“The biggest myth about Southern women is that we are fragile types…we’re about as fragile as coal trucks.”

-Lee Smith

So Lolleigh’s kitchen hit a bit of a rough patch this week, but all things considered it’s not gonna shut this kitchen down. I always say that Italians and Southerners have one thing in common, they cook with love and it shows in the food.

Here’s my version of traditional spaghetti and meatballs. Cooked with love and with a lot less fat than a traditional meatball.

Recipe for Meatballs:

1 lb extra lean ground beef, 97/3 or 95/5

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together well, your hand works best. Then form about 18, 1 inch meatballs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a wire rack on top of a foil-lined cookie sheet, bake meatballs for 20 minutes.

 For Sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 cup tomato sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1/4 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion for 5-7 minutes until tender, add garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and rest of ingredients. Turn heat to medium-low and let simmer while the meatballs continue cooking.

Once meatballs are added to the sauce let simmer for about 20 more minutes and then serve with you favorite pasta.

Notes:

I like to use Barilla Plus pasta. It’s whole grain with added protein and omega 3′s.

Extra Lean beef is easy to dry out, so don’t over bake the meatballs.

I love to stumble across hole in the wall restaurants, that’s usually where you find the best food. I have two very favorites, one is a roadside joint outside of Austin, Texas that serves the best burgers on homemade sourdough rolls. The second is The Red Bar in Grayton Beach, Florida. For those of you who vacation here, your probably thinking that this is no hole in the wall because in the summer the wait is 2 hours or more for a table.

But The Red Bar does a hole in wall right. A simple 5 item menu presented on a chalkboard, only cash is accepted and you feel like you’re in a psychedelic den from the 60′s. My favorite dish is the panned chicken, of course that means fried and covered with a buttery sauce – here’s my take with out the psychadelic den.

Recipe:

1 lb chicken breast, thinly sliced or pounded to about 1/4″ thick

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

flour for dredging

1 1/2 cups + 1/4 cup chicken broth, low-sodium

1 tbsp cornstarch

3 tbsp capers, drained

1 tbsp butter

juice of 1 lemon

In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then dredge lightly in flour. Place chicken in hot oil, cooking for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove chicken and set aside.

Add 1 and 1/2 cups chicken broth to pan to deglaze, stirring up all the bits from the bottom. Let reduce for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix cornstarch and 1/4 chicken broth in a small bowl. Add to reduced chicken stock and stir until sauce is thickened.

Add juice of one lemon, capers and stir of butter. Add chicken back to pan and let simmer in sauce for about 10 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

If you prefer the sauce to be thinner, just add a little more chicken broth.

Notes:

I usually serve this dish with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and oven-roasted asparagus but the chicken is also good over a whole grain pasta.

Stay tuned tomorrow and I fill you in on how to make the mashed potatoes and asparagus.

One of my dearest friends frequently asks for recipe advice and I gladly pass along recipes I have collected over the years. She has been my friend since high school and I still remember the day we met. We sat outside school waiting for our rides when we discovered that our mothers were from the same small town and that we shared the same love of casseroles made famous by that little town and its great cooks.

When you think about it good recipes and good friends are a lot a like, no matter how much time passes you can always rely on both!

Recipe:

8 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions

1 bag spinach

1 rotisserie chicken

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 tsp olive oil, divided

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, whole

1/4 cup chicken broth, low-sodium

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/8 tsp oregano, dried

1/8 tsp basil, dried

salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese, low-fat

1 egg

1 tbsp basil pesto

1/4 parmesan cheese, shredded

1/4 cup half and half

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and saute spinach until wilted. Season spinach with salt and pepper while cooking. Place cooked spinach in a bowl and set aside.

In the same saute pan, heat another teaspoon of olive oil, add onions and whole garlic cloves cooking until tender. Break up garlic cloves as they cook.

Cook 8 lasagna noodles according to package directions. Let sit in water until you are ready to use. 

Once onions and garlic have become tender, add chicken broth, deglaze the pan stirring up the bits from the bottom. Let liquid reduce for about 2 minutes then add crushed tomatoes, sugar and spices. Turn heat to medium-low and let simmer while you are preparing the rollups.

Take the white meat off of the rotisserie chicken, shred and set aside.

In a large bowl combine ricotta cheese, egg, basil pesto and cheese. Then add spinach, season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Pull two noodles from the water and place on paper towels to absorb excess water. Then put a spoonful of ricotta on noodle and spread the length of the noodle. Top with the shredded chicken and loosely rollup.

Spray a baking dish lightly with oil spray and spread a few spoonfuls of the marinara sauce in the bottom of the dish. Place rollups in baking dish.

Season the marinara with salt and pepper if needed. Then add 1/4 cup of half and half , stirring together well. Top rollups with marinara and place in a 350 degree oven baking for 30-40 minutes.

Notes:

I love using rotisserie chicken in all types of recipes such chicken salad, quesadillas, casseroles and soups. It saves a ton of time and they taste really good.

This dish may seem like a lot of steps but it really on take about 20 minutes to prepare and then 30 minutes or so to bake. I think it’s easier than assembling a lasagna.

Last week I was watching Top Chef All Stars and realized how much I love a good plate of spaghetti! They were cooking a traditional Italian meal in the kitchen of Rao’s in New York City. My granny’s kitchen is a long way from Rao’s but I swear her spaghetti and meatballs could go toe to toe with theirs any day.

Each year for my birthday, she would make my favorites, spaghetti and meatballs and a strawberry cake. We would spend hours in the kitchen perfecting those meatballs, letting them slowly simmer in a big pot of sauce and one thing that all good Southern and Italian cooks know is that food cooked with love is just – better food!

Recipe:

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup carrots, finely diced

1/2 cup onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb lean ground beef

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 cup low-sodium beef broth

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp half and half

salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large, heavy pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add onions and carrots cooking until tender. About 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for a minute more. Add ground beef, season generously with salt and pepper and continue cooking until no longer pink.

Add broth, bring to a steady simmer, continue cooking until almost all of broth has cooked away. Stir in milk, simmer and let most of the liquid cook away. Then add crushed tomatoes, sugar and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Let sauce simmer for 30 minutes or so. Just before serving, stir in half and half.

Serve with pappardelle or your favorite pasta and a crisp green salad. Here’s a recipe for a quick creamy herb salad dressing perfect on a simple wedge of iceberg.

Creamy Herb Dressing

1/4 cup Fage 0% greek yogurt

1 tbsp light sour cream

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp basil, dried

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp oregano

salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients together and chill before serving.

Notes:

Bolognese is a hearty meat sauce that is typically cooked for hours. This is a quicker version but the trick is to use good canned tomatoes. I prefer San Marzano tomatoes. I buy mine at The Fresh Market and they can be found in the italian specialty section at the grocery.

A heartier pasta works best with this sauce. I use pappardelle but a tubular pasta like penne or rigatoni would also work well.

In the south, we think of macaroni and cheese as a member of the vegetable family and after all no self-respecting meat and three joint would leave this gooey concoction off the list of daily veggies. Always a crowd pleaser, chock full of butter and cheese makes this favorite a definite belly buster and hip plumper!

Mother always says ” a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips” and if your short like me, decadent food always shows up on those hips sooner rather than later. You won’t miss an ounce of butter in this dish and your figure will thank you.

Recipe:

1/2 lb elbow macaroni or favorite pasta for mac and cheese

1 tbsp butter, unsalted

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese, lightly pulsed in blender

1 1/2 cups low-fat or 2% sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp parmesan reggiano, shredded

I personally like to use shells for my macaroni and cheese. This is a great pasta to use – it has 6 grams of protein per serving and is made of organic durum wheat. You can find it a your local Whole Foods.

Always try to use wheat or whole grain pasta when cooking. Barilla has an excellent line of whole grain pasta called Barilla Plus which has added protein and omega 3′s.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil large pot of water. When water comes to a boil add a pinch of salt and then pasta. Boil pasta according to directions for an al dente finish.

Drain pasta in colander and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

In same large pot, turn heat to medium. Add butter and let melt. Stir in flour and let cook for one minute. This will be a thick to almost crumbly paste.

Slowly whisk in buttermilk until a thick sauce is formed and there are no lumps. Stir in blended cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Once cheeses have melted into sauce, add macaroni back to pot and stir together to coat pasta evenly.

Spray a baking dish lightly with cooking spray and pour in pasta. Sprinkle top with parmesan cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes until bubbly.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Notes:

You may notice I do use butter even when trying to lighten up a dish. I do not like “light” butter type products. A lot of them contain palm oils and other things I cannot even pronounce. My theory is to use what is real and just less of it. Butter is all-natural and is made from cream and we all know where cream comes from so that makes me feel a lot better about what I put in my body.

I also never buy fat-free products. Whatever they take out to make a product fat-free you have to figure that what is going back in to make it taste good is probably not all that good for you! Try to stick to low-fat and 2% dairy products whenever possible.