We Call it "Spaghetti Bread"

12-17-10: Spaghetti Bread

If anyone was to ask me, "What is comfort food for you?" the first dish that comes to mind is our homemade spaghetti sauce. Our spaghetti sauce, in all its goodness, consists of our tomato puree combined with our farm grown peppers, onions, and garlic as well as spices such as basil, marjoram, oregano, etc.

My family has been having our own spaghetti sauce almost every single week of the year for as long as I can remember. Every time I think of this meal I think of two things: my Papa (who pulls all the listed ingredients together and makes the masterpiece), and our farm's bounty. Two very comforting things for me! Now, I could give you the recipe for this sauce, but there really isn't one (it seems to be evolving every single time it's made), and even if I do concoct a written recipe, it wouldn't be like ours. I would need to send you our puree and veggies to make it legitimate!

Now, there is something else that is as old as our spaghetti tradition, but it hasn't had a very good reputation. It is called Spaghetti Bread. Spaghetti bread is a yeast bread done in the bread machine that has dried herbs and grated cheese added. If done right, it is absolutely perfection with a spaghetti dinner. But perfection has been reached few times with this bread. Almost every time we attempted to wrestle this recipe, we would find a deflated loaf at the bottom of our bread machine. Let me tell you, it is enough to bring tears to your eyes.

We came up with a lot of theories on the cause of these mishaps: too much water, too little, acid in the spices, too much salt, etc. etc. etc. So we kept on trying new versions of the recipe, taking out some of this, adding some of that. . . But nothing worked until a couple Fridays ago.

My Papa thought, "Why not use the wheat setting on the bread machine and add the garlic, cheese, and spices at the time the machine alerts you to add addition flavorings, such as raisins and cinnamon?"

Sounded good to me! I gave it a go, following his specific instructions, and it turned out perfectly. It was one of the tallest Spaghetti Breads we ever saw.

See what I mean?

This is what I did from start to finish:

Spaghetti Bread

Yield: 1 pound loaf

Ingredients:

• 9 oz. warm water (about 115 degrees F)
• 4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 tbsp. sugar
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt

Dough Flavoring Ingredients:

• 1 head garlic
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. basil
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning

Directions:

To bread pan, add water, yeast, and sugar. Stir and proof for 10-15 minutes. Next add bread flour, oil, and salt. Set machine to "Whole Wheat" setting (#3) and "Medium" (A).

Now to make some garlic puree. (I learned about this technique from The Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook.) Take garlic, with the skin and stem still on, and wrap it in one layer of aluminum foil. Place garlic foil packet into 375 F oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, open packet, and allow garlic head to cool. Once cool, cut off the stem and squeeze garlic from skins. The garlic now resembles a paste and can easily be incorporated into the bread dough.

Combine cheese, spices, and garlic in a small bowl.

Machine will beep 1 hr 26 min after you press the START button on the machine, (or when bread time display reads 2:34), that is when you should add the garlic, cheese, and spice mixture to the bread pan.

All in all, it takes 4 hours for the machine to make the bread.

Garlic Puree Technique--Up Close. . .

Bread Machine Setting--Up Close. . .

Now, I suppose you can easily do this without the help of a bread machine, but I haven't given it a try yet. If I ever do I'll come back to this post and document it.

And here is one final glimpse of perfection. . .

;)

The Vegetable with a Funny Name

10/25/09: Chicken Spaghetti and Roasted Rutabaga

Meal Details: For the main course I made a casserole type dish called Chicken Spaghetti and for a side dish I roasted some rutabagas (say what?) in the oven seasoned with oil, salt, and pepper.

Defining moments: First time I have prepared or eaten rutabaga. To tell you the truth, this was actually the first time for rutabaga for most of my family. This is also the first time I used Celtop, an herb that has the flavor of celery.

Recipe sources: The Chicken Spaghetti came from the Sept/Oct 09 issue of Cooking with Paula Deen. I chose this recipe because I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. (Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page.) The next Food Network chef for me this week was actually Bobby and Jamie Deen, but because I couldn't find a good recipe from their archive I chose to do one of their mother's. You can find the recipe all typed up for you, here on this blog.
And the rutabaga? I didn't have to use a recipe for the rutabaga. I just treated them like I would potatoes. Here is a quick recipe for the rutabagas for future reference:

Roasted Rutabagas
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:
4 medium sized rutabagas, peeled and chopped into 1" pieces
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp ground pepper
3 tbsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 F. Place all ingredients into bowl and mix well. Dump seasoned rutabaga on cookie sheet and place in hot oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until fork tender.

What I learned: You know what? I can't really think of anything that was learned this week. Gosh. All the cooking techniques seemed familiar to me. I guess the only thing I learned was the flavor of rutabaga.

Any modifications? Yes. I adjusted some ingredient amounts and I omitted some. Here is my list of ingredients:

3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 tbsp chopped celtop (since I didn't have celery, I used celtop)
2 cups of chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can of cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75 oz) can of cream of chicken soup
1 (16 oz) jar of taco sauce (not canned tomatoes with chilies)
1 (6 oz) can of black olives, drained and chopped
No mushrooms
2 cups sour cream
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/4 cups of chopped cooked chicken
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 1/2 pounds of spaghetti noodles (not angel hair pasta)
1 1/8 cups of Italian bread crumbs (not Panko bread crumbs)
1 tbsp melted butter

Yield: both the big and small casserole dishes. Only the large casserole dish was eaten Sunday evening. Had the small dish and leftover spaghetti Monday evening.

How it tasted? The Chicken Spaghetti was creamy, cheesy, and had lots of wonderful flavor. Very good, I am glad I spotted this recipe in Mrs. Deen's magazine.
The rutabagas were also surprisingly good as well. They had the taste and texture of a potato with some turnip flavor. A very tasty vegetable.

How about a 2nd time? Yes, both dishes will find their way to the table.

Here is a closeup of a sprig of Celtop. Very flavorful herb!










These are rutabagas. They resemble turnips a lot, but as I found out this Sunday, they don't quite match them in flavor.

From the Pantry and Freezer

12/14/08: Cheese Tortellinis and Spaghetti Sauce

• Sources: Box and freezer.

• Defining moments: None.

• What I learned: Since I used boxed cheese tortellinis and homemade spaghetti sauce from the freezer everything came down to just heating up two pots. Nothing new and exciting otherwise.

• How it tasted: Hey, its cheesy pasta with homemade sauce, it had to have been great. :)

• How about a 2nd time? Oh sure.