Leftover Corner: Meatball Pizza

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you meatballs, well... I think you can see where I'm going with this. You'll want to refer back to a couple recipes to get you where you need to be:

http://thebagourmet.blogspot.com/2010/11/tomato-sauce-v20.html

http://thebagourmet.blogspot.com/2010/11/turkey-meatballs.html

Even if you got your sauce and meatballs from another source--a restaurant, your mother, etc.--it's so easy to turn these supplies into a pizza, there's really no reason not to.

Ingredients:

2-4 Leftover Meatballs

Leftover Tomato Sauce

1 Pizza Crust

1/2 Onion

Shredded Cheese

Steps/Analysis:

To start things off, you'll want to preheat your oven to 415 degrees and get out a baking sheet or pizza stone, if you're fortunate enough to own one.

Lay out your crust and ladle on enough sauce to reach the outer crust. Sprinkle a healthy layer of cheese on top. I think you'll find that your local supermarket carries "Pizza" or "Italian" blends of shredded cheese, which I highly recommend. It'll usually be some combination of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan: perfect pizza building materials.

Next, cut your onion into thin slices and scatter them around on your pie. Do the same with your meatballs.

Finally, pop that bad boy into the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and a little brown around the edges. Remember, there's nothing raw here, so you're warming, not cooking.

Notes/Suggestions:

A simple recipe, perfect for the single man or anyone looking for a quick meal after a long day. Can't go wrong with additional parmesan or red pepper flakes.

Leftover Corner: Spaghetti and Meatballs to Italian Burrito

I don't quite know what got into me this week. I've had a lone tortilla in the refrigerator for a while now, quietly mocking me and my lack of beans, rice, or any other Mexican fare, so that might have something to do with it.

Maybe I felt like channeling my inner child and playing with my food. Maybe I've lost my marbles. You be the judge.

I humbly present, for your approval, the Italian Burrito.

Ingredients:

1 Large Tortilla

Leftover Tomato Sauce

2 Leftover Meat Balls

1 Small Handful of Spaghetti

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Steps/Analysis:

First, get a pot of water boiling over High heat. Salt the water and add the spaghetti. Try to remember that cooked pasta always looks like more than when it was stiff and dry. This is going to be crucial when you try to fit it into a tortilla.

As the spaghetti cooks, break out your leftovers! Cut up two meatballs into bite-size pieces and set them aside.

If you have a George Foreman grill, as I do, or a panini press, you'll want to warm it up now. If not, you'll have to experiment with a pan on the stove top as we go along.

Now that I think about it, the oven might work as well, on very low heat.

At any rate, once your pasta is done, drain it as thoroughly as possible and return it to the pot. It's residual heat is going to help dry the pasta as well, which is very important to the integrity of the tortilla.

Add a few spoonfuls of leftover sauce to the pasta and stir to coat.

Get your tortilla out and prepare it with a thin layer of mozzarella cheese. Next, situate the spaghetti in the tortilla's center. Arrange the meatballs on top and spoon on a little more tomato sauce. Sprinkle a little more cheese over everything.

Wrap the tortilla as well as you can. Unfortunately, I cooked a little too much spaghetti and could not tuck in my ends--as you'll see in my pictures. That means I had to be a little more careful in placing it on the Foreman.

Serving/Notes:

Because my wrapping was a little untidy, I attached this beast with a fork and knife at first. Surprisingly, though, as I ate, I found that it was possible to pick the Italian Burrito up and eat it as I had originally intended.

My goodness, the tortilla is a marvelous thing, isn't it?

As far as taste is concerned, this isn't all that different from eating spaghetti and meatballs in the more conventional way. It is, however, a lot more fun, I think. In that respect, this was a worthwhile little experiment.

Leftover Corner: Lunch Meat to 'Merica Paninis

Once again scratching my noodle to come up with a dinner idea this week, I turned to the fridge for inspiration. A couple containers of lunch meat stared up at me and I thought, "I can do something with this."

I threw together a quick shopping list to round out my ingredient pool, snatched some quick sides and fired up the panini press.

Ingredients:

Ciabatta Rolls

Sliced Roast Beef

Sliced Turkey

Roasted Red Peppers

1 Onion

Sliced Cheddar Cheese

Mayonnaise

Steps/Analysis:

First, cut up the onion into thin, uniform rings and get them sauteing with some olive oil over Medium-High heat. (It seems like a lot of my recipes start out this way, huh? I'm a fool for some onions.)You really want to get these nice and soft, golden brown and delicious for the sammiches.

I went with ciabatta rolls for this dish because I've had success with them in the past and really like the way they hold up in the panini press, but you can go with any sturdy roll or solid bread that you prefer.

At any rate, cut the rolls in half and spread a thin layer of mayo on each side. Then, pile on roast beef and turkey. Remember that you're making a dinner here, not a lunch, so don't be afraid to lay it on thick. Next, add the roasted red peppers and onions, capping everything off with the cheddar cheese.

Place the top half of the rolls in their proper position and turn your attention to the panini press. Lube it up with a dab of olive oil and a paper towel and get to pressing. If you made your sandwiches especially thick or the lunch meat just came out of the refrigerator, you may need to give them a nice long rest on the press to make sure everything is warm and the cheese is nice and melty.

Serving/Notes:

I cut the paninis in half for convenience sake and kept the sides simple: chips and a little asparagus.

So what makes these 'Merica Paninis? Well, to be quite honest, I was a bit flummoxed when it came time to name my creation. There didn't seem to be an easy analog in the sandwich world. A friend of mine suggested 'Merica (as in America with a healthy, proud inflection) and it stuck. After all, what says classic American sammich more than roast beef and turkey?

Leftover Corner: Buffalo Wings to Frittata

Today's recipe hearkens back to the week following the Superbowl. On gameday, I gorged on chips and guac, pepperoni and cheese, quesadillas and wings, as, I'm sure, many of you did as well. My family's eyes proved to be larger than their stomachs, though, as leftovers were heaped into the refrigerator after Nawlins' victory.

What to do, what to do? When life hands you lemons, you're supposed to make lemonade. When life handed me Buffalo wings, I decided to make a Buffalo wing frittata!

Ingredients:

10-12 Buffalo wings

8 Eggs

1/2 Onion

1/2 Bell Pepper

1-2 Celery Stalks

Steps/Analysis:

Prepare yourself to get a little greasy. The first step here is to strip the meat off of your wings in bite-size pieces and make a neat little pile.

Once that's taken care of and you've washed your hands, turn your attention to your vegetables. Typically, when I'm making an egg dish, I limit myself to onions and peppers. However, to make the Buffalo wing connection a little more legitimate, I decided to add celery to the mix. It's famous as an aromatic anyway and couldn't possible hurt this dish. Cut everything into similarly small-sized pieces and sautee over medium heat.

In the meantime, crack and beat your eggs in a bowl.

Temporarily vacate your vegetables once they're nice and brown and smelling tasty. Grease up the pan with some butter and pour in your eggs. Allow a couple seconds to pass, then evenly distribute the chicken and veggies over the surface of the egg.

Don't stir the eggs unless you'd rather have a Buffalo chicken scramble (which sounds pretty good too). Instead, let the bottom start to set and lift the edges of the frittat while swirling so more raw egg makes contact with the pan.

When the surface of the eggs is still just a little liquidy, it's time to execute the flip. Get a big plate, preferably one that is larger than the pan you are working with. Jiggle the frittata loose and carefully slide it onto the plate. Turn the pan upside down over the plate and flip pan and plate together so that the uncooked side of the frittata is face down. This maneuver is going to take a little practice, so don't get frustrated when you don't maintain a perfect circle.

Let the frittata finish for a couple more minutes and remove to the table.

Serving:

Pretty simple: cut into slices and serve with salt, pepper, and hot sauce if desired. Hey! What's that nestled up next to my frittata? Stay tuned, folks; you just might get a bonus post in a couple days...

Leftover Corner: Sauce to Stromboli

One of the easiest ways to make a meal appear out of thin air is to creatively use leftovers. As a cook, I love to cheat. I have no qualms about taking something already prepared (usually by my mother), adding a few ingredients, and making an entirely new dinner. I imagine that one day I'll be repurposing myown leftovers, but for the time being, it makes perfect sense to use whatever I can get my hands on. In that spirit, I'm proud to introduce a new segment (thread? theme?) on The B.A. Gourmet: Leftover Corner!

You don't have to eat spaghetti and meatballs three nights in a row just because you have a big pot of sauce in your fridge. With a little dough, you can easily turn that into strombolis! For those who haven't been fortunate enough to have a background in fine Italian eatables, a stromboli is similar to a calzone, kind of an Italian turnover - a rolled, hot sandwich.

Ingredients:

1 Pot of Leftover Sauce and Meatballs

2 Packages of Pre-made Pizza Dough

Grated Mozzerella Cheese

Sliced Pepperoni

Sliced Olives

Steps/Analysis:

You'll want to lay everything out ahead of time. The fewer moves you make, the better your strombolis will hold up. Find some counter space and dust it with flour. Next to that area, you'll want to lay out a baking sheet or pizza stone.

Unwrap your first package of pizza dough and flour up your hands and a rolling pin. Starting in the center of the dough, roll outward. Rotate the dough as necessary; you're aiming for a long, roughly rectangular shape.

I decided to make one pepperoni and one meatball stromboli, but you could take the same basic idea and make limitless versions and combinations.

For the first stromboli, ladle on a layer of sauce and then sprinkle on a generous amount cheese. Put a layer of pepperoni and olive slices on top of that. At this point, tuck in the ends and roll the stromboli. Smooth down the seam as well as you can and then place that side down on your sheet or stone.

The construction of the meatball stromboli is very similar. Instead of pepperoni, cut up as many meatballs as you need to fill your roll. I prefer to add the cheese on top of the meatballs, instead of between them and the sauce; that seems to hold everything together better.

Make sure each stromboli has enough room to expand and leak a little (it's inevitable) and place them in a 350 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serving:

Let the strombolis sit around for a few minutes before eating. The insides need to settle down and stabilize. Otherwise, they'll run out in a lava flow when you cut the strombolis into manageable pieces.

As long as you're careful assembling everything, it's very difficult to go wrong with this recipe.