Cookthink

Sliced Mozzarella With Black Olive Tapenade

This intensely flavored tapenade contributes umami taste, saltiness and complexity alongside slices of fresh, lactic mozzarella. Use the leftover tapenade to top toast or pan-roasted fish or meats, or as a dip for raw or blanched vegetables.

Roasted Sardines

My mother would cook literally a hundred or more sardines at once—enough for everyone at the table to have at least twenty. Their high oil content means any leftover sardines can be reheated without drying out. Read more about this recipe in Efisio Farris' Sweet Myrtle & Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia.

Sicilian Sardine And Broccoli Raab Pasta

One can of sardines is about 150 calories and 20 grams of protein; it provides 10% of the daily recommended allowance of iron and a whopping 20% of calcium. You can buy sardines in olive oil or in spring water. This recipe was featured in Root Source: Sardine, and comes from Susan of Food Blogga. Read more about the recipe here.

Basic Minestrone Soup

Minestrone started as the classic “garbage soup." The idea is that you do not go grocery shopping to make minestrone, but use whatever you have on hand -- extra vegetables, canned goods, frozen vegetables or leftovers. Read more about this recipe at VeganYumYum.

Walnut-Crusted Chicken With Chard And Bleu Cheese

You can use the heady stuffing for these pan-seared chicken breasts for pounded flank steak, pork roast or Portobello mushrooms. Read more about this recipe at hogwash.

Herb And Garlic Skirt Steak

Instead of marinating the meat, we drizzled marinade ingredients over just-cooked steak for a lighter, fresher flavor. Be warned: This one's for garlic lovers. Read more about this recipe at the Washington Post.

Italian Sausage

Our family friend, Linda Coronato, who created this recipe, once remarked that there is more than one way to serve Italian sausage. Splitting and marinating the sausages creates a new flavor profile. Read more about this recipe in the Berghoff Family Cookbook.

Wilted Escarole

Escarole with lemon juice is a match made in heaven -- juicy and tangy. A quick sauté is all the cooking this tender green needs.

Tortellini With Hot Sausage And Broccoli

This is a great way to use up leftover sausage. Just toss together the ingredients and you have dinner in a flash. This recipe is part of Andrew Schloss's Sunday Dinners.

Beef, Escarole And Mint Salad

Fresh mint is such a vital, bright flavor - thinly slicing the mint leaves will tossing them well with the other ingredients will distribute them throughout the salad, brightening the whole dish.

Tuna, Green Bean And Potato Salad With Olives And Anchovies

This is hardly a classic salad Niçoise (no hard boiled eggs or roasted red peppers?), but this is a good starting point for variation. The saltiness of the tuna, olives and anchovies gives great flavor to the vegetables.

Sausage, Spinach And Cheese Lasagna

Lasagna takes time to assemble, but the sighs of joy and contentment with one bite of this cheesy, spinach filled Italian delight makes it all worth it. For a vegetarian version, try omitting the sausage or replacing it with a soy substitute - it tastes just as good.