Burger Fridays!

In order to try a save a few bucks on Friday date night, as well as indulging our deep love for the best food group ever, Burgers, Brian and I have been enjoying a new and different type of meaty delight every Friday for the past few weeks. I’ve decided that this simply MUST continue and it just so happens that my dear friend Rach is the self proclaimed Queen of Burgers and has written about a bazillion recipes for them! Yay! So every Friday, I will be posting the burger we had the week before, because, let’s face it, I’m not skipping date night to write on my blog.

I recently discovered my love for Chicken Cacciatore, and decided that it might be just as tasty as a burger…. The results were finger lickin’ good…



Beef Cacciatore Sliders by Yours Truly
8 small rolls or slider buns
½ carton of fresh mushrooms (sauteed in a little EVOO)
[The mushroom are totally optional… my hubby would kill me if I didn’t say this… he loathes them…which makes me wonder how we can even cooexist. Seriously.]
4 slices of Provolone cheese (a folded half for each slider)

Meat Mixture
11/2 lb Ground Sirloin
Pinch Red Pepper flakes
¼ yellow onion (grated into the meat mixture with a micro plane)
10-12 fresh basil leaves (finely chopped)
½ Cup grated Parm/Romano mix (kraft makes one)
S&P

Cacciatore Sauce
EVOO
S&P
1 small onion (finely chopped)
14oz can of diced tomatoes
4oz can of tomato paste (I only used 2/3 of it)
5 fresh basil leaves (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp capers

Add a couple tablespoons of EVOO to a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onions until they are nice and soft. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, capers and basil and cook for about 10-15 minutes until the sauce is nice and thick!

Put the meat in a large bowl with the pepper flakes, S&P, onion, cheese and basil. Take off your rings and MIX! Divide it into 8 even patties, making the middle a little thinner so they grill evenly. I grilled them on a cast iron grill pan for about 5 minutes on each side. Put the provolone on for the last two minutes to get it melty!

Meanwhile, get those rolls toastin’ under a hot broiler! But keep the oven light on so you don’t forget about em’!

To assemble, put some of the sauce on the bottom half of the bun, then the burger, then more sauce, then some mushrooms, then the top half of the bun. You will definitely need at least two of these babies... and some napkins! Enjoy!

Love,
Candace