There’s an abundance of basil in my garden right now. Wow, what a problem :-)! What’s a person to do?

 In order to resolve this problem, I cooked up something light and summery. I wanted something different than pesto, yet w/ that same basil forward flavor. What I came up w/ was kind of a deconstructed pesto w/ other tasty ingredients that are basil friendly: rigatoni w/ pork, grape tomatoes, garlic, serrano peppers, oregano, basil, and parmesan. My veggie was string beans w/ butter and red onion.

May your garden be filled w/ an abundance of deliciousness too!

Happy summer!

Bruno

The plants I selected to grow for 2024 are: Cherokee Purple, San Marzano, Big Beef, and Kangaroo Paw (green/amber) tomatoes; Jalafuego and Serrano (Impala) peppers; and, as in the past, Genovese and Thai basil. Below are a few photos of how things looked on Monday, June 10th.

Here’s to a productive gardening season!

Bruno

Slow braised beef in Italian marinade w/ fingerling potatoes, and a vegetable medley of carrots, yellow onion, crimini mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, and garlic.

Bon Appetit!

Bruno

My love affair w/ lasagna goes back to my childhood. My parents would make spinach noodles for lasagna that would stretch across the kitchen. My mom made her lasagna w/ these sheets of noodles, Bolognaise sauce, and bechamel sauce. 

The baking pan is the same one my mom used, however, I took a different, and easier path in making my lasagna, as you will see in my recipe. Also, rather than par boil the noodles, I used Ina Garten’s method of softening the noodles. She would put the dry lasagna noodles in a baking dish, and submerge them in the hottest water you can get out of the tap for 20 minutes.

Believe it or not, this was my first attempt at making lasagna, and I have to admit the results not only looked good, but tasted fantastic too! Like Garfield, I can’t resist a good pan of lasagna!!

 Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 pound box lasagna noodles (use what you need, depending on the size of your baking pan)

1 28 ounce can San Marzano tomatoes

2 pounds Italian sausage

2 pounds ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/3 pound fresh baby spinach leaves

1 medium yellow onion – medium dice

4 cloves garlic – pressed

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Procedure:

1) Soak noodles using Ina Garten’s method noted above.

2) Make tomato sauce w/ San Marzano tomatoes, 1 tbsp. of the olive oil, onion, garlic, dried oregano, and red pepper flakes. Salt to taste.

3) Brown the Italian sausage in the remaining tbsp. of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. 

4) Get all ingredients lined up in the order of layering, prior to assembling your lasagna. Reserve the parmesan cheese for the final step of baking.

5) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  

6) In a deep 8 x 11 inch baking pan, start assembling your lasagna (keep in mind the amount of ingredients you have will need to evenly cover 3 layers, and you’ll need a bit of the tomato sauce for the top and bottom): spread a small amount of the tomato sauce in the bottom of your baking pan, then add a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce, a layer of sausage, a layer of spinach leaves, then dab on a layer of ricotta. Repeat this process (noodles, tomato sauce, sausage, spinach leaves, ricotta) for the next 2 layers. Top the lasagna w/ the final layer of noodles and the remaining tomato sauce. Wrap pan tightly w/ aluminum foil.

7) Place lasagna on the middle rack of your oven and bake for 40 minutes, rotating pan front to back after 20 minutes for a more even bake. 

8) After 40 minutes, remove foil, evenly sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the lasagna, and continue baking, uncovered, for another 20 minutes. 

9) Remove lasagna from the oven, and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 servings

Enjoy a taste of Italy! Buon appetito!! 

Bruno

This was the best Christmas I’ve had in years! All the decorations at Paula’s house made the atmosphere very festive and cheery. The food was delicious too. Thank you so much Paula for such a memorable evening!!

Happy, healthy 2024!!

Bruno

Yep, another roasted chicken recipe! I was deprived of a working oven for almost a year, so I’m making up for lost time by using my new oven to cook some of my favorite eats, and roasted chicken is one of them.

This dish is an adaptation from one of my mom’s recipes, poulet a l’estragon. In her recipe she used a compound butter w/ tarragon, shallots, lemon zest/juice. Rather than using a compound butter, I roasted 1 1/2 heads of garlic, squeezed out the cloves, then made a paste w/ chopped basil and tarragon, salt and pepper. I then rubbed the paste under the chicken skin, and air dried it, uncovered, in the fridge for 4 1/2 hours. The chicken was roasted at 425 degrees F for 50 minutes, on bed of what I call purple potatoes, which are officially Dutch Blue potatoes.

The chicken turned out beautifully and tastes really good! Since tomatoes are at their peak right now, I made a tomato salad w/ fresh corn, red onion, some basil and tarragon leaves, and a mustardy vinaigrette.

I’ll definitely be making this meal again!!

Bon Appetit!

Bruno

Cheers…

Bruno

The flowers are beginning to pop open for some of nature’s pre-4th of July fireworks, and the herbs are adding depth to my weekly cooking projects.

My summer oasis…

Cheers!

Bruno