Risotto al Pomodoro (Tomato Risotto)

Creamy, steamy, cheesy, comfort.

What’s your favorite comfort food? Mac ‘n’ cheese? Grilled cheese sandwiches? Tomato soup and rice? Well, move all of those off to the side and meet your new comfort food: Risotto al Pomodoro. If you’ve had risotto, that creamy, cheesy, infinitely variable Italian dish, you already know that it’s a 10 on the patent-pending comfort-o-meter. This tomato-based risotto turns the comfort dial up another notch.

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Sweet Tomato Chutney

Perfect for dipping!

It being that time of year, we’d hoped to bring you a recipe for Pan de Muerto, but we weren’t super happy with the recipe we tested. Maybe next year. Instead, we’ll have something completely different.

The other night we decided that we’d have something simple for dinner, something a bit lighter, yet something tasty. We’d had a larger breakfast out, and we just couldn’t face eating a large dinner, so we decided on Crispy Cauliflower Nuggets. With some sort of dipping sauce. We could have gone with something easy, such as chipotle mayonnaise, but we remembered this recipe we wanted to try.

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Tomato Jam

It should be fine in the fridge for a few weeks, but it won’t be around that long.

This is probably the last tomato recipe for a while, mainly because it was the last thing we made from the flat of tomatoes that we purchased. Or, you could say we saved the best for last, even though this is the first time we’ve made jam from tomatoes. It might seem odd to use tomatoes to make jam, but it shouldn’t. After all, we’ve all learned that tomatoes are a fruit (although the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that tomatoes are a vegetable, really, look it up), so, why not use them for jam?

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Tomato Confit

Sunshine in a jar!

So, it’s tomato season, and you have a huge number of fresh tomatoes. What do you do? Sure, they’re great just sliced with a bit of salt, but, don’t you want to save some of that bright summer flavor for later? We do. Plus, as you saw yesterday, when we get tomatoes, we get a serious amount of tomatoes. So, we’re always looking for ways to store some of those tomatoes for later. Even if later might be just later this week.

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Summer Vegetable Gratin

This shows exactly how to assemble the gratin.

Occasionally we need to make up a little something for a dinner meeting that takes place once a month. It’s never any trouble; in fact, often, the hardest part is deciding what to make. This month, we discussed various options for a vegetable side dish, but none was “vegefied enough.” They all relied on some sort of starch to bulk them up: you know, pasta- or rice- based casseroles, that sort of thing. So, we went back to the stacks in The Scratchin’ It Central Library, and came up with this recipe.

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Polpette Casce e Ovo

Perhaps a meatless Monday meal?

Recently I’ve said that the French can make a great tasting dinner from anything, but Italians can make a great tasting dinner from nothing. With today’s recipe, that seems to be true. From the title, you can probably guess that it’s an Italian dish, and, as you’ll see, it’s made from practically nothing. Or at least from just a few staples, and perhaps something that you might otherwise toss into the trash. Well, not you, fellow scratcher; we’re sure, though, that there’s someone out there who throws away food items that might be a bit past their prime. With some creativity, those throw-away bits could make your next great meal.

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Moussaka

moussaka

moussaka
You’ll never miss the lamb!

We know that traditional moussaka is made with lamb (we’ve had plenty made that way), but this one isn’t. That’s why the title isn’t “Traditional Moussaka.” Instead, what we have here is a lighter version of traditional moussaka that tastes just as good, but is nowhere near as oily (a failing of many, many, moussakas, in our opinion) and fatty. Don’t believe us? Read on, and try it out.

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