Harissa Faux-Lobster (Prosciutto-Wrapped Monkfish) with Morcilla and White Sweet Potatoes

Prosciutto-Wrapped Harissa Monkfish with Morcilla and White Sweet Potatoes

One weekday evening I found myself wandering through Reading Terminal after work with a strange urge to buy some Monkfish.

I didn't have a recipe in mind when I bought it, so when we got home and searched the pantry we began grabbing all sorts of leftovers to include:

• an excess of prosciutto laying around from the weekend
• a 'White Jewel' sweet potato from Fair Food Farmstand
• a small bag of hot peppers
• a nub of strangely dry morcilla from Garces Trading Co.
• half a carton of vegetable stock

Harissa dressing and Morcilla chunks

We created an ad-hoc Harissa using the peppers and diced up the morcilla and sweet potato, which went into the broth to cook until tender. I removed the skins from the sweet potato and baked them in the oven coated in olive oil. I was hoping they would give a little crispness and texture to the stew.

Faux-Lobster...Prosciutto-Wrapped Monkfish

Monkfish has been called 'poor-man's lobster' because the texture can resemble that of a lobster tail. We figured that wrapping it in a pan-fried 'shell' of prosciutto would give it tons of flavor.  Sliced into coins, the tail was topped with harissa relish and served with morcilla & sweet potato stew. It was a strange combination of salty prosciutto, sweet potato, spicy pepper and rich cured morcilla...not sure if we would stick with the harissa and sweet potato again, but such is the result of a 'leftover challenge'.

Ricotta Stuffed Pattypan Squash

Earlier in the Fall, Headhouse Farmer's market had some bright little Pattypan squash showing - Elizabeth picked up a pint and proceeded later that evening to adapt a recipe from her childhood to reduce our ricotta stockpile.

Claudio's ricotta, at $4 per lb. is a steal - we're basically trying to work it into every dish imaginable. This was one of the better experiments...a gratin of sorts placed into the hollowed out squash.

A mix of sautéed squash & shallots, along with some seasoned ricotta, go back into the squash and into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until warmed through.

We served the squash alongside roast leg of lamb and prosciutto-wrapped fingerling potatoes for a comforting Sunday Night meal; the fingerlings were a take on something I saw over on Studiokitchen earlier this year, fingerlings cooked in peanut oil, then wrapped in Iberico ham and deep fried. I didn't go as luxe as Shola's version, just boiling the potatoes, wrapping them in prosciutto and finishing them with a pan-fry...neglected to snap a photo of mine but they looked something like this...photogenically nowhere near as close to what Studiokitchen cranks out though.

English Pea Fettucine & Cheese Stuffed Blossom w/ Zucchini Cakes

Fun with market finds...Fresh English Peas, Prosciutto & Fettuccine.


Here we've got more cheese-stuffed zucchini blossoms..these are wrapped with little Prosciutto bow-ties.



Elizabeth shredded some yellow squash, mixed with an egg-flour batter and fried up some fritters to accompany the blossoms.



Final shot of the Pea & Prosciutto pasta.

Prosciutto Wrapped Hake Filet & French Green Lentils

Whole Foods on South St. has been running an on-again/off-again sale on Hake for 8.99/#

I've used the fish as a cheaper alternative to cod when I do tapas, but I'd never cooked the fillet whole.

A friend of ours recently gave us a cookbook for Christmas of recipes from the C.I.A. that highlighted Hake...wrapped in prosciutto and served atop French green lentils. Elizabeth's recently tried lentils served in this manner from Cochon and they made for a great side, so that sealed the deal on this recipe.

We still had a little less than an eighth of a pound of prosciutto hanging around from the weekend that we'd picked up at DiBruno Bros., which was just enough to wrap two fillets.



First we started the lentils, also from the bulk section of Whole Foods. Sauteed a quick mirepoix of carrot, onion, celery & celery leaves in butter, then threw in the lentils, covered with vegetable stock and brought to boil then simmer. Leave that alone for 5 minutes the recipe said.

5 minutes? Some varities of lentils CAN cook that fast, but there was no way5 minutes could be correct...them I re-read the recipe and saw the lentils should have been cooked before adding to the broth & mirepoix mixture. 25 minutes longer than I had anticpated, the lentils were still firm, but had soaked up the hearty & buttery flavor from the soup-starter that is a good mirepoix.

The fish itself couldn't have been easier. The hardest part was peeling off the sheets of prosciutto without destroying them. Wrapped and into a skillet on medium heat, I kept a watchful eye on the fish, only turning them once.



Waiting for the lentils gave Elizabeth plenty of time to whip up a salad of goat cheese, blackberry & walnuts. With tomatos drizzled in olive oil and the cheese dusted with grated toasted walnut, the salad had both oily nuttiness and tangy acidity.



Here's the finished product. The hake is riding high on a wave of lentils. True to form, the prosciutto had shielded the fish from drying out and given back some of it's cured flavor to the moist white flakes of the hake.

The lemons not only married with the fish, but brightened up theeartier, richer flavors of the lentils.

Prosciutto Ham & Hirtenkase Cheese Pastry

Elizabeth saw this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa and changed up the ingredients a bit.

Here's the link to the original...


We bought some prosciutto and a German cheese called Hirtenkase to replace the ham & Gruyere. The Hirtenkase is a super-strong cheese, like an Emmentaler or strong Swiss cheese with the crunch of a Parmesan. Elizabeth left out the mustard because the cheese was so strong and had that bit of zestyness that Dijon would've brought.

This came out of the oven golden brown and delicious...we sliced it up into pieces to have with some wine, but saved some an reheated it for breakfast.