Beef Parmesan with Garlic Angel Hair Pasta
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cut cube steak into serving size pieces. Coat meat with the bread
crumbs and parmesan cheese. Heat olive oil in a large frying
pan, and saute 1 teaspoon of the garlic for 3 minutes. Quick fry
(brown quickly on both sides) meat. Place meat in a casserole
baking dish, slightly overlapping edges. Place onion rings and
peppers on top of meat, and pour marinara sauce over all.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on
the thickness of the meat. Sprinkle mozzarella over meat and
leave in the oven till bubbly.
Boil pasta al dente. Drain, and toss in butter and 1 teaspoon garlic.
For a stronger garlic taste, season with garlic powder. Top with
grated parmesan and parsley for color. Serve meat and sauce atop
a mound of pasta!
Make the meat ahead of time, and refrigerate over night, the acid in the
tomato sauce will tenderize the meat even more. If you do this,
save the mozzarella till the last minute.
Ricotta Pie
Beat the 12 eggs, 2 cups sugar and vanilla extract together. Stir in
the ricotta cheese and the chocolate chips. Set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and 1 cup of the sugar together. Cut in
the shortening and mix until the mixture resembles coarse
crumbs. Mix in 4 of the eggs and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.
Divide dough into 4 balls and chill (if needed).
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease two deep dish pie
plates.
Roll out 2 of the balls to fit into the pie pans. Do not make the crust
too thick as it will expand during cooking and get too thick. Do
not flute the edges of the dough. Roll out the other 2 balls of
dough and cut each into 8 narrow strips for the top of the
crust. Alternately you can use cookie cutters and place the
cutouts on the top of the pies.
Pour the filling evenly into the pie crusts. Top each pie with 8 narrow
strips of dough or cookie cut-outs. Brush top of pie with milk
for shine. Place foil on the edge of crust.
Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 to 30 minutes then remove
foil. Continue to bake for another 25 or 30 minutes or until a
knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Linguine alla Pescatora
In a heavy saucepan over medium heat saute garlic in olive oil until
garlic softens.
Add Italian seasoning, thyme, crushed red pepper flakes, crushed
tomatoes, black olives, and the juice from both cans of clams.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Mix in canned clams, shrimp, scallops, lemon zest, and salt and pepper
to taste.
Simmer for an additional 15 minutes or until shrimp and clams are cooked.
In a large pot of boiling salted water cook linguine until al dente.
Drain.
Toss cooked and drained linguine pasta over seafood sauce. Serve warm.
Zuppa Inglese
Warm up the milk in a nonstick sauce pan
In a large bowl beat the egg yolks with the sugar, add the flour and
combine the ingredients until well mixed.
Add the milk, a little bit at the time to the egg mixture, mixing well.
Put the mixture into the sauce pan and cook it on the stove at a medium
low heat. Mix the cream continuously with a wooden spoon. When
it starts to thicken remove it from the heat and pour it on a
large plate to cool off.
Stir the cream now and then so that the top doesn't harden.
Dip quickly both sides of the lady fingers in the liquor. Layer them
one at the time in a glass bowl large enough to contain 7
biscuits.
Spread 1/3 of the cream and repeat the layer with lady fingers. Finish
with the cream.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours better yet overnight. Before serving decorate
the zuppa inglese with whipped cream.
Cailles en Sarcophages
In a large bowl, cut 6 tablespoons of the butter into the flour with
a pastry blender until the butter is more or less
incorporated. Now coarsely cut the remaining butter into the
flour mixture, leaving many visible pieces of butter (about
1/4 inch in diameter should be fine).
Dissolve the salt into the ice water. Slowly drizzle the salted water into
the flour mixture while tossing gently with a fork. When all
the water has been evenly distributed, there will remain many
dry crumbs. Don't worry.
Empty the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. By folding up
the four sides of the wrap and pressing, form a rectangle of
dough. Roll the dough out just a bit and fold the sides over
the middle, forming a piece one third the former size. Repeat,
this time folding the top and bottom to the middle. The butter
and flour will not yet be working in harmony, so you will
probably have to use the plastic wrap to aid you in the first
few folds.
Puff pastry requires a somewhat Calvinist submission of the will and a
confidence that layers will appear. Roll the dough out again
and repeat the folding, lightly dusting with flour between
every layer. Discard the plastic wrap as soon as the dough
holds together on its own.
The dough will become progressively softer as you work on it, with an
almost springy texture. After 6 or 10 repetitions of the
folding and rolling, cut the dough into 18 equal pieces. Wrap
each well in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for
at least 2 hours.
Place the chicken legs and thighs in one baking dish, the chicken
breasts in another. Rub herbes de Provence under the skin
of these chicken parts.
Combine the wine with the orange juice, garlic and a liberal sprinkling
of truffle oil. Chop the onion half and add it.
Pour over the chicken parts, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Place the chicken parts in a large stockpot, cover with cold water and
bring to a boil. Skim off the foam that rises to top.
When the liquid is relatively clear, add the carrots, celery, whole
onion, bay leaf, parsley, peppercorns and salt. Reduce the
heat, cover and let simmer at least 2 hours to make a
hearty stock.
Strain, discard the solids, and refrigerate the stock.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Skim any fat off the stock and pour
enough over the marinated chicken to cover. Bake the chicken
until it's tender and the juices run clear, about 25 minutes
for the breasts, a little longer for the legs and thighs.
Reserve the juices from one of the baking dishes, skimming the fat off
the top. Skin, bone and chill the chicken.
In a large skillet, saute the mushrooms over medium-high heat in the
butter and the wine with the shallots and garlic. Spoon out
and reserve the mushrooms.
Add to the mushroom juices in the pan the chicken juices and sherry.
Cook until reduced by half.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and sprinkle in
the flour. Cook and stir until light brown. Add the reduced
juices and cook until very thick. (This should yield about 1
1/2 cups.)
Combine the sauce with the chicken and mushrooms.
Cut the stack of phyllo sheets in half and lay between two damp, clean
towels. Lightly dust with flour and roll each of the 18 pieces
of dough to a diameter of 6 to 8 inches. Set aside.Place about
1/2 cup of the chicken mixture into a half sheet of phyllo and
wrap like an egg roll into a neat, tight package. Place the
phyllo-wrapped chicken on the rolled dough, and brush the egg
white around it.
Fold the bottom of the dough up onto the phyllo to form the foot of the
coffin. Then fold up the sides and top of the dough, pinching it
together to make a cross shape on the top. Repeat for each
sarcophage. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the pastry with egg white and bake
for 15 minutes, or till golden brown. 18 servings.