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This is a rockin' sandwich.
It's hearty. It's thick.
It is going to be fantastic.
One of the great things about Italian food
is that all you need are a few basic ingredients.
Gorgeous. Mmm-mmm-mmm.
Look how nice that looks.
Here are some recipes that I think your family will love.
A hearty and colorful one-pot meal
made with ingredients that I always have in my kitchen.
Easy and elegant,
a stacked sandwich packed with veggies, Gruyère,
and arugula.
Simple pantry staples make for one decadent pasta.
Ice cream covered with coffee sauce
and topped with toasted almonds.
Simple and delicious.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
I'm dicing two fennel bulbs
for my cannellini bean and sausage stew.
And this is a nice, thick stew
especially when it's cold and wintry outside.
I love making this.
It's definitely a one-pot meal, which makes me very happy.
What I love about the fennel is it kind of creates a lightness
and a nice licorice overtone for the whole stew,
which is really yummy,
especially when you're cooking with beans and sausages
which tend to get a little bit heavy.
This lightens up the whole dish.
And I love the smell of fennel.
I love fennel raw, braised, sautéed -- any which way.
So, we've got some fennel.
We're also gonna add an onion.
So, there are sort of the base flavors of this stew,
and we're also gonna finish it in the oven,
so that gives you a little bit of time to do other things,
which I like as well.
Plus it makes the whole house smell really good,
and it's kind of the idea of cooking it low and slow.
And remember, whenever you're doing this kind of thing,
you just want to make sure and cut all the veg
about the same size
so they all have the same cooking time.
So, let's add the fennel and the onion to the pot,
and let's start cooking down both of these.
There we go.
I love it 'cause you can add lots of different flavors
to this stew.
You can add carrots and celery
and all sorts of different things to it.
A little bit of salt
and some red pepper flakes add a little bit of kick to this.
Any time I make a stew, I like to add a little bit
of spicy flavor.
All right.
So, while the onion and the fennel start to cook down...
...let's grab kale and some beans.
So, we've got some great Tuscan kale,
and we've got some beans, as well, cannellini beans,
which we'll add in a minute.
So, here we go with the kale first.
And I found some really great Tuscan kale,
and what I love about the Tuscan kale
is that it's a little bit more delicate
than regular curly kale
that you'll find in the grocery store.
The leaves are a little bit smaller.
It's still got the same sort of flavor, not quite as bitter,
and the ribs are nice and soft,
so you don't even have to take them out.
A lot of times with the bigger kale,
I do take the ribs out 'cause they get to be too fibrous,
but these are nice and tender, so they work perfectly.
And I just love it.
If you can find this kind of kale, it's delicious.
Otherwise, you could also substitute
with Swiss chard or even spinach,
but the texture that the kale gives is one and only.
It really does give it a nice heartiness,
and it cooks down beautifully.
So, we're gonna start this stew out on the stove,
but then we're gonna finish it in the oven
to make everything nice and tender and thick.
Add all of the kale right on top of there.
We're gonna allow it to wilt a little bit.
A little bit more salt.
One can of cannellini beans
that I've already drained and rinsed.
And we're gonna give it a nice little stir.
It's amazing how these beans really do add lots of creaminess
to a stew.
So, to the kale, start adding some liquid.
We're gonna add some tomatoes, create a nice tomato-y stew.
Very Italian.
Just gonna add one 26-ounce can of chopped tomatoes.
Add that right on top.
This keeps the stew nice and moist,
and, of course, the tomatoes add great flavor.
And we're also gonna add one cup of chicken broth.
We need a little liquid,
especially since we're gonna cook this in the oven
for a little bit.
Perfect.
And we're gonna give this a nice little stir.
And you just want to make sure you incorporate everything,
so the tomatoes with the kale and the beans.
We're gonna pop this in a 375-degree oven
for about 30 minutes
until the veggies are nice and tender
and it has a nice sort of thick stew consistency, which I love.
In the meantime, I'm gonna get started
on grilling some of my turkey sausages
that we're gonna slice and add to the top of this.
All right. In the oven we go.
I've just grilled four turkey sausages on my grill pan.
The grilled sausages will give it sort of a smoky flavor.
And I took the stew out of the oven.
It's just sitting on the stove.
And what I want to do is slice the sausages,
and we're gonna put them directly on top of the stew.
There we go.
I'm just gonna slice them all up.
It's great, too, 'cause these Italian turkey sausages
have a lot of fennel in them as well,
so it works really well with the fennel
that's actually in the stew,
keeps it nice and light and flavorful
and has sort of a licorice flavor to it.
There we go. Okay.
Now let's take a look at our stew.
Yeah. Everything's cooked down,
nice and thick,
so let's take -- hot! --
all the sausages...
...and I'm just gonna mix it all together.
There we go.
Nice chunky sausage right in here.
Looks so good.
This looks so good.
All right.
Best part -- let's give this a shot.
I want to get a little kale,
and I'll get a piece of sausage.
That perfect little bite.
The tomatoes all cooked down, so you get sort of a tomato broth.
It's hearty. It's thick.
Mmm.
Get a little kick of spice from the red pepper flakes.
Perfect one-pot meal.
Up next, I'm gonna make a really delicious sandwich --
my crispy eggplant, portobello mushroom,
and cheese sandwich.
A sandwich that truly hits the spot.
It's a tower of my favorite Italian ingredients.
So, I'm starting on my crispy eggplant
and portobello mushroom sandwiches.
And these are open-faced sandwiches,
and they're unbelievable --
crisp, and they've got Gruyère cheese.
They're fantastic.
So, what I want to start doing
is breading both eggplant and portobello mushrooms.
So, I have an eggplant here, and I just need four slices.
About ½ inch in thickness.
You don't want to make them too thick,
but I don't want them too thin, either.
And I'm just dredging the eggplant slices
in a little bit of flour that I seasoned with salt and pepper.
The flour helps create a nice crust on the outside
of the eggplant,
kind of seals in all the flavor.
And then we put it in the egg.
And I just beat three eggs together.
And you can season the eggs, as well.
That way, the whole eggplant has lots and lots of seasoning.
And then add some bread crumbs.
And there are Japanese bread crumbs known as panko,
and they use the inside
or the white part of the bread, and it creates
this nice crispy, light crust.
We're gonna put them on a sheet pan.
Perfect.
Now we're gonna start with the portobello mushrooms.
And what I love about them is they're so meaty,
and all I did was take the stem out and just clean them.
You don't want to dip them in any kind of water
because they're very porous,
and they absorb a lot of liquid.
You don't want them to be wet.
But you do want to clean them off.
So you can just take a damp towel
and just kind of clean off any of the dirt
that you might find on it.
And then I just take the stem out just to make it easier.
Put them in a little bit of flour
and then a little bit of the egg and then into the bread crumbs.
And this is really yummy when you roast it
because the mushroom gets tender,
but it's got a nice crust on it,
so it's perfect for the sandwiches.
There we go.
Put that right there.
Perfect.
So, we're gonna pop these in a 450-degree oven
for about 20 minutes
until the vegetables are nice and tender
and it's really crispy and golden brown on top.
I'm just grating some Gruyère so I can finish off my sandwiches.
You want it to be nice and cold before you grate it --
makes it easier to grate.
Okay. Done with the Gruyère.
So let's put this up here 'cause we're gonna use it in a minute,
and I've got my plate.
My eggplant and my portobello mushrooms are done.
I'm gonna grab a piece of bread,
and all I did with the bread was just grill it.
Put a little bit of olive oil
and grill it for a couple minutes
just to get a nice smoky flavor.
You could also just use toasted bread, as well.
Now, we're gonna top the bread
with a little bit of tomato-basil sauce,
and I just warmed up some store-bought tomato-basil sauce.
Make your life really easy,
or if you have some freshly made, you could use that, as well.
And just spread it right on out, just like that.
Then I grab one of my portobello mushrooms.
You can see nice and golden-brown, crispy.
Put it right on top.
Then I add some of the Gruyère cheese.
I love it. And what I love about Gruyère
is it's got a nice bite to it,
so it works really well with the eggplant and the mushrooms.
It just gives it -- boom! -- all this flavor.
And then some good old arugula, which I adore,
nice spicy flavor.
Always need a little green in my sandwiches.
It makes for great color and great flavor, like that.
Then I grab an eggplant.
Again, the eggplants are nice and crispy and golden-brown.
Then the last topping of some more tomato basil,
or you could use marinara sauce, too.
There we go. Just like that.
Isn't that beautiful? I just love it.
Okay.
What I want to do,
'cause it's a little hard to eat like this,
I am going to just cut it in half.
You can hear how crispy it is. Listen.
[ Crunching ]
Yeah.
I'm gonna show you how good it looks.
See?
It is gorgeous.
You can see all the layers, with the arugula,
it's a great, colorful sandwich.
All right. Now, down the hatch.
Mmm. Mmm!
Crispy, flavorful. Mmm.
The cheese is slightly melted now
from the combo of the eggplant and the portobello mushroom.
Heaven.
Mmm.
This is a rockin' sandwich.
Mmm-mmm-mmm.
All right, up next, I'm gonna make my farfalle
with my own personal special sauce.
Straight from my Italian pantry,
some basic ingredients that make for one delicious dish.
I'm seasoning the water for my pasta.
I'm gonna cook these great farfalle, also known as bowtie,
or little butterflies, in Italian.
Which is what "farfalle" means -- little butterflies.
And Jade happens to love this pasta.
I think the kids just like different-shaped pastas.
That's what makes it so much fun.
All right, so, we're gonna cook this for a few minutes.
And you just want to give it a quick stir just to make sure
the pasta doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
There we go. Okay.
And remember, lots of water.
So, while the pasta cooks, let's get started on our sauce.
So, we're gonna make these farfalle with a spicy garlic,
bread crumb, and anchovy sauce.
And I'm gonna start with quite a bit of olive oil 'cause
it's all about the olive oil in this sauce.
So, we're gonna do 1/4 cup of olive oil,
and then we're gonna add some anchovy paste --
about a tablespoon or so of anchovy paste.
Traditionally, in Italy,
this dish is made with anchovy fillets,
but a lot of times I have found
that, although I love anchovy fillets,
it's a lot easier to use anchovy paste.
It's somehow a little less intimidating to cook with.
Just allow the anchovy paste to dissolve into the olive oil.
It just gives it this amazing salty flavor
you can't get from anything else.
Okay.
We are gonna go ahead
and just chop three garlic cloves,
so this has got some garlic in it.
Just get three garlic cloves out,
and I really want to chop it well for this
'cause I kind of want it to dissolve
into the anchovy olive oil.
This is a sauce that my mom used to make often
when we were kids 'cause it's a super-fast dish to make.
Begin by just chopping the garlic a little bit.
There we go.
Just gonna add a little bit of salt to this,
and I don't usually do this,
but I just want to allow the salt
to sort of slowly start to break down the garlic a little bit.
Let's add the garlic.
Really flavoring the olive oil, and give it a quick little stir.
[ Sniffs ] Oh, my gosh.
It smells so good.
Salty and garlicky -- yum!
All right.
Next, we're gonna add a little kick
from some red pepper flakes.
I'm adding about ½ teaspoon.
You can add as much as you like.
Let's grab some spinach.
This is not a traditional part of this dish,
but I love a little green.
I'm adding about 5 cups of baby spinach leaves.
There we go.
And we're gonna add a little bit of salt
to kind of break down the spinach leaves
and to flavor them.
Okay.
Now, we're gonna add ½ cup of bread crumbs.
The bread crumbs are gonna add sort of a nice texture
and create a sauce.
We're gonna add them right on top,
and it kind of thickens the sauce, too, which is great.
And they're just plain bread crumbs,
so ½ cup of store-bought, plain bread crumbs,
and what we want to do
is allow them to absorb the olive oil and garlic
and anchovy flavor, coat the spinach,
and then slightly toast them.
Let's check on the farfalle.
Let's see how they're doing.
And remember, I like to finish my pasta in the actual pan...
...because it just gives it more flavor.
All right. Ready to go.
We're just gonna fish the farfalle right out
and add them right to the pan.
[ Sizzling ]
Perfect.
Now what I want to do is something
that my grandfather used to do,
and he used to add Parmesan cheese
directly to the pasta, toss it,
and then finish it with the sauce,
so we're just gonna add half of the Parmesan cheese right now.
We'll save the rest for the very, very end.
And just kind of toss the pasta with the Parmesan cheese.
It just helps the cheese melt,
and it helps the sauce stick to the pasta
'cause the cheese sticks to the pasta
and then the sauce sticks to the cheese
that sticks to the pasta.
Perfect.
You can turn off the heat.
Finish it with some more olive oil...
...and the remaining Parmesan cheese.
1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese.
At this point, if you find that the pasta's too dry,
you can always add some pasta water.
I'd start with 2 tablespoons, and you can go up to 1/4 cup.
It glistens.
It looks yummy.
Look how nice that looks.
Okay. Moment of truth.
Let's give this a shot.
I want to get some spinach, and I want to get some pasta...
[ Blowing ]
...but I don't want to burn myself.
Mmm.
Garlicky, spicy.
Mmm.
Perfectly salty from the anchovies,
and I can feel good.
I'm eating my greens, as well. All right.
Up next a fantastic dessert that's super, super easy,
but super decadent -- my almond affogato.
An elegant and dreamy dessert that couldn't be easier to make.
I'm making some espresso for my almond affogato,
and I'm adding 4 teaspoons of instant espresso powder
to 3/4 cup water.
And I'm simmering the water
so that I can dissolve the espresso powder.
This is gonna be really good.
Affogato's one of my favorite Italian desserts.
It's super-easy and really, really fast.
Now, next we're gonna add some almond flavor
with a teaspoon of almond extract.
There we go. Add some almond extract in there.
And almond extract is pretty potent,
so you don't want to add too much.
And then you want to just kind of give it a quick whisk
to dissolve both the almond and the espresso powder here.
You could also use, like, strong coffee if you wanted to,
if you don't, you know, want to use espresso.
But the whole idea is
that we're gonna pour this over some ice cream.
"Affogato" just means "drowning,"
so the ice cream is drowning in the espresso.
Okay. Turn that off.
You want to have it nice and warm.
And then you can do this in a coffee cup,
in any kind of mug,
anything at all that you want.
What we're gonna do is just scoop some vanilla ice cream,
and I've seen this done with coffee ice cream and chocolate.
I do two scoops of ice cream.
There we go. Nice and cold.
You want to make sure the ice cream is cold.
And then you pour the hot espresso over the top,
and it melts the ice cream,
and I top it --
Mmm.
I can smell the almond extract.
It smells so good.
And I top it with a few toasted, sliced almonds,
just because I like a little bit of crunch.
And that is my almond affogato.
And as you can imagine,
ice cream drowning in coffee is going to be fantastic.
Mmm.
It's got the crunchy. It's got the creamy.
It's got the sweetness from the ice cream.
And, of course, it's got the espresso.
So, you got your coffee and your dessert all in one.
Best way to end a meal.