mizithra and browned butter.

What the fruit is mizithra??



Welp, it's cheese. It's a very tasty cheese. And when combined with pasta and browned butter, it melts in your mouth to create this smoky, nutty, cheesy goodness that makes you wonder where this cheese has been all your life.

It's been in Cincinnati. Here.

At least, that's the only place I could find it.

Yeah, I died a little inside when Trader Joe's didn't have it. And when no one working there knew what it was.

Here's what it is defined, a la Wikipedia. You can go read it if you want to be bored to death. If you're reading this at 3 am unable to sleep, go try it.

But I'm sure you're not here to be bored. At least I hope not.



Basically, it's a Greek goat cheese. And it's impossible to find. But if you do happen to find it, you should make this dish.

Mizithra and Browned Butter.

Made famous by The Old Spaghetti Factory, Miz and Browned Butt (that's the abbreviated version) is a dish my mother-in-law and I both happen love and also happen to order nearly every time we're at The OSF.

It's amazing.

We've both been trying to make this dish at home, but haven't been able to find this elusive cheese!

Luckily, our friends made a voyage down to Jungle Jim's in Cincy and picked me up a wedge. How kind!!





And just an fyi, this is so easy, a monkey could make this.

You just have to find the cheese.

I've heard Parmigiano-Reggiano is an acceptable substitute for Mizithra. But I can personally neither confirm nor deny this statement. 'Cuz I haven't tried it myself. Maybe I will the next time I crave this dish.



Mizithra and Browned Butter (from Allrecipes)


Prep Time: 10 min.  Cook Time: 15 min.  Difficulty: E-Z

Ingredients


1 pound spaghetti (I used linguine)
1 cup butter
3/4 cup Mizithra cheese

Hello!! 3 ingredients!!

Directions


1. Cook pasta in large pot of lightly salted, boiling water until al dente. Drain.
2. When pasta is almost done, start slowly melting the butter over medium heat until brown. Skim butter solids off top. Toss pasta with butter. Sprinkle with cheese to taste.

Hello!! 2 directions!! Told you it was easy.

Serves 6-8

My tip:  This can be great as a light main dish or as a side. It would pair nicely with a chicken parmesan or try it alongside Chicken Prosciutto!







Aaaaaand the best part is you work off the calories you're about to consume when you grate the cheese. See what I just gave you? A guilt-free dinner.

You're welcome :)

penne with spicy vodka tomato cream sauce.

There are some things I need to make sure I have in my kitchen at all times:




Garlic.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Ground Schnausage.
Vodka.
Heavy Cream.


To name a few.


You see, my husband has a few favorite dishes I make, and when he requests them, I need to be ready.

Because there's almost nothing better than getting to fulfill someone's hunger desires.

"What's that, darling? You're craving tiramisu cheesecake with a chocolate ganache? No problem!"

"Chicken lasagna Alfredo? Done!"

"Penne with spicy vodka tomato cream sauce? I thought you might like that."



You see, doing things like this not only brings me joy, but has other marital benefits (not what you think). What I mean is, maybe he might feel more generous than normal and approve a reasonable purchase like this one.

It's worth a shot.

Here's another thing that's worth a shot:

Penne. With Spicy Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce.

Long name. Sounds complicated. You've already tuned me out.

But hold on! Let me just inform you (in case you didn't already know) that I am the Queen of Lazy Cooking. Yes, Queen. Didn't know I was royalty, did you?

I mean, this time of year I'm not too bad. It's summer... I'm not teaching all day... I have a little more time on my hands. I have time to find new, exciting recipes to try and to go to the store to shop for ingredients of that recipe.

You will not find me doing that during the school year. No, that's when I'm all about efficiency. Cooking is almost an inconvenience. No, scratch that. Cooking IS an inconvenience. When I have no time to spare.

Know what I'm talking about?

Thought so.

Which is why you need to meet this recipe.



Ohhhhh SNAP! Now you're interested.

Pasta topped with a rich, creamy tomato sauce. It's smooth and velvety, with a bite! It's not subtle. It kinda smacks you in the face. In a good way. It's like a flavor explosion in your mouth. Like the 4th of July (today) from first bite!

Then there's the sausage. It adds to the sauce making this meal a little more hearty, but not in the sleepy, food-coma-after-a-big-meaty-meal way. No, the sausage is not the main attraction. It plays a very important supporting role.

This dish tastes so complex that everyone who partakes of it will think you slaved for hours.

(But really it was more like 25 minutes... shhh... don't tell!)

Are you ready for this??



Penne with Spicy Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce


Prep Time: 10 min.  Cook Time: 15 min.

Ingredients

• 1 pound uncooked penne pasta
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vodka
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 (3.5 ounce) links sweet Italian sausage (or 1/2 lb. ground Italian sausage)
• 1 cup shredded Italian cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. In large skillet, heat oil over moderate heat. Remove casing (not necessary for ground sausage) from sausage and add to skillet. Cook, breaking up the meat, until brown. Add garlic and red pepper and cook, stirring until garlic is golden brown.
3. Add tomatoes and salt; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add vodka and cream and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and add pasta, toss for 1 minute. Stir in fresh parsley, top with cheese, and serve!

Serves 8


My Tip:  Make sure you have a splatter screen over your skillet/pan while simmering. Otherwise your stove, your husband, your kitty, and yourself will look like victims in a crime scene. 


My Second Tip:  If you're one who doesn't normally "do" spicy, you can still "do" this dish. Just tone down the amount of red pepper flakes to about 1 tsp. And don't buy spicy schnausage.



Well, if this doesn't give you a foodbaby, I just don't know what will.

chicken prosciutto.

Last night, I made delicious food.




I know this because they told me. "They" are my husband and friends, and they raved about this dish. And I loved it too!

But I was kinda bummed. My photos for this are kinda poopy. Blurry, bad lighting, etc. AND I learned a valuable lesson:


It's not always attractive to photo your food while it's cooking.








BLARGH!!!!!


I can't believe I took a photo that actually makes me not want to eat. As I reviewed the photos late last night, I just had to laugh at this one. WHAT WAS I THINKING???

Anyway, I hope I haven't deflated your expectations for this dish. Because it is a TEN (out of TEN).



Chicken breast.

Prosciutto.

Sage.

Butter... lots of butter.

And fontina cheese. Or gruyere (someone please tell me how to make a fancy "e". You know, the French "e". With the thingy above it). Here's why I used gruyere instead of fontina:

It's not that I didn't know where to find fontina. It's in the fancy cheese section of the grocery store. I found it just fine. But no one told me that it costs a BAZILLION dollars! For reals, it was like $9 for about 3 oz. Now, I like to cook "gourmet" foods or whatever, but I also like to save a buck or two from time to time.

So Jared got out his phone and found that gruyere was an acceptable substitute. I had not tried either of these cheeses before, but he read multiple sources that said this.

So we bought gruyere for about $4 for 3 oz.

Anyways, imagine this:

Seasoned chicken breast cooked to a nice golden brown in a pan of butter, topped with a sage leaf, and wrapped in salty, smoky prosciutto.

Oh but it gets better.

A thick slice of gruyere cheese melted on top of the buttery chicken. Smoky, tangy, buttery. The combination of flavors makes the chicken.

But wait, there's more! The sauce!

A cup of dry white wine (a cabernet sauvignon, perhaps), half a stick of butter, and some minced sage... no need to think about calories. Because it's delicious. Reduced in the same pan the chicken was cooked in, the scrapings from prior cooking carry the flavors that incorporate into the sauce. It all sings together in perfect harmony.

This is the best way I can describe it:



Chicken Prosciutto (from Simply Recipes)

Prep Time: 25 min.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 8 whole fresh sage leaves
• 1/4 pound very thinly sliced prosciutto
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 8 thin slices Italian Fontina cheese (about 2 oz)

Sauce:

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh sage
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, chilled

DIRECTIONS

1. Trim the chicken tenderloins away from the breasts, and reserve for another use. Cut each breast half in half, horizontally. Trim away any excess fat. Place the 8 chicken breast pieces between two large pieces of wax paper. Pound the pieces with a mallet until each one is about 1/8 inch thick. Season with ground pepper and set aside.

2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan. When the butter is foaming, add the sage leaves and cook them on each side for 1 minute. Remove the sage leaves from the pan and place a leaf on each of the chicken pieces. Next wrap each chicken piece with a single layer of prosciutto.

3. Dip the wrapped chicken pieces, one at a time in the beaten eggs, coating them well. Make sure the butter in the pan is foaming golden, not browned. Working in batches so that you do not crowd the chicken in the pan, place the chicken pieces in the pan. Cook the chicken breasts about 2 minutes on each side, or until they're just past pink on the inside, golden on the outside. Remove.

4. Place chicken pieces on a flat baking sheet, and cover each piece with a slice of Fontina. Place under a preheated broiler until the cheese just melts, about 1 minute. Divide chicken among 4 plates and serve immediately, with the sauce.

5. While the cheese is melting, pour out the butter from the sauté pan. Add the white wine into the pan, place over high heat. Reduce the wine to 1/2 cup. Add the minced sage about a minute before the reduction is complete. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the chilled butter. Adjust the seasoning, pour over and around the chicken.

Serves 6-8.

My Tip: Make sure you have everything prepped and measured out before you start the actual cooking, because moves fast once you start melting the butter. I even pulled apart each piece of prosciutto so it was separated before I began. 

Served with a mixed green salad and garlic bread, this dish is great for entertaining. It was fairly quick and surprisingly easy to make.

And--BONUS--I have everything I need to make it again. I WANT MORE!!

Go make it. Now.