Steak Pizzaiola
This recipe is sooo good. And it’s pretty easy to make, if a bit messy. (Italian dishes are always so messy to make and eat). This particular recipe I got from Italian Food at About.com, and it’s called Don’s Steak Pizzaiola. I altered it a little to my liking. It’s a really good dish.
Steak Pizzaiola
Serves 62 28oz. can chunky-style crushed tomatoes
8 Tablespoons olive oil
6-8 large cloves of garlic, pressed well, or chopped lightly
6 slices very thin eye-round beef slices, 1/4″ thick or thinner
2 Tablespoons dry oregano
2 Tablespoons dry basil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper to tasteIn a Dutch oven, take 4 Tablespoons of the oil and heat. Add half your garlic cloves and saute for about 2 minutes, until it starts to turn brown (don’t burn!). Add the tomatoes and the basil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, while you prepare the meat.
In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the garlic cloves, dried oregano, and mozzarella cheese; mix and set aside.
Take the remaining olive oil and heat it up in a large frying pan. Add a few slices at a time, not crowding the meat. Saute the meat, browning both sides and cooking for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove each slice onto a plate as it finishes. When all the slices are cooked, dispose of the greasy fat at the bottom. To the empty frying pan, add a little bit of the tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of meat slices (how many slices depends on the size of your frying pan; I add two at a time). Now spread a small handful of the garlic/oregano/mozzarella over the slices; sprinkle some of the grated cheese; add more sauce to cover. Repeat the layers until all the stuff is used up.
Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes or so. I shake the pan lightly to keep the bottom from sticking. (I have a glass tile/glass-top kind of stove, so cooking contents often stick to the bottoms of my pans).
This is a delicious meal with some vermicelli pasta and a green salad– nice and light but SO flavorful! Manja, manja!
Photo courtesy of the Leftover Queen.
Wow Chow Meatballs
These are perhaps the most succulent meatballs you will ever eat.
All the meatball recipes that I have seen bake the balls in the oven. This pretty much destroys the savory goodness of the meatball. Plus, you may as well hand out the nutcrackers when serving the meatballs, they get so hard. My meatballs are boiled in tomato sauce, and turn out soft and savory.
Just like all of my recipes, this one is customizable. I usually hunt around in my refrigerator, looking for leftovers or other savory things to dump into the meat mixture. This time I had some leftover cubanelle peppers and tomato slices. In the past, I’ve added cooked spinach (make sure its FULLY drained if you add it), shredded cheese, or oatmeal. Keep in mind that the more leftovers you add, the more dilute the meat and the spices are, so be sure to add more meat and/or spices accordingly.
Also, this is a big recipe. I was able to make 135 meatballs with these ingredients. The great thing is that meatballs freeze very well. Even though this recipe has raw eggs, the uncooked meatballs can be frozen for up to 4 months. So, next time you want to have a spaghetti dinner, just pop the meatballs into a can of tomatoes, cook for an hour and there’s your dinner.
OK, on with the show.
Wow Chow Meatballs
4 lbs ground beef
2 lbs ground bulk sausage
1 cup breadcrumbs
4 eggs
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 cup diced white onion
small saucepan with 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons Caesar or Italian salad dressing
2 28oz cans petite diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1/2 cup to 1 cup leftover veggies or etc (optional)
Hybrid Lasagna
We LOVE lasagna. But it is so time-consuming to make. And you have to pre-cook the lasagna noodles just right, or they turn out too chewy or too mushy. I’ve tried those “oven-ready” lasagna noodles, too, and I can’t stand them. I want to eat my lasagna, not chew it like cud! Plus, lasagna just takes too long to fuss with– all the layers, stacking the noodles just right, etc. Who has that kind of time? Not me!
I made up a pseudo-lasagna recipe, using ziti for the pasta. I call it Hybrid Lasagna, because it is a mixture of a lasagna recipe and a baked ziti recipe. The kids love this stuff! It keeps well, and you can make it early in the day (or a day before) and throw it in the oven later. It’s also great as a “full” meal- contains vegetable, meat, dairy, and carbohydrates. And, like most of my meals, it is “fully customizable,” that is you can eliminate an ingredient or substitute an ingredient. I make this stuff in huge quantities, and for when I’ve got a full house or when I want to serve it again another day.
Like most Italian dishes, this requires a lot of cookware and dishes for the prep work. I hate doing dishes! But the nice thing about this is that you can prepare this early in the day. Whch means that the cookware gets dirty early in the day, and you have all afternoon to wash it. I like that. I don’t know about you, but after dinner, I am tired and the last thing I want is a huge stack of dirty cookware to clean! OK, on with the show:
Hybrid Lasagna
Serves 10!
1 pound ground beef or ground sausage, cooked
2 boxes ziti
1 large white onion, diced
2 28oz. cans petite tomatoes
1 28oz. can spinach
3 eggs
1 tub (32oz.) small-curd cottage cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce (leftover sauce does well)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Dried basil
Dried oregano
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Aluminum foil
A GREAT BIG casserole dish (or several small ones)
A cookie sheet
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