Cannoli

There are some foods that I’ve always loved, but have been terrified of making for myself. Whether it’s French macarons or sprouted bread, I’ll gladly shell out money for someone else to take the trouble to beat egg whites until their arms hurt or lord over a farm of sprouting wheat berries and lentils.

            There’s also the issue of “healthifying” these recipes. Often, the ingredients that we want to change are the ones that give the dish its defining characteristics. I mean, have you ever tried to make sugar-free, vegan marshmallows? (It goes about as well as you might expect.)           

So naturally, we thought that making cannolis would go down in same disastrous way. And since buying premade shells was obviously out of the question, we had resigned ourselves to live cannoli-free for the rest of our lives.

So you can imagine our surprise and delight when we found this recipe with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions on how to create those delicious, flaky shells. The following recipes are not complicated, but the assembly takes a little bit of finesse. Our best advice is to invest in a stainless-steel cannoli shell form. It’ll cost you no more than 6 dollars on Amazon and (unlike us) you’ll save yourself from breathing toxic plastic fumes all night (the things we’ll do in pursuit of the perfect picture). If you’re dying to try these sugar-free cannolis and just can’t wait for the UPS guy to arrive, cut the dough into small chips, deep fry them, and use the mascarpone filling as a delicious dip.

Atlantis wanted to make a cameo.

CANNOLI

INGREDIENTS

CRUST

1 1/3 cups white flour

2 tbsp. butter

1 pinch salt

white wine (sweet or dry)

vegetable oil

FILLING

16 oz. mascarpone cheese

18 dates

1 tsp. almond extract

3 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, minced

METHOD

CRUST (Adapted from Food.com)

In a medium sized bowl, mix together flour, butter, and salt. Add enough wine to create a stiff but workable dough. Roll the dough into a ball and let it stand for about 1 hour.

After 1 hour, roll the dough until it’s ¼ inch thick. Cut the dough into 5x5 inch squares. Place the tube in the diagonal middle of the square and wrap one corner around the tube, then wrap the other so it overlaps the first. Press to seal the seam.

Pan-fry each shell until golden brown, turning as necessary to keep any one side from burning. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely before removing shell from the tube. Fill with mascarpone cheese.

FILLING

In a food processor, blend dates into a paste. Add almond extract and mascarpone cheese and pulse until smooth. In a medium bowl, mix the cheese with the minced baking chocolate. Fill shells.

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Mom's Bruschetta

Happy (belated) 4^th of July!

This year, Julia and I celebrated our country’s independence at a barbecue/dinner party with our Uncles Bert and Gary. We’re lucky enough to have family close to us in DC and we try to take advantage of that at every chance we get.

We whipped up a quick appetizer 30 minutes before we left for the party. Mom’s bruschetta recipe has all the essential flavors of summer –fresh tomatoes, fragrant basil, toasted bread, and lots and lots of garlic. If it’s too hot to light the oven, grab a bag of chips or toast the bread in a toaster.

Another important thing to note about this recipe is that the flavors are very dependent on each other. It’s a dish you have to taste while you’re making it in order to get the right ratios. We love garlic, which is why our version is pretty garlic heavy. But for someone without our garlic tolerance, this dish might prove inedible. So use this as a template and make it your own!

The bruschetta was a huge hit with our uncles and their friends.

Sondra, Uncle Bert, Jamie, and Julia

MOM’S BRUSCHETTA

Prep time: 30 minutes

Serves: 8 as appetizer

9 tomatoes, diced, with the centers scooped out

4 handfuls  basil, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil
1 whole grain baguette

Salt

Pepper

METHOD:

Heat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Slice the baguette in ½ inch rounds and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Toast until golden brown on both sides.

In a large bowl, combine diced tomatoes, basil, garlic, and olive oil. Stir gently to combine the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Gary and Sheree

Sondra, Jamie, and Julia

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Baked Eggplant and Goat Cheese Panini

Nothing says summer like a freshly pressed, piping hot Panini. 

As you take a bite of the toasted, flat bread, the melted cheese, and the grilled vegetables, you have to ask yourself, “Why would anyone ever choose to eat a sandwich any other way.”

When we were growing up, Panini night was a weekly occurrence in the summer. Panini making was a team effort –Mom would bread and fry the eggplant, Julia and I would take turns picking basil from the garden and assembling the sandwiches, while Dad scoured the house for the heaviest objects he could find. Up he came from the depths of storage, juggling old college textbooks, an encyclopedia set, cast iron teakettles, and an old blacksmith’s anvil. Nothing was safe in our quest for the perfectly flattened Panini.

Of course, neither Julia nor I have access to a blacksmithy here in Washington, D.C., so we had to make do with a frying pan and a grill pan. Our sandwiches weren’t as perfectly pressed as those we had come to love in New York, but they were beautifully grilled and delicious all the same.

We updated our old standbys, swapping egg-and-milk-heavy breading for light, summery grilling. Our eggplant and zucchini slices came out of the oven crispy and full of flavor, without feeling heavy. We replaced mozzarella with goat cheese, giving the sandwich a stronger flavor without sacrificing any of that creamy texture. We spread the goat cheese over a thick layer of minced garlic onto freshly baked whole grain bread. 

After we grilled and pressed the sandwiches, we opened them back up and put a dollop of chunky, homemade tomato sauce right between the cheese and the eggplant. Perfection.

BAKED EGGPLANT AND GOAT CHEESE PANINI

Cook time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

TOMATO SAUCE

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 8-oz can tomato paste

1 16-oz can chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp dried basil

2 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 tbsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

Salt

Pepper

BAKED VEGETABLES

1 eggplant, sliced in rounds

½ zucchini, sliced lengthwise

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

Oregano

Dried Basil

Salt

Pepper

1 whole grain baguette

4 oz goat cheese

4 tbsp minced garlic

METHOD:

Heat the oven to 350F (175C). Cover two baking sheets with aluminum foil and lightly coat with olive oil.

Slice baguette in four pieces widthwise and slice each piece lengthwise. Place in oven until slightly crispy, about 8 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato paste and cook until the paste begins to caramelize. Add canned tomatoes, basil, Italian seasoning, paprika, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer.

Arrange eggplant and zucchini on baking sheet and coat generously in olive oil. Top slices with garlic, oregano, basil, and salt and pepper. Bake until both sides are crispy, about 8 minutes on each side.

Remove baguette slices from oven. Spread 1 tbsp of minced garlic on each sandwich, followed by 1 oz of goat cheese. Put baked vegetable slices on the sandwich and place the sandwich on a heated grill pan. Use a second frying pan to push down on the sandwich, evenly distributing the weight. Grill on both sides.

Open the grilled sandwich and add tomato sauce.

Serve immediately.

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