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.

Super Duper Chunky PBJ

Hello, B.A. Gourmet-niacs! You thought I had abandoned you, didn't you? It's been a while, I know, but I do have an excuse for not posting a single recipe this month. I swear.

The truth is that the B.A. Gourmet is now the graduate school gourmet (Don't worry, there won't be any confusing name change). By that, I mean that I have enrolled in graduate school. I've spent the last few weeks packing, moving, unpacking, and adjusting to my return to academia. I haven't had much time for cooking, or, at least, cooking anything new and exciting.

I'm hopeful, though. Living on my own means that I'll be responsible for feeding myself every day of the week. Since I'm not made of money, I'll be cooking more often than not. That should mean a return to normalcy shortly.

In the meantime, I have a recipe-esque kind of peace offering: Super Duper Chunky Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Ingredients:

Bread

Chunky Peanut Butter

Jelly (I prefer raspberry)

Granola

Steps/Analysis:

Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you how to make a PBJ, step by agonizing step. It's up there with boiling water in the world of kitchen basics.

My variation on the sandwich, though, means sprinkling a handful of granola on top of the peanut butter before assembly.

I inherited a bag of somewhat bland granola from a loved one who was trying to get more fiber in her diet. Since I'm a fan of the texture of chunky peanut butter anyway, I thought this might be a way to put it to good use.

Serving/Analysis:

This will definitely be the crunchiest peanut butter and jelly sandwich you've ever eaten. If that appeals to you, you'll be in heaven. Embrace the inner schoolchild and consume with potato chips, carrot sticks, chocolate milk, whatever.

So, was this a cop out post? Perhaps. It's certainly nothing ground breaking. But it is a promise of better things to come. I haven't forgotten you, my dear readers!

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?

Mexican Casserole

The stomach flu has sidelined the B.A. Gourmet for a few days. As soon as the rumbling subsided, though, I knew it was time to ditch the toast, bananas, and crackers for a Mexican meal.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of Ground Turkey

6-8 Flour Tortillas

2 Packets of Taco Seasoning

1 Onion

1 Bell Pepper

1 Can of Black Beans

1 Can of Enchilada Sauce

Shredded Cheese (Mexican Blend)

Steps/Analysis:

First, dice your onion and pepper into uniform pieces. Saute in a little olive oil over Medium heat until the onions are slightly translucent. At that point, evacuate the contents of your pan to a large mixing bowl.

Next, dump the ground turkey directly into the same pan, raising the temperature slightly to Medium-High. Using a spatula or large spoon, break up the meat and stir to cook evenly.

Once the turkey has cooked through, carefully drain the oil from the pan and return to the heat. Add one cup of water and both packets of taco seasoning. Stir thoroughly and allow the sauce to cook down for another 4-5 minutes.

Add the meat to the bowl with the onions and peppers. Then, drain the liquid from the can of black beans and add them to the bowl as well. Stir to thoroughly incorporate everything.

Pour half of the meat/onion/pepper/bean mixture into a large baking pan. Sprinkle on some cheese and cover with a layer of tortillas.

At this point, I decided to sprinkle on some more cheese and double up with another layer or tortillas, effectively making a quesadilla in the middle of the casserole. If that seems like overkill to you, by all means skip this step. I think it worked pretty well, though.

Spoon on the rest of the meat mixture, add cheese, a final layer of tortillas, and some more cheese on top. Put the pan in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese on top is brown and bubbly.

While the casserole is cooking, open up your enchilada sauce and heat in a small sauce pan over low heat.

Serving/Notes:

To serve, cut the casserole into squares and spoon some enchilada sauce over top. The end result is a little like a quesadilla, a little like a taco, and a little like an enchilada. It's a big ol' mess of Mexican goodness.

Rice and guacamole are welcome sides, as is a little hot sauce or salsa.

Pulled Pork Stromboli

Earlier this week, I was a little stumped about what I would be cooking for dinner. My usual Internet and magazine searches weren't yielding any appetizing suggestions. Maybe I was just in a fickle mood. At any rate, I sat down with a blank piece of paper and started brainstorming, putting together strange combinations of food to get the creative juices flowing.

And that's how it happened... Pulled Pork Stromboli. Forgotten what a stromboli is? Check here: http://thebagourmet.blogspot.com/2010/01/leftover-corner-sauce-to-stromboli.html

I guess you could say I'm a fan of mixing culinary styles. Some of my favorite dishes on this blog are BBQ chicken pizza and breakfast quesadillas, after all.

Ingredients:

2 Balls of Prepackaged Pizza Dough

1 Container of Lloyd's Shredded Pork

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce

Shredded Cheese (Mexican Blend)

1/2 Onion

1/2 Bell Pepper

Mushrooms

Leftover Corn (optional)

Steps/Analysis:

Dice the onion and pepper and start sauteing over Medium heat. Pull them off the stove when they just start to turn brown. You want to take the raw vegetable edge off of them, but remember that they'll be wrapped in dough and cooked some more in the oven.

Dice the mushrooms as well. There's no need to saute them, though.

Then, sprinkle some flour across the counter and grab a rolling pin. Start rolling out half of the total amount of pizza dough. Try to get a fairly big, rectangular shape.

Once you're there, spoon half of the Lloyd's pork down one side of the length of the rectangle. Then, add the onion, peppers, and mushrooms on top. There was some leftover corn in the kitchen from a previous dinner, so I threw that in too, just for the hell of it. Pour on a little BBQ sauce to help hold everything together and top with a thin layer of shredded cheese.

Next, fold the sides of the dough in towards the center and roll everything up like a giant burrito. Try to seal up the seams as well as you can to avoid leaks - a little olive oil will help if excess flour is preventing a good seal. You can also brush some olive oil over the top of the newly-formed stromboli to encourage browning in the oven.

Finally, carefully transfer this Italian/BBQ monster to a pizza stone or baking dish. Repeat with the second half of your dough to make another, identical stromboli.

Place the stone or pan in a 350 degree oven for about half an hour. When the strombolis are done, let them rest for about 5 minutes to help keep the insides from spilling out when you cut them up.

Serving/Notes:

Despite my best efforts to neatly encapsulate everything, this is quite a messy meal. The end slices of the stromboli are manageable by hand, but the center pieces are best attacked with a knife and fork.

That being said, the effort is well worth it. The pulled pork strombolis were really tasty - kind of like a summer BBQ in every bite. People dove right in. Just check out the aftermath...

Breakfast Quesadillas

My two favorite food genres would definitely be "Mexican" and "Breakfast." Naturally, I'll take any opportunity to combine the two. They often work really well together and already have a pretty strong precedent to build off of: huevos rancheros.

Since I had some leftover tortillas from my mu shu pork dinner anyway, I invented the "Breakfast Quesadilla" this past weekend. It's a little more complicated than most of my recipes (involving a frying pan and a panini press), but is well worth it.

Ingredients:
1 Large Flour Tortilla
2 Eggs
2 Slices of Pork Roll
Salsa
Cheese (Mexican Blend)

Steps/Analysis:
First thing's first, get your pork roll browned in the frying pan over Medium heat. If you've never had the good fortune to try pork roll before, it's one of the more amazing benefits of growing up in New Jersey. It's a little bacon-y and a little ham-y and all good. There's a number of brands on the market in the area, but for my money it doesn't get any better than Taylor Ham.

The trick to cooking pork roll is to make a cut from the center of its round form to the edge; that will keep it from shrinking into a meaty dome over the heat. Once browned, remove from the stove and cut the slices into quarter circles.

Next, lower the heat on your stove to Medium-Low and coat your pan with a pat of butter. Pour in two beaten eggs and allow to partially set up. Just before the eggs are completely cooked, scatter the pork roll pieces over half of the eggs and spoon on some salsa. Then, gently fold the eggs (now more properly called an omelette) over in half. Allow the eggs to finish cooking.

At this point, you should definitely start heating up the panini press, if you haven't done so already.

To prepare the tortilla, sprinkle a thin layer of cheese over one half. Carefully, lay the eggs on top of that side and sprinkle more cheese on top of that. Then, fold the other half of the tortilla over and place in the panini press.

Once the tortilla is crispy and has those lovely, golden-brown grill marks you're done. Remove to a plate and cut into triangles (I find that a pizza cutter is the best tool for this job).


Serving/Notes:
A little hot sauce is a nice addition, but otherwise there's really nothing else you have to add to your quesadilla. All the goodness is already neatly tucked inside.

I'll eat just about anything in a tortilla, but this is the real deal: a hearty, hand-held breakfast that's kind of fun to make as well as being extremely tasty.

I imagine this dish would be nearly as delicious without using a panini press. You would just have to move fast enough so that the hot eggs melt all the cheese for you. You could probably toast the assembled quesadilla in the frying pan as well (a la grilled cheese sandwich), but it might be difficult to warm both sides evenly.