Grilled Zucchini Caprese Bites

There is nothing quite as satisfying as a simple recipe that uses basic and fresh ingredients, which then produces an amazingly enjoyable dish. The recipe that I’m sharing with you today fits perfectly into this category. Because it can easily be prepared on the grill, it also qualifies as a summer must-have!

One of my all time favorite dishes is the classic Caprese Salad. How the fresh basil, slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella complement each other is pure mouth-watering bliss. One of my favorite vegetables, especially during the summer grilling season, is the zucchini. With just a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, and maybe a dash of garlic powder, you have a tasty and healthy vegetable dish that works well with just about any meal served up on the grill. By combining the ingredients of a Caprese Salad with sliced zucchini, you end up with a four-star appetizer that just about anyone will enjoy. You could almost pass it off as a healthier version of a mini bagel bite…now who in their right mind would turn THAT down?!?

Now, before we go any further, I do highly suggest that you use either a grill mat or a grill tray for this recipe. Flipping zucchini slices on a traditional grill grate is always a bit of a gamble, and I would hate to have you drop a few slices between the grate openings into the fiery pit below…and yes, it will happen.

The ingredients are very simple, and can easily be adjusted to accommodate additional servings.
We are going to start with the following:

• 1 large zucchini, cut into 1/2″ slices (you should get about 15 or so slices)
• 12-15 cherry tomatoes, sliced (you may need to use more than one slice of tomato per zucchini slice, depending on the size of the zucchini slices)
• fresh mozzarella, cut into small pieces that will fit on top of the zucchini slice (a container of mini mozzarella pearls found in the gourmet cheese section of your grocery store work well)
• 15-20 fresh basil leaves (depending on how many zucchini slices you have)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder

Warm your grill to medium-high, and prepare to cook over direct heat. Again, although it is not mandatory, I highly suggest that you use a grill tray or a grill mat instead of cooking the zucchini slices directly on the grill grates. You could also use a sheet of aluminum foil. Whatever surface you are using, be sure that the surface is lightly sprayed or oiled to avoid the zucchini from sticking.

Lightly brush each of the zucchini slices with olive oil, then season each slice with a bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Place the zucchini slices, seasoned side up, on the prepared grill area. Let the zucchini cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the bottom of the slices start to brown, adjusting the flame as needed.

Carefully flip the zucchini slices, making sure that none drop through the grill grates. Top the zucchini slices with a piece of basil, a slice or two of tomato, and a piece of fresh mozzarella.

Let the zucchini cook for another 5-7 minutes, or until the cheese starts to melt.

Carefully remove the zucchini slices. Season with additional salt if necessary. Serve and enjoy!

Oven-baked Version

You can easily prepare this dish in the oven as well. Pre-heat your oven to 400˚. Place the zucchini slices on a lightly sprayed or parchment lines cookie sheet. Bake for 5-7 minutes (no need to flip the zucchini when baking in the oven). Top with the basil, sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella. Bake for another 7-10 minutes, or until the mozzarella starts to melt. You can also go with a more traditional pizza-inspired taste by using sauce, shredded mozzarella, oregano and sliced pepperoni as your topping.

Summer Avocado Salad

Previously, I shared with you my recipe for Avocado Egg Rolls. Inspired by the popular Cheesecake Factory appetizer, this tasty and healthy recipe has become a staple on both our party menu and our quick Saturday night dinner menu. The zesty aroma of the fresh ingredients in the filling alone is enough to make my mouth water every time I am asked to whip up a batch.

For our most recent friends gathering, I decided to switch the recipe up just a bit by eliminating the egg roll wrappers (and the time it takes to stuff and roll), and create a chunkier version of the filling to serve it as a summer salad. Now, the egg roll version may have been a hit at previous gatherings…but this new salad version will be a guarantee for many summer Condo cook-outs to come. Whether served on its own, with tortilla chips, or as a topping on grilled chicken or fish, the fresh ingredients coated with a zesty lime dressing will be the perfect accent to any summer get-together. And if you really want to carry over the crunch of the egg roll version, try adding some crushed Chinese noodles to the mix!

Summer Avocado Salad
Makes 6-8 servings

1 tbspn olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lime
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt
2 firm, ripe avocados, halved and pitted
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 small red bell pepper, diced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbspn cilantro, finely chopped

In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, lime zest and juice, cayenne pepper and salt. Set aside.

Scoop out flesh of avocados, rough chop into pieces. Add the cucumber, pepper, tomatoes and cilantro, mix well. Add liquid mixture, stir well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Optional – top with crushed Chinese noodles just before serving.

The Pride and Passion of The Italian American Podcast

Listening to podcasts has been part of my regular daily routine for a number of years now. Whether I’m plugged in at work or listening to a playlist in the car, my personal favorites – which range from comedy and music to social and current events – offer endless hours of entertainment and education. As of late, I often find myself gravitating toward podcasts that focus on either culinary tips or Italian American culture, as a bit of resource and inspiration for potential future blog post ideas. One podcast that I recently discovered and immediately fell in love with is The Italian American Podcast.

Co-hosted by Anthony Fasano & Dolores Alfieri, The Italian American Podcast offers a wide range of episode topics, such as family history and traditions, recipes, tips on how to trace your genealogy, and special interviews with famous Italian American chefs, musicians, athletes and authors. However, the episodes that really pulled me in as a fan are the ones where Anthony and Dolores invite their audience to not only learn about their own family history and traditions, but to also listen in as they record their family during one of their many special traditional gatherings.

The Italian American Podcast hosts, Anthony Fasano and Dolores Alfieri.

For those of you who have had the wonderful and unique opportunity to celebrate a Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes Dinner with your extended family, or to spend a day preparing a special annual family recipe with your cousins, aunts and uncles, you will no doubt enjoy the episodes that are focused on such family events. Both Anthony and Dolores have been gracious enough on more than one occasion to actually set up a mic during one of their family gatherings to record and share the event with their listeners. The events aren’t scripted, they are just recorded as is…capturing every wonderful and loving sound and conversation that is going on in the background. The laughter, the stories, the memories…they are all captured and preserved for all of us to enjoy. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t almost moved to tears a number of times while listening to these special recordings. And for those of you who have not been fortunate enough to personally experience one of these events, you will quickly develop an understanding and appreciation of these treasured Italian American family moments just by listening to these episodes.

The interview episodes are also done very well, as the guests are asked well-structured and inquisitive questions. The listeners will no doubt learn and absorb from these fantastic interviews. Over the course of the podcast’s history, Anthony and Dolores have interviewed a number of intriguing guests of Italian American heritage, such as celebrity chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mary Ann Esposito, sports celebrities Franco Harris, Mike Piazza and Tony Reali, singers Vanessa Racci and Lena Prima, and authors Domenica Marchetti, Tom Santopietro and Adriana Trigiani…just to name a few.

Earlier this month, I also had the pleasure to be interviewed by Anthony about my Cucina Domenico food blog and my book, A Little of This and Some of That, for their podcast episode #63: The Conversations That Help Us Keep Our Italian American Traditions Alive. I’ve had the opportunity to do a number of interviews over the years, and my conversation with Anthony was one of my favorites. Anthony expressed a lot of appreciation for my efforts in keeping the Italian American traditions alive, and my feelings towards the amazing job that he and Dolores are doing with their podcast is mutual. And who knows…maybe some day we’ll even find an avenue to collaborate with each other!

I highly recommend and encourage you to check out The Italian American Podcast. As their website tagline says, it will inspire you to deepen your Italian American Heritage.

Links

Be sure to visit The Italian American Podcast website at italianamericanexperience.com to check out all of their podcast episodes, blog entries, videos and community page.

You can also listen to The Italian American Podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher.com.

And please be sure to give a listen to Anthony’s interview with myself and Messina Reale, of the website Ovunque Siamo.
Episode #63: The Conversations That Help Us Keep Our Italian American Traditions Alive

Thank you, Anthony and Dolores, for your encouragement and inspiration, and for keeping the passion of the Italian American culture alive and well!

Raspberry Lemon Love Cake

NOTE – this is not a light and fluffy cake recipe. The texture of any Love Cake will be a bit heavy and somewhat moist from the ricotta…and it is damn good!

Italian Love Cake has been a part of my Mom’s Easter pie tradition for many years. Made with layers of chocolate cake and ricotta filling with a chocolate whipped topping, this rich and decadent dessert never disappoints. What is really fascinating about this dessert is the assembly. The cake batter is poured into the pan first, then topped with the ricotta filling. As it bakes, the ricotta sinks to the bottom, raising the cake batter to the top, so both layers are accented with each other’s flavor during the transformation process. Pure magic!

Recently, I watched Valerie Bertinelli make a strawberry lemon version of Love Cake, using a strawberry cake, ricotta and mascarpone filling, and a lemon mascarpone whipped topping. With the warmer weather heading our way, this sounded like the perfect dessert for a summer party. However, I decided to give this dessert my own little spin, and with a few ingredient swaps and some additional attention given during the baking process (more on that in a bit), I am happy to say that the cake turned out exactly as I had hoped!

Instead of using Valerie’s strawberry and lemon combination, I opted for raspberry and lemon, which happens to be one of may favorite summer combinations. I started by switching out the strawberry box cake for a lemon box cake (lemon cake has always been a guilty pleasure of mine). I then incorporated 6 ounces of puréed fresh raspberries and some lemon zest into the ricotta and mascarpone filling, which really added a nice, summery flavor. I kept Valerie’s lemon and mascarpone whipped topping as is, because it just sounded so perfect.

Giving a little extra love to the Love Cake (a.k.a. my center runneth over!)

To bake the cake, I followed the same steps as I would with a traditional Love Cake. The prepared lemon cake batter was poured into the tray first, then topped with the raspberry and lemon flavored ricotta and mascarpone filling, and into the oven it went. Before I go any further, I must explain to you the two steps that I took  that may (or may not) have altered things a bit.

1. The directions say for you to pour the batters into a 9″ x 13″ pan. Because we wanted to bring only a portion of the dessert to my Mom’s house, I decided to pour the batters into two 8″ x 8″ pans, taking one with us and leaving the other at home.
2. As I mentioned, I decided to add 6 ounces of fresh raspberry purée to the ricotta and mascarpone…which, in turn, is adding an additional 6 ounces of liquid to the recipe.

How did these two steps possibly alter the recipe, you ask?  The direction for the original recipe calls for you to bake the cake for 50-60 minutes, or until the entire cake is set and a skewer piercing comes out clean. After a good 60 minutes in the oven, the centers of both 8″ x 8″ pans were still very loose. My first thought was that splitting the pans wasn’t a good idea. Then I thought that adding the additional 6 ounces of liquid to the mix could have been the culprit. Both suggestions are feasable. But as I went back to the original recipe to see if any steps were missed, I noticed that some of the reviews had the same complaint. Their centers had also runneth over! Now I’m not blaming Valerie for this, as I am a fan of both her cooking show and her recipes, and the cake does contain a fair amount of wet ingredients. Also, not everyone’s oven may be calibrated exactly the same. Really, I just don’t want to upset Valerie!

To ensure that the center would finish baking without having the already baked outer portions burn to a crisp, I removed both pans from the oven, covered the outer edges with aluminum foil so that only the soft center was exposed, and popped them back into the oven for an additional half hour. Success!!!

Long story short, a little extra love may be needed for this recipe…but oh, it’s worth it!

Raspberry Lemon Love Cake

Adapted from Valerie Bertinelli’s Strawberry Lemon Love Cake

• Nonstick cooking spray, for the baking pan(s)
• One 16.5-ounce box lemon cake mix (plus required ingredients) 
• 32 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese 
• 3/4 cup sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 4 large eggs  
• 16 ounces mascarpone cheese
• 1 cup milk 
• One 3.4-ounce box instant lemon pudding mix
• 6 ounces fresh raspberries, puréed
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan (or two 8″ x 8″ baking pans) with cooking spray.

Prepare the cake batter according to the package directions and pour it into the prepared pan(s). Set aside.

Combine the ricotta, sugar, vanilla, eggs and 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of the mascarpone in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Fold in the puréed raspberries and lemon zest. Gently scoop the filling onto the cake batter, covering it completely.

Bake until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and the lemon cake layer has risen to the top, 50 to 60 minutes.

*NOTE – if the center of the cake is not fully set after 60 minutes, remove the pan(s) from the oven and  cover the outer edges with aluminum foil. Return the pan(s) to the oven for an additional 20-30 minutes, or until the center is fully set. 

Cool completely on a rack.

Beat the remaining 12 ounces mascarpone in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the milk, beating until smooth. Add the pudding mix and beat until smooth. Let stand until thickened, about 5 minutes. Spread the frosting over the cooled cake(s).

Refrigerate until ready to serve. You can top the cakes with additional raspberries and lemon zest to really impress!