Photo: Oh, HELL YES: "Margherita Burgers."

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Margherita Burgers Recipe and a Review to Come

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, we've been changing things around the apartment lately: cleaning, painting and searching for some new furniture. I've been looking for inspiration pretty much everywhere I can find it. From kitchen tables to window treatments and wall hangings, I've been Googling like crazy!

One site that has it all is CSN Stores and I've been given the opportunity to review their services and products. I'm not kidding when I say they have everything, have a look for yourselves! So, please stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

While we have been working pretty hard on making our apartment feel a little cozier, we've also been trying to take advantage of what's left of Summer vacation. The kids start school in less than a week now and it seems like just yesterday we were so happy that Summer was finally here! It has been a little cooler lately and I've been trying to use up those herbs I have growing on the porch. My favorite is basil, I could use it in just about anything, and most often I end up putting a big handful in my burgers. A few weeks ago I "invented" this burger recipe and I've made it at least 3 times since! The burgers are juicy and flavorful and yes, they taste like Summer!



Margherita Burgers
You can change the given quantities of pretty much any of the ingredients to suit your tastes.

2 lbs lean ground beef
1 egg
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 to 1/3 cup of sun dried tomatoes, in oil, chopped finely
2 tbsp of the oil the tomatoes are packed in
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Hamburger buns
Slices of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves, for garnish

In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, sun dried tomatoes, oil, onion, chopped fresh basil and salt and pepper. Mix well and form 8 patties. You can cook the burgers on the BBQ, in a pan or, as I like to cook them in my panini press, it takes half the time as they cook on both sides at the same time! Just cook them from 8 to 10 minutes per side or until the internal temperature of each patty is 160F. Let the burgers rest a few minutes before serving them.

Heat or toast the hamburger buns, place a patty on each bun, then top with mozzarella, tomato slices and fresh basil leaves. Then enjoy what's left of Summer!

[trof]

1. OK, that sounds really good, but...

Where's the Tequila?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. "Margherita"

It's not the same thing.

Margherita is a style of Italian pizza with tomato, basil and mozzarella.

But if you want a Margerita, it will be my pleasure to serve one to you:



:toast:

[trof]

3. You say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe.

:-)