Fried Ravioli

With this low-fat nonsense, one of the things I've been doing is making some of our favorite bar foods at home, baked rather than fried, with good fats instead of 'wtf is THAT' fats. This is one of the bigtime hits.


1 package fresh ravioli
1 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese
1/2c bread crumbs
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
1 egg white
1 tbsp skim milk
1 tbsp half & half
marinara sauce for dipping

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If you're using store bought ravioli like I did, because I'm far too lazy to make my own, make sure they're not stuck together. I prep my cookie sheet now too, by putting down a sheet of foil, because scrubbing off bits of breadcrumb is not my idea of an awesome saturday night.

On a plate, mix together the herbs, the breadcrumbs and the parmesan cheese. If you'd like, you can use 'Italian' store bought bread crumbs and forget the herbs. Mix in the olive oil thoroughly.

Mix together the salt, egg white, skim milk & 1/2 + 1/2 in a shallow bowl. At this point, you should have a sort of assembly line set up... ravioli container -> egg -> breadcrumb mixture -> cookie sheet. Dip the ravioli in the egg & lift it out onto the breadcrumb with one hand, then use the other hand to press breadcrumbs into both sides, shake off the excess, and lift it out onto the cookie sheet, one by one, until as many as you can stuff onto that sheet are on there. I don't space them out very far... they expand upward when they cook, when the filling heats up.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until they're super crispy and the filling is cooked through... this may vary depending on the size and filling of the ravioli you use. I don't flip them, because I'm way lazy, but if you want yours to be super zomg pretty you may want to flip after 5 minutes or so. Serve with marinara sauce.

Picky Husband Info: This recipe is a bit different than most 'fried' ravioli recipes, and it's all because of him and his silly heart. Psh. If you'd prefer, you can use more cheese and a whole egg, with just a 'splash' of dairy.

Verdict: "Holy crap is that good. ...holy CRAP is that good!!"

Garlic Bread

It's still high in fat, and I do add a little bit of butter. Overall, though, it's delicious and marginally healthy. Plus... it's frickin garlic bread. I mean. Come on.

1/3 a loaf of french bread or baguette
2-5 cloves of garlic, pressed, minced or grated
1 tsp dried herbs
1 tbsp butter blend
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350, or leave it at 400 if you're already making lasagna rolls. Cut your bread in half lengthwise and set it on a size-appropriate length of tin foil. I say '1/3 a loaf' above because that's what Dactyl & I eat most of the time. You can increase the recipe for more people, or use a whole loaf at your discretion.

In a small bowl, mix together everything but the bread until it's a pretty uniform paste. For herbs, I use oregano, basil & marjoram, but if all you want is oregano, or if you have one of those 'italian herb blends' go for it. Using a butter knife, spread the butter mixture as well as you can on both halves of the bread... it'll be a cross between pouring and spreading. I also like to rub the halves together when I'm done with the knife, but that's kind of unnecessary.

Make cuts across the width for servings. Wrap the bread in the foil, then throw it in the oven for 15 minutes.

Picky Husband Info: This is, oddly, full of 'good' fat, though it's still a ton of calories, so I like to pair this with something like a salad rather than the forementioned lasagna rolls.

The Verdict: "Garlic... bread? You're feeding me garlic bread?! *dives in facefirst*" Make sure to make him brush his teeth, ew.

Lasagna Rolls

One of the things I've never been able to do with my spaz-tastic nature is serve lasagna. I end up with a deconstructed mess of noodles and cheese. So, I came up with this recipe to try & remedy that and it works like a charm, and it makes me look like a dynamo when I entertain. Double score.

8 dry lasagna noodles
16 oz ricotta cheese
1/2 c mozzarella cheese, plus 1/2c for toppings
2 tbsp grated hard stinky cheese (romano, parmesan, asiago, etc)
1 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried red pepper flake or a few drops of tabasco
1 garlic clove, finely minced
salt & pepper to taste
~2c marinara sauce

Start by soaking the noodles in very hot tap water. Depending on your noodles and the temperature of your tap, this can take as little as 20 mins or as long as an hour or two. You can also boil the noodles, but this will make them scalding hot (duh) and as a result more difficult to work with. I generally start soaking them, mix up my filling & go watch TV or something for the rest of the time. You want them to be floppy but not falling apart. After you make this a few times you'll know how you like them.

Mix together everything else but the marinara in a large bowl. You can also add other fillings... the easiest fillings are very bendable, like spinach. Dactyl likes ground turkey sausage when I let him get away with it. I'm also a fan of mushrooms, and sometimes I swap the minced garlic for a few cloves of roasted. The one rule of thumb is that you should cook all your non-melty fillings (ie, don't try and put your cheese in a saute pan) first and then drain out either the water (in the case of most veggies) or grease (in the case of most meats). Either too greasy or too watery will make the filling get sloppy and fall out. You can also swap your filling out for a different lasagna recipe. You may want to prepare extra noodles, too, if you add a lot of extras to your filling. If you want a bit of insurance against filling fallout, feel free to add an egg to the mixture.

To assemble, take a noodle and pat it slightly dry. For the barebones recipe, I put a heaping spoonful of the filling mixture, another 1/3 of the way up, and then roll it toward the end, adding more filling if I run out. Don't roll too tightly, or you'll end up with just noodle. If you add a hunkier filling, you'll need to spread it down the length of almost the entire noodle before you roll it up, and then roll very gently. Try to leave a little bit of empty space at the end with no filling. Place your roll seam side down and repeat.

It's just Dactyl and myself, so 8 rolls is slightly excessive. Here, I prepare half the rolls to eat, and put the other half on a cookie sheet. I freeze them for about an hour, then put them in a plastic baggie. Another fringe benefit... your lasagna pan isn't in the freezer until you decide to use them, and you can bake off a couple for a lunch or something if you'd like without preparing an entire pan of lasagna.

To prepare the rolls, put 1c of sauce on the bottom on your pan, then put the rolls on top of the sauce, seam side down. Ideally the rolls shouldn't touch. Once you put them down, try to not rearrange them... this will make them more liable to stick. For smaller batches, use less sauce... it should coat the bottom of your dish to ~ 1/4". For a twist, you can also use alfredo sauce or (my personal favorite) marinara on the bottom and alfredo on top. When you have all the rolls down, cover each with a few additional spoonfuls of sauce, then add cheese on top. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil, then bake for 1/2hr at 400 degrees on a middle or lower rack. Uncover and let bake another 15-20 minutes until the cheese starts to brown. When baking from frozen, let bake covered at least 15-20 minutes longer.

Picky Husband Substitutions: I use part skim mozz and ricotta. I make sure I'm getting high quality ricotta too, because the cheaper stuff tastes 'gritty' to him.

The Verdict: two noms up.

Cucumber Salad

This is a nice addition to some heavier summer fare... it pairs very well with BBQ sauced items in particular. Also, it's pretty well idiot-proof, inexpensive and doesn't require any actual cooking. Score.

1 english cucumber or 2 regular cucumbers
1/4c red wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp djion mustard
black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix together everything except the cucumber until it's very well combined. Slice the cucumber very thin. I use a knife, but I've used the 'slice' side of my box grater when I'm in a hurry. If you have a mandolin, that would work really well too.

Add the cucumber to the dressing. Toss to make sure the cucumber is thoroughly coated, then chill for at least 4 hours. Yah, that's really it. If you want you could add fresh herbs (dill in particular is nice) but I love it either way.

Picky Husband Info: I use a bit less mustard than specified here... I stir the mustard with a fork and use what sticks to it, usually closer to 1/4 tsp. Cucumbers are one of the few vegetables he'll eat without me grinding it to a paste.

The verdict: Pretty tasty. In summertime we have this weekly, because it's so ridiculously easy to make, and I can make it well in advance and have it on hand in a pinch.

Pizza Dough

Dactyl's favorite food. As he says, it's like sex in that 'when it's good it's great and when it's bad it's still pretty good.' We started making this at home because we can control what ingredients are in it and because we would never use our grill otherwise.

1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp warm water (not higher than 120F)
2/3 c water
2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
olive oil
toppings

Combine the yeast and warm water in your mixer bowl. Let it sit until it blooms, 5-10 minutes. 'Bloom' with yeast means that it'll go from a hard little pellet to a floating unattractive mass and it'll start to smell like beer. Add the rest of the water, flour & salt. Sometimes if I'm being fancy I'll also add some dried herbs... oregano, basil, marjoram, that kind of thing. If the consistency of your dough seems very sticky, add a tablespoon more flour. When I make this during the winter, the dough is very tight, but if I make it in the humid Atlanta summer it sticks to everything. I'd suggest you make it the way it's printed once, and adjust accordingly.

I said 'mixer bowl' because I use my stand mixer with the dough hook, and let it knead on a medium speed for 10 minutes at this point. If you want, you can do this manually, but you'll have to knead for at least double the time, probably more like triple. It'll go from a weeknight task to backbreaking labor.

While your mixer or hired labor is kneading, prepare a bowl by coating it in olive oil. Being the super-traditional Italian white girl that I am, I opt for plastic wrap over trying to get dried on library paste off a tea towel. When the dough is finished being kneaded, put it into the bowl, coat both sides with olive oil, cover it with the plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm area for 2 hours. After 2 hours, punch it down, re-form it into a ball, and cover it with plastic wrap again. Let rise for at least 2 hours, or overnight in the fridge.

Now, decision time. You can either bake this in the oven OR grill it. If you want to bake it, preheat your oven to 450 F. If you want to grill it, start up the grill! Put down some flour on your board, flour your hands, punch your dough down and divide it into 2 separate balls. Put it on the board in the flour, sprinkle some flour on top and work the dough back & forth. Typical pizza thickness will be a roughly 7 inch circle, but being from New York, I stretch mine out to a 9 inch circle.

For Baking:
Put your pizza on a cookie sheet. If you think it'll stick, put extra flour down underneath it. Add your toppings, then bake on a lower rack for 15-20 minutes, until the toppings are cooked and the bottom is browned. Let it cool for at least a minute before you dig in!

For Grilling:
I bring my board out with me, and plop the pizza directly onto the grates of the grill (oil lightly with a basting brush and olive oil). When the underside begins to brown, you will be able to lift the pizza off the grate easily... if it doesn't come off, let it cook a bit more and try again. DO NOT try and shift it around and move it, even if you put it on there kind of weird looking and you want to fix it. You'll only make a mess. Flip the pizza over and add your toppings while the pizza is still on the grill. We find a two-tong approach works best. Close the cover and allow the pizza to cook for 3-4 minutes. Again, let it cool at least 1 minute until you start slicing.

Picky Husband Info: We both love the 'grill' recipe because it gives him something to do when we have people over, and it's a surprising preparation so he gets to look like a super hero. He also gets to have (turkey) pepperoni and (low fat part skim) cheese so he feels super naughty without giving him a coronary. Plus, I get to force some veggies down his gullet in the guise of spaghetti sauce.

The Verdict: 'Can we have more? Maybe next week?' Every time.

Asian Pasta Salad

Pasta salad is my absolute favorite thing about summer. I make a few dozen versions of it depending on my mood. This is one of my favorites. This is a huge batch to share at cookouts.

dressing:
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp or so honey (a 'squeeze'-change to raw cane syrup for vegans)
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
scallions

everything else:
1/2 pound whole wheat 'strand' pasta (spaghetti, linguine, etc)
various veggies
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
salt & pepper

Start off by boiling your pasta in salted water. Prep your dressing by mixing everything together in a big bowl. Add a scallion or three as well, sliced on an angle so they look super classy (and have more surface area for dressing to cling to). I really like scallions so I add 5 or 27. A tsp of salt and 3-4 grinds of black pepper is a good place to start as far as seasoning goes, but remember that you're seasoning raw veggies with this dressing, so you may want to add more. Yes, even with the soy sauce in there.

As far as veggies go, broccoli, carrots, snow peas, regular peas, peppers and any other thematically 'asian' veggies will work. Mushrooms tend to shrivel and make the salad watery, but are tasty so if I'm making it for myself I still use them. I also add edamame for a protein component. The one thing I don't do here is add canned anything... it really throws off the taste of the whole salad. Frozen is ok, especially for peas & edamame. Have enough veggies to make up at least 2 cups worth of vegetation.

When the pasta is done, drain it, shock it with cold water, drain it more, then add to the dressing and toss. Add the veggies, toss some more. Taste one last time for seasoning (remember what I said about seasoning the veggies) add more salt/pepper & stir if needed, then cover and let sit for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Before you serve it, sprinkle the top with the sesame seeds so it looks way purdy, and so that the sesame seeds stay crunchy.

Picky Husband Info: Yeah, he's not touching this with a 10 foot pole. Cold pasta makes him squirm, as does edamame and the idea of the tiny little sesame seeds crunching in his teeth. Which is good for me, because it's delicious and I don't want to share. It's a shame though, because it's full of antioxidants, good fats, fiber & veggies.

Anna's Pesto

If my Italian BFF ever saw this recipe she would probably shoot me in the face. This is definitely not classic pesto. In fact, it's also a delicious pun (get it, annapest-o?). The taste of this still reminds me of summer.

2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp flax seeds
1/4 c walnuts
1/2 c basil leaves
1/2 c spinach
salt & pepper
olive oil
1 tbsp parmesan or other hard stinky cheese (romano, asiago, etc)

In the bowl of a food processor, begin by grinding up the flax seeds until they don't look quite as seed-like. Add the walnuts, garlic, parm, salt (start with 1 tsp) and a few grinds of black pepper and grind until it forms a paste. Add the basil, spinach and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Grind until it's a violently green paste.

This makes a very tight pesto which is also good for spreading... This + bread + tomatoes = heaven. For use for pasta, add some of the cooking water and stir. The mixture will turn a lighter green and get looser. With a little vinegar, this also makes a killer base for a cold pasta salad in summer. Freezes well.

Picky Husband Info: This is extremely, extremely green, so this was one of those, "I'm going to trust you on this one" dishes. The walnuts & flax seeds are for extra omega 3 fatty acids, and both have less saturated fat than the usual pine nuts. I use far less cheese than is traditional, but bumped up the olive oil and garlic for extra flavor and antioxidants. I added the spinach to add nutrients, fiber and to stretch the far more expensive basil. Spinach also helps keep this super green... basil-only pesto starts to turn a weird brown color very quickly.

The verdict: omnomnom. Dactyl especially likes this on ravioli.

Babaganoush

Dactyl always laughs whenever I mention babaganoush, and then asks me what the hell it is, anyway. Well, here's what it is.

1 eggplant
1 lemon
some plain yogurt
olive oil
salt + pepper
1 clove garlic

Cut the eggplant in half. Drizzle with olive oil on an oiled cookie sheet. Roast the eggplant cut side up in the oven at 425 until it starts to wilt and the cut side starts to brown... start checking after 20 mins or so. Let cool.

Throw the garlic, about a tablespoon of olive oil, juice of half the lemon, 3 tablespoons of yogurt, about a tablespoon of salt and a few grinds of black pepper into a food processor. Remove the eggplant from its skin. It's easiest to do this with your fingers, although it'll make you feel very primal, as the cooled cooked eggplant is kind of slimy and primordial. Put that in the food processor and grind it all up. Add more olive oil or yogurt to change the texture.

This is tasty with warm pita bread.

Picky Husband Substitutions: I tried to peel off as many eggplant seeds as I could, not realizing that I was, yanno, putting it in the food processor and it wouldn't really matter.

The Verdict: 2 bites, and that was it. Oh well.