one terrific tomato sauce

I realize that making your own tomato sauce can seem like a chore, while there are many good bottled ones out there, but nothing beats a well made fresh sauce. Lol, just ask any french foodie. In any case, this sauce is really quite simple, taking perhaps 15 minutes to cook once the prep work is done. TOTALLY WORTH IT, especially if you want to add it to a baked pasta dish.

Rich Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
2-3 whole tomatoes or 1 can of diced
1 whole med. onion (white or yellow)
1/4 cup of white button mushrooms, quartered or diced
dash of garlic powder
three dashes of sea salt
three dashes Italian seasonings
2-3 dashes of fresh ground black pepper
1-2 teaspoons of sugar, depending on taste
1/2-2/3 cup of red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon works really well (definitely don't have to spend more than 8 dollars on the bottle)
3 tbs of balsamic vinegar
1 tbs flour or corn starch mixed with 3 tbs of water for rue to thicken

Heat a medium sauce pan with 2-3 tbs of olive oil to a medium low heat. Dice the onion and mushrooms. Once the pan is hot add the onions, stirring to coat them in the oil. Allow then to soften. Add all the spices, other than the sugar, to the pan. Once the onions are close to being translucent, add the mushrooms. Stir well, making sure the oil and spices coat them both well. Wait 2 minutes and then add the wine. Add the tomatoes, gently stirring the sauce. Allow the wine to reduce and cook off the alcohol. Next add the vinegar and sugar. Stir well. Let the sauce sit on the medium low heat fr 3-4 minutes, allowing the tomatoes to cook. Finally add the rue to the sauce, turning the heat up to a medium high heat. You should see the sauce thickening very quickly now. Continue to stir the sauce for a minute to work out the flavor of the flour. Once done allow the sauce to set for 2-3 minutes and then serve with just about anything!

Eat and enjoy!

Orange Italian Chicken

Okay Story: So I, Kourtney, actually made this dish a while back but we, Gabey and I have fallen so behind in our blogging I thought it was time to catch up. So Gabey was making some udon noodles for dinner he had leftovers so I decided to do something fun. This was originally made for one person but can be easily multiplied for your dinner party.

Ingredients
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
Shallot or onion to taste ( I like a lot of shallot)
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
3/4 cup of your favorite marinara sauce
Udon Noodles
1 large orange- juice and zest
Handful of cashews
2 splashes of Dr. Pepper-----trust me------

The key to making the chicken so yummy is the following: Cook the chicken in all of the above! Saute the shallot or onion and garlic in 1 teaspoon of olive oil for a couple of minutes turn the heat down and pour in your marinara sauce. It is important to turn the heat down so the sauce simmers but does not pop out of the pan. Add Italian seasoning and stir till its well blended. Place chicken in pan and cushion it around the sauce. The sauce will start to become slightly thicker at this point add the juice of one orange and about 1/2 teaspoon of zest (add more if you like). So heres the fun part, trust me on this! Adding two splashes of Dr.Pepper will cut some of the acidity of the orange juice and highlight the sweetness of it. Let this simmer until the chicken is throughly cooked. The Chicken will be tender and flavored with your sauce. Simply add udon noodles and roasted or raw cashews to the pan and let them soak up all the yummy goodness! I promise this wont disappoint!

Classic gnocchi (for us)

The story: I don't really know if there is much of a story behind this particular dish. We just love gnocchi and have played around with all kinds of sauces for it. Our blue cheese white sauce is a particular favorite, though not one you should have every day. Spectacular in taste but also spectacular in the unhealthiness of it. This is a more "healthy" and simple version of one of our gnocchi dishes.

Classic Gnocchi: (serves about 4)

1 packet of Gnocchi (its about a pound in size)
2 large heads of broccoli
1/2 medium Spanish onion
1-2 good sized plum tomatoes
1/2 cup of white mushrooms
1 tsp of garlic powder
1/3 cup of olive oil
6 or 7 large fresh basil leaves
cheese to taste

Start a pot of water for the gnocchi. You don't need a whole lot of water for this, the gnocchi isn't in there long. In the mean time, spray a pan with oil and bring it up to a high heat. When the pan is hot, toss in the onion, which should be cut into thin slices. Let that brown up a bit. If the pan was properly hot it should not take long at all. Next toss in the mushrooms, cut to what ever size you like. You want to let the mushrooms cook down a bit before you toss in the broccoli and the oil, otherwise the mushrooms will just taste of grease. When they have cooked, toss in the broccoli first and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. After that, pour in the oil and flavor with the garlic powder. At this point, just lower to temperature to simmer, and let it sit. By this point, hopefully the water will be boiling, so add the gnocchi. When the gnocchi floats at the top of the water, its done. Like I said it won't take long to cook. When its all floating, use a large slotted spoon to mix the gnocchi with the veggies. Toss in the chopped tomato and basil, stirring for another minute or two. You don't want the tomatoes or the basil to cook much. The raw flavor is much more powerful. Just grab a plate or bowl, toss on a little cheese like Parmesan, and you're done.

Eat and enjoy!!

baby bella mushroom ravioli in a champagne cream sauce

The story: Over the summer I, that being Gabe, was living with my relatives in New Jersey, and taking a class over in Manhattan. It was during that time that I took to cooking nearly every night, and on occasion felt the need to expand my repertoire. This dish comes from one of those nights. My cousin mentioned that she really loved this particular dish from a restaurant and she asked if I could recreate it for her. And thus a series of food shopping trips ensued, including a trip to the local liquor store, and a recipe was found. This recipe is not quite the same; in this case, Kourtney and I created the ravioli from scratch instead of using store-bought ones. Store bought works just as well though, and if you're pressed for time, it less clean up and a lot quicker.

The dish: Baby bella mushroom ravioli in a champagne cream sauce

Ravioli: (makes 6-8 large ravioli)
2-2 1/2 cups of Baby bella mushrooms
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 pack of eggroll wrappers
1 egg

Sauce:
1 cup of white or button mushrooms
2-3 large shallots
1/2 cup of cream
1/2 cup of champagne ( A cheap bottle works just fine, just mind the cork)
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
3-4 whole scallions
2 tbsp of butter or margerine
1 tsp of mixed Italian herbs
1/2 tsp of powdered garlic
1/4 tsp of coarse ground black pepper
1/2 tsp of plain flour mixed with 1/4 cup of water

To begin, put up a pot of water to boil the ravioli in. Then clean and chop up the bella mushroom. . Quickly saute the mushrooms in a pan sprayed with a little oil on a high heat. When cooked, toss into a blender with olive oil. Blend until a creamy paste. Remove the paste from the blender. Nows the time to make the ravioli. Take the eggroll wrapper and place it on a plate. Take a good tablespoon or two of the mushroom paste and place in the center. Now its time for a quick egg wash. Give the egg a quick beating and LIGHTLY spread the wash on all the edges of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper, and use a fork to crinkle the edges together so it can be boiled. Repeat the steps till you've used up all the mushroom paste. You're gonna have a number of wrappers left over, so just bag them and use them another day.

Nows the time to begin the sauce. Melt the butter in the pan on a high heat. Thinly slice the shallots and add to butter when it begins to bubble and brown. Let the shallots sit for a bit and let them brown, stirring only ocationally. When they look done, toss in the white mushrooms and toss them with the shallots to coat them in the remaining butter. Add the spices. Lower the temperature to a medium heat, and let the mushrooms cook for 3-5 minutes. After add the champagne, and then the cream two minutes after that. Add the scallions, and then lower the heat to simmer. Once the temperature has reduced, add the Parmesan cheese. Stir it in and then leave the temperature as low as possible.

By this point the water should have come to a rolling boiling. Ease only one or two ravioli in the pot at a time. They cook very quickly, staying in water only for 1 1/2-2 a piece. When done, take them out of the water and plate immediately, as they tend to get sticky. Pour the sauce over, and enjoy!!

Quick throw together pasta that fills that void inside you

The story: After a long day of going around town, going to the beach among other places, we were dead tired and felt like making something simple. Now I will admit that our version of simple cooking is really not what others might consider it. My father often says that I can never leave anything alone and just eat it, but then what foodie can? Simple in this case was that we used some easily obtained, semi-premade foods and jazzed them up a bit. The night previous to us making this dish we had seen one of those bobby flay cooking throw downs and it really put us in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs. As I am a vegetarian, its not quite the same but we made do.
A quick side note effected our desire for this dish. It was a cool day out, peaking in the low fifties, and quite windy. As it might in others, it creating a desire for something hot and filling, reminding us of our childhoods.

The dish: Spaghetti and "meat"balls with romaine salad and spiced croûtons
*note: several of the items that will be listed are pre-made brand name items. (not routine for us, but like I said, we were hungry)

Spaghetti and "Meat"balls
1/2 pound of angel hair pasta
18 oz. of DiNicola spicy marina sauce
1/4 cup of Bartunura Moscato wine
1/4 cup of part skim ricotta cheese
~2 tsp of garlic powder
3/4-1 cup of morningstar farm veggie ground
4-5 morningstar farm sausage links
3 dashes of grated Parmesan

Romaine salad
1 head of fresh romaine lettuce
1 med. carrot
1/2 -1 cup of red cabbage

Spiced croûtons
1/2 a large loaf of fresh baked Italian bread (ours was 4-5 days old, so already a bit hard)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp of Za'atar (an Israeli/Med. spice mix containing hyssop)
1 tsp of mixed Italian herbs
1/4-1/3 cup of virgin olive oil

As usual, start the water for the pasta. While you're waiting for the water to boil, nows a good time to start on the croûtons. Before starting the bread, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice up the bread and cut up the slices into smaller pieces. I find that the optimum size for them seems to be roughly about half again the size of a die (lol, singular for dice). When all the bread is cut up, toss them into a bowl. Pour the olive oil on top, and then quickly start tossing the bread to help the oil spread evenly. Then simply toss in all the spices and toss again, coating the bread. Foil up a pan and lightly spray with oil. Dump the bread crumbs onto the pan and put in the oven. Hopefully the water is boiling by this point, so add the pasta.

Onto the sauce. Take a sauce pan, and heat up a little oil in it, spray oil works just fine. Toss in the frozen veggie ground and let it heat up in the pan at a high flame. When defrosted add the wine and stir, lowering the heat a bit. Now is the time to add the tomato sauce. Let the sauce heat up a bit, and then mix in the ricotta. Microwave the sausage links for about a minute or so, chop roughly and then add to the sauce. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer.

Nows a good time to check to see if the pasta is done. When the pasta has reached the texture that you like, drain the pasta. When the pasta is properly drained, put the pasta in the pan with the sauce and mix liberally. Plate the salad and the pasta, dash lightly with Parmesan cheese, and Viola, a fine meal after long chilly day!