Sun-dried Tomato and Artichoke Bruschetta | You've Got Meal!

One of the most important things that you’ll ever hear from any professional chef is to be organized in your kitchen. Manage your ingredients, keep things tidy, plan your cooking and so on and so forth. We are not professional chefs in the You’ve Got Meal kitchen, but this whole organizing your meals makes perfect sense it you’re a bruschetta fanatic like we are. 

We always have at hand in the pantry some sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, parmesan, capers, anchovies, cipolline borettane, olive oil, olives, etc. Of course most of the times we don’t have the whole list, but you can cook some darn right delicious treats with only a couple. And so it just happens that we only had some tomatoes and artichokes on hand the other day. 

Making the bruschetta is mega easy, start of by cutting some slices of bread (baguette), not too thick. When we use sun-dried tomatoes we tend not to use olive oil, just because the tomatoes are kept in a flavored oil, same thing for the artichoke hearts.

• Place a piece of tomato, topped with an artichoke heart – you can choose to cut that if you find it too big. 
• Next, place one or two fresh leaves of basil and sprinkle with some grated parmesan. No salt, there’s plenty of that in the vegetables and cheese, maybe a dash of pepper. 
• Cook the bruschetta in the oven for 7-10 minutes and serve warm. 

The conclusion here keep your pantry stocked with at least a couple from those ingredients, they will make a world of a difference when you have to whip something up when you get a last minute visit or when you get the munchies. 

One of the rules we do have about our bruschetta is to keep it simple, not too many ingredients of spices. Keep in mind that just a couple of flavors combined in the right way can do a lot better than trying to mix in a ton tastes.  So, go at it, try and mix them and see which combo suits you better in a bruschetta, there’s no way you’re not going to enjoy it.

 Enjoy,

Meatball Madness (II) Italian Style Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Meatball madness! What? Again? You can't escape the madness! Especially when you have a lot of them hanging in your fridge, in wich case you can make them shine again with an easy and super delicious sauce. 

Now, the results of the original madness were some meatballs with a definite sweet touch, so I wanted to make a more sour sauce. 

Ingredients: 

the juice of 4 big, ripe, red tomatoes(just use a grater), 
1 medium onion, 
2 garlic cloves, 
200 ml of red wine, 
250 grams of tiny cherry and plum tomatoes, both red and yellow, 
half a handfull of basil leaves, 
salt and pepper

Saute the diced onion and garlic in some olive oil, add the wine and let the liquid reduce by half. Next put in the tomato juice and the tomatoes, chopped basil, salt, pepper and bring to a simmer on low heat, pop in the meatballs and cook with a lid on for about half an hour. a very simple but great tasting sauce that brings a wonderfull zing to the meatballs, so get your madness on and start cooking those meatballs.

Enjoy,

Spicy Fish and Seafood Stew

This is a dish that I’ve been wanting to try for a while now, mainly because I think it is one of those dishes that you must try when you’re visiting a seaside resort or visiting a country with a strong fish cooking tradition. You’ll find a lot of variations of this type of dish on-line, be it Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Greek, each one of them with its specific flavors and touches. 

For what I did, I mixed a little bit of the Italian touch with the Portuguese ones, using fresh fish and seafood:

400 grams of fish fillets (dorado, white cod and brill), 

150 grams of calamari rings, 

12 mussels

2 extra large whole shrimps (they had about 170 grams together), 

1 medium red onion diced, 

1 fennel thinly sliced and leaves reserved for garnishing, 

3 garlic cloves, 

500 grams of tomato passata, 

300 grams of fresh tomato juice, 

1 chilli, 

5 anchovies fillets, 

about 2 tbs of fresh thyme leaves, 

2-3 tbs of fresh parsley, 

2 bay leaves, 

some lemongrass (optional), 

1 and a half tbs of smoked hot paprika, 

salt, pepper, olive oil.

Just writing these ingredients makes me hungry, everything is so delicious in its own way and together they just create an explosive and amazing tasting dish.

Start of by heating up a couple tbs of olive oil in a heavy base, tall if possible pan, and put in the anchovies, fennel, onion, garlic and chilli. Cook this on high heat for about 5 minutes stirring from time to time. After this, add the tomato passata and juice, the herbs except the parsley, salt, pepper, lemongrass and smoked paprika, turn the heat to a low and simmer for around 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare your fish: cut the fillets into equal parts (both length and thickness), the rings (give them a good wash) and clean the mussels (rip their beards by pulling them away all the way from the base of the mollusk and remove any barnacles that you may have on the mussel shell). If you buy the shrimp whole, you need to clean it by making an incision on its back, from where the tail begins all the way down and remove the intestines. 

After 30 minutes, add the fish and seafood, cover them with the tomato mix and cook them for 3-4 minutes, then add the chopped parsley. Be careful when you plate your dish not to flake the fillets too much. 

There you have it, a lovely, rich, smooth and spicy fish stew guaranteed to make your day, your lunch, dinner, whatever you want it, it’s just bloody delicious.    

Enjoy,
Mr. G.