15 August 2022
It occurred to me that you haven't been getting much more than a series of complaints recently. So I thought I'd pick things up a bit with some recipes (mostly for leftovers) that we both enjoyed recently.
STEAK PIZZA
Wednesday night is steak night and we buy our steaks from Trader Joe's because it terrifies us to walk by the butcher counter at Mollie Stone's where everything seems twice what it used to cost.
We struglged to find good cuts at Trader Joe's though. Eventually we found a two-pack of small filet mignons for $20, which was reasonable. Last week's $20 filet mignons were, surprisingly, so large that neither of us finished them. So we had about a steak left.
Which usually makes me think of a steak salad but, stumped for a mouth-watering pizza idea last week, I decided to make a steak pizza.
A little tour of the Web convinced me it would end up tasting like a Philly cheese steak if I wasn't careful. So I was careful.
After stretching the dough into a thin round, I oiled it and sprinkled it with salt. Then I stained it with tomato sauce. Not very much, just for color, really. On top of that, I sprinkled some shredded cheese before laying the thinly cut strips of filet mignon down.
After a generous sprinkling of diced, marinated roasted sweet red peppers, I tossed some chopped red onion around.
The steak was cold from the refrigerator so 12 minutes in the oven didn't overcook it.
SALMON PASTA
Now and then there's an 8 oz. package of smoked salmon that's nearly the same price as the 4 oz. package we use for Sunday brunch. What to do with the other 4 ounces?
Make pasta.
I like this with spaghetti but it works with shorter pasta too. While it's cooking I put a couple of tablespoons of Trader Joe's Alfredo in a cold frying pan, squeeze the juice of half a lemon into it. toss in a teaspoon of capers for each of us and add a large spoonful of pasta water before mixing in the lox.
You don't really have to cook that sauce, just warm it up. And the pasta water and pasta itself do that.
Between the capers and the lox, it's a salty dish.
PENNE DEL MARESCIALLO
The simplest dinner I've put together was just some of that wonderful, frozen La Brea Bakery bread (nine minutes at 375 in the toaster oven does it) with a penne dish that uses just two ingredients.
One is pancetta. I used the inexpensive little cubed pancetta from Trader Joe's. Bacon is not the same in this dish, sorry.
The other is red onion (although it also works with green onions, if you want a milder dish).
Sauté the onion in oil for a couple of minutes to soften them and then add the pancetta, browning it.
Just before the pasta is ready, add tomato sauce to the frying pan and salt if necessary before adding a little Alfredo sauce. Mix the Alfredo in for a rich orange color.
Add the pasta, cooking it in the pan a couple more minutes to absorb the sauce.
LEFTOVER MEAT SAUCE
This is how I use the third pork chop in the Trader Joe's three-pack. It's also what I do with the leftover chicken tenders when we make saltimbocca. And I've even used sausage with it.
There are a lot of chopped ingredients to prepare ahead of time: red onions, roasted peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, the meat.
For the pasta, I always use the spinach tortellini that cooks in two to three minutes. One less thing to worry about (and you get your spinach).
In a frying pan, I sauté chopped red onions in olive oil, add some chopped roasted red peppers and sliced mushrooms over medium heat.
When the mushrooms have absorbed the oil and start to sweat, I turn the heat to high and add a little white wine. This is apparently optional, but it makes the sauce special.
Back to medium when the wine evaporates to add some chopped cherry tomatoes and wilt them in for five minutes.
Then I add the meat, turn the heat to high and add some pasta water (which should be boiling now). That goes for a minute then you can turn it down while the tortellini cook. You can add fresh basil and salt as necessary. Sometimes I add some sliced black olives along the way, too.
It makes a rustic, chunky brown sauce with a little sweetness from the onions and peppers. And some magic from the white wine.
BUON APPETITO
You might have noticed all these are heavy on protein. Doctor's orders. The more protein Joyce eats, the better it is for her wound.
But you don't need a wound to enjoy these simple, quick dinners. Buon appetito!