We had another long day out today. Brunch at La Bottega at the Maritime Hotel followed by a walk on the High Line.
We didn’t want to eat out again, but didn’t have much energy to cook dinner either.
The solution? Pasta with garlic and oil, pasta with leftover red sauce, a simple salad and a roast chicken made by someone else.
We have family over from Ireland this week. After a long day out and about, we headed home for Rita’s Lasagna and a simple salad. Little Clara was a trooper, but didn’t last until dinner time.
I’ve made this exact meal before. Chicken with Wine, Lemon & Butter Sauce, and Warm Red Rice Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fontina.
The rice dish was not white enough, and had too many vegetables in it to get a nod from Rose and Shane. What I got from them instead was subtle praise over the chicken. I’m 99% sure I heard Rose utter a “yum” upon tasting it, and Shane ate 4 of the 5 breasts. That’s a win in my book.
If your comfort zone extends beyond white rice, the red rice recipe is worth a try. I would be a great dish to serve a gluten-free and/or vegetarian guest. Here’s the chicken recipe. Always a hit, it works with pink wine too, in a pinch.
In other exciting news, there was still a hint of daylight when we sat down to eat at 7:30.
• Warm Red Rice (or Farro*) Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fontina •
from The Kitchn
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 cup grape tomatoes
6-8 cremini mushrooms, cut into small chunks
4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
1 small red onion, sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 of a small head of radicchio, cored and sliced into chunks
1 cup red rice or farro
2-3 ounces fontina cheese, cut into small cubes
small handful of chopped parsley
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salad greens and olive oil (optional)
*I’ve never made this with farro per the original recipe, though I’m sure it’s delicious that way. Both the red rice and farro variations are below.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and onion in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper, and roast for 15 minutes, stirring once. Add the radicchio to the pan, toss to get it covered in a bit of oil, and cook everything for another 10 minutes.
For the red rice version: Combine red rice with 1 1/2 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes until soft but still chewy in the center.
For the farro version: Rinse and drain the farro. Bring 2 cups of water to boil, season with salt, and add the farro. Cook for 12-15 minutes, until al dente. Drain.
Combine the cooked farro and vegetables, then add the fontina and parsley. Whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the balsamic vinegar, seasoning with salt and pepper, and drizzle over the farro mixture.
Serve warm, on it’s own or over a bed of mixed greens drizzled with olive oil.
We had this easy Thai Curry again. The photos came out bad, I think there’s gunk on my camera lens or something.
The only reason I’m telling you this is that the curry is really good with broccoli, which is how we had it tonight. I used a head of broccoli, chopped into florets, instead of snow peas. The space between the floretty-bits gets all filled up with delicious sauce in a really good way. You should try it.
This recipe comes from the latest issue of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine. Shane and I just loved it. It’s a quickie as-is, but you can cut your prep time further by purchasing the pre-washed baby spinach that comes in a box or bag, and not chopping it (see note at bottom of recipe).
• Fusili with Ricotta and Spinach •
from Cooks Illustrated Magazine
11oz (1 1/3 cups) whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1 lb fusili
1 lb baby spinach*
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 oz (1/2 cup) grated parmesan cheese plus more for sprinking
Mix 1 cup ricotta, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Set aside
Bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water. Add the baby spinach to the pot with the pasta and stir until wilted, about 30 seconds. Drain pasta and spinach and return them to the pot.
While pasta cooks, heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil, garlic, nutmeg and cayenne in a saucepan over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in remaining 1/3 cup ricotta, cream, lemon zest and juice and 3/4 teaspoon salt until smooth.
Add ricotta-cream mixture and parmesan to the pasta and spinach. Let pasta rest, tossing frequently, until the sauce has thickened slightly and coats pasta, 2-4 minutes. Adjust consistency with reserved pasta cooking water if necessary. Transfer pasta to a serving platter (or leave it in the pot if you’re feeling casual) and dot evenly with reserved ricotta mixture. Serve with additional parmesan for sprinkling.
*The recipe says to chop the spinach, but since I used the little leaves that come in a box, I didn’t chop. This also made it easier for my 6 year old to pick out the dreaded green bits.
Shane took on dinner again tonight, this time with his always delicious pizza pie! I’m finally going to give you his crust recipe, so please read on.
We have ok pizza in our neighborhood, but not great pizza. Years ago, Shane decided that he’d have to learn to make his own pizza if we didn’t want to limit ourselves to mediocre pizza while at home. He took a class at the Institute of Culinary Education and has been improving on his technique ever since.
Shane always uses the same crust and sauce recipe, and then improvises. The crust recipe is below. For the sauce, he uses a can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes which he cooks briefly with olive oil, salt, oregano and a pinch of red pepper flakes. He likes to keep the sauce juicy and light. I know that’s not much of a recipe, but you can do it. Just think fresh rather than stewed and overcooked.
He always makes a Margerhita pie, with slices of fresh mozzarella scattered over sauce and topped with basil leaves, and a traditional cheese pie with sliced mozzarella, the kind you get at the deli counter. For whatever dough is left after that, he improvises. We’ve had everything from white pizza (no sauce) with ricotta, gorgonzola, mozzarella and parmesan, to fried egg pizza.
In other news: Sid discovered his feet, and Rose has feet too. Neither of them has much in the way of teeth.
• Shane’s Pizza Dough (Thin Crust) •
from Nick Maligieri’s Baking Class
Makes 2 12-14 inch crusts, or 3 freeform oblong crusts
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 cups warm tap water
1 scant tablespoon (one envelope) active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil plus more for greasing the bowl
Stir flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Whisk the yeast, then the oil into the water and stir into the flour mixture to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out on a floured work surface and knead by folding it over itself with a bench scraper. When the dough is relatively smooth, form it into a ball. Oil a medium bowl and place the dough into it. Turn the dough over so the top is oiled and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled.
Scrape the dough out on to a floured work surface. Cut it into two or three pieces and return all but one to the bowl and cover. Press and pull the dough gently to make a round-ish shape. After the dough is about 8″, transfer it to a peel and continue pressing from the center out to fill the peel but leave some room around the edge. Put on your toppings and bake in a pre-heated 450 degree oven until done.
It’s been a while since we’ve had Free Night which is what Rose calls do it yourself tacos or burritos, or any assemble-it-yourself meal for that matter. Shane said he wanted to make the fixin’s and that was just fine by me!
For Shane’s version, we had both corn and flour tortillas. His beans were a combo of black beans and Trader Joe’s organic refried beans, sautéed up with some onions and spices. For a change, we tried TJ’s special salsa, which is dark in color and extra yummy. The guacamole was very creamy, because Shane is extremely powerful.
We love Free Night because it’s so easy and flexible. Click here, here and here to see some other examples of what you can do. Kids, even the picky type, are often amenable to any type of assemble-it-yourself meal, which adds appeal. They DIY factor makes it easy to accommodate a variety of tastes and dietary preferences.
I’ve taken to keeping a batch of Marcella’s famous sauce around for nights when I just can’t seem to get my act together, dinner-wise. If we happen to have gnocchi or ravioli in the freezer, served up with Marcella’s sauce you have a perfectly decent meal. If all we’ve got is penne (which we buy by the case at Costco), then it’s nice to have a little ad-hoc pesto on hand too.
Pesto is a great way to use up any fresh herbs in your fridge that might otherwise go bad. I blend said leaves up with whatever nuts we have on hand (almonds, walnuts, pecans and cashews all work well) a good amount of olive oil and some parmesan or pecorino cheese. You can throw in a clove or two of garlic if you want too. You really can’t go wrong, especially if you taste along the way. It’ll keep in the fridge for a week or so, and even longer if you freeze in little portions.
I’ve told you that Shane has issues with the word brunch, right? When friends from Ohio and California told us they’d be visiting on the same day, we promptly decided to have a get together with food at our place. Rose suggested we call it Dlunch, but we thought Linner had a nicer ring.
Our goal was to have something meaty, something vegetarian, something non-dairy, and everything without nuts. (Why the dietary restrictions? Click here.) We got 3 out of 4 of those right, but somehow dairy managed to work it’s way into everything but the salad.
On the menu was Soda Bread and Shepherd’s pie from the Avoca Cafe Cookbook. The Gourmet Cookbook’s Ultimate Quiche which is made with a creme fraiche and gruyere (and without bacon, in our case) and a baby lettuce, fennel and yellow beet salad with Meyer lemon zest in the dressing. For dessert, we had Anna’s Brownies (not pictured – sorry!)
I can’t tell you how great it was to see everyone. Rose put it best when she said it was “A long and fun day, such a long and fun day.
Back when he was still on this astral plane, my uncle Jerry used to make amazing stuffed peppers. I know this about them: They are stuffed with bread crumbs, anchovies, garlic, parmesan cheese, and a LOT of olive oil. They are baked in pretty hot oven until really soft and silky smooth.
I messaged Jerry’s son Josh this afternoon with a hankering for stuffed peppers. He didn’t really give me much more information than I already had on how to make them. But he did promise to make them for Easter, if he could make it for Easter.
So I winged it. I had 4 medium red peppers and made enough stuffing for about 6. In the stuffing I used 1 cup of olive oil, 1 jar of anchovies, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 cups of plain bread crumbs and 3/4 cup of grated pecorino cheese.
Back to that first ingredient. 1 cup, yes one cup, of olive oil. Guess what? That’s not enough. My peppers tasted okay but they were not juicy enough, not silky smooth, believe it or not, they needed more olive oil.
So there you have it. I’ll try them again and if I ever get it right, you’ll be the first to know.
Also there was steak.
