One Meal Two Sauces

In the past few months I have made so many meals using fresh figs. I am really starting to love figs. I also love making sauces. Sauces make boring meals more exciting. Plus they are so gourmet, and that's what it's all about. While at Russo's Sunday, I decided to buy fresh figs and ravioli. I knew I was going to make two sauces this week, but I didn't think it would be the same meal. The ravioli was ricotta and sweat pea. I knew I wanted to use them as a side and not as the main focus. I decided to buy thin steaks while at Shaws and figured they would pair well with ravioli. But how could I make the steak as good as the ravioli? The answer was easy FIGS.

I love buying these steaks, they are so easy to make and are a cheap, decent cut of meat. I use a little olive oil and sea salt to make a quick and easy marinade and pan fry them. I found an easy balsamic fig sauce on keyingredient.com. I knew this would pump up the cheap thin steaks, and boy did it ever!!! I did change the recipe up a little. It asked for fig preserves, but I used fresh figs. I chopped up two figs before adding it to the balsamic vinegar and port. I roasted some brussel sprouts with olive oil, sea salt and garlic at 500F for 20 minutes. I tossed a cask iron skillet in with the brussel sprouts. After 20 minutes the skillet is hot enough to evenly cook the steaks. Just two minutes a side and the steaks were perfect. I cut them up into strips and served the fig sauce.  While the brussel sprouts were roasting I also cooked the ravioli and a butter and sage sauce. The butter sauce was so good, it used fresh sage, lemon juice and Parmigiano cheese. My buddy Chef Timmy gave me the idea for the butter sauce and he was so right. The two sauces kind of mixed together on the plate so I used the brussel sprouts to sop up the mess. I was in pure flavor Heaven!!

The wine was an easy pick. I had a worked with the new rep to Cielo in Italy. They have good inexpensive estate wines. In 2008 they celebrated their 100 year anniversary by introducing a new wine, Cent'anni Valpolicella Ripasso. This wine is so good!! It retails around $15.99 which for a Ripasso is a good value. The wine is big, and robust with great cherry flavors. Valpolicella Ripasso wines are great. The grapes are harvested later in the year so that they over ripe on the vine and basically become raisins. The grapes are fermented, but later in the spring they are re-passed over the left over skin of it's bigger brother, Amarone. This helps add body, color and flavor and kicks it into a second fermentation that raises the alcohol. The wine went great with the steak and the figs!! Perfect pairing for a great meal.

Garfeild is Not the Only One That Loves Lasagna

The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler and that means one thing... it's time for apple picking. Noel and I have gone every year for the past five years. We love Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, MA. They have 200 acres of apple and pear trees, pigs, goats, cider donuts and much more. This time we brought with us our friends Katie and Jen. It was a great time, I climbed a few trees, pick a lot of apples and pears, we took the hay ride all over the orchard, Jen got three great pumpkins, Noel and I got apple butter, and we all got cider donuts. It was a great day and I will be cooking dinner with an apple theme for a week.

After we all got back from apple picking Noel and I invited Jen and Katie to stay for dinner. This was my first real chance to cook for a large audience. Earlier in the week I made a tomato sauce for some pasta and I had a lot left and knew I had to make a lasagna. Having a few people over made this the perfect meal to make. It's pretty easy to make, it can feed a lot of people and they are delicious.
What you need
tomato sauce (I prefer to make my own)
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
ground beef
Italian sausage
table spoon oregano
lasagna noodles
half cup of red wine

Pre-Heat the oven to 350. First you need to cook the noodles to al dente and brown the ground beef and sausage with red wine. Then is a loaf pan you need to layer all the ingredients, pasta, ricotta cheese, sauce and meat mixture, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese, repeat until you the pan is full. The top layer I cover it in tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and oregano. Bake for 45 minutes, and when it's done let sit for 15 minutes to cool. This meal put a smile on everyone's face and made me look like a real chef.

As I said we did go apple picking and we had friends over for dinner so I had to make a dessert. I made a good old fashion apple pie. I love baking apple pies!! There is nothing better for dessert in the fall, especially after you spent all day picking your own apples. Noel and I were out a second hand store a few weeks ago and found a great pie plate that has a very easy recipe for an apple pie. Like all other recipes I added a little Dan to this one by adding some of the apple butter that we bought.

What you need
2 pie crust
4-6 apples
cup of sugar
table spoon cinnamon
table spoon nutmeg
2 table spoons butter
2 table spoons apple butter
2 table spoons flour
dash of salt

Pre-heat oven to 400. Mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In a pie plate put down the first layer of pie crust. Fill with a layer of apples, here is where I also added the first table spoon of apple butter and half the sugar mixture. Add the rest of the apples, another table spoon of apple butter and the rest of the sugar mixture. Cover this with the second pie crust. Brush on the butter and I always add a little sugar and cinnamon on top. Before the pie goes in the oven make sure to poke the top of the pie with a fork so it does not explode while cooking. Cook for 50 minutes or until golden brown and let sit for at least half hour. What  a great end to a great meal!! Add a scoop of ice cream to make it even more tasty.

The Wine 
As for wine we opened four bottles tonight and they all were good. I opened for the dinner Cent'anni Ripasso Valpolicella. If you're going to make Italian food you have to drink Italian wine, it just makes sense!! This is a wine that Cielo e Terra came out with to celebrate their 100 years as a family run vineyard. This wine has a nose that is so beautiful and anyone woman would love to wear it instead of perfume with its ripe baked berries and Italian herbal notes. The palate shares a lot the same and is beautifully well balanced and has a subtle spicy complexity. For someone that is not a huge fan of Italian wine this wine sure could change my mind.