Category Archives: Italian

Caprese Potato Gratin

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Caprese Potato Gratin from Veggie and the Beast

In this post we’re going to get real about food photography. Teaching myself how to take pictures of food has been one of the most satisfying and fun parts of creating this blog, but as a bit of a perfectionist (ahem, understatement of the century), I can be quite obsessive about my recipe photos. All of you food bloggers out there know that figuring out lighting, props, and surfaces can turn into a half-day project, and that’s before the editing even starts! When I started shooting in RAW and using Adobe Lightroom a few months ago, I would constantly yell for The Beast to come look at my computer so I could show him before-and-after shots.

Note: he’s great at sounding convincingly enthusiastic about white balance adjustments…I have a keeper.

Caprese Potato Gratin from Veggie and the Beast

I’m getting ahead of myself here, so let’s start from the beginning. If you haven’t noticed, tomatoes + basil + fresh mozzarella = many of my favorite things in this world, so when my mom gave me the task of making a potato side dish for Easter I immediately knew the fate of those taters. In order to get some pretty pictures for you folks, I made two dishes of the gratin: one for blog shooting (and a cheesy afternoon snack) on Saturday, and one to bring to my parent’s house on Sunday. So organized, I know.

Caprese Potato Gratin from Veggie and the Beast

After being broiled to perfection, I set my photo-shoot gratin on a cooling rack on my standard photo-shoot table, and began snapping. After three rounds of shooting, transferring to my computer, reviewing the results, and starting again, I finally found the magical lighting spot. I moved around the table, shooting, adjusting the angle etc. until at one point my elbow hit the cooling rack just enough to knock the rack’s feet off the table, and then, seemingly in slow motion, the gratin dish slid off the angled rack onto the ground in a dramatically loud, over-the-top crash. Real life, folks.

Caprese Potato Gratin from Veggie and the Beast

After much screaming from me and assistance from The Beast, the fallen gratin made its way to the trash. On the optimistic side of things, I did have a chance to snap several good [enough] pics before the tragic fall, and because of my habit of eating as I shoot, I can confirm that the gratin is everything I hoped it would be: rich, creamy basil sauce between layers of potatoes that stretch melty mozzarella up and down with every lifted forkful. The grape tomatoes roast and begin to pop in the oven, but fully burst open with sweetness when they enter your mouth.

So…at least I got to eat that before my floor did.
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California Caprese Grilled Cheese

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caprese grilled cheese with avocado and sundried tomato pesto5

You know those tasks that sit in the back of your mind, making themselves quietly comfortable until the most inopportune times? Then, when you’re doing something like falling asleep or driving, you remember that one thing (or those twenty things) you need to do, think “dang it!” momentarily, but then those responsibilities fade away away as quickly as they came.

There are several (SEVERAL) tasks that fit this description for me, ranging from paying my dental bill to organizing my closet, but the only one I acted on recently was making a Recipe Index page. I can’t even describe to you the satisfaction and pride I felt after completing that task on Friday.

caprese grilled cheese with avocado and sundried tomato pesto1

As I built the “Burgers/Sandwiches” section of the page, I came to the realization that I’ve never posted a sandwich recipe. Not a one! Plenty of burgers, but no sandwiches. You’d probably think this means I’m not a big sandwich eater, but you would be dead wrong. In fact, I’m obsessed with sandwiches. I eat them all the time, so why not share them with my internet friends?

To remedy this huge, HUGE issue, today I’m sharing my very favorite type of sandwich: tomatoes two ways (including a pesto!), creamy mozzarella, and rich avocado, all sandwiched between hearty, seeded bread. I literally eat something along these lines at least once a week. The Beast and I call it our “Grown-Up Grilled Cheese Night,” so it’s obviously a very adult, refined meal.

caprese grilled cheese with avocado and sundried tomato pesto3

If my grown-up grilled cheese needed to get ready for a fancy night out, it’d drench itself in this balsamic drizzle. It makes the whole delicious combination even more appealing; The tomatoes get sweeter, the subtle flavors of the mozzarella and avocado are heightened, and when the drizzle hits the basil you will INSIST that you’re eating bruschetta for dinner…and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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Spinach and Mushroom Alfredo Lasagna

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Happy new year! I cannot BELIEVE it is 2013. Don’t you feel like the year 2013 belongs in some cheesy sci-fi movie? On a related note, when I was in first grade my teacher promised we’d have flying cars by now…so…where is my flying car? If I can’t have a flying car, how about some teleportation? Dear 2013, I’m getting impatient for some badass transportation options. Get on that.

Futuristic transportation would have come in handy this weekend, when the boy and I traveled a couple of hours north to ring in 2013 with some friends. We rented a cabin on a lake and spent 3 days lounging, playing Mario Kart, and challenging each other in card games. ‘Twas quite lazily lovely.

spinach mushroom alfredo lasagna

The weekend also included a hefty amount of delicious food, as any legit cabin weekend must. We took turns cooking meals for each other, and for our turn we made two pans of lasagna (THE make-ahead-and-feed-a-group food). As the boy scoured the internet for the best meaty, tomato-based recipe, I went down a different route. Being the only vegetarian in the group, I didn’t want to present my cabin mates with a dish that would just be seen as a lowly vegetarian version of the meat lasagna, which would be unappealing to the meat eaters. I wanted to make a lasagna people would actually want to eat.

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Enter cheese sauce. I’ve made no secret of my love for cheese sauces. I believe a good cheese sauce can dissolve arguments, make friends of enemies, and bring world peace. If I want to win people over, I make a cheese sauce. I’m categorizing this cheese sauce as an “Alfredo” because it’s thicker, richer, and even cheesier than other sauces I’ve made. After I assembled the lasagna, I literally used a spatula to scoop out the remaining sauce from the corners of the pan. I’m not proud of this, but I licked the alfredo off of that spatula like it was cream cheese frosting.

spinach mushroom alfredo lasagna

Although I like my cheese sauce straight from the pan, it’s even better with some veggies and pasta mixed in. Spinach and cheese sauce go together like New Year’s and champagne: they’re great apart, but together they become so much more exciting. The buttery sautéed spinach brings even more richness to the layers of pasta, while the mushrooms add depth, without overpowering the dish or scaring away any mushroom-averse eaters.

spinach mushroom alfredo lasagna

The boy’s recipe, pictured above (aptly named, “Worlds Best Lasagna“) weighed about 10 pounds, and had a completely different lasagna flavor than my alfredo version. My meat-eating cabin friends ate a mix of vegetarian and meaty slices that night, and complimented both between bites. Although each of our pans supposedly served 12, the 12 of us nearly went through 24 servings in one night. Draw your own conclusions.
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