Italian seafood stew

I first noticed this recipe in Giada’s Family Dinners a few months ago, but wanted to wait to make it until corn was in season. I started seeing fresh corn in the markets a couple weeks ago, and moved the recipe to the top of my list. The dish combines an assortment of seafood with fennel, corn, shallots and potato.

For the seafood, I went with littleneck clams, mussels, salmon, sole and pink hopper shrimp. You can use whatever variety of seafood that you like; I think scallops would be a great addition.

The seafood and vegetables are cooked in white wine, tomatoes and fish stock. I love that this is a one-pot meal; all you need is bread or a salad and you’ve got a great dinner.

Penne with sausage, sun dried tomatoes and artichokes

As much as I love to cook, on weeknights I steer towards recipes that aren't very time consuming. This recipe from Giada's Family Dinners fits the bill. I always have sun dried tomatoes, pasta and frozen artichokes on hand, so this ended up being a cheap dish to make too. I browned up a few links of hot turkey italian sausage in a skillet and added in the sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and some crushed garlic. I deglazed the pan with white wine and chicken stock, but I only used about half of the liquid that the recipe calls for. I used whole wheat penne to up the nutritional value of the meal and added a dash of color with purple basil from my garden. Freshly grated cheese (pecorino romano in my case) adds a bit of creaminess and salt.

This was a delicious pasta dish, and ended up being pretty healthy too with my substitutions of turkey sausage, whole wheat penne and dry packed sun dried tomatoes. I served it with a broccoli recipe from the same book.

Giada's family dinners - red wine risotto with peas

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

This is a great risotto recipe. The red wine turns it purple and adds a lot of flavor.

Red wine risotto with peas

Giada's family dinners - crostini with gorgonzola, honey and walnuts

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

These crostini aren't beautiful to look at, but they do taste good. I just toasted the bread, I didn't bother to brush it with olive oil first. I used a soft italian gorgonzola and wildflower honey. The recipe in the cookbook includes walnuts, the recipe that I'm linking to on the Food Network website doesn't. I recommend you top the crostini with walnuts.

Crostini with gorgonzola, honey and walnuts

Giada's family dinners - roasted fennel with parmesan

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

This is a really good vegetable dish. The roasting process mellows the anise flavor of the fennel, and the parmesan cheese forms a crispy crust. I used less olive oil than the recipe called for, about 2 teaspoons.

Roasted fennel with parmesan

Make sure you cut your fennel slices on the thin side. If it's any thicker than what's called for in the recipe, it won't be fully cooked in the time the recipe specifies.

Giada's family dinners - chocolate ricotta pudding with strawberry sauce

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

Initially, I wasn't sure how this recipe would turn out. Chocolate, orange, almond and strawberries sounds like a good combination, but the reviews were pretty mixed on the Food Network website.

I used Callebaut (60% cacao) bittersweet chocolate and fresh ricotta cheese. I blended the ricotta mixture until I was certain that it was smooth. The pudding tasted great and had a mousse like texture.

Chocolate ricotta pudding with strawberry sauce

My one complaint about this recipe is that the puddings really don't unmold neatly. The texture is just too soft to hold the shape of the ramekin. I tried to invert puddings that had chilled for 3 hours per the recipe, and puddings that chilled overnight. None of them came out cleanly, and my ramekins were well greased.

Giada's family dinners - grilled lettuces

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

This is a really simple recipe - belgian endive, radicchio and romaine lettuces are briefly grilled, chopped, and tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. It's a nice change of pace and isn't much more work than a regular salad.

Grilled lettuces

Giada's family dinners - pasta e fagioli

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

We really liked this soup.

Pasta e fagioli

I added some tomatoes because I had them around, and I also added a piece of parmigiano reggiano rind to flavor the broth. I removed the rind before I added the pasta.

Giada's family dinners - apricot crostata

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

I wasn't expecting much from this recipe. It's basically pie dough and apricot jam. But I was pleasantly surprised, it ended up being very good. Although I have to admit I cheated a little. I had some pate brisee on hand, so I used that instead of following the instructions for the dough from the recipe. The dough baked up very flaky, and the jam thickened nicely - it almost tasted like a fruit danish.

Apricot crostata

Giada's family dinners - flank steak with red wine sauce

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

Flank steak with red wine sauce was pretty good. The sauce takes some time to make, so start it before you cook the flank steak. It's important to use a good quality red wine for this dish - my wine wasn't up to par and you could definitely taste it in the sauce. My steak was an uneven thickness, so I used a meat mallet to flatten the thicker parts so that it would cook evenly. You don't need to use all the butter and oil called for in this dish - I omitted the butter used to saute the onions for the sauce and I cooked my steak in a nonstick grill pan so I omitted the olive oil called for in cooking the steak.

Flank steak with red wine sauce

Giada's family dinners - braised swiss chard

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

This is a great side dish. I used rainbow chard:

The red onion and tomato give the chard a lot of flavor. This dish is very colorful too, even if you use regular swiss chard.

Braised swiss chard

Giada's family dinners - fresh fettucine with roasted chicken and broccoli rabe (beet greens for me)

This week I'm featuring food from Giada's Family Dinners

This was very good, and also very versatile. I had beet greens on hand, so I used those in lieu of the broccoli rabe. I think that most varieties of greens would work in this recipe. I found that I didn't need to use as much chicken broth as the recipe called for. The lemon zest adds a lot of flavor.

Fresh fettucine with roasted chicken and beet greens