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces.

3/4 c. freshly-grated parmesan reggiano
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped

juice of 1 lemon
1/2 c. shaved ricotta salata or crumbled sheep's feta
1-2 T. chopped fennel fronds or additional chopped cilantro for garnish

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat oil in sauté pan at medium heat.
• Add fennel, fennel and 1/4 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper and sauté until fennel softens, about 7-8 minutes
• Reduce with white wine and cook until absorbed.  Add tomato paste, coriander and mustard and cook 3-4 minutes until it begins to carmelize.
• Add zucchini and crushed red pepper and sauté until zucchini begins to soften, 4-5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
• In a separate pan, sauté sausage until lightly browned and cooked through.  Set on plate covered with a two layers of paper towel to drain.
• Add sausage to zucchini mixture, along with 1/2 c. parmesan and cilantro.  Taste for seasonings, add additional salt and crushed red pepper as needed.
• In 9x13 pan, spread zucchini-sausage mixture.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle remaining parmesan and bake additional 10 minutes.
• Remove from oven and add lemon juice and additional salt and pepper to taste
• Serve immediately, topped with ricotta salata or feta. Garnish with chopped fennel fronds or cilantro.

Serves: 4 as main dish.
Suggestions: Serve over creamy parmesan polenta for wonderful combination of textures.
Related Posts: Training Healthier Tastebuds

Zucchini, Fennel and Italian Sausage Gratin 

Ingredients

olive oil
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
3 T. tomato paste
1/2 c. dry white wine
4 cloves garlic
4 small-medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced in 1/4" half circles
3 cups seeded, peeled tomatoes (ideally unsalted)
1 t. toasted, ground coriander
1 t. ground dry yellow mustard seed
1/4 t. crushed red pepper

3 chicken Italian sausages, sliced lengthwise into quarters and cut into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces.
1 pork Italian sausage, sliced lengthwise into quarters and cut into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces.

3/4 c. freshly-grated parmesan reggiano
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped

juice of 1 lemon
1/2 c. shaved ricotta salata or crumbled sheep's feta
1-2 T. chopped fennel fronds or additional chopped cilantro for garnish

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat oil in sauté pan at medium heat.
• Add fennel, fennel and 1/4 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper and sauté until fennel softens, about 7-8 minutes
• Reduce with white wine and cook until absorbed.  Add tomato paste, coriander and mustard and cook 3-4 minutes until it begins to carmelize.
• Add zucchini and crushed red pepper and sauté until zucchini begins to soften, 4-5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
• In a separate pan, sauté sausage until lightly browned and cooked through.  Set on plate covered with a two layers of paper towel to drain.
• Add sausage to zucchini mixture, along with 1/2 c. parmesan and cilantro.  Taste for seasonings, add additional salt and crushed red pepper as needed.
• In 9x13 pan, spread zucchini-sausage mixture.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle remaining parmesan and bake additional 10 minutes.
• Remove from oven and add lemon juice and additional salt and pepper to taste
• Serve immediately, topped with ricotta salata or feta. Garnish with chopped fennel fronds or cilantro.

Serves: 4 as main dish.
Suggestions: Serve over creamy parmesan polenta for wonderful combination of textures.
Related Posts: Training Healthier Tastebuds

Training Healthier Tastebuds

My favorite food and nutrition magazine, EatingWell, published a wonderful special report called "Retrain Your Tastebuds" last year.  In my family, we've made a successful transition to healthier foods over the past several years  including migration to whole wheat pasta, brown rice, natural peanut butter and skim milk.  It took some time and an open mind (particularly with the oldest "kid" in my house), but it's been a positive thing for all of us (my husband now comes home to tell me proudly that he chose the whole wheat tortilla for his lunch burrito at work, or the pizza with the whole wheat crust!)

When I tell friends about this, often they tell me that they or their kids simply can't do it -- but still I believe it's possible.  A good example was a dinner I catered last night for my husband and a dozen colleagues.  I wanted the comfort-food theme of a fall gratin, using the deep flavors of Italian pork sausage along with the cheeses that are essential to a gratin.  But as always I added the challenge of how to make this dish healthier -- in this case lighter on the fats, particularly saturated fats. 

So I decided to try swapping 3/4ths of the pork sausage for chicken sausage, and focused on adding extra flavor through the tomatoes, spices, and herbs in this dish (and sparingly using cheeses with the strongest complementary flavors).  The meal was a huge success, and when polled afterwards everyone remarked on the intense and varied flavors of this dish, and no one guessed that it was mostly chicken! (Although, who knows, all of the wine these oenophiles brought along to accompany the meal may have contributed too...)  A few guests even asked for the recipe, so here it is: Zucchini, Fennel and Italian Sausage Gratin.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere!

Pumpkin season is definitely here, and for the month of October it's hard not to see pumpkins everywhere you look.  Not only are they great for carving jack-o-lanterns, but they are a delicious and healthy recipe ingredient too -- full of potassium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C, while quite low in calories.  Sweet Pie pumpkins are wonderful if you have the energy to cook down fresh ones (in general, it's always best to go for smaller pumpkins if you want to cook with them -- they are sweeter and more flavorful), and for many dishes, canned pumpkin puree works quite well too (Trader Joe's has a nice organic version this time of year). Probably because they were fresh on my mind, this past week has been filled with pumpkin dishes at our house...so I've posted a few of my favorites:

• Pumpkin, Swiss Chard & Goat Cheese Lasagna
• Pumpkin Cheesecake-Chocolate Ganache Squares
• Pumpkin Bread with Fresh Cranberries

Pumpkin Bread with Fresh Cranberries

This is my favorite fall quick bread -- while the perfect berries for this season are cranberries, this bread is also wonderful with other dried fruit such as cherries or gooseberries.   In addition to the nutritional value of pumpkin and berries, this bread is also very low in sugar and saturated fat, and high in fiber from the whole grains and flax seed...but still tastes great and makes for a wonderful breakfast alternative or afternoon snack.

Ingredients

#1 Ingredients
1 ½-2 cups pumpkin – fresh and pureed OR canned (less pumpkin makes it more bread-like, more makes it moister and more pumpkin-y)
1 egg
½ cup milk
½ cup sugar
1 c. fresh, coarsely chopped cranberries (or 1/2 c. dried cranberries or other dried berries)
1 t. vanilla

#2 Ingredients
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (if unavailable, substitute 1 1/2 cups whole wheat and 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour)
½ cup flax seed meal (can also use wheat germ, oat bran, or substitute another ½ cup whole wheat flour)
2 T baking powder
1 ½ t. cinnamon
½ t. ginger
¼ t. ground cloves
¼ t. nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
½ t. salt

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Mix together wet (#1) and dry (#2) ingredients in separate bowls.
• Combine all ingredients, mixing until just combined (do not overmix).
• Place in oven on center rack. Check crust at 30-35 minutes -- if getting dark, cover with aluminum foil to keep from burning.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes (45-50 minutes in total).
• Bread is ready when a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Related Posts: Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Pumpkin, Swiss Chard, and Goat Cheese Lasagna

A colorful fall lasagna that celebrates fall ingredients including pumpkin, swiss chard, and fennel.  It is wonderfully light but yet big on flavor.

Ingredients

1 sweet pie pumpkin, medium-small in size
1 T. olive oil
1 fennel bulb, sliced thin
½. t. salt
¼ t. pepper
2 bunches swiss chard, stemmed and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic
¼ c. dry white wine
1 c. vegetable or chicken stock

Whole wheat or regular lasagna noodles, 12 strips

1 pint ricotta
1 egg
¼ t. nutmeg
1 t. fresh sage, chopped, or ½ t. dried sage
¼ t. salt
Pinch pepper

Parmesan reggiano, about 1 ½ cups freshly grated
2 oz goat cheese, crumbled

1 quart tomato sauce

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Slice pumpkin in half and seed. Roast for 30-40 minutes, cut side down, until pumpkin is softened on the inside. Scoop out flesh and cut into roughly 1-inch pieces.
• Cook lasagna noodles and drain.
• Heat olive oil on medium heat in large skillet pan. Add fennel, salt, and pepper, and cook 3-4 minutes until fennel begins to soften. Add garlic and swiss chard. Cook 5-7 minutes until chard is cooked down. Add wine and continue to cook until mostly evaporated. Add stock, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove lid and add pumpkin, and continue cooking until liquid is mostly      evaporated, stirring occasionally.
• Mix ricotta, egg, nutmeg, sage, salt and pepper.
• Pour enough tomato sauce into pan to just cover bottom of pan. Cover with one layer of lasagna noodles, trimmed to fit without overlap. Cover with ½ ricotta mixture. Sprinkle ½ c. parmesan, cover with ½ pumpkin/swiss chard mixture and 1/3 of remaining tomato sauce. Sprinkle ½ goat cheese.
• Add another layer of noodles and repeat previous step. Cover with final layer of noodles and remaining tomato sauce.
• Bake for 45-60 minutes in oven. Remove from oven, sprinkle final layer of parmesan, and bake for additional 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat and rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Related Posts: Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares with Chocolate Ganache

This delicious recipe is perfect for that extra-special autumn dessert theme...

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie wafers
¼ c. pecans
3 T. butter
½ t. cinnamon

1 cup pumpkin puree – either fresh sugar pie pumpkin (seeded, cooked and pureed), or canned pumpkin
16 oz neufchatel or cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
¼ t. nutmeg
¼ t. cloves

7 oz. dark chocolate
1/4 c. heavy cream

Preparation

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line 9” x 9” pan with foil with 4-5” at each end that hang over the sides. Oil pan.
•  Grind cookie wafers, pecans, and cinnamon in food processor. When reduced to crumbs add butter and pulse until well-mixed and begins to clump together. Pour into pan and press down evenly along bottom. Bake for 10 minutes.
• Mix cream cheese and sugar in mixing bowl until thoroughly blended. Add in pumpkin, ¼ cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each. Add vanilla and spices. Pour mixture into pan.
• Bake in water bath for 45 minutes until set (should still jiggle slightly in center when removed from oven).
• Cover and place in refrigerator for 2-3 hours, until fully cooled.
• Chop chocolate into small pieces. Heat cream until simmering. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes and then stir until ganache is fully incorporated with no lumps.
• Pour ganache over cheesecake in pan. Cover and allow to cool again in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour, until set. Once fully set cut into squares, rectangles or diamond shapes.

Related Posts: Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Tomato, Fennel & Zucchini Blossom Sauté with Ricotta Salata

This is a wonderful fall recipe that takes advantage of the last of summer's tomatoes and zucchini's (and blossoms if you can find them), while welcoming in the fall flavor of fennel.  The tangy "bite" of the ricotta salata complements these flavors wonderfully, but if it's not accessible you can also try crumbled goat cheese for a nice variation.

Tomato, Fennel & Zucchini Blossom Sauté with Ricotta Salata from Claudina's Kitchen

Ingredients

olive oil
3 cloves garlic
3 T. tomato paste
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
2 medium zucchini or 3-4 small, cut in half lengthwise and sliced in 1/4" half circles
1 1/2 cups seeded, peeled tomatoes (ideally unsalted)
1 t. ground coriander
1/2 t. ground dry yellow mustard seed
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 1/2 cups cannelini beans
8-10 zucchini blossoms, coarsely chopped (if serving for company, save a few for a beautiful garnish!)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c. Ricotta salata, shaved or grated
1-2 T. chopped fennel fronds for garnish

Preparation

• Heat oil in sauté pan on medium heat
• Add garlic, tomato paste and fennel, sauté until fennel softens, about 4-5 minutes
• Add zucchini, coriander, mustard, 1/4 t. salt and pepper sauté until zucchini begins to soften, 4-5 minutes
• Add tomatoes, cannelini beans, and blossoms, cook until softened and incorporated, 4-5 minutes
• Add lemon juice and additional salt and pepper to taste
• Plate and sprinkle shaved or grated ricotta salata and fennel fronds and serve immediately

Can also be made without the zucchini blossoms -- just substitute in one extra zucchini.

Serves: 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main dish

Ricotta Salata and...

I am enamored of my new ricotta salata making capability (my first 3-week aged version of this cheese made its debut on Sunday evening).  Ricotta Salata is a hard cheese (usually cow's milk) that is a dried, aged version of ricotta cheese -- it is salty and tangy and wonderful grated or shaved onto salads and lots of other dishes where you might use parmesan or feta.  I have been finding every opportunity to use it...so far with an heirloom tomato appetizer, with an arugula and grilled apple salad, and last night in a tomato and zucchini blossom dish (I am also enamored of zucchini blossoms whenever I can find them at the farmer's market, but that is another story).  This recipe was particularly tasty so I thought I would share it here: Tomato, Fennel & Zucchini Blossom Sauté with Ricotta Salata.

 

Roasted Eggplant Hummus

Claudina's Kitchen Roasted Eggplant Hummus

This is a refreshing cross between hummus (chickpea and tahini dip) and baba gannoush (eggplant dip).  It combines the health benefits of chickpeas, also knows as garbanzo beans (fiber, protein), eggplant (fiber, antioxidants), and tahini (copper, magnesium, and calcium).

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium eggplant
• one can garbanzo beans (rinsed)
• 2-3 T. tahini
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 t. cumin
• 1/2 t. coriander
• 1/8-1/4 t. cayenne
• 1/4 t. kosher salt
• juice of one lemon
• 1/2-3/4 cups chopped cilantro
• 2-3 T. olive oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.  Slice eggplant in half and roast, cut side down, for 25 minutes or until skin is darkened and starting to harden. Let cool to room temp and scoop out insides.
• Put garlic in food processor and pulse to fine mince. Add eggplant and all other ingredients.   Add a few tablespoons of olive oil as it runs until mixture is smooth and desired thickness.  Add 1/2-3/4 cup chopped cilantro and blend again until smooth.
• Taste and season with additional salt (and spices) as needed, to taste.

Serve with pita chips and veggies. Toasted naan bread from TJ's or pita bread (both whole wheat, of course!) are also quite good with it.

NOTE: I sometimes also add a few tablespoons of yogurt, or fresh mint instead/in addition to cilantro.  Both can be a nice refreshing twist.

Muhammara (Roasted Pepper, Walnut & Pomegranate Dip)

I recently discovered Muhammara at a friend's house -- she had a tub of it and I checked out the ingredients and liked what I saw -- walnuts (a great source of Omega-3s and mono-unsaturated fats - I am always looking for new ways to incorporate them into my diet) and pomegranates (great source of anti-oxidants and I love new uses for this fruit when it is in season!).   I re-engineered the dip at home and below is my version. This is one of those easy recipes to throw together from ingredients that you probably usually have in your fridge and can easily store in your pantry (and are all available at Trader Joes).  This dip is originally from Syria and is traditionally served with bread but can also be used with kebabs, grilled meat or fish.

Muhammara Dip from Claudina's Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 c. walnuts, toasted
• 1- 11oz. jar roasted peppers or 2 medium red, orange, or yellow bell peppers freshly roasted, seeded and peeled
• 1 piece of whole wheat bread, shredded or 1/2 c. bread crumbs
• juice of one lemon
• 2-3 t. pomegranate extract (NOTE: extract not available at TJ's but you can use 3-4 T. pomegranate juice instead and omit the water and 1 T. of the oil)
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 T. water
  
• 1 t. cumin
• 1/2 t. crushed red pepper
• 1/2-3/4 t. kosher salt to taste

Instructions

• If using jarred peppers, rinse and dry.
• Lightly toast walnuts
• Pulse garlic in food processor until minced. 
• Add peppers, walnuts,  1 T. pomegranate extract or 2-3T. juice, bread pieces/crumbs, cumin, 1/4 t. red pepper, 1/2 t. kosher salt.  Process to a smooth dip. 
• Add additional pomegranate, red pepper, and salt to taste.  Add addition water or olive oil to desired thickness.

Serve with warmed pita bread/pita crackers and veggies (carrots, peppers, cucumbers, cauliflower are all nice with this dip).