Author: Kaitlin

Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo

Note: I was sent a review copy of Domenica Marchetti’s Italian Cookies: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region in order to write this post for Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo. Opinions are mine alone.

This summer, my husband and I are celebrating our anniversary in style: we are heading to Sicily and Rome! So, when this Italian Cookies (paid link) cookbook showed up on my doorstep, I immediately paged through to the “Cookies of the Islands” chapter to find myself a Sicilian cookie to try. This recipe for Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo (The Leopard’s Rippled Almond Cookies) caught my eye immediately.

This Italian Cookies cookbook is a treasure trove of mouthwatering cookie recipes from all regions of Italy, along with stories and background on the cookies within the cookbook… there are over 100 cookie recipes in this beautiful cookbook, including classics like pizzelle, cuccidati, anisetti, and amaretti.

The cookies I chose to make, Biscotti Ricci Del Gattopardo, get their name from the novel Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. In the book, the prince of Salina visits a monastery where Benedictine nuns make these tasty almond-based cookies (you can actually still buy them at the convent of Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily).

In this cookbook, Domenica Marchetti adapted the original recipe to use a cookie press (paid link) rather than piping out logs (hence these cookies known as “rippled” almond cookies), which speeds up the process without messing with the flavor!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups superfine almond flour, plus up to 1/2 cup optional almond flour if needed
  • 1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

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Salmon with Mustard Piccata Sauce

It’s been a minute (or, more specifically, a year) since I shared a new salmon recipe, so I knew it had to be something special, like this recipe for Salmon with Mustard Piccata Sauce!

I found the original Salmon with Mustard Piccata Sauce recipe on NYT Cooking but have adapted it slightly for my tastes and what I tend to have in my kitchen. Not only does it taste great, but you can have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes!

Ingredients (serves 2, multiply as needed):

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 lb napa cabbage, coarsely chopped
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 2 (6 to 8 oz) salmon fillets
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
  • 3 tablespoons capers
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon chopped chives
  • 1 cup cooked orzo

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Vanilla Cardamom Sugar Cookies

These Vanilla Cardamom Sugar Cookies have been in the works since before Christmas.

I have been experimenting with different levels of cardamom versus vanilla, making sure the cookie is nice a chewy, and determining the right chill time and cookie size and I am really happy with this final result!

So let’s get right into it! These Vanilla Cardamom Sugar Cookies are a cardamom flavored sugar cookie rolled in vanilla cardamom sugar before baking resulting in a delicious, chewy cookie that is sure to become a favorite.

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cardamom Sugar:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
  • 1 vanilla bean, scraped

Cardamom Cookies:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

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Squid Ink Seafood Pasta

This recipe for Squid Ink Seafood Pasta is the best way to really highlight a homemade squid ink fettuccine (or store-bought fresh squid ink pasta!)

This Squid Ink Seafood Pasta is bursting with flavor: briny pasta, a little heat from red pepper flakes, nice acidity from the white wine and lemon, smokiness from the salmon, and freshness from the basil.

This is a really impressive dish, but it can be made in about 30 minutes!

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb squid ink fettuccine
  • 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 garlic cloves, pressed (paid link)
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 12 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2/3 cup dry white wine (go for an acidic wine like a sauvignon blanc)
  • 12 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 8 oz hot smoked salmon, flaked into chunks
  • 1/2 cup chopped basil, plus more for garnish
  • salt, to taste
  • pepper, to taste

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Homemade Squid Ink Fettuccine

I am taking full advantage of the long weekend by making a recipe I’ve wanted to make for a while now: Homemade Squid Ink Fettuccine!

I’ve been inspired to finally try to make homemade pasta after Danny Freeman’s demo at Binding Agents a few months back. And on a recent stop at Ippolito’s, I noticed they had cuttlefish ink for sale and knew that homemade squid ink fettuccine was in my near future!

Homemade pasta is surprisingly easy to make, but it does take some time (the dough has to rest a few times) so just keep that in mind when planning to make it. I have a bunch of tools on hand that make pasta making even easier, so I’ll link to those throughout this post.

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) cuttlefish ink
  • 3oo grams (about 2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

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Cajun Mac and Cheese

I love a classic mac and cheese. But I also love a spin on a classic, like this recipe for Cajun Mac and Cheese!

This Cajun Mac and Cheese recipe is made of elbow pasta with onions, bell peppers, celery, and andouille sausage, baked in a creamy, spiced cheese sauce.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 (16 oz) box elbow pasta
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
  • 1 (12 oz – 16 oz) package Andouille sausage, chopped
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
  • 4 oz cubed sharp cheddar cheese
  • 4 oz cubed gouda cheese

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Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies

These Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies are a bit out of my cookie baking comfort zone. I tend to stay away from any holiday cookies that use royal icing — I don’t usually have the patience for decorating cookies so I lean toward drop cookies for most of the ones I make.

But this year, I figured it was time to try a fairly easy decorated holiday cookie – Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies!

These sugar cookies are topped with royal icing and then are decorated with strings of Christmas lights which are made with black icing and mini M&M’s.

The resulting Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies are colorful, fun, and oh so tasty!

Ingredients (makes approximately 2 dozen cookies)

Sugar Cookies:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 egg yolks (reserve your egg whites!)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Royal Icing:

  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract (can substitute vanilla extract to make nut free)

Decorations:

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Fresh Juiced Apple Cider

‘Tis the season for apple cider! Every year, I make sure to pick up some store-bought apple cider to enjoy. But this year, I wanted to try to make my own Fresh Juiced Apple Cider using my Hurom Juicer (paid link) and was surprised with how easy and delicious it was to make!

You can make this fresh juiced apple cider with whatever your favorite apple is, but I suggest aiming for a sweeter apple, like Honeycrisp.

I like to add rye to my cider to make a spiked cider. You can also add bourbon, spiced rum, or drink as is for a non-alcoholic beverage!

Ingredients (makes about 6 cups, multiply as needed):

  • 12 apples, cored and sliced
  • 10 whole black peppercorns
  • 8 whole allspice berries
  • 5 whole cloves
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • the zest of 1 orange
  • the zest of 1 lemon
  • 9 oz (or 6 shots) rye, bourbon, or spiced rum (omit to make non-alcoholic)

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Chicken Pesto Meatballs

Now that it’s fall, it is the perfect time for me to share one of my go-to quick weeknight dinners: Chicken Pesto Meatballs.

This recipe for Chicken Pesto Meatballs is equally easy, quick, and delicious – you’ll be amazed at how flavorful these meatballs are!

The below recipes serves the meatballs with a pesto pasta, but we have also enjoyed the chicken pesto meatballs on a bed of salad greens, with rice and vegetables, or on their own as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

Chicken Pesto Meatballs:

  • 1/2 cup homemade or store-bought pesto (if buying store bought, I strongly suggest going to the prepared foods section of the supermarket to see if they have any freshly made pesto rather than jarred)
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 pound ground chicken
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan

Pesto Pasta:

  • 16 oz pasta of your choice (my favorites are fusilli and orzo for this recipe)
  • 1/2 cup homemade or store-bought pesto

Continue reading Chicken Pesto Meatballs

Juicer Gazpacho Shooters

One of my favorite parts of being a member of a CSA is the abundance of tomatoes that they provide. During tomato season, I gobble up tomato sandwiches, salads filled with tomatoes, and basically any tomato-filled recipe I can. Recently, even I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, so it felt like the right time to make some homemade gazpacho, or more specifically, Juicer Gazpacho Shooters!

As I gathered my ingredients, my husband asked if I was using our Hurom H320 Cold Juicer (paid link) to make the gazpacho. Now, why didn’t I think of that?

let’s take a moment for my pretty tomatoes

These Juicer Gazpacho Shooters are so easy to make! Most ingredients are added straight into the hopper, and the juicer does the hard work for you.

The result is a beautifully silky-smooth gazpacho, perfect for serving in small shooter glasses (paid link) for a great summer party appetizer or a fun start to a meal.

For more information about the Hurom H320 Cold Juicer (paid link), check out my post for Ultra Low Pulp Green Juice. Now, on to the Juicer Gazpacho Shooters recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 1 small bell pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 1 cucumber, roughly chopped
  • 1 small onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, smashed
  • 2 pounds tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon sherry
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Continue reading Juicer Gazpacho Shooters

Fried Rice Carbonara

Note: I have permission to share the below Fried Rice Carbonara recipe from Danny Freeman’s latest cookbook, Italianish (paid link)

Before I share this recipe for Fried Rice Carbonara, I want to give some background on its inspiration. Recently, I attended an event at Binding Agents, Philly’s only cookbook store, located in the Italian Market. The event included a talk, signing, and pasta demo with Danny Freeman to feature his new cookbook, Italianish: Modern Twists on Class Italian Flavors (paid link).

Danny Freeman, or Danny Loves Pasta, is known for creating fun and beautiful, colorful pasta shapes and recipes (his first cookbook, Danny Loves Pasta – paid link – is an absolute delight). His latest cookbook, Italianish, is a celebration of Italian American flavors reimagined for easy family-friendly and many weekday-friendly recipes.

During the talk, Danny spoke of his inspiration of this latest cookbook, growing up in an Italian American home, and adapting those flavors and recipes for his own family. Italianish is filled with creative, inventive, and playful takes on Italian classics, including recipes for Lasagna Soup, Rigatoni alla Vermouth, and Rainbow Cookie Cookies.

The cookbook includes a bunch of indices that make this cookbook so incredibly useful. There is a time index so you can quickly scan recipes based on how much time you have – some recipes can be made in as little as 15 minutes! There is also a sauce index and a meatball index to help you better mix and match to create multiple versions of the recipes within the cookbook. Italianish also includes three “intermezzos” which highlight cicchetti (small snacks originating in Venice), fresh pasta, and farro bowls.

While providing insights into his latest cookbook, Danny Freeman also gave a demo on different fresh pasta shapes, which I can’t wait to try for myself at home!

Danny Freeman was kind enough to allow me to post one of the recipes from his cookbook on my blog.

To highlight the imaginativeness of Italianish, I’ve chosen to recreate Danny’s recipe for Fried Rice Carbonara.

As Danny writes, “With the pork and the eggs, [fried rice] is not so different from a carbonara! The classic pasta dish is made with guanciale, Parmesan, and egg yolks, and we can use those same flavors to whip up this quick carbonara fried rice.” I absolutely love Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, so I couldn’t wait to try this recipe!

Ingredients (serves 2 as a main dish, or 4 as a side):

  • 3 cups cooked rice
  • 4 oz guainciale or pancetta, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

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Homemade Corn Ice Cream

If you’ve never had Homemade Corn Ice Cream before, you’re in for a treat!

It’s summer, which means there is an abundance of corn at the moment. I am a member of a CSA (Penn Farm CSA in New Castle, DE run by students at William Penn High School), so I’ve received about half a dozen ears of corn the last few weeks — that’s a lot of corn! So I decided to use some of those sweet cobs to make Corn Ice Cream. (If you, too, have quite a bit of corn on hand, try one of my corn-filled recipes!)

The natural sweetness of corn makes it a perfect choice for ice cream. The addition of egg yolks to this recipe makes a beautifully creamy and decadent Corn Ice Cream!

Ingredients:

  • 4 ears of corn on the cob, shucked
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

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Smoky Pantry Pasta

Note: I was sent tins of Fishwife Smoked Rainbow Trout in order to write this Smoky Pantry Pasta post. Opinions are my own.
There are so many occasions when a pantry meal, like this recipe for Smoky Pantry Pasta, can be a real life saver.
I try to have a couple of pantry meals on hand for busy weeknights, the first meal back after a vacation, or, most recently, when we are in the process of moving to a new home. Preparing for the move meant that we were in cleaning out mode and doing our best to not have to go to the grocery store for any additional items.
Mid-move, I was sent the most beautifully packaged tinned fish from Fishwife – three tins of Smoked Rainbow Trout (affiliate link).
Fishwife is a female-founded and led food company aiming to make ethically sourced, premium, and delicious tinned seafood a staple in every cupboard. Founded in 2020, Fishwife sources from healthy fisheries and certified sustainable aquaculture farms to bring the vibrance of conservas culture to the North American table.
The Smoked Rainbow Trout is raised in an ASC-certified sustainable farm in the Denmark countryside and is slow-smoked in small batches over beechwood to give it that beautiful smoky flavor. The Fishwife website suggests enjoying their Smoked Rainbow Trout stirred into a lemony pasta, as smoked trout dip with potato chips, or in a savory sandwich.
source: eatfishwife.com
I adapted this Smoky Pantry Pasta recipe from a pantry pasta recipe on Fishwife’s website, making it only with items I already had on hand. Although the original recipe calls for anchovies, I thought the smokiness of the Smoked Rainbow Trout would enhance the recipe even more!
Ingredients:
  • 1 (16 oz) box pasta (I used gemelli because that’s what I had on hand)
  • salt, to taste
  • 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • 8 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
  • 1 (3 oz jar) capers, drained
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
  • 2 tins Fishwife smoked rainbow trout
  • black pepper, to taste

Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream

Why yes, I am still making ridiculous amounts of ice cream in my spare time. There are so many different flavors to try to make! I was inspired to make my latest recipe for Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream by my mother-in-law who loves all things blueberries.

With blueberries in season, what better time to make this delicious treat?

To make this Blueberry Ice Cream, you unsurprisingly need a lot of blueberries – 4 cups – not including adding optional whole blueberries at the end. So it is truly filled with blueberry goodness!

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups fresh blueberries, plus more if desired for mixing in
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 1/2 heavy cream
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

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Homemade Cheesecake Ice Cream

Today I am sharing a super versatile recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream that is a result of, well, me having way too much cream cheese on hand.

Recently, some of my husband’s friends came to visit and brought us New York bagels (always a welcome gift in our house!), and a good 1 1/2 pounds cream cheese. Even after all the bagels were gone, we still had 12 oz of cream cheese left!

So what better way to use up all that extra cream cheese than with this recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream?

You may recall that I made a cream cheese-based ice cream with my recipe for Irish Potato Candy Ice Cream, and I loved it so much, I knew I’d be making more cream cheese-based ice creams soon!

This recipe is very simple and works well on its own or as a base for some more creative Cheesecake Ice Cream recipes — strawberry, cherry, chocolate, whatever makes you happy!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 12 oz cream cheese
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • crushed graham crackers, for serving
  • your favorite fruit, for serving

Continue reading Homemade Cheesecake Ice Cream

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