Yemista, Stuffed Bell Peppers

Yemista is what the Greeks call stuffed peppers. After college I traveled in Greece with some friends and we were blown away by the yemista we ate; the peppers were sweet and soft while the stuffing was hearty. 

Reminiscing about Greece lead me to think about food - because we ate some delicious things over there - which lead me to actually making food. Dangerous yet tasty thought progression on my part. Only hope I did this dish justice. 

Oh, and added bonus, this is super easy to make. 

Yemista, or Stuffed Bell Peppers  

     yields 6 servings

Ingredients

6 bell peppers, any color

olive oil

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

12 oz. minced lamb or beef

1½ tsp cinnamon

1-12 oz. can diced tomatoes, separate & save tomato juice

2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped or flakes

sea salt

pepper

½ cup hot water

2 oz. brown rice

2 oz. pine nuts, lightly roasted

Directions

Cut the tops off the peppers (SAVE them) and de-seed the peppers. If your peppers are very thick boil them in water for 2 minutes to soften.

In a large pan, saute the onion until it becomes golden. Add in your meat and cinnamon. It is going to smell amazing, just fyi. Stir occasionally, making sure your meat is not clumpy and everything is incorporated. 

At the same time, prep your rice and pine nuts. In about 6 oz. of boiling water, cook your brown rice. Once the water comes to a boil, add the rice, stir once, reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and stop cooking once all the water has evaporated. 

For the pine nuts, heat in a small skillet over a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once they are browning you can remove from heat. Set both the rice and pine nuts aside.

Add tomato juice to meat and let cook for 5 minutes. Meat should be golden brown. Add tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add in the rice and pine nuts. Cook for another 10 minutes.

 

You want your stuffing to look something like this.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and in a baking pan, whatever size will accommodate all the peppers, drizzle olive oil over the pan. Fill your peppers to the rim with the stuffing, capping off each pepper with its respective top. Drizzle the peppers with the hot water. This will help keep them soft while baking.

Bake for 45 minutes, until the tops are beginning to darken but the peppers themselves remain soft.

Let cool slightly and serve warm. And don't forget a glass of red wine or if you're really going with the Greek theme then ouzo might be the most authentic thing you could imbibe after this meal. 

But, word to the wise, ouzo is the nastiest thing I've ever drunk, so maybe don't... ;)

Pineapple Pizza

Who doesn't like pizza?

     Honestly, who?

Making it yourself, while it may appear daunting, is actually rather easy. You need patience and yeast. Everything else is basic and you should already have in your kitchen.

That said, let's do it!

Pineapple Pizza and Homemade Pizza Dough

     Dough adapted from Marlio Batali's Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking

     Prep time: 90 minutes

Pizza Dough Ingredients

1¼ cups warm water

1 – ¼ oz. package active dry yeast

1½ tsp sugar

3½ cups flour

1 tsp salt

¼ cup olive oil

Semolina or flour for dusting

Topping

1½ cups pasta sauce

grated cheese

thawed frozen pineapple chunks

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk warm water, yeast, and sugar together. Let stand in a warm place for ten minutes. Yeast will be foamy.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Make a small well in the center of the mixture and pour the wet ingredients inside. Using a wooden spoon stir all together until the mixture becomes too thick. Now, you're going to get messy.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface, knead the dough with your hands until combined, smooth, and slightly sticky.

You want your dough to look like this: 

Transfer your dough into a large oiled bowl (you can use PAM), cover with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour plus. The dough will double in size. 

Rolling out your dough is super easy if you have a pizza stone and only slightly trickier if you will be baking your pizza on a rectangular cookie sheet.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour your pizza stone or cookie sheet and rolling pin. Starting from the center of the dough roll out your pizza dough. 

See? Simple.

Transfer pizza dough into the oven and pre bake for 5 minutes, just until the top begins to color.

Remove the pizza stone from the oven and ladle 2 large spoonfuls of tomato sauce onto the crust. Working from the center outwards, using the back of your spoon spread the sauce outwards until you have a thin layer  covering the crust. Add your pineapple slices followed by the cheese and finally any spices or additional toppings.

Return pizza to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is brown and crisp, about 15-20 minutes.

Let pizza cool on pizza stone for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Coming Attractions

What you can look forward to in the next couple of days...

  

Stay tuned for Brunch, Tomato Cobbler with Blue Cheese Biscuits, 

Chocolate Raspberry Tart, Homemade Pizza, and Stuffed Peppers

Lasagne de Giovanna

I fancy myself more Italian than I am.
I'm only a quarter Italian but my appetite for cooking and eating is predominantly Italian/Mediterranean. I count the days until I can visit Italy again, meander around beautiful Tuscan hillside towns, drink delicious wine, and sink into the laid-back Italian lifestyle.

Reality check.
I'm in San Francisco, job hunting, and not scootering around Roma.

In the meantime, I make lasagna, pasta, pizza, and torte like it's going out of style.

This is my own lasagna recipe, it does not have ricotta cheese like your traditional lasagnas do - I find the ricotta too heavy in texture and too weak in flavor for a hearty main course dish. So, here it is, MY take on an Italian staple.

Lasagne de Giovanna
 

 feel free to substitute in your pasta sauce, this is my staple recipe 

Ingredients
1 box no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3-4 heads garlic, diced
4-5 spicy Italian sausages, or your choice of meat (could be sausages or ground meat)
1 can, 28 oz., canned plum tomatoes
1 can, 28 oz., canned tomato sauce
1 can, 12 oz., diced/cubed tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
Oregano, Nutmeg, Italian spices, your choice of seasoning
Spoonful of sugar
Salt & pepper
3-4 cups spinach
5 cups + grated cheese, I use Asiago, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and whatever is in the frig

Directions
Best to start your sauce as early as possible so that it can simmer, bringing out all the flavors.
In the large sauce pan saute the onion. Add in the garlic once the onion softens. After two minutes add in the meat. Break up the meat with your spoon as you stir. Let cook until just browned. Turn down the heat to low.

Add to the pan the plum tomatoes, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Stir together. Let simmer. After a little while, 10 minutes or so, add in the tomato paste, sugar, and season to taste. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, on the stove for 30-40 minutes or a couple hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Assembling the lasagna, have all your ingredients out, cheese grated and spinach washed & dried. In an oblong 13 x 9 inch dish, ladle in enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of noodles, then sauce, then cheese, and then spinach. Repeat. When you get to the top of the pan add one final layer of noodles and sauce and then add a lot of cheese.

Bake in the center of the oven for 30-40 minutes until the top is browning and cheese bubbling. Like so.

Serve hot and with a nice glass of vino!

It's good til the last drop or as a late night snack, which is what I tend to do.