Fancy-Shmancy Dinner Crepes

evelyn/athens's Note:

Prosciutto or ham, mushrooms, spinach, cheese...and a scrumptious, spicy tomato sauce to top things. For a vegetarian version, you can just leave out the prosciutto/ham. (If you have a smaller appetite, this could easily feed six, at 1 1/2 crepes per serving, but I couldn't enter that alternate amount in the yield)

• Total Time: 2 mins
• Prep Time: 1 mins
• Cook Time: 1 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 2.0 crepes ...

Tomato Sauce

• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can crushed tomatoes, including the juice (400 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1/3 teaspoon Splenda sugar substitute
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 5 sprigs fresh parsley, minced
• 3/4 cup peeled seeded and diced fresh tomato
• 1 tablespoon butter

Crepe Filling

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 2 -3 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 lb button mushroom, sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
• 10 ounces prewashed baby spinach (I use the prewashed, bagged spinach for ease, otherwise, make sure your spinach is well-dried, 280-3)
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup milk (I used partly-skimmed)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper, to taste (careful with the pepper as the tomato sauce is quite hot or spicy)
• 1 egg white
• 4 ounces mascarpone cheese
• 2 cups cheddar cheese

Crepes

• 8 ready-made crepes
• 8 slices prosciutto or 8 slices good quality ham

Garnish

• minced fresh parsley
• grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. For Tomato Sauce: Empty the crushed tomatoes into a small saucepan. Add salt, splenda tomato paste, basil, oregano, cayenne and chili (if you are very heat-sensitive, you may want to tone down the cayenne and chili. This amount makes a spicy sauce.) Bring to a boil and simmer, at lowest setting, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. The sauce will be very thick at this point. TURN OFF HEAT. Stir in the fresh, diced tomatoes and cover saucepan. The liquid emitted by the fresh tomatoes will bring the mixture to a nice sauce consistency. After 10 minutes, whisk in butter. Set aside. (Can be made up to 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Reheat before proceeding.).
2. For Crepe Filling: Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute 3 minutes; add garlic and saute 1 minute longer. Add mushrooms and parsley and saute until all liquid released by the mushrooms has evaporated, about 9-10 minutes. Add spinach and cook, sauteeing, until just wilted, about 1 minute. Finally, add whole wheat flour and nutmeg and stir through mushroom/spinach mixture. Add milk and cook, stirring, until mixture is creamy and thickened and just bubbling. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, beat together the egg white and mascarpone. Stir it and the cheddar cheese into the mushroom mixture and distribute.
4. Grease a 13 X 9 inch glass baking pan and preheat oven to 400°F.
5. Assemble Crepes: Place a piece of prosciutto on each of the crepes. Put generous 1/2 cup of mushroom filling directly in the centre of each crepe. Fold in two opposite sides of crepe, and do this with the other sides to create a neat, square-ish package. Place each crepe, seam side down, into baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. The crepes should be browned and crispy on top.
6. To serve: Place 2 crepes per serving on plates. Top with tomato sauce, garnish with some grated cheddar (optional) and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Reviews

[NorthwestGal]

Wow, these were really good dinner crepes. I will probably make them again because the marscapone cheese really added a flavorful touch. But nearly everyone in my family thought the tomato sauce was too tart for such delicious cheesy crepes. So I would consider a different sauce (basic white sauce maybe), or even perhaps just sprinkle parmesan cheese over each creape (in place of the tomato sauce). But they were well worth the try.