Italian Zucchini and Tomato Pie

This time of year a lot of people are staring at more zucchini and tomato than they know what to do with. (Ok, I wish we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with, we've had one this year!)  This pie is a nice use of this late summer bounty including fresh basil and oregano from the herb garden.


I kept the egg binder to a minimum in this dish, so it would be lighter and keep the vegetables and herbs as the stars of the show. I used a frozen, pre-made pie crust for this since I had one in the freezer, but if you are feeling ambitious go ahead an make your own.

Italian Zucchini and Tomato Pie


1/2 T olive oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, sliced thin (about 1/8th inch)
1 pie crust (either pre-made or homemade), in a 12" pie pan
2 tomatos, sliced thin
2 T half and half
2 eggs
1 1/2 T fresh chopped basil (or 2 t dried)
1 T fresh chopped oregano (or 1 1/2 t dried)
1/2 oz asiago cheese, grated
1/2 oz parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the zucchini and sauté another 5 minutes until softened a bit.

Layer half the zucchini and onion mixture into the pie crust. Layer the slices from one tomato on top. Repeat with the remaining zucchini mixture and then the last tomato.

Whisk the half and half and eggs together. Stir in the basil, oregano and cheese. Season with a pinch of salt and few grates of fresh pepper.  Pour over the top of the vegetables in the pie crust trying to spread out evenly.

Bake for 30 minutes until the crust is browned and the filling is cooked and firm.

Makes 4 main course servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Smoked Salmon Pasta

One of the things I was most looking forward to using our Smoked Salmon in was pasta dishes. Our favorite local Italian place, Broders, does smoked trout pasta that I really like and I figured salmon would be just as good.
 
I knew I was going to do a cream sauce, but wasn't really sure where else I was going to go with it. In the end, I just ended up using peppers and tomatoes that were ripe in the garden to make a pink, creamy sauce. The sauce was quite mild which really let the flavor of the smoked salmon be the star of the show. We couldn't get enough of this, it was one of those pasta dishes where you want bread to wipe up every last bit of the sauce. 


Smoked Salmon Pasta
(I made the sauce ahead of time except for the cream and salmon. When we were ready to eat I finished it by adding the cream and salmon and heating through.)

 6 oz linguine
1 T olive oil
1 small white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small sweet red pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 1/2 T all-purpose flour
2 c chicken stock
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 T tomato paste
1 t dried parsley
1/4 c cream or half and half
1 1/2 c chopped smoked salmon
salt
freshly ground pepper

Cook the pasta according to directions. Drain when done.

In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic and red pepper. Cook until the pepper is softened. Sprinkle with the flour. Cook while stirring for one minute. Slowly stir in the chicken stock. Add the tomato, tomato paste and parsley. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer until thickened. Stir in the cream and salmon. Season with salt and a generous amount of pepper. Mix in with the drained pasta.

 Makes 3 servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Smoked Salmon, Zucchini and Bread Salad

So, last week I posted about how we smoked our own salmon. It is quite tasty on it's own as a snack, but now it's time to start incorporating it into some meals.

Matt had an idea for a salad that would also use some of the zucchini we had in the fridge. The salad seemed a little out there, but oh man was it ever good! It's colorful and full of different textures. The flavor was just amazing from the smoky soy flavor of the salmon to the zing of the creamy balsamic dressing. We used juustoleipa in this salad because we had some in the fridge, but both of us decided the salad really didn't need it and we'd leave it out in the future.


Smoked Salmon, Zucchini and Bread Salad

2 c bread cubes, from a hearty white bread
1 T olive oil
1 zucchini
handful of cherry tomatoes
1 cup shredded smoked salmon
4 oz juustoleipa, Finnish bread cheese, cubed

Heat the olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bread cubes. Sauté until the cubes are browned on all sides.

Cut the zucchini in half length-wise, then using your peeler make wide, noodle-like strip from each half. (We didn't peel our zucchini, but you can if you like)

Add the juustoleipa to the same skillet you used to brown the bread. Cook until the cubes are brown on most sides and softened.

Mix all the ingredients together and serve with the creamy balsamic dressing.

2 main dish servings.

Creamy Balsamic Dressing
The quantities below are approximate as Matt tends to make our dressing by tasting and adding more of things as he goes. I suggest you do the same thing when making this, adjusting amounts to your tastes.

1/4 t onion powder
1/4 t dried parsley
1 T white wine vinegar
1 t balsamic vinegar
1/4 c mayonnaise
1/4 c olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Mix the onion powder, parsley and vinegars together. Microwave for about 10 seconds. Let cool. Whisk in the mayonnaise. Whisk in the olive oil. Season with pepper to taste.

Makes about 1/2 cup.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

MN State Fair 2011

It's that time of the year again where we stuff ourselves with fried food on a stick, it's fair time! There weren't that many exciting new foods to try this year, so we mixed a few in with some of our favorites.

We got to the fair just in time for breakfast, so our first stop was a classic, Tom Thumbs's mini donuts.

Which was quickly followed by a new offering Axel's Breakfast Lollypop. The breakfast lollypop is a sausage patty, covered in a corn batter, fried and dipped in maple syrup. I actually really liked the flavor combination here, though it is a bit greasy for breakfast.

Speaking of grease, Matt couldn't resist the deep fried slider while we were at Axel's.

That is exactly what is sounds like, a slider, bun and all, batted and fried. Matt liked the flavor, but thought it was very greasy, especially the bun.

Next we wanted to try the Carnitas Asian Taco from San Felipe Tacos that we'd heard so much about.


This was probably the healthiest and perhaps tastiest thing we had all day. It's actually something we might eat outside of the fair. Basically, it a carnitas taco with an Asian sauce, great idea.

As it was before noon on a Sunday, it was still too early to try some Minnesota wine, but not too early for Minnesota wine ice cream made by Izzy's.

We tried two flavors, Bootlegger's Cherry made with Bootlegger's Cherry Port Wine from Cannon River and Ruby River raspberry ice cream infused with Ruby Minnesota wine from Northern Vineyards. Both were really good, but Matt thought the cherry had a better flavor with the huge cherries in it and a better texture. The raspberry tasted much more of wine to me. We thought this was a good deal at $7 for two huge scoops.

Then it was time for a quick beef stick snack while watching the lumberjack show followed by some Spring Grove Sodas.

We'd heard a lot of great things about this soda. Matt had the black cherry and I had the strawberry. The strawberry tasted just like the strawberry soda I used to get as a kid at the local Pop Shop. I thought the black cherry tasted like cough syrup, but Matt loved it.

I really wanted to try the pretzel dog since I love sausage in a pretzel roll.

This was just ok. I wanted more pretzel flavor than the amount of dough wrapped around the hot dog gave.

Of course, it's not a day at the MN State Fair without some fried cheese curds.

As we were leaving, Matt decided he need lunch at that point and capped off the day with a Pronto Pup. Somehow I managed to miss getting a picture of that one last treat.

It was really a great day at the fair, though we both were craving a big green salad by the end of it! I took a ton of non-food pictures too which you'll find here in my State Fair set.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

Weekly Menu 8/29 - 9/2/11

No farmers market finds this week. We have such a full fridge from past visits and from our cousin's garden right now that we just didn't need it. Instead we went to the fair yesterday! Tomorrow, I'll share what we ate this year with you.

To me the fair really signals the end of summer, where did it go this year?!

On to Menu Planning Monday...

Smoked Salmon Pasta

Chicken with a Zucchini Salad

Sausage with Peppers and Onions

Zucchini and Tomato Pie

Since we are heading out of town for a few days Friday night will be finishing anything left in the fridge.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski