A Good Appetite

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Red Pepper Sauce

When we got home from vacation we discovered our garden was full of ripe sweet peppers, one of the few things that has done well in the garden this year. Since there were so many of them, I decided to turn them into a flavorful sauce for pasta.

This is such a great change from your run-of-the-mill tomato sauce for pasta. The color and flavor of the sweet red peppers are definitely the star of this dish. We used a sweet, fruity, Italian pepper called Jimmy Nardello's, but I think regular red bell peppers would work just as well.

We love Italian sausage with red peppers, so we added some cooked bulk sausage to the sauce before pouring it over the pasta. It would be just as good without it though. Make the dish completely vegetarian by using vegetable stock instead of chicken.

Red Pepper Sauce

1 T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 c)
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
9 - 10 oz sweet red peppers, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 c chicken stock
2 T tomato paste
2 t lemon juice
1/2 t dried basil
1/4 t dried oregano
2 - 3 pinches crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 t kosher salt
1/4 c half and half

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and peppers. Sauté until everything is tender and the onions are just starting to brown, about 30 minutes.

Put the onions, peppers and garlic into a blender or food processor with 1/2 cup of the chicken stock. Purée until almost smooth. Return to the skillet.

Add the remaining chicken stock, tomato paste, lemon juice, basil, oregano, pepper flakes and salt. Let simmer for 30 minutes stirring from time to time.

Stir in half and half. Heat through.

Serve over warm pasta.

Makes 2 servings

Thoughts for making this again: Next time I might try roasting the peppers, onion & garlic in the oven before puréeing them to see if that give it even a deeper flavor.

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Monday, September 19, 2011

We're back and weekly menu 9/19 - 9/23/11

We are back from a two week adventure in Alaska, did you miss us? We spent a week cruising the inside passage aboard a Holland America cruise ship and then a week on land traveling from Anchorage to Denali National Park to Fairbanks.

We had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed the beauty of Alaska. We'll have a couple of posts about it throughout this week, after we get through a couple thousand photos!

On to Menu Planning Monday...
(you mean we have to cook for ourselves again edition)

Vegetarian Chili

Red Pepper and Sausage Pasta - The peppers in our garden all ripened while we were gone

Brats with Kraut

Smoked Salmon Pizza - No, we did not get enough salmon in Alaska

Something vegetarian, but not sure what yet - We're feeling a bit of a vegetable deficit after the trip

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Smoked Salmon Spread

Continuing the use of our smoked salmon, this spread is one Matt whipped up to have as a mid-afternoon snack on rye crisp crackers. It's creamy, smoky and just a little salty. It is super simple to make, but I think is good enough to serve as an appetizer for a party.

Smoked Salmon Spread

3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 oz smoked salmon

Purée until the salmon is incorporated into the cream cheese. Best served softened a little at room temperature.

Makes about 2/3 cups.

This is the basic recipe which is really tasty on its own, but you could add a lot of different things to take it into different directions. Make it a little spicier by adding tabasco, cayenne or Sriracha. Give it an Asian twist by adding some soy sauce or sesame oil. Or go Scandinavian and add some fresh dill and a little lemon juice.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Gazpacho Chicken

The other night we were having chicken thighs for dinner, but I hadn't really planned on how I was going to prepare them. Then as I was looking through the fridge I noticed some leftover gazpacho. Suddenly, it hit me that gazpacho would make a great braising sauce for chicken.

My inspiration was right on. The gazpacho made for a great light, summer tomato sauce and bonus, got one more container of leftovers out of my fridge!

There is no real recipe here. Just heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown pieces of boneless chicken on both sides. Add enough gazpacho to just barley cover the chicken. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover and let simmer until the chicken is cooked through about 30 minutes. Remove the cover and let the sauce boil until reduced and thickened a bit. Serve over hot rice.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Apples of my Eye

We are starting to see the first of the fall apples in the farmers markets here in MN. Apparently, local growers are expecting a bumper season with 50% more apples than usual! That is a lot of apples.

With that in mind we thought we'd share some of our favorite apple recipes from the last couple of years to get you ready to use these fall favorites to their fullest.