Eggplant and White Bean Meatballs

Could it be? A meatball recipe that doesn’t include beef, pork and veal, and isn’t fried? I’ve preferred baking meatballs over frying them for a long time now…but a meatless meatball? Truth is, there are a lot of interesting vegetarian meatball recipes out there. I find that eggplant is a fun vegetable to experiment with, and a little research led me to quite a few eggplant meatball recipes. I picked and chose from a bunch and put together my own version, which also includes white beans. While obviously not the same taste and texture as a true meatball, these are loaded with great flavor, and are very hearty and filling. Crunchy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside…it was a perfect substitute for the real deal. What’s best is that my youngest daughter Ava, who is a meatball aficionado, powered through a dish of these! Serves well on their own or with a dish of marinara on the side for dipping.

Eggplant and White Bean Meatballs

Makes approximately 12 meatballs

1 large eggplant, skin removed, cut into 1″ pieces
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tbspn olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
salt and pepper
1 tbspn fresh basil, finely chopped
1 tbspn mint, finely chopped (you can use 2 tbspn basil if you do not have mint on hand)
1/2 cup canned canellini or garbanzo beans, rinsed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375˚. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, cook for one minute. Add eggplant, then add water. Stir so that all of the eggplant pieces are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Place a lid over the pan, lower the heat to medium and let eggplant cook until soft and tender, about 10-12 minutes (stirring occasionally). Remove eggplant from the pan, set aside to let cool.

When cooled, place eggplant in a food processor with remaining ingredients. Pulse until well mixed, but not puréed. You can mix by hand if you do not have a food processor, but the meatballs will have a chunkier consistency. Shape the mixture into small balls as you would with traditional meatballs. Placed the meatballs onto a lightly sprayed baking sheet. Lightly spray the meatballs. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until they are no longer soft to the touch.

Serve with marinara sauce.

Caprese Garlic Bread

A few weeks back, a friend of mine was telling me that she was planning to make Caprese Salad sandwiches for a family dinner. Just thinking of the classic combination of fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella nestled between crusty bread had my mouth watering. Her sandwich combination was the perfect inspiration for this week’s recipe…Caprese Garlic Bread. The marriage of Caprese Salad and crusty, rustic garlic bread is a no-brainer. Think of it as a crispy, fresh and flavorful home-made pizza, served as an appetizer.

While the ingredients are very simple and basic, I cannot stress enough that you should use all fresh ingredients. Forget about pre-made frozen garlic bread, dried basil or garlic powder. While they all serve a fine purpose, you will quickly agree after one bite that fresh ingredients are the way to go.

The ingredients for the garlic bread itself are very simple and basic. You can either go with a garlic-butter spread or a drizzle of olive oil topped with garlic and sea salt, then lightly dusted with grated parmesan cheese. Normally I would add additional herbs to the mix, such as oregano, parsley, marjoram or thyme. But for this recipe we’re going very basic with the garlic topping, while letting the fresh basil, tomatoes and mozzarella handle the bulk of the flavor. This recipe is very quick and easy to assemble – you can have it prepped, baked and plated in about 20 minutes or so. Just pour yourself a nice glass of wine, and 20 minutes later you’re ready to dig in!

Caprese Garlic Bread

1 loaf Italian bread or French bread, sliced in half length-wise
12-oz fresh mozzarella, sliced about 1/4″ thick
4 roma tomatoes, sliced about 1/4″ thick
10-12 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 tbspn grated parmesan cheese

Version A: Garlic-Butter Spread
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter, mixed with 3 cloves minced garlic

Version B: Garlic and Olive Oil topping
1/3 cup olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 350˚. Place both halves of the bread, cut side up, on a baking sheet. If using the garlic-butter, spread it evenly on both pieces of the bread. If using the garlic and olive oil,  lightly drizzle both pieces of the bread with the olive oil so that the bread is lightly but evenly coated, then spread the minced garlic and add a light sprinkle of sea salt. Once the bread is topped, add a light dusting of grated parmesan cheese.

Next, place the sliced mozzarella evenly onto both halves of the bread. Place the bread into the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, add the chopped basil and the tomato slices, then place back into the oven for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool for a minute or so. Slice, serve and enjoy!

The garlic bread topped with fresh cheese prior to baking.

Caprese Garlic Bread, plated and ready to serve!

Grilled Parmesan Basil Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes are a fun and versatile fruit/vegetable (whichever you prefer) that I enjoy all year round, especially during the summer season. Whether mixed in a salad, or popped as a quick snack, their juicy flavor always brings a smile to my face. For this recipe I added a little extra complementary taste and texture which really added a nice, yet subtle complexity and made for a beautiful summer side dish. You can prepare this dish either on a grill (using a grill basket) or in an oven. The tomatoes cook quickly using both methods, but I prefer the slightly charred taste of being cooked over an open flame. Whichever method you prefer, you’ll be sure to enjoy these tasty and juicy treats.

Grilled Parmesan Basil Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tspn garlic powder
1 tspn chopped basil
1 tbspn parmesan cheese
pinch of salt
olive oil

Directions
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil so that they are all evenly coated. Roll the tomatoes in breadcrumb mixture. The breading may not coat evenly but rather clumpy. This is fine, as the breading will adhere to the tomatoes when cooked.

Grilled – Pour the tomatoes into a grilling basket. Place the basket on an indirect heated portion of a hot grill. Close the lid and let cook for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes start to shrink.

Oven Roasted – Heat oven to 400˚. Place tomatoes on a cooking sheet. Roast until tomatoes start to shrink and the skin starts to shrivel, approximately 10 minutes.

Baked Parmesan Wonton Chips

If you’re a reader of my blog, a friend of mine on Facebook, or have recently been at a dinner party with me, you’ll know that I’ve been experimenting a lot lately with appetizers that use egg roll and wonton wrappers. These recipes have given me lots of creative energy and inspiration. They’ve also left me with an over-abundance of unused wonton wrappers sitting in my fridge.

We recently put the extra wrappers to good use as we had a little fun in the kitchen with the kids, making batches of baked wontons. The recipe is very simple and easy, and could be found on countless food sites. You place the wrappers on a cookie sheet, either whole or cut in half to make a traditional tortilla chip shape, and you bake ’em. Done.

Baked wontons can be served plain, without any seasoning. The chips will have a light, crispy taste to them that would go well with any number of dips. To kick our chip flavor up a bit, we sprinkled them with a bit of parmesan cheese before baking them…and they were a huge hit. There was just enough cheesy zest there to really give a nice flavor to the chip.

You can go all kinds of directions with seasoning for wonton chips – anywhere from barbecue or ranch seasoning to Italian spices to cinnamon. But I would suggest to avoid salt. There is enough flavor in the wonton wrappers where just a little bit of salt may be too much. Baking without seasoning does not require any cooking spray. But if you do decide to add seasoning to your chips, be sure to spray them prior to seasoning and baking. Spraying the chips will also make for a slightly crispier chip, which we all preferred in my house.

Now chip away!

Baked Parmesan Wonton Chips

1 package wonton wrappers (found in the produce section of your grocery store)
grated parmesan cheese
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400˚. Place individual wrappers, either whole or cut in half diagonally, on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Lightly spray the top of the chips, then lightly dust the chips with grated parmesan. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool for a few minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

Ava and Jules with the wonton wrappers.

Seasoning the chips.