Jennie’s Grilled Trout with Cherry Tomatoes

This is a recipe that I invented by modifying something in a spring issue of Martha Stewart. It was so easy to make and quick and so tasty I highly recommend it! The cherry tomatoes make the trout really sweet and make a great sauce that gets even better with a little lemon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 Whole Trout or 2 fillets (Trader Joe’s often sells them already de-boned which is great)

1/2 lb – 3/4 lb cherry tomatoes

2 lemons

Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Butter (just a little)

Directions:

Place trout on a large sheet of aluminum foil and sprinkle fresh thyme, rosemary, oregano, some olive oil, salt and pepper across the inside the trout. Then add a small slice of butter on the inside of the fillet. [If you have 2 fillets instead of a whole trout just layer one on top of the other, skin on the outside of course].

Then cut some cherry tomatoes (about ½ to ¾ of a box) in halves and place them around the fish (not inside but around).

Then wrap everything up in the foil and grill for roughly 15 minutes, occasionally rotating.

Once cooked, take off the grill, cover in lemon, and serve immediately.

Buon Appetito!

Jennie & Mamma’s Fresh Cherry Tomato Sauce with Thin Spaghetti

This recipe is light and fresh and is one of the easiest and tastiest tomato sauce recipes that I have learned from my mamma. The only hard part is finding good cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are supposed to be very sweet which is what makes this recipe so delicious. Unfortunately when they are sold in stores they are often, sour and tasteless (unless you are in Italy where all tomatoes taste heavenly). Therefore, only make this when you find good tomatoes! You can also use grape tomatoes but I find that usually they tend to be less sweet and less juicy, so if you can find cherry’s, I’d recommend those!

Ingredients:

-Cherry Tomatoes  (roughly 2lbs -or 2 normal sized baskets/bags-  for 1lb of pasta)
-Garlic (3 cloves)
-Olive Oil
-Italian Parsley – a handful
-Basil – a handful
-Salt and Pepper
-Pecorino Romano (or other hard cheese)
-Hot Red Pepper Flakes
-1 lb Thin Spaghetti (you can use any pasta but I think this works better with long pastas and particularly well with thin spaghetti or even angel hair).

Recipe:

1. Put pasta water with salt on to boil.

2. Wash the tomatoes and cut them in half, chop up the garlic into small pieces and cut the parsley.

3. Then, heat up olive oil in a pan and fry the garlic until it starts to turn golden.

4. Throw in the cherry tomatoes and stir them on medium heat for a few minutes (roughly 5-8).
*It is very easy to overcook cherry tomatoes, and when you do this they will just shrivel into nothingness, so I recommend cooking them just until they begin to change shape, the sauce starts to thicken a little and the tomatoes begin to soften.

5. A minute or so before I turn off the heat I throw in a generous handful of basil, ripped into pieces and add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Cook and strain the pasta (al dente of course), and mix with the tomatoes.

7. Add pepper flakes (if you like spicy) and a grated hard cheese of your choice (pecorino romano, grana, etc…).

Enjoy!

* In hot L.A. over the summer I tried this recipe and then tossed in some arugula in the end in the bowl with the spaghetti with some lemon over the top. This was also very tasty if you want to try a variation!

Since I haven’t had a chance to take a picture of my own, the photo above is of something that looks pretty close to how this sauce should turn out, though I think they used regular spaghetti instead of thin spaghetti and I prefer fresh and more coarsely grated cheese (this looks like pre-grated cheese to me) :D.