(gentle music) - [Sara] "Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by Sunsweet, Mutti tomatoes of Parma, Le Gruyere AOP from Switzerland, and by... - Cooking is the first kinda love you know.

It was starting when I was child and with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now, I transmit it to all the guests.

It's something made specially for them.

- [Announcer] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals".

(upbeat music) - If you wanna improve almost any dish, I've got a secret, cheese.

Salads, pizza, sandwiches, its melty magic adds the flavor bomb you crave.

There's no better way to showcase cheese than to put it on a burger, but not just any burger, my French onion soup burger.

Another cheese home run, pizza, a French Alsation pizza.

There's only three ingredients.

It is onion, bacon, and cheese, served on a very thin crust.

(cow moos) What's cheese without the cow?

We visit a dairy full of pampered bovines, because... - Every cow in this barn is a lady.

Treat 'em as such.

- And on "Ask Sara", DIY cheese.

Cheese, please, today on "Sara's Weeknight Meals".

(gentle music) This next dish is really gonna impress you.

I had it the first time several years ago when I was on a French riverboat cruise and the chef happened to be a German chef and he made it one night, oh, it's sunset, to go with some wine.

I was so blown away, because there's only three ingredients in this hors d'oeuvre.

It is onion, bacon, and cheese, served on a very thin crust.

So, I've got about six ounces of bacon here that I'm cutting into 1/4 inch slices.

I've got a medium, medium low pan preheated and I'm gonna add them to the pan and cook 'em till they're just barely golden.

Everything in this recipe is ultimately gonna go into a 500-degree oven, so we wanna make sure not to, to slightly undercook it, 'cause it's gonna brown in that oven later on.

I'm gonna transfer this bacon, now that it's perfect, to paper towels to drain a bit.

I'm just gonna let 'em drain.

Now, I'm gonna pour off all but two tablespoons of the bacon fat.

(gentle upbeat music) K, let me get the onions in.

Here we go.

Four cups of onions and you want 'em paper thin.

Now, you are gonna be absolutely astonished when we are done about how far they go down.

We're gonna cook these onions covered for about 10 minutes.

Time for the topping.

Let me start with my egg.

I just want the yolk.

K, that's gonna go in there.

Boom.

Let me just break it up a tiny bit.

It's amazing how simple this recipe is.

We're using a whole eight ounces of creme fraiche.

Use creme fraiche.

Don't use sour cream, don't use yogurt.

I'll tell you why.

Neither one of those items, dairy items, has a high enough butter fat content to hold up in a 500-degree oven and now, we're gonna add a little bit of nutmeg, a little bit of salt and pepper and that is it for this topping.

Now, everything I'm making is good for three pizzas.

We're just gonna make one, 'cause it's snacks.

Let me check my onions.

Oh, yes, those look wonderful.

They are translucent, meaning they look clear, and I'm just gonna keep cooking them on medium, medium low, really medium low, for about another 20, 30 minutes.

We're looking for a golden color and if you don't cook 'em low and slow, you aren't gonna get that flavor.

Okay, so while these are getting brown, I'm gonna go over and look at a book.

(gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) You know, I think those onions are ready, 'cause they got very quiet.

Whenever you're cooking, you should use all your senses and one of them is sound.

Look at those.

My God, that is absolutely perfect.

Next, for the pizza dough, I'm gonna do this trick that I learned from my Sicilian makeup lady many years ago.

Oil the board, oil the rolling pin, and that way, the dough will stick to the board and you won't have to chase it around as you do when you do it with flour.

You can either make your own pizza dough or you can buy store-bought.

You'll need about a 1/2-pound per pizza.

I want this pizza to be about 1/8 inch thick and vaguely a rectangle.

The shape really doesn't matter.

So, one last round, and then I'm gonna transfer it to parchment, and then we're gonna need to roll it out again, because it's gonna shrink as I transfer it.

(paper crinkling) So, then I'm gonna roll it out again.

(gentle music) All right, I am gonna move this over and top it.

I'm gonna spread about 1/3 of this creme fraiche mixture.

(gentle music continues) Next, we're gonna put on 1/3 of our gorgeous caramelized onions.

(gentle music continues) Let's get our onions down here, the star of the show.

So, I'm gonna just sort of drop this as I can.

Isn't that beautiful?

It's like, it looks like golden hair, all those thin strands.

You just wanna make sure that every bite has some onion in it.

Just like anytime I eat, I want everything to be in that bite that I have.

I'm gonna spread about 1/3 of the bacon.

I've got four ounces of cheese.

I've preheated my oven to 500 degrees, which takes about a half an hour.

We're gonna pop this in the oven.

(upbeat music) Oh, yes.

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

I'm gonna check one thing that's very important, how the crust looks underneath.

Let me see.

Yep, looks, looks nice and brown.

Now, I'm gonna cut it.

Oh, wonderful crispy crust.

Oh, fun times.

Yes.

Of course, I would love this with a really lovely chilled wine, but I could see this with beer and that was really pretty simple.

Don't you think this would be the most delicious snack for dinner?

Woof.

My Alsatian Onion Pie.

(upbeat music continues) (gentle music) - We all should be shepherds of the land.

You just have to look around.

You see how we care for the land and how we care for the cows and we say every cow in this barn is a lady.

Treat 'em as such.

- [Sara] Anthony Yurgaitis is a Connecticut dairy farmer who knows a thing or two about ladies.

He and his partner George Malkemus own Manolo Blahnik USA, the luxury shoe brand made famous on "Sex and the City".

(downtempo music) The step from stilettos to farming wasn't far.

Just across the street from their house in Litchfield, Connecticut was beautiful Arethusa Farm.

Developers wanted it.

Tony and George bought it to save the view.

- And we were not farmers.

Barns need animals.

So, we bought our first five cows.

They start calving and they start calving and we had to build another barn.

Before we knew it, we had 100 cows, 150 cows in no time.

- [Sara] That was 17 years ago.

Today, their 400 prize winning cows live in a virtual bovine spa.

Diets are created for each cow by a nutritionist.

There's an exercise plan.

Cooling fans keep them comfortable, as does their 24/7 human attendant.

Even the stalls are cushy with soft rubber mattresses.

- A little give to it.

It's like a firm mattress.

You like firm, you have a bad back, you can come and stay in front of our stalls.

It is.

This is really nice.

Here's about a, I would say, about two inches, but the purpose of the mattress, of course, is comfort, 'cause they do stand, so it's not hard on their joints or legs.

- [Sara] Everything here is immaculate, down to the cow's tails.

Every day, they're hand shampooed and rinsed with special conditioner.

- Very scientific brush.

I can use for my hair, but this is what we do with the tails.

I mean, we do wash them and it's very important also to, once they're washed, to get the tangles out.

So, you want to keep this very clean, because it does brush against their udders.

So, you're not getting anything into the milk supply.

- [Sara] And what a milk supply.

From each cow, 10 gallons a day.

It's truly farm to table.

They bottle the milk and sell it in their store.

They make cheese and butter, yogurt and ice cream.

There's even a restaurant, a dairy empire held in trust for the community, all from a passion to save a beautiful piece of land.

(gentle music) - There's an aborigine saying, the land is crying and certain people hear that cry.

You feel that responsibility.

It's just something that is in the soul.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) - So, I've got another question for "Ask Sara" today.

I've got Bill from Mount Vernon, New York.

So, Bill, I understand you have a question for me.

- I do.

I am marrying into a Italian Portuguese family and at the heart of the family is the very Italian grandmother.

So, I always like to impress her and my fiance and the entire family.

So, I was wondering if you had any recipes that I could use?

- Oh, I do.

This is such an impressive one.

It's homemade ricotta.

Well, actually it's ricotta style cheese, but nobody will know the difference after you've made it and it's really simple.

All you need is whole milk and a little heavy cream and some acid.

It takes no time at all and that would really wow 'em, 'cause it's so delicious when you make it fresh.

Here, take a look at this tape and this will tell you how to do it.

- All right, great.

- Here's what goes into the cheese.

Four ingredients.

I've already got a quart of milk in there.

I'm now gonna add 1/2 cup of heavy cream, a little bit of salt, like 1/4 teaspoon would be good and that's kosher salt.

Now, we're gonna bring this up somewhat slowly to a full rolling boil.

Stir it so it doesn't scorch on the bottom, 'cause that can happen with dairy products.

Now, you may be wondering why is she using such a deep pan for so little liquid?

It's because when the milk boils, I don't know if this has ever happened for you, it comes up and goes over the top.

We don't want that to happen.

I've got my lemons down here that I nuked.

It's my favorite way to get the juice out and we want about 1 1/2 tablespoon or two tablespoons of lemon juice.

(gentle country music) Out of this whole recipe with all that milk and all that cream, you only end up with about a cup of ricotta, but oh, boy.

It is the best ricotta you will ever taste and you made it.

Okay.

So, let that come up to a boil.

Just have to be patient.

Alright, as soon as you start to see it come up, stir in the lemon juice and turn it down.

(gentle country music continues) Okay.

You see what happens?

Look at that.

Doesn't it look awful?

But that's what you want it to look like.

You're seeing the curds.

Now, we just let it simmer for a minute, and then we're gonna strain it and let this drain.

I've set up a very deep bowl here.

It's lined with a strainer that's lined with some cheesecloth.

You could certainly use just a dampened paper towel if you wanted to.

That would be fine, too, and we're gonna let this drain for about 10 or 15 minutes.

The longer you drain it, the tighter it gets, the more structure it has.

If you eat it right away, it's very, very creamy and soft.

Right now, you can see what it's like.

See, it's very, very soft.

I think I'm only gonna give this like five more minutes, 'cause it's draining so quickly.

Let me go get my garlic.

I'm gonna mash it up, 'cause I'm gonna flavor it with a little mashed garlic.

(foil crinkling) You could leave the garlic out, but I just think it's a nice addition and when you roast garlic like this in foil in an oven, it just gets so wonderfully- Oops.

It is hot.

So wonderfully creamy and sort of sweet.

It's not that intense garlic, which some people, it's just too much.

Just really nice.

I'm just gonna cut it in half, so I can squeeze it out.

I could've roasted it ahead of time and cooled it off, which would've actually made my life much easier than using my asbestos fingers here.

So, I'm gonna add that to here, but before I do, I just wanna pause and show you, look at all that liquid.

There's some more still coming out of it.

You can use that liquid in baking, sort of where you would've used milk.

You don't have to throw it out.

K, here it comes.

We're gonna plop this right into the bowl with our garlic.

Wow.

This ricotta will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

It's fresh, so eat it while it's fresh.

(upbeat music) So, Will, what do you think?

Do you think you could do that?

- Yeah, that was very easy.

- Yeah.

One little thing I wanna mention that if it doesn't curdle right away, you can add a little extra lemon juice.

That works.

- [Bill] Oh, that's a great tip.

- Yeah, that's gonna get Grandma.

She's gonna like that one.

Yeah.

- [Bill] Thank you.

- Congrats.

Have a wonderful time.

Where are you going on your honeymoon?

- Italy.

- Ah, perfect!

Perfect.

Okay, well, have a glass of Chianti for me.

- You got it.

Thank you.

- Okay All right.

Bye, Bill.

- Bye.

- If you wanna ask me more questions, just send them to me a saramoulton.com.

(upbeat music) I thought since this is the cheese show, that there's no better way to showcase cheese than to put it on a burger, but not just any burger, my French onion soup burger.

So, I took all the elements of a French onion soup, the slow cooked onions, the red wine, the beef broth, the crusty bread, and the cheese, the classic cheese, which is Gruyere, and I put it all on a burger.

Yum.

So, we're gonna start with the onion.

I've got about three cups here.

Gotta cook 'em low and slow, 'cause otherwise, you will not develop the flavor that you need and they won't get as melty and tender.

So, here we go.

We have two tablespoons of butter melted in here and I'm gonna add three cups of sliced onion (onion sizzling) and they take about 15 minutes covered, and then 15 minutes uncovered, but you could make this part of the recipe, the onion part, even a couple days ahead of time.

No problem with that and I'm gonna add some salt.

It's very important when you're cooking to season as you go.

Don't wait till the end and I'm gonna give 'em a stir.

(onion sizzling) Okay, on goes the lid.

Slowly cook for 15 minutes and meanwhile, I'm gonna go out and pick some thyme.

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) Okay, let's see how we're doing.

Oh, yes, that looks beautiful.

Look at how wonderfully translucent those onions are.

Okay, so now I'm gonna give them another 15 to cook very slowly and get really nice and brown and caramelized.

In the meantime, I'm gonna mince about a teaspoon of garlic and a teaspoon of thyme leaves.

(downtempo music) Anytime you're working with fresh herbs.

Keep in mind that if you need to end up with a teaspoon, you need to start with a tablespoon, because it totally reduces when you chop it.

Well, those onions look very nice.

So, I'm going to add our thyme and half of the garlic.

The rest of the garlic, we're gonna save for the garlic butter.

We give 'em about a minute to just get the garlic softened and cooked a bit.

(spoon bangs) Next is the beef broth.

We're looking for about 1/3 cup and we're gonna just add this right to the pan and reduce it down and this is gonna accentuate the beefy flavor that we're looking for.

Okay, I am gonna turn it up and simmer it down.

I know it's gonna need pepper.

So, let's get a little bit of that in there, and then we need to have a taste.

Every part of this should be nicely seasoned.

(food sizzling softly) Oh, that's pretty yummy, right?

Very good.

Okay.

I'm gonna say that's ready to be parked, which is what we're gonna do now.

I'm gonna put it in a bowl and we're just gonna let that sit, 'cause we wanna use the same pan.

The idea being let's not make too many dishes, because who wants that many dishes?

Now, in a typical onion soup, you have croutons and they are indeed made with the classic French baguette, but I am going to use this as our bun.

I'm cutting this baguette into four-inch lengths, and then cutting each length in half horizontally and I'm just gonna eyeball it.

(gentle upbeat music) Let me get this on the grill.

(gentle upbeat music continues) Okay, so while that is grilling, I'm gonna make the garlic butter.

Why not?

So, here we have a couple tablespoons of butter.

Get my burner going here and the rest of the garlic and this is gonna go on the bread once it's grilled.

All right.

I think let's get these guys over here.

(gentle upbeat music continues) Now, they all need a little bath in garlic butter.

Yum, yum.

(gentle upbeat music continues) Oh, I wish you could smell this.

This smells so good.

You may wonder why I didn't put the garlic butter on before.

That's because I didn't want the garlic to burn.

Alright, now onto the main event, the burger.

So, I have about 1 1/2 pounds of burger meat here.

Don't use a lean meat.

The higher fat content has much more flavor and I'm gonna make four burgers out of it, but you'll notice a burger that was shaped like we normally shape them would not fit.

So, I'm gonna try to shape the burgers like the buns.

They're gonna be big and they're gonna be thick.

They're gonna be yummy.

When you are shaping a burger, don't overwork it, because then, it will get very chewy and bouncy.

That's fine for meatballs, if you like it that way, but not for a burger.

You want it loose.

Okay, I'm gonna go hose down, and then we're gonna get the burgers in the pan.

(gentle upbeat music) Let's get this going.

We need a couple tablespoons of oil.

This is just a neutral oil.

I mean, you could use olive oil, but we're keeping it very French.

I'm gonna season my burgers while the pan heats up.

(gentle upbeat music continues) Alrighty Let's see how we're doing.

Ah, that's the noise I wanna hear.

I'm gonna press it down just a tiny bit, but that's the last time I'm gonna press it.

You don't wanna press it too much, 'cause then, all the juices will come out.

Give them about three minutes a side until they're beautifully browned.

So, now, I am going to slice the cheese.

I'm slicing four pieces of Gruyere, each one about one ounce and we want nice thick pieces, 'cause it's all about the cheese, and then I have 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and 1 1/2 teaspoons of Dijon.

Now, even if you think you don't like mayonnaise, this mustard mayonnaise really adds something to this dish.

So, try to get over yourself.

I'm gonna give these guys a bit of a flip.

They are giving off a fair amount of fat and we're gonna lose some of that.

We wanna leave a little bit of the fat, because it's got a lot of flavor.

Oh, those look so good already now, don't they?

Okay, I'm gonna top these guys with the onion mixture and the cheese.

This gets messy, but who cares?

Then, each one of these guys gets its cheese hat, and finally, some wine.

We need about 1/3 cup of a robust wine.

Your choice.

Now, we're gonna steam them and let the cheese melt and while that happens, I am going to lather up our toasts with a little bit of the mayonnaise.

Well, a little bit, a lot of it.

Ready?

Wow.

Okay, but that is not all.

It's not quite done.

Be careful.

Take your time.

I'm gonna put 'em on the bottom half of the buns and all that yummy stuff that's still in the pan is going to reduce.

Oh, it's getting quite syrupy anyway.

You don't need to reduce it much more.

(upbeat music) See how rich and thick that is?

Any little bits of onion, and then let me see which lid.

There we have it.

Okay.

I can't wait to eat this, but I think I'm gonna have to eat it with a knife and fork, because otherwise, it could get messy.

Chips, pickles.

Why not?

I mean, you spent all this time making a beautiful burger.

You don't have to worry about the side dishes.

Who cares?

And who doesn't like a chip anyway?

So, there we go and I can't wait to taste it.

Ooh.

That sauce that it makes and why wouldn't you capitalize on that sauce?

It's just so, so, so delicious.

Well, I'm gonna find out right now.

(upbeat music continues) (Sara moans) And the cheese.

There is just nothing better than a big cheesy burger.

I'm Sara Moulten.

Thanks for joining me today and I look forward to cooking with you the next time.

(upbeat music continues) For recipes, videos and more, go to our website saramoulton.com.

"Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by Sunsweet, Mutti tomatoes of Parma, Le Gruyere AOP from Switzerland, and by... - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was starting when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now, I transmit it to all the guests.

It's something made specially for them.

- [Announcer] Oceanic Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals".

(gentle music) (epic music) (mystical music)