Heirloom Tomato Pizza with Pesto and Fresh Mozzarella

One of my favorite things about summer is visiting the local farmer's market to purchase some of the freshest produce around. But one thing that's even better than purchasing fresh produce is getting it for free - the tomatoes used in this recipe were grown in a friend's garden! They had some extra heirloom tomatoes lying around and graciously gave a bunch to Jake when he was over visiting them a couple weeks ago. 

This recipe (like the majority of pizza recipes) takes only a couple minutes to prep, and the pizza is ready to eat in under 15 minutes! Best of all, this recipe only requires 5 ingredients.

Ingredients:

• prepared pizza dough
• cornmeal or flour for dusting
• pesto
• fresh mozzarella
• heirloom tomatoes

How to:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Allow pizza dough to come to room temperature. Dust a pizza peel or other surface with cornmeal or flour to prevent dough from sticking to surface.
• Roll out dough using your hands or rolling pin on top of dusted surface.
• Spread 2-3 Tbsp of pesto on top of the dough.
• Top pizza with fresh mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes.
• Spread 1-2 more Tbsp of pesto on top of the mozzarella and tomatoes.
• Transfer pizza to oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Jake and I received a pizza stone as a wedding gift, and we absolutely love it. If you too are using a pizza stone, place it in the oven before turning it on, so it heats up as the oven is preheating. We use our pizza peel to then transfer the pizza into the oven.

I love that despite this recipe's simplicity, it tastes like a gourmet pizza! I'm so glad our friends gave us lots of heirloom tomatoes - we'll be making this pizza again very soon. I made the dough from scratch from my recipe I've previously shared with you. I didn't have enough basil on hand to make my own pesto, so I just used the store bought stuff (which was still delicious).

Enjoy!

The original recipe can be found here.

Penne alla Vodka

Believe it or not, Baltimore's Little Italy has some seriously delicious Italian food. My absolute favorite restaurant in all of Baltimore is La Scala. OK, I'm gonna say it - this is my favorite Italian restaurant ever. EVER. And that's saying a lot, considering I grew up frequenting the North End in Boston. Even my mom, who introduced me to the fabulous North End at a young age, said the best cannoli she's ever had was from La Scala. Seriously, if you live near Baltimore and you haven't been here, GO.

Anyway, La Scala introduced me to Penne alla Vodka. Their recipe for this dish has the perfect amount of richness and heat. I've been wanting to duplicate their version for some time now, and I think I've finally found a recipe that comes close. So I'm sharing it with all of you. You can thank me later.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz package of sliced pancetta, cubed
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large yellow onion, minced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup vodka
• 1 28 oz. can of tomato puree
• 1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 box penne pasta
• fresh basil, if desired
• Parmesan cheese, if desired

How to:

• Over medium heat, cook pancetta until brown and crispy in a large skillet. Reserve the fat and transfer the pancetta to a paper towel-lined plate.
• Add the olive oil to the skillet with pancetta fat. Saute onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper until onion is soft and fragrant. 
• Add the vodka and cook until the alcohol has evaporated, stirring occasionally (about 5-6 minutes).
• Add the tomato puree and the diced tomatoes, and simmer for about 15 minutes to thicken the sauce.
• In the meantime, cook and drain pasta according to the package directions.
• Add the pancetta back to the sauce and mix. Add the whipping cream, stirring constantly. Make sure you're cooking over a relatively low temperature so you don't scorch the sauce.
• Add the drained pasta to the sauce and mix until evenly coated.
• Add basil and Parmesan cheese before serving, if desired.

You can find pancetta in the fancy cheese section of your local grocery store, if you don't feel like going to see a butcher. I bought a pre-sliced package and used about 3 slices, but I recommend using the whole thing. You can never have enough pancetta, if you ask me. I no longer purchase vodka in 1.75 L plastic bottles that costs ~$10 like I did in college (don't judge, you did it too). I used Smirnoff for this recipe. - It's a small step up from Rubinoff. I also used 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and 1 cup light whipping cream, because I still haven't recovered from the richness of this recipe.

I modified this recipe quite a bit to come up with my delicious version of Penne alla vodka. Actually, it's very different from this recipe, but I did 'work' from this one, so I felt like I should include it.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Chicken & Tomatoes

Chicken was on sale this week. Like, ridiculously on sale - only $1.69 a pound. Naturally, I bought as many packages as I could without looking like a crazy chicken-hoarding lady.

This recipe for Pasta with Chicken & Tomatoes is a staple in this household. It uses frozen veggies for convenience, although fresh vegetables would work excellently here. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked penne pasta
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 bag frozen bell pepper and onion stir fry (from a 1-lb bag)
• 1 chicken breast
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, seasoned with garlic, basil, and oregano
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper

How to:

• Cook and drain pasta as directed on the package.
• Cook the chicken breast in boiling water until cooked through, about 25 minutes. Shred cooked chicken with two forks, or in a food processor.
• Meanwhile, in a 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. 
• Cook bell pepper mixture in oil until thawed, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Stir in chicken, tomatoes, garlic salt, and pepper. 
• Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture is hot. 
• Stir in pasta until pasta is well coated and hot.
• Serve.

 Suggestions:

• If you have leftover cold pasta from another dish, this dish becomes even faster - no need to reheat the pasta beforehand, just throw it in at the end and cook the dish an extra minute or two.
• The original recipe I was working from uses 1 lb beef strips for stir fry or thinly sliced flank steak. Instead of using shredded chicken, throw the beef into the skillet after heating the bell pepper mixture, cook for 5-6 minutes until beef is no longer pink, and then continue by stirring in the tomatoes, garlic salt, and pepper. 

Enjoy!

Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I have been wanting to try this recipe for weeks now. I've actually never cooked with sun-dried tomatoes, but I LOVE the taste of them. This recipe for Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes is incredibly savory - it's sure to be a crowd pleaser!

 Ingredients:

• 1/2 box (8 oz.) penne pasta
• 1 tsp olive oil (or bacon grease)
• 1 chicken breast, halved horizontally
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 Tbsp butter + extra for greasing dish
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained (if packed in oil) and thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup shredded provolone cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided

How to:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Butter a shallow 2-quart baking dish. 
• Cook pasta 3 minutes short of al dente, drain, and set aside.
• Heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
• Generously season chicken breast pieces with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, both sides, and cook on each side for 3-5 minutes or until opaque throughout.
• Remove chicken from pan and slice into bite size pieces. Set aside.
• In a Dutch oven or heavy pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add flour and garlic, whisking constantly until smooth, about 1 minute.
• Slowly add milk while whisking and increase temperature to medium. Heat until simmering, whisking occasionally. 
• Add tomatoes and cook for an additional minute.
• Remove from heat and stir in provolone and 1/4 cup Parmesan until smooth. 
• Generously season sauce with salt and pepper to your liking.
• Add pasta and chicken to sauce and mix.
• Pour into buttered baking dish and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.
• Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes, or until sauce is bubbly. Before serving, let cool for 5 minutes.

I opted to use whole wheat pasta in this recipe, and I think it turned out really great. Others who have tried this recipe from Martha Stewart noted theirs turned out bland and was under salted. To prevent this from happening in my version, I actually cooked the chicken in bacon grease, rather than olive oil. In the future, I think I'll actually add cooked bacon pieces to my sauce, as well as more sun-dried tomatoes to make this recipe extra flavorful. I also heavily seasoned my sauce with freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Tasting along the way is key! My grocery store, doesn't carry shredded provolone so I ended up buying a provolone/mozzarella mix, which worked well. My recipe also has more garlic than the original, which kicks up the flavor a little bit.

I'd love to hear your experience with this recipe! Enjoy!

Spicy Mexican Skillet

You know when you have one of those days, where the last thing you want to do is cook? And you wish you could just go to your pantry, throw a bunch of ingredients in a pan and end up with a healthy, tasty meal? Look no further, my friends. This meal is for you!

 

I came had to run a quick errand after I left work today, so I stopped in at Target. An hour later (damn you, Target - you get me every time), I finally left - hands full of random items I obviously can't live without. It was 7:45pm, and the last thing I wanted to do was cook. I remembered this super fast, super easy, super tasty meal that I prepared a few months ago. Lucky for me, I had everything on hand to whip this up in no time.

This recipe for Spicy Mexican Skillet takes less than 30 minutes to make, and it's full of healthy ingredients. It's also full of flavor, so it's a win/win. The original recipe can be found here. As usual, I've changed minor things here & there to my taste. But the beauty of this dish is it's hard to go wrong!

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups zucchini, quartered and sliced
• 1 medium green pepper
• 1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
• 1 15 oz. canned corn, drained (or use some frozen corn if you have that)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup instant rice
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese or mexican cheese blend (plus some extra)

How to:

• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, until vegetables are tender, stirring occaisionally.
• Add beans, tomatoes, corn, and water. Bring to a boil.
• Add rice and mix well. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand about 7 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
• Add cheese and mix well.
• Serve and top with more cheese (b/c let's be honest, you can never have too much cheese)

This recipe makes a LOT of food, so be prepared to have many lunches and dinners taken care of for the few days!

Creamy Tomato and Parmesan Soup

This weekend was exceptionally fall-like - there was a chill in the air, the leaves started to turn all kinds of awesome colors, and I watched more football than the average person. Jake and I were outside for most of the day on Saturday, watching my niece and nephew cheerleading and playing football. It was just chilly enough that I found myself craving something savory and hot to warm myself up with. I decided then that I'd devote my Sunday to making some soup. I also decided it needed to be a Crockpot recipe, keeping with my promise to post a Crockpot recipe once a week.

I found this recipe for Tomato Basil Parmesan soup through Pinterest. It seemed to have all ingredients I love (tomatoes, cheese, butter - how can you go wrong?), so I figured I'd try it out. This soup turned out AMAZING. But I'm warning you now, it is not short on calories. Or fat. You've been warned.

The original recipe can be found here. I've made a few modifications to mine - mostly in just substituting the 2 cups of half and half for 1 cup of light cream.

Ingredients:

• 1 28 oz. can diced italian tomatoes with juice
• 1 cup finely diced celery (~4 stalks)
• 1 cup finely diced carrots (~3 medium carrots)
• 1 cup finely diced onion (~1 medium onion)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 4 cups chicken broth (I prepared mine from bouillon)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup light cream, warmed
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh basil (optional)

 How to:

• Combine tomatoes, celery, carrots, onion, oregano, basil, chicken broth, and bay leaf in Crockpot. 
• Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours.
• Approximately 30 minutes before soup is served, prepare a roux. 
• Melt butter over low heat in a saucepan.
• Slowly add in flour, whisking constantly for about 5 minutes.
• Slowly add in 1 cup of hot soup, whisking constantly until smooth.
• Continue adding 3 more cups of hot soup slowly, whisking constantly until smooth.
•  Add back to the Crockpot and mix well.
•  Add warmed cream, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes on low.
• Serve in warmed bowls, garnished with fresh basil, if desired (although I recommend it!).

This recipe is incredibly flavorful. If I'm being honest, I think the next time I make this, I might omit the cream altogether - I don't think it needs it! I'd love to hear what you readers think of this recipe, so please post your comments below!

Enjoy!