Pasta with Proscuitto & Peas

I love recipes that require a little simmering time. I'm a huge multi-tasker - verging on ADD sometimes, but don't tell anyone - and I'll frequently find any excuse to step away from the stove, even for just a moment to look at or do something else. So I love when I get to prep a few ingredients, get them simmering beautifully, and walk away. It feels like a little surprise, to suddenly have an extra half hour or more to fritter away on facebook accomplish important things.

But what I love more than my extra free time, is the amazing, tastes-like-I-slaved-all-day-over-a-hot-stove flavor that usually results. It's almost like the recipe agrees to keep my secret about that whole time away from the stove thing, like a good friend who'll keep your economics teacher from finding out that you totally cut class. What they don't know won't hurt 'em, right?

And trust me, your secret is totally safe with this recipe. With knock-your-socks-off full-bodied flavor, no one will know you only put about 15 minutes worth of work into it. All anyone will know is that they want to eat it again and again. ...and that's what it's all about. :)

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken Cordon Bleu. Sounds pretty fancy, doesn't it? I mean, anything with a fancy French "bleu" on the end of its name has to be fancy, right?

Sadly, this is not always true. I've ordered chicken cordon bleu in restaurants that was nothing more than a dry grilled piece of chicken with a slab of ham and a slice of Swiss cheese apathetically thrown on top. Talk about blah.

My version is so much better.

My version of chicken cordon bleu is fit for Napolean himself. Fit to be served on fancy French china with fancy French wine and finished off with a fancy French dessert.

Or served on a bed of greens, if that's the kind of thing you're into.

True, it's basically fried in butter. But that's what makes it good. This is the kind of fried-in-butter food that makes you want to quote Julie Powell and claim that the day there is a meteorite rushing toward the Earth and we have thirty days to live that you are going to spend it eating butter.

Well maybe not butter itself so much as things fried in butter. But that's just me.

But the point, my friends, is that you need to make this. Stat. With salty, smokey prosciutto and creamy Swiss cheese that melts all over the pan and gets brown and crispy and makes you just want to spend every day browning cheese in butter and eating that all by itself... this recipe will you make you forget you ever tried that lame, flavorless chicken cordon bleu. Now go and make it. Thank me later.

Dinner Party: Crostini Alla Romana & Toasted Ravioli

Crostini Alla Romana
from Food Network

Crusty bread, salty prosciutto, melty mozzarella... what more could you ask for?

Ingredients
12 1/2 slices baguette or ciabatta
12 thin slices prosciutto
1 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into slices


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375. Bake slices of bread until crispy and golden around the edges, about 8 minutes. Place prosciutto slices and mozzarella on the crostini and return to the oven to melt the cheese, about 8 minutes more.

I think next time I will improve this by doing 2 things. First, I will prebake the crostini for about half the time - after baking for a total of 16 minutes the bread was almost too crunchy, and was a little painful to eat. Secondly, I will use more of both the prosciutto and the mozzarella, so we will have more flavor from the toppings and less of the bread. The recipe from food network also includes a sage butter for drizzling, which I opted not to make because I ran out of time. Including the sage butter may also improve the dryness of this crostini.

Toasted Ravioli
from Cookbook Confessions

These tasty little numbers were a huge hit. Crispy on the outside, soft, gooey cheese on the inside, and the perfect size for an appetizer... 2 bites and you're done. They paired well with both marinara and alfredo sauces for dipping, as well. If you plan to make these for a dinner party like I did, plan to make a lot... these guys go fast!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons whole milk or buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 package refrigerated ravioli
3 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
marinara and/or alfredo sauce for dipping

Directions
1. Combine milk and egg in a shallow bowl. Place breadcrumbs and salt in a shallow bowl. Dip ravioli in milk mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.
2. In a large heavy pan, pour the oil to a depth of 2 inches. Heat oil over medium heat until a small amount of breading sizzles and turns brown when added. Fry ravioli, a few at a time, 30 seconds - 1 minute per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels.
3. In the microwave or on the stove, heat desired sauce for dipping. Sprinkle the ravioli with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately with the hot dipping sauce.