Author: LK

Tonight, I made another recipe that I saw first over at Je Mange la Ville. Love that blog. This panini was every bit as delicious as it sounded- fig jam, proscuitto, and goat cheese? I mean, come on! This does take a little more time than most of my recipes what with the jam and all, but you only need about an hour all together so it’s not totally impossible for a weeknight. I knew I was going to be late tonight, so I had my husband start on the jam and the onions. They came out great and he had no complaints, so it must be really easy. Oh, did I mention the onions yet? They are so good. They taste like a blooming onion, but without the greasy breading.

I wanted something different on the side, so I thought I’d try to recreate the chickpea salad that I had at The Ginger Man. Well, I was out of a bunch of ingredients that I planned on using, so mine was pretty different. It was super good though, with a nice texture and a bright flavor. I have a feeling that variations on this are going to be heavy in my rotation this summer.

For the salad:

• 1 large can chickpeas
• 5 radishes, thinly sliced.
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 T red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T dried mint
• Some fresh parsley, chopped
• kosher salt, and lots of cracked pepper

Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Toss with the radishes in a large dish. In a large bowl, combine lemon juice, oil, vinegar, garlic, mint, and parsley. Mix well. Add about 1/8 of the chickpeas. With a potato masher, mash chickpeas into the liquid until its nice and soft. Add the rest of the chickpeas and radishes, and toss to coat everything well. Add a little bit of kosher salt and lots of fresh cracked pepper.

For the sandwiches:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 cup  dried calamaria figs , stemmed and halved
• 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
• 1 tbsp chilled butter, diced
• 1 cup loosely packed baby spinach
• 8 slices of good bread (I used a soft Italian)
• 1/4 lb prosciutto
• 4 oz goat cheese

1. Bring water, wine, sugar, figs, and rosemary to boil in small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture is reduced to  1/2 cup, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly. Puree until it has a smooth consistency.

2. Preheat oven to 400. Place onion rounds on a baking sheet. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast until tender, about 45 minutes.

3. Assembly sandwiches: Spread 4 pieces of bread with about 2 T fig jam. Top each piece with 1 oz cheese, prosciutto, spinach, and onion. Top with another piece of bread. Cook in a panini press; alternately, cook in a hot grill pan while placing a heavy weight (a can works well) on top of each sandwich to smoosh it together.

Serves 4.

Today was one of those days. I came home from work ready to bang heads together (and I knew exactly which two I wanted to use). All the chopping in this recipe was kind of cathartic.

Seriously though, this was super easy to make and it was really good. The husband volunteered that he thought “the flavors are really complex and for something so simple there’s a lot of depth. I give it a 9 out of 10.” When I asked him what a 10 would be, he wasn’t able to answer. I might not be quite so generous (I’d give it an 8,) but it’s more his style meal than mine. I really liked the polenta chips… they had a nice crunch on the outside, but were still nice and chewy in the middle. Again really flavorful, and much lighter than pasta or bread would have been.

I want to take a minute to give a shoutout to Bilinkski sausages here. This is our favorite brand of chicken sausages. We’ve been eating them for years, and started because they tasted the best… but we’ve since discovered they also have about a third the calories and fat that other chicken sausages have! They’re all natural (some are organic) AND local (from Cohoes, NY- just up the street)- always a plus with me. Tonight I used the Sun Dried Tomato flavor, which was delicious and went perfectly with this recipe. if you can find these near you, I highly recommend them. They have a ton of flavors, and I’ve been happy with every one that I’ve tried.

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 red peppers, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• Palmful dried thyme
• 1 T. tomato paste
• 2/3 c. white wine (I used sauvignon blanc)
• 1 tube polenta (I used Italian seasoned)
• 1 pkg chicken sausage

1. Preheat oven to 400. Heat 1 tsp oil in a large oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add fennel and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add peppers, garlic, and thyme. Cook another 4 minutes. Stir in wine and tomato paste. Transfer skillet to oven.

2. Start cooking sausages. I grilled mine, but a grill pan indoors would work just as well.

3. While sausages cook, heat remaining oil in a second pan. Cut polenta into thin slices (I got about 25 slices from 1 tube) and add to hot oil. Cook until crisp, turning once (about 5 minutes on each side).