Chicken and white bean soup has all the feels and flavors. Made Italian style with carrots, onion, celery, Italian parsley, garlic, white cannellini beans, the soup is finished with pecorino or parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. 

This recipe uses canned white cannellini beans, and left over chicken or rotisserie chicken and boxed broth. You can make your own chicken stock and cook beans from scratch. While that might be considered ideal, it isn’t necessary for a delicious soup. 

Are Canned Beans Okay for Chicken and White Bean Soup?

Some years ago,  I had the pleasure to interview Guiliano Hazan, son of famous Italian cookbook author, Marcella Hazan, and he explains “Italian” cuisine as a dish in which you can taste each ingredient separately and not as one flavor. No ingredient should be placed in the dish to fight with another.  I asked him if his legendary mother and he differed in anything. He told me she favors “fresh beans” and perhaps dried beans, but he will use canned beans. But they agree that flavors would end up in the same place.

I liked that culinary confidence, and if anyone knows what tastes good, it would be Giuliano Hazan who has been eating from the hands of an Italian cooking legend since birth.

If you like the bread in the picture, that’s my homemade sourdough.

Ingredients for Chicken and White Bean Soup

• Chicken
• Cannellini Beans
• Boxed Organic Chicken Broth
• Onion, Carrots, Celery
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Parsley
• Fresh or dried thyme, rosemary
• Bay Leaf
• Fennel powder or fennel seed or fresh fennel
• Pecorinio or Parmesan

If you don’t like fennel, skip it, but I think it adds that extra aromatic.

Play Around

• Add baby spinach to bowl when serving.
• Add chopped kale in last ten minutes.
• Add cooked rice or cooked macaroni.

More Soups from Spinach Tiger

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Chicken and White Bean Soup

White beans, left over chicken, boxed broth makes an easy, healthy soup.

Course Soup

Cuisine Italian

Keyword bean soup, beansoup, chicken soup, soup

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 10 hours hours

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 cups chicken, diced or shredded
• 4 cans cannellini beans
• 4-6 cups chicken broth
• 1 medium white onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 2 carrots diced
• few fresh thyme sprigs can use rosemary also
• 1 handful Italian parsley chopped
• olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed or 1 cup chopped fennel
• pinch red pepper flakes
• Pecorino or Parmesan for serving

Instructions

• Rinse beans with water. Reserve 1 can of beans to emulsify later.
• Add butter and olive oil to heavy bottomed pan.
• Add in onion, carrot, celery (and fennel if using fresh) and cook until nearly soft.
• Add in garlic, cook a minutes, but not browning.
• Add in chicken broth. Add in beans that are rinsed and drained.
• Add In spices, and shredded chicken.
• Blend reserved can of beans until pureed. Add to soup.
• Cook until carrots are soft.
• Serve with Parmesan or Pecorino cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

The post Chicken and White Bean Soup appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This might be just the dinner you need after all the indulging during the holidays. Imagine Italian chicken sausage, roasted caramelized fennel, roasted cauliflower, fresh spinach and olive oil coming together to orchestrate, flavor, texture and still be so good for you.

After eleven years of blogging, and 1200 recipes, I know what you’ll be looking for. You love easy, tasty, healthy dinner ideas.

In this collaboration, I chose the pre-cooked Al Fresco Italian chicken sausage and made an absolutely delicious dinner in twenty minutes.

I’ll tell you why easy big fat healthy dinners are important to Spinach Tiger. In addition to running this site, I have a keto home bakery, which has become quite successful.

I need food I can grab and make quickly that is good for me. This is the kind of dinner I thrive on.

Al Fresco Chicken Italian Sausage is Pre-Cooked

This  Chicken Sausage is pre-cooked, which means you can easily slice across and place on sheet pan or in the air fryer. No double cooking necessary, which is an amazing convenience. It’s lower in calories. Perfect for a quick, healthy, delicious mid-week meal!

I chose the Italian chicken sausage that already has red peppers in it, and it pairs nicely with the fennel. Everything in this sheet pan will be perfect in about twenty minutes. During the last two minutes, I throw the spinach over it evenly, and it cooks down. Then you simply toss it all together and pass the parmesan or pecorino romano cheese.

I added a heaping teaspoon of red chili peppers, and we loved that extra bit of heat. Serve that on the side if kids are eating this dish.

This dinner can be prepared two ways:  Sheet Pan or Air Fryer or Air Fryer. I made this twice using both methods and it was so delicious both ways that we fought over the last bite.

This is one of the few sheet pan dishes where everything can be roasted at once.

That’s not always the case, but it’s been trendy and I know people want the easiest cooking option.

Al Fresco Italian Chicken Sausage is Perfect for an Air Fryer Recipe

However, I am a fan of the air fryer for some dishes. This is also one of those dishes that can be placed in the air fryer and made in ten minutes. My air fryer is a smaller version, and I did it in two batches, thus twenty minutes, but it’s passive cooking and the clean up is so easy.

I made this twice in one week to make sure I was certain of both cooking methods and there were no complaints. We loved this dish. It hits all of our notes for healthy, hearty, flavor, texture, and big fat healthy yum.

Ways to play around with Italian Chicken Sausage Dish

How do I replace the fennel? 

Fennel is one of my favorite crunchy veggies that is often made as a salad with a citrus. I love it braised or roasted, as it has a slight licorice note adds much to a sausage dish.

You can use celery, sliced thinly across. You can also add in more cauliflower if fennel is not your thing.

How do I replace the spinach? 

First of all use fresh spinach and only add it in at the end. You can replace with kale or swiss chard if you want a different green.

Melt Mozzarella Cheese

Sometimes kids will grab onto cheesy casseroles easier, and you could always top with mozzarella and stick under the broiler for a few minutes.

Add in Rice or Pasta

Add a starch in the form of pasta or rice, especially if you are serving kids.

Make Pita Tacos

I like to get creative in the kitchen. Warm up some tacos and stuff with Al Fresco Sausage and Cauliflower for a twist.

More Low Carb Recipes Where You Could Use Al Fresco Italian Chicken Sausage 

The good news in making these recipes is that the sausage is already pre-cooked. A quick browning is all you need to do.

Low Carb Three Cheese Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Casserole 

Spaghetti Squash Casserole with Sausage and Mushrooms

Sausage Cabbage Soup

Sausage Frittata with Ricotta and Spinach

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Italian Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner

Chicken Sausage, Fennel, Cauliflower, Spinach made in air fryer or sheet pan. (Low Carb)

Course dinner

Cuisine Italian

Keyword air fryer,, caulfilower, chicken sausage,, sheet pan,

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 package Al Fresco Italian Chicken Sausage 4 links
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 bulb fennel thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil may use less
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes optional
• 2 tablespoons pecorino romano cheese or parmesan

Instructions

• Slice sausage across into 1/4 inch discs.
• Cut core out of cauliflower. Cut cauliflower into small pieces.
• Cut off tops and end of fennel bulb. Slice Fennel into strips
• Slice onion into thin strips.
• Toss the vegetables with olive oil, just enough to glisten.

Sheet Pan Method

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Spread vegetables and sausage evenly on sheet pan.
• Roast for 20 minutes, turning over at ten minutes.
• Add handfuls of spinach over the ingredients in pan.
• Bake for another three minutes until the spinach in wilted.
• Serve with Pecorino Romano and crushed red pepper flakes.
• Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Air Fryer Method

• You can mix all meat and vegetables together, except for the spinach.
• Roast in two batches for ten minutes each, until sausage looks browned.
• Toss fresh spinach into the ingredients. It will wilt naturally.
• Serve with Pecorino Romano and crushed red pepper flakes.

The post Italian Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner, Air Fryer Option appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Disclosure: This site contains Amazon affiliate links which earn a small commission to aid in operating costs but do not increas your price.

La Fritteda, the Heartiness of a Fall Dish with Flavors of Springtime

I first made this dish as an early blogger back in 2010, as part of cooking Italy, using Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classical Italian Cooking. This cookbook is an all time classic, with no pictures and 35 years later continues to sell!

This is not a five minute dish. There is prep work involved. Fava beans are not for light weights. You have to be the kind of person that enjoys the PROCESS of cooking just as much as the EATING. I am just such that person some of the time.

I cook most of the food I eat, and in a recent asparagus post I told you about my idea of five-minute meals (roasted asparagus). But, there are those days that the time in the kitchen is not something to get through like piano practice; it’s something to enjoy from beginning to end.

How to Substitute the Ingredients for La Fritteda

The fun starts when you discover it’s fava bean season and you scoop up as many as you can afford because it’s a quick season and the earlier, the better tasting. If you can’t find fava beans, use baby lima beans.

Then you grab at the baby artichokes spring peas, and vidalia onions feeling almost as giddy as a teenage girl with spring fever.  If you can’t find fresh peas, or baby artichokes,  use frozen.

If you love Vidalia onions, I have quite a few onion-centric recipes, such as Blackberry Onion Pizza, and Vidalia Onion Sweet Corn Risotto. 

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I made this dish twice in one week because we loved the unique combination of spring vegetables. The result of fava beans, fennel, peas and artichokes delivers the heartiness of a fall dish with the flavors of springtime. Even if you just eat the La Fritteda without pasta, you will walk away from the table feeling satisfied.

I used their fresh spinach pasta from Alfresco’s Pasta and I chose to caramelize the vegetables. If you try the caramelized version, skip any added grated cheese at the end and just enjoy the savory flavor the onion and fennel deliver.

Make this spring pasta dish all year long! It’s so good. You can always substitute gluten free pasta or zero carb pasta.

All Marcella Hazan Recipes Cooked Here at Spinach Tiger

All Italian Recipes from Spinach Tiger

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La Fritteda, Artichoke, Fennel and Fava Bean with Pasta

Adapted from Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classical Italian Cooking, this is a unique combination of baby artichokes, fava beans and fennel. Great as a side dish, or as a main course with pasta.

Course Pasta

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet onion thinly sliced with a mandolin or sharp knife
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large fennel bulb with fronds
• 6 baby artichokes
• 2 pounds of fresh fava beans or fresh or frozen lima beans
• 2 cups frozen peas
• sea salt freshly ground black pepper
• splash of champagne or white wine vinegar.

Instructions

• Slice onion thinly, set aside
• Fennel Bulb and Fronds:
• Dice fronds, set aside. Slice Fennel thinly (like the onion).
• Fava Beans: Hull and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds. Cool in lemon ice water and slip out of skins. If you can’t get fava beans, fresh spring lima beans (or frozen) are another option.
• Artichokes: Peel off rough leaves, slice into quarters. Trim top 1/4 inch off. As you peel artichokes, place in water. Once all are peeled and trimmed. If you can’t get baby artichokes, frozen hearts would work.
• In heavy pot, saute onions and fennel in olive oil until softened. Add chopped fennel frond. Season with salt.
• Add in artichokes, cover and cook on medium heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally. You may need to cook longer.
• Add in fava beans, peas, vinegar. Cook a few minutes longer to heat through. Season with salt and pepper.
• Eat as a side dish or toss with pasta.

Notes

If using pasta, toss with zest of a whole lemon.

Disclosure: This site contains Amazon affiliate links which earn a small commission to aid in operating costs but do not increas your price.

The post La Fritteda, Pasta with Fava Beans, Fennel, and Onions appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Raw onions made me cry in childhood. It’s not what you think.

I wasn’t peeling them or cutting them. I was being tricked to eat them.

I hated raw onion in salad and everyone knew it. Before I would stab the lettuce with my fork, I would look up and say, “is there onion?” and everyone lied. But one bite and I knew and I would cry. I cried because I hated it. I cried because they tried to trick me. Now, I’m tricking you into thinking a Greek Salad doesn’t have to have iceberg lettuce. You can play around and use these Super Spinach Greens, or kale or anything you like.

You  also won’t see any onion in this salad, but feel free to add red onion. Just don’t eat it near me. I can’t even look at someone eating raw onions in a salad. We all have our food things, don’t we?

I grew up eating Greek salad in the many Greek owned restaurants in Pennsylvania. My favorite version came from Zorba’s. It had lots of feta cheese, Greek olives and lemony dressing. This is not that salad, but it’s inspired by it and it is that lemony dressing.

I replaced the feta cheese with chopped fennel, but feel free to put that feta cheese right back in. I don’t blame you one bit. Feta is one of my favorites. Just buy a whole marinated block of sheep’s feta, not the already crumbled tasteless kind. If you’re going to eat cheese, eat good cheese.

I threw a pan fried piece of salmon which loves that lemony dressing and I gave you plenty of olives.

The greens in this salad are something very unique. This is called Super Spinach by Organic Girl. It’s baby spinach, bok choy and baby kale. I saw it a Whole Food’s on sale and any word with “super” intrigues me. What’s nice about this set of greens is that it takes a dressing very well. In other words, you don’t need a lot of dressing, so use sparingly at first.

I’ll keep the healthy coming. Don’t miss this week’s Winter kale salad and one year ago this amazing salad containing grapefruit and avocado, or this cara cara fennel salad, all in season.

Stay connected, subscribe below, follow me on instagram, twitter and facebook. 

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Super Spinach Greek Salad with Salmon and Lemony Dressing

Super Spinach Salad, brightened by lemony vinaigrette, pan seared salmon, Greek inspired with kalamata olives, tomatoes.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 package super spinach salad by Organic Girl or 4 large handfuls of any Spinach Greens
• 2 pieces of salmon 6 ounces each, approx.
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 to mato cut into one inch pieces or cubed
• 1/4 cup diced fresh fennel or feta cheese
• kalamata olives
• red onion optional
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette

• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 lemon for juice
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

• Heat olive oil in small frying pan on medium heat.
• Oil is ready when a drop of water sizzles.
• Place salmon in pan skin side up.
• Cook for 5 minutes or until the salmon easily moves in pan.
• Turn over and cook for 2-3 minutes until skin is crispy.
• Toss greens with just enough dressing to coat.
• Top with tomatoes, fennel, olives (and optional feta cheese and onion).
• Top with salmon.

Lemon Vinaigrette Instructions

• Mix mustard with vinegar until incorporated.
• Add lemon juice.
• Add olive oil until emulsified.
• Season salad with salt and pepper, oregano.

The post Super Spinach Greek Salad with Salmon and Lemony Dressing appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

The cara cara navel orange, a cross between the Washington navel and the Brazilian Bahia navel, made it’s way to the United States from Venezuela in the early 80’s, but I’ve only just become familiar with them, taking on a two a day habit and putting them into everything.

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The cara cara  has a short season from January to April, but fills the gap well between apples and the summer fruits. It can find it’s way into cocktails quite nicely and is simply a treasure when just eaten by itself.

While even a typical navel orange can be a bit acidic,  grapefruit sometimes a tad too tart, and Meyer lemons a bit to perfumey, the seedless cara cara has a unique, sweet taste with a hint of berry. The color is gorgeous and vibrant, and the taste is surprising, because the acid is so low that you can don’t’ have to pucker up when you take a bite.

The Process for the Cara Cara Fennel Salad

This is but a simple, nearly no recipe, salad but why not share it with you, if just to look at how pretty it is. In the early days of Spinach Tiger (almost 7 years ago), I posted an orange fennel salad and used ricotta salata cheese, a pressed salty sheep’s cheese and would be a perfect addition to counter the sweetness, so I’ll list that as an option.

I thinly sliced the fennel,  and dressed it with olive oil, salt and pepper, then added a splash of champagne vinegar. Now in hindsight, I should have added a bit of the zest. I’ll note that in the recipe. Just make it to taste.

So tell me, have you had a cara cara orange. Do you cook with them?

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Cara Cara Fennel Salad

Fennel and sweet cara cara orange come together to make a vibrant salad.

Course Salad

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 stalk fennel thinly sliced
• 2 cara cara oranges save the zest of one
• extra virgin olive oil
• champagne vinegar
• sea salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 4 ounces ricotta salata optional

Instructions

• Clean the fennel well. Trim and slice.
• Toss fennel with olive oil, zest vinegar to taste.
• Season with salt & pepper
• Peel oranges.
• Cut into sections.
• Add optional ricotta salata

The post Cara Cara Fennel Salad appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Seared scallops with braised fennel is a restaurant inspired meal, but done much more lightly. The original dish had a heavy butter, lemon sauce that I had no time for and you probably don’t always either. This is also one of those in between meals. The kind of meals I eat when I need to go light, because I’m in between food events. But, light doesn’t mean carrot sticks or a protein shake. It can still mean good food..

Seafood pairs fabulously with braised fennel. I discovered that when I made this recipe from Le Cordon Bleu at Home.  Even if you think you’re not a fennel person, you might be a braised fennel person. It cooks in mere minutes aided with a bit of butter, perhaps a splash of wine, and it sweetens up and takes on a completely different character than it’s overpowering raw state.

I love both, but while raw fennel is loud, leaning on obnoxious unless tamed with other ingredients, braised fennel is demure and its sweetness alluring. The sweetness of seared scallops harmonizes with the sweet in the braised fennel. To counter this, I added in a grape tomato, feta cheese salad.

If this is dinner, I suggest at least 3/4 pounds of scallops for two. Scallops are pricey. This is not an inexpensive meal. It’s a splurge, but it will cost a lot more in a restaurant and once you learn to sear them properly yourself, you can enjoy them more often.

I always purchase wild sea scallops, make sure to clean them well and remove that little side muscle.

Dry them with a paper towel and heat the pan to a medium heat. The trick with scallops is patience. Don’t turn them over, until they are ready to move easily. Trust that they will caramelize and brown. This takes about 5 or 6 minutes. Once turned over for another 2 minutes, you have perfectly tender, seared scallops, so good, that they don’t need a sauce.

Seared Scallops with braised fennel, a very simple, clean, delicious dinner made in twenty minutes.

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Braised Fennel with Seared Scallops

Braised Fennel with Seared Scallops

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Braised Fennel

• splash white wine or dry vermouth
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 Fennel Bulbs

Seared Scallops

• 3/4 to 1 pound scallops
• olive oil enough to cover pan
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

Braised Fennel

• Cut stems and trim out the core of fennel bulb. Rinse and drain.
• Cut fennel cross wise into strips. It will reduce down in size once braised.
• Place in sauce pan with enough water to cover bottom.
• Add splash wine, knob butter.
• Braise until tender, about 15 minutes.
• Season with salt and pepper.

Sear Scallops

• Clean scallops, by rinsing and removing side muscle.
• Rinse and dry scallops with several paper towels. Any moisture will prevent browning.
• Heat olive oil with butter in frying pan to medium high heat.
• Place scallops in pan and turn to medium heat. Do not crowd pan. Do in batches if necessary.
• Cook for 4-6 minutes until the scallop easily moves and is browned.
• Turn over for approximately one minute.

Two More Fast and East Scallop Recipes:

You can make Greg’s version of this on the grill. (Sippity Sup).

If you want to get really crazy, try this Seared Scallops and Grilled Watermelon Recipe.

The post Seared Scallops with Braised Fennel: Fast, Easy, Tasty appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Herb Stuffed  boneless pork wrapped in pork belly, sliced thinly, chopped up, and placed on a square ciabatta roll with arugula had me and bunch of other  food bloggers drooling at that food event. It’s the Italian equivalent of the much beloved pulled pork sandwich but so much better, and we couldn’t get enough of it. 

Eventually, I got to have a porchetta sandwich in Lucca, Tuscany at a farmer’s market, served on crusty bread as street food. Amazingly delicious. 

What is porchetta?

Porchetta is an Italian tradition of roasting the body of the pig, deboned and stuffed with sultry herbs, fennel pollen, garlic, and lemon. It’s often sold as street food in Italy, and now it’s sold as street food in America. We were fortunate enough to eat this in Italy in a street fair.

Porchetta is the premier man food that any sensible meat eating woman would love too. I am not exaggerating. The Italian flavor profile of rosemary, sage, thyme and fennel is seductive. You will go back for seconds.

Porchetta is only made better by adding hearty root vegetables. I love fresh fennel and I only can love it more when it has been cooked with a pork shoulder that becomes a mock porchetta.

How do you Pronounce Porchetta?

Before we talk food, let’s pronounce porchetta correctly. It sounds like porketta. In Italian, the ch sounds like a k and the c sound like ch as in church. Think Chianti and cello and you will always know the correct Italian pronunciation of the letter c. By the way, this same rule applies to bruschetta, which is often mispronounced. It sounds like brusketta. 

This mock porchetta recipe gets as close as one can get from an American home kitchen. I found it in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook and I’ve made it several times.

I’ve eaten at the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco several times, and I loved the food so much I had to have their cookbook. I have also made chocolate pots de cream from the book several times and it’s that perfect just enough chocolate which would go well with this entree.

There is another recipe is the book, which happens to be their signature dish, which I’ve made about twenty times.  The roast chicken with a bread salad, is served for two and takes an hour, once your order is placed.  Now I can make it at home. 

The Zuni Cafe has been around since 1979 and the cookbook since 2002. It’s one of those books that belongs in every kitchen if you like regional Italian and French cooking, prepared with a California flair. The dishes are simple, flavorful and memorable.

The Mock Porchetta with Root Vegetables

You can add in as many root vegetables as you can fit in your pan. I found myself eating them from the pan and having a hard time stopping. I never knew rutabagas could taste so good. Do serve with with an arugula salad or a Tuscan kale salad, which helps to cut through the richness. If you serve as porchetta sandwiches, slice and chop and top with arugula. It’s so right together.

Make Mock Porchetta Sliders for Your Next Party

This is dinner party or big party food. A pork butt is an affordable cut of meat, and will go a long way. The first time I made this was for sandwiches at a party.  You can make these as sliders for any party.   You could use the ciabatta square rolls, either very fresh or toasted and cut them into fours.  

The instructions call for making several cuts into the muscle to stuff the herbs. Don’t worry too much if it looks a mess. It’s going to be delicious. Do give this at least one day to marinate in the refrigerator.

More Italian Recipes from Spinach Tiger

• How to Brine and Season Roasted Pork Loin
• Braised Pork Steak with Green Beans
• Roast Lamb with Mint Pistachio
• Cheese Stuffed Meatballs
• Veal and Pork Bolognese
• Pot Roast with Red WineBeef Ragù
• Shredded Beef Ragù
• Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

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Mock Porchetta with Root Vegetables, the Best Roast Pork You’ll Ever Eat

Mock Porchetta is a more approachable version of Italy’s porchetta, a whole roasted, deboned pig, stuffed with herbs.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 day day

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 1 day day 3 hours hours

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 three-pound boneless pork shoulder butt pork roast
• salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon capers rinsed, pressed dry and barely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
• 12 fresh sage leaves crushed, coarsely chopped ( 1 1/2 teaspoons dried)
• 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary taken off stem
• 1 tablespoons fennel seeds barely crushed, divided 2 teaspoons, 1 teaspoon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 to 2 pounds prepared root vegetables potatoes, onions, carrots, rutabagas, fennel bulb
• olive oil
• 2/3 cup pork stock or chicken stock or water
• 3 tablespoons dry vermouth or white wine

Instructions

• Trim all but 1/4″ layer of fat. Make slits in the pork where the fat lays next to the w muscle. This will be for the stuffing. Make several slits, careful not to cut the pork in half.You will want to have a lot of internal surfaces to place the herb mixture.
• Combine zest, capers, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, herbs, pepper together and stuff the pork inside all of the cut slits.
• Tie the pork up with string. Rub remaining fennel seeds on the outside of the pork. Season with salt and black pepper.
• Marinate overnight.
• Take out of refrigerator for 30 minutes prior to roasting.
• Preheat oven to 350. Roast for approximately 2 1/2 hours
• Toss vegetables in very small amount of olive oil. Season with salt.
• Roast pork with vegetables. If roast has not turned brown within the first 45 minutes, turn oven up to 375. After one hour of cooking, turn roast and vegetables.
• Cook until internal temperature is at 160 degrees. Allow to rest 20 minutes outside of oven, while making the pan sauce. Pork will continue to cook.
• The pork should look as golden and crispy as this picture.
• As the herbs fall into the liquid, reapply to the exterior of the roast.
• In making the pan sauce, remove the pork and vegetables, spoon off the fat, add in vermouth and stock or water and cook over low heat. Deglaze the pan. Skim more fat off if necessary. Pour sauce over slices of pork.
• Serve either as entree or with as sandwiches on ciabatta bread with arugula.
• Note: Watch the vegetables. They may be getting done before the pork is done, but you do want them to be very caramelized.

The post Mock Porchetta, Perfect for Dinner Party appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Watching the twitter board this morning, I saw a tweet from Chrystal of the Duo Dishes. She was making a tarragon chicken pie for her family while visiting Atlanta. I remember reading one of her posts where she and Amir won a pie contest for that pie, and I asked her how she did it. She gave me a great idea for the chicken left over from Thanksgiving.

Chrystal’s pie pointed me in the pastry direction and a tarte tatin popped into my head. Now that is actually funny and ridiculous because I’ve never even made the normal expected apple tarte tatin. I had to look up the spelling! Up until a year ago I never made my own pie crust, but since Spinach Tiger was born I’ve gotten so comfortable with pie crust or should I say, pâte brisée, that I don’t even use a recipe. Gasp! I know, I’m supposed to measure, but when I’m creating a recipe I get into the right brain “whirlwind” mode and reaching for measuring cups will break the cycle. To the best of my ability, I will remember how I did the flakiest crust of my life, and I’m convinced that it’s a lot more about the “feel” and not the specific directions. Flour and butter are not created equally. Of course you can use your own recipe. And, since this is dish meant to bring new life to “leftovers,” feel free to use a store bought pie crust. (Trader Joe’s makes a good one).

This recipe is a guideline. You might want to use various other ingredients, but I hope it gets you thinking about creative ways to use left overs. I’ve been reading Marcella Hazan’s memoirs, Amarcord, and one of the things I love about the Italians is that they never waste food. They ate nose to tail, and they recreated ways to use leftovers. Bread is never thrown away (it has/had religious symbolism). My mother, who is supposed to be 100% Italian descent, throws more food away than she makes, but not Ms. Spinach Tiger. I will find a way to take a chicken, roast it, make soup stock, and then any number of dishes until the food is gone. It’s a personal challenge to make leftovers taste as good as something one would serve intentionally in a restaurant.

This savory tarte tatin is made with left over roasted chicken, a pear and a bulb of fennel. I used what I had on hand, but would have loved more pears in the dish. I’m trying to discipline myself toward a practicality that most food bloggers (especially me) don’t have, because we will gas up the car to go out and purchase one more pear to make our dish even better.

This is baked upside down, layering in the caramelized pears, fresh ginger, fennel and onion, then the chicken, and then the pâte brisée It’s baked for 40 minutes and then flipped over to reveal a caramelized, savory delicious rustic lunch or dinner.

The onion is the key in bringing the pears and fennel together. The ginger is more of an afterthought, but it adds another layer of flavor. I kept it very simple, merely sauteing chicken in a little butter.

It was delicious and you could repeat this without any meat and it would still be good, perhaps with a bit of crumbled gorgonzola, roquefort or goat cheese. (I’m still a huge blue cheese fan, although we don’t hear enough about this anymore as goat cheese has taken over the food world), but I think it’s time to bring blue back.)

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Savory Pear, Fennel and Chicken Tarte Tatin

A savory tart tatin with fennel, pears, and chicken

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 pie crust
• Savory Pear Fennel Chicken Tarte Tatin
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 pears thinly sliced, divided
• 1 bulb fennel sliced thinly, crosswise
• 1 medium onion sliced thinly
• 1 teaspoon ginger freshly grated
• 2 cups roasted chicken diced or turkey

Pie Crust Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3-5 tablespoons ice water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Peel and thinly slice two pears. You will cook half of the pears with the chicken mixture and reserve the other half of the pears pears for the bottom of the pan. (Keep in mind after baking, pan is turned over) before serving. Those pears on the bottom will now be on the top. .
• Put onion and butter in cold pan. When onion is softened, add fennel, cook for about 5 minutes, add half of the pears. Continue cooking until all is softened. Grate fresh ginger over the mixture. Add chicken (or turkey) Cool to room temperature.
• another pear separately (will be used to line bottom of pan, so cut uniformly and thinly.
• op with remaining mixture. The decorative part will use about 1 pear. Add chicken. Top with pastry crust. Fold inside around the mixture.
• Poke holes for steaming. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning over.
• Turn over onto a serving plate.

Pie Crust Instructions

• Mix with pastry blender or food processor until butter is like peas. Don’t over mix. Add in water, and gently pat together. Wrap in plastic in disc shape for a minimum of 30 minutes. Don’t skip resting part.
• Take out, flour surface and rolling pin and roll into a round disc, enough to cover pan.
• You may have some left over.

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Grouper with Fennel en Papillote is a wonderfully elegant fish dish.

I made this dish when I was doing a lot of cooking from Le Cordon Bleu at Home.

I started Spinach Tiger to bring to life my modern approach to Italian and American cuisine using a bottle of olive oil per week, so why would I jump on the french train with all that butter?

Well, I’ve been to Paris and I loved the food. On my first day home, I made french onion soup and some french chicken dish and that was that. And, I always wished I knew a little more about french food. My paternal Pomone grandfather, comes from a town that borders France, so I must embrace this for my heritage sake, right?

And, then there is my memory of Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina (1954) who goes to Paris to study at the Cordon Bleu. Sabrina’s time away in Paris mastering french cuisine as the daughter of the chauffeur made it on my list of all things “Audrey Hepburn.”

I may not get to Paris to study at the Cordon Bleu, but I can have my own romantic adventure, cook the food, put on my little black dress, (yes I have one) sweep up my hair and invite you to a dinner party. Or, maybe just share it here with you.

Grouper with Fennel en Papillote  has to be the easiest dish in the book. I generally do not cook en papillote, which means in paper, because I tend to grill my fish. A big mistake on my part.

We liked this dish so much, I’ve made it twice in the last week. The recipe stretched me personally because I had forgotten how good a little bit of butter can be on fish, and I had never braised fennel, which I eat a lot of, typically raw in salads, or in soups. And, I never thought of putting it with fish. So already I have experienced a new flavor idea.

Some people don’t enjoy fennel, thinking it’s too strong in licorice flavor. If this is you, then try it again, braised to nearly caramelized with a knob of butter. It’s delicate and delicious.

Cooking in parchment paper is beautiful. The fish was able to absorb all the flavoring of the fennel and the herbs (in this case basil and the fennel tops) and, although it was such a simple recipe, it had a layer of flavors that gave this dish a quiet elegance, (very Audrey). Of course, the clean-up is nice too.

The original recipe calls for snapper, but I was able to purchase wild grouper which served as a good substitute.

I (almost) caramelized my fennel in butter. It was still firm enough to take ten more minutes in the oven, but you can see in the picture above a golden coloring before it was put in the oven. I then layered the fish over the fennel, splashed with some dry white wine, blanketed with fresh basil leaves and added the fennel ferns. Wrapped up in parchment paper, the grouper cooked for about 20 minutes, but later in the week I used a thinner flounder and it was ready in ten.

The result: A beautiful, healthy, french dinner made in under 30 minutes. A true sexy, skinny Spinach Tiger meal!

Eat the fish and fennel at same time. Delicious combination.

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Grouper with Fennel en Papillote

Adapted from Le Cordon Bleu at Home

Course Entree

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 each 3/4 lb. Grouper Flounder or Snapper
• 2 fennel bulbs cut in half
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• fresh basil leaves
• 4 tablespoons dry white wine

Instructions

• Trim the fennel, wash, rinse and slice.
• Melt butter in saucepan with white wine. Add in fennel and braise for ten to twenty minutes or until soft. I usually cover the pan with a lid.
• Arrange parchment paper. Place fish over the fennel. and add in basil leaves. Wrap and bake from 10 to 20 minutes.

Recipe (adapted from Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook)

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