Elaine Ambrose

Bestselling Author, Ventriloquist, & Humorist

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#Italian cooking

Elaine’s Delizioso Chicken Parmesan

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Elaine’s Chicken Parmesan

What to do on a rainy spring day? Make chicken Parmesan, of course. Several years ago, I attended a cooking school for a week in Tuscany, Italy with A Cook’s Tour. We learned from local chefs and consumed a year’s worth of delicious Italian food and wine in a few days. It was glorious.

Elaine learning from Italian cooks.

As a successful bribe to have my adult children visit me, I just make the chicken Parmesan recipe I learned in Italy. Here is the recipe, with a few original adaptations.

Start with a good red sauce. You can use canned marinara sauce but buy an Italian brand such as Bertolli. If you want to make your own, take a day and enjoy this process.

Roast and dice two green and red peppers. Dice two onions. Sauté peppers and onions with some Italian apices in olive oil in a large pot. You can add diced mushrooms and minced garlic, but watch the garlic so it doesn’t burn.

Open red wine and taste to enhance your cooking experience.

Add several large cans of Italian tomatoes to the pot and simmer for at least an hour. You can use a food processor to obtain the best consistency before adding the tomatoes to the pot.

While the tomatoes are simmering, cut up a few pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Flatter with a pounder and cut into pieces. Dip pieces in beaten eggs and then dip in a mixture of Panko bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese. Fry in olive oil until brown but not fully cooked. Drain on paper towels.

Saute chicken in Panko bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

Sip the wine to make sure it’s still good.

In large casserole dish, spread some red sauce. Add browned chicken, more red sauce, cover with sliced mozzarella cheese, top with more red sauce, and add more freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Sip wine and sing Italian songs while the food is cooking. This dish can be better the next day, reheated. It also freezes well.

Serve with crusty bread, cooked pasta and more red sauce, a green salad, and buttered, steamed asparagus. Add red wine, of course. You may need to open another bottle. Delizioso!

 

 

 

 

Midlife Cabernet – The Dilemma of Dry Balls

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My mother’s idea of creative cooking was to heat together two different cans of Campbell Soup – such as Chicken Noodle and Beef Barley – and then top it with a cup of oyster crackers. Voila! A gourmet meal down on the farm! With respect for my mom, she also could prepare an evening banquet of two dozen fried pork chops, a mixing bowl of mashed potatoes, a vat of green beans with bacon, a platter of buttered corn on the cob, and a pan of warm apple cobbler with ice cream. Anticipating what would appear on the family table became a guessing game of feast or famine, which helps explain my lifelong battle with weight.

Over the decades, I’ve gained and lost the weight of a Buick. Or two, depending upon the make and model. Every few years I try the latest fad – lost a ton with Atkins and gained it all back in four hours, joined Weight Watchers and developed anxiety attacks because of the weigh-ins, attempted Zumba and broke my foot just before my son’s wedding, and I even tried using smaller plates but those salad plates still can hold six brownies. Sigh.

When I reached middle age, I finally acknowledged that I like to eat and probably would do so for the rest of my life. So, I decided to learn how to cook. A few years ago I attended a week-long cooking school in Tuscany, Italy, the ultimate place for good eating (and drinking, but that’s another story.) There I learned how to make delicious sauces, exquisite pasta dishes, and chicken parmesan so magnificent that it becomes a religious experience. Italians know how to cook – and eat. The mangiar bene – good meal – takes all day to prepare but is worth its weight in wine bottles. And, those wonderful Italians keep healthy because they walk everywhere, don’t sit around watching TV, and enjoy the sex lives of rabbits in heat.

I only fix a big meal a few times a month, and the rest of the time Studley and I try to eat small, healthy meals. I recently joined an exercise program called Body Back Boise, taught by my super-athletic daughter. The routine involves high-impact workouts that leave me gasping for air and crawling toward the exit door begging for mercy. Meal plans also are included, so last night I tried a “faux” Italian meal of lean turkey and spinach meatballs with whole wheat pasta. Let’s just say that Studley choked down the meal and then said, lovingly of course, “I don’t like dry balls.” And, no, he shouldn’t.

I admit that the meal was a disaster, but here is the dilemma: I lost a pound. So, maybe it’s ok to ruin a fine Italian meal once in awhile for the sake of the main goal – I want to lose enough weight so I can prepare a gourmet meal and truly enjoy it. And, there won’t be any soup cans involved. Buon appetito!

Today’s blog is fueled by a 2008 Menopause Merlot by Bitner Vineyards in Caldwell. It’s about $30 a bottle and helps tame those pesky hot flashes because if you drink enough, you’ll forget all about them. Enjoy it with a real Italian meal – no dry balls allowed!

Midlife Cabernet: Do You Cook a Signature Dish?

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Chicken parmesan is my family’s favorite meal, and I tackle the process like a woman obsessed. The ritual never varies: First, everyone must leave the kitchen. Then I tie on an apron and continue with the most important task: I open a bottle of red wine. The experience won’t be a success without that important step, and I am under pressure to produce another stellar recipe so who am I to alter the technique?

Then I assemble all the ingredients and take a sip of wine. For the sauce, I sauté fresh onions, red peppers, green peppers, and garlic in extra-virgin olive oil (imported from Italy, of course.) Then I add tomato sauce and let it simmer. The delightful aroma causes Studley to peek into the kitchen but I shoo him away and take another sip of wine.

Then I cut up fresh chicken, dip it in a raw egg mixture, roll it in Italian bread crumbs and shredded fresh parmesan cheese and brown the pieces in olive oil. It takes several pans to brown all the chicken, so I take a few more sips of wine while it cooks. By this time, spattered oil covers the stove, the counters, and my apron. The wine is getting better, so I really don’t care.

Then I spread the simmered sauce into casserole dishes followed by the chicken and layers of sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, grated parmesan cheese, and more sauce. I cover the pans with tin foil and slide them into an oven heated to 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Then I sit down to sip wine and ignore the mountain of dirty pans, greasy utensils, empty cheese containers, and spilled bread crumbs that make my kitchen resemble a bad day at an Italian mess hall. It’s usually cleaned up before midnight.

Chicken parmesan tastes better the next day after all the flavors have mingled and the dish has cooled and then reheated. For a splendid dinner, I serve it with more sauce, crusty bread, a vegetable dish, and a green salad. For some reason, the original bottle of wine usually is empty, but there will be another one. For a brief moment at dinner time, all is right with the world.