Hello everyone and Happy-Almost-Christmas! I just got back from Georgia. I spent a few days visiting with friends and family and of course cooking! This Sunday I had an early Christmas with my mom, brother, sister and brother-in-law. Every year, Patrick and I head down to Georgia the week before Christmas. We do an early Christmas at my mom’s where we exchange gifts, play games and I make a huge meal. I love cooking and love to make great recipes for my family so I would not have it any other way. Besides me being hung over from hanging out with all my best freinds on Saturday night, Sunday’s meal went quite well. I had to cook all day, as I made everything from scratch (most Italians do).
You might assume I do the seven fishes feast like most Italians, however my mother is allergic to shellfish and my boyfriend hates fish, so I didn’t want anyone to feel left out. My mother is also a vegan so you will see the special dish I made for her this holiday.
Check out what I made this year!
Asparagus Tordelli with a Brown Butter Sauce
This was the special dish I made for my mom, although I wanted to use a vegan butter for the sauce, I was worried about the consistency and the flavor and smoothness. So I used Kerrygold butter. A natural Irish butter. If you have ever seen the cows in Ireland, you know this is truly happy cow butter!
Here’s how to make it:
Pasta
2 1/4 cups semolina flour
1 cup cold water
1 pasta maker
2 cloves garlic
1 pound asparagus
Olive Oil
grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Mix flour and water together. Pour flour into a mound and add water a few tablespoons at a time. Fold into flour until dough is workable. Knead it well and set aside for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, Roll flat and run through pasta maker. Make a large thin sheet. What I do is roll it into a medium thickness and then again into thinner sheets. The sheets should be almost translucent.
While you roll out the pasta, saute 2 cloves sliced garlic in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil. After 5-7 min add one bunch of asparagus, with ends snapped off. Cook for 15 minutes until asparagus is a vibrant green. Once asparagus is cooked, add asparagus and garlic into food processor with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon vegetable broth. You can also add a few tablespoons grated parmesan into the mix. Mix well.
Lay out sheets of pasta dough and use a circle cutter or wine glass to create circles in the dough. Set circles aside. Put a small spoonful of asparagus puree into one circle and place another circle on top. With a fork, seal the the sides of the tordelli.
Once you have created all the tordelli, set inside a floured container and refrigerate until you cook them.
When you do cook them, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add tordelli and reduce heat to medium. Remove as soon as tordelli floats to the top (should not take more than 5 minutes).
For the brown butter sauce:
Saute 2 cloves chopped garlic in a medium saucepan with a tablespoon olive oil. After about 5-7 minutes, add one stick of butter and 2-3 sage leaves. Once butter is melted, stir continuously with a whisk. Cook for about 10 minutes. Butter will turn a brown color. Pour over tordelli and serve right away. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Fried Eggplant Stack
This is an easy and delicious meal you can make any night of the week! It’s one of my boyfriends favorite meals and I make it at least once a month. Since I know it’s a winner and it’s easy to make, I had to make it for Christmas. Everyone loved it and there was not a bite left over!
What you need:
One large eggplant
2 fresh balls of mozzarella
2 large ripe tomatoes
1 half pound arugula
1 half pound spinach
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
flour
breadcrumbs
2 eggs
How to make it:
Get one large eggplant and slice it into thin circles. Place each slice into a colinder, sprinkle with salt and let sit. Place a paper towel in between each layer of eggplant slices to soak up the water in eggplant. Let sit for about 40 minutes.
Chop 1 half pound fresh spinach and one half pound fresh arugala. Toss well with balsamic vinegar. Slice ripe beefsteak tomatoes into thin circles and set aside. Slice balls of mozzarella with cheese knife. Mozzarella should also be circles.
In three seperate dishes place the following. In one dish place 2 whisked eggs; in other place 1/4 cup flour; in the third dish place 1 cup Italian bread crumbs.
Heat a large saucepan with 1/4 cup olive oil. Once pan is heated and eggplant slices have dried, fry them. Place one eggplant slice into flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. Place in frying pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Keep adding more olive oil as you continue to cook eggplant slices. Once eggplant is all fried, begin layers.
To layer, place one fried eggplant down on dish, top with a spoonful of the mixed greens, a slice or two of tomatoes and then a slice of mozzarella cheese. Add another eggplant slice and then mixed greens, tomato and cheese. Finish with one last eggplant slice and sprinkle with fresh chopped basil and grated parmesan.
Serve immediately.
Drunken Goat Chicken
The best chicken recipe and it’s a Grabbing Lapels original! Get the recipe here : Drunken Goat Chicken
5 Layer Lasagna
Now I can’t give out my lasagna recipe, things like this and my eggplant parmesan are for me and family only. But I will say, this has no meat and it’s all made from scratch. Italians don’t buy sauce, we make it. So for this I used my own sauce and made five cheesy layers of sauce, ricotta, fresh mozzarella, herbs and spinach.
My whole family pitched in for dessert, my brother brought these amazing (and gigantic!) cupcakes from Fresh Market.
My mom made some delicious mini Nutella Cupcakes.
My sister and brother-in-law made homemade vanilla and peppermint ice cream with tons of toppings! Not pictured because we are devoured it too soon!
My mom also took a recipe from one of our Thirsty Thursday’s and made these Cranberry Moscow Mules! They were festive and delicious!
We had such great day Sunday. We played games and opened gifts and ate a lof of food!
I look forward to this time of year and love to plan out the meal for my family. It takes up my whole day cooking and I usually look like a mess by the time we eat, but it is so so worth it! I am already excited about thinking what to make next year!
By Bianca