Cream Sauces Part 1: Red Pepper Cream Sauce

Without a doubt, one of the most popular cream-based sauces used in Italian-American cuisine is the classic alfredo sauce. Named after Roman restauranteur Alfredo DiLelio, this rich and creamy sauce is the perfect combination of butter, cream and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. For those who are more health-conscious these days, it is also a heavy and decadent meal that is often referred to as ‘a heart attack on a plate’ and should only be enjoyed every so often. But if you are a fan of cream sauces, there are less fattening options, and many of them start with the timeless French-inspired white béchamel sauce.

For this post, I’ll be sharing with you the basic steps for a classic béchamel sauce, along with other popular cream sauces that use a béchamel as its backbone, including my very own Red Pepper Cream Sauce. In my upcoming post, I’m going to take it even further with a hybrid combination of béchamel-based sauces mixed with sautéed eggplant. But first, let’s start off with the basics of béchamel.

According to thekitchn.com, béchamel is known as one of the classic French “mother sauces” that form the basis of much French cuisine. It is a simple, relatively low-fat  sauce that uses just a few basic ingredients (equal parts unsalted butter and flour, hot milk, salt and fresh ground pepper) which are cooked until smooth and creamy. The sauce can then be used in a variety of dishes, from soufflés and pastas to a creamy topping for vegetables. It is also a key ingredient in the popular Greek dish, Moussaka.

The first step to a classic béchamel is to make a roux, which is a combination of equal parts melted butter and flour combined in a sauce pan until it makes a light bubbling paste (making sure not to let it brown while cooking). Next, you stir in hot milk, bring to a boil and continue to stir until it thickens to your liking. Season with salt and pepper, and your béchamel is ready to go. You can control the consistency of your béchamel by adjusting your ingredients accordingly. A light roux (one tablespoon of flour and butter per serving of milk) would make for a thin sauce. Two tablespoons of each would make for a slightly thicker sauce, and three tablespoons of each would make for an extra thick sauce. You can also control the amount of milk in your béchamel.

From here, you can add additional ingredients to your béchamel to make more flavorful cream sauces:
• A mornay sauce has shredded or grated cheese added to it. Mornay is a nice alternative to an alfredo sauce. It has a similar cheesy taste and consistency, but is lighter because you are using milk instead of heavy cream.
• A soubise sauce is a béchamel with the addition of puréed onions and serves well with vegetables and meats, such as roasted pork and baked chicken.
• A velouté sauce replaces milk with a stock as its primary liquid (such as vegetable, chicken, beef or shellfish), and serves well with vegetables, chicken and seafood.

Now that we have the basic béchamel and some of it’s influenced sauces covered, let’s move on to my Red Pepper Cream Sauce.

Red Pepper Cream Sauce
Makes 2 cups

2 tbspn unsalted butter
2 tbspn flour
1-1/2 cups 2% milk*, heated (heating the milk in the microwave for one minute will work well)
6 oz roasted red peppers, puréed
salt and pepper to taste

*2% milk gives a nice consistency. You can also use whole or 1% milk if that is what you have on hand. The lighter the fat content, the thinner the sauce.

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter until it starts to bubble, but does not brown. Add the flour to the melted butter, about 1/2 tbspn at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon as you add. Once you add all of the flour, stir until it forms a roux, or a golden, bubbly texture that looks like an egg batter. If your roux is too thin, you can add an extra pinch of flour. Again, be sure not to let it brown. If the roux does start to brown, remove the pan from the heat and continue to stir. Add the milk a little at a time, whisking thoroughly as you add. The first  bit of milk will turn the roux into a pasty consistency. As you add and whisk more milk the texture will become creamy. Continue a constant whisk until the mixture is creamy and all of the roux is incorporated into the milk. Next, you want to slowly add and mix in the puréed peppers. Taste as you add the peppers. You may find that an amount less than the 6 ounces is to your taste. Once you have the peppers whisked in, season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve over ziti or penne and enjoy!

For step-by-step photos on how to prepare a béchamel sauce, including photos on how your roux should look, click here. The measurements on the link are a bit different than mine, but the photos are good references.

Breaded Tomatoes Napoleon

Here’s a recipe that was inspired by a dish that I prepared with Chef Abigail Hitchcock on the day that I spent in the kitchen of New York City’s Camaje Bistro. Chef Abby’s original recipe was for Eggplant Napoleon, which is eggplant that is sliced and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, baked and then layered with an herbed goat cheese spread. While Chef Abby’s version was absolutely phenomenal, and both a joy to prepare and eat, I decided to try my own spin on it. While I am keeping the same basic idea and assembly steps, I’m substituting the eggplant with lightly breaded beefsteak tomatoes, and am making some minor adjustments to the goat cheese spread based on ingredients that I had on hand.

I came up with the idea of breading the tomatoes for a number of reasons:
• it helps contain the tomato’s shape and juices while baking;
• it allows for the cheese filling to spread evenly when cooled without mixing with the tomato’s juices…which would otherwise make for the cheese to become runny;
• it adds a nice taste to the tomatoes.

I only made a few minor adjustments to the original cheese filling recipe due to the ingredients that I had on hand. While Chef Abby used a combination of goat cheese and cream cheese, I used goat cheese and creme fraiche (which I’ve been on a kick with as of late). Also, instead of thinning out the mixture with heavy cream, I used a bit of olive oil. I kept the fresh thyme and sea salt for flavoring, and the mixture was perfect.

This is an ideal dish to make as an appetizer, or even as a small meal for a romantic home cooked Valentine’s Day dinner. Not only is it a very tasty and filling dish, it also makes for a beautiful and elegant presentation.

Breaded Tomatoes Napoleon

2 large beefsteak tomatoes
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbspn grated parmesan cheese
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
Olive oil
4 oz soft goat cheese
2 tbspn creme fraiche
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 375˚. Removing the top and bottom of the tomatoes, slice each tomato into three equal slices, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Drizzle the slices lightly with olive oil, then lightly coat with a mixture of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt and bit of pepper for seasoning. Place the tomato slices on a cooking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Remove from oven and let the tomatoes cool. Spreading the cheese filling on the tomatoes while they are still too warm will make the filling liquidy and runny.

In a bowl, mix together the goat cheese, creme fraiche, thyme and a pinch of sea salt. Drizzle just a bit of olive oil into the mixture and mix well until you get a creamy, spreadable texture.

When the tomatoes are cooled, place one slice on a plate, then add a layer of the cheese filling. Top with a second tomato slice and another layer of cheese filling. You want to make a it a total of three layers deep. Repeat these steps for the second plating. Add a very light drizzle of balsamic vinegar on the surrounding plate area for dipping.

Sliced tomatoes coated with bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

Three-layered Breaded Tomatoes Napoleon with balsamic drizzled around the edges for dipping.

Mini Inside-Out Pizza

Panzarotti…pizza turnovers…calzones. Whatever you may call them, they are all a type of an inside-out pizza, which is  pizza dough that is folded in half, sealed, and either baked (calzone/pizza turnover) or fried (panzarotti) to make half-moon shaped pockets packed with mozzarella cheese, sauce and other classic pizza toppings. These are not to be confused with stromboli, which is pizza dough topped with cheese and other pizza toppings, then rolled and baked like a stuffed bread.

I grew up knowing (and enjoying) the panzarotti version. On the corner of my Grandparent’s street there were not one, but TWO panzarotti shops. The original Mr. Panz, and directly across the street, Florida Style Pizza. Now, if you are at all familiar with the corner of Beechwood and Snyder in South Philly, you’ll know that there may be no more than 25 feet between the two corners, so competition between the two storefronts was fierce (our choice was always Florida Style). Mr. Panz is now long gone, but Florida Style is still around, and still frying up their classic inside-outs.

While the panzarotti is fried and usually filled with basic pizza toppings (cheese, sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms), the calzone is more of a classier dish. They are baked, and can be filled with more gourmet-style ingredients, such as spinach, broccoli, sautéed veggies, ham and other cheeses and meats.

Because my kids have yet to try either a calzone or a panzarotti , I thought it would be fun to make both, have a little taste test, and let my kids figure out the difference on their own. We rolled out some basic pizza dough and used a 4″ circular cookie cutter to make mini circles of dough. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can use a large glass or a small bowl to cut the dough. We then placed some shredded mozzarella cheese  and a tablespoon of pizza sauce in the middle of each circle, then folded and sealed them. Half were brushed with olive oil and went into the oven at 400˚ for 15 minutes, and the other half went into a deep frying pan, filled with 1″ of canola oil. The fried versions were flipped back and forth until brown and bubbly, while the baked ones were done when the dough was starting to brown.

After letting them all cool for a minute, we sliced them in half and served them to up to the kids. Surprisingly, they picked the baked version, because they said that the dough tasted more like traditional pizza dough. This, of course, didn’t stop them from devouring the fried version in minutes. “They taste like pizza donuts!” is what I kept hearing about the panzarotti style inside-outs.

I gotta admit, I was a bit disappointed that my kids didn’t quite appreciate the greasy, bubbly pockets of pizza heaven that I grew up with and enjoyed. But I am glad that they did enjoy trying them, and had fun judging the big taste-test. I’m sure we’ll be making these again some time, especially when the kids have friends over, or we have a family party. It’s a fun, tasty snack food to make and enjoy with a group!

Oh, before I finish, we did also make a gourmet version of the baked calzones. I went with the trendy prosciutto, goat cheese and arugula toppings (way to classy and delicate to be fried), and they were off the charts. I can see myself having a lot of inside-out fun in the kitchen.

Mini Inside-Out Pizza

Basic pizza dough, rolled thin (one rolled-out dough will make about 5 mini circles)
(you can use store bought or click here for a basic pizza dough recipe)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Pizza Sauce

Plus…
Your choice of any other pizza toppings

Cut out 4″ to 6″ round pieces of dough using a round cookie cutter, large juice glass or small bowl. Place some shredded mozzarella cheese  and a tablespoon of pizza sauce (along with any additional toppings) in the middle of each circle, then fold and press the edges to seal them shut. If you are baking them, brush the tops with olive oil and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400˚ for 15 minutes, or until the tops start to brown. If deep-frying, fill a large frying pan  with 1″ of canola oil. Carefully place the folded pizzas into the hot oil, and use a slotted metal spoon to flip back and forth until golden and bubbly on each side. If you are planning to use gourmet-type ingredients, such as vegetables and multiple meats, I would recommend baking. The basic ingredients work best for frying.

The basic ingredients for inside-outs.

Topped and ready to be folded.

Folded and ready for frying or baking.

Panzarotti in the pan.

Calzone in the oven.

Fried (left) and baked (right) inside-outs, ready to be enjoyed!

Gourmet calzone stuffed with prosciutto, goat cheese and arugula.

Baked Polenta with Shrimp, Asparagus and Peppers

I’ve been planning to put together a recipe that incorporates polenta for a while now. If you check back again in another month or so, I’m hoping to have a breakfast polenta dish to share. But for today, I’m talking about a baked polenta dish mixed with shrimp, asparagus and red bell pepper. It’s like an Italian version of shrimp and grits. Grits and polenta are both, after all, very similar porridge style dishes – grits being made from stone ground white corn and polenta from yellow corn. The preparation, for the most part, is fairly easy. Sauté the shrimp, asparagus and peppers in garlic, olive oil and the zest and juice of one lemon, then fold into prepared polenta and bake. But it’s the type of polenta that you use that will determine if this dish is just good or out of this world.

Which polenta to use?
There are two common forms of polenta. There’s the pre-made tubes, which I like to use sliced thin for grilling or baking, topped with sautéed veggies or maybe a nice slice of cheese and some tomatoes. Then there’s the traditional version made from boiled cornmeal, often mixed with a little butter and maybe some parmesan cheese to form a creamy porridge-like dish. Because I wanted to mix in some other ingredients, then bake it in a casserole dish, the traditional method was what I needed to make. If you’ve never made traditional polenta, it involves about 20-30 minutes of cooking and a lot of stirring. A LOT of stirring. Similar to risotto (the other Italian dish that requires dedicated stirring), the trick is to keep a constant stir going to maintain a nice, creamy consistency. At first, it seems like a lot of work. But as you get into it and develop a nice rhythm, it almost becomes like a well-calculated dance. You allow it to get away from you just enough, then you bring it back together and gently keep it moving, and then you repeat this form until the dance is done. The end result is always worth the effort.

While doing my research for this recipe, I found yet a third option for making polenta…instant polenta. The cooking method and preparation are very similar to the traditional style. You add the cornmeal mixture to boiling water, and you stir. Only it’s done in literally under 5 minutes. Now I’m not exactly sure what is done to the cornmeal to make it instant, but there were enough recipes available online from reputable chefs that used instant polenta. It’s gotta be good then, right?

Wrong. Gotta say, I was not happy with the instant stuff. Yes, it did take under 5 minutes to prepare. But you go from start to finish in such a quick time, that you really have no control over the polenta. There is no careful stirring, no playing, no dance. It goes from liquid to solid so quickly that I felt that it just got away from me. I didn’t even have time to properly season it as I normally would. I did make sure to add some extra seasoning when folding in the shrimp, asparagus and peppers, but would have preferred to add a little butter while cooking the polenta. And I saw no chance of doing that while using the instant, which left it very bland and dry on its own.

To help add a little extra flavor, I put together a quick lemon greek yogurt sauce to use as a topping. This gave it a well needed, flavorful punch (see recipe below).

The bottom line here is use the traditional method for a dish like this. It’s worth the time and effort, and you will be very happy with the end result!

Baked Polenta with Shrimp, Asparagus and Peppers

Ingredients:
12-15 raw jumbo shrimp, cleaned, shelled and devenined
1 small bundle (12-15 pieces) of asparagus, cut into 1″ pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into small pieces
2 tbspn olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice plus zest of one lemon

Basic Polenta recipe
(courtesy of Giada DeLaurentiis)
6 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:
In a large pan, heat oil and garlic over medium heat. Add asparagus and peppers, stir and cook until veggies are tender. Add the shrimp, continue to stir until all shrimp are pink. Add the lemon juice and zest, mix well. Remove from heat, cover to keep warm. Set aside.

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a heavy large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add the butter, and stir until melted.

Fold in the shrimp, asparagus and peppers. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased baking dish. Place the baking dish into a 350˚ oven, bake for 15-20 minutes. Slice, serve and enjoy!

Lemon Greek Yogurt Sauce
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
Juice plus zest of 1 lemon
2 tbspn olive oil
1/4 tspn salt

Optional:
1/4 tspn chopped parsley
2 tbspn crumbled feta

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.