Italian

Italian Sausage Soup with Roasted Cauliflower and Yellow Squash

June 29, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

This soup is perfect for rainy summer nights or chilly fall days. It combines roasted cauliflower, yellow squash, red potatoes with fresh fennel and thyme. You start off the soup by broiling the cauliflower until just charred. I used homemade chicken stock which lends the best flavor to the recipe. I couldn’t get enough of these flavors combined! The spicy sausage combined with the charred flavor from the cauliflower with the fresh herbs really took this soup to the next level. Serve this soup with some fresh parsley, grated parmesan cheese and a crusty baguette.
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Italian Chicken Parmesan Soup

April 27, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

Italian food excels at using great ingredients to elevate humble meals. This couldn’t be more true with a recipe like this soup. It combines a whole roasted chicken, seasoned with only sea salt and pepper, shredded in a savory tomato based broth with beans and veggies. The soup is peasant style with zucchini, great northern beans, fresh herbs and rotelli noodles. I used homemade chicken stock for added flavor and nutrients. Since the noodles tend to absorb a lot of the broth I don’t add them into the soup beforehand. Instead, I cook them separately and add a handful to each bowl. I would recommend using only fresh herbs since it made a big difference in the flavor of the broth. Add a big handful of parmigiano reggiano or romano cheese to each bowl for melted cheesy goodness! I served the soup with a warm crusty baguette and garnished each bowl with fresh basil.
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Roasted Tomato Soup with Italian Sausage

January 12, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

I’ve never really considered making tomato soup until recently. This recipe is full of roasted garlic and tomato flavor along with the savory spiciness of the Italian sausage. This tomato soup recipe is anything but boring! For the roasting I place the garlic on top of the cut side of the tomatoes. Placing it there helps the garlic roast and allows that flavor to become better infused into the tomato. Call me crazy but it really works! I pan roasted the sausage and you can either blend it into the soup after or finely mince by hand. The soup comes together easily and it has quickly become a staple dinner recipe.
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Chicken Piccata

January 13, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Chicken Piccata is a classic Italian pasta dish served with chicken in a lemon, butter and caper sauce. The chicken is pounded thin, lightly breaded and browned in a pan. Pounding the chicken thin is an important step because it helps cook the chicken more evenly. The drippings from the chicken are used to make the savory pan sauce which, in my opinion, is the highlight of the dish. The sauce is a simple combination of white wine, butter, lemon, and capers. Making everything only takes about half hour so this is a great meal when you’re short on time for dinner!

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Roasted Winter Vegetable and Ricotta Pizza

December 9, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

This recipe is a perfect and easy pizza for cold winter nights! The roasted vegetables are a mix of red potatoes, butternut squash, onions and carrots baked in the oven until tender. The mozzarella and ricotta go very well with the veggies. The vegetables are seasoned simply with fresh rosemary and garlic. I like to pre-bake the pizza dough crust before adding any of the other ingredients just to ensure that the crust is cooked through and not too soggy. I really liked how all the veggies worked so well together so I will definitely be having this again sometime!

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Rosemary Potato Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Fontina

October 30, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

This pizza is layered with roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, bacon, and topped with Fontina cheese. The potatoes are tossed with fresh rosemary and olive oil, then roasted in the oven until brown and just crispy. My technique for making pizza is to pre-bake the pizza dough and broil for several minutes to melt the cheese. This recipe lends itself well to this technique since all of the toppings are cooked prior to baking. The rosemary potatoes with the caramelized onions and bacon were an extra delicious trio. The result was really tasty and ended up being a great Fall recipe.

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Caprese Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes

August 12, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

One of my favorite summer dishes is caprese salad. Sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves and balsamic vinegar offer the perfect combination of flavors. It also turns out these ingredients are a perfect grilled cheese in the making! The one issue was the balsamic vinegar–how to incorporate a liquid ingredient on a sandwich that isn’t a dressing? My solution was to simply roast the tomatoes in balsamic vinegar in the oven which infused the flavor of the balsamic into the tomato. I chose sourdough for the bread which worked nicely with the other ingredients. The sandwich was really tasty and not hard to make at all. It was a great way to turn a caprese salad appetizer into the main course!

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Prosciutto, Manchego and Fig Jam Sandwich

July 29, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

A while back I made a prosciutto, mozzarella and fig panini on ciabatta bread. I wanted to revisit those flavors because I loved the combination of smoky and savory prosciutto along with the sweet and fruity fig jam. Instead of mozzarella I went with Manchego which is a cheese that I have been using quite a bit in sandwiches lately. Manchego is a little bit sweet and a little bit tart so it worked perfectly with the other ingredients. I decided on sourdough bread instead of ciabatta just to try something a little different. The sandwich turned out really great! I loved how the flavors balanced each other really well. It’s really easy to make too since it only needs 4 ingredients! The fig jam can be sweet so I just spread it thinly over the bread. It was a great combination of sweet and savory flavors, so I will definitely be having this again!

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Coppa and Manchego Cheese Sandwich with Roasted Tomatoes

July 8, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Coppa is an Italian cured meat made from thinly sliced pork shoulder. It is a perfect meat for sandwiches and goes well with melted cheese (then again what doesn’t?) I thought the tangy, Spanish Manchego cheese would go nicely with the flavors of the coppa. I read online that coppa is usually seasoned with white wine before curing so I marinated the tomatoes in white wine, then roasted them in the oven. I patted down the tomatoes a bit so that any wine vapor wouldn’t make the oven catch fire! The result was a wine infused roasted tomato and a fire-free kitchen. On top of the roasted tomatoes I added a layer of basil and grilled it all together. I really liked the sourdough bread with the slightly sour/tangy manchego. The roasted tomatoes provided sweet acidity and the pork was flavorful and a little smoky. All the ingredients were nicely balanced and it was an all around tasty sandwich!

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Margherita Pizza alla Vodka (Vodka Sauce Pizza)

June 30, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

I bet everyone since the coming of the internet has thought of a great idea, searched for it and realized a lot of people had the same idea. This pizza was practically an epiphany for me: “…a vodka sauce pizza?” The recipe for the sauce makes enough for the pizza plus a little extra for any future pasta nights. I chose the margherita style pizza because I thought it would work best with the vodka sauce and not mask the flavor of it. The fresh mozzarella, thin crust, and basil leaves were the perfect accompaniments to the vodka sauce. After I had finished enjoying the pizza I couldn’t wait to make a post about it. It turns out other people thought the same thing! I don’t mind though..sometimes good ideas start from all over.

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