Variation on Italain Wedding Soup

This is my favourite Italian soup! I make many variations on it. Original recipe has chicken meatballs in it which makes it the whole meal in itself. It is a wonderful dish to make on a regular night or even to serve for a company during winter season.

Today I made it without meatballs, just a simple recipe that took only 30 minutes from start to finish.

Start by preheating a large pot with some olive oil in it. Next chop one large onion, two carrots and few celery sticks. Add to olive oil and sweat for about 5-7 minutes until it becomes translucent.

Next add 2 piled and cubed potatoes.

Then add two boxes of organic chicken stock and bring it to a boil.

Once it is boiling add whole wheat small pasta about one cup for this amount and let it cook for about 6-7 more minutes.

During this time beat one egg and one cup of grated Parmesan cheese together in a bowl. Once pasta cooked for 7 minutes add 10 onzes of fresh organic baby spinach and stir. When it is all incorporated keep stirring and add your egg and cheese mixture to the soup. You will end up with a beautiful white stings of cheese in your soup.

Serve it right away with a crusty bread and if desired add some more grated cheese to the bowl. Enjoy!

Pan Fried Filet of Skate

This is a type of fish that many people never heard off. It comes from the shark family and is a type of a sting ray fish. Only wings of the fish are eatable to my knowledge. It has a distinct texture and can not be missed!

The best way to prepare it is to pan fry it with butter and caper sauce. I was making it for diner for all of us and omited capers part because I did not have any on hand.

Wash the fillet thoroughly and pat try with bounty sheet. Preheat a large saute pan with butter. Dredge fish fillets in flour on both sides and place it in the pan. Fry it for about 5 minutes on first side till brown crust forms then flip and fry for about 3 more minutes and add more butter and drained capers at this point if you are using any and cook for few more minutes. That's it the diner is ready!

I served it with a side of a garden salad dressed with sour cream.

Great experience!

Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

This past weekend we went to do grocery shopping to Fairways. It is a legendary store here in NYC that has the biggest variety of grocery items from all over the world. I like going shopping to different stores to keep my cooking repertoire going with different ingredients that I can experiment. Sometimes we take a little help from the store and buy items that are already half way prepared for us.

This week I purched ricotta and spinach stuffed chicken breast from there that looked very good to me. The tecnique of making anything staffed with ricotta is very uselfull to know. Since ricotta is a creamy Italian cheese that makes a lot of things that can be boring (like chicken) to become extremely tasty and gives it the whole new level of taste!

Whole chicken breast with skin on were staffed with ricotta cheese and fresh baby spinach and rolled tightly in a roll.

I placed it on a roasting pan along side with about 1 1/2 of fresh Brussels sprouts. Then sprinkled everything with sea salt and olive oil and placed it in preheated to 375 degrees oven for about 45 minutes.

Everything was ready together and tasted just delicious. I highly recommend making it this way of just buying it there!

Italain Style Meatballs

Meatball have become our favorite dish living here in this area. I love making it and we all enjoy eating it regular nights or even for a company. Like with many dishes I make, there are many variations of ingredients, but technique remains pretty much the same.

I like to use veal as a main meat in its preparation because it has a soft texture and a lot of flavor. I take 2 ponds of veal and one pound of beef and mix it with 3 eggs, cup of grated Parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, one cup of gourmet breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Make the mixture and refrigerate it for some time before making it.

Once ready take a large deep pan where you will pan fry the meatballs at first and then cook it in the sauce. Preheat it on high and start making meatballs and place it in the preheated oil in the pan. Fry it for about 5 minutes until crust forms then turn oven and continue cooking for a few more minutes. Do not overcrowd the pan, otherwise it will not fry and just steam. Work in batches. Once all meatballs are fried remove all from pan and start working on your sauce.

Chop one large onion, 3 big carrots and 3-4 stalks of celery and drop it in the same pan. It should deglaze (pick up all bits from the bottom of it) and cook it on low flame for 5 minutes.

Then add one table spoon of tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Add one cup of a good quality red wine bring to simmer and finally add one pack of Pomi chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bring it to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. If the sauce looks too thick, add some stock or just plain water. Next add meatballs back into the sauce and cook on low simmer for one hour.

When ready to serve make a batch of your favourite pasta to go with it or just serve it with salad. Enjoy!

Orange Roughy filets with Corn and Sugar Snow Peas

This is a great 20 minutes preparation dish that is full of flavor and nutrients and all good for you. I buy Orange rough fillets and prepare it in a simple way with variety of vegetable sides. This is a wonderful flaky white fish. I cook it with different toppings depending on the side dish, but variety is endless of course.

Take fish fillets wash and and pat dry with bounty sheet. Place it all flat on the non stick cooking sheet. I used roasted pepper dressing to marinate it, just brush fish with ti slightly to make sure top part of it is covered. Let stand while oven is preheating for 5-10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 and place it there for 15 minutes. Then 5 more minutes under the broiler.

Meanwhile to make a side dish i used fresh snow sugar peas and frozen sweet corn. Start by preheating a large saute pan. Once hot add olive oil to and and the one lb of frozen corn. Cook in the saute pan for about 5 minutes till corn is no longer frozen. Add sugar snow peas and cook together for another 10 minutes. Add salt if desired and a small piece of butter.

By the time vegetables will be done-fish will be ready and diner will be served! Enjoy!!!

Duck legs with potatoes and beans

We went on a ski trip few years back to Tremblant, Canada. We stayed in the village there and visited a local bistro quite a few nights for diner. I had this duck casseule dish, that was just Divine! I loved the flavor combination of potatoes with creamy beans and thyme. My personal attempt in recreating this dish resulted in this recipe that became the top favorite in our household and will sure to please any duck lover, give it a try!

I'm using good quality moulard duck legs. Moulard duck has a very unique taste. It is lean, meaty, tender, flavorful and has less fat and less calories per pound than turkey. They are barn-raised without the use of steroids, antibiotics or growth hormones. I usually get 6 to 8 and will serve that number of people generously.

Wash it and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper generously on both sides. Preheat a large saute pan on high with a splash of olive oil and place legs in, skin side down first.

Let it sear for a few minutes on high to create a crust and flip to the other side and continue cooking for 5 more minutes. Remove from the pan. You can do this step in advance if doing for company.

Remove most of the fat from the pan just leaving enough to cover the beans. Take two cans of cannelloni creamy beans. Wash it under the cold water to make sure to rinse out all the liquid used in the can for storing. Drain and place in the pan where you sauteed duck legs. Duck fat should cover the bean, stir it around to make sure it is all coated and add thyme leaves 5-8 sprigs. After 5-10 minutes on simmer turn the heat off.

Take one 5 lb bag of Yukon or any creamy potatoes. Pill, quarter it and boil till fork tender. When ready add beans from sauteed pan to potatoes and mash it together. You should not need any additional oil or butter there since you will have duck fat liquid from beans.

Preheat you oven to 375 degrees. Take a large oven proof casserole dish. Place potatoes and bean mixture on the bottom of it and top it with duck legs.

I'm usually using two dishes, make sure you have enough potatoes for both and top it with dusk legs. Place it in the over for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Then serve and make sure to serve all the crusted potatoes crust from the bottom of the pan. You are guarantee to love this this!!!