Panna Cotta with Wild Berry Sauce

I haven't really posted many desserts to this blog because I've been focusing on dinners, but this one was so great that I don't want to forget how to make it. Panna cotta is a traditional Italian dessert from the Tuscany region. Panna means "cream" and cotta means "cooked", so this is a recipe for cooked cream. I know that may not sound yummy, but think flan or custard and you'll get close. When we visited Italy, this was one of my favorite desserts. It is also very easy, so I will be making this more frequently at home.

Let's Get Started

In order to make this recipe vegetarian, you have to find vegetarian unflavored gelatin, which I found at Andy's Market in Sebastopol for $1.89. Any unflavored gelatin will do if you don't care about what it's made of. (If you don't know what it's made of, google it.)

To make the panna cotta, put 1/2 cup cold water in a metal bowl and sprinkle 4 teaspoons gelatin on top of it. Let it stand for about 10 minutes. Put the bowl into a pan of simmering water to melt the gelatin entirely, about a minute or two. Split one vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. In another pan, combine 4 cups cream, 1 cup sugar, and the seeds from the vanilla beans. Bring the cream mixture to a boil and then simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and mix the gelatin into the cream. Whisk until well blended. Pour the cream mixture into individual serving dishes (I used 1/2 cup ramekins), allow to cool, and then refrigerate. To serve, loosen the panna cotta from the dish using a rubber scraper. Turn out onto small plates. Serve with mixed berry sauce.

To make the berry sauce, mix 4 cups wild berries (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.) with 1/3 cup sugar in a pan large enough to hold them. Let the sugar sit on the berries long enough for them to start releasing their juices. Boil the berry-sugar mixture for about 5 minutes. Puree half the mixture and stir it back into the other berries. Cool completely. Refrigerate any unused portion.

This dessert is simple, elegant, delicious, and easy. Go for a long walk after dinner to burn some of the calories. :-)

TIP: Rather than discarding the vanilla bean after you've scraped out the seeds, put it in a plastic container with 4-6 cups sugar. Leave it to infuse the sugar. After a few days, you will have lovely, gourmet vanilla-sugar to use in everything from coffee to desserts.

Approximate cost to prepare

4 cups cream - $6.00 ($8.00 for organic)

4 t. unflavored gelatin - $1.90

1 cup sugar - $.40

1 vanilla bean - $3.00

4 cups mixed berries - $4.00 ?

1/3 cup sugar - $.15

TOTAL for 10 - 12 desserts - $15.45

Lasagne with zucchini, ricotta, and tomato sauce

I made this one all out of season, but it's a good one to have standing by when zucchini season hits in earnest. This is a great way to use your zucchini. I didn't think I'd like this lasagne very much, but it was really tasty. The nuts made a really terrific texture and flavor along with the zucchini and tomatoes. I took it to a potluck and everyone seemed to love it. As lasagnas go it was quite easy, especially since you use no-boil lasagne noodles. It does take 40 minutes to cook in the oven, but not too long to put together.

Let's Get Started

Preheat the oven to 350º. Oil a 9x12 pan, or two smaller pans. I usually use 2 smaller pans for just the two of us, and then we have a lasagna in the freezer for another night.

Make the tomato sauce. I used a 28 oz can of Muir Glen whole peeled tomatoes, and I felt that this didn't quite make enough sauce. The recipe called for fresh sauce, but it was the wrong season. Canned turned out REALLY tasty. You can use diced, crushed, or whole tomatoes.

To make tomato sauce from canned tomatoes, heat 1 T. olive oil in a skillet with 1 sliced garlic clove. When you smell the garlic, add the tomatoes with their juices and a good sized pinch of dried marjoram or oregano crushed between your fingers. (I used basil that I had dried myself. That worked well, too.) Cook over medium-high heat, smashing the tomatoes against the pan to break up the larger chunks. After 5 minutes or so (whenever it feels like it is a sauce), stir in 1 teaspoon tomato paste to deepen the flavor. Taste for salt and season with pepper.

To make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, put 2 1/2 pounds whole unpeeled tomatoes (plum types work best) in a heavy pan with 1 shallot or 1/2 small onion, finely diced, and 1 sliced garlic clove. Cover and cook over medium-high heat. The tomatoes will give up their juices pretty quickly, but keep an eye on them and add a smidge of water if the pan gets too dry. After about 20 minutes the tomatoes will have thoroughly broken down. Pass them through a food mill to get rid of the skins and seeds. (If you don't have a food mill then you should skin and seed the tomatoes first.) Return the pot to the stove and cook over low heat, stirring frequently until it is as thick as you want. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in 1 T. (or more) olive oil.

While the tomato sauce is cooking, stir a little salt and pepper into 1 pound ricotta cheese (preferably whole-milk ricotta.) If the ricotta is very densely textured, you can thin it with a little water.

Trim 2 1/2 pounds small zucchini, and cut in half lengthwise. Cut each half into diagonal slices as thinly as possible. Heat olive oil in a large skillet, add zucchini, and cook over medium-high, stirring frequently until it glistens and is tender - about 5 minutes.

Finely chop 1 cup of pine nuts or walnuts, or a mixture. Cut 1/2 pound fresh mozzarella into very small pieces (or grate it if you can do that without making it into a mush - I can't.) Grate 1 cup parmesan or pecorino cheese. Have no-boil lasagne noodles standing by.

You now have all the ingredients ready for your lasagna. First spread 1/2 cup of tomato sauce in the bottom of the prepared pan. Lay 3 no-boil lasagne noodles over the sauce. Cover with 1/3 of the ricotta, dot with 1/3 of the nuts, and cover with 1/3 of the zucchini. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1/4 of the mozzarella, and a sprinkling of parmesan. Add another layer of noodles and repeat the layering. Cover the final layer of pasta with the remaining tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmesan.

Tent the dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Let rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Things I'd Do Differently Next Time - I'd like to try this with fresh tomatoes next time, especially when they are ripe at the same time as the zucchini.

Approximate Cost to Prepare

28 oz can tomato sauce - $2.00 - 4.00 OR

8 roma or plum tomatoes - $2.00 - $4.00

1 pound ricotta cheese - $4.00 for the good stuff

2 1/2 pounds small zucchini - $2.00 (free in the summer from your neighbors)

1 8-oz package no-boil lasagne - $2.00 (I didn't use the whole box, so maybe less)

1 c. finely chopped pine nuts or walnuts - pine nuts are much more expensive than walnuts, but I'm guessing $4.00 for a mixture

1/2 pound fresh mozzarella cheese - $2.50

1 c. freshly grated parmesan - $1.50

TOTAL for a big lasagna (6-8 people) - $19.00 (more or less depending on your ingredients)

Gnocchi with Winter Squash and Radicchio

This is very tasty, and fairly quick to make. Since Deborah Madison doesn't make her own gnocchi, I followed suit and used store-bought. I thought the radicchio might make it too bitter, but as it cooks, the bitterness disappears. The flavors are really nice and it can be ready in about 30-40 minutes.

Let's Get Started

Start with one large butternut squash. I was making this for 2 people, so I didn't use a whole squash. Cut the neck off and cut it into 2 or 3 manageable pieces. Scoop out the strings and seeds, setting them aside for a broth later on. Cut the skin off the squash and then cut into half inch cubes. (I use a vegetable peeler to peel the squash, but you can use a knife if you'd like.) Don't worry about irregular shapes.

Toss the squash with a little olive oil, some salt and pepper, and then steam over 3 cups of simmering water until tender, about 20 minutes. Reserve the water to make a sauce. Stir the seeds and strings from the butternut squash in to the water, along with some parsley stems (you'll use the parsley leaves in a minute), and some salt. Let this mixture boil until it is reduced by about half. When it is done, stir in 1 T. butter to make a nice orange sauce for the finished dish. This can be in process while you do the other steps.

Cut 1 head radicchio into wide ribbons. Heat 2 T. olive oil in a wide skillet. Add the radicchio, season with salt and cook over medium-high heat until wilted, tender, and no longer red. When the squash is done, put it in the pan with the radicchio.

In the meantime, chop a big handful of parsley leaves, 2 cloves of garlic, and about 12 sage leaves together. Add most of the herb-garlic mixture to the cooked radicchio and squash and save the rest until the very end.

Bring a pot of water to boil for the gnocchi, salt the water, and then cook the gnocchi until they are tender but not too mushy. Scoop the cooked gnocchi out of the pan and into the squash-radicchio mixture, along with a little of their cooking water. Taste for salt, season with pepper, and add the remaining herbs and garlic. Serve with a little olive oil drizzled over and some of the orange sauce on the plate.

Things I'd Do Differently Next Time: The only thing I can think of is that I might peel and cut the squash earlier in the day and have it standing by for cooking later.

Cost to Prepare:

Butternut squash (3 lbs) - $3.00

1/4 cup olive oil - $.75

1 head radicchio - $1.00

2 garlic cloves, handful of parsley - $.50

12 large sage leaves - $1.00 (or from your garden)

1 T. butter - negligible

3/4 to 1 pound gnocchi - $4.00

freshly grated parmesan and/or gorgonzola cheeses - $1.00

TOTAL for 4 people - $11.25

Fideos with chiles, avocado, and crema

This Mexican style noodle dish was something new for me. It's easy and fairly quick to prepare, although I took a couple of short cuts that may have helped with prep time. The result was delicious. We will definitely have this again.

I had never heard of fideos before now. They are skinny noodles that are all wound up into little nests. I found them at Safeway in the "ethnic" section. As I recall, a package cost about 89 cents - maybe less. They are cooked pilaf-style, meaning they are browned in a little oil in a skillet before you add cooking liquid. In this case, you add a tomato, chile, garlic, onion puree and let it soak into the noodles. It's mildly spicy, but the addition of sour cream, avocado, and a little cheese helps cut the spice.

The recipe calls for 3 dried pasilla, New Mexican, or guajillo chiles. I assume you can find these at a Mexican grocer. I got a huge batch of New Mexico chiles from a friend last fall. I cooked them, pureed them, and froze them in little cubes. I wasn't sure how much to use. I tried 3 cubes (from an ice cube tray) and that seemed about right. I assume you could substitute canned green chile, but you won't get as much punch from that.

Here's what you do

• Cover the dried chiles with hot water and set them aside to soften while you work on the tomato sauce.
• Coat 4 unpeeled garlic cloves with a little olive oil and cook them in a small skillet over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, sliding them around the pan every now and then. Their skins will get toasted and the cloves will get soft.
• While the garlic is cooking, you can start the tomato sauce. You can either use 8 roma tomatoes or 1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes for the sauce. I opted for the canned this time, but I may try the fresh another time. Muir Glen is an excellent organic brand for tomatoes that are the next best thing to fresh. If you're using fresh tomatoes, coat them lightly with oil and grill over an open flame or sear them in a hot skillet to blister the skins.
• When the garlic is done, squeeze the garlic from the skins into a food processor or blender. Add the tomatoes with their charred skins. If you're using canned fire-roasted tomatoes, drain them first and reserve the juice. Add water to make one cup of liquid total. Add the liquid to the food processor. Also add 1/2 cup chopped onion, and 1 t. salt. Puree. (To recap, you should have garlic, tomatoes, onion, salt, and 1 cup liquid in your machine.)
• The chiles should be soft by now. Tear or cut the flesh into strips. Discard the seeds.
• Chop 3-4 parsley sprigs.
• Heat 1 T. oil over medium-high heat in a 10 inch skillet with a tight fitting lid. Crumble the noodles into the hot oil and stir until they're lightly browned. Now add the tomato mixture and most of the parsley (save a little for garnish.) Add all but a few of the chile strips. Stir to even out the contents of the pan and adjust the heat to simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the noodles are soft, 15-20 minutes. Season with pepper.
• Dish some onto plates and serve with creme fraiche or sour cream drizzled over the top. Crumble some feta cheese or queso fresco over the cream. Top with avocado slices and the remaining chile strips and parsley.

Things I'd Do Differently Next Time

Although it's a little more work, I'd like to try this with fresh tomatoes. I'd also like to try out using dried chiles, since I haven't done that before.

Cost To Prepare

3 dried pasilla chiles - ?? Maybe $1.00

4 plump garlic cloves - $.75

3 T. oil - $.50

8 Roma tomatoes or 15-ounce can Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, drained and juices reserved - $3.00

1/2 c. chopped onion - $.50

1/2 pound fhort skinny egg noodles (fideos) - $.90

3 parsley sprigs - negligible

1/2 c. creme fraiche or sour cream - $.50

2-3 ounces feta or queso fresco - $.50

1 avocado for garnish - $1.50

TOTAL for 4 people - $9.15

Mexican beer or Italian prosecco (sparkling wine) go nicely with this. The spiciness works well with bubbles.

Lemon Granita (with a special winter twist)

I recently made lemon granita with some friends on our "Homemade Italian Pizza" night. Granita is a fruit ice that originated in southern Italy. We made ours with the meyer lemons from my tree.

While I was up at Lake Tahoe for

spring break, I had a lot of lemons I needed to process. I used the rinds for making limoncello (an Italian lemon liqueur), and that meant I had lots of juice to use.

It's very simple. Here's how you do it.

Combine 1 and 1/4 cups sugar with 2 cups water in a medium sauce pan. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil. Boil the s

ugar water for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup lemon juice and 1 T. grated lemon zest. Return to a boil and boil for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely. This can be stored in the fridge for a day or two until you're ready to freeze it.

Put a metal pan in the freezer to chill for at least 10 minutes. Pour in the cooled syrup and place the pan back in the freezer. After 2 hours, scrape the partially frozen mixture with a fork to break up the crystals. Put the mixture back in the freezer for 2 more hours (or more). Mix with a fork until slushy. Serve with mint garnish.

The rest of the story

While I was up at Tahoe, the mixture hadn't completely frozen by the time we were ready for dessert. We ate a spoonful, which was a little too syrupy, and realized that we had

the perfect ingredient sitting just outside our door. I scooped up a small bowlful of freshly fallen snow, spooned the partially frozen granita syrup over the top, mixed it in, and voila! It was perfect. It was like a lemon snow cone or slushy - very flavorful and exactly the right texture!

Crookneck Squash and Rice Gratin

I realize that crookneck squash is a summer vegetable, but I decided to go ahead and make this when I saw nice little yellow and green squash in my supermarket. I know they are from Mexico (which is not ideal). Oh well. This dish also features marjoram or thyme, summer herbs according to Deborah, but I consider thyme to be a year round herb, so that's what I used.

I used the ingredients that I had handy, so I almost feel like I didn't make Deborah's recipe. It was really delicious anyway. Here are all my modifications. I used onion instead of leeks - I just could not find leeks at the store today. I used brown rice instead of long grain white rice. I used a mishmash of different kinds of cheese I needed to use up, including mozzarella, cheddar, swiss, and a tiny bit of smoked fontina. The recipe called for gruyere. I also put the dusting of herbs on top before cooking instead of after. These modifications were all delicious and I would make it this way again, but I'm looking forward to trying it Deborah's way at some point.

Let's Get Started

First put on 1/2 a cup of rice to cook. (Bring one cup water to a boil, add a little salt, add the rice, turn down the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or so.) She uses long grain white rice, which makes sense with the summery veggies. I used organic brown rice which gave the gratin a more chewy texture.

Butter a 2-quart gratin dish or 4 individual gratin dishes. Preheat oven to 350º.

Chop up a big handful of parsley leaves, several big marjoram or thyme sprigs, and 2 garlic cloves. You can chop this all together into a garlic-herb mixture. I had about a half cup total.

Wash and thinly slice 2 pounds crookneck squash or zucchini. Slice into thin rounds and set aside. (In the winter time you can use grated butternut squash and sage instead of thyme or marjoram.) Grate 1/2 cup of gruyere cheese, or whatever you've got. Set aside.

Quarter 2 large leeks lengthwise, white part and a little of the green. Rough chop and wash the leeks. Heat 2 t. olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat and add the leeks. Cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add a splash of water or dry white wine to keep them from browning or burning. (I used tonic water 'cause that's what I had in my fridge. It made the onions a little sweeter, which was nice.) Season with a few big pinches of the herbs, 1/2 t. salt, and pepper to taste. Scrape into a bowl and return the pan to the stove.

Raise the heat and add 1 T. olive oil. Add the squash to the skillet and saute until golden in places, 4 minutes or so. Add about 1 T. of the herbs and continue to saute until fairly tender and a little more colored, two minutes or so.

Turn off the heat. Return the leeks to the pan, along with the rice and cheese. Toss well, taste for salt and season with pepper.

Set aside 2 T. of the herb mixture and add the rest to the vegetables. Transfer the mixture to the gratin dish(es), drizzle a little oil over the top and bake until hot throughout, about 25 minutes. Switch the oven to broil and brown the top.

When they come out of the oven, top with reserved herbs and a little lemon zest. Serve hot or warm.

Fresh tomato would be a nice accompaniment in summer, or braised greens in winter. I think the brown rice would be perfect for the more wintery version.

Things I'd Do Differently Next Time

I'd like to try this with white rice, leeks, and gruyere. I'd also like to try this marjoram, an herb I really love. The winter version with butternut squash and sage sounds great, too.

Cost to Prepare

1/2 cup rice - mine came from the farm, but I think maybe $.25 for regular white rice

big handful of parsley - from the garden, but maybe $.75 from the store

several big marjoram or thyme sprigs - garden again, but maybe $.50

2 garlic cloves - $.25

olive oil, salt, pepper - negligible

2 large leeks - $2.00

2 pound crookneck squash or zucchini - about $4.00 in winter. In summer, it's free from your neighbor

1/2 cup gruyere - $2.00

1 t. grated lemon zest - from the yard, or $.50

TOTAL for 4 people - $10.25 if you buy everything from the store. I think it cost me about $4.00 for the squash and everything else I had on hand in the garden or the pantry.

I will definitely make this again. It was very flavorful and delicious

Feta and Ricotta Cheese Skillet Pie

This dish is simple, fast and delicious. Add a salad or a bowl of soup and you've got a quick weeknight meal. I've made it several times now, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. The dish is handsome enough for company, especially if you have a cast iron skillet, which I don't. I think it is pretty enough for company even if you cook it in a plain dish. I usually cook it in a skillet that I can put in my oven. It is also high in protein, thanks to cheeses and eggs. It's so fast that you literally have to wait for your oven to warm up. It's also quite forgiving about the quantities. When I made it yesterday, I only had about 1/2 pound feta, and 2/3 pound ricotta, so I just used fewer eggs to get a consistency I thought would work.

Let's Get Started

Preheat the oven to 375º. Butter a 10" cast iron skillet or an earthenware baking dish.

In a bowl, mix 1/2 pound feta cheese and 1 pound ricotta cheese. You want some chunks left, so don't mix for too long. Stir in 4-6 eggs. Then add 1/4 cup flour and 3/4 cup milk. Season with salt and pepper, and 1 T. chopped dill.

Pour the batter into the buttered pan or dish. Crumble 1/4 pound feta over the top. Bake until golden, 35-40 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.