Orecchiette with Broccoli, Tomatoes and Pine Nuts

This is an easy and lovely dish using one of my favorite pastas, the tiny orecchiette.  Shaped like (and named after) a "small ear", its delicately curved, disc-like shape is perfect for capturing tiny bits of deliciousness in every bite... hence the broccoli.  Cutting the broccoli florets into very small pieces ensures that they will nestle into the hollows in the pasta, along with the pine nuts and grape tomato halves, to delicious effect.

1/2 lb (8 oz) orecchiette pasta
boiling water
2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb (a medium sized) broccoli crown
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 ts crumbled red chili pepper flakes
a large handful of grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 TB pine nuts
freshly shredded Parmesan to top
salt to taste

Here is how I time things so that they all finish simultaneously.

Start your pasta boiling water and when it is getting close to boiling (but not really there yet), begin to chop your garlic and broccoli.  Cut the broccoli a bit obsessively (and wastefully, to be honest).  You want only the florets, chopped to their smallest parts, discarding the stems and stalk.  Mince your garlic.

Add pasta to the boiling, salted water.  Cook for the amount of time dictated by the package (usually about 11 minutes).

Heat olive oil on medium high heat in a large skillet until it shimmers. Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the pan.  Cook for about 30 seconds and then add the broccoli.  Lightly salt.  Saute, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes.  Let it rest at times, so that you get a bit of caramelization on the broccoli.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, lightly toast your pine nuts over medium low heat.  Toss them frequently, since they burn easily.  As soon as you see them begin to get a golden hue (after about 2 minutes or less), add them to the broccoli.

When broccoli is wilting and beginning to get a glossy, garlicky coating and the pasta only has a minute or two left on it, add the halved tomatoes to the broccoli skillet.  These should only cook for about 2 minutes, long enough to warm through but not really break down.  You want them to retain their shape.

Drain pasta and add to the broccoli pan.  Mix well.  Salt to taste.  Serve immediately, topped with shaved Parmesan.

Serves 2 with seconds or 4 with salad and bread.

* adapted from a recipe in the Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe Cookbook to have no pancetta but a ton of flavor anyway.

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Einstürzende Neubauten's Pasta with Ginger and Tomato Sauce

There is a band, an intensely beautiful and beautifully intense German experimental band, called Einstürzende Neubauten who epitomize all that I love and need about music.  They are my absolute favorite musicians and because of them, for various reasons, I am a much better cook.  Years ago, the band had a virtual spaghetti dinner with their supporters (fans who joined together on the internet to support the band's continued work, financially, intellectually and emotionally... patrons of their art, so to speak).   A pasta dish recipe was used, cooked and eaten in unison by people located all over the world, as a collective dining experience.  I was not a part of that event, but I have the recipe and I can attest that it is very, very good, excellent in fact, for sharing with your financial, intellectual or emotional supporters.  I shared it with friends last night, and we all agreed, it is superb.

Pasta with Ginger and Tomato Sauce

3 TB olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB fresh ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
3 small dried chilies, crumbled or 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 28 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes, drained
14 oz. pasta (spaghetti, penne, linguine, whatever... you choose)
juice of 2 lemons
1 TB or so additional olive oil
salt and pepper
parsley (optional)
freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Heat 3 TB olive oil in a large, thick bottomed pan until it shimmers.  Add garlic and allow to just soften and barely begin to color.  Add ginger and chilies and stir together.  Add drained tomatoes, squishing them in your hands as you add them to the pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir.   Cook over medium heat for about 35 minutes, allowing the tomatoes to break down, stirring occasionally.  When sauce is ready, pass it through a coarse sieve or mash tomatoes with a wooden spoon to render a smooth sauce.

Meanwhile, boil water for pasta.  Time it so that your pasta and sauce finish around the same time.  Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.  Drain and return to the pasta cooking pot.  Add lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil and toss.  Stir in tomato sauce.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.  Serve topped with Parmesan and chopped parsley.

Serves 6

Redukt!

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Penne with Baked Tomatoes

I recently mentioned a recipe I wanted to share with you.  It's great for this time of year, when the grape tomatoes are little jewels of sun warmed power and flavor and perfection.  It'll be fine later, when the tomatoes are hothouse harvested too, but right now, if you go down to the farmer's markets (or your own backyard if you are far fancier than I am), you can get little tomatoes that taste so entirely like their destiny that you are reluctant to do what I'm doing, smothering them in bread crumbs and cheese and sticking them in a hot oven.  If you are, I get it, but push past and try this anyway.  It's so worth it.

I have become a big fan of The Wednesday Chef and this is the second recipe I've made from her blog.  She got it from The Best American Recipes Cookbook.


1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound very ripe grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
2 TB freshly grated pecorino (or more Parmigiano)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound dried penne or other pasta
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, torn

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Grease a 13x9-inch baking dish with one third of the oil. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, in the dish.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Please ignore my vaguely dirty stove and focus instead of the beauty of these tomatoes.  Gorgeous, right?

In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheeses and garlic.  Mix well. Sprinkle the bread  crumb mixture over the tomatoes, making sure that each cut side is well covered with the crumb mixture. The recipe made a bit more than it felt like I needed.  I think I sprinkled a bit more after I had taken this photo and still had a bit left.  I'm sure adding it to the pan would have been fine.

Bake until the tomatoes are cooked through and starting to brown on top, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package instructions, or until al dente. Time the pasta so it finishes cooking around the same time that the tomatoes are ready to come out of the oven.

When the tomatoes are done, add the torn basil and stir vigorously to mix everything into a sauce of sorts. Drain the pasta and immediately add it to the baking dish.  Add the remaining olive oil and fold it all together until the tomatoes and cheesy breadcrumbs are married with the pasta. Serve at once.


Serves 4

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Pasta With Eggplant Puree

Contrary to the photographic evidence, this is a VERY sexy sauce.

I won't try to compete with the beautiful way in which Francis Lam or The Wednesday Chef have written this dish up.  If you don't already read their food blogs, begin immediately.  You can get both the recipe, lovely instructions, far better photos than mine, and the benefit of proper writing technique.

What I will tell you is that this is my new favorite thing.  I put mine over the best pasta I could get my hands on (splurged on the glorious $6/lb Rustichella d'Abruzzo) and thought I had found a portal into heaven.

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Pasta with Artichokes and Tomatoes

Most of what I cook is very simple.  Probably, all of it is. I've always cared about and been interested in cooking, but about 5 years ago, I started trying to get better at it.  Deliberately better.  I started being more patient, taking more time, being more thoughtful about the process.  I stopped trying to make any recipe that sounded good in a cookbook (generally with ridiculous results) and started thinking about how to make simple, every day food as well as I possibly could.  This is one of the dishes that I make frequently and that Kid Cayenne and I enjoy a lot.  It is incredibly simple.

Serves 2-3 as a main dish, 4 as a side

1/2 pound hearty pasta like bowtie, penne or fusili (use a nice pasta like DeCecco for even happier results)
2 TB olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can artichoke hearts (preferably in water, not marinade), drained and cut in halves or quarters
1/2 c dry white wine (I use Sauvignon Blanc)
15-16 grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
5-6 leaves of basil, chiffonaded (cut into strips)
about 1/4 c Parmesan Reggiano and a bit more for topping
salt and pepper to taste

Set your pasta water to boil while you mince your shallot and garlic and halve your artichoke hearts.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat until it just begins to shimmer,  Add shallots and cook gently until they are transparent.  Add garlic and cook with the shallots for about a minute.

Meanwhile, add your pasta to the salted, boiling water and set your timer for however long the package says they should cook.  This is generally about 12 minutes and will be just about how long you need to finish cooking the artichokes and tomatoes.

Back to your skillet of shallot and garlic.  Add drained artichoke hearts and stir gently to combine.  Add a pinch of kosher salt.  Let them cook without poking at them too often.  You want the sugars in the shallots and garlic to release, getting a little sticky and turning golden.  Let the artichoke hearts get plenty of contact with the pan.  Turn them now and then, but if you aren't seeing the reaction you want, turn less.  Cut your tomatoes and basil while you're waiting.

After about 4-5 minutes of cooking, you should start seeing the artichokes start breaking down and the onion and shallots caramelizing and sticking a bit to the bottom of the pan.  Add white wine and stir a bit to loosen everything up.  Let it cook down and absorb.  Add tomatoes and lightly stir in.  The tomatoes will release a little juice into the dish.  You want them to cook for a couple of minutes to get warm but not long enough to completely break down.  Lower your heat a bit if there is too much cooking happening.

Your pasta should be just about finished.  Add a 2-3TB of the boiling pasta water to the pan of artichokes and tomatoes and stir to release all the flavor from the pan.  Stir in grated Parmesan.  Drain the pasta and add it to directly to your skillet of vegetables.  Mix together and then season with salt and pepper.  Add most (but not all) of your basil  (leave a little to garnish at the end).  Add more Parmesan and basil once the pasta is plated.

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I Long For Summer Vegetables

Early spring puts me in a weird place when it comes to planning what to cook.  I no longer want the warm, hearty dishes of winter but the ripe produce of summer hasn't shown up yet.  I'm left wanting a fresh, light meal with little option for creating it.  I draw a lot of blanks.  Last night was no different.  I decided on making a pasta salad that I usually do all summer, using produce that can sort of, kind of be counted on year round.  While I can't say that the dish was as delightfully flavorful as it will be when I make it in July or August, it was good and it did scratch that itch.

A note about the corn... I had planned on just adding canned or frozen corn to the salad but when I went to the grocery, there was a small stack of tiny, barely there, scraggly cobs of corn.  I knew they couldn't possibly be good yet but I couldn't resist.  Truth is, despite being a crazy .79 cents a cob, they were delicious.

Pasta Salad

1 lb fusili pasta, cooked according to the package and cooled in ice water immediately after
kernels cut from 2 cobs of corn that have been blanched in the remaining pasta water for 2 minutes, then cooled in ice water
6 stalks of asparagus, also blanched in the pasta water for 30 seconds, then cooled in ice water and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 yellow crookneck squash, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 of a red onion, diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 avocado, peeled and diced
about 15 grape tomatoes, chopped
about 10 pitted green olives, chopped
a few sprigs of fresh dill, minced
1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta and then pull it out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon or spider instead of dumping it all into a strainer.  Immerse pasta in ice water to cool it down.  Keep the pasta water boiling and use it to blanch your corn and asparagus quickly before also putting them in ice water to stop the cooking and cool them down.  Combine all fresh ingredients together with the cooled pasta and beans.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.


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What are you making for dinner this time of year?

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Simple Chicken Spaghetti with Carrot and Yellow Squash

I had never even heard of chicken spaghetti until I moved to Louisiana.  I was skeptical about whether I'd like it.  My mother in law's version convinced me I had really been missing out.  Now, when I make it, I adapt her recipe.  Her cooking specialty is long, slow simmered dishes that take hours and you can really taste the impact that has on her sauce.  I don't usually plan far enough ahead and am starving at 7pm with no meal in sight, so I make this much quicker version.  I take shortcuts.  Sometimes, I use jarred pasta sauce instead of making my own.  Sometimes, I don't use the right wine.  Today is one of those days.  I'm not saying it's perfect pasta sauce, just saying it's really good and really easy.  The carrot and squash create a subtle sweetness that tones down the acidity of the tomato sauce and create a bit of depth.  You'll like it.

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (or whatever type of chicken you want to use)
salt and pepper
1 TB olive oil
1 onion. diced
1bell pepper, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 ts cayenne pepper (optional)
3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces of similar thickness
2-3 very small yellow squashes or 1 larger one, cut into half moons about 1/2 inch thick
a splash of red wine (probably about 1/4 cup)
1 jar of decent pasta sauce
salt and pepper to taste

spaghetti pasta

grated or shaved Parmesan Reggiano for topping

Cut boneless skinless chicken breast into bite sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.   Bring 1 TB olive oil to shimmering point in a 5 quart or larger dutch oven or heavy, covered skillet over medium high heat.  Lightly brown chicken.  You can choose to use chicken thighs, the shredded meat of a rotisserie chicken or a whole chicken in 8-10 parts if you prefer.  Just adjust the cooking times accordingly.

Add diced onion, bell pepper and garlic.  Saute with chicken until the they begin to soften and onion is becoming translucent.

Add carrots.  Don't stir too much.  Let the vegetables have contact with the pan long enough to get a bit of golden caramelization.  Sauté for 3-4 minutes.  Add yellow squash and sauté about 1 minute longer.  Vegetables should be softening but not cooked through at this point.

Add wine to deglaze pan.  Stir briefly to loosen any nice golden bits from the bottom of the pan.  If you don't get any golden bits (I didn't last night) it's OK.  It just means that the pan may have been too crowded and the vegetables steamed a bit more than they caramelized.  It happens.

Add jar of pasta sauce.  Add cayenne pepper and any additional seasoning to taste.  Cover and simmer on very low heat for 20 minutes to 3-4 hours, depending on how hungry you are.  Longer is nice, but not essential.  Cook pasta separately according to package instructions.  Serve sauce over pasta with lots of freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano.

Serves 4-6

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In Contemplation of Cabbage and Pasta

Ever since having the Smoked Duck and Chestnut Pasta at the Green Goddess a couple of months ago (a dish that includes caraway and duck fat braised Napa cabbage, 5 year Dutch gouda and wild mushrooms and about which I have longing-filled daydreams continuously), I've been thinking about cabbage with pasta.  Since I am neither worldly or wise, it was a small revelation to me.  Initially, I thought I had never before eaten the pairing, but deeper consideration reminded me that I have done so frequently... just, in Asian noodle dishes instead of Italian.   I've been looking for an opportunity to stick cabbage in pasta ever since.

Last night, I was seeking inspiration from one of my new cookbooks, Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe, and found a recipe for Rigatoni, Cabbage, Fontina. It seemed a good place to begin.  

Here is the recipe, as shown in the book.

I made a few ingredient alterations to accommodate what was available to me.  The grocery was out of Savoy cabbage, so I substituted regular green cabbage.  There was only one Fontina at Whole Foods which was much too expensive and seemed as though it would be wasted if melted into a pasta dish instead of eaten in it's own right, so I substituted with a more commercial grade Fontal.  Additionally, I cut all of the measurements in half, to make a dish that feeds two.

I also made a few minor changes to the process described in the recipe.  I cooked the pasta and potatoes in the same boiling water I had cooked the cabbage in (not at the same time, of course).  The recipe doesn't mention salt at all, so I added it where it felt appropriate... to the boiling water and to the final dish, just before serving.  The finished product was warm, creamy and deeply comforting.  One disappointment was that there were no stand out flavors.  The cabbage blended in to the whole seamlessly, both in texture and in flavor.  I may have been better served to blanch it, rather then let it boil until tender.  Since there is still plenty of time for it to cook, between the time it leaves the boiling water and when it is joined with the pasta, I think I would have preferred it to have held on to a bit of crispness and tang. When I think of the dish at Green Goddess, I instantly remember the wonderful assertion of the cabbage ribbons against the smooth tenderness of the tagliatelle.  While these are two very different dishes, I would have liked mine to have a bit more of that contrast.

All in all, it was a nice but not standout meal.

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