The Italian Dish

Homemade Beet Chips

2013-05-21T11:20:00Z

I dare you to eat just one of these amazing homemade beet chips. They are just downright addictive. This is healthy snack food that you can feel good about eating. They are super easy to make and only take about an hour in your oven. You don't even have to be a beet lover to love these chips. I've had a couple of people try them who loved them and were totally surprised to learn they were beets.

I was slicing beets for a raw beet salad one day on my mandoline and was thinking about how it was like slicing the apples for my homemade apple chips. I wondered if I could make chips out of these, too. So I sliced a bunch farily thinly and tossed them with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper and roasted them slowly in the oven. I did several batches over several days, experimenting with the oven temperature and the cooking time until I was totally happy with them.

The technique for making these kinds of chips is to slow roast them in the oven on a fairly low setting for a long time, dehydrating them. You draw out the moisture in the vegetable or fruit, which concentrates the flavor. You end up with an amazing flavor. You just have to try it.

the stems on the beets make a great "handle" to hold as you slice them

Slicing them on a mandoline really makes the job easy, fast and the slices uniform. If you don't have a mandoline, get one. You don't have to buy a really expensive one - they have become very popular and you can even buy a little handheld one. I have a nice stainless steel one, but I do use mine all the time. I love slicing things on it.

One thing I learned from cooking several batches is that, unlike the apple chips, the beets cook up faster. You also do not need to flip them, like the apple chips. I tried flipping them halfway through the cooking time and then not flipping them, and it didn't matter. The cooking time will depend, of course, on the beets you get - how fresh they are, how large they are, how much moisture they have, etc. A convection oven will draw out the moisture even better and you will be able to make three pans at a time. If you don't have a convection oven, you will have to rotate the pans. So there are a lot of variables. Make a batch and see how your oven performs. Watch the beets - they will start to really darken and even burn a little if you let them go too long.

Also, I made both red and yellow (or golden) beets. They are both delicious, but I did prefer the golden beets. I think the flavor was just a little different and they had less moisture, so they crisped up a little better. If you've never bought golden beets, try them. I love them anyway raw on salads.

Homemade Beet Chips

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You really can use any sized beet you like and make chips out of them. They shrink a lot in size, so bigger beets will make a nice size chip. The seasoning is totally up to you - adjust it the way you like. I like a lot of pepper on mine.

If you have a convection oven, you can make 3 pans of these at one time.

Ingredients:

2 large beets
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 300° F. (or 275° F for convection oven). Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper.

Peel the beets. Slice them to about 1/16" inch (1.6 mm) thick, at the most. Toss them in a large bowl in the olive oil and salt and pepper. (If you have time, you can wait for 30 minutes or so after this step - especially with the red beets, the salt will draw out some excess moisture). Lay them on the baking sheet, just barely touching.

Bake for about one hour until the edges are crisped up and most of the beets have dried out. Because you will have different sized slices from the same beet, you will have some smaller chips and some larger chips. This will let you have a little bit of variety in the crispiness of the chips and you can decide how you like them for your next batch.

Remove from baking sheet when you think they're done and place them on a serving plate on in a bowl. They crisp up a little as they cool down. They are fine over night at room temperature or you can refrigerate them for a little longer storage. To crisp them up again, just put them on a baking sheet and bake them at 400 ° for a few minutes.

They're so good though, it's rare to have leftovers.

Tuscan Roast Pork in a Baguette

2013-05-07T10:36:00Z

Here's an easy recipe that lets you do something different with pork tenderloin. It uses the classic combination of fresh sage, rosemary and sea salt that goes so well with pork. It's a cinch to make - the pork is seared and then tucked inside the baguette, wrapped in foil and baked in the oven. You slice it up and eat it like a sandwich.

Avocado Caesar Dressing

2013-04-23T09:07:00Z

I know a gal who is so obsessed with avocados that she has written a cookbook devoted to just avocados! She is Gaby Dalkin, author of "What's Gaby Cooking" and she just happens to be my goddaughter. "Absolutely Avocados" will show you many new and fun ways to use avocados. Her love of avocados really comes through in this book. It has certainly given me a new appreciation of what you can do with an avocado.

Drunken Pasta

2013-04-09T10:20:00Z

Here's a good reason to open a bottle of red wine - Drunken Pasta. After slightly cooking your pasta in water, you finish cooking it in red wine. It comes out a nice red color and very flavorful. The recipe is easy and doesn't require a long list of ingredients. This is definitely a great little pantry dish.

What kind of red wine to use? Something dry, fruity and good enough to drink - a Chianti or a Zinfandel works great.

Pesto Stuffed Eggs

2013-03-26T09:57:00Z

I thought these eggs would be a pretty addition to an Easter buffet or perfect for a Spring brunch. I love deviled eggs but these are a nice change. They are filled with a mixture of pesto and ricotta cheese with a little lemon juice for zing. They are super easy to make and just look like Spring to me.

Suzanne Goin's Meyer Lemon Tart with Chocolate

2013-03-12T10:18:00Z

My oldest son was taking a trip out to L.A. recently and asked for some restaurant recommendations. I told him to try to go to Lucques, the restaurant owned by Suzanne Goin. That reminded me that I've always wanted to make her Meyer Lemon Tart, from her book, "Sunday Suppers at Lucques". It's a different kind of lemon tart, because it has a layer of bittersweet chocolate on the bottom, an idea she got from her sister, who asked her to put some chocolate in her lemon tart.

Speedy Mini Lasagna Stacks with Pesto and Marinara Sauce

2013-02-26T05:41:00Z

How would you like a super fast way to make lasagna? I know I do a lot of pasta making from scratch on this site and I wanted to show you guys a really fast way to make lasagna without having to make or boil noodles and that would cook up much faster than regular lasagna. This is also a much lighter lasagna - it doesn't have any bechamel or ricotta cheese in it, just a little sprinkling of mozzarella on top to finish it off. And it's incredibly delicious. In fact, I think it's maybe my all time favorite lasagna.

Salmon Ravioli

2013-02-12T11:07:00Z

I have some upcoming pasta classes in the next few weeks and it's always fun to demonstrate to students how easy it is to make homemade ravioli. There's so many ways to make ravioli, but my favorite way is to use this mold. I can make ravioli so fast with this thing. All you have to do is to roll out the pasta sheets, press into your mold, place a little filling in each well and lay another sheet on top. Flip the mold over, cut and separate the ravioli. It's fun. The mold enables you to make nice uniform ravioli, which will cook up evenly.

Pamela Sheldon John's Pork Rolls Stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach

2013-01-29T18:42:00Z

Cucina Povera is an expression in Italian cooking that literally means "the poor kitchen". It is used when referring to peasant cooking and having to make do with what you have and not wasting anything. I was recently sent a copy of "Cucina Povera", Pamela Sheldon Johns' beautiful new cookbook in which she has shared just these kind of dishes from Italy. She has a number of interviews with her Tuscan friends who recall what it was like to cook and eat through hard times. It's a very interesting book to read aside from the great recipes it has in it, like classic Ribollita, Farro Salad and a cookie I love - Ugly but Good (Brutti ma Buoni).

Italian Cenci

2013-01-15T09:31:00Z

Carnevale will be starting soon in Italy and these little delicious morsels called cenci are a traditional treat during that time. They are very much like the elephant ears we have in this country - fried pieces of dough, dusted in powdered sugar. There are many different recipes for them and different names. I've made mine with the fresh taste of orange zest and a little rum.