girl's night out at El Carmen in LA.... fun stuff.... i love the look on Meg's (front right) face!
I like to cook, but only if it takes under 30 minutes and doesn't require a ridiculous amount of pans. Below are 2 of my favorite fast, easy and healthy Italian recipes for Stracciatella Soup and Peppers, Onions and Sausages. I told my sister I would continue to do recipe posts and make a primo grocery shopping list that she can use in NYC to insure that she gets healthy, good snack and meal options that fit into our pescatarian diet.... here you go Tessie but I'm still working on the grocery list!
Stracciatella Soup.
Stracciatella is a Roman egg drop soup and it's so simple and easy to make (about 15 minutes and 2 pans) and so very comforting. Here is my recipe:
Ingredients (serves 2 entree portions or 3 appetizers) : 1 container of free range organic chicken broth (i'm a pescatarian but i do eat chicken broth if it's free range), about 2 cupfulls or handfulls of fresh spinach (could be baby spinach or regular), 2 eggs, 1 clove of garlic, fresh parsley, grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and a sprinkle of cayenne, if you like spicy.
1. heat the chicken broth over medium heat. while it's heating...
2. & 3. wash spinach and parsley and chop the parsley and garlic.
4. saute the chopped garlic and spinach in a little olive oil to wilt it and add another flavor layer. (however, if you're really lazy you can use baby spinach and add it straight to the hot broth to cook it, then you only need one pot!).
5. put the chopped parsley in the chicken broth.
6. beat the eggs.
7. put the spinach in the broth and around 2 tablespoons of parmesan (to taste, i like a lot so i grate until i feel guilty).
8. now add the egg to the hot broth. pour the egg in a slow but fluid manner while you stir slowly at the same time, it's pretty cool to see the egg cook as soon as is hits the hot broth. add salt and pepper and cayenne to taste.
9. plate and serve! yummmmm
Peppers and Onions and Italian Sausage (vegetarian and meat-eater style)
This is a classic recipe that my grandma always made. I love making a whole batch of just the peppers and onions and keeping it in the fridge to add to scrambles, or on top of pasta, hotdogs/veggie dogs, etc. This recipe is fast, easy, and soooo tasty! I make it all the time with veggie sausages for me and chicken sausages for Joey. It requires only 2 pans and takes about 15 to 20 minutes.
Ingredients: (serves 1 plus leftovers, add or subtract to your liking, use 3 peppers and 3 onions to feed two people), 2 bell peppers (use yellow, red or orange, the green ones are too bitter), 2 onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 Tofurky Italian sausage (if you're a veggie) or 1 Spicy Italian or whatever chicken sausage, salt, pepper and cayenne (if you want it spicy) also optional is a little marinara sauce and parmesan cheese (which is good on anything!)
1. & 2. Bell peppers, regular onions, garlic and sausage options.
3. chop bell peppers and onions in long strips. mince garlic
4. heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and minced garlic over medium heat.
5. add chopped veggies. might need to add a little more olive oil to insure all the veggies have a nice glisten.
6. salt and pepper to taste and add cayenne if you want it a wee bit spicy. cook about 10 to 12 minutes until onions and peppers are floppy and soft, don't turn up the heat and risk burning the onions.
7. take a separate small pan and heat up the (already cooked) sausage that you cut on the diagonal in about 1/4" to 1/2" pieces. (heats quickly so wait until veggies are almost ready). once the sausage is heated add the amount of veggies that you want to the pan with the sausages and mix them together. add a little marinara for extra juiciness (low carb pasta baby).
8. 9. & 10. plate and serve with some grated parmesan and keep the leftovers for the next day's scramble or hotdog or pasta or the same thing!
