Last night we made a variety of small plates. Our favorite was the tuna poke but everything was delicious! Here's what we cooked up and the recipes.
1st course: Prosciutto wrapped asparagus
Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus
Prosciutto cut in half, lengthwise. Equal number of strips to asparagus
Olive oil
Pepper
Directions:
1. Wash and trim asparagus
2. Drizzle olive oil on asparagus and season with pepper
3. Spiral prosciutto slices around asparagus
4. Bake in preheated oven set at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until asparagus is tender with knife
2nd course: Tuna poke
Ingredients:
1/2 lb sashimi grade tuna cut into cubes
1T sea salt
1 tsp sesame oil
4 TBSP Somen sauce (bottled or see recipe below)
1 serrano chile, finally diced
1 TBSP fish eggs
2 TBSP crumbled seasoned seaweed
1 avocado, cubed
Somen sauce: juice of 1/2 lime, 1T brown sugar, 2T soy sauce, 2T olive oil
Directions: Mix all ingredients together, gently. Serve immediately.
3rd course: Seared scallop salad with spring mix & balsamic vinaigrette
Ingredients:
4 large scallops
Olive oil
S/P
1 T butter
Spring mix
Balsamic dressing
Directions:
1. Season both sides of the scallops with S/P
2. Add 2 T olive oil to skillet and heat over medium-high heat
3. When oil is shimmering, sear scallops on one side 3-4 minutes, or until browned
4. Add butter to pan
5. Turn scallops over, lower heat
6. Using a spoon, spoon butter/oil mixture over scallops, repeating to coat the scallops
7. Cook another 1-2 minutes or until scallops are done, careful not to overcook. Lightly dress spring mix with balsamic dressing and serve scallops on top
4th course: Eggplant parmigiana
Courtesy of: A16 cookbook
Ingredients:
1 large globe eggplant
Kosher salt
2 large beefsteak tomatoes
Olive oil
6 slices of prosciutto
6oz fresh mozzarella, cut into slices
1oz grana, coursely grated (about 1/2 cup)
6 fresh basil leaves
Directions:
1. Cut off the green top of the eggplant and trim both ends. Using a vegetable peeler, peel off lengthwise strips of the skin so the finished surface is covered with alternating stripes of skin and flesh. Cut the eggplant crosswise into 3/4 inch thick slices. You will need 12 slices total.
2. Place eggplant on baking sheets. Season both sides with salt. Set the slices aside for 20 minutes.
3. Slice 3 thick slices of the broadest part of the tomato, so you have a total of 6 slices. Cut the tomato trimmings into chunks. In a food processor, combine the tomato chunks and a pinch of salt and pulse until the tomatoes are nearly smooth. Pour the tomatoes into a small bowl and top with a generous stream of olive oil. Taste the tomatoes and add more olive oil and salt to suite your taste. Set aside. Alternatively, I skipped this and just used some jarred marinara sauce.
4. Pat the eggplant slices dry and brush both sides with olives oil. Grill on medium fire or cast iron grill pan for about 3 minutes per side, or until the slices are cooked through and golden brown. Transfer to platter, brush with olive oil again, and set aside to cool to room temperature.
5. Preheat oven to 500 degrees
6. To assemble the stacks, pair half of the eggplant slices with other eggplant slices of similar width. For each pair, use the larger slice as the bottom half. Top the bottom slice with a prosciutto slice, following by a tomato slice, a mozzarella slice, a generous pinch of grana, and 1 basil leaf. Complete the stack with the matching eggplant slice.
7. Heat in the oven for about 5-7 minutes or until the eggplant is warm and the mozzarella is slightly melted at the edges. The dish should not be served bubbling hot from the oven.
8. Arrange the eggplant stacks on a platter. Spoon the reserved tomato sauce (I nooked it a bit) on top and drizzle it around the sides. Serve immediately.
5th course: Spicy sausage with gnochetti pasta
Instead of bucatini, I used 1/2 of gnochetti pasta
See recipe
