It’s hard for me to do anything remotely Italian involving fresh tomatoes, and not add basil. Or Pesto. Or both. I just can’t help myself. It’s an issue, I know, and I’m currently seeking help from a professional (if you consider, my oven a professional).
Last weekend I decided to make BBQ Chicken calzones. Sadly, the recipe didn’t turn out nearly as well as it did in my head, So I’m going to have to rethink it a bit. But after the Barbe-tasthrophe, I had a hunk of left over pizza dough, and not idea what to do with it. I took a peek in my fridge, and found my little saviors: Ricotta cheese, Roma tomatoes and basil pesto.
I mixed together about 8 oz of ricotta cheese (1/2 a container) with 3/4 of a cup of pesto, and set them aside to let them get friendly. I sliced the Roma tomatoes, then laid them on a baking sheet, salt and peppered them, then drizzled them lightly with olive oil. Put the baking sheet into a 350* pre-heated oven, let cook for 5-7 minutes, pull them out and set aside to cool!
Well the tomatoes are cooling, roll out your dough, and cut into circles (in whatever size you’d like). I use a large bowl to punch out my dough circles, so really it’s just a matter of preference, but they do sell calzone cutters out there. I make mine about 8 inches across (before they’re folded).
On one half of the dough circles spread on the pesto mix, and piled on a few of the roasted tomatoes, be sure to leave at least 1 inch of dough around the edge. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat with egg whites on the filled-side of the dough. Pull across the extra dough, and pinch well to seal. Don’t forget to spread on the egg whites before you pinch the dough. I forgot because I was in a hurry, and you’ll see what happened. Although if you like them ‘rustic’ I supposed you can follow my well-intended example. Also, using a sharp knife, cut 3 small dashes into the top layer of dough. This allows the steam to be released, and… I don’t know, it’s just what you do.
Cook the calzones for 5-8 minutes in a 425* oven, and this is what you get:
Don’t be like me. Remember the egg whites, and cutting the dashes in the dough. It may not sound important. but sometimes it is.
Pesto and Roasted Tomato Calzones
1 container (16 oz) of Ricotta Cheese
3/4 cup of Basil Pesto
2 Roma Tomatoes, sliced thinly
Pizza Dough
grated Mozzarella cheese
salt & pepper
olive oil
2 tbsp. melted butter
3 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
Mix together pesto and cheese and set aside. Lay sliced tomatoes on a baking sheet, salt and pepper, then lightly coat with olive oil. Bake in a 350* oven for 5-7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
Roll out pizza dough, and cut in circles. Using 2-3 table spoons of cheese, spread a layer on one half of the dough circle, leaving at least 1 inch of space around the edges. Add several tomato slices, and a small amount of mozzarella cheese. Using a pastry brush, lightly spread egg white 3/4 of an inch around the edge on one halve of the crust. Fold the crust over the filling, and crimp edges together well to seal. Using a sharp knife, cut 3 small cuts into the top of the calzone to allow steam to escape.
Place on a baking sheet, and cook in a 425* oven for 5-8 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from oven, and immediately brush with melted butter, and sprinkle on Parmesan cheese.
If you haven’t noticed, I’m on a decent comfort food kick. The “I refuse to consider how many calories are in this. Ever.” kind of kick. As a matter of fact, I’ve gone through 2 pounds of butter in the last week. I wish I was kidding.
Sunday, I wasn’t feeling super well, but one of the downsides to cooking from scratch constantly is you don’t exactly have frozen pizzas lying around. And since the Boy gave me a perplexed look when I asked him what he was making for breakfast, I had to suck it up and get cooking. But if I had to cook, I was going to make something to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and I’m not talking about the feeling you get from being full to the gills with Dayquil.
One of my families odd culinary traditions is that on Christmas Eve, we always have French Dip Sandwiches. Not ham, not duck, Roast Beef on French bread with hearty portions of French Onion Soup. I found a recipe that was somewhat close to what I wanted but wasn’t 100% convinced about it. Why? Because I don’t own a ceramic dutch oven. This may sound silly to some, but for some reason, it worries me. My sister assured me that the cast iron dutch oven, passed to my sister from my grandmother (that I had borrowed/stolen/liberated from her several months ago) would work just fine. And in fact, she had used it to make French Onion soup herself.
With my worries soothed, I delved in headfirst. I sliced 1-1/2 large Walla Walla onions, and melted 4 tablespoons of butter over Medium-Low heat. Once the butter was melted and sizzling away, I added a layer of onions, sprinkled on kosher salt, added another layer, more salt, and continued until all the onions were in the pot. I threw on the cover, turned the heat down slightly (to about Med-low) and left it alone for 15 minutes to let the onions sweat.
I continued this 15 minutes, then stir pattern until the onions had been cooking for 45 minutes. I then removed the cover, and dashed 1 tablespoon of plain white sugar on top. Stirring frequently (I hate that term, because it also means ‘leave crazy almost-4-year old to his own devices’), I let the onions cook until they were a dark rich caramel brown color. Taking 1/2 cup of the beef broth, pour it into the hot pan and stir quickly to de-glaze aka get all the brown bits of the bottom. I topped all this off with 1 cup of chicken stock, and 3 cups of beef broth.
While I let this simmer and cook down a little, I buttered both halves of the french bread and added a dash of garlic salt to the top halves for some flavor. I placed this butter side down on a baking sheet, and popped them in the oven at 350 until they were just golden. I piled the bread with thinly sliced roast beef and used my pepper mill liberally on top of the pile.
To enjoy, dip the sandwiches into the soup, devour, then greedily slurp down soup.
French Onion Soup
1-1/2 to 2 large onions
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cups+1/2 cup of Beef Broth
1 cup of Chicken Stock
Slice onions and set aside. Melt butter in a large dutch oven, or another heavy pot. Add onions to the pot in layers, salting between each layer. Cover tightly, and turn heat to medium low. Allow to cook down for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
Remove cover, add sugar and stir thoroughly. Allow onions to get to a dark brown, stirring frequently to avoid burning and sticking. Use 1/2 cup of beef broth to deglaze pan, add in the rest of beef and chicken broths. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and let simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.
Serve immediately
When my beautiful sister was in college in Chicago, she worked for a time at a Mexican restaurant. The cooks there called her Flaca (meaning skinny) because she is tall, skinny and very blond. For Spring Break, our parents let me fly to Chicago for a visit, and I spent quite a bit of time hanging out around the restaurant while she worked. The cooks quickly dubbed me Flacita (or Little Skinny). I decided to called these treats Flacita Burritos, not because they are skinny or healthy, but because calling them that takes some of the guilt out of eating them. Denial is a powerful thing.
I got the idea of these in my head on Friday, and just couldn’t shake it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off, but by Pete, I was going to figure it out. I ended up spreading out a buffet of warmed corn and flour tortillas, apple butter, peach and apple jam, toothpicks and a pot of hot oil. Okay, really the pot was the end of the buffet line, but I’m guessing you get the idea.
I heart Apple Butter
I tried corn tortilla first because I wanted to do a sort of taquito, but since I was using apple butter as opposed to diced apples, they were hard to roll tight enough without ripping them. I tried both rolled and fold ones, and although they fried up well, the crunchy texture and corn taste were a bit more than I wanted.
I tried round 2 with the flour tortillas, which were quite a bit larger. The rolled/taquito style still didn’t work too well, but the burrito-style ones I tried worked perfect! Simply roll them up, and stick a toothpick in somewhere to keep everything nice and compacted once you put it in the fry oil. If you don’t have toothpicks, you can use metal tongs to hold them together for a good 25-35 seconds just to be sure they’ll hold their shape.
Once in the fry oil, the burritos only take about 1 min on each side. or until lightly browned on each side. Remove from the oil, and place on a baking rack to drain. I use a roasting pan with paper towels between the rack and the pan to keep it clean and keep the burritos crispy. As soon as you get them on the cooling rack, sprinkle them generously with a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Serve these immediately, preferably while piping hot. Or if you’re like me, bite them the second they cool enough to be picked up, therefore burning your tongue repeatedly in a wanton fashion.
Flacita Burritos
Flour Tortillas
Apple Butter
Cinnamon and Sugar, blended
Toothpicks (optional)
Oil for frying
Heat tortillas in the microwave, covered with a wet paper towel, for 30 seconds or until pliable. Lay flat, and place 3-4 table spoons of apple butter on bottom 1/3 of the tortilla. Roll up, pin with toothpick, and set aside.
Heat 1″ of oil in a pot (I use a dutch oven) to 350*. Place burritos in the pot, with the ‘tortilla flap’ down so the burrito doesn’t expand. Cook for 1 min on each side. Remove from oil unto cooling rack, quickly sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, then allow to sit for 3-5 minutes to drain off excess fat.
Serve immediately.
