A Barefoot Contessa Evening

I love to watch all kinds of cooking shows and I watch both the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. There are several shows that I record and I watched quite a few recorded episodes this morning. I decided that one of Ina's recent shows I watched from Barefoot Contessa sounded perfect for tonight.

We started with a Roasted Eggplant Caponata, which had roasted eggplant, roasted peppers, green olives, sauteed onions and garlic, parsley, pine nuts, lemon juice, capers, tomato paste, vinegar, and salt and pepper. This was served with toasted pita triangles; pitas that I cut into wedges, brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and baked. This caponata was fabulous!

The entree was Caesar-Roasted Fish which was good, but not as spectacular as most of Ina's recipes are. On her show, she used striped bass steaks which had been caught that morning by a local fisherman. I substituted cod fillets which looked really good at the market today. Basically the fish was coated with a Caesar sauce which had all the ingredients of a Caesar dressing, and was roasted in the oven. Once done, it was garnished with frizzled capers (drained capers, that are sauteed in a little olive oil over high heat, until they start to pop and are a little crisp) and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

The side dish was sauteed Broccolini and Garlic which was made by blanching the broccolini and then adding them to a skillet in which garlic was gently warmed through. The broccolini were tossed with the garlic and olive oil to warm through.

We also had dessert tonight which was a Fresh Peach Cake which was very good. Basically a cake batter was made and half of the batter was poured in a pan. The batter was topped with sliced, fresh peaches and sprinkled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. The layers were repeated and the cake was topped with some chopped pecans before being baked.