Homemade Italian Seasoning

Most stores carry an Italian herb seasoning, but it's easy and perhaps less expensive to make your own blend from the collection of dried herbs you already have in your kitchen spice cupboard.

Here are two options for blending your own dried herbs to create  homemade Italian Seasoning.

Measure, mix together and store in an airtight container:

Five Herb Blend

2 Tablespoons Basil
2 Tablespoons Marjoram
2 Tablespoons Oregano
2 Tablespoons Rosemary
2 Tablespoons Thyme

Seven Herb Blend

1 teaspoon Basil
1 teaspoon Marjoram
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Rosemary
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon Sage
1 teaspoon Savory

My All-Time Favorite Minestrone Soup

Yesterday, my girlfriend Loma mentioned that she wanted to get back in the kitchen and cook up some healthy meals following the holidays. Sounds good to me! The topic of homemade soups came up and I offered to share my all-time family favorite minestrone soup recipe with her. I started making homemade minestrone back in 1978 using the recipe on page 109 in the Spices of the World Cookbook by McCormick. I hope you are fortunate enough to find a copy of this out-of-print cookbook. I guarantee you’ll be glad you have it on your culinary book shelf!

Photo from "Everything Minestrone Soup"

Ingredients:

1 cup dried marrow beans or garbanzo beans or lima beans

7 cups water

1/cup chopped instant onion

1 tablespoon Parsley Flakes

3 tablespoons Celery Flakes

1/8 teaspoon Instant Minced Garlic

2 tablespoons Bell Pepper Flakes

¼ cup olive oil

¼ teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper

½ pound fresh spinach

2 teaspoons Beef Flavor Base, or vegetable base

1/8 teaspoon Rubbed Sage

¼ teaspoon Italian Seasoning, or make your own blend

1 teaspoon Ground Thyme

2 teaspoons Salt

¼ teaspoon Course Ground Pepper

1 cup diced potatoes

2 cups tomatoes

1 cup chopped cabbage

1 small zucchini, thinly sliced

1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

1. Soak beans overnight in water to cover. Drain.
2. Add the 7 cups of water. Cover and simmer for 3 hours or until tender.
3. Sauté the onions, garlic, parsley, celery and pepper flakes in oil until well-coated and hot, but don’t allow them to brown.
4. Add mixture to the beans with the remaining seasonings, fresh vegetables and uncooked macaroni.
5. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes or longer.
6. If the soup is too thick for your liking, add water to thin to the consistency you prefer.
7. Top the minestrone soup with grated Parmesan cheese.

Makes about 3 quarts.

Notes:

• This cookbook was designed to promote the sales of McCormick spices, so if you decide to use all fresh ingredients including the beans, onions and herbs, as I typically do, you will want to decrease the amount of water.
• To make this a gluten-free soup, simple add gluten-free macaroni (quinoa or brown rice).
  
• If you want to learn more about minestrone and try other variations, click here.

Raw Vegan Pasta Primavera

It's been some time since I've cooked or enjoyed a classic Italian pasta entree at home or at a restaurant. This raw version not only satiated my craving for rich, delicious Italian flavors and texture, but my appetite was completely satisfied sans the heavy, overly-full feeling that often accompanies a traditional pasta meal.

Ingredients:

2 yellow squash
1/2 cup dried tomatoes, hydrated in water for 2 hours
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 sun-cured pitted olives
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 fresh parsley
1/4 cup pine nuts
optional: for making pasta puttanesca: red pepper flakes to taste, 1/2 teaspoon capers (rinsed)
sea salt to taste*

Directions:

1. Slice the squash into long, thin noodles. Set aside in a medium bowl.
2. In a food processor, combine the remaining ingredients and pulse until well-blended, but still chunky.
3. Toss the sauce with the noodles and serve.

*Avoid over-salting. Be aware that the olives (and capers) may be very salty, therefore additional salt will not be necessary.

Serves 2-4

Adapted from the cookbook Rawsome! Page 203.

Spaghetti Squash Puttanesca

This meal is much better than I anticipated. Very good, in fact. It has been some time since I last cooked spaghetti squash. I don't recall it to be any more than baking the squash in the oven for nearly and hour, then serving store-bought spaghetti sauce of over top for a quick meal.

Tonight's Spaghetti Squash Puttanesca is a dish I look forward to making again. What I like about this recipe are the fresh ingredients, the commingling of some of my favorite flavors and making it with tuna fish instead of anchovies. It is quick and easy to prepare, and a creative way to add more vegetables and fish to the diet.

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash (3-4.5 pounds)
16 ounces of cherry or grape tomatoes quartered, or small tomatoes chopped ( I used a can of stewed tomatoes, since I can't eat raw tomatoes)
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced or chopped
2 cans (5 ounce) albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked
1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped or sliced
1 tablespoon drained capers, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (1 tablespoon, if using stewed tomatoes)
Salt and pepper to taste (seasoned with sea salt and my herb blend with cayenne)
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Sprig of basil for garnish

Directions:

1. Pierce the spaghetti squash 6-12 times with a knife and place in a glass pie plate.
2. Microwave the squash on high for 5 minutes per pound - 15-20 minutes.
3. Let the squash cool down about 10 minutes, before handling and cutting open.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together all the other ingredient, except the cheese and basil sprig.
5. Once combined, you do not cook the sauce.
   
6. Cut the squash lengthwise and remove the seeds.
7. As you scoop out the flesh of the squash it will break into strands like spaghetti.
8. Drain the squash if you like, and salt and pepper to taste.
9. Divide the squash between 2-4 dinner bowls (shallow pasta bowls).
10. Serve the spaghetti squash topped with the freshly made Puttanesca sauce.
11. Garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and a sprig of fresh basil.

Serves 2-4

Ribollita - Tuscan Soup

Delicious! This twice-cooked Tuscan soup recipe can be made with leftovers. The name Ribollita is Italian for "reboiled".

Ingredients:

2 cups cannellini (white beans (or any white bean, for that matter), cooked, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon each of fresh, chopped garlic and fresh chopped rosemary
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled (or not, my preference) and chopped
1 large Yukon Gold potato, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 bunch kale, coarsely chopped
1 cup canned or fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 slices day-old crusty white country-style bread (or gluten-free), broken into chunks
Salt & Pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions:

1. Mash half (1 cup) of the white beans with the back of a fork in a bowl until smooth, then set aside.
2. In a soup pot, gently cook the garlic, rosemary, onion, celery, carrot and kale in the olive oil for 20 minutes.
3. Add both the whole and mashed beans, stock, potato and tomato.
4. Simmer gently for about an hour or so, then add the bread and continue to cook until the bread completely dissolved into the soup.
5. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
6. Drizzle olive oil over the soup and top with the grated cheese.
7. Tastes best the next day, so a great meal to make ahead!

Makes four large servings.

I came across this recipe in a runner's magazine. Marathoner, Matt Conors enjoys this nutrient-rich soup as a pre-race meal.