Fat Boy's Easy Alfredo Sauce

Many, many years ago, a good friend of mine told me that my Alfredo sauce is what turned him into a fat boy. Luckily, he didn't hate me for it. And now, even though he tells me he still makes it, he's no longer a fat boy. Now he's a svelte boy. It is, however, part of his low carb diet repertoire. While he likes to drizzle its cheesy goodness it over roasted cauliflower, it's a wonderful thing over pasta, gnocchi, vegetables and is dandy with some seafood like shrimp or scallops added at the last moment, or some spinach. My Alfredo sauce is low carb, gluten free and lacto vegetarian, and will make just about everyone at the table happy.

This is so easy to make that even a non-cook can do it and ditch the glop in the jar. The only stipulation is that you choose top notch ingredients. If all you have on hand is parmesan cheese in the familiar green can, please don't even consider making this until you can pick up some real Parmesan Reggiano. And grate it yourself. There aren't a lot of ingredients in this sauce, so each one has to speak well for itself.

Fat Boy's Easy Alfredo Sauce

Fat Boy's Easy Alfredo Sauce

Makes a scant cup, about 4 servings

1 garlic clove, minced
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
big pinch of salt
2T unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream, not ultra pasteurized
1/4 cup dry white wine or white vermouth
1 scant cup freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
(handful of peeled raw shrimp, optional)
extra Parmesan to pass at the table

1. In a medium to large, broad saucepan, add the garlic, cayenne, nutmeg, salt, butter, heavy cream and wine, and bring to a low boil, whisking, to keep it from boiling over. Use a saucepan bigger than you think you need. Cook the cream mixture until it is reduced to roughly half.

2. Gradually add the the Parmesan, about 1/3 at a time, whisking the sauce smooth before adding the next portion. Keep the mixture at a low simmer. If you are adding shrimp, add it now, and stir until they become pink and opaque. Stir in the parsley and serve.

Note: This Alfredo Sauce will thicken as it stands and cools, but heating and / or a splash of white wine will bring it back to sauce consistency.

Cauliflower Puree with Parmesan

I've been trying to focus on good side dishes that don't include grains, but that are still satisfying and delicious. I promise the broccoli puree, soon, but I make this often, it's so versatile, and it goes with so many foods that it bears re-posting.

Cauliflower Puree with Parmesan.
I'd rather have this than potatoes any day.

Some meals just cry out for mashed potatoes. Roast beef and gravy. Pork chops. Homey things. Then there are chic meals that need something UNDER the protein to prop it up. Any restaurant worth its salt will plop some potatoes, couscous or polenta under your meat or fish, and plate your entree at an appealing angle. The starch is the "glue" of the plate. You eat first with your eyes. And the meat on top looks great. The stuff underneath, well, not so much.  I have a much better choice.

Often those potatoes or grainy glop are hardly worth eating. Guess what? Cauliflower puree is creamy, unctuous, and decadent. If you put that under your chop, or along side it, you may just decide to eat it first, after just one taste. So good, that when you spoon it into a bowl. it'll be impossible not to run your finger through the swirl and taste. Pure heaven. Gluten-free, grain free, low carb and vegetarian (with vegetable stock or water), even cauliflower haters will enjoy this creamy, mildly cheesy puree.

There are still nice cauliflowers in your local farm market, but if you are pressed for time, two 1-lb. bags of frozen cauliflower will work, too. We had a cross between the two: the last home-frozen cauliflower from last year's garden. Especially appreciated since the critters ate all but two of my cauliflower plants this year. It was really lovely beside our grilled pork chops and some fresh, steamed haricots verts.

Cauliflower Puree with Parmesan
3-6 servings

2 lb. of fresh or frozen cauliflower, cut into florets
1-1/2 cups unsalted chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
3T unsalted butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese
1/4  homemade crème fraîche or heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and white pepper
Minced chives or parsley to garnish

Place the cauliflower in a medium covered saucepan with the stock or water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until very tender 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the stock as even in a covered pan, it may be mostly gone towards the end of the cooking time. There should be just a few tablespoons of liquid left in the pan; if not, add a bit of water.

Spoon the cauliflower into the bowl of a food processor, keeping the cooking liquid aside to use if needed. Puree until smooth, adding as little liquid as possible. Add the butter, cheese, cream, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Puree again and scrape down the bowl. Serve hot. Garnish with chives or parsley if serving in a bowl instead of individual portions.

Another Grainless Wonder: Cauliflower Puree with Parmesan

Cauliflower Puree with Parmesan.
I'd rather have this than potatoes any day.

Some meals just cry out for mashed potatoes. Roast beef and gravy. Pork chops. Homey things. Then there are chic meals that need something UNDER the protein to prop it up. Any restaurant worth its salt will plop some potatoes, couscous or polenta under your meat or fish, and plate your entree at an appealing angle. The starch is the "glue" of the plate. You eat first with your eyes. And the meat on top looks great. The stuff underneath, well, not so much.  I have a much better choice.

Often those potatoes or grainy glop are hardly worth eating. Guess what? Cauliflower puree is creamy, unctuous, and decadent. If you put that under your chop, or along side it, you may just decide to eat it first, after just one taste. So good, that when you spoon it into a bowl. it'll be impossible not to run your finger through the swirl and taste. Pure heaven. Gluten-free, grain free, low carb and vegetarian (with vegetable stock or water), even cauliflower haters will enjoy this creamy, mildly cheesy puree.

There are still nice cauliflowers in your local farm market, but if you are pressed for time, two 1-lb. bags of frozen cauliflower will work, too. We had a cross between the two: the last home-frozen cauliflower from last year's garden. Especially appreciated since the critters ate all but two of my cauliflower plants this year. It was really lovely beside our grilled pork chops and some fresh, steamed haricots verts.

Cauliflower Puree with Parmesan
3-6 servings

2 lb. of fresh or frozen cauliflower, cut into florets
1-1/2 cups unsalted chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
3T unsalted butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream or homemade crème fraîche
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and white pepper
Minced chives or parsley to garnish

Place the cauliflower in a medium covered saucepan with the stock or water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until very tender 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the stock as even in a covered pan, it may be mostly gone towards the end of the cooking time. There should be just a few tablespoons of liquid left in the pan; if not, add a bit of water.

Spoon the cauliflower into the bowl of a food processor, keeping the cooking liquid aside to use if needed. Puree until smooth, adding as little liquid as possible. Add the butter, cheese, cream, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Puree again and scrape down the bowl. Serve hot. Garnish with chives or parsley if serving in a bowl instead of individual portions.

Cottage Cheese Cutlets Redux: Thank you, Goldbecks!

Cottage Cheese Cutlets: easy, satisfying, delicious!

Nearly 30 years ago, I got my hands on a vegetarian cookbook that, for a few years, was my go-to vegetarian cookbook. It’s called “Ameican Wholefoods Cuisine” by Nikki & David Goldbeck. While we weren’t vegetarians at the time, we were young, and finances were tight, and the recipes in this book were healthy, tasty and economical. There is an Italian style cheese and garbanzo dish in there that is still, to me, one of the best comfort foods around.

I still have a lot of favorites in there, and if you are ovo-lacto vegetarian, this would be a great starter vegetarian book. It’s still in print, and it probably has some of the best, simple vegetarian recipes and bread-making instructions around without all the usual do-gooder rhetoric included. Like any other set of recipes that you cook often, you tend to make changes in the original until only the barest bones of the original are still there, and all the flesh has been added. So I've fooled with a favorite. Actually quite a few of them, but we'll not go there right now. 

In Italian households, if the cook has been breading and frying meat, once the meat is cooking, and if there are still eggs, seasoned breadcrumbs and cheese left over from the breading process, they are mixed together, and the resulting cheesy bread patties are fried up in the remaining oil. And immediately fought over by whoever is standing around the kitchen at the time. Kinda like what hushpuppies were originally.

Last Sunday, my friend Colette mentioned she liked cottage cheese and how so few other people seem to like the stuff. I love it. I was weaned on cottage cheese and apple butter as a kid when I visited my Grandma up in Berks County, PA. I promised to give Colette this recipe, and I thought a lot of other folks might like to try it too, for a quick, easy Meatless Monday meal.

My version of the cottage cheese cutlets resembles those Italian breadballs in flavor, but are more substantial and have a lot more protein, thanks to the cottage cheese. You can vary the seasoning as you wish. I like them topped with fresh chopped tomatoes and onions, and a few oil-cured olives, but a topping of tomato sauce and cheese would be dandy. Or salsa and chiles.  A green salad or a green vegetable will round out the meal nicely.

Cottage Cheese Cutlets Redux

Makes 6 small cutlets, serves 2

Adapted from “American Whole Foods Cuisine” By Nikki & David Goldbeck

Note: To drain the cottage cheese, just place it in a small strainer over a bowl and let sit until most of the milky part is gone and there are mostly curds in the strainer. I toss it in the strainer in the morning and pop the whole thing in the fridge until dinner time. Pot cheese won’t need to be drained. Check out your cottage cheese brand; there should only be milk, cream enzymes and salt in it. If there are too many ingredients in it, find another brand of cottage cheese to like. Locally here, Friendship and Daisy don’t have any “junk” in them. Just please don't use fat-free cottage cheese; otherwise anything from 1% to full-fat will work fine.

1 cup of well-drained natural cottage cheese (see note, or pot cheese if you can find it)

1 cup of fresh whole grain breadcrumbs

1 large egg

¼ cup grated Parmesan or Locatelli Romano (preferred)

½ tsp garlic powder

Big pinch kosher salt

Few grinds of fresh black pepper

2T minced fresh chives (preferred) or parsley

1/3 cup whole wheat flour for dredging the patties

Safflower or extra virgin olive oil for frying

Beat the egg in a medium bowl, then add the salt, the chives, the garlic powder, the pepper and beat well. Combine the egg mixture with the cottage cheese, the Romano or Parmesan and the breadcrumbs. Let set in the bowl for 10-15 minutes so the mixture can thicken up (go make the vegetables and heat some sauce). Place the whole wheat flour in a flat dish near the range.

Once the cheese is drained, it's less than 30 minutes from mixing to table.

 Heat about 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a 10” frying pan, preferably a “green” non-stick pan, enough to coat the bottom, on medium high heat. When the oil shimmers, take about 1/3 cup of the mixture-it will hold together softly, form it into a round flat cutlet, dredge each side in the flour and pop into the pan. Immediately turn down the heat to medium, and cook until browned on one side, turn gently and cook the other side until browned. Serve hot with your choice of sauce.

Grandma’s Turning in Her Grave Baked Ziti

Yep, that's deli provolone, not mozzarella

This was going to be a no-holds-barred baked ziti. Replete with mini sausage meatballs, whole milk fresh ricotta, mozzarella, provolone, pecorino Romano, mushrooms, spinach, lots of pasta, you name it. The full Monty. Just like my Grandma and my mother made. Until I got on the scale this morning. I still weigh the same as I did at Christmas, and I was going to be lighter by Spring. It’s Spring and I’m no thinner.

I can excuse my self saying I’ve been sick, and still not back to running and working out full tilt, but the  ooey-gooey baked pasta dish from my family’s recipes is not going to help things along. Screwing with an Italian Grandma’s recipe, in case you didn’t know, is a food crime tantamount to putting ketchup on macaroni and calling it spaghetti with red sauce. It’s just not done. But I did.

Went to the market this morning, and challenged myself to find some substitutes to use that’ll save a few calories, and STILL make a gorgeous, cheesy, gooey pasta dish. There was also no way I was going to add any fake food to my dish, so no weird fat-free things were going in there. Grandma may still turn over in her grave, but at least she won’t be spinning at high speed. While this recipe still tips the scale at roughly over 450 calories per serving, using the recipe calculator over on the Livestrong website, the original recipe is closer to 875. Not exactly lo-cal, but not as great a food crime. Calorie-wise.

The cheeses are the big offenders when it comes to calories. First to go was the mozzarella; while provolone isn’t as stringy, it adds more taste and I can use less of it. It’s all about taste here. Same deal using Romano instead of Parmesan. Sheep’s milk cheese has a more robust flavor, so you can use less. Around here there are only 3 choices when it comes to ricotta: full fat, par skim, and fat free.  The part skim doesn’t save enough calories, and the fat free is, well, an abomination. It’s just plain gross. The little sausage meatballs in the original recipe were also yummy little calorie-bombs, and they had to go, too. Replacing them with lean ground beef, and upping the flavor ante with a little pepperoni keeps this whole dish from being too diety. Not that this is exactly diet food.

The last adjustment I made was to scale down the recipe. The original serves 14 - to 16 people. A normal sized Italian family dinner. As a second course. We are a household of 2, and I neither wanted to be eating this all month, or having to freeze huge portions since we are inching closer to the growing season and I need more room in the freezer, not less. Makes eight generous servings. —One night’s dinner, one night leftovers and four servings for the freezer in our house.

After all is said and done, I think my Grandma would have loved this.  She’d have eaten every bit on her plate and wiped up the sauce with a chunk of crusty bread. Then she’d give me a kiss. But never have actually admitted that it is really “Delizioso!”

We like our cheese brown,
see directions below for keeping it pale.

Grandma’s Turning in Her Grave Baked Ziti

1T. Olive oil

1 oz pepperoni, slivered

1 lb. 93% lean or leaner ground beef

8 oz. sliced mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup dry red wine

1 T. dried basil

1 T. dried oregano

Pinch of red pepper flakes or more to taste

Tiny pinch ground cloves (opt.)

1 cup dry red wine

6 cups (1.5 qts.) plain tomato sauce

8 oz. whole wheat or high fiber ziti or other chunky pasta shape

1 lb. 1% whipped cottage cheese (small curd will do)

2 oz. shredded pecorino  Romano cheese

2 lg. eggs

10 oz. baby spinach cooked and squeezed dry

Pinch of fresh grated nutmeg

½ tsp. garlic powder

Freshly ground black pepper

½ lb. sharp deli provolone, sliced

Bring a 6 quart or larger pot of well-salted water to a boil. In the meantime, in a large sauce pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, add the pepperoni and cook until it releases some of its own oil.

Add the ground beef and brown, then add the mushrooms and minced garlic. Stir well for a minute or two, then pour in the wine, and stir any stuck bits loose from the bottom of the pot. Add the herbs, pepper and cloves, if using. Pour in the tomato sauce  and mix well, bring to a simmer and let cook while the pasta cooks. The pasta water should be boiling, by now, so add the pasta and cook to al dente according to the package directions. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

While the pasta cooks and the sauce simmers, place the cottage cheese in a large bowl, and mix in everything except the provolone. When the pasta is cooked, turn off both the pasta and the sauce, drain the pasta, and add it to the cottage cheese mixture. Scoop about 1-1/2 cups of the sauce from the pot and set aside to serve at the table.

In a big, flat casserole dish, coat the bottom with just enough sauce to cover. Spoon in half of the pasta mixture, drop it in dabs all over the sauce and spread to fill the gaps. Do the same with half of the remaining meat sauce, then lay half of the provolone slices over the meat sauce. Repeat, ending with provolone on the top. If you don’t want the top brown, spray a piece of foil with cooking spray so the top cheese wont stick to it, and then cover the dish.  Bake for about an hour until all brown (if it’s uncovered) and bubbly. Let it stand about 5 minutes before serving.