Salsa de tomate frito

Ever since living in Spain, attending my first and only lesson at a cooking school there, and being obsessed with El País’s food blogger El Comidista, I’ve been into making Spanish food. With a stack of recipes from the cooking school and countless ones online, I’ve been able to make everything from croquetas to gazpacho. Still, one of my favorite dishes has always been pisto manchego.

No-Bake Summer Lasagna

Finally, time to write. It’s been another several weeks since I’ve been able to post anything and my excuse is: graduation. I can’t believe it’s all over so quickly, and my extra week in California too, but now, I’m on my way back home for a short visit. After that, it’s off to Santiago, Chile to start my life in the real world.

While I’m sad college is over (though don’t get me wrong, I’m soo happy to be done with writing research papers) I’m excited to be moving on to something new and a whole new world of food to explore. Even though most people tell me that Chilean food is nothing to write home about and Santiago is simply not their favorite city, I’m determined to like it. I think it will be adventure to try some of the local cuisine and take advantage of the fresh produce. I was reading on Liz Caskey’s blog, Eat Wine, that she has never seen anywhere with such great fresh produce other than California. As such, when I get to Chile (even though it won’t be summer) I’ll probably be making this no-bake lasagna to make use of the tasty produce. And now that it’s summer in the States, I hope you’ll try it too.

I made this lasagna for my co-op thinking that it would be nice to have a cold meal on a hot summer day and hoping to finally try out some of the recipes on my favorite Spanish food blog, El Comidista. His recipes did not disappoint and had everyone complimenting our food.  If you'd like to see the Spanish version of this recipe, simply scroll to the end or click on the "Para ver la receta en español, haz clique aquí".

No-Bake Summer Lasagna (translated and adapted from El Comidista)

Yield: Serves 4 people
Ingredients:
12 sheets of lasagna pasta
2 large ripe tomatoes
1 zucchini
150 gr. of dried tomatoes in oil
100 gr. of ricotta cheese
50 gr. of grated parmesan
50 gr. of hazelnuts
1 handful of basil
1/2 lemon
White vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Directions:
1) Using a mandolin, a peeler, or a Salad Shooter like the one my co-op bought near the end of the year, cut the zucchini into super thin slices. Mix the lemon juice, with a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Then, in a medium-sized bowl, combine the zucchini with the lemon juice and allow it to marinate at room temperature for about half an hour.
2) In a blender, combine the hazelnuts, basil, a tablespoon of vinegar, and 150ml of olive oil. Add the grated parmesan cheese and blend again. If the mixture is very thick, add a bit more olive oil until it’s about the consistency of pesto. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. 
3) Peel and cut the tomatoes into thin slices (I didn’t peel my tomatoes and it was still fine). 
4) With a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the ricotta cheese with a bit of olive oil until it is creamy. Salt to taste. 
5) Following the instructions on the package, cook the sheets of lasagna until just al dente. 
6) In a deep dish, begin assembling the lasagna. In the first layer, place four pieces of lasagna side by side and cover with half of the ricotta cheese. On top, place half of the zucchini, tomato, and sun dried tomatoes in pieces. Drop a bit of the pesto sauce on top in small dollops. Cover with another layer of lasagna sheets and repeat the above steps. Finish with a layer of lasagna sheets and cover with more pesto and some sun dried to tomatoes. Serve at room temperature.

Eggplant Bruschetta

I meant to write about my last cook of the quarter and the beautiful results from it, but haven't had the chance with finals, Christmas, and my sister's baby shower (so exciting!! Much more about that later).  But, now that I have time, I wanted to focus on a couple of recipes from the amazing meal that my housemate and I made.

It was our final cook of the quarter and we were determined to make up for our previous cook (let's just say that our previous meal didn't exactly go as planned).  Determined to make up for it, we decided on a meal which consisted of beef brisket, flatbread with honey and thyme, mashed potatoes, salad, eggplant bruschetta, and a Bulgarian pastry with cottage cheese.

You may be thinking, “wow, that's a lot of food”, and honestly, it was about enough food to feed our house of 40 plus some.  We really wanted to make sure we didn't run out of food.  Yet despite the vast quantities, we managed to make a pretty delicious meal.  One of the dishes which was particularly loved was actually our vegetarian option.  We (with our mass amounts of food) ended up having enough eggplant bruschetta for everyone to try it, and they gave us tons of compliments on it.  Here's the recipe so you can try it out for yourself!

Eggplant Bruschetta (adapted from the Smitten Kitchen)

Yield: About 4 salad/appetizer portions, assuming people will eat 2 rounds apiece.

Ingredients:
2 to 3 tablespoons plus 4 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds eggplant (about 2 medium), cut into 3/4- to 1-inch slices
2 ounces (1/2 cup) feta cheese
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1/3 cup finely diced red onion
3 seeded, diced medium tomatoes (1 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves
2 teaspoon red wine vinegar plus a bit more
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2) Finely dice the 1/3 cup of red onion and place it in a small bowl.  Soak the onion in red wine vinegar, just to cover.  Let sit until you assemble the salad. This is intened to soften the onions a bit and make the onion flavor a little less intense, (especially important if you're like me and don't like raw onions).
3) Coat a large baking sheet generously with olive oil, 2 to 3 tablespoons. Arrange eggplant rounds in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4)Roast, without disturbing, for 15 to 20 minutes. Flip each piece: the undersides should be blistery, dark and a bit puffy and should release from the pan with no effort. If they don't look this way, allow them to cook longer. Once flipped, sprinkle them with additional salt and freshly ground black pepper and return the pan to the oven for another 10 to 12 minutes or so, until the undersides match the tops.
5) Meanwhile, mix your feta cheese, capers, onion*, tomatoes, mint, vinegar and remaining 4 teaspoons olive oil in a small bowl. Taste for seasoning; feta cheese tends to be quite salty so this dish shouldn't need any salt.  Add freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
6) When the eggplant discs are done, arrange them on a serving platter. Scoop a spoonful of the salad over each round. Eat immediately.

Crostini with Brie and Tomatoes

It was a Friday evening and my friend Dan and I had decided to make dinner. We all needed a trip to the store so Dan, Manoli, and I all jumped in the car and headed to Safeway. Wandering around for a bit, not sure of what to make that would not cost me very much money, I settled on sweet potatoes for sweet potato fries and a thin loaf of bread to make crostini. Pretty cheap. I then decided to make use of the beautiful heirloom tomatoes my boss had so generously given me, and the brie cheese which Dan had donated to me, in order to make us some appetizers while Dan prepared the real meal. Not everyone was a fan (Manoli doesn't like brie and Micah doesn't like tomatoes) but I think Dan and I enjoyed them. Or at least I did. Well anyway, I thought they were good and they were super simple as a nice appetizer...

Crostini with Brie and Tomatoes

Ingredients
Crostini
8 slices of french bread
8 slices of brie cheese

Tomato topping
1 fresh tomato, diced
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375º F.
2) Slice the bread on the diagonal, into ½ inch slices. Top with a piece of brie cheese. Place baguette slices face side up on a baking sheet. Bake for 4-5 minutes, or until the brie is melted. Remove from oven.
3) Combine all Tomato topping ingredients in a small pan over medium-high heat. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
4) Top crostini with about 1 tablespoon of the tomato. Serve immediately.