Cooking with the Barefoot Contessa: Perfect Roast Tomatoes

The beauty of this recipe is that you can use, pardon my French, crap tomatoes.  Ones that would even taste bad raw.  Because the time spent in the oven transforms these tomatoes into perfect, bite-sized tastes of the Mediterranean.  In fact, save the fragrant juicy tomatoes from your garden and those colorful heirlooms from the farmer's market for a fresh salad where you can really feature the flavor.  I've roasted tomatoes many, many times but have often stuck to cherry tomatoes.  They taste yummy but after trying Ina Garten's recipe, I'm sticking to roasting these kinds of tomatoes.  Want to know the secret?  Sugar!  Yes, not only do you sprinkle salt over the tomatoes, but 2 teaspoons of sugar.  It makes all the difference.  Recipe below.


Roasted Tomatoes from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa show
Ingredients (serves ~4)
10 plum tomatoes (I used roma tomatoes, they have a prettier shape and were easy to scoop out)
garlic
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
ground pepper, to taste
good balsamic vinegar (I used my favorite vinegar that we got in Modena on our tour of the acetaia)  
basil


Preheat oven to 450 F.  Slice 10 Roma tomatoes in half and scoop out the insides (seeds, etc.) so that all your left with is the shell.  (You can save the insides to use in a sauce later).  Place all 20 hollowed-out tomatoes on a pan.  Mince the garlic and sprinkle evenly over tomatoes.  Drizzle tomatoes with olive oil.  Sprinkle sugar and salt evenly over the tomatoes.  Drizzle balsamic vinegar.  Place in oven for at least 25 minutes or until done.  The longer you leave them in, the more they develop a sun-dried tomato consistency- it's delicious!  Chiffonade some basil and sprinkle over the cooked tomatoes.   

Cooking with the Barefoot Contessa: Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've always felt indifferent when it comes to banana bread.  You can count me out if it's chock-full-o nuts, and even when it isn't, I find it dry, flaky, and blandish.  But as usual, the Barefoot Contessa makes things right-- with banana cake.  It's super-duper moist, intensely decadent and filling, and the perfect way to win over banana 'bread' haters like my former self.  Can it still classify as a breakfast food if it's cake?  Well, I can make my own rules.  Recipe below.

Recipe for Banana Cake from Barefoot Contessa, How Easy is That?
Ingredients for Cake
3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
grated zest of 1 orange
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (I left these out)


Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons (3/4 of a stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar


Directions for Cake
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour a 9" X 2" round cake pan.  (I used a spring form pan which worked great).
In your electric mixer bowl with paddle attachment (I couldn't find mine but the regular whisk worked fine), mix bananas, sugar, and brown sugar on low speed until combined.  Add oil, eggs, sour cream, zest, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  


In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  With mixer on low, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix until just combined.  Stir in walnuts at this time if you choose to add them.  Pour batter into floured pan and bake in oven for 45-50 minutes or until done.  Do the toothpick test (it should come out clean).  Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove.  Frost the cake with cream cheese frosting.


Directions for Frosting
Mix together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in clean bowl in electric mixer w/ paddle attachment on low speed until just combined.  (You don't want to whip it).  Add sugar and mix until smooth.


Enjoy!

Cooking with the Barefoot Contessa: Perfect Roast Chicken and A One Year Anniversary

It's hard for me to believe but today is the one-year mark of when I first started this blog.  I thought it would be fun to finally get my own domain name, so now you can find me at wanderingvoyager.com.  In celebration, I would like to offer one of my favorite recipes.  Until a few months ago, I had never roasted a whole chicken before.  Ina Garten's recipe for Perfect Roast Chicken is unfussy yet delicious.  Everyone should have a reliable recipe for roast chicken in their cooking repertoire!  Check out the recipe below.

Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken


Ingredients

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise (don't worry about peeling it!)
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
• Olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Pat outside dry with paper towel. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. (I had a little difficulty with that but luckily everything cooked evenly!)  Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. (If your oven is temperamental like mine, you can turn the chicken over for the last half hour of cooking time).  Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!