12 sardines
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Rub sardines with some of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Place sardines on a baking tray and put the oven, roasting until eyes turn opaque, about 5 or 6 minutes. Remove from oven.
4. Meanwhile, combine garlic, egg yolks and lemon juice in a blender. Slowly add the olive oil until you have a thick mayonnaise. You may not need all of the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Serve sardines hot with a tablespoon or two of the aioli.

Makes 4 servings

8 small bocconcini
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 sprig thyme, chopped
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 large tomatoes, sliced

1. Marinate bocconcini in basil, thyme, rosemary, garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice and olive oil for 3 days.
2. Tear bocconcini and serve with sliced tomatoes and a drizzle of the infused oil or vinaigrette.

Makes 4 servings

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 medium leek, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dried navy beans, soaked overnight
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

1. Place olive oil, carrots, leek and garlic in a large pot over medium heat. When leeks start to soften, add the broth, beans and bay leaf and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered until beans are tender, about an hour and a half. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 6 servings

I have to be honest here. I thought this meal was going to be fantastic and it was wholly disappointing. However, I did accomplish a few things while making it, so I'm happy about that. My first accomplishment was relatively minor, but I planned ahead to make this! I marinated bocconcini for several days to try and infuse it with flavor and I pre-soaked dried beans so they didn't take (as) long to cook.

The bocconcini was used for a simple Tomato Bocconcini Salad which is an ongoing pairing I'm historically very happy with; tomatoes and cheese. Bocconcini are just balls of unripened baby mozzarella that I find don't really have much flavor on their own whatsoever. I expected them to pick up a whole lot of flavor after being marinated for several days but they really didn't. Perhaps I should have added more herbs and lemon and less olive oil? I really don't know. I feel cheated out of several days of waiting when I could have just as easily drizzled them with some vinaigrette and achieved the same flavor.

The beans I was originally going to do much more with, but basically were just Stewed Navy Beans with leeks and carrots. I had planned to do a sort of sausage and navy bean casserole or soup but the sausage I had leftover no longer looked desirable and I went this route instead. That was the disappointment in this dish. They still tasted fine, since it is hard to go wrong with beans, but without any sort of smoky meat I feel they lack something. Ham or bacon may have worked as well, but I was too lazy to go to the store. Had I done so I would've just picked up more sausage anyway.

My final accomplishment was in using my new blender to make mayonnaise, which is a billion times easier than trying to do it with a whisk and wrist. I made Roasted Sardines with Aioli and there's really no gradual change to mayonnaise (aioli is just garlic mayonnaise) it just sort of happens all at once. It goes from "Man, I think I screwed up.. it's just a puddle of oil" to mayonnaise in a matter of seconds. I used extra virgin olive oil, which imparted a very extra virgin olive oily flavor I was not intended to do. This was bad with the sardines, but very, very good with the sourdough cheese sandwich I just ate while typing this. I only made a couple of sardines because I knew Shannon wouldn't eat them and I wasn't so sure about them and, unfortunately, they hadn't thawed properly and did not cook all the way through. This makes me sad, since roasting a sardine is incredibly easy.