Italian Night at the Supper Club

September's Supper Club

Welcome to Little Italy!

Thank you so much for all that was able to make it to September's Supper Club!

Stay tuned for more delicious recipes and I hope those who weren't able to make it in October.

Thanks for a great night!

Amberleigh's Mini Cannoli Cups

Mini Cannoli Cups

Ingredients:
Crust-
2 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (I used a pre-made Gluten Free crust)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Flour for dusting surface
Filling-
1 15oz. container of whole milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425.
Prepare filling by combining all ingredients except chocolate chips in a bowl with an electric mixer.
Place in a one-gallon freezer bag and refrigerate.
Roll out pie crusts and sprinkle each all over one side with sugar and cinnamon.
Roll over dough with rolling pin gently to push cinnamon and sugar into the pie crust.
Using a biscuit cutter, cut out circles in the dough.
Lightly press the circles into ungreased mini cupcake pans to form a pastry cup.
Gently prick the bottoms on the cups with a fork so that they don’t rise too much in the oven!
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Remove from oven and once cool, fill with cream.
Cut off a small part of the corner of the plastic bag to fill cups.
Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and dust with powdered sugar!

Filling can be kept in the fridge up to 3 days before filling. Fill about 1 hour before serving.

Such a quick and easy dessert!

Tuesday's Chicken and Spinach Paleo Ravioli

Chicken and Spinach Paleo Ravioli

Makes about 24 raviolis

• 4-5 medium to large yellow squash
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1.5 lbs. ground chicken
• 1 8 oz. bag frozen spinach, thawed
• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• small handful fresh basil leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• Pasta Sauce

1. Cut ends of squash off and slice down the middle so you have two halves. Using the narrowest setting on your mandolin, slice the squash into long, flat strips. You'll end with around 70 or so strips.

2. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt and saute for about 5 minutes, until nearly translucent. Add garlic and saute until fragrant.

3. Add ground chicken to onion and garlic and saute until chicken is cooked all the way through.

4. Squeeze all the excess water out of the spinach, then ad chicken, spinach, salt, pepper, and mascarpone to a food processor or blender and puree until mixture reaches desired consistency (I like it relatively smooth).

5. Assemble the ravioli by just barely overlapping two strips of squash (pictured above). Do the same over the middle of the first two strips, but perpendicular, creating a cross or "t" shape. 

6. Spoon filling in the center of the cross, then bring the ends of the strips together, overlapping each other. If that doesn't make sense, just see the picture above.

7. Secure with a toothpick.

8. Before serving, steam raviolis for about 4 minutes, or until squash is tender and inside is warm.

9. Top with sauce of your choice.

Such a great healthy and Gluten Free option that tastes great!

Katie's Caprese Crescents with Balsamic Vinaigrette Dipping Sauce

Caprese Crescents with Balsamic Vinaigrette Dipping Sauce

(makes 8 servings)

Ingredients:

1 Large Red Tomato Sliced, then cut in half
1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent rolls
8 slices of skim mozzarella cheese
8 leaves of basil

For the Vinaigrette:
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut tomatoes, and cheese.  Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles.  Place one slice of cheese on the wide end of each crescent roll.  Put the tomato and basil on top of the cheese then roll it up.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the Vinaigrette:

Mix the oil, honey, vinegar, and Dijon mustard all together.  Then dip the warm crescents into the vinaigrette.

This was such a quick and delicious appetizer! 

Melissa DiGregorio's Italian Sausage Lasagna

Italian Sausage Lasagna

 

Ingredients:

1 package of Johnsonville Italian ground sausage

12 lasagna noodles

1 medium onion

5 garlic cloves

½ cup of parmesan cheese

2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 tsp. dried oregano

2 tbsp. of olive oil

1 large egg

4 cups ricotta cheese

1 jar of marinara sauce

6 basil leaves

2 cups of fresh spinach

 

Cooking Directions:

 

1.     Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook Lasagna noodles until soft. Drain lightly and put aside

2.     In a medium sauce pan, sauté the sausage crumpling with spoon, until no longer pink. Add in onion, garlic and basil and continue sautéing for another 4 minutes until the sausage is cooked through. Add marinara sauce and oregano to the sausage mixture and set aside.

3.     In a medium bowl blend ricotta cheese, egg and half of the parmesan cheese and the chopped spinach. Set aside

4.     Coat a baking dish with olive oil and spread 1 cup of the sauce mixture on the bottom.

5.     Top with 3 lasagna noodles, spread ¼ ricotta cheese mixture on top of the nodes and layer on 1 cup of the sauce mixture, sprinkle mozzarella cheese over this.

6.     Repeat these steps until you have used all of the ingredients.

7.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes.

8.     Enjoy! 

This is one of the best Lasagnas I have ever had!

Melissa Church's Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

·       Prep time: 10 minutes

·       Cook time: 20 minutes

·       Yield: Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

·       1 Tbsp olive oil or unsalted butter

·       1/2 pound pancetta

·       1 Teaspoon garlic cloves, minced

·       3 whole eggs

·       1 cup pecorino cheese

·       1 pound spaghetti

·       Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

1 Put a large pot of salted water on to boil (1 Tbsp salt for every 2 quarts of water.)

2 While the water is coming to a boil, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook slowly until crispy. Add the garlic and cook another minute, then turn off the heat and put the pancetta and garlic into a large bowl.

3 In a small bowl, beat the eggs and mix in about half of the cheese.

4 Once the water has reached a rolling boil, add the pasta, and cook, uncovered, at a rolling boil. When the pasta is al dente (still a little firm, not mushy), use tongs to move it to the bowl with the bacon and garlic. Move the pasta from the pot to the bowl quickly, as you want the pasta to be hot. It's the heat of the pasta that will heat the eggs sufficiently to create a creamy sauce. Toss everything to combine, then add the beaten eggs with cheese and toss quickly to combine once more. Add salt to taste.

Serve at once with the rest of the parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.

If you want, sprinkle with a little fresh chopped parsley.

This was delicious and a recipe from a real italian!