First Prize!

What a week!!!  I knew it was going to be a busy one when I counted appointments and found nineteen on the calendar.  As is usual, a couple rescheduled and a couple got added.  But, I was working my tookus off just to be prepared.  Then, in walks an auditor.  In my business, audits are regular.  As well they should be.  We're working with people's money.  Surprise audits are to be expected on a regular basis also.  The good news is that this fellow was experienced and we had zero deficiencies.  But, I was in the office or working from home fourteen hours a day.  I was totally exhausted.  Then, yesterday, I got an email that, shall we say, rather changed my energy level.  It was from the folks at Eggland's Best.  About a month ago I entered my Puttanesca Salad into their contest.  The email was telling me it won first prize!!!  Holy Cow!!!  I've entered a couple of contests before but have never won anything.  How much fun is this?

So, rather than share the Vietnamese Beef recipe I'd planned on sharing, I thought I'd do that later and share a link to the Puttanesca Salad recipe today.  Before I do, just a bit of history on the recipe.  Wikipedia says, "Spaghetti alla puttanesca (literally "whore's style spaghetti" in Italian) is a spicy, tangy, somewhat salty Italian pasta dish invented in the mid-20th century. The ingredients are typical of Southern Italian cuisine."

My first memory of spaghetti alla puttanesca was on a visit to Las Vegas twenty plus years ago to see my friends Steve and Terri.  Terri's mom had found the recipe in the Silver Palate cookbook and was raving about it.  It had all the ingredients I love:  olives, anchovies, garlic and yes, tomatoes.  It became one of my go-to pasta dishes.  When I met Connie I fixed it for him and he loved the dish as much as I did.  Fast forward to today and my love for poached eggs.  Once I figured out how to make them I knew I'd found my perfect egg.  Not that I was going to do without our go-to Sunday breakfast of a hard-cooked egg, halved and topped with an anchovy and capers and drizzled with olive oil.

Or, for that matter, egg salad, deviled eggs, frittata,

quiche, scrambled eggs, like Heartland Scramble

or any of the other wonderful ways to fix eggs.  But, a poached egg gives me a cooked white AND a runny yolk. Nirvana.  And, I've found that adding a poached egg to a dish finishes it in a way nothing else can do. 

Here are some of my favorite dishes with poached eggs:

Crabcakes Benedict

Poached Eggs on Feta Cheese

English Muffins with Spinach and Eggs

Last, but not least, here's the link to Eggland's Best Puttanesca Salad.  It combines two of my favorite things in one dish - puttanesca sauce and a poached egg.  And, it tastes really, really good!

Prosciutto Mozzarella Frittata

We typically eat a REAL breakfast on Sunday mornings.  Eggs and something.  For some reason, those appeal to me more than waffles or pancakes.  Since we're highlighting Food and Wine for a month, I pulled up one of The Dish emails featuring breakfast dishes.  It may have even been all eggs.  At any rate, I wound up with about four recipes to choose from.  They all sounded great and had ingredients that, for the most part, I had on hand. Then, I opened the October issue of Food and Wine and found the perfect recipe to start with.  I even had a container of the little mozzarella balls that said use by 9/19/10.  Sunday was 9/19/10.  Score. 

Saturday we left the office rather early to get up to Jana and John's for a boat ride and dinner.  And, we wanted to get home at a reasonable hour on Sunday since there was the little matter of the home opener.  Peyton vs Eli.  BTW - did you see the Direct TV ad where Eli stuffs Peyton in the closet?  It's worth finding on the internet if you've not seen it.  At any rate, we wanted to get to the office early on Sunday.  That meant finding a recipe that's super easy to make.  Again, this one was perfect. 

What did we think?  We loved it.  I didn't have prosciutto so used some genoa salami.  I'd probably do the same again since the flavor was so wonderful.  I don't have an ovenproof skillet other than cast iron so chose to use a lid and cook the frittata on the stovetop.  It worked perfectly.  All in all, I can't think of a thing I'd change.  The only problem with this recipe is that you really need a garden-fresh tomato so making it in the winter will be a bit of a problem.  Unless you want to use grape tomatoes...

Prosciutto Mozzarella Frittata

Ingredients:

 5 large eggs
2 T milk
1 T freshly grated Romano
1 T chopped basil
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 1/2 T olive oil
1 medium shallot, finely minced
1 small-medium tomato diced
4 thin slices prosciutto, cut into strips (or about 4 slices of genoa salami)
4 oz fresh mozzarella, cubed (or about a dozen small mozzarella balls)



Beat the eggs

with the milk, Romano cheese, basil, salt and pepper. 

In an 8" skillet, saute on medium heat the shallot and salami in the olive oil just until the shallot has softened. 

Add the diced tomato and saute just until it's softened.

Then pour in the eggs. 

Add the mozzarella cubes or balls. 

DO NOT STIR!  Cover with a lid and cook until the eggs are done. 

adapted from Food and Wine




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This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.