April Slice of the Month - Asparagus and Leek

April is here and so is Spring - finally! To usher in the new month and season, we once again bring you our Slice of the Month recommendation. This month, it's a Shaved Asparagus and Leek pizza on whole wheat crust. It's ridiculously good.

Squeezes of lemon brighten up the asparagus, and the leeks offer a mild onion-y tang. Combine all this with some soft and smooth mozzarella cheese (burrata if you can manage it), and you will have all the birds tweeting in spring time celebration.

Now, we would be remiss if we did not mention that this Slice of the Month is brought to you by Colavita Olive Oil. They post a fancy cookbook on their Facebook page once a month. I make this book! Yes, it's true. It has more photos and a beautiful layout (well, I like it anyway...). You can get them for free every month by liking Colavita. So, run on over and do that now.

And now, let's make some pizza.

What You Need:

1 recipe whole wheat pizza dough, salt, freshly ground black pepper and...

1 bunch of asparagus (feel free to mix green and white varieties)

2-3 leeks, sliced and rinsed well

mozzarella cheese (two medium balls of burrata, or a half pound of fresh, lightly salted)

1-2  lemons

fresh thyme (as much as you like)

Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil

What To Do:

Heat the oven to 500 degrees. If using a pizza stone, allow the stone to heat up along with the oven for a half hour before baking on it. 

Stretch out your dough on a cornmeal-dusted peel to about 10-12” in diameter, and brush the top with olive oil.

Peel the asparagus: Hold a single asparagus spear at the base and lay it flat on a cutting board. Using a
vegetable peeler (a Y-shaped peeler works best...you could also try a mandoline, but be careful of your fingers),  run the peeler lengthwise down the asparagus, creating long shavings. Repeat with the remaining stalks. Your strips will be all different sizes, but don’t worry, it will just add to the texture (and fun!). Discard the tough ends. 

Place the asparagus peelings in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt,  pepper and freshly chopped thyme.

Clean the leeks thoroughly by rinsing with water. It’s easiest if you chop them first (you’ll only be using the white ends), so you can rinse all the nooks and crannies free of dirt.

Heat a skillet on the stove top over medium heat. Pour in 1 tablespoon of Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place the chopped leeks in the skillet, and sauté until wilted, about 5 minutes.

Add the shaved asparagus, and sauté for about 3 minutes, allowing the flavors to combine.

Dollop the fresh mozzarella along the surface of the stretched out pizza dough. You can also grate some Parmesan cheese over the mozzarella.

Distribute the shaved asparagus and leek mixture over the top of the cheese. Sprinkle on a bit more fresh thyme as well.

Drizzle with Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil and season with salt and pepper.

Slide your pizza onto the stone in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the top of the pizza. 

Grilling Instructions:

Alternately, this pizza is fantastic on the grill. If you’d like to grill this pie, heat up your grill and oil the grate.

Before you begin, it’s handy to have a few things in place: Position all your topping in bowls alongside the grill. It may be necessary to pull up a small table next to the grill for this purpose. Make sure your cheese is sliced and waiting on a dish as is the leek and asparagus mixture. Have some extra olive oil handy, the chopped thyme, salt, pepper and lemon. It’s also a good idea to have some tongs and oven mitts at the ready (things get hot) and a platter or cutting board for your finished pizza.

Instead of dusting a peel with cornmeal, brush both sides of the stretched-out pizza dough with Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Place the stretched-out dough (without toppings!) directly onto the grill grate, and close the lid. Let it bake for about 2 minutes (this goes very quickly!). 

Open the lid and using the tongs, flip the crust to the other side. Starting with the cheese, place all the toppings on the pizza as neatly and quickly as possible. Don’t forget the seasonings! Close the lid and allow to bake for another 2-3 minutes.

Finally, remove the pizza from the grill (use those tongs again) and place it onto a serving platter. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top. Serve!

Eat Like It's Easter All Year

Today, I'm bringing you the Iaciofano Easter 2013 highlights. These recipes can (and should) be made all year long.

For example, the first dish was something I made up! I ran around the Morristown King's produce department picking up fruits and vegetables that matched. In color. Just to see what would happen. The result was a Golden Beet, Blood Orange and Pineapple Roast (pictured above). This recipe is fantastic all year long, as beets are easily attainable. You could use canned pineapple in a pinch. But try not to pinch, ok? 

Here's how to do it:

What You Need:

3 large golden beets, roasted and chopped into cubes (recipe below)

1 blood orange, peeled and chopped into cubes (remove seeds)

2 cups cubed pineapple

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

fresh cilantro, chopped (as much as you like)

1/3 cup shredded, unsweetended coconut (i actually prefer the big flakes instead of the smaller shredded kind)

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

What To Do:

First, roast the beets. Remove the leafy stems, and slice the beets in half. Wrap each loosely in aluminum foil and place in an oven heated to 400 degrees. Bake until soft when pierced with a knife - about 40 minutes.

Remove the beets from the oven and allow to cool. Remove the skins from the beet, and chop into cubes (BONUS: because these are golden beets, they won't stain your hands like the red ones!).

Break out a cast iron skillet, or some kind of other shallow baking dish. I used this amazing copper one that I found at a flea market. It's French! Oolala!

Throw the chopped beets in the dish, along with all the other chopped fruits and veggies. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, cilantro and coconut.

Place the dish back in the oven (which should still be at 400 degrees, and bake for about 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and garnish with more fresh cilantro, if you like. Serve!

And then we roasted some MORE. And we couldn't get enough of this crazy copper dish, so we used it again. But this time, we did it on the stove top. Oh yes, there is more than one way to skin a cat, people. Or in this case, a tomato.

For this, we used Ina Garten's recipe for Garlic and Herb Tomatoes, which you can find here.

And then Toby and I went for a walk.

I discovered that Toby is camera shy. 

John and I, however, are not.

And then we had some cupcakes. Colossal Coconut Cupcakes. These are intense. There's coconut everywhere. In the cake, in the icing, garnishing the icing, in my hair...all over the floor...on the dog. The Box hated it. He dislikes coconut. The rest of us were thrilled. These would be fabulous at a summer BBQ. Just saying...

This recipes is also from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Marmo loves the Barefoot Contessa. I've always been more of a principessa myself, but that's another story. You can find the cupcake recipe here.

And then, Aunt Emily harassed John about getting a hair cut. Like a man, she said. Like his father. And then she looked pointedly at my mother and asked, "What's wrong with these kids?"

But that's also another story...

It's not Delivery, it's...Disgusting. (A review of DiGiorno Pizza)

I don't do delivery pizza too often.  Chinese food and beer is a different story, but pizza is something I typically try to intercept shortly after it leaves the oven.  Having your pizza sit in a cardboard box for an extended period of time while the delivery man/woman/person picks it up, puts it in his car/bike and drives it to your apartment can ruin your pie.  Who knows where your pie stands on the delivery route's pecking order?  A pizza can sit in that cardboard box for at least a half hour (if you are lucky) before it arrives at your door. And while it is in that box, its consistency will typically devolve into a soggy mess; like if I was to compromise my freshly shampooed mane by standing outside during a light, but steady drizzle.  If you don't feel like moving from home, make your own pizza.

As such, the marketing slogan - "it's not delivery, it's DiGiorno" is not necessarily setting the barometer extraordinarily high in my view for DiGiorno pizza, the (apparently) popular frozen pie that I always saw commercials for, but, while curious, was never courageous enough to try. I realize it's got a nice ring to it, but proclaiming your pizza as one that could be mistaken for delivery is sort of like me "bragging" about the fact that I'm hosting a cook out with burgers that taste like McDonalds.

Nonetheless, on a gloomy Sunday in March, my curiosity finally got the best of me and I headed to my local supermarket to pick up a DiGiorno's, all for myself. Disassembly and directions are pretty straightforward, yet they lack pinpoint precision. Twenty three to Twenty Seven minutes to cook the pie? That's a generous cushion.  I decide to simply "eyeball" my DiGiorno's time in the oven while using a pizza stone; not advised per instructions, but what they hell do they know? I make my own pizza music videos.  Do they?

After about 10 minutes, a pleasing, sweet tomato aroma starts to fill my apartment.  "This could actually be pretty good," I think to myself, while I watch March Madness, and wonder whether I'll see any "Dicky-V" DiGiorno commercials like this one:

Fortunately, I did not.  And shame on you, Dicky V (an Italian), for selling out to endorse this crap, because that is what it is (more on this in a minute).  At around the 23 minute mark, I'm finding it difficult to judge whether my pie is done.  It is not bubbling, or noticeably changing shape (like in the commercial); rather, it just gradually browns.  I give it a few more minutes.  More brown.  After 30 minutes, I pull this (heavy) browning beast out of my oven, and onto a plate.

My first taste of the DiGiorno is met with a sense of...bewilderment, perhaps?  I'm finding the taste hard to analogize with anything I've eaten before.  First off, let's end any suspense - this pizza is not good.  It's not even domino's level bad, it's below that.  It's not so offensive where I'm spitting it out - in fact, the crust has a Pillsbury, biscuit-like texture to it - but each bite delivers a funky, numb, and mysterious taste which can best be explained as if I was eating airplane food; it's a lot like the plastic it came in.  The slices, once cut, are pretty stiff, the cheese is grossly thick, and the sauce merely blankets my taste buds with blandness.  All in all, a waste of time, money, and probably thousands of calories.

So, for those who ever wondered how a DiGiorno pie was... wonder no more.  We got you covered.  Next stop... the Olive Garden...

Training Diary - Kitchen Sink Granola

Reality can be alarming. Especially when what you think is true is not exactly how things are. Take for example my morning bike ride (I promise I will bring this back to food and it will all loop together wonderfully):

The workout was the following: 4 loops of Central Park with 5 Harlem Hill repeats. 

I started out with Group 1, the fastest group. I was quickly dropped on the second loop. During the summer and fall of last year I could stay with Group 1. But it's March, and it's been frickin' freezing outside, so I haven't been on my bike. Consequently, I got picked up by Group 2 and rode with them.

This is fine, I tell myself. Group 1 are all boys, anyway. Group 1 smells. And they talk funny (one of them is Australian - love ya, Mark!). 

And I must take a moment to remind myself it is only March. But with my first race fast approaching on April 7 in South Beach, it is sometimes hard to reconcile what you want with what you actually have.

Which brings me to granola. Yes, granola.

The other day I wanted some, but as I perused the contents of my cabinets, I realized I did not have the ingredients to make a truly stellar granola. But I had something in storage....so I made granola with what I had. And it was good. Quite good, in fact.

So, sometimes you just have to do the best you can with what you have. And as I realized with the granola, what you have can add up to be a lot more than you thought and even produce some pretty impressive results.

Here's how to make Kitchen Sink Granola:

What You Need:

2 cups rolled oats (I used the Quaker 5 minute kind because that's what I had available)

1/2 cup silvered almonds

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

3/4 cup chopped dried figs (you can use any kind of dried fruit, but again, this is what was rolling around in my cabinets).

2 tbsp Coconut Oil

2 tbsp Maple Syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

What To Do:

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, throw ALL The ingredients together. That's right, all of 'em. Now, mix. Make sure that coconut oil is evenly distributed.

Spread the mixture evenly onto a large baking sheet and throw it in the oven.

Let it toast for about 5 minutes, and give it a check. The coconut shreds can burn easily, so you want to make sure you give this stuff a good mix every now and again. You do NOT want burned coconut.

Toast for about 10 more minutes, making sure to mix things up every now and again. 

Remove from the oven and allow it to cool.

Finishing Touches:

I baked a sweet potato, mashed it up with some almond milk, topped it with the granola and then heated the whole enterprise in the microwave for about a minute and a half.

Strong coffee recommended.

South Beach, here I come....

Oh, and Group 1 really doesn't smell. Not worse than the rest of us, anyway...

Easter Eatables!

Today, I'm bringing you Iaciofano tried and true Easter recipes. Most of these are desserts, because unlike every other holiday, on Easter the Iaciofano's branch out. We don't bake the traditional ham. And we try to mix up the side dishes. However, we DO have some desserts (and one appetizer) that have been statistically proven to be reliable year after year. Here is our collection:

Fruit and Nut Trifle (pictured above)

Trifle
What You Need:
1 c of almonds chopped
2 t water
4 t sugar
2 t cinnamon
1 c dried apricots and cranberries chopped
2 t butter
2 pears cored and diced
mandarin orange segments – small can
1 Tbsp rum
4 cups of heavy cream
1/2 cup confection sugar
1 cup orange juice
raspberries for decoration
sponge cake – see below for recipe

What To Do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl toss the nuts with cinnamon then water and sugar and then spread on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes and toast for about 7 minutes.

Chop dried fruit and cover with hot water and a little rum and let set for 10 minutes.  Drain the fruit and add to the nuts. Toss.

In a sauté pan heat the butter and add a little sugar. Add the diced pears and sauté and then add the fruits and nuts.

In a bowl mix the heavy cream with the confectioners sugar vanilla and rum.  Mix until cream is whipped to soft peaks.

Brush the cake with the orange juice to make it a little moist.

In a trifle bowl first add some whipped cream and then place the sponge cake on top to cover the cream.  Layer with the fruit/nut mixture and then add a little cream.  Follow with the cake and continue to build the trifle.  Finish with the whipped cream.  For a festive look top with fresh raspberries. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

Sponge Cake

What You Need:
8 eggs
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
orange juice for brushing (optional)

What To Do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large square pan (13″x18″) and line with parchment paper.

Put the eggs into a mixer (Kitchenaid or hand-held). Slowly add the sugar to the eggs, beating until they are twice the volume from when they started and a pale lemon color.

Slowly add the flour to the above ingredients and also the lemon zest.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 15 minutes.

After it’s done, you can brush the cake with some orange juice, using a pastry brush. This makes it nice and juicy, and adds a complementing flavor for the fruit and nuts in the trifle.

Try not to eat it all. Or eat it all. Whichever.

Ricotta Fritters

Nothing says "Easter" in an Italian-American household like ricotta cheese.

Why? I really don't know. BUT, I think it has something to do with the versatility of ricotta. You can make it savory or sweet, appetizer, entree or dessert. Or all three. Or five. But who's counting?

You are. And you should be. Just don't count the calories in these Ricotta Fritters. It's pointless. Between the ricotta cheese (full fat, please) and peanut oil you probably have enough to induce cardiac arrest in the newly risen Lord. 

Is that blasphemous? Not at all. Just the facts, here. 

So while there are many seasonal Italian desserts that would be appropriate for Easter (ex:Ricotta cheesecake, strufoli), the FACT of the matter is that these fritters will induce multiple Hallelujah's from your Easter crowd. They're even small enough to hide in those plastic Easter eggs if you like.

What You Need:
8 oz Fresh Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
6 tablespoons flour
20 grams or 3/4 oz butter, softened to room temperature
Grated zest from 1 lemon
salt

For frying: 
3 cups of peanut oil
An "ugly" pot
(An ugly pot is a cheap, deep pot reserved for unsightly tasks like frying. You really don't want to wreck one of your nicey-nice All-Clad variates with spitting hot peanut oil. Trust me.)
Thermometer (the oil should read 350 degrees)

Optional Toppings:
Honey with limoncello
Confectioners sugar

What To Do:
Put the ricotta in a bowl with the two eggs and mix until well combined.

Add the flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, working it into the ricotta with a whisk.

Add in the butter, lemon zest and a pinch of salt, mixing well. If the mixture is too runny, you can add another tablespoon of flour.

Set the batter aside and let it rest for 2 hours. We didn't do this. We have no patience.

Heat the peanut oil in your ugly pot to 350 degrees.

Test the heat by dropping a tiny ball of the batter into the oil. If it floats immediately to the surface and starts to turn golden brown, you are ready to rock and roll!

Drop the batter into the oil a tablespoon at a time, pushing the batter off of the spoon with a spatula.

Don't crowd your ugly pot! Fritters need room to breath and fry! Give 'em some space.

When the fritters are an even golden brown, fish them out of the oil with a slotted spoon.

Set them on some parchment paper to cool.

At this point, you can either dust them with confectioners sugar, or gently heat up some honey with a splash of limoncello in it. After your liquored-up honey is warm and runny, drizzle the fritters with it.

Eat these little babies immediately. I can't think of a reason not to...

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

We originally made this for John's birthday which fell on Easter Sunday last year. This recipe is from Naples at Table by Arthur Schwartz.

What You Need:

Serves 12

12 oz of almonds finely ground

6 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons sugar

8 oz of bittersweet chocolate

2 sticks of butter

10 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup sugar

What To Do: 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and butter and flour a 10 inch springform pan.  Line the bottom with wax paper or parchment paper.  Butter and flour the lining.

In a food processor grind the almonds in 3 batches pulsing each with 2 T sugar for a total of 6 T of sugar.  Set aside.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate and butter together.

In a mixing bowl beat the egg yolks until lemon colored and then gradually beat in the 10 T sugar.

Add the melted chocolate and butter to the egg yolks.  Stir to mix and fold in the ground almonds and stir will.

In a clean bowl beat the egg whites with the ¼ c of sugar until they are stiff.  The fold the egg whites into the chocolate batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake on a cookie sheet for 90 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool for 15 minutes and remove the sides  from the springform pan.

When the cake has cooked turn it upside down onto a serving plate and dust with confectioners sugar.

Italian Lemon Knot Cookies

What You Need:

Cookies:
5 cups of flour
6 eggs - well beaten
1/2 lb of butter at room temperature
4 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
5 teaspoons of baking powder

Icing:
1/2 cup Confectioners sugar - more if needed
1 teaspoon of Limoncello
water if needed

Garnish: multicolored, round sprinkles

What To Do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slightly grease a cookie sheet, or line it with parchment.

Beat together butter, cream cheese and sugar in a standing or hand-held mixer until light and creamy.

Add in the eggs and the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder and mix to combine.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet. You may have to add more flour if it's an especially humid day.

The dough should come together easily and not be too sticky. You need to be able to roll the dough and tie it into knots.

Start grabbing pinches of the dough right out of the bowl. Roll them on a board that is VERY lightly floured. Try not to add too much flour at this point. Roll them until the strands are about 1/2 inch thick and about 4 inches long.

Tie the the dough strands into simple knots and place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes, until they are light golden in color and the bottoms are beginning to turn golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let cool.

For the icing:

Measure the Confectioners sugar into a small bowl. Pour the Limoncello over the sugar and whisk together until combined. You don't want this mixture to be too runny - it will zoom right off your cookie! If you need to thicken it, just add more Confectioners sugar. If you need to go a little thinner, add a touch of water (you don't want to overwhelm your cookie eaters with Limoncello at this point).

Drizzle the icing over the tops of the cookies and decorate with the multicolored sprinkles. The icing will dry so that you can store them all together in a happy little tin. Or take them to work with you in a plastic bag. Just don't accidentally sit on them like I did. Sat-on cookies don't have the same appeal. My co-workers still ate all of them, though....

Makes about 80 cookies (so you might want to share).

Chicken Liver Pate

Crust - What You Need:
8 ounces of cream cheese
8 ounces of unsalted butter
¼ c sour cream or heavy cream
1 ¼ t salt
2 ½ cups of flour.

Crust - What To Do:
Combine cream cheese and butter and add sour cream and salt and pulse then add the flour.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Pate - What You Need:
¾ pound of chicken livers cut into chunks
1/3 c madiera wine
5 T butter
2 slices of bacon drained and chopped
3 cloves of garlic crushed
2 large shallots minced
2 T cognac
¾ pound smoked ham ground
¾ pound ground pork
2 t. thyme
1 t dried basil
1 cup fresh parsley minced
2 large eggs beaten
2 T heavy cream
salt and pepper
1 egg beaten with 1T milk for glaze

Pate - What To Do:
Soak chicken liver pieces in madiera wine for 30 minutes.  Drain.  Melt butter in fry pan and add liver pieces, bacon, garlic and shallots and cook until livers are cooked but still pink. Warm the cognac and add to livers.

Add ground ham, pork, thyme and basil.  Mix and cook over medium heat stirring frequently.  About 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add parsley, eggs and cream.  Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside to cool.

Roll out 1/3 of the dough into a rectangle about 1/8 in thick.  Trim edges so they are even.  Spread one third of the pate on one half of the pastry leaving 1” border.  Fold over and press edges with a fork and brush with egg/milk glaze. Repeat.

Bake in preheated 400 degree oven on a lightly buttered baking sheet for 25 minutes.

Note: You can freeze these for up to 3 weeks.  Do not defrost before baking but add 10 minutes to the baking time.