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.

Turkey Meatballs

What's the point of having tomato sauce if you don't know how to make meatballs? Seriously. Pasta's nice, but you need a little protein to go with your carbs, don't you?

It's surprisingly easy to make a good meatball. You really only need three ingredients, so there's no reason not to make them. Well, besides the icky feeling of raw meat squishing between your fingers, but to that, I say, "grow up."

Alright? Alright. Let's make some meatballs.

Ingredients:

1 lb of Ground Turkey

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs (Italian Seasoning flavored, preferably)

Olive Oil

Steps/Analysis:

First thing's first: you'll probably want to get a pot of tomato sauce on the stove. If it's my homemade recipe from last week, awesome. If it's store-bought, well, I'll just turn my head while your crack open the jar. Put the sauce on Low heat and let it start to simmer.

Next, you're going to need a really big bowl. Really big. Trust me.

When you've found your massive bowl, dump in the ground turkey. Follow that up with the eggs and bread crumbs.

Now, it's time to get your hands dirty. Get in touch with your inner, mud-pie-making child and mix everything up really well. The more consistent the mixture, the better.

At this point, you should get a pan on the stove and let it warm up over Medium heat. You'll also want a relatively large plate on which to deposit your meatballs.

Gather up a small handful of meat and roll between your palms into a nice, little globe and set it aside on the plate. Repeat this process until you're out of meat. Depending on the size of your balls, you'll probably get 14-18 by the time you're done.

Add a little olive oil to the pan and carefully shift your meatballs from plate to pan. Don't overcrowd the pan. You may need to do this in more than one batch.

As the meatballs start to brown, roll them over with a spoon. Keep doing this until the entire surface is just a little crispy and the meatballs are cooked through the center, or at least most of the way there.

Move the meatballs into the simmering sauce and let the pot sit on the stove for about an hour or so. That'll give all the flavors a chance to meld and mellow and let the meatballs finish cooking, on the off chance that they're a little underdone.

Serving/Notes:

I was really pleased with this first attempt at meatballs. They were firm and flavorful and starting them off in the pan gives them a little crunch that they wouldn't have otherwise.

If you pair this recipe up with my updated tomato sauce, you'll have leftovers for weeks too, which is nice. Either that, or you can have a big pasta-and-meatball party!

Tomato Sauce v2.0

Those of you who read about my "Rustic Tomato Sauce" some time ago will remember that it quickly became an exercise in improvisation. I didn't really give myself enough time to properly simmer and misjudged my ingredient list. That's not to say that I was disappointed with the result, though; it's just not quite what I had in mind when I set out to make a sauce.

Thankfully, I just don't know when to quit. This week, I present my new and improved Tomato Sauce, version 2.0!

Ingredients:

2 28-oz Cans of Crushed Tomatoes
1 12-oz Can of Tomato Paste

1 Onion

1 Bell Pepper

Oregano

Red Pepper Flakes

Olive Oil

Steps/Analysis:

You should know ahead of time that Tomato Sauce v2.0 is not a quick recipe. Ideally, you should set aside 3-4 hours in order to cook everything low and slow and really marry the flavors. It might be best to tackle this on a weekend.

Don't fret, though, this is an easy recipe that will require minimal attention once you get things going. Stay with me!

First, set a large pot over Medium-High heat and dice the onion and bell pepper. Just like the beginning of my last tomato sauce recipe, you're going to saute the crap out of these in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot.

At this point, you should also add the red pepper flakes. I did not use an exact measurement for this step. I like a lot of heat, so I threw in a lot of flakes. Use your best judgment.

Once your vegetables have broken down to the point where they are translucent, turn down the heat to Low or Medium-Low. Open up both cans of crushed tomatoes and the tomato paste and add everything to the pot.

Carefully.

Tomato sauce tends to splash, so don't wear white.

You should also add the oregano now. Again, I did not use a precise measurement. I just added oregano until it looked like "enough." Scientific, I know.

Stir up the pot in order to incorporate everything. Cover with a lid and allow to simmer for about 3 hours, or until dinner time.

Check on the pot every once in a while to make sure it's not bubbling over, but, otherwise, that's it!

Serving/Notes:

This iteration of my tomato sauce has a lot more of the saucy qualities I was looking for: a rich, almost sweet flavor and a smoother consistency that sticks more easily to pasta. I'm very happy with the result.

Other than that? Come on, people. There's nothing too mysterious about tomato sauce. Serve it over your pasta of choice and... hey! What are those meaty... ball-looking... things in the picture? Could there be a meatball recipe posted in the near future?!

Pesto Chicken Pizza

So, a high class meal is nice, but let's get back to what this blog is really all about: PIZZA!

After last week's dinner, I had lots of pesto and chicken left over. As fate would have it, there was also an extra pizza crust in my fridge, just waiting to fulfill its destiny as a conveyance of deliciousness.

Thus was born the Pesto Chicken Pizza.

Ingredients:

1 Pizza Crust

2 Cooked Chicken Breasts

Jarred Pesto

Grape or Cherry Tomatoes

Shredded Cheese

Steps/Analysis:
Preheat the oven to 415 degrees and lay the pizza crust out on a baking sheet. Then, spoon on a thin layer of pesto.

(Again, I'm using chicken breasts that I had already cooked and prepared for the week. If you haven't planned accordingly, residence in a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes will get you where you need to be.)

Cut the chicken into roughly bite-size pieces and distribute them evenly over the pizza. Cut your tomatoes in half (or into smaller pieces if necessary) and repeat.

Sprinkle a layer of cheese over everything. Now, based on the nature and genre of the meal, logic dictates that you should definitely mozzarella cheese if you have it. I only had my usual Mexican blend on hand. Necessity being the mother of invention, I went for it and never looked back.

The final step is to brush a little olive oil around the outer crust so that it crisps up nicely in the oven.

10-15 minutes and you've got yourself dinner!

Serving/Notes:

You may want a little salt and pepper, but otherwise I was very happy with this creation. I've got a pretty solid repertoire of pizzas, if I do say so myself, and this is a nice addition to it.

The use of Mexican rather than Italian cheese seemed negligible. The substitution certainly didn't ruin my evening.

Chicken Pesto Supreme

I realize that a lot of my posts so far this fall have been a little too 'Freshman' and not 'Graduate' enough in complexity or class. Salami's great and all, but it really shouldn't be the focal point of one's diet.

With that in mind, I offer you a nice little dish I'm going to call Chicken Pesto Supreme. It's a little meaty and a little cheesy. It's got starches and vegetables. What more could you want?

Ingredients:

2 Cooked Chicken Breasts

Frozen Cheese Ravioli

Frozen Peas

Cherry or Grape Tomatoes

Jarred Pesto

Steps/Analysis:

I cooked my chicken breasts in advance--I like to bake a bunch of them at a time and keep them on hand for meals throughout the week. If you haven't, though, no big deal. Trim their fat and salt and pepper them generously. Place them in an oiled baking dish and get them in a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

With your chicken taken care of, set a pot of water over high heat and get it to boiling. When it's there, salt the water and carefully pour in enough ravioli for two people.

Keep an eye on that pasta! Depending on the brand you buy, it should only take about 5 minutes to cook through.

In the meantime, get the frozen peas in a large bowl with just a little water and microwave for 2 minutes or so. Halfway through, you'll want to give the peas a stir.

Drain off the water from the greens when done.

Next, slice a handful of tomatoes in half and add them to the peas. (Hopefully, you've selected a bowl large enough to house and serve the entire meal. If not, you may want to consider making a switch now.)

Drain the ravioli and give your chicken breasts a rough slicing. Add them to the bowl as well.

Finally, spoon on a healthy amount of basil pesto and stir to coat everything nicely. Just be careful not to be too vigorous about it; you don't want broken ravioli.

Serving/Notes:

A little salt and pepper are all that you need to accompany this meal... maybe a hank of bread, but not much else. Make sure you get a little of everything on your plate. The flavors and textures all play nicely with one another and the more variety you get on your fork, the happier you'll be. Enjoy, this classy, date-night dinner.

Leftover Corner: Meat Sauce to Pizza-dillas

Since my last blog post, my rustic tomato sauce has undergone an evolution. Basically, I turned it into a meat sauce by cooking up a pound of ground turkey and mixing it in. Now, that's all well and good, but not particularly tricky. I was, however, getting tired of the usual pasta iterations and tried to brainstorm a few new uses for my sauce.

Since my meat sauce usually winds up being more meat than sauce (It just happens that way; I think it's a character flaw of mine) it seemed to lend itself to less saucy applications. I looked through my refrigerator for additional inspiration, finding tortillas, shredded Mexican cheese, and little else.

That's when it occurred to me to marry food genres and create the Mex-Italian Pizza-dilla! (patent pending)

Ingredients:
Leftover Meat Sauce
1 Large Tortilla
Shredded Mexican Cheese
Olive Oil

Steps/Analysis:
First, brush a thin layer of olive oil on one side of the tortilla. Sprinkle on some salt if desired. Place the tortilla directly onto the top rack of a 375 degree oven. Let it crisp up a bit so that it will bear the weight of a substantial sauce. That should take between 5 and 10 minutes, but don't take your eyes off of it!

In the meantime, heat up the meat sauce on the stove top over low heat. You want it hot enough so that the cheese will melt on top of it.

When your tortilla is ready, spoon on a healthy amount of meat sauce, leaving some room around the edge. Sprinkle cheese over top and allow to melt.

Once melty and delicious, cut your pizza-dilla into quarters. I wouldn't recommend slicing it any thinner or the tortilla may not be able to support it's own weight.

Serving/Notes:
The Mex-Italian Pizza-dilla is quite the tasty culinary mutation. A fork is definitely a necessary accompaniment, though. Think of it as a life preserver in case you find yourself floating in a see of marinara.

Rustic Tomato Sauce

Didn't I tell you I'd be back? Didn't I?!

Coming from a large, Italian family, I've never made my own tomato sauce. There's always been someone around the who handled it. Someone who's been cooking sauce longer than I've been alive.

Since that is no longer the case, though, I'd give it a shot. Too proud (read: stupid) to ask for my mother's recipe, I tried to throw together my own, simple tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

1 Onion

1 Bell Pepper

2 28-oz Cans of Crushed or Diced Tomatoes
6 Cloves of Garlic

3 Teaspoons of Red Pepper Flakes

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Oregano

Olive Oil

Steps/Analysis:

To begin, dice the onion and bell pepper into uniform pieces. Peel and finely chop the cloves of garlic.

Put a large pot over high heat. Coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil and throw in your chopped onion, pepper, and garlic. Add your red pepper flakes and oregano and leave to saute. You really want to break the onion and bell pepper down about as far as they'll go. Stir occasionally, but don't move on at least until the onions are translucent.

Next, add the canned tomatoes. I chose diced, simply because it was the cheapest canned tomato option. Looking back, though, I'd recommend crushed. I have a hunch it would make a smoother, thicker sauce.

Stir to thoroughly incorporate everything and bring the pot to a simmer. Keep an eye on it, but the sauce will need to cook like this for at least an hour. That way, a lot of the water will evaporate out of the pot and the solid tomatoes will have a chance to break down. If you can let it go even longer, it'll only get better.

This is an easy recipe, but it is not a quick one.

When you're satisfied with the consistency of your sauce (or when you can't stand the waiting any longer because your kitchen is full of the smell of Italian cookery) remove from the heat and serve.

Serving/Notes:

Because I chose diced, my tomatoes stayed mostly solid throughout the cooking process. Ultimately, I decided to just call it "rustic" and chow down.

Naturally, I served this sauce over spaghetti. I also had a leftover chicken breast laying around, which I let simmer with the sauce for the last half hour or so.

The sauce didn't cling to the pasta as well as it might have, but was quite tasty otherwise. It had a nice kick to it. Also, the proportions of the recipe will leave lots of leftovers if you're only feeding yourself: probably enough for a week or so.