White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup

This is fast becoming a soup blog, but we've had some good luck with them lately (and some good reader response), so here's another one.

If you read the recipe below, you'll notice two bulbs of garlic. That said, the roasting really mellows the flavor--the garlic is powerful but more warming than sharp or pungent.

The pureed white beans make this a hearty, filling soup that can easily be the centerpoint of a meal. Rustic bread and carrot sticks are a good accompaniment.


White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup
(from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance)

Serves 6

2 Tb Olive Oil
1 medium-sized onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon salt
A few dashes fresh black pepper
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
4 cups vegetable broth, or 2 boullion cubes dissolved in 4 cups water
3 cups cooked great nothern beans, drained
3 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
2 heads garlic, roasted*

In a stockpot over medium-high heat saute the onions in the olive oil for 5-7 minutes.

Add the salt, black pepper, and fennel seeds; saute for 1 minute. Add the broth, beans, sage and bay leaf, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add the reasted garlic and puree in batches using a blender, food processor (or, ideally, all in one batch using a stick blender). Add lemon juice. Garnish with fresh fennel leaves if you have some and/or some peeled carrot and/or parsley.

*Isa recommends cooking the garlic in its skin for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Sarah followed this advice, but peeling/squeezing 30+ cloves of garlic isn't much fun. We'd suggest the method outlined here, which we've used before. While requiring more instruction, it's actually easier and less time consuming.

Vegan with a Vengeance Matzo Ball Soup

This week we got the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe book. While I don't think we will becoming Vegans anytime soon (we love cheese too much!), we are looking to include more vegetarian dishes in our diets. So the first recipe we tried with the Matzo Ball Soup because I have been craving Matzo Ball soup lately. I made the veggie broth recipe from the book the night before, and then the next day I made the Matzos. The broth itself is very flavorful, so we were pretty excited to try the soup. The preperation of the matzo balls was pretty simple, but we had to refrigerate the dough overnight. The following day when I made the soup, the dough stuck together really well and actually smelled pretty good too. When the matzos were done cooking they looked to me just like "real" ones. I reheated the broth and added the carrots and dill, then added three little matzos per bowl and ladeled the broth on top.

The results? Ben and I really liked them. Ben thought the broth was more flavorful than the typical chicken broth that is usually served with Matzo Ball soup. I was surprised that the texture of the Matzos was nearly indistinguishable from regular ones. There was a slight tofu flavor initially, but after a few bites it all tasted yummy to me. It could be from the protein in the tofu, but we both thought this soup was a little more filling than non-vegan Matzo Ball Soup.

White Bean and Black Olive Soup

It's soup season, and I recently made White Bean and Black Olive Soup from The Moosewood Cookbook:


The aroma of this soup was the envy of a number of people near the microwave at work today. Here's the recipe:


2 T olive oil
1 heaping cup chopped onion
1 stalk celery, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. salt (1 tsp. is fine with kalamata olives)
1 tsp. oregano
1 ½ tsp. basil
1 small (5 to 6 inch long) zucchini, diced
1 small bell pepper, diced
3-4 medium cloves garlic, crushed
Fresh black pepper
4 cups water
3 oz. tomato paste (1/2 small can)
¼ cup dry red wine (optional, but a good addition)
2 cups cooked white beans
1 cup sliced kalamata olives (or plain black ones)
1 T fresh lemon juice

minced parsely and tomato (optional) for garnish


1) Heat the olive oil in a kettle or Dutch oven. Add onion, celery, carrot, salt and herbs. Sauté over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are just tender.

2) Add zucchini, bell pepper, and garlic. Sauté 5 minutes more. Grind in some black pepper.

3) Combine water and tomato paste. Add to vegetables, along with the remaining ingredients, except toppings. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes. Serve hot, topped with parsley and tomato.


I've sometimes made this with canned olives and without the wine, but you're better off using the kalamata olives and a red wine you'd be happy to drink. They add a strong, pungent flavor to the broth.

All you need is some good French or Italian bread (and your remaining red wine), and you'll have a great winter supper.

(Note that this recipe is also reviewed and reprinted on the blog Casual Kitchen, almost exactly a year ago. It's a really good January recipe!)

La Gelateria Pizzeria

La Gelateria in Cleveland Heights recently started serving traditional Italian pizza from a brick oven. Sarah and I have been patronizing La Gelateria for years and decided to try some of the pizza. We ordered one margherita pizza:

and one pizza with mushrooms and proscuitto:

They were both excellent. The crust is extremely thin but chewy and flavorful. They seem to use whole milk mozarella (which is always good) but in small enough quantities so that the pizza isn't too rich. The tomato sauce is pretty basic--a strong, sharp tomato flavor--but simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing. The basil on the margherita was a nice touch, and the proscuitto was tasty but a bit more like regular ham than some I've had recently (e.g. at Bar Cento or Whole Foods Osteria).

The pizzas are $8-$10, and each 12" pizza will feed about 1 1/2 hungry adults. Our family (two adults and a kid) polished off the two we ordered at lunch, and we felt very satisfied. But we somehow still had room for a large gelato (with pistachio, chocolate, and mango sorbet).

We'd definitely recommend trying the pizza sometime. Having Valerio himself make the pizzas and enthusiastically hand them to me out of the brick oven was a nice way to end the visit.

Butternut Squash, Sage, and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce

One wouldn't think that squash or pumpkin ravioli is a very traditional italian preparation, but put either search into google and you'll find a plethora of results.

There's a reason for this, of course. The ravioli tastes really good, and, surprisingly, doesn't even taste particularly unfamiliar. It tastes like a comfort food you haven't discovered yet. The hazelnuts and brown butter sauce is a really nice touch. Use the italian nomenclature, "Zucca Di Ravioli," and it will sound more appetizing. As George Carlin points out in Napalm and Silly Putty, "'You Want Some Squash' sounds like someone sat on dinner." But call it "zucca" and you'll enjoy it.

The recipe I used is from the Gourmet cookbook and can be found here. The aged goat cheese (vs. regular) makes a difference. It tastes more like Brie than the goat cheese you may be familiar with, but it's not too hard to find, e.g. Zagara's has it.

The recipe takes a while and make enough for at least six servings. The recipe says 30 ravioli, but I ended up with closer to 45. You can either make it for company--they won't be disappointed--or freeze most of the ravioli for later. This works very well, especially if you've bought plenty of hazelnuts for future preparations. Cooking frozen ravioli is the same as for fresh except for the extra few minutes in the boiling water. It makes for a really good 15 minute meal.

Double Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've been working on this concept (pureed raspberries as the liquid base for a muffin) for a while, and I finally came up with a recipe that works. The whole raspberries make the flavor even stronger, and the chocolate chips are a nice counterpoint.

12 oz. package frozen raspberries
1/3 – ½ cup sour cream, yogurt or a combination of yogurt and heavy cream
½ cup oats, either regular or quick-cooking

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour (or regular wheat flour)
½ t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
½ t. salt

2/3 cup sugar, divided
2 eggs
¼ cup canola oil

¼ - ½ cup chocolate chips (to taste)
turbinado sugar (optional)


(1) Combine 8 oz. (2/3 of the package) raspberries, thawed, and 1/3 cup sugar. (Leave the remaining 4 oz. of raspberries in the freezer). Let sit at room temperature for at least one hour, or in refrigerator for up to a few days. This will allow the raspberry flavor to intensify.

(2) Push raspberries through fine mesh sieve or food mill; discard seeds.

(3) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.

(4) Measure enough raspberry puree and sour cream / yogurt to come to 1 ¼ cups. Add oats. Let sit 5-10 minutes.

(5) Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

(6) Combine eggs, oil, and remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Add oat mixture. Add to flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and remaining raspberries.

(7) Pour batter into prepared cups and sprinkle with optional turbinado sugar.

(8) Bake for about 25 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs.

These muffins are very moist but also relatively low fat, which makes them vulnerable to spoiliage. I'd suggest freezing any that you don't think you'll eat within a couple days.

Bar Cento

This weekend we went to Bar Cento for dinner. Ben and I were both pretty excited about going because of all of the positive reviews it has been receiving and that Jonathan Sawyer (who learned some of his chops from Michael Symon) is the head chef. We were also excited that it was kid friendly.

The atmosphere was kind of cozy, but in a friendly way. When we were seated the waiter brought us a small paper bag with rolls and a small ramekin of olive oil. The bread tasted very fresh and went well with the olive oil. We ordered the antipasto plate for an appetizer. It was fantastic: there was an assortment of three meats and four cheeses as well as a slice of grilled bread and marinated veggies. Ben and I especially enjoyed the prosciutto while Jonathan was more into the cheese. For entrees we chose a pizza Marinara with prosciutto and the cheese burger with fries. The pizza had a very thin crust and ample prosciutto. Its flavor was surprisingly complex, perhaps because of the the brick oven, fresh herbs, and an almost wine-like flavor to the sauce. The burger was cooked perfectly and was a little peppery. It also had a beer flavored cheese on top that was very complementary to the peppery-ness of the burger. The french fries were served on top of lightly sauteed rosemary and garlic, which gave the fresh cut fries a unique flavor.

Ben ordered the house red to drink, a Galasso Montepulciano, Abruzzo, which had a complex flavor but was easy to drink because of the soft tannins. The full beer list is not on the abbreviated drink list on the food menu. Ben only noticed it after ordering and said that next time he might try a Belgian beer.

For dessert we ordered Nutella Macarons, four smallish macaron cookie sandwiches with Nutella inside. (Note: These are not coconut cookies, rather they are a french almond kind of cookie--here's a link from Serious Eats explaining more). The cookies were soft yet slightly crunchy on the outside and the Nutella filling was chilled. We did not have any trouble finishing them all. In fact Ben made the comment that "Next time we come here we can just order these for dinner!"

Overall we all enjoyed our trip to Bar Cento. It can sometimes be hard finding a "trendy" restaurant that is accommodating to kids. While they did not have a booster seat, they did offer us a box of crayons and some paper to keep Jonathan occupied while we were waiting for our food.

Grilled Red Snapper with Grapefruit-Thyme Mojo and Minty Shrimp Tabbouleh Salad

In honor of the recent spring like weather I was thinking that it might be fun (and healthy!) to have some grilled fish for dinner. I found two Bobby Flay recipes that looked good. The first was Grilled Red Snapper with Grapefruit-Thyme Mojo--I was thinking that the citrus and grilled flavors would be light and spring like. As a side, (also apparently featured in the same episode of Boy Meets Grill) I chose Mint Marinated Grilled Shrimp Tabbouleh Salad.

I purchased the ingredients at Whole Foods, because I know they have super fresh seafood. I also decided to halve the snapper recipe and only get a 1/2 pound of shrimp because I didn't think Jonathan would be eating much. At the seafood counter the sales person let me know they were out of snapper fillets, but they had whole red snappers available. My first thought was: No Thanks! I am not interested in carving up a fish. However she said she could fillet the fish for me, and it would probably end up cheaper by buying the whole fish. The sales person cut up my fish and even rang up the fillets at the end so I could see how much money I saved ($5 yeah!). I was really impressed with their service.

The prep for the recipes was pretty simple. After setting up the soaking barley, I prepared the blender portions of the two recipes. Then I set up the ingredients for the barley salad so all I would have to do is whisk the dressing and toss in the greens and mint. Meanwhile Ben grilled the fish and shrimp.


The fish was very good, Ben said that it reminded him of a fish with mojo sauce that he ordered at Bobby Flay's Manhatten restaurant Mesa Grill. I thought the sauce was pretty spicy but had a complex interesting flavor. The fish itself was flaky and did not seem to have a lot of flavor itself. (Jonathan tried a bite of the fish without sauce and thought it was "good", but did not request a second bite).



I thought the tabbouleh salad was OK. It did not seem to have a lot of flavor, it tasted mostly of lemon with a hint of lime. Ben thought the salad was pretty good, and Jonathan did not like it at all, but he ate a small bowl of it so he could have some fruit for desert. Also we substituted baby spinach for the baby arugala because I couldn't find arugala at the store. Overall I think these recipes were successful in giving us a small taste of spring.

Steel Cut Oatmeal with Apples, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar

The apple flavor of this oatmeal is really strong because of the apple juice and the chopped apples. The dried fruit is optional (Sarah doesn't like it), but it definitely adds some flavor complexity.

While this recipe takes about 45 mintues, it's really low maintenance. You can easily shower, get dressed, take the dog out, etc. while the oatmeal cooks.


Steel Cut Oatmeal with Apples, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup steel cut oats
2 1/4 cups boiling water
2/3 cup apple juice (or ½ cup boiling water plus 3 TB. apple juice concentrate)
1/2 cup whole or 2% milk
1/4 cup buttermilk (or ¼ cup of milk with 1 ½ t. vinegar)
1 apple, peeled and chopped (tart apples, e.g. Granny Smith or Mutsu, are especially good)
1/3 cup dried cherries, cranberries or other fruit (optional)
½ t. salt
Brown sugar and cinnamon (to serve)

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and add the oats. Stir for 2 minutes to toast. Add the boiling water, apple juice, apple and salt. Keep at a low simmer for 25 minutes, without stirring. If you don’t have buttermilk, combine the milk and vinegar at this point.

Combine the milk, buttermilk and cherries with the oatmeal. Stir gently to combine and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Spoon into a serving bowl and top with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Makes four servings.


This recipe is at some level an elaboration on Alton Brown's Steel Cut Oatmeal recipe.

Stone Oven Bakery

Stone Oven is a bakery and small sandwich shop with two locations in Cleveland's east side and one downtown. We generally visit the Lee Road location in Cleveland Heights. They specialize in fresh baked breads, cookies, tarts and other sweet stuff. Their menu includes a variety of cold sandwiches, salads and fresh soups as well as various coffee drinks. (Their menu is similar to Panera, but smaller and better!) At lunch time they also serve hot pizza and occasionally feature other hot options as well such as grilled sandwiches or mac and cheese.

We have never really been disappointed by the Stone Oven--their prices are reasonable and the food quality is great. I think their pizza (pictured here) however is my favorite thing to get there. It is only served at lunch, and generally is served starting at 12 noon, but disappears fast. The pizza dough is thick yet light, very yeasty and has a slight taste of rosemary. The sauce is very nicely seasoned and there is not too much nor too little of it. The best part of this slice of pizza is the cheese. There is plenty of mozarella that is baked to a perfect crisp (it looks a lightly burnt in the picture, but really it is a nice golden brown).

If you are in the heights area around lunch time we reccomend you give Stone Oven a try! (We also love their Pugliese bread to take home!)

Ben won the Mini Pie contest!

Congratulations Ben! Here is a link to the results post on the mini pie contest blog. It looks like there were a lot of great entries. Good job!