Lasagne di Zucchine

Tags

Italian, lasagne, seasonal Italian, Vegetarian, vegetarian lasagna, vegetarian main, zucchini, zucchini lasagna, zucchini recipes

This isn’t your traditional lasagne. First off, there’s no pasta. Instead, I’ve used thinly sliced zucchini to replace it. It has been so hot here in Montreal, every visit to the cottage brings an abundance of zucchini. They just love the heat, don’t they? Funny how only the yellow ones have come up. Not a single green one. No worries though. I think the yellow ones are so vibrant, bringing to mind summer and sunshine. I need to find creative ways to use up this yellow bounty so that my family doesn’t tire of it. Warning: yummy zucchini recipes coming your way!

The beauty of this dish is that all the ingredients are fresh! No pre-cooking of anything. Straight from the garden and into the oven! Served warm, at room temperature, or even cold for an al fresco meal. You decide. Whichever way you choose, I promise that you’ll have the taste of summer in every bite! Buon appetito!

Ingredients

2 medium sized zucchini, about 2 lb.

2 large tomatoes

2 balls of fresh mozzarella, or mozzarina, about 1 lb.

1 cup of bread crumbs

1 cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Fresh basil, chopped

Fresh Parsley, chopped

4 eggs

Salt & pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I was out of bread crumbs, so I made my own. One thing you can always be sure to find in my pantry is old bread! To the bread crumbs, add some freshly chopped basil and parsley, the Parmigiano Reggiano, salt and pepper to taste. If you’d like to make this dish entirely gluten free, you could replace the bread crumbs with parmesan, upping the amount to 2 cups. I only thought of this after the dish was made but I will definitely give it a try next time.

Slice the zucchini as thinly as you can, paper thin if possible. I used a mandolin to make things quick and easy. Do the same with the tomatoes and the fresh mozzarella.

You can now begin layering the lasagne. Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of an oven dish measuring more or less 11 inches by 14 inches. Cover the bottom with the zucchini slices. Add the mozzarella on top, followed by the tomato slices. Sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture and finish by drizzling a little olive oil over the top. Repeat the layers so you have 3 filled layers. The fourth and final layer of zucchini slices will be topped only with mozzarella and the bread crumb mixture, drizzled with olive oil.

Finally, beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the top. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 45 to 50 minutes. Allow to cool on the counter at least 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Julia della Croce, “Vegetarian Table: Italy”.

Things I’m Loving: The Cottage & Prosecco

Tags

Eastern Townships, Lake Memphremagog, Magog, Montreal, Prosecco, summer

I love Prosecco in the summer. An Italian sparkling wine that is dry or extra dry, not at all sweet. Produced in the Veneto region of Italy. Sipping it brings me back to the many days spent in Italy, enjoying it while sitting by a lake somewhere. Or in the Italian Alps with my dear friend Chiara. Other than a short jaunt to Niagara Falls, I have been spending most of my glorious summer days at the cottage with my girls, and occasionally hubby. Situated in the Eastern Townships, on beautiful Lake Memphremagog, free of neighbours, noise and WiFi.

Enjoying the fruits of our many gardens.

Receiving gifts from the girls such as gorgeous water flowers picked from the swamp during their canoe or kayak ride.

And not so pretty gifts too.

We are surrounded by wildlife and blackberry shrubs. Loads of blackberries. We went picking some the other day. Word of advice: don’t wear shorts when picking blackberries! When I visited with my sister the other day, she asked who I had been fighting with. My reply, the blackberry shrubs!

I was excited by these black beauties and decided to bake little shortcakes and make blackberry shortcakes. When I went to the kitchen later that day to start on them, this is what I found. So I poured myself a glass of Prosecco instead and went down to the lake to enjoy the view! At my favourite time of day, I might add. Between 6:00 and 7:00’ish. Most of the boats are gone, the sun is beginning to set and I might be greeted by the occasional wildlife. That’s what I’m loving these days!

Niku’jaga from Fae’s Twist & Tango

Tags

beef, beef and potato stew, Japanese, Japanese stew, potatoes

Fae’s Twist & Tango kindly nominated my blog for the Awesome Blog Content Award back in June, for which I am truly honoured.  Being given an award from someone whose blog I greatly admire is truly awesome!  If you have yet to check out her blog, I urge you to do so.  She is a wonderful storyteller, constantly enlightening me with the history, legends and her personal stories about the foods she presents to us.

Such as this beautiful and delicious Japanese dish which I made.  Niku’jaga.  A meat and potato-type stew.  Mine may not have looked as beautiful as Fae’s with her carrots cut into the shape of flowers, but I’m pretty sure it was just as yummy!

Niku’jaga / Meat Potato

½ lb.  (230 g) of thinly sliced beef, such as Rib Eye (I used Sirloin)
1½ lb. (750 g) of boiling potatoes 
1 large onion
1 medium-large carrot
12 snow peas, strings pulled off if needed (I used a little more)
1 package of yam noodles (shirataki), 7 oz/200 g
3 Tbsp of vegetable oil
1 ½ cups of hot water

Seasoning:
2 2/3 Tbsp of sugar
6 Tbsp of low-sodium soy sauce (I used regular tamari and it was perfect)
4 Tbsp of mirin

Peel and cut the potatoes into bite size pieces.  Cut the onion in half and then into 1/2-inch slices.  Peel and cut the carrot into 1/4-inch thick slices.  You can also use a flower cutting mold with the carrot to make it look pretty, as seen in Fae’s photo here.

I was not able to find thinly sliced Rib Eye beef at the grocer’s, therefore I got some Sirloin and sliced it as thinly as I could.  Proceed to cut the beef slices into 3-inch length pieces.

In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Add a pinch of salt and add snow peas, cooking for one minute.  Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.  In the same saucepan, repeat the exact same process with the carrots.

Remove the yam noodles (shirataki) from its package and drain.  Give them a good rinse with cold water.  In same sauce pan as above, add fresh water and boil the noodles for 5 minutes.  Drain and rinse, allowing to drain in the colander.  Use kitchen scissors to cut into the shirataki, making noodles shorter and thus easier to eat.

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce and mirin.

In a medium non-stick pan, add 1 Tbsp of oil and sauté the onions over medium heat until lightly browned.  Remove them and transfer to a plate. Always using the same pan, add 1 Tbsp of oil and sauté the potatoes on medium heat for 1 or 2 minutes.  Transfer to plate.

Add the last 1 Tbsp of oil to the same pan and on medium heat, sauté the meat until it starts turning brown.  Add sugar and stir well.

To the meat, add half of the sautéed onion, all of the sautéed potatoes, the shirataki noodles and hot water, a 1/2 cup at a time, just enough to cover the ingredients half way (you may not need to use all 1 1/2 cups of water).  Bring to a boil and lower the heat to medium-low.  Let simmer for 5 minutes.

Add soy-sauce and mirin mixture and continue to simmer until the potatoes are cooked (when poked with a fork, it should go through smoothly).

While still simmering, add the snow peas, carrots and the remaining sautéed onions.  Stir gently, simmer for one more minute and turn off the heat.  Keep a lid on the pan until ready to serve.

Zucchini and Buffalo Mozzarella Bundles

Tags

appetizers, buffalo mozzarella, seasonal, Vegetarian, zucchini, zucchini sides

If you grow your own zucchini, you’re probably starting to have an abundance of them right about now.  I know we are.  Green ones.  Yellow ones.  I’ve been enjoying our zucchini in many different ways this past week.  And if you do grow them, check out my Awesome Blossoms post and make use of those delectable zucchini flowers.  Fiori di zucchini.  They are a favourite summertime treat in our household.

Another favourite in the summertime is putting out an array of various nibbles on the table and making a meal of it.  With good friends.  Crusty bread, cheese, olives, roasted peppers, eggplant, tomato and cucumber salad, prosciutto, and these little zucchini bundles.  Stuffed with blissful buffalo mozzarella, a cheese made in Italy with milk from the water buffalo, and fresh basil leaves.  Perfect summertime treat!

Ingredients

Green and yellow zucchini

Mozzarella di Bufala, or fresh mozzarella

Fresh basil leaves

salt

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Bring some water to a boil in a medium pan and plunge the entire zucchini, whole, into the water for 3 minutes, 4 minutes for larger zucchini.  The reason for this is because the zucchini, once thinly sliced, needs to be pliable enough to roll. I tried without boiling first and I wasn’t able to roll them into little bundles.  Remove zucchini from the water and place in a colander, running cold water over them for a few minutes.

When cool enough to handle, slice as thinly as possible.  I used a mandolin at the smallest setting.  Lay out the slices on a tea towel and cover with another towel, allowing for the water from the zucchini to be absorbed.  Let sit until ready to roll.

Pat the buffalo mozzarella dry with paper towels.  Chop into small bites, no wider than the zucchini slices.  Chop or tear the fresh basil in similar sizes. 30 minutes before serving, roll into little bundles.  Sprinkle the slices lightly with salt, place a basil leaf on one end of a zucchini slice and add the mozzarella on top.  Roll into a bundle and place on a dish.  Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and serve immediately.  Buon appetito!

No-Bake Cheesecake Even Kids Can Make

Tags

Baking with kids, berries and cheesecake, cheesecake, dessert, Kids in the kitchen, no-bake cheesecake, seasonal

Both my daughters were in the mood for baking. The only problem was that it was 35 degrees C. 43 C with the humidity index. Way too hot for baking! What we needed was a dessert to beat the heat. One which didn’t require baking. A cool dessert, creamy and sumptuous, but no hot oven. We found just the thing here, thanks to Martha Stewart. A no-bake cheesecake, topped with luscious berries fresh from the farmers’ market. Simple enough that it required no help from me… other than to break-up the occasional bickering! Oh, what was I thinking?

No-Bake Cheesecake

2 cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs

1 stick (1/4 cup) of unsalted butter, melted

3 tablespoons of sugar

Salt

2 x 8 oz. (1 lb.) packages of cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar

1 cup of full-fat Greek yogurt

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 cup of heavy (35%) cream, whipped

Fresh berries

In a large bowl, add the Graham Cracker crumbs, the butter, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Use your fingers to combine. Press the crumb mixture evenly onto the bottom, and 1 inch up the sides, of a 9-inch springform pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on high, until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, yogurt, vanilla, and a pinch of salt, and beat until smooth. With a rubber spatula, fold in the whipped cream. Pour cream cheese mixture into the crust and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 8 hours (or overnight).

Decorate with your favourite berries. Enjoy!