go head honey...it's gluten free! veal scaloppini

A vandal, or as I prefer to think, a guerrilla artist, has put electrical tape 'Hitler' mustaches on all the advertisements around Time Square. A man in suite weaves by on a kick scooter with a tennis racket around his neck. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Or, in my case, Ann Arbor, MI.

Which is good because this month 'Go ahead honey, it's gluten free!' is being hosted by Nooshin at For The Love of Food and she choose Foods From Our Childhood as our theme. She wanted us to recreate something special from our childhood. Something that makes us feel warm and fuzzy and think of home.

We always had a home cooked meal (or 'planned overs') but when I think back I can only remember a few of Mom's stand-bys. I have already made her chicken soup, and I make Nonna's pasta sauce all the time. Grilled chicken is, frankly, fairly boring, and though I haven't had a comforting pot roast or stew in a while these I wanted to dig deeper. I wanted to fix a truly special meal from my childhood. A special occasion meal.

Mom had a meal that she prepared she prepared once or twice a year, if that. A recipe that she learned from her Nonnie, my great-grandmother and namesake. Another family recipes passed down from the Old World. We had veal scaloppini for Christmas, and for my birthday when I asked for it.

I remember going to the butcher in Kerry Town, still surrounded by the original red brick paving, the old world feel of the shop. The butcher there was the only one who cut the veal thinly enough to please Mom. I loved the whole process of visiting the butcher, working in the kitchen with Mom: mixing the milk and egg, dipping the veal in the bread crumbs, and the crisp golden crust on the veal, the whole event, not just the meal, was a special occasion for me.

Once, when the Trainer and I were first dating and I lived in Brooklyn I made this for him with gluten free bread crumbs, egg and milk and he really liked it. My challenge this time was to try to replicate the flavor with out the standard bread crumbs. So, with my thinking cap on, I served the Trainer his second plate of veal scaloppini and it tasted just the way I hoped.

Veal Scaloppini

1 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup blanched almond meal
1 Lb veal scaloppini
2 egg whites
salt
olive oil
lemon wedges

Quickly grind pine nuts in a blender until they form a course meal, being careful not to over grind and create a 'butter'. Mix ground pine nuts and almond meal in a shallow bowl or deep plate. I a second bowl quickly beat eggs whites. Line a baking sheet with brown paper and paper towel. Heat a large skillet and pour in enough olive oil to well coat the bottom. While oil is heating prepare the veal: dip each piece of veal first in the egg whites and then into the nut meal, making sure both sides are coated. Lay veal in a single layer in the skillet. Cook on on side until golden brown and then flip. When first batch of veal is cooked lay it on the paper towel in the prepared baking sheet. Add more olive oil to pan as needed and cook the remaining veal

Serve with a squeeze of lemon

If you have a problem with nuts, use gluten free bread crumbs. If you can't do eggs, use egg replacement for two eggs.

inside out lasagna meatballs

Last night the trainer and I got to see that fantastic Chilean band Inti Illimani and it was amazing. We've been waiting over a two years to go to an Andean concert together. He invited me to one when we first started dating but I couldn't make it. (Listen here)

At intermission I bought their CD to give my parents for Christmas and after the show we had the opportunity to meet the musicians. Neither the Trainer nor I had a pen, but we begged and borrowed and I got all their autographs for my folks. I was so giddy, I've never been to a concert like that I hardly knew what to say to them. Of course, most of them spoke only Spanish which made speaking to them even harder. Good thing I had the Trainer to get me through.

We got home late and lazed around in bad this morning. I dragged myself out of bed and into my sweats for my big cooking day. Burger day, to be exact. I tried a few new things and I got to work on something that's been swimming circles around behind my eyeballs for the last several weeks.

I've been craving lasagna, and when I made that first batch of mock ricotta I thought I knew how to do it. This one pretty much speaks for itself, and I think the squirrel in the tree outside are window wanted some too, he was crying the whole time these were in the oven.

Inside Out Lasagna Meatballs

2 lb ground beef
8 oz ricotta or SCD mock ricotta
1/4 c. (3/4oz) grated Parmesan regiano
1/4 c. (3/4oz) grated pecorino Romano
3/4 c. diced parsley
1/2 c. (1 1/5oz) grated Gruyere
quick tomato sauce*

Mix ricotta, Parmesan, Romano and parsley in one bowl.
Divide ground beef into 2 oz portions. Create thin patties, put tablespoon size portions of cheese mixture in the middle of patties and mold meat around cheese. Place a wire rack in a baking dish or cookie sheet, arrange meat balls on wire rack and bake for 20 min. Serve covered with quick tomato sauce and a sprinkle of Gruyere.

Makes 16 meatballs

A Little Jar of Summer

The weekend I returned from Alaska, I was craving something bright. Pesto, to be exact. Bright, spicy little bites of summer that remind me of warm afternoons with my Nonna. I think I got the last batch of local basil from my green market, and now I have my own little jar of summer, sitting in the door of the refrigerator.

Pesto

6oz fresh basil
3cloves garlic
1/2c. pine nuts
1-2tbsp olive oil
Kosher or Sea salt



Wash and dry the basil, removing any browned leaves, stems are fine. Peel and lightly chop the garlic.

Place basil, garlic and pine nuts in the blender and blitz quickly. Add a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt and blitz again. Stop when it resembles a paste.

Pesto is best when everything is not completely blended and homogeneous.

Store in a jar or airtight tub it the refrigerator

Fall Comfort Food

Here I sit, at my small home desk with my cup of Sleepytime tea and a small dish of incinerated nuts (my last attempt at roasting in an unpredictable oven), the first fall rain is pattering against the window and I am finally trying to decompress after a very long four days.

It auction season, all the big houses have sales in the next few weeks, Doyle's, Sotheby's, Christie's, so things are hectic at work to say the least. Our neighbors were evicted and the landlord decided to fully exterminate both the vacant apartment and ours, we're the only two on the floor, on Wednesday. Tuesday the Trainer and I, and his family, had to remove all our clothes and books from the apartment, only to put it all away again Wednesday evening. The past few evenings they have been doing work next door as well, last night until after 11pm.

I'm very glad that I had the foresight to prepare some comfort food last weekend. I roasted a large spaghetti squash and prepared a batch of my Nonna's pasta sauce to go with it. I hadn't planned on eating it every day, but it's warm and comforting, and it's all ready for me to grab from the freezer. I learned how to make this pasta sauce from my Nonna and my uncle and I certainly don't follow a recipe, but I do follow a few guidelines.

Spaghetti Squash

Clean the outside of a spaghetti squash and cut it in half. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place both halves of the squash cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the squash. When it's cool enough to handle scrape the meat with a fork to create the spaghetti-like strands and scoop out the flesh with a spoon.

Nonna's Pasta Sauce

1lb- ground beef
1- onion
5cloves- garlic
6- Roma tomatoes
4- vine ripe tomatoes
1/2bunch- parsley
2tsp- Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, majoram, thyme, savory, sage & rosemary)
Olive oil
Sea salt

To prep- chop the onions and garlic, wash the Roma tomatoes and remove the stem part and peel the vine ripe tomatoes*

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil with 1tsp seasoning until translucent.

Remove 2/3 of the onion mixture and place in blender.

Add ground beef to remaining onions and sautee, breaking up into clumps of desired size.

In blender, puree onions and Roma tomatoes.

Transfer meat and tomato puree to a sauce pan, add peeled, chopped vine ripe tomatoes, remaining seasoning and chopped parsley. Simmer for at least 1 hour until flavors are well blended.


*to easily peel the tomatoes score an X over the stem and place tomatoes top down in a heat proof bowl. Cover with boiling water. After a few minutes, rinse in cold water and remove peels