Sunday, August 14, 2011

Roasted Tomato Farfalle with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

This recipe starts with the Oven Roasted Tomatoes previously posted.
1 lb Farfalle pasta
Oven Roasted tomatoes about 30-40 halves
Extra Virgin Oilve oil
one small package of fresh basil or 25 leaves
8 oz fresh mozzarella
12 oz part skim grated mozzarella
Parmigiano Reggiano for serving

Cook your pasta in salted water to a fairly firm al dente. You are going to cook the pasta twice. Shock it in ice water, drain well. Place in a baking/serving dish, your lasagna/mac & cheese casserole dish. Drizzle with olive oil and mix to very lightly coat the pasta.
Chop the basil to a rough chop and add to the pasta. Now take your roasted tomatoes and remove the tomato skin, it should peel off like a roasted pepper. Chop the tomatoes to a fine dice and add to the pasta and mix well. Dice the fresh mozzarella into 1/2 inch cubes and fold into the pasta mixture gently. Put the shredded mozzarella over the top and bake until the cheese starts to light brown. 350 degrees 35-45 min. The tomatoes give a very concentrated flavor, by first roasting them with their spices you have most of the spices for the dish in the roasted tomatoes and 20 tomatoes to 1 lb pasta. The fresh mozzarella becomes creamy inside while the part skin mozzarella gives a nice lightly browned stringy cheese crust. People universally love this one. It also happens to be vegetarian, from me no less.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Hatch Pepper & Chicken Chili


Olive oil to coat bottom of pan
3 Quarts chicken broth
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
4 cups of roasted peeled mild hatch chillis medium dice (1 cup pureed)
1T garlic
2T cumin
3T chili powder
salt and pepper
1 beer
1 1/2 large onions medium dice
4 large carrots cut to 1/4 inch dice
4 large chicken breasts roasted and pulled
4 cans of beans, you can mix, I like a small white bean and black beans
I puree one can of beans.

Toppings
Monterey jack cheese
squeeze of lime
diced avacado
spoon of sour cream
Fresh cilantro

Put this chili together using the standard soup/stew method. In a large heavy pot sweat onions and carrots in oil until onions are translucent. Add chilis and garlic for 5-6 minutes to take the bite off the garlic, then all other ingredients bring up to heat 35-45 min until beans are tender and serve with toppings. Of course any improvements on ingredients are a plus, homemade stock, fresh peeled diced tomatoes, rehydrated beans, etc.

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