Housewarming Cooking: Italian Influence

My series on cooking for our housewarming party continues today with the contributions from Italian food. I'm nearing the end (and the pictures will come soon), but you can still read about the chicken tower, the BBQ pork, the pastry appetizers or the fried food to get the full experience of what we were eating a couple Fridays ago.

One of the Italian dishes I made was my famous panzanella, an Italian bread salad. I've recounted the recipe on here on several occasions (in several forms even) and I can't say I changed much for the paarty. I just amped up the proportions, so I could make a big enough bowl. The dressed mixed greens with diced Roma tomatoes and red onions made a perfect base for those crispy, chewy, salty grilled bread croutons, which make panzanella so delicious when interspersed throughout the rest of the salad and dressing. This salad always surprises people when they taste it because it looks so simple (and people usually miss the bread visually), but when they taste their first crouton, they are instantly hooked and can't stop raving. That's why I make it, serve it and love to eat it over and over and over again.

The second Italian-themed dish I created was an appetizer take on the classic baked ziti: baked ziti cups. That's right – individualized little baked zitis in their own foil muffin wrappers. It was a (clever) idea of mine that Julia doubted would work. Since they DID work and she lost the bet, I get to harass her publically about it. We kid.

The dish couldn't have been easier. I made two boxes of small ziti or penne tube pastas by boiling them in salted water until just al dente. In this case, I mean three quarters of the cooking time max, but I always sample a piece of pasta every two minutes or so. I didn't make my own marinara for the party but instead warmed a jar’s worth each of regular marinara and spicy marinara sauces. After draining the pasta, I returned it to the pot and tossed it well in the warmed marinara sauce combination. Then I mixed and melted in an entire bag of shredded mozzarella cheese to be the “glue” for the pasta so it would be delicious and stand up in those cups.

To finish up, I filled two muffin pans with the foil muffin liners and then filled each of those 24 cups with a scoop of ziti, as neatly as possible and just over the top of the cup. Then I used another bag of shredded cheese to top each cup with a large pinch to create a melty layer on top. I put them in the oven until the cheese was golden and bubbly – this also helped to lock in the moisture in the pasta. The cups came out looking and tasting great and they worked quite well in the small packages. People thought they were a lot of fun: they could literally peel off the wrapper and eat it, eat it with a fork right in the wrapper or eat it like a cupcake. They were quite popular, especially once people realized what the heck they were.

Italian dishes are always popular among a wide group of people – and easy to make vegetarian – so they make tremendous party dishes. I could probably do an entire spread of easy Italian favorites. Maybe soon?

Ziti Fake

After several days of patient cravings to go out for some baked ziti, Julia's sister Erica finally got her wish. Sort of. I offered to make her some homemade baked ziti for dinner. And with that, whether she knew it or not, came the possibility of all sorts of healthy twists that could have or could have not ruined the impetus for her hankering. Fortunately for her, there were only a few healthy tweaks, and from the ensuing hearty portions that were eaten by the whole family that night when it and arugula salad were served, I could hardly say it disappointed.

Naturally the first place to start with baked ziti is well, ziti. Round tubular pasta. Of course I wanted fiber-rich, whole grain pasta so my choices were limited, and I grabbed penne, which is similar enough to ziti. I wanted Ronzoni pasta but my stupid grocery store was out of it, so I settled for the whole wheat pasta that actually looks like it is whole wheat. I knew this would be a strike against me with Erica, but I continued the mission.

After boiling the pasta until finished al dente with a little kosher salt, I drained the pasta except for a tiny bit of pasta water and put the pasta back in the pot. I then added marinara sauce and nonfat Greek yogurt. I replaced the typical ricotta cheese with Greek yogurt and then lightened it further by using the nonfat variety. Also, by using a basic marinara/tomato sauce with no oil, it was a fat free combination for the penne's sauce. For reference, I used two bags of penne with one jar of marinara and about three quarters of a tub of Greek yogurt. The sauce came out pink and creamy and coated the pasta well.

While the pasta had been cooking I had shaved one large ball of fresh mozzarella in my spiffy new electric food slicer from Julia. It was awesome since I was able to make nearly paper thin slices even with such a soft cheese as fresh mozzarella.

I put a little less than half the pasta mixture into a nonfat sprayed glass baking dish and then a layer of fresh mozzarella slices. I added the rest of the pasta and sauce on top, just filling the dish, and then added a more generous layer of the shaved mozzarella slices on top. I sprinkled a little orange cheddar I had left over on top, for some color, and sprinkled a little salt and pepper to finish. I stuck the whole kit and caboodle in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes at which point it was done perfect – crispy and golden on top, moist and gooey and flavorful beneath.

So with the fresh mozzarella having less fat than many other cheeses, the pasta sauce being creamy despite having no fat, and the whole thing being made with whole wheat pasta, I can't say I did too poorly on the health aspect considering what baked ziti usually contains. I call it ziti light, with all the same baked ziti goodness. And who could complain about that? No one – and that was the point.