#COOKING WITH CLORIS--TURKEY LASAGNA

Yes, it’s July, but I really had a craving for lasagna the other night, probably because it was one of those infrequent summer days that feels more like late October than mid-July. This recipe doesn’t take hours to make or bake because it uses lasagna noodles that you don’t first cook. And it’s made with turkey ground meat, turkey sausage, and lots of veggies. So it’s lower in calories and good for you.

Turkey Veggie Lasagna

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

10 asparagus spears

1/2 pound turkey sausage

1 pound lean ground turkey

1/2 bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 (14.5 ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

1 (25 ounce) can canned spaghetti sauce

1/4 cup water

1 T. Italian seasoning

12 lasagna noodles

16 ounces ricotta cheese

1 egg

4 cups mozzarella cheese, grated

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a Dutch oven sauté sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic, and asparagus in oil over medium heat until onion becomes transparent and meat is well browned. Stir in spinach, tomatoes, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, and water. Season with Italian seasoning. Heat through, stirring occasionally.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese, egg, 2 cups mozzarella, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.

Spray 9” x 13” baking dish with cooking spray.

Pour 1 cup of sauce in bottom of pan, spreading evenly. Top with three sheets of noodles. Sheets will expand to edge of pan during baking.

Layer remaining ingredients as follows: 1 cup of sauce,  1/3 of the cheese mixture, 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella, 3 sheets lasagna. End with remaining sauce, ricotta and mozzarella, sprinkling remaining Parmesan cheese over mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 5 minutes. Let lasagna rest for 15 minutes before serving.

#COOKING WITH CLORIS--EXTRA CREAMY MAC AND CHEESE

Extra Creamy Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese is a staple at Anastasia’s house. What kid doesn’t like mac and cheese? Plus, it’s not only easy to make, it’s easy on the budget. And as we all know, thanks to Dead Louse of a Spouse, Anastasia needs to keep an eagle eye on her budget.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups dry pasta (elbow macaroni, shells, fusilli, penne, cavatelli, rotini, gemelli, etc.)

salt

3 T. butter

3 T. flour

2 cups whole milk

1 cup shredded havarti

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 T. chopped parsley

Optional: 1 cup cooked and cubed chicken or ham, cooked and crumbled bacon, or cooked ground beef, chicken, or turkey.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2-qut. casserole dish

Bring large pot of water to boil. Add sprinkling of salt and pasta. Cook pasta to al dente according to time on package.

While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a skillet or pot large enough to hold all ingredients after cooking. Add flour, whisking over medium heat 1-2 minutes until lightly browned.

Add milk and whisk to remove lumps. Cook over medium-high heat until sauce thickens and begins to bubble.

Whisk in cheese until smooth and melted.

When pasta has finished cooking, drain and add to sauce. Fold in optional meat.

Pour into casserole. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and parsley. Bake 20-25 minutes until mac and cheese is browned and bubbly.

#COOKING WITH CLORIS--TRADITIONAL ITALIAN MARINARA SAUCE FROM AUTHOR JOAN LEOTTA

Joan Leotta is a writer and story performer who presents one-women shows specializes in strong women and folklore. Learn more about her and her books at her blog. 

An appetite for reading and writing? While it has become quite fashionable to include recipes in books over the past few years, the combination of literary and culinary arts has been around for much longer. Many famous books, poems, and even plays, focus on a family meal or a single food.

In my case, being Italian, I’m sure no one is surprised that my books are permeated with the aroma of tomato sauce cooking on the back of the stove and that much of my poetry and many of my short stories were instigated by favorite foods or recipes.

My Legacy of Honor Series is an example of that. Meals are mentioned in each book of the series. While writing them, I remembered the strong women of my own childhood who put tasty meals on the table while conquering other worlds at the same time—education, war efforts, journalistic pursuits, careers, and family crises.

Giulia Goes to War, the first book in the series takes on the issue of honoring tradition while breaking out into modern life. The book takes place during World War II. Giula leaves home to work for the war effort, thwarts spies and falls in love with a young man who is not Italian-American.

In the late 1960s my own time to break with tradition came. Unlike Giulia, my move was not due to war or over education or about a boy. My father simply said, in response to my request that he go apartment hunting with me, that once I had finished college, even after I had a job, I would be living at home. I had already lived in Europe during college and attended college in another state. Still, my father maintained that a good girl, in the same city as her parents, lives at home. I moved my job search to another city.

Food and traditional holiday celebrations are one way I maintained my ethnic pride and identity while in that “other” city, a place where there were few Italian Americans—Washington, DC. People were excited to receive invitations to my house for dinner—hoping I would make pasta with red sauce or braciole or lasagna or …any one of my grandmother’s recipes. 

When Giulia marries her non-Italian sweetheart, I imagine this sort of culinary attachment to her culture. The core recipe of all of this is the Sunday Sauce—a tomato sauce served over pasta on Sunday and probably at least one other day during the week.

For the purpose of this blog, I’ve included the quick sauce—no meat—only needs to cook twenty minutes—easy to make. Leaves you without excuse when facing those jars of sugared chemical-filled sauces on the grocery shelves. If you want to add meat, cook meatballs and other meats first, double the sauce recipe, add the meat and cook for two-three hours minimum. Enough for two meals.

Family Marinara Sauce

This is the sauce you can smell on the pages of my books

Ingredients:

One pound of your favorite dry pasta

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 can water

1 clove garlic, sliced in half

2 T olive oil

2 T fresh flat Italian parsley or 1T dried parsley

2 basil leaves or 1T dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste

grated pecorino romano cheese (optional)

Brown the garlic in hot oil. Be careful not to let it burn. Remove garlic after it’s browned. Add tomatoes, one can of water, herbs and salt. Stir. Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, more if you want the sauce to be thicker.

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain. Place in bowl. Toss with sauce and top with grated cheese if desired.

Giulia Goes to War

Wartime works draws Giulia DeBartolo out of her close Western Pennsylvania family into a world of intrigue, spies, and new friends in Wilmington, North Carolina’s shipyard building Liberty ships.

Giulia soon discovers supporting the war effort can include fun evenings like dancing with young servicemen at the local USO. It is at one of these dances she meets John O’Shea, an unsuitable suitor according to her old-fashioned parents.

As they grapple with the problems of their own budding relationship, John and Giulia encounter a Nazi spy tasked with blowing up part of the Wilmington shipyard. Saving the shipyard from the spy may prove easier than convincing her parents to let her marry John. Giulia must decide what it means to be a good daughter while still following her own heart.

Giulia Goes to War is currently out of print, but the author has copies for sale. If you’re interested in purchasing this book, contact her through Facebook. 

WE'D RATHER BE #WRITING #COOKBOOK

Last year I had an idea for a cookbook featuring my fellow authors. The result was Bake, Love, Write: 105 AuthorsShare Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing. My hope was that people who bought the book for the yummy recipes would be introduced to authors new to them, thus gaining new readers for my fellow authors and me. I donated a portion of the profits from the sale of the book to my local food bank.

When Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing became an Amazon bestseller, many of the participating authors suggested a follow-up cookbook.

After giving it some thought, I came up with:

We'd Rather Be Writing

88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips

Have you ever wished you could find more time to do the things you want to do, rather than just doing the things you have to do? Most authors juggle day jobs and family responsibilities along with their writing. Because they need to find time to write, they look for ways to save time in other aspects of their lives.

Cooking often takes up a huge chunk of time. In We'd Rather BeWriting: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you'll find easy, nutritious recipes for meat, poultry, pasta, soup, stew, chili, and vegetarian meals. All of the recipes require a minimum of prep time, freeing you up to read, exercise, garden, craft, write, spend more time with family, or whatever.

Within the pages of We'd Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors ShareTimesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you'll be introduced to authors who write a wide range of fiction—everything from mystery to romance to speculative fiction to books for children, young adults, and new adults—and some who write nonfiction. Some of the authors write sweet; others write steamy. Some write cozy; others write tense thrillers.

Some are debut authors with only one published book; others are multi-published and have had long publishing careers. Some are New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors who may or may not be familiar to you, but being a bestselling author doesn't mean they still don't have to juggle their day job along with their writing.

The authors who contributed to this book are a rather creative and resourceful bunch when it comes to carving out time from their busy lives. So in addition to timesaving recipes, within the pages of this book you'll find timesaving and organizational tips for other aspects of your life. And if you happen to be a writer, you'll also find a plethora of great ideas to help you organize your writing life.

Once again, a percentage of the profit from the sale of this new cookbook will be donated to charity. The charity I’ve chosen this year is No Kid Hungry.

Authors who contributed to We'd Rather BeWriting: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips include: Lisa Alber, Reggi Allder, Judy Alter, Krista Ames, Rose Anderson, Cori Lynn Arnold, Judy Baker, Beverley Bateman, Donnell Ann Bell, Paula Gail Benson, Kris Bock, Maureen Bonatch, Ava Bradley, Susan Breen, Lida Bushloper, Michelle Markey Butler, Ashlyn Chase, Judy Copek, Maya Corrigan, Mariposa Cruz, Melinda Curtis, Lesley A. Diehl, Conda V. Douglas, Nancy Eady, Helena Fairfax, Jennifer Faye, Flo Fitzpatrick, Kit Frazier, Shelley Freydont, Mariana Gabrielle, Rosie Genova, Marni Graff, Joanne Guidoccio, Margaret S. Hamilton, L.C. Hayden, Linda Gordon Hengerer, Heather Hiestand, R.Franklin James, Kathryn Jane, M.M. Jaye, Elizabeth John, Stacy Juba, Gemma Juliana, Carol Goodman Kaufman, Melissa Keir, Kay Kendall, A.R. Kennedy, Lynn Kinnaman, Marie Laval, B.V. Lawson, Claudia Lefeve, Alice Loweecey, Cynthia Luhrs, Sandra Masters, Lisa Q. Mathews, J.M. Maurer, Sandra McGregor, Kathy McIntosh, Claire A. Murray, Ann Myers, Tara Neale, Stacey Joy Netzel, Jayne Ormerod, Alice Orr, Laurel Peterson, Irene Peterson, Pepper Phillips, Caridad Pineiro, Kathryn Quick, Renée Reynolds, Josie Riviera, Elizabeth Rose, C.A. Rowland, Cindy Sample, Sharleen Scott, Terry Shames, Susan C. Shea, Judy Penz Sheluk, Joanna Campbell Slan, Karen Rose Smith, Lynette Sofras, Kaye Spencer, Skye Taylor, Lourdes Venard, Lea Wait, Regan Walker, Lois Winston, and Aubrey Wynne.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR ROSIE GENOVA

A Jersey girl born and bred, national bestselling author Rosie Genova left her heart at the shore, which serves as the setting for her Italian Kitchen Mysteries. Her debut novel, Murder and Marinara, was named a 2013 Best Pick by Suspense Magazine and was a finalist for a 2014 Daphne Award. You can learn more about Rosie at her website.

My current release, A Dish Best Served Cold, not only features a cold case, but some cold recipes as well. One of them, the recipe I’m including here, has an interesting back-story—just like a good murder suspect!

The recipe comes from my friend Tom Ficarra, an enthusiastic foodie and pretty formidable home cook. (He also provided the inspiration for Father Tom, an important character in my story.) Italian dishes are his specialty, particularly those he samples in his yearly travels to Italy. The last time Tom visited Sicily, he stopped in a small town to fill up his rental car. He interrupted the gas station owner just as he was about to have his pranzo, or late day meal—pasta with arugula and fresh tomatoes that had been marinating in garlic. Served over hot pasta, the vegetables form a “sauce” that doesn’t require cooking.

As you can see, the measurements are not exact, and Tom’s original wording (“Chop the crap out of the tomatoes!”) has been, shall we say, adjusted, for public consumption. If arugula is not to your taste, you may use any green you like in this dish; the heat from the pasta will wilt it slightly. Also, if you find raw garlic a bit too pungent, do what I do: before marinating, lightly sauté the cloves in olive oil until soft but not browned.

The sweetness of the tomatoes really balance the bite of the greens. And here’s what else I love about this meal—your salad is on top of the pasta! All you need to add is some crusty bread and a medium-bodied wine for a complete meal.

Buon appetito!

Father Tom’s Cold Tomato Sauce

This recipe makes more than enough “sauce” for a pound of pasta. It’s also good the next day as a cold pasta salad—add olives, cubed cheese, and chickpeas for a different take on the dish.

approximately 10 fresh plum tomatoes

5 oz. package of fresh arugula or other hardy baby green

3/4-1 cup of olive oil 

1-2 cloves of garlic, depending on taste

salt and freshly grated pepper to taste

Chop tomatoes, arugula, and garlic well; place in large bowl and mix thoroughly. At this stage, I season with two generous teaspoons of sea salt and several twists of the pepper grinder. Before serving, taste and adjust seasonings to preference.

Pour olive oil over the mixture. Let the mixture marinate for at least three hours, taking care to stir the mixture several times. The arugula will soften and sweeten in the oil and juices from the tomatoes.

Serve over hot pasta of your choice (I used the double twists known as gemelli) with a generous amount of grated Romano cheese.

A Dish Best Served Cold 
At the Casa Lido, the end of summer means a party, and hit whodunit writer Victoria “Vic” Rienzi and her family are cooking like crazy for the restaurant’s seventieth anniversary celebration. As they chop onions and garlic, old family friend Pete Petrocelli stops by, saying he knows something that would make for a good mystery novel. Curious, Vic asks Nonna to elaborate on Pete’s claim and learns of a relative who mysteriously disappeared back in Italy…

The night of the party brings a crowd—and a full throttle hurricane. When the storm finally passes, everyone thinks they’re in the clear—until the first casualty is found, and it’s Pete. Remembering his visit, Vic isn’t certain Pete’s death was an accident and decides to dig deeper into his story. What she finds is meatier than Nonna’s sauce…

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--PASTA ALA CAPRI WITH GUEST AUTHOR ALICE ORR

Alice Orr is the author of thirteen novels, two novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. She’s a former book editor and literary agent, now living her dream as a full-time writer of romantic suspense stories. Learn more about Alice and her books at her website.

Angela’s Pasta ala Capri in Her Own Words

From the Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series

Gus Kalli and I met on a spring evening outside a cooking class I was taking at North Country Community College and discovered that the only thing we wanted to study was each other. Over three decades and four handsome sons later – we are still together.

In the beginning I’d thought I needed a vacation but the tour guide for my getaway turned out to be the night school brochure that led me to Gus and the most wondrous time of my life. Being with him was the best vacation I could ever have imagined and it has continued ever since.

I was born and raised in Riverton, New York where everybody grows up in everybody else’s pocket. I always loved that about this town – feeling surrounded by the warmth and sharing of a close community. But when I met Gus I found out how fabulous it feels to start fresh with someone as if I’d been newborn in that moment with only the two of us in our own universe.

We each had our own interests within that universe of course. I loved to cook. The magic of putting ingredients together in a delicious combination was almost as extraordinary as the magic Gus and I made with each other. Gus loved to build things or to rebuild them into something better and he was very good at both.

Before Gus founded Kalli Contracting Company and built our house on Riverton Road we dreamed about packing up our little son Matthew and travelling to Europe for a year or two. I especially wanted to study the cooking there. I even entertained the fantasy of opening a restaurant when we returned home.

Meanwhile as I cooked and we fell even deeper in love, Gus was becoming known around the county for the quality of his work. His talent attracted a pair of investors and the offer was too good for a young couple to refuse. We said yes to those investment partners and never looked back. Well maybe I looked back on occasion but there was no longer much time for fantasies or for regrets, either.

Gus and I were busy working hard and adoring each other and our darling baby. The kitchen was the heart of our house-in-progress on Riverton Road at the junction that came to be called Kalli Corner. I still cooked and had begun inventing recipes or re-inventing them. The reputation of Kalli Contracting grew, and Gus’s financial partners prodded him to expand into high-end condo construction, even though renovating houses for ordinary families was what he loved best.

That was about the time I received a special postcard from my younger sister Merilee. The card was from Capri where she and her son Sam had gone on an Italian holiday. The image of blue sea and bright flowers and wild rock formations made my heart yearn. I couldn’t help thinking how much Gus and Matt and I would enjoy experiencing that scene in real life. I didn’t share those feelings with Gus because I didn’t want him yearning too.

“So let’s experience the food instead,” I said to myself.

That’s how Angela’s Pasta ala Capri came to be, traditional Caprese style cooking with my own variations. When Gus came home that night, I greeted him with a kiss.

“Let’s have some pasta for an emotional lift,” I said. And we did.

Angela’s Pasta ala Capri

Ingredients:

1 pound penne pasta

1-1/2 cups red pasta sauce (see my previous recipe)

1/2 cup half and half.

1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese.

1/8 tsp. allspice

sprinkles of cayenne pepper and hand-zested lemon peel

salt and pepper to taste

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise and maybe halved again

8 ounces mozarella, cubed fairly small

2 tsps. dried basil (If using fresh basil, select small sweet leaves and not too many of them. You don’t want the strong flavor of basil to overpower the rest.)

1 tsp. dried parsley. (Again you can use snips of fresh parsley if you prefer.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cook the pasta as the package directs, no longer than al dente.

Heat the sauce in a skillet over lowish heat. Stir in the half and half. Add parmesan, allspice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes until the parmesan melts and the sauce is smooth. Stir in the grape tomatoes, mozarella, basil and parsley.

Add this cream sauce to the cooked pasta and fold in well.

Pour the pasta and cream sauce mix into an oiled 13” x 9” baking dish. Top with dots of butter. (I prefer low cholesterol spread for heart health.) Sprinkle with seasoned bread crumbs and grated parmesan plus some paprika for color.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or so until the cheese is melted.

Serve with green salad and good bread, meaning either you bake it or a bakery does.

A Year of Summer Shadows by Alice Orr

Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2

The town she loves is filled with deadly secrets.

Hailey Lambert loves the North Country even though she doesn’t love some of her North Country memories. Mark Kalli has wanted Hailey in his bed for a long time but she won’t give him the time of day. Now she’s mixed up in the murder of Finley Yates. Mark has no choice but to get involved with the killing and with Hailey – whether she wants him or not.

A Year of Summer Shadows is Book 2 in the Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series set in remote Riverton, New York. Angela and Gus head the Kalli family. Each of their four gorgeous sons has his own story. Book 2 is Mark and Hailey’s story. A Wrong Way Home was Book 1, Matt and Kara’s story.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS - PICCOLINI SALAD

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and today Cloris has a great pasta salad to serve at your holiday barbecue or any time. -- AP

PICCOLINI SALAD
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients:
2 cups mini bowtie pasta

1 zucchini, diced

2 Persian cucumbers, sliced

12 lg. grape tomatoes, quartered

1/4 cup low-fat sour cream

1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse in cold water. Place in large bowl. Add cut up vegetables.

Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, and mustard. Fold into pasta/veggie combo. Cover and chill at least two hours before serving.

COOKING WITH CLORIS -- MUSHROOM PASTA

I love Portobello mushrooms. They’re a perfect meat substitute when you want something other than meatballs or sausage with your pasta. Cloris has a great mushroom pasta recipe to share today. -- AP

MUSHROOM PASTA
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 pkg. whole grain spaghetti

1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup white wine

4 cups Portobello mushrooms, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 cups fresh baby spinach

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Drain. Rinse. Toss with a teaspoon of olive oil and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the remaining olive oil. Cook the onions and garlic until the onions are soft. Add the wine and cook approximately 5 minutes until most of the wine has evaporated. Add the mushrooms and sauté for about 6 or 7 minutes.

Add the parsley, lemon juice, and spinach. Saute for another minute until the spinach wilts. Add the pasta. Heat through.

Sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese after plating.

Trust me, you won’t miss the meat in this dish! Meanwhile, our Book Club Friday guest this week has a very special treat for our readers. Be sure to stop by on Friday to find out what it is. -- AP