Gordon Ramsay's Sicilian Caponata

I will preface this post by saying: "Gordon Ramsay is full of crap."

That said ... Today's entry. A pretty little appetizer said to feed four. Well, maybe four armies.

Tomatoes, celery, eggplant, garlic, onion, green olives, bell pepper, capers, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, fresh basil, superfine sugar (or if you live in Cleveland and can't find any, regular sugar), and a big loaf of crusty bread.

By the by, this is a great "clean out your fridge" recipe.

Coarsely chop the onion. Wipe the tears from your eyes.

Chop the celery.

Chop the bell pepper (the recipe did call for red bell pepper, but I can't really tell the difference, can you?)

Finely chop the garlic.

Chop the green olives. Slap you husband's hand as he tries to help himself to a snack from your chopping board.

Toast the pine nuts.

Drop the tomatoes in boiling water for about 1 minute. I put a small "X" on the bottom to help the peels come off.

Rinse the tomatoes in ice cold water and watch the peels just start to fall off. Slice and remove the seeds.

Coarsely chop the tomato flesh.

And finally, chop the eggplant last. Do it quickly -- it changes color fast.

Heat the olive oil and drop in the eggplant, pepper, celery, onion and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Saute for a few minutes.

Meanwhile slice the bread thickly and toast in the broiler.

Add the capers, tomatoes, garlic, olives, sugar, and balsamic vinegar to the pan. Saute until bubbley and the vegetables are soft.

Set aside and let cool.

Meanwhile ... I skillet cooked some spencer steaks in the same pan (without wiping it out).

The steaks carmelized nicely in the little bit of balsamic glaze left behind from the caponata.

Serve the caponato over the warm toasted bread. Sprinkle with chopped basil and the toasted pine nuts.

Very nice.

So, for my opening statement about the dear chef being full of crap?

How long did it take to make this dish? AN HOUR. Seriously. That does not include the cooking time for the steaks. So much for Ramsay's book jacket quote: "Many of the dishes can be prepared and cooked in 15 minutes (none take longer than half an hour)." Bull poop. Cooked in 15 minutes, sure. But not prepped within that time. It took me 30 minutes alone to chop everything. For the tomatoes, I had to bring the water to a boil, cook the tomatoes for a minute or two (which I did while chopping the other veggies), rinse under cool water, get them cool enough to handle and then try to peel off the skins without destroying the tomato flesh, then get all the seeds out, then chop.

Come on, Ramsay. Get real. I know you never have to prep anything yourself, you have all of your sous chefs doing it for you, but real people with real lives don't have sous chefs on call.

The dish itself? Not bad. I won't make it again, though. There was too much eggplant. Not enough olives. Not enough tomato. Not enough garlic. The dish was too wet.

I guess I prefer a nice olive tapenade instead. Something thick and rich. Besides, this recipe really made too much. I have a whole bowl of it left over in the fridge. We'll be eating it for a week.

"Sicilian Caponata ... Done."

Bon Appetit's Fettuccine with Peas, Asparagus, and Pancetta

In the current issue (May 2010) of Bon Appetit the picture on the cover really captured my fancy. I couldn't wait to make it. It looked creamy, rich, and simply yummy.

So, last night I did.

Now ... a opening word. When you ask your spouse to shop for you, make sure you are specific. I said, "Please buy what we need for the recipe." Well, he didn't buy the fettuccini, because we already had pasta at home. Not fettuccini, but penne. Not a problem, even the recipe says "fettuccini or penne." But all we had was rice penne, which if you haven't tried it, isn't quite like regular pasta. It's texture is unique. The taste isn't too bad, though. The recipe also called for 12 oz. of pasta. Our box of pasta was only 8 oz., so I ended up tossing in a handful of whole grain rotini, just to finish the box and to make sure I had enough pasta for the dish. Next, the recipe called for fresh lemon juice and the zest of a lemon. Well, hubby figured my bottle of lemon juice would be good enough. I know - can you believe I actually have a bottle of that stuff? Actually I only use it to add a squirt to my ice water. NEVER FOR COOKING. So, I had to forgo the zest. For the freshly grated Parmesan, hubby figured that Kraft Romano in a canister would be just fine. It's fine on top of jarred spaghetti sauce, but, eh, for real cooking? He managed to get the fresh basil, but decided to skip the fresh parsley entirely. So I ended up with dried parsley from the spice rack. The rest of the ingredients he managed without incident.


So, pasta, frozen peas, asparagus, green onions, basil, garlic, pancetta, heavy cream, parmesan (or romano), lemon juice, olive oil and parsley.

Cook your pasta. (I didn't take a picture of this.) Drain and reserve about 1/2 cup of the hot water.

Slice the asparagus on a diagonal in 1 inch pieces.

Thinly slice the scallions. (Separate light green and white parts from the dark parts.)

Press two cloves of garlic.

Chop the pancetta.

Coursely chop the basil.

Cook the pancetta until crisp, then drain on paper towels.

In the same pan in the pancetta drippings, cook the asparagus for about 3 minutes.

Then add the frozen peas (or if the peas are fresh, blanche them first), the chopped onions and the garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the vegetables to your cooked pasta, along with the dark parts of the scallions and half of your basil.

Add the cream, parmesan, about 1/4 cup of the pasta water, the parsley, lemon juice (and zest if you have it), and olive oil.

Mix until you have a wonderfully creamy conconction.

Plate it up. Sprinkle the remaining chopped basil over the top with the crispy pancetta. Sprinkle additional parmesan over the top.

It plates beautifully. It's so colorful.

This picture courtesy of my four year old Alex. He loves to cook as much as I do. His twin brother does too, but Alex's photo turned about a bit better.

Now as for the dish itself. The last picture above, was taken at the end of the meal. The boys wouldn't eat it. They picked a couple pieces of the pancetta off the top, ate one or two peas and two pieces of asparagus. They did not like it one bit. Of course, they're four.

My husband ate his. I ate mine. It wasn't anything special. In fact, it was very plain and sorely lacking ... something. Nothing in the dish sang out. The peas and the asparagus tasted the same. The creamy sauce was bland.

It's a gorgeous dish - no doubt about it - that's why it made the cover of Bon Appetit. But I couldn't taste the garlic, so I would have doubled it to about 4 cloves of garlic. The pancetta did add a nice salty note, but the dish needed some depth. Maybe some coursely chopped sun-dried tomatoes would have done it. It was so full of wonderul spring time vegetables, but there was nothing to remind you of the good earth that grew them. Maybe some wild mushrooms thrown in would have given the dish some earthiness.

Unfortunately, this was a beautifully presented dish that forgot to bring its taste to the table.

Seriously ?

"Whole Grain Popcorn?" When was popcorn not "Whole Grain?"

Gordon Ramsay's Shrimp with Orange and Tequila

Finally, the dish you had a nice sneak peek at last week. Holy crap this was good. What more can be said? Shrimp. One of the easiest foods on earth to cook. I've read a lot of discussions regarding the best way to cook it in terms of the shell. Tail on or off. Shell on or off. Me, I like easy. Take the tail off, especially when entertaining. There are a lot of people who don't like to get their fingers dirty. Some people bite the shrimp off at the tail and leave meat behind in the discarded tail. Ah, that actually upsets me. Shrimp is an expensive food. Don't waste it. As for shell on or off, again I like it off. If you look at Ramsey's picture of his shrimp, though, he left his shells on. Why? All the sauce sticks to the shells, so when you peel them, what are you left with? Unflavored cooked shrimp, that's what. Let the shrimp swim in all that glorious flavor. Otherwise, go buy yourself some shrimp cocktail.

Shrimp, an orange, a very large clove of garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and tequila.

Juice the orange.

Slice up your garlic. In this dish, the more the better!

Peel your shrimp. Yes, I left the tail on in this one. It was just the family, and I thought the boys would like to use the "natural handles."

Saute the shrimp and garlic together in a bit of oil.

Just before they are cooked all the way through, add the orange juice.

Let it come to a boil then reduce the heat and cook until the sauce just starts to thicken.

Add the tequila (watch out for any flames). Cook for about1 or 2 minutes more just until the sauce starts coating the shrimp or the back of you spoon. Give it a good mix and serve.

15 minutes. That's it. You couldn't really taste the alcohol, but you knew it added that something extra to the mix. It was sweet and garlicky, and frankly, I could have eaten the whole pound of shrimp myself.

"Shrimp with Orange and Tequila - Done."

Gordon Ramsay's Minted Melon, Feta and Fennel Salad

I have a complaint with Ramsay's cookbook. I might as well state it here. He wrote this cookbook to get people (and if you watch his show, The F Word - specifically women) back into the kitchen and cooking for their families. I don't have a problem with that. It's very noble of him to take this project upon his own shoulders. Heck, it obviously worked. Here I am. My complaint is with the cookbook itself. I think a lot of people might disagree with me, but there are just too many "side dish" recipes. Side dishes, typically, are the easy part of the dinner. Usually in my household, it's a bag of microwavable steamed veggies or instant mashed potatoes (yes, I did say instant). So, if I were to be true to this cookbook project, my family would eat a side dish for dinner. There needs to be a lot pairing up. In some cases, some pairing came easily. This salad, for instance, paired wonderfully with the Orange Tequila Shrimp (stay tuned for entry). Some things, like the baked eggs Florentine; well, I'm just not sure what to put with that. He also has dessert recipes. But what to serve with it? Hence the problem.

I've tried to make some pairings where I could, but I found that it completely screws the time results. I've attempted to stick to his given menus (see the Mexican Flavors, or Light and Healthy entries). At least I know those foods work together. I'm just not a good menu maker, though.

So, a word to the reader -- I'm trying to highlight his individual recipes, as given in his Fast Food cookbook, but, oftentimes, I've combined, just because I didn't want to serve a poached egg and toast for dinner all by itself. Sure, I could serve a side dish with a simple grilled pork chop, but, eh, well, you know. Right?

So, here is a perfect example. Minted Melon, Feta and Fennel Salad. I paired it with one of Ramsay's shrimp dishes, which you will see later (however, you will get a sneak peek in the last photo of this entry).


Fennel. (The original recipe called for two bulbs of it. Frankly that would have been way too much. One was more than enough.) Cantaloupe, salad greens, lemon, mint, crumbled feta, salt, pepper, white wine vinegar and olive oil.

Slice the fennel thinly (if you have a mandolin, I suggest you use it).

Give your cut fennel a nice ice bath to prevent browning.

Slice your cantaloupe thinly and in bite size pieces.

Mix the olive oil with salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, and lemon juice.

Drain and pat dry the fennel and place in a bowl with the melon, feta cheese and a healthy handful of salad greens. Toss with the dressing and serve topped with chopped fresh mint leaves.



The result? Absolutely glorious. The fennel provided a nice peppery bite and crunch. The melon was smooth and juicy. The feta provided a wonderful crumbly earthiness along with the mint. The dressing? Light, luscious and summery. This recipe is a definite keeper. My children gobbled it up. Carlo and I finished off every bit of the salad. We even dipped bread into the dressing left over at the bottom of the bowl.

Quick! That was the best part. Cutting the fennel was the most tedious part. I don't have a mandolin, so I did my best with my knife and trying to keep my knuckles out of the way.

I'd say the whole thing took about 20 minutes. The only other timely part of making the salad was the draining and patting dry of the fennel. Make this one people. I promise you, you and your family won't be disappointed.

"Minted Melon, Feta and Fennel Salad -- Done."