Sage & Butternut Squash Lasagna

This recipe was born for two reasons, the first one being that I love butternut squash (any squash, really!). The other is that one person in my family isn’t supposed to eat a lot of tomatoes, so I was trying to make a delicious lasagna dish that was tomato-less. This dish is great for the holidays, and although it’s got some rich ingredients, it’s also got a healthy balance with whole wheat pasta and some veggies (which you can always add more of).

Make sure you use fresh sage in this one – it’s such an important ingredient that it really needs to shine.

Ingredients

1 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles, prepared according to package directions
1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and sliced into circles (use the top part only and save the bottom part where the seeds are for another recipe)
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 cups of fresh spinach
1 .75oz package of sage, divided (if you’ve grown your own, grab a big handful)
1 32oz tub of ricotta (I used part skim)
up to 3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, depending on your taste

For the white sauce:
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons of your sage, chopped
a few cloves of garlic, minced (optional)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Begin by making the white sauce. In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter. If you are using garlic, cook it briefly in the butter (2-3 minutes). Next, add the flour to the butter and whisk it together until smooth. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly, making sure that the flour/butter mixture incorporates with the milk. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thick and creamy. Don’t forget to stir frequently. Add the sage and the parmesan cheese about 1-2 minutes before removing the sauce from the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the nutmeg into the ricotta cheese.

Assembly!

Now you should be ready to assemble. Spread a layer of white sauce or ricotta in the bottom of your lasagna pan. Drop the circles of butternut squash down in the pan side by side – you should be able to get at least nine in there depending on the size of your squash and the size of your pan. Layer the noodles, spinach, mozzarella cheese, remaining sage, butternut squash, white sauce, and ricotta until you run out or fill the pan. Be sure to save some mozzarella cheese for the very top to lock in some of the moisture.

Bake in a 400˚ oven for 40-60 minutes or until the slices of squash are soft. You may want to cover the pan with aluminum foil until the last 10-15 minutes to prevent it from over browning.

Annnd lasagna is not the prettiest thing to photograph, especially during dinner rush with the family, but here’s a picture of the finished product.

Herbed Garlic Squash Fries

The credit for the concept of squash fries totally goes to my beautiful friend Clara, who is very clever in the kitchen and also good at the “use up what’s left from the CSA” game. She mentioned the idea in a facebook status, and since Charlie is not the biggest fan of squash (but I am), and we both like oven fries, and since we have a ton of squash from our CSA, it had to be done.

Clara gave me some basic directions, but I promptly forgot them and may have even deleted them. I did not go on an internet hunt for them. Instead, I ran with Clara’s concept and made up my own lovely little side dish. I had a delicata squash that looked like it would be a perfect size for Charlie and I to share. Since I love thyme and squash together, I went out to the back deck, in my slippers, in the cold, in the dark, with my pair of kitchen scissors, and stabbed at my herb garden, hoping that some of the thyme was still alive. Some of it was… but not a lot. Thyme is a pain in the ass to deal with when all of it is in good condition, so when some of it is sad, it is a frustrating time indeed.

The next roadblock was the cheese. My dream of these fries included them being crusty with garlic and parmesan cheese, but when I looked in the fridge, the familiar canister was not in its home. I then remembered the wonderful spinach fettucini with homemade alfredo, served with a breadcrumb stuffed portabella mushroom that Charlie had made for me the other night. It was awesome. What was not awesome was that he forgot to tell me that we were out of both parmesan cheese and parchment paper. (I can easily forgive him after a dinner like the one I just described.)

Time to go to Plan B. I really wanted that coated, crispy brown edge that the cheese would have given. I looked in the cabinets. Nutritional yeast to the rescue! If you’ve never used nutritional yeast before, you can get it in the bulk section of most natural foods stores, or in a shaky container just like parmesan cheese! It’s actually a great vegan substitute for parmesan cheese, so I liberally sprinkled that into my mix instead. Most nutritional yeast is also fortified with Vitamin B12, which is difficult for veg*ns to get enough of, so sprinkle some on your garlic bread and mix it in your mac & cheese. Or… make these fries! We served this meal with Milo’s Kale Chips (currently in season in the tri-state area!) and Gardein Veg*n “Chicken” Tenders.

P.S. I’m still looking for awesome apple suggestions! What would you do with a half bushel of apples?

Ingredients

1 medium delicata squash (butternut or other similar variety would be fine, too)
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (or parmesan cheese)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
coarse salt to taste

Directions

Peel the squash, cut lengthwise, and remove all the seeds and stringy bits. Slice into small strips. Try to cut them evenly so they’ll cook evenly.

Dump the squash into an appropriately sized bowl. Add just enough olive oil to coat them. Toss them with your preferred utensil to make sure they’re evenly coated. Add the garlic and thyme and toss again. Add nutritional yeast and mix it up a bit more to ensure that the nutritional yeast evenly coats the pieces.

Spread the fries in a single layer on a nonstick baking sheet coated with a quick spray of oil, or, if your partner didn’t use up the rest of the parchment paper without telling you, you could use that if it’s more convenient.

Bake at 400*F for 20 minutes or until the fries are soft in the middle and browning on the outside. Don’t forget to give them a good shuffle once in a while when they’re in there. If you feel like it, put them on broil for about two minutes at the end to get them a bit more crispy.

Stuffed Shells with Mushrooms & Spinach

I’ve never made stuffed shells before. I make a killer Vegetarian Lasagna of Doom, but I have never attempted stuffed shells before. These were pretty awesome.

I recently started ordering my groceries online because some days, I just don’t have the spoons to go to the store, and when several of those days happen in a row, we end up eating, say, a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Being the frugal shopper that I am, I begin my meal planning by perusing the “specials” section, and last week, both ricotta and jumbo shells were on sale.

Well! That was simply an invitation to create a dish that I have loved in restaurants but never made at home. I bought the ingredients about 10 days ago but hadn’t had the energy until last night to make the meal. Yesterday, I ran around on sleep deprivation and did all kinds of crazy things like ran errands, replanted my seeds, and made this delicious meal.

Since we’re big on having a spare meal in the freezer, I made this in pie tins (I made three, but probably could have stretched it to four with the quantities that I’ve adjusted a bit below… the ratios didn’t come out quite right! I had a few extra shells and such). We ate one pie tin, and the others were wrapped in heavy foil before baking and put in the freezer for another day.

Here’s a tip if you’re going to do freezer meals: Use a lot of sauce! There’s nothing worse than pasta that gets all hard when reheated because it didn’t have enough sauce on it. (This is also the key to a great lasagna!)

Ingredients

8 oz of mushrooms, chopped into small pieces
two huge handfuls baby spinach
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 cup red wine
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons (ish?) extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
a few good shakes of parmesan & romano cheeses
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1 large jar of tomato sauce
1 box jumbo shells

Directions

Cook jumbo shells according to package directions (but watch it – they always say to overcook that stuff!). Drain and run under cold water to cool. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Saute garlic for about 2 minutes in the olive oil. Add mushrooms and red wine and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Do not overcook the mushrooms. Let cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, combine the mushrooms mixture with the ricotta. Add the parmesan cheese and about 1/4 of the mozzarella cheese. Add some fresh ground pepper.

Put a thin layer of sauce in each pie tin (or whatever pan you happen to be using).

Fill each shell with a rounded spoonful and put the open side down into the pan. I tried to close them up a bit before putting them down to avoid leakage. Assemble the shells closely, but not too crowded, in the pan. Spoon sauce over each shell and around the edges, making sure that all of the pasta is covered. Sprinkle with more mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 12 minutes (fresh) or until the cheese is melty and the shells are warmed through (stick yo’ finger in there!). If reheating from frozen, let it defrost on the counter for about 20 minutes (I’m guessing, I’ll update when I do this) and it will take a bit longer in the oven.

Serve with a green salad and garlic bread if desired.

Lactose Overdose: Spinach Cheddar Muffins

Now, sometimes, frequently, even, I do vegan cooking. When I go to an event, I like to make sure that I bring at least one vegan thing because there have certainly been times when I have arrived places and there was nothing for me to eat but perhaps salad and bread.

When we’re cooking at home, though, just me and my flexitarian partner, we eat a variety of things. Sometimes it’s vegan, like a stirfry with tempeh, or rice and beans. Sometimes it’s vegetarian, like an eggplant parm. And sometimes, I make a meal and he’ll throw some meat in with his part of it.

Last night was one of our vegetarian meals, and you’d be hard pressed to convert this one to be vegan. It’s a dinner night I like to call Lactose Overdose. It started with a big pot of Cream of Broccoli Soup and ended with spinach cheddar muffins. We’ve had the exact same meal at least three times since it’s conception a year or so ago, so it’s definitely a delicious combination. The spinach cheddar muffins are also a tasty bit to bring to a bake sale or a potluck or anything else if you’re really a baker, not a cook, but wanted to bring something savory.

Edit: Recipe updated 12/14/10!

Ingredients

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used 2% this time, but I usually use 1%)
3 cups shredded fresh spinach, stems removed (this time I just dumped in baby spinach as-is)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (I used extra sharp. I imagine that other cheeses, or a blend, would be ridiculously good)
About 1 tablespoon miscellaneous Italian herbs
Several shakes of garlic powder (let’s call it 1-2 teaspoons)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 cup muffin cups.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Stir the melted butter, egg, and milk together in a large mixing bowl until evenly blended. Slowly stir in the flour mixture to form a batter. Make sure the mixture is liquidy enough, or the muffins will be very dense.

(I’m going to be totally honest, last night I was in a hurry and I just dumped in all the ingredients before this point in the stand mixer and put it on stir, and they came out just fine!)

Fold in the cheddar cheese, then the spinach. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Top with parmesan cheese before putting in the oven (optional).

Bake in preheated oven for 18-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Tobarnut Soup

Tobarnut Soup is Tomato, Barley, and Butternut Squash Soup.

[I should have posted this weeks ago! Oops!]

We had some tomatoes that were accumulating from our farm share, despite the fact that there has been a terrible blight that has affected the tomatoes in our area this season. Somehow, farmer Rich has managed to get us a variety of tomatoes, including some lovely heirloom tomatoes which we really enjoyed. I had about four large tomatoes (three red and one yellowy-orange) and two small yellow tomatoes, so I was plotting a tomato soup. When the butternut squash arrived this week alongside a few of the large tomatoes, I started imagining putting the two together. I’ve got a great creamy tomato soup recipe that I’m sure I’ll post here one day that I finally got around to posting, but for now, I’ve decided to combine tomatoes, roasted butternut squash, and barley for another slow cooker soup.

It may seem like our house is overrun with soup these days, but I like to put the soup in little individual containers and put them in the freezer. We’ve also had pretty much the entire household with some kind of cough and sniffles, though we’re not sure if it’s allergies or what. Either way, soup has been a very welcome meal.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium butternut squash
2 tablespoons flour
3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup barley
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
1 cup light cream or milk (optional)
1/4 cup or so grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions

Cut butternut squash lengthwise and place face up on a lightly greased baking sheet. Roast the butternut squash in a 400 degree oven for about 30-60 minutes (depending on the size and shape of your squash) or until soft enough to scoop.

Let cool, then scoop out the part with the seeds and discard. Remove the skin. Mash the flesh, either with a fork, a potato masher, or a blender.

I’ve made this soup twice now, and the first time I made it where I blended the tomatoes before they went in, and the second time I didn’t. If you want a very smooth soup, you should do this, but otherwise, don’t worry about it – being in a slow cooker will break it down a bunch.

Toss the olive oil, onions, and flour together in the bottom of the slowcooker. Ideally, you’d do this in a medium sized pot, heating the oil on medium heat, then adding the onions, cooking for about 3-5 minutes or until soft, then adding the flour, stirring constantly, cooking about one minute, not allowing it to brown. But, since this is a slowcooker, and I was in a hurry and didn’t want to wash another pot, I just threw it all in and it worked out just fine.

Add the onion mixture to the slow cooker. Pour the chopped (or blended) tomatoes over the onion mixture and stir well. Add the mashed butternut squash. Stir well.

Stir the barley, basil, rosemary, bay leaf, and parsley in. Add a bit of salt and pepper, but you may need more later.

Set the slow cooker to “low” and check on it in about 5-6 hours.

When the barley is soft, probably after about 6 hours in the slow cooker, be sure to remove the bay leaf, then add the parmesan cheese (optional). Add the milk or cream*, if desired, and stir. Taste to adjust for more salt and pepper if needed.

*The barley tends to soak up a lot of liquid even once the soup is done cooking, so for my freezer portions, I omitted the milk, and I’ll add it back when I heat the soup.

Foster Cats Tomato Soup

A friend of mine was talking about restaurant quality tomato soup, and I thought I should dig this recipe out from my archives that I never got around to posting here.

This is called Foster Cats Tomato Soup because about a year ago, my sister, Bianca, needed someone to watch her cats for a few months. Our friends Micah and Casey stepped up to bat, and we would sometimes go over to their place in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon to visit with the cats and have lunch. We’d take turns cooking, and when it came to my turn, this was one of the first things I made. Served, of course, with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Homemade tomato soup is much easier than you think, and it doesn’t have all the junk that the stuff from a can has in it.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced
2 tablespoons flour
2 pound fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped, or 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, juices reserved (I used crushed for time sake)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I used dried)
2 teaspoons fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (I used dried)
1 bay leaf
1 cup light cream or milk (I used heavy cream)
1/4 cup or so grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
(Optional) 1 cup ish cooked white rice (We cooked it in the rice cooker)

Directions

In a large nonreactive saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and carrot and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes without allowing to color. Add tomatoes with their juices, broth, tomato paste, basil, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer stirring frequently, 15 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf.

In a food processor or blender, puree soup in batches until smooth (if you’re particularly lucky, you can use an immersion blender to accomplish this). Return to pan and stir in cream and parmesan cheese. Add rice (if using). Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer until heated through, 3 to 5 minutes, and serve.

Autumn’s Arrived Risotto

I’m digging into the archives since this time last year I was unemployed and cooking all the time, so lots of great fall recipes were developed during that time.

I absolutely love butternut squash, and I tried it with my first attempt at risotto ever. I didn’t really look at a recipe for it, I just received instructions over the phone and went with it.

*Note: This makes so much risotto. You’ll probably want to cut the recipe in half, unless you’re planning to drop off take-out containers to everyone you know (which is what I had to do, in addition to eating risotto all the time for a week…). You can also make Arancini di Riso with the leftovers.

Ingredients

6-8 cups broth (I used 4 cups worth of Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash and Apple Soup, and 4 cups of vegetable broth from bullion)
5 tbsp butter or soy butter, divided into 4 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups butternut squash, peeled, and finely diced
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc, but we used Pinot Grigio since that’s what I wanted to drink)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
2 teaspoons dried rosemary (fresh if you’ve got it, increase to about double)
2 teaspoons dried thyme (fresh if you’ve got it, increase to about double)
Fresh black pepper and salt

Directions

When you’re ready to go with the risotto, make sure everything is prepped. Keep the pot of stock warm on one burner, then, in a large pot, toss in your the larger quantity of butter, and cook your onions and butternut squash on medium-high heat until the butternut squash is not rock hard, about 5-6 minutes.

Add the risotto, and cook for about a minute, stirring continuously. Next, add the wine, though you may want to do it a little at a time. With risotto, you want to add a little bit of liquid at a time and then stir it until all of the liquid is absorbed.

Once the wine is absorbed, add the stock, one small ladle at a time, stirring constantly. Once the risotto is no longer clear and appears fluffy, you can taste it to see if it is the texture that you desire. I prefer it a bit al dente, but others like it softer.

When you’re nearing the end stages, add the rosemary and thyme, and stir until it’s distributed. At the last moment, add the parmesan cheese and remaining butter, then salt, if necessary, and pepper. Serve with more cheese and pepper.

Arancini di Riso Barbabietole

These have got to be the best part of making beet risotto. You can obviously make these with any kind of risotto, but the color of the beet ones is just incredible. Eating these at Anne and Neil’s house was my first experience eating beet risotto, and really, my first experience eating beets besides somewhat funky ones that have appeared, unwelcome, in salads at certain restaurants.

Literally, the translation is Oranges of Rice & Beets, but what we’re making here are orange-shaped balls of beet risotto with little chunks of mozzarella stuffed inside, then deep fried. They’re amazing.

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe since a day or two after my Beer Beet Risotto experiment, but I never got around to it. Anne and Neil get most of the credit for the recipe, and Charlie gets the credit for the deep frying… He’s always in charge of the frying at our house!

I’d nearly forgotten about posting this, but we’d put the extras in the freezer, and on a busy night this week when I was out of spoons, we heated some up in the oven, and they were so tasty all over again. So, feel free to make extra, freeze them in an airtight container. When you want to eat them again, let them thaw for a good long while, then put them on a baking sheet in the oven at, let’s say, 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until they’re hot in the middle (you’ll be able to tell because the cheese will start to gooze out of them).

Vegan friends, don’t fear… I’m working on developing a recipe so you can eat these, too.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 cups Beer Beet Risotto, cooled
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 1/2 cups dried Italian-style bread crumbs
2 ounces mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Fresh herb of your choice (I think we used basil)
Salt

Directions

Stir the eggs, risotto, Parmesan, fresh herbs, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs in a large bowl to combine. Place the remaining breadcrumbs in a medium bowl. Using about 2 tablespoons of the risotto mixture for each, form the risotto mixture into 1 3/4-inch-diameter balls. (You’re looking for large-ish meatball looking things, here, guys.) Insert 1 cube of mozzarella into the center of each ball. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs to coat.

Pour enough oil in a heavy large saucepan to reach the depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.

Working in batches, add the rice balls to the hot oil and cook until brown and heated through, turning them as necessary, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rice balls to paper towels to drain. Season with salt. Let rest 2 minutes. Serve hot.

Kale-Came-in-Our-Farm-Share Creamy Potato Soup

We don’t often cook with kale, but both Charlie and I have been fond of it ever since our vegan buddy Milo came to stay for a few months last fall and introduced us to kale chips. This week, it turned up in our farm share. We get an email early Monday morning saying what we’ll get in our late Monday/early Tuesday pickup, and during work Monday morning, I kept envisioning a potato kale soup.

I looked at a lot of different recipes before getting started on this one. Most of them, however, included some kind of bacon or sausage. I settled on adding a slightly smokey Gouda since I’ve been vegetarian since about the time I was 10.

Make sure you read this recipe carefully. When making soups, I usually have a half and half process, where I simmer half of the veggies that disintegrate (in this case, I just did the potatoes) for a long time, and mash them with a potato masher to get a thick soup. Then, towards the end, I toss in the other half of the vegetables, which I’ve reserved in bite sized chunks. This way, the soup gets both flavor and texture, but it also has vegetable pieces that stay firm and brightly colored.

With creamy soups, this is a great way to cut down the fat in the recipe without sacrificing the creaminess of the soup. Even in recipes that don’t require potatoes, such as a broccoli soup, I might toss in a potato early on, mash it up, and then use a lower fat milk instead of cream. It helps avoid that really thin, watery texture that some lowfat creamy soups have.

Onto what I actually made! For the record, our friend Bo thought it sounded so good that he invited himself to dinner. He hopped a train from Brooklyn to Port Authority, then took a bus to the suburbs to sop up soup with us even though he had to be at work early in the morning.

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
3-4 small red potatoes, skins on, chopped **keep the skin on and skin off potatoes separate!
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
6 cups vegetable stock
3-4 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
about 3 cups kale leaves, chopped
1 cup milk
4-6 oz gouda cheese, chopped
a shake or two of nutmeg
lots of black pepper
parmesan cheese to serve

Directions

Add oil to pot. Saute garlic for about a minute, then add onions and saute until soft, about 2 minutes. Add 6 cups of stock. Bring to a boil. Add the bay leaves. Reduce the heat and then add the PEELED POTATOES and simmer them until soft. Take out the bay leaves for a minute, and use a potato masher to mash the peeled potatoes until they’re in tiny little pieces. Later, they’ll boil down even more and make the soup even creamier.

Put the bay leaves back in, and let the soup simmer for another 10 minutes or so. Add the carrots and the remaining potatoes. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Add the parsley and remove the bay leaves.

Add the kale and cook for 5-10 minutes or until it’s more soft than super chewy. Once the desired consistency is reached, add the milk, stirring thoroughly. Next, add the gouda, and stir until the cheese is melted into the soup. When it’s completely mixed in, add the nutmeg, then add black pepper to taste. If needed, add more salt, and if desired, add parmesan cheese.

Pairs really deliciously with Spiral Herb Rolls.

Beer Beet Risotto

I knew that today was the day I would finally use the beets from our farmshare, and I would make beet risotto! My friends Anne and Neil have made me beet risotto before, and it’s delicious, even though I’m normally fairly intimidated about beets.

Don’t be intimidated about beets, by the way. Sure, they gooze pink stuff all over your hands and your knives and your counter, but they taste somewhere between a carrot and a parsnip and a squash and all those other root vegetables. They just look awesome. Yeahhh, the presliced ones in the NYC deli salad bars… I frown on those, too, but if someone offers you something like beet risotto made from farm share baby beets! Don’t turn it down!

Anyways, today was the day, though, and I went home from work determined. I realized when I was on my way out the door, however, that I didn’t have any wine in the house, and that I didn’t have time to stop and get any (I was on borrowed time with the car I was driving).

I stopped in at the convenience store on the way home, hoping that they might be classy enough to have wine, but alas, they weren’t. They did, however, have a wide variety of beers for me to drown my wine-less risotto sorrows in.

Hark! I bought a six pack of Yeungling, and after I had it in my hands, I considered subsituting the beer for the wine. Beets are very earthy, and so is beer. I decided to run with it, thinking it crazy and brilliant, and when I googled it when I got home, it turned out that this person had similar thoughts.

By far the best part of this recipe, as I learned from Anne and Neil, is that you get to make these with the leftovers, which are these sort of risotto balls with breadcrumbs and cheese stuffed inside, then fried! Ohmygod doesn’t even cover it!

So here’s what I did tonight… (and got super intense colors from!)

Ingredients

1 cup risotto
1 bottle of beer (I used Yeungling)
4 cups of vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
4-5 garlic scapes (again, they came in our farm share – if you don’t have scapes, feel free to sub about 2 cloves of garlic)
about a cup and a half of beets (mine were baby beets from the farm share – I’ll tell you how to prepare them later)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish (optional)
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (our farm share herb of the week)
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 large pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

So, the first thing you need to do is roast the beets. Set the oven to 350. Wash the beets and trim off any stems, but don’t bother peeling them – they’ll be much easier to peel after they’re cooked. Put them in a foil packed and cook them for about an hour.

This is where I did all my prep work because once you start cooking risotto, you don’t really want to stop stirring it. So, I did all my chopping, etc.

When the beets are done (you can stick a fork in them easily), let them cool, then pull the skins off. Chop them into small pieces, about 1/4 inch thick.

When you’re ready to go with the risotto, make sure everything is prepped. Keep the pot of stock warm on one burner, then, in a large pot, toss in your olive oil, and cook your garlic and onions on medium-high heat until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the risotto, and cook for about a minute, stirring continuously. Next, add the beer, though you should probably do this in two or even three doses. With risotto, you want to add a little bit of liquid at a time and then stir it until all of the liquid is absorbed. After the beer is in there, it’s probably a good time to add the beets. Watch closely as they turn your pot from white to pale pink to a shocking fuschia.

Once the beer is absorbed, add the stock, one small ladle at a time, stirring constantly. Once the risotto is no longer clear and appears fluffy, you can taste it to see if it is the texture that you desire. I prefer it a bit al dente, but others like it softer.

When you’re nearing the end stages, add the nutmeg and tarragon, and stir until it’s distributed. Pull the leaves off the sprigs of rosemary and discard the stem. Stir the leaves into the pot. At the last moment, add the parmesan cheese, then salt, if necessary, and pepper. Serve with more cheese and pepper.

Vegetarian Lasagna of Doom

This has got to be one of the best vegetarian lasagnas I’ve ever made (or even tasted). It’s got to be one that’s recorded in blog history.

One of the key things about making lasagna is having enough sauce. Don’t be shy with it! It helps keep everything moist, and if you’ve ever had a dried out lasagna, you know how important that is. I like to use two kinds, a red sauce and a white sauce. The white sauce is easy to whip up from scratch, but if you’re in a pinch or extremely lazy, you can use alfredo sauce in a jar, though they’re not exactly the same thing.

The other thing I prefer about making lasagna… I hate those no-cook noodles, the ones that you put in still hard. It’s weird to me. I grew up watching the biggest pot we had boiling with lasagna noodles, and getting to eat the curly edges that were leftover. What fun is making a lasagna if you don’t get to eat the curly edges first? So, I recommend the noodles that you have to cook before you layer them in… I think they taste better, too.

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (we prefer baby bella mushrooms, but tend to go with whatever looks the freshest)
perhaps 2 cups? of spinach trimmed
1 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped
1 jar of vegetarian tomato sauce of your choice, preferably something with lots of vegetable chunks in it
lasagna noodles (you probably only need a half box because of all the veggies, unless you have a super deep lasagna pan)
16 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz brick of mozzarella cheese (whole milk or part-skim, not fat-free)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Eggplant:
1 small to medium eggplant, sliced lengthwise
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, dried parsley, dried oregano to taste
1-2 eggs
Oil for frying

White Sauce:

1/2 cup butter
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk or light cream
1 cup vegetable stock
1/8 tsp salt
about 5 sprigs parsley (optional)
one huge piece of green garlic (optional)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

White Sauce:

Melt butter, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly add milk or cream and vegetable stock; stir until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add salt.

If you’ve got some fresh parsley handy, you should grab maybe five sprigs of that and the tops of some green garlic. Don’t chop it in any way. Leave it whole and just toss it into the sauce. Let it cook for a few more minutes on low heat, stirring constantly, then strain off the parsley and garlic. Add a bit of parmesan cheese to the sauce if desired.

Eggplant Preparation:

Before you can start layering, you’ve got to fry the eggplant because in this recipe, it’s almost like a eggplant parm/lasagna combo.

Mix breadcrumb ingredients of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, flour, oregano, salt, pepper, and parsley in a flat tray or plate. In a separate tray, scramble the eggs. Take your eggplant slices and coat them one at a time in egg, then dredge them in the breadcrumb mixture.

Pan fry them in a generous amount of oil at medium-high heat until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side. Remove from pan and let them drain on a mesh spatter shield or a paper towel.

Lasagna:

Prepare pasta according to package directions. If you’re not using a disposable pan, I recommend that you put down a layer of aluminum foil before you begin for easier cleanup later.

Coat the bottom of the pan with a layer of red sauce, then alternate between vegetables, cheeses, fried eggplant, sauces, and noodles until you run out of ingredients or reach the top of the pan. Toss in the fresh oregano and some parmesan cheese along the way, if you feel so inclined. Be sure to reserve enough sauce and mozzarella cheese to cover the entire top of the pan, otherwise your noodles will be hard and your veggies will dry out.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees. After 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese begins to brown. (The foil on top prevents the cheese from browning too much too quickly.)

Let the lasagna cool for at least 15-20 minutes once it’s out of the oven, or it will be a soupy mess!

If you’re not serving a crowd, I recommend putting a few slices in the fridge for consumption soon, and the rest in the freezer. When freezing the lasagna, make sure that you freeze it in the portion size you’d want to eat it in, since sawing through a frozen casserole is never any fun. Cut slices and put them into little gladware containers, let them cool (until they’re no longer steaming) and then pop them in the freezer for a great meal in a week or a month.

Spiral Herb Rolls

The other night Charlie and I made an amazing lasagna, which I’ll hopefully have time to post the recipe for later (it was sort of quasi-homemade… we didn’t make the past from scratch, and I made one of the two sauces from scratch). But first, here’s the recipe for rolls stuffed with fresh herbs.

The first herb we got from our farm share was oregano, and I knew I wanted to bake with it, and these seemed like a perfect complement to our meal. I made a handful of changes from that original recipe, though, so my version is listed below.

Ingredients

Dough:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (about 2 teaspoons if you’ve got a larger package)
1 cup warm water, 110 degrees to 115 degrees (I don’t measure, I just use hot water from the tap)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons butter or soy butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour (you can substitute bread flour if you want)

Filling:

*Feel free to substitute herbs of your choice, but the fresh herbs are key!

2 tablespoons butter or soy butter, melted
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
I also threw in some green garlic, minced

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, butter, salt and 1 cup all-purpose flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining whole wheat flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with nonstick cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover with a slightly damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 12-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese, herbs, and garlic to within 1/2 in. of edges.

Roll up jelly-roll style, making sure to roll it tightly enough (I didn’t the first time!), starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut with a very sharp knife into 12 rolls. (To do make evenly sized rolls, cut the log in half first, then into smaller pieces.)

Place rolls cut side up on a piece of parchment sheet on a cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.