Simple Italian

Just like yesterday, we got an extra early start today, and had a relaxing and easy time of getting dinner out promptly.  We put together our grocery order for the first week of dinners, and took lots of breaks, since we had more time than we needed to get dinner out.

Italian Appetizer Bites
We had one tray of prosciutto and melon (balled cantaloupe with small pieces of prosciutto, on a toothpick), and one tray of caprese (small pieces of fresh mozzarella with a small piece of basil and a cherry tomato, on a toothpick).  These were well-received and well-portioned.  We used one cantaloupe and 8 thin slices Parma ham for the first, and a small carton of cherry tomatoes and about a standard big ball of mozzarella, divided, for the second.

 Homemade Focaccia with Herbed Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar for dipping
I did a quick version of the focaccia recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I didn't realize that Reinhart would want an overnight slow rise, so I just started the dough this afternoon, and let it rise in a cool kitchen, and then near the stove for a bit at the end.  I also used dry yeast instead of the instant yeast he wanted.  It came out very nice, anyway.

Farfalle with Pesto, Goat Cheese, and Diced Tomatoes
Pretty much what it says on the tin.  2 boxes farfalle, 2 big tomatoes diced small, and 1 small (4oz?) tub of crumbled goat cheese.  Quantity and taste were good.  We passed nice grated parmesan for sprinkling over the pasta at the table.

Pesto
5 cu basil leaves
1/4 cu pine nuts
1/4 cu walnuts
1 1/4 cu olive oil
5 cloves raw garlic
1 cu stupid sawdust parmesan from a can
salt and pepper
^ blend all that up.

Green Beans with Walnuts and Lemon

~4 cu cleaned and rough-chopped fresh green beans
1.5 handfuls walnuts, finely chopped
olive oil
couple squirts of lemon juice
salt and pepper
^ Heat ~1/8cu olive oil in a big pan.  Add nuts and green beans, and stir it up until it gets bright green.  If it ever sticks, or if you think it's almost cooked, squirt in some lemon juice and/or add a splash of water.



Tiramisu
We used this recipe.  We couldn't find mascarpone, so tried substituting cream cheese blended with enough milk to make it easily stirrable.  It worked pretty well, but definitely added a little more tartness than is usual in tiramisu.  We also used up all the cream the recipe called for plus about another cup of cream that was already whipped and waiting for a good use.  It was a big hit.  We forgot to take a picture of it, but you can behold tiramisu in many places on the internet, and ours looked pretty much like those ones.