Recipes Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Oh My Heartsie Girl

July 15, 2019

A Classic Neapolitan Pizza Recipe You Can Make at Home

Did you know that pizza is one of the most historic foods available today? People were eating flatbread with toppings back in the time of the Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks.

But the birthplace of the pizza we know today was in Italy’s southwestern Campania region. This is the home of Naples.

So the next time you have a craving for pizza, try the original. Use this Neapolitan pizza recipe and give your family a delicious homemade treat.

Origin of Neapolitan Pizza

This simple and fresh pizza originated in Naples, Italy. It’s meant to feature the flavors of a few quality ingredients.

No fancy toppings are meant for this pizza. All you need are dough, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and olive oil.

One of the most defining characteristics of this style of pizza is that there is more sauce than cheese. This tends to make the middle of the pizza soggy, so you’ll find them offered in smaller sizes.

In the 1700s, people commonly ate a type of flatbread. It wasn’t until the 1800s when people began to put tomatoes on it. Many Europeans believed tomatoes were poisonous, so the poor peasants of Naples began eating them.

It wasn’t until 1889 when King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy visited Naples that the first Margherita pizza was made. In honor of the queen’s visit, a pizza was created to celebrate the colors of the Italian flag.

Tomatoes for the red, mozzarella for the white, and basil leaves for the green. This creation is what we know as a Neapolitan pizza today.

The Dough

To create an authentic Neapolitan pizza, you have to start with the right foundation. You need a crust that uses the right ingredients to create the right texture.

First, you need to use highly refined wheat flour. Find an Italian type 0 or 00. You will then mix it with fresh brewer’s yeast. This is not the same as dry yeast.

To finish the dough add water and salt. Mix your dough by hand or in a mixer at a low speed. Do not use a rolling pin on your dough.

The Toppings

Once you have your dough formed, you’ll need to add the toppings. The tomatoes are raw San Marzano tomatoes from Italy. You’ll puree them into a paste and spread it over the dough.

There are only two options when it comes to cheese. It can either be for do latte that is made from cow’s milk or mozzarella di Bufala, which is made from water buffalo milk.

The final step is to top the cheese with fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil.

The Baking

Once you’ve created your pizza, it bakes for 60 to 90 seconds at a minimum of 800 degrees in a stone oven or wood fire.

Make a Neapolitan at Home

Making an authentic pizza sounds all well and good, but let’s be realistic, not all of us have access to special flour, tomatoes, and cheese.

Even fewer of us have access to an 800-degree oven. So we are going to provide you with an at-home alternative like toaster oven.

The main goal is to have a thin, soft crust that you bake for a short time at a very high temperature. You want the crust to bubble and char in spots.

The Dough

To make your dough, you will need to mix warm water, active dry yeast, olive oil, kosher salt, and 00 flour.

2 cups warm water
7 cups 00 flour
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 packet dry active yeast

Combine the water, yeast, and olive oil and leave alone for ten minutes. Then combine with the flour. Knead dough until it is smooth. Form it into a tight ball and leave it to sit at room temperature until you see it double in size three times.

The dough is ready when you punch it down, and it doesn’t bounce back. You’ll then portion it out and roll out your first pizza.

The Sauce

To make your sauce simmer the olive oil, garlic, and bay leaf. Soften the garlic but don’t brown it. Then add the tomato and water. The final step is to add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on low for 30 to 45 minutes.

128 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp oregano
1 small pinch of red pepper flakes
2 tsp salt

Make Your Pizza

Start by preheating your oven to 500 degrees and placing the oven rack 4 inches below the broiler. Another option is to heat your grill up to 500 to 600 degrees.

The beauty of grilling your pizza is that you get a more authentic flavor, and it is easier. Heat a pizza stone for grill preparation when you preheat the grill. This way, the stone can heat up at the same time.

You’ll need to move quickly when it comes to assembling your pizza. Sprinkle your work surface with flour and form your pizza shape by hand.

Then ladle your sauce and arrange your mozzarella and basil leaves. Remember that less is more with this type of pizza. Pile on too many toppings, and you won’t be able to move your pizza from the weight.

Once your pizza is assembled, throw it in the oven or on the grill for about three minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the bottom is crispy, and the top is beginning to blister.

Remove for the heat, let cool, and you’re ready to enjoy some delicious homemade Neapolitan pizza!

Try this Neapolitan Pizza Recipe

If you and your family are craving pizza, why not give them the delicious treat of a homemade pie? This Neapolitan pizza recipe is sure to please, as it has been pleasing pizza lovers for centuries.
Check out my other recipes section of our blog for more great recipe ideas like this one.

However, if you dont have the time to make your own Pizza at home, you can always find Advertising For Pizza that will offer specials with coupons many times in the newspaper, coupon mailers, and flyers.
[…]
Pizza Made With Flat Breads
Orecchiette Pasta Salad With Asparagus and Bacon
Mix & Match ≈ Pick A Pasta Dinner: Recipe

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July 12, 2019

Easy Summer Seafood Recipes That Everyone Will Love

Seafood is the perfect food for summer. It’s light, full of flavor and in season during the summer months.

And there are over 230,000 different species of seafood creatures living in the sea. So you won’t be stuck for variety when preparing seafood recipes.

Cooking the perfect seafood dish doesn’t have to be complicated either. We’ve put together some of the easiest summer seafood recipes around to get you started.

Read on to find out more!

Perfect Chilli Prawns

This is a great dish for anyone who likes a bit of bite to their food. And it’s so simple it’s definitely worth adding to your collection of easy seafood recipes.

You’ll need:

3 tablespoons of oil (your choice)
3 finely sliced onions
2 chopped chilies
1 inch of peeled and chopped root ginger
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
12 oz cooked tiger prawns
Salt for seasoning

Start by heating the oil in a large frying pan and then add the onions. Allow these to soften and turn golden. This should take about 5 minutes.

Then add the chilies, chili powder, ginger, turmeric, and salt. Stir them in well until they evenly coat the onions.

Make sure you have peeled the prawns and add them into the pan. Let them cook uncovered so that all the moisture can evaporate. This should take about 3 minutes.

And there you have it! Simple, quick and easy. These prawns taste delicious on their own or you can serve them with rice or in a salad.

Crab Spaghetti

Not everyone is familiar with the delicious flavor of crab meat from crabdynasty.com. If you’re trying it for the first time you can’t go wrong with this summer seafood recipe.

You’ll need:

7 oz cherry tomatoes cut in half
Two 5 oz cans of white crab meat
7 oz spaghetti
2 chopped garlic cloves
1 lemon
1 teaspoon capers
A pinch of chili flakes
Basil leaves, chopped or roughly torn

Set your spaghetti to boil in a pan of salted water. You should keep an eye on this while you cook the rest to ensure you don’t overdo it. Once the spaghetti is ready drain it immediately to keep it until it’s needed.

Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan and cook the garlic with the chili flakes in it. Then add the tomatoes. You should cook the tomatoes on high heat, turning them so they don’t burn.

Once the tomatoes start to break down, add the juice from the lemon. Let this cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove your pan from the heat and stir in the crab meat. You don’t need to cook this, just let it warm through.

Mix the sauce into the spaghetti. Then add the capers and basil. For the finishing touch zest the lemon into the spaghetti and mix it well.

This delicious dish will generously serve three people – or double up the quantities for the perfect dinner party dish!

Baked Cod Parcels

Sweet Chilli & Lemon Fish Parcels — Image SOurce: Pinterest

If you just want to throw something in the oven to save on time, these baked cod parcels are simple and full of flavor. You can even prepare them in advance to save yourself time.

You will need:

4 skinless cod fillets (weighing roughly 5 1/4 oz each)
8oz cherry tomatoes in quarters
7 black olives in quarters
1 diced red onion
1 crushed garlic clove
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper for seasoning
4 pieces baking parchment or foil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. While it’s heating you can prepare your parcels.

Cook the onion in olive oil until it softens, then add the garlic and vinegar. Keep cooking until the vinegar evaporates.

Add in the sugar, olives, and tomatoes and let this cook for 2 to 3 minutes. At this point, the tomatoes should start to soften. Remove it from the heat, season to taste and let it cool slightly.

Lay each cod fillet at the center of a piece of baking parchment and season. Then divide the tomato mixture across your cod fillets. Seal your parcels by bringing the corners together over the fillets and scrunching them together.

Bake these until the cod is opaque and flaky. This should take about 8 minutes. But larger pieces of fish might take 10 to 12 minutes.

Serve your delicious cod up and pour any remaining juices from the parchment over them. For a final touch, you might like to garnish them with fresh basil.

Seared Scallops

Easy seafood dishes don’t come more impressive than this! You will need:

14 oz potatoes
7 oz peas (fresh or frozen)
1/2 oz finely chopped fresh mint
6 to 8 raw king scallops
1 1/2 oz diced chorizo
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Chop the potatoes and set them to boil in a pan of water along with the peas. The smaller you chop them the quicker they will cook. So you can save on cooking time by chopping them into smaller pieces.

Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan on a medium to high heat. Take 1/4 quarter of the mint leaves and toss them in the pan. It should take about 1 minute for them to crisp up.

Then remove them and put them on one side. Leave the oil in the pan.

Season your scallops and fry them in the pan for about 2 minutes on either side. They should turn a beautiful golden color. Add your chorizo to the pan so this crisps up alongside the scallops.

Then remove them from the pan and let them rest.

By now your potatoes and peas should be cooked. Drain them and then mash along with the remaining mint leaves and some olive oil.

Use the mash as a base on your plate, then add the scallops and chorizo. Sprinkle with the crispy mint for a final garnish on this breathtaking dish.

Creamy Mussels

No collection of seafood dishes would be complete without some amazing mussels. So here’s our take on them.

You will need:

21 oz scrubbed and debearded mussels
1 3/4 oz clotted cream
1 3/4 oz chopped chives
1 cup cider
4 finely sliced garlic cloves
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Start by checking your mussels. You want them all to be closed so if any aren’t just give them a tap. If they don’t close then you should discard them.

You’ll need a large, deep pan for this job. Put it on a high heat and add some oil along with the garlic and most of the chives. After 1 minute add the cider.

This should come to a boil quickly. Once it does add the mussels and clotted cream.

Then cover the pan and let everything cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Shake the pan occasionally to allow for an even cook.

As the mussels cook they will open up and become soft and juicy. If any don’t open, discard them.

Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Then you’re ready to serve!

Sprinkle the remaining chives over the mussels. And serve with some fresh crusty bread. It’s perfect for soaking up the remaining sauce.

So There You Have Our Best Summer Seafood Recipes!

Anyone of these summer seafood recipes is sure to impress your friends and family alike. Or treat yourself to something delicious on a warm summer’s evening. And for more food inspiration, check out the rest of our amazing recipes.
[…]
Related:
Orecchiette Pasta Salad With Asparagus and Bacon
Chicken and Asparagus Pasta Bake With Fresh Tomatoes
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I might receive compensation if you make a purchase after clicking an affiliate link at no cost to you.

July 11, 2019

The Art of Pairing Fine Wine With Desserts

Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

A Complete Guide To Dessert And Wine Pairings

Desserts are dishes and courses which conclude a specific meal. Most desserts you can find are composed of sweet ingredients. It may either come as fruit, cakes, cookies, etc. to make sure that your taste buds get a perfect balance of taste. Moreover, each dessert serves either in any form must complement the main course you took.

Besides, most people tend to crave a bowl of dessert after a meal because it’s the only way to satisfy our appetite. Ingesting more sugar into our body can increase our good mood, and one way to acquire it is by eating ounces of sweet desserts. Desserts also play a significant role in producing happy hormones to our body; that’s why we crave even more when we get the chance to eat some.

Everyone inevitably loves desserts so as wine. If wines can pair with meats, veggies, and fish, it may also pair with several desserts. Indeed, wine deems the most versatile type of beverage you can find which can blend with different kinds of dishes. Hence, in this article, we would like to give you the different dessert categories and the wine labels they may perfectly combine. Rest assured that once you learn the art of dessert and wine pairing, your desire of fulfilling your sweet tooth at the same time, your wine tasting experience is brought to a higher level.

Candies and Confectioneries

Some people who want to make a simple dessert course after a meal would love to choose candies and confectioneries. If you are one of those people, who wanted to take this kind of dessert, make sure you pick a wine label that will thoroughly cut. That means you have to select a wine which may come sweeter than candies and confectioneries.

Hershey Bars and Classic Chocolate – Sokolin Wines such as Merlot best fit chocolate bars. It comes to a light taste and sweeter flavor that’s why they blend perfectly.

Toffee Bars and Dark Chocolates – the best wine label you can pair with this is Cabernet Sauvignon.

Sweet-Sour Candy – you need to get an aromatic and colorful wine like Pinot Gris.

Peanut Butter Candy – you should get a wine which is fruity like Emilio Sherry.

Apple Candies and Caramel Candies – you need a wine that will complement the butter flavor. Technically, a buttery wine like Chardonnay deems a perfect mix for this kind of dessert.

Frozen Desserts

It is one of the top desserts that most people love. Frozen desserts give a refreshing flavor in your palate at the same time cools down every taste you took during your main course. Most frozen sweet dishes are also best when you pair it with a glass of wine. Here are some frozen dessert and wine pairings you must try.

Fruity Ice Creams – the best wine you may pick for this is Zinfandel. The reason why they come as a perfect blend because they are fruity flavor which comes in a medium-bodied type. Make sure only to pick a medium-bodied Zinfandel wine because it only deems the best fit.

Sorbet – Moscato d’Asti wines are a perfect choice which can combine Sorbet desserts.

Nutty and Chocolate Ice Creams – for chocolate ice cream, you may pick a sparkling red wine that is full of berry flavor. On the other hand, for nutty ice cream flavor, Sherry wine entails the perfect choice because it comes in a buttery flavor.

Vanilla Ice Cream – it’s a typical ice cream flavor you can find in a desert and matured Zinfandels wines combine with the dessert excellently.

Cookies and Cakes

For people who wanted to experience a full sugar rush dessert, cakes, and cookies entail the best choice. Believe it or not, everyone loves cake so as cookies. As you may have observed, there are many types of cakes and cookies you can find, and each has its distinctive flavor. So, if you want to get the best taste out of these desserts, you need to pair it with a chilled glass of wine. Here are some.

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cakes – it’s the most common flavor that most people would love to taste after a meal. There are many wine labels you can pair with this; however, the most popular ones include Banyuls, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel.

Jelly-brimmed Cookies – you need to pick a sweet, fruity, and frizzier wine such as Moscato.

Strawberry-flavored Shortcakes – this is the second cake flavor most dessert lovers choose. For this kind of dessert, you can choose to pair it with super dry Prosecco wine.

Red Velvet Cake – This dessert deserved a perfectly matched wine to pair. Since this wine comes in red velvety flavor, you may pair it with a luscious red wine such as Banyule.

Peanut Butter Cookies – it is a type of dessert that needs a strong wine flavor. Since these cookies are mostly made of peanut butter, you also need to pick a buttery wine flavor like Madeira.

Grazing Tables – Locally Sourced & sustainable grazing tables Melborne for weddings and events in Melbourne, Australia. We pride ourselves on using gourmet produce sourced from local farmers and producers whilst being mindful of our carbon footprint. We offset our emissions and try to use as little plastic as possible, not always an easy task in the catering industry. We use compostable serving ware and all our tables come with a compostable bag to dispose of your organic waste responsibly. Paving the way for the sustainable Australian catering industry”.

Author Bio

Scarlett Wells is a freelance writer and wine enthusiast. She is an active critique examining all levels of wine types so she can produce reviews and articles that will help guide every consumer in selecting the right kind of wine to drink. Aside from that, she wrote a lot of blogs maximizing the real usage of wines. In her free time, she reads a lot about food and beverage pairing in order to help her become an effective mentor inspiring everyone to maintain a fit and fab lifestyle.

Related:
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I might receive compensation if you make a purchase after clicking an affiliate link at no cost to you.

June 26, 2019May 16, 2022

7 Tips to Help You Throw an Unforgettable Formal Dinner Party

Hosting a dinner party and want to ensure that you impress your guests? So let me share 7 tips to help you throw an unforgettable dinner party for your guests.

It is very stressful to host a dinner party if you are not prepared. Preparing great appetizers, preparing delicious meals, choosing the right drinks, and some tasty desserts to setting the table, making sure the house is clean, choosing the right genre of music, the list goes on.

A dinner party isn’t supposed to be stressful because it is the time to have fun while impressing your guests in a relaxed atmosphere that makes all of you feel at ease.

Are you hosting a formal dinner party and want to ensure that you impress your guests? Our tips will help you throw an unforgettable dinner party, one to remember.

Create A Great Guest List

Not all friends may contribute to the success of your party; some are just spoilers, so, choose friends who get along well with you and have at least a few things in common with you. For invitations, you can hand-write them and post.

Phone calls or emails can work fine too, but people tend to forget about them.

Find out About Allergies Early Enough

Though some friends will tell you ahead of time about being allergic to certain foods, it should be your duty to find out early enough so you can have some alternatives for them.

Everyone at a formal dinner party should enjoy and not just a few people.

Prepare What You Know

Party time is not the right time to try a dish you had never prepared before, but if you have to do it, then you have to practice a few times to ensure you don’t mess up on your big day. This also applies when you are used to preparing only small portions of food, you can practice making larger portions that can serve all your guests.

Cook Smart

You need to have a good time at your party. So, don’t cook foods that need constant attention – checking, flipping, stirring, etc. The simpler the meal, the better.

Have Everything in Place

Ensure that you have all the necessary cutlery before the party begins because it is not wise to go looking for things like dessert forks, extra plates, more wine glasses, or serving dishes when the party is already on.

A Formal Dinner Party Needs to Be Flexible

Some of your invited friends may not come alone, while some may not turn up at all. This makes it a bit difficult to know what quantity of food to prepare. However, it is good to have some extra food prepared than to have less.

Prepare enough food to serve an extra two or three guests.

Plan Your Menu Items Strategically

Avoid dishes that require last-minute preparations or those that require exotic ingredients, and also, avoid those that take too long to prepare or those that need to be in the oven or fridge for too long.

You can use a menu maker to help you come up with a good menu and you may also try Canva for creating great invitations

A Formal Dinner Party Needs to Be Fun

A formal dinner party is a social occasion where people enjoy and have fun. It is not a time for you to keep wondering whether things will turn out right. Planning everything early enough and choosing the right friends is the best way to host a fancy dinner party.

You can visit our blog if you need some recipes for your dinner party.