~~Florentine Sauce~~

~~Florentine Sauce~~

This is just the basic sauce and with it you can add your choice of seafoods (like lobster, shrimp, salmon.)  or meats plus you can jazz up the sauce with some common ingredients. Florentine sauce is very simple to make.  It is typically made with heavy cream, white wine, butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese*.

You can add ingredients like sun-dr ied tomatoes and tomato paste. Another common addition is fresh spinach and/or cherry tomatoes halves. Some recipes add mushrooms. Shallot and green peppers adds a nice flavor to the sauce and you can also make it spicy with a few dried Calabrian peppers.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons (29ml) butter, or more
• 2 tablespoon (6.5g) onion, diced
• 4 teaspoon (10g) garlic, finely chopped (divided in half)
• 1 teaspoon (1g) fresh thyme, or dried Italian herbs
• ⅓ cup (79ml) white wine
• ¾ cup (178ml) heavy cream
• ⅓-½ cup chicken broth

The Cream Sauce:

• Add about 1-2 tablespoons of butter to the same skillet over medium heat, followed by the onions, minced garlic, and thyme. Stir for about 1-2 minutes, allowing the flavors to bloom.
• Pour in the wine and stir for about 30 seconds.
• Next, add the cream, and broth.
• Bring the sauce to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes.
• Add your cooked seafood or meat to the pan.
• Adjust the condiment thickness with water or broth and adjust seasonings and salt according to preference.
• Simmer the with the seafood or meat for 3-5 minutes in the sauce or until cooked through.

Serve over pasta or rice.

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*When I add the Parmesan cheese it sometimes melts in clumps and it is hard to get it into a smooth creamy sauce so I asked Google’s Bard what to do.

Here are some tips on how to prevent Parmesan cheese from clumping in Florentine sauce:

•    Use finely grated Parmesan cheese. The larger the pieces of cheese, the more likely they are to clump together.
•    Add the cheese slowly, a little at a time, while stirring constantly. This will help the cheese to melt evenly and prevent it from clumping.
•    Add the cheese to a hot sauce. The heat will help the cheese to melt more quickly and evenly.
•    Add a small amount of liquid to the sauce before adding the cheese. This will help to prevent the cheese from drying out and clumping.
•    Use a microplane grater to grate the Parmesan cheese. This will give you the finest possible grate and help to prevent clumping.

If you follow these tips, you should be able to prevent Parmesan cheese from clumping in your Florentine sauce.

Here is an additional tip: If you do end up with some clumpy Parmesan cheese, you can try to smooth it out by whisking it into the sauce or by using an immersion blender.

~~Fruit-Mascarpone Turnovers~~

I first saw this on PBS’s Kimball’s Milk Street but it was a 10-by-14-inch tart. It looked delirious but I couldn’t eat all that before it went bad.

Hmm… cut it in to squares…

Or how about folding them over?

Turnovers!

And instead of just raspberries how about a Berry Medley of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed and rolled into a 10-by-14-inch rectangle
• 2 pints frozen Berry Medley of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries
• 4 tablespoons white sugar, divided
• ¾ cup (170 grams) mascarpone cheese OR room-temperature cream cheese
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract OR almond extract
• Pinch of kosher salt
• Optional garnish: Powdered sugar

Directions:

• Thaw the berries and the dough.
• Heat the oven to 425°F with a rack in the upper-middle position.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with kitchen parchment; place the pastry dough on top. Cut the into approximately 4 inch squares.
• In a bowl, toss the berries and 2 tablespoons sugar.
• In another bowl, whisk the mascarpone, egg, vanilla, salt and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
• Spread a tablespoons of mascarpone mixture inside the of squares; placde the berries on top. 
• Wet the edges of the dough squares with water, fold the dough over to make a triangle, and seal with a fork. Poke some hole on top of the turnovers.
• Bake until the pastry is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Options:

You can use pie fillings like apple or blueberry fillings.