With a vegetable garden this is so easy to put together. A bit of a pantry recipe, versatile, whatever you have on hand. Even add a bit of meat, Italian sausage my suggestion, for the meat lovers. My secret to a well melded minestrone is to simmer for over an hour even if it’s cooked through in 30 minutes.
Great Summertime Pasta Dish! Place this sauce over your warm pasta and dig in. It’s perfect for those summer tomatoes and basil. Light and delicious!
Another take on Portuguese Beans inspired by a Cousin Perry recipe, and this 100 year old picture of the Freitas Family. Yep, these are my relatives in this photo … gone but not without leaving a rich culture behind. Pictured is the celebration following the traditional yearly pig butchering.
The ingredients in this recipe might surprise you … especially the amount of cinnamon used. Morcela sausage is another main ingredient but not always available locally or certain times of the year. I opted for Portuguese Chourico instead. Linguica could easily be used. The secret is to grind the sausage … adding to the beans deliciously spicy bits to tease the palate.
Give this a try! Deliciously spicy!
Before beginning this recipe I recommend reading the directions for linguica making, here. This will acquaint you with supplies needed and casing, grinding and stuffing particulars.
Have fun and enjoy!
Sometimes you just want a fully loaded quick bread. If you love the cake you’re gonna love this! A mere 15 minutes to the oven. Yep, it does take an hour to bake but your kitchen will smell amazing while it bakes. I opt for light olive oil just because of the health benefits. There is reportedly more health benefits to extra virgin. I have used extra virgin without significant taste difference. But if you are baking this for a foodie with a very discriminating palate opt for the light.
Enjoy!
Amazing lemon crusted blueberry pie needs no topper! This rich buttery lemon pastry crust is so easy. You’ll want to use it with other pie fillings too. Here it makes such a great combination with blueberries. To avoid a soggy crust I suggest baking the pie crust completely before adding the filling. You then can choose to add the uncooked sweetened berries and bake again, or you can choose to cook your berries stovetop and add to the baked pie shell.
There is no topper necessary for this pie but a dab of creme fraiche or whipping cream is always appropriate.
This is a side dish with a main dish capability. It’s a great vegetarian meal. Add a hardboiled egg on the side per person for a hearty meal. The recipe comes together quickly with pantry ingredients.
Another NYT recipe makeover. I’ve made this a couple of times and found the secret to perfection. The first time I substituted yams for the russets. My cupboard was bare. To remove the sweetness I roasted the yams first. It actually was pretty good. Next round I followed the recipe pretty closely but the ingredients seem to grow with my soup making. I found the soup really good but the bitterness of the kale was a bit off-putting. To perfect the soup I added a slice, or two if small, of rustic bread like ciabatta before ladling each serving. The bread was the secret. This is a great soup for those coolish evenings.
William Sonoma make over to fit my available ingredients and to serve the pasta and tomatoes al dente without high alcohol content for the kiddos. Vegetarian perfect with amazing flavor.
Add Anchovies if you like. And for my idea of a true puttanesca sauce add a pinch or two of red pepper flakes when adding the garlic.
It’s really about Cheese Dip … not the meal I turned it into! Cheese Dip just sounded a perfect addition to Super Bowl Sunday. To use Velveeta or not? I went with the tradition but after tasting a slice I realized this isn’t the Velveeta of my youth. Now What? All this Velvetta! Here’s what I did.