My take on a Tex-Mex tradition. This version is designed for brunch, specifically, thus the sausage-and-eggs combo, which I'm pretty sure isn't in the normal version. I don't really care if I'm mucking about with the usual way of doing things, though; this one tasted great, and that's what I cared about!
Huevos Rancheros
4 large corn tortillas (or alternately, 1 large bag tortilla chips)
8 eggs
1/3 cup cream
2 tbsp chopped dill
1 lb loose turkey sausage
1 1/2 cups pepperjack cheese, grated
2 tomatoes, cubed
1 can black beans
(Optional) Jalepeno pepper slices
1 recipe of Salsamole
Sour cream
Olive oil
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk in the cream and the dill until reasonably homogenous. Add salt and pepper to taste. Scramble the cream-and-egg mixture over medium heat until the eggs are light and fluffy. Remove from heat and store someplace warm for a moment.
Warm the beans in a simmering pot. While the beans heat up, add a dash of olive oil to a saucepan and cook the sausage over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper the sausage appropriately. Drain the beans.
Assemble the huevos rancheros immediately prior to serving. In a large saucepan, melt a pat of butter over medium-high until faintly browned, then toss in a tortilla on top and shift the pan from side to side a few times to encourage the butter to brown as much of the tortilla bottom as possible. Once the tortilla has had a moment to toast, add about 1/4 of the eggs, sausage, tomatoes, and beans on top. Cook for 3-4 minutes just until the whole thing is warmed through, then slide the huevos out of the saucepan and onto an oven-proof plate with one smooth motion. If you do this correctly, the toppings should barely even be disturbed. Top the whole thing off with a generous handful of cheese, a drizzle of salsamole, and a few of the jalepeno slices if you like those. Place under a broiler in an open oven, and broil until cheese is melted and slightly toasted. Serve immediately, with sour cream and extra salsamole on the side.
Servings: 4-6
Showing posts with label pasta dishes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta dishes. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Low-cal Spaghetti Bolognese
I've been cutting back on calories lately, which has affected my cooking output. I've been making a lot of ultra low-cal food in fairly large batches, which means I don't get to try new things as often as I might like.
Part of eating low-cal, for me at least, has been finding ways to adapt my kitchen staples to my desire to eat healthier. This recipe is good example. It was actually born out of thrift rather than a need to cut calories. I was shopping for the stuff to make spaghetti sauce, since I was having my nephews over and I know spaghetti is something they'll eat (they're very picky). Ground beef has been getting so expensive lately, though, and on that day it was over $3.50 for the low-fat kind, for less than a pound of meat! Ridiculous. I noticed, though, that the ground turkey was $2.75 for a pound and a quarter, and I remembered those fabulous turkey meatballs I discovered a few months ago. Clearly the gods intended for me to use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
Thus this recipe, which combines some stuff I had laying around in my pantry and fridge with the turkey to produce a spaghetti sauce that would make my mother proud. It doesn't give up an ounce of taste to my usual spaghetti recipe, but it gives up about 300 calories. And that's enough for a guiltless cookie after dinner! Practical cooking at its best.
Low-cal Spaghetti Bolognese
1.25 lbs ground turkey
1/2 medium sweet onion (or 1/4 of a large one), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
Chicken stock (or veggie, or even beef, whichever floats your boat)
7-8ish mushrooms, sliced
2 stalks fresh oregano, chopped
1 stalk fresh rosemary, chopped
Pepper
I do this whole recipe in an electric frying pan, and it turns out to be the only thing I have to wash. You could probably do it in a large saucepan over a stovetop just as easily though. Just make sure the saucepan has a lid or something to cover it, so that it doesn't lose too much moisture while it simmers.
Start by dumping the ground turkey into the frying pan, and turning it on to 300F. Let the turkey get a pretty decent start on cooking, and use a spatula to stir it around and break it up into bite-sized chunks as it cooks. You can dice your onion and mince your garlic while this is going on, just keep an eye on the turkey as you do to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. When the turkey starts to render what little fat it contains, dump in your diced onions and garlic. Stir the onions and the meat around while the meat finishes cooking and the onion softens to translucent. It should smell really good.
When the meat is done all the way through and the onion is translucent, dump in the whole can of stewed tomatoes, juices and all. Use your spatula to chop the tomatoes up into smallish pieces (they come whole in the can, and you want them to be bite-sized). Don't trash the can that the tomatoes came in, instead fill it half up with whatever stock you're using and add that to the mix. Next dump in the can of tomato paste, and stir the whole thing around for a few minutes. The tomato paste should initially be very thick in an otherwise watery mixture, but as you stir, it should combine more thoroughly to form a still-slightly-watery mixture. Cover this, turn the pan down to a simmer, and let it sit for a minute while you wash and slice your mushrooms, and chop your spices. Just dump those into the pan as soon as you get them done, so the mushrooms can begin to soften and the spices can start to assimilate more harmoniously into the mix. Stir everything once more to make sure the spices are evenly distributed.
Taste the mixture when you've added everything, and season with pepper as appropriate. It shouldn't need salt (at least, I don't think it does), which keeps it fairly low-sodium as well. Re-cover your pan and let it simmer for between 30 and 45 minutes. Towards the end of the simmering period, dump some pasta into a pot of salted boiling water so you'll have something to put the sauce on. Ten minutes before you intend to eat it, check the sauce. It should have thickened up, but if it's still a little watery you can leave the lid off the pan for the last ten minutes of simmering, which should bring the texture up to par.
Serve hot on top of pasta. Whole wheat pasta goes especially well with this, since it continues the healthy theme and tastes better than refined-flour pasta anyway.
Servings: 6-8, or as many as 10 if you're me and don't eat much per serving.
Part of eating low-cal, for me at least, has been finding ways to adapt my kitchen staples to my desire to eat healthier. This recipe is good example. It was actually born out of thrift rather than a need to cut calories. I was shopping for the stuff to make spaghetti sauce, since I was having my nephews over and I know spaghetti is something they'll eat (they're very picky). Ground beef has been getting so expensive lately, though, and on that day it was over $3.50 for the low-fat kind, for less than a pound of meat! Ridiculous. I noticed, though, that the ground turkey was $2.75 for a pound and a quarter, and I remembered those fabulous turkey meatballs I discovered a few months ago. Clearly the gods intended for me to use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
Thus this recipe, which combines some stuff I had laying around in my pantry and fridge with the turkey to produce a spaghetti sauce that would make my mother proud. It doesn't give up an ounce of taste to my usual spaghetti recipe, but it gives up about 300 calories. And that's enough for a guiltless cookie after dinner! Practical cooking at its best.
Low-cal Spaghetti Bolognese
1.25 lbs ground turkey
1/2 medium sweet onion (or 1/4 of a large one), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
Chicken stock (or veggie, or even beef, whichever floats your boat)
7-8ish mushrooms, sliced
2 stalks fresh oregano, chopped
1 stalk fresh rosemary, chopped
Pepper
I do this whole recipe in an electric frying pan, and it turns out to be the only thing I have to wash. You could probably do it in a large saucepan over a stovetop just as easily though. Just make sure the saucepan has a lid or something to cover it, so that it doesn't lose too much moisture while it simmers.
Start by dumping the ground turkey into the frying pan, and turning it on to 300F. Let the turkey get a pretty decent start on cooking, and use a spatula to stir it around and break it up into bite-sized chunks as it cooks. You can dice your onion and mince your garlic while this is going on, just keep an eye on the turkey as you do to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. When the turkey starts to render what little fat it contains, dump in your diced onions and garlic. Stir the onions and the meat around while the meat finishes cooking and the onion softens to translucent. It should smell really good.
When the meat is done all the way through and the onion is translucent, dump in the whole can of stewed tomatoes, juices and all. Use your spatula to chop the tomatoes up into smallish pieces (they come whole in the can, and you want them to be bite-sized). Don't trash the can that the tomatoes came in, instead fill it half up with whatever stock you're using and add that to the mix. Next dump in the can of tomato paste, and stir the whole thing around for a few minutes. The tomato paste should initially be very thick in an otherwise watery mixture, but as you stir, it should combine more thoroughly to form a still-slightly-watery mixture. Cover this, turn the pan down to a simmer, and let it sit for a minute while you wash and slice your mushrooms, and chop your spices. Just dump those into the pan as soon as you get them done, so the mushrooms can begin to soften and the spices can start to assimilate more harmoniously into the mix. Stir everything once more to make sure the spices are evenly distributed.
Taste the mixture when you've added everything, and season with pepper as appropriate. It shouldn't need salt (at least, I don't think it does), which keeps it fairly low-sodium as well. Re-cover your pan and let it simmer for between 30 and 45 minutes. Towards the end of the simmering period, dump some pasta into a pot of salted boiling water so you'll have something to put the sauce on. Ten minutes before you intend to eat it, check the sauce. It should have thickened up, but if it's still a little watery you can leave the lid off the pan for the last ten minutes of simmering, which should bring the texture up to par.
Serve hot on top of pasta. Whole wheat pasta goes especially well with this, since it continues the healthy theme and tastes better than refined-flour pasta anyway.
Servings: 6-8, or as many as 10 if you're me and don't eat much per serving.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Meat and Mushrooms
This is a good way to dress up cheap meat cuts. It's another of those recipes that came together when I discovered a few ingredients in my kitchen, and needed a way to use them. In this case, I had a package of cube steak in my freezer, and some mushrooms in the crisper that needed to be eaten before too many more days passed. Sounded like the perfect start to a meal. Add pasta, onion, garlic, some herbs, and a nice sauce, and viola, supper.
This doesn't take as long as I thought it might, so it's not bad for weeknights, but it's nice enough that I would serve it to company without blinking twice. It's also pretty forgiving: you could probably use just about any cut of beef and it would work fine. I would recommend hamburger steaks if that's what you've got on hand, or you could dress it up by using one of the nicer cuts. I bet you could even use NY strips and melt some provolone over the top for a neat date night meal that wouldn't require much stress.
Steak and Mushrooms
1/2 lb pasta (it doesn't really matter what pasta you use here. I used vermicelli, but to each her own)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb cube steak (Or whatever beef cut you've got on hand. This would probably even work with chicken.)
1/2 vidalia onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lb (8 oz) mushrooms
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock plus 1 tbsp beef stock, separate
1 tsp cornstarch
Optional: fresh-cut rosemary and thyme
Salt
Pepper
Begin boiling water for the pasta. When the water boils, add a dash of salt and the pasta to it. Keep and eye on this while you're doing the other things, and drain the pasta when it's cooked to al dente.
Start by cooking the meat as appropriate for whatever cut you're using. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides. Pour in 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, and lay your cube steaks in a pan over medium-high heat. Turn after 3-4 minutes, and cook the other side until they're done. If you're not using cube steaks, cook whatever meat you're using until it's appropriately done. Remove the meat from the pan to a plate, and let it sit for a while to absorb its own juices.
While the meat is cooking, dice the onion and mince the garlic. Wash the mushrooms, and slice them into 1/4 inch thick slices. When the meat has been removed from the pan, add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is lightly browned. If you need more olive oil to keep the onion from sticking, add more, but be sparing. You probably won't need the whole 3 tbsp I've allotted. You may need to turn the heat down a little to keep things from cooking too quickly here, you want this to go slowly enough that the mushrooms will have time to saute before the onions caramelize to a pulp.
When the onion is slightly browned and the garlic has begun to turn translucent, add the mushrooms and let the whole thing cook for a while. When the mushrooms have sauted themselves soft, add the balsamic vinegar and let that cook for a minute or so to get the strong vinegary taste out. Then add the worchestershire sauce, and 1/2 cup of the beef stock. Stir, and let the whole thing simmer. If you're using the rosemary and thyme, chop those finely and add them now. Add the meat back into the pan with the sauce, as well as any juices that might have seeped out as the meat was settling, so that the meat can start to absorb some of the flavour of the sauce.
In a separate cup, mix the remaining tbsp of beef stock and the tsp of corstarch together, then add those to the pan with the mushroom mixture. Let the sauce simmer for another 3 minutes or so, to mix everything together and give the starch a chance to thicken it a little. Taste it, and add salt and pepper as appropriate. Serve over the pasta.
Servings: 4-6
This doesn't take as long as I thought it might, so it's not bad for weeknights, but it's nice enough that I would serve it to company without blinking twice. It's also pretty forgiving: you could probably use just about any cut of beef and it would work fine. I would recommend hamburger steaks if that's what you've got on hand, or you could dress it up by using one of the nicer cuts. I bet you could even use NY strips and melt some provolone over the top for a neat date night meal that wouldn't require much stress.
Steak and Mushrooms
1/2 lb pasta (it doesn't really matter what pasta you use here. I used vermicelli, but to each her own)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb cube steak (Or whatever beef cut you've got on hand. This would probably even work with chicken.)
1/2 vidalia onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lb (8 oz) mushrooms
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock plus 1 tbsp beef stock, separate
1 tsp cornstarch
Optional: fresh-cut rosemary and thyme
Salt
Pepper
Begin boiling water for the pasta. When the water boils, add a dash of salt and the pasta to it. Keep and eye on this while you're doing the other things, and drain the pasta when it's cooked to al dente.
Start by cooking the meat as appropriate for whatever cut you're using. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides. Pour in 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, and lay your cube steaks in a pan over medium-high heat. Turn after 3-4 minutes, and cook the other side until they're done. If you're not using cube steaks, cook whatever meat you're using until it's appropriately done. Remove the meat from the pan to a plate, and let it sit for a while to absorb its own juices.
While the meat is cooking, dice the onion and mince the garlic. Wash the mushrooms, and slice them into 1/4 inch thick slices. When the meat has been removed from the pan, add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is lightly browned. If you need more olive oil to keep the onion from sticking, add more, but be sparing. You probably won't need the whole 3 tbsp I've allotted. You may need to turn the heat down a little to keep things from cooking too quickly here, you want this to go slowly enough that the mushrooms will have time to saute before the onions caramelize to a pulp.
When the onion is slightly browned and the garlic has begun to turn translucent, add the mushrooms and let the whole thing cook for a while. When the mushrooms have sauted themselves soft, add the balsamic vinegar and let that cook for a minute or so to get the strong vinegary taste out. Then add the worchestershire sauce, and 1/2 cup of the beef stock. Stir, and let the whole thing simmer. If you're using the rosemary and thyme, chop those finely and add them now. Add the meat back into the pan with the sauce, as well as any juices that might have seeped out as the meat was settling, so that the meat can start to absorb some of the flavour of the sauce.
In a separate cup, mix the remaining tbsp of beef stock and the tsp of corstarch together, then add those to the pan with the mushroom mixture. Let the sauce simmer for another 3 minutes or so, to mix everything together and give the starch a chance to thicken it a little. Taste it, and add salt and pepper as appropriate. Serve over the pasta.
Servings: 4-6
Friday, July 11, 2008
Artichoke Pasta Florentine
Florentine. Doesn't it sound sophisticated? As though maybe it's the sort of pasta one would eat in cathedrals, while making erudite comments about frescoes. It doesn't sound at all like a dish that you could throw together in fifteen minutes on a weeknight, when you've only got half an hour to eat in between a job and a class.
This is about as simple as it gets, but it will fill you up, it's ridiculously cheap, and it's fast. In short, this is the kind of dinner that you eat when fancy roasts have come and gone, when soups and braises are too time-consuming, and when all you need is food that isn't going to demand any thought. Plus, it tastes good, and is reasonably healthy. I say it's a win all around.
Artichoke Pasta Florentine
1/4 lb short-cut pasta (I like penne rigate)
1/8 lb spinach (my grocery sells 1/4 bags, so I just use half a bag)
1 can of tinned artichoke hearts, drained (get the kind tinned in water if you can, I find they saute better)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Salt
Parmesan (I like shaved, but if grated is all you can get, go for that)
Begin by bringing a pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and salt the water, then let it boil for 10 minutes or so.
While your water is boiling, chop your artichoke hearts into quarters or eights. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat and drop in the artichokes. Cook them for 5-7 minutes, until they acquire a lovely golden-brown sear on their bottom side (you can turn them if they sear too quickly. Both sides seared tastes better anyway, so go for it). They should smell really good during this process, all buttery and rich. When the artichokes are lovely and golden, dump in the spinach and remove the saucepan from the heat. The pasta should be about done by this point, so drain the pasta while the spinach wilts. Dump the pasta into the saucepan and stir everything together to mix it thoroughly. Sprinkle the whole thing generously with shaved parmesan (seriously, be generous with the cheese!). Stir again, to let the cheese get mixed in and melted around the pasta. Serve immediately, while the cheese is still stringy.
Servings: 4-6
This is about as simple as it gets, but it will fill you up, it's ridiculously cheap, and it's fast. In short, this is the kind of dinner that you eat when fancy roasts have come and gone, when soups and braises are too time-consuming, and when all you need is food that isn't going to demand any thought. Plus, it tastes good, and is reasonably healthy. I say it's a win all around.
Artichoke Pasta Florentine
1/4 lb short-cut pasta (I like penne rigate)
1/8 lb spinach (my grocery sells 1/4 bags, so I just use half a bag)
1 can of tinned artichoke hearts, drained (get the kind tinned in water if you can, I find they saute better)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Salt
Parmesan (I like shaved, but if grated is all you can get, go for that)
Begin by bringing a pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and salt the water, then let it boil for 10 minutes or so.
While your water is boiling, chop your artichoke hearts into quarters or eights. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat and drop in the artichokes. Cook them for 5-7 minutes, until they acquire a lovely golden-brown sear on their bottom side (you can turn them if they sear too quickly. Both sides seared tastes better anyway, so go for it). They should smell really good during this process, all buttery and rich. When the artichokes are lovely and golden, dump in the spinach and remove the saucepan from the heat. The pasta should be about done by this point, so drain the pasta while the spinach wilts. Dump the pasta into the saucepan and stir everything together to mix it thoroughly. Sprinkle the whole thing generously with shaved parmesan (seriously, be generous with the cheese!). Stir again, to let the cheese get mixed in and melted around the pasta. Serve immediately, while the cheese is still stringy.
Servings: 4-6
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Shrimp, Squash, and Asparagus Linguine
This is a quick dish that I made last week when I was at a loss for dinner ideas. It turned out really good, so I thought I'd jot it down for future reference.
Now, I don't usually cook with shrimp. Especially recently, when all food seems expensive, but meats and particularly seafood seem very expensive. But for this one I forgive myself. A pound of cooked medium cocktail shrimp was $13, but that will stretch for at least three meals, and I comfort myself with the knowledge that this will give me something a little special in my repertoire for the next few weeks at less than $4.50 a meal, which seems more reasonable.
This recipe was also a good excuse for me to use a new birthday present: a mandoline. This is basically an inclined plane with a blade embedded in it, which you can adjust to make various thicknesses of slice. You just slide your veggie (or item-to-be-sliced) across it, and it very quickly renders thin, perfectly uniform slices. I love it. It's no substitute for real skill with a knife, of course, but in cases where you need things thin and fast, it's perfect.
This pasta was very good, by the way. I'm a big linguine fan, I like it better than spaghetti, and this is a simple way to really let the fresh summer vegetables that are just coming into season shine. Despite the presence of the shrimp, it's the asparagus and squash that really make this dish, and a simple cream sauce sets them all off perfectly. This tastes like something you'd pay a good bit for at a restaurant, but it comes together in about 20 minutes, and the hardest thing about it is making sure the pasta is al dente. Perfect for those nights when you want to cook, but don't need a huge production in the kitchen.
Shrimp, Squash, and Asparagus Linguine
1/3 lb linguine (whole grain is good if you can find it)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 scallion
1/2 bunch slender green asparagus, washed with tough ends snapped off
2 medium squash, washed
2 cloves garlic
1/3 lb shrimp (I used 1/3 of a frozen bag of already-cooked, but you could use fresh if you wanted)
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped chives
Salt
Pepper
Start by putting water on to boil for the pasta. Toss a palmful of salt in there with it to season the pasta, and add noodles when it starts to boil.
While your pasta is doing you thing, slice the veggies. I used my new mandoline on the squash, which made the slicing fun and novel, but a knife would be fine. Just go for thin slices. Slice the asparagus into bite-sized pieces. If you're using frozen shrimp, run water over them for a few minutes to defrost them, and remove the tails. Dice the garlic finely. Slice the scallion thinly.
In a large saute pan, pour in the olive oil and add the squash. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the squash cook over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the garlic and scallion. Let that cook another 2 or three minutes, until the scallion is starting to turn translucent. The squash should be starting to get soft by this point. Add a little more olive oil if you need to so that nothing sticks. Add the shrimp and asparagus. Let that cook for another 2-3 minutes. The asparagus should be just starting to get bright green and a little softer, and the shrimp should be heated through.
By this point, the pasta should be done. Dump 1/2 cup or so of the pasta water into the saute pan with your veggies and shrimp, then drain the rest of the pasta and add it to the saute pan while it's still hot. Add the cream and the chives. Stir it all around a little, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer, stirring so that the cream doesn't stick, until the sauce thickens up appropriately. If you want to speed that process along, add a few pinches of cornstarch to the sauce, and stir vigorously to incorporate it. When it's been simmering for about 5 minutes, you should see the sauce really start to stick to the pasta, and it's done. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to season to taste. Remove from heat, and serve immediately.
Servings: 4
Now, I don't usually cook with shrimp. Especially recently, when all food seems expensive, but meats and particularly seafood seem very expensive. But for this one I forgive myself. A pound of cooked medium cocktail shrimp was $13, but that will stretch for at least three meals, and I comfort myself with the knowledge that this will give me something a little special in my repertoire for the next few weeks at less than $4.50 a meal, which seems more reasonable.
This recipe was also a good excuse for me to use a new birthday present: a mandoline. This is basically an inclined plane with a blade embedded in it, which you can adjust to make various thicknesses of slice. You just slide your veggie (or item-to-be-sliced) across it, and it very quickly renders thin, perfectly uniform slices. I love it. It's no substitute for real skill with a knife, of course, but in cases where you need things thin and fast, it's perfect.
This pasta was very good, by the way. I'm a big linguine fan, I like it better than spaghetti, and this is a simple way to really let the fresh summer vegetables that are just coming into season shine. Despite the presence of the shrimp, it's the asparagus and squash that really make this dish, and a simple cream sauce sets them all off perfectly. This tastes like something you'd pay a good bit for at a restaurant, but it comes together in about 20 minutes, and the hardest thing about it is making sure the pasta is al dente. Perfect for those nights when you want to cook, but don't need a huge production in the kitchen.
Shrimp, Squash, and Asparagus Linguine
1/3 lb linguine (whole grain is good if you can find it)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 scallion
1/2 bunch slender green asparagus, washed with tough ends snapped off
2 medium squash, washed
2 cloves garlic
1/3 lb shrimp (I used 1/3 of a frozen bag of already-cooked, but you could use fresh if you wanted)
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped chives
Salt
Pepper
Start by putting water on to boil for the pasta. Toss a palmful of salt in there with it to season the pasta, and add noodles when it starts to boil.
While your pasta is doing you thing, slice the veggies. I used my new mandoline on the squash, which made the slicing fun and novel, but a knife would be fine. Just go for thin slices. Slice the asparagus into bite-sized pieces. If you're using frozen shrimp, run water over them for a few minutes to defrost them, and remove the tails. Dice the garlic finely. Slice the scallion thinly.
In a large saute pan, pour in the olive oil and add the squash. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the squash cook over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the garlic and scallion. Let that cook another 2 or three minutes, until the scallion is starting to turn translucent. The squash should be starting to get soft by this point. Add a little more olive oil if you need to so that nothing sticks. Add the shrimp and asparagus. Let that cook for another 2-3 minutes. The asparagus should be just starting to get bright green and a little softer, and the shrimp should be heated through.
By this point, the pasta should be done. Dump 1/2 cup or so of the pasta water into the saute pan with your veggies and shrimp, then drain the rest of the pasta and add it to the saute pan while it's still hot. Add the cream and the chives. Stir it all around a little, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer, stirring so that the cream doesn't stick, until the sauce thickens up appropriately. If you want to speed that process along, add a few pinches of cornstarch to the sauce, and stir vigorously to incorporate it. When it's been simmering for about 5 minutes, you should see the sauce really start to stick to the pasta, and it's done. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to season to taste. Remove from heat, and serve immediately.
Servings: 4
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tomato-Egg Florentine Casserole
This is a pretty simple dish that tastes like comfort food to me, and uses stuff I almost always have on hand. The recipe is a liberal adaptation of one I got from Orangette here, and which she credits as her take on a recipe published in the Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen. The Splendid Table recipe, in turn, was adapted from a recipe by the great Jacques Pepin in his home cook's staple, Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way. So this little dish took a convoluted route to my table. It's sort of like playing Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon with food. I'd like to see the original Pepin recipe now, since I'm betting my version in no way resembles his with this many sources between us.
Strange pedigree aside, the dish tastes good, and that's what's important, right? It works in a 'great tastes that go together great' kind of way. The classic Florentine combination of pasta, tomato, and spinach gets a pick-me-up from the flavour of egg and a crust of Gruyere. I haven't tried it this way yet, but I'd bet you could throw some gently sauted artichoke hearts in here too and it would be delicious. It's a forgiving kind of dish like that. Or, if you don't have the spinach, leave that out and it still works. That's how comfort food goes: it's for those days when the last thing you need is something going wrong in the kitchen.
Tomato-Egg Florentine Casserole
5 large eggs
2 handfuls (1-1 1/2 cups) short-cut pasta. I like rotini, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're not using spaghetti or something long like that.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, roughly diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp dried thyme (don't get the fresh stuff, the spice-rack version works great)
1 14 oz can whole tomatoes, undrained
1/8 lb spinach (or half of the 1/4 bags my grocery carries)
1 cup grated gruyere
Salt
Pepper
Begin by putting the raw eggs in a pot, running enough water in the pot to cover them, then sitting them over medium-high heat until the water boils. When it boils, set a timer for 9 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and carefully drain the hot water out. Run cold water over the eggs, drain that, run more cold water over the eggs, and throw in a handful of ice chips to cool the water further. Let the eggs sit there and cool while you work on the rest of the recipe.
While the eggs are coming to a boil, put another pot on to boil with water for the pasta. Salt the water, and when it boils (this should be approximately the same time as the eggs coming to boil) add the pasta. Cook the pasta for about five minutes, then drain it. You want the pasta slightly underdone, since it will absorb some juice when you bake the whole casserole.
While the pasta and eggs are cooking, set the oven to preheat to 400F.
Add the onions and olive oil to a large sauce pan, and cook over medium heat until the onions turn soft and translucent. Add the garlic and let that saute for about two minutes (I usually take the eggs and pasta off during this stage), then add the tomatoes and their juices. Use the side of your spatula or a wooden spoon to break apart the tomatoes into manageable pieces, and simmer the tomato-onion mixture for another two minutes. Add the thyme, and taste the mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the whole tomato mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Gently fold in the spinach (you may need to do this in handfuls since the spinach takes up a lot of space before it wilts.
Now it's time to assemble the casserole. You should have the tomato-onion-spinach mixture, the cooled eggs, and the drained pasta. Grab the dish that you'll be using to bake the casserole. I use a souffle dish with tall sides, but a shorter and wider square casserole dish would probably work just as well. Slice the eggs into quarter wedges, and place them in the bottom of the dish. Pour the pasta into the same pan as the tomato-spinach mixture, and stir briefly to mix that all up. Pour the tomato-spinach-pasta mix over the eggs. On top of everything, sprinkle your cheese. I like to be generous with the cheese, and usually use more than the cup I've called for here.
Once the casserole is assembled, stick it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Next, crack the oven door and turn on the broiler on high for 4 minutes, to put a nice crust on the cheese. Serve immediately.
Servings: 6-8
Strange pedigree aside, the dish tastes good, and that's what's important, right? It works in a 'great tastes that go together great' kind of way. The classic Florentine combination of pasta, tomato, and spinach gets a pick-me-up from the flavour of egg and a crust of Gruyere. I haven't tried it this way yet, but I'd bet you could throw some gently sauted artichoke hearts in here too and it would be delicious. It's a forgiving kind of dish like that. Or, if you don't have the spinach, leave that out and it still works. That's how comfort food goes: it's for those days when the last thing you need is something going wrong in the kitchen.
Tomato-Egg Florentine Casserole
5 large eggs
2 handfuls (1-1 1/2 cups) short-cut pasta. I like rotini, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're not using spaghetti or something long like that.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, roughly diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp dried thyme (don't get the fresh stuff, the spice-rack version works great)
1 14 oz can whole tomatoes, undrained
1/8 lb spinach (or half of the 1/4 bags my grocery carries)
1 cup grated gruyere
Salt
Pepper
Begin by putting the raw eggs in a pot, running enough water in the pot to cover them, then sitting them over medium-high heat until the water boils. When it boils, set a timer for 9 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and carefully drain the hot water out. Run cold water over the eggs, drain that, run more cold water over the eggs, and throw in a handful of ice chips to cool the water further. Let the eggs sit there and cool while you work on the rest of the recipe.
While the eggs are coming to a boil, put another pot on to boil with water for the pasta. Salt the water, and when it boils (this should be approximately the same time as the eggs coming to boil) add the pasta. Cook the pasta for about five minutes, then drain it. You want the pasta slightly underdone, since it will absorb some juice when you bake the whole casserole.
While the pasta and eggs are cooking, set the oven to preheat to 400F.
Add the onions and olive oil to a large sauce pan, and cook over medium heat until the onions turn soft and translucent. Add the garlic and let that saute for about two minutes (I usually take the eggs and pasta off during this stage), then add the tomatoes and their juices. Use the side of your spatula or a wooden spoon to break apart the tomatoes into manageable pieces, and simmer the tomato-onion mixture for another two minutes. Add the thyme, and taste the mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the whole tomato mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Gently fold in the spinach (you may need to do this in handfuls since the spinach takes up a lot of space before it wilts.
Now it's time to assemble the casserole. You should have the tomato-onion-spinach mixture, the cooled eggs, and the drained pasta. Grab the dish that you'll be using to bake the casserole. I use a souffle dish with tall sides, but a shorter and wider square casserole dish would probably work just as well. Slice the eggs into quarter wedges, and place them in the bottom of the dish. Pour the pasta into the same pan as the tomato-spinach mixture, and stir briefly to mix that all up. Pour the tomato-spinach-pasta mix over the eggs. On top of everything, sprinkle your cheese. I like to be generous with the cheese, and usually use more than the cup I've called for here.
Once the casserole is assembled, stick it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Next, crack the oven door and turn on the broiler on high for 4 minutes, to put a nice crust on the cheese. Serve immediately.
Servings: 6-8
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Gnocchi with Creamy Tomato Sauce
Gnocchi is an odd creature. It never feels like a pasta to me, but it also isn't exactly not-a-pasta either (my double negatives, let me show you them!). If you go online looking for gnocchi recipes, you find a dozen conflicting reports of the One True Gnocchi Way. All of these One True Ways come with dire little warnings about what will happen if you deviate even one step from their secret and sacred teachings. All of which is very confusing to the gnocchi beginner.
So when I decided to make gnocchi, I went at it with a great deal of enthusiasm and not much idea of what I was doing. But hey, people have been successfully making gnocchi for centuries, I figured. It couldn't be that hard. So I cobbled together bits and pieces of half a dozen recipes, and added some twists of my own. Surprise! The result was a whole herd of soft, pillowy little pasta-bits that floated in their boiling water like ducklings. I was terribly pleased with myself. There wasn't a dense or rubbery gnocchi among them.
To top these little pieces of pasta heaven, I had settled on a creamy tomato sauce. A lot of gnocchi gets served with butter sauce (and I bet a light lemon-butter-white wine-parsley sauce would be great here), but I wanted something more substantial. It was winter, and lemon butter seemed awfully summery for such a grey day. So tomatoes it was (I know, they're summery too, but I've always associated jarred tomatoes more with winter than summer). This sauce was just the right thing. I topped the whole deal with a combination of bacon bits and almonds, which turned out to be inspired. Their crunch gave variety to the soft pasta, and the nutty flavour really brought out an earthiness to the potatoes in the gnocchi that I loved. I sort of treasure this recipe now. So here it is, in all it's One True Gnocchi Way glory. Take it, and adapt it as you will to make your own strangely tasty little pasta pillows.
Potato Gnocchi
Note: ALL the quantities here are flexible. I make these by feel and texture, so I'll try to describe that to you so you'll have an idea of the goal. If you're someone who rigidly follows recipes, though, you may have trouble here.
2 1/4 lbs red potatoes (I used Russets, I think, but I'm not sure it matters)
1 egg
Approx. 11 oz Flour (The flour amount will vary with every recipe. Just have a good amount of it on hand.)
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Place the potatoes in a large pot with enough water to cover them. Salt the water fairly generously - the salt will have to work its way through the skins, so don't be shy. Boil for 20 or 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Drain the potatoes.
Peel the warm potatoes with a knife, using a towel to protect your hands from the heat. Mash the hot potatoes as thoroughly as possible. Salt and pepper the mashed potatoes to taste. Crack the egg into a small container, and mix in a little of the hot mashed potatoes. Then pour the egg-potato mixture back into the main batch of potatoes, and mix it in thoroughly before the hot potatoes cook the egg.
Add two large-ish handfuls of flour to the potatoes, and mix until absorbed. Form a dough by turning the potatoes out onto a flat surface and kneading in the remainder of the flour one handful at a time. The goal here is a very very light dough mixture that is pliable and just this side of sticky. The proper dough consistency has been reached when the dough doesn't stick to the surface immediately upon contact, but if allowed to stand unmoving sticks within about two minutes. Err on the side of less flour at first.
When your dough is the proper consistency, flour the surface and slice a fist-sized chunk off the dough. Roll the chunk into a snake about an inch in diameter. Slice into 2 inch long chunks.
Fill a large pot with water, salt the water lightly, and bring to a boil. Add the gnocchi, ten or so at a time. Cook each piece 2-3 minutes, or until it floats. When it floats, it's done. This may be sooner than you think. If your gnocchi dissolves upon contact with the water, more flour is needed, and you may need to knead the dough a little more to develop it. It's not a bad idea to boil a few test pieces to make sure that you've got enough flour before you roll out the remainder of the dough. If your gnocchi holds together well, go ahead and continue the snake-chunk-boil process until all the dough has been used.
When the gnocchi are finished boiling, scoop out them out of the pot with a slotted spoon and into a serving bowl. Drizzle with just a hint of olive oil to prevent sticking, and serve with the sauce of your choice. This recipe makes a lot of pasta at once, so if you're like me you won't be eating all of it in one swoop. That's okay, gnocchi freezes really well. To freeze them, go ahead and boil them as you would normally, but instead of serving, place them on a baking sheet and allow them to cool and dry out. When they're no longer hot, pack them into ziploc bags and stick them in the freezer. To revive them, just pour the frozen gnocchi into a pot of boiling water and wait until they float again, then serve.
Creamy Tomato Sauce and other Gnocchi toppings
14 oz jar of pasta sauce
1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream
1-2 cloves garlic, diced
Salt
Black Pepper
Nutmeg
1/2 tbsp basil (fresh is best, but use dried if you don't have fresh)
Parmesan cheese, grated
Slivered almonds
3 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled (DO NOT substitute fake bacon bits here. It is not the same.)
Combine all ingredients except the cheese, almonds, and bacon in a saucepan over low heat. Simmer 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Toast the almonds in a saucepan briefly, until they turn golden (be careful not to burn them). To serve, spoon the sauce over the gnocchi, then sprinkle generously with grated cheese, toasted almonds, and bacon bits.
So when I decided to make gnocchi, I went at it with a great deal of enthusiasm and not much idea of what I was doing. But hey, people have been successfully making gnocchi for centuries, I figured. It couldn't be that hard. So I cobbled together bits and pieces of half a dozen recipes, and added some twists of my own. Surprise! The result was a whole herd of soft, pillowy little pasta-bits that floated in their boiling water like ducklings. I was terribly pleased with myself. There wasn't a dense or rubbery gnocchi among them.
To top these little pieces of pasta heaven, I had settled on a creamy tomato sauce. A lot of gnocchi gets served with butter sauce (and I bet a light lemon-butter-white wine-parsley sauce would be great here), but I wanted something more substantial. It was winter, and lemon butter seemed awfully summery for such a grey day. So tomatoes it was (I know, they're summery too, but I've always associated jarred tomatoes more with winter than summer). This sauce was just the right thing. I topped the whole deal with a combination of bacon bits and almonds, which turned out to be inspired. Their crunch gave variety to the soft pasta, and the nutty flavour really brought out an earthiness to the potatoes in the gnocchi that I loved. I sort of treasure this recipe now. So here it is, in all it's One True Gnocchi Way glory. Take it, and adapt it as you will to make your own strangely tasty little pasta pillows.
Potato Gnocchi
Note: ALL the quantities here are flexible. I make these by feel and texture, so I'll try to describe that to you so you'll have an idea of the goal. If you're someone who rigidly follows recipes, though, you may have trouble here.
2 1/4 lbs red potatoes (I used Russets, I think, but I'm not sure it matters)
1 egg
Approx. 11 oz Flour (The flour amount will vary with every recipe. Just have a good amount of it on hand.)
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Place the potatoes in a large pot with enough water to cover them. Salt the water fairly generously - the salt will have to work its way through the skins, so don't be shy. Boil for 20 or 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Drain the potatoes.
Peel the warm potatoes with a knife, using a towel to protect your hands from the heat. Mash the hot potatoes as thoroughly as possible. Salt and pepper the mashed potatoes to taste. Crack the egg into a small container, and mix in a little of the hot mashed potatoes. Then pour the egg-potato mixture back into the main batch of potatoes, and mix it in thoroughly before the hot potatoes cook the egg.
Add two large-ish handfuls of flour to the potatoes, and mix until absorbed. Form a dough by turning the potatoes out onto a flat surface and kneading in the remainder of the flour one handful at a time. The goal here is a very very light dough mixture that is pliable and just this side of sticky. The proper dough consistency has been reached when the dough doesn't stick to the surface immediately upon contact, but if allowed to stand unmoving sticks within about two minutes. Err on the side of less flour at first.
When your dough is the proper consistency, flour the surface and slice a fist-sized chunk off the dough. Roll the chunk into a snake about an inch in diameter. Slice into 2 inch long chunks.
Fill a large pot with water, salt the water lightly, and bring to a boil. Add the gnocchi, ten or so at a time. Cook each piece 2-3 minutes, or until it floats. When it floats, it's done. This may be sooner than you think. If your gnocchi dissolves upon contact with the water, more flour is needed, and you may need to knead the dough a little more to develop it. It's not a bad idea to boil a few test pieces to make sure that you've got enough flour before you roll out the remainder of the dough. If your gnocchi holds together well, go ahead and continue the snake-chunk-boil process until all the dough has been used.
When the gnocchi are finished boiling, scoop out them out of the pot with a slotted spoon and into a serving bowl. Drizzle with just a hint of olive oil to prevent sticking, and serve with the sauce of your choice. This recipe makes a lot of pasta at once, so if you're like me you won't be eating all of it in one swoop. That's okay, gnocchi freezes really well. To freeze them, go ahead and boil them as you would normally, but instead of serving, place them on a baking sheet and allow them to cool and dry out. When they're no longer hot, pack them into ziploc bags and stick them in the freezer. To revive them, just pour the frozen gnocchi into a pot of boiling water and wait until they float again, then serve.
Creamy Tomato Sauce and other Gnocchi toppings
14 oz jar of pasta sauce
1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream
1-2 cloves garlic, diced
Salt
Black Pepper
Nutmeg
1/2 tbsp basil (fresh is best, but use dried if you don't have fresh)
Parmesan cheese, grated
Slivered almonds
3 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled (DO NOT substitute fake bacon bits here. It is not the same.)
Combine all ingredients except the cheese, almonds, and bacon in a saucepan over low heat. Simmer 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Toast the almonds in a saucepan briefly, until they turn golden (be careful not to burn them). To serve, spoon the sauce over the gnocchi, then sprinkle generously with grated cheese, toasted almonds, and bacon bits.
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