Rustic Italian Food Week

Wow, this was a full week of cooking!  We never even went out for dinner as I spent the week experimenting with beautiful looking food.  On a positive note, most of it was of a vegtable nature but as always, there were various cheeses with a little ground sausage thrown in for fun.

So, let's begin with the appetizer.  As I discussed in an earlier post, I found these beautiful minature peppers that would make a great appetizer.    I took them home and looked at them for a couple of days, trying to determine what to put inside.  The decision was to try two different fillings and off I went. 

The tops were cut off and cleaned out (not an easy task for the tiny peppers).  I took a fresh bunch of broccoli rabe, cut off the ends and placed it into a pan of salted boiling water for just four minutes.  In a large saute pan, EVOO went in along with a small onion for a few minutes and chopped garlic for 30 seconds.  Add a pound of ground sausage, brown along with a half pint of grape tomatoes cut in half. 

The broccoli rabe was cut in small pieces and placed into the pan, finished off with asiago cheese and a little hot pepper.

For the second batch, I peeled an eggplant and chopped in small pieces.  Sauted the onions and garlic, added the eggplant and cooked until tender.  Once cooled, I added ricotta and parmesan cheese.  Oh, of course, both had salt and pepper and fresh parsley. 

They were stuffed (again, not an easy task) and placed into a 350 oven for 20 minutes.  The sweetness along with the goodness inside was heaven. 

Once again, I made too much of everything so the next day some went to Momma and I made a pizza using the broccoli rabe and sausage mixture.  It looked good when it came out of the oven, we couldn't wait to take the picture so you get half a pizza! 

I added a few more tomatoes and of course more asiago cheese on top with a few hot pepper flakes.  This pizza came out so tasty, I decided it was the recipe for a pizza contest I wanted to enter.  The entry went in the next morning!  This is a keeper and cannot wait to make it again for my family.  

The second mixture went into last nights dinner.  Daniel was over and once again pulled up a chair, wanting to help.  He just might be my Chef in training!  We took one pound of cooked pasta, baked a second delicious purple eggplant in slices, bright green spinach, more tomatoes, fresh parsley and of course mozzarella cheese, mixed it all together and baked it for 30 minutes.  Now if I can only get him to stop saying "Yuk" everytime we discuss vegtables. 

With all the crazy weather outside our window, it was a great way to spend the week.  I see a treadmill and Jenny Craig in my future...

Fino a quel momento (until that time)

LID