My First Manicotti

What do you do when you only have 2 sheets of fresh lasagna left?

Make manicotti!

This may highly resemble the lasagna from my last post.

That's because I made this just a day or two after the lasagna, as I had leftovers of just about everything.

But this time I made sure to use a healthy dose of prosciutto.

The hubs and I are not vegetarians.

Yay pork!

I start out, as ever, sautéing some shallot and garlic in olive oil, and once it was translucent and fragrant, I added some diced asparagus and cooked it for about 2-3 minutes.

Season with salt.

Next I added a splash of white wine, some prosciutto cubetti, sliced sun-dried tomatoes (marinated in garlic, herbs, and olive oil), and some fresh basil ribbons.

Cook another 3-4 minutes to combine and the white wine has cooked away.

I was using the Giovanni Rana fresh lasagna sheets, so I could just lay it out to fill without any pre-boiling messing about.  Spread some fresh ricotta in a line, top that with everything from the pan, and give it a roll.

Sauce in the bottom of the pan before placing rolled manicotti.

Top with a bit more tomato sauce (just marinara from the fridge) some sliced mozzarella, a sprinkle of grated cheese and basil, and it's ready to bake in a 350º oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is melted and the inside is bubbly and hot.

If your finished product doesn't look aesthetically pleasing enough, at the 20 minute mark turn on the broiler and cook another 2-4 minutes, or until the cheese is brown and bubbling.

Allow to set before serving or cutting into  the manicotti.

Who knew manicotti was just an answer to leftover lasagna ingredients?!

Sun-dried Tomato & Asparagus Lasagna

Who doesn't love lasagna?

Well, maybe people who aren't big fans of asparagus, but this is a lovely change-up from the average layers of meat sauce and bechamel.

And it's still asparagus season, so take advantage of it!

This is based off a Giada di Laurentiis recipe, which calls for pancetta in the base of sautéing the asparagus, which would be delicious, but as I was trying to make a vegetarian dish I skipped that step.

I also didn't sauté the asparagus, as you will see below, because there was just far too much for any one pan.

As I was making 4 lasagnas, I stretched the sun-dried tomato sauce with a little fresh homemade marinara. Just your standard onion, garlic, large can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, white wine, pinch of dried oregano, salt, and fresh basil.

For the sun-dried tomatoes, I used marinated Turkish-style tomatoes (rather than dried Italian) which are already plumped up from being in their olive oil with garlic and herbs.

Simply drop them with their oil in a food processor and let it go until smooth. Add more olive oil if you need to break them up a bit more.

Combine the two types of tomato sauce and set aside for layering.

For this much asparagus (3-4 bunches) I washed and sliced them all first and then laid them on a baking sheet, drizzled with salt and olive oil and a few pats of butter (white spots you see) and put each tray under the broiler for about 4-5 minutes. This way they get a bit cooked and flavorful, but they're not mush. 

You want them to still have some bite after baking.

Lightly sauce the bottom of your pan and then begin layering: pasta, sauce, asparagus, ricotta, grated parmigiano, repeat.

You could also just combine the ricotta and asparagus and spread them on together. I just didn't know how much ricotta I was going to need for 4 lasagnas (turns out, roughly five 14 oz containers. I really like ricotta.) so did it all separately.

Cover the top layer of pasta with a bit more sauce and then lay some low-moisture (read: deli sliced) mozzarella and bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes, depending on whether you are using no-boil lasagna or pre-boiled lasagna.

Note: for this dish, I would recommend either pre-boiled lasagna or fresh lasagna sheets (Giovanni Rana makes a very delicate kind) as there is not as much moisture in the sauce to cook the noodles.

Also, be cautious when salting your various stages of cooking, as sun-dried tomatoes can be quite salty. But I also avoided that excessive salt by using the marinated Turkish tomatoes.

A tasty twist on a comfort classic.

Heartier Asparagus Soup

It's October, it's been raining for the better part of a week+, and it's finally cool enough that I am anxiously awaiting the tell-tale hiss that means the radiators are turned on.
No such luck yet as I sit here in fuzzy socks and a hoodie. Indoors.
(I should really get the AC out of the window this week... and by "I" I mean wrangle the hubs.)

Remember a while back when I told you all about how asparagus is your liver's best friend, and I gave you a really basic version of asparagus soup, which I called Detox Soup?
Yeah, well, I made it tastier this time :)

It may not be the peak of asparagus season anymore, but if you live in a city, you can still find some decent looking bunches around.

For this soup I used/had on hand:
1 medium leek
1 small onion
1 large bunch of asparagus, trimmed
1 1/2 cups kale, stemmed and chopped (approx. amount)
1 medium yukon gold potato, peeled (you could use 2 for a much heartier soup)
3 medium cloves of garlic
2 TBSP fresh dill
1/2 parmigiano reggiano rind
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
olive oil
salt

I used this photo because my flash made a heart in the soup!

After doing all the dicing...

Sauté leeks and onion in olive oil until softened and a few begin to show brown bits.

Add asparagus, salt, and cook another 5-7 minutes until soft.

Add minced garlic cloves, cook 30 seconds, stir, and add the chopped kale.

Stir the kale into the mix until it begins to wilt, about a minute or two.

Deglaze pan with white wine and cook another minute or two.

Add potato, dill, and chicken stock.

Bring to a simmer, turn heat back to low, add the lid and allow to simmer about 35 minutes to meld flavors and cook the potato.

Take the soup off the heat and use an immersion blender to purée.

Note: If using a food processor, allow to cool a bit.

Check for seasoning (it WILL need salt!), garnish with more fresh dill, and enjoy a slightly heartier version of this asparagus soup.

I certainly did!

P.S. - Recently after making this soup I had to be out of town for a night or two, which means the hubs was up to his own devices for dinner. (Read - PB&J when he remembers to eat.) Imagine my surprise when he related to me that, well, yes, he had grabbed a fast food burger on his way home, but then he saw "the green soup in the fridge" and decided it must be healthy and that he should have some to off-set the burger he ate.

And you know what? He REALLY liked it!

Score another point for the Rock 'n Roll Gourmet.

Mushroom & Asparagus Pasta

I've been on a bit of a mushroom-craving kick lately, which is hard to satisfy since mushrooms are one of the things the hubs won't eat. But for lunch the other day I made myself a delicious little mushroom pasta which you may recognize as being quite similar to the mushroom crostini recipe from back around Mother's Day.

I started with a combination of shiitake mushrooms and baby bella mushrooms, and decided to throw in some tender asparagus as well.

I sautéed the mushrooms in a little olive oil and butter, trying not to crowd the pan too much. (Slightly failed at that. Eyes bigger than my pan...) 

I let the mushrooms go for about five minutes before adding anything else to the pan, and then added about a teaspoon of dried thyme to the pan, which, as always, I crushed in my fingers before adding. (I had just run out of fresh thyme, much to my consternation.)

At this point I added the finely sliced asparagus and tossed it all together.

At this point I seasoned the veggies with some salt, and grated one large garlic clove into the mix.

Next I added a splash (maybe 2 tablespoons) of cognac, and let that cook off (we're talking seconds here.)

I finished what would become the pasta sauce with a splash of chicken stock and about 2 tablespoons of half and half (or cream or whatever you have) and let it all come together. Check for seasoning.

I then added the cooked pasta to the pan and let the flavors meld for another minute.

I finished the dish with a little good olive oil and some grated pecorino cheese.

Very satisfying.

Oh, and the HEAT went on in my building last night. August 1st and my radiators began hissing and suddenly I smelled that smell that old radiators emit when the heat starts up. It's a smell that I love come October, because it has just started to be regularly cold and it means fuzzy sweater and socks season has begun and thoughts of hot chocolate drift through my head.

I was denied that happy feeling as it was August 1st and instead I flew into a heat-stroke panic, checking with neighbors to see if it was just me, or just my "line" of apartments, and then called my less than stellar Super who reported "boiler trouble but fixed now." 

Yeah, 30 minutes and 90º later it turned off.

To top off the night, the hubs forgot his wallet while visiting a friend (UPS to the rescue) and lost his iPod on the plane back.

Not an auspicious start to the month.

Fingers crossed that yesterday is the worst day that we have.

Detox Soup

This is my spin on a recipe for asparagus soup that my friend gave me. As I have mentioned in the past, asparagus is incredibly good for your liver and can even help prevent a hangover, so I figured that eating asparagus soup after a weekend of overindulging in various meats and margaritas would be a clever and responsible thing to do.
(So long as your AC is working, and kept to ConEd's suggestion of 78 degrees so we avoid another blackout, you should be able to enjoy this soup even tho it remains 95-101º outside. There is one room in my apartment in which I can enjoy this soup in comfort, and luckily it is also the room w/ the TV and the computer.)
I added kale into the mix because kale is one of those incredible dark greens that's just bursting with vitamins and minerals, even more so than spinach or swiss chard. (Yes, I know kale is best in the winter, but I got the über health idea in my head and I stuck with it!) This soup will be lovely with just asparagus as well, and it will come out much smoother with just asparagus in the end. Your choice.

I started out with one large bundle of kale and one bundle of asparagus, but you could easily make this with one and a half bundles of asparagus instead.

Choice of Onion Family: 

You could use one large leek, two medium onions, or four decent sized shallots.

I used one medium yellow onion and two small shallots because that happened to be what I had on hand.

It will still work. No worries.

The smaller you dice your asparagus, the faster it will cook, but as a general rule you want to chop it into relatively equal sizes so that they all cook at the same rate.

Give your kale a solid rinse and drain, just like with all other vegetables before cooking. But this shows you just how much I started out with.

Start the soup by sautéing your onions in a few glugs of olive oil (maybe 3-4 TBSP). Cook these with a pinch of salt for about ten minutes, stirring every few minutes, until they just start to brown (you want the added bit of sweetness this will create in the soup's finished product.)

When they just start to brown, add 2 cloves of minced garlic to the pan.

Once the onions have begun to brown and the garlic has spent about a minute in the hot pan, I add the asparagus into the pan to sauté for another 5-10 minutes, until they begin to get a little color and soften.

Next add about 3-4 cups of chicken stock (or vegetable if you want it to stay vegetarian). The amount depends on just how much asparagus + other veg you use. If you want your soup to be thick, try using only 2 1/2 cups of liquid. Mine comes out quite thin.

Bring the soup up to a simmer and add about a quarter of a rind of parmigiano reggiano, finely chopped if you can manage it. It will melt into the soup. 

(When you buy your Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano wedges, save the heel of the rind and store it in your freezer for future soups, stews, etc. They will add a lot of flavor and thickness.)

Once the soup has simmered for about 10 minutes, add in the curly kale (chopped for ease in later blending) and let it  begin to wilt, about two minutes.

Note: the kale will make this soup have a fairly chunky consistency no matter how much you blend it, so if you want a truly smooth soup, choose something like spinach as your extra green.

Take the soup off the heat, and be prepared to do the next step in batches so as not to overload anything.

Using a blender (unless you have a HUGE Food Processor, you're going to need the blender. Otherwise your FoPro will leak from all the liquid involved.) purée the soup in batches until you reach your desired consistency.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

It's gonna need quite a bit of salt.

You can garnish with asparagus tips, more cheese, some chipotle salt, crispy prosciutto... whatever makes you happy. But (for me) the point of this soup is to throw a ton of nutrients back into your system, as well as a decent bit of fiber. 

And after this past holiday weekend, and the upcoming Meatopia event this Sunday, I made extra of this soup to help get me through without too much discomfort or damage done.

I hope you enjoy it too.

Hangover Prevention

The best Defense is a good Offense.

Or so I've heard somewhere along the way.

My friend Chris linked me a few weeks ago to a stunning article claiming that eating asparagus can prevent hangovers, as well as possibly reduce the effects of a hangover that you already have.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THIS INFORMATION HAS ESCAPED ME FOR THIS LONG???

That's the kind of thing that you assume would spread like wildfire. Especially among college crowds.
"Welcome to WestCo 1. This will be your dorm for the year, here is a list of the items you are not allowed to keep in your room for safety reasons, and asparagus can prevent hangovers. See you at Mocon!"
Seriously.
That should absolutely be how college starts.

Anyhoo...
People have their own ways of dealing with alcoholic over-indulgence: 2 aspirin and chugging water before sleep, eating bread, eating greasy food (some scientific merit to that one actually), waking up and start drinking again/Hair of the Dog (I do not endorse this one), or, you know, NOT drinking to excess... which, like so many plans, doesn't always work out.
The New Plan: Eat Your Vegetables!!
For those who would like to explore this new Asparagus Plan, you can read the science-y bits here:
Suite101
Planet Green
Medical News Today
Or, you know, just Google it.

Anyhoo, I sort of tried to put this to the test this weekend since I had a birthday party in Brooklyn from which I did not return until after 2AM, and last night I sang and hung out with friends and got home at 4AM again... I think what I really need is a magic vegetable that turns 5 hrs sleep into 10.
(Work on that, scientists, ok? After you cure cancer and solve world hunger and global warming. You know. When you get a minute.)


For now, though, I'll settle for a magic vegetable that protects my liver.
(cue insipid cooing voice: "Gooooood liver. Mommy loves you so she eats her veggies. Yes she does!")

Saturday night I ate about 8 spears of asparagus with my dinner, and I woke up on Sunday (post birthday shenanigans) feelin' fine. Yesterday I only ate them with breakfast, so the events of eating the asparagus and being out drinking may have been too far apart, but aside from the fact that I only got 5 hrs of sleep, I feel pretty OK today as well.
(Not that I over-indulged. That would be to laugh!)

So, the recipe part of this post.
Could not be simpler.

Four asparagus spears, chopped and cooked on medium high in a non-stick pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil, and seasoned with garlic salt. Cook until just starting to brown but still firm, about 5 minutes.

Remove asparagus to your plate (without pouring the oil onto your plate) and cook an egg in your preferred style. Season to taste.

I went with over-easy this time.

Cuz I'm a Rebel.

I tried to break the yolk to make the picture more colorful, but instead it just looks a mess.

Oh well.

What really would have made this a delicious meal would be some smoked salmon under the asparagus. Sadly, I had no smoked salmon, and I don't go out or run errands before breakfast. So I just had to suffer.

But I hope you take this new-found revelation and that it prevents future suffering in your life!

(see how I tied that last bit together?)

Eat (asparagus), Drink, & Be Merry!