Spanish Peppers with Olives and Capers

This was a great side dish and complemented the halibut dish that I'd made to go with it nicely. It was very simple to make. And I loved the flavours of the olives and capers with it. Lovely!

Photo goes here.

Spanish Peppers iwht Olives and Capers

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 red onion, halved and sliced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 900g bell peppers (red, yellow, and/or orange), cut into 4cm pieces
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 c. sherry or white wine vinegar
• 1/4 c. pitted and chopped green olives
• 1 Tbsp. capers, drained

Directions

1. Warm the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened (2-3 minutes).
3. Add the peppers, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring often, until softened (~8 minutes).
4. Add the vinegar, olives, and capers and cook until liquid has mostly evaporated (~2 more minutes).

This recipe was really meant to be done with skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces. You're supposed to start with a whole chicken and break it down into serving-sized pieces. And while I'm sure that would've been great, I didn't have a whole chicken to work with. What I did have was some skinless, boneless chicken breast pieces that I got on sale at the grocery store a few weeks back and stuck in the freezer for later use.

The lean, skinless pieces don't have quite as much flavour as you'd get if working with a whole chicken. But they were still very good. The sauce was quite flavourful. And making it with a nice lean, skinless cut does make it a bit healthier, at least.

Braised Chicken with Peppers, Capers, and Olives

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• ~1kg skinless boneless chicken pieces
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 Tbsp. schmaltz (or olive oil)
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 45g pancetta, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 small (~400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1 c. white wine
• 1/3 c. Kalamata olives
• 2 Tbsp. capers

Directions

1. Season the chicken with the salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Melt the schmaltz over medium heat.
3. Add the rosemary, bell peppers, onion, pancetta, and pepper flakes.
4. Season with salt and pepper and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
5. Add the tomatoes and wine.
6. Add the chicken, olives, and capers.
7. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.
8. Simmer until chicken is nearly cooked through (~15 minutes).
9. Uncover and simmer for another 5-10 minutes to thicken sauce up slightly.
10. Serve with rice and/or crusty bread.

Fettucini ai Gamberi, Pomodoro e Capperi

The Kidlet is cleared to eat shrimp now, so we are taking advantage of that. This was a convenient recipe that we had all the ingredients for ready to go, and it went over well.

As usual, I find Hazan's sauces to be delicious, but too scant for the amount of pasta. Consequently, this is scaled up significantly from the original.

Fettucini ai Gamberi, Pomodoro e Capperi (Fettucini with Shrimp, Tomatoes, and Capers

From The Classic Pasta Cookbook by Guiliano Hazan (p. 73)

Ingredients

• 500-600g shrimp, deveined
• ⅓ C olive oil
• 3 large yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced (about 750mL)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large tin (~750mL) diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp chopped fresh oregano (or ½ tsp dried)
• 3 tbsp capers
• ½ C chopped fresh parsley
• 450g dried, store-bought fettucini or similar pasta

Directions

1. Bring a generous quantity of water to boil in a large pot.
2. Add a small amount of salt and the shrimp. Gently braise until cooked, 2-3 minutes if fresh, 7-10 if frozen.
3. Remove shrimp (with a spider; retain the water!) to a colander until cool enough to handle.
4. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat until shimmering.
5. Add the onions and cook until soft and starting to brown.
6. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
7. Add the tomato sauce, increase the heat to medium high, and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
8. Meanwhile, peel shrimp, and return water to a boil.
9. Add oregano, capers, and shrimp to sauce. Cook until heated through and set aside on low heat.
10. Add pasta to shrimp-water and cook until al dente. Add two ladlefuls of pasta water to the sauce, then drain pasta.
11. Return sauce to medium heat and cook, stirring, until thickened.
12. Add pasta and parsely. Toss until well mixed.
13. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Another one of symbol's savoury cottage cheese bowls! This one used salmon that they got for me which I then forgot to eat. symbol attests that it was tasty, but not as good as the chicken and olive version.

Smoked Salmon Cottage Cheese Bowl

Ingredients

• ½ C cottage cheese
• ¼ C diced cucumber
• 3 Tbsp diced tomato
• 2 slices smoked salmon, chopped
• 1 Tbsp capers
• 1 Tbsp chopped chives or green onions
• 1 tsp chopped fresh dill (or ½ tsp dried)
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• ½ tsp dried garlic
• ½ tsp dried onion
• ½ tsp poppyseeds (optional)
• ½ tsp furikake (optional)
• ¼ tsp black pepper, ground

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients, in listed order, in a bowl.
2. Eat.

Reiver wanted to try some unusual waffles while he was here. Initially I made croque-madame waffles, which were delicious, but not weird enough for him. (The toppings were interesting, but it was still just a basic waffle underneath.) So this was the next waffle recipe that I decided to try.

I'd made the buckwheat waffles that form the base of this recipe before. But hadn't had a specific set of toppings or flavour profile in mind when I did. This time I figured I'd follow the suggested recipe in the book and top them with smoked salmon and sour cream¹. So, basically like blini, but in waffle form.

Buckwheat Waffles with Smoked Salmon

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 4-6 buckwheat waffles
• 250g smoked salmon
• 1/2 c. crème fraîche or sour cream
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives and/or dill
• 2 Tbsp. capers
• black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Prepare your waffles.
2. Top each with a couple slices of smoked salmon and a dollop of crème fraîche/sour cream.
3. Garnish with red onion, chives, dill, capers, and/or pepper and serve.

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¹ The recipe technically called for crème fra&icric;che, but they didn't have any at my usual grocery store and I didn't want to make a separate trip out to get it, so I just used sour cream instead. Still delicious and slightly lower fat than the alternative! ^Back

I've been meaning to make these breakfast toasts for a couple weeks now, but my breakfast plans keep getting off track. I finally managed to get all the bits organized though and was up early enough to put this together this morning.

I do feel like the proportions could use a little adjusting. The recipe is meant to be for four slices of toast, but we had a lot of cheese left over, even though I felt like I was pretty generous with it. I think we probably could have gotten away with about half as much cheese. Everything else seemed about right though. That said, I certainly wouldn't've said no to a bit more salmon...

To make life easier, I've adjusted the recipe to use one whole brick of cream cheese (250g).

Smoked Salmon Toasts with Capers and Red Onion

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill or 1 1/2 Tbsp. dried dill
• 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 8 slices of bread, toasted
• 300g thinly sliced cold-smoked salmon
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. capers
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives

Directions

1. Mix the dill and lemon juice into the cream cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Spreak the cream cheese on the toast and top with salmon, onion, capers, and chives.

I had to pull together and emergency back-up dinner in a hurry the other day and ended up landing on this potato salad recipe (after going through about four other foiled dinner plans). It's not the most exciting dinner, but it at least has a bit of protein and some vegetables -- and we actually had all the ingredients on hand! -- so I just rolled with it.

Only after I'd put the potatoes on to boil did I remember that I'd used up all the frozen green beans a couple weeks ago and hadn't restocked yet. I wasn't about to try to pivot to a different dinner plan yet again, so instead I did a quick switcheroo and swapped in some frozen peas for the green beans. Not quite the same, I know, but it still worked very well. Potatoes and peas make a great combo!

Two-Bean Potato Salad

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 125g fresh or frozen green beans, trimmed
• 570g potatoes, quartered
• 1 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1/2 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh mint
• 4-6 green olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 Tbsp. capers, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. Roman mustard
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. coarse salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions

1. If using fresh green beans: bring a pot of salted water to a boil and blanch them for 2-3 minutes. Then shock in cold water. Save the bean cooking water and use to boil the potatoes.
   If using frozen beans: thaw and set aside.
2. Add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook until tender (~10 minutes).
3. Drain the beans (from their ice bath) and the potatoes (from the pot of boiling water) and place them in a large bowl.
4. Add the chickpeas, onion, parsley, mint, olives, and capers.
5. In a small bowl, whisk the mustard with the vinegar salt and pepper.
6. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously.
7. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir to combine.
8. Let stand for at least 15 minutes before serving.

We still have a bunch of leftover beef stew to work or way through, so I didn't end up needing to cook a new main for dinner tonight. We were running low on vegetables though, so I decided to give this cauliflower gratin a go.

It was pretty good! The capers and chile flakes were a nice addition to the sauce. I don't think it's my favourite cauliflower dish, but it's a perfectly serviceable way to use up a head of cauliflower.

Cauliflower Gratin

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, leaves trimmed
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 3 1/2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 1/2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. capers, minced
• 1 tsp. red chile flakes
• 1/3 c. panko

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and grease a casserole dish.
2. Place a steamer basket in a medium pot over 4-5cm of boiling water.
3. Add the cauliflower to the steamer, cover, and steam for ~15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter over medium heat.
5. Remove from heat and whisk in flour.
6. Return to heat and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.
7. Slowly whisk in the milk and keep mixing until smooth.
8. Mix in salt and pepper.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until sauce is thickened (10-15 minutes).
10. Once the cauliflower has finished steaming, remove from steamer and allow to cool slightly.
11. Cut into 8 wedges and place them in the prepared casserole dish.
12. Mix the capers and chile flakes into the sauce and pour it over the cauliflower.
13. Melt the remaining 1/2 Tbsp. of butter over medium heat.
14. Add the breadcrumbs and fry, stirring frequently, until golden (3-5 minutes).
15. Top the cauliflower with the fried breadcrumbs.
16. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20-30 minutes.
17. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

I've been continuing to work my way through the Good Egg for breakfasts. This simple fried egg dish was delicious. We were all out of bread, so I served the eggs on toasted English muffin halves, which worked wonderfully. I did bump up the quantity of capers called for slightly and I fried the eggs in slightly less butter than called for since I knew I'd be adding lots of butter to make the sauce anyway. But I followed the recipe otherwise.

Eggs with Beurre Noir, Capers, and Parsley

Slightly adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 3-4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2-3 tsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1-2 Tbsp. capers¹
• 2-4 slices bread, toasted²

Directions

1. Warm two plates gently in the oven.
2. Melt 1/2-1 Tbsp. of the butter in a pan over medium-low heat.
3. When the butter sizzles, add the eggs one at a time. (Break into a cup first and then pour into the pan for best results.)
4. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.
5. Once eggs reach desired doneness, transfer to warm plates and set aside.
6. Add the remaining 2-3 Tbsp. of butter to the pan and increase heat to medium.
7. Cook until butter browns (2-3 minutes).
8. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.
9. Pour the sauce over the eggs and garnish with parsley and capers.
10. Serve with toast.

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¹ The original recipe calls for "small capes, rinsed and drained". My capers weren't particularly small, so I elected to chop them. I also didn't bother rinsing. I like the briny-ness! ^Back
2 You may opt to butter your toast if you like (as suggested in the original recipe), but I found that there was enough butter in the sauce and didn't feel that the bread required any additional butter. ^Back

This is not the first time we've cooked out of this book, and the results are tasty, but the book itself is weird. There's no authorship information, just the publisher. It wants you to rinse your capers. And the ingredient list asks for "1 anchovy fillet, [...] boned", while the recipe notes urge you to get "the best anchovies available [...] meaty and plump", which carries the worrying implication that they want you to buy whole anchovies, and then fillet and bone them using, I guess, a magnifying lens and a tiny little filleting knife.

All that said, there's no arguing with the results. This isn't substantial enough to be a meal in itself but it makes a tasty side dish and isn't too hard to put together.

Peppers Stuffed with Tuna

The Complete Italian Cookbook [2021] (p. 16)

Ingredients

• 450g miniature bell peppers
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tbsp capers, drained
• 1 (170g wet mass) tin of tuna, in water, drained
• 1 tsp mustard
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2-4 tsp lemon juice, to taste
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1 whole anchovy, in oil, minced
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• pepper to taste

Directions

1. Arrange the whole peppers on a baking sheet.
2. Roast at 425°F until soft and lightly charred, turning every 5 minutes, ~15-20 minutes. Larger peppers may need longer.
3. Let cool.
4. Meanwhile, use a mortar and pestle to grind the garlic and capers into a paste.
5. Combine tuna, garlic-caper paste, mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, parsley, anchovy, and vinegar in a bowl. Mix to combine and season with pepper to taste.
6. Once the peppers have cooled, slice off the stems and remove and discard the cores and seeds.
7. Fill the hollow peppers with tuna mixture and serve at room temperature.

This is a convenient way to prepare asparagus, especially if the stovetop is occupied by other cooking. We usually cook a half batch, which is what I've written up here.

Foil-Baked Asparagus

Cook's Country April/May 2020, p.12, by Morgan Bolling

Ingredients

• 500g fresh asparagus, trimmed
• 2 tbsp butter, diced
• 1 shallot (or a small onion), minced
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ½ tbsp capers
• ½ tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• ½ tsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Arrange the asparagus in the center of a sheet of tinfoil.
2. Top with butter, shallot, garlic, salt, and pepper.
3. Fold foil over and crimp shut. (Depending on the breadth of your tinfoil, you may need to use a separate piece for this.)
4. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 400°F for 18 minutes.
5. Remove sheet from oven and let stand 5 minutes to continue baking.
6. Cut open top of packet to release steam. Extract asparagus and gently toss with capers, dill, and lemon.

We made this long enough ago that I remember little about it and cannot find the photos, if, indeed, there are any. I think it was tasty?

Summery Stuffed Peppers

Cook's Country June/July 2016, by Diane Unger (p. 12)

Ingredients

• 120mL olive oil
• 6 large bell peppers
• 1 500mL tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ~1 L baguette, cut into 1cm cubes
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• ¼ + ½ tsp salt, divided
• 8 green onions, sliced
• 60mL chopped fresh parsely
• 60mL chopped fresh basil
• 3 tbsp capers, chopped
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp pepper, ground
• 360mL crumbled goat cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475°F. Use 1 tbsp of oil to grease a large baking pan.
2. Cut off top cm of bell peppers. Reserve. Discard stems and seeds.
3. Place peppers and pepper tops in baking pan, open side down. Brush with 1 tbsp oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake until softened and starting to blister, ~20 minutes. Remove and place open side up so they can cool while you work.
5. Season insides with salt and pepper.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
7. Mash chickpeas in a large bowl.
8. Chop bell pepper tops and stir into chickpeas.
9. Heat ¼ C oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
10. Add bread and cook until crispy-golden, ~7 minutes.
11. Push bread aside and add remaining oil, red pepper flakes, and garlic.
12. Cook until fragrant, then mix together bread, garlic, and salt.
13. Stir bread into the chickpea mixture.
14. Stir in green onions, parsley, basil, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, ½ tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper.
15. Gently fold in goat cheese.
16. Fill peppers with chickpea filling.
17. Bak until filling is 100-120°F internally and browning gently on top, 15-20 minutes.

I was going to have soft-boiled eggs and toast for breakfast this morning, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I decided to just hard-boil a whole bunch of eggs and make a zesty egg salad out of them. I mostly followed the Cook's Country recipe for this, but I swapped in a mix of reduced-fat mayo and fat-free Greek yogurt for the regular mayo, swapped the Tabasco sauce for sriracha, used scallions instead of chives, and added a few capers.

I didn't have any celery on hand this time 'round, so I just left it out, but I'd highly recommend adding it in if available.

Deviled Egg Salad

Adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2020

Ingredients

• 8 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• 2 Tbsp. 1/2-fat mayo
• 2 Tbsp. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1-2 tsp. Roman mustard (or Dijon mustard)
• 1-2 tsp. sriracha
• 1/4 c. chopped dill pickle
• 1 rib of celery, chopped
• 1-2 green onions, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. capers, minced
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Chop the eggs with a potato masher or pastry cutter.
2. Add the mayo, yogurt, mustard, sriracha, pickle, celery, green onion, capers, and pepper and stir to combine.
3. Serve on bread or in lettuce wraps.

This is a very quick and easy pasta dish that uses ingredients we almost always have on hand. The only exception is the oil-packed tuna, since we usually get water-packed; if all you have is water-packed I suspect you could make it work with that + another 2-3 tbsp of olive oil. The recipe relies on partially cooking the pasta ahead of time, then finishing it off in the liquid that gets absorbed to thicken and form the sauce.

The original recipe uses a single tin of tuna. We wanted it extra tuna-y and thus added a second.

Spaghetti with Tuna and Capers

Cook's Country, Feb/Mar 2021, by Bryan Roof (p. 16)

Ingredients

• 450g dried spaghetti
• 80mL (⅓ C) olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 30mL (2 tbsp) capers
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 140-200g tin of flaked tuna in oil, not drained
• 1 140-200g tin of flaked tuna in water, drained
• 120mL (½ C) freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
• 60mL (¼ C) freshly chopped parsley

Directions

1. Bring 3L of water to boil in a large pot.
2. Add pasta and cook until flexible but still hard in the center, ~5 minutes for most spaghettis.
3. Drain, reserving 3C of pasta water, and set aside.
4. Return the now-empty pot to medium-low heat. Add oil and garlic and cook until not quite browned, 2-3 minutes.
5. Add capers and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
6. Add 2C reserved pasta water and the pasta. Cook, stirring constantly, until pasta is cooked al dente and water is nearly absorbed, ~5 minutes.
7. Stir in both tins of tuna (including oil), parmesan, parsley, and another ½C of pasta water.
8. Serve topped with additional parmesan and red pepper flakes to taste.

Salsa d'Olive con capperi (Olive-Caper Sauce)

This is a delicious sauce! And not too difficult to make either.

I found a suggestion in the back of the book to serve it with steamed string beans. (We ended up using thawed frozen green beans, so that's almost the same.) The preamble to the recipe also suggests serving it with mixed fried vegetables, savoury soufflés, vegetable puddings, or on toast. I suggest making a double batch and serving it on everything!

Salsa d'Olive con Capperi

Slightly adapted from Cooking from an Italian Garden by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 c. black olives, minced
• 3 Tbsp. capers, rinsed and minced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. flour

Directions

1. Heat the oil and 2 Tbsp. of the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook for ~5 minutes.
3. Add the olives, capers, and parsley and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the water and vinegar and cook for a minute or so.
5. Add the flour and stir until thickened.
6. Remove from heat and add the remaining 1 Tbsp. of butter.
7. Serve on toast or with steamed or fried vegetables (or as a topping for vegetable soufflés or puddings).

TM brought over some tomatoes and bell peppers when she came over for dinner the other night. I turned some of that into a bell pepper salad. But there was still a bit leftover (plus some tomatoes that I'd bought), so I decided to make this tomato and caper salad.

I love capers, so I was really looking forward to that element. Sadly, we seem to be all out of capers. We always have capers! It didn't even occur to me to check because we just always have them. But, since neither of us wanted to run out to the grocery store just for capers, we decided to go ahead with the salad and substitute chopped olives for the capers. It's not the same. But it's still a nice salad. Definitely make it with capers if you have them though!

Fresh Tomato and Caper Salad

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 900g very ripe tomatoes, diced¹
• 1/2 c. minced red onion
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced²
• 1/2 a preserved lemon, pulp removed, rinsed, and minced
• 2-3 Tbsp. capers, drained
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions

1. Combine the tomatoes, onion, celery, bell pepper, preserved lemon, and capers and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cobine the salt, pepper, oil, and lemon juice and mix well.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
4. Cover and chill for 30-60 minutes before serving.

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¹ As usual, Wolfert specifies that the tomatoes should be peeled and seeded before dicing them. I didn't want to do that, so I just diced my tomatoes -- skin, seeds, and all! Presumably that's why my salad looks so juicy/watery. ^Back
2 Once again here, she calls for peeling, coring, and seeding the bell pepper. Obviously I cored/seeded it. But I didn't bother trying to peel it before dicing. She also specifically calls for a green bell pepper, but I only had a yellow on hand (and I prefer them anyway), so I just used that. ^Back

This was my first experience with both roulades and watercress. I think there will likely be more roulades in my future! They're a bit finicky to put together, but it makes for a really fun presentation.

Making the roulade base wasn't too difficult, but I found handling it once baked a bit tricky. It was extremely soft and delicate and I was constantly tearing it while trying to spread the cream cheese. I would recommend you make sure the cream cheese is very soft before trying to spread it. I think I'd be tempted to try to loosen it with a tablespoon or two of sour cream next time, just to make it a little easier to spread. Using a butter knife rather than a flexible spatula also helped.

The other thing to watch out for is the greasing. If you don't grease everything very, very well it will stick. My roulade base turned out of the pan beautifully, but it seems that I didn't grease the paper that I turned it out onto well enough and it stuck to that quite a bit when the time came to roll it up. Grease everything. And then grease it a bit more!

Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, and Watercress Roulade

From The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 3 Tbsp. minced fresh chives
• 1 Tbsp. minced fresh dill
• 1-2 Tbsp. sour cream (optional)
• 1 recipe Basic Roulade, made without cheese, cooled
• 2 c. chopped watercress
• 250g smoked salmon, chopped¹
• 1/2 c. finely chopped cucumber²
• 2 Tbsp. capers, rinsed and chopped

Directions

1. Combine cream cheese, chives, dill, and sour cream (if using) and beat with a wooden spoon until light.
2. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the roulade leaving a 1cm (~1/2") border around the edges.
3. Top evenly with watercress followed by salmon, cucumber, and capers.
4. Gently roll up the roulade from the long edge. Use the parchment paper to help lift and roll it rather than trying to touch the roulade itself. Keep a spatula handy to help release the roulade from the paper in any spots where it might be sticking.
5. Cut into thick slices and serve.

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¹ Only just now realized that I totally forgot to chop the salmon. I just laid big ol' strips on the roulade and rolled it up! Simmons notes that chopping the salmon before adding it to the roulade makes the finished roll easier to slice. Good to know. ^Back
2 This was fine, but I'd be tempted to bump it up to 3/4 c. next time. ^Back

Polenta con Funghi e Peperoni (Polenta with Mushrooms and Peppers)

This reminds me a lot of the rustic polenta casserole recipe in the Complete Vegetarian from America's Test Kitchen. The topping was very tasty. However, I think I probably should've cooked the polenta a bit more. It didn't set and firm up the way I would've liked. I was hungry and impatient though. The flavour's still fine as is. It's just not my preferred texture.

Polenta con Funghi e Peperoni

Slightly adapted from Cooking from an Italian Garden by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen

Ingredients

• 2L water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 c. cornmeal (preferably coarse)
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 3 bell peppers, sliced
• 1 recipe sugo finto
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 2 Tbsp. capers, chopped
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Combine water, salt, pepper, and cornmeal in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking, stirring often for at least half an hour. You may need to cook for even longer if you want your polenta to have a firm, sliceable consistency once baked.
3. Grease a 23cm by 33cm (9"x13") lasagne pan and pour the polenta into the pan. Set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
5. Melt butter over medium heat.
6. Add onion and cook until softened.
7. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add mushrooms and peppers and cook for a further 10 minutes.
9. Remove from heat and spread vegetable mixture over polenta.
10. Warm up tomato sauce and stir in parsley, basil, and capers.
11. Pour sauce over vegetable-topped polenta.
12. Sprinkle surface with Parmesan.
13. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.

This was a huge hit. I liked it a lot; the Kidlet seemed to mostly lose interest after the first two bowls, but the first two went pretty fast; and symbol loved it. It's also pretty easy to make; it takes a while, but a lot of that is just cooking down the onions, stirring it every five minutes or so and ignoring it otherwise. It's also a great emergency backup dish, since it has a short ingredient list and all of them are shelf-stable.

As with other recipes we've made from this cookbook, we bumped up the sauce proportions a bit; this recipe is for the increased version.

Tonnarelli al Sugo di Cipolle (Tonnarelli with Onions, Anchovies, and Capers)

Guiliano Hazan, The Classic Pasta Cookbook p.106

Ingredients

• ½ C olive oil
• 12 anchovy fillets, minced
• 5-6 C onions, finely chopped
• ⅓ C white wine
• 5 tbsp capers
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• parmesan for serving

Directions

1. Put the olive oil and the anchovies in a large skillet over medium-low heat and cook until the flavour of the anchovies has infused the oil, ~5 minutes.
2. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften and become very tender, ~30 minutes.
3. Bring the pasta water to a boil and begin cooking the pasta.
4. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring, until the onions become a rich, golden colour.
5. Pour in the wine and continue cooking until most of it has evaporated.
6. Add the capers and parsley and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
7. When the pasta is cooked al dente, toss with the sauce and serve.

I know we've made pasta alla puttanesca before, but somehow it never made it onto the blog, so here it goes!

This recipe is not quick to put together, due to the long simmering stages, but is is easy and all of the ingredients are either shelf-stable or will keep for a long time in the fridge, making it a good "oh no what do we make" pasta dish. The proportions given here are for 450g of dry pasta, but it also works great with fresh pasta; I made it tonight with home-made fettuccine. Long noodly pasta is traditional with this sauce -- spaghetti, linguine, etc.

Compared to the recipe in the book, I use less oil and salt and more anchovies and garlic, but make no other changes.

Pasta alla Puttanesca

The Classic Pasta Cookbook

Ingredients

• 80mL olive oil
• 8 anchovy fillets, chopped
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 ~750mL tin of diced tomatoes, with juice
• 3mL dried oregano
• 30mL capers
• ~10 black olives, pitted and thinly sliced

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-low heat. Add the anchovies and cook, stirring occasionally, until the anchovies start to soften and flake, ~10 minutes. (Hazan claims that they will "dissolve". I have never observed this.)
2. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, but without letting it brown, ~30 seconds.
3. Add the tomatoes. Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium low and simmer until the sauce has reduced and the tomatoes started to break down, 30-40 minutes. (You can fridge the sauce at this point and resume later, if you want.)
4. Bring the water to a boil and begin cooking the pasta.
5. While the pasta cooks, increase heat to medium and stir in the oregano, capers, and olives.
6. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.