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Not Your Regular Nachos: Italian Nachos

partysugar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:40:19 -0700

Let me just say that taking a gorgeous, appetizing picture of nachos is hard. The image certainly does not do these amazingly delicious Italian nachos justice. They were so good that I ate an insane amount all by myself. What exactly are Italian nachos? A creation I invented based on a little web research. I took elements from several recipes to make my own version.

First I fried pieces of tomato basil tortillas. Next I made an Alfredo sauce and heated up finely chopped Italian sausage. The chips were seasoned with salt and dried oregano before being topped with the sauce, sausage, and a heavy sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. The whole thing was topped with a tomato, sun-dried tomato, black olive, and pepperoncini salsa. The final result was to die for.

For more details on how I made them, read more.

Italian Nachos
Modified from Joe Buona's Pizzeria and Wikipedia

Ingredients

For Alfredo sauce:
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tbs. unsalted butter
4 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh-ground black pepper
pinch of fresh-ground nutmeg
For nachos
oil, for frying
2 tomato basil tortillas sliced into triangular pieces
dried, crushed oregano
salt
1 Italian sausage, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese (don't use fresh mozzarella, it will make the chips soggy)
2 tablespoons finely chopped tomato
2 tablespoons finely chopped black olives
1 tablespoon finely chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 tablespoon finely chopped peppercini
red pepper flakes, optional for serving

Directions

Make the chips: heat the oil in a large pot over high heat. When smoking add the tortilla wedges and fry for 30 seconds on each side until crisp and golden brown. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle with dried oregano and salt. Repeat, working in small batches, until all the tortillas are fried.

Make the Alfredo sauce: combine cream and butter in a saute pan. Heat over a low flame, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the cream comes to a bare simmer. Remove the pan from the heat once the butter is evenly incorporated into the cream.
Add the cheese, the salt, the nutmeg, and several grinds of the pepper mill. Cover set aside.
Meanwhile heat 1 teaspoon oil in a saute pan over medium low heat. Add the sausage and cook until crisp, browned, and heated through.
Preheat the oven to 375°.
Make the salsa: combine the tomato, sun dried tomatoes, black olives, and peppercini in a small bowl.

Place the chips on a cookie sheet covered with foil.
Drizzle with Alfredo sauce and top with cooked sausage. Cover with mozzarella and drizzle with more sauce.

Bake in the oven for 4 minutes until the cheese is melted. Turn the broiler on and broil until the chips are crisp and the cheese is bubbling.
Remove from oven and top with salsa. Serve immediately with red pepper flakes for sprinkling if desired.

Serves 1.

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Not Your Regular Nachos: Nachos Caprese

partysugar — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:15:32 -0700

At the Food and Wine Classic, I watched Jose Andres make bread chips. He froze a baguette, sliced it superthin with a mandoline, and panfried it until crisp. While Andres topped his with anchovies and other Spanish ingredients, I haven't stopped thinking about this bread chip and wondered how it would translate into a nacho. I don't have a mandoline, so I used regular white bread. However, I wish I would have found a way to use paper-thin bread. The final result was more like a cheesy bruschetta than a nacho. When I realized this, I was disappointed, but the classic Italian flavors - mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil - were so delicious that I soon forgot my sadness. I highly recommend you make this scrumptious appetizer, only instead of calling it nachos, simply call it bruschetta! To see what I did, read more.

Nachos Caprese aka Cheesy Bruschetta
Original recipe by PartySugar

Ingredients

1 small loaf thinly sliced sourdough bread
1 stick butter
2-3 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
8 ounces mozzarella, grated
2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 cup homemade or store bought pesto
basil leaves, optional for garnish

Directions

Cut the bread into triangular pieces, removing crusts.

Since this was an experiment, I decided to fry some in butter (a la Ryan Scott) and bake some in the oven. For frying, melt one stick of butter with 2-3 peeled garlic cloves in a large pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted add the bread, frying in a single layer. Fry until golden brown 3-4 minutes. Flip and continue to fry for 1-2 more minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat with remaining bread.

Alternately, for baking, preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the bread triangles in an even layer on a large baking sheet. Bake in the oven until crisp and brown 15-20 minutes.
When the bread is cool enough to handle spread evenly on a large baking sheet. Season bread generously with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the cheese, taking care to cover each piece of bread with cheese. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until cheese is melted.

Remove and transfer cheesy bread triangles to a serving platter. Top each piece of bread with a heaping tablespoon of chopped tomatoes.
If your pesto is too thick to drizzle, thin with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Drizzle the pesto over the top of the tomatoes. Garnish with basil leaves if desired and enjoy!

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer.

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Italian Nachos

partysugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:38:36 -0700

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Taste Test: Domino's Bread Bowl Pastas

YumSugar — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:00:53 -0700

The world of fast food is certainly quick paced, so the second Domino's begun advertising five flavors of pasta housed in a bread bowl, it seemed everybody was buzzing about it. When Party and I first got word of these monsters, we were simultaneously shocked (who came up with the concept?), appalled, and eager to try them. Yesterday turned out to be the Domino's day of reckoning - to find out how the bowls stood up to their shock value, read more.

It's hard to fathom why Domino's rolled out this concept of carbs inside more carbs, but the fact that competitor Pizza Hut has already racked up more than $500 million in sales of its Tuscani Pastas and lasagna, puts things more into perspective. However, as soon as we opened the delivery, we were faced with many unanswered questions: How many people was each bread bowl supposed to feed? Was the dish designed to be eaten like a pizza, or were we supposed to eat the pasta first, then the bowl?

Pasta Primavera: This bread bowl was filled with pasta, baby spinach, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and a goopy, oily Alfredo sauce. While the sole vegetarian option was filled with vegetables, I questioned whether the dish contained any protein.

Chicken Carbonara: Although this tasted somewhat like carbonara, it was covered with similar globs of white sauce.

Three Cheese Mac-N-Cheese: This was our least favorite. We love macaroni and cheese, but the flavors of the dish - bland, artificial nacho cheese, subpar penne, and a yeasty bread bowl - just did not seem to meld at all.

Italian Sausage Marinara: If we had to choose a best of the tasting, it would have been the Italian Sausage Marinara, which was rather reminiscent of regular pizza delivery with breadsticks. But then again, why not just order pizza and breadsticks?

Chicken Alfredo: All of the bowls were loaded with sodium (I drank water for hours afterward), but the Chicken Alfredo was swimming in a sauce that was over-the-top salty, to the point of being unpleasant to eat.

Unsurprisingly, the Pasta Primavera, Chicken Carbonara, and Chicken Alfredo flavors - which possess the same mysterious creamy white sauce - all taste remarkably similar. The bread bowl itself, which tastes a lot like Domino's breadsticks, was satisfying, but overall, unless we were starving and had no other options, or were carbo loading for a marathon the next day, we wouldn't eat this again.

Have you tried any of the Bread Bowl Pastas? If so, what was your assessment of them?

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Let's Dish: What Will You Eat During the Super Bowl?

partysugar — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:00:26 -0800

I've always looked forward to the Super Bowl. Not because I'm a huge football fan, but because I'm a foodie. It's an excuse to unashamedly devour nachos, chili and buffalo wings. Anything excessive, spicy, unhealthy, and cheesy is welcome on the Super Bowl table.

This year I'm thinking about serving either an Italian menu (with pepperoni pizza dip and Italian sausage meatball sandwiches) or a more traditional menu (with guacamole and cheddar beer soup).

How about you? What's on your Super Bowl menu? If you aren't cooking, what do you plan on eating while you watch the game?

Source

Come Party With Me: Super Bowl - Menu

partysugar — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:28:31 -0800

I love the Super Bowl because it gives me an excuse to make super indulgent bar food! Have plenty of finger foods waiting for your guests. Serve chips, guacamole, chicken empanadas with chili con queso dip, and individual portions of goat cheese nachos. At half time set up a sandwich bar and invite guests to Italian sausage meatball subs and lobster rolls. Offer mini bags of store bought potato chips on the side. For these finger licking good recipes read more.

Chicken Empanadas with Chili Con Queso Dip
From Paula Deen

3 cups chopped, cooked chicken, about 4 to 5 chicken breasts
1 (8-ounce) package shredded colby and Monterey Jack cheese blend
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie crusts
Water

Preheat vegetable oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl using a rubber spatula, combine the chicken, colby and Monterey cheese, cream cheese, red pepper, jalapeno, cumin, salt, and pepper.
Remove 1 pie crust from pie tin onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 15-inch circle.
Cut out rounds, using a 3-inch cookie cutter. Re-roll dough as needed. Repeat procedure with remaining pie crusts, making 12 to 15 circles total.
Arrange 1 round on a clean, flat surface. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the edges of crust with water. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of chicken mixture in the center of the round.
Fold the dough over the filling, pressing the edges with a fork to seal. Repeat with the remaining rounds and chicken mixture.
Place empanadas in deep-fryer for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with chili con queso dip, recipe below.

Serves 12-15.

Make ahead: The fried empanada recipe can be made ahead and frozen for up to 1 month.

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Goat Cheese Nachos
From Everyday With Rachael Ray magazine

Two 15.5-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1 lime, plus lime wedges for serving
1/2 white onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch ground cumin
Salt and pepper
20 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
1 cup heavy cream
2 bags tortilla chips (18 to 24 ounces total)
3 ripe avocados, coarsely chopped
1 pint fresh pico de gallo or salsa
1 cup chopped cilantro

In a medium saucepan, combine the black beans, lime juice, onion, olive oil, garlic, cayenne, cumin and a pinch salt and pepper.
Cover and warm over medium-low heat, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer half of the mixture to a food processor; blend until smooth. Return the puree to the saucepan and stir; cover to keep warm.
In a medium, microwaveable bowl, stir the goat cheese with the heavy cream. Cover and microwave on high power for 90 seconds; whisk until creamy. Set aside.
Place a large handful of tortilla chips in individual paper bowls, drizzle with goat cheese sauce and top with the black bean mixture, avocado, pico de gallo and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

Serves 10.

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Italian Sausage Meatball Heroes
From Bon Appetit magazine

1 pound spicy or sweet Italian sausages, casings removed
1 (23- to 24-ounce) container purchased fresh marinara sauce, divided
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley, divided
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil, divided
4 (5- to 6-inch-long) pieces French baguette, split horizontally
1 cup (packed) coarsely grated whole-milk mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Mix sausage, 1/2 cup marinara, Parmesan, 2 tablespoons parsley, and 2 tablespoons basil in large bowl. Using wet hands, shape mixture into 8 meatballs.
Bring 2 tablespoons parsley, 2 tablespoons basil, remaining marinara, and meatballs to boil in large skillet.
Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until meatballs are cooked through, turning often, about 20 minutes.
Place baguette bottoms on baking sheet; spread each with about 2 tablespoons sauce from skillet.
Cut meatballs in half in skillet; overlap 4 halves on each baguette bottom. Spoon remaining sauce over meatballs, then sprinkle mozzarella over, dividing equally. Bake until cheese melts, about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with remaining parsley and basil and cover with baguette tops.

Serves 4.

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Lobster Sliders
From Food and Wine magazine

Meat from a 1 1/2-pound cooked lobster (1 1/4 cups), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon finely diced dill pickle
2 tablespoons finely diced celery
1 1/2 teaspoons minced tarragon
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
Eight 2-inch round soft dinner rolls, split

In a medium bowl, mix the lobster with the mayonnaise, crème fraîche, shallot, pickle, celery, tarragon and lemon zest. Season with salt and white pepper and refrigerate until ready to use.
Lightly butter the cut side of each roll. Heat a large skillet over moderate heat. Toast the rolls in the skillet, cut side down, until lightly golden, about 1 minute.
Transfer the rolls to a work surface. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the lobster salad on the bottom half of each roll. Close the sliders and serve.

Serves 8.

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