OVEN ROASTED COD PUTTANESCA

You can make this meal in 30 minutes. Chop up everything and place it on a platter so it is ready to add to the skillet. We love Spaghetti alla Puttanesca and this sauce is excellent over fish. I made this with cod, but you can use haddock, red snapper, halibut, or any firm white fish you prefer. 

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces.

1 T avocado oil

1 shallot, cut in half and thinly sliced

¼ t red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 anchovy fillets
2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 T chopped fresh rosemary leaves

1 T chopped fresh oregano leaves

1 T chopped fresh basil

½ cup pitted and coarsely chopped Italian black olives (I use Gaeta olives)

2 T capers

Zest and juice of ½ lemon

A splash or two of dry white wine, (I use Pinot Grigio)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped Italian parsley

2 fish fillets, about 6 to 8 ounces each

Lemon slices, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place potatoes in a cast-iron skillet and drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Roast for 15 minutes while you make the Puttanesca Sauce.

Puttanesca Sauce

In a skillet, add the oil and sauté the shallot for 2 minutes.

Add the red pepper flakes, garlic, and anchovies. 
Sauté another minute while breaking up the anchovies with a spoon.

Add the chopped tomatoes, rosemary, oregano, basil, olives, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, and wine.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Let simmer for 5 to 7 minutes only.

Stir in parsley, turn off heat and set aside.

Place fish on a baking sheet and drizzle with a little oil.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove potatoes from oven and scrape up any potatoes with a metal spatula that are stuck to the bottom of the skillet. 
Place back in the oven along with fish and bake both for 8 to 10 minutes.

The fish should be flaky when pierced with a fork.

Using a spatula, add a fillet of fish to each plate and add a side of potatoes.

Briefly, reheat the sauce and spoon some over each fillet.

Serve with a green salad.

Serves 2

PORK CHOPS MARSALA WITH PROSCIUTTO & MOZZARELLA

If you love chicken or veal marsala, I think you will love this recipe made with pork chops and topped with Prosciutto di Parma and mozzarella.

Lee's Kitchen Tips:

In 2011 the new guidelines from the National Pork Board and the USDA recommends cooking pork to 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius). That's 15 degrees less than what was recommended for years and...that's a good thing because your pork chops will not be dried out and tough. I removed the pork chops to a baking sheet when they registered 140 degrees F. The temperature will rise and they will also go under the broiler for a minute or two.

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 (1-inch thick) bone-in pork chops

2 T avocado or extra-light olive oil, divided

12 cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 shallot, minced

1 clove garlic, pressed or minced

1 t fresh or dried thyme

½ cup dry Marsala wine

¼ cup chicken stock

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 slices Prosciutto di Parma

2 slices mozzarella cheese

2 T Italian parsley, for garnish

Pour flour into a shallow bowl and dredge pork chops in flour.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the pork chops and cook about 8 to 9  minutes, per side and internal temperature is 140 degrees F.

Transfer to a baking sheet and set aside.

Turn on broiler and place rack in the middle of the oven.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and cook the mushrooms until lightly browned.

Add the shallot, garlic, and thyme and cook another 2 minutes.

Add the wine and bring to a simmer, stirring up any brown bit from the bottom of the skillet.

Add the chicken broth and season with salt and pepper.

Keep warm on the stove.

Place a slice of Prosciutto on top of each pork chop and top with a slice of mozzarella.

Place under broiler and broil until cheese is melted, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Place pork chops over steamed spinach, buttered noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Serves 2

LA BOURGOGNE, 4 JULY 1898 - SEA DISASTER

You probably haven’t heard about this passenger shipwreck. It happened off of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, on July 4th, 1898, in dense fog at dawn’s early light. It occurred 14 years before the infamous Titanic disaster. No Hollywood movies were ever made about this disaster and 584 souls were drowned. Three were from the Casazza family: Luigi (Louis), his young daughter, Rose and his brother James (Giacomo). Only one woman survived (Mrs. Adrian LaCasse), and she was saved by her husband. This newspaper article was about my husband's great-grandmother Catherine (Catarina), the wife of Louis. She was Thirty-two years of age at the time of the accident, a wife and mother of five children. When she lost her husband and daughter on that fateful morning, she was left to raise her other children, ranging in age from one to fourteen. It is likely that other Italian-American descendants today may have had ancestors on that doomed ship.  It was a horrific tragedy.