MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

spaghetti + meatballs

Let me start by saying that this Sunday supper took forever to prepare and should not be attempted unless you have time and patience (and a lot of wine). The most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated points out that meatballs are a lot of work, so you should make a whole bunch all at once. Their recipe swaps out veal for gelatin and prosciutto, and milk-soaked bread for panko (flaky Japanese breadcrumbs) and buttermilk. We roughly halved the recipe. Instead of baking the meatballs, I insisted on frying them in batches in a pan and making a simple tomato sauce in that same pan. During a moment of good judgment, I ditched the original plan to make the pasta ourselves and pulled out a package of some fancy dry spaghetti we’d been gifted awhile back. We went back and forth between the living room (homework and televised sports) and the kitchen (frying meat, simmering sauce) to divvy up all the steps. Several dropped meatballs, sauce splatters, and glasses of wine later, we sat down to (wolfed down) a satisfying meal that tucked us quietly into bed. Even better, we have two batches’ worth of leftovers that will probably come out of the freezer during study-freak finals season or in November if we completely mess up Thanksgiving dinner.

lemony orzo with vegetables

I came up with this one to go with a Sunday night chicken dinner made even more fun with a bottle of white wine. I die for the smell of fresh lemon zest and the scent that lingers on my fingers (mostly John’s fingers since he’s seriously the best citrus zester in the world). Pretty much any kind of vegetable would be good in this (I dare you to think of one that wouldn’t), making it an easy year-round thing to do. And it packs up for lunch nicely, especially with some leftover chicken shredded into it. Or chickpeas if you’re going meatless.

1 cup orzo
1 small shallot clove, minced
zest of 1 small lemon
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and black pepper
fresh herbs, chopped (I love love love fresh thyme)
bite-sized fresh vegetables, lightly cooked if necessary
grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Cook orzo in salted water according to package directions.

In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients except vegetables and cheese. Add cooked, drained orzo, vegetables, and cheese. Toss to coat evenly. Drizzle extra olive oil on top if things look dry.

lasagna

Are you sick of all this fresh pasta yet? Because I’m not. Newly engaged and timelessly awesome friends Valentina and Chris came over for dinner and men’s figure skating last weekend and we nearly polished off an entire 9 by 13-inch pan of lasagna while gawking at Johnny Weir.

I put a lot of stuff in this lasagna. It was a little bit improvised and by no means traditional. And it took a long ass time to make, but it was well worth it. You could go a million different directions with this, but from what I’ve read, Bolognese purists use only meat sauce, a white sauce, and spinach pasta sheets.

Meat sauce
Fry 3 ounces of finely chopped pancetta in a large pan with a little bit of olive oil over medium heat. Remove and leave rendered fat in the pan. Add 1 medium onion, 2 celery ribs, and 1 medium carrot, all finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper. When onions are translucent, add about 1 to 1 1/4 pounds ground meat (beef, pork, veal, turkey, or a blend). Brown meat, breaking up chunks. Add 4 cloves minced garlic, about 1 cup chopped mushrooms, a big pinch of thyme, and 1 small can of tomato paste. Mix it all up pretty evenly. Add about a cup of dry white wine, a cup of broth, and a cup of milk. Let simmer for about an hour. (This part can be done ahead of time.)

Other ingredients:

Fresh pasta sheets (homemade or store-bought), cooked in boiling salted water for just a few minutes (unless you’re using the no-boil stuff)

Béchamel (besciamella, white) sauce - Melt 3 tablespoons of butter, add 3 tablespoons of flour and whisk until smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and a bit of nutmeg. Gradually add about 2 cups of milk, whisking until smooth. Cook until thickened, stirring often.

About 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of spinach, blanched

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread some bechamel on the bottom of the baking pan. Top with sheets of pasta. Add a layer of spinach and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle about 1/4 of the bechamel on it.

Cover with another layer of pasta, arranging sheets perpendicular to the first layer. Add meat sauce, bechamel, and another layer of perpendicularly-placed pasta. (You can repeat and make more layers if you want.) Pour remaining bechamel over the top.

Cover pan with foil and bake for about 40 minutes.

Remove foil and top with about 8 ounces of thinly sliced low-moisture mozzarella (not the really white fresh kind) and/or a bunch of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and brown. Sometimes I get impatient and crank the heat up to 450 until the cheese gets brown enough. Let sit for 15 minutes before digging in.

spaghetti alla puttanesca

Yummy dish, dirty name. “Whore’s spaghetti” has a sauce made from easy pantry items: canned tomatoes, olives, capers, red pepper flakes, and anchovies. Wikipedia includes three theories for how spaghetti alla puttanesca got its name:

• An Italian restaurateur found himself with hungry guests who had dropped in late at night. The ingredients he had on hand were limited, but his guests insisted that he use whatever garbage was around (using the word puttanata, which translates to “garbage” but comes from the word for “whore”). Interestingly, this origin story (the last-minute improvisation) is also thrown around for Caesar salad and the reuben sandwich, to name a few.
• Back in the 1950s, brothels were state-owned in Italy (wha??). Prostitutes were were only allowed to go to the market once a week, so they had to create meals using odds and ends from the larder.
• This is a dish that’s easy, quick, and cheap enough for prostitutes to whip up in between turning tricks.

Well, it’s easy and tasty enough for us ordinary non-prostitutes too. Though my John (omg get it? gross) and I over-achieved a bit by making fresh spaghetti with that brand new pasta machine that I can’t get enough of.

midnight’s pasta

(photos by the lovely Jocelyn Voo)

I finally got to make pasta with Ashwin again, this time with the very talented Mr. Rajen (who was visiting). Our follow-up to Spaghetti Made by Drunk People was (to borrow more than just photos from Jocelyn) something that made everyone go “aw yeah.” We cleared off as much counter space as we could, cracked open a few bottles of wine, and broke in the pasta machine that Jocelyn found in her office and gave me (yes, she is all over this post, because it wouldn’t have been possible without her).

It took a few tries to get the hang of the machine, but we ended up with fresh fettuccine that we tossed with a cream sauce and some greens. Very few things make me happier than a night with good food and good friends, no matter what time we end up eating.

Here’s how we made the pasta:
We loosely followed the recipe on a package of semolina. Combine equal parts unbleached all-purpose flour and semolina (made from durum wheat, a hard species of wheat) with olive oil, salt, and a few eggs. Knead until elastic. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Let rest for about 20 minutes. Roll out dough in the pasta machine  (photo tutorial here), then use the noodle cutting attachment. Boil noodles in salted water for a few minutes, until tender but not falling apart.

Mushroom and Leek Cream Sauce
Melt a pat of butter in a heated pan, over medium heat. Add sliced leeks (just the white and light green parts). Cook for a few minutes, until leeks are soft. Add minced garlic and sliced mushrooms (we used crimini mushrooms). Season with salt, pepper, and thyme. When mushrooms are cooked, add heavy cream. Lower heat to low and let the cream sauce thicken. If it starts getting too thick, add a little more cream. Add cooked pasta to the pan and toss to coat. Top with grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Crushed Red Pepper
Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add chopped broccoli rabe, minced garlic, and a lot of crushed red pepper flakes. Saute until broccoli rabe stems are tender and leaves are wilted. Add chopped olives (chopped anchovies could also be good). Season with salt and black pepper. Toss with cooked pasta and extra virgin olive oil. Top with fresh bread crumbs.

penne with chicken, poblanos, and chipotle sauce

Back to that thing about quick pasta dinners being a throwback to leaner times. Now that my hours have been cut in half at work (unfortunate but not the end of the world, thankfully), I’ve joined the ranks of the underemployed. And now that the one class I’m taking this semester is kicking my ass (anatomy and physiology is not easy at all you guys), cooking dinner at home almost religiously is a surefire way to save a few bucks and unwind during a night of frantic studying. This recipe was loosely adapted from Gourmet (aww). Yes, it looks a little like something you’d get at Applebee’s, but don’t get all food-snob on it! It’s tasty and filling, and makes for an un-boring quick dinner.

1/2 lb whole wheat penne
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 2 flat pieces (filets or whatever)
olive oil
salt and black pepper
3 small poblano chiles, sliced into thin strips
1 whole roasted red pepper from a jar, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 chipotle chile, finely chopped, and/or 2 Tbsp adobo sauce from the can
1/3 cup half and half
1 scallion stalk, chopped
toasted pumpkin seeds
cotija cheese

Cook penne in boiling salted water according to package directions.

Season chicken on both sides with a lot of salt and pepper. Pan-fry in a large pan with some oil over medium heat, about 7 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Remove and set aside.

Add poblanos to the pan with some salt and black pepper. Cook over medium heat until limp and soft. Add roasted red peppers and garlic, and cook for another few minutes. Add chipotle chile and/or sauce, along with half and half. Let simmer a few minutes, or until sauce has thickened a bit.

Slice chicken breast. Add to pan, along with scallions and drained pasta. Toss to coat everything. Garnish with pumpkin seeds and cotija cheese.

baked mac and cheese

It got cold outside and I have assloads of work to do, making this a perfect time to hole up in my apartment, wrap myself in a blanket, and eat a lot of hot, baked foods in front of the TV. Comfort through food. Comforting food. Comfort food?

Ashwin has asked me what I think of the idea of “comfort food” (incidentally, Ashwin is one of my favorite people to talk to when it comes to just about anything). Like him, I associate the concept with more than just fried food and buttery hot things like mashed potatoes and macaroni smothered in cheese. Those were never the home-cooked meals of our childhoods. Personally, I put rice porridge and almost any kind of Chinese or Southeast Asian noodles in hot broth on my list of comfort foods.

That said, I do love baked pasta smothered in cheese, with some greens and beans on the side. I saute whatever cooking greens are around (kale, collards, turnip greens, spinach, chard) with garlic, red pepper flakes, and a little apple cider vinegar, then add some beans to the mix (black-eyed peas in the photo, but I like navy beans too). A very rough mac and cheese recipe is below.

5 to 6 oz pasta (I like penne, macaroni, or other small tubular pasta for this)
about 1 tablespoon butter
about 1 tablespoon flour
about 1 cup milk
salt and black pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
about 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (not the seedy kind)
a lot of shredded cheese, as much as you can handle (I like to blend cheddar, gruyere, and parmesan)
panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cook pasta in boiling salted water for about half of the cooking time recommended on the package. It will finish cooking in the oven.

Heat a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add butter and flour. Cook briefly to make a light roux. Add salt and peppers. Whisk in milk, garlic, and mustard. Cook sauce until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally to keep a skin from forming on the surface. Add about half of your shredded cheese, then turn off the heat.

Combine pasta and sauce in a baking dish. Top with remaining cheese and panko. Bake in oven until top is golden brown (I never really keep track, but I think this takes about 20 minutes or so). Let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving and eating.

last-day-of-summer pasta

Goodbye tomatoes, it’s been a rough summer. Hope things go better next year. Hey there string beans. I will always love you. Hello shell beans. We’ll get to know each other better this fall and winter. You all go so nicely with pasta, garlic, parsley, olive oil, a small squeeze of lemon, and lots of pecorino romano cheese.

John and I re-visited our dining-together roots tonight by making some fast and easy pasta, the way we used to when we were students on a budget (wait a sec, we still are). I’m even posting this as I should be studying furiously for tomorrow’s Anatomy & Physiology midterm. Some things never change.

spaghetti made by drunk people

A couple weeks ago, I found myself sitting in apartment 5A, contemplating dinner with some of my favorite people. A trek to the biryani cart in Midtown? A short stroll to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for a Sunday night feast? Tacos from downstairs?

Three hours and a few bottles of wine later, our inaction gave our adventurously resourceful host Ashwin no choice but to scrape up whatever was edible in the kitchen to create a meal. I stood by as he began boiling water for pasta and chopping some vegetables. By the end of it, he had also created an “orange” sauce made with whole milk and canned tomato sauce, which we rounded out with a small squirt of agave nectar. We kept talking about impressing everyone with a secret ingredient, a concept on which I was so fixated that I barked “secret ingredient!!” everytime someone tried to guess.

Below is my best attempt at recording a recipe for this creation.

(serves 1 to 8, depending on how drunk you are and how many friends you have over)

2/3 of a 1 pound box of spaghetti

1 small red bell pepper, halved and seeded
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1 small bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
3 large white mushrooms, sliced
about 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
olive oil

small pat of butter
a sprinkle of flour
about 1 cup of whole milk
lots of salt and black pepper
1 can of tomato sauce (not sure if the size matters)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
large pinch of Kashmiri mirch, a red chili powder (thanks Ash, for the update)
small squirt of agave nectar

a lot of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
6-8 Flamin’ Hot Cheetos®, crushed (secret ingredient!)

Cook pasta in boiling salted water, according to package directions.

Meanwhile, lightly roast the bell pepper in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Once it begins to char, remove it and set aside. After it has cooled down, chop into bite-size pieces.

While the bell pepper is cooking, prepare the sauce. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add flour to create a little bit of roux. Add milk, and try to get all the lumps out. Let this janky bechamel heat through for a few minutes (long enough to tell a funny story about another friend), stirring occasionally. Season with lots of salt and black pepper. Add tomato sauce, garlic, and cayenne pepper. Let simmer while you prepare the vegetables.

In the same skillet that the bell pepper was in, heat some olive oil. Add peppercorns, letting them lightly fry for just a bit. Add onion and wait a few minutes, then add asparagus, then mushrooms. Saute until everything is slightly softened. Season with salt.

Stir grated cheese into the sauce. Taste it. Does it need more salt? No? But something’s missing right? Add a pinch of sugar. Oh, or agave nectar. That should work. Combine pasta with sauce and vegetables, coating evenly. Plate, and garnish with additional cheese and crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos®.