As many of you know, my "other" hobby is cooking. In fact, while I subscribe to three scrapbooking magazines, I get five cooking magazines. Tonight I took a recipe and changed it up a bit and it was so good I feel compelled to share. The original recipe is in the June/July issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray.
This recipe fed four, although it was so good we could have eaten more!
Ingredients:
- 1 pound mild Italian sausage meat (not pre-formed sausages) - I used Whole Foods' sausage meat that they sell by the pound at their meat counter (now before you go all "Whole Paycheck" on me, this stuff is $5.00 a pound, so it's not that bad), which is not too salty, and has loads of yummy fennel seeds in it
- Seedless red grapes (I used half a bag)
- 2 red bell peppers, halved, seeded, and cut into large chunks
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
- A large handful of flat-leaf (also called "Italian") parsley, roughly chopped
- A large handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 to 2 tablespoons honey
- Salt
- Pepper
- Flatbread or flour tortillas
- Skewers
- Grill
Directions:
1. Form sausage meat into twelve meatballs. Thread meatballs on skewers.
2. Thread grapes on more skewers.
3. Toss pepper chunks in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Thread pepper chunks on still more skewers.
4. Toss flat-leaf parsley in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt.
5. Mix together honey (add to taste - you don't want it too sweet) and ricotta, season with pepper.
6. Grill skewers, turning once, until peppers start to char, meatballs are cooked through, and grapes blister.
7. Put flatbread or tortillas on four plates. Top each flatbread or tortilla with some of the ricotta mixture, a heavy sprinkling of the parsley, three meatballs, and some of the grapes and peppers. Garnish with the basil.
Note: this can be eaten rolled up, or smaller chunks of flatbread/tortilla can be torn from the edge and used to scoop up small bites. Alternatively, the ingredients can be piled on the plate and the flatbread/tortilla served on the side.
Enjoy!
(I shall return tomorrow with photos of...gasp...the first mini-album I have ever done!)
(October Afternoon patterned papers, stamps, and die cut tab)
