We Want Food- Itsa Pizza Pie!

As an anxious child, I had many fears - burglars, thunder storms, bananas. In some respects, I was very lucky though. I never had to worry too much that my parents would split up. They had a pretty great marriage and rarely fought, so when they did it felt dramatic and the reverberations of the fight would ring in my ears for days after. As an adult, I don't remember the details of any of them except one. It was a doozy. The cause of said row? Barbecue pizza.

Yes, you read that correctly. The biggest fight my parents ever had was over pizza topped with some kind of saucy pulled pork barbecue. My dad thought it sounded disgusting. My mom, a great lover of both pizza and barbecue was anxious to try it. Tempers flared. Pizza was ordered. I told you so's were issued. I hid in my room with the dog and covered my ears. My parents eventually came in and comforted me; the argument had just been the result of hunger-induced tempers and misunderstandings.

Unlike in other pizza-ordering situations, where leftovers were always consumed the next day along with a pre-prandial drink and a viewing of MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHours, on this occasion the uneaten remains were tossed. All was forgiven. But not forgotten. For the rest of my childhood, it was the marker for every other disagreement. The barometer against which other fights were measured. From that day on, whenever my parents argued, if I felt the slightest amount of concern that it would escalate into something more sinister, I would look at them and say, "Is this barbecue pizza?" And they would reassure me that yes, this fight too had a bark far worse than its bite.

While Daniel and I have had many a food-related disagreement (when my blood sugar drops, my temper escalates), we share what may be an unlikely love of barbecue pizza. It's one that developed during Daniel's 28th birthday party, which was also the historic election night of Barack Obama. We ordered a cheese-free barbecue chicken pizza. When the guests had left and we felt free to eat a few extra slices, we discovered that this barbecue pizza, which also featured jalapenos and red onions, became even more delicious when dipped in Sabra hummus. Decadent? Yes. Carb heavy? Oh yeah. We've enjoyed the combo many times since, and it has become our go-to food to enjoy while watching event television - election night, Super Bowl, and of course, the Oscars.

So yesterday, in honor of the Academy Awards (my personal favorite TV event), I tried my hand at making my own BBQ pizza.


I used an overnight pizza dough recipe from Epicurious .



Marinated some chicken breast in a mix of spicy red barbecue sauce, a splash of Carolina mustard, a dash of ketchup, and a dollop of canned tomato sauce. Sauteed up three jalapenos. Sliced a red onion.


Topped the 9-inch pizzas and let them bake on my brand new pizza stone (courtesy of my buddy Ariel). The result? Delicious. And if need be, worth a fight.

We Want Food - Clean Plate Club

I am ashamed to admit that Daniel and I are not always the best at finishing leftovers. We've been getting better, especially recently as I've been making a game of reinventing last night's dinner as an entirely new reinvented sandwich or salad. Still when there is so much else delicious out there to eat, it can be hard to get through the last of what was once a delicious beef stew but that has now become a little tired.

There was no need to force ourselves, however, to finish up the tuna and mushroom casserole that I made last week. In fact, after each having two rounds of leftovers, we had to battle it out for the final helping (eventually I let Daniel have it, but let's just say he owes me one.) What made it so good? Well mushrooms for starters. And a little chewy brown rice. And heaps and heaps of creamy (but low fat!) dairy. This recipe, based on one from the always fabulous 101 Cookbooks is a new favorite. Here's the deal:

Mushroom and Tuna Casserole (slightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks)
8 servings

Ingredients:
-8 ounces brown mushrooms, chopped
-1 large yellow onion, chopped
-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
-3 cups cooked brown rice, room temperature (I used Chinese food leftovers)
-2 large eggs
-1/2 cup low fat sour cream
-1 cup low fat cottage cheese
-2 cans albacore tuna
-1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
-1/3 cup grated Parmesan (divided)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish (I used a glass one.)

2. Over medium-high heat in a large skillet, saute the mushrooms and a few pinches of salt in olive oil. Stir occasionally until the mushrooms have released liquid and browned. Add onions and cook for another 4-5 minutes, until translucent. Stir in garlic and continue to cook for another minute. Remove from heat. Stir in rice until well combined.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, and salt. Stir in tuna.

4. In a large bowl, stir together the rice mixture and tuna mixture until well combined. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle with 2/3 of your Parmesan, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Remove foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until hot throughout and golden along the edges.

6.Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan, and serve. DELICIOUS.

We Want Food: Is it Broccoli or is it cauliflower?

The first time I had Romanesco broccoli (cauliflower?) was at a meal early on in Momofuku Ssam Bar's existence. As is always the case at David Chang's houses of pork, there weren't a ton of options on the menu for our intrepid eater Daniel, so among the small plates that we ordered to share was Chang's take on this cruciferous veg. Having never seen one before, we were shocked by the bizarre appearance of what appeared to be the mutant offspring of broccoli and cauliflower, with a little Spiny from Super Mario Brothers thrown in for good measure. But when we tasted it, we were even more surprised. It was delicious. Crunchy with a slightly subtler, but nuttier taste than its more traditional brethren.

Since moving to California, I see them all the time in the grocery store and have started incorporating them into the veggie side dish rotation. My favorite preparation of late, is a little number I like to call briny, salty Romanesco. Okay. I just made that up. But it's yummy. Here's the dish:

Briny, Salty Romanesco

Ingredients:
-1 head of Romanesco broccoli
-a splash of olive oil
-a clove of garlic
-a Serrano pepper (optional)
-a tin of flat anchovies (in olive oil)
-a few teaspoons of capers
-a handful of pine nuts
-red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Chop the Romanesco into small florets. Finely mince the garlic and if using the Serrano pepper. Tear apart the anchovies into small bits (reserving their oil for later.)
2. In a large non-stick pan, heat the olive oil on medium. Cook the garlic until tender. Add the Serrano and Romanesco. Pour on about half of the oil from the anchovy tin.
3. After about three minutes, add the anchovies and capers. Stir occasionally.
4. Once the Romanesco has started to brown, throw in the pine nuts and red pepper flakes. Continue to saute until you have tender Romanesco with delicious brown bits at the end.

Enjoy. I served it alongside a New York strip steak with a plum, red wine reduction a few weeks ago, and the flavors were great together. Then I ate the leftover broccoli cold from a Tupperware while standing by the refrigerator. Either way, delicious.

We Want Food - Umami Burger!

So sometimes a picture is not worth a thousand words. Especially when the photographer in question (a certain bearded man) is so enticed by what he's about to eat that he can't concentrate on composition.

But to be fair, this was a distracting burger. Based on a recipe I saw on the blog White on Rice, this turkey burger, packed with that luscious fifth taste - savory umami. And while it now comes in a tube, bringing out that rich, full flavor is as easy as 1, 2, 3.


UMAMI TURKEY BURGER - umami rich ingredients get a *
1. Add a couple of minced cloves a garlic, half a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon or two of fish sauce*, a dash of soy sauce*, and some s&p to a pound of ground turkey leg. Let it marinate in the fridge for a while. Then divide into burgers; grill or saute.
2. Saute up some onions, mushrooms*, in a little red wine. Add s&p. Toast a bun. In a small bowl, mix a bunch of ketchup*, a bit of mayo, and as much sriracha as you dare.
3. Spread sauce on bun. Put burger on bun. Top burger with mushrooms and onions. Add sliced tomato* and pickles.
(Okay)
4. Eat the drippy, delicious burger. Lick your fingers because it's so darn yummy.

We Want Food - Necessity is a Mother...

In my current life as an itinerant [insert nebulous professional label here], I am faced with a two conflicting issues.

One - I'm trying to save money, fighting every inclination to splurge on the delicious foods tempting me at every turn. Instead I've been packing lunches and making simple, inexpensive dinners (breakfast is an English muffin as always.)

Two - While I know where I'll be staying the week after next, I don't have next week solidified yet. (Don't worry, there are couches to crash on if need be, I'm just holding out hope that this other more stable possibility comes through.) Given this, I don't want to buy too much food because I don't know precisely where I'll be schlepping it.

The results of this tension have been some very odd gastronomical mash-ups, as I try to use all of the ingredients I have before purchasing new ones. Tonight's creation - savory English muffin French toast with an Asian brown sauce and roasted turkey. It sounds strange. Even disgusting. And as I was creating it, I thought, oh Lord, this could be inedible. However, wonder of wonders, it was really delicious.

Here's what I did. I beat an egg and then added a little black salt, a little cumin, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a good dose of ground black pepper. Then I soaked the English muffins in this egg bath before throwing them into a hot pan. I poured the leftover egg mix over the English muffins while they cooked, so they each developed a nice ring of eggy crust. Once they were cooked, while the pan was still hot, I removed them and threw in the turkey so it could crisp up a bit. This is where the Chinese brown sauce inspiration struck me. I poured about an eighth of a cup onto the turkey, and because of its sugary, corn-starchy nature, it quickly started to brown (well brown more) and then caramelize, clinging to the turkey in an ooey gooey sticky fashion.

I then removed it from the heat lest it burn, spread a little hummus onto the eggy English muffins, topped them with the caramelized turkey, and then added a dash of hot sauce. Weird? For sure. So good that I'll admit to having used my fingers to wipe any lingering remnants of sauce off of the plate? Definitely.

We Want Food - Oh little lamb who made thee?

I've been so busy eating my way through NY that I never got around to posting about the lamb and eggplant dish that I made while in SC to accompany the lahukh that I wrote about last week.

Before I arrived in old Cola, SC, my mother informed me that she had purchased some beautiful ground lamb from the local greenmarket (from the same guy who made the goat sausage that we so enjoyed last Christmas) and that I needed to figure out what to do with it. I contemplated a couple of Indian dishes and a lamb ragu, but when I stumbled across a recipe for Albondigas (spicy meatballs on pureed roasted eggplant), I knew I'd found a winner.

The recipe, which I adapted from The Food of Israel: Authentic Recipes from the Land of Milk and Honey, calls for ground beef. But, let's face it, anything beef can do lamb can do better, so we gave it a try.


Albondigas are small meatballs that are present in lots of Spanish-speaking cultures, but they enter Israeli cuisine through Sephardic Jews who spoke Ladino in around the 15th century. These little guys turn up in a lot of Sephardic/Ladino dishes, often in soups, because using these bits of less-expensive ground beef et. al was a good way of making precious meat last longer, while giving dishes the benefit of the flavor that just a few orbs of good fatty flesh can offer.

In this version, the ground meat is combined with onion, bread crumbs, an egg, and a bunch of salt and pepper. You simply combine said ingredients, fry 'em up, and then set them aside.


Then, using the same pan, you add three chopped up roasted eggplants, some crushed garlic, a little sugar, salt and pepper, and mush it up real good.


When you have a nice mushy puree, you throw the puree into an ovenproof dish, lay your crispy (thatsa spicy) meatballs on top and bake the whole thing at 400 degrees for about a half hour.

The results?



Truly delicious! Moistly succulent lamb, with its hint of satisfying gaminess. The slight bitterness of the eggplant, made more subtle with the sweetness of the sugar and the caramelized bits of pan juices. And of course the textures here of the smooth puree with the crispy bits of the charred meatballs.

To give it a bit more bite and character, we added some mango chutney and a little spicy Lebanese zhoug, which I had whipped up from some jalapenos...


The whole thing, when scooped up with bits of the savory flat lahukhs was a big hit, and we all scarfed in silence before sitting back in our chairs and marveling at the intense flavor that comes so easily when a little lamb is used.

We Want Food - South East Asian Persuasian (Part deux)

So what do you do with leftover lemongrass pork and a whole lot of fish sauce? Why make Vietnamese bun of course!

Some Vietnamese rice vermicelli, julienned carrots and cucumbers, a little cilantro and voila -



The sauce to pour on top -
Rice vinegar
Fish sauce
a touch of honey
a squirt of soy sauce
a pinch of salt
the juice of a lime
a clove of garlic
and for my dish, a whole lot of jalapenos


A perfect cool, refreshing meal for a humid South Carolina evening. Mmmm mmmm. Why can't leftovers always be this good?

We Want Food - South East Asian Persuasian

Inspired by all of the South East Asian food that I've been munching on in the Bay Area, I decided to bring some of those flavors to South Carolina to share with my mom.

One of Daniel's and my favorite foods to overindulge on are the fresh spring rolls that we get from Sunflower, so I decided to have a go at making my own, using a recipe from Epicurious. Recipe and pictures below:

Summer Rolls with Baked Tofu and Sweet-and Savory Dipping Sauce
(adapted from Epicurious/Gourmet)

Ingredients

• 2 ounces dried bean thread noodles (cellophane noodles)
• 1 small carrot, cut into thin matchsticks (about 3/4 cup)
• 1 Kirby cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into thin matchsticks (about 3/4 cup)
• 1 small fresh jalapeño, cut into thin matchsticks
  
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 3/4 teaspoon fresh lime juice, divided
• 16 rice-paper rounds (also called galettes de riz; about 8 inches in diameter) plus additional in case some tear
• 4 romaine leaves, each torn into 4 pieces
• 10 ounces packaged baked tofu, cut into 3- by 1/3-inch sticks (I used quickly sauteed shitake mushrooms instead)
  
• 1 cup fresh bean sprouts
• 1/2 cup each of torn basil, mint, and cilantro leaves (11/2 cups total) (didn't have mint, so just stuck with the other two)
  
• 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions

1) Soak noodles in a medium bowl of boiling-hot water 10 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, blanch carrot in boiling water until softened, about 45 seconds. Drain. Rinse under cold water to stop cooking.

3) Transfer carrots to a small bowl along with cucumber, jalapeño, vinegar, sugar, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let stand 5 minutes. Reserve 2 tablespoons liquid and drain pickled vegetables. (I did the jalapenos separately because my mom's having issues with spice, and it still worked fine, so it's easy to adjust for people with varying heat interests.)


4) Drain noodles and rinse under cold water, then drain and pat dry. Toss noodles with remaining 3/4 teaspoon lime juice and snip with kitchen shears 5 or 6 times.

5) Fill a shallow pan or pie plate with warm water. Soak 2 rice-paper rounds until they begin to soften, about 30 seconds, then let excess water drip off and stack soaked rounds on a work surface so that they overlap by all but 1 inch on either side.



6) Put 2 pieces of romaine on bottom third of round. Top with one eighth of noodles (about 2 tablespoons), tofu (4 sticks), bean sprouts (about 2 tablespoons), herbs (3 tablespoons), and pickled vegetables (3 tablespoons).



7) Roll up tightly around filling, folding in sides. Make 7 more rolls in same manner.



8) Stir together hoisin sauce, peanut butter, water, and reserved 2 tablespoons pickling liquid. Serve rolls with dipping sauce.

They were delicious. Not as beautiful as the ones at Sunflower, but I'll get there someday (yeah right).

***

For our main course, because we're in South Carolina, home of all things porcine, I went for a Mark Bittman recipe for Vietnamese style pork chops. I really think this would work equally well with boneless skinless chicken thighs or a thin cut of beef.

Here's the deal:

The Minimalist's Vietnamese Pork
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons minced lemongrass
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon nam pla (fish sauce), or to taste, or soy sauce (I used about 2 T of both)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork chops or country-style ribs
• 1 lime, quartered
• Chopped Thai basil or cilantro for garnish (optional).

Directions

1. Whisk lemongrass, garlic, honey and nam pla in large bowl. Add lime juice and pepper. Place pork in the bowl, turning to coat; let stand while you preheat grill or broiler.

2. Grill or broil pork, spooning marinade over as it cooks, until nicely done, about 10 minutes. Turn only once so that each side browns nicely.

3. Serve with remaining lime and, if you like, the herb garnish.



This was absolutely spectacular. One of those dishes that when I eat it, I can't believe I had a hand in it. The quick caramelization provided by the honey, and the fantastic combination of flavors with the umami of the fish sauce and the tang of the lemongrass and lime juice was sensational. And if you don't believe me or my mom (which isn't nice, frankly), you should believe this guy-


I gave him a tiny piece of fat cut off of one of the chops after it had marinated and cooked. He liked it so much, he went looking for seconds...

We Want Food - Olive salsa (What's not to love?)

Whenever we fly, Daniel and I overdose on magazines. In spite of the facts that we subscribe to about a thousand mags, that I always come armed with several books, and that we usually fly JetBlue or Virgin America, which have televisions, we live in fear of running out of distractions for the long flight(s) ahead. Where Daniel goes straight for Entertainment Weekly, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated, I make a beeline to the cooking section, and stock up on Saveur, Food and Wine, Gourmet, and Bon Apetit.

Our recent trek to Saint Louis was no exception, and given the inhuman number of stops on our return trip after the wedding of Melissa and Chris, these diversions were essential.

The July edition of Food and Wine had a whole section on salsas, and since I live with a great lover of salsas, I took note. When it came time to try my hand at one of the chunky sauces, however, I decided to broaden said salsa-lover's horizons, and skipped the tomato salsa with smoked cheese and the avocado and roasted tomatillo offering, and went for the exotic sounding minty green olive celery salsa. Involving capers, mint, garlic, and of course olives and celery, it tempted me with its briny savoriness.

With so much flavor to the salsa itself, I decided to pair it with a straightforward broiled flounder and to serve it with oven baked sweet potato fries (with the requisite homemade spicy ketchup) and a simple California green market salad of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and balsamic. I assembled the ingredients, and got going.

However, when I reached into my crisper, despite the entirely different look and smell and very essence of the two herbs, I pulled out my fresh basil instead of the fresh mint somehow not realizing my mistake until the deed was done. And so what emerged was a basil green olive salsa instead of a minty one. To make up for the error, I added some hot pepper flakes, threw it on the fish, and hoped for the best.



The result was very good- crunchy, savory, and pretty complex. Next time I'll try the minty version, but the spicy basil flavor ended up quite nice. Here's the recipe, based on the one from Food and Wine...

Spicy Basil Green Olive and Celery Salsa

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 cup finely diced celery (3 ribs)
1 cup finely chopped pitted green olives (5 ounces)
2 tablespoons capers, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Freshly ground pepper
Red pepper flakes to taste

Directions
-In a small skillet, heat the oil.
-Add the garlic and cook over moderate heat until golden, about 2 minutes. Let the oil cool, then discard the garlic.
-Transfer the oil to a bowl and add the celery, olives, capers and basil.
-Toss the salsa, season with pepper and red pepper flakes and serve.



Here's a quick pic of the side dishes.

We Want Food - Camping Cuisine

While I generally think of myself as a city girl, I do appreciate a good Arcadian setting and have even grown to love a long scenic hike. I still shy away from bird watching and on principle the Congaree Swamp (sorry mom), but I have learned to really appreciate the unique pleasures of nature time. However, being the high maintenance, creature of comfort that I am, I have shied away from camping. I mean really, why sleep on the hard ground and wash up by water bottle when I have a comfy bed and a clean (okay relatively clean) bathroom sink at home? Besides, bears and other scary creatures come out at night.

Nature is for waking hours; civilization for sleeping. Right? Well, certain people, who shall remain nameless disagree, and so after years of resistance, I agreed to try out "car camping" 4th of July weekend. This is where you drive right up to your campsite and pitch a tent. The presence of other campers (in our case primarily South Asian families) and rudimentary facilities nearby, as well as the proximity to our actual home made the whole thing seem a little "Let's play pretend." Like we were ten year olds sleeping in the backyard just for fun. But with the exception of an aching back from sleeping on a slant and the enormously bold, St. Bernard size raccoons, I had a pretty good time.

I especially enjoyed the cooking element of things. Although we could have easily packed sandwiches or something simple in a cooler, as I and another camper were basically camping virgins, Eric, our resident wilderness expert, wanted to show us the real deal. And so we ate camping food. Mainly freeze-dried simulacrums of the real thing. But somehow, outdoors, they tasted pretty amazing.

Here's what we ate:

For lunch while on our hike, our friend Jacob whipped up his famous instant hummus. With a mysterious powdered blend and some water from his canteen, within minutes we had a very satisfying protein source. Served with pita, cheese, and sliced tomato, it was just the sustenance we needed.


For dinner, we were a bit more adventurous. Using our campsite's picnic table as his workspace, Chef Eric went to town, slaving over his little camp stove, he boiled water -


And made couscous,


Kung Pow chicken (!?),


Mac and cheese,


and pasta primavera


Each dish came freeze dried in an insulated bag, to which Eric added boiling water and then sealed.


Before "cooking" the contents were strange dry objects with the taste and texture of Freeto Lay products (the mac and cheese was Cheetos and the pasta primavera a kind of Cool Ranch Dorito. I did not try the uncooked chicken. Old habits die hard.)

Miraculously though, after absorbing the water and resting for about 10 minutes, dinner was served -



The verdict? I kind of loved the food. Even the Kung Pow chicken, which at first was a little grisly grew on me, especially after adding some Butt Burner hot sauce that Daniel had received as a gift and serindipitously left in our glove compartment. About the camping, on the other hand, I'm still a bit on the fence. Maybe real camping complete with backpacks and remote wilderness (therein absent of smelly toilets and emboldened, socialized raccoons) would be more my speed. Plus then I'd have hiked all day would know deep down that I'd really earned the fusion fare that is freeze dried campfire cuisine.

We Want Food - Cold tuna lasagna?

I would say I eat lasagna about every three years or so. It's time consuming to make. It's heavy. It involves lots of things that Daniel doesn't eat.

However, when I encountered a cold tuna lasagna salad combo in Everyday with Rachel Ray, I decided to give it a try. It seemed seasonal and refreshing. When I went back and read the recipe though, I wasn't so intrigued with the red pepper puree that was intended to replace the tomato sauce in traditional lasagna. So I did some searching and found a red pepper pesto from Food and Wine posted on Serious Eats.

As I started compiling the ingredients, I have to admit my skepticism grew. Was it going to be good? Would cold lasagna noodles (especially of the whole wheat variety that I had selected) actually taste good, or would these sheets of gluteny goodness lose their usual appeal and become sticky slimy slugs?


Sure the arugula looked fresh and appealing...


And the red pepper pesto (to which I added red pepper flakes) smelled heavenly...


But as I stacked the layers...


And the pasta mound grew...


So did my doubts...


However, when we finally sat down and began our meal, Daniel and I were all smiles. The recipe is below. It's one I'll make again. (And I highly recommend topping the cold leftovers with a little hummus.) As RR would say, Yum-O!

Red Pepper Pesto Tuna Arugula Lasagna Salad Extravaganza
(Based on Rachel Ray's Tuna Salad Lasagna Stack and Food and Wine's Red Pepper Pesto)

Ingredients
For the pesto
3 medium red bell peppers
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 small garlic clove, smashed
1/4 cup basil leaves, plus 2 tablespoons chopped basil
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup shaved pecorino cheese
red pepper flakes to taste

For the lasagna
1 lb lasagna noodles (I used whole wheat)
three 6-oz cans tuna packed in water, drained
3 T Olive oil plus 1 T olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T balsamic vinegar
3 C torn arugula
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes to taste
handful of chopped basil

Directions
1. Roast the red peppers over a gas flame or under the broiler, turning occasionally, until charred all over. Transfer the peppers to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool. Peel, core, and chop the peppers.
2. In a small skillet, toast the pine nuts over moderate heat until golden, about four minutes. Let cool.
3. Transfer the peppers and the pine nuts to a blender. Add the garlic and whole basil leaves and blend until coarsely chopped. Add the olive oil and puree to a chunky pesto. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
4. Grease a baking sheet with 1 T olive oil. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the lasagna noodles until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet to prevent sticking.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the tuna, lemon juice, 3 T olive oil, balsamic vinegar; season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
6. Place a layer of lasagna noodles in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Top with 1/3 of tuna mixture, 1/3 of arugula and 1/4 of pesto. Repeat 2 more times, using remaining tuna mixture and arugula and topping with the remaining noodles. Divide lasagna into 6 portions. Top with remaining pesto and chopped basil.

We Want Food - Holy Basil, Batman!

The picture may not be terribly clear, but one thing is - this recipe is a keeper. Made Gai Pad Krapow for din din last night , and loved the results.

I pulled the recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Serious Eats and will definitely make it again. I made a few adjustments because what I had on hand (switched ground chicken for ground turkey; used broccolini instead of green beans; added some soy sauce; and chiffonaded the basil before adding.) I also went without the egg because, frankly, I forgot. I did, however, make and use the Nam Pla Prik (chili fish sauce), which in my opinion, totally made the dish. It added the tang of the lime and the umami of the fish sauce. The whole dish was spicy and salty and flavorful. Can't wait to have it again (although being a dutiful girlfriend, I let Daniel take the leftovers for lunch today...)