Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Yields 1 large pizza

Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes prep (mostly letting dough rise) and 25 minutes (5 minutes for pre baking) cook time

Directions:

In a large bowl combine yeast, water and brown sugar. Whisk well and let sit for 10 minutes.

Whisk in salt and oil to yeast solution. Mix in flour.

Turn dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes, adding flour as needed until no longer sticking to hands. 

Place dough in well oiled bowl. Make sure the top of the dough is lightly covered with oil. Cover with damp lint free cloth or plastic wrap. 

Let dough rest for 60 minutes or until it has doubled  in size. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Punch down dough and knead into a tight ball. Let rest for several minutes.

Roll out on lightly floured surface. 

Place on lightly oil pizza pan or cookie sheet and let rise for 15-20 minutes.

Poke several holes in crust with fork and pre bake for 5 minutes. 

Top with favorite toppings and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust and cheese are golden brown. Make sure to check that the bottom of the pizza is also golden brown. If it isn't, remove from cooking sheet and place directly on oven rack. 

Try stuffing the crust with cheese and garlic and/or make a mixture of butter, dried parsley, salt, and garlic powder and smoother on pizza crust for extra deliciousness.

Zesty Pizza Sauce Recipe

When I first mixed this sauce I thought that the flavors were very overpowering. The taste of raw garlic numbed my mouth. However, after baking it on the pizza it came out great. It had a very nice flavor and added a lot of depth to the combination of the crust and toppings. I recommend giving this a try. If anyone has another great recipe for pizza sauce please leave a comment and share it with me. I am always on the look out for the perfect recipe. :)


Ingredients:


1 (6 ounce) can of tomato paste
6 ounces of warm water
3 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
Salt to taste


Yields: Sauce for 1 large pizza


Directions:

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Let sit for at least 30 minutes to let flavors mix together. Serve.

Parmesan and Romano Crusted Chicken Breast with Crispy Prosciutto and Garlic

I made this for some dinner guests a couple weeks ago and got rave reviews. I made it again last night for my husband and I. This meal is too good not to share the recipe. The chicken is crispy, cheesy and moist. The crunchy prosciutto and sauteed garlic slices are sweet and salty. If you serve it with fresh pasta and homemade Alfredo sauce, like I did, the creaminess caps it off as a perfect meal. This is one of my favorites right now. Yummy!


Ingredients:


7-8 chicken tenderloins or 3-4 chicken breasts 
(if using chicken breasts make sure to butterfly then slice in half. Then place in between two pieces of wax paper and bang with something heavy until slices are flat)
1/2 cup high fat content milk 
(I used homemade buttermilk I made the other day)
3 to 6 ounces of thin sliced prosciutto
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 egg
1 cup of plain Panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup of freshly grated Romano cheese
1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil


Serve with fresh pasta and homemade Alfredo sauce (recipe available on this blog)


Yields 3-4 servings


Time: 20 minute prep and 20 minute cook time.


Recipe:

Clean and pat dry chicken.

 Place chicken and milk in medium size bowl and let soak for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour on kitchen counter. 

While waiting for chicken, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to large skillet over medium heat. Add slices of prosciutto. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Add slices of garlic and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until prosciutto is crispy and garlic is golden brown.  

(Some pieces will finish before others, take them out as they become crispy and brown. This way all pieces will be perfectly cooked).

Rest on paper towel to drain excess oil.

Prepare chicken coating by adding cheeses, bread crumbs and Italian seasoning in a medium size bowl or plate.

Remove chicken from milk (remove excess). Season chicken with salt and pepper. Mix egg in small bowl. Dip chicken in the egg (remove excess), then  dip in breadcrumb mixture. Press breadcrumbs into chicken and make sure they are very well coated. 

In the same skillet you cooked the prosciutto, add 1 tablespoon of butter and olive oil. Heat over medium high heat until skillet is hot. Add chicken and cook for 3 minutes or until a dark golden brown. Flip and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes or until dark golden as well. When adding more chicken pieces you may need to add more butter and oil.

Let rest on paper towel for 3 to 5 minutes before serving. 

Serve with some homemade Alfredo sauce, a small handful of prosciutto and garlic and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 

The chicken reheats best in an oven or toaster oven at 350 degrees f until hot and crispy again. 

Homemade Alfredo Sauce Recipe

My all time favorite pasta sauce is Alfredo. Sometimes when I go to Olive Garden all I want is the Alfredo sauce and bread sticks. This is a great recipe. It is flavorful and light. I usually make a large batch and freeze some for later. It turns out just as fresh and tasty when it is reheated.


Ingredients:


6 tablespoons of butter
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
2 garlic cloves, minced
pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup of freshly grated Romano cheese
2 egg yolks


Yields 4 servings


Time: 5 minute prep and 10 minute cook time.


Recipe:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

 Add cream, stirring constantly with whisk. Stir in nutmeg, salt and cheeses. Whisk constantly until melted.

 Temper yolks by adding a 1/2 cup of sauce to a small bowl then add eggs and mix. Return egg mixture to the rest of the sauce.

 Simmer over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish with Parmesan cheese. 

To store, wait for the sauce to cool completely and store in airtight container. Can be refrigerated or frozen very well. To reheat from fridge simply place in saucepan and whisk constantly over medium low heat. To reheat from frozen let defrost on counter then follow the directions above. If the sauce starts to separate just whisk vigorously until it comes back together. 

Best Tasting Homemade Lasagna Recipe Ever

This is an updated pic from 11/1/11- after making the changes listed below.

Update: 11/2/11- I made this again and technically it was exactly how I wanted it to be. The cheese-to-sauce-to-pasta ratio was great. It had great body and was very soft and moist. However, the taste was different. This time I used pre-shredded cheeses and generic tomato products. I have to tell you that these changes completely altered the taste of the lasagna. It was still good and my husband loved it, but just tasted like ordinary lasagna to me. If you are going to go through all the trouble of making this, you should really stick to quality ingredients. It makes the all the difference in the world.


This is by far the best tasting homemade lasagna I have ever had. Okay, I may be a little biased here since I made it, but I don't think so. Normally I don't like lasagna, so I  would never make one but my husband requested that I do. Like usual, I scoured the internet for recipes and advice on techniques on how to make it great. I settled on this recipe because I liked all the ingredients and because it had so many rave reviews. I got it off of allrecipes.com from John Chandler.


Right off the bat I changed a couple things. I added a little more cheese and switched from regular sweet Italian sausage to a sweet turkey Italian sausage. I used crushed tomatoes with basil instead of regular (because that's all they had all the store) and I also added a pinch of nutmeg to the cheese mixture. Besides that I kept everything the same. When making a recipe for the first time I really try not to mess with the ingredients too much because if it tastes "off" for some reason I won't really know why.


I highly recommend this lasagna recipe and don't even feel compelled to try another. Next time I make it I will make a few more adjustments. I am going to list the recipe exactly how I made it this time but before I do, I will list the suggestions I have to make it even better.

• Make sure the ground meat is broken up well so there aren't any large chunks.
• Start by adding only a little salt at a time, tasting each time  you do. It can get very salty, very fast.
• Increase the amount of cheese by at least 1/2 cup on all cheeses. 
• Shred the mozzarella instead of slicing it to make a more even layer. 
• Add at least 2 cups of sauce mixture on each layer. 
• Try to have at least 3 sauce layers.
• Make sure the last layer of noodles is covered with sauce.
• Top with a generous portion of cheeses.

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet turkey Italian sausage

3/4 pound lean ground beef

1/2 cup minced onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28 ounce) can of crushed tomatoes with basil

2 (6 ounce) cans of tomato paste

2 (6.5 ounce) cans of tomato sauce

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of dried basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds

1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon for fresh ground black pepper

4 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley

12 lasagna noodles

16 ounces of ricotta cheese

1 egg 

a pinch of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pound of mozzarella cheese, sliced

1 cup of freshly grated aged Parmesan cheese 

Recipe:

In a large pot or Dutch Oven cook sausage, ground beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning 1 tablespoon of salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of parsley. Cover and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.  

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles and rinse with cold water.

In a mixing bowl combine ricotta cheese, egg, nutmeg, parsley and 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees f. 

To make layers spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. 

Arrange noodles lengthwise over meat sauce

 (I put one on the end too). 

Spread 1/2 of the ricotta cheese mixture on top of noodles. 

Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. 

Spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce over mozzarella then 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese.

Repeat layers, making sure to top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. 

Cover with non-stick foil or spray foil with non-stick cooking spray to prevent cheese from sticking to it. 

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before serving. 

It tastes even better reheated the next day!!

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How to Make Spaghetti Squash

My son and I went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. We had so much fun looking at the barn animals, going through the corn maze and picking out our pumpkins. While we were there I came across a large yellow squash. The lady that worked there told me that it was spaghetti squash. I have heard of it before but had no idea how to cook it or what to make out of it. I decided to give it a try. I did some research and found out that its a popular substitute for pasta noddles (hence the name), in pretty much any dish. There are less carbohydrates and more nutrition that traditional noddles as well. It was really easy to make and I felt much better eating squash noodles than regular pasta noodles. 

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash

water

Yields roughly 5-6 servings noodles, depending on size of squash

Time: 1 hour

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. While the oven is preheating, wash, cut and scrape out squash. To cut, remove the top potion with the stem and then cut lengthwise down. This will be difficult and will require some brute strength. 

Using a large spoon scrape out the insides of the squash, much like you would with a pumpkin. 

Pour about 1/2 of water on cookie sheet and place the squash, rind up on sheet. Bake on middle rack of oven for about 45 minutes.

 To remove noodles, take fork and scrape width wise across the inside of the squash. The squash should be soft but have the texture of al dente noodles. You can scrape till you get close to the rind.

Now that you have these noodles, what to do with them? Like I said, you can replace them for any recipe that calls for pasta noodles. Instead of cooking them in boiling water, simply saute them with olive oil until they are hot and the consistency that you want.

My husband and I made some for dinner the other night. I just threw all the left over ingredients I had in my fridge from the week. This included sauteed onions, mushrooms, and garlic, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, and garnished with grated fontina cheese and green onions. I didn't want anything to go to waste so I just threw it all in. 

Much to my surprise it turned out really well. My husband brought the leftovers to work for lunch the next day and said it was delicious. My favorite part about it was that I felt good eating it. I didn't feel my usual pasta remorse as I normally do after I scarf down a bowl of fettuccine alfredo.