Rice Ring With Meat Sauce Stuffing

This is a true crowd pleaser if serving at a party or a dinner. It's literally dinner in a pan. Serve with an arugula salad and dinner is done!

Rice Ring Stuffed With Meat Sauce

Meat Sauce


1 bottle or can of tomato puree
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp. olive oil
450 gr (1 lb) ground beef
1 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste

Meat Sauce

Sautee the onion, garlic until translucent. Add ground beef and sautee until fully cooked. Add the tomato sauce, parsley and let simmer on med/low heat for about 40 minutes stirring the sauce often. Add peas  and let cook. Set aside.


For the rice ring you will need to boil 6 cups of water with salt and 3 cups of Arborio rice.

In the meantime prepare your bundt pan.

Butter your bundt pan and coat with bread crumbs, I used the Italian seasoning bread crumbs

Once your Arborio rice has cooked and cooled down, add 1 cup of parmesan cheese and two eggs to your rice. Blend thoroughly.

Wet Hands and Form Rice in Pan

Fill With Meat Sauce and add chunks of mozzarella (about half a ball)

Cover with remaining rice. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes

Let cool for about 15 minutes before slicing. Serve with remaining sauce.

Polenta Fries

Polenta considered northern Italy's peasant food back in the day has now become a gourmet item. Even though my parents are from the central part of Italy, polenta was served particularly in the winter months. My mother would serve hot polenta with a delicious tomato sauce topped with homemade sausages.

Today I converted this plain corn flour into delicious fries. The dipping sauce is made of homemade tomato sauce. Adding a little hot pepper would add a little zing to this dish.

Polenta Fries Served With Spicy Tomato Sauce

Polenta Fries

Preheat Oven to 425 degrees F

4 cups water, salted
1 cup polenta flour (cornmeal)
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Pinch salt and pepper

Boil the water. Add salt and polenta stirring constantly. For about 20 minutes or until mixture has thickened.

 

 

Once the mixture has thickened, remove from heat and add the rosemary and parmesan. Stir until well incorporated. Spread onto a greased baking sheet.

Refrigerate the polenta until completely cooled. For about an hour. In the meantime, you can start making the tomato sauce.

1 can of tomato puree (14 ounces)
2 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
1/2 onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes

Simmer all the ingredients above in a pot on medium heat. Cook for about 20-30 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, you can grab the polenta. Remove from pan and start slicing the polenta into fries. I dipped the wedges into rice flour to add more crispiness to the fries. You can use regular flour if you wish.

Bake the fries for about 25-30 minutes or until crispy; rotating the pan halfway through. Remove and sprinkle with more parmesan if you wish.

Healthy and gluten free!

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

A friend of mine shared her family's pound cake recipe with me which I love to make. She brings this cake in to work to share with us and on special occasions. This is where simple just tastes so good. Only a few ingredients and you have such a moist, buttery cake. She uses almond extract which gives a nice almond taste. If that's not your thing, you can use a lemon extract to substitute. That's why I love baking. I always like to tweak recipes to how I like it.

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

1/2 lb butter (at room temperature)
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp almond extract or you can use vanilla or lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease an 8 inch tube cake pan

Cream butter well. Add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, mixing well. Then add eggs, one at a time. Then add flour, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Almond flavoring comes last.

Pour into your prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.