June 10: Chicken Breasts with Orzo, Carrots, Dill and Avgolemono Sauce

Sorry, no witty banter tonight. Chicken with a sauce--a light, lemony, Greek-style sauce. Yum. Food and Wine magazine. Must go, so tired.

Chicken Breasts with Orzo, Carrots, Dill and Avgolemono Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/3 pounds in all)
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 1/2 cups orzo
4 carrots, quartered and cut into 2-inch lengths
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice

RECIPE METHOD

In a large stainless-steel frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over moderate heat. Season the chicken breasts with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper and add to the pan. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn the chicken; add the broth, dill, and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat, and simmer, partially covered, until the chicken is just done, about 4 minutes. Remove the chicken and cover lightly with aluminum foil to keep warm. Set aside the pan with the broth.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the orzo for 6 minutes. Add the carrots and continue cooking until the orzo and carrots are just done, about 6 minutes longer. Drain and toss with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and 1/8 teaspoon each salt and pepper.

In a medium glass or stainless-steel bowl, beat the eggs, lemon juice, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper until frothy. Bring the chicken broth back to a simmer and add to the eggs in a thin stream, whisking. Pour the mixture back into the pan and whisk over the lowest possible heat until the sauce begins to thicken, about 3 minutes. Do not let the sauce come to a simmer, or it may curdle. Put the orzo and carrots on plates and top with the chicken and sauce.

May 24: Fresh Pasta with Roasted Walnut Sauce

Remember those roasted onions from a couple days ago? Yeah, I've been looking closer at the website where I found that, The Splendid Table from American Public Media. What a treasure trove of creative, innovative, intuitive and delicious sounding food.

I am being brief these days. My mother is here, and she doesn't really know I do this, so...if you see her, don't mention my blog, please. It's the only way I can talk about her behind her back, airing our dirty laundry to the entire internet-connected world.

I am only posting a recipe for the sauce--not posting a recipe for fresh pasta. People who make it already have a good recipe, people who don't but want to can google it and choose from the 1.9 million results that will come back. People who don't really care to make their own pasta can buy that refrigerated pasta from the deli case. Fresh pasta is delicious but it is a pain in the ass. Sometimes I don't mind a pain in the ass. Did I mention that my mother is visiting?

I'm posting this verbatim again, just because it's beautifully written.

Fresh Pasta With Roasted Walnut Sauce

Cook a pound of fresh tagliatelle, fettucine, or other "ribbon" pasta in abundant, sea-salted boiling water to the al dente stage, drain, and toss with 1½ cups of the following sauce. If fresh pasta is not available, substitute dried artisinal pasta.

The Sauce (Makes about 2 cups)
8 ounces shelled walnuts, lightly roasted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Several gratings of nutmeg
Sea salt and just-cracked pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup late-harvest white wine such as Vin Santo or Moscato

In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse the walnuts until they are the texture of very coarse meal (do not grind them too finely - more texture is better than less).

Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and pulse two or three more times to combine; with the machine running, pour a mixture of the olive oil, cream, and wine through the feed tube and process only until the paste is emulsified. Taste and correct the sauce for salt and spices.

May 1: The Basic Pantry, Easy Beef Stroganoff

Kimberly and Michael asked me, while I was in Kentucky recently, about a pantry primer. I love this kind of post: a list of what should be in everyone's pantry, whether you can barely boil water or whether you entertain regularly and cook like a domestic goddess (I loathe that term, by the by, much as I loathe the term by the by.)

These are the kind of things that make a wide variety of basic recipes. If your talents or interests are limited, if you're on a tight budget, if you're just learning the ropes, or if you live in a tiny little condo at the top of two flights of stairs and you hate carrying up groceries like I do, these are the things you can't live without.

This list may seem absolutely outrageous to you; it's not short. But imagine if you were starting from scratch, with an empty kitchen. This is what you'd need to get by.

So let us start here, with the basics, and a basic recipe made from the basics. It is not traditional beef stroganoff, which is made with expensive beef tenderloin and sour cream--this is a little lighter, still filling, and a quick weeknight dinner, made from things that are probably already in your kitchen.

If they're not, they should be. Go on, make a grocery list. Do it now.

The Pantry

• Granulated sugar
• Light brown sugar
• All-purpose flour
• Instant-acting yeast
• Kosher salt
• Table salt
• Cornmeal
• Cocoa powder
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• A long strand pasta, like spaghetti, capellini, or linguine
• A short, stubby curved pasta, like shells, rotini, or penne rigate
• Wide or extra-wide egg noodles (sometimes labled "dumpling style" or "homestyle")
• Long grain white rice
• All-purpose, Russet, or Yukon Gold potatoes
• White or yellow onions
• Garlic
• High-quality, fruity, fresh extra-virgin olive oil (find a brand you like and get it from a reputable source with a stock that turns over quickly; I like 365 brand from Whole Foods. Also, buy it in small quantities--it may cost a little more over time, but it won't go bad before you can use it)
• Corn, vegetable, or canola oil, or some other non-animal-based, "healthy," neutral-tasting fat for cooking and baking
• High-quality white sandwich bread (Pepperidge Farms Hearty White is excellent; even if you don't think you'll eat sandwiches, this makes the best fresh breadcrumbs around)
• Apples
• Oranges
• Dried spices: oregano, Italian seasoning, thyme, rubbed sage, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, whole peppercorns

The Canned Goods

• Good quality canned diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen Organics, but they are pricey. A good, lower-priced stand-in is Redpack.)
• Good quality canned crushed tomatoes
• Good quality canned tomato sauce
• Good quality canned tomato paste
• Chunk light tuna in water
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Cream of chicken soup
• Reduced sodium chicken broth (I buy broth in aseptic cardboard cartons--it just tastes better to me--but canned is fine too.)
• Reduced sodium beef broth

The Refrigerator

• Unsalted butter
• Skim or reduced-fat milk
• Half-and-half
• Brick medium-sharp cheddar cheese
• Lean ground beef
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Carrots
• Celery
• Iceberg or Romaine lettuce
• Flour tortillas (come on, you didn't seriously think I would leave tortillas off this list, did you? Are you new here?)
• White mushrooms (may also be called button mushrooms)
• Eggs
• Bacon

The Gadgets and Tools

• Garlic press
• High-quality, sharp 3-4-inch paring knife
• High-quality, sharp 9-10 inch santoku or chef's knife
• Vegetable peeler
• Rolling pin
• Box grater
• Plastic or silicone spoon
• Silicone-tipped tongs
• Plastic or silicone pancake turner
• Plastic or silicone spatula or "spoonula" or scraper
• Heavy-bottomed 3-4 quart saucepan with a lid
• Heavy-bottomed 8-10 quart stock pot with a lid
• 12-inch nonstick skillet
• 9x13 inch casserole or baking dish (I use my late grandmother's old Pyrex)
• Rimmed cookie sheets (I recommend at least two)
• Oven-safe wire rack
• Pepper grinder

Easy Beef Stroganoff

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced small

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 pound white mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and quartered

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 lb. lean ground beef

2/3 cup half-and-half

1 cup low sodium beef broth

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 pound wide or extra-wide egg noodles, cooked according to package directions and kept hot

Over medium heat, preheat 12-inch nonstick skillet and oil until shimmering. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook, stirring, until softening and translucent but not browned. Add mushrooms to pan and stir until mushrooms are softening.

Add ground beef to pan and cook over medium, breaking up with a spoon or spatula, until browned. Add thyme and flour to pan and cook 2 minutes, stirring to combine.

Add broth and half-and-half, stir and raise heat to medium high and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until thickened to saucy, gravy-like consistency. Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately over egg noodles.

April 16: Pasta Salad with Spinach, Olives, and Mozzerella

I love some of the crazy shapes of pasta out there. I really am a big believer in the idea that there's a right shape for the sauce, and whoever is in charge out there really has done a pretty good job of making it intuitive for us. Shrimp goes great with shell-shaped pasta. Oil-based sauces are good with linguine and spaghetti. Penne rigate has ridges that does a good job of holding onto slippery sauces with a lot of fat, like cream or cheese sauces.

I am crazy about orzo, which is a small pasta shaped like rice. One of my favorite easy side dishes is a spinach-artichoke orzo, a true one-pot dish that you can make as healthy or decadent as you like. I also like orzo with broccoli and pine nuts--same idea as the other thing.

Pasta salad with a vinegar-based dressing goes great with a curly pasta, where the dressing can collect in the nooks. I like orecchiette a lot, those little flat disks with a little dent in them, especially. The trick to great pasta salad, in my opinion, is to cook the pasta, drain it, and rinse it in cool water until it's warm, not cold, then immediately toss it with the dressing, add the rest of the ingredients, and then chill until cold, an hour at least--it serves almost like a marinade for the pasta.

My favorite pasta salad is cheese tortolini or ravioletti, hard salami, roasted red peppers, red onions, and smoked mozzerella, diced small, tossed with fresh oregano, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. I also like whole wheat rotini, diced grilled chicken, and halved cherry tomatoes tossed with a dressing made of two parts pesto with one part mayonnaise with toasted pine nuts tossed in just before serving.

Pasta salad is easy, fast, a crowd-pleaser, and summery. This one looks particularly yummy to me. I love the combination of pasta and spinach. When I get back from Kentucky, I'm thinking I may make a big pile of this to carry in my lunch next week. I hate carrying my lunch, but I am being backed into a bit of a corner. More about this corner later.

1 pound orecchiette or conchiglie pasta
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, drained, small dice
3 ounces spinach (about 4 cups), thoroughly washed and dried
1 1/2 cups pitted and halved kalamata olives
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil


Bring a medium pot of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta according to the package instructions, or until al dente. Drain, then rinse under cold water until cool.
Transfer pasta to a large bowl and add mozzarella, spinach, olives, and Parmesan. Toss to combine.

In a separate, nonreactive bowl, combine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Whisking constantly, slowly add oil by pouring in a thin stream down the side of the bowl. Whisk until completely incorporated. Pour vinaigrette over salad, and toss until pasta is coated. Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, and serve.

April 7: Spaghetti With Garlic, Olive Oil, And Spicy Bread Crumbs

It's been...an extraordinary evening. Several hours ago, as Dan, Max and I were leaving my office for the evening, someone nearby began firing a gun. I have no idea where they were or who they were shooting at, but easily the most frighting fifteen seconds of my life to date was the fifteen seconds between when I heard those shots and when the red light that we were sitting at turned green and my husband grimly peeled out, through the intersection, and away, past six cop cars racing past us in the other direction with the sirens screaming and lights flashing. We never looked back, but I still feel a little shaky, and very much on edge.

So, I'm thinking dinner tonight will be some sort of anti-anxiety medication, and a very large glass of wine.

Or. Or, I might make myself a bowl of slurpy, spicy pasta, full of appealling textures and flavors. This is just really my favorite thing to eat when I am so anxious that the only other thing that sounds remotely appealling is me chewing my arm off mid-bicep, just to have something else to think about.

Forgive me. It's been a rough night. This recipe should probably serve four; I may eat about half of it myself for dinner and then get out of bed at 2:30 this morning and come downstairs and eat the rest of it in the light of the open refrigerator door. This hardly seems like the time to think about my diet.

Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Spicy Bread Crumbs

2 slices hearty white sandwich bread, torn into pieces
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt
1 pound spaghetti
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Bring 4 quarts water to boil in a large pot. Meanwhile, process bread crumbs in food processor until coarsely ground. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add bread crumbs and cook, stirring occasionally, until light golden, about 3 minutes. Add half of garlic and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl and season with salt.

Wipe out skillet and add remaining 4 tablespoons oil, remaining garlic, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes. Cook over medium-low heat until garlic is just golden., 1 to 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat.

Add 1 tablespoon salt and spaghetti to boiling water. Cook until al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water, drain pasta, and return to pot along with reserved water. Stir in oil mixture, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. Season with salt and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Serve.

March 20: Whole Wheat Linguine With Caponata

The diet continues. Sometimes, like tonight, we can't stand our own cooking anymore, and we go out for a tiny little dried-out grilled chicken breast and a baked potato, no butter, no sour cream. Food has become less than the feast for the senses that it was four weeks ago.

But, it's worth it. I'm still not losing much, but Dan is losing like crazy. I couldn't be more proud of him, although the drastic reduction in calories has made him incrediby grumpy. I told him he's bringing new meaning to the phrase "lean and mean."

Some days are better than others when it comes to what we eat. Like I said, it's not the feast for the senses that used to be, but the Type-A control freak in me likes the little rush I get from eating 350 calories for dinner, and then stopping. Oooh, that sounds disturbingly like an eating disorder, doesn't it? Yeah, I wouldn't worry just yet.

One of the first cookbooks my mother ever gave me is a pasta cookbook. I don't make pasta very often, but I like this one because it gives recipes for lots of different kinds of pasta, and sauces to go with them. I have made the black pepper linguine with red clam sauce dozens of times.

This pasta sauce is paired with whole wheat spaghetti, which I don't like well enough to make for myself. I like it well enough to eat it because it's healthy and for me, because I really love pasta, whole wheat pasta is better than, like, no pasta at all, but that's about it. Nevertheless, this sounds good, and healthy, and like I wouldn't totally hate it. Nothing's perfect, but my mind is open. Mostly.

Whole Wheat Linguine with Caponata

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 celerey rib, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed through a press
1 pound fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup halved and pitted Greek or Sicilian olives
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf, broken in half
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon crushed hot pepper flakes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons drained small capers
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound whole wheat linguine or spaghetti, cooked according to box directions

In a large nonreactive skillet, heat the oil. Add the eggplant, onion, celery, and bell pepper and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the vegetables begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, vinegar, sugar, bay leaf, thyme, and hot pepper flakes. Cover and simmer, stirring often, until the vegetables are very soft, about 20 minutes.

Stir in the basil, parsley, and capers. Simmer, uncovered, stirring often, until roughly half the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss hot cooked pasta with sauce. Serve immediately.

March 5: Agnolotti with Sausage

I love Italian sausage in almost any application you can find for it. If you'll go back, you'll see my very first recipe of the new year (right after Hoppin' John for New Year's Eve) was a dish with sausage and peppers over penne, one of my very favorite things.

I like sausage on pizza. I like it on pasta. I like it in sandwiches, in calzone, on the grill. I am willing to consider it in almost any context, with the exception of dessert. Last year, we discovered a roadside stand in Maryland's Amish country that sells freshly-made sweet and hot sausages, both in bulk and hand-stuffed in links. It is so much better than anything you'd find in a store. This same place, I should add, is across the road from Charlotte Hall Market, where you can buy a knockoff Gucci purse and a LED lighted belt buckle that you can (but probably shouldn't) program to say different things, like "My Boo" and "Baby Mama." That's on one side of the market; on the other, the Amish sell live animals, homegrown vegetables, and fresh dairy products. Yes, it is a really weird place, but it's the only place you can get an elephant ear in Maryland in January.

I haven't spent a lot of time at Martha Stewart's website, but now that my best friend is contemplating her baby shower, I am all about the Martha. She has an extensive collection of recipes, and this is one of hers. I'm all for new variations on my theme of sausage, and this sounded good to me. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm on a diet, so this dish with sausage, peas, pasta, cream, and oil probably won't happen any time soon, but if I were making it, I would substitute half of the sweet sausages for hot for a good balance, but follow your own preferences.

This serves six.

Agnolotti With Sausage


1/2 cup (about 1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 pound sweet Italian sausage,, casings removed
Coarse salt, (to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper, (to taste)
1 (10 ounces) frozen petite peas, not defrosted
2 pounds agnolotti, fresh fettuccine, or 1 1/2 pounds dry pasta such as shells, orecchiette, or rotini

In a medium heavy-bottomed skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions. Cook until onions are soft and have lost their moisture. It may be necessary to adjust the heat so that onions do not brown. Reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to cook so that onions brown slowly, stirring frequently, until dark brown but not burned, about 45 minutes total cooking time. It may be necessary to adjust the heat to prevent them from burning.

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet. Crumble sausage into skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Do not to let the meat dry out. Add cream, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Transfer to a large heat-proof bowl. Break sausage into marble-size pieces, if necessary. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add peas and onions to sausage in bowl. Add agnolotti to boiling water. Place bowl over pot of boiling water to warm through. Cook until al dente, following label directions. Strain pasta, and add to bowl with sausage mixture along with a few tablespoons boiling water. The sauce should not be wet or runny. The agnolotti should be well coated and shiny from the sauce. Transfer to serving dishes, and season with pepper. Serve immediately.

March 1: Chicken-Noodle Casserole

Today seems like a good day for a casserole. I am tired and cranky, and my kid woke me up at 7. My back hurts. I have a lot of laundry to do.

And thusly, casserole sounds like just the thing--a comforting, honey one-pot meal that delivers everything I need in one scoop and leaves me with leftovers. I happen to have all of these things in the house right now. It's not fancy, it's not fussy, and it's not a lot of work.

If you were to want to make this even less work, you could use a rotisserie chicken from the deli, or leftover chicken you already had around the house. Also, I use reduced-sodium chicken broth in those aseptic cartons if I don't have my own homemade around the house. Also, reduced-fat cheese is a travesty, and I don't have any. Regular cheddar cheese is fine.

Serves six.

Chicken-Noodle Casserole

2/3 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
3 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried savory
3 tablespoons butter or stick margarine
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 1/2 cups 2% milk
1 1/4 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
8 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked and drained

In a large nonstick skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add chicken; cook and stir until no longer pink. Add the broth, carrots, celery and savory. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in cheese until melted. Pour over chicken mixture. Add noodles; mix well.

Transfer to a 3-qt. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.

Meatless Main Dish Monday: Baked Pasta with Cauliflower and Cheese

A short administrative note: Warmest congratulations to one of my favorite blog-families, the Sweet Junipers; now proud parents of both Juniper and also brand-new Gram Woodward, born early this morning. Welcome to the world, little boy.

This is the dinner I intended to make tonight. We got home from the beach and we are not hungry, we are not interested in cooking, we are not patient enough to make this meal. So tonight it's sandwiches, but tomorrow, it's going to be this. It's surprisingly easy to throw together; the hardest thing is making the cheese sauce. Still, it's a little rich and a little luxurious, and it's got vegetables in it. It's not junk food, it's got veggies!

Serves 4

Baked Pasta with Cauliflower and Cheese

12 ounces pasta in short tubes, like elbow macaroni or rotini
1 head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups reduced-fat milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion (about 1/2 cup), very finely diced
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 cup fresh bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta and cauliflower in boiling water together for a minute or two less than the pasta package suggests (it should be very al dente.) Drain the pasta and cauliflower, keep warm.

In a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and onions, stir until you can smell them cooking, 30 seconds or so. Sprinkle in the flour, whisk together and cook over medium heat until flour begins to become slightly blonde.

Slowly whisk the milk into the roux and adjust the heat so that the mixture comes to a bare simmer. Do not boil. Whisk in the mustard, yogurt, cayenne, salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture thickens too much (it should coat the back of a spoon) add a little more milk.

Add the shredded cheddar half a cup at a time, stirring between additions, making sure the cheddar is fully incorporated before adding more. Add half the parmesan cheese to the mixture as well.

Stir the pasta and cauliflower into the cheese sauce, and transfer to a large baking dish. Toss together the bread crumbs and the remaining parmesan cheese and spread over the top of the casserole. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes, then uncover and bake until bubbly and browned, about 30-40 minutes.

February 6: Ravioli Nudi (Naked Ravioli)

Edited: Holy smokes, was this amazing. I made the meatballs with 93% lean ground beef and ground pork, a 50-50 mix. I mixed in the Italian Sausage seasoning, and skipped out on the onion, because I think chopped onions in these little meatballs would be onion bombs. Besides, the key here was quick. Also, I am out of parmesan cheese (oh NOOOOO!!!) and used romano instead. A little stronger-tasting, delicious. I used more butter, maybe an additional 2 tablespoons, because I love butter, and I didn't have fresh sage, so I used Penzey's dried sage, about a tablespoon of it, crumbled between my fingers and thrown right in the brown butter for the last two minutes or so. I made rotini pasta because it looks fun and because it's easy for my kid to eat.

A resounding hit for the whole family. Meatballs=love. Pasta=love. Cheese=love. Brown butter and sage=lurrrrve. This was ready in twenty minutes, the hardest work that was required was making meatballs, and yet the brown butter and sage tasted indescribably complex, toasty and nutty and herby. Next time, to punch that up a little, I might garnish the whole thing with some chopped, toasted pecans.



I am going to try this dish, like, tonight. Seriously, that's how good it sounds to me. I found it on Bitten, the new food blog by genius and author Mark Bittman. Serious about the genius thing too; if he started a religion, I would totally join.

I probably won't go for the veal and pork though, those aren't always easy to find--I'm thinking lean ground beef, or ground turkey. Turkey might not hold together that well when poached though. I think I'll try ground beef. Or, maybe ground pork with that Italian Sausage seasoning I bought at Penzey's this weekend. Hmmmmm.

This is exactly the reason that I want to worship at the Church of Mark Bittman, though: a simple, smart recipe, intelligently conceived, beautifully executed. This is the kind of cooking that has made me believe that anybody, even the people stumbling around out there saying, "Oh, I can't cook, we should just get some take-out" really should give it a try.

Give it a try, you people. Start here. Serves 4-6.

Ravioli Nudi (Naked Ravioli)

1/2 pound each veal and pork, or other ground meats
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, more for garnish
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup minced onion
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound fresh or dried pasta, any kind
4 tablespoons butter
20 sage leaves

1. In a bowl, combine meat with egg, cheese, parsley, onion, and salt and pepper. Mix well but do not knead. Form into balls 1/2 inch in diameter. Refrigerate until ready to cook. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.

2. Cook meatballs in water for about 5 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm. Cook pasta in same water until tender but not mushy. Meanwhile, in a medium pot cook butter and sage together until butter is light brown, about 5 minutes.

3. Before draining pasta, reserve a bit of its cooking water. Drain pasta, then toss it with butter-sage mixture and enough reserved water to make it saucy. Top with meatballs and serve, passing grated Parmesan at the table.

Meatless Main Dish Monday: Porcini Mushroom Sauce With Cream

This is an intensely-flavored and rich sauce that is great over fresh or dried fettucine, with lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese. You won't miss the meat in this at all, if missing meat is even something that people do.

Dried porcini mushrooms are widely available, and I suggest keeping a few packages in your pantry. They are wonderful rehydrated and chopped in pasta sauces or ground in a food processor and mixed into pasta dough.

Serves 4.


3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, minced
2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated in 2 cups hot water, strained, and chopped coarse; soaking liquid reserved
Table salt and ground black pepper
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

1. Heat butter in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until edges begin to brown, about 7 minutes. Add porcini and salt and pepper to taste; sauté to release flavors, 1 to 2 minutes.

2. Increase heat to medium-high. Add soaking liquid; simmer briskly until liquid has reduced by half, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in cream; simmer until sauce just starts to thicken, about 2 minutes. Stir in parsley, adjust seasonings, and serve.

Meatless Main Dish Monday: Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Artichokes

I discovered frozen artichoke hearts a couple of years ago and I haven't looked back since. I love artichokes in general, steamed, with lots of lemon butter, and would happily eat one of those as a main course. I like them braised, I like them stuffed, I like them in dip and I like them chopped with a little spinach and wrapped in an omelet. They are my own personal Green Eggs and Ham: I do like them, Sam-I-Am.

I generally avoided recipes containing artichoke hearts for two reasons: the first was that it was such a pain to clean and prepare the hearts, with so much thrown away, that I had a hard time justifying it to myself. All that, plus then I actually had to cook something? Forget it. And canned artichokes were not an acceptable substitute: mushy, salty, tasting weirdly like the can that they emerged from, polluting an otherwise great dish.

I had heard of frozen artichoke hearts before but had never seen them in the grocery store until a few years ago. I thought I'd give them a try, so I took them home, thawed them, and used them in a spinach-artichoke orzo side dish. They tasted like the genuine article, and all it had cost me in terms of time was the time that it took to thaw them. A winner.

This is a light meal, like maybe a late Saturday lunch or something. I think it could use a little protein, but it really can stand on its own with a big salad and a crusty loaf of bread. Also, it's fast, like maybe 30 minutes, not to go all Rachael Ray on you or anything, and everything in this dish is stuff that I have in my kitchen at any given time. Serves 4-6.

Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Artichokes

INGREDIENTS
7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
12 garlic cloves , minced
Table salt and ground black pepper
2 (9-ounce) packages frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and drained
1 pound spaghetti
3 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Grated parmesan cheese (for serving)

1. Boil Water for Spaghetti: Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot.

2. Sauté Garlic: Cook 3 tablespoons of oil, 3 tablespoons of garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in 10-inch nonstick skillet over low heat, stirring often, until garlic is sticky, foamy, and straw-colored, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl.

3. Cook Artichokes: Add 1 tablespoon oil to skillet and return to high heat until shimmering. Add artichokes and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook until artichokes are lightly brown and tender, about 6 minutes.

4. Cook and Drain Spaghetti: Add spaghetti and 1 tablespoon salt to boiling water and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain spaghetti and return spaghetti to pot.

5. Toss Spaghetti with Sauce: Stir parsley, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, sautéed garlic, artichokes, and 2 tablespoons reserved pasta cooking water into spaghetti. Season with remaining tablespoon raw garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Add reserved pasta cooking water as needed to loosen sauce. Serve, passing the Parmesan separately.

January 1: Pasta With Sausage and Peppers

When my husband, Dan, and I were first dating, we used to go to the local farmer's market on Saturday mornings. We are both food nerds, and the farmer's market was full of good inspiration. Plus, we worked together, and we were never sure if we'd get fired for dating, so a date in a place where we weren't likely to run into anyone who knew us, except possibly my mother, was a good thing.

There was a guy there who used to run an Italian sausage sandwich stand. It was a little heavy-duty for breakfast, but I am not really a breakfast person, and heavy-duty for breakfast, to me, just means salad for lunch. There was some connection to the swarthy, mustachioed guy who ran it and my parents--I think that they had been friends with his parents--but his sandwiches were just amazing. He had hot or mild sausages, and I always ordered mine smothered in grilled onions and peppers, with a smear of dark mustard on the Italian bread.

Dan has problems with bell peppers--he likes them, but they don't like him. And anytime he gets some by accident, we both suffer; Dan from indigestion and me from the green cloud that lingers over our bed all night. I modify this meal slightly for him and leave out the peppers, but the beauty of this dish is that you can leave out or throw in almost anything you like. I've put in some sliced mushrooms that needed to be used up, I've omitted the tomatoes or replaced the canned ones with fresh ones in the summer. However you do it, this is a quick, uncomplicated meal of big flavors and, if you can control yourself, fabulous leftovers. It always reminds me of the first summer that Dan and I were together and the sandwiches from Papa's Italian Sausage.

Serve it with a simple green salad and a loaf of crusty bread. Serves 4.

Pasta With Sausage and Peppers

1 1/2-2 pounds of Italian Sausage Links--hot, sweet, or a combination
2 bell peppers of whatever color looks good in your market, cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 red onion, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick lengthwise
2 tsp. balsalmic vinegar
1 can Muir Glen organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano or 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
Pinch of dried red chile
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmagiano-reggiano or romano cheese
1 pound dried pasta--a short hollow shape is good, like rigatoni or penne, cooked according to package directions, drained, and kept hot

Prick the sausage links all over with the tip of a short knife. In a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook the sausages in enough water to come about 1/3 of the way up the sides of the sausages, turning frequently. The water will evaporate and the fat will render; when the water is gone, lower the heat to medium. Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside. Drain all but 1/2 tablespoon of fat from the pan and discard.

Saute the peppers and onions with salt and pepper to taste in the reserved rendered sausage fat until lightly browned and softened, about three minutes. Add the oregano, crushed red pepper, and balsalmic vinegar, then add the tomatoes and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

While it simmers, slice the sausages 1/3-1/2 inch thick. Slide back into the tomato sauce and simmer another two or three minutes, or until sausage is re-heated. Toss in pasta and transfer to a heated pasta bowl and serve immediately, with cheese to sprinkle over.

Better Living Through Science

One of my true guilty pleasures is homemade pasta carbonara for breakfast. I am not a big breakfast person--I will have an occasional bowl of cereal, but mostly, breakfast sort of leaves me cold. But pasta carbonara, while not really a breakfast food, is...oh, baby.

If you've never had it, traditionally, pasta carbonara is spaghetti with pancetta and beaten eggs. I don't generally keep pancetta around the house, though, and I like bacon better anyway. I also some kind of pasta other than spaghetti. My favorite is homestyle egg noodles--the longer, sort of fettucine-like ones. They have big 5-pound bags of them at Costco. They are a little firmer and more substantial than spaghetti, and I like the slightly eggy taste of them. I also add lots of parmesan cheese to the egg mixture as well--I like the earthy, salty taste of good aged parmesan against the smoky bacon.

The drawbacks to pasta carbonara, besides the obvious health drawbacks, are that it's a pretty substantial amount of work and it requires timing and precision. What I do, is cook the bacon first. When the bacon is maybe 3/4 of the way to well-done, I start the pasta water. While the pasta water comes to a boil, I beat together four eggs, a lot of black pepper (I don't really measure it, but it's a lot) and about 3/4 of a cup of real parmesan cheese--don't use that stuff that comes out of a green can; if that's all you have, forget the carbonara, get yourself a bowl of Frooty Pebbles, and move on.

A couple years ago for Christmas, my mother-in-law bought me a Magic Bullet. You've seen the infomercial, right? Let me just say that many of the things it claims to do well, it doesn't do well at all. Salsa, for example. But when it comes to beating the crap out of eggs, for an omelet or for anything else, it can't be beat. The eggs come out of the thing light and aerated and perfectly homogeneous. I use the Bullet for the eggs and cheese for carbonara. I let the bacon drain on paper towels while the pasta cooks.

Here is where science comes in and determines whether you're having pasta carbonara for breakfast or an expensive, greasy plate of noodles and scrambled eggs: you need a really hot bowl. I use a metal mixing bowl, and when I drain the pasta, I actually put the strainer inside the bowl so that the hot water drains into the bowl, and then I dump out the water. The bowl ends up with lots of boiling pasta water in it, and as a result, it is really, really hot. Then I dump the drained, hot pasta into the bowl.

It's important to work fast. Things will start to cool off almost immediately. Pour the egg-and-cheese mixture over the noodles, and, using tongs, start tossing it all together. Mix it really well, making sure the pasta is well-coated. Throw the bacon on top and mix that in too. The heat from the pasta will lightly cook the eggs into a thick, unctuous sauce. I am one of those heathens that is horrified by the thought of even soft-boiled eggs; I like my scrambled eggs cooked to the consistency of well-seasoned concrete. This is my one exception.

One of two things will happen at this point: you will end up with pasta covered in grainy, stringy scrambled eggs, and the fat will separate out and form a pool of oil in the bottom of the bowl. That happens to me maybe one out of ten times. The carbonara, at this point, is an unretrievable failure, and I am a very sad and hungry girl. Either the bowl's not hot enough, I'm not mixing fast enough, or some other mysterious thing just doesn't come together for me.

The other thing that might happen is that you might end up with a bowl full of perfectly cooked hot pasta napped in a velvety, rich sauce and crisp, peppery bacon. It is luxurious, rich, and absolutely delicious, as well as being deceptively simple. I finish the whole thing with a sprinkle of coarse-ground black pepper over the whole thing--the heat from the dish releases the oils in the pepper and gives you little shocks of heat in each bite.

Sometimes food is art and sometimes it's science. I am not a science person; I find science to be disturbingly unreliable at times and at other times, unforgiving and rigid. Pasta carbonara is a case in which the result of science is art, and when it comes together it can't be beat.