Seared Scallops with Multi-Grain Couscous

The scallops were simply seared, a little olive oil and butter and salt and pepper. The couscous was the Giada recipe I've been loving but using Trader Joe's Harvest Grains blend, which combines pearl couscous with red and green orzo, tiny dried chickpeas, and red quinoa. Because I was impatient, the salad was served warm, which made it yummy, almost risotto-y.
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Penne with Four Cheeses

Comfort is ... pasta baked with four creamy cheeses (Vermont cheddar, Cambazola, smoked Gouda, and Leerdaamer.) - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Israeli Couscous with Cranberries, Apples and Almonds

This recipe, from Giada, is one of my new favorites. Israeli, or pearl, couscous is mixed with dried cranberries, chopped up apple, and toasted almonds, all in an herby apple cider vinaigrette. It's good hot ... warm ... or just out of the fridge, if it lasts that long. I served this with apricot chicken, maple roasted butternut squash and carrots, and a big green salad.


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Gnocchi with a Fontina-Basil Sauce

It's hard to tell from this picture just how delicious these gnocchi are. Gnocchi are very popular around here, and there are some--one, at least--who would say they're fine plain, too. I, however, wanted a little something more and found this simple sauce that tastes like you really had to slave over a hot stove to make.

Fontina Sauce
(enough for 1 lb gnocchi)

2 Tbs butter
2-3 Tbs shallots, finely chopped
6-8 oz Fontina, cubed
1/3 c heavy cream
3 Tbs parmesan
2-3 Tbs fresh basil, chopped
Black pepper

Sauté the shallots in the butter til tender. Then add the cream and let cook til the mixture is almost boiling. Stir in the parmesan, basil and pepper and pour over the cooked gnocchi.

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Lemon Orzotto

Orzotto is like risotto, but it uses orzo pasta instead of rice. Because of this, the dish is ready sooner, as orzo doesn't take very long to cook. I cooked this just like I would risotto--with onions, white wine, Parmesan, salt and pepper, and a little butter--though I subbed vegetable broth for my usual chicken. I added the liquid slowly at first, and then poured the rest in and put the lid on for about 8 min. This makes a nice side, or it could be a main dish with more vegetables or protein added in. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pasta with Shrimp, Mascarpone and Spinach

The original recipe is for bruschetta, but in the days after Thanksgiving, when we all needed something different for dinner, pasta seemed like a good idea.  I also used spinach instead of arugula and a can of fire-roasted tomatoes instead of fresh plum tomatoes, as that's what I had on hand.

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Linguine Carbonara

We had all sorts of grand plans for dinner last night--and watching cooking shows only added more ideas. However, it was a Friday evening, after a long week, and I had no desire to tackle a grocery store. When in doubt, pasta, right? Except that I didn't want plain pasta with things just added on top. The basic carbonara sauce isn't as heavy as some restaurants would have you think. There's no cream, and only two eggs for an entire pound of pasta. Bacon and cheese are featured, but it's all about balance, right? It's quick, easy, uses ingredients you probably already have, and, done right, is so very satisfying.
Pasta Carbonara
(four generous servings)

1 lb pasta (any shape works, but something that will hold the sauce is good)
1 c grated parmesan
2 eggs
12-16 oz bacon
olive oil (opt.)
freshly ground pepper 
parsley

1. Bring a large, salted, pot of water to a rolling boil and cook til done.  Just before the pasta is done, set aside up to a cup of the pasta water.
2. In the meantime, slice the bacon across the strips, so it's in fairly small pieces, and then saute in a large frying pan til crisp.  Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on a paper towel.  At this point you can, as I did, pour off a some of the bacon fat from the pan and add in some olive oil, or you can just go with all bacon fat.
3. Mix together the eggs and the parmesan in a small bowl.  It will be very thick.
4. When the pasta is done, pull it out of the water and add it into the frying pan, tossing it to make sure it's thoroughly coated in oil.  Then add the egg/cheese mixture and, working quickly so the egg doesn't scramble, mix everything together.  Add the bacon back in to the pan, mix again, and season with pepper.  If the pasta seems very dry, add some of the reserved pasta water to loosen it up.  Add some fresh parsley, if desired, and serve immediately.

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Farfalle Carbonara

Bacon sauteed til crispy, and then mixed with Parmesan and eggs til creamy and delicious. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Universe of Pasta

Last week I took a class on how to make pasta -- specifically, on how to make less-familiar shapes, such as garganelli, cavatelli, and corzetti. The class was taught by the wonderful guest chef Rosemary Hubbard at King Arthur Flour's education center in Vermont. With just four other students and two days to learn, Rosemary packed a lot into the class. And with each pasta we created, we also made an appropriate -- and tasty -- sauce. The first pasta we made was ricotta cavatelli, served with a garlicky roasted tomato and arugula sauce. Next, we made orecchiette, or little ears. This we dried overnight and then had for breakfast in the most elegant (and simple) carbonara sauce ever. No cream necessary. Our next project was gnocchi di patate, little fluffy pillows of potato pasta, served with a smoky pizzaiolo sauce. We also made buckwheat corzetti stampati. These little disks were rolled out and hand-stamped, and then served with an amazingly flavorful sauce of butter, marjoram and toasted pine nuts. Any extra dough was cut into fettuccine. One of the last pastas we made was garganelli, which looks somewhat like penne. The pasta was light and flavorful, and was tossed with a super simple crudaiola -- finely diced vegetables and herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper that were warmed in the sun. Our final project, for which there is no picture (yum!), was uova da raviolo. This was one large raviolo that was filled with a mixture of ricotta and spinach and then a sunny, fat egg yolk. We cut fresh egg pasta out with large hen cookie cutters. The hens were filled, sealed, carefully cooked, and served with a drizzle of melted butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Orzo Salad with Feta, Tomatoes and Spicy Shrimp

When the temperature soars above the 90 degree mark, it gets really hard to think about cooking. We eat a lot of salad--which are both cooling and easy to throw together. Orzo, a rice-like pasta, adds a little more substance to a salad, without the heaviness of regular pasta and without the longer cooking times for rice. For this salad, I mixed the orzo, cubes of feta, and halved grape tomatoes with a lemon-shallot vinaigrette. This was placed on a bed of arugula and other lettuces and then topped with some quickly sauteed shrimp. The shrimp were marinated in garlic, shallots, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper, and hot and smokey Spanish paprika. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Easter KISS*

Easter this year was full of eating--and thankfully no jellybean taste tests like last year. There was, however, a rather unnecessary level of cooking on my part--big plans, tasty plans, but more work than needed. We started the day with a brunch that included a cheese soufflé, almond buttermilk scones, bacon, strawberries and blackberries, and various cheeses. I could have stopped there, we were all so full.

But in my mind I saw gnocchi, lovingly handmade and then lightly covered with a tomato-porcini sauce. So I made these, and they were good--though much more time-intensive than I'd meant them to be. We also had asparagus and green beans. Also in my mind I could practically taste the limoncello tiramisu recipe I'd come across months ago. It was also good--though not great--and cutting the recipe down to serve the four of us made more work, not less (just less leftovers, which was the point.) *keep it simple stupid -- something I need to remind myself of every so often. :) - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Marcella's Bolognese

Marcella Hazan's recipe for bolognese is fabulous, but it does take several hours to cook--which is perfect for a cold, rainy October afternoon. The rich, meaty sauce on top of spaghetti rigate really took the edge of the chilly temperature outside, and it seemed to brighten moods all around as well. I followed the recipe pretty closely, as Marcella is a stickler for details, but I did use leaner beef (93%) and organic, not imported, tomatoes.

Lemon Linguine with Roasted Shrimp

This recipe, from Nigella, is quick and easy, but it doesn't taste that way. There's a lot to be said for that--as well as that everyone here loves it. Hot linguine is tossed with a sauce made of lemon juice and zest, an egg yolk, a little cream, parmesan, and salt and pepper. I also roasted some shrimp with lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil, while the vegetarians had cannellini beans instead.

Guest Chef: Iron Chef Swimmer

This guest chef post is from the fabulous SwimmerGirl, 14, who volunteered to make us all dinner. She planned the menu, bought the ingredients, and, as you'll see below, cooked a wonderful meal. Tonight, I conquistadored the kitchen. I decided to make Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks, Brown Butter Soda Bread with fresh garden rosemary, and Cinnamon Dusted Mini Churros with orangeness for dessert. After my wonderful adventure to Whole Foods from which I was rescued, I made the bread dough before mixing the cheese sauce and cooking the pasta. This timed very well, as the bread finished in the oven as the pasta needed to go in. While these two were cooling or baking, I mixed and fried the churro dough. Deep-frying is actually rather alarming, but it was pretty cool. I rolled each churro in cinnamon sugar and then we ate! I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. And all this only took about three hours, start to finish!

Happy New Year -- and Smith Island Cake

Happy 2009! To start the new year, I decided to make a Smith Island cake, a 10-layer cake I'd read about several months ago. (The cake has since become the official cake of Maryland.) The basic recipe seems pretty much the same for all the recipes I saw, but the icing recipe in the Washington Post was simpler--and didn't make enough. Thus, to cover the outside I made a simple dark chocolate ganache and let it drizzle down the sides. I cut the recipe in half and used six-inch cake pans as it was just the four of us, but we still ended up with eight large servings, which is more than enough. A view from the inside ... The whole thing I also made homemade mac (penne) and cheese for dinner

Fusilli With Fresh Spinach and Ricotta

Fusilli con spinaci e ricotta. Based on a recipe from Chef Lidia Bastianich, this dish is creamy and full of spinach, but not bitter, as greens sometimes get. Fresh ricotta is mixed with half-and-half (or half 1% milk and half heavy cream) and then added to lightly cooked green onions and a ton of spinach (4 cups, packed, for half a recipe). I added a pinch of nutmeg, too.