Melanzane al Pomodoro

George Hirsch September 18, 2025

Cooking Melanzane al Pomodoro is perfect this time of year when farms are abundant with eggplant and tomatoes. My Eggplant Sauce recipe does not include meat/protein in the ingredients, but feel free to add grilled sausage, chicken, or shrimp if desired. This is it if you are looking for an under-thirty-minute cook-to-table dish without compromising flavor for time. You can create variations on this recipe, which is very easy to do.

This pasta sauce is served warm or chilled, added to a tube-shaped pasta.

George's Eggplant Sauce

Makes 4 servings

chefgeorgehirsch.com | from George Hirsch Living it UP! Cookbook

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups eggplant, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup onion, chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

6 plum tomatoes, deseeded and chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup pitted calamata olives, chopped

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano, thyme, and hot pepper flakes

2 Tablespoons pine nuts

2 Tablespoons fresh basil

parmesan cheese to taste and fresh black pepper

Preheat a large nonstick saucepan

Add half the olive oil, then eggplant, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and bell pepper. Cook until light brown. Add the wine, chicken broth, olives, dried basil, oregano, thyme, and hot sauce. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes.

Top with remaining olive oil, fresh basil, and pine nuts.

Excellent with a rigatoni or tube-shaped pasta.

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Chocolate Sauce, take a dip

George Hirsch February 13, 2025

This is one of those sauces that must be in every chef's repertoire. It's a classic. In a matter of minutes, you can turn a simple sweet into chocolate decadence. So set aside the guilt and go ahead - dip, drizzle, and dunk your way through fresh strawberries, ice cream, and cake.

One study has shown that the smell of chocolate may relax you by increasing theta waves in the brain. Yes, we all have them.

Does chocolate contain any nutrients? Yes, it does, in small amounts. A 1.5-ounce milk chocolate bar contains recommended daily values of the following vitamins and minerals:

• 3 grams of protein • 15% of the Daily Value of riboflavin • 9% of the Daily Value of calcium • 7% of the Daily Value of iron

When choosing chocolate, look for a shiny finish, which is a sign that the chocolate was heated at the right temperature for the right amount of time. Also, look for a crispy snap when chocolate is broken into pieces. Choose a good chocolate for a sauce like Lindt, Callebaut, or Scharffen Berger. In a pinch, chocolate chips will do. This very decadent sauce is ideally served with fresh strawberries. Note: this chocolate sauce recipe is not ideal for coating dipped strawberries. Chocolate Sauce Recipe Below

***Dip or Drizzle Chocolate Sauce On Your Favorite Cookies***

George's Chocolate Sauce

Recipe by Chef George Hirsch | George Hirsch Lifestyle TV Series

Makes about two cups

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 Tablespoons pure cane granulated sugar

3/4 cup cream

3 Tablespoons corn syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Optional: 1 Tablespoon Brandy or Grand Marnier

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl and set aside.

Place cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a small pot. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly. When it reaches a boil, pour directly over the chocolate and stir until all chocolate has melted. Add vanilla and brandy.

Use immediately or cool, cover, and refrigerate for up to two weeks. To reheat, heat the amount you need over a double boiler and stir until just melted.

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Winter Pesto

George Hirsch January 9, 2025

There is a chill outside, and I’m still six-plus months away from fresh basil from my garden. But I'm not waiting until then to make one of my favorite dishes made with pesto. Solution? My Winter version of pesto. A robustly flavored style pesto made with arugula + spinach mix. The peppery flavor makes a nice and welcoming flavor and a bold way to serve an ingredient commonly available year-round.

Winter Pesto

Makes one cup

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1 cup packed arugula, washed and dried

1 cup fresh spinach, washed and dried

4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled

2 Tablespoons pine nuts, chopped

1 ice cube

3 Tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

6 Tablespoon olive oil, See Instructions Below

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Place garlic and pine nuts in a food processor or blender. Pulse gently. Add ice cube, arugula, and spinach, and slightly pulse. Do not over-grind for too long, or you will be cooking the tender leaves. Add the olive oil and cheese and process until it makes a paste. Refrigerate until ready to use. Keeps for about a week in the refrigerator.

Use for more than pasta. Pesto is an excellent addition to salad dressing, poultry, seafood, and vegetables.

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Whats a Scape? tune-in George Hirsch Lifestyle

George Hirsch May 14, 2024

Just in time for Spring! Hard Neck Garlic, grown in the northeast and featured on GHL from Quail Hill Farm, located on the East End of Long Island, is a green garlic-like scallion. Scapes are slim, bright-green, foot-long shoots with a curled top that new garlic bulbs send up in Spring. Crisp and flavor-packed with an onion garlic-like taste. The scape growing season is very short, so you need to be on the lookout when available in spring.

So what to do with a garlic scape? Use in the same manner as you would use garlic or green onions. Chop and toss into sautéed vegetables, sauces, and grilled seafood. And, my favorite is chopped and used for making pesto.

Garlic Scape Pesto from George Hirsch Lifestyle TV series

Garlic Scape Pesto

makes one cup

chefgeorgehirsch.com | as seen on George Hirsch Lifestyle TV series

1 cup Garlic scapes, washed, dried, and chopped

1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves, washed and dried

2 Tablespoons pine nuts, chopped

1 ice cube

3 Tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

3 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Place garlic, scapes, and pine nuts in a food processor. Puree gently. Add ice cubes and basil and slightly grind. Do not over-grind too long, or you will actually be cooking the tender leaves. Add the olive oil and cheese and process until it makes a paste. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Use for more than pasta. Scape pesto is a great addition to salad dressing, topping bruschetta, poultry, seafood, grilled seafood, and vegetables.

Tips:

- Use good quality extra virgin olive oil.

- Great make-ahead dish for a work-week dinner crunch. Simply make the pasta and toss in refrigerated pesto sauce, top with grated cheese.

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Perfect Summertime Condiment

George Hirsch August 15, 2023

***A lite and refreshing summertime dish, ideal served with seafood and topped with Aioli***

When temperatures reach north of 90 degrees, I find it's time to chill down supper food selections and prepare cold plates, just like I ate as a child. My Mom, a delicious cook, consummate organizer, and doer, would cook first thing in the morning before temperatures became too hot in the kitchen. It makes sense and is still how food is prepared in many European cultures today. Besides having to cool things off in the kitchen, it was also the custom at home with non-meat Fridays, enjoying cold fish suppers. On those Fridays, my mom would cook up grilled or poached fish such as tuna or cod, boiled potatoes, garden green beans, vine-ripe tomatoes, boiled eggs, and sliced onion. The highlight for me on chilled supper night was the cold sauce made with garlic and mayonnaise. Later I learned, in my early culinary days, that sauce was called an aïoli, a simple yet traditional emulsified sauce with garlic, olive oil, and egg yolk.

A perfect summertime condiment and goes well with roasted chicken if fish is not on the menu.

With so many ways to prepare aïoli, the consistent ingredient that holds across all ethnic regions is garlic. The Occitan valleys of Italy serve aioli with boiled potatoes. In Cataluña and most of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, allioli is purely a garlic mayonnaise. France's Le Grand Aïoli dedicates a complete dish consisting of various boiled vegetables such as carrots, beets, cauliflower, green beans, yellow flesh potatoes, and boiled fish, such as salted cod with boiled eggs and the aioli sauce. The version from Provence adds Dijon mustard to the sauce, as I prefer, which in addition to flavor, also helps in the emulsification of the oil to be suspended by the liquid of the sauce.

Aïoli is ideal to serve as a sauce for foods like the above, but it's also excellent as a spread on toasted French bread or pommes frites. Some may find that the raw garlic can leave too strong a taste. That is true, especially with summer garlic which has more of a bitter bite and has just recently been harvested. No need to avoid this tasty sauce or feel you'll need a shot of mouthwash; there is a tastier solution. I use my long-time recipe for caramelized garlic to soften and sweeten the punch on my aïoli in place of raw garlic.

To Yolk or Not to Yolk?

There is, of course, the food safety issue to point out regarding making aïoli from scratch because of using uncooked raw egg yolks. Always ensure the eggs are fresh and best obtained from someone you know! One of my recipes uses prepared mayonnaise and covers any concerns about food safety. Today, there is even mayonnaise made with olive oil, which I prefer. The choice is yours, go traditional with making a classic Provence style aïoli or make it semi-authentic with a prepared mayo; the choice is yours. Either way, you'll be shouting bring on the Le Grand Aïoli!

The technique of making an aïoli is to create an emulsion with the egg yolks, supporting the liquid from the olive oil. Do not over-pulse or mix the yolks and oil. Do not add the oil too slowly or too fast. This technique may require some trial and error. If done correctly, you will have a thick mayonnaise-like sauce; if the sauce is broken, the oil will have separated from the yolks and look more like a vinaigrette.

Classic Aïoli

Makes 1 1/2 cups

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

*8 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

Coarse sea salt

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

3 large egg yolks at room temperature

1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon

A couple of drops of water

Fresh ground black pepper

Always use caution with raw eggs. And this sauce must be kept chilled after it is prepared.

In a food processor or preferably a mortar, pound the garlic cloves with a pinch of sea salt and Dijon mustard until thick paste forms. Add in the egg yolks and olive oil, a few drops at a time, with a fork or whisk. Add the olive oil in a steady stream as the aïoli thickens. Stop and add a few drops of lemon juice, and gradually add the remaining olive oil and a few drops of water if the sauce becomes too thick. When all of the oil has been incorporated, season the aïoli with additional lemon juice, sea salt, and pepper to taste.

Serve chilled. The aïolii can be tightly covered and refrigerated overnight.

* A classic aïoli is made with raw garlic, but again I prefer caramelized garlic to raw garlic, which offers a much sweeter and nuttier taste.

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Garlic Aïoli with Crostini

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

An intensely flavored garlic mayonnaise from the Provence region of southern France. Traditionally the mayonnaise is made from scratch with egg yolks. I prefer this version, as it is safer and faster to make.

Crostini, meaning “little toasts” in Italian, are small, thin slices of toasted bread, which are usually brushed with olive oil-excellent spread with Aioli.

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 head caramelized garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup basil

To Make Crostini:

1 loaf baguette or French bread

Olive oil for brushing toast.

Puree the garlic in the bottom of a small bowl. Add mustard and mayonnaise and stir in olive oil. Add lemon juice and basil. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Slice Italian bread into small pieces, toast, and brush toast with olive oil. Spread a generous amount of aïoli on toasts.

Serve aïoli and crostini with your favorite vegetables and seafood.

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