FDA recommends that consumers not eat raw red Roma, raw red plum, raw red round tomatoes, or products that contain these types of raw red tomatoes unless the tomatoes are from the sources listed below. If unsure of where tomatoes are grown or harvested, consumers are encouraged to contact the store where the tomato purchase was made. Consumers should continue to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, or tomatoes grown at home.

The FDA has a list of safe retailers for the above products. Be sure to read and follow the CDC’s advice to consumers.

More information:

• Salmonellosis Outbreak in Certain Types of Tomatoes (FDA)
• FDA Warns Consumers Nationwide Not to Eat Certain Types of Raw Red Tomatoes (FDA)
• Investigation of Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul (CDC)
• Salmonella outbreak linked to raw tomatoes strikes about 150 (USA Today)
• Salmonella Illness Linked to Tomatoes Spreads to 16 States (FOX News)

Quesadillas

Use a light hand when seasoning with kosher salt, as the cheese itself is rather salty. Cooling the quesadillas before cutting and serving is important; straight from the skillet, the cheese is molten and will ooze out. We advise against using sharp or aged cheddar cheese in this recipe, as both tend to separate and turn greasy. Serve the quesadillas with salsa, guacamole, or sour cream. Finished quesadillas can be held on a baking sheet in a 200-degree oven for up to 20 minutes.

Original Source: America’s Test Kitchen
+ Cook’s Illustrated, 05/2005 (premium content)

Click here to view Quesadilla pictures »

	8-inch plain flour tortillas
1⁄3 cup	filling (see suggestions below) per tortilla
	vegetable oil
	kosher salt

Directions

1. Heat a 10-inch cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot, about 2 minutes. Place a single tortilla in the skillet and heat through until warm and pliable, 30 seconds. Flip tortilla and repeat on the other side, then remove from skillet. Warm a second tortilla (if desired) while filling the first tortilla.
2. Spread about 1/3 cup of the filling over half of the tortilla, leaving about half an inch of the edge uncovered. Fold empty half of tortilla over to close, pressing down to flatten and seal. Set aside and repeat with second tortilla.
3. Brush the top of each tortilla with oil and sprinkle on a bit of salt, then place in the heated skillet oiled side down. While cooking the first side, oil and salt the second side of the tortillas. Flip over when well browned, 1-2 minutes, and then cook another 1-2 minutes to brown the other sides and heat the filling through. Remove from skillet and set aside to cool on a cutting board for at least 3 minutes. Repeat steps for additional batches of quesadillas. Slice into desired number of wedges and serve.

Scalable: You can make any number of these in a pinch, depending on whether you’re making a quick snack or serving it to a large group of people. If you want to make a large number of them, it’s best to heat more than one skillet so that you can cook them in bulk instead of just two at a time.

• Filling possibilities are endless: As I mentioned before, you can put just about anything you’d like inside one of these. At least a small amount of cheese is a good idea to help hold everything together, but precooked meats and vegetables are welcome additions. We like using a mix of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack or pepper jack cheese with a small amount of pickled jalapeños tossed in for a bit of heat. If you have excess enchilada filling leftover, this is a great way to use it up. Shredded pork (carnitas) mixed with Monterey Jack cheese makes a nice meaty quesadilla. Just be sure that anything you decide to put inside is already safe to eat without cooking it, as you’re only going to be warming them long enough to heat the filling, not cook raw food.
• Resting is important: Just as a grilled cheese sandwich will often leak out cheese when cut immediately after cooking, the cheese inside the quesadillas will ooze right out if you cut them right out of the skillet. Letting them sit will not only save your tongue from burns but will give the filling some time to set a bit so that you can cut wedges more cleanly. I like using a pizza cutter to slice each quesadilla into three wedges.

Chicken Enchiladas

If you prefer, Monterey Jack can be used instead of cheddar or, for a mellower flavor and creamier texture, try substituting an equal amount of farmer’s cheese. Be sure to cool the chicken before filling the tortillas, or the hot filling will make the enchiladas soggy.

Serves 4 or 5 people.

Original Source: America’s Test Kitchen
+ Cook’s Illustrated, 05/2003 (premium content)
+ The Best International Recipe pp. 20-22

Click here to view Chicken Enchiladas pictures »

Related How-Tos: Deboning and Skinning Chicken Thighs, Dicing Onions

Make-Ahead: The best place to pause this recipe is after making the sauce and mixing the cooled chicken in with the rest of the filling (step 1 online, step 3 in book); if you fully assemble the enchiladas and pour over the sauce before storing, the tortillas can get a bit soggy. Cover the bowl containing the enchilada filling with plastic wrap and store the sauce separately in a glass jar. Assemble and bake as directed when ready to serve.

Leftovers: Although they are certainly not as good as freshly made, you can reheat leftovers in the microwave or oven. Excess filling is excellent for quesadillas.

Scalable: I cut this recipe in half, making five enchiladas, to serve just my husband and me. It’s not as straightforward as halving all of the ingredients, as I’ve found that the chili sauce tends to reduce a bit too much if you cook it for the full time. Keep an eye on the sauce while you simmer it, and opt for the shorter end of the cooking range (8 minutes) instead of the full time (10 minutes). Substitute a square 8×8-inch baking dish for the 13×9-inch pan recommended in the recipe. You can also increase the recipe to feed more people; simply doubling the ingredients and using multiple baking dishes works just fine. Two to three enchiladas per person is a pretty good estimate.

• Slightly different recipes: If you have access to both the book and online versions of this recipe, you may have noticed that they are not exactly the same. The differences are minor, but enough that I’ll mention them here. We use the recipe from the book and will probably continue to do so since the online recipe uses less cheese! Add in 3/4 cup of water with the tomato sauce instead of just 1/4 cup, and shred 10 ounces of cheese (2 1/2 cups), which includes 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling on top of the enchiladas. The only other modification we make is that we halve the amount of cilantro suggested. We find the flavor of the cilantro to be a bit overpowering and tend to use it sparingly in other recipes as well, so that’s just personal preference.
• Thinly slicing raw meat: If the raw chicken is a bit too wobby to slice into thin strips, stick it in the freezer briefly to firm it up a bit, about 15 minutes.
• Using homemade tortillas and sauce: We’ve tried this recipe with both store-bought and homemade corn tortillas, and I think we’re split on the issue. He likes them with the homemade tortillas while I prefer the store-bought. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of the homemade corn tortillas in general, mostly because I didn’t like their stronger corn flavor. If you like them homemade and don’t mind the extra work, go for it! Making the enchilada sauce from scratch doesn’t add much extra work to this recipe, and since you cook the chicken in the sauce it doesn’t add much extra time to it either. The editors of Cook’s Illustrated are very adamant about using homemade sauce instead of buying canned sauce from the grocery store.
• Don’t over-reduce the enchilada sauce: Be careful not to reduce the chili sauce too much in the beginning or you won’t have very much to spread in the baking dish or over the enchiladas. It should still be smooth and fluid enough to roll around by tilting the dish. You don’t need all that much, just enough to barely coat the baking dish and then moisten the tops of the enchiladas. This is more of a danger if you scale the recipe down.
• Take care when handling jalapeños: I would recommend having gloves to work with the jalapeños or to really clean your hands after you mince them. The capsaicin in the chilis is very painful on sensitive body parts like the eyes, mouth, and nose. Sources on how to cool a capsaicin burn are conflicted — some say dairy works, other recommend oil, still others vinegar, and all versions have people claiming they don’t work at all. I ended up soothing my burn with cool water until it faded. Best to wear gloves when handling chili peppers and to keep your hands away from your face!
• Not a fan of spicy foods? I was worried that the jalapeños would be too much for me to handle, as I’m a bit sensitive to spicy foods, but I really like the flavor they add. A little bit of sour cream and plenty of milk or water help out immensely. I’m not a very good judge for rating the spiciness of foods, but I’d probably rate this somewhere between mild and moderately hot. If you don’t like jalapeños, you can just leave them out completely.
• Serving the enchiladas: There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to get the enchiladas out of the pan, having the tortilla come undone at the seam, and ending up with filling everywhere but the plate. I like to use a two-turner method: slide two thin-edged turners (the wider the better) on either side of the enchilda; carefully slide one under the enchilada while supporting the opposite side with the second turner; lift the enchilada from the baking dish between the two turners. It really helps if you can remember which way the seam is sitting on the dish. Slipping the turner under the seam instead of against it will vastly improve your chances of successful depanning.

Baked Ziti

This general recipe works well for a variety of medium-sized, ridged, tubular pasta types — rigatoncini and ziti rigati are the two we’ve tried. Penne rigati might be a bit small for this recipe. Ridged pasta does a better job of holding the sauce on the noodles, which is nice in this recipe.

You can omit the ricotta if you prefer and substitute in extra mozzarella. If you do this, try to use whole milk mozzarella instead of part-skim.

This recipe will serve two, but it can easily be scaled to feed any number of people. Baking time doesn’t need to be adjusted, just quantities.

Click here to view Baked Ziti pictures »

4 oz	ziti rigati or similar ridged pasta
1⁄4 lb	ground Italian sausage
1⁄2 jar	spaghetti sauce (13 oz, about 1 1⁄2 cups)
4 oz	shredded low-moisture mozzarella (about 1 cup)
1⁄4 cup	ricotta (4 tablespoons)
	grated Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano
	Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. For the pasta: Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Begin boiling water for the pasta when you start browning the meat for the sauce. Cook the pasta as soon as the water begins to boil.
3. For the sauce: Heat a large saucier or sauce pan over medium heat. (If using chicken sausage, you’ll need to add a small amount of oil; pork sausage has enough fat to brown on its own in a non-stick pan.) Add the sausage and cook until just starting to brown, breaking it into small chunks. You shouldn’t need to drain the sausage after cooking if you don’t add oil. After cooking the sausage, pour in the sauce and stir to combine, reducing the heat to low. Continue to simmer the sauce while the pasta cooks.
4. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, stirring to evenly distribute the pasta with the sauce mixture. Pour half of the pasta and sauce into a small, round casserole dish. Spoon four tablespoons of ricotta cheese on top, then cover with mozzarella. Sprinkle Italian seasoning on top of the cheese, then cover with the remaining pasta mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella, some grated Parmigiano and Romano cheeses, and more Italian seasoning. Cover dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
5. Bake pasta for 25 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 5 minutes until hot and bubbly. Serve immediately with extra grated cheese on top.

(Note: I tend to like my pasta sauces thin and lots of sauce on my pastas; Ragú’s Traditional Old World Style is my preferred store-bought sauce. I don’t think this recipe is soupy, but other people may disagree. I’ve actually cut the amount of sauce in half from what I originally used, believe it or not.)

Make-Ahead: The pasta can be assembled ahead of time and stored, ready to bake, in the refrigerator for a few days. If you want to keep it longer than that, put it in the freezer and allow to thaw before sticking in the oven.

Leftovers: This pasta reheats well if you have leftovers; just be sure to reheat only what you plan to use instead of the entire dish.

Scalable: In order to adjust this recipe, which is meant to feed two, simply divide all quantities by 2 and then multiply by the number of people it is meant to serve.

• Quick-and-easy side dish: The final five minutes of uncovered cooking time is the perfect opportunity to put in a loaf of bread to warm up alongside the pasta. We’re rather fond of La Brea’s demi baguettes and sliced pugliese, which we can pick up at Costco.
• Measuring uncooked pasta: Two ounces is the recommended serving size for pasta as a main course. It doesn’t look like all that much when you’re cooking it, but the cheese and sauce in this recipe really add a lot. I generally make three ounces of pasta per serving, but for this recipe two is plenty. If you have a larger appetite, increase to about 3 ounces per person. Use a digital food scale to make sure you measure out the right amount.
• Using sausage links instead of ground meat: I buy uncooked hot Italian sausage links and remove the casing before browning them like regular ground sausage; each link should be about ¼ pound. Remove the casing before cooking and break up the links as you would with a loose ground meat. You can use ground Italian sausage of any variety.
• Ricotta-less alternative: If you don’t like ricotta cheese, you can substitute extra mozzarella cheese instead; just be sure to be generous or the pasta will end up dry and not very cheesy. Since my husband doesn’t eat ricotta but I do, I break an uncooked lasagna noodle down to fit across the diameter of my baking dish. It splits the dish into two equal parts and keeps the ricotta from leaking over onto his side.
• Shred your own cheeses: Unless you’re pressed for time, get a chunk of mozzarella and shred it yourself. Pre-shredded cheeses tend to be coated to keep the pieces from sticking together in the bag. OXO’s Box Grater comes with a small container that you can insert into the bottom to catch the mozzarella as you shred it.
• Be choosy about your cheese: Whole-milk mozzarella results in a creamier dish compared to part-skim or low-fat mozzarella, and this is particularly noticeable if omitting the ricotta. Be sure to get real Italian Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano instead of the cans of pre-grated Parmesan and Romano. It may seem expensive, but you have to consider how much use you’ll get out of a block, and the flavor is more than worth the price; our Costco sells them at a much more reasonable price than our local grocery store. The Microplane Zester/Grater is a handy tool to have for grating hard cheeses.
• Avoid baking dishes with sharp corners: Use a round casserole dish or at least a baking dish with rounded corners. It really does cut down on crunchy corner noodles. (I believe Alton Brown talks about this trick in his episode about casseroles.) I use a 1.5-quart CorningWare round dish to cook two servings.

I’m generally not a fan of baking. For some reason, it seems like it’s so much easier to muck things up when making a baked good as opposed to just cooking a meal. I also don’t like having to work on a recipe in spurts; I’d rather spend an hour or two in the kitchen doing active work than have to check in on the progress of my rising dough every so often, punch it down, and wait for it to rise again. Despite all of this, I decided I needed to try making my own ciabatta loaf.

The recipe is pretty simple, but it requires a stand mixer and needs to be made about a day or two in advance of when you’d want to use it. It’s the first baking recipe I’ve tried that uses an Italian starter called a biga. You might be able to hand knead the dough, but it was very sticky when I made it and you’re not supposed to add in a lot of extra flour. I had thought that shaping the dough into the loaf would be a bit of a production, but it took less than five minutes, and the illustrations were really easy to follow.

Rustic Italian Bread

This recipe requires a standing mixer to make the dough, a spray-bottle filled with water for spritzing, a rectangular baking stone, and an instant-read thermometer for gaging doneness. It also requires a bit of patience—the biga, which gives the bread flavor, must be made 11 to 27 hours before the dough is made.

Makes 1 large loaf, about 2 1/2 pounds.

Original Source: America’s Test Kitchen
+ Cook’s Illustrated, 01/2003 (premium content)
+ The New Best Recipe pp. 746-750

Click here to view Rustic Italian Bread pictures »

Leftovers: If you find that you have too much bread to use before it goes stale, freeze the excess for later use. I wrap chunks or slices of bread in aluminum foil and then put inside a freezer Ziploc bag for long-term storage. To thaw, unwrap and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes; alternatively, wrap the bread in paper towels and microwave on full power for 30 seconds (longer for large chunks of frozen bread). It’s not as good as fresh, but it revives pretty well, particularly if toasted in the oven. If the bread goes stale before freezing it, don’t throw it away; slightly stale bread is excellent for making bread crumbs.

Don’t let the length of the recipe on paper fool you — it’s really simple. In fact, it’s mostly “Do five minutes of work, wait an hour or so. Repeat.” Here are a few extra tips:

• Turning the dough: When I went to turn the dough, I realized I didn’t have the appropriate tool. I have a 6-inch metal bench scraper, but it didn’t conform well to the curve of my bowl. The plastic scrapers I had were much too narrow. Instead, I improvised by using a silicone spatula. I had to fold each side over in parts, usually two or three, but it seemed to work fine. Also, if you reference their step-by-step illustrations at the bottom for turning the dough, it should be noted that you aren’t supposed to end up with the dough in the center of the bowl after the final step. I stared at those pictures for several minutes before I decided what to do: put the scraper under the dough on the side closest to you, and then lift and fold over to match the other side. The dough will now be folded in half, although it will no longer be resting in the center of the bowl.
• Be liberal with the flour: When they say “Dust work surface liberally with flour”, they aren’t kidding. I thought I was being liberal, but it turned out I was still skimping. If you don’t coat the thing in flour, it won’t cooperate when you go to form the loaf.
• Leave ample time for rising: Don’t start making the dough at 8pm, because you will have to stay up until about 3am before it’s done!
• Using smaller parchment paper: The parchment paper I buy comes in 15-inch wide rolls, and you’re supposed to end up with a loaf that is about 16 inches wide. To get around this, I cut my parchment large enough to let the loaf rest on the diagonal.
• Baking stones: I’m not sure why they call specifically for a rectangular baking stone; my only guess is that round stones tend to be smaller. Our large round stone worked just fine. You just have to make sure your stone will accommodate a 16-inch loaf.
• Preheating the oven: I only preheated the oven to 500°F during the final 20 minutes of rising time. The recipe is a little vague about this, mentioning the preheat before the final hour of rising time.

The bread is pretty good and about what we expected, although the crust got a little darker than what I’m used to seeing from the grocery store’s bakery. That seems to be pretty typical when I make breads, though. Next time I make it, I might use convection instead or shorten the cook time. It’s also possible that the crust browned a bit more because I didn’t have a spray bottle, and so instead I squeezed drops of water onto the loaf with a wet paper towel before putting it in the oven.