This hearty sauce takes some time, both in the prep - roasting bell peppers and a head of garlic - and the cooking- it simmers for a good 4 hours, but it's worth every minute spent on it. The house fills with such wonderful smells, you almost don't want to wait for it to finish, but you'll be rewarded when you do. The end result is a hearty, thick, rich and meaty sauce, perfect as a base for lasagna, baked ziti, or if you're eschewing carbs, it's lovely over a bowl of spiralized zucchini (zoodles!), the filling for pepperoni pizza bites (see below), or even just by itself in a bowl, topped judiciously with cheese.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Sauce with Sausage

 

Ingredients:

• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 head of garlic
• olive oil
• 8 0z bulk Italian sausage
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 smaller can, 15 oz, diced tomatoes
• dried oregano
• dried basil

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F.
2. First, prep the red bell peppers and garlic for roasting:
   • Slice across the top of the garlic, cutting off a flat spot on the top to expose the cloves. Place in a ramekin and drizzle with olive oil.
   • Place the red bell peppers in a baking dish and drizzle a little olive oil over then. Turn a few times to coat. Place the garlic and bell peppers in the oven to roast. Turn the bell peppers every 20 minutes, removing them when all 4 sides are evenly charred. The garlic comes out when the top is browned, about 40 minutes.
   • Place the bell peppers in a brown paper bag, tightly fold down the top, and place the in a bowl to let them steam. one cooled, the skins should peel off easily. Scrape away the seeds and discard them, then chop the flesh of the peppers. Set aside.
   • When the garlic is cool enough to handle, separate the cloves and squeeze the roasted garlic into a bowl, and set aside.
3. Brown the bulk sausage in olive oil, chopping well with the blade of the spatula.
4. Once nicely browned, add the chopped onion and cook until the onion is soft and translucent. add the garlic and saute another 5 minutes.
5. Dissolve the tomato paste in the red wine, then pour the mixture in the skillet. Stir well.
6. Add the crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to ensure that it doesn't bur on the bottom.
7. Add the chopped roasted bell pepper and garlic, stir through, cover and let simmer another 2 hours.
8. Add some salt, dried oregano, dried basil, taste to adjust seasoning. If the sauce seems too thick, you can add a little water if needed. Cover and let simmer for another hour.
9. Taste once again and make the final adjustment for seasoning, and you're ready to serve with pasta, on zucchini noodles, shiratake noodles, or even by itself.

And now for some pictures! Beautiful, charred, roasted red bell peppers: A head of roasted garlic, fresh out of the oven: Tweet

Sausage-Stuffed Bell Pepper

It's that time of year again when I seriously low-carb it. The South Beach Diet has worked well for me in the past, so I'm breaking out the books and low-carb recipes once again. I am of the firm belief that eating low-carb does not have to suck, neither does it mean that you have to deny yourself. Some smart substitutions and good-quality ingredients can make for meals that satisfy the diet requirements as well as your taste buds. :)

Sausage-Stuffed Bell Pepper

Ingredients:

• 2 bell peppers - I used orange for roasting and yellow for stuffing 
• ¼ cup cherry tomatoes 
• 3 basil leaves, torn
• ½ Vidalia onion, chopped 
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed 
• ½ lb. sweet Italian sausage 
• 2 cups marinara sauce 
• ¼ cup Farmer’s cheese 
• 3 tablespoons shredded mozzarella 
• 3 tablespoons shredded provolone 
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated parm 
• 2 basil leaves, minced 
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
•  Olive oil 

Directions:

1. Roast 1 bell pepper and the cherry tomatoes: Preheat the oven to 400 F. Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of a roasting pan and roll the whole bell pepper in the oil to coat. Salt liberally.
2. Toss in the cherry tomatoes and roll them around in the oil too. Roast for 20 minutes, then take out and flip the pepper over and stir the tomatoes. Add some torn basil leaves to the cherry tomatoes and put back in the oven, flipping the bell pepper every 10- 15 minutes from then on. 
3. Remove the tomatoes after another 10 minutes have passed, leaving the bell pepper to roast another 10 minutes or so. I like to do the bell pepper a good 45 minutes or so until the skin is dark and blistered. 
4.  Put the bell pepper in a paper bag, fold the top securely and let steam for 20 minutes. Remove, peel, and chop, removing the seeds. Set aside. 
5. Saute the onion in olive oil over medium-high heat, add chopped roasted bell pepper cook for 3 minutes or so, until nicely softened. Then add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Add the sausage and break into small pieces with the blade of the spatula. Brown. Add roasted cherry tomatoes, and cook 2 minutes. Pour in the marinara sauce and beef both as needed to thin. Cover let simmer 10 minutes. 
7.  Mash together the farmer's cheese with the mozz, parm and provolone. Add the minced garlic and fresh basil. 
8. Cut the bell pepper in half, hollow it out and spoon the sausage and sauce mixture in the bell pepper halves, top with cheese. Place in baking dish with hot water partway up the peppers. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove the foil, and cook another 10 minutes or so until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Notes:

• I had more sausage and sauce mixture, probably enough for two more bell pepper halves, though I will probably use the extra (about a cup) for spaghetti squash. 
• You can use ricotta in place of the farmer's cheese, but I'd drain it in cheesecloth or a coffee filter.

Tweet

Spaghetti and Meatballs

My sister is on bedrest in the final stages of her pregnancy, so for the past 2 weekends, I've brought over some meals for her to make foraging for food a bit easier. This past weekend, I figured it would be easier if I just invaded her kitchen and made the food there rather than trying to find some way of transporting gallons of sauce and meatballs.

When I was driving there, for some reason, I had that line from the old Alka-Seltzer commercial running through my head "That's a spicy meatball!"

Anyone else remember that gem from the 1970s?

However, for some reason, I kept hearing the line in Father Guido Sarducci's voice, remember him? Another gem from the 1970s/early-1980s.

So there you go, a little glimpse of the craziness inside my head. :)

I make spaghetti and meatballs fairly regularly now. My kids are thankfully past the picky-pasta phase. When they were younger, the only way they would accept spaghetti was coated with butter and parm cheese. They were vehemently anti-tomato sauce, which mystifies me. Tomatoes are one of my favorite foods in all of its forms, sauce, dried, fresh and raw. A thick sauce, perfectly seasoned is a joy all on its own. I have, in fact, been known to skip the pasta and just eat a bowl of sauce, with garlic bread to sop up the remainders, of course!

This recipe is double what I usually make, so feel free to halve it if you feeding fewer hungry mouths.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Makes approximately 30 meatballs and 12 cups of sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 slices stale sandwich bread
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup bread soft crumbs (NOT panko style)
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped fine
• 1/3 cup freshly grated parm
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley (also called Italian parsley), chopped
• 5 leaves of fresh basil, chopped (about 2 T, loosely packed)
• 1 t granulated garlic
• 2 t sea salt, kosher salt or other large-crystal salt
• 1 t black pepper
• 2-1/2 lb. of ground meat - I like 1 lb. of straight ground chuck and about 1-1/2 lb. of what they call a "meatloaf mix" here, which is a combination of beef, pork and veal; sometimes I use ground turkey
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated parm
• 1 T Italian seasoning
• 12 cups of marinara sauce
• spaghetti, cooked

Directions:

1. Tear the bread into very small pieces or grate it with a box grater and soak it in the milk for about 10 minutes. 
2. Add the bread crumbs and stir well. 
3. Add the onion, garlic, grated parm, parsley, basil, granulated garlic, salt and pepper and mix well.
4. Add the meat and - here's the fun part - squish it all together with your very clean hands. Be sure to mix everything very well.
5. Add the 2 beaten eggs and squish some more until it is all one huge gloppy mess.
6. Mix together 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1/4 cup grated parm and 1 T Italian seasoning in a bowl.
7. Grab a piece of meat mixture and roll into a golfball-sized ball. Take a little bit of the crumb mixture in the palm of your hand and roll the meatball in it. You don't want these meatballs coated so that they're breaded, but you want a bit of a dusting on them.
8. Place the shaped meatball on a large plate.
9. Repeat about 30 more times.
10. Cover the meatballs with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to sit for 1 hour. 
11. You can bake them in a preheated 400-degree oven for 15 minutes or saute them in olive oil until browned.
12. Once they're browned, add them to the pot of simmering sauce and let cook for another 45 minutes.
13. Serve over spaghetti.

Marinara Sauce

makes about 12 cups of sauce

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 cup coarsely chopped onion
• 6 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 T minced sundried tomato (I prefer the oil-packed ones)
• 4 T tomato paste  
• 4 (28 oz) cans of whole roma/plum tomatoes in juice 
• Granulated garlic  
• Italian seasoning
• Dried basil
• salt and pepper
• pinch of sugar 
• Fresh basil for garnish

Directions:

1. In a large pot heat about 2 T olive oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
2. Add the onion and saute until it is soft and translucent.
3. Toss in the chopped garlic and minced sundried tomato and cook until the garlic is fragrant, not burned, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir really well together, breaking down the clump of tomato paste as best you can.
5. Pour in the 4 cans of whole tomatoes, juice and all and with the flat end of a spatula or your trusty wooden spoon, mash down the tomatoes a little bit. 
6. Cover, reduce the heat to low and let cook for about an hour. Stir it occasionally to make sure that the tomatoes aren't sticking and burning to the bottom of the pot.
7. Add some seasoning. At this point I start with 1 T of dried Italian seasoning, 2 t dried basil, a pinch to 1/2 t of sugar, 1 t salt, a few grindings of cracked black pepper and 1 t granulated garlic (my new favorite seasoning agent ). 
8. Stir thoroughly, let cook covered another 10 minutes and taste again and season until it's about where you want it.
9. Cover and let cook another hour, stirring occasionally.
10. After it has cooked for about 2 hours, puree it, either with your handy-dandy stick blender or in small batches in a blender or a food processor. If I had to choose between those two, I'd say go for the blender.
11. Once the sauce is all pureed, it'll be nice and thick. Taste again for the final seasoning adjustment and if you are not using it for meatballs, let the sauce cook another hour and then serve.
12. If you are using this sauce for the spaghetti and meatballs recipe, now is when you'd add the browned meatballs.

Notes:

• This sauce is phenomenal with pasta, on pizza, over spaghetti squash or in a lasagna. Half of this recipe (6 cups) works well in my lasagna, cooked in a 9 x 13 in. pan. (recipe to come)
• This recipe does freeze very well, if you do make the full amount.
• This recipe halves and even quarters very well for smaller meals.

Tweet

Sausage and Pepper Roll

Saturday night Pizza-and-Movie Nights are a common occurrence here, and the girls generally like to have their own personal pizzas so that they can each have whatever toppings they want without the bother of their sister's loathsome choices touching their own.

So, on those nights, I generally make a huge ball of dough for their pizzas plus my own, and often have a small ball of dough left over. If I don't make a 4th pizza right then, I just stick it in the fridge and use it the next day, usually on another pizza, though occasionally I like to do something a little bit different with it. Strombolis are one of my favorite uses for extra dough, though I don't always feel like going to the deli and asking for 3 slices of capicola, 3 slices of soppressata, 3 slices of the large sandwich pepperoni, and so on.

This is basically a version of a stromboli , though here in central NY, they tend to call it a sausage roll. Most strombolis here are certain to have pepperoni, capicola and cheese in them whereas these sausage rolls are a lot like a Gianelli's sausage and pepper sandwich, which is de rigueur for politicians to grab at the New York State Fair, but this one is all rolled up in pizza dough and baked to golden-brown deliciousness.
 
.

Sausage and Pepper Roll (Stromboli)

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 T RapidRise Yeast
• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• Italian seasoning (optional)
• garlic powder(optional)
• onion powder (optional)
• 1/2 cup hot water (between 120-130 F)
• 1 T olive oil

For the filling:

• olive oil
• 1 sweet Italian sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
• 1 vidalia onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped fine
• 1 T minced sun-dried tomato
• 1 T Italian seasoning
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce
• 1 cup shredded cheese - I used 1/2 cup mozzarella and the remaining 1/2 cup was a blend of provolone, asiago, parm and romano
• olive oil
• basil leaves
• shredded parm

Directions:

1. Make the dough: Preheat the oven to 450. You want the kitchen to be good and warm.

2. Put 1 cup of the flour in a large bowl along with the yeast granules, salt and Italian seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder.

3. Mix very well with a whisk, breaking up any clumps.

4. Test the temperature of the water (very important when you are using RapidRise yeast). When it is about 125 F, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon until all of the water is incorporated.

5. On a well-floured surface, dump out the dough. At this point it is a wet, scary-looking, shaggy mess. Don't worry. You still have 1/2 cup of flour nearby.

6. Knead the dough and work in the extra flour one small handful at a time. It takes a good 4-6 minutes to get the right amount of flour in. Because there is oil in it, the dough will still be slightly tacky, though not sticky. If it's sticky, keep adding flour.
   
   How I like to knead: I fold over half the dough and press it in, then I turn the whole ball of dough a quarter turn, and keep on folding and pressing, adding more flour to the counter and to the dough as it absorbs. You may need more or less flour depending on the humidity.

7. Once the dough is slightly silky, shape it into a ball, re-flour a bit of the counter, set the ball on it and dust it with more loose flour then cover it with a cloth. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes, longer is better, you can even make this a day ahead and let it have a long, slow cool rise in the fridge, but this dough works well the same day too.

8. Crumble the Italian sausage and cook in some olive oil over medium-high heat until it starts to brown.

9. Add the onion to the sausage and saute until the onion becomes translucent. Then add the bell pepper and cook until soft. 

10. Toss in the minced sun-dried tomato and Italian seasoning and cook until the veggies are all soft and sausage is all browned.

11. Add the marinara sauce and stir to coat. Cook another 2 minutes, then turn off the heat.

12. When you are ready to shape the dough, remove the cloth. It ought to have risen nicely - if it did not, chances are the kitchen is too cold or the yeast died.

13. Punch it down.

14. Lower the oven's heat to 400 F.

15. Oil a pan with olive oil (or cooking spray).

16. Place the ball of dough on a piece of parchment paper on top of a 15 x 10 in. cookie sheet and starting in the middle of the ball, flatten it gently. DO NOT PULL or STRETCH THE DOUGH That will just rip holes in it. With your fingertips, press down, gently flattening the dough until it is a large rectangle the fits your cookie sheet.. Take your time. If the dough seems stiff and unyielding, let it rest in a warm place for 5 - 10 minutes and then continue shaping.

17. Let it sit in a warm spot and rise 10 minutes.

18. Now to assemble: Leaving an 1 inch border around the dough, lay down a layer of 1/2 the shredded cheese. Next, add the browned Italian sausage, onion and pepper mixture. Finally, top with the remaining cheese.

19. Very carefully, roll it the long way pretty tightly, pinching the seams.

20. Brush the top with olive oil - I make a garlic-infused olive oil, but any olive oil is ok.

21. Bake in a preheated 400-degree F degree oven for 12 minutes. Take out and brush the tops with a bit more olive oil and sprinkle the tops with shredded parm. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes until golden brown.

22. Remove to a wire rack to cool, and let sit for a good 5 minutes before slicing.

23. Top with fresh basil and a wee bit more shredded parm if you like.

Tweet

Bruschetta

I rented Julie and Julia recently, which is lovely little movie and about as far as I go on the chick-flick meter. Honestly, I like this movie mostly for the food, although I can relate to Julie Powell to an extent. She said at one point that she felt lost and likened it to the sensation of drowning.

Now, unlike Julie, I didn't feel that way around my 30th birthday - 30 was a good year for me: I was happily married, pregnant with my first child, had a cute little house near the water, yes life was shiny and wonderful for me at age 30. Once I neared 40, however, it was a different story: marriage in tatters, one child in a grave, no prospect for employment after 10 years spent at home as a stay at home mom. Indeed. I am floundering and beyond lost. My life has been circling the drain since my husband left me in 2006. Cooking tasty food is almost the only outlet I have that gives me any pleasure anymore.

I rented the movie recently because I wanted to be inspired again. Those two women, Julie Powell and Julia Child also faced down some angsty life moments, but they seemed to conquer them. I guess I wanted reassurance that it could happen.

Ok, tangent over, now to the real point: When I was watching the movie, I was struck again by how absolutely luscious the food looked. That one scene near the beginning where Julie and her husband are eating a plate full of bruschetta had me salivating from the start. So yesterday, I whipped up my own version.

In case you've never seen the movie, you can see the marvelously mouth-watering bruschetta at the 1-minute mark in the trailer below.

Bruschetta

Ingredients:

• rustic artisan bread - ciabatta, rustic Italian, French- something with a crusty exterior, but still soft inside.
  
• 1 garlic clove, cut in half
  
• 1 heirloom tomato or a beefsteak/vine-ripened, hothouse tomato if it isn't quite tomato season yet
  
• fresh basil - 8 large leaves
  
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• salt & pepper
• shredded parmigianno
  

Directions:

1. Chop the tomato and put in a bowl.
   


2. Drizzle with about 1 T olive oil and 2 t balsamic vinegar.
   


3. Tear up 8 large leaves of fresh basil and toss in with the tomatoes
   


4. Season with salt and pepper, and toss with a fork.
   


5. Set aside to marinate for about an hour.
   


6. After the tomato mixture has sat for about an hour, heat a skillet or heavy griddle over medium-high heat.
   


7. Cut the bread into thick slices.
   


8. Rub each side with half of a cut garlic clove.
   


9. Pour some olive oil into a small bowl and with a pastry brush, smear the olive oil onto both sides of the bread.
   


10. Place the oil-saturated bread in the hot skillet and toast until golden brown on each side, turning once.
    


11. Remove from heat, plate, and top with the tomato-basil mixture, and sprinkle with freshly grated parm.
    


12. Eat immediately while the bread is still toasty.
    

Notes:

• In the movie, they used a variety of heirloom tomatoes- yellow, orange and red. Once my local Farmer's Market is in full swing with more fresh tomatoes, I'll be making this again with a wider variety of tomatoes.
  


• Susan Spungen, food stylist for the movie, gives the recipe for the movie version in an article in The Atlantic.
  
  My version differs only in the addition of the balsamic vinegar to the marinating tomatoes and the grated cheese on top.
  


• If you want to cut a few calories, you can toast the slices of bread in the oven until browned instead of basically frying them in a skillet or on a griddle, but why would you want to do that? ;-)
  


• I used to be skeptical about the whole rub a cut garlic clove on the bread thing until yesterday when I realized that I could actually taste the garlic. I had no garlic in the tomato mixture at all and was using regular olive oil, not the kind infused with garlic. There was a definite hint of garlic in the final product -subtle and perfect, so I am totally sold on that.
  

Tweet

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ok, actually this recipe is not a traditional ragu alla bolognese with its rich, milk-simmered cut of beef and pancetta, but it is more than simply "Spaghetti with Meat Sauce."

This recipe churns out such a lovely, thick succulent sauce of meat, herbs and tomatoes that it is almost chili-like. In fact, when I am avoiding carbs, I will eat just a bowl of this and call it "Italian Chili." I bet if I tossed in some white cannellini beans this would be over-the-top good.

You might say that nothing is worth waiting the hours it takes to cook, but in fact you would be wrong. I usually let this simmer on the stove for a few hours, letting all that collagen in the meat break down into gelatin, though it can be ready about 3 hours after you start.

Topped with some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano and a chiffonade of fresh basil, you have a satisfying and sublime dish.

See? I ate this last night with no pasta, just a bowl full of sauce. It was insanely delicious.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 large onions, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• pounds lean ground beef
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 (14 ounce) cans peeled and diced tomatoes, juice reserved
  
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 T dried basil
• 1 T minced sundried tomato and garlic* (See Notes)
  
• ½ cup red wine
• 1 T minced sundried tomato and garlic
  

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until onions are tender. Stir in red bell pepper and saute 2 minutes.
   


2. Place ground beef in the skillet and cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Stir in beef broth, diced tomatoes (without the juice), wine and tomato paste. Bring to a boil and add celery, bay leaves and Italian seasoning.
   


3. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until sauce thickens. Check from time to time and stir, making sure that it is not sticking and burning. You don't want this to scorch.
   


4. Add 1 tablespoon of the minced sundried tomato and garlic, 1 T of basil and let simmer for another hour.
   


5. Remove the bay leaves, add ½ cup of red wine, the reserved tomato juice and the final tablespoon of minced sundried tomato and garlic, raise the heat slightly, uncover and let cook down if necessary.
   


6. Serve over pasta.
   

Even better the next day.

Notes:

• About the sundried tomatoes and garlic - I often buy California brand minced sun-dried tomato with garlic, but if I can't find that, I will substitute jarred sun-dried tomato pesto.
  
  Barring that, I make my own mixture by dumping 1/4 cup of sun-dried tomatoes into a bowl and covering them with really hot, near-boiling water and let them sit and rehydrate.
  
  Then I chop them finely and add minced garlic and a wee bit of olive oil and let them sit for about 30 minutes.
  


• Be sure to use your largest skillet or good-sized dutch oven, because this makes a ton of sauce.
  

Tweet

Spinach Risotto

A carb-addict, I tend to go for the starchy foods. In my pantry - which, in my galley kitchen really just amounts to my cabinets and countertops - I have a variety of different rices:

• Regular old long-grain white rice which I buy in 10-lb bags and use in mixed-grain pilafs;
• Long-grain brown rice;
• White basmati rice, when I want Indian food;
• Organic brown basmati rice, when I want to be virtuously healthy about craving Indian food;
• Jasmine rice, its delicate fragrance essential for when I crave Thai food or want to make my butternut squash soup with chouriço and corn;
• Sticky rice, or Glutinous rice from my local Korean grocer, which I use only when I make kimchi-fried rice. You may wonder, how often can a person actually make and eat kimchi-fried rice? Well, you'd be surprised. Living in Korea for a year has left me with a permanent craving for Korean foods which will strike at odd times.
• Wild rice, not a real rice, but a reedy grass, native to North America. Still, when mixed with an assortment of mushrooms, it makes a wonderful stuffing for a leg of lamb.
  

and finally:


• Arborio rice, for my rice porridge and risotto fixes.

I had my first bite of risotto at a friend's house. Until then, I'd had no idea what I was missing. I was fortunate in that I was present when she was making this, so I have since done my best to deconstruct the recipe and have made it many times, with great success.

In fact, this is the only way I have gotten my kids to eat cooked spinach when it's all out there in the open as a major ingredient; all the other times I've had to skulk around the kitchen furtively and hide the spinach in lasagna, stuffed shells or that one time when I made homemade ravioli.

Poor spinach! Such a maligned food, yet so good for us! This filling and warming recipe is a good bet to get some of your pickier eaters gobbling down the green stuff.

Spinach Risotto with Toasted Pine Nuts

Ingredients:

• 6 cups broth (chicken, vegetable), heated
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T butter
• 2 shallots, finely minced
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• ½ cup dry white wine
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 10-pkg frozen, chopped spinach, thawed
  
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup pine nuts, toasted*
  

Directions:

1. Bring the broth to a boil and the reduce heat to low.


2. In a deep saucepan, melt the butter and olive oil over med-high heat. Saute the shallots, onion and garlic until soft and translucent, not browned.


3. Add the rice and stir, coating all the grains.


4. Add the spinach and stir well, breaking up any clumps. Let any excess liquid from the spinach absorb fully.
   


5. Reduce heat to medium, stir in the wine; once it is absorbed, add the hot broth, one ladleful at a time, waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding more.


6. After 15 minutes, taste some of the rice. It should be firm, not mushy, but it should not be bright white in the center and chalky. You will probably have some broth left over.


7. Take off the heat and stir in the parmesan and top with toasted pine nuts.


8. Serve, garnished with additional grated cheese if you like.

* To toast the pine nuts, I like to do it in an un-greased skillet over high heat, stirring constantly, because once they start to burn, they go really fast! At the first sight of light browning, take them off the heat and put them into a bowl.

You can also toast them in the oven on an un-greased cookie sheet at a low setting, but you'll have to check them frequently. Tweet