Valentine's Day Revisited

Valentine's Day is one of those days that I am ambivalent about. Single or in a relationship who cares? All I know is that on this day that everyone feels they need to be flamboyant about their love I would rather stay in and be with people I care about. With that said I have pulled some recipes (old and new) that I think will go perfectly on this day and at the end a special dessert that will put you in a food coma :)

Starters:

• Truffled Mushroom Bruschetta - this recipe is still one of my favorites and a definite crowd pleaser. While this is a little heavier, it's a perfect start to any meal.
• Ricotta and Honey Toast - this recipe is essentially a lighter version of the one above. They both involve ricotta (one of my favorites) and toast, however this will start you off more on the sweet than the savory side. 

Entrees:

• Butternut Squash Ravioli - the brown butter sauce over the smooth, light raviolis still makes my mouth water. This is staple in my kitchen when I have guests over or in from out of town. It's fairly easy and always delivers.
• The Perfect Sirloin - while this isn't the most "exciting" thing that I have to offer, it's incredible good. The technique and flavors are simple, but when you have a good cut of meat you don't need any more. I love this recipe! 

Dessert

So this is a recipe that I was inspired to create by something I saw in Bon Appetit. Thier recipe look good and intense. I wanted to take is down a bit and just concentrate on the flavors. After one successful attempt I created the blackberry jam and lemon ice cream masterpiece...

Ingredients:

• 1 lemon
• 1 pint of vanilla ice cream
• 1 container of blackberries
• 1 cup watter
• 1 cup sugar
• Graham crackers (optional)

Directions:

Listen. This is pretty straight forward and bottom line, look at those ingredients. Can you really mess this up? If you can I would like to know because everything on that list is sheer heaven. Sugar, ice cream, blackberries - COME ON!

Let the ice cream become soft and transfer to a bowl. Add the zest and juice of one lemon to the ice cream and mix together. Place the ice cream back in the freezer. 

On the stove add one cup of water and one cup of sugar. Keep stirring the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add in your container of blackberries (after rinsing of course) and then bring the entire mixture to a boil. 

Once the mixture has started to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring every few minutes or so until the "jam" has reached your desired consistency (I like to let mine simmer for an hour).

After your delicious meal, take a scoop of ice cream and a hefty spoonful of our blackberry mixture and create a sundae. Crumble graham crackers on top and there you have it - the dessert that is so good you won't be able to move afterwards.

No matter what you do, I hope you have a wonderful weekend with whoever you spend it with :)   

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Truffled Mushroom Bruschetta

Last week I ate with the roommates at Morandi, a great Italian place in the neighborhood. For an appetizer I ordered their "Bruschetta e ricotta condita -grilled country bread, ricotta & truffled mushrooms". SIMPLY AMAZING. So I knew that I was going to have to try and replicate this and there was no better than this past weekend when I as all alone on Easter...

I went to my favorite place (Chelsea Market) and got all the thing necessary to make the greatest brushchetta of all time.

First, with the help of my friends at Amy's Bread, I picked up a loaf of their "Country Sourdough" bread which was PERFECT. Not to mention that they had artistically put the image of a little bunny rabbit on top of the bread.

Then I went to the little market and picked out some delicious cremini mushrooms which are a personal favorite because they are meaty and stand up to cooking very well, but are affordable.

Once I had those two things it was off to the Italian market for some real ricotta cheese. I know that most ricotta's here are made with cow's milk, and I am assuming that is what I had at Morandi, however I wanted to try something different and chose buffalo ricotta, which had a smoother, creamier texture. Either one will work.

So excited about the deliciousness I was about to consume I ran home (ok and it was raining, but I prefer to think that I would run home for food which seems honestly more logical).

First, I preheated the skillet to about a medium high heat and added about 1 tsp of butter. I quickly cleaned and quartered my mushrooms and once that butter started to brown, I added the mushroom in the pan. Gave it a little toss, then sprinkled some rosemary and thyme.

I let the mushroom cook about 7-9 minutes, then removed from skillet and set aside in another bowl.

Now while the mushrooms were cooking, I sliced up some bread and spread a layer of the ricotta cheese.

Once the mushrooms have cooled off (about a minute or two), drizzle some truffle oil and toss to make sure that everything is coated.

Spoon some mushrooms a top of the ricotta and bread and there you have it. The frugal foodies version of "Bruschetta e ricotta condita"

This is great for entertaining, especially if you want to impress and no one has to know how easy it is. Not to mention its pretty friendly on the wallet. If you already had truffle oil, everything would cost under $10!

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