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Returning to our Roots: Pasta al Pastore

Jonny & Amy — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:03:28 +0000

I remember reading, though I forget where exactly, another food blogger had written words to the effect that any time you start getting a big head about how great your blog is, take a look back at your earliest posts and it will bring you back to earth with a bump. Great advice, though it could just as easily reinforce your view that you’ve come a long way. Indeed, many of us long time bloggers have done just that from those dimly lit, low contrast beginnings, paving the way, I like to think, for all those parvenues with their new cameras and fancier blog templates.

Ironically though, for us at least, what we notice looking back is that while we still love the food we post on our site, it’s often a different kind of food — more complex and, in some cases, pretty arcane — to what we posted back in the beginning. Granted, our technical skills in the kitchen have grown immeasurably in this period as we’ve pushed ourselves to try new techniques, styles and flavor combinations — though we’re still lousy bakers and very limited on the dessert front — but our tastes haven’t changed all that much. We still love the same kinds of unpretentious, rustic cooking, with a distinct bent for the ugly parts of the beast, that we always did, so why don’t we cook like that anymore?

The truth is that we actually do, but that uniquely competitive nature of food blogging makes us feel like we shouldn’t post about it. It’ll seem a presumptuous comparison to anyone who is familiar with his expertise, but when Zen Chef went through a period in the recent past where he remade many of his old posts and noted the improvements in recipe, presentation and technique, it made us feel like we should do the same, if only to update some the godawful shots we took first time around.

In fact, we actually eat many of the dishes we used to post about on a regular basis as week night staples and can produce them faultlessly without thinking about it. Returning to that kind of blogging – this is what we made for dinner, this is what we ate at a hole in the wall place on vacation – would, in many ways, be more honest. Sure, we love Guyanese chow mein, bandeja paisa, mofongo and locro de mondongo, but they aren’t the kind of dishes we eat more than a couple of times a year.

So, it’s motivated by a desire to return, however briefly, to our roots as much as it is against this kind of over-thinking that we decided to do this post. My mother, whose encyclopedic use of regional English idioms was one of her great charms, used to say that the pretentious and the poseurs, those overly concerned with their appearance, were in danger of disappearing up their own trouser legs, and in order to avoid this is rather awkward demise, I decided to post this simple pasta dish from Calabria.

Pasta al pastore or shepherd’s pasta, is nothing more than crumbled hot or sweet Italian sausage (in this case a pound of loose homemade hot sausage meat – thanks Michael Ruhlman), a couple of ladles of pasta water and half a tub of fresh ricotta. There’s nothing to it, but nor is there anything missing. It’s as totally unremarkable as it is exciting and delicious, and could be found just as easily on the menu of a white table cloth restaurant as our house on a Tuesday night. That this is a Lidia Bastianich recipe also returns us to our origins as PBS fans fond of regional Italian cucina povera. Sure, we’ve betrayed our best intentions to go natural and rustic a little by gussying up the plating a little with chive flowers, but our excuse is that we have glut of them in our pots right now and using them up is as honest as it comes.

Pasta al Pastore – Calabrian Shepherd’s-style Pasta (serves 4)
(adapted not at all from Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy by Lidia Bastianich)

Ingredients:

4 hot (or sweet) Italian sausages, skins removed and crumbled
1lb package rigatoni or other tubular pasta
1/2lb fresh ricotta
abundant salted water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Grated pecorino cheese (optional).

Recipe:

Boil well salted water in a large pot
In a large skillet or saute pan, heat oil and crumble in sausage meat. Saute until cooked through.
Add pasta to water and cook for around 7 minutes until under done by about two minutes – i.e. in cross-section pasta is uncooked in the middle
Reserving 2-3 ladles of pasta water, remove pasta from water and add to sausage in saute pan.
Ladle in 2 ladles of pasta water and stir together.
When pasta is cooked through, kill the heat and stir in ricotta.
Sprinkle with grated pecorino and serve with a hearty southern Italian red

On Parenting and Pumpkins

Jonny — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:24:33 +0000

It’s one of the ironies of being a new parent that even though we are spending more time than at any other point in our adult lives at home, we are finding it virtually impossible to do any cooking. Even when we do steal a few moments of quiet to get behind the burners, by the time the food is done, so is the nap our baby was taking. Of course, eating your dinner cold is nothing new to a food blogger – teasing the plating and getting just the right lighting usually takes a while – but at least we used to be able to eat our tepid meat and congealed sauce without the throaty vocal stylings of a five-week-old as an accompaniment.

Another delightful aspect of being a home-bound parent is that, when leaving the house involves assembling ten things, a stroller and an acquiescent child, one is motivated to make use of what is close at hand. In a moment of hunger-inspired desperation this past weekend, we took that maxim to its logical conclusion.

Literally lying beside our front door was a pair of pumpkins we had originally intended to carve for Halloween had our sculptural ambitions not been thwarted by the arrival of said infant. Still edible, they were quickly hacked, seeded and roasted in a hot oven with salt and pepper while the baby slumbered peacefully in his swing. In a “waste not, want not” moment, also into the oven went the pumpkin seeds seasoned with chipotle powder and brown sugar, emerging a scant twenty minutes later, crispy and snack-tastic. The baby, now stirring, its nostrils a-quiver.

From all of this, plus the contents of a still well-stocked spice rack and half a Mexican chorizo I rescued from a sad end in the depths of our refrigerator, came a pimentón-scented pumpkin velouté topped with sweet chipotle pepitas, crumbled chorizo and a sprinkle of black Hawaiian sea salt that I forgot we’d bought, somewhat curiously, in a supermarket in France last Christmas.

Even the abundant use of the stick blender failed to completely rouse our newborn, though, in his now-customary fashion, by the time we were seated at the table, spoons-at-the-ready, our charming little nipper was once again in full voice, sharing his anguish at his meager milk-based diet. Happily, this soup is just as good, if not better, when reheated the next day. A quality we might not have fully appreciated before now.

Pumpkin Velouté with Pimentón and Chipotle (feeds 4-6)

Ingredients

1 large pumpkin, with seeds
1/2 Mexican style chorizo
1/2 cup cream or sour cream
1.5 cups milk
1 cup chicken stock
2 tsp pimenton ahumado (smoked Spanish paprika)
1tsp chipotle powder
2 tsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
2 tbsp cotija cheese, grated
cilantro garnish

Recipe

Preheat oven to 420F/200C
Cut pumpkin into large chunks (leaving skin on), and deseed it. Sprinkle pumpkin with salt and pepper.
Rub pieces lightly with olive oil and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, or until pumpkin starts to color a little
On a separate oven tray, spread seeds and season with salt, pepper and chipotle powder. Place in same oven and roast for 20 minutes or until crispy.
Remove from oven and allow to cool fully before removing skin carefully with a paring knife.
In a blender, food processor or with a stick blender, pulse pumpkin, pimenton, brown sugar.
Spoon in half the sour cream and milk, and re-pulse. Add chicken stock, pulse to combine.
Consistency should be pretty thick. Add remaining milk and sour cream until soup is smooth but not gloopy.
Return to the pot and bring to a simmer. Correct seasoning.
In a saute pan, crumble chorizo and saute until cooked through
Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with chorizo crumbles, pumpkin seeds, cotija cheese and any thing else you think might be good.

Cacio e Pepe: A Spicy, Creamy, Simple, Cheap and Satisfying Roman Meal

Amy — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:22:23 +0000

I think the title of this post says it all about my feelings (and others) about the famous Romans dish of pasta, traditionally spaghetti, with pecorino cheese and a good amount of freshly ground pepper. The name says is all – cacio, meaning cheese, and pepe meaning pepper. We’re not breaking any new ground here because I’m sure there’s about 50 other food blogs that have made this dish. I’m just here hoping that if anyone does make it, they try to make it the freshest and best way they can.

I’m going to get my food snob on here – please do not make this dish soley with parmigiano reggiano and that crappy, old shaker filled with pepper that you may only bust out when laying out your fine china on one or two holidays a year. The pepper most likely has zero flavor anymore – if you do, please name the dish whatever you want. I personally think “Pasta with Parmigiano Reggiano and Crappy Old, Non-Spicy Pepper from the Depths of My Cupboard” works great! If you go to the store and spend $4 you can get some black peppercorns. Just put them into a pepper grinder or, if you don’t have one, throw the peppercorns in a plastic baggie and grab a meat mallet or a hammer and get out your aggressions. Keep hammering until you’ve produced some nice, ground pepper. Make a lot if you’d prefer to not have to go through this exercise again and freeze the extras to prevent the pepper from going bad (ie: flavorless).

The reason I’m so passionate about this is because you can not recreate the amazing flavor of this old, traditional dish if you do not have good pepper. When freshly ground, pepper is very spicy and full of flavor. It is not supposed to just produce a nice contrast of color to a boring meal – although the beauty of it is it does that too! Research taught me that in ancient Rome pepper was extremely popular and was used for medicinal reasons by the ancient Greeks. It was revered as a very valuable spice. As for the cheese, I’ll go a bit easier on you if you don’t use the Pecorino cheese, but I’ll give you a light tap on the bum so you’ll remember to try it with that cheese next time. Pecorino would only be used in this dish in Rome because, well, that’s the regional cheese in that area. If you look close at the label, it’s really called Pecorino Romano, right? Parmigiano and pecorino are two very different tasting cheeses. In fact, there are many varieties of pecorino in Italy ranging from soft to hard versions of the cheese. For this discussion, we are generally talking solely about Pecorino Romano – the hard cheese that is able to be grated. If you do a comparison, I’d imagine you’d notice that pecorino is much sharper in taste where parmigiano is more nutty and mellow in flavor. Both are pretty nice and salty, which is why you should not have to salt this dish. Some people feel very strongly about choosing one of these cheeses over the other. Because of this, we have chosen to use a mixture of the cheeses for this version of cacio e pepe. This way you get a blend of the cheese. But in Rome, you will most likely find the dish made only with pecorino.

When made correctly, you will not believe how unbelievably creamy and spicy this dish is. I felt like we were back in Rome (of course only if I closed my eyes VERY hard and did not open them to reveal a very closet-like, dirty Brooklyn apartment). This dish is so quick and easy, I’m sure Rachel Ray couldn’t even make it because she’d only fill 1/8 of a show. Give it a try – you won’t be disappointed.

Also, months ago we wrote a post on a great NYC restaurant with the same name as this dish. If you’re ever in New York, I’d advise you to give this awesome restaurant a try… and order their signature dish made in a hollowed out wheel of pecorino!

CACIO E PEPE (Spaghetti with Pecorino Romano and Fresh Ground Pepper) – serves 2 as a main, 3 to 4 as a starter)

Ingredients:

3/4 pound of spaghetti
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly ground pepper (depending on how spicy you want it!)
a bit of the pasta cooking liquid (about 1/4 to 1/2 of a ladel-full)
1/2 cup of freshly ground pecorino romano
1/2 cup freshly ground parmigiano reggiano

What to do:

Boil your spaghetti until perfectly al dente (about 7 minutes)
In a separate pan, on low-medium heat, add your butter, oil and 1/2 of your pepper and allow the butter to melt, swirly the pan around to help it move a bit.
When spaghetti is done, add a bit of the cooking liquid to your melted butter/pepper/olive oil sauce and swirl the pot again. Turn heat down to low. Add your spaghetti and toss once.
Turn the heat OFF. Add your cheeses and the rest of the pepper and toss the spaghetti again in the pan.
Plate and top with a sprinkle more of pepper and cheese. Voila! DONE.

Hungry? Cold? Grumpy? Try This Hungarian Goulash!

Amy — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:01:01 +0000

On a cold, wintery day, there is nothing better than the warmth of a hearty bowl of Hungarian goulash. After much research, I adapted a recipe by Wolfgang Puck. I’m glad I trusted my instinct that his would taste pretty authentic considering he is from Austria. According to my research, traditional goulash should NEVER contain green peppers or tomatoes. So many recipes I found contained canned tomatoes, but this is supposedly a BIG no-no. Another key, I learned, to a kick-ass goulash is onions, and lots of ‘em. Slicing them thin (use a mandolin if you can) and sweating them down may take a bit more time, but the sweetness and oomph it adds along to the paprika is a taste that can’t be beat.

I have used most of Puck’s recipe, but have adapted a bit of it based on a few other recipes I read as well. Many eat goulash alone, with a side of spaetzle or flour dumplings. I added some boiled potatoes for my starch. Americans may put goulash over rice or egg noodles and top with sour cream, but that is not traditonally Hungarian. I’m also a big lover of paprika, so I use alot… you can scale it down a bit if you’d like. In fact, if you do not like it a bit spicy, do not add the hot paprika and just add one more tablespoon of sweet.

HUNGARIAN GOULASH (Adapted from Wolfgang Puck’s recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 medium to large onions, thinly sliced (about 4 – 5 cups)
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, toasted and ground
3 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon hot paprika
2 tablespoons fresh marjoram (I substituted oregano), minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups beef or chicken stock
2 to 3 pounds of beef, cut into 2 inch cubes
4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in halves or quarters
Salt and Pepper

What to do:

In a large saute pan or dutch oven, heat olive oil on medium low and slowly cook your thinly sliced onions until they are translucent. This should take about 30 minutes if you cook them on low and slowly. If you want to cook ‘em faster, go right ahead. I just love the sweetness the slow cooking of the onions brings.
Add your beef pieces and allow to sear a bit.
Add your garlic and ground caraway seeds and cook for a minute or so.
Add the paprika (both hot and sweet), the marjoram or oregano, thyme and bay leaf and allow to saute for a minute.
Add the tomato paste and your stock along with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Bring this to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for at least an hour (an hour and a half is optimal). This will allow the meat to become tender.
While meat is cooking, boil your potatoes until they are parboiled and then add them to your goulash a few minutes before you are ready to serve. Taste and add more salt and/or pepper if needed. Serve in a bowl with enough bits of meat and a few halves of potatoes and enjoy.

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Avgolemono Soup – Greek Chicken Soup for The Soul

Amy — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:22:19 +0000

There’s a Greek restaurant up the street from where we live that makes really delicious Avgolemono Soup and we’ve been recreating it at home since we first tried it. The best way to describe this soup is like a lemony, creamy chicken soup – Avgolemono actually means ‘egg-lemon’, natch. The most interesting part about it is that the creaminess comes from beaten eggs, not cream! I would put money down that this soup will cure whatever ails ya quicker than a can of Campbells! I highly recommend making this soup year round. In the winter it warms you up and in other months, the lemon brings a touch of lightness and brightness to the meal. Not only is it cheap to make, but it’s simple too. We topped ours with a grilled pita “cruton” topped with some hummus. Enjoy!

AVGOLEMONO SOUP (Greek Chicken Soup with Orzo, Egg and Lemon)

Ingredients:

4 eggs
juice of 3 lemons (make sure they’re juicy!)
8 cups chicken stock
some hot water (ONLY IF NECESSARY)
1 large chicken breast or 2 normal sized ones
1 onion, diced
1 1/2 cup orzo
Salt and Pepper
1 teaspoon oregano

What to do:

Bring your chicken stock to a boil. Add chicken and diced onions (20-30 minutes in total depending on size).
After about 15 minutes, add your orzo (takes about 12 minutes to cook).
After your chicken is cooked (20-30 minutes), remove and let cool for a few minutes so you can shred it (throw in the freezer if time is limited). Lower the heat on your chicken stock to low just to keep it warm. Ladle about 2 or 3 cups of the stock into a bowl to cool (you will use this to mix in with the egg and lemon mixture – must be cool to prevent it from curdeling).
Squeeze the lemon into a Pyrex measuring cup (or something with a spout).
Meanwhile, the fun part. Crack your eggs in a large bowl and vigorously whisk until the mixture looks foamy. Slowly add (while whisking at the same time) your lemon juice into the foamy egg until it is completely incorporated.
While continuing to whisk the foamy egg mixture, slowly add your warm/cool stock that you reserved in another bowl from step 3 until it’s completely mixed in with the egg mixture (again, make sure it’s not boiling hot – you don’t want this to scramble!).
Slowly add this mixture back into the pot. Shred the chicken and add back into the pot. Add oregano. If extra liquid is needed, add a bit of water. Allow to come back to a decent temperature and serve immediately.

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Potato and Leek Soup

Amy — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:45:39 +0000

Another meat-free meal (with exception of our bacon crumbles garnish) once we returned from our pig-fest in Madrid. This one was a winner! The fried leeks added a bit of crunch (if you want to take the extra time to do this). We added a bit of sour cream for a bit of extra creaminess, but a half cup of heavy cream would be luxurious. In fact, the potatoes are so starchy that you don’t need to add any cream at all.

POTATO AND LEEK SOUP

4 potatoes
2 leeks, cut in half and sliced in half-moons (reserve 1/4 of a leek, for garnish – cut into 1/8 inch strips)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of sour cream (optional – depends on how thick you like your soup – the potatoes alone make it pretty thick as is)
Salt and pepper
2 rashes of bacon (for optional garnish – leave out if you want a veggie meal)

(OPTIONAL) Slice your bacon into 1 inch pieces and cook over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon and reserve on side. When cooled, crush to crumbles. Leave the bacon fat in the pan – this will give your soup a deeper level of flavor
Peel potatoes and cut into small pieces.
Saute leeks and garlic in the rendered bacon fat, if you use bacon, or some olive oil until soft.
Add potatoes to the sauteed leeks and pour in the chicken or veggie stock.
Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are falling apart.
Add your two tablespoons of sour cream if you prefer a thicker, creamier soup (you could choose to blend first and see what the soup looks like and then add the sour cream and blend again). Add some salt, if necessary, and pepper.
Using a stick blender or a blender, puree the soup. I prefer a bit of chunks in my soup so I often take a bit of the chunky potatoes out while I blend the rest. I then add the chunkier bits back and crush with a fork.
(OPTIONAL) In another pan, saute your leek ‘strips’ in some olive oil until crispy for an optional garnish.
Dish up and top with some crumbled bacon and fried leeks.

CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE OTHER POSTS:

No Amphibians Were Hurt in the Making of This Dish…

Jonathan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:57:59 +0000

In his extremely witty book, French Lessons, Peter Mayle attends the annual Fete de Grenouilles (Festival of Frogs-Legs) in Vittel, France, and describes an instance at the festival banquet in which the, perhaps, unusual French habit of eating frogs was turned on its head by a fellow festival attendee when she asked him, shuddering, if it was true that the British ate toads.

Now, of course, it’s not true. The British do not, as far as I know, eat toads, though, if frogs are edible, and taste a bit like chicken, then I might be prepared to try toads, if sauteed with a little garlic and parsley. However, the British do eat toad in the hole – a delicious, simple and filling dish that is one of my father’s perennial favorites. I, like my father, love this dish too and had been threatening to make it for my wife for months until recently, when the weather got cold enough to warrant a meal with sausages, eggs, flour, milk and gravy, I finally got around to it.

It went down very well, I’m glad to report, and it’s an easy, inexpensive and relatively quick meal to make on a weekday night. You should try it whether you like amphibians or not.

Toad in the Hole with Fresh Mushy Peas (serves 4)

For the batter:

1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
2 whole eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

Crack eggs and whisk yolks and whites together. Add to flour and mix into a paste before adding milk and whisking until smooth. Set aside, or refrigerate, until ready to use.

For the “Toad”:

8 sausage links (about 1 1/2 – 2 lbs), separated
1 onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 pint hot water
2 tbsp Bisto (or use some beef stock and thicken w/ cornstarch)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Recipe for main dish:

Preheat oven to 425F. Heat skillet to medium-high and add oil. Brown sausages on all sides, then remove them. Lower heat to medium and add onions. Saute them until soft. Add garlic and pinch of salt. Combine water and bisto powder. Continue to saute for four or five mins, until onions are becoming translucent, before adding gravy mixture. Reduce heat to low and allow liquid to reduce by about a third.

Grease a 12inch baking dish with oil and place sausages in it. Pour the batter mixture around the sausages and slap it all in the oven for about 20 minutes or until batter is risen and golden-brown. Serve in portions of two sausages and pour onion gravy on top. Goes great with the peas but sauteed cabbage, collard greens, kale or broccoli rabe are also good accompaniments. Enjoy!

For the peas:

1 lb frozen peas
1/4 stick unsalted butter
A dash of light or heavy cream (about 1-2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup water

Simmer the peas in the water for about 12 minutes until soft. Add the butter, cream, salt and pepper and then smash the peas, but make sure to leave them with plenty of texture. Serve on the side of the toad-in-the-hole.

CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE OTHER POSTS:

HUNGARIAN GOULASH
LEMONGRASS BEEF SHORTRIBS
Pulling Pints: Not Small Beer
A Bloody Delicious Time in England – A Recap
JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN
PERFECT BROCCOLI DI RAPE WITH SWEET SAUSAGE

Quickest Meal Ever 4 – Creamy Lemon Pasta

Amy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:20:06 +0000

Ok, so I’m overusing the title “Quickest Meal Ever”. There can only be one “Quickest Meal”, right? In our bizarre blog world, no. I’ll have as many “Quickest Meal Ever” posts as I want! You know why? Cause they’re quick and we all know you like some things to happen quickly – getting a shot at the doctors, ripping a band-aid off a hairy arm, getting a bikini wax and making meals. For fu*ks sake, that’s why that idiot Rachel Ray is popular – she’s got every one of you fooled that her meals only take 30 minutes to make! Well, if you’re as lucky as she is to get every one of your veggies and meats completely prepped and cleaned for you, you may have a chance of making it under 30 minutes.

Rachel aside, the recipes I label “Quickest Meal Ever” must only take about 30-40 minutes to make from start to finish. And I actually cut things up and prepare things if necessary. So with that I invite you to make this delicious and light Creamy Lemon Pasta. Yes, there is cream and some butter mixed in, but it really tastes so incredibly light. Even though we’re in the midst of winter, eating this meal tonight made me imagine that summer is on the way (unfortunately, it was only the food coma talking).

CREAMY LEMON PASTA

1 1/2 juicy lemons + zest of the lemon
1 lb long pasta (pappardelle, linguine or fettuccine preferable)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter, unsalted preferably
(Optional) grilled or blanched asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
parsley, finely chopped
parmigiano reggiano
fresh pepper

Saute shallot and onion in 1 tablespoon butter. Add some olive oil if it needs extra stuff to saute in.
Boil water for your pasta.
Once shallots are translucent, add chicken stock and the juice of one lemon. Allow to reduce so only 1/4 of the stock remains in the pan.
Cook pasta in boiling, salted water.
Once stock is reduced, whisk in the heavy cream. Add a pinch of salt, the lemon zest and the juice of the other half of lemon. Whisk in the last tablespoon of butter and about 1/8 cup of the pasta cooking water. Allow to cook on medium and reduce a bit. It should be bubbling while it reduces and thickens.
Add they drained pasta to the lemon sauce and toss with parmigiano reggiano, the blanched asparagus (optional) and some fresh pepper. Top with a sprinkle of parsley, some extra lemon zest and another small bit of cheese and voila!

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Jacques Fast Food – Whole Wheat Pasta with Leeks, Asparagus, Mushrooms, Gruyere and a Fried Egg – A Winning Recipe!

Amy — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:16:13 +0000

Wow… that title is a bit long, but it’s the best description I could come up with. This meal is absolutely delicious, quick and cheap. It is adapted from our favorite master chef – Jacques Pepin. On his PBS show Fast Food My Way (WATCH IT!!!), Jacques creates seemingly difficult and creative dishes in no time. He never attempts to wow you with his personality (charming, sweet, truly charismatic), made-up stories to keep you interested (unless you count recollections of his mother’s cooking in France growing up which you really know are true and actually want to hear) or his K-RAZY catch phrases (only at the beginning with a “Happy Cooking!” in his lovely French accent). Jacques is a true master in the food world and every time I watch him I not only immediately relax, but I always learn something new. I am in awe of him and I not-so-secretly wish he was my grandfather (no offense to my real grandfathers whom I love/loved very much).

Jacques original dish is called Bowtie Pasta with Fried Egg and Cheese. His recipe is very, very nice, but I tweaked it a bit. We love garlic and had to add it. Jacques uses gruyere cheese, but we’ve also done this dish with shredded mozzarella and fontina cheese. Both melt extremely well and give the dish an excellent flavor. Topping the pasta with a runny, fried egg brings this dish to another level. Make SURE you don’t overcook the egg! You’ll want that yolk to run all throughout the pasta, mixing with the other ingredients, almost creating a sauce. I’m salivating thinking about it now.

I’ve also entered this recipe in Real Epicurean’s “In The Bag” May event. Check out this blog for some delicious recipe!

PASTA WITH LEEKS, ASPARAGUS, MUSHROOMS, GRUYERE AND A FRIED EGG

1/2 – 3/4 of a box of short pasta, whole wheat if you so choose (gemelli, penne, rigatoni, cavatelli, etc.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 shallot, minced (optional)
1 leek, cleaned and thinly sliced
6 asparagus spears (make sure to cut off the woody bottom), grilled and then sliced into 2 inch pieces (you can also boil them or saute them if you don’t have a grill pan)
5 white button mushrooms, thickly sliced (1/4 inch slices)
1/4 pound shredded Gruyere cheese (or mozzarella, fontina)
a palmful of shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons butter
olive oil
salt and pepper
peperoncino (optional)

What to do:

Heat up your grill pan (if you have one, if not, skip to #2)
In a medium-high heated pan, suate your mushrooms in some olive oil. Sprinkle with a bit of salt. As soon as they take on bit of color (about 2 minutes), add your leeks and saute until soft. Mushrooms should not be mushy, but have a bit of give. If you over-saute them, no biggie. I just like the taste of a bit of firmness along with the asparagus… you may not care. Reserve in a bowl on the side.
Grill your asapargus spears on your indoor or outdoor grill. Allow to cool and then cut into 2 inch pieces. (NOTE: If you do not have a grill pan, cut your raw asapargus into 2 inch pieces and saute in a bit of olive oil until cooked through – 3-4 minutes or so).
Boil your water for the pasta and cook for alloted time until al dente.
While pasta is cooking, in a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil, gently saute your shallots and garlic on medium-low (if you have the time, do it on low), so that they not only cook, but the flavor infuses into the butter/olive oil (5-8 minutes).
In a separate pan, fry an egg in some olive oil. Make sure to only fry it on the other side for a second in order to keep the yolk runny! That makes the dish! Keep warm until ready.
Drain your pasta, reserving about 1/2 a cup of the cooking liquid. Add your pasta to the pan with the shallots/garlic/butter/olive oil mixture (pan should be on low/medium-low heat. Add one more pat of butter (about a tablespoon) and toss. Next, add a dash of pasta water (about 1/4 cup at most), add back the other veggies and toss. Add a pinch of salt to your liking (always taste!). If you would like a stronger garlic flavor, add a pinch of garlic powder (NOT garlic salt if you’ve already added salt). Toss again.
Add your gruyere first and then the parmagiano cheese. Continue to toss pasta until cheese is completely integrated into the dish and melted.
Serve immediately, top each dish with a fried egg and some optional peperoncino if you want to add a kick to it.

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Veal Sausages with Herbed Polenta and Roasted Beets

Jonathan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:41:30 +0000

Can’t figure out what to make tonight? Well, we couldn’t either. So we found some misfit stuff and threw it together and, you know what… it was pretty good. The roasted beets gave this otherwise ‘soft’ meal some necessary crunch, as well as color. The sausages we had were some delicious veal links with sage. It was all quite simple, but very satisfying, especially on a cold fall night. We used a British product called “Bisto” to help with the brown gravy. We believe you could use your own gravy recipe or just substitute beef stock (veal stock would be best) or even a beef broth cube for the Bisto.

VEAL SAUSAGES WITH HERBED POLENTA AND ROASTED BEETS (Serves 2)

4 Veal Sausage Links
2 Large Beets, cut into 2” half-moons
1/2 cup polenta
hot chicken stock for the polenta
chopped parsley and sage

For the gravy:

1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely sliced
1/2 habanero, finely chopped (optional)
2 teaspoons of BISTO (or 1 beef stock cube)
2 cups of boiling water
Salt and Pepper to taste (for polenta and gravy)

What to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the beets, cut them into half-moon shapes and toss with olive oil and salt/pepper. Put on baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes.
In a medium-hot pan, brown your sausages on both sides. When they are browned on both sides, remove from pan and keep on side.
Add some olive oil (1 Tbsp.) to the same pan sausages browned in. Add sliced onions and allow to soften. When onions are translucent, add garlic and (optional) hot pepper. Allow to saute for a minute or two.
Add red wine and deglaze the pan, picking up any bits on the bottom.
Mix BISTO (or stock cube) and boiling water thoroughly. Add this to the pan. Bring to a boil. Simmer liquid until reduced by half.
While gravy is reducing, start your polenta. In a separate pan, combine polenta with 1 cup of hot chicken stock by first putting stock in pan and then slowly pouring polenta in it (STIR all the while… it will feel like you don’t have enough hands to do this, but just do your best!). Add a pinch of salt. Continue to stir vigorously with a wooden spoon, adding more chicken stock while doing so. You don’t want the polenta to be dry, but also do not let it get soupy (unless, of course that’s how you like polenta). You want it to be smooth and not runny. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon while on medium – low/medium heat for about 15-20 minutes. At the end, taste for necessary salt and smoothness. Throw in your herbs and some (optional) parmagiano cheese.
Take beets out of oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Add the sausages back to the pan. Allow to simmer for 3-4 additional minutes.
Plate your dish – start with a layer of polenta, two sausages per plate nestled into the polenta, topped with some gravy (get some onions in there!) and finish with a few roasted beets. Enjoy!

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