Parmesan Flans with Tomatoes and Basil

When I saw the recipe for Parmesan Flans with Tomatoes and Basil I was transfixed. All of my favorite flavors in one beautiful dish. Eggs! Cheese! Tomatoes! I couldn't wait to try it!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I replaced one of the eggs with 1/4 cup of egg substitute.

- I used Trader Joe's shredded parmesan and ran it through the mini food processor.

- For pans I used two ceramic and two glass ramekins. The flans baked in the ceramic ramekins cooked quicker than those in the glass, pulling away from the sides of their dishes. For some reason, though, I decided to serve the ones in the glass for the two of us for dinner. They were runny inside but almost tough on the outside. In contrast, the flans in the ceramic dishes were perfectly cooked through and not tough at all. They even survived gentle reheating in the microwave the next day. If I were to use the glass ramekins again, I'd cook at a lower temperature, and check the done-ness more carefully.


- I plated one of the flans on a bed of arugula, topped with tomatoes and basil (picture below), and the other just with the tomato and ribbons of basil (picture up top).

the verdict:

My husband was not very enthusiastic about these flans. For one thing, he's rarely a fan of egg dishes (he worries about the cholesterol in eggs). Another problem: "when I think of 'flans' I expect something sweet." These were most definitely savory and not at all sweet. I though the flavor of the flan was great, but the basil verged on overpowering the taste of the other ingredients. In the future I might just do the bed of arugula and topping of chopped tomatoes.

My husband's thumbs down vote on the flans just left more for me, and I ate the leftovers happily. A dish that qualifies as healthy, pretty, easy, and tasty is a winner in my book! This would make a great luncheon dish, paired with a soup and some sort of roll or bread.

May m.o.m. - Strawberry Basil Muffins

By the next morning, when I took this picture, the streusel topping had melded with the muffin top.

After last month's muffin post, one of my favorite bloggers, Wendy of Pink Stripes, tipped me off to a wonderful springtime muffin that she thought would be a good Muffin of the Month for me to make for my mother. Not only was that an exceptionally thoughtful suggestion, Wendy managed to hit the nail right on the head! My mother has a million food allergies and sensitivities, and this recipe is filled with things that my mother actually can eat - and the muffins are healthy and pretty to boot! The original recipe, from Eating Well, is for Strawberry Orange Muffins, but there is a variation for Strawberry Basil Muffins which sounded intriguing. I'm a fool for herbs, so that's what I baked.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The pink and green colors that accent this muffin variation make it so pretty!

- I love the fact that this recipe has an oil-based streusel - I used light-flavored olive oil. There isn't a ton of topping, and it barely stretched for my 14 muffins.

- Because my silicone muffin molds are dark, I lowered the oven temperature to 380 degrees. Even so, they cooked quickly. I pulled them out at 15 minutes.

- It wasn't until I was jotting down my notes for this recipe that I realized that I forgot to put the oil in the muffin batter. Oops! Luckily they seemed to bake up nicely.

the verdict:

I was anxious to taste a muffin to see if it turned out. It was plenty moist even without the oil, but I'll make sure to include it next time. The muffin wasn't decadent or rich, but had a lovely springtime flavor of strawberries and fresh herbs.

For some reason my streusel topping was a little bit salty, but it was more or less successful with the savory notes of the basil. From what I tasted, I can tell that this muffin recipe would be right up my alley, so I will definitely bake the muffins again - and next time hope I don't make any errors!

I'm frustrated that I've managed to mess up my mom's muffins for the second month in a row. As a consolation gift, I gave her a loaf of Anadama bread - click to see my Anadama post on my new bread blog.

Tune in next month; we'll see if I can manage to put together a batch of muffins without making any mistakes!

Penne with Vodka Cream Sauce

This recipe for Penne with Vodka Cream Sauce, sporting just 1/4 cup of cream, stopped me in my in my tracks when I came across it in Cooking Light's 20th Anniversary Issue. Cooking Light featured this recipe to illustrate two basic healthy eating principles:

"All foods have a place in a healthful diet" (ie, cream doesn't need to be a pariah), and

"Embellish convenience products with fresh ones" (fresh basil livens up the canned tomatoes that form the base of this sauce.)

n.o.e.'s notes:

This recipe was straightforward and fairly quick.

The only problem I have with Cooking Light recipes is that the stated portion sizes are pretty small (1 cup of the finished pasta/serving in this case). Depending on whether this will be a main course or a side dish, keep in mind that the recipe calls for just 1/2 pound of pasta, and yields 4 cups.

the verdict:

The recipe is quick and easy, and oh, so delicious! I can't believe I've never tasted this sauce before, but from now on it will have a firm place in the pasta recipe rotation at our house.


I'm submitting this post to the Preso Pasta Night's gala 100th roundup. That's a lot of fantastic pasta, folks. Stop by and browse the roundups - you're guaranteed to find a recipe you just can't live without. Congratulations, Ruth and all of the PPN regulars, for a consistently bringing us all of that delectable pasta week after week!

Pasta + Bacon = Heaven on a plate

Food blogging has its positives and negatives. On the plus side, we're eating a whole lot more variety, as I either stumble across new recipes or research new ways to cook what I have on hand. The baking has been a challenge, because I just don't need that many sweets. So I've made a deal with myself: if I work out 4+ times in the preceding week, I can bake my TWD challenge. Then I can justify, somewhat, the extra sweets that creep my way.

I typically watch the Food Network when I'm at the gym. Actually I never watch it any other time. Anyway, one lucky Friday I managed to catch Guy's Big Bite (and the beginning of Tyler's Ultimate). It was the "Oak Town Squawk" episode, and Guy was making a chicken dish and a pasta side dish. Well, the chicken sounded pretty good, but that pasta really got my full attention. It had a tomato/bacon sauce. Now if that's not my idea of nirvana, I don't know what would be. It's the perfect type of main course for us, and it has bacon, so I immediately put it on the "urgent" list. Bacon gets to automatically cut to the beginning of the line.

cook's notes

- It's nice to watch the chef make the food and then check online for the recipe and read reviews of, oh, 39+ other people who have cooked this before me.

- I gave my husband the choice of pasta and he picked whole wheat linguine. The sauce has enough heft to hold its own with a whole grain pasta. Spinach pasta could also be good.

- I used 8 oz of Benton's bacon. It is a strong slowly-smoky-cured bacon , and I figured that would be enough (plus, that's all I had in the freezer). It would have been fine with a few more ounces, but a full pound would have totally overpowered the sauce. With regular bacon, I'd say 10-12 oz would be great.

- I drained my tomatoes, and reserved the juice in case I needed to add it back in later. As it turns out, the tomatoes were still really juicy. In fact when I added the red wine, there was nothing to "deglaze" = it just joined the tomato juice in the pan. I turned up the heat a bit and reduced it. Of course that also cooked the tomatoes a bit more than I'd have liked.

- If you're concerned about the red pepper flakes, what Guy did was keep them in one edge of the pan while everything was cooking. This infuses the oil with some of the heat of the peppers. Then you could remove them when you add the tomatoes or the wine. We like spicy food so I didn't worry about the pepper flakes.

- add the pasta to the sauce slowly, stopping when the right proportion of sauce/noodle is reached. Mine actually had more sauce than the pictures show.

the verdict:

- Guy Fieri is my new hero! This is possibly the best pasta I've ever put on the table. The funny thing is that it's very similar to sauces that I whip up all the time: garlic, onion, olive oil, wine, tomatoes. A quick saute, toss with basil and cheese, and there's dinner. But the BACON takes it to the veritable heights of pasta perfection.

- The red pepper flakes gave this some heat but they didn't stand out.

- My pictures don't begin to do this dish justice. It had a lot more sauce/pasta

- I served this with arugula salad, with freshly picked arugula from our garden!

Bacon and Tomato Pasta

Ingredients
2 tablespoons kosher salt
16 ounces spaghetti pasta I used whole wheat linguine
1 pound thick-cut bacon or pancetta, chopped (or less) - I used 8 oz Benton bacon lardons
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup red onion, diced
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
3 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 cups Roma tomatoes, diced, (he said more will make it saucier. I used 3 cups fresh slicing tomatoes, diced, and drained)
¼ cup red wine he used cab. sauv, I used shiraz
4 tablespoons basil, chiffonade
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan I used asiago
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1. In a large stock pot, boil 3 quarts of water, when boiling add 2 tablespoons kosher salt and the pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente.
2. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add bacon and sauté until bacon is crispy. Remove bacon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate and remove 3/4 of the bacon fat from the pan. Add extra-virgin olive oil, onions, and red chili flakes. Cook until onions are translucent, add garlic, cook for 2 minutes then add tomatoes. Sauté for 5 minutes, then deglaze with wine.
3. Drain pasta and add to the tomato mixture pan. Add basil and bacon. Toss with Parmesan, and add salt and pepper, to taste.

I know that Ambrosia is supposed to be THE food of the gods. But if I were in charge of the gods' menu, I'd make it something savory. And this recipe might just be what I'd feed them!

Here's another pasta + bacon recipe that I've wanted to try:
Pasta with Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta, adapted from the Little Owl

Of Pesto and Pestles

My basil plants have done very well this year, so I've made multiple batches of pesto for the freezer.

Pesto is just about the easiest thing to make. If you have a food processor, that is. Although I was at the gym recently, watching the Food Channel*, and saw an Italian guy make some amazing-looking pesto by hand with a HUGE mortar and pestle. It went quickly for him, but it would have taken me all day to get that stuff ground. Bopping around the internet, I learned that chopping is considered an inferior way of making pesto. Apparently the flavors only release properly when the basil leaves are crushed - in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle no less - rather than cut, as happens in a food processor. (see references here, here, and here)

Sigh. I am so not a foodie. I like my food processor pesto. And it's easy.

I used a mini processor for years, working in small batches if I were making a lot of pesto. The full-size food processor made a whole batch in seconds. Literally.

Here's my recipe, although it's fairly standard:

Basil Pesto
3 medium garlic cloves
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 tsp salt
2 cups of packed basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup shredded or grated parmesan cheese

1. Process the garlic, pine nuts and salt until roughly chopped.
2. Add the basil and process until chopped but not totally smooth
3. Add the olive oil and process until incorporated.
4. Add the cheese and process briefly.

note: If you are freezing the pesto, omit the cheese, and add it later when you are getting ready to serve. I've read that the cheese doesn't freeze as well as the other ingredients. I always add a reminder on the freezer package, or I would forget all about adding the cheese when I take it out of the freezer.


Here's the pesto, with the cheese added, all ready to be tossed with pasta:


*I know I can't be the only one who watches the Food Channel while exercising on the elliptical machine. It does get a little surreal when Paula Deen is on...

Make it Quick: 5 Minute Tomato Sauce

I love a good tomato sauce on pasta. The simpler the better. Earlier this year, I tried Delia Smith's sauce, made from fresh tomatoes. It is easy and delicious, but takes a lot of stove top simmering until it is done. A perfect cold weather recipe.

Cookbook author Heidi Swanson, of the vegetarian recipe blog 101 Cookbooks, makes some extravagant claims about the superiority of this recipe for tomato sauce. Not only that, she asserts that it can be thrown together in 5 minutes' time.

Cooking Notes:
1. My crushed tomatoes, Hunt's Organic, were more of a puree in consistency. I would have preferred a less smooth texture.
2. I had a hard time getting the olive oil to incorporate with the tomato.
3. I used the zest from a very small lemon, and it was enough.
4. My sauce had a generous measuring of red pepper flakes, probably closer to 2 tsp., and had quite a kick.
5. The recipe is very quick; with the measuring and chopping, I'd say it took me 10-12 minutes. Can be made while the pasta water is coming to a boil.
6. I'd recommend that you zest your lemon away from the sauce pan. If you drop the lemon in the sauce while zesting, the sauce will splatter all over your kitchen. Trust me on this one.

The Verdict:

This was a fantastic addition to my busy-day-dinner repertoire. I served it plain, over whole wheat spaghetti, with an arugula and parmesan salad and hot crusty Tuscan bread. My husband gives the sauce a 9 out of 10. I agree. Next time I will use crushed tomatoes with a more rustic texture.

I've frozen the remainder for future uses. mmm, food in the freezer is like money in the bank!

I can see why Heidi says this sauce "is the little black dress of my cooking repertoire." I will make it again and again, but I'm not sure it will completely supplant Delia's sauce (or my mother's tomato sauce recipe, for that matter). Also, I want to try Chez Pim's 15-Minute Tomato Sauce.

The best of summer

Tonight's dinner featured some of my very favorite summer ingredients: fresh tomatoes and fresh basil. Both homegrown in containers next to our front steps. I had an herb garden in our last house, but it took me 5 or 6 years to get around to planting herbs in this house. I'm so glad I got back to it - there's nothing more fun than to step outside the door with some scissors and snip ingredients for a recipe. Or a garnish.

We have one tomato plant. This, our first tomato, was huge. Isn't it beautiful? I'll have to say, it was the best tomato I've ever eaten.


The brown rice/basil/pine nut salad is a simple recipe from SuperFoods HealthStyle. If you follow that link, you'll see that the recipe calls for stuffing the rice mixture into hollowed out tomatoes. We've done that for dinner parties (and it's fabulous), but for "just us" dinners, I usually spoon the filling next to sliced tomatoes. And I'm a Northerner, so I don't peel my tomatoes. When I first moved here 27 years ago, I was shocked to find out how many people here in the South insist on peeling tomatoes that are going to be sliced or eaten raw.


I served this recipe along with spicy chicken wings leftovers from the freezer. My husband had lemon sorbet for dessert.

The Verdict:
The tomato was "to die for" and the whole meal was just a perfect light summer supper. The tomato recipe is a a great accompaniment to grilled chicken or meat. It can be made ahead, for easy entertaining.