Grilled cheese is the simplest thing to make, or is it? Even though I have my cooking chops, I must admit that I had to learn through trial and error how to cook grilled cheese to get golden brown and melty cheese. All too often, the bread is burning and the cheese is not melted in the middle.

How to Cook Grilled Cheese, Tips and Fun Flavors

I have two simple secrets to teach you how to cook grilled cheese, but I’m all ears (or eyes) if you write me your secrets.

1. Use mayonnaise instead of butter, unless you have a weird thing about mayo. I can eat it with a spoon, but I know some of you don’t feel the same.
2. Use low heat. This is the hardest thing to do, because I love to turn my gas stove up to high, when the only time you should do that is when you need to boil water.
3. Use the right bread. I prefer tuscan or sour dough. I like how their crusts crisp up.
4. I use a heavy weight on the top, so I don’t put the mayo on the second piece of bread until it’s ready to be turned over.
5. Use a good melty cheese, like gruyere or fontina.
6. Add fig jam or fruity preserves, such as blackberry or peach. You can’t believe how good it tastes.
7. Add something salty to mild cheese, like Spanish olives or pickles.

Use interesting cheeses. I love the way fontina cheese melts. It’s not the most flavorful cheese, so if you’re doing naked cheese sandwich, you might want to try gruyere which is a little sharper and melts well.

I like to add fruit preserves, either spicy or savory to grilled cheese and sometimes I squeeze in proscuitto. Sometime I use Italian bread, tomatoes and mozzarella or pesto and mozzarella.

In this recipe I used preserves and chicken tenders with fontina.

The recipe I’m highlighting here has proscuitto, fontina cheese, sauteéd shallots and blackberry preserves, but you can skip those ingredients, or add in your own favorites.

I have a few amazing tomato soups if you want to go that route.

Tomato Bisque

Let me know how you make your grilled cheese and find all the food I cook and find in my travels in Instagram.

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How to Cook Grilled Cheese with Fun Flavors

How to Cook Grilled Cheese to a perfect golden brown and adding fun flavors, such as blackberry jam or proscuitto.

Course Sandwich

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes minutes

Total Time 16 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon shallots finely chopped (can use red onion)
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 2 slices sour dough bread
• 4 slices fontina cheese
• 2 slices proscuitto
• 1 tablespoon blackberry jam

Instructions

• Sauté shallots (or red onion) in butter until almost golden. Set aside.
• Spread mayo on one side of bread.
• Place on cast iron pan or non-stick pan on low heat.
• Add blackberries, proscuitto, cheese.
• Top with piece of bread, but don't put mayo on yet.
• Cover with small piece of parchment paper and place heavy object on top.
• Cook for 4-5 minutes on low. Check at 3 minutes to gage how much longer.
• You want golden brown and melted cheese. Once golden, put mayo on top piece of bread and turn over. Cook for about a minute or until underneath is golden brown.

More Grilled Cheese Ideas

Grilled Cheese with Peach Habanero Jelly

The post How to Cook Grilled Cheese with Fun Flavors appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

In Italy, veal is served frequently. In fact, when I was there almost every dinner I ate had veal in it. If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll notice a lot of veal recipes.

I grew up on veal, and love it for its tenderness and flavor. It’s always been considered a delicacy growing up and is most often served with elegant sauces. It can also be considered a romantic, special occasion choice, especially, when prepared with brandy, wine and puff pastry.

I chose a brandy, white wine melange of shallots and mushrooms inside of a puff pastry with prosciutto and fontina cheese. It’s a divine mixture of elegance that would be a distinct dinner party entree or starter.

Veal itself is lean and nutritious, not calorie or fat laden like beef, and a good choice for a healthy diet. One of the most important things to me is that it is raised humanely.

Cedar Springs veal family farmers use best practices and as part of a promotion, they sent me some veal cutlets to create a recipe. I wanted to step outside the box of the typical veal dishes and made a sort of modern day, savory veal pop tart, which is elegant, and richly satisfying.

I was very pleased with their veal and impressed with their practices. Mountain States Rosen veal growers have come together to establish protocols which focus on animal quality of life and well being. This is important to me.

Veal can be found in many cuts and is very versatile. While playing around I also made very healthy stuffed veal rolls, which I’ll post at another time, but for the contest, I wanted to go all out and make something very luxurious.

Quick Puff Pastry Recipe with Veal, Prosciutto, Fontina, Mushrooms

Quick puff pastry stuffed with prosciutto and veal is tasty, elegant, and will get a few bravos.

This is a romantic recipe, easy to prepare in advance, and comforting without being too heavy. It pairs well with charred carrots. Simply microwave peeled sliced carrots to soften and then throw into a hot frying pan with butter or olive oil for a few minutes.

The good news is how easy this quick puff pastry recipe is to make. Starting with a defrosted puff pastry,  this can made in under 30 minutes.

You roll out a puff pastry sheet to 14 x 14, and and then cut four pieces. Layer fontina cheese, prosciutto, veal, mushrooms, herbs. Fold and bake seam side down. Easy and elegant, this is a super quick puff pastry recipe.

I mixed some brandy into white wine to create a more complex flavor for the minced mushroom/shallots mixture.

Prosciutto brings flavor, and the fontina cheese brings creaminess, but is mild enough to not disturb the balance of the dish.

This veal was sent to me from Mountain States Rosen, which makes veal under the Cedar Springs Veal name.

Cedar Springs Veal has been provided for this post for contest entry.

So tell me do you ever make veal cutlets. I grew up on them, fried in Italian breadcrumbs and served with lemon. They were always a treat.

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Quick Puff Pastry Recipe with Veal and Prosciutto

Veal, Prosciutto, baby bella mushrooms and Fontina cheese stuffed into puff pastry for a very elegant meal.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 4 oounces veal cutlets
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups baby bella mushrooms finely chopped
• 2 shallots finely chopped
• 4 slices fontina cheese
• 4 slices prosciutto thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• 8 sprigs thyme or 1 tablespoon parsley
• salt
• pepper
• 1 egg

Instructions

• Defrost puff pastry sheet.
• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Pound veal cutlets with meat pounder until very thin.
• Dredge in flour.
• Put 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter into frying pan. Add more oil if you need to.
• Fry cutlets until browned (but not too brown). Drain on paper towels. Set aside.
• Set cutlets aside.
• In clean pan, use remaining oil and butter to soften shallots and mushrooms (over medium low heat). Don't brown shallots, just soften.
• Add in wine and brandy. Be careful and use a lid immediately to prevent a grease splash. Remove lid to continue cooking.
• Simmer until alcohol has evaporated and there is a sauce, but no juice.
• Roll out puff pastry to 14 x 14 square. You may need to flour your surface first.
• Cut into 4 pieces.
• Layer cheese prosciutto, veal, mushroom sauce, and garnish with some time or chopped parsely).
• Add black pepper.
• Fold and using water crimp edges closes.
• Place on baking sheet seam side down.
• Brush with egg wash.
• Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

More Recipes with Veal from Spinach Tiger

Veal Bolognese

Veal Meatballs

Veal Osso Bucco

Veal Stew with Onion Sauce, Sage and Peas

Veal and Beef Shepherd’s Pie

Veal & Turnip Stew with White Wine

Veal Sugo

The post Quick Puff Pastry Recipe with Veal and Prosciutto appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Post Edit: I have an new version of sweet potato lasagna made with four cheeses posted here.

My husband  told me when we got married, “I don’t eat sweet potatoes.

I just couldn’t accept this statement, and upon investigation, discovered his idea of sweet potatoes was the sweet potato that looks like baby food. He didn’t know that a sweet potato could have meaty texture and savory flavor. I set out to change his mind. And, I did.

So in my weeks of obsessing about sweet potatoes, I knew I wanted to keep them in their more whole and natural form.

And, to my utter surprise, and probably your delight, I turned my sweet potatoes into a casserole. But it’s not your grandmother’s casserole. You know exactly what you are eating and there are several textures and tastes exciting you all at once.  Homemade buckwheat pasta, or store bought lasagna noodles,  fontina cheese, shallots, and slices of roasted sweet potato in blood orange olive oil deliver a healthy, hearty happy casserole.

I made this at lunch time, and we were going to eat this for dinner, but it was one of those “just one more bite” experiences and we gobbled it up in moments.

The Process
I used a homemade buckwheat pasta which is not that easy to make, but you could certainly use regular lasagna noodles. Handmade pasta is often delicate and tender and that type of texture against the fleshier sweet potato is what makes this so successful.

The most fun part of this dish is using purple sweet potatoes. The combination of colors dance together, looking like mood enhancers, but alas, are just sweet potatoes. You know how much I love purple foods and you might remember my purple sweet potato fries. Both the orange and purple were regionally grown. I got the idea for finishing with finely chopped hash because when using a mandolin, there are always chunks of potato left, and I hate wasting food.

This is very easy to make, unless you’re like me and start eating these sweet potato coins as soon as they come out of the oven.

Slice potatoes with mandolin  medium thin. You can use a knife if you don’t have a mandolin. Layer with pasta sheets, potatoes, buttery shallots, fontina cheese. Top with a hash of chopped sweet potatoes.

Buckwheat Pasta Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoons milk or cream (if necessary)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Mix flours together with salt. Make hole in center and beat one egg at a time and gradually incorporate flour into egg, going from outside in.
2. Wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to rest for 30 minutes. Dough will probably still be sticky, so use flour to roll out. If you put through the pasta machine, you probably won’t be able to go past number 4. After number 4, pasta starts to shred. Pasta will still be tender. You will probably need to clean your pasta machine with each pass through as the buckwheat pasta tends to leave residue.
3. Once pasta dough has been taken through machine, allow to rest again for 20 minutes uncovered. This air-drying process will make cutting the pasta an easy process without stickiness.
4. Cook just as you would any other homemade pasta, boiling salted water and just a few minutes.

Note: I tried three different combinations and this particular recipe was by far, the easiest to work with. My long standing recipe for pasta is 1 cup flour and 2 eggs, and then adding in more flour as necessary. In this case, you will probably need to add in more liquid, and I used 1 tablespoon of  cream.

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Roasted Sweet Potato Lasagna

Sweet potato lasagna, using both purple and orange sweet potatoes, with fontina cheese and shallots.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• lasagna noodles enough for six layers in casserole dish the size of quick bread pan (buckwheat pasta recipe below, can use regular noodles
• 4 large sweet potatoes peeled (1/4 potato reserved from each for chopping hash)
• fontina cheese (8 oz. sliced thinly
• 6 shallots finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• blood orange infused olive oil (I used
• Stonehouse
• ; see note)
• parmigiano reggiano cheese
• sea salt
• black pepper freshly grated

Instructions

• Slice potatoes thin. Save about 1/4 of each potato to chop up for the topping.
• Roast at 350 in blood orange olive oil, salt. Turn after 20 minutes.
• Roast until completely done. If you don’t have blood orange olive oil, see note.
• In a small frying pan, saute butter and shallots until softened. Add a touch of the blood orange olive oil. Remove half of the shallots and set aside. Add chopped potatoes and cook until softened.
• Cook pasta in salted boiling water until pasta is almost cooked. You want it to have a bite, but you will only be baking the casserole to melt the cheese, so pasta will not be cooking more than five minutes in oven.
• Assemble: Layer pasta, sliced potatoes, top with a small amount of the reserved shallots, parmesan cheese, fontina cheese. Continue to layer, up to six layers. The final layer will be covered with fontina cheese, parmigiano reggiano and the chopped potatoes.
• Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
• Allow to sit for five minutes before cutting.
• Serve with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table.

Notes

You can infuse your own olive oil with blood orange zest. Allow olive oil to sit for several hours with zest and a little juice from a blood orange or any other orange citrus. Meyer lemon would work equally as well.

The post Roasted Sweet Potato Lasagna appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I purchased an imported buckwheat pasta when I was in San Francisco in anticipation of putting this dish on the schedule. This is one I would have not have intuitively thought of. The dish comes from Valtellina, a valley in the Lombardy region of Italy, bordering Switzerland, where buckwheat easily grows.

Only the chard stalks are used, and the potato and pasta are cooked together. It then gets assembled and placed in the oven with fontina and parmigiano-reggiano cheese pulling it all together.

The green leafy chard can be used for another dish. I boiled and then sauteed the leaves with pine nuts, golden raisins, olive oil and a splash of vinegar and served it as a side dish with the pot roast made here . I always opt for rainbow chard if I can find it, especially in this dish where only the stalks are used.

The idea of pasta with potato is not new to northern Italy if you remember this dish from Genoa. It has inspired a dish that is coming soon, with homemade buckwheat pasta and sweet potatoes that you won’t want to miss.

You Can Making Your Own Buckwheat Pasta
Pizzoccheri pushed me a little bit outside the box. I’m not likely to make buckwheat pasta, but I had to try. And, it’s not that easy. Do not make buckwheat pasta as your first homemade pasta. You may become disheartened and never make pasta again. Master regular

There is no gluten to keep it together and it doesn’t get elastic enough to work with easily. It can stick in your pasta machine and frustrate you. But, keep trying because eventually, you will get the right feel of the dough and have success. It’s worth it.

The recipe for the PIzzocheri is from Marcella Hazan, but the recipe for the buckwheat pasta is my own, as I find using semolina flour helps the buckwheat flour gain some elasticity and is easier to work with.

Buckwheat Pasta Recipe
Ingredients

• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon milk or cream (if necessary)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

I tried three different combinations and this particular recipe was by far, the easiest to work with.
My long standing recipe for pasta is 1 cup flour and 2 eggs, and then adding in more flour as necessary. In this case, you will probably need to add in more liquid, and I used 1 T cream.

Mix flours together with salt. Make hole in center and beat one egg at a time and gradually incorporate flour into egg, going from outside in.

1. Wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to rest for 30 minutes. Dough will probably still be sticky, so use flour to roll out. If you put through the pasta machine, you probably won’t be able to go past number 4. After number 4, pasta starts to shred. Pasta will still be tender. You will probably need to clean your pasta machine with each pass through as the buckwheat pasta tends to leave residue.
2. Once pasta dough has been taken through machine, allow to rest again for 20 minutes uncovered. This air-drying process will make cutting the pasta an easy process without stickiness.

Cook just as you would any other homemade pasta, boiling salted water and just a few minutes.

Pizzoccheri Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 to 3 1/2 cups Swiss Chard Stalks cut into 3 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide (2 bunches)
• Salt
• 1 cup potatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 garlic cloves, mashed and peeled
• 2 dried or 3 fresh sage leaves
• 4 oz. imported Italian fontina cheese, sliced thinly
• 2/3 cups freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Boil pre-cut chard stalks for ten minutes. Add potato, until cooked through. Drop pasta into water and cook until done, If pasta is homemade. If not cook pasta separately so as to not overcook.
3. You can take chard stalks and potato out, set aside and put pasta in same boiling water.
4. Saute garlic in butter on medium heat until golden. Discard garlic, add sage leaves, turn once or twice. Turn off heat.
5. Drain pasta. Put pasta, chard stalks and potatoes into baking dish. Toss with sage butter.
6. Put in fontina cheese, and place in upper most rack of oven for about 4 minutes. Serve with grated cheese.

The post Pizzoccheri and Making Buckwheat Pasta appeared first on Spinach Tiger.