Tilapia Fra Diavolo

Fra Diavolo (Italian for “Brother Devil”) is a spicy sauce, typically tomato-based and using chili peppers for spice. The term is also used for sauces that include no tomato, or that use cayenne or other forms of pepper. Mosts believe that the dish was named for Michele Pezza. [courtesy Wikipedia]

This dish features a parmesan crusted tilapia filet covered in a tomato sauce loaded with fresh vegetables and just the right amount of flare.

Make It Your Own
This is a dish that begs to be personalized. If you prefer cayenne pepper over crushed red pepper, go for it! If you like quick dishes, a can of Rotel can be substituted for the fresh vegetables. I prefer it this way, but to each his own. Add mushrooms, capers or black olives to enhance the flavor even more. Another easy variation would be to add small shrimp or crawfish to the sauce. Any firm white fish, such as orange roughie, cod or even Mahi Mahi could be substituted depending on what your budget and palet preference is. Whatever floats your boat, this sauce is basic enough that you almost can’t go wrong with making it your own!

Serving Suggestions
This dish is great served with any fresh vegetable side. Asparagus sauted in olive oil, salt and peppered to tast, makes an excellent accompaniment. We enjoyed it with brussel sprouts and a baked potatoes. It would be excellent with any pasta, the sauce This is a classic dish that is a blank canvas that goes with anything.

Beautiful Presentation
Someone who wants to look like a gourmet chef could take this dish and easily plate it in such a way that it makes for a beautiful presentation. With the red of the tomatoes, the green of the peppers and golden brown exterior of the fish this dish is appealing to the eye.

Chicken Parmesan

I had a quiet evening with my wife for July 4th. We made Chicken Parmesan and enjoyed one another’s company. I thought I’d share the recipe and results. It’s a relatively easy recipe that yields a great dish.

You’re probably noticing an Italian theme in my initials posts. Don’t worry we like much more than Italian and those posts will be coming. In fact, just yesterday we made some homemade salsa that we’ll be canning soon. I’ll post on that and much more in the coming days.

Parmesan Cheese
Obviously, the fresher the better for Parmesan cheese. We didn’t have time to go to the store and get a nice block of parmesan cheese this time. So we used the Kraft grated Parmesan. This would be appalling to a true gourmet, but I’m a pseudo-gourmet so it sufficed given our time crunch. I’ve made this with authentic Parmesan and it is, in fact, better. That having been said you could still taste the Parmesan in this batch and was still nice and crunchy.