Category — Pasta

Regular readers here know that for the past year, I’ve been dealing with some bad foot pain.  I am so happy to report, however, that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Things have improved so much that this weekend I got back into the kitchen for an afternoon of cooking for friends.  On the way home from the market on Saturday morning, my car packed with ingredients, I thought to myself “this is what really makes me happy.”  I love the creative effort involved in planning a cohesive menu and spending time cooking up tasty food for friends.

This weekend’s menu featured Italian comfort foods, or as D. said, “3 of [his] favorite things: chocolate, wine and beef.” 

For munchies, we started out with Robioloa cheese and cranberry pepper jelly on 34 Degrees Natural Crispbread.  I also put out an artichoke heart and Parmesan dip that I got at Sevan Bakery, along with some grissini (long, skinny Italian bread sticks) and some pitted green olives with lemon and garlic from Whole Foods.

For dinner, we had short ribs with tagliatelle, which was rich and flavorful and worth the effort.  I didn’t make any adjustments at all to this Giada recipe (but for skimming off some of the fat several times during the cooking) and it came out deliciously – the wine and bittersweet chocolate add great depth of flavor.  

These ribs are a 3+ hour endeavor, though, so this recipe’s definitely a weekend special-event deal.  And although the recipe as written calls for 3 hours of cook-time, mine was closer to 4 – I had some really thick short-ribs.  If you decide to tackle these, I’d leave yourself more time because there is NO downside to having your sauce ready while you assemble the rest of your meal – it’ll just get that much more flavorful as it waits. 

 This fresh salad with red leaf lettuce, radishes, toasted pine nuts and a citrus vinaigrette provided a nice counterpoint to the very rich main dish.  I found the recipe in my new Gourmet Today cookbook, but lucky for you, it’s online at Epicurious as well.

I had intended to steam up some broccoli to serve with a little extra-virgin olive oil, Parmesan and red pepper flakes, but that got lost in the shuffle of dinner being overdue. 

I also served up some Scali (not homemade, from Formaggio) to mop up sauce, etc.

For dessert, there were assorted amaretti and chocolate-covered butter cookies for the kids and this easy, unexpected and delicious recipe for dried figs with walnuts and mascarpone cheese.  I’d make a couple adjustments to this recipe, however.  First, if your dried figs are large, I’d halve them.  Although they do get more tender in the wine and balsamic syrup, they’re still rather chewy and it’ll be easier going with halves.  Next, I think that toasting the walnuts prior to assembling the mix in your baking dish is overkill – the walnuts toast up nicely in the oven.  Third, these were good cold, but I think that serving them warm as called for in the recipe would send them to over-the-top deliciousness.  The mascarpone is such a nice creamy complement to the sweet and tangy syrupy figs and toasty nuts.  It’s a little party in your mouth and a relatively light way to end a rich meal.

Bon appetit!

© 2010, Semi-Sweet. All rights reserved.

I grew up in a ruthlessly frugal household.  My parents were the economizers-in-chief of all things, and food was no exception.  Apple 3/4 of the way rotten?  Still 1/4 left to eat!  Limp veggies? Perk ‘em up in ice water!  Don’t know what to make for dinner and don’t have much in the house?  Get take-out?  Nooo!  We’ll raid the fridge staples for green peppers and eggs (I’m sure that my almost pathological dislike of cooked green peppers comes from having been fed this meal one too many times).

I am admittedly far less of a tightwad, but I do hate to waste food.  Sometimes, I find that all it takes to whip up a quick, cheap meal is a moment or two of opening my mind and foraging in my pantry.

Case in point:  I had a lot of leftover cooked whole wheat linguine (I’d say around 4 cups), which L. spontaneously decided she “hates.”  I had frozen peas that were gettin’ a little iced-over.  I had some whole milk ricotta that didn’t get used for a recipe.  And I had some shredded Italian 4-cheese blend threatening to mold.  Here’s what I did.

I cut the pasta into bite-sized lengths.  In a large cast-iron skillet, I heated 2 T. of extra-virgin olive oil.  To that I added some bottled minced garlic and sauteed the garlic just until it was fragrant – about a minute.  I added the linguine and started heating it through – stirring frequently.  Meanwhile, I thawed some frozen peas – probably a cup of them.  After my linguine was warm, I added the peas, and stirred those together.  Then I added about 1/2 c. of the ricotta and stirred that in.  I needed a little moisture, so I used a little chicken stock I had sitting in the fridge (a couple tablespoons) and stirred that, creating a sauce.  Then I hit the whole thing with a generous sprinkling of Kosher salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper and mixed it all up.  I made sure it was seasoned to my liking, then sprinkled the top of the whole deal with the 4-cheese blend, took it off the heat, and threw a lid on the pan .  .  . voila!  Add a side of protein (simple grilled chicken breast maybe?) or not, and you have a tasty, easy easy and cheap meal.  Sub in whatever pasta you have lying around, other fresh or frozen veg. (spinach or other greens would be nice here too), and of course, get creative with your cheese additions.

Next – Brussels sprouts.  Raise your hand if you like them.  Have you had the fresh ones?  If you’ve never had fresh ones and you say you don’t like Brussels sprouts, then you need to try the fresh ones and reevaluate.  Until I was a grownup, I’d only ever had frozen Brussels sprouts, and I swore I hated Brussels sprouts.  Having tried them, I actually consider the fresh ones to be an entirely different food.

In any case, this would be a good way to try Brussels sprouts if you’ve never had the fresh ones, because it’s so luscious and flavorful, you might forget they’re [shhhhh] Brussels sprouts.

I cleaned and sliced the sprouts into thin slices – you can do this with however many Brussels sprouts you have on hand – I probably had 20 left over from my CSA share.  In a large skillet, I melted approximately 1/2 T. of unsalted butter and about 1 T. of extra-virgin olive oil – I let it get nice and warm and frothy.  I threw the sprouts in there and sauteed them for a minute.  To this, I added low-sodium chicken broth from the fridge, enough so that the sprouts were submerged about 1/2-way.  I let this cook for about 10 minutes total – stirring often, so that the sprouts could cook and the liquid could cook down.  Once there was a small amount of broth left, I added a few sprinkles of the leftover 4-cheese blend, some Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper, removed the pan from the heat, and stirred . . . the cheese melted and created a lovely sauce with the remaining broth.  Adjust seasonings, and that’s it.  They were tender, mild-tasting, and creamy good thanks to the butter/oil/cheese mixture.

Do you like leftovers?  Do you remix them or tend to reheat ‘n’ eat?  What’s the most creative thing you’ve done with food sitting around in your pantry and fridge?

© 2009, Semi-Sweet. All rights reserved.