Italian Tapas

By reading this blog, you will know that I've had Italian tapas on the brain for the past few weeks ever since my fabulous dining experience at Melograno in Philadelphia.  I've been meaning to start trying out different recipes and even threw it out there for the all of the general public to read that I was going to have this theme party based on the above mentioned theme.  It's been somewhat hectic lately and I have my 4th annual Palm Sunday brunch to plan first but in the near future once full blown Spring hits there is going to be a Friday night or another perfect day that's going to scream outdoor entertaining and Italian tapas and there will be no where else I would rather be then on my deck with a glass of wine, a fun array of apps and an entourage of friends.  It's also one of these things that if I keep talking about it, I stay committed to the cause and there's no way that I'm letting this one slip away to the business of schedules and life.  This past Saturday night, I has the opportunity to start practicing with a small dinner party that I was having which included a one dish main course, therefore leading way to a little bit more substantial first course. 

We started off with cheese and prosciutto stuffed peppers.  You know those little colorful peppers you always see in the produce section that look super fun but you aren't always sure what to do with them?  Well my friend Deanna had the answer and passed along this great recipe to me that I knew I just had to make and is a keeper for the recipe box.  One of my stand by rules when entertaining is that I like to have a majority of the cooking done by the time my guests arrive because I don't want to be chained to the stove while everyone else is off in the living room having a good time and this recipe allows you to look like you have it all together.  These little peppers can easily be made ahead of time and popped into the oven shortly before the door bell rings as well as can be adapted if you are missing an ingredient or two. (For example: I left out the mozzarella in mine knowing that I had another appetizer that include it as a main ingredient). 

Cheese and Prosciutto Stuffed Sweet Peppers

Prep - Preheat oven to 350 degrees; Grease a square glass baking dish with olive oil

Ingredients:

-Multi-colored sweet peppers, ¼ side removed to form a bowl or “boat;” seeds and membrane removed.

-1 small container or 1 cup of ricotta cheese (part skim)

6 small fresh mozzarella balls – drained on paper-towels and roughly chopped

1/4 cup (small handful) grated Parmesan cheese

4 leaves fresh basil – Julienned

1/4 pound of thin sliced Parma prosciutto – Roughly chopped into 1 inch pieces

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs (eye ball this because you are just sprinkle some over the top of the peppers)

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Position the peppers in the glass baking dish, cut side up. Cover with tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Increase oven temp to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir to combine ricotta cheese, chopped mozzarella balls, Parmesan cheese, basil, prosciutto and garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper.

Generously stuff each pepper with the cheese mixture. Sprinkle the breadcrumb over the cheese of each pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Bake in a 425 degree oven, uncovered, for 15-25 minutes, or until the breadcrumb starts to brown and the cheese is bubbly. The peppers will begin to char around the edges.

Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes so the peppers can cool and the cheese can firm.

The second appetizer I made was mozzarella in carrozza based on Lidia Bastianich's recipe linked here.  I'm never one to turn down a piece of fried cheese and liked how at Melograno it was made between two slices of bread and was excited to try it out at home.  Another recipe that can easily be made ahead and then kept warm in the oven because I don't know about you but hot oil and a dredging station in the kitchen isn't exactly something I dream about when thinking of ways to entertain guests.  Melograno's version was served with an artichoke mostarda that I actually decided to serve in my salad instead so I took inspiration from Pasta Cosi in Branford and made my own lemon caper radicchio sauce to serve on top of it and it was the right amount of sauce and flavor that didn't make the mozzarella heavy likes red sauce tends to do with the dish.  The lemon sauce is very similar to a sauce I serve with chicken but would also work well with shrimp or pasta as well. 

Lemon Caper Radicchio Sauce

Ingredients:

-4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, divided

-1 tablespoon or 3 cloves of garlic minced

-generous pinch of red pepper flakes

-1/2 cup of limoncello*

-1/2 cup of radicchio, finely chopped

-2-3 tablespoons of capers

-2 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley

-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a small frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of butter until melted.  Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until soft 2-3 minutes.  Add radicchio to pan and cook for another few minutes until wilted.  Deglaze pan with limoncello and cook until alcohol cooks off and sauce reduced a little bit, 5-6 minutes.  Add capers and let simmer until sauce has a nice thick consistency.  Finish the sauce off with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and season with salt and pepper.  Once sauce is off the heat, add parsley right before serving. 

*Note:  I discovered I loved cooking with limoncello kind of by accident.  One day I didn't feel like opening a bottle of wine for probably a recipe that called for all of a quarter of a cup but knew that I had a bottle of limoncello in the freezer so I figured "why not, lets try it" and it gave the dish this really nice subtle sweetness and it killed two birds with one stone with not having to add lemon juice separately.  If you don't have what seems like an endless supply of limoncello in your house like we do, you can easily substitute 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice and 1/4 cup white wine in place.