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I love making food that's not only good for you,
but tastes great.
So, today, some guilt-free dishes your family will love.
Tuscan barley soup -- a hearty and delicious soup
packed with veggies, turkey sausage,
and finished with a secret ingredient.
Soccas with kale and raisins --
the Italian version of a light crepe,
filled with warm and comforting flavors.
Whole-wheat fettuccine
with roasted tomatoes, peas, and fresh mozzarella --
one of my favorite pastas,
tossed with a rich and spicy homemade sauce.
Good for you and delicious.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
I just browned two spicy turkey sausages
for my Tuscan barley soup.
This is gonna be the garnish
that we sprinkle on top of the soup.
I browned it in the same pan that I'm gonna make the soup in
just for added flavor.
And what I'm gonna do is just use 1 cup of barley,
and the barley looks very similar to brown rice.
It's nice and hearty, and it'll crack open when it cooks
and absorb lots and lots of flavor.
And what we want to do with the barley is just toast it.
All right, so, while that toasts...
I've already started chopping two carrots.
Now I'm gonna finish off the parsnip.
The carrots add nice sweetness,
and then the parsnip adds sort of a licorice flavor.
It's just a one-pot meal that's very satisfying,
but, yet, really good for you, too.
And get that started because the parsnip and the carrots
are a little bit harder, so they take
a little bit longer to cook than the rest of the veggies.
A little salt, a little pepper.
And give it a nice stir.
All right.
Next we're gonna reinforce that licorice flavor
with a little bit of fennel.
So, one fennel bulb.
And I just take the outer skin off
and cut the fronds off.
That licorice fresh sort of flavor
that the fennel gives any dish that it's in --
I just love.
[ Sizzling ]
Next I'm gonna add one leek.
I peel off the dry outer leaves.
Sometimes, the dirt gets trapped within these leaves,
so you want to make sure and really rinse it well.
Cut the end off.
And I'm just gonna cut it just like this.
We do the white and the green part.
Add all of that on top.
And last but not least, two zucchini.
I like the zucchini 'cause it adds a nice body to the soup.
Just try and cut everything approximately the same size
so all the veggies cook in approximately the same time.
Okay. Then salt and pepper.
And, again, give it a nice little stir.
We have got some Swiss chard,
and this is actually known as rainbow chard
because of the color of the stem.
And what I like to do is just cut the bottom off.
And what I do is I just take the leaves,
and I just take them off the stem.
The stems can sometimes be a little bit more fibrous.
There we go.
I take the rainbow chard, and I just chop it up.
Cut it right up, just like this.
Okay, and then right into the pot.
A little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper.
Okay.
So, now, the secret to a really great Italian soup
is the Parmesan cheese rind.
I hold on to the rind.
I put it in a little resealable plastic bag and throw it in the freezer,
so then whenever I make a soup like this or a stew,
I pull it out, and I just drop it right on top.
The Parmesan cheese and the rind add this unbelievable buttery,
salty bite that is tough to get from anything else.
So that's sort of the secret ingredient.
Now, we're gonna add 8 cups of low-sodium chicken broth.
We need some liquid for everything to cook.
We're gonna add a bay leaf -- just one.
Bay leaves can be very potent.
I just love the depth and warmth that it adds to the soup.
And then you raise the soup to about medium, medium-high,
and we're just gonna cook this for about 30 to 35 minutes,
until all the vegetables are nice and tender.
So, I'm chopping some chives so I can garnish my soup --
add a little bit of an onion flavor.
So, my soup looks good.
That Parmesan cheese -- I'm telling you --
the best thing ever.
It's a nice, hearty, warm soup.
Move this over here.
And we're gonna top the soup with some chives
and a little bit of the spicy turkey sausage,
just as a garnish, as if you were topping it
with some croutons or something or bacon bits.
It's the same type of idea.
Let me get a bite of everything.
Mmm.
Mmm!
The veggies are so nice and tender.
You get a nice bite from the barley.
That Parmesan cheese --
it's just that slightest buttery, salty bite.
All right, up next, my soccas with kale and raisins,
Italian crepes packed with sweet and spicy flavors,
then topped with a creamy surprise.
I'm starting with my socca with kale and raisins,
sort of the Italian version of a crepe.
And I'm using 3/4 cup of chickpea flour.
Chickpea flour,
also known as garbanzo bean flour, is very light.
Look at that.
In Northern Italy is where these started,
and they would eat them as snacks --
fill them with all different type of things,
just like you would find crepes in France
filled with lots of different types of things.
So, what we're gonna do now
is add some water to this.
And we're gonna add 3/4 cup of water.
We're also gonna add 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
The extra *** olive oil really does give these
more of a Mediterranean flavor and richness, as well,
so you need a little bit of olive oil here --
3 tablespoons...right in there.
We're gonna add a little bit of salt.
We're also gonna grab some spices --
a little cumin and a little coriander.
Those two are both warming, the cumin in particular.
[ Sniffs ] Ah.
It kind of has, like, a lemony sort of smell to it.
So, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin.
We'll do 1/4 teaspoon of coriander.
All right, so now you just kind of
want to whisk it all together.
There we go.
And we want to turn on the stove,
and we're gonna add a teaspoon of olive oil
into the nonstick pan.
So, we're gonna use a 1/3 cup measure
and pour it right into the pan.
Cook it for about 3 minutes on each side.
It cooks pretty quick 'cause it's really thin.
You can start to see that the sides are starting to cook.
So, then you want to take a spatula
and kind of run the sides of the spatula
all the way around the sides of the socca
and then kind of get the spatula underneath,
and then you just flip it just like that.
And then you want to let it cook on the other side
for a couple of minutes, as well.
And, you know, I like to shake it from time to time
just to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom.
There we go.
All right.
So, now just move it right over to our plate and let it cool.
Meanwhile, we're gonna add a little bit more olive oil,
so about a teaspoon with every single socca.
And...measure 1/3 cup.
[ Sizzling ]
And, see, now the pan is hot,
so the process starts going a little bit faster.
All right, I'm gonna make the rest of my soccas,
and up next, I'm gonna make the filling --
It's sort of sweet and crunchy --
and a creamy topping to go with it.
I started chopping one shallot and some green beans
for my veggie filling for my soccas.
And they're sitting over there.
And then I just want to chop up one celery stick.
And the celery just adds a mild, almost licorice flavor to it,
which I really like.
You can kind of fill these with whatever it is that you want.
Perfect. Okay.
So, now turn on the stove, and let's sauté our veggies.
Add a little bit of olive oil.
Let's start cooking
the shallots, the green beans, and the celery.
And we're gonna add a little salt and pepper.
Start sweating and cooking the veggies.
I've got some Tuscan kale,
which is my favorite type of kale to cook with.
And as you can see, the leaves
aren't quite as fibrous as the regular curly kale is.
They're a little bit more tender,
somewhat similar to Swiss chard.
And with these, you don't have to take the stem out of it
because it's nice and soft and malleable.
And just cut the tips off
'cause they tend to be a little bit dry.
So, very much like spinach, the kale will wilt down.
And I just cut it up into smallish pieces.
And we'll take the other half here.
There we go.
Add a little more salt and a little more pepper.
And I want to give it a quick little stir here
and start to wilt it.
So, now a little bit of flavor.
We're gonna use about 1/2 cup of white wine,
and it really will flavor the filling.
Yeah.
Let's grab raisins and pine nuts.
And I like this 'cause it's like a little sweet treat
in the middle of all of this.
I want to add a little sweetness from the raisins --
about 1/3 cup.
And I always find that kids love raisins
'cause it's that little sort of sweet little bite.
1/3 cup of pine nuts that have been toasted.
Yum.
It's super yummy.
Okay, and then we give it a nice little stir.
And we're gonna turn off the stove.
Filling is done.
So, we're gonna make a little creamy topping
with some Greek yogurt.
And I really like the Greek yogurt.
It's nice and thick.
It's got a nice bite to it.
This makes for a really great topping.
And to that, we're gonna add
the juice of half of a lemon --
kind of lightens up all the flavors
the same way that the white wine does
for the actual filling.
Then some agave.
So just about a teaspoon of agave for sweetness.
And some salt and a little bit of pepper.
And then for the two spices
that we also used in the soccas over there,
which look beautiful,
and we're gonna do a little bit of cumin
and a little bit of coriander.
So we're gonna do 1/2 teaspoon of each.
And grab a little whisk here.
There we go.
And just kind of mix it all together.
This is a really easy topping.
So, my topping is done.
Okay.
So, we grab a socca that we made earlier.
See how beautiful and golden they are?
And then, with a spoon, you just want to put the filling
right in the center, just like that.
Then I take it, and I kind of just flip it over like that.
And then I take a little dollop of the topping
right over the top.
And then, for the perfect bite,
you want to get a little bit of the yogurt.
They're so yummy.
Mmm.
Mmm! So good.
The little crepes, the soccas -- they're nice and hearty.
They got a nice, nutty flavor to them.
With the coriander and the cumin --
warmth...
creamy, and loaded with veggies inside
with a little bit of sweetness from the raisins.
Up next, another one of my favorites --
pasta tossed in a silky homemade sauce,
herbs, and fresh mozzarella.
I'm starting on the sauce for my whole-wheat fettuccine
with roasted tomatoes, peas, and fresh mozzarella.
I'm just opening one can of whole tomatoes,
and I've already roasted some cherry tomatoes
in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes
with a little olive oil and salt,
just to kind of bring out their sweetness.
I'm using whole tomatoes,
and we're gonna just stick them in the blender
and puree them with some really yummy flavors.
So, we're gonna add two garlic cloves --
so not too much garlic, but just enough
to get that little bit of garlic flavor in the sauce.
This is a very hearty sauce.
It's got red wine in it, and we're also gonna spice it up
with a little bit of red pepper flakes.
I love it. It's hearty. It's rich.
It's elegant,
yet it has some really great flavors in it, as well.
Now we're gonna add 1/2 cup of red wine.
And so I like to use a Pinot Noir --
sort of light [sniffs] but still has a nice body to it.
And it creates a really yummy sauce.
So, 1/2 cup.
And, remember, use a wine that you like to drink
because when you cook it, it just enhances that flavor,
so it's really important.
A little bit of red pepper flakes,
and I'm just using about 1/2 teaspoon.
If you like it spicier, by all means, add more.
And we're gonna blend it all together.
[ Sniffs ] I can smell the wine.
All right, now we're gonna pour it in the skillet.
And we're gonna turn on the stove,
and we're just gonna cook this down a little bit.
And we're gonna add a little salt and a little pepper.
This is a really fast sauce.
Give it a nice little stir.
While that cooks, let's get the pasta cooking.
So, I've got some whole-wheat fettuccine
that we're gonna cook,
and the whole-wheat fettuccine are really, really tasty.
They're slightly nutty, which I really like in this.
And, again, creates a nice heartiness to the pasta.
I'm just gonna add the fettuccine to the pot.
Give it a nice little stir.
Remember, when you're cooking pasta,
you want to season it really well with a nice handful of salt.
And while that cooks, back to our sauce.
We want to add some fresh thyme to the sauce.
So, the thyme is nice and lemony and hearty.
And because this is a hearty pasta dish,
I think it works really, really well in here.
Okay.
Get rid of the stems, and we're gonna chop this up.
Break up all the thyme leaves
to really release all the flavor.
Then we add the thyme right into the sauce.
And, again, give it a nice little stir.
Okay, so while that continues to cook,
let's chop some fresh basil,
which we'll garnish and add right at the end.
Love some fresh basil.
Okay. Basil is done.
Next we're gonna do the fresh mozzarella.
So, we're gonna add mozzarella
instead of adding Parmesan cheese to this --
one 8-ounce ball of fresh mozzarella.
There we go.
It's so buttery and soft and creamy,
and it just melts so beautifully in the pasta.
There we go.
See how soft and buttery it is? It's so good.
Mmm. Yummy.
Okay, put that right up there,
'cause we're gonna add that right at the end.
So, let's take a look at our sauce.
It gets nice and, like, deep red from the red wine.
Okay, so... time to add some peas.
I like the color the peas add, but I also like the sweetness.
So we're gonna add 1 cup of peas.
I let them defrost,
and then I just add them to warm them through.
We're also gonna add our roasted tomatoes.
Look how pretty those are.
Let's check on the fettuccine and see how they're doing.
Mmm. Good.
Perfectly al dente.
So, now what we're gonna do
is add the fettuccine right into the sauce.
And the whole trick to why Italians cook pasta al dente
is so that they can finish it in the pan.
It just absorbs the flavors
of whatever sauce you're tossing it in.
I'm gonna start tossing these together
with two wooden spoons here.
This is so hearty and so delicious.
Okay.
Then I want to finish it
with a sprinkle of basil
and the fresh mozzarella.
Look at those colors.
And then we just want to kind of toss it all together
and allow the mozzarella to be heated through
and slowly melt with the hot fettuccine.
All right.
So, now for the best part.
We are just gonna taste
some fettuccine, a little mozzarella --
get a little sauce in there with some peas.
Mmm.
Mmm.
You get that nuttiness from the whole-wheat fettuccine.
So good -- nice bite. Mmm!
Creamy mozzarella, sweet cherry tomatoes,
and just a little kick of that red wine.
Buonissimo.