Hot Tub Time Machine Wine Club

We had wine club on Saturday night in my backyard; the theme was hot tub time machine and everyone came dressed up in their finest 80's gear and brought white wine that we blind tasted in paper bags.  In addition to an antipasti plate, I made roasted tomato, burrata, pesto crostinis, smoked salmon mousse on crackers, salad with roasted beets, roasted almonds and a shallot champagne vinaigrette dressing and a turkey kale lasagna (not pictured unfortunately).  I kept everything relatively fresh and healthy; almost everything was organic and mostly from the farmer's market and Whole Foods.  More pictures here.

Roasted Tomato, Burrata, Pesto Crostinis:

• Wash and slice 1.5 lbs of organic roma tomatoes
• Layout on a large sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in an oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes and nice and soft.  Roasting the tomatoes really brings out the sweetness in the tomatoes
• Slice on a diagonal 1 large baguette (from Bay Cities), layout on a large sheet pan and toast in the oven at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes until the top is just crunchy
• Spread one layer of pesto (recipe), layer on one tomato, a scoop of fresh burrata from Gioia, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve

Smoked Salmon Mousse

• Chop up 1/2 lb of smoked salmon filet (not thinly sliced, you can find smoked salmon at both Trader Joes and Whole Foods) in a food processor
• Add ~4-5 TBs of light soft cream cheese to the food processor and blend.  Adjust cream cheese accordingly; add cream cheese until the mixture is smooth, with no dry flakes of salmon visible
• Add 1/2 tsp of horseradish, 1 tsp of worcestershire sauce, a drizzle of honey, a squeeze of lemon and white pepper to taste, and blend all together (you can play around with these ingredients, you don't necessarily need all them)
• Pipe the smoked salmon mousse onto round crackers (I cut a small hole in the corner of a ziploc bag and squeezed the salmon mousse through the hole onto the crackers)
• Sprinkle chopped chives over the crackers and salmon mousse

Turkey and Kale Lasagna (I made two 9x13 pans, but this is a single pan recipe)

• Over medium heat in a 5 quart Le Creuset oval french oven, heat up a couple TB of olive oil and saute 1 chopped large organic onion for 5-10 minutes until softened.  Add 4 cloves of minced garlic towards the end and saute for 1-2 minutes (one thing that I meant to do but forgot is to first saute 1/4 lb of cubed pancetta, and then cook the onion and garlic in the leftover oil)
• Add 1 large organic orange pepper (or red or yellow) and two chopped carrots and saute until starting to soften
• Add 1/2 lb of hot italian turkey sausage, 1/2 lb of mild italian turkey sausage (sausages removed from casings) and 1/2 lb of organic dark ground turkey meat (all from Whole Foods).  Saute until cooked, and break up the turkey as much as possible
• Add a little milk (I used a little heavy cream since I had it in the fridge) to the turkey to tenderize it a bit
• Add tomato paste (I used half a 6 oz can of tomato paste and a couple squeezes of san marzano tomato paste) to the meat and stir it around until the tomato paste caramelizes a bit and turns a rust color
• Add ~1 cup of red wine and 1 28oz can of organic diced tomatoes, handful of minced parsley, a few basil leaves, 1 tsp of fresh thyme leaves, 1/2 tsp of dried oregano, bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for at least 1/2 hour
• Blanch 1 bunch of kale (stems removed) and add to the pot towards the end.  The red sauce part of the lasagna is done (I made this part the night before)
• For the white part of the lasagna: combine 1 lb of fresh ricotta from Gioia, 1/4 lb of fresh goat cheese, 1 large egg, handful of minced parsley, 1/2- 1 cup of grated parmigiana reggiano, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of ground pepper and mix it all together
• Slice 1 lb of fresh mozzarella
• To assemble the lasagna, in a 9x13 baking dish, layer 1 cup of red meat sauce, 3 pieces of lasagna noodle, 2 cups of red meat sauce, 1-2 cups of the ricotta mixture, slices of mozzarella cheese, 3 pieces of lasagna, 2 cups of red meat sauce, 1-2 cups of the ricotta mixture, slices of mozzarella cheese, 3 pieces of lasagna, 2 cups of red meat sauce, slices of mozzarella cheese and top with grated parmigiana reggiano
• Baked covered in foil in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, uncover, and then bake until bubbling throughout the pan

Shallot and Champagne Vinaigrette Dressing:

• Mince finely 1 small shallot; about 1 TB 
• Add 1/4 - 1/3 cup of champagne vinegar
• 1-2 tsp of dijon mustard
• 1-2 tsp of agave nectar
• Salt and pepper and whisk together and let sit for at least half hour to let the flavors combine 
• Add 1/4 cup of olive oil and whisk it all together.  Taste for seasoning