by Wilbur, Todd
• MAKES 6 SERVINGS.
OLIVE GARDEN LIMONCELLO LEMONADE
Need a simple cocktail for a hot day when the thought of lemonade makes your mouth water? Try this one. You start crafting this new signature blender drink by making lemon syrup from scratch from lemon juice, sugar and water. Track down some limoncello—an Italian lemon liqueur—and Smirnoff citrus vodka (or your favorite citrus vodka). Now you’re just a press of the blender button away from being refreshed.
¼ cup hot water
¼ cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 ounce Smirnoff citrus vodka
1 ounce limoncello liqueur
4 ounces lemonade (Minute Maid
or Country Time)
I to 2 cups ice
GARNISH
slice of lemon
1. Make lemon syrup by combining hot water, sugar and lemon juice.
2. When syrup is cool, make drink by combining ¾ ounce of lemon syrup with citrus vodka, limoncello, lemonade and ice in a blender. Blend on high speed until ice is crushed. Start with one cup of ice and add additional ice, if needed, to make drink slushy. Serve in a 16-ounce glass with a straw and a thin slice of lemon on the rim of the glass.
• MAKES I DRINK.
OLIVE GARDEN BRUSCHETTA
MENU DESCRIPTION: “A traditional topping of roma tomatoes, fresh basil and extra-virgin olive oil. Served with freshly toasted ciabatta bread.”
Olive Garden’s recently redesigned bruschetta recipe improves on the Italian chain’s previous version. The tomato salad includes a little sun-dried tomato and balsamic vinegar, and it is now served in a separate dish rather than on the bread. Now the bread doesn’t get soggy. The tomatoes are finely diced before mixing with the other ingredients, and the ciabatta bread is sprinkled with a little grated Parmesan cheese before it’s toasted. Try to find a nice, chewy loaf of Italian bread for this dish—get the best bread in the store. The better your bread, the better your bruschetta.
3 firm roma tomatoes, finely
diced (about 1 ½ cups)
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons diced marinated
sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
I teaspoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
9 to 10 slices ciabatta bread (or
Italian bread)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
cheese
pinch dried parsley flakes
1. Toss diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour.
2. When you are ready to serve the dish, preheat oven to 450 degrees.
3. Combine Parmesan cheese with dried parsley in a small bowl. Arrange the bread slices on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a couple pinches of the Parmesan cheese mixture over each bread slice. Bake for 5 minutes or until the bread starts to crisp.
4. Pour tomato mixture into a serving dish (strain off the liquid), and serve it up alongside the toasted bread slices.
• SERVES 4.
OLIVE GARDEN SICILIAN SCAMPI
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Large shrimp sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil with white wine, garlic and lemon.”
Once you have the onion, garlic and parsley all chopped up, this clone of a top appetizer pick at the Garden takes only a few minutes to assemble. Cooks at Olive Garden speed up the process by using what they call “scampi butter”—chilled blocks of butter with all the spices, garlic, and onions already in it—so that each serving is prepared quickly and consistently without any tedious measuring. When the shrimp is done, each one is placed on the inside end of five toasted Italian bread slices which have been arranged on the plate in a spoke-like fashion (you can also use a French baguette with the slices cut at an extreme angle). One shrimp is also placed in the middle of the plate, and the delicious sauce is poured over the top. I’ve included diced roma tomato here as an optional garnish, since one Olive Garden used it, but another location on the other side of town did not. As for the shrimp, use medium-size (they’re called 31/40) that are already peeled, but with the tails left on. Then all you have to do to butterfly them is make a deep cut (don’t go all the way through) on the outside of the shrimp where the vein was. As the shrimp cooks, they will curl and spread open.
2 tablespoons butter
I tablespoon olive oil
I teaspoon minced white onion
I teaspoon minced garlic
I tablespoon Chablis wine
6 fresh medium shrimp, butterfly
cut with tails on
I teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon minced fresh parsley
pinch salt
pinch ground black pepper
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 tablespoon sliced canned black
olives
5 slices Italian bread, toasted
OPTIONAL GARNISH
½ diced roma tomato freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1. Toast the sliced Italian bread on a sheet pan in your oven set to broil, or in a toaster oven. The bread should toast for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until light brown. Arrange the bread slices in a spoke-like fashion on a serving plate then dance over to the stove to whip up the scampi.
2. Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan.
3. When the butter has melted add the minced onion and garlic. Make sure your heat isn’t up too high or the garlic may burn, and turn brown and bitter. When the onion and garlic have sautéed for just a few seconds, add the wine to the pan.
4. Immediately add the shrimp to the pan.
5. After you add the shrimp, quickly add the lemon juice, parsley, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper and cook shrimp for 1 to 2 minutes, tossing occasionally.
6. After a minute or two, when the shrimp is done, add the cream and olives. Cook for 15 seconds or so, then use tongs to place one shrimp on the end of each bread slice (the ends that are in the center of the plate), and place one shrimp in the center of the plate (not on bread). Pour the sauce from the pan over the shrimp and serve the dish with a diced roma tomato sprinkled over the top and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, if that’s your thing.
• MAKES AN APPETIZER FOR TWO.
OLIVE GARDEN STUFFED MUSHROOMS
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Parmesan, Romano and mozzarella cheese, clams and herb breadcrumbs baked in mushroom caps.”
Breadcrumbs, clams and three types of cheese are baked into white mushroom caps in this clone of a top pick from Olive Garden’s appetizer menu. Simply mix all the stuffing ingredients together in a bowl, fill the mushroom caps, sprinkle on some minced red bell pepper, cover the mushrooms with a blanket of mozzarella cheese slices, and bake. After 15 minutes you’ll have a great appetizer or hors d’oeuvre for 4 to 6 people—that’s twice the serving size of the dish from the restaurant.
⅓ cup Progresso breadcrumbs
(herb flavor)
¼ cup canned minced clams
(drain liquid)
I tablespoon shredded Parmesan
cheese
1 tablespoon shredded Romano
cheese
½ teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons chicken broth
12 medium white button
mushrooms with stems
removed
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons minced red bell
pepper
2 to 3 slices mozzarella cheese
½ teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine breadcrumbs, clams, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, and garlic in a medium bowl. Use your hands to mix everything together Add the chicken broth I tablespoon at a time and stir after each addition with a spoon. Keep the stuffing fluffy by not over stirring.
3. Fill each of the mushroom caps with 1 to 2 teaspoons of the stuffing (depending on the size of the mushroom). Keep the filling pretty loose but make the top surface flat to support the sliced cheese. Arrange the stuffed mushrooms in a shallow baking dish with the stuffing facing up.
4. Use a brush to dab melted butter over each mushroom. Add enough so that the butter trickles down the sides of each mushroom and rests in the baking dish. Pour any leftover butter into the dish, then scoot the mushrooms next to each other.
5. Sprinkle the minced red bell pepper over the tops of the stuffed mushrooms.
6. Arrange the slices of cheese over the mushrooms. Tear the slices to cover all of the mushrooms leaving no stuffing uncovered.
7. Bake the mushrooms for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.
8. When the mushrooms come out of the oven immediately sprinkle them with ½ teaspoon of minced parsley and serve.
• SERVES 4 TO 6 AS AN APPETIZER.
OLIVE GARDEN TOASTED RAVIOLI
Sold as a finger-food appetizer along with marinara dipping sauce, Olive Garden’s delicious breaded ravioli can be cloned with ease using one of several varieties of premade raviolis carried in just about any supermarket. It’s best to use the fresher raviolis found in the refrigerated section, but you can also use frozen raviolis; you just have to let them thaw first before breading them. The Toasted Ravioli at O.G. has a beefy inside, but you can use any ravioli that tickles your fancy including chicken, sausage, vegetarian, or cheese. As for the breading, find Progresso brand Italian style breadcrumbs. Contadina is another popular brand, but their version is much too salty for a good clone.
6 to 10 cups canola oil (as
required by fryer)
1 egg, beaten
I cup milk
1 cup Progresso Italian style
breadcrumbs
12 premade beef raviolis (fresh, or
if frozen, thawed)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
cheese
ON THE SIDE
½ cup marinara sauce, wormed
1. Preheat the oil in your deep fryer to 325 degrees.
2. Combine the beaten egg with the milk in shallow bowl. Pour the breadcrumbs into another shallow bowl.
3. Bread the ravioli by dipping each one in the milk and egg, then into the breadcrumbs. Arrange the breaded ravioli on a plate and let them sit for 5 minutes so that the breading sticks like a champ.
4. When the raviolis have rested, drop a handful into the oil. Depending on the size of your fryer, you may want to fry the raviolis in batches so they aren’t too crowded. Fry the breaded raviolis for 1 to 2 minutes or until they’re golden brown. Remove them to a draining rack or a paper-towel lined plate.
5. When all the raviolis are cooked, arrange them on a serving plate and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese over the top. Serve the dish with a small bowl of warmed marinara sauce on the side for dipping.
• SERVES 3 TO 4 AS AN APPETIZER.
OLIVE GARDEN PASTA E FAGIOLI
MENU DESCRIPTION: “White and red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth.”
It’s amazing how many lousy clone recipes for this delicious chili-like soup are floating around the Internet. Cooking message boards, and questionable sites that claim to have “actual restaurant recipes” have for years passed off numerous versions only to have disappointed home chefs waste ingredients. What’s puzzling is they leave out major ingredients that you can clearly see in the real thing, like the carrots, or ground beef, or two kinds of beans. Others don’t even get the pasta right—it’s obviously ditali pasta, which are short little tubes. So, if you want the taste of Olive Garden’s famous Pasta e Fagioli at home, this may be the only recipe out there that will live up to a side-by-side taste test. Beware of imitation imitations!
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced (I cup)
1 large carrot, julienned (I cup)
3 stalks celery, chopped (I cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans
(with liquid)
1 15-ounce can Great Northern
beans (with liquid)
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1 12-ounce can V-8 juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ pound (½ pkg.) ditali pasta
1. Brown the ground beef in a large saucepan or pot over medium heat. Drain off most of the fat.
2. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and saute for 10 minutes.
3. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour.
4. About 50 minutes into the simmering, cook the pasta in 1½ to 2 quarts of boiling water over high heat. Cook for 10 minutes or just until pasta is al dente, or slightly tough. Drain.
5. Add the pasta to the large pot of soup. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more and serve.
• SERVES 8.
OLIVE GARDEN MINESTRONE SOUP
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Fresh vegetables, beans and pasta in a light tomato broth—a vegetarian classic.”
This classic Italian soup is jam-packed with beans, zucchini, onion, tomatoes, carrots, pasta, and spices; but O.G.’s secret formula doesn’t include chicken broth. Canned vegetable broth found in the soup aisle of most markets works as a base here in this secret formula that bursts with flavor as a purely vegetarian dish.
3 tablespoons olive oil
I cup minced white onion (about
I small onion)
½ cup chopped zucchini
½ cup frozen cut Italian green
beans
¼ cup minced celery (about
½ stalk)
4 teaspoons minced garlic (about
4 cloves)
4 cups vegetable broth (Swanson
is good)
2 15-ounces cans red kidney
beans, drained
2 15-ounce cans small white
beans or Great
Northern beans,
drained
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
½ cup julienned or shredded
carrot
2 tablespoons minced fresh
parsley
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
3 cups hot water
4 cups fresh baby spinach
½ cup small seashell pasta
1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or stockpot. Saute onion, zucchini, green beans, celery and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes or until onion begins to turn translucent.
2. Add broth to pot, plus drained beans, tomatoes, carrot, spices, bay leaves, and hot water Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired soupy thickness.
• MAKES ABOUT EIGHT 1½-CUP SERVINGS.
OLIVE GARDEN CHICKEN SCAMPI
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Chicken breast tenderloins sautéed with bell peppers, roosted garlic and onions in a garlic cream sauce over angel hair.”
This dish is a big favorite of Olive Garden regulars. Chicken tenderloins are lightly breaded and sautéed along with colorful bell peppers and chopped red onion. Angel hair pasta is tossed into the pan along with a healthy dose of fresh scampi sauce. Then it’s time to ring the dinner bell. If you’re cooking for two, you can prepare this dish for the table in one large skillet, saving the remaining ingredients for another meal. If you’re making all four servings at once, you need two skillets. By the way, if you can’t find fresh chicken tenderloins (the
tender part of the chicken breast), you can usually find big bags of them in the freezer section, If that’s how you buy them, you’ll have plenty left over after this recipe, but they’re really good to have around.
SCAMPI SAUCE
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons minced white onion
¼ cup minced garlic (8 to 12
cloves)
1½ cups Chablis wine
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
flakes
¼ teaspoon ground black
pepper
2 teaspoons minced fresh
parsley
1 cup heavy cream
5 to 6 quarts water
16 ounces angel hair pasta
4 tablespoons olive oil
12 chicken tenderloins
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 green bell pepper, cut into
bite-size strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into bite-