Baked Ziti and Stuffed Mushrooms

So today, we decided to eat dinner for lunch, so we could have dinner twice today. These recipes are super-easy to make, and although the mushrooms have a lot of ingredients, they're still simple to toss together. I believe I spent 30 minutes on preparing the mushrooms, and that includes going outside to forage greens.

Stuffed mushrooms are really one of my favourite appetizers/sides in the world. I like to make them different ways (and for you low-carbers, I didn't put in the bread crumbs today). Yum!

Baked Ziti

3 cups meat sauce
1 16-ounce package ziti (I actually used penne, but whatever)
8 ounces mozzarella
2 ounces parmesan

Preheat oven to 350F. Boil pasta in salted water for 6 minutes, then drain. Place pasta, meat sauce and a little bit of the mozzarella in a casserole dish. Top with remainder of mozzarella and cover with foil. Bake for 35 minutes, then uncover and top with parmesan. Bake 25 more minutes. Let stand 10-15 minutes, serve, eat. Serves up to 4.

Stuffed Mushrooms

6 large button mushrooms
4 tablespoons parmesan, divided
5 tablespoons mozzarella, divided
1 can minced clams, drained (I give the juice to Aleister)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
.5 cup chopped wild greens* or spinach
.5 cup chopped fresh mint
1 minced scallion
.25 cup minced celery
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350F (assuming you haven't already done this for the ziti). Clean mushrooms, then remove stems. Brush caps with vegetable oil and put in a baking dish. Trim end of stems off and chop finely and put in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons parmesan, 3 tablespoons mozzarella, greens*, lemon juice, mint, scallion, celery and egg. Stir well. Fill the caps with this mixture (I like to kind of push it down into the caps so it's really full. This has the added bonus of the filling just being slightly higher than flush w/ the top of the cap which leaves more room for CHEESE!), then top each cap with a teaspoon of mozzarella and a little more parmesan. Bake these for 25 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender and the tops are golden brown. Let sit for a minute or five (you don't want to burn your mouth, after all), and eat!

*Ok, so here's the deal with the greens. I'm pretty weird, and I like wild foods. So when I decided to put greens in these mushrooms, I just walked outside and collected some sorrel, dandelion and other wild lettuces to chop up. Just a handful. I assume most people aren't as weird as I am, so you just use spinach or whatever small handful of greens you like best.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gems, Lovely Gems

Image
I actually have a bit more homework than I anticipated, so today I just want to tell you guys about gems. It appears that no one really knows what gems are anymore, but back in the 1800s they were a popular, if heavy, treat. So much so, that many pioneers even found room in their wagons to bring a gem pan. By the early 1900s, gems had fallen out of favour and most people just went with muffins. It's a sad, sad thing, really. Traditionally, gem pans were made from cast iron. You can still find beautiful, old cast iron pans on eBay. In fact, aside from scouring antique shops hopefully (and often fruitlessly), eBay is the only place I know that routinely "carries" them. You can find a proper gem pan for as little as US$5, and I've seen them as much as US$300. You just never really know. My advice, however, is to find one that's shallow, made in the mid-1800s (this is when the pans were really in their prime, quality-wise), and in extremely poor condition. I say to fi
Read more

Lentil, Chick Pea and Eggplant Boil

Image
Sorry for the delay. I actually made this days ago, but due to my busy school schedule (yay! The semester is finally almost over!), I didn't have time until now to post it. I always forget about lentils. I always have them in the house, and like them quite a bit, but most of the time, they don't even exist as an option in my head. I don't know why that is. I've been telling P for a while now I wanted to eat more lentils, so finally I just made some. I also decided to take this as an opportunity to use up some spare veggies laying about. Hope you enjoy! 1/2 anise bulb, sliced 1 small onion, cut into rings 1/2 jalepeno, minced 1 tablespoon olive oil salt to taste 1 cup yellow potato, cubed 2 cups cubed and peeled eggplant 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut into quarters 1 cup lentils 3 - 4 1/2 cups water 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon each: clove, cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed 1/2 preserved lemon, diced 1 roma tomato, chopped 1 cup mixe
Read more

Bergamot Curd

Image
As promised, here is the curd recipe. This is perfect for scones, toast, just to eat, or for an unusual twist on the filling typically used in those little fruit tarts. If bergamots are not available to you, you could always use lemon, Seville orange, sweet types of orange (cut the sugar a bit though), lime, pomello, grapefruit or any other citrus. Enjoy! 9 ounces freshly squeezed bergamot juice 2 tablespoons finely grated zest 1 1/2 cups sugar 6 eggs 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 12 tablespoons butter, cut into 1 tablespoon bits Whisk all but butter into a saucepan. Begin to heat over medium low heat and add all the butter. Whisking periodically, cook until the whisk marks stay in the curd. Pack into sterilised jars (or you can just put this in a jar and put it in the fridge, if you don't want to can it) and process 15 minutes. Makes about 3 cups.
Read more