Farm Market Finds: Creamy Stuffed Zucchini

Printable Recipe

So, it turns out that the only thing harder than starting a blog is, well, re-starting a blog.  I just checked in, and I guess the last time that I posted anything was back in March.  Of 2013.  Oops.

Why?  Well, because as I think I have made clear in the past, I am not the most organized person.  I try, and I will eventually show you some of my better attempts. There has been a lot going on over the last year and a third, and some of it has involved improvements to our household organization.  However, it has come in bits and spurts, and managing to stop and take pictures of the progress, upload them, write about them, and put it all together in a fairly readable manner, has just not happened. 

So I didn't know this, but having a child in middle school changes your life nearly as much as having a new baby does.  Crazy.  Suddenly, there was youth group, and Science Olympiad, and bowling, and cross country.  Suddenly, I understood the concept of the minivan mom.  Wow.  The spring of 2013 was just insane!  I couldn't wait for summer.

Jacob's Wheeled Vehicle team took 1st place in the State Science Olympiad competition!

Then summer came, and with it, a new opportunity.  Through a series of events, our family began working the farmstand for a local farm at the outdoor market of the Downtown Market Grand Rapids.  We got up at 5 a.m. (the horror!) on Tuesdays and Saturdays, drove a big truck full of veggies and fruits downtown, and set up shop.  It has been so fun and rewarding, but also very busy!

These are some pictures from last year's market.  Obviously, the canning tomatoes and winter squash aren't in yet!  That's Jacob in the last picture.  He's pretty much taken over the operation.  He's incredibly into this job, and even created a farm market in his Minecraft world.  Crazy boy.

Finally, I feel like I am adjusting to the new normal, just like new moms do.  Life hasn't gotten less busy; I have just realized that it probably won't for many years, so I might as well get used to it and get on with life. Part of that means making time to cook, try new recipes, make some progress on the old house, and share what I learn through it all on this blog.

Since the farm market has been such a big part of our lives for the last year, I have been experimenting with all of the vegetables that we sell, fresh from the farm.  I have learned a lot about seasonal cooking, figured out how to adjust certain recipes to include more veggies, and found out that some vegetables that I thought I didn't like, just needed to be prepared in a certain way in order for me to love them.  So for some time now, I have wanted to share some of my experiments here.  

Do you have any idea how many vegetables can be stuffed?  Cabbage, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, eggplant....and zucchini!  I want to try them all.  Since zucchini is the gift that keeps on giving, I thought I would start there.

When I want to find a recipe, I usually just search online.  Sometimes that is helpful, but if I have an idea that I just need to round out, I have less luck.  That was the case here.  Most every recipe I found was for a tomato based stuffing.  They sounded good, but I would rather use that sort of stuffing with peppers. I wanted something that was maybe a little spicy, maybe a little creamy to go with the sort of blank slate of zucchini.  I was out of luck this time, so it meant flying blind.

Working without a map is a fairly new thing for me.  I have had enough successes in the last few years to lose my fear, but I was scarred for many years by my first attempt.  In my first year of marriage, I made what I can only describe as bad hamburger helper.  Yes.  I know that sounds redundant, but I mean it.  If hamburger helper made the entire surface of your mouth feel like it was coated with greasy cheese for a couple of hours after eating, that would perfectly describe that meal.  Blech.

Anyway, that's always in the back of my mind when I experiment in the kitchen.  But hey, that's what pizza delivery is for, right?

I wanted a main dish, not a side, which for our family means that the stuffing would contain meat.  No ground beef.  That would work with the more flavorful peppers, but bland zucchini needs more flavor.  Italian sausage was the way to go.  Of course, onions and garlic were in.  I would have gone for parmesan cheese, but I didn't have any in the house.  For filler, rice is always a good bet, but I happened to pick up a blend of Israeli couscous, lentils and split peas at the store the other day, so I went with that.  I wasn't sure what else to do, so I just got started by cooking up the meat and onions.  Once that was done, I started thinking about how to make it creamier without muting the flavor.  If I had time, I would have made up some homemade ricotta, but Jeff was already home, so I needed to think fast.  Cream cheese to the rescue.

I cubed up about half of a block and let it soften on top of the cooked meat and onions.  I cooked the couscous, then stirred it up.

It was yummy, but not very attractive.  It needed some color, so I grabbed a can of chopped tomatoes, drained it, and added most of the can to the filling.

That's better.  I would have used fresh tomatoes, but the only two I had around were being saved to stuff another day.  And because I am a big fan of gooeyness, I diced up some fresh mozzarella cheese and stirred it into the filling, as well.  

Next up, it was time to prep the zucchini.  I cut both ends off and sliced them in half lengthwise. Then I scooped the seeds out to make a sort of boat, but it's important to leave a good, thick wall on all sides.  

It doesn't have to be pretty.  Nobody will see the inside of the zucchini unless you perch the sheetpan with two of the finished zucchini boats still on it on the edge of the stove because you work in such a teeny tiny kitchen that there was literally no other place to put it, and it slips off of the stove and drops down to the floor, and the filling all slides right out.  But that is so unlikely, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Now, it's time to stuff. Really mound it up.  

They're ready for the oven!

Partway through the baking time, I decided that they really could use a crunchy topping.  So I pulsed a couple of slices of bread in a food processor until they were crumbs, then sauteed them in a bit of butter until they were crunchy.  I threw in some minced Italian parsley from the garden for color.  Then, once the zucchini was tender, I sprinkled the topping over everything and popped them back into the oven until the crumbs were browned.  

They were delicious!  I served them with potato leek soup.  I will get that recipe up later this week.  It was a perfect summer meal, and I managed to use lots of great items from the farm.  

I hope you give it a try!  I'm off to hang some wallpaper in the mudroom (yup, still working on it), and heat up some leftover Peasant Soup for dinner.  It's another great Farm Market Find!

Tuscan Sausage and Potato Soup

Printable Recipe

You know what one of my favorite things to do is?  

Rip off recipes from restaurants.

Okay, perhaps I should say, recreate our favorite restaurant dishes at home.  That sounds so much nicer, eh?

I do love it, though.  Not only does it entail one of my favorite pastimes: kitchen experimentation, but it also means that I can schedule in that favorite dish when we really don't want to (or can't) spend the money at a restaurant.

When we go to Olive Garden, I would rather have the soup, salad and breadsticks than anything else on the menu.  I'm picky about pasta and pasta sauces.  And I refuse to spend upwards of $10 on something that I could make just as well, if not better, at home.  But the salad....well, who doesn't like Olive Garden's salad?  It's not fancy.  It's not gourmet.  It just tastes good.  The breadsticks?  They seem to be hit or miss. Even on bad days, though, they are just fine when dipped in the only soup that I ever request:  Zuppa Toscana.

You know what I love about soup?  The best ones are uncomplicated.  Just a few ingredients that compliment each other.  This soup is no exception.  And there are few dishes more comforting than soup on a cold winter evening. 

Let's get started.

I am trying to prepare mise en place this year.  There is nothing worse than watching something scorching as you are trying desperately to chop/wash/slice the next ingredient.  There are some meals that this becomes more important than others.  Whenever you find that you keep moving around the pot or pan until all the ingredients are in, that's a time when mise en place will help you not to lose your mind.  It's well worth washing a few extra dishes.  Here, I've chopped an onion, minced 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced some potatoes, washed and torn some kale, and measured out some white wine.  It's all in its own container, and ready when I need it.  Now it's time to start cooking.

              

If you can find bulk hot Italian sausage, by all means, use it and skip this first step.  I usually just grab some at Meijer, and they rarely have the bulk stuff.  It's always in casings.  You need to get it out.  So use the tip of a sharp knife and make a slit down the length of the sausage. Peel the casing away.  It should come right off.  

Then drop the sausages into a cold Dutch oven.  Turn the heat on medium and begin breaking them up with the edge of a spatula or spoon.

If you start with a cold pan and cook over medium or lower heat, it will tend to draw the fat away from the meat more effectively.  Just like you can keep the juices in meat by searing over high heat, you can also draw them out over lower heat.  This way, there is no need for additional oil to cook the meat.  If you find that your sausages are particularly lean, go ahead and add just enough olive oil to keep the meat from sticking.

Turn the heat down the lowest setting. Have a paper towel-covered plate ready, and scoop the browned meat out to drain with a slotted spoon. With additional paper towels, carefully blot the grease that is left in the pan.  Don't scrape, though.  You want all the browned bits to remain in the pan, since they will flavor the soup. 

Now you can turn the heat back up to medium high and add a bit of olive oil to the pan.  It's time to saute the aromatics.

Remember this?  You now get to very calmly grab your bowl of chopped onion and drop it into the shimmering (not smoking) olive oil. Sprinkle a little Kosher salt over the onions and stir them around to coat in the oil.  It's okay to scrape the browned bits a little now, but they won't come up completely until you add the liquids.  Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they turn from white and crunchy like this......

....to soft and brown, like this.  That should take just a few minutes.  Now turn the heat up to high, add the garlic and stir it around for about 30 seconds, or until you can just smell it.  

Now you can deglaze the pan with the wine.  Just toss it in there and start scraping the bottom of the pot.  I prefer to use a wooden spoon for this, since it is tough enough not to bend like a silicone spatula, but it won't damage the pot's surface the way metal could.  Once the pan is deglazed and the wine is somewhat evaporated, add the sausage back to the pan, and toss in the potatoes, as well.  Stir them around to combine.

Go ahead and add the kale now.  It will look like way too much, but it's not.  It will soften and cook down.  I probably use more kale than Olive Garden does, but I probably also use more potatoes and sausage than Olive Garden does.  I'm not serving it as a brothy first course.  This is dinner.  So I like to make it hearty.  Oh, and don't be afraid of the kale.  Cooked, it really has a mild flavor.  It wilts a bit, but not so much that it loses it structure completely, as spinach would.  It really stands up for itself.  I love adding it to soups. 

Finally, add the broth to the pot.  Sprinkle in the salt and pepper, and give it a good stir.  Cover the pot and bring the soup just to a boil.  Then turn the heat down and simmer for about 30 minutes.  If you want to make it a little earlier, you can let the soup simmer, covered, for a couple of hours.  Just don't add the potatoes or kale until about 45 minutes before you are ready to eat, or they will be overcooked and mushy. 

Now, you could just serve it this way.  It's perfectly delicious and hearty.  However, if you want the real deal, go ahead and pour in some cream and let it heat through.  

And this steaming pot of delicious is what you end up with.  Serve it with a green salad and breadsticks, if you like.  

 I served it with Caprese panini, but I have to say, it was total overkill and we ended up having the soup the next night.  It was my first time making the panini, and I didn't anticipate that it would be so filling.

Try it some time!

Spaghetti Caprese -- My Favorite Meal

Printable Recipe

Have you heard of Insalata Caprese? If you have been in a decent Italian restaurant, you have probably seen it on the menu.  It consists of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese, and usually some good olive oil, maybe a bit of vinegar or lemon juice, and salt.  It can be prepared in a variety of ways.  I've seen it diced and tossed together.  I've often sliced the tomatoes and cheese to roughly the same size, and layered them with a whole basil leaf tucked between.  You can use a beefsteak tomato slice and a large ball of mozzarella, and serve a single stack with tiny ribbons of basil scattered over the top, as a first course or lunch in the summer.  Or you can make a platter full, alternating tomato, basil and cheese in rows.  I once even made little hors d'oeuvres by skewering a grape tomato, basil leaf and bocconcini (the little balls of fresh mozzarella that you can buy in a tub or on the olive bar) on a toothpick.  Any way you serve it, it is the most perfect combination of flavors, textures and colors that I can think of.  In fact, pizza Margherita uses these same basic ingredients.  Supposedly, it was first made for the queen, and the colors were a nod to the Italian flag.  Being the corndog that I am, that story makes it even better.

Well, I love pasta.  And years ago, I made a pasta sauce from fresh garden tomatoes.  It was a process, but delicious.  So I figured, why not bring some mozzarella to the party?  The results are fantastic, and this is absolutely my favorite meal ever.  That's saying something, because I loves me some beef, and there is no meat to be found here.  But the freshness of the ingredients, the simplicity of it, and the pure pleasure of the process of creating it, make this my number one.

I should note that this dish, in its simplicity, relies heavily on the quality of its ingredients.  Especially the tomatoes.  Fresh tomatoes from your garden or the farmers market are the best.  However, it is November in Michigan, and there is not a decent tomato to be found, right? Well, I discovered campari tomatoes a few years ago, and they get me through the long, dreary, tomatoless winter.  They come in a clamshell package, and you can get them at Meijer or Sam's Club, at least.  They are not cheap, and they are small, which means a little more work. But they at least taste like tomatoes, which is a far cry from the pallid, rock hard balls with frosty white flesh inside that they label as tomatoes at the supermarket.  Of course, Sam's Club has the better price, but I found them on sale at Meijer this week, and I snatched up a couple of boxes.  As for cheese, I've heard that freshly made mozzarella is the best. Alas, I have never had the pleasure of eating mozzarella that is house-made, so I don't know what I am missing.  Therefore, the stuff you get at Aldi or Meijer or any other supermarket, is just fine. Once again, though, Sam's Club has a great price on a large package.

Alright, let's get started! 

This is all you need, plus some olive oil.  Tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, and spaghetti.  Get everything together, because this moves pretty quickly.

First, get a large pot of water on to boil.  While you are waiting for that to happen, rinse your tomatoes off.  I use the same pot for the tomatoes and the pasta, so you just want to make sure that there is no dirt or dust on the tomatoes.

Fill a large bowl with cold water, about halfway, and drop in a few ice cubes. Then get a smaller bowl and put a mesh strainer in it.  I've got this down to a science.  I used to use about 5 bowls, but now I only use these two.

Now prep your rinsed tomatoes by cutting a shallow X in the bottom of each with the tip of a sharp paring knife.  You only need to go just through the skin.

I don't know how your stove works, but I was still waiting for the water to boil, so I went ahead and prepared my garlic.  I use a whole head of garlic, and I chop it roughly...no need to really mince it here.  Just no bigger than you mind biting into.

Finally, my water boiled, so I turned it down to a simmer and dropped in some tomatoes, using my handy spider.  You don't want to add too many tomatoes at one time, because it will bring down the temperature of the water too much.  Plus, the timing works out perfectly.  These tomatoes are small, so I did four at a time.  For larger garden tomatoes, do about two, maybe three at a time.

There....see the crack in the skin?  That means that it is done....well, more than done.  It took me a few tries to get a decent picture.  Once you see the X getting longer, you can get them out.  It doesn't take long--maybe 30 seconds, so don't walk away.

Now you can plunge them into the ice water.  Immediately put another batch of tomatoes into the simmering water.  Then get a tomato out of the ice water and pull the skin away.  It comes right off.

Like that.  Of course, if you have ever canned tomatoes, you are familiar with this process.  It's as simple as can be.  The only thing I do differently is to do a few at a time instead of all at once.  I find that the peel comes off more easily if the tomato is still just a little warm.  The longer they sit in the ice bath, the more the skin wants to adhere.  And as soon as you get the peel off of one batch, the next one is ready to come out of the hot water and into the ice bath, so there really isn't any extra time involved.  

As I peel each tomato, I set it into the strainer inside the bowl.  This is just so that any extra water can drip off.

Once all the tomatoes are peeled, you might need to add some water to the pot in order to have enough to cook the pasta.  Once you add the water, you can put the pot on a back burner and turn it back up to high.  Then add enough good olive oil to a skillet to cover the bottom.  I like green, fruity olive oils, but that's just my taste.  In this recipe, the oil is adding flavor, not just lubricating the pan, so use what you like.  Put the pan over medium-low heat and add the garlic.  This will slowly heat up together, and the flavor of the garlic will infuse into the oil.  Your house will smell wonderful, and you will be happy.  If the oil gets above a low simmer, turn it down a little.  You want to hear a mild sizzle, but not much more than that.  

Now finish prepping the tomatoes.  Empty the ice water bath.  Now empty any water from the small bowl, and then drop the tomatoes into the bowl.  Then put the strainer into the larger bowl.  It's like musical chairs, except with bowls instead of chairs, and no music.  You will need to work over the strainer, because the tomatoes are going to drip as you cut them, and you want to catch all the juices in the bowl.  The strainer is to catch the seeds.  Of course, if you don't mind seeds, you can skip all of this and just core the tomatoes, then tear them up.  I don't like tomato seeds, especially in my pasta sauce.  Use the tip of your paring knife to cut a v-shaped circle around the core of the tomato (the stem end).  You want the cut to be shaped like a cone, I guess.  Then reach in with your fingers and grab the little cone and pull it out, taking as little flesh as you can.  Drop the cone into the strainer.  Now just dig your thumbs into the hole and pull the tomato apart.  Slide your fingers along the inside of the tomato wall to push most of the seeds out.  That jelly-like stuff around the seeds will come with them.  That's okay...we'll deal with that in a minute.  The picture above shows what it will look like when you are done.  The empty shell of a tomato goes into the bowl under the strainer.  The seeds have all been captured by the strainer, and much of the juice is collecting in the large bowl underneath.  When all of the tomatoes have been emptied, use your spider to transfer the tomato flesh back to the smaller bowl.  The spider will allow the juice to drain away from the flesh, but you don't have to go crazy.  Now reach into the strainer and grab fistfuls of seeds/gel and squeeze to break up the gel.  Do this for a minute or so, over the strainer, and then you can just swish your hand around to push most of the liquid out into the bowl.  At this point, the strainer should be rinsed off.  Dry seeds will stick, and that's a mess you don't want to deal with. Plus, you can use the strainer to drain the pasta later, and you'll want it clean.

By this time, the garlic should just barely be turning golden around the edges. If that starts to happen earlier, just turn the heat down until you are ready.  Keep an eye on it, because you don't want burnt garlic.  If, on the other hand, you see no sign of golden color and there is no sizzle at all, just turn the heat up for a minute or two, until you see some.  

Then turn the heat up to high and drop in the red pepper flakes.  If you have never used red pepper flakes, I highly recommend that you buy the mild version.  These little puppies pack some heat!  The thing that I have found with pepper flakes is that they seem to get milder as they sit in your pantry.  But you kind of play roulette every time you use them.  If you are sensitive to heat, just use a pinch, or use a bit of black pepper instead.  But I like a punch, so I used about 1/2 teaspoon here.  It was bracing.  

After only about 10 seconds, add the tomato flesh.  Sprinkle well with coarse salt and then toss around, and press the tomatoes to the bottom of the pan.  The combination of salt (which draws moisture out) and heat breaks down the tomatoes pretty quickly.  

At this point, your water should be boiling again.  Salt the water well, and put the pasta in, and don't forget to stir it around well to keep it from sticking to itself.  

After only a few minutes, the tomatoes have broken down to this.  You can help the progress along at this point by pressing on them with your tongs or a spoon.  They are pretty soft, so they will break apart easily.  Don't go crazy, though.  A few chunks are good, and well, I think they make the dish prettier.  Yes, that matters.

When the tomatoes are broken down to this, you can go ahead and add the reserved juice.

Then just stir it around and let it keep cooking away over high heat.  This is a thin sauce, and you want some of the moisture to evaporate, but you want the body and flavor from the juice, so don't skip it.

Somewhere in here you will need to drain your pasta.  I like to pour the pasta into the strainer, and then immediately place the pot underneath the strainer.  It will catch around 1 cup of water as it drains, and you might need that later.

Now it's time to prepare the basil.  Don't do this ahead of time.  It only takes a minute, and the basil will start to discolor if cut and exposed to air for too long.  Tear all of the leaves off of the stems.  Discard the stems, and place the largest leaf you have underneath a stack of all the rest.

This package had an enormous leaf, which was very convenient.  Now just roll up the outer leaf, wrapping it around the rest of the basil, and slice thinly across the roll.

Here's what you end up with.  For what it's worth, this is a chiffonade of basil.  Oooh, French!

Turn the heat off and toss the basil chiffonade into the sauce.  You don't want to cook the basil.  The residual heat is enough to pull the flavor into the sauce without turning the basil to mush.  Seriously, isn't this pretty?

Now add the pasta and toss it around.  I go slowly when adding my pasta.  If I have a little leftover, I can throw it in the fridge and use it for something later.  But I don't want to be left with dry pasta without enough sauce.  If you accidentally add more pasta than you need, go ahead and drizzle in a bit of pasta cooking water.  It will help to loosen the pasta up, while the starch in the water keeps the sauce from becoming too thin.  I realize that this doesn't look as red and saucy as you may be used to.  Again, this is a thin sauce, unlike the stuff you find in a jar.  It hasn't been cooked down to near paste.  But it is more than saucy enough to coat the pasta, and the freshness makes up for the lack of redness.  

Now just cube up the cheese and scatter it over the spaghetti.  Toss with your tongs, and get the cheese kind of covered up.  The residual heat of the pasta will soften the cheese, so that when you serve and eat it......

........this will happen!  Oh, yum.......

Give yourself a little taste of summer!  Get your hands on some campari tomatoes and pretend that we're not on the cusp of snowfall.  I always have fun making this, and I hope you will, too!