Biscotti... pepperoni style?

By now, you have to know just how much we really enjoy sweet biscotti, but every once in a while we go b-a-n-a-n-a-s and make a savory version. While most biscotti recipes are very crisp and crunchy, these Pepperoni Biscotti have a softer edge to them as the recipe contains a good amount of butter.

Taking these biscotti into the savory depths is minced garlic, sharp Parmesan cheese, Italian seasonings, chopped red peppers, chopped onions, fresh parsley and of course the most fundamental ingredient, chopped pepperoni! There is just a dash of sugar in the recipe, but it is mostly there to give the biscotti some color as it bakes, rather than to sweeten. The dough was nice to work with and is on the drier side of most recipes, as I was not very sticky when I went to roll the dough halves into logs. To give them an extra special touch, the logs of dough are rolled into a bit more Parmesan cheese before being flattened on the baking sheet. After baking, the recipe calls for leaving the loaves on the baking sheet to cool for 60 minutes, but I cut them after about 35 and they cut just as clean as I could have hoped.

Once they have gone through their second baking, the tender biscotti are still firm and crisp, but they have more of a give to them than a sweet version. This was such a fun and different way to change up biscotti - they are very pizza-esque in flavor with the garlic, Italian seasonings, pepperoni and cheese. I will definitely be making these again... I imagine they would be an enjoyable side to dunk into some creamy warm tomato soup during the cool fall nights later this year!

Tonight's dinner recipe, Feast from the East, sure lived up to its name as it is packed with lots of colorful and filling ingredients. To stand up to all of the ingredients in the salad, a killer combination of hoisin sauce, broth, soy sauce, seasoned rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, fresh ginger, orange zest and a clove of garlic make up the generous dressing. The salad is a bountiful mixture of whole wheat spaghetti, grilled sirloin steak, crunchy broccoli florets, cool diced cucumber, carrots, green peas, green onions and a good handful of fresh basil from our plants on the deck. While this was certainly busy with many flavors and textures, they all seemed to play off with each other and combine into a cohesive, refreshing and attractive dish that left our bellies quite happy and stuffed.

Recipes
Pepperoni Biscotti
Feast from the East