Carrot Mac and Cheese

The objective of this dish is not to sneak vegetables into fussy, unsuspecting children. Nay, you will taste the carrot. You will also taste zingy orange and lovely distinctive tarragon. These are not bad things; you should taste them, or you're doing it wrong. So while the caption of the original recipe touts the benefits of adding carrots for vitamin A and reducing the overall fat of the dish, I say the actual benefit is that carrots are delicious and go fabulously with the sharp cheddar and citrus.

This is mac and cheese elevated; not meant to replace the original, but a sophisticated dish to stand on its own. I don't want to mislead that it's complicated, because it isn't at all; in fact, there are only five ingredients. It's just mac and cheese all growns up.

Gemelli with cauliflower, crispy prosciutto and sage

As we all know, smothering things in cheese (at absolute minimum, not the orange goo that came in the box) is delicious, but cauliflower is a much more versatile vegetable than most people realize. Back in the days of the Atkins craze my sister would steam and puree it in place of mashed potatoes, which was good, but decidedly not going to fool anyone. In my opinion, the optimal cauliflower preparation method is roasting, thanks to the magic of caramelization. One of my favorite sides of all time is roasted cauliflower and green olive pasta, with all its salty olive loveliness, dotted with crunchy pine nuts and a smattering of Parmesan. I serve it under broiled salmon with a squeeze of lemon on a near-weekly basis.

But I was ready to branch out from ole faithful, and found this whilst thumbing through the latest Everyday Food. This recipe calls for browning the cauliflower in a pan instead of oven, but the effect is the same: caramelized tasty goodness.

Pasta with fennel, tomatoes, olives and shrimp

Many Americans are only familiar with fennel as the seeds in their sweet Italian sausage, but raw fennel has become really easy to find and there are all kinds of things you can do with it. Fennel has this great fresh anise flavor that's crisp and sharp when raw, but sweet and mellow when cooked.

This recipe is from a new cookbook (gifted by a certain lovely Auntie!) called Weeknight Fresh & Fast. It's full of wonderful quick recipes all organized by season, which I love. I flipped straight to "Winter" and quickly selected this as the inaugural dish. It came together in under half and hour and was comfortingly delicious.

Spaghetti with turkey-pesto meatballs

This recipe is another favorite in my house. They're lighter than your average meatball, but the bread crumbs and pesto keep them extremely moist. It comes together very quickly, especially with the aid of a quality store-bought marinara. Of course you could use store-bought pesto as well, but I just don't like it as much as my own. I realize this is essentially admitting I make a crappy marinara... we all have flaws.

The other really great thing about this recipe is that it serves four and freezes beautifully, so I always make a full batch as written below and freeze half in a Ziploc, sauce and all. Simply defrost and reheat in a saucepan and dinner's almost ready on another night.

Ziti alla Papera

 

Apologies for the sparse posting... That pesky World Series required extensive time commitments to hang out at the ballpark and drink beer, then we were entertaining out-of-towners a couple of days, and I've been forging the frontiers of science like a mofo at my day job. I was hardly cooking, and even when I was it was quick easy ol' reliable recipes all the way. Fortunately, Farmer Dad has been plowing away (heh) at the farm. The terraces are all cut, the pond is completely dug out (and is a gorgeous teal color from the underground streams filling it) and we've just started to sow grass and cover crops for the winter.

This is another recipe discovered during my nightly bedtime viewing of Molto Mario reruns. Of note, there is no herbage or seasoning in this sauce except salt, pepper, and a little parsley at the end. I was concerned about that the first time I made it, but honestly, it's staggeringly delicious as is. I would never have guessed that half of the meat is duck, but flavor and texture wise, you can tell it clearly isn't all pork. The duck gets so soft and delicate, it brings not so much a duckyness to the sauce as a sumptuous melt-in-your-mouthy richness. It adds a lot of complexity to the simple, somewhat expected sweetness of the onion and tomato. It would really overpower the flavor profile to add any other herb than parsley (basil would be an especially bad fit, so don't be tempted). Which is not to say the parsley isn't important, I actually think the tiny hit of fresh grassyness is key.

Swedish meatballs and mushroom stroganoff

I am fortunate enough to already have a couple of great recipes for turkey meatballs; one with a few scoops of pesto mixed into the meat and then simmered in marinara, and another more simple meatball served with a lovely tart cranberry sauce, a little riff on Thanksgiving dinner (minus the following week of dry leftovers). Despite the existence of these known winners, I had a hankering for spiced Swedish meatballs. I wanted a more robust sauce than the typical Swedish meatball condiment, so I read a few recipes and Frankensteined them all into this, using half a pound of raw ground turkey leftover from making my husband a taco pizza the other night. Yes, you read that right. No, I don't want to talk about it.

A big concern when cooking with ground turkey is because it's so very lean, it can easily dry out. Not so with these guys. These suckers are moist. I think the trick is soaking your bread crumbs in milk before mixing them into the meat. As Mr. Batali would say, I'm talking "big boy bread crumbs", as in made from actual bread, not the sawdust from the little blue cardboard can. "You're such a food snob! Like I have fresh bakery bread just LAYING AROUND everyday! GAWD," you say. Not so, friends. I just freeze that shit. Whenever you've got half a baguette or hunk of sourdough that you know you're not going to eat (shame on you), tear it into hunks, pop into a Ziploc and freeze. Then you can just take out as much as you need, give it a rough chop (very easily to do when frozen) and broil for a minute to toast up and bring back to life. Vwa-lah, lovely fresh bread crumbs whenever you need them. I don't want to know what people did before Ziploc bags. Those were uncivilized times.

Linguine sugo di olive verdi

So, I have like 900 salted anchovies in my fridge. I need to start using these suckers. The other night during my routine bedtime viewing of Molto Mario reruns, Mr. Batali whipped this up. And it had my name aaaaaaall over it.

If you are an extreme olive-phile such as myself, this will tickle you in all the right places. The anchovy lends a richness, a roundness of flavor that you wouldn't experience if you used olives alone. Without the anchovy, it would be pretty flat, one-dimensional. Like the spaghetti with anchovy carbonara I made the other month, the addition of one little salt-cured anchovy elevates something quite ordinary to complex, interesting, delicious places. Also, don't skip the bread crumbs. I've seen Mario Batali sprinkle them over dozens of fairly austere pasta dishes and always thought, what the hell? Now I get it. The texture makes this a lot of fun to eat, but they're also like concentrated little bombs of the olive oil you cook them in, too. The result is just really delicious and interesting.

Mustard and dill-glazed salmon with cauliflower and green olive pasta

Apologies for the lack of posts, we had wonderful back-to-back weddings of good friends the past two weekends. We're finally home, settled, and tractor shopping so we can get this farm show on the road. Squee!

A quick post to get things moving again. Tonight I made my awesomely delicious cauliflower and green olive pasta with a really quick mustard and dill glazed salmon. The magic of the whole dish is a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice atop each serving. It's a dish I make frequently that always leaves us happy.

Spaghetti with anchovy carbonara with tomato and green bean salad

I've been craving pasta a lot lately. Therefore, I've been making pasta a lot lately. I refuse to demonize food groups - I firmly believe if you keep the portions reasonable and pair with vegetables, pasta can be part of a perfectly healthy meal. Just like gorgeous crusty fresh bread and lovely roasted potatoes. Life is just not worth living without carbohydrates, y'all. 

So! Anchovies. I'd only had the crappy little fillets from a can before, and frankly, wasn't much of a fan. But I noticed anchovies have been popping up everywhere lately, with all the good little foodies extolling their salty virtues like the Second Coming. And then I learned that all anchovies are not created equal; there are oil-packed and there are salt-packed, the salted ones being described as superior in every way. I had to get my hands on some. Unfortunately, my only option was to buy a gigantic can of them for the bargain price of $17.99 at Jimmy's, but when I cracked it open and saw there are about 60 of these suckers in there, hey that's under 30 cents a fish! Some people have investment portfolios, I have investment anchovies. Apparently they can be stored for quite a long time, so I'm not worried about using them all (eventually). I gently jammed the rest of mine in a pickling jar with a little extra kosher salt and stuck it in the fridge. So far, no fridge funk. Good.

Papa, Mama, babies.

Did I mention they were delicious? I swear, people - you will have absolutely no idea this contains anchovies. You'll just think, this tastes really good! Which isn't to say you won't taste them, because you certainly will - I just don't know how to describe the taste. It's umami: the taste of tastiness. There was no fishiness whatsoever after they were cooked, not even a hint, so don't be scared by the smell when you open the can. I admit, I was nervous. But they were great! Next time I shall be bolder and use more than just one little fish per serving.

Fettucini with salmon, zucchini and dill

I cobbled together this pasta dish from several different recipes. I knew what I wanted, I just couldn't find it. After a little trial and error, this is what I was after. The comforting vibe of mac and cheese, but with a sophisticated grown-up twist.

Salmon and dill are BFFs. Likewise, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and cream are good buddies of dill from way back in the old neighborhood. Dill would totally ask salmon to be its maid of honor, but garlic, Parmesan, and cream would fill out the rest of the bridesmaids roster. Dill would secretly worry about how all the gals were going to get along, but sure enough, they all bond over cocktails and a mutual hatred of curly parsley. In other words, I know people clutch their pearls about seafood and cheese, but this just works.

Chicken sausage, asparagus, and haricots verts pasta

This is a quick post illustrating how I adapt recipes according to what's laying around my kitchen. Tonight, I made this again. I didn't have broccoli, so I used a few rogue asparagus spears and haricots verts. It's perfectly healthy and took a grand total of twenty minutes. We are full and happy. You can be full and happy too! What's rattling around your fridge begging to be eaten?

4 oz pasta, we like rotini or fusili in this
2 cooked sausages, thinly sliced (I had chicken andouille, not homemade, sadly)
big pinch of red chili flakes
1/2 a shallot, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
7 or 8 asparagus spears, cut into bite-sized lengths
handful of haricots verts, cut into bite-sized lengths
big splash of chicken stock, low sodium is ideal
handful of Parmesan cheese, finely grated or microplaned

Cook your pasta. Drain and set aside. While that's happening, saute your sausage in a nice wide pan with a little extra virgin olive oil until nicely browned. Add your chili flakes, shallot and garlic and allow to soften for a minute. Add the asparagus and some chicken stock. Season with a little kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. After another minute, add the haricots verts. Don't cook the crap out of the veggies, you should be ready to eat about 3 minutes after you've added the asparagus. Moisten with more chicken stock if necessary, and add the pasta and cheese. Toss toss toss. Eat happily.

Serves 2, takes no time at all.

Penne with butternut squash, ground lamb and kaseri

This is another quick delicious one-pot meal. Yay! My fave! Thank you, epicurious.com "Weekly Planner" section!

I've always been a big fan of the winter squashes. Well, all squashes, really, but particularly the sweet winter squashes. Butternut squashes, acorn squashes, delicata squashes, you give me some squashes and I will be a happy camper. Squashes. It's just fun to say.

Chicken saltimbocca with pesto pasta and sauteed kale

This is a great weeknight meal. Very quick and satisfying, but with a little touch of fancy too. It's another great find from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook series "Food Made Fast", specifically, "Simple Suppers". I highly recommend the series.

You could stuff your chicken breasts with any kind of melty cheese and salty ham you happen to like or have kicking around the fridge, although the original recipe calls for fontina and prosciutto or boiled ham. This time I used a delicately smoked Italian caciocavallo cheese with prosciutto. Twas lovely. It also calls for fresh sage but dried works just fine, particularly when it's 13 degrees outside and your garden is an ice skating rink.

Sausage and broccoli pasta

A quickie. Unfortunately, all I really have time for these days.

This is one of my favorite go-to weeknight recipes. All you really need is a pantry staple (pasta), a freezer staple (frozen chicken or turkey sausage), a crisper staple (broccoli - although I've used everything from asparagus to chard), and a cheese staple (good ole Parmesan).