Smoothie Time!

When the weather's warm (and sometimes when it's not), one of my favorite things to do is make smoothies. I actually burnt out two blenders last year make them so much, so I ended up buying this turbo Oster with one speed and half a horsepower. I'm convinced it will blend anything, although maybe not an iPod.

Smoothies are the easiest things in the world to make. It's incredibly difficult to screw them up, and what I throw in varies wildly based on what I feel like and what I have on hand. I generally use frozen fruit because you can keep it for a long time and it's a lot cheaper. I always use fresh bananas, though.

Today I made a pretty basic one with strawberries, blueberries, peaches, non-fat yogurt, orange juice, and a banana. Sometimes I'll use apple or cranberry instead of orange juice, and I'm always trying different combinations of fruit. Frozen mangos make great smoothies, but I seem to have a hard time finding them. I also usually get the giant bags of frozen strawberries at Costco - they're cheap and ridiculously huge. These are from Stop and Shop since i haven't been to Costco in a little while. They're smaller, but still good.

I usually use non-fat yogurt just to keep the amount of fat to a minimum. There's already plenty of calories in all the fruit and juice.

Throw it all in a blender and turn it on. If you're feeling saucy, fire some vodka in there and get sloshed.

Pork Tenderloin

I originally thought we'd order something tonight, likely from somewhere we have yet to try so I could write a quick post about how great I thought it was so you could all run out and try it. Instead, I decided to roast a pork loin I bought the other day.

There's really nothing to this - just a pork tenderloin seasoned with a pork rub I had around (my father and stepmom love to give me spices for Christmas), some steamed broccoli, and roasted yukon gold potatoes. The broccoli and the pork don't really have a recipe - steam and rotisserie respectively. The potatoes do, I suppose, so I'll post it even if it's as simple as they come.

CHF's Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes

Ingredients:

6-8 yukon gold potatoes
kosher salt
ground pepper
freshly ground parmigiano reggiano
extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 415. Half and then quarter the potatoes and place in a casserole dish or roasting pan. Dust with kosher salt and pepper and drizzle some olive oil over them. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring them from time to time to cook evenly. After 45 minutes, sprinkle with the cheese and roast for another ten minutes.

See? Easy. Yummy.

Tagliatelle with Salmon

Well, at least we got half of a gorgeous weekend, eh? Saturday was perfect, and we spent most of the day hanging out in the courtyard having a few beers and enjoying the sun. Once the sun set we dug into a few pounds of giant king crab legs that I completely forgot to take pictures of. They were so good that we made a promise to ourselves to do it again soon, and I'll try and remember to document them then.

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and I ended up throwing together a bit of a slapdash meal. I suppose you could call it Tagliatelle with Salmon and Mushrooms, but that's a bit of a boring name, I think. Let's call it Pasta for a rainy Sunday that Should Have Been Sunnier but Wasn't. Or something. It was really just an excuse to make fresh pasta, which I hadn't done in a while. I eschewed the pasta cutter I normally use to make some hand-cut tagliatelle, which turned out great.

Tagliattelle with Salmon and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

~2 lbs fresh pasta dough. See my recipe here
1 lb salmon
8 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
1/2 c grated parmigiano reggiano
Minced garlic
Fresh parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon Juice
Seasoning to taste

Directions:

Press the pasta into flat sheets, either by hand or with a pasta roller. Dust with flour, then stack the sheets and roll them. Cut the roll into strips about a half an inch wide - wider if you want fatter pasta. Unroll and separate.

Season the salmon with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and whatever other seasonins you like and grill or roast or pan-fry it - I used a rotisserie to roast mine. Once it's done, throw it in a large bowl and break it up.

Heat up a generous glug of olive oil in a pain with some garlic and rosemary. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and sautee for 15-20 minutes until tender. Add the mushrooms with the oil to the salmon.

Add the pasta to a post of boiling water with salt and cook for 2-3 minutes until al dente. Drain the pasta quickly and add to the bowl along with a little bit of the salt water it was boiled in. Stir in some pepper and the parmigiano. Plate the pasta and add some more cheese along with some fresh parsley.

We had the pasta along with some rolls and then some pignoli from my father and a slice of amazing cheesecake from Fairway for dessert. It was a pretty good Sunday.

Mother's Day Cookies

Yeah, I know I haven't had much to say lately. I've been too busy for either cooking or eating out, so I've been relegated to posting about local happenings that I'm too busy to attend anyway.

I took a break this afternoon to take part in that most manly of Sunday activities: baking cookies. I had wanted to make a batch of pignoli cookies from a recipe my father provided, but once I started thinking about it, I realized that what I really wanted was chocolate chip.

I use a slight variation of the basic Toll House recipe for my cookies. The only real difference is that I swap out half the baking soda for baking powder and melt the butter prior to adding it to the sugar and vanilla. I also make sure to chill the dough before baking it so that it spreads more slowly in the oven. Oh, and I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips because they looked good and the package was shiny and I like shiny things.

CHF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c (two sticks) butter, melted
Most of 1 bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips. I use about 2/3rds of the bag and munch on the rest because I'm greedy and piggish.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a stand mixer (or mixing bowl), combine sugar and vanilla. Begin mixing at the lowest speed and slowly pour in the melted butter. Mix until creamy. Slowly add in the flour mixture, alowing it to combine as it mixes. Once the dough is completely combined, add in the chocolate chips and mix until combined evenly. Chill the dough in the fridge for about half an hour.

Using a tablespoon, ball the dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

That's it. Quick, easy, and awesome.

Happy Mother's Day!

Famous Ray's Pizza

My father took up making his own pizza a year or so back, and has gotten pretty good at it. When we showed up last weekend, he had a batch of dough ready to go and proceeded to make a couple of really amazing pies. As you can see, the results were pretty great, and now I present you his recipe.

Famous Ray's Pizza

Ingredients

2 and 1/4 teaspoons of active yeast which is equal to 1/4 ounce packet yeast.I usually use a little more.
1 and 1/2 cup warm water
3 and 3/4 cups all purpose or pizza flour.(1.5 cups all purpose, 1.5 cups 00 farina, and the last 3/4 cups of either one in a separate measuring cup)

1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil pus some for greasing bowl
2 teaspoons salt

Making the Dough

1. Using a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast and water and let stand for 3 or 4 minutes. The water should be warm but not too hot so as not to kill the yeast.

2. Add the 3/4 cup of flour and sugar and mix well.

3. Add the olive oil, salt and the remaining 3 cups of flour gradually, mixing in a mixer, by hand or using a wooden spoon. The dough hook for your mixer works fine.

4. Transfer the sticky dough even if not totally combined, to a flour dusted board and have a small amount of flour readily available to prevent the dough from sticking to the board as you knead. You might use up to another 1/4 cup of flour for this

5. The dough will become smooth after about five minutes of kneading but knead for a minimum of 20 minutes.

6. Place the dough in a large clean bowl, lightly greased with olive oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise for four hours. It should more than double in size

7. Remove from bowl, punch it down and briefly knead again before again placing it in the bowl sealing it with plastic wrap and let it rise again for another hour or two.

8. Again punch it down and form into a ball or log. This quantity of dough makes four pizzas, with the size depending on how thin you roll out the dough. I typically first divide the dough in half and refrigerate one half for future use and then divide the other half to be rolled out for two pizzas. I also have found making the dough the day before and refrigerating overnight seems to improve the texture but you can experiment with that.


The Pizza

Start heating the oven to at least 400 degrees or even 450 degrees. Professional pizza ovens go to 900 degrees

9. Rolling out the dough takes some patience because it behaves like a rubber band shrinking back to its original size. I like to shape it more like a rectangle than a circle because it better matches my pizza stones and paddle. I start by working it with my palm and fingers, again making sure the board is always floured or it will stick. As it begins to stretch out, I then use the rolling pin, working it consistently in all direction. The dough is not delicate so it's easy to turn over to continue rolling. I try to get it the size of the pizza peel or about 12 inches even though the recipe states it is for four 10 inch pizzas.

10 I roll out two pizzas before I begin to assemble them both so I can cook two at the same time. However If you can cook only one at a time in your oven, then don't assemble the second one until you are ready to put it in the oven. As soon as you assemble the sauce begins to soak into the dough and it can get messy if you allow it to sit too long.

11 Once you have the pizza rolled out, you can crimp the edge slightly if you want but there is no need to fuss over it. I then place the rolled out pizza on the pizza peel sprinkled with corn meal or coarse semolina flour to prevent from sticking when you transfer it to the oven. After much experimentation and disaster, I have found it very difficult to get the pizza on the peel after it is assembled.

12. Spread 4 or five table spoons of a basic marinara sauce. I go light on the sauce, just enough to coat the dough and give it taste. Then spread grated mozzarella ( about an inch thick square is enough for two pizzas but I usually go heavier) [ed. note - my father used a mixture of mozzarella, parmiggiano reggiano, and other cheeses, and the sauce was homemade]. Then add whatever other toppings you like. We usually make one all cheese and the other with pepperoni.

13 Now you are ready to transfer the pizza onto the baking stone heated to 450 degrees. Wearing protective gloves is a good idea. Position the paddle so that with a slight jerk forward and back the pizza slides off onto the stone.

14. After about 3 minutes I lower the temperature to 400 degrees. The cooking time is about 10 minutes but I just check the bottom of the pizza. It should be well browned even with some darker spots.

15. Removing the pizza with the pizza peel is fairly easy unless some cheese has boiled over an adhered to the stone. Prying it away with a large spatula or knife is all that is needed.

We had it with an inexpensive Zinfandel that was perfect for "homemade pizza on a Friday afternoon after getting off a plane in Detroit." It's a situation I know most of you face regularly, so I suggest you pick up a case.

A Sweet Saturday Night or "Today I Watched I, Robot"

I didn't really watch I, Robot today. I do own it, but I don't think it's very good. Go read the book, it's actually very good and has nothing to do with the movie, which was another movie entirely that they decided to slap the I, Robot name on. That's like three sentences without talking about food, isn't it?

So why do I bring up, I, Robot? Well, the beginning of the movie features a sweet potato pie, and I would argue the pie is the most interesting thing about that movie. Tonight I tried my hand at making a sweet potato pie for the first time. A few weeks ago we ordered from Ruthie's and had their amazing version, so I wanted to try it for myself.

If you've never had it, sweet potato pie is really similar in taste and texture to pumpkin pie, which everyone should love. Really, I mean come on - who doesn't love pumpkin pie? Sweet potato pie is just made with, you guessed it, sweet potatoes instead of pumpkins. Now, I don't know about you, but I live in Brooklyn, and there are a Hell of a lot more sweet potatoes for sale than there are pumpkins, so as much as I love pumpkin pie, I'm all about the SPP. That's what I'm calling it from now on: SPP. Sounds like a 90's rap song or something.

SPP

Say it with me.

Here's my recipe.

Ingredients

2 large sweet potatoes - note, in the US sweet potatoes and yams are often onterchanged with each other - in fact, they're completely different plants, but around here, when you buy one, you're pretty much getting a sweet potato.
1 stick of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
5 oz (1 small can) evaporated milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 9 inch frozen pie crusts - or just make them yourself, but I'm not nearly that sexy. I bet Jen would make them herself. I'm contractually obligated to note that my stepmother Pat would as well, and that they would be fantastic.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes about an inch and a half wide. Drop them in a pot of boiling water for about twenty minutes or until soft. I just pretended I was making mashed potatoes. You're going for about 2 cups worth of sweet potatoes. I ended up making way too much and having to throw some sweet potato away. It wasn't sweet. A little sad, really.

In a stand mixer (white people love these), combine the potatoes, butter, evaporated milk, and sugar and mix until blended. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, eggs, and vanilla and mix well.

Poor mixture into pie shells and bake at 350 for an hour. That's it, really. It seems so simple when you write it out, doesn't it?

I haven't actually tried these yet - they're sitting over there cooling. I hope they're good. I promise that if they suck I'll amend this post with "seriously, don't make these, they suck."

Stay tuned.

Oh, I'm also going to make some whipped cream for them, but I can't even bring myself to write out that recipe. Seriously, it's just heavy cream, a teaspoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla - whipped to Hell. One time at a dinner party I made the mistake of explaining that if I kept whipping, we'd end up with butter, so of course all the drunk people wanted to see me make butter.

We had a bowl of stupid butter in our fridge for six months.

Update!

So I brought one pie to a poker game and it went over well. You can rest assured this recipe will not kill your children.

Happy Valentine's Day - Stripper Pie

I hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day, whether you're in love with someone special or just wallowing in bitterness.

I don't have any good Valentine's Day-related recipes, but this recipe for Soda Cracker Pie is one of my favorite desserts to make, so I guess it counts. This stands to this day as our friend Liz's favorite thing I've ever made. it started out as a basic soda cracker pie recipe that my mother gave me, but I added a layer of reduces fruit that I rotate each time I make it - apples, strawberries, raspberries, whatever. It ended up getting called Stripper Pie, since I served it to a group of my neighbors one night after they'd all gone to a pole dancing class. Sometimes life is pretty cool.

Stripper Pie

Ingredients:

Pie

3 Egg whites
1/2 ts Baking powder
1 c Sugar
1/2 ts Vanilla
1 c Soda crackers (saltines) chopped into crumbs
1 c Chopped pecans

Fruit Layer (I'll use apples as an example, but you can use whatever you like)

4 Apples, cored and diced
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Sugar
1 tblsp Water

Whipped Cream

2 c Heavy Cream
1 tblsp Vanilla
1 tsp Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add the baking powder, then slowly beat in the sugar and add the vanilla. Mix in the crumbs and pecans slowly until everything's combined, then pour into a greased 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 30 minutes.

For the apples, place in a pot over low heat and add the cinnamon, sugar, and water. Stir frequently and cook for 30 minutes to an hour, as long as it takes to get the consistently you like. The longer you cook, the more mushy the apples will be.

For the whipped cream, add the vanilla and sugar to the heavy cream and beat until solid.

When the pie has cooled, spread the apples over the top. Add whipped cream before serving.

Comic from xkcd.com.

Fresh Pasta

Fresh pasta is awesome. Some may argue that high quality dried pasta is just as good, but those people are foolish and wrong. If you ever meet one of these people, just smile, nod, and back away slowly while you plan on having them over for a batch of the good stuff.

Most basic pasta recipes call for nothing more than eggs and all-purpose flour. I like to use a healthy amount of semolina flour as well, since it gives the pasta a bit more heft as well as adding some grit that makes the sauce really stick to it. My father prefers to use 100% semolina, but I like how the combination makes for a softer pasta, so that's what I stick with. As with anything, you should try it yourself and see what you like. I buy my semolina flour, along with other Italian staples like parmigiano reggiano, up at Arthur Ave in the Bronx. You can order a lot of stuff from there online, but if you're in the city and like Italian food, you really owe it to yourself to make the trip. It's the real Little Italy in New York, and the prices for this kind of stuff are amazing. Parmigiano reggiano aged 36 months is only $8 a pound, for instance.

Semolina Pasta

Ingredients:

2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

I like to use a stand mixer with a dough hook to get the mixture started, but you can just as easily begin by forming a well in a pile of flour and dropping the eggs in. If you do this, just get it started with your hands until it's a loose, crumbly mixture. If you're using a mixer, let it run on low for about thirty seconds to get to this point.

Start kneading the dough and you'll feel it begin to change. From a loose mixture to a sticky mass to something resembling coherent dough. You can't over-knead it, so just keep going. I knead it for about 10-15 minutes, and you'll feel it stop changing sometime before that. The dough should be smooth and look something like this:

Wrap the dough ball up in plastic wrap and let it sit for at least half an hour to settle. I try to make the dough early and let it sit until I'm ready to roll, cut, and cook it.

You don't need to use an automatic pasta roller and/or cutter, but I do just because it's a lot easier. My grandmother used nothing more than a knife and rolling pin. Since I was making spaghetti, I used an automatic cutter, but you can leave the pasta in sheets for lasagna or make ravioli or hand cut linguini - whatever you like.

For an automatic roller like I used, first cut the dough into managable pieces.

Next, roll each piece into a sheet. The roller has easy settings for different thicknesses, and it's important not to go to thin. With each piece, start the roller as wide as it will go and then decrease the thickness one step at a time, rolling the pasta through at each step. This makes for a nice, even sheet.

Send the sheets through the cutter and you're about done. Add to a pot of salted, boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes. Fresh pasta cooks much, much faster than dried pasta, so be careful not to cook it too long.

I made a batch of sauce to go along with the pasta, which is one of my favorite things to cook on a Sunday. Get it started around noon and let it simmer all day. Your house will smell fantastic and it will be perfect by the time you eat. This is my basic sauce recipe, but you can easily change it up and do whatever you like - add meat, vegetables, whatever. I like using the porcini and pancetta along with a lot of spices.

Brian's Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

2 28oz cans of whole peeled tomatoes - you can of course use fresh tomatoes, but I rarely take that extra step. In NY it's easy to find good importated Italian tomatoes, so that's what I use. When I made this out in Las Vegas once, it was difficult to find anything but Dole, but in NYC every little bodega has good ones.
1 6 oz can tomato paste - I use the Italian stuff, but I don't think it matters too much
1 thick slice of pancetta, diced
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 medium-large onion, diced
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
4 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tblsp butter
1 tsp sugar
Spices to taste - here's what I use:
4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oregano - fresh if available
2 tsp basil - fresh if available
1 tsp majoram
1 tsp sage - fresh if available, but a little fresh sage goes a really long way
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
4-6 bay leaves

Directions:

Soak the porcini in a small cup of warm water and set aside for about half an hour.

In a large pot, add the olive oil and butter over medium heat. When hot, add the onion and garlic. Stir until everything is well-coated and sautee until the onion is translucent.

Push the onion and garlic to one side of the pot and add the pancetta. Cook until lightly browned and stir everythign together. Create a hot spot in the pot and add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two. Stir everything together.

Lower the heat to very low and add the tomatoes and stir everything together. Add your spices, though save any fresh spices until 10-15 minutes before you're done.

That's pretty much it. Let this simmer all day, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the pot. I like to let it cook for at least 4 or 5 hours so the tomatoes break up on their own, but if you only have an hour or two you can break them up yourself with the back of the spoon. The longer you cook, the more water will steam off and the thicker the sauce will be. As with anything like this, it's even better the next day after sitting covered in the fridge.

I added some hot Italian sausage last night, which I love and is a bit easier than making meatballs. After I drain the pasta, I put it back in the pot and add a tablespoon of butter along with a tablespoon or two of sauce. Mixing that with the pasta gets the sauce to really stick to it when you add it on top. Throw on some pepper and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano and you're done.

I put an Italian batard I picked up at the Park Slope Key Food in the oven to warm it up, and that was that.

Winter Dinner Party

We had some friends over for dinner last night, so I got a chance to try some new recipes. When I started planning the menu this week, I knew I wanted to try something from the fantastic food blog, Last Night's Dinner. Jen does an amazing job both cooking and photographing her food - it's incredibly inspirational, and even more humbling.

To start, we had a basic antipasto platter with olives, some salami and dry sausage, and a few cheeses, including parmigiano reggiano and some fresh mozzarella.

The main course consisted of:

• Hunter's-Style Chicken
• Twice Baked Potatoes with garlic and duck fat
• Green beans with garlic and pancetta
• Italian-style Broccoli Rabe

The main course for my dinner was this Hunter's-Style Chicken I found on Jen's blog. I changed it up a little bit, using red pearl onions instead of cipollinis, which I couldn't find. In place of the polenta, I made some large croutons that were coated in duck fat and rosemary and then baked for about ten minutes.

Hunter’s-Style Chicken

1 chicken (about 3 lbs.), cut into quarters, or an equivalent amount of skin-on parts of your choice
3 large garlic peeled garlic cloves
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
Olive oil
1 cup dried porcini
1 cup hot tap water
12 small cipollini onions, peeled and trimmed
2 thick slices pancetta
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried oregano or marjoram
Several sprigs fresh thyme
Red chile flakes to taste

Arrange the chicken pieces on a platter and pat them dry. In a food processor or mini chopper, pulse the garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary, then add enough olive oil to form a thick paste. Rub the paste all over the chicken pieces and let them sit in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Place porcini in a bowl, cover with hot tap water and let them sit until the mushrooms are soft. Remove the mushrooms from the liquid and set aside. Strain the liquid to remove any grit and reserve.

Warm the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat and add the chicken pieces in batches, allowing them to brown on all sides. When the last chicken pieces have been browned, remove them to a platter, discard the oil and any burnt garlic from the pot and return it to the heat. Add the pancetta and let it render and brown for a few minutes. Add the onions and porcini and a pinch of salt. Make a hot spot on the side of the pan and add the tomato paste, allowing it to cook for a minute or two before stirring it through.

Add the wine and let it come to a boil, then reduce the heat and add the reserved porcini liquid, the tomatoes with their juice, the oregano or marjoram, the thyme sprigs and the chile flakes. Stir well, crushing the tomatoes with the back of a spoon, then return the chicken pieces to the pan along with any juices that have accumulated on the platter. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes or more, until the chicken is cooked through and very tender and the sauce is slightly thickened.

Serve chicken and sauce over soft polenta, garnishing with additional fresh rosemary or thyme if desired.

To go along with the chicken, I whipped up these amazing twice-baked potatoes. This was another idea from Last Night's Dinner, one that was made known to me when Jen commented on my steak night post and mentioned them. The key is the duck fat, which can be hard to find unless you've got a local butcher (something Clinton Hill really needs). I found mine at the Park Slope key food, after striking out at the Union Market on 6th.

What a Baked Potato
From Fergus Henderson’s “Beyond Nose to Tail”
Serves 4

4 large jacket potatoes
20 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
enough duck fat to cover the garlic
sea salt and black pepper

Bake the potatoes in a medium oven until soft to the squeeze. Meanwhile, put the garlic cloves into an ovenproof dish and cover with the duck fat. Cover the dish and put into a gentle to medium oven. Cook until the garlic is totally squishy, then remove from the oven and whiz the garlic and enough of the duck fat in a food processor to give a very loose paste.

Let the potatoes cool enough to handle, then cut them in half lengthways. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl and add the garlic and duck fat paste. Stir thoroughly. When they have combined forces, season and return to the hollow potato skins. Pop into a hot oven until golden brown.

The two vegetables were pretty simple recipes, the only really interesting bit being the pancetta in with the green beans.

Pancetta Green Beans

12 ounces green beans, trimmed

3 ounces pancetta,* coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon butter

Cook beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain. Transfer to bowl of ice water; cool 5 minutes. Drain. Transfer beans to paper towels and pat dry.

Heat large skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta and sauté until crisp, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Increase heat to medium-high. Add butter to same skillet. Add beans and stir until heated through, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in pancetta.

Sautéed Broccoli Rabe with Garlic & Olive Oil

2 bunches broccoli rabe
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 medium garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
freshly ground black pepper (optional)
sea salt, to taste

Boil several quarts of water to boiling. Remove any tough or damaged outer leaves of broccoli rabe. Peel the thick, lower stems from the broccoli rabe. Tear the broccoli rabe into large pieces. Clean the broccoli rabe in a large amount of cold water until all dirt is removed.

When water is boiling, place broccoli rabe pieces in colander and pour boiling water over them to scald. Drain the broccoli rabe well and set aside. Meanwhile, heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper. Sauté the garlic until browned. Be careful not to burn the garlic! Add the broccoli rabe to the pan and toss to coat with the garlic/pepper mixture and heat through, around 2–3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper, if desired.

For wine, Mick made a run to Gnarly Vines and asked them to pick out a few bottles for us. With the antipasto, we had a Les Grandes Vignes Cotes Du Rhone 2006.

With the main course we alternated two bottles, a Palmina Dolcetto 2005 and a Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso 2006. Both were very good, the dolcetto especially.

The chicken was probably my favorite part of the meal, and it's a recipe I'll definitely be making again. There was plenty of sauce left over as well, and I'll be using it on some pasta very soon.

Meatloaf!

Meatloaf can be awfully terrible. I know many people whose only real exposure to this staple is from cheap diners and bad home recipes that their mothers used. It's one of those dishes that's relatively easy to make poorly - not because it's tricky or anything, but because a basic meatloaf recipe can be bland and lifeless. If you think a meatloaf needs ketchup or A1 to be good, you've never had a good meatloaf.

My meatloaf recipe is, unsurprisingly, a bit on the spicy side, and uses a few traditional Italian ingredients like hot sausage and parmiggiano reggiano. I also use a lot of spices that would be right at home on a steak or prime rib. Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, parsley - all minor goodies that make for a fantastic loaf. This is one of those recipes, like risotto, that you can really easily play around and be creative with.

Last night I made a pretty fantastic loaf, along with some steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 425

1.5 lbs ground round (better than ground chuck because it's less fatty; there's enough fat already and you don't want the breadcrumbs to soak up too much of it. I tend to go leaner rather than more fatty for this reason - so if you have a choice between sirloin and chuck, go with the sirloin)
3 hot Italian sausages with the casing cut off
1/3 c freshly grated parmiggiano reggiano
1 c bread crumbs
2 tsp kosher salt
4 minced garlic cloves
1 c minced onion (about half a medium onion)
2 tbsp minced parsley (fresh works best)
1 tsp crushed rosemary
2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
...basically add whatever spices you like. I like steak and prime rib seasoning, sometimes some Cajun, etc.
1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
3-4 eggs, lightly beaten (I use 3 if they're large or jumbo eggs, 4 if they're smaller)

Combine everything in a big bowl and mash it up with your hands until it's all combined. It takes a couple of minutes and is delightfully slimy.

Put the meat in to a loaf pan lined with aluminum foil that's been greased with olive oil or Pam.

Bake for 30 minutes and then turn down the temperature to 350 and cook for 30 minutes more. Sometimes I end up with a larger loaf that needs more time - just use a meet thermometer and cook until the center reads 160 or so.

...and that's it. It's really simple and absolutely fantastic. This same recipe can be used to make some killer burger patties. Amaze your friends at your next BBQ!

I steamed up some broccoli and made mashed potatoes and brown gravy as well.

We paired it with a wonderful suggestion from Brian at Gnarly Vines, a Vina Borgia Campo de Borja 2006. It's a super-inexpensive wine that after one bottle is one of my new favorite table wines. Rather simple and easy, but spicy enough to be interesting.

Fried Pork Chops with Pan-Roasted Tomatoes

This is a recipe that Mickey really, really likes to make. If she's cooking, there's a 35% chance that this is what she's making. I think she got the originaly recipe out of Real Simple, but it may have evolved a bit over the years.

Recipe:

Pork Cutlets with Pan- Roasted Tomatoes

1-1.5 Lbs. of pork
chops, cutlets, or loin sliced ¼-1 inch thick depending on preference
½ cup
flour
½ - 1 cup bread crumbs (plain)
¼-1/2 chopped fresh parsley
Oil
(olive)
Kosher Salt
Pepper
2 Eggs
8 plum tomatoes
2-4 tbs.
balsamic vinegar
Dried Rosemary
1-1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

Heat skillet on medium heat. Line pan with oil to coat. Add additional oil as needed to cook cutlets.

Mix parsley and breadcrumbs in shallow bowl. Put flour in a 2nd shallow bowl. Beat 2 eggs in 3rd shallow bowl. Coat pork cutlet in flour, then dip both sides in egg mixture. Coat pork cutlet in parsley and breadcrumb mixture. Cook in batches in skillet until golden brown on both sides or until cooked thoroughly. Set aside.

Cut tomatoes into wedges. Optional: add any other additional vegetables you like (she likes mushrooms). Add to hot skillet with additional oil, kosher salt, rosemary to taste and pepper. Add 2-4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.

Cook until vegetables are at desired tenderness. Please note the longer you cook the vinegar the sweeter it becomes - it can over power the dish, so keep an eye on it.

Place cooked cutlets back in skillet to heat. Serve immediately.

It's really pretty easy and always comes out well. We had it last night along with some dinner rolls and spinach greens with croutons.

Here's a picture of Riley trying somewhat successfully to sleep in a bed made for a cat.

Weekday Basic Risotto

Having some free time tonight for the first time in a while, I decided to make a batch of tomato sauce. Once I got everything out, I decided that in fact I had no interest at all in making tomato sauce. It usually takes four or five hours when I make it, and I didn't want to be up until midnight just to not eat anything before I went to bed.

Instead, I decided to make risotto, which I don't make nearly enough because Mickey is a curmudgeon and doesn't like it. That doesn't offend me - she doesn't like any risotto, not just mine - but it does mean I don't make it all that often. Tonight would be different!

My recipe is a pretty basic one that I got from my father who in turn got it from his mother. The only remotely exotic ingredient it calls for is porcini mushrooms, which I imagine you can find in any store that sells specialty ingredients. I bet Garden of Eden or Fairway around here has some, but I tend to get mine, along with things like parmigiano reggiano and semolina flour, up at Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Anyway, on to the risotto recipe!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced
7 tablespoons of butter - hell, basically a stick
A few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of arborio fine rice. You can use a little more if you want to make more - this will make 2-4 servings
About 30 oz chicken stock - this is about two of the regular-sized cans if you're buying broth
1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.
A handful of dried porcini mushrooms
Directions:

Place the mushrooms in about a cup of water and soak for 20-30 minutes prior to starting. I usually do this first and just let them soak while I get everything ready and dice the onion. Some people don't like the large bits of mushroom so they dice it up first, but I don't mind it and I just keep it as is.

In a small pot, start heating the chicken broth. Just set it to a low heat and forget about it for a while.

In a large pot, heat up the olive oil and about 3 tablespoons of butter. Add the onion and sautée until translucent. This is how 90% of Italian recipes seem to start. You can add a little dry white wine if you like.

When the onion is ready, add the rice and stir it up well so that it's all coated with butter and oil.

Add the mushrooms, including the water it was soaking in. Stir everything up and add a ladle-full of chicken broth.

Now comes the somewhat-tricky-but-not-really part of making risotto. You're going to slowly add broth and stir until the rice soaks it all up. It takes a few minutes for each ladle, and you want to keep the risotto cooking at a low enough heat that it's just barely beginning to boil. Stir, stir, stir, making sure nothing's sticking to the pot. Keep slowly adding broth and stirring until it's absorbed. Most, if not all, of the broth should be gone in about 20 minutes.

Towards the end, start testing the rice to see if it's al dente. You don't want it to be completely done, but just about.

Once it's ready, put in the rest of the butter (about half a stick) and half of the cup of cheese and start stirring to combine it all.

Spoon on to plates or bowls and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan.

Football Dip