Pasta Serving Suggestion #1

We like to think of our flavored pasta as a vehicle for using leftover items from you refrigerator. Have half a red bell pepper? A couple of extra mushrooms? Maybe some extra green onions? Chop 'em up and give them a quick sauté then toss them with one of our pasta! Here is a recipe idea where we had grilled a lot of skirt steak for some fajitas and had some left over...

ingredients

• 16 ounce package of flavored pasta (we used Sundried Tomato Fettuccine)
• 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon Nan's Herbes de Provence Olive Oil
• ½ lb. or so leftover skirt steak 
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced for garnish

A few hours before dinner, combine the tomatoes, garlic and Herbes de Provence Oil in a small bowl. Cover and allow flavors to meld in the fridge. Slice the skirt steak into thin strips. Cook the pasta to taste, drain and portion into serving bowls. Top with skirt steak and marinated tomatoes as well as the leftover juices from each. Garnish with green onions.

Remember, these "Pasta Serving Suggestion" recipes are just mix and match ideas. Leftover grilled chicken would have worked just as well or even shrimp.  Nan's Basil Pesto Olive Oil or our Sundried Tomato with Harissa Olive Oil would have worked with the tomatoes.  And of course, a different pasta would work just as well too, and maybe even be better!  Think Spinach Basil, Hatch Green Chili, or even Sweet Potato!  Let us know about what you try!

Serves four to six

Nan’s Quick Pizza – Shrimp & Roasted Corn

(This is part of our series of Boboli recipes. While we do like to make pizza dough, for easy but wonderful weekday dinners it is hard to beat a premade pizza crust. Other brands are popping up in your local grocery store, and worth trying. We also like to use premade flatbreads or naan. Handmade dough is great but the advantage of having a Boboli handy is your ability to salvage leftovers from your fridge, allowing you to be creative and frugal at once!)

Sadly, this particular pizza is no more...

• ½ lb. medium cooked frozen shrimp, thawed
• 4 ounce ( ¼ bag) Trader Joe’s Fire Roasted Corn, thawed
• 2 tablespoons Nan's Basil Pesto Olive Oil
• 1 to 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1 12 inch Boboli pizza crust (any style)
• ¼ to ½ cup pizza or marinara sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella, grated
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, thinly sliced

Place shrimp, corn and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl.  Drizzle with the Basil Pesto Oil. Use only as much as needed to cover, a little bit will go a long way. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for a few hours, which will allow the flavors to meld.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spread the tomato sauce on the Boboli, just barely covering the surface. The sauce is not a key ingredient, so do not overwhelm with too much. Cover with cheese. Spread shrimp/corn mixture evenly over the top. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle on the basil.  Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Serves 3 to 4.

Oven Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese

Nan insists you need to LOVE figs to make this recipe!

• 4 fresh figs, cut in half lengthwise
• 4 ounces of goat cheese or chèvre
• drizzle of Nan's Fig Balsamic Vinegar
• baguette (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove a small scoop of the fig meat from the center of each fig half, leaving a small indent for the cheese. Place the figs cut side up on a baking sheet. Dollop ½ ounce of goat cheese on each fig. Bake until warmed through and cheese is just melted, about 5 minutes. Serve two halves to a plate, and drizzle with the fig balsamic vinegar. Serve with baguette.

Serves four.

Slow Cooked Ribs with Nan’s Rich Balsamic BBQ Sauce

Nan claims these are some of the best lip-smacking ribs she has ever made, what do you think?  She uses a slow cooker/crock pot, but you can also slow roast them in the oven.

for the ribs

• 5 to 6 lbs. ribs (Nan likes baby back or country style, but you can use your favorite instead!)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• ¼ cup Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped

for the sauce

• 1 cup Nan's Traditional Barrel-Aged Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 6 ounces beer
• ¼ cup honey
• 3 tablespoons course mustard
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 ½ teaspoons Nan's Barrel-Aged Worcestershire Sauce
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• ½ red onion, chopped to a small dice
• 1 large garlic clove, minced

Combine oil, salt, garlic and herbs in a small bowl. Spread evenly over ribs. Place in slow cooker for 4 to 6 hours until tender.

While ribs are cooking prepare sauce. In a large non-reactive sauce pan, bring balsamic vinegar to boil over medium heat. Cook until reduced by about a third. Add remaining ingredients and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until thick, 30 to 40 minutes uncovered. The resulting sauce should be highly seasoned, but you can adjust to taste with additional vinegar, brown sugar or salt as desired.

Transfer ribs to baking sheets covered with foil. Slather both sides of ribs with sauce. Broil ribs 2 to 4 minutes per side until sauce sizzles and browns, or alternately you can bake the ribs in the oven for 8 to 12 minutes at 450 degrees, turning once and basting with sauce. Serve with any remaining sauce on the side. Be sure and have plenty of napkins!

Serves six.

Pear & Romaine Salad with Balsamic

A very special thank you to Nan’s Fan Toni Evans for this fabulous recipe!

ingredients

• 1 to 2 Bosc pears, cut into ½ inch slices (Asian pears will also work well)
• ¾ cup crumbled blue cheese
• ¾ cup pecan halves, toasted
• 2 heads romaine lettuce, torn into pieces
• ¼ cup Nan's Pear White Balsamic Vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 5 basil leaves, minced
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine pears, cheese, pecans and romaine in a large bowl.

In a small bowl whisk to combine vinegar, garlic, basil, honey, salt and pepper. Slowly add the olive oil while continuing to whisk. Add to salad and toss just before serving.

Serves 4 to 6

Pan Roasted Fig Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

It may surprise some of our fans to know this is one of our all-time most popular recipes. Many folks don't know how good fresh Brussels sprouts can be when properly prepared. What did surprise us, however, was how well the Brussels sprouts marry with fig & cherries.

ingredients:

• 12 Brussels sprouts, cut lengthwise
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 garlic clove – chopped
• ½ cup chicken stock (add more if necessary)
• 2 tablespoons Nan's Fig Balsamic Vinegar
• ¼ cup Ocean Spray ‘Craisins – Cherry juice infused’
• bread crumbs (optional)
  

In a medium saucepan sauté olive oil, butter and Brussels sprouts over medium heat until slightly brown. Add garlic to pan, and cook for a minute or two longer. Add chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and Craisins. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer until fork tender. The stock/balsamic mixture at this point should be reduced to a syrup. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Place in serving bowl and top with a sprinkle of bread crumbs if desired.

Serves two generously.

Creamy Pear Balsamic Dressing

Simply Yummy

This is a versatile and easily prepared dressing which can be used for salads, as a dip for artichokes, or simply along with sliced avocado. Nan also suggests spooning a small amount over grilled asparagus.

• ½ cup good quality mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon Nan's Pear White Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 teaspoon country style Dijon mustard (or see below)
• black pepper

With a whisk combine the pear vinegar and mustard with the mayonnaise in a small bowl.  Season with fresh cracked black pepper and salt if necessary to taste. As a salad dressing, this will dress four dinner salads.

Any of the ingredients can be adjusted up or down to suit your taste. In fact, Nan never measures the ingredients for this salad - she just uses a heaping spoon of this and a dash of that.

We have also tried this recipe using one of our mustard blends instead of plain Dijon: Nan's Blood Orange Sangria Mustard - and oh my! This is amazingly different and really amps up the flavor profile!

Have fun with this recipe – let us know how it turned out in your kitchen!