Strawberry Nutella Panino

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Nutella | 31 comments

Ah just the word Nutella sends me into a craze! It might be one of my favorite things on the planet. I was introduced to this Italian creamy hazelnut goodness over twenty years ago. My Italian friends were making what looked like a chocolate sandwich one day for breakfast and I remember thinking that it was quite odd. After a little coaxing on their part I tried it and haven’t stopped eating it since.

Ciabatta

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Bread, Pasta | 18 comments

Week #7 of the The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge was Ciabatta! I started off the week very excited about this challenge. After all, it is an Italian bread!

Ciabatta (pronounced cha-bat-a) literally translates to “slipper”. The name was said to be given because the shape of the bread resembles a slipper. Ciabatta is an Italian white bread with a crisp crust and a soft, porous crumb. Ciabatta was said to be first made in Liguria. There are many variations of Ciabatta and they vary from region to region. We had several different versions to choose from: Regular Ciabatta, Wild Mushrom Ciabatta, Ciabatta with Cheese or Carmelized Onion and Herb Ciabatta. Since it was my first foray into Ciabatta bread I chose the regular Ciabatta.

Saffron Seafood Risotto

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Seafood, Sides | 17 comments

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Risotto? I’m sure I have, it’s just so creamy & delicious. What’s not to love?  And it’s insanely versatile. You can put just about anything into it.

I wanted to do an ultra luxurious risotto and I thought what’s more luxurious than saffron? Oh, glorious saffron! I know this isn’t the most budget friendly recipe but we can splurge every now & then! When you’re ready to splurge, this is one of those recipes.

Ultimate Spaghetti Sauce

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Sauces | 39 comments

There’s a whole lotta love in this sauce! This is my go-to tomato sauce – - my signature sauce if you will. It really is ah-mazing & oh so multi purpose!

The longer you have to simmer this recipe the better it will be. It’s all about building flavors. Take your time with this one. It makes a ton of sauce but you can freeze the unused portion.

This is a heavy sauce and goes best with pastas such as spaghetti, linguini, or penne (it would overwhelm angel hair or the like). If you don’t want to add the sausages, just leave them out. I like the flavor that they give to the sauce. Be sure you mince your carrots super fine. You don’t want to bite into a big chunk of carrot. You can do this in a food processor if you don’t think you can get it fine enough with a knife. I think I would use my food processor a lot more if it didn’t have so many parts & wasn’t in the back of a cabinet. LOL! Plus, it’s just another thing I have to wash.

Thai Inspired Tilapia

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Fish, Main Course | 18 comments

I know this recipe is a bit of a departure for me. But fear not I’ll have two more Italian recipes coming up later this week! And you’ll just have to come back to find out which two *wink wink*

Until then, I’m really over the moon happy how this Thai inspired Tilapia turned out! This recipe came to be, because I had the crazy craving for coconut & lime and have been curious about the Thai flavors. I thought why not? So I gave it a go.

I can’t believe how rich & simply spectacular this sauce is! I know it’s a lot of ingredients, way more than I’m used to. Luckily, I had most of them (with the exception of the coconut milk & red curry paste) already in my pantry. (Once again, I really need to write that post about the importance of a well stocked pantry & should add to that spice cabinet.) It really came in handy for this recipe.

Ah, Challah!

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Bread | 33 comments

Week 6 of the The Bread Baker’s Apprentice was CHALLAH! To give you a little background, Challah is the braided Sabbath bread of Judaism. According to Peter Reinhart, Challah “is a European celebratory loaf symbolic of God’s goodness and bounty. The braids traditionally separate the loaf into twelve distinct sections representing the twelve tribes of Israel.” It’s always fascinating to me to know the history behind something. Makes it more meaningful, doesn’t it?

I’ll save you the suspense because I just can’t stand it and just tell you that I LOVED THIS BREAD! It is by far my favorite thus far. I know I practically say that every week but this bread was dee-lish! It was not only beautiful to look at but incredibly beautiful to eat. It was glowing golden brown on the outside & It was light and airy inside and practically floated down your throat. Definitely a centerpiece bread.

Baby Banana Bread Bundts

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Desserts, Vegetarian | 38 comments

How cute are these? And, they’re insanely delicious. They start with, what else, overripe bananas! Seems this time of year I always have a lot of way too brown for the kids to even think about eating bananas sitting around. As I hate to throw any food away I try to re-purpose, and with bananas that means it’s time for banana bread!

My banana bread is really light & moist. Love it! Normally I make it into loaves but I wanted to shake things up a bit.

Beer in the Rear Chicken

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Poultry | 20 comments

Just in time for Father’s Day this year I’m rolling out this recipe! It’s a crowd pleaser & conversation starter. You will impress the grilling crowd with this one.

If you’re from the South more than likely you’ve heard of beer can chicken. In my family it’s been dubbed as “beer in the rear” chicken (not by me of course) but, alas, that’s what it’s called. Regardless of what you call it it’s a juicy hot delicious mess! They even make a contraption or apparatus, if you will, to actually hold your beer can. I’m not kidding (check out the pic below.) There are quite a few of these contraptions on the market, check out this beer can chicken roaster.

Il Pane Casatiello

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Bread, Pork, Poultry | 29 comments

Week 5. Well, we’re moving right along through the The Bread Baker’s Apprentice – Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread,. Are you out there baking along with me? I don’t want to be having all this fun by myself & of course gaining all this weight by myself! LOL! Although this has been a delicious adventure it really is wreaking havoc on my waistline. I really need to put myself on an exercise program to go along with this baking challenge!

Okay, back to bread…I must admit I was quite terrified when I started this challenge. I am NOT a baker. So the thought of all of this measuring and being at the mercy of yeast just frightened me. As you may know I’m a by sight & taste kind of cook. I put in my ingredients, taste & adjust. Cooking is very forgiving. Baking on the other hand, not so much. But I do find myself enjoying this immensely. Hoping my book makes it through this challenge. Already after week 5 it’s looking very worn with it’s buttery fingerprints & oil stained pages. LOL

I was particularly excited this week to be making an Italian bread. Evviva (hooray!) Okay, everyone knows by now that I’m crazy about all things Italian. So, suffice it to say I was jazzed. So before I got started on this bread I did a little research so I could give you some background.

Please vote for bell’alimento

Posted by Paula in All Recipes | 12 comments

I’m hijacking the blog for just a bit. {Oh, right, you don’t know who I am. I’m Christy and I help with light tech support and other geeky things around the blog}

The reason I’m posting is to point out the new badge in our sidebar.

If you’d like to vote for bell’alimento {and we’d love it if you would} just follow these *simple* steps.

1. Click on either the badge above or you can use the one in the sidebar
2. Click on the orange bar that says “Tastiest Blog” and the category nominees will be shown.
3. Here’s the tricky part because they typically aren’t in alphabetical order. Scroll down until you find bell’alimento — it actually looks like this bell\\\’alimento
4. Click on the vote button and enter your name and email
5. Come back the next day and repeat steps 1-4

{You can vote once per day. So, be sure to cast your vote for bell’alimento}

Thanks and I’ll return the blog to Paula now!

Ciao ~

Tagliatelle con Porcini Ragu – Mushroom Ragu

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Main Course, Pasta, Sauces | 22 comments

Well, you probably know me well enough by know to know that a sauce recipe would be coming right after a homemade pasta recipe didn’t you?

As I’m sure you’ve heard, I recently got an Imperial Pasta Maker & I couldn’t be happier. It’s an amazing machine & I’m going to be whipping up lots of  fresh pastas over the next  few months. If you’d like, here’s the basic recipe for Homemade Pasta.

This sauce goes perfect with any type of pastas you might be using (homemade or boxed – really I won’t tell, I use them too. If you look in my pantry right now you’d see a load of Barilla boxes) If there’s one thing that I always have on hand it’s pasta! Really! But I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you!  We might be out of everything else but we’ll have pasta LOL.

Homemade Pasta ~ Pasta fatto in casa

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Main Course, Pasta, Pork, Poultry, Reviews, Seafood, Sides, Vegetables | 40 comments

I recently got a brand new Imperial Pasta Maker! Yes, it’s an old school hand crank version but for me there isn’t any other way to make it. It’s a machine that will be around for you to pass on to the next pasta maker in your family. There is NOTHING like homemade pasta. You should really try it if you have not.

There is nothing wrong with dried boxed pasta (I use them all the time) but there is just something special about fresh homemade pasta. It’s much easier than you would think. It is time consuming but not difficult. If you wanted to speed up the process you could even mix the dough in your mixer or food processor. The recipe posted will make enough for 4 regular portions. I usually make at least two of this recipe to feed my family of 5 but we’re big pasta eaters. If you were making this as a prima, or first course, I think one batch would be fine.

“Let them eat BRIOCHE!”

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Bread | 40 comments

Week 4 in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is BRIOCHE! Oh me, Oh my the buttery goodness that is inside this bread! Brioche is THE bread to which all rich breads are compared and now I know why! It has A LOT of butter. Paula Deen size amounts of butter *wink wink*.

At least a 20% butter to flour ratio is used when making Brioche, but normally 50% or higher is used. Making it decidedly decadent and devilishly delicious. The history of the bread alludes to Marie Antoinette’s last words which properly translates to, “Let them eat Brioche” and not, “Let them eat cake.” Of course we’ll never know which exactly but I think I like the Brioche version myself. I can see why as Brioche is cake-like in texture and extremely moist & buttery, sliding over your tongue and delighting your taste buds.

In Peter’s book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice – Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, we were given the choice of three versions: Rich Man’s Brioche, Middle-Class Brioche & Poor Man’s Brioche! Well I figured it was already over the top decadent so why not go ahead & go for the Rich Man’s Brioche which calls for a WHOPPING one pound of butter (told you it was Paula Deen doses). Naturally this has to be good (I didn’t say good for you, just good!)

Scallops Francaise

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Appetizer, Main Course, Seafood | 42 comments

Summer time to me means lots of fresh seafood! I’m lucky enough to live fairly close to the coast & fresh seafood is abundant right now. (Well at least in my part of the world it is & if it’s not in your part of the world, fear not, there is always frozen to fall back on in a pinch.)  It’s the perfect time to experiment with flavor combinations.

Scallops are delectable. So buttery & delicious & completely versatile. They take on flavors beautifully. You can use this recipe as an appetizer or fill up the plate & use it as your entree. Either way it’s simply scrumptious. The secret ingredient here is the Panko!

Johnsonville Brat Throwdown!

Posted by Paula in All Recipes, Main Course, Pasta, Pork, Poultry, Reviews, Vegetables | 20 comments

Are you ready for a Throwdown? Why YES I am! My foodie friend Kristy at The Wicked Noodle invited me to join in a “friendly” Johnsonville Brat Throwdown. There was only one rule…we were challenged to come up with a recipe using Johnsonville Brats! Well, never one to shy away from a challenge (I have been known to be banned from board games because of my competitive nature) I threw on my Johnsonville <3′s bell’alimento apron & I jumped right in!