Roasted Cauliflower with Pangrattato Topping

Roasted Cauliflower with Pangrattato

If you’ve got a few stray ends of stale baguette or other crusty bread, don’t toss them.  Instead grind into crumbs and toast with butter and olive oil, garlic, orange zest and herbs.  You’ll have a quick and delicious topping, known in Italy as pangrattato, that dresses up roasted vegetables, like cauliflower, with crunchy flavor.  For an easy main dish, toss the entire lot with your favorite cooked pasta such as fusilli or farfalle.  This version of pangrattato is inspired by Nigel Slater.

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Roasted Potato Pancakes

Emma's Smashed Potatoes

Adapted for a smaller sized potato, from chef Alejandro Morales’ recipe in Bon Appetit, if you have nothing but large sized potatoes, just cut them in half. These delicious pancakes are a great combination of flavors and textures. The skin of the potato has a nice, roasted Ashley's potatoesand crunchy texture, and the potato itself is sweet and so tasty that you will want to lick the plate clean. These potatoes are very simple to cook.  They are very good by themselves, but they have an even more wonderful taste when accompanied by parsley oil. You may want to use a knife when you eat this delicious meal to help cut through the crispy skin.

This recipe was tested and photographed by Emma P, Katelyn E, Ariana C and Ashley J—7th graders at The Girls’ Middle School.

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Parsley Oil

Parsley Oil

This recipe is adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s vegetarian cookbook, Plenty.  We’ve reduced the garlic and lemon juice slightly from the original recipe. The parsley oil can be served in many ways, but the one we like the best is parsley oil on sliced, toasted baguette with roasted baby tomatoes. This would make a great appetizer. Another way to use the parsley oil is on Smashed Roasted Potatoes. This recipe is good for a nice, acidic pop to complete a dish.  Try substituting other seasonal herbs, such as basil, cilantro or arugula.

This recipe was photographed and tested by Emma P, Ashley J, Ariana C and Katelyn E—7th graders at The Girls’ Middle School.

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Lemon Parsley Oil

Tess' Smashed Potatoes

This lemon-parsley oil is easy to make, flavorful, and adds a certain “zip” to any meal.  It would be terrific with Smashed Roasted Potatoes (pictured above). We’ve reduced the garlic and lemon juice slightly from the original version.

This recipe was adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s vegetarian cookbook, Plenty, by Tess M and Caroline W—6th graders at The Girls’ Middle School.

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Salad-e Shirazi — Persian Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Named for the ancient Persian city of Shiraz—reknown for it’s connection to wine, poetry and flowers—this simple salad is best at the height of summer when juicy tomatoes and crisp cucumbers abound.  Persian cucumbers are delicate with few seeds.  If your cucumbers have larger seeds, just scoop them out with a spoon and use the remaining flesh.  Peeling is not necessary if you’re using organic fruit—much of the nutritional content is concentrated in the skin and seeds.

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