Sausage Stuffed Turkey Breast

Stuffed with a filling of sausage, onions, and dried cranberries, this dish is a nice alternative to roasting a whole turkey. I personally prefer turkey white meat over brown, so stuffing a turkey breast is always my first choice unless I am serving a large group of guests. Although it isn’t too difficult to remove the bone and butterfly the turkey breast yourself, you can always ask your butcher to debone and butterfly it for you.

 
Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele 2011
 

Sausage Stuffed Turkey Breast

Yield: Serves 4 – 6

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

A nice alternative to roasting a whole turkey.

Ingredients:

1 (4 Pound) Turkey Breast, Bone Removed & Butterflied
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Small Onion, Peeled & Diced
2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Minced
3/4 Pound Sweet Italian Sausages
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries
1 Teaspoons Crushed Fennel Seeds
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1 Cup White Wine
2 Tablespoons Flour

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onions until tender.
Add the garlic, and cook another minute or two, then remove the onion mixture to a bowl.
Remove the sausage meat from the casings, and crumble it into the bowl with the onions.
Add the fennel seeds and dried cranberries to the sausage mixture and season with salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Open the butterflied breast and pound it with a meat mallet until it is an equal thickness throughout.
Spread the sausage mixture over the breast, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border.
Roll up tightly and tie with kitchen twine.
Place the breast in a small roasting pan, with half the wine and chicken broth.
Cook the breast, basting every 15 minutes with wine mixture until the turkey breast reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Remove the breast from the oven, place on a platter, and cover with foil.
Take the pan from the oven and drain off any excess oil.
Place the oven over a burner and add the remaining wine mixture and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Remove a few spoonfuls of the liquid and mix it together with the flour in a small bowl until smooth.
Whisk the flour mixture into the liquid in the pan and stir until thickened.
Season the sauce with salt and pepper and strain through a sieve.
Cut the twine off the turkey breast and cut into 1/2 inch slices.
Serve, offering a little sauce.

Having had an Italian recipe blog online for almost 10 years now, has meant that both I personally, and Italian Food Forever have gone through a number of changes over the years, and after three years with the same old look, I decided it was time for one more. Italian Food Forever has had facelift, and I am very pleased to unveil our new look! As well as a cleaner look, I wanted a more functional blog that would be easier for me to work with, and easier for my blog visitors to navigate, so decided I needed to make the switch from Joomla to WordPress with lots of help from some very talented people.

The amazing Lindsay of Pur Designs did all the initial logo and blog design work, and incorporated gorgeous watercolors I commissioned from Etsy artist Laura Herron into the design for me. Laura did the farmhouse with sunflower image above, as well as the two sunflower images in the header. Lindsay was wonderful to work with and seemed to know exactly what I needed after asking just a few questions. I’d highly recommend her work! After Lindsay handed over the new blog, it took almost six long weeks of work on my part loading recipes, blog posts and other content. As well as what I was doing, I also had lots of help from Mark W. Law who has been overseeing Italian Food Forever along with his wife Lori since it was first launched almost 10 years ago. Mark made all the many tweaks on the new blog to get everything just the way I wanted it (and I tend to be very picky!), and I am really thrilled with how everything turned out. Thanks so much Lindsay, Laura, and Mark for all your help!

You may ask what improvements we’ve made on the new blog, and I assure you there are many!

The recipes are now easier to find by using the Recipe Category Page, search by ingredient, or by using the basic blog search function. For categories that contained many recipes, the category is broken down again into subcatories to make it easier to find the perfect recipe you are looking for. The recipes have now all been formatted according to Google restrictions, (lots of work!) so are now easier to follow, and all will print out without images. Soon, we hope to be partnering with Ziplist and will allow IFF guests to save their favorite recipes in their own personalized recipe box. Presently, no recipes were posted without an image, although I will be going through the older recipes and taking photos of those I feel are too good not to be included.

The recipes are now in a separate category from blog posts, and the blog posts have been separated into two separate formats; those focusing on featured ingredients and cooking techniques you’ll find in the Mangia Bene Blog , while the blog posts relating to our time spent every year in Umbria can be found under Life In Italy.

Under Kitchen Resources, you’ll find handy substitution and conversion charts, a glossary of Italian ingredients, my cookbook reviews, and a list of my favorite Italian and food blogs.

Under Italian Resources, you’ll find all those related links I had on the old blog including Italian online products, ceramics, plus some cultural and wine links.

I have also switched newsletter delivery services and am now using FeedBlitz. I feel this service will be much easier for folks to sign up for the IFF newsletter, and it will be sent out automatically by email once a week and include any new recipes or blog posts from that week. It is a great way to keep up with what’s new on IFF, and much easier on me as well, leaving me more time for recipe development. Although I have done my best to import all the newsletter subscribers over to FeedBlitz, if you are worried you may miss a mailing, simply add your name to subscribe in the box found at the top right side of every page.

I hope you like the new Italian Food Forever as much as I do, and now that the work behind getting the blog in order has been completed, I can once again spend my time in the kitchen developing new recipes to post!

Deborah Mele
November 2011

Chicken Liver Spread

I like to have a number of easy options available over the hoidays for guests who we invite over for a glass of holiday cheer, and find spreads and dips work perfectly. The method used to cook this liver pate, or mousse, creates a very creamy texture that is perfect for spreading onto slices of toasted bread or whole grain crackers. The spread has just a subtle liver flavor that is delicious when brandy and spices are added in, and is very similar to some liver spreads I’ve enjoyed while in Tuscany. I actually tripled my recipe when I made it, and made three separate crocks so I could freeze two to enjoy over the Christmas holidays. This delicious spread would also be a great hostess gift along with a bag of artisan seeded crackers.

Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele 2011
 

Creamy Tuscan Chicken Liver Spread

Yield: Serves 6 – 8

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 50 mins

Baking the spread in the oven as you would a custard creates a very creamy texture.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Chopped Onion
2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Minced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Brandy
6 Ounces Trimmed Chicken Livers
5 Large Egg Yolks
1 Cup Whole Milk
1/4 Teaspoon Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Grted Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Allspice
Salt & Pepper
Topping: (Optional)
6 Tablespoons Butter
2 Fresh Bay Leaves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet, and cook the onions until lightly golden brown, then add the garlic and cook another minute or two.
Remove from the heat and add the brandy and then return to the heat and cook until the brandy has reduced by half.
Place the onion mixture in a food processor along with the chicken livers and egg yolks and blend until smooth.
Add the milk, flour, nutmeg, allspice, salt and pepper and blend until well mixed.
Pour the mixture into a crock large enough to hold it all, and then place the crock in a larger oven-proof pan filled halfway up the sides of the crock with water.
Bake until the spread has set when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 to 55 minutes.
Remove from the water bath, and cool to room temperature.
If making the topping, melt the butter in a small pan over low heat then let sit 5 minutes.
Arrange the bay leaves onto the spread, and then spoon the clarified butter on top.
Refrigerate the spread at least one hour before serving although it can be made up to 5 days in advance.

Cranberry Walnuts Squares

After Thanksgiving every year I always end up with extra fresh cranberries. I am not sure why I buy so many, whether I am worried they may disappear from the stores before I have my fill of fresh cranberries, or if I simply think we really need a double batch of cranberry sauce every year. Whatever the reason, I had two extra bags of fresh cranberries leftover yet again this year after Thanksgiving so I decided to use some of them in this simple bar cookie to freeze for the upcoming Christmas holidays.

The bottom crust for these cookies is a buttery shortbread type, and you simply use some of the dough used for the bottom crust as the crumb topping after mixing it with chopped walnuts. Because of the tartness of the cranberries, these cookies are not too sweet so would be great anytime of the day as a snack.

Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele 2011
 

Cranberry Walnut Squares

Yield: Makes 24 Squares

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 25 mins

A buttery cookie with a tart cranberry and apple filling.

Ingredients:

For The Bottom & Top:
1 Cup Walnuts
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup (8 Ounces) Cold, Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Small Pieces
1 Large Egg, Beaten
Filling:
3 Cups Fresh Cranberries
1 Cup Grated Fresh Apple
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Maple Syrup
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
Dash of Salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the crust, first line a 13 X 9 inch baking pan with aluminum foil leaving a 2 inch overhang, and spray well with cooking spray.
In a food processor, grind 1/2 of the walnuts until finely ground, and then add the flour, baking powder and salt.
Pulse to mix, and then add the butter and pulse until the mixture is the size of peas.
Remove 1 cup of the mixture to a separate bowl, then add the egg to the food processor and pulse until the dough comes together.
Place the dough from the food processor into your prepared pan, and press well to cover the bottom.
Pierce the crust with a fork to prevent it rising, and then bake until the crust just begins to color and feels set to the touch, about 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool.
For the filling, in a saucepan add all of the filling ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat, and cook over medium low heat stirring often until the mixture has thickened, about 10 minutes.
Spoon the filling mixture over the bottom crust and spread evenly.
For the top, first chop the remaining walnuts and add these to the reserved crust mixture.
Use your fingers to rub the mixture until it begins to clump together.
Sprinkle the topping over the cranberry filling, breaking it small pieces as you do so.
Bake until the squares are golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool, then using the foil overhang remove from the pan and cut into 2 dozen squares.

Recipe adapted from Fine Cooking.

Rosemary Butter Cookies

When it comes to cookies, everyone in my family has their own personal favorites, but I personally prefer simpler cookies such as these butter cookies. I make a number of variations of these cookies during the holidays, some with finely chopped nuts, some decorated with icing, and others just left plain and cut into different shapes. These cookies I flavored with finely chopped rosemary which really adds a nice flavor. These cookies could be served with a morning cappuccino or even with a glass of red wine after dinner. The cookies keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container, or frozen, will keep up to a month.

You can make these cookies in a number of different ways, either pressing the dough into a 9 inch cake pan, baking the cookies, and then cutting the cookies into wedges while still warm, or by rolling the dough out as I did, and using a cookie cutter to cut out individual shapes. You can also decorate the tops of the cookies with a few leaves of the fresh rosemary before baking, but since I will be serving my cookies at Christmas to children who do not care for “green things” in their food, I simply decorated the cookies with rosemary for the photos.

Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele 2011
 

Rosemary Butter Cookies

Yield: 2 Dozen Cookies

Prep Time: 25 mins for small cookies + extra time for wedges

Cook Time: 25 mins

These cookies are tender and slightly sweet with a subtle flavor of rosemary.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Unsalted Butter At Room Temperature
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 3/4 Cups All-purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons Finely Chopped Rosemary

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and blend, and continue beating for 3 to 4 more minutes.
Add the salt, chopped rosemary, and flour, and mix just until combined.
Either divide the dough into two pieces and press each half into 2 (9 inch) cake pans, or roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/2 inch and then cut into shapes using cookie cutters.
Place the cut cookies onto parchment covered baking sheets, and bake for about 25 minutes, or just until the cookies begin to brown on the bottom.