#76 - Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch

We were looking through some of our Bon Appetit and Food and Wine magazines, looking for new things to cook, and this one recipe stood out as something completely unique. It was a pasta that wasn't a red sauce, wasn't a cream sauce, wasn't a pesto, and wasn't baked. It was all of the above. Oh, and it had peppers and eggplant. We had to try it out.

Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch

From Bon Appetit Wanna see how crazy this pasta is? Just look at all of the ingredients: So to start off, this pasta has some roasted vegetables. So we have to cut and roast the peppers, eggplant, and cherry tomatoes. It also has this pesto-like crumble topping that's made of basil and pine nuts. And the sauce is a little weird because you don't cook it before baking. You just blend the tomatoes, cream and some basil in a food processor, and set aside until it's time to layer everything. Wow. Who would have thought that all of these things would work well together? Who thought of putting them together? Who cares? It's wonderful.

It's got the rich and creamy taste of a pink sauce, the warm flavors of roasted peppers and eggplant, the gooeyness of mozzarella, and then this weird pesto-like crunch on top that's extra delicious. This is great, and we can't tell if it's because of or in spite of its craziness. Make all your pasta dishes at once with this one.

Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 large eggplant, unpeeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 medium yellow bell peppers, cut into 1/2 inch squares
• 2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 3 large garlic cloves, divided
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 cups firmly packed basil leaves, divided
• 1 cup Parmigiano cheese, divided
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 28-oz can whole tomatoes in juice
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 lb rigatoni
• 1 lb whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preparation

1. Preheat over to 425 and spray a large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray.
2. Add eggplants, pepper, and tomatoes to baking sheet.
3. With a garlic press, squeeze 1 garlic clove onto vegetables.
4. Drizzle vegetables with the olive oil and toss.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Roast vegetables until tender, stirring often, for 35-45 minutes.
7. In a food processor, combine 2/3 cup basil, 1/2 cup Parmigiano, pine nuts, and 1 garlic clove.
8. Blend until crumbled and season topping with salt. Set aside.
9. Blend tomatoes with juice, cream, 1 1/3 cups basil, and 1 garlic clove in food processor until smooth.
10. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
11. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water until just tender but still firm to bite.
12. Drain pasta and return to pot.
13. Toss with vegetables, sauce, and 1/2 cup Parmigiano.
14. Transfer to a 13x9x2-inch baking dish.
15. Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese and pine nut topping.
16. Bake pasta at 425 until heated through, about 25 to 35 minutes.
17. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

#75 - Lemon-Curd Sandwich Cookies

We were looking for another dessert, and then we saw that Food and Wine magazine had this recipe from Top Chef D.C. winner Kevin Sbraga. We couldn't resist.

Lemon-Curd Sandwich Cookies

From Top Chef Kevin Sbraga These are lemon-curd sandwich cookies, so you need ingredients for lemon-curd (lemons, gelatin, etc.) and ingredients for cookies (butter, sugar, flour, etc.). So to start off, we made the cookie dough, and let that rest for an hour in the fridge. Then we started working on the lemon-curd. You start off mixing some of the ingredients together and then double boil. Then you whisk in the gelatin, which is some weird stuff, and then you remove from the heat and whisk in some butter. And then you let that chill for an hour in the fridge just like the cookie dough. Then while the lemon-curd is still chilling, the cookie dough should have chilled long enough, and you can start rolling, cutting, and baking the cookies. When they come out, the curd will be ready, and you can start making the little sandwiches, chilling in the fridge in between layers, and then again when they're all made. Apparently, you have to chill the curd to get the gelatin all set properly. But once you've waited long enough, you should finally be able to eat these things. Ooh, and it's worth the wait. These little cookies are tasty. We're not even that big lemon people, and these little lemon sandwiches are sweet and tart and delicious. If you have a lemon, gelatin, and room in the fridge, you might want to take the time to whip up a batch of these sweet little sandwiches.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin dissolved in 2 Tbs of water
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Preparation

1. In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
2. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk over medium heat until thickened, about 6 minutes.
3. Whisk in the gelatin until melted.
4. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
5. Strain the curd through a fine sieve and refrigerate until chilled and set, about 1 hour.
6. The lemon curd can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 4 oz blanched almonds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1 3/4 cups flour

Preparation

1. In a standing electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium speed until creamy.
2. Add the egg yolks and vanilla bean seeds and beat until smooth.
3. In a food processor, combine the almonds with the salt, baking powder, and flour and process until the almonds are finely ground.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and beat on low until smooth.
5. Pat the dough into 2 discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 350.
7. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick.
9. Using a 1 3/4-inch round cutter, stamp out cookies as closely together as possible.
10. Arrange the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
11. Bake the cookies in the upper third of the oven until lightly browned on the bottom and around the edges, for about 22 minutes.
12. Let cool on the baking sheet, then transfer to a platter.

Lemon-Curd Sandwich Cookies

Preparation

1. Top half of the cookies with a rounded teaspoon of the lemon curd.
2. Refrigerate until the curd is set, about 15 minutes.
3. Top with the remaining cookies.
4. Refrigerate for 8 hours before serving.

#74 - Salmon with Coriander Rub and Lime Cream

Seems like we've been on a bit of a salmon kick, but our new fish recipe is once again ... salmon.

Salmon with Coriander Rub and Lime Cream

From Bon Appetit This recipe uses coriander and cumin, a spice combination we've used a couple times before on recipes, and apparently they go pretty well together. You're also gonna need some salmon, cilantro, and a lime. So you start out by grinding the coriander and cumin to make a spice rub - like the garam masala from Iron Chef Voltaggio. Then you use that, some lime zest, olive oil, and garlic to make a marinade, and you let the salmon sit in that for a few hours in the fridge. When that's ready, you bake the salmon, whip up a little sauce topping with the lime juice and sour cream, and enjoy. This was a nice new recipe to add to our salmon repertoire. It was simple and pretty much completely the opposite of the balsamic salmon we had last month. While that one's sauce was nice and rich, this was light and refreshing. And both were tasty and easy enough to prepare. Not bad. Looking for yet another salmon recipe? Look no further:

Ingredients

• 1/12 cup coriander seeds
• 1 1/3 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 Tbs olive oil, plus extra for brushing
• 1 1/3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp finely grated lime peel, divided
• 2 6-oz skinless salmon fillets
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 3 Tbs sour cream
• 1 Tbs fresh lime juice
• Fresh cilantro, chopped

Preparation

1. In a medium skillet, toast coriander and cumin seeds over medium-high until slightly darker in color and very fragrant, stirring often, about 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Transfer seeds to a medium bowl and let cool.
3. Using a mortar and pestle, grind seeds to a medium consistency.
4. Pour seeds into a square glass baking dish.
5. Add 2 Tbs of olive oil, the garlic, and 2/3 tsp lime peel and whisk to blend.
6. Add salmon to oil-spice mixture in dish and turn to coat.
7. Cover and let chill for 1 to 3 hours, turning salmon occasionally.
8. Position rack in top third of oven and preheat to 450.
9. Brush heavy rimmed baking sheet with oil to coat.
10. Brush excess spices off each salmon fillet, leaving a thin coating.
11. Season fillets with salt and pepper and arrange on baking sheet at least 2 inches apart.
12. Cook in over until just opaque in center, about 7 minutes.
13. While salmon is cooking, whisk sour cream, lime juice, and remaining 1/3 tsp lime peel in a medium bowl.
14. Season cream with salt and pepper to taste.
15. Arrange fillets on a platter,sprinkle each with chopped cilantro, and top with lime cream.

#73 - Caesar Salad

We made those delicious pizzelle, and we needed to have something else to go with them. Caesar salad sounded like a perfect accompaniment.

Caesar Salad

From Alton Brown This Caesar salad recipe covers everything - the croutons, the dressing, and putting it all together. You wouldn't expect any less from crazy Alton Brown. So you start out by making the croutons, which is something we've never done before. For these croutons, you cut up some bread, toast it in the oven, and then toss with a garlic-infused olive oil over the stove. Then there's a bunch of steps to make the salad dressing, but we didn't take too many pictures of that process. So if you try to make this yourself, you're going about it just as blind as we did. Mmm mmm mmm. This was a delicious Caesar salad. And to think, we made it ourselves! That's super exciting in and of itself.

The salad dressing is a little different than most Caesars that we're used to but it was really good, and the lemon juice added a little fresh kick to it. And the homemade croutons are awesome. And not just because we get to say we made homemade croutons. They're pretty tasty, and we had to keep ourselves from popping too many back before we finished making the salad. If you're looking for a good homemade salad, look no further:

Ingredients

• 1 loaf day-old Italian bread
• 3 cloves garlic, mashed
• 9 Tbs olive oil
• 1/4 tsp plus 1 pinch kosher salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 heads romaine lettuce, inner leaves only
• 7 grinds black pepper
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 6 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup grated parmigiano

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cut 1/2-inch croutons from the loaf of bread and place on a baking sheet.
3. Put in the oven until dry but not browned.
4. Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic with 4 Tbs of olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt.
5. Strain the oil into a large skillet and heat over medium heat.
6. Add the dried croutons and fry, tossing constantly until all of the oil is absorbed and the croutons are golden.
7. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. In a small saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
9. Add the eggs and cook for 1 minute.
10. Remove from water and chill in ice water to halt cooking.
11. In a very large bowl, tear lettuce and toss with 3 Tbs of olive oil.
12. Sprinkle with remaining kosher salt and the black pepper.
13. Add the remaining olive oil and toss well.
14. Add the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.
15. Break in the eggs and toss until a creamy dressing forms.
16. Toss in parmigiano and serve with croutons.

#72 - Margherita Pizzelle Fritte

Some of Johnny's relatives in Italy have made these crazy delicious mini fried pizzas, and they're so good that when Paola came over a few summers back, she didn't leave without revealing the recipe. Some of the Limarzis have made it in America before, and they came out pretty well. Now it's our turn to give it a shot.

Margherita Pizzelle Fritte

From Paola Cuomo Just like regular pizza, there are a bunch of different types of pizzelle you can make, and when we started out, we planned on making both the plain margherita pizzas and some that were stuffed with salami. We only ended up making the margherita pizzelle, so you won't need all the ingredients in the next picture to make these like we did. The main thing here is making the dough, which only needs to rest for about 45 minutes. Once the dough's ready to go, you form a bunch of little discs, and plop them in the frying oil. After a little bit of time, you flip them over, add a slice of cheese, and let it melt a bit. Then you pull them out of the oil, top them with a little bit of sauce and basil, and devour them as fast as you can without burning yourself. Because they are de-lic-ious. There's not much more to say than that. If you have some leftover pasta sauce and are ready to have your mind blown, make some of these.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 milk, warmed
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp dry yeast
• 1 large pinch salt
• 3/4 Tbs olive oil
• Vegetable oil
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
• Tomato sauce
• 15 basil leaves

Preparation

1. On a wooden board, make a mound with the flour.
2. Form a volcano out of the flour and mix the milk and yeast into the hole.
3. Add the salt and olive oil.
4. Begin incorporating the flour into the wet ingredients, slowly pulling down the walls of the volcano.
5. When combined, form the dough into a ball.
6. Knead several times to ensure all wet ingredients are well incorporated.
7. Place dough ball in a bowl and cover with a dish towel, letting rise for at least 45 minutes.
8. Separate the dough into 15 small balls and flatten to form discs.
9. In a large frying pan, heat 1/4 inch vegetable oil over medium heat.
10. When oil is hot, add several of the discs, avoiding overcrowding the pan.
11. When golden brown on the bottom, flip and add a piece of mozzarella.
12. Spoon a small amount of the hot oil to help melt the cheese.
13. When both sides are golden and cheese is slightly melted, remove from oil.
14. Top each pizzella with a heaping teaspoon of sauce and 1-2 basil leaves.

#71 - Zucchini Bread

We already talked about our Joy of Cooking book with the personalized recipes on the cover from when we made Celina's coffee cake. Now it's time to try out Tessa's recipe.

Zucchini Bread

From Tessa Piantadosi Tessa shared her recipe for zucchini bread with us, so since we had some of those lying around, we thought it was a good time to give it a shot. We also thought it was a good time to start taking better care of our vegetables instead of just leaving them lying around like that. The first step to this recipe is to mix all of the ingredients.

It's not pretty. But it gets much prettier when you add the shredded zucchini and get it all well-mixed. See what we mean? Those Renda cousins know their cakes! Two for two. This zucchini bread was sweet and delicious and even though we made it at night for a little dessert, this will definitely be a wonderful breakfast in the morning. If you have zucchini lying around, either put it away where it belongs or use it to make this bread.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups zucchini, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray 12-cup star-shaped bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
3. Mix all ingredients with a spoon until well blended.
4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 44-45 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
7. Turn pan upside down onto wire rack and remove pan.
8. Let cool completely on wire rack, about 1 hour.

#70 - Cornbread

Cornbread is delicious. If you want to eat cornbread as often as possible (and who doesn't?), you have to know how to make it yourself. Here's our shot at it.

Cornbread

From The New York Times We like our cornbread to be more on the sweet side rather than savory, and so we scoured the Internet for recipes and finally settled on this one from The New York Times. To get started, you melt some butter in the pan you're going to cook the whole thing in, and then you start mixing the cornmeal and other dry ingredients. You add some eggs and milk, and then you pour the batter into the melted butter. Then you put the whole thing in the oven for half an hour. Overall, this recipe was pretty good. The original recipe called for 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, and we went with the half cup, and it still wasn't as sweet as it could have been. It was also a little grittier than we'd like, and that might have had to do with the choice of cornmeal. So while it may not be the best cornbread we've ever had, it was still tasty, and maybe we could learn to adjust it a bit to make it just right. If you want to try cornbread at home, this deserves a shot.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbs butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups medium-grind cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk, more if needed

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Put butter in an 8-inch square baking pan, and place pan in oven.
3. Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Mix eggs into milk, then stir this mixture into dry ingredients, combining with a few swift strokes.
5. If mixture seems dry, add another Tbs or two of milk.
6. When butter and oven are hot, remove pan from oven.
7. Pour batter into pan and smooth out top.
8. Return pan to oven, and bake until top is lightly browned and sides have pulled away from pan, about 30 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and serve hot.