Talk about a dish that will brighten up your dinner plate.
This is it.
Adapted from the always amazing Molly O’Neill’s A Well Seasoned Appetite, this dish has all the ingredients to transport you on a mental vacation to the Mediterranean .
Saffron, orange, basil, rosemary.
Throw in a few choice scallops, Nicoise olives and the freshest tomatoes you can find.
Pasta, if you like.
It’s travel in a bite.
Mediterranean Scallops
Adapted from Molly O’Neill’s A Well Seasoned Appetite
A couple of swirls extra virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, minced
1 spoonful garlic confit ( or a couple of fat garlic cloves, chopped)
1 cup dry white wine
1 large pinch saffron
6 -8 of the ripest Campari tomatoes, quartered
½ cup oil cured olives, pitted
½ fresh orange, zested
2 medium springs fresh rosemary, chopped
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 large basil leaves, cut into a chiffonade
A good splash aged sherry vinegar
1 pound fresh scallops
Enough cooked pasta (linguine or fettuccine) for 2 (optional)
Put a couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet and heat til the oil is wavy. Add the minced shallots and garlic and maintain a medium low heat. Cook until the shallots are tender. Add the wine , saffron and raise the heat to medium high and saute stirring, until the mixture is reduced to about ¼ cup.
Add half the tomatoes, olives, orange zest, rosemary and season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Reduce the heat back to medium low and cook, stirring frequently until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.
Combine remaining tomatoes, fresh basil, sherry vinegar and season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper in a glass bowl and set aside to marinate while you finish the dish.
Add the scallops to the skillet with the sauce and cook, about 5-7 minutes, until the scallops are cooked through.
This is faboo with or without the addition of the pasta.
Top the dish with the marinated tomato salad and serve.
Serves 3 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Two Years Ago on Feeding Groom
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Mediterranean Scallops
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Cauliflower Puttanesca
Jamie Oliver is my new best friend.
Of course he doesn’t know it.
But he has gotten me out of the cooking doldrums.
Check out his website. Just reading his recipes makes me smile.
Not to mention eating his food.
Make a puttanesca sauce, bury the whole cauliflower in it and drizzle with olive oil.
“Bake” it on top of the stove.
People, this is face down in your plate good.
“Smashing’ as he would say.
1 medium sweet red onion, peeled, cut in half and sliced thinly
1 medium sweet yellow onion, peeled, cut in half and sliced thinly
1 large spoonful garlic confit, smashed
1 large cauliflower, trimmed, cut off the stalk and chop it (leave the cauliflower whole)
½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
A handful of fresh Italian parsley…chop the leaves and finely chop the stalks
½ cup red wine
1 large can San Marzano tomatoes
A good splash balsamic vinegar
You’re going to need a pan that can hold a large head of cauliflower in the middle and the puttanesca sauce around it.
Put the whole cauliflower in the pan.
Add a couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil over the top of the cauliflower. Cover and cook for about 45-50 minutes on medium low heat until done.
This is a very cool way to serve cauliflower as a main dish…with a bit of Parmesan -Reggiana and chopped fresh Italian parsley on top. As a side dish it totally rocks with grilled chicken and a crispy Romaine salad topped with a champagne vinaigrette.
Serves 3 generously.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Ultimate Chicken Spaghetti
Chicken, tomatoes, spaghetti, black olives and cheddar cheese.
Baked in the oven.
School Food circa 1965.
Don’t get me wrong, I love this stuff.
But I’m not 9 years old and my taste for chicken spaghetti has grown up.
Roasted fennel, red peppers, onions, garlic tossed with chopped roast chicken and tomatoes.
Kalamata olives, whole wheat spaghetti and fresh baby spinach.
Manchego cheese.
Now that’s Chicken Spaghetti.
The Ultimate Chicken Spaghetti
1 large fennel bulb, sliced thin
1 large sweet red onion, sliced thin
1 large sweet yellow onion, sliced thin
10 fat garlic cloves, smashed
2 large red bell peppers, sliced thin
A couple of good swirls of extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 good shakes crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup Kalamata olives pitted and sliced in half, optional
1 28 ounce can diced san Marzano tomatoes, drained
2 cups roasted chicken, chopped
3 cups baby spinach
1 cup grated Manchego cheese
whole wheat spaghetti to serve 3
Put the water on to cook the spaghetti.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the pan in the oven as it preheats.
Toss fennel, onions, garlic, peppers with the olive oil and add the red pepper flakes and fennel seed. Season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Pull out the oven rack the sheet pan is on very carefully to the point where you can add the fennel mix. Stir onto pan…be very careful. Roast for 15 minutes. Add the chicken, tomatoes, olives and stir well. Roast until fennel is tender. Cook the pasta.
Take chicken mixture out of oven and put in large bowl, toss with the spinach. Drain the pasta, add to the bowl and add the cheese, tossing to incorporate. Season to taste with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Serves three generously.
**Thanks to The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper for the fennel garlic onion roast inspiration.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sauteed Shrimp with Feta, Orange and Kalamata Salad
There are people in your life that you believe will always be there.
You can’t imagine that they would be gone.
It’s just not possible.
They are comfort, love, fun, giving, knowing and there for you no matter what.
I had…have someone in my life that has been there since I was born. She is the mother of my dearest best friend. She has been there for me for almost 54 years and now she is not where I can call her or touch her.
But she’s still with me.
She put up with everything my mother put up with. She loved me no matter what. No matter that she had five children, lots of dogs, a busy husband and me under her feet as often as I could be.
She put up with me calling every Christmas morning at God knows what hour to say Merry Christmas to Nana. I would spend the night at her house most every weekend at least one night…Nana would be at mine the next. My dad would drop me off at the top of their driveway, saying’ don’t come home til you graduate from college“…and her dad would say, as he opened the door into a bustling busy noisy place,…“we don’t want any“…but he’d let me in anyway.
Her parents would go out and leave us to tend to the flock…three boys and a girl…Lord knows what they were doing…we’d be in the kitchen testing out a recipe…Lemon Icebox Pie , Nashville One Pan Fudge Cake…or upstairs jumping up and down on their bed, smoking Marlboro cigarettes the maid had left in a secret hidey hole that we would find…listening to her dad’s Tom Lehrer albums or memorizing Fannie Flagg’s Rally Round the Flagg, or reading John Updike’s Couples and hiding the book under a chair in the den when they came home early one night.
It was my second home.
When I got in to the catering business, she was there. Always getting something from me to serve..so she wouldn’t have to think about food. A child gets married, can you cater it. I’m having some people in for dinner, what kind of casserole do you have? We’re going out to dinner but need an hors d’oeuvre with drinks before hand.
Always, always giving me the freedom to cook and learn..on her. Whenever I needed support., she was there.
It’s been a long week since she left us.
The world is the same but not.
Food is the same but not.
I came home late and had to throw something together to feed Groom and our souls.
Something that would show us comfort, love, fun, giving, knowing, familiarity and taste good at the same time.
She would have loved this.
Sauteed Shrimp Salad with Feta, Orange and Kalamata Salad
10 large shrimp, peeled tail on
A couple of swirls extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper flakes
Heat small sauté pan over medium heat and add oilive oil. When wavy add the shrimp and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes.
Cook til pink and remove from heat. Sprinkle with coarsely ground black pepper
A handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 small handful of fresh Italian parsley chopped (add a little chopped frsh mint if you like)
A couple of Cara Cara oranges peeled and sectioned and cut in half
2 ounces feta cheese slightly cubed
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into bite sized pieces
A good splash of seasoned rice wine vinegar,
1 small touch of Dijon mustard (1 tsp of creamy Dijon)
couple of swirls of extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the dressing in ingredients in bottom of salad bowl and add remaining ingredients. Toss well, put in butter lettuce lined bowl and serve.
Serves 2 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Monday, March 30, 2009
Provencal Oven Onion Saute
These days, inspiration in the kitchen has been hard to come by. A long winter probably hasn’t helped, but the promise of spring has me reaching for different cookbooks to read, different flavors to explore and getting myself excited about the food to come.
One of the most inspiring cookbooks whose inspiration is hidden in the simple, straightforward directions and hints, uses normal ingredients and allows you to end up with the most fabulous dinners is The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper.
This Provencal Oven Onion Saute is perfect for an easy, easy dinner that can impress friends as a pasta sauce, or as a bed for a beautiful piece of grilled steelhead trout, or as a topping for a quick homemade pizza, or whirled together with a bit more olive oil as a spread for crusty bread, or a stuffing for baked tomatoes….
See what I mean?
Inspirational!
Provencal Oven Onion Saute
Adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift
5 oil packed anchovies
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds, bruised
½ large orange
2/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
4 canned San Marzano tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 medium onions, all red or a mix of red and sweet yellow, sliced ¼ inch thick
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon
Preheat the oven to 450. Cover a large pan with aluminum foil. Slid into the oven to preheat.
In large bowl, mash the anchovies into the balsamic vinegar olive oil and garlic. Shred the zest of the orange into the bowl. Add fennel seeds, olives, tomatoes, onion, salt and pepper and toss with your hands to mix. It’s easier that way.
Spread mixture over the pan and roast, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemon over to taste. Let your inspiration guide you!
Serves 3 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes and Olives
There’s something to be said about lamb shanks.
Talk about your cheap but effective meal.
They are highly impressive at table.
They make the house smell like you are flat in the middle of Tuscany, or Morocco or France, depending on how you are preparing them.
This is one of Bittman’s best.
Your guests will think you’ve outdone yourself.
Which, of course, you have!
Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes and Olives
Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
A couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil
4 lamb shanks, about a pound each
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups sliced red onion
A large spoonful garlic confit
A couple of sprigs fresh thyme
1/3 cup chicken stock
1 15 ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1-½ cups assorted olives, pitted
Chopped fresh Italian parsley
Heat a couple of good swirls of extra virgin olive oil in large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add lamb and brown on all sides, season as you cook. Remove lamb and add the onions. Cook over medium heat until soft and goldenish, about 10 minutes. Add garlic confit and thyme and cook one minute then add the chicken stock and the tomatoes and stir. Add the browned lamb shanks and turn them once or twice, season to taste, cover and turn heat to low.
Cook for 30 minutes, turn the shanks and add the olives. Cook for an hour until shanks are very tender. Meat falling off bone is good sign!
Garnish with the Italian parsley and serve.
Serves 4.
Can be adapted to slow cooker with great ease! Fabulous with smashed potatoes.
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Fennel and Olive Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette
So sweet.
Just out there looking for the right partner to show it off.
Enter the olive.
Salty and spunky. Full of flavor.
Get these two together in a salad and you have a marriage made in heaven.
Cut fennel into matchstick pieces, mix it with pitted green Picholine and black Nicoise olives and toss with a sweet/garlicky sherry vinaigrette, you have got something here.
Try this with bone in pork chops or chicken, seasoned with lots of freshly ground black pepper and a bit of coarse salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of ground fennel, grilled to perfection.
Fennel and Olive Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette
Adapted from an old Bon Appetit recipe
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp aged sherry vinaigrette
1 tsp garlic confit
½ cup mixed pitted Picholine and Nicoise olives
1 small fennel bulb, sliced into matchsticks
A handful of mixed baby greens
Whisk oil and vinegar together in small bowl. Add garlic confit, squish it against the side of the bowl to smash, and whisk til blended. Season with a bit of coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Put greens, fennel and olives in large bowl. Add enough dressing to lightly coat the salad. Toss well and adjust seasoning.
Serves 3.
