winter market pasta

aka the winter version of one of my favorites


another one of my favorite ingredients: turkey sausage. more specifically, dipaolo's hot turkey sausage (available at nyc farmers markets). throw it together with pasta and practically any veggie(s) and you get one of my ultimate comfort foods.

this particular day, i also decided to combat one of my new food appreciations: brussel sprouts. which also meant the first time i have ever actually cooked them. i know (gasp! horror! i know!) i might have to blame this one on my mom (hi, mom!) since she hates the little buggers. right? but given the right cooking method, brussels sprouts crisp up beautifully and will take on the magic of many flavors.

i wanted to throw them in with some other winter veggies, which ended up being fennel and leeks. it seems as though we've finally made it to spring weather wise but the veggies are still in winter mode.

winter market pasta

• 1/2 lb brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
• 3 large cloves garlic, chopped
  
• 2 shallots, chopped
  
• 1/2 bulb fennel, quartered then thinly sliced
• 1 large leek, trimmed, halved and sliced
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• red chili flakes
• juice from 1 lemon
• parmesean cheese, grated
  
• parsley, chopped
  
• 1/2 lb turkey sausage
• 1/2 lb pasta (i went with fusilli)
• splash of white wine and/or chicken broth
  

• toss brussel sprouts with some olive oil, salt, pepper and a little chopped garlic. roast at 400 for 25 minutes, or until crispy and just cooked through.
  
• while the sprouts are roasting, heat olive oil, garlic and shallots in a large skillet. add fennel, leeks and cook until everything until it begins to soften. add sausage and break up in the pan. cook until turkey is cooked through and veggies are softened. add a generous splash of white wine and/or chicken stock and stir.
  
• while veggies and turkey are cooking, heat a pot of water and cook pasta.
  
• when everything is cooked, throw together in the pan. add parsley, red chili flakes, cheese, lemon juice and stir.
  

"lightened up" macaroni and cheese

aka cracked out macaroni and cheese (in a good way)

if you were able to read this month's issue of bon appetit without running into the kitchen to make mac and cheese, then you're a stronger person than me.

the only catch was that i just wanted to do it my way. and i wanted it to be a meal i could eat without feeling completely guilty about consuming a bowl of pasta and fat. yes, it's harsh i know but really, with what resulted there's no deprivation involved, i promise. the big deal here is substituting nonfat yogurt for any milk, cream, and/or butter i would have otherwise used. and i guess you could go with low fat cheese however, i went with the "high-quality will go further" idea. since the cheese has a lot of flavor, you can use less of it and still be just as satisfied. the cheese and yogurt melt together to form the perfect cheesy sauce, no roux, eggs, cream or butter required.

cracked out, i mean lightened up mac and cheese

• 8 oz pasta elbows (i used brown rice ones)
• 2 links spicy chicken sausage, casing removed
• 1/2 large bunch of broccoli rabe, sliced into 1-inch sections
• olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
• 1 teaspoon chili sauce
• salt & pepper
• 1 6 oz plain nonfat yogurt
• 1/4 cup gruyere, grated
• 1/4 cup sharp white cheddar, grated
• 1-2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated

• preheat oven to 375.
• cook the pasta until just undercooked.
• while pasta is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pan.c ook sausage over medium-low heat, breaking up the pieces as it cooks.
• when the sausage is cooked, set aside in a casserole dish.
• add remaining olive oil to same pan. add shallots, garlic and broccoli rabe and cook over medium heat until the broccoli rabe is wilted. add to casserole dish.
• mix cooked pasta, sausage, broccoli rabe, mustard, chili sauce, salt, pepper, gruyere, cheddar, and yogurt together in dish. top with Parmesan cheese.
• bake for 15-20 minutes until heated through.

summer market pasta

aah, summer veggies. one of the best ways to use up all of my csa veggies (besides stir frying) is a giant batch of pasta. you can throw in almost anything, cook it down, serve with cheese, and it's sure to be a hit. also an easy way to feed a crowd. also much more fun if you take a walk around the market to select your veggies. be sure to supplement your walk with a market snack.

summer market pasta
serves 4 (we eat a lot)

• 1 lb brown rice pasta
• 3 shallots, chopped
  
• 2 squash (green and yellow), sliced
  
• 2 cobs worth of kernels of corn
  
• 1 large tomato, chopped
  
• 3 chicken sausage, sliced into pieces
  
• white wine
• parmesean cheese
  
• pesto
• salt and pepper
• arugula
  

• make the pasta
• while the pasta is cooking, start making the "sauce:" add olive oil, 1/2 the garlic and 1/2 the shallots to a large pan. sautee squash until it's almost cooked through and slightly golden. add corn and tomatoes. cook until tomatoes have softened. simmer for a few minutes. remove and place into bowl.
  
• add more olive oil, remaining garlic and shallots to pan, once the shallots and garlic have softened, add the sausage and cook until cooked through and golden brown. remove and add to veggies.
• deglaze pan with white wine: pour a small amount of white wine into the pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape all of the bits from the bottom. continue to stir and keep heating until it reduces and slightly thickens. add to bowl.
• stir in a few handfuls of arugula and stir to wilt. when the pasta is ready, add it to the bowl along with some pesto and parmesean cheese. if neccessary, sautee additional shallots and deglaze with more wine.
  

guilty pleasure: velveeta macaroni and cheese

i think i can safely say this is not something my parents ever would have made for me. but it wasn't my parents who made it. it was my mom's friend who would come and hang out/babysit/cook for my brother and i occasionally if my mom was at work/somewhere else. of course, the neon orange substance known as velveeta was not something that was ever in my house, so when she introduced it to us, i must have been hesitant at first. until i tasted the mac and cheese. i dream of that mac and cheese and usually convince myself that during the rare times i cook mac and cheese it should be more official (read: real cheese). i don't know what i was thinking. and although the ooey gooey goodness emanates when it's hot, there's also something great about the cold leftovers. i can remember coming home from school and waiting to devour the leftovers of this cheesy mess.

velveeta macaroni and cheese

• 1 2 lb brick of velveeta "cheese"
  
• 1 bag/box shell pasta (larger is better)
• small-medium onion
• 1/4 cups milk
• salt and pepper
• breadcrumbs

• Preheat oven to 350.
• boil water and cook shells as directed
  
• while shells are cooking, cut up about 3/4 of the velveeta brick, chop up onion.
• grease large oven proof bowl
• pour cooked pasta in bowl, pour in chopped up cheese and onions. pour about 1/4c+ milk in. grind salt and pepper over top. mix thoroughly. cover top with bread crumbs.
• bake until cheese is melted, browned on top and very bubbly. About 45 mins - one hour

dried goodies from the golden state

i gotta say, there is one big thing i miss about living in southern california: produce come winter time. now, the csa has really brought up my produce standards and made me generally a much happier veggie and fruit munching person but here we are again: january.

when i was in santa monica the other week, i made it to the wednesday farmer's market (really, it's not to be missed). i say wednesday because there are multiple farmer's markets in santa monica all week long but this one is really la crème de la crème. lucky for me, i was there during peak persimmon season. although i didn't bring fresh ones back with me to ny, thanks to a gift from a lovely friend and my mom's willingness to give up said lovely gift, i found myself with some amazing freshly dried persimmons to bring home, as well as some other dried goodies. we're talking seriously high-quality (aka seriously expensive) items here. in addition to the remarkably sweet and flavorful dried persimmons, i had dried heirloom tomatoes and dried strawberries. dried whole, without any added sugar, the strawberries were like a sweet summer explosion in your mouth. the truth is that all of these things were so delicious, it was hard to imagine not snacking on them plain. however, it was the tomatoes that were really hounding me. i'm not usually one for dried tomatoes but i really wanted to incorporate these into something. it was hard to believe that their sweet concentrated flavor wouldn't benefit whatever they were cooked/mixed into.


while at the market, in between her fights with people that "no, they could not taste a dried perssimon, they cost $3 a piece!" i talked to the "fruit lady" about what one actually does with these amazingly precious tomatoes. after all, i didn't want to ruin the things by cooking them if i shouldn't. she explained a simple recipe: slice zucchini very thin and let it sit with some salt and lemon juice. the squash will sort of "cook" itself while marinating. then top the squash with the tomatoes, basil, olive oil and some garlic.

i went with yellow squash (the store was out of zucchini), parsley (i had some from the csa at home in the freezer) and couldn't help topping the mix with some parmesan cheese. i also let the garlic slowly saute in some olive oil on the stove, then briefly added the squash to the pan to warm it through, before mixing everything together. i placed the mixture on top of a bed of quinoa. yum yum yum. it doesn't get better (not to mention healthier) than this!

weeknight dinner: summer squash ribbons with pasta sauce (csa week 3)

i love love love summer squash so it was a tad difficult for me to imagine eating it any other way than sauteed with garlic. i realize it's a weird thing to not be able to get enough of but i literally could eat a whole giant bowl of it and be completely satisfied with life. thus i needed a dish where the squash was the star. enter squash ribbons. they're great because you still get to enjoy them sauteed with garlic (or whatever else) and in this case, they replaced a starch (pasta). so i really could eat a whole gigantic bowl and not feel the least bit guilty.


again, this is another method recipe. basically, you take the squash and slice them very thinly, or in my case, use a vegetable peeler to make thin slices. for those who are kitchen equipped, a mandolin would do quite nicely. then you sautee the ribbons in a little bit of oil, garlic, and salt and pepper for a few minutes, until they're your desired softness. you could eat them just like that or add some simple herbs. some lemon and parmesan cheese would be quite nice. i had just picked up some fresh DiPaola spicy turkey sausage from the farmer's market, so i added that to a simple tomato sauce with what i had on hand: some plain tomato sauce, a fresh tomato, a shallot, oregano, parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. then i threw the sauce on top of the squash and grated some cheese on top. voila!

weeknight dinner: tofu shirataki

i spied this curious looking food (tofu shirataki) on a couple of trips to the grocery store and knew it was only a matter of time before it made it into my weekly dinner rotation. it's a food that seems too good to be true: tofu noodles. my thoughts immediately went to a plethora of guilt-free and gluten-free pasta dishes. i was quite excited to try a stir-fry noodle dish, since this is something i just can't find wheat-free in restaurants. my yakisoba and/or chow mein days are over.


definitely follow the prep directions on the package: rinse the noodles well, boil for 2-3 minutes, then dry. the package mentions an "authentic aroma," which i assumed would be slightly fermented soy smelling. not so. they smell awful, so don't skip the prep. to make mine yakisoba style, i heated up some vegetable oil in a large pan and then sauteed some celery, zucchini and onions. a few minutes later, i added the tofu shirataki and, as it says to do so on the house foods website, pressed the noodles down, to help them brown. after a couple of minutes, i added some homemade teriyaki sauce (garlic, ginger, soy sauce, mirin and oil) to the pan and let everything cook for an additional 2 minutes.

i was quite happy with the results. the noodles resist a greasy, fried feeling. the texture is a bit soft but not mushy. it definitely helps to have the vegetables with some crunch left to them. next time: tofu shirataki spaghetti style!

more tofu shirataki recipes are available on the house foods website.

go go zo food bites

1) gluten-free pasta


Today's NY Times featured an article on gluten-free pasta options:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/health/nutrition/12recipehealth.html?ref=health

My vote is for the brown rice pasta! It makes sense that the pasta would work out well since brown rice has that dense, chewy texture.

2) trader joe's chimichurri salmon


Yes, another Trader Joe's plug so soon. I encourage you to try out tj's chimichurri wild pacific salmon. It comes frozen--yes, FROZEN! (So you can keep it around and not have to worry about making it right away before it spoils) AND it's wild! (So you can feel good about eating it). Most importantly, it's good. The sauce contains delicious ingredients you can actually read (no hidden wheat or gluten) and since the fish has already been marinated it has great saturated flavor, which is otherwise tough to accomplish in 10 minutes.

no weight loss resolution here!

New Years '09: The weather forecast was below zero, I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars to go out, most people were out of town, and I just got my brand new Le Creuset cookware set. The obvious answer was to stay at home and cook an outrageous meal. No, you say? You went out and partied the night away? Anyways...

On the menu: blinis and caviar, crab macaroni and cheese, and berries and chocolate. What's that? You would have rather been eating at my place? Me too. The new cookware (cast iron skillet and dutch oven) was instrumental in this meal as was my day-of Whole Food's visit. First on the list:

Caviar selection, serving, eating: The choice was between an $8.99 Whitefish caviar (light orange, golden color) and a $29 Paddlefish caviar (dark gray color). I am no caviar connoisseur but I figured that the Paddlefish was the way to go. The seafood counter man assured me that it was delicious; the seafood counter woman wondered why I was only purchasing one. Seafood counter man, again, reassured me. Seafood woman handed me a piece of wax paper with the bar code on it. That's right, you have to pay first, then pick the caviar up from customer service (where it will be waiting on ice). There's a reason I only do this once a year.

The blini route traditionally involves buckwheat blinis (gluten-free!) but I chose to get a little creative and use ingredients that I already had at home. I made the whole spelt and cornmeal blinis from a combination of recipes that I found online:

spelt cornmeal blinis
Combine dry ingredients:
1/2 cup whole spelt flour (substitute any gluten-free flour here, if necessary)
1/4 cup yellow corn meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Whisk in wet ingredients:
3/4 cup milk (Lactaid milk for me)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 egg yolks
Fold in 1 1/2 whipped egg whites
Butter pan and cook 1 tablespoon of batter per blini. flip when small bubbles form.


The blinis turned out a bit sweet from the cornmeal and sugar and were perfectly buttery for the caviar. I topped them blinis with creme fraiche, a bit of crumbled hard-boiled egg and chopped onion, and the caviar.


Crab macaroni and cheese: Originally, I thought I would make this with lobster but decided that crab meat would be just as good, more affordable and it actually turned out much easier to get at the store. I adapted a recipe from the Food Network's site (thanks, Brian Duffy, wherever you are!)


crab macaroni and cheese
1 pound brown rice macaroni
1/2 pound lump crab meat
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups milk
1 garlic clove, minced
1 shallot, chopped
black pepper
kosher salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed into 4 tablespoons of water
2 pounds grated cheese: gruyere, sharp cheddar, pecorino romano (I only used 1 pound of cheese and it worked fine)
bread crumbs (I get gluten-free ones from Whole Foods) if you don't have these, crumble up some bread or crackers

cook 1 pound brown rice macaroni until al dente. drain and set aside.
in a medium pot sweat 1 small onion in 2 tablespoons butter, then remove.
to the same pot, add milk, garlic, shallot and pepper. bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. slowly whisk in the cheese until it is fully incorporated.
whisk in cornstarch mix and allow sauce to thicken.
stir in onions and crab meat.
toss sauce with pasta and add to shallow baking dish.
sprinkle bread crumbs on top and bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until bubbly and browned.
Beware, sometimes gluten-free products don't seem to brown as well as wheat ones.)

Berries and chocolate: This couldn't have been easier. I bought pre-washed and mixed berries, then chopped up and melted some bittersweet chocolate in the microwave at low heat. Use small time increments so that the chocolate doesn't burn. When it's done, add a little bit more solid chocolate. The heat will melt and help temper it so it doesn't get funky. Pour the chocolate over the berries, or dip them, whichever you prefer!

Happy Eating in '09!

a trip to the other coast (NUMBER 1!)

NUMBER 1 - homemade pasta at dad's


Now I want no parental rivalry here. This one goes to dad (and not the buche) because it was a brand new thing for me. When I was growing up, when did anyone ever make homemade pasta? Well, it never happened, but this year my dad got a pasta machine as a gift. The plan was to try it out for the first time and make a scrumptious dinner. Now those of us who know my dad are always confident in his cooking abilities but the pressure had started to build and my dad seemed downright nervous about how he was going to pull this one off. Not only did he pull it off but it was DAMN GOOD. I might even go with the best pasta dish I've ever had--AND it was wheat-free. Beat that!

It had started to get a bit late, everyone was getting a bit nervous about the entire procedure. When I think of homemade pasta, I imagine bubby slaving all day in the kitchen. So, you can imagine the anxiety at Whole Foods at about 5:30 pm. Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way home and a few minutes after that the dough was well underway. The dough consisted of only two ingredients: eggs and flour; white spelt flour in our case. We did a couple of small batches at a time, about 2 cups of flour and 2-3 eggs. Then we rolled the dough, carefully and according to the machine's directions.


Once the pasta (linguine) was cut, we floured and piled it up (not recommended, to avoid sticking). This is when the pasta is supposed to dry but we were hungry and it was getting late, so this step didn't quite happen. Freshly made pasta cooks in just a few minutes. Now here is where it gets fun. Sauteed in a pan (in this order) went: olive oil, turkey bacon (no piggies here!), garlic, truffle paste (black AND white), oyster mushrooms, chives and italian parsley. With parmesan on top! The sauce was perfect; the truffles, mushrooms and turkey bacon melded together into yummy, savory, salty goodness. Definitely worth every bit of effort.