Truffled Farro Salad

Being the resident foodie at work, people tend to ask me what I'm having for lunch. One day I had a conversation that went a little something like this:

"What are you eating?"

"Farro"

"Pharaoh?"

"No..."

vs

Ingredients

• 1 cup farro
• Handful of arugula
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms (a variety of wild mushrooms would be delish)
• 2 tbs butter
• 1 tbs truffle oil
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 bunch asparagus
• dried thyme
• 1 medium onion
• 1/4 cup parmesan chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• handful of walnuts
• salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven 350.

Place farro in a pot and fill with cold water until covered by 1-2 inches. After 20 minutes drain the farro.

Add the same amount of water back to the pot and add a dash of salt. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. If there is any leftover water after cooking you will need to drain.

While the farro is cooking cut asparagus spears on the bias in thirds. Toss with enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake asparagus on a foil lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice until tender.

Slice mushrooms, but not too thinly. Think 4-5 pieces for a larger cremini. Chop the onion.

Heat 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil in a pan on medium and cook the onion for 3 minutes. In a bowl mix your mushrooms with the truffle oil, then add to the pan with the butter. Cook for 5-10 minutes then sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Make sure you don't cook the mushrooms for too long. You want them tender but still with body.

Remove from heat and cool in a bowl. Add cooked asparagus.

Place farro into a mixing bowl and add your arugula. When you mix it in, the arugula should wilt. Set aside to cool.

When farro and vegetables reach room temperature, you can combine them.

Add cheese and parsley then mix.

Toast handful walnut halves in your mushroom pan to toast, chop, and top each serving.

Shout out to my hunnie for inventing this one!!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Josh: Butternut squash is on sale, should we buy it?
Me: Yes!

A week goes by and that squash is still sitting on my counter begging to be cooked. What should I do with it? Soup...nah, not in the mood, just have it on the side...nope too much for that, lasagna...yes!

And so it began -- the "I'm going to make a lasagna because I have a bunch of stuff in my fridge that I need to use before it goes bad." As most of my recipes go, I didn't measure, you've been warned.

Ingredients:

• 9 sheets of lasagna noodles
• 3/4 container of part skim ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of fresh basil
• half a bag of baby spinach
• 6 or 7 decent sized cremini mushrooms sliced
• butternut squash
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3 slices or so of prosciutto
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 3/4 - 1 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano (you can use regular parm, this is just what I had)
• white pepper
• ground sage
• ground allspice
• garlic powder

Step 1: Heat oven to 400 and put a large pot of water on to boil the noodles. In the meantime, peel and chop the squash and place it in a 9 x 13 baking dish and coat with olive oil, a sprinkling of sage and allspice over the whole top. Put in oven and cook until soft, tossing often.

Step 2: In a bowl add the ricotta, chopped basil, and the egg. Put this back in the fridge for use later. At this point your water should be at a boil. Add the noodles and cook for 9 minutes. Strain.

Step 3: In a saucepan heat a tsp of olive oil. Roll slices of prosciutto and cut into small pieces. Add prosciutto to oil cooking until crisp. Remove, but leave behind the oil. Melt butter and then whisk in the flour slowly. You will see that it begins to create a sort of paste. Slowly add in the milk while whisking. You do not want this to become lumpy! Add in your parmigiano reggiano and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Then add the prosciutto back in and add white pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Step 4: To use less pots, use the same one you cooked the noodles in. Add some olive oil and brown the mushrooms. Dump in the spinach and cook until it is wilted. 

Step 5: Your squash should be soft now. Move it to a bowl and mush it into smaller pieces. 

Step 6: The 9 x 13 pan should still have some olive oil, which you will want to prevent the noodles from sticking. Layer your first three noodles, then add the ricotta mixture, then 3 more noodles, then the mushroom/spinach mixture, then the butternut squash, now sprinkle allspice, garlic powder and sage, layer on the last three noodles, pour and spread the sauce across the top. Place in oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes until cooked through.

Lunching on Lentils

So if you didn't know that lentils are delicious and full of nutrients, well you know now.

Based on Self Magazine's nutrition page, one cup of cooked lentils without salt comes out to:

That's great stuff you should be eating. I know Josh and I are going to make a more concerted effort to do so. In fact, this week we made two separate dishes featuring this protein packed legume.

Lentils found their way into my belly in two forms this week: swiss chard rolls with lentils (duh) and brown rice, and a grilled lentil wrap.

While I enjoyed the swiss chard rolls, I didn't perfect it enough to share with you. Instead, we can just cover the wraps which were loosely based off of this recipe.

We left out the brown rice, used spinach, and shredded smoke mozzarella. The schmear was substituted with Stone Wall Kitchen's Hot Pepper Peach Jam.

Palate Pleasing Pizza

Pizza is one of those foods that even when bad, is still good. So why not try and make it at home? The worst you can end up with is good if you consider it to be bad. Do you follow?

What really gets me is how expensive a delivery pizza is, considering the ingredients used. We aren't talking about fontina cheese, truffle oil, and a farm fresh egg on this pie. Just some mediocre pepperoni and mozzarella that is uber processed.

So my dear reader, are you ready to erase that pizza delivery place from your cell? I know you can do it! Now now, I understand that half the beauty of a pizza night is the convenience. I'm not denying that making your own pizza from start to finish will be more work. But I can assure you that you will feel better about what you are eating and maybe you will be a little inspired by all the topping choices. If you're still on the fence, I'll do you a solid and recommend you pick up some pre-made dough. We aren't talking that already cooked stuff, I want you to roll it out yourself. It won't be that hard after it comes to room temperature.

Maybe you are the type of person that doesn't mind whipping up dough. If so, Food and Wine has a bunch of great crust recipes. I've tried several and they all seem to be good. One time I got the perfect bubbles and I was so giddy. Of course, I couldn't remember how I made it, so it hasn't happened again.

Last week Josh and I made one of our favorite at-home pizzas topped with marinara mixed with a little adobo sauce, onion (we normally use red, but only had yellow), smoked mozzarella, sliced garlic, and this time, some sliced red peppers. If I have a couple extra minutes, I often roast the red pepper for a smokier flavor.

This is what I'm talking about people! A pizza like that would cost about $16 in our area and I just used what was leftover in my fridge. Be creative and get some great cheese, your taste buds will thank you.

Check out Mark Bittman's view on homemade pizza for even more inspiration. Ciao!